August 10, 2021 at 5:00 PM - Board of Education Working Meeting/Retreat

Rationale:  Dr. Duke reviewed the Organizational Chart with the Board. 

Mr. Ballard asked that if open positions become available at central office, would those be left open on the chart.  Dr. Duke said that there were currently no open positions at central office.  If the organizational chart is updated, Mrs. VanCleave would communicate that information to the Board.

Rationale:  Mr. Joe Marlin, Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services, talked to the Board about enrollment and where we are at day 3 of school. The Board had a handout in their packets showing enrollment numbers. He explained to the Board that we ended last year at 9,000 students.  As of today, we have 9,231 students.  Our projected enrollment number is 9,457.

Mrs. Moore said that she was noticing the pattern of which schools have lost students and which ones have gained. It appears that the older, inner city schools are losing students.  She asked if we knew why that was happening.  Mr. Marlin said that there are no new subdivisions downtown and inner city. Another reason may be that we lose students due to restructuring.  We also see a change in numbers when MTSU starts classes and students that have children return to class. 

Mr. Campbell asked how things are looking with our staff.  Mr. Ringstaff told the Board that we still have anywhere from four to six certified teaching positions open. Mr. Ringstaff told the Board that the administrative staff is watching numbers daily and making plans accordingly. He said that if there is a need to shift personnel, that will be done.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke asked the Board to focus on the handout in their packet showing enrollment from 1988 to present.  He also explained the projected growth for our district as of today.

Mr. Ballard asked how this figures in to new schools needed.  Dr. Duke referred to the page that showed where homes/apartments could be built. He then covered the houses approved for building and where they were projected to be built and how we figure how many students we will receive from those houses/apartments. 

Mr. Settles asked if we coordinate with the county as far as the building process. Dr. Duke explained that there was recently a law passed about open zones.  He explained that it has not gone into effect yet.  He told the Board that we are going through our zone waiver process at this time.  Dr. Duke said that we are always working with the county on zone boundaries. He said that he is looking into that and will possibly be coming back to the Board with rezoning plans.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke told the Board that he and Ms. Sara Walker, Nursing Supervisor, would review where we stand right now with COVID numbers and our protocols that are in place at this time.  He said that we are still strongly encouraging masks to be worn in schools and requiring masks on buses. He also explained that we have a new protocol that we did not do last year, and that is cohort grouping.  That will hopefully keep whole class quarantines down. He said that teachers are doing a very good job with this protocol. We are also continuing to promote social distancing as much as possible. We are doing in-house contact tracing and testing on site in every school as well.

Dr. Duke said that our core mission is educating students and that is what we plan to focus on.

Dr. Duke told the Board that Ms. Walker reports to him on a daily basis and he will get the information out to the Board on a weekly basis to keep them posted. He said that he would respond if numbers go up and his recommendation would be to do that at the school level. He said that if we see an alarming increase in numbers at a particular school, we would enhance our procedures at that school.

Ms. Walker talked to the Board about where we stand with COVID numbers since we started school last Friday.  She said that she has seen an uptick of cases.  She gave the Board a report of numbers at this time.  She said that since we do our own contact tracing, we are able to look at cohorts and respond much more quickly.

Mr. Richardson asked if students in the cohorts are all either masked or not.  Dr. Duke said that we cannot feasibly do that. We cannot guarantee that all students in cohort group would be masked or unmasked. We are not going to make classroom decisions based on the masking choices that are made. We never want to create a situation where we are pulling students out and they are sitting alone.  We are trying to be very aware of students' social/emotional needs as well.

Mr. Settles was very impressed with one of the schools that he recently visited as far as how the teacher handled the students.  Mr. Settles asked if a student comes to school without a mask, but decides he/she wants to wear a mask during the day, do we just give them a mask? Dr. Duke said that he has reiterated that it is very important that parents communicate their expectations with the teacher. He said that we have plenty of masks if the parent wants their child to have one, but the communication is very clear with what parents expect. 

Mr. Campbell offered the other side of the situation and Dr. Duke explained that again, we will have strong communication with parents.  Teachers will prompt students to wear their mask, but they will speak to parents if that becomes an issue.

Dr. Duke added that four quarantine teachers have been hired and would begin serving students on Thursday of this week. He explained that students would receive devices and would also receive live instruction each day from an MCS teacher during quarantine. This will eliminate hybrid teachers. 

There was discussion regarding zone waivers for students whose parents may decide to homeschool during the pandemic and wanting to keep their spot at school. Dr. Duke explained that that would be governed by an Administrative Directive, and he and his staff are still in the process of working through that.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke explained to the Board that in January he will present an updated 5-year plan and we will update each January.  He and staff will begin to work on that plan at the end of September or the first of October.

