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August 15, 2024 Work Session

The board met for their August Work Session this past Thursday. All board members were present except for Rick Wimberly and Donna Clements. Since Eliot Mitchell retired, and Dennis Driggers won the election to replace him, Dr. Driggers has already been seated as a board member and was present at this meeting. The other election winners will be officially sworn in at the September meeting.

There were three main topics. First, policy updates to reflect changes to TN state law. Second, staffing. Third, counseling services.

Policy Updates

The main topics of discussion were around policy updates that were triggered by changes to TN state law. You can peruse them here, but the three that stood out to me were:

  1. Schools must show a 3-minute video to high schoolers about human fetal development. This is a law intended to promote anti-abortion propaganda.
  2. There was a good discussion around the use of Artificial Intelligence in schools. The new policy dictates that the district must approve any AI programs that will be used in instruction; no private student info will be fed into an AI program; any staff use of AI must be disclosed; and students will be instructed about the ethical use of AI.
  3. For grades 3-8, TCAP will count as 15% of a student's grade. The state used to mandate that 15% as a minimum, but that requirement has been removed. The district decided to maintain the 15% anyway.

All of these policies will be voted on at the upcoming Monday night meeting.

Staffing

Also, school staffing is very good to start the year. The biggest area of concern is still getting bus drivers. We're at 91% for bus drivers right now. That's better than this time last year, but still an area to concentrate on.

Counseling Services

There was a discussion about parental consent for counseling services. Dan Cash was concerned that a parent may have agreed to counseling services and not realized that they've given permission for their kid to receive sexually explicit conversations. "We don't do that," replied Jason Golden.

The district is reaching out to each family that chose not to opt in for counseling services to understand exactly what the family is comfortable with. And if you're a WCS parent, you have probably already seen that they sent out another reminder to everyone that you can change your mind about counseling services at any time.

Election Results

The incoming board members who won their elections are:

Tonight

If you've made it this far, please consider joining me tonight at the school board meeting. It starts at 6:30pm at 1320 W Main St, Franklin, TN 37064.

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