ACC Board of Education candidate forum hosted by the Family Advisory Board

Hi guys, welcome. We're going to go ahead and get started. Um my name is Jamie Mace. I'm the family advisory board president um for the next school year 26 to 27. Um this is the first time that we've held a candidate forum as the family advisory board. Um so we're going to we're going to get through it together. Um I've been a member of the family advisory board since it was reignited after the pandemic. Um there's a lot of lore about the family advisory board. Um not a lot of it's written down. There's not a lot of good accounting for it. And so um when Lily Brooks called me um a few years ago and asked me to help her kind of recreate the family advisory board, we kind of rebuilt it from scratch. Um so um wanted to say thank you for coming. Um thank you to the um subcommittee that helped organize all of this and bring all those delicious treats out there. Um, I had said, "What if we have some cookies?" And it looks like I'm wetting out there. So, it's nice to see that. Um, thank you to Fletcher Johnson, who is our videographer for the night. Um, if you need someone to take great video for you or edit video for you, this gentleman is your your point of contact. Um, thanks to the library for hosting us here. Um, it's it's nice to have a great big library that has a great big space like this. I'm really looking forward to having a library on the east side as well so that we can do this all over Athens. And thank you to the candidates who are here tonight. So I'm glad you're here. Thank you so much. >> Uhhuh. So um probably a lot of you know Jamie. Uh my name is Emily Malso. Um I am very new to the family advisory board. So I think we sort of represent like the opposite ends of the spectrum. I just came on as the representative for Barnett Scholes Elementary this year. I have two sons. One of them is in kindergarten at Bernit Schles and one of them is about to start prek. So, I'm coming here as sort of a new parent and I'm going to be helping moderate the discussion. Uh we have a new website. Um it's fabcsd.org. Um on that website we have a directory um which shows you a lot of vacancies because we're trying to fill all of our seats right now. Um, so if you're interested in learning more about joining the family advisory board, um, we'd love to talk to you about it. Um, you can find anybody here that has one of these tags on that's standing up right now is someone that you could talk to about it. Um, so if you're not aware, the family advisory board is a little different than PTO's or LSGTs. Um, those focus on individual schools and the needs of individual schools and individual student bodies. Um, as the family advisory board, we pull back and we we bring those individual issues together to kind of tease out systemic problems that can be addressed at the district level to make schools better for everyone in the whole district. Um, so it's it's a little bit different. Um, I know the previous iteration of the family advisory board was called the parent advisory board and one of the the channels to bring in membership was the PTO. But if the school doesn't have a functioning BTO, they just didn't have a voice. And so we have um kind of reworked it to make it um a little bit more broad and open. So you don't have to be a parent, you could be a family member, you could be a community member. Um we just want someone that's really dedicated to an individual school um to to run that place. So this is tonight's format. Um we're going to do introductions of the candidates. Um we're going to read through. We've got five submitted questions that we've selected tonight. Um we're going to play a little fun game called who has authority. Um and then we're going to do some questions from the audience. Okay. Um and there's cards at the back so you can ask questions at the mic. Um if you want to do that way. There's also some note cards at the back if you'd rather write down your question. Um, right when we get to number four, I'm going to run back there and grab all the questions that have been submitted and then we can like ask those questions for you if you'd rather not do it on the mic. >> Yeah. Or feel free to give it to Jeremy back there in that corner or to Caroline over there in that corner. So, we're going to do two minutes for each um candidate. Um, apologies to I did not include you on this. Um, that was just an oversight on my part, but um you're eight. >> Eight. Okay. Eight. Okay. So, um we'll start with district three with um Carl W. >> Thank you very much and thank you um very much for hosting tonight's debate. Um my name is Carl Blunt and I am running for board of education in district 3. And one of the principal reasons that I am running is actually in this room. It's my oldest son. He is a sophomore at Clark Central. I also have a freshman at Clark Central. Um, through the eyes of my two children, I have seen many great things with Athens Clark County School District. Um, they have given a lot to my children. They've given a lot to my family. Athens Clark County in general has done a lot for me. I'm a small business owner. I have an insurance agency that I've had for 20 plus years here in town. And um I am running for the school board because I am a firm believer in public education and its importance in a community. Without a functioning school system, uh it's hard to have a community that is growing and thriving. We have a wonderful school system here in Athens. There are some things that obviously we would like to do better. It's like that in any organization, especially one of this size. But we have a lot of good things going on here right now. There's just a few things that I would like to see addressed to take us to that next plateau and give all children the ability to thrive, grow, and be the best they can be in life. >> Thank you. So then we'll go to uh Mr. Reginald Willis. >> Good evening. I am Regina Willis. I am not new to Clark County as I am a 1984 graduate of Cedar Shoes High School and I am a 30-year veteran of Clark County School District. I worked for 30 years at Barnett Scholes Elementary School. I just retired in December of 2024. I am currently a substitute teacher in Clark County and I co-directed the afterchool program at Barnes Elementary School and I started about 10 years ago a program entitled Boys to Men where I work with third through fifth grade boys in the afternoons with our core principles of respect, responsibility, and accountability. So I'm not new to Clark County. I retired but I continue the work. I think as a board member I can be effective because one I plan to bring common sense. Sometimes we kind of get caught up in a lot of other stuff and just overlook the simple things. And I also plan to bring my experience of being in the school system, walking the halls of the school, knowing the children, knowing the staff, and working with parents, and as a board member, working closely with our administrators to make our schools the best they can be for everyone. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, and next we have um, Adam Shirley. >> Can you hear me? It works. Hi everybody. My name is Adam Shirley and I'm a middle school teacher and I am running for school board for district 7. Uh there are two main reasons that I'm running. Uh one, I have a deep passion for helping young people learn. I've been teaching for 18 years in various capacities. 14 of those have been middle school, mostly 8th grade science. That's uh introductory chemistry and physics. We light things on fire and blow stuff up for science. Um, and I just I love the look on a kid's face when they get it and when it just the connection gets made. And I love being a part of the team that makes that possible. I don't dare take credit like it's all me. It's not all me. It's everybody in the building, everybody in the district, everybody in the community that makes it possible. And so that appreciation, that motivation was the first thing that made me want to run for this. The second other motivation was I understand I have the patience and the skill set to to be part of a board with a charge of this magnitude, right? 13,000 students that we have to do right by. And I worked for 5 years on the board of elections downtown. And I learned the hard way many times that the wheels of government have to move slowly sometimes. And it's infuriating and boring at the same time. And so many friends and family that I've spoken to, some of whom are sitting here now, their eyes kind of glaze over when I mentioned the the ins and outs of board of elections things. And it's just I learned that it needs to move slowly because there's so much writing on getting it right. And in the same way with so many students who need us to do right by them, we don't get a second chance with their education. And so we must at times move slowly and deliberate and be patient. I'm not running for superintendent. I'm running for school board. There's nine of us for a reason to listen to each other, build consensus, and make sure that when we do move that huge ship in a new direction, everyone is on board, and we all get where we need to be. So that's why I'm running. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Um Heather Fletcher of Um, >> oh, sorry, Lily. Sorry, Lily Brooks. >> Hello. I'm Lily Brooks and I want to start off by saying thank you to Jamie and Emily and Jeremy and all the Caroline and my fab crew that um I have now moved on from. I was the president for two years like Jamie said and I was honored and privileged to be a part of that group um as we brought it back to life. So, thank you all so much for doing this tonight. Um uh let me just go down the list. I am a former teacher. I am a passionate parent and I am a committed community member. And those three things together teaching in many different um variety of classrooms, children with autism, monastery classrooms, the prek at Barrow here in CCSD. Um I I taught for a few years before I uh moved on. And then being a passionate parent, I uh have been a part of every PTO and PTA of the schools that I've um encountered. My kids have gone to schools all across the county. Um and I uh have done everything from working spring clings and and fall festivals and and running literally running 5Ks. I mean putting on a 5K. I didn't actually run it. And um and those sorts of things. and uh currently the president of the booster club for the track and field team at Clark Central. And those are my parent things. And then as a community member, I have been on the um foundation pract board of trustees for four years, which I rolled off a few about a year ago. And I um I've currently um actually today was my last day as a CCSD representative to the entire Georgia Department of Education parent advisory council. And it was a huge honor to also participate in that as I got to meet parents from across the state and listen to all of the departments across the department of education and all the great things that they're doing for our kids and and our students and our teachers and those sorts of things. So >> yeah, think all that together. That's what made me run. >> Thank you. Now Heather Fletcher. >> Hello everyone. Uh my name is Heather Fletcher and I am running for um the district 5 uh school board seat. I moved to Athens in 2002 to go to college and