January 11, 2022 at 4:00 PM - Board of Education Working Meeting/Retreat

Rationale:  In attendance:  Chair Butch Campbell, Vice Chair David Settles, Wes Ballard, Roseann Barton, Amanda Moore, Becky Goff, and Jimmy Richardson

Staff:  Dr. Trey Duke, Ralph Ringstaff, Sheri Arnette, Kim Williams, Lisa Trail, Joe Marlin, Angela Fairchild, April Zavisa, Sara Walker, Cathy Pressnell, Greg Lyles, Don Bartch, Robin Newell, Natalie Hardiman, Quinena
Bell, Maria Johnson

Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Taylor and City Liaison Bill Shacklett

 

Rationale:  Dr. Duke reviewed the 5-Year Strategic Plan Draft with the Board. He first covered the MCS top priorities.  Dr. Duke recognized Lisa Trail and
Cathy Pressnell for helping with the draft of the 5-year Plan. He explained the steps for final approval of the Plan.

He explained that the Board would review the plan, he would gather input from the board, the central office team would revise and adjust the plan according to the requests of the Board and Dr. Duke will present the Plan to the Board at an upcoming board meeting for final approval.

Dr. Duke stated that he would like to be able to look at this plan at the end of the 5-year period and make sure that the items were accomplished.

Dr. Duke asked the Board to think of the following questions as he presented the plan.
Are there items that you really agree with?
Are there items that you have questions about?
What is missing?

Dr. Duke went over each of the four goals: Known, Safe, Challenged, and Empowered, and showed how each goal was covered in the plan.

Dr. Duke also touched on the four choice schools in the district and explained that we may need to relaunch those schools and make sure that each school is focused on why they are called a choice school and that they have the support from central office to match that focus.

As Dr. Duke covered each of the four goals, there were comments from the board members.  Mr. Richardson loved the fact that mental health was at the top of the list under the "Known" goal. Mrs. Goff asked about the committee that Lisa Trail sits on and does she hear anything regarding mental health.  Mrs. Trail said yes, that had been a topic of discussion and concern.  Mr. Ballard asked about the costs of these items covered in the plan.  Dr. Duke said that everything would be in the budget over the next five years.

Under the "Safe" goal, there was discussion of building a new transportation facility and how urgent that was for our district. Dr. Duke said that he has spoken with the city council and there is discussion regarding a new transportation facility in the future.

During the discussion of the "Challenged" goal, there were questions regarding recruitment of employees and there were questions about losing teaching staff to other employers.  Mrs. Moore asked Mr. Ringstaff if our district has looked at what other surrounding systems are paying.  Mr. Ringstaff said that we are competitive with surrounding systems, but we have not looked at what the private sectors are paying. 

Mr. Shacklett asked about the response rate from parents.  Dr. Duke told him that he would pull that information and get it to him.

Becky Goff stated that she wished that we could be that district to take so  much responsibility off teachers and just let them teach.

Under the "Empowered" goal, there was discussion regarding a focus on Early Literacy and maintaining and exceeding AMO's and increasing scores in ELA, math, and science. 

Mr. Richardson asked if we have looked at other systems that have improved scores.  Dr. Duke, Mrs. Arnette, Mrs. Pressnell, and some of the principals in attendance explained that a group of administrators and teachers visited Hamilton County.  Hamilton County increased their reading scores even in the midst of the pandemic and with an at-risk school population. The group brought back lots of good ideas and information.

Dr. Duke told to the Board to think about all of the information that they were given regarding the 5-Year Strategic Plan and asked if they feel that we are on the right path and are there things that you did not hear that you'd like to see in the plan. 

Roseann Barton said that she liked that the goals weren't safe.  They will require work. 

Dr. Duke said that in a previous meeting when his evaluation was discussed, Mr. Ballard asked about component C in the evaluation.  Dr. Duke explained that these are the pieces from the 5 year plan that would be included in his evaluation.

Jimmy Richardson told Dr. Duke that this is exactly what he promised when the board interviewed him.

Dr. Duke asked for feedback from the board on the plan.  He explained that if there were changes, he would send them to the board.  He said that the final version that will be presented for board approval would be a more condensed version. 

Amanda Moore thanked Dr. Duke for the plan.  She felt that it is a terrific 5-year plan and she could tell that the entire staff worked very hard on it.  She also appreciated that it was presented in a way that the board could understand it. There were a lot of things that she was going to bring up, but when she reviewed the plan, they were already covered. 

Dr. Duke explained that after speaking with parents, there was a concern for  student’s physical health safety.  Dr. Duke has worked with the Coordinated School Health team and that will be included in the final draft. 

Dr. Duke said that he would like for the 5-year plan to be approved in February before the budget starts.

