October 22, 2019 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  Attendance:  Chair Butch Campbell, Vice Chair David Settles, Wes Ballard, Roseann Barton, Becky Goff, David LaRoche,  and Amanda Moore

Staff:  Dr. Linda Gilbert, Gary Anderson, Ralph Ringstaff, Joe Marlin, Julia Williams, Tiffany Strevel, Lisa Trail, Sheri Arnette, Heather Knox, Tamara Cosby,
Noelle Koenig, Eric Matthews, Karen Cook, Amberly Sandburg, Stephanie West,
Laura Mann, Amy Baltimore, Leadership Rutherford, Tammy Pirtle, Kristina
Maddux, Angela Bunyi, Miranda Good, Ali Stovall, Katie Vehr

Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Taylor and City Liaison Bill Shacklett
 

Rationale:  The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Charlie Pirtle, a 4th grader at Black Fox, along with his sister, Sara Pirtle, a 2nd grader at Black Fox.  Also, joining them will be Laura Jo Kraner, a 5th grader at Northfield.

Rationale:  Recognition of Laura Jo Kraner, a student at Northfield Elementary who recently received the Leading Age National Volunteer Award.

MTSU will be partnering with Murfreesboro City Schools for books, training, and family literacy nights at Bradley, Hobgood, Mitchell-Nielson, Reeves-Rogers, and Pittard.  These will be enabled by a grant partnership between MTSU, Lipscomb, Read To Succeed, and Murfreesboro City Schools.  Our thanks to Dr. Katie Schrodt of MTSU and Dr. Suzy Gilbert at Lipcomb for involving us in the grant application.

Mitchell Neilson Schools would like to thank the congregation of Family Worship Center for their generous donation to purchase a structure to provide shade on the playground. 

Murfreesboro City Schools would like to thank Shawn and Jennifer Kaplan, Legacy Mutual Mortgage and the Coffee Drop Project, for their donation of $23,000.00 to Second Harvest Food to fund the MCS Backpack Food Program for the 2019-2020 school year. 

Foundation update regarding teacher grants

We received a very nice note from the Tennessee Department of Education recognizing the performance of Steel de Boro at the September 16th Foundations for Learning Forum.  Special thanks go to Tony Hartman who leads the group and also to the students of Scales who performed.

Scales' principal, Maria Johnson, shared how her school and Murfreesboro City Schools are addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) with Tennessee superintendents at the October 2nd TOSS training event concerning how to better address safety, ACES, and trauma in the schools.

Congratulations to Overall Creek Elementary School.  Overall has been asked by the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network to be part of the Tennessee STEM Designation Mentorship Model and mentor other schools in the state that are interested in applying for Tennessee STEM School Designation.

Also, on October 15, Overall Creek's Don Bartch was invited to be part of the Tennessee STEM Center panel titled, "Making STEM Learning Meaningful and Authentic for All Students: A Teacher Event" hosted by MTSU.

Finally, we wish great luck to Mr. Bartch, who will be participating in Read To Succeed's Celebrity Spelling Bee that will be held the evening of Thursday, November 7.

Congratulations to Reeves-Rogers teachers Linell Linell and Tena Bailey who will be traveling to China the third week of November to be sharing about a summer school program they have developed in partnership with the Confucius Institute for Chinese middle school students and to share the ideas of teaching ESL in America, and specifically in Murfreesboro City Schools.

Gary Anderson has been asked to present at the Georgia Association of School Facility Administrators Conference which will occur October 27-30 in Savannah.  His topic will be "Tracking Energy in Schools" and he will be sharing the website he uses that tracks energy usage in schools as well as the other cost-saving measures practiced by Murfreesboro City Schools.

Kristy Mall, of Discovery School, was recently chosen as a speaker for the Vanderbilt Program's for Talented Youth/Tennessee Association for the Gifted Conference on October 24-25.  We are so proud to have Kristy representing Murfreesboro City Schools.

Congratulations to Heather Knox, Gifted Specialist, who was recently selected
to receive a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST).

Taste of Latin America and the Murfreesboro Symphony Performance is Saturday, October 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Patterson Park. 

Farm Saturday at Black Fox has been postponed from October 26 to next Saturday, November 2.

Mr. Ballard thanked the City Schools Foundation for their hard work and
dedication to Murfreesboro City Schools.  The City Schools Foundation Gala
is coming up on January 24 and will be highlighting Discovery School and
honoring Collier Smith.

Rationale:  The Compliance Report is one mechanism the Tennessee Department of Education employs to ensure that school districts carry out the laws and rules of the state.  This is a self-assessment that covers such stipulations as planning time, class size for K-12, graduation requirements, district improvement planning, etc.  This is an annual report, and Murfreesboro City Schools is in compliance.
 

Rationale:  Kristina Maddux, Karen Cook, Angela Bunyi, and Eric Matthews gave
an update on Discovery School and the things that they are doing as a
STEM school. 

Rationale:  Roseann Barton wanted to mention that Murfreesboro City TV was recently
recognized nationally with five awards.  She thanked them for all the work
they do for us. 

David Settles attended the STEM Festival at Hobgood and said that he was
very impressed with the students and their knowledge of STEM. Amanda
Moore reiterated that.  She visited schools during the STEAM Walks
and was also very impressed.

Dr. Gilbert and Chairman Campbell acknowledged Mr. Smotherman from
City Council attending the meeting.

 

Rationale:  The meeting adjourned at 7:10 p.m.