- The Williamson County School board met on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 6:30pm for its regular monthly meeting. The meeting lasted approximately 2 hours.
Jay Galbreath was absent.
Public Comment
· The first speaker was a salesperson for smart data dashboard. Another data harvesting system that can be used against students. Focuses on social emotional learning and intensive interventions. She was asking for a meeting with the district.
· A WCS employee spoke regarding her transgender son and how the district should protect him. She said that the teachers want to support him but are afraid that if they do they will get in trouble with the district.
· One speaker with a One Willco shirt spoke in support of Eric Welch’s ERPO Red flag resolution.
· Another speaker spoke in support of Welch’s red flag resolution.
· The final speaker had a One Wilco shirt and spoke against any and all “book bans”
Superintendents Report
· Strategic plan has been given to board members and is up for approval at the June meeting
· Third grade retention law was discussed and it’s impact on WCS
· Red Flag resolution – the administration is going to work with state and local officials to determine the best course of action and what the resolution should state prior to the August special session.
New Business
· Superintendents annual evaluation. Mr. Golden was given a 3.67 (out of 5) for his 3 performance goals and a 3.97 out of 5 on his demonstrable characteristics. These were the average of scores from all 12 board members.
· School Age Childcare (Extended School Program) – much discussion about how to increase the capacity in this program. Unable to hire enough workers (even with recent raises).
· Board policy 4.403 – Library Materials
o Sheila Cleveland offered an amendment to send an email within 7 days to all parents across all schools in that same grade level when a book is challenged after the committee has made its recommendation. The reason behind this is because it could take some time before the board votes on the final decision.
o The amount of time spent on discussing this was such a waste of time. Two of the most predicable school board members who are against parents kept repeating that sending two emails is just too much. Most of the board members want to keep their power over the parents and certainly don’t like transparency. Literally one board member stated that the parents should just watch the school board meetings if they want to know which books are being challenged.
o Mr. Welch literally gave an example of jam. Giving out 4 free samples of jam in a grocery store and waiting a week later and giving out 8 samples/flavors and the sales went down. Saying, if we notify the parents too many times, they won’t pay attention. Wow. What happened to letting the parents decide? How hard is it to hit the delete key on an email? Why does the board want to hide their actions or at least make them very difficult to discover?
o Ms. Aprea made an amendment to Ms. Cleveland’s amendment that would delete her amendment and only notify parents once, when the book was initially challenged. That amendment failed by a vote of 5-6. Thanks to Angela Durham, Dan Cash, Eliot Mitchell, Josh Brown, Donna Clements and Drason Beasley for voting this one down.
o Something very interesting to note, if you watch the livestream, at the 2:18 mark, they left the microphone turned on for the paid outside counsel, (Robert “Bobby” Cook). When Ms. Clements asks to make another amendment that the notification be sent to all parents at the beginning of the process, since it can take months (one took 8 months last year), Mr. Cook told her that she would need to vote no on the current amendment and then bring hers up to vote and then can be heard under his breath saying “I swear to God”. Apparently expressing his frustration that she would bring this up.
o If you want to see Mr. Welch and his famous monthly showboating, it happens at 2:19 when he asks how many total books do we have in the libraries across all of our schools. If we have 10,000 books then we have 1 in 10,000 odds that a student would check out a book during the time it is challenged and when the board votes on their decision.
o The amendment from Ms. Cleveland passed 8-3 for parents to receive 2 notifications.
o Mr. Brown then made an amendment to take the burden for sending those emails off of the principal and suggested that it come from the central administrative office. This makes total sense to me and it passed 11-0.
o After all of the amendments, the final vote was 10-1 with Mr. Welch voting against. As such, the revised policy is now that parents will receive 2 emails when a book is challenged. Once after the committee makes their recommendation and again after the school board votes.
Please mark your calendars now to attend the June board meeting. Monday, June 19th at 6:30pm.