David Settles asked about the emotional/bullying piece.  Mr. Marlin is going to look at the metric around decreasing bullying in our buildings and make sure that we are following the policy.  This piece can be added into the plan as well. Roseann Barton asked if bullying can be included but not necessarily as a goal because most of the goals deal with bullying. Dr. Duke will bring a couple of options to the board on that point.

Dr. Duke said that once he hears back from the Teacher Advisory Committee, he would send the entire plan to the board. 

Dr. Duke said that we will revisit the plan every January.

Dr. Duke gave the board a brief update on the recent surge in COVID cases.  He gave the board updated numbers and asked if the board wanted to change the protocol that was in place which was mask optional. 

Dr. Duke explained that he was limited on what he could do. He went over the three options that he had as far as the State was concerned.  He said that if it got to a point where he could not cover staffing at a school, he could apply for a waiver to do virtual classes for a single classroom for five days, for an entire grade for five days, pr close schools and use a snow day.

Amanda Moore asked if we do still have virtual classes for students that are quarantined, and Dr. Duke said that we do.  He explained that we are keeping cohort models in place in all areas of the buildings. The quarantines last five days, the students return on the sixth day and are strongly recommended to wear masks through day ten. 

He told the board that we are the only district still doing quarantines, which is putting a lot of work on our nurses. Dr. Duke is not suggesting that we change that now, but possibly when we come out of the surge he may suggest that we turn it over to the health department. 

Mr. Campbell said that he didn't see any reason to change protocol at this time. Dr. Duke agreed since vaccinations are available.

Dr. Duke told the board to feel free to reach out to him should they have any other concerns. 












 

Rationale:  Dr. Duke went over the timeline of the rezoning plan with the board.

He said that tonight would be the first proposal. On January 25, he will have any adjustments that the board would like to see. From January 27-February 14, there would be community meetings to gather feedback.  On February 22, Dr. Duke would present the zoning proposal to board for final approval.

Dr. Duke said that he wanted to give a shout out to April Zavisa for the tremendous job that she had done with these rezoning plans. He also thanked Ralph Ringstaff, Joe Marlin, Sheri Arnette, Tyra Murray, and Lisa Trail for all of the work they had done as well.

Dr. Duke began with a power point presentation to the board.  He told the board that he would send them a copy of the enrollment update because it was not in the packet.  Dr. Duke began explaining how many open seats each school has at this point.

Dr. Duke said that he was so grateful for the City Council approaching him regarding a land swap so that there would be land for a new school.  Dr. Duke thanked Mr. Shacklett and the city council for that support.

Dr. Duke explained both advantages and disadvantages of each plan-the major rezoning plan and the minimal rezoning plan. He told the board that he would send both proposals to the board. 

There was much discussion regarding both plans, the grandfather clause, open and closed zone schools, and out of city waivers, and how each would work with both plans.

Dr. Duke explained that right now, we have fifteen pre-k classes in our district, and Rutherford County has fifteen in their district.  He said that twelve of these pre-k classes are funded through a VPK grant, and we are funding three pre-k classes ourselves out of Title I funds, but when looking at a space issue, that becomes a classroom, so he would like to recommend that we go from fifteen classes down to twelve. In the next year or so, if we see that we have space, we could add those back. 

Mr. Richardson said that we could put the metrics for the pre-K classes in our 5-year plan.

Wes Ballard asked if there was any thought of getting rid of 6th grade.  Dr. Duke explained that even then, that would not free up a lot of space, possibly two classrooms per school, and that is not something in good faith that he could do to the county. He told Mr. Ballard that if that is an option that the board would like to look at, Dr. Duke would have to sit down with the county and explain so that they would have time to prepare. Dr. Duke added that he feels that 6th grade is a service that we offer to parents because their students aren’t ready for middle school. Dr. Duke said that he would want to have a conversation with the city council if that’s the will of the board.

Dr. Duke stated that because the minimal plan would move a lot less students (approximately 360)  and would only involve two schools, his recommendation would be the minimal plan. The plan would go into effect next year. The board agreed.

Dr. Duke explained that we will move forward with the minimal rezoning plan.  We will get the townhall dates to the board. On January 25th, we will do a condensed review of this plan and present it to the board. January 27 is the first town hall meeting.  Information will go out to parents before the January 25th board meeting, so they can watch the meeting.

Becky Goff said that Dr. Duke and his staff did a great job!!!
Mr. Campbell added that it was a great presentation.

Becky Goff asked why the legislators don’t meet with us anymore.  Dr. Duke said that he and Mr. Campbell will work on a future meeting.
 

Rationale:  The meeting adjourned at 7:42 p.m.