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

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Student Representative, Leah Hargis, led us in a moment of silence and Pledge of Allegiance.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Dyer's updates: Rotary Club dictionary project-thank you to the Rotary of Cleveland!  ESSER 3.0 reached final approval status today!  Dr. Dyer attended the TDOT groundbreaking on Highway 60 event.  Dr. Dyer attended the tobacco and vaping meetings with TDOH, ATS the Bridge, and local partners.  Dr. Dyer has been in communication with Senator Blackburn's office regarding social media issues.  Tomorrow CCS will hold the Director of Academics interviews.  Hopefully, CCS will name the candidate before Thanksgiving.  On Thursday, Dr. Dyer will be presenting at the TN Association of School Personnel Administrators conference on Thursday, November 4 - A Culture of Customer Service.  The TN Education Funding Public Town Hall will be on Thursday, November 4 at the Howard School in Chattanooga at 5:30 pm.  I'll be serving on the School System Leadership Subcommittee.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Principal Autumn O'Bryan presents the National Merit and AP Scholars.  To achieve these honors: AP Scholars- scores 3 or higher on 3 or more of the AP exams.  AP Scholar with honor:  average of 3.25 or higher on all AP exams or 3 or higher on 4 or more AP Exams.  AP Scholars with distinction:  average of 3.5 or higher on all AP exams or 3 or higher on 5 or more AP Exams.

AP Scholars: Ben Buttrey, 12th grade.  Gavin Davis, 12th grade.  David Giraldo, 12th grade.  Blake Godfrey, 12th grade.  Ben Gilliland, 12th grade.  David Giraldo, 12th grade.  Will Harden, 12th grade.  Reed Malone, 12th grade.Kaylee Miller, 12th grade.
AP Scholar with honor: Ethan Gallaher, 12th grade.  Blake Godfrey, 12th grade.  Ryan Lovelace, 12th grade.  Tate O'Bryan, 12th grade.  Rachel Turner, 12th grade.
AP Scholar with Distinction: Aliya Harris, 12th grade.  Grace Longley, 12th grade.  Rishi Soni, 12th grade.
National Merit Semi-Finalist:  Rishi Soni, 12th grade.  Paige Wenger, 12th grade.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  2.702:  We are adopting the same changes as the City Council.  We are asking this to go retro back to July 1, 2021.

5.302: Delete some lines that are no longer valid.  

5.701: Change to Human Resources and to Division of Retirement.

5.801:  Part 4 currently says two thirds vote of the board, but TSBA recommends a majority vote for appointment of Director of Schools.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  TSBA put out this resolution opposing partisan elections of school board members to consider. 

The board states we will get more information as more information comes out.  It would be a good idea to have our vote down as to how our Board stands. 

Charlie asks what do we gain by voting this in?  Mrs. Robinson states this will let people know where us as a whole board stands, not what each individual board member voted.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Jeff Elliott states that CCS, as of this morning, had 5 positive cases.  As of last Wednesday, all of our schools are in Tier 1.  Because of this information, we are only asking you to report to the TNDOE COVID Dashboard on Mondays. Dr. Elliott has been in contact with Preferred Cherokee Pharmacy and they will be offering the booster vaccine to any employees that would like to sign up for one on Saturday, November 13 from 9:00- 12:00.  Dr. Dyer states with the news Dr. Elliott reported he is recommending changing the mask mandate to now be a "mask encouragement" starting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2, 2021.  We will continue with the same sanitation efforts as before. 

The Board asks if there is a tier level that will bump up the requirements if the numbers go up?  Dr. Dyer states we will have to see what the Governor signs, then revisit our tier system.

The board asks that we keep the COVID-19 plan update on the agenda each month.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Dyer presents the Strategic Plan Focus.  The NIET Principal Leadership Series that has taken place over the course of this year with a "coach".  They focus on Building Shared Instructional Leadership: Knowing the elements of the instructional core and the connections between each component, Creating and utilizing a leadership team structure that builds leader capacity to recognize instructional rigor, support teacher effectiveness, and make decisions that lead to student success, and implementing leadership team structures that are driven by student and teacher data to inform action steps, and understanding their role as lead learner.  

The board thinks this is a great idea and appreciates this program.  The Board asks if Dr. Dyer will get input from the principals  once this series is over?  Dr. Dyer says yes and they will make sure it was worth their time.

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mr. David Stone gives an overview of how our special education students are distributed throughout the system.  There is 1 student difference in the population compared to last year, but the population is distributed differently.  The CMS and CHS numbers have dropped and the Pre-K numbers have grown.  The board asks what would determine a student to be part of the special education community?  Mr. Stone states there are 16 categories from the State of TN that are shown on the slide on the screen.  There is a difference in an educational disability and a medical disability.  Mr. Stone shows how our disabilities are distributed throughout the district.  

