Special Ed Parents Push Back on Consolidation

The Williamson County School Board held its April meetings recently.

All board members were present for the Work Session. Jay Galbreath was absent for the voting meeting.

The agendas were light this month, leading to meetings that were pretty short.

Three main topics were discussed: the Transition II program's consolidation, a change to the punishments for skipping class, and the budget that was passed last month.

Transition II

Transition II is a program that serves students with special needs between the ages of 18 and 22. The idea is to give them a more gradual transition from being a student to having a job in the community. The district decided to consolidate some of the programs which will essentially re-zone some of these students. One mom spoke up during public comment and was quite upset. This WSMV article lays out the story well.

Superintendent Golden responded to her during his portion of the meeting, saying that he wants to make sure that everyone is involved in the decision making process. You can hear his comments here.

Skipping Class

The board unanimously adopted a change to the disciplinary actions available to an administrator when a kid skips class. Essentially, there will have to be a harsher punishment now than there was before. One mom spoke to this topic during public comment, saying that administrators should have discretion because they know the kids better. But this change was adopted as a part of the consent agenda, which means that all board members were on board with the change before the meeting started.

Budget

With the budget already passed during the March meeting, Beverly Purvis spoke during the public comment section again to thank the board on behalf of WCEA for the 4% raise for teachers.

The County Commission will vote in June on whether or not to approve this budget. If they do approve it, the commission will have to find an additional $19m or so beyond the current projected revenue.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be Monday, May 18, 2026 at 6:30pm. See you there!