March 17, 2020 at 6:30 PM - REGULAR SCHEDULED MEETING

Discussion:  No citizens requested to speak.

Discussion:  Children were so happy to see our SRO's at the schools while meals were distributed at West Side, Harold McCormick, and East Side.  Several children arrived on bicycles to pick up their meals.  Regina Isaacs and the food service team worked really hard.Thanks to EPD for being there in our community outreach opportunity.  We are knee-deep in COVID-19 responses.  We're having conference calls each day awith new guidance coming in by the hour. We are coordinating with local health officials and they're working with all superintendents during this time.  COVID-19 is a real issue. We have a good plan, working with teachers making sure they're ready. Nurses are coming and screening everyone for temps and we will be working with faculty and staff to handle the load.  We are currently heavy with personnel and will back that off at some point.  We anticipate a 4-8 week process to start and maybe to end of the school year.  Our responses...what are we doing with health, and safety and instruction.  We have online resources for students and teachers to use.  These will be available after spring break.  We will have a lot  more guidance on instruction in the next two weeks.  We are also moving ahead with the stem lab.  The painting is being done now, and we have also addressed an asbestos issue that has been removed and abated.  We do anticipate that the TAD bond will be delayed a little due to market volitivity.  They will be making the best choice possible.  We have also addressed pay for our employees, and the guidance has been that all employees will be paid. Applying for waivers to bring money in for furloughed employees.  We don't anticipate that we would extend the school year at this point. We are under a state of emergency and have plenty of justification for this. If we extend the school year we would have to pay the teachers extra.  We should have notification today regarding assessment and accountability, which will probably be waived this year. 


We are looking at how we will handle Board Meetings in the futur.  We should have guidance from the Legislature in Tennessee regarding the suspension or change the open meetings law. We will have a solution as to how our future  Board Meetings will be held before the next Board Meeting.   

Teacher evaluations will also be waived this year as well.  Dr. Newman has been working on literacy and math walks have gone well, and has invited Tammy Davis to work with our Principals on how to give better feedback.  COPS grant working on this in the next couple weeks.  Avigilon will start pulling wire, it also depends on COVID-19.  We should be ready to go by next school year.

Discussion:  This Board Policy change was received by TSBA to delete wording that the Board would reimburse the applicant if a position is offered and accepted.   

Discussion:  This item is about us having a Threat Assessment Team.  Mr. VanHuss is our Safety Officer.  He has attended initial training offered by the State and pulled some of our Principals in to go as well. Each System is to have a Threat Assessment Team and we're pretty far ahead at this point.  It allows us to have a Team who can look at threats we have within the System, give recommendations, and work together for the safety of our schools.

Discussion:  This would allow us (with restrictions) to advertise on our school buses.  Other school systems in our area do this and it's been a moneymaker.  A vinyl or magnetic sticker is applied and people sponsor those ads. Anything we would put on our buses would come before the Board before it was approved.    Mr. Pless asked if there was a cost regarding the size of the advertisement and if TSBA had guidelines and if there are cost sheets provided.  Dr. Gardenhour stated we know part of the restriction is that we would not be allowed to cover any windows.  We would have to make guidelines and procedures that we would follow.  Dr. Gardenhour also stated he would check into this matter.

Discussion:  This is just a clean-up on the Policy.  Line 25 -Trips privately planned by District school employees acting outside the School District.  Insurance would not cover these trips. 

Discussion:  This is just a general re-wording of the Policy stating that children are expected to participate in graduation activities organized by the District. 

Discussion:  This project is a joint project between the City of Elizabethton and the school system, Boyd Sports and the Minnesota Twins.  We're all working together and we've assumed the cost of $30,000.00 to do the architectural drawings.  We need a really good scope and sequence, good budget and those things to see if we can afford it.  Value engineer to make sure we take care of it.  You will see a budget and scope before we vote and also what our financial committement will be.  Mr. O'Quinn stated that he just wanted to be sure that our role, and ability is laid out s well.  Our major benefits end of September through May.  It will also be a weight training area.

Discussion:  Mr. Culbert and his staff have worked hard on this class and resubmitted it for this year.  Ms. Booher asked if this was a different class or a secondary class with improvements.  Dr. G. stated that we're trying to tie in different aspects to feed into that program.  He also stated they are blazing a trail with this program and that we are the first one in the State to have this program.  Mr. Culbert is leading the charge on this.

Discussion:  We will be able to move forward with the architectural drawings on the project.  We're hoping the money will be here by the time we're ready to go at the end of school, timing it right if students do come back to school before the end of the year. 

Mr. O'Quinn asked since the City wasn't moving on the Bond right now, would that delay the project?  Dr. Gardenhour said they would do it for a time, but they have a framework they have to work within.  We don't anticipate it will be long, and that we should be able to start this summer on time.
 

Discussion:  This is another request by Mr. Culbert in order to meet the deadline and have it ready to go.  We appreciate his work on this as well.

Discussion:  Dr. Newman worked closely with the folks on this textbook adoption.  We anticipate EHS may adopt but not purchase due to standards issues.  We appreciate the work the teachers and Dr. Newman has done.

Discussion:  This is part of utilizing the dollars out of the COPS Grant. We had $140,000.00 set aside for this project and hope to get Mr. Weems moving on this in order to start by the end of the school year. 

Discussion:  We've had two PD days and three snow days that we have to use first.  We just moved the first PD days to regular school days.  We've submitted a waiver for the days and will continue to do that as we accumulate more time on the leave. Dr. Newman and Mr. VanHuss have worked on this and we thank them.

Discussion:  Mr. Isaacs made a motion to adjourn the meeting, followed by a second by Dr. May.