Dr. Duke shared what information that he could on the 2021 State and District Data. He shared that this information was embargoed until tomorrow.  He said that he would send out detailed information to the Board tomorrow. Dr. Duke encouraged the Board to take a close look at the data that they receive. 
He stated that he is most concerned with 2nd grade students.  He said that our goal was that Reading Language Arts must be addressed.  We have to be sure that we are building literacy. 

Kathy Daugherty and Cathy Pressnell talked about early literacy and 3-6 literacy. 

There was much discussion regarding literacy, curriculum, and ELL students and testing.

Mrs. Moore asked if the data information that the Board receives be broken into subgroups.  Dr. Duke explained that it would not, but would be included in information shared with the Board in September at a Board meeting.

Cindy Cliche spoke to the Board about math in our district and the strong math curriculum, Project Optimal, strong leaders, and staff that we have.

Dr. Duke told the Board that he hoped that they could see the passion and expertise that Kathy Daugherty, Cathy Pressnell, and Cindy Cliche have. He said that these ladies have an extreme amount of talent and the State looks to all three of them for help at the State level. He said that what we have with them and the entire instruction team is huge. 

Mrs. Moore asked if after six weeks of summer school and benchmark testing in the next few weeks, would we be able to measure how summer school helped our students.  Dr. Duke said that we pre-tested and post-tested every student in summer school. Mrs. Arnette added that from the sampling that we received from the State, we see that we will have tremendous growth, but has no final report yet.  Mrs. Moore said that she would like to see that data. Dr. Duke said that after benchmark testing is done, Dr. Osborne could pull out summer school students and get that information to the Board.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke said that during his listening tour, almost everyone in every school stated that one thing that had to stay the same with Murfreesboro City Schools was to address and support the needs of the whole child. We want to address the needs of the whole child to decrease the achievement gap.

Sandy Scheele, School Nutrition Supervisor, updated the Board on information regarding school nutrition.  She said that last year there were a little less than 2 million meals served, which included meals delivered to classrooms and meals that parents picked up. She told the Board that she is facing a labor shortage with employees and distributors.  She explained that she is placing orders three weeks out.  She is also utilizing the farm to school program. She said that everything is running well in our cafeterias. 

Rationale:  Mr. Ringstaff handed the Board a booklet with HR Employee data and exit interview information included. 

Mr. Settles asked about the pool of substitute teachers.  Mr. Ringstaff stated that there are never enough subs, but his department is continually interviewing.  He also stated that the recent pay increase for subs did help.

Mr. RIngstaff reviewed the exit survey information with the Board.  He said that 83% of the staff that left said that they would come back to work with MCS.

Dr. Duke added that he wants our teachers to be the best trained teachers in the state. He told the Board that next week will begin the Teacher Advisory Council.  He said that he invited every Teacher of the Year to be included in this group.  He wants to hear feedback from them. He also stated that Dr. Maryam Hill would continue to work with the Diversity Task Force.

Dr. Duke once again went over the district's priorities and goals.

Mrs. Arnette added information about STEAM.  She said that the 5-year goal is for all thirteen schools to be STEAM designated.  She added that Mrs. Lea Bartch would meet with all principals to see where they are in that designation and how they can get to the next level.

Mrs. Moore thanked the team for putting all of this information together.  She said that she feels that this is our guidance to know exactly where our district is going.. 

Rationale:  Dr. Duke explained that he and Mrs. Moore had spoken about the Annual Agenda.  He said that at the July 27th meeting, the agenda was approved but if anything needed to be changed, it could be amended. 

Mr. Campbell said that even though the Annual Agenda was approved, the Board could add to it or take away from it at any point.  He said that it was strictly a guide. 

Dr. Duke said that a starting point would be that the 5-year plan would be reviewed every January. 

Rationale:  Elizabeth Taylor reviewed the process for public participation at Board meetings. She said that we have received more requests in the past few months than ever before, so she felt that it was a good time to discuss this policy.  She told the Board of five situations that someone can address the Board.  She gave the Board a handout with the information included.

There was much discussion about this board policy. Mr. Campbell said that the Board needs to be consistent about letting people speak.  The Board needs to think about this and decide whether they will only allow people to speak if they complete the proper paperwork, and if that was the case, they could adjust the board policy at the August 24th Board meeting. (Policy 1.401).  This policy will be added to the August 24th meeting.

 

Rationale:  Mr. Ballard wanted to give a shout-out to the transportation department.  He said that he took a tour of their facility last week, and stated that they do need more room.  Dr. Duke said that they do a great job, and he does realize that the transportation facility was a huge need and will need to be addressed.

Rationale:  The meeting adjourned at 7:56 p.m.