The full board met on May 20, 2024: agenda video.  All numbers in parenthesis are times in the video.

Public Comments (34:17-1:05:54)

There were 28 public comments Title IX, the new library policy, the 24-25 budget and the discrepancy in pay for music and theater teachers compared to sports coaches.

Superintendent Report (1:07:33-1:21)

Last Thursday, at the monthly work session, superintendent Golden told the board that the TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program) would be announced on Monday.  Last night he indicated that the scores still weren’t out yet.  This is the 3^rd grade test that students must past in order to move on to the 4^th grade.   Last year WCS had 138 students who didn’t pass and, as of today, they are down to 38 after summer school.  Probably, the most disturbing thing he said in his report is that WCS will follow the new Title IX rules.  In case you are wondering what this implies, you can go here.  To be clear, our superintendent plans on following the new Title IX rules.

Carol Birdsong (1:21:1:27)

Shared numerous students’ successes for the year.

Budget (1:28:36-2:10:40)

For a quick review, the proposed 24-25 budget of $555 million is $10 million more than the proposed revenue.  The county is asking that the school board lower expenses to $545 Million.  It would appear that there is a stalemate, however, from what I have heard, there are talks going on behind the scenes to solve this dilemma.

As I see it, there are only three alternatives:  1.  Raise our property taxes by $.06 which is what the school board is asking.  2.  Take funds from the county reserve fund which, I am told, is $85 million to fund all or part of the deficit. 3 Refuse to fund the $10 million and force the school board to find $10 million in cuts.

One of the big line items that is driving the deficit is a proposed salary increase of 6% across the board which amounts to $16 million.  The superintendent has mentioned that if the county doesn’t fully fund the budget, the salary raise may be severely impacted.  Our teacher’s salaries are a major concern as they are lower than both Davidson and Rutherford counties so this threat carries a lot of weight.

The vote on the budget was 10-0 with one abstention who was Donna Clements.  All other budget resolutions which are 6.a to 6.b.x on the agenda passed unanimously.

Note:  Normally, we have 12 board members but, at present, there are only 11.  Eliot Mitchell, who was representing district 3 has moved and district 3 will not have a representative until the August 1^st election.

 

New library policy (2:10-2:28:52

This is a mess.  The actual, proposed policy is 6.c on the agenda and I suggest you read it if you want to understand what is going on. Here are the issues I have with it:

1. There is no accountability for the librarians and teachers who are tasked with evaluating 15% of their collection every year to identify books that are not age appropriate and thus, be taken out of circulation.  So, how would anyone know which books they evaluated and what they found.
2. When a book is challenged, the onus for determining its appropriateness is now on the school board. Every school board member will have to read the book and then meet with the rest of the board to debate the merits or demerits of the book.  The board will have 60 days to do this; if they fail to make a determination, then the challenger can appeal to the state textbook commission.  This essentially takes the board completely off the hook with no other appeals to them.  Also, the textbook commission meets irregularly and it is hard to see how they can be the arbiters for age appropriate challenges for the entire state.
3. The subsection on nudity does not take into account biology books or art books.

 

Several board members spoke about this policy.  Rick Wimberly noted that we have 50 librarians in the district and each of them, in order to evaluate 15% of their collection, would have to read approx. 1,800 each year.  Eric Welch noted that the district has been notified that 118 books are ready to be challenged (I checked with the superintendent’s office and got this response: “Williamson County Schools does not have a current book challenge.  You can email Mr. Welch to see who he was talking about during the meeting.”)  He also read excerpts from Roots that have graphic violence and suggested that it would have to be taken out of the library if challenged.  I’m not at all sure about that but the policy is subjective enough, who knows.  Another interesting twist is that Roots is now an official Tennessee State book and is listed in our Blue Book.  Further, it is required to be in our school libraries.  Interesting conundrum, don’t you think.

 

Two more comments of note:  Dan Cash mentioned that the reason for the policy in the first place is that we currently have books in our school libraries that should never be there and we should get those out.  Drason Beasley, who is on the policy committee, made a plea for other board members to attend the next policy meeting to help craft the policy since we only have until July 1st^t to implement it.  Josh Brown noted there is only one more board meeting before July 1^st and we are running out of time.  Also, the policy can be modified during the school year as things become clearer.