I never left. I'm I'm one of those. I've actually lived here longer than where I'm from um in Albany, Georgia. But I am a former Cedar Scholes High School teacher. I currently um own and operate an independent real estate brokerage and a nonprofit dance school Athens. And I just started back in the classroom again. at this time um a part-time faculty at UG teaching Spanish. I just think that education is the most important and the most um invaluable thing that we can give to a child that sets them up for learning not just what they need to know to get around in the world but also learning who they are which will you know set them up for success in the future. Um my reason for running was very simple. I wanted to make sure that whoever represented my district cared about the students and their outcomes. Um, after I left Cedar, I joined their local school governance team and I served there for um, two terms and my friend Satrina Watson and I set up a career ready program which is still active. They just started doing some career mentoring with students this year. And the whole goal of that was to funnel into work-based learning and bolster that program because while I'm sitting here with a master's degree, I'm also working in a profession that I could have done without the master's degree. Right? So, we want to make sure that students are doing what's best for them in their future and not just feeling compelled to go to a university just because that's where everyone should go. we're forgetting about our trade skills and these um high highskilled professions that are in dire need here. And so I do want to see more of a balance. I'm not saying we shouldn't push university, but that shouldn't be the only thing that we push. Um so I'm I'm here to serve. >> Thank you. >> Uh Mr. Fred Smith. >> Thank you very much. I'm Fred Smith. Um I've been in Athens since 1968. I'm a proud graduate of Claus Central. Um, in fact, the first class of Claw Central 1971. Um, and I want to start out by saying that Athens is for in a lot of ways a very u great community. There's a lot of wonderful people, a lot of great resources here. And I know that because I spent much of most of my adult life involved in community uh abuse activities that serve. I was part of the group that started that the Athens tutorial program in 1980 and I'm still still involved in that to to some extent. In 1989, we started a program with some parents and uh and in in in Athens called the Creative Vision Foundation, which was a youth enrichment program. That program lasted for uh almost 14 years with volunteers where we provided youth enrichment on on Saturdays and sometimes in the summer. And that was a very successful program where the kids got uh exposed to u banking uh public speaking um small business etern uh and now a lot of those um youngsters have grown up and they come back and they tell us uh how important that was to them. Um so again I'm I'm been very involved in the community. I know the community. Uh and so the the uh Creative Vision Foundation is one of those things. Um also I'm I'm big on collaboration. I I can work with people uh who uh are different from me that may not look like me if we got common interest. And so I've done that in a lot of cases. We started the the East Athens tennis program for youth tennis. That's uh 2 minutes. Sorry. >> Mo late. >> Thank you for your time. I want to start off by thanking the facilitators of this and this is the exact quality of discourse that we need in order to improve our schools. Unlike I think some of the people on the stage, I actually am not satisfied with the quality of education in our schools. I have three kids, two I guess two and a half. I just pulled my oldest out and I want to mightily keep them in the Clark County schools except I not satisfied with the quality of content that is delivered onto uh my children and so I I took my oldest out of Hillsman and now I homeschool and my younger two are uh currently bents but my younger two are very good students and unfortunately I think that's in spite of going to bars and not because of it and I And all of these problems are fixable, I believe, if we take public schools seriously as community projects and get parents in the schools um working alongside teachers and administrators and and delivering content because a public school is not just a school that takes everybody. It's a school that is a community project. And the moment we've become an administrative project rather than a community project is when we've lost our way. And that doesn't mean that I agree with all the parents. Um but it does mean that if I'm elected for uh or appointed then elected for the schoolboard seat, my first duty is going to be maximally um interpreting the charter that will empower LSGTs to make the schools as they see fit. >> Thank you. >> He didn't get introduced. >> You're right. Um I brought me um Jose from Hong. He's um interested in running for um Nicole Hall seat that she's vacating at the end of this school year. That'll be a special election in November. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> I didn't know if you want to introduce me. >> This is Mark Evans. He's next. >> I don't know how I'm supposed to follow that. >> That's okay. I'm Mark Evans. I represent District 9. Um I am the uh vice president of the school board. Um Dr. Anderson is the president of school board. Um I shared some of your frustration and um where we are now is a lot different than where we were when I started. And uh we haven't gotten to where we need to be. And that's why I'm running again. Um, you know, we all have a vision of what school can be and we all have an idea of what school should be. You know, now we just have to find a way to uh work together to get this. Uh, the amount of growth that this board has had over the past four years is pretty amazing. You used to have a board that didn't talk to one another. And uh part of it is is that a lot of us decided that we were going to shed ego at the door and listen. And that's a hard thing to do, especially when you're us, right? I mean, we're up here for a reason, you know. Um but the the greatest skill that I I have taken away from this is that I've learned how to listen. learn how to listen to the people in particular and represent them in the way that they want to be represented. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mark. >> Um, so we are going to go through our submitted questions now. Um, these we collected I think about 18 questions in total on our website over the past month and a half or so. Um, these questions have not been shared with the candidates ahead of tonight's forum. Um, the family advisory board executive board narrowed the list down and kind of edited them um to remove some of the combative language um and um make them a little bit more appropriate for our forum. Um but each question is going to be posed to all of the candidates. Um in the spirit of managing time um we are going to limit the time for answering each question to 5 minutes. So, um the goal is for you guys to interact with each other. Um to bounce off each other, um not I I know sometimes in these forums you go each candidate gets the same question, it just kind of becomes an echo a little bit. Um so we're kind of hoping for some dynamic answers between you guys. Um it's also good practice because that's kind of how it works when you're on a board together. You kind of have to jump in and talk and be patient and figure out how to ask for your turn. So, this is going to be um kind of an interesting experiment for all of us. Um so, if you're still answering your question and the 5 minutes has come up. Um myself or Emily is going to kind of come in your like we're going to kind of come around and like get your attention and that means we're not going to have another person speak after that. So, you can finish your thoughts. Um but at that point, we're going to move on to the next question. Does that make sense for everyone? >> Awesome. And just to be clear, it's five minutes per question, not five minutes for one person to talk about the option. So, we do want people to um share the the options. >> 35 seconds. >> You got this. All right. Are we ready? >> And I know so some of you can probably see this. I'm going to read them, too. So, if you can't see it, don't worry about it. But they are up on the board. And we have a fivem minute timer for those of you can see it. So, the timer's going to countdown if people want to look at that. Um, how would you encourage the board of education to become more actively involved in shaping state level policies? >> I can talk to this because I actually just experienced a very small form of this today. We were talking about the kids being prepared for the milestones and all the different um all the different uh you know preliminary tests they take all through all the throughout the year I Ready and STAR and MAP and all those things. And did you know that there is one that's specifically formulated for the milestones, but the state legislature said no to it? >> The beacon was denied. Anyway, I we actually spoke about this. So knowing that and knowing that things like that are happening at the state level, th those are things that we as a board could potentially bring to the table and and find somebody, our legislators, and educate them on what is going on in the day-to-day of the schools and they're not just saying, "Oh, this this thing that makes the most sense and you just shot it down because I don't know, you weren't paid enough money for it or whatever." Anyway, that's very relevant to what I discussed today at the state. >> Just just very quickly to piggy back off what Li is saying there, a lot of this is going to boil down to personal relationships with our local legislative delegation. Those are going to be the first people that we're going to go to. Those going to people that are going to listen to us more so than from any other parts of the state. It's going to be our responsibility to explain to them what are the issues we're facing, what need to be addressed, and if possible, as much as we can, cuz obviously they're the legisl legislators, explain to them what we think they could do, how they could be impactful in addressing these issues that need to be addressed. I think to to add on with that, um, they have the votes of course in the general assembly, but they listen to all of y'all, I would expect, more than they listen to any school board members, if not for anything else within sheer numbers. And so another dimension to this would be our role would be going out in the community if if not at least knocking on doors, if not trying to have little gettogethers, coffee, that kind of thing, and mention to people how this works, like helping people understand. I didn't know 10 years ago just the levels of funding and where all the funding streams come from and what exact power those legislators have and like where the school board's power ends and where their power begins. We have a very narrow lane on the school board. It's a lot of stuff to do, but it's not that expansive of a thing. We can't wave a wand and do this kind of stuff. So, helping our neighbors understand this would help y'all be on our side and help also knock on their doors and tell them, "Please change things in Atlanta." Well, and also if whoever is