December 6, 2021 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dawn Robinson introduces Nancy Casson from Bradley County Schools School Board and Beth Jackson is here from Athens City Schools School Board.  They are here to evaluate us and tell us what we need to work on as a Board.  We need this evaluation to achieve Board Of Distinction from the Tennessee School Board Association.  Thank you for your time tonight.

Mrs. Robinson recognizes Nate Tucker.  Mr. Tucker leads everyone in a moment of silence.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  The Cleveland High School cadets lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Dyer gives congratulations to Autumn O'Bryan on being named Director of Academics starting July 1, 2022.  We celebrated the TDOE Principal of the Year for 2020-2021 with Leneda Laing, and Autumn O'Bryan won the East Grand Division Principal of the Year.  We also celebrated Hal Taylor for his RISE Award.  He will now be in the running for the national RISE award winner.  They will announce the winner in the spring.  We had the most employees showcased at this ceremony, and we are proud of our system.  There are a lot of Christmas and Holiday Events happening, check out school calendars for dates pertaining to choir, band concerts and other events. Tuesday, December 21 is a half day for students.  
Timeline for the CHS Principal Selection process:  January 10-Job post will go live on our website as well as associated sites such as Indeed.com.  January 10-February 18 - Community Survey will be posted and shared.  January 12 - February 23 - Feedback session with students, CHS staff, CHS Families, CHS alumni, and community partners will take place.  Early March - Interviews will take place.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Jeff Bise with JROTC came to speak about the cadets and headquarters inspection.  The inspector spends a whole day with the cadets, principal and counselors.  The students provide a mission briefing to the inspector without any instructors being in the room.  They received the highest score you can receive.  They have 66 cadets currently, but they need over 100 for future years.  He wants to thank the Board for all of their support for this project. Jeff Bise introduces the cadets: Cadet Hunter Cahoon - Corps Commander, Cadet Knox Everhart, Cadet Layla Hammons, Cadet Ashton Landowski, and Cadet Collin Gibson.

The Board asks how the leader is picked?  Jeff Bice states they look at academics, leadership potential, fitness, and if they are a leader amongst their peers.
How many females do you have?  Jeff Bice said they are probably 55% females and 45% males.

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Jennifer gives an update on Junior Achievement in Cleveland City Schools.  

She handed out an impact report and a list of programs they have.  They are a non-profit organization that comes into the school to teach financial literacy, workforce readiness, and entrepreneurship.  In the 8th grade they present Econ for success.  They teach students budgeting skills.  They impact 1,500 students per year at CCS.  Junior Achievement provides volunteers with all the skills they need to help us in schools.  If someone is interested in volunteering please contact Junior Achievement.

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Nancy Blank is the president of BCPEF, and she wants to discuss the main fundraising event:  the Vision100. This fundraiser brought together all three bands from Bradley County to perform.  Nancy then introduced David Beckler.

David Beckler said they are pleased to say they had the most people they ever had, and the most contributions they have ever had.  Everyone had a good time and made this event a success.  All 3 bands were together on the field, and they wanted to present Jim Burton with a picture of all 3 bands together performing. Lynn Voelz presents $4,000 to Jim Burton for new band instruments.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mr. Hal Taylor gives updates on the sketches on the CHS entrance, CTE hall renovation, and the girls wrestling locker rooms that will be added to the Jones Center.  There were some projects that have been completed: The wrestling center has been painted, and the water fountain is ordered.  They ordered the mobile clinic that Laura Hudson received the grant for.  They are in the process of working with the Alumni association to make sure we have the history of CCS for the CHS entrance remodel.

The board asks if the water fountains are working now, or if they are taped off?  Mr Taylor states it depends on every building.  One of the good things about Laura Hudson's grant is we will be replacing them with water bottle fillers.  

The Board asks if the work being done at the road at CCCE is causing any issues?  Mr. Taylor states they are in communication with Lisa Earby and TDOT and so far there are not any issues.

Mr. Cogdill states he wants to thank Mr. Taylor for all he does!

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Laing is here to give us a secondary update.  In English Language Arts we have a new curriculum aligned to state standards and approved by the board.  (Amplify - grads 6-8, Pearson grades 9-12).  Teachers are receiving intensive training on the materials.  We are working with Instruction partners in this transition.

In Math, we are focusing on incorporating more application-based activities in Algebra I, II and Geometry to make math relevant to students.  We are increasing rigor with Illustrative math curriculum (working with instruction partners).

