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October 21, 2024 Board Meeting

Supplemental Pay for Arts Teachers

Over the past 6 months or so, many folks from the public have shown up to speak to the discrepancy between what arts teachers receive as their supplemental pay versus what athletic coaches receive.

Two students showed to keep this issue afloat. One of the students was making her 4th appearance speaking to the board.

Vouchers

Eight community members spoke to the board, imploring them not to rescind the voucher resolution that was passed 5 months ago.

List of speakers

When it came time for the board to discuss this, it got contentious. Dennis Driggers introduced the resolution saying that he doesn't want his hands tied if the voucher conversation starts up again next year. He called out a number of districts across the state that he claimed were performing poorly, and they could use a voucher system. He also said that vouchers won't impact Williamson County.

Melissa Wyatt read a prepared statement indicating that she would be voting no on this resolution, preferring to keep the anti-voucher resolution.

Eric Welch told us that he contacted many education officials (previous WCS board members, the FSSD superintendent, TSBA, and more) and none of them had heard of a board rescinding a previously passed resolution. This is unprecedented. And its timing (less than a month after the new board's seating) indicates that this is a priority.

He then took each argument for rescinding the resolution and addressed them one-by one. He referenced Brian Kelsey as a voucher proponent. When Mr. Welch mentioned Mr. Kelsey's illegal activity, Josh Brown interrupted to ask him to please speak to the resolution. Mr. Welch clapped back, "I'm speaking to the resolution. Please don't interrupt me again, Mr. Chair." They went back-and-forth a bit, talking over each other and Mr. Brown threatened to cut Mr. Welch's mic. During the squabble, Dr. Driggers interrupted to Call the Question. Mr. Brown told him that was inappropriate. In the end, Mr. Welch was allowed two more minutes, during which he addressed the reasons some board members gave for wanting to rescind the resolution.

Jay Galbreath said that it was unprecedented to send the resolution in March because it was so narrowly passed. He asked the board to consider a policy to dictate how many votes are needed on a resolution to pass it along to the legislature.

Tonja Hibma said she would vote to rescind, in order to take a neutral stance. She said that this would be a good opportunity to look at TISA funding and get more money from the state of TN for Williamson County Schools.

The vote was 10-2 in favor of rescinding the anti-voucher resolution. Melissa Wyatt and Eric Welch were the "no" votes. Notably, Drason Beasley voted in favor of the anti-voucher resolution back in March. Then he voted to rescind it yesterday.

Dress Code Policy

Eight folks spoke about the change in the dress code policy.

List of speakers
  • Ashley Webster
  • Amy Duncan
  • Eve Boger
  • Laura Seay
  • Becca Ripley
  • 3 students

The dress code policy has a section that prohibits wearing clothing displaying hate speech. It then enumerates protected groups of people, including groups based on "sexual orientation" and "gender identity." Last night, they voted to remove those two phrases and replace them with just the word "sex."

The speakers all asked the board to please not make this change.

To hear Dana Ausbrooks explain it, watch at 1:34:29 (about 6 minutes). Basically, those two phrases were added in 2023 based on federal guidance that was updated around the expansion of Title IX. Since TN (among other states) have fought against these changes, we are now following different guidance. I previously stated that this was prompted by Ms. Ausbrooks. But in this meeting, she noted that a board member asked her to look into this last month. Also, this policy may change soon yet again, in light of some court cases that are still pending.

The Superintendent and council both emphasized that this does not change the fact that school should be a safe place for everyone.

The vote was 11-1 in favor of removing those phrases, with Melissa Wyatt being the lone "no" vote. It was clear from the folks who participated in public comment that this sends a hurtful message to our LGBTQ+ students.

Call to Action

Please share this post with a friend. Let's make sure that Williamson County citizens are aware what our school board is doing.