September 16, 2024 Board Meeting

There were two meetings of note yesterday: the Family Life Curriculum meeting and the regularly scheduled School Board meeting.

Family Life Curriculum meeting

At the Williamson County Professional Development Center, Dave Allen led a meeting where the public could come peruse the Family Life Curriculum that the district uses.

There were around 20 or so community members who showed up. We were each greeted individually and presented with a copy of the pertinent TN laws that govern what can and must be taught in the Family Life Curriculum.

Around the room, there were 5 main stations: elementary, high school, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade. Each station had at least one counselor whom I could ask questions.

At the elementary table, we had the opportunity to watch short animated videos that teach kids about boundaries.

At each of the other tables, there was a binder with printed out powerpoint slides of what the students will see in this curriculum. For 6th and 7th grade, it seemed to concentrate on hygiene and what to expect from puberty. In 8th grade, it started talking about abstinence and contraceptives. These materials are not posted publicly because they are copyrighted.

There is a recent TN law that requires a three-minute, computer-generated video about human embryonic development. Here is a link to the video that our district uses to fulfill that requirement: https://www.britannica.com/video/192622/Human-embryonic-development-birth-fertilization.

Board Meeting

The internet was down, so they could not use their electronic method of voting. That meant that all votes were voice votes.

New Board Members

Mayor Rogers Anderson swore in the 6 new board members: Tony Bostic, Margie Johnson, Melissa Wyatt, Claire Reeves, and Tonja Hibma. Technically, Dennis Driggers was already sworn in, but he participated in this event as well.

New Leadership

Chair

The board needed to elect a new chair and vice chair. Eric Welch nominated Drason Beasley, while Dan Cash nominated Josh Brown. Mr. Welch was the only vote for Mr. Beasley. All eleven of the other board members (including Mr. Beasley) voted for Mr. Brown.

Vice Chair

Drason Beasley nominated Jay Galbreath, who declined the nomination. Then Mr. Galbreath nominated Dan Cash. Tony Bostic nominated Margie Johnson. Mr. Cash won that vote, 8-4. The four who voted for Dr. Johnson were Tony Bostic, Margie Johnson herself, Melissa Wyatt, and Eric Welch.

Public Comment

I introduced the new board to the work of OneWillco.

There were 5 middle schoolers and 2 adults who again addressed the inequity in supplemental pay for fine arts teachers.

And Angela Frederick introduced the board to the work of the WCEA.

Voting Items

All of the votes were unanimous. The only real contention was Margie Johnson musing that we should consider reducing the number of built-in snow days. We currently allow for 10 and we don't usually use them all. She was also concerned about whether we pay school-based employees when there are snow days. The short answer seemed to be that it's moot for salaried employees and hourly employees are paid for the hours that they actually work.

The rest of the meeting was rather uneventful. They revisited and codified some of the points of discussion from Thursday's Work Session, so review that for more context.

The next school board meeting will be Monday, October 21st.