May 10, 2022 at 6:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Rationale:  In attendance:  Chair Butch Campbell, Roseann Barton, Becky Goff, Amanda Moore, and Jimmy Richardson.  
Mr. Ballard and Vice Chair David Settles were absent.

Staff: Dr. Trey Duke, Amy Jackson, Jennifer Whitlow, Heather Knox, Michelle Grande, Joe Marlin, Kim Williams, Kandy Powers, Ralph Ringstaff, Sheri Arnette, Angela Fairchild, Charlotte Young, Nicole Dyke, Marina Dupes, Sydney Fabbri, Ashley Mangold, Emily Spencer, Cindy Cliche , Marrie Lassiter, Mani Pasley, Emily Thomas, Lisa Trail, Demi Wehby, Mary Anderson, Jean Davis

Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Taylor and City Liaison Bill Shacklett


 

Rationale:  The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Elizabeth Thomas, a 2nd grade student, and Elise Thomas, a 4th grade student, sisters at Erma Siegel Elementary and Anneliese Lamb, a 4th grade student at Northfield Elementary.

Rationale:  Mitchell Neilson Primary would like to thank our community partner, First Baptist Church on Castle Street, for their generous donation of travel coffee mugs to our staff. 

Mitchell-Neilson Schools would like to thank our community partner, Parks Realty, for providing lunch for our entire staff during Teacher Appreciation Week!

Reeves-Rogers would like to thank:
1.    First Baptist on Castle St. for the "I'm a Story Changer" Tumblers for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Also, we would like to thank them for providing snacks for our teachers during TCAP.  
2.    Redstone Federal Credit Union for donating time and food for Teacher Appreciation.  Also, we would like to thank them for providing behavior rewards for our RTI2B program.  
3.    Middle TN Electric for providing food for Teacher Appreciation Week.
4.    St. Marks for donating snacks for teachers during TCAP.

Congratulations to Hobgood Elementary teacher Ashlee Barnes and Salem Elementary teacher Lori Chew, on receiving the Mentor Teacher of Excellence Award from MTSU.
 
Congratulations to Overall Creek teacher Anita Spann, on being selected to be a part of the 2022 - 2023 Tennessee Educators of Color (TEC) Fellowship.  
 
Murfreesboro City has been awarded a $4,600 Refuel grant to support its book bus program this summer through the Governor's Early Literacy Foundation.

MTSU held the Special Olympics today.  Students from seven of our schools participated.  Congratulations to all of our students for a job well done!
 

Rationale:  Mrs. Cindy Cliche presented a PowerPoint highlighting the Project Optimal program between MCS and MTSU.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke explained that this grant was awarded from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the amount of $2,519,317.00.

Amanda Moore was impressed with such a large grant.  She asked if this was a one-time grant or could we apply for it again.  Ms. Powers, Supervisor of ESP, was in the audience, and she responded that it was a one-time COVID-related grant.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke explained that these letters being presented for approval was a proactive way of alerting the schools and Commission of where we, as a district, stand, and that we will be the appropriate board to notify.

Amanda Moore said that she feels that this is the right step to take and that, as a board, this is something that needs to be done.  She added that the purpose of a charter school was to respond to the need of a community, and the fact that the board has to send a letter to the applicants tells her that this is not filling any kind of void that the community has and is just absurd.

Rationale:  Dr. Duke thanked our community sponsors for all of the wonderful things they did for our teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Dr. Duke gave the board an update on the Capital Improvement Plan items that were currently being completed in our schools.  He said that they are adding sidewalks and ramps to Northfield and Discovery, water bottle filling stations have been installed at all schools, and later this month the ELC grant will provide funding to sealcoat and strip school parking lots, beginning with Mitchell Neilson.

Dr. Duke told the board that he would be presenting the budget to City Council on Thursday, at 4:00 p.m.

Finally, Dr. Duke was proud to announce that Black Fox, Salem, and Hobgood received the honor to be recognized as STEM schools in the state of Tennessee.  He congratulated the teachers and administrative staff that worked so hard to receive this great accomplishment.  Dr. Duke added that eight of our thirteen schools are now STEM accredited. He told the board that we have the largest amount of schools accredited in the state.  There are only 88 schools in the state that have this designation.  He added that each of these three schools received a check in the amount of $30,000.00, and the five existing schools will receive $20,000.00. 

Rationale:  The meeting adjourned at 6:39 p.m.