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Archive for May, 2019

Citizen’s Report: Special Called Meeting of Collierville School Board – May 30, 2019

May 30

Posted by E2Dutch in School Board Meeting Notes, Uncategorized | Comments off

All board members in attendance. Full house with a lot of principals and school personnel in attendance, as well as various local media outlets.

Resolution to appoint Dr Gary Lilly to superintendent of Collierville Schools.

Technically, this is subject to a formal negotiation and subsequent agreement on contract terms.

Mr Hansen’s comments:

Search firm brought five extremely qualified candidates to the board. Each was fully qualified and could have been selected.

“Eventually we coalesced together and Gary Lilly’s name rose to the top”

Bristol is a municipal system like Collierville, and has been very successful. Dr Lilly was in the superintendent role for 10 years there.

Bristol has successfully implemented a lot of the same types of initiatives and programs that Collierville has, or is working on.

Dr Lilly is highly respected in the educational and school board community in the state.

 

Mrs Chism’s comments:
As a retired educator, she felt very aligned with Dr Lilly. Dr Lilly and his family will fit in very well with Collierville.

Mr Cox:
Dr Lilly’s experience is a great fit for Collierville.

Mr Warren:
Dr Lilly will be following a great legacy and should be a good fit. Also reiterated several of Mr Hansen’s points.

Mr Vaughan:
We had great quality in all five candidates. Dr Lilly did really well in the interviews, and Mr Vaughan is thrilled with Dr Lilly. Also called out the blessing that Jeff Jones has been for this district and his excellent leadership.

Mr Hansen introduced Dr Lilly’s family: wife, son and daughter.

Approved.

 

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Citizen’s Report: Collierville School Board Business Meeting, May 23, 2019

May 23

Posted by E2Dutch in School Board Meeting Notes | Comments off

Summary of the May 23 Collierville School Board Business Meeting. Mr Hansen absent.

This meeting followed the dedication of the John S Aitken Community Room and the Mike Simpson Wrestling Room.

Special recognition: Crosswind Elementary presentation on the Perennial Math Team, which was introduced in 2017-2018. This is a math competition, which focuses on application of math. In the first year, the team did very well regionally, and qualified some students for nationals. This year, the team performed even better, and had students come in first and seventeenth place nationally, and then the team came in first place nationally.

Special recognition: Department of Exceptional Children.

  • Gifted (formerly APEX)
  • Introduction of class of 2019 special education graduates – and their teachers
  • Introduction of all special education teachers in attendance
  • Recognition of Mr Simpson for his help in ensuring CHS’ special education facilities are top notch, and his help with the Dragon Games
  • Recognition of Mr Aitken for his help as the Voice of the Dragon Games – a role he will need to maintain in coming years “no matter where he is”
  • Special video presentation highlighting DEC staff, students, and activities

No public comments.

Approval of agenda, previous meeting minutes (with correction), April financial statements.

Vice Chairman’s Report:

  • Look back on the last five years of our school system: the right people in the right places. Looking ahead at finding new leadership. Five highly qualified candidates from three states have been interviewed, and one has been identified as the candidate of choice. Final decision and announcement will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Superintendent’s Report:

  • Thanks to the DEC team
  • Tomorrow is the last day of the school year
  • Extended School Year starts next week
  • June meetings will see budget amendments to reflect funding updates and shifting plans
  • Announcing Roger Jones as new CHS Principal
  • Announcing Anita Swindle as new CMS Principal

Business Items:

  • Approval of bid award for painting at Sycamore Elementary
  • Approval of bid award at West Collierville Middle School. Bid came in significantly higher than anticipated. Lowest bidder approached and worked to eliminate possible parts of the proposed work to reduce cost by approximately $500,000. Request to the board to approve the $1.5M bid, and in June, a change order will be proposed to reduce the work and lower the cost.
  • July-December 2019 Board Calendar: moving to Tuesday Nights
  • Elementary, Middle and High School Fee Schedule – approved
  • Superintendent Evaluation Instrument – approved

New business item: Nutrition Interlocal Agreement. Shared Services with Bartlett – Collierville leads this effort. Agreement will be limited to 6 months, meaning Bartlett will bring their services in-house in January 2020.

Meeting Adjourned

 

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Citizen’s Report: Collierville School Board Work Session, May 9, 2019

May 9

Posted by E2Dutch in School Board Meeting Notes | Comments off

Summary of May 9, 2019 school board work session. All board members present.

Special Recognition: Retiring teachers, staff, and administrators. Including Mr Aitken. A reception was held prior to the board meeting.

Review of April Financial Statements. Brief discussion of news article about Shelby county funding delays. Due to requirement with the county that Shelby County Schools spend their allocated funding in order to release municipality funds. Overall trending as expected.

Sycamore Elementary painting contract to be awarded to R.A. Sharp Construction for $ 150,000. Interior and exterior painting of entire building. Every school to be painted within approximately 8-9 years.

West Collierville Middle School Roofing bids review – not yet finalized. Should be in front of the board in 2 weeks.

July 2019-December 2019 Board Meeting Calendar. Options under consideration are second and third Tuesday and Thursday dates. Thursday is only a need in the spring due to Mr Vaughan’s work with the legislature. Sounds like there is a preference for Tuesdays.

Review of the 2019-2020 maximum School Fees for elementary, middle, and high school levels. Device fee which is required in each level: $50 for the first, $25 subsequent devices, and capped at $100 per family. Other fees are requested fees to cover cost of required school activities, and required fees for optional extracurricular activities.
Note: for school support organizations (booster clubs) for optional activities, there is a required school fee which is managed by the school, and an optional fee requested through cooperative fundraising, which is managed by the school support organization. Mr Vaughan is requesting copies of the support organizations’ budgets to be fully informed. Mrs Hays mentions there is a randomized review of school support organizations to ensure appropriateness of revenues and expenditures.

Review of Superintendent Evaluation Instrument – Mr Aitken’s final evaluation by the board. Significantly simplified compared to previous years.

Superintendent Update:

  • Budget for next school year
  • Graduation is in one week (Thu 5/16)
  • Presentation by DEC specialists about the state noted disproportionality in discipline report. This seemed to show disproportionate discipline for certain races/disabilities. Appeal process was limited to raw data review. No issues with data – report considered accurate. When reviewing further details of the report:
    35% of students with disabilities are African American. Small portion of that has majority of supensions. Counts are based on incidents, not individuals, so the high number of repeat incidents is skewing the numbers. However, further review of the detailed data has shown some possible opportunities for improvement, especially since these students were in regular education settings, and there may be some additional support for their teachers and administrators, as well as some focus on behavior modification.

Chairman’s Update:

  • Appreciating teachers this week (and all weeks) for being the core of the success of our district in every school
  • Looking forward to graduation ceremonies

Meeting Adjourned

 

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