elected from this group to the board, it's our responsibility to be a breast of new legislation coming down um regarding education and what I would say is let's go on field trip once a year. The realtors do it day of the day and we go and we meet with our legislators and we hear about legislation and they're happy to meet with us. I think they would be just as willing to meet with the school board. >> Yeah. I think it also boils down to uh ongoing communications with the um with our representatives. they are elected and so I know that they have some interest in in what we think and so ongoing communications. >> Yeah. Okay. Something else we also not this conversation but it's going to be very important to be proactive and not reactive especially things as it relates to schools and especially school funding. You're going to have to make sure that we as a board know what they're considering and address something before it potentially becomes a problem for us months and years down the road. Well, there was a couple of things here. First, we had to clean our own house. We had no problems. Um, about four years ago, uh, we almost lost our accreditation because we couldn't act like grown-ups. Uh, but that's off the table now. Now, we have, uh, we, uh, we become more forceful with the Georgia School Board Association. Uh we participated in uh in February the Georgia School Board Association uh had all of the school boards uh come to Atlanta uh two Tuesday in a row uh and we brought students uh to talk to our legislators. Part of the problem we've had with our legislators is that they really haven't cared too much about our community. They have gone out of their way to pass bills and things that have strike money from our schools. they they have done that even though we talked with them and we said hey this is going to hurt us they were more involved with political ideology than the actual care of their community and um you know I I don't care I don't care what party you are as long as the children of Clark County are taking care of and they are not being taken care of by this legislation at all >> got four Thanks. >> We'll see. >> It's a different kind of format, but we got we got five questions. Okay. Um Okay. With the upcoming charter renewal, what is your stance on creating a charter system advisory committee and who would be on it? Well, since I since I I I handed out start um first I'm I'm not really thrilled about charters to begin with. Uh the idea of the charter system is that we're supposed to do new and innovative things. And I would challenge any of you to walk through any of our elementary schools and then go to any of the Atlanta schools and see if there's any difference. There is not. They're the same. They're doing the same stuff. The only difference is that we get waiverss now so that way we can have 40 kids in a classroom instead of 20. So, you know, I I think that if we're going to do the charter system, we need to do the charter system. We we need to really dig down into, you know, um the idea that the teacher is the leader of that classroom and allow them to do that work. So, yes, charge this revised. Absolutely. But beginning the charter renewal, first off, I want to know why we want to renew it since we're not doing it. >> A piece that comes to mind for me with this is uh as Mark said, the charter system, the history of it and how it came about. It's I understand why it began, but it just seems to be kind of lingering without there's not enough political will to to really get it right. Uh, I believe it was like a band-aid because of the recession uh to relax the requirements because school systems couldn't make ends meet. And rather than legislating something, the state said, "How about we just relax the laws we've already written for you?" And like Mark said, you get you relaxed your class size requirements. You relax your your teacher planning protection. You relax things like that. And so what I think of first of all as a schoolboard member is how soon does this decision have to be made? If it's next month, that's too soon. Like I we I've learned a board as large as nine people, we can't and we shouldn't move like that with 13,000 kids looking up at us hoping we get it right. That's way too late to be saying what should we do? This should be a year'sl long conversation. So an advisory board sounds wonderful. I do not envy the board members currently because I understand it's a pretty soon decision that has to be made this year. I don't envy that because I want to be able to listen and talk like this for I'll be honest over many months to hear everyone's conversations, hear what our neighbors have told us, talk to legislators, get their feedback because it's not a decision to be made lightly. There's there's reason that went into the laws that were written and I feel like they were waved in an emergency, but the emergencies passed like the recession's done. It's it's there's no need for that band-aid anymore. Yeah, I feel that um everything should point back to um instruction and so um if the charter system is renewed, there should be more attention on what um create or what support uh effective instruction and I think we um spent a lot of time talking about other things but not that and that's should the uh the central uh issue here uh concern here um to be uh instruction and um in one thing I did when I I said this a long story so I have to make it short but when I retired in 2013 from the from the labor department I was so afraid about what I would be doing the next year that I volunteer in a classroom and I can tell you that that model of one teacher and 20 kids with different levels of background does not work. >> And so it's kind of it's kind actually kind of sad that we uh continue to do that and we know that it's not working. It didn't take me long to know that that didn't work. And so the charter system uh if it going to be a redesign so that it focus so that that it clearly focus on instruction then uh I'm forward but otherwise it >> we got one minute left on this one. So >> yeah if the charter system the system that established the LSTs um I don't think we're actually taking it seriously and implementing it. So I don't think we even know what the charter was supposed to be because we're not serious about one of the key um aspects of it which is the uh LSGTs and we're not serious about it's just what uh Mr. Smith said about spending a day in the classroom and seeing the lack of content that is being uh disseminated is haunting. I was a cross country coach at Hillsman and I was a girl soccer coach um last year and I was cross country coach this year. You know, I had 13 year olds who couldn't tie their shoes. Um we're in a system where half over half of the black kids can't read and only a fraction of the black boys can, but everyone's acting as if that's like everything's good. We just need to kind of paper over some aspects when we're talking about illiteracy um in a way that is disgusting. But I don't see enough disgust um being manifest from the administrative class or the teachers actually. But I do see it from the parents and that's why I want to get parents in the classroom. I went to a PE class. >> Yeah, somebody's keeping time. Finish your thought. Finish your thought. I went to PE class um because I was I was a cross country coach and soccer coach and you know the boys were just kind of free fall and the girls were gossiping on their phone and I was like oh maybe that was a that gossiping and playing on the phone and then I thought well maybe that's an anomaly. Then I went to to that same class 2 weeks later and you know what is happening? The exact same thing. I don't think you understand how dysfunctional and reproductive of ignorance our current schools are. And I think like if you did, you should be horrified or you should not have a job in CTSD. >> Okay, next question. >> How would you encourage parents, teachers, and community members to become part of their LSGT team to continue their involvement? >> I have a quick question. Can you just tell us what the acronym means? >> Yes. So, I'm so sorry. Um, LSGT means local school governance team. Um one of the conditions of the charter system agreement is that um school-based decisions like budget um personnel and some curriculum choices um the local school governance team is an elected body at the individual school comprised of teachers, parents, community members um and they um they have parliamentary procedure on u having meetings with the principal in that building. So, um, having served on one for two terms, I'll I'll start this one out. Um, to the point of what Arammy was saying, um, it's not an easy task to get people to participate because they are not taken seriously. We had to really by I had to go over my administrator's head to get traction on a program that Dr. Hooker met with Katrina and I on the career ready program. We had a Zoom meeting with him and he was like, "Yes, I just came back from Lincoln, Nebraska. I like that you guys are taking this initiative. Let's do it." But we were not getting support and buyin at Cedar Scholes. So had to break chain of command for the students. It should not be that way. It didn't cost anything. The Clark County mentor program, they're still they're doing all our onboarding and background checks for free. They're pulling from their own mentors to go into our schools and talk to kids 5:1, a much better ratio than 20 to1 to help them figure out what they want to do post, you know, high school. >> So, let's redirect the question. What would we do to encourage people to >> that's the problem? >> I think I think uh we should encourage um parents to get involved period. And so uh that that is one way to get them into the system so to speak. So again because we don't have enough of that we do not have enough u parent or community involvement in the schools. And uh going back to my story of spending the a year in a classroom, um I made a difference and and the principal and the teacher told me I made a difference because it g it freed the teacher up to to give more attention to to the students >> and I could um u do what I could. I could walk around the class and I could uh kind of um help with uh uh classroom uh maintenance, so to speak. And I'm pretty good with at that with working with young folks. And so again, we we need more uh parents. We need more community people in the school. And and at the at the center of my platform is uh support for the classroom. And so and one way to one u means of providing that support would be to have more people involved and have um parents involved. So again the uh uh getting on the governor's team would be one step of how to get connected to the schools. >> I I think I echo a lot of everything that's been said. I think educating the parents on the importance of not just being a part of an LSG team but just being a part of their students education is super duper duper important because if we don't have the parents on board we we lo we we lose them the minute they step in the classroom and so I I think that just the education of them and them understanding that the importance of this education is education is is a ticket is a ticket for them to to move along in life and and do and be the best they can be and and get the the highest level of education they can come and go and move on