We are working on Intervention Programs.  We had the Four C's summer camp located at Cleveland Middle School.  We had a four-week program focused on reading, math and STEAM.  Over 150 students in grades 5-7 participated.  We had 39 staff members including nurses. Transportation and meals were provided.  We have credit recovery, which is where high school staff continued to offer summer recovery programs.  They recovered 214 credits.  We have tutoring with ESSER Funding with 6-8 students, which started this semester.

In CTE we have new programs:  Cybersecurity started in 2020, Pharmacy, Welding, and Teaching as a Profession started in 2021.  Digital Arts starts in 2022.  We also have the CAPS (Center for Advanced Professional Studies) programs. CAPS programs are nationally recognized, innovative high school programs.  Students fast-forward into their future and are fully immersed in a professional culture, solving real world problems, using industry standard tools and are mentored by actual employers, all while receiving high school and college credit. We are working with Cleveland Utilities, Tennova Healthcare, CVS Pharmacy, and the City of Cleveland.

Raider Evolve is a program at the high school for students who want to own their own business or looking to deepen their knowledge of how a business, manufacturer, or corporation operates.  Raider Evolve is a multi-operational school corporation managed and operated by students as "hands-on" learning laboratories and career opportunities that integrate different aspects of a real-world environment.

Other news of note:  CHS African American History Class has an interesting pacing guide, and she can not wait to sit in the class.  At CMS, we have foreign language that will be part of the high school credits.  At CHS, she visited the Health Science classroom, they were talking about college level research project.  

The board members ask who the instructional partners are with Math?  Dr. Laing states it is a private group founded by Emily Barton who was the Assistant Commissioner several years ago. She has employed experts who work with schools all over the country.  The look and see what struggles other schools are having with curriculum and help us figure out how to fix them.  

The board asks how the teaching is a profession class is going?  Dr. Laing states it is going very well.  There are 17 students currently enrolled in this class this semester.  

The board asks if the tutoring small groups includes the ESL students?  Dr. Laing states it does include ESL Students.

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr.  Elliott said he gets excited to hear all of the things going on with Dr. Laing's update.  He also wanted to introduce that Mr. Adam Moss will be moving into the new Learning Acceleration Specialist position.  

Dr. Jeff Elliott gives us an update on COVID.  The week before Thanksgiving the total COVID count was 4, and this past week the total COVID count was 5.  Dr. Elliott wants to thank the nurses, Hal Taylor, and Laura Hudson for the booster vaccine clinic on Saturday, November 13.  We had almost 200 individuals come through that clinic as we partnered with Cherokee Pharmacy.

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Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dr. Jeff Elliott presents the draft 2023-2024 school calendar.  A lot of these days are set by the state.  We try to work very closely with Bradley County Schools to have our breaks at the same time.  We shared this calendar with our teachers and staff and over 76% were fine with this calendar and didn't have any comments.  One main piece of feedback said on May 23 we were going to have a PD day to end the year and staff didn't like it being the last day. So, we decided to move it to the Friday before the last day of the school year.  

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dawn Robinson said they were given the instruments to evaluate a self board evaluation and the Directors Evaluations. Please send any updates to these instruments to Julie, so we can make updates before we approve the instruments in January.

Do the evaluations cover the school year or the calendar year?  Dr. Dyer and Mrs. Robinson state they have not decided this, but they will discuss and bring back that decision.

The Board asks if we set goals for the next year now?  Dr. Dyer states we could use the strategic plan and state standards to set those standards in January of this year, and he will bring those to the Board soon.

 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Dawn Robinson ask everyone who attended the TSBA Annual Conference to comment on what events/speakers they attended.  

Krista attended the Legal Workshop, and there she learned a lot about the juvenile court system.  There was a judge who was very informative and helpful.  

Charlie talks about the Kentucky principal's presentation on the school shooting, and it was very touching.  

Carolyn wanted to thank the CHS Renaissance team for the show.  She also loved all the presenters. 

Peggy loved Adolph Browns speech. She thought he was right on target with his presentation.

Dawn went to a session on CTE programs. Most of this communities students don't go to college, so they want them to be career ready.  She wants to share what she heard with Renny Whittenbarger.  She also liked hearing the Boston Marathon speaker.

Dr. Dyer went to a mental health session and brought back some of those ideas and how we can incorporate them into our system.