January 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM - Board of Education Retreat

Discussion:  In attendance:  Dr. Trey Duke, Angela Fairchild, Ken Rocha, Dr. Chris George, Don Bartch, Sheri Arnette, Lisa Trail, Daniel Owens

Assistant City Attorney Lauren Bush and City Liaison Bill Shacklett

Each Senior Leadership team member shared first semester successes from their departments.

Communications:  Lisa Trail shared the Parent University Campaign and the We See You Campaign in her department, which have been huge successes.

Student Support Services:  Ken Rocha shared that a huge success for everyone was calm coaches.  Fidelity checks, the McKinney Vento outreach team, sports clinics, and refining attendance were some other highlights for his department.

School Operations:  Don Bartch stated that he was proud of Ms. Garland, Nursing Supervisor, who has nurses lined up to work at MCS.  He added that technology is working hard and ahead of any problems that may arise.  Maintenance always does a great job at jumping in to help alleviate situations, and transportation is staffed with bus aides and drivers waiting, Don added that Andy Taylor, in safety, is doing a great job and is our bridge to Murfreesboro Police Department.

Human Resources:  In Maria Johnson's absence, Mr. Bartch shared that she is proud of the new members on her team in HR to create more efficiency and there is only one staff opening at the moment, with interviews happening for that position. She is also proud of the fact that she is consistently training subs.

There was some discussion around safety and security.  Jimmy Richardson suggested that we have a closed security session on February 11th at the end of the board meeting to discuss security.  Dr. Duke said that we would get that advertised and hold the meeting immediately following the board meeting.  That portion of the meeting will be closed to the public. He said that Andy Taylor would be there to speak with the board.

Finance:  Daniel Owens shared that he was proud of his hardworking team in Finance, specifically for a clean audit for the second year in a row.  He is also proud of Adam Grisz, the new purchasing agent, that has saved us over $30,000 in the past six months.  He added that the payroll department is also doing a great job. He said that in the Nutrition department, Sandy Scheele has decided to retire, but not without serving just shy of 1 million meals, and we have a full staff of farmers for all schools.  Dr. Duke added that he was proud of Mr. Owens for finishing up his first year with MCS, and he thanked him for doing such a wonderful job, especially with interest accounts.  

Special Education:  Angela Fairchild said that she is proud to have continued access with the All-Grant process. She said that 30% of the sped staff is going into general ed PLCs now, and that has been very beneficial. She also feels that behavior is another success.  She said that there is alot of work to do, but we do have some successful things in place at schools in the area of behavior. She said that a school lost an integrated preschool teacher over the break and the teachers had already stepped up and had a plan in place.

Instruction:  Sheri Arnette shared that she is very proud of the work of her team. She used the word "commonality." She said that it is a true honor to work with a team that strives for excellence and is fully committed to students.  Ms. Arnette mentioned things like first semester data, early literacy institutes, collaboration with MTSU, Science symposiums, completed websites for teachers, a new ESL specialist, behavior management training, collaboration between sped and ESL, ESP changes, along with no wait list in ESP and the fact that they are fully staffed.  She added that she is very proud of the work of her team.  For herself, Ms. Arnette added that she is proud of conducting and leading the coaching cohort and the monthly teacher spotlights. 

Legal:  Lauren Bush said that she feels that we are in a good place with our board policies after doing a policy audit.  She said that we now also have revised ADs in place for principals.  She has been in the process of conducting trainings on those policy and procedure revisions. She added that we now have a therapy dog contract with a good training group coming up this next semester.

Dr. Duke thanked the Senior Leadership team for being a great team with exemplary work!

David Settles said that part of the board's job is advocating for our district.  He asked for an overview of how the Federal Department of Education affects our programs.  He said that people come to him with questions, and he would like to have information about federal funding and how it would affect us, in the special education department specifically.  Dr. Duke said that he would work on a one-page document explaining federal funding and what it pays for and will share this with the Board.

Discussion:  Dr. Chris George presented the 2024 Data Overview. Dr. Duke said that he was proud of literacy scores going up year after year.  He said that math has historically been high but is a huge concern for us this year. He explained that this is the 2nd year of implementation after adopting iReady.  He said that we have had a strong focus around 5th grade math and have had training with Dr. Winters along with walk-throughs.

Barbara Long asked if we have students that are lagging in a certain area, do we slow down?  Dr. Duke said that we keep the pace going, but tighten down in intervention which is more individualized. 

Dr. Duke stated that an implementation dip is normal as teachers are learning the new curriculum, and we will be meeting with each principal next week to discuss and review their data.  He said that we are building the content knowledge of teachers, especially those with 0-3 years' experience. 

As far as the Science curriculum, Ms. Arnette said that on Monday, a science textbook rep will come in and present to a committee, which will then narrow it to two choices.  She said that she felt that the team needed a little more teacher input, so three days have been set aside for that.  Samples will then go out to teachers, and on February 14, the committee will come back in and select one textbook that will be presented to the Board at the February 25th board meeting. 

Karen Dodd said that our goals are lofty, and she feels that we are doing great!  She asked if we are sending letters out to the Level 5 teachers this year.  Dr. Duke said he appreciated her bringing that up and we will get those letters out. 