Budget: Sped GP $4,816,558.00.  IDEA part B $1,444,589.36.  IDEA PS $87,421.13.  TOTAL $6,248,568.49.  

Grants received for this year:  IDEA partnership for Systemic Change (k-12) (Funds a behavior support specialist) $107,557.86.  IDEA Preschool discretionary (ages 3-5) (Funds Field pre-school teacher $125,205.36.  TDOE ARP IDA (funds used for 2 years) $329,507.34.  TOTAL funds received from grants: $562,270.56.

The Board asks what percentage of the system budget do we use for the Special Education Population?  Cindy Geren states it is around 5% of the systems budget.

The Board asks how the plan is going to have all the students to be in their home school?  Mr. Stone states it is going well.  We want all the students in our special population to be with their peers.

The Board asks if you use the Peer tutors at CHS to help the students integrate into the classrooms?  Mr. Stone states they are doing that again this year after the COVID-19 year last year stopped the program.  

The board asks approximately how many special education teachers do we have in the system?  39 teachers, 43 assistants.

The Board appreciates everything Mr. Stone does for the Cleveland City Schools.  

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Leah Hargis presents what has been going at Cleveland High School.  

Wrestling: Some of our varsity wrestlers went to Pre-Season Nationals this past weekend. Bentley Ellison and Logan Fowler ended the weekend with All-American Honors. They both finished in 3rd place out of 64 and they only lost to the eventual champions. Their official practice season started today and their first match of the year is a tournament on November 13 in Tullahoma. 

Football: Better record than last year 6-4.  Second-year in a row going to the playoffs since the 17/18 seasons. Destun broke the all-time receiving record in just 2 seasons. Going to the playoffs playing West Ridge at 7:00.

Bowling: Officially started their first season. Current record and who they’ve played - 4-1: McMinn x2, Ooltewah, East Ridge. 18 people on the team. Tomorrow is Bradley match, and Thursday is versus Soddy. Bowling: Senior night 12-7-21- 8 seniors. District starts 12-17-21.

Golf:  Girls Team finished tied for second. Hannah Nall Individual 2nd and the season is officially over.

Volleyball: Finished 3rd in state. Final record 38-13 and the season is officially Over.

Girls Soccer:  Won 8-lost 7-tied 1. Tied for second in the district during the regular season and their season is officially over. 

JROTC: Ridgeland Finished 3rd at their most recent competition. Headquarters airforce JROTC inspection Monday, November 8. 7:50-8:50 in the volleyball gym and board members may attend if they would like. 

Tennis: Tennis tryouts were today from 3:30-4:30 at Tinsley. 

Swimming: Tryouts were on October 13. Strong boys and girls team. The first meet was last Thursday on October 28 against signal mountain, and they won. The next meet is on Thursday, November 4 against Calhoun at Calhoun. November 9 against Boyd Buchanan at raider pool.

Cross Country: Ryan Lovelace, Garrison Rogers, & Estella Clemons all qualified for the Cross Country State Meet which takes place on Thursday. 

Basketball: Boys Basketball tryouts were today. Girls basketball tryouts are later this week and will be done on an individual basis, talk to coach Williams for more info. 

Band: Soddy Invitational: Overall Grand champs, 1st in-class and overall percussion, 1st in class and overall color guard. Rhea marching invitational: 1st in class and overall percussion, 1st in class and overall guard, overall grand champs. Southern invitational: 1st place percussion, 1st place guard, and class champion. 

Renaissance: Performing the national anthem for the Volley for a Cure at Lee on 11-5-21. Performing for Veterans Day at Life Care on 11-11-21. Performing for the TSBA in Nashville 11-20-21.

Theater: Had a very successful fall play.  Class playoffs are coming up: Festival of Student-Directed One-Act plays. Freshman: Cheating death. Sophomore: The internet is the Distract- look a kitten! Juniors: The Actor Games. Seniors: 13 ways to screw up your college interview. Performances are on November 12 & 13 at 7:00 and November 14 at 2:00. General Admission is $7.

Other news: Senior night was this past Friday and we celebrated all of our amazing seniors. October 23 was the last day to paint your reserved parking spot at CHS and it was very successful and students has a great time. Seniors took the ACT on October 19. Clubs started meeting during activity schedule time for the first time in almost a year and a half. CHS had a blood drive last Friday  with 50 students donating. The TN Promise deadline was today.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mrs. Robinson thanks Lynn Voelz for the Vision 100 celebration.  Mrs. Robinson adjourns by general consent.