February 1, 2021 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dawn Robinson thanks the teachers and students for all of the letters of appreciation.

Our student representative, Skyler Stone, led us in a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Tennessee General Assembly Special Session on Education.  Bills were passed on Literacy, Accountability, Summer Learning, and Educator Pay.  The bills have been passed, but we are now waiting on SBOE and TDOE to provide the rules and procedures.  Testing will take place this year, but teachers/students will not be held accountable this year.
-TDOE Partners in Education Virtual Conference took place last week.  This was a conference around our special population.  
-Dr. Dyer presented to the Kiwanis Club on CCS year in review.
-CCS will be closed February 15 for President's Day Holiday.
-Tennessee School Board Appreciation Week was January 25-29.  Dr. Dyer appreciates the students and staff for all the goodie bags for the School Board.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mr. Kelly Kiser presents all the Supervisor, Principal, and Teachers of the Year along with quotes from each staff members supervisor.  The Supervisor of the Year - Dr. Jeff Elliott, Principal of the Year - Autumn O'Bryan, Teachers of the Year - (CHS) Dr. Anita Brown, (CMS) Emily Buckner, (CHS) Jeremy Finch, (CMS) David Hanley, (Blythe-Bower) Brittany Hicks, (Stuart) Erin Holland, (CCCE) Morgan Judd, (Mayfield) Amanda Mason, (CHS) Mark Miles: He is also a District Level Teacher of the Year, (Yates) Courtney Robbins, (Arnold) Sheron Smith: She is also a District Level Teacher of the Year, (CMS) Sarah Thomas: She is also a District Level Teacher of the Year, and (Ross) Gwen Turpin.

-The Board wants all the teachers to know how appreciative they are of them and everything they do.  

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mrs. Robinson notes the overall score for Part 1 was 3.80 out of 4.00 points, and the overall score for Part 2 is 3.71 out of 4.00 points.  This is an evaluation on how to make Cleveland City Schools better.

The board members appreciate Dr. Dyer and Dr. Dyer states he loves working at Cleveland City Schools.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Elliott wants to focus on the summer learning loss that was talked about at the special session, but also give updates on our COVID plan.  We have been in the yellow phase this week because the active cases in Bradley County have been trending down.  We are partnering with the health department and how we could possibly administer the vaccines.  We met with Brittany Hopkins and some of the COVID Task Force and watched the Bradley County Health Department administer the vaccines.
-We will start the elementary summer learning classes around May 24 until right before July 4th.  This will be housed at around 5 of our elementary sites.  We will use this curriculum to bridge the learning gap that has occurred.  This course will be a 6 1/2 hour/day program reemphasizing  reading and math, intervention, and physical activity.  Our task right now is to find out from our staff who is willing and able to work this summer.  At CMS they will again offer a 4 C's camp for the month of June and CHS we will be again offering a credit recovery program during the summer.  
-The Board asks how you pay a teacher "double" since teachers get paid 12 months out of the year.  Dr. Dyer says this would be considered a stipend on top of their current contract.  The state will fund this program, but we are waiting on the details for funding options.  
-The Board asks if this program will be required if certain students do not make the grade?  Dr. Elliott states they are waiting for guidance on how it will be administered from the state level.
-The Board asks what the active number is for green phrase?  Dr. Elliott states its around 241.
-Dr. Elliott says there was discussion about a state level pre and post test to assess the progress of the students during this summer program.  We will also have our district level testing results as well.  
-The Board asks Mr. Taylor if we will have trouble with employing our bus driver positions?  Mr. Taylor does not think so.  Some drivers look for work in the summer.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Skyler wants to thank our SRO's, and our EXCEL teachers (These can be seen in our School Highlights section). 
Sports: The swim season is ending, and one freshman swimmer will be going to state.  The wrestling team is doing well and on the path to state.  
Theater and Playoffs happened.    One of the CHS students has the opportunity to present her play at a state convention.
Best of Preps for 2021 - Joy Douglass, Kinslee McGowan and Ryan Lovelace.  
Most of the students are very appreciative for being back to the yellow phase.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mr. Taylor presents the numbers from transportation.  23 Routes, 5 Special Ed Routes, 3131 Requests for Transportation, 29 Daily Drivers, 1 Seasonal Driver, 1 Substitute Driver, 8 Monitors (2 are 1 on 1), 2 School Monitors, 1,490 Miles traveled per day.  We started a new app this year called Travel Tracker by App-Garden which helps tracking costs, and helps us to notify parents if a bus is running behind.  
The Board asks if parents can download an app and see where the bus is?  Mr. Taylor states they have tried this kind of app and you would need a full time employee to run this app.  Also, it would be a security issue to allow parents to be able to see where the bus is located.  For example, if a bus breaks down and all the parents come to the side of the road to pick up their student.  The bus driver or monitor does not have the powerschool capability to make sure the parent or guardian is picking up the correct student.
-Streamlining Information- Travel Tracker and Power School share transportation information daily, so there is an up-to-date roster for each bus.  The Parent Portal in Travel Tracer Routing makes it easy for you to keep parents informed and for parents to keep you informed about student transportation needs.  Text messages and emails can be sent to all students/parents on a bus if there is a delay.  It has reduced the amount of information that, in the past, had to be entered manually by the Transportation Department, such as the distance from the student's residence to school.  Funding is only for students living more than 1.5 miles from their school.