and and be the best they can be. >> I think as I as I stated at a former forum um and then as being a part of LSGT before it truly takes a village and if we're going to want the best for our children be it being a member of LSGT or whatever as Mr. news state. We've got to become involved and concerned. We've got to not so much point the finger blame to say this is what's wrong with the school, but point the finger of how can I help make the school better. Like Mr. Smith said, "We've got to get in the schools, be willing to volunteer, but volunteer in a sense of not trying to take over the school. Schools have rules. Excuse me. Schools have rules for a reason and we've got to be able to work within those rules or you'll end up with just total chaos in the school and the children won't learn. Teachers won't be able to teach. So, we've got to be able to find that good medium and work together to do what's best for the children. >> And we have to take the LSG team seriously. The reason it didn't work was because we couldn't get people involved is because they knew that they weren't being taken seriously. So if you're not being taken seriously, why would you sign up to do the work? >> So I will say that I think that there's actually a conflict of interest between the administration of the school and the parents. And I don't think anyone has anything invested in the school like the parents of the children of that school. We don't get check from it. We don't it's not a pension. We don't get paid for moving people through. We only get some sort of sustenance if our children learn and their community learns. So I think that to pretend that the interests of the administration that gets paid and pays the mortgage from um working in the school and the interest of the parents are the same interest is I think a little bit naive in a way that doesn't work for the students. Right? So, I want to um shift. I think I think as a parent of three children who moved through Clark County Schools, I thought that the administration wanted out of me money and snacks. Everything else just hush and lets George out. You can't even go in to the school. If I need to like drop off my sweatshirt for my kid, um I should be able to flash my ID. should they should recognize me as a parent of like a zillion kids there. I should be able to drop off my uh sweatshirt, PEEK INTO MY CLASS ANYTIME I FEEL LIKE IT. I should be able to walk in and and peek into and peek into a class. Of course, you can say like, well, you know, uh safety, but you know, parents aren't cheating up schools. It's it's it's siblings and alumni. It's not parents. So, >> we're going to move to the next question. >> Jamie, this is I think this is a really important question and I think we're dancing around it. >> Here's the problem. Schools want compliance. They don't want creativity. Okay? The reason they want compliance is because they've got a tough job. They've got to take four to 500 children, keep them safe. And you do that by keeping things locked down. You want you want a real interesting field trip, go to the jail, take a look at the color scheme of the jail, then go to your local school. It's the same bloody thing. When I talked to Cap, I saw the same thing. I went and painted my my mother helped me paint my my my wall purple cuz I'm a Ravens fan. The kids from Atlanta love that very much, but that was okay. All right, so that's that's that's the first issue. The second issue is that parents don't have time. Most of the parents that are that are that live and work in Clark County have two to three jobs. When do they have time? They've got to make ends meet, >> right? We have we have we have our largest employer that suppresses wages. They just do, right? And that's and and that's something we don't talk about because we we want to get along. We want to we want to have a pilot program. We want to do all these things. And I'm I'm all for collaboration. But you have you have got to recognize that the main problem is is that we have some societal issues that have to be addressed, right? before we can even begin to think about how great an LSGT team is. >> Thank you. >> Yes, we're going to move to the next question. Okay, guys. Thank you so much. We we have time to talk more about all of this stuff and we should. >> All right. What are your ideas to open or expand communication with local universities for volunteer opportunities with CCSD? >> I think we should resign. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great idea again cuz we need more people in the in the schools. Uh because when you talk about trying to um uh bring more support to the classroom, uh one of the first things that brought up who can't afford it, but um having uh volunteers who can uh and able to do it would would uh answer part of that that dilemma. And I agree with Mark about you can't expect uh you know not everybody has has the same uh uh parent situation and they grow up with the same parent situation. So you can't rely expect from parents of three jobs or whatever to be able to do that. Uh and often time they have three jobs because they have low-level jobs and they can't take off. But again, that's where the community comes in and that's where what uh Regin talk about the village, you know, is that's that's real. If we're really serious about this, the the village got to got to chip in where where there are voids. >> There are certain programs that I know that we've had with the University of Georgia over the years, some that have been expanded here in the last couple of years, but quite frankly, that's one of those things that I've never particularly understood. We have the flagship university of the state of Georgia right down this road. There is a wonderful education department in there. When my two boys were in elementary school, when you had the college kids come in there for whatever reason, it just was the highlight of the day to have them in there, their energy, their wanting to teach these kids. And we've talked about this in a lot of these forums. One of the big things in education especially in the south that has developed over the last 10 years is what Mississippi has developed and what they have achieved in the last 10 years and it spread to Louisiana and Alabama. It's commonly referred to as a Mississippi miracle. I talk about it nauseium in these forms but it takes these kind of relationships. It takes people in there focusing on with Mississippi Miracle phonics based reading as has already been stated. We have a problem with people that cannot read in our school system. And if you can't read, you can't do anything. So, we have got to do better in this particular regard. >> And I I will go ahead and do my um my books for keeps plug because applications are now open to be a literacy mentor as I have done for the past um since 2022. I've been at Strath. I'm about to switch over to Fowler um in the fall because of my schedule, but um getting students and I probably will before the ends the before their final on Friday send the link to my students at UG and say, "Hey, here's something you can do in the fall because they always have even if they're not doing it because they're just being altruistic. Sometimes they have requirements to do community um engagement and involvement for whatever you know they have going on on campus. But any of you today to go in just read with a student. The Mississippi Miracle, we we have that coming in Georgia. Science of reading, phonics based instruction. We've already been doing phonics based instruction. Now we're going to get, you know, literacy coaches. But it doesn't have to cost $61 million. We just need to read to children. You know, parents aren't literacy experts. They just read to their kids, but some don't because maybe they can't read. My own sister probably reads at a fifth grade level. So my nephew struggles with reading, right? So I I I've I've experienced that in my own family. It can happen anywhere. And what do you do about it? You know, well, you have to start somewhere. And I say go read to some kids in our schools. >> Got one minute left on this one. >> Well, to answer the question, how to expand communication. I think it would be a great idea if there was a liazison between UG, Athens Tech, and the school district so that we could have one point of contact. I think I spoke with Emily earlier this year about the same thing. A lot of times you don't know who at UG you need to contact. So you send blanket emails out but then you don't know if it's going to the right person so they don't get responded to. So I think we need some point of contact at both you know UG Tech uh wherever and some direct contact person with Clark County. so that we're not spinning the wheels in the mud trying to figure out who we need to talk to and then that person can disseminate the information that's needed by the schools to get volunteers and that sort of thing in the schools. >> Thank you. >> What what I've found in working with the the university is uh it's more effective to work with people than with the institution if that makes sense. >> Yes. Uh I get a lot of support from people that are associated with the university on individual basis. Uh we started a a uh vital uh in contact program uh six years ago with uh professors in the school of social work and interns and we just complete the sixth year of that. And so, but again, uh, we have to go out and talk to folks, communicate with folks who are likeminded, and then we we can get somewhere. I'm not I'm not for uh meeting with the uh the administration at the University of Georgia to try to solve this. It it just >> we're we're going to mention the next question. Okay, guys. It's impossible to be an expert on every subject and elected officials have to rely on the expertise of others. What topic is an area of expertise for you and why? Who and how would you learn or lean on others? >> So the area that comes to mind for me first of all is classroom teaching. And I know that were I to be on the school board, I would bring that perspective in, not claiming to know exactly what the teachers here are going through in every classroom, but having more of a baseline understanding of when the bell rings Monday morning and those kids come down the hallway, what is it probably like for them? In a way that other candidates don't don't understand. Uh, and I know that I need to check that, too, because I might go too far with that and say, "Oh, I know how it is in fifth grade. I know how it is in nth grade." And I don't, but I have a basic idea of it. And as far as leaning on, learning from other people who don't, who have expertise that I don't have, I have to remind myself that I have thoughts and passions as a parent and as a teacher, but as a schoolboard member, there's a different a different lens there. There's a different it's a different hat that we're wearing. And we need to be careful because our only employee is the superintendent. That is the point of contact between us and everybody in the school system. We stray from that at our peril. We need to talk to them and only to them about the school system. give them an earful every chance we get because they're our employee, but we should never meddle with getting involved with principles and what they do in their buildings, least of all the teachers and how they do their day-to-day