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