Dr. George said that our testing participation rate is 99.7%. He said that we test every student that walks through our doors.  We are one of very few districts that can say that.

David Settles said that our district has become more diverse, but scores still increase.  He added that the more diverse we've become it has not decreased our abilities, but has made us stronger.  He said that we don't lower the standards, but rather we put the hard work on the staff to make sure that the students come up to the standard that are set. He said that districts could learn from what we are doing.

Speaking of teams, Chair Campbell said that he is continuously thankful for how well this Board works together.


 

Discussion:  Lauren Bush presented Part C of Dr. Duke's annual evaluation with an overall score of 4.29 after test data was included.

Discussion:  Dr. Duke shared information with the Board from the feedback sessions:

Successes

• Calm coaches and mental/behavioral supports are working for Tier I
• Literacy Institutes
• ESL Staff

Challenges

• Transportation (field trips/tardy students)
• Custodial Concerns
• Time
• Behavioral needs for youngest learners

Budget

• Continue literacy institutes/training
• Keep calm coaches and full time mental health staff
• More behavioral supports
• ESL EAs

Amanda Moore asked if there would be anything in the budget about buses.  Mr. Bartch said that we have one sped bus in the budget, but the others will be replacements for older fleet.  He said that the cost is $170,000 each.

David Settles asked that we invite one of the backpack groups to come in at a board meeting and discuss that program and let the Board know exactly what is placed in the backpack bags.  Dr. Duke said that he would also invite the Board to the luncheon that we host for our backpack groups in April.  

 

Discussion:  Lauren did a presentation on balancing free speech and order. 

There was much discussion regarding the board's thoughts on public comment.  Ms. Bush advised that we not take any action until after legislation has passed. 


 

Discussion:  Mr. Rocha presented the open zone school information to the Board. 

Discussion:  Dr. Duke shared more budget information with the board, along with red flags for this upcoming budget.  He talked about the shift from BEP to TISA. 

Jimmy Richardson made a request that Dr. Duke and his staff develop an alternative budget to show how we would operate without federal funds or federal dollars tied to a statute.  He felt that by preparing an alternative budget, we would be prepared and know where to cut should we lose federal funding under the new administration.

Dr. Duke reviewed the possible new expenditures with the Board in the following categories:

Behavior Program

• Adjusting jobs of BCBAs and adding RBTs to increase direct service time
• Transitional Kinder/1st grade classroom
• Continue to fund calm coaches

Staffing Changes

• Additional AP to assist heavy IEP case loads at JPE and ESE.
• Lead teachers for math
• Additional EAs (general education and ESL)

Compensation

• Cost of living adjustment
• Adding step to classified pay schedule (10+)
• Move attendance staff to same pay as bookkeepers

Other

• Continue literacy institutes
• Music teacher allocation to match art allocation

Dr. Duke presented a budget preview to the Board and shared the following points:

• Potential decrease in state funds due to enrollment
• Uncertainty around local funding (pennies)
• Department head budget meetings next week with Principal/Teacher feedback in February
• ESSER funding is officially over so we expect fund balance increases to revert to pre-covid levels

Amanda Moore asked about the board being provided with cell phones.  Dr. Duke and Mr. Owens will look into that. 

 

Discussion:  Dr. Duke shared successes and challenges under each core value of the strategic plan: known, safe, challenged, and empowered.

Known

Successes:

• School counselor and behavior ratios
• Mental health coverage
• Mobile Family Resource Center

Challenges:

• Chronic Absenteeism
• Parents indicate they receive information on how to help their child-80% with a goal of 85-90%
• Out of school suspensions

Safe

Successes:

• Fully implementing CIP
• Transportation facility
• School Security
• Labor costs-86% (goal of less than 88%)
• Fund Balance

Challenges:

• Making projections with changing enrollment and landscape of education

Challenged

Successes:

• Partnerships with EPPS-10
• Exit Surveys:  81% state they would return to MCS
• Increasing percentage of minority teaching staff to ensure demographics better match population of students-14%
  • Leadership is at 26%

Challenges:

• Teacher Retention of highly effective educators-91% (goal of 93%)

 

Discussion:  Jimmy Richardson asked that Ms. Zavisa have something prepared during the closed security session at the February 11th board meeting to talk about camera coverage as well as AI.  

He also requested more details on the highest designations of threat assessments. 

He asked if we need to do a new resolution condemning the voucher program.  Ms. Long shared that the special session will be January 27th at 2:00 and the voucher price tag is 400 million dollars, and looks like it will be a tight vote.  She made the recommendation, as a board, to resend the resolution to our delegation on Monday.

As far as PreK funding, she would like to rework the previously passed board resolution to fit the federal level. 

Amanda Moore also asked if we are tracking to see if there is a difference in numbers of immigrant students. She is fearful that families won't participate in schools because of the newly passed executive order regarding immigrants and deportation.  She asked what we can do to be prepared if enforcement shows up at schools.

Mr. Rocha shared with the Board what his team is hearing from principals and attendance secretaries. He told the Board that His team sent an initial response to principals and attendance secretaries.  Ms. Bush referenced our interrogations and search policy (6.303) in the instance any federal department shows up at schools.

There was discussion of how the 2000 dollars per classroom teacher would be distributed if the Voucher bill passes. 

Meeting adjourned at 1:19 p.m.