things. We've gotten in trouble as a system over the years for with the best of intentions veering over a little bit there. And so I think about leaning on expertise of the superintendent that we will be paying a lot of money to who has earned that that that salary phone fell down and is able to speak to their principles and their instructional coaches and all the experts that we're paying all of our money in great big heaps to. If we try to second guess them or try to step over them, we we're just wasting money and wasting your money and my money. See, I I would say that we need to ask the teachers what they need in the schools because they're the ones spending time. It's not that we tell them how to do their job, but that's not what we're here to do. But we're here to listen and take community feedback and community feedback and talking to teachers who are in our community is actually part of the structure of this of this board. Um my background is also in education. Even before I, you know, taught at Cedar and and now at UG, I worked in food service and I always leveled to be a trainer. So, I've been teaching people how to do something whether it was hostess or weight tables or bartend or dance. I'm also a dance teacher. So, education is just it's been in me since I was like 18 years old. Um, and it's the most important thing that we can do. So, who's the person that education? The teacher. We need to listen to them and get feedback from them so that we can then make better decisions on policy because a lot of the policy impacts what teachers can and cannot do and it might be as we've said stifling innovation. >> Specifically, one of the some of the things that I think I would bring, you know, besides the fact that I've got two children that I've already mentioned come along in the district and they are active obviously at Clark Central. My mother uh growing up was also a public school teacher. She taught second grade most of her career. Uh so I've seen that aspect of what it's like in the school system through her. But specifically probably the biggest thing with me and it's become more and more relevant here in the last 6 months to a year is the business perspective that I would bring to this as the owner and operator of a business and now partner in a firm and having done this for the last 20 years. And I want to make this very very clear. I am very much aware that a business is not government. Those are two different things. And to try to conflate the two, you do that at your peril. But we are having a lot of push back on property taxes here in the state of Georgia. More so though than what may change there is that we have had an extraordinary explosion of property values over the last 5 years. And as everyone knows, the majority of your property taxes are going to to the school system. We are not going to have that kind of growth over the next 5 to 10 years. We are eventually in this country going to have a recession. That is another thing we have got to get ready for. And I think when those challenges confront us, I think I will be in position with my skill set to be of help. I think what I can say about myself and everybody up here is that our expertise might be in our passion. We are experts at our passion for the kids of this um county and for the the community here. And I think that we take that passion and then become not experts but we learn more about things that become relevant. the literacy, the CCRPI scores, the the behavior things that we need to learn about, the budget things we need to learn how we take that passion, we put it into that, and then we become the experts. We can't all be experts. >> 20 seconds. >> Okay. I would say collaboration uh and um I feel like I'm an expert in uh in working with others and I got numerous examples. I've mentioned some of them. uh during co we did a uh online math camp and and and again I work with some people from University of Georgia individually professors and then others who I've known that have volunteered throughout my uh other programs and we put it all together and we did during co we did an online math camp. So again, uh the ability to work with people. >> Um okay, we're going to switch it up now. Um it's time to test the knowledge or CCSD schoolboard candidates. This is something super fun. I'm really excited about it. Candidates, on the tables in front of you, there's little bags. Um each of you should grab the bag. Um inside your bag, there's >> I think I have eight. I should cuz I brought 100 case. Yeah. >> So, inside the bag they have signs. One says uh board of education, one says um the superintendent and one says state of Georgia. >> You have the best. >> The game that we're going to play is called who has authority. All right. Does the board of education superintendent or state have authority? Um, I thought this would be a fun way to um help everybody understand that this is a really super hard job. Um, that your your boundaries are really really tight. Um, and so there are definitely wrong answers, but I don't want you to feel bad if you get them wrong cuz that's how you learn. >> Yes, this is how we learn. >> All right, so um there's no time on this one. I'm going to pose a question. I want you to look at your your uh little signs and hold up your answer. Um and maybe how about Lexi? When you notice that everyone has their signs up, that'll be my signal that we can reveal the answer. >> So, we're not supposed to look at other people's signs. >> Uh I don't care if you what if they have >> Well, no. I mean, I sure do not. >> You can use whatever strategy you want. >> This is why we have a lawyer. >> All right. Who is responsible for ensuring that board approved policies are implemented in schools? >> We can't say that. >> Yeah. Can we That's okay. Can you read that like in the audience? We can't read. >> Just let's start with Mark and go down and tell me who you got. >> Superintendent. >> That's what I >> Yeah. Everybody got that? >> The superintendent. >> Yeah, we have some people. >> I have a state. >> Oh, >> superintendent. >> All right. Ready? >> It's the superintendent. I wonder can I hear items? >> I I would just imagine that if there were complaints and I could be just wrong, but I would think that if there were complaints, they could be raised with the GDAU and the governor's office and the legislature. >> Yeah, I mean maybe eventually, but in the day-to-day process. All right, next one. Who has the authority to create and approve school board policies? All right, shout out your answers. Board of Education. >> Board of Education. Board of >> Education. >> Yeah, Board of Education. >> Board of Education is the correct answer. >> Be smart. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> How about you have a systematic? So, what can the state do visa v the board of education? >> That's a that's a conversation that we can have over a beer. Well, so what the state does is the state six GDO or the PSC >> the Georgia Department of Education. My bad. Sorry. I'm a professor of education, so we speak in those languages. >> My bad. Um, yeah, they they sit their dogs on here. >> So, they can actually police. >> Oh, they can they can they make laws. They make like we've got to put in metal detectors in every single school in Clark County outside the board of education. That was not a board of education policy, but not coming in. We have to make >> That's not a state policy either. We actually had that conversation today also. It's it comes from the board. It comes from the from the local district. >> Yeah. Yeah. Metal detectors. >> Yeah. >> Metal detectors are not coming down from the state mandated by the state. >> He's coming he's coming he's coming from he's coming from. They pass. We actually had a specific conversation cuz a a parent asked our our state superintendent, Richard Woods, this morning that he she said, "Are it we have one metal detector at our school. Is that coming from the state?" And she and he said, "No." >> Well, yeah, the state's paying for it because we're not paying for it. I mean, they're the ones who just gave us $61 million for it. So I >> I mean I WILL and if that's a 361 million bucks, I will be glad to talk to the the board attorney and be like, "All right, let's let's buy some books." >> All right. All right. Let's stay on track. >> Realators. >> WELL, NEXT QUESTION. WHO HAS THE authority to place an item on a board meeting agenda in practice and policy? Actually, can I hold up >> too? What are you guys holding up? Cuz they can't read it. Superintendent. >> Yeah, we can both put things. Superintendent is part of the board. So, >> no, no, no, no, no, they are not. No, no, they are. No, no, they are an employee. Their job is to uh bring up the issues and problems from the school system to us and when it's in our purview like we got to spend money. >> But the superintendent is the one that actually drafts >> the secretary agenda. Really? >> Yeah. We do it. >> It's written on the school on the on the website that the school that the superintendent is the secretary of >> Yeah. Dr. Anderson and I are the ones who set the agenda and all that. That's that's what we we're going to do it on Friday. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Who has the authority to approve or deny a charter school petition submitted to a local school district? >> Petition state of Georgia. >> We got state of Georgia >> to a school district. >> State of Georgia and the board of educ board of education. State of Georgia. >> It's the board of education. Oh, >> now the state of Georgia does so they can they can which they have in the past. They have appealed and the state of Georgia has that they they do have a final say but the >> the first the first sticky point is us. >> Interesting. >> Who has the authority to approve or deny a charter school petition submitted to a local district? So the the the the charter schools applying to the local school board to to siphon some of that money out of their budget. >> This example someone has >> such a helping me know >> who to vote for. >> I'm sorry. >> Candidates, do you feel like this is helping you flex and think a little bit? >> I mean, if she has kind of fun. >> I'm happy to be here. