Service Delivery Logs, Continued Pushback on T2 Consolidation

The Williamson County School Board held its May meeting yesterday.

Eric Welch was absent for the Work Session. Josh Brown and Drason Beasley were absent for the voting meeting. Since Mr. Brown is the chair, Claire Reeves presided in the voting meeting because she is vice chair.

There were many topics discussed at these meetings. First, the Transition II program's proposed changes have been met with some pushback. Second, there was a proposed institution of a Service Delivery Logs system to track the services that are rendered to students with IEPs. Third, screens and technology use were a topic of discussion. Fourth, reports of bullying in the district have increased.

Transition II

One parent of a Transition II student spoke up during public comment, expressing her displeasure with the proposed changes to the Transition II program. As I said last month, this WSMV article lays out the story well.

Margie Johnson, Tony Bostic, Donna Clements, and Dennis Driggers each took time to express their displeasure about the proposed changes. They have heard from parents and teachers that this change was not welcome.

Dan Cash and Eric Welch defended our educators and admin, disputing the rumors that they were uncaring. Mr. Cash has heard from teachers who are in favor of this change and asks if they can poll the teachers to get their opinion. Mr. Golden said that it's a very small number of teachers, but yes, they could ask them.

Superintendent Golden again laid out the reasons why these changes were proposed. The admin overseeing this program saw the job performance data from our T2 students after they age out, and thought we could do better. This change was an attempt to serve those students better. They did not anticipate the pushback that they have received. The reaction to this proposed change has shown them that they did not communicate adequately nor sensitively enough.

Mr. Bostic asked if they could at least delay these changes by a year, but did not get a commitment on that. He added that he would love to see a poll to get the teachers' opinions on this topic.

Service Delivery Logs

Last year at the April meeting, Mr. Bostic wanted to require educators to maintain a service delivery log for each student with an IEP. The purpose is to increase accountability, have a record that parents can access to see that their child is receiving services, and to protect the district in case of litigation.

At the time, there was pushback from front office personnel and Eric Welch, saying it would add an unnecessary burden on our educators. And our legal counsel explained that this type of a system would not enhance our protection against IEP complaints. Compliance with an IEP is driven by results, not by process. This pushback was enough to withdraw the recommendation at that time.

This month, the same change was back on the agenda. Three members of the public spoke to special education, with one specifically endorsing the idea of service delivery logs.

The change passed for First Reading by a vote of 9-1, with Mr. Welch being the "no" vote. If it passes for second reading next month, this policy would be in place for the beginning of this coming school year.

Technology

One elementary school mom spoke about her kid being exposed to inappropriate material through the school issued Chromebook.

A middle school mom had a similar incident, but using cell phones. She called for the board to adopt an "away for the day" policy, where students cannot access their phones all day.

Mr. Golden cited the work that the recent technology committee has done in bringing recommendations regarding reducing screen time and limiting cell phone access. That committee was scheduled to end its work this year, but many members have agreed to stay on and meet twice a year to continue the conversation. There was nothing on the agenda pertaining to these issues, but they will certainly be top of mind going forward.

Bullying

One member of the public spoke about bullying. He cited a WKRN article that reported that WCS ranked third in bullying reports.

Mr. Golden responded during his report to the board that the increased bullying numbers are because the incidences are now actually being reported. Before a recent effort, the numbers were artificially down because there was a sense that reporting bullying was useless because no action would be taken. That has changed. The district has shown that it responds to each incident and that has caused an uptick in the data. So the bullying numbers rose because reporting has improved.

Lighter Note

One parent spoke during public comment to commend the Ravenwood Indoor Percussion team for winning the World Championship last month source. Congrats!

Next meeting

The next meeting will be Monday, June 15 at 6:30pm.

Backlinks

Board Extends Superintendent's Contract