The full school board met on Monday the 15th. Agenda video
The public comment that starts at 31:24 and ends at 54:41 was all about equity in extracurricular salaries for teachers. Most of the commenters where students, some of which were 8th graders. I was very impressed with their poise and confidence in public speaking. They raised very legitimate concerns with regards to the disparity between coaches’ salaries and band and drama directors’ salaries. They talked about the positive impact in their lives due to their involvement in school plays, musicals and band. They gave credible numbers of hours teachers, who direct plays and musicals, expend as opposed to the dollars per hour they earn doing such. For some, the wage per hour is around $4.00 dollars. The board spent a good deal of time discussing this issue and seemed to be receptive to the students’ pleas.
About 11 minutes was dedicated to congratulating high achieving students and staff and goes from 1:03 to 1:11. There were some very impressive awards given out.
Some time was given to the new law about books that contain obscenity and excessive violence that was passed in the TN General Assembly. Bill HB0843 will become the law on July 1st of this year. Discussion is from 1:15 to 1:18. They will be going back to the policy committee for a first reading on a new policy based on the new law at the May policy committee meeting.
Other than that, the most important topic on the agenda was the $11+m the board is seeking from the county to work on roofs and HVAC systems as well as $12+m for security systems school wide. This $24M is a request directly to the county and is not a 23-24 budget item. These funds are capital improvements and, if passed by the county, will be paid for via tax exempt bonds.