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. What you want to hear? outside. >> This This is silly. I'm sorry. >> We only have a couple left. >> Um, who sets the minimum number of instructional days for schools? >> State. >> Well done. State of Georgia. >> I was wrong, but >> who makes the final decision on student expulsion after a tribunal recommendation? board. >> So, what what are you guys holding on? >> Everybody's saying the board of education. Yeah, that's the one. >> And let me explain some of my reasoning for this. I understand some of these questions might not be things that make sense to you guys, but what I'm trying to tease out here is um the awareness that these candidates have on where their lane is. Uh it's an important thing to kind of tease out. Um and so this is as much for them as it is um for you guys. Um, so I appreciate you. Um, >> can I make a comment on that? >> Sure. >> I don't believe that's correct. The alternative school being school district. >> That's that's incorrect, ma'am. The uh the parents can they have 10 days any ruling on anything that they can appeal to the board and then it comes to the board and the board listens to what was presented in the tribunal. Then we have to make a decision on what we do with that. So we can either uphold what the school says, we can we can lessen it or we can dismiss it. >> So that's if the parent knows they can do >> the parent the parent is told by the tribunal council. There is a letter that is sent home to the parent that I mean you can shake your head and know all you want, but I'm telling you this is what it is. >> I believe she's making it up. >> No, I'm not saying she's making it up. I'm just saying that I'm the one who sits on these tribunals. I know how they work. >> I think I think the question, gentlemen, I think the question here is do parent do all parents actually know? Do they actually receive these letters? Are they aware and in full understanding that they only have 10 days to make this appeal? >> Yeah. >> And it sounds like the feedback from the community has said no. >> I would say that we we do a really good job of making them aware of what their rights are. >> She's saying no. >> That's okay. That's one person. We're going to move to the next one. Okay. Who has the authority to wave or modify certain state rules through flexibility systems or waiverss? This one's tricky because of the way it's worded. Who has the authority to wave or modify certain state rules and flexib What are you holding up? >> State board and the state board of education. Board of Education. Some people have not raised their hand. >> Is this >> Yeah. >> I think this is the last one. Um Oh, shoot. I just messed that up. >> I did. I won't answer >> that one. Sorry, I messed that up. Fingers. Who has the authority to approve contracts entered into by the school system? Is the board of education? Sorry. contract. >> My bad. Nice. >> All right. Uh, thank you for indulging us in that fun little exercise. I hope it was a little bit of a different flavor from uh what is typical in a forum. Um, we have a couple of questions that we've received um on FAR. Some of the questions we received are um specific to an individual. So, we're going to pass those to the individual. Um, but we're not going to have them um here. and I'm going to wait and see if there are any other questions that jump in and we'll kind of splice them in between. >> So, as we all know, we have parents working multiple jobs, very long hours, doing a trick back and forth to get to work wherever they're at. We also have things called like class dojo, automated phone calls, emails, whatever. Um, do you possibly feel like parents feel like they're already overly involved because they're aggravated with all of the notifications and so they just can't think about one more thing. What I'm actually getting at is how could we mainstream so that there are less pings on a parent's phone, per se, um to encourage maybe more participation in things like PTO's and I'm going to get the acronym wrong cuz I'm bad with the acronyms, but whatever that L was >> do you think we could somehow come up with an idea to mainstream that so that we're not And I know for me when my daughter was in high school, I get notifications all the time. I'm just like, "Oh my god, we'll fix the phone." So that's that's just >> I think the the problem is you want to hit multiple points of communication because um having been a teacher in the district, sometimes the phone numbers don't get updated. So you got to make sure because if you're if you're just sending a text message to avoid sending an email, what if the phone number is bad? What if the email's bad? The phone number is good. So you send something because it's better to overcommunicate whatever it is um than to not have communicated it at all. >> I think to to jump in I think that when I taught at Coil uh it was it's been a few years ago but when I taught at Coil I remember making those phone calls and you get to the third or fourth phone number and you know for different reasons life happens the phone doesn't the call doesn't connect and for a from a compliance perspective we must be able to tell our principal that we have tried to call home and so there's that level but that's I don't think that's what you're asking. One thing that comes to mind first is the way we don't do it as a school board is we don't tell the superintendent tell your teachers five messages maximum per day. I don't think that's the way we do it. We ask our superintendent, our employee, what are you hearing from your principles? What are you hearing from your parents? What are they telling you? Let's have a conversation and what do you think superintendent is a reasonable way to navigate this because we're hearing from the community? Leave us alone please. But also we don't want to go too far and say hey we never hear from you. So I think the dialogue, the conversation with our superintendent and hear from them and do the chain of command kind of a thing. So the principles don't feel undue pressure from us. The superintendent can talk to the principles, principles to teachers and work out a solution that's not a one-sizefits-all, but make it fit for maybe it's different for high school and different for middle school, maybe it's different for central and different for Cedar, but just get it right for the parents as much as we can. Yeah, I hear you about streamlining uh because often times it comes down to uh a checklist and he alluded to it trying to uh make sure that they can say that we made these attempts. But what we need really is true communication and partnership between the parents and the school rather than um like I say letting the uh interruption of the phone call become something that not even uh positive anymore. It's not doing what it was kind of set out to do. So the real thing is to work to develop uh work on de developing true partnerships between that parent and that school and that teacher >> something I can certainly understand where you're coming from with some of the frustration u because believe me not to keep saying it with the two kids I get a lot of notifications and and what I have just found personally with school communications and frankly a lot of communications just in life nowadays. Is there certain avenues that I just find easier to work with? Um, so I just know I can keep up with everything that I need to keep up with using Class Dojo or whatever it may be. Um, and that's what I focus on so as to not be completely overwhelmed and and sometimes I think that the technology is introduced to families without them understanding how to use it. So that's frustrating with in itself. It's not that communication back and forth like it's some black people envisioned it. So So that can be a problem too is not making sure that uh uh the the communication is effective. Another aspect of that is a lot of this communication becomes noise because we don't have good relationships with the internet or weapons at the school. So you don't know what's noise, but it's all kind of high stakes because you miss one of the long class dojo and all of a sudden the kid doesn't go to the field trip. So like doesn't play soccer. So like it's high stakes noise um in a way that I think could go away if there were more meaningful relationships between the school and not and I get upset about the the coordinated or um uh elaborate the theater events like the only interaction and the only interaction you have with your school is a a quality of uh I don't know launch on the lawn or some of these choreographed events that don't actually give you like a real sense of your school. I I think that it just it makes the minor bits of communication a little bit more stressful because you don't know what's real and what's not and what's important and what's not. So real meaningful participation communication. >> Um I'm going to do one from the cards and then we'll go to you next sir. Okay. Um this is kind of two cards in one. So I'm going to kind of smush them into one because I think they go well together. Uh what financial chops do you have? The Georgia legislature wants to slash property taxes. What effects will this have on CCSD? How should we prepare? And does CCSD have professional grant writers on staff? Why or why not? >> I would love to jump in and talk about the funding side of things for the school system. I think that a a huge part of understanding as a school board, we need to know walking in that the money does not all come from the local government. A lot of it does, but not all of it. There's a lot from the state, a lot of share from the federal. And so I think the the it's very important that we know first of all when I'm talking to our neighbors that we're not treating this like a pot of money in the sky. It's your money and our money and we need to be good stewards of that and the the financial chops I believe was the phrasing used. Um when I look at our tax bill um that my wife and I got our property tax bill the $2,500 for school M like the we have our you know our monthly budget date we on our spreadsheet and say if that something like that pops up we would say does that need to be that high? Can we make it a little lower than that, please? And that's the the mindset that I bring to it is should we be spending that much? Should we be charging that much of our people in town? And the neighbors that I've met who are suspicious and skeptical of that very concern, which is real, that speaks to me that we need to do a better job as a board of making sure that folks understand why we're spending the money the way we are, where the money's coming from. And when things like the property tax change that Carl alluded to earlier, the the law that it it was not really close, but it was pretty close to passing this constitutional amendment that was going to do away with the local property tax funding schools and replace it with a pittance of a sales tax. It was going to completely blow a hole in our budget. And if we're not careful, if the school board doesn't represent that well to the community, folks will think, why is Clark County Schools blowing up our budget? And we have to explain to y'all as well as we can. It's not us, it's the state. We cannot change that. y'all need, we all need to call our senators and the governor about that. So, I think the understanding of the diversity of revenue streams and the understanding of the fact that I strongly believe, I could be wrong, but I strongly believe there's no one twisting their mustache in the back room at CCSD saying we're going to spend $80,000 on some random stuff. Maybe there is waste, maybe there is inefficiency, and I want to investigate that. But the trust that's been eroded over the years with our community, the fact that so many of my neighbors that I'm knocking on doors with are saying the same basic thing. Do y'all really have to spend that much money? I have a hard time believing 50 years ago that many neighbors were having the same conversations. I just I have a feeling that long ago there was more trust that's been corroded over the years. And I think the more transparent we can be with the community, the better we're going to get along with the community and rebuild that trust. >> There's something that has always sort of reflects me about the um the property tax question. So about 50% of our budget comes from property taxes. About 50% of Clark Countyy's budget comes from property taxes. But for some