-We have some of the best drivers and they never complained!  The week of December 14-18 there were 15,016 meals served from buses, and 296 Angel Tree meals.  The week of January 11-18 there were 14,362 meals served from buses.
-The board appreciates Mr. Taylor giving those numbers because the drivers have been the backbone of our last school year.  The board also wants to make sure the raises brought down by the state will also include the transportation, nutrition department, etc.
-Mr. Taylor states our school bus drivers are CDL licenses drivers.  They can get a full time job with full benefits making $20/$25 hour. They want to be a school bus driver and we appreciate them.  

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Mr. Cogdill states he really appreciates the work Mr. Taylor and Mr. Templeton have done to prepare the notes for today.
-3.G.1 Mr. Taylor talks about the Uplands Design Group Educational Facilities Master Plan that they have presented.  They have already been doing some work, and creating some drawings.  
-3.G.2 There are 2 options for the CHS Sewer Decision.  Option 1 is a complete replacement of the sewer line under the concrete floor of the west wing.  Replacement would include the total removal of the concrete flooring and excavation of the soils down to the sewer pipe.  This type of repair would be extremely intrusive and would have to be done over at least two phases during consecutive summers.  While this repair would be a long term permanent repair it would not address the deteriorating branch lines feeding to the storage areas in the back of the classroom pods.  The repair would help maintain the west wing restroom facilities but would not add any additional sewage capacity.  If this option is chosen the present supply water line would be dug up and replaced while the sewer line is replaced.  The repair cost for this is estimated to be over $1,000,000.

Option 2:  Small portions of the concrete floor and soil would be removed to give access to the existing sewer pipe.  A pipe liner would be installed in the existing pipe to restore the usable life to the sewer system.  The supply water line would be rerouted underground to a new location and then run up through a chase to be reconnected to the existing water line.  Please see a description of this repair process that has been provided by Brian Templeton with Upland Design Group.  Once the repair is completed there would be a useful life of 10 years for the main sewer line.  The estimated cost of this repair is $508,500.
-Mr. Taylor shows the Board maps of CHS and the lines.  The red lines are the lines that need to be fixed, and the green lines are the branch lines we can not do anything about, they would be very expensive to fix.
-It is the recommendation of the Operations Department that Option 2 be pursued for the repair of the sewer and water lines.
-The Board asks why did you choose Option 2?  Mr. Taylor states there are a lot of issues with the west wing. The building was built in the 1970's and this would help us plan for the next 10 years and how to proceed with the west wing.
-Dr. Dyer recommends Option 2.  This would give us 10 years to decide what we want to do with the west wings future.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mrs. Carolyn Ingram states they have not had an in person board meeting yet, but I will be going to Nashville to a meeting in person.  One of the questions that will be coming up is if the board wants to drop our membership with NSBA.  I sent Ben Torres, Assistant Executive Director, some questions about why TSBA is recommending we withdraw from NSBA.  These questions were:
-What are the financial problems NSBA is having?  NSBA had to sell their only asset, their building, because of their enormous pension liability of 13.9 million.
-Would NSBA raise the dues for TSBA?  Our dues are based on our total reserve, so it varies from year to year.  
-Will TSBA lower the dues since we will no longer pay NSBA dues? The Board of Directors will discuss this and decide how they want to proceed.  The dues paid to NSBA for year end June 30, 2021 was $41,107.  
-What will the impact be on the TSBA board budget? If we are not members of TSBA then we will not pay dues and will not have to pay for the NSBA expenses.
-Who will NSBA network with?  I'm not sure how NSBA would proceed if TSBA is not a member.
-Mrs. Ingram would like to know how our board feels about this.  The Board asks if TSBA does not join NSBA could CCS Board join NSBA individually?  Mrs. Robinson states only the state boards are members, and we are not allowed to join individually. 
-The board asks if other state boards are pulling out of NSBA?  They do not know the answer to that.  Carolyn could ask this at the next meeting.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mrs. Robinson states the Site Committee Chairman is Charlie Cogdill, the other members of the site committee are Nate Tucker and Tom Cloud.  Krista McKay will be the alternate.

Mrs. Robinson states the Insurance Committee will be Peggy Pesterfield.