June 17, 2024

This school board meeting had all of the same topics as last month's meeting, plus two more: (a) Jason Golden's evaluation and contract extension and (b) some new bullying numbers that were recently released.

Mr. Golden's Evaluation and Contract Extension

Every year, each board member rates Mr. Golden on a scale of 1-5 against the goals he set for himself at the beginning of the school year. Different goals are weighted differently, but the bottom line is that his score was 3.81 this year, compared to 3.73 last year.

Also of note, Mr. Golden received the Superintendent of the Year award from the TN Organization of School Superintendents in May of 2024 (link).

Each year around this time, the board votes on whether to extend the superintendent's contract. When Mr. Golden was hired in 2017, he accepted a 4-year contract with a 2-year buyout if he were to be terminated without cause. Each year, they vote to extend the contract so that it remains a 4-year contract.

His salary was initially $279k and he has received raises commensurate with district-wide raises over the intervening years. Last year, his salary was $329k and this coming year (with the district-wide 6% raise), it would be around $348k. His salary has not been updated in the contract or its addendums.

Donna Clements wanted the salary explicitly stated in the addendum. She was the only board member to initially vote against his contract extension.

After unanimously approving the evaluations that the board members had already submitted, Dan Cash wanted to retroactively change his vote on the contract extension to a "no." So, I suppose the vote was 9-2 instead of 10-1.

Last year, Mr. Golden's contract was extended unanimously (link). Something changed over the past year to make Dan Cash and Donna Clements change their votes. The addendum didn't have his salary last year either, and his evaluation was higher this year than last.

Bullying

Revida Rahman spoke during public comment, asking the board to do something to decrease the bullying numbers.

Mr. Golden took time to talk about some recently released bullying numbers. Going back to the work session, he clarified that they removed the "Other" category, which was heavily used last year. So some of the bullying categories' numbers look to have dramatically increased. But this is just a shift in how those incidences are being categorized.

He also mentioned that the numbers were highest in middle schools. That makes sense, and is something we need to be vigilant about.

Title IX

After the first speaker, Mr. Golden clarified that the federal changes to Title IX are not applicable to the Williamson County School district. So the district policy regarding Title IX will remain unchanged.

List of speakers

Supporting LGBTQ

Spencer Lyst
Heather Thomas
a student
Josh Scott

Against LGBTQ

Bill Petty
Noah Krieg
Genevieve Pahos
Jenny Caparos

Budget

A brother and sister pair of students came back to speak in support of increasing the supplemental pay for fine arts teachers. They spoke two months ago on the same topic and are frustrated that no action has been taken.

Also, Sarah Landing thanked the board for the work they did on the budget, specifically preserving the 6% raise. Though she expressed disappointment that it came at the expense of the schools.

This budget is the culmination of a LOT of work.

Just before the vote to approve the budget, Jay Galbreath proposed an amendment to take the nearly $200k that we have allocated as a safety net and use it to increase arts teachers' supplemental pay. When asked, Rachel Farmer (basically the district's CFO) said this made her very nervous. The amendment failed by one vote, 5-6. Angela Durham, Dan Cash, Josh Brown, Jay Galbreath, and Donna Clements voted for it.

The main reasons folks voted against it were that (a) it would upset the delicate balance that had been already struck in the budget, (b) there could be unforeseen consequences (folks left out of the raise), (c) the removal of the safety net could cause many problems.

After the failure of the amendment, the unamended budget passed 11-0.

Age Appropriate Materials

Not much changed since last month. Lisa Carson was present again to answer questions about the policy that she spear-headed.

The biggest moment was when Drason Beasley asked Ms. Carson, "Do you feel confident that you could defend WCS and keep us out of litigation if we pass this policy?" She answered, "No," explaining that it would depend on how the board responds to specific challenges that would determine her ability to defend the district.

Eric Welch and KC Haugh voted against this policy in First Reading last month. Rick Wimberly joined them in voting against it this month. But it passed 8-3. Those dissenting votes were grateful for the work put into the policy, but couldn't justify putting their name on a policy that bans books.