reason, it's like, well, why are we spending all this money on education? We wouldn't be so quick to cut our police and our firemen and our public works, but we're very quick to want to cut education. And so, the 50% we get from property taxes, half of that goes to pay teachers, not administrators, teachers. So, we want more teachers, want better for our teachers, but we don't want to spend the money for it. It's just a perplexing thing. Everybody wants a discount. Um, I I am also concerned about the bill. I don't know that Kemp has signed it. Um, does anyone know if he's actually signed the bill? >> The terrible one didn't pass. >> I I >> Well, there was one that passed that was going to limit it to 3% year-over-year. I suspect he will veto it because while it it won't impact Athens or Atlanta very much if we get the little sales tax. Think about your rural schools. You know, I went to school in Worth County, Georgia, if anybody knows where that is. There's no industry down there. there's no um you know rental income there. It means where would they get you who's going to are you going to go to the peanut festival and spend some money? I mean so um not to make light of it but I I really think um in a certain way if you're paying property taxes that's a privilege. It means you own a house right so I think our education should be more valuable than oh we want a discount on our property taxes. Why is the school board spending all this money? >> I don't want to say what I've already said. I mean what I said about 15 minutes ago is exactly how I would answer this question. You know, again, given my business background, this is not a this is not something that we are going to be able to ignore. We are going to have to address the fact that property taxes just simply cannot continue to go up because property values cannot continue to go up. And we're going to have to be creative with our budget to make sure that we are getting what we want um from those taxpayer dollars. Um, and I think I think it here in Athens, Clark County, one of the things that will address a lot of the issues and the feedback that we get from people, the constrnation about property taxes and how they continue to go up is to address some of the issues like we've talked about tonight. You know, the the reading scores, the math scores. Um, it's I believe I'm wrong here that we spend an enormous amount per capita per student here in the county. People want to see what we're doing to get those numbers up, getting our children educated, getting them to where they need to be, getting those graduation those graduation can't say the word for some reason, graduation rates to where we would like. Thank >> can I I just want to say yes the property taxes are high and all those sorts of things but what a privilege it is to educate our kids and it is important that a school board is utilizing the money in the in the most efficient and most proper way. I'm I'm go back again and say effective uh instruction because as has been alluded to uh for a lot of the minority and African-American youth particularly young boys um um they're not being educated and so that um their parents should be asking uh are we getting our money worth? And so that's why it to me it's this the it we should focus on effective communication. He mentioning the the the Mississippi miracle. What was uh to me the the biggest miracle out of that was that it was it was bipartisan that southern uh Democrats and Republicans got together to put together something that really works >> in Mississippi. >> In Mississippi, right? So they went from the bottom to the top. >> And so again, my the focus has been on uh uh evidencebased instruction, doing those things that work. And so and and it's not that they went and invented those things, they pulled things together that work. And and hopefully I know Georgia just passed the law too that based on that. and hopefully some of that come to Georgia and even to Clark County. But effective communication because again when we don't have effective communication, you do open yourself up to criticism from people who really want to take the money from public education, right? And so we we we got to do a better job. So experience has been that my experience has been that parents will pay for programs that work and they suspicious of programs that don't and most programs don't do what they're supposed to do and and so when I was a uh I was a coach soccer coach when my kid was on the team at Hillsman they didn't win any teams they didn't win any games before they didn't win any games after but they won games by year I got buying from the parents I was a cross country coach this last year at Hillsman program was in shambles the year before, but um you know I got buy in from the parents. So I started a parent booster a group and I got to pay for figured out how to pay for what we needed. And I think actually my biggest flex on this issue is I have three rather outstanding kids um you know last this weekend and now they're state champions and the mile and the two mile play violin and piano and chilling like a dream and I did all of that and they read very well and I did all of that um you know while being relatively broke. So it doesn't actually take money if you if you systematically actually address the problems. And whether you look at the programs that I I I ran at Hillsman or my own kids, like you can do it on a budget if you're competent at addressing the problems and you're not just kind of paying it. There are a lot of programs in Athens and I have frustration cuz it takes 10 years to figure out how to raise a kid in Athens, but by that time it's too late. um that say they do things that they don't actually do in terms of delivering content and so we need to actually do the thing that we say that we're going to do um and then the parents in the community will buy in. Expecting a blank check for like a record of failure um is I think a little bit ridiculous. >> All right, you're going to let Mr. Willis speak on this because I know he's trying to chime in and then we're going to move to that question in the back. And I'll I'll be brief to the lady that made the statement about the game didn't make sense. And as an incoming board member, hopefully um >> I think some of the questions are not really to our expertise because we as incoming board, we don't know all the ins and out of what the previous board has done. So, as an incoming board member, we would have to look at the data, dig into the data, figure out what worked, what didn't work, why it didn't work, and then make the best decisions. I think the questions, in my opinion, are a little one-sided cuz the answers we're giving are not really answering the question. And I look on the faces of a lot of the people in the audience and they're like, well, they didn't answer that. They just kind of danced around. And I feel like we've done that a lot tonight because we don't know the answer because we are incoming. We've not seen the information, the data that we need to seek to answer the question. So, I think again, as I've said from day one, my strong suit is to bring some common sense to the board that everything isn't going to be an overnight fix. That we're going to have to listen to our constituents, to the parents, to the teachers, to the administrators, and then we've got to do the work to figure out what is going to work. We can't just say this is going to work and you know I've every forum I've heard about the Mississippi miracle. You know, okay great Mississippi. We're in Athens. We can't keep talking about what happened in Mississippi. We've got to look at our students here in Clark County and what's going to work for them. And we can't keep comparing them to other students and other places. We've got to know our families. We've got to know our students and then make the best decisions to make our students successful. >> All right, thank you guys. We're going to uh move to this question from this gentleman. >> Good evening. >> Hi. Just a quick question. What policies and procedures would you guys enforce in terms of doing business nonprofits doing business with the school district in terms of memorandum of understanding getting signed by nonprofits who has program that's been effective and efficient within the school district? So what policies and procedures would you enforce uh for nonprofits working with the school district? >> This is an unfair question. >> It's an unfair question. Oh, >> cuz cuz I know this is Ernest Ellard. He runs one of the best programs in our county. All right. CDO is one of the best in the county. Um, and we have a real problem. We have a we've had a real problem with that in the past, right? We don't we have made it almost impossible for nonprofits to come in and operate, especially nonprofits run by African-Americans. Let's just talk plainly to one another, shall we? All right. And why is that? Well, there's all sorts of reasons. Socioeconomic, there's cultural, right? There's all sorts of things. But so, the first thing that we need to do is we need to we we need to kind of as a board take our head down and and take a look and be like, "Hey, we're we're just like y'all. We want the best for our kids." Right? And if that's a nonprofit that can do it without without buying interference, more power to you. Okay. We need we need to create a highway for nonprofits to come in. >> Right. >> So what what is the current policy if I don't go? >> The current policy is we don't have >> Okay. >> The current policy is >> but I want to hear his experience. What was the what are the obstacles? top two obstacles you have getting >> well my organization like Mr. Mr. Mark said he's been really supportive of everything that we've done we created the first time ever if you see the third fourth and fifth sixth grade basketball the athletic program CD created that program >> what was the problem how what like what stopped you from doing it immediately >> I think the partnership with the school district uh Dr. Booker didn't want to sign him with the memorandum understanding because I guess it was no money exchange within that. Um but then another organization came in and took the idea took and and ran with it and they did business with them because they were school they work with the school system and we was a nonprofit organization that you know I wasn't employed with the school district. So it was hard to the the agreement was that the facilities custodians would be as long as everything was free for the kids then the school district will provide facilities custodians and for them to play and to participate. So once um that happened so we couldn't get a agreement we couldn't get it stated that this is what has been going we did this for almost four years. Now, I I kind of know the answer to this, but what was the usage fee um that they were expecting from you? >> 13,000 >> for to for custodians and security. >> But what did we do? What did your what did the board do? >> What did the board the school district board weigh those fees for us for the last next two years? >> Yep. And we're about to wait for five. >> But we just couldn't get the the memorandum understanding with the program. Like we have an athletic program that's combined with the academic program with the tutorial program. You know, we we know there's a crisis in our schools because the proficiency rate in math and reading is low in every school in Clark County. And that's a fact. And we have a program that gives data every month to the county, to the government, to add a housing authority, to the school district, monthly reports, and we still not getting funded for that. And we want to know why these kids can't read. These kids can't read. >> They are preparing them to go to the county jail 13. They're not preparing them to go to college to to to get an education in my opinion. >> And to go back to the last question about the the budget and the chops and all that good stuff, right? We're going to have to learn how to work with folks like this. >> Yes. >> Okay. Right. We're going to have to start making inroads. We're going to have to actually like I don't know actually go out into the community and sit down at these board meetings and listen to what they have to say. >> Y >> there are what like 8 million different nonprofits in this country 14 million but there's a lot there and they're all people with good work. We're all about the same thing. >> Only about 35 work but that's why 35 >> but I but we got to listen to them all because they're all our citizens. It it takes a village, >> right? It take the take a village, but the the village is broken. >> Yeah. >> People can't get in. >> I think to to just kind of add something to what Mr. Elder was saying, the the district's policy with establishing aou, which is a memorandum of understanding, um, which doesn't have a whole lot of legal bearing, but it's just kind of like a formal agreement. Um the district only really establishes those with businesses when there's money transacting. >> Um and it's kind of to cover cover their tails. >> Yep. >> And so when a nonprofit comes in and and wants to do it for free and they have figured out a way to have volunteers show up and there's no money exchange, the district doesn't have a tool for that. >> And so I think that's what uh Mr. Elder is speaking. >> But they also don't they also don't have a will for a will. Yes. >> And that that's that's the bigger issue is that there's there's a cultural >> issue inside. We don't care if these kids actually learn the skills. >> No, what the problem is the district can't figure that out. I'm sorry. >> Well, and I think I think it's I think the thing that we're looking for is systemic solutions, not just individual nonprofits going through all of these steps to get it waved, >> but creating a highway like you were saying. >> Um, I'm going to pull one more question from here. here. I do want to say one of my youngest was part of the pilot program when I first started and it I think it's so incredible that the elementary schools and the middle schools are able to in sixth graders are able to play the sports like all the other kids. So kudos to you. Thank you for being >> to to it being started up again next year. >> Yeah. >> And and Ernest, would you tell them >> I took your microphone's off. >> Oh, sorry. >> Thank you. There you go. Ernest, would you tell them that it was always more than about sports? >> Yeah, of course. >> Sports in school. >> Sports in school is a lot more than just a game. >> Yeah. Yeah, the basketball was just a the athletic program was just a a platform to reach the kids. But they had to learn the 12 principles of character development which is life skill, social skills, conflict resolution, leadership, honesty, integrity, etiquets, just to name a few of them. And they had to be able to they had book bag tags and they had they put on their book bags. They had to be able to uh learn all 12 of them and apply them to their life. And we believe if they apply them to their life, they become better young men and better young women. And that's what we wanted. That's what we tried to implement with with the the athletic program. Just we reach we have girls, boys and cheerleaders. So we serve over 400 students within the Clark County School District. They're trying to get the athletic to reach them and then academic piece to help them to become better better young men, better young women. >> Yes. It's like a voucher from the backpack dags, baby backpack deck. >> Yeah. >> Um so I'm going to read this this question. This is kind of another um two two kind of coming together. Um so let me get through kind of both of them. Um CCSD does a great job of highlighting achievements and opportunities. We don't hear much about the shortcomings and what's being done about them. Um there's an example here about Holston Elementary um that 97% of fifth graders do not meet proficiency um on the milestones for ELA and 100% of black fifth graders are below grade level in reading. Um do you feel like CCSD owes its stakeholders transparency about school performance or do you feel like posting data online for those who know where to find it and how to interpret it is sufficient? Additionally, all of the middle schools chose to have eighth graders take high school physical science instead of eighth grade science. And then the pass rate on the milestones and course test is 39% at VHL, 37% at CMS, 28% at Hillsman, and 12% at Boil. Do you feel like we're doing students a disservice by having them take a course when the majority of them are unable to pass the end of course test? >> So, I teach this Carl, may I jump in? I'm sorry. I teach this class. I teach this course. And I can tell you right now, I vehemently oppose that policy. Now, as a board member, I would not say, "Superintendent, stop that." I would want to hear them out. And so, I'm trying to think. I'm a teacher. I come in with the knee-jerk reaction of how can you possibly put eighth graders, all of them, whether they are whether they have an IEP, whether they are gifted, all of them, everyone through a program where they have to have taken eighth grade already and they're doing eighth grade math already from day one in eighth grade. all these things they have to know already. I'm literally getting my kids ready for the EOCC next Monday and it I have a panic attack thinking about all of my babies having to take that class and that EOC. I but again I would not jump in and flip the table over and say make it stop tomorrow. I would want to hear the reasoning behind this. Maybe there is a poorly articulated but good reason, well-intentioned reason for this. Uh as far as transparency with the community, absolutely. My neighbors that I'm talking to, I know that every single person I've spoken to when I've knocked on these doors, they want to support the school system. Most of them have great stories about the school system. But even those that are concerned, I know they want to support the schools. Like Marcus has been saying, we've all been saying, we all want to help our kids. There's disagreement on how we do it. So transparency, absolutely. You have the right to understand exactly what your money is buying, what your money is funding. Now, you may still disagree with the way it's being spent, but you at least we owe you the the the we need to dignify your concern with the transparency of here is where your dollars are going, but the next part that gets lost, we're all busy. We have so much stuff going on. The money decisions don't all get made by us. The state signs some of the checks that come our way. And so, we have to abide by how much they're sending and what strings they attach to it. But, we need to do a better job of articulating that to you and not sound like we're passing the buck or trying to pass the blame. We all got ourselves into this mess. It wasn't one person. As much as we might want to think it might have been one person we could blame, it's going to take a bunch of us to get us out of it. So, I just there's so much to that question. The physical science for 9th graders being good to eighth graders sounds terrible, but I would want to hear out the superintendent. I don't want to violate chain of command. I want to hear from the teachers through the principles through the superintendent before I jump in and say stop that. I just want to go through the process. >> So, I just I'm going to speak to um the the lack of proficiency, the lack of reading. again, literacy mentor. Um, it's and when you start with literacy mentoring, the students you get are they have to be two grade levels behind, right? And we have a lot of students who meet who meet that standard. Um, sadly, the literacy um mentor program works well. like the students at the control school don't close their gap as well as the students and and you know jump back up to you know move up a grade level as um with the same you know percentage as the ones who have a mentor. So if every student could have a mentor but really what it boils down to for me um is I think onetoone technology was a mistake. It was a mistake uh we rolled it out when I was at Cedar in 2012. I taught Spanish. I literally made worksheets on Google Docs just to check the box when I was observed because if anybody in here has ever studied a language, you got to write it down. We talk about visual learners, um, kinetic learners, um, you know, auditory learners. Everyone is all of these things. It's just you might have more of an inclination to one over the other, but all students need to write things down on paper in order to learn it. And we need to go back to that. There was a recent um data dive that this I'm a big nerd. I love to listen to all kinds of podcasts. Cognitive science is one of my favorites recently. But um Jared Cooney Horvath is cognitive scientist just pulled data from 1992 to 2012. Top percentile bottom percentile. There was only a 10% difference looking at math, reading, science scores internationally. Now it's 20%. We're going the other direction. And on top of that, in these standardized tests, they sprinkle in cognitive tests as well to see, you know, creativity skills, executive functioning skills. They don't have them. They're they're basic. They're really good at like it's something called um rapid visual sensing, Tik Tok videos essentially, um some sort of rapid >> basically. And so um I it's not that we need to just throw away the computers. I I think that ninth grade is a good time to introduce it maybe with the class because they couldn't type and I was like oh what is this keyboarding class I was a new teacher that was my first year it was piano it wasn't I was like keyboarding it's going to maybe beacon or something Oregon trail you know that's what I thought was going to happen but no so you give a kid a tool and say this is going to equalize education but it doesn't if students don't already know how to learn they cannot learn on a computer >> the science is out there and if we're going to be data driven and let's follow some some cognitive science data too, you know. >> I love that. I'll I'll piggyback on something there. Something I realized my son um is in fourth grade and last year when he took the milestones for the first time um he had to write his his like essay questions, his paragraph questions. He had to type them and he types like this >> and it's a time test and I was like when are they learning how to type? And don't the teachers were looking at me like they don't. And I was like, "What?" Like, that was the first time that it had really like connected the dots for me that they really aren't teaching them how to use the devices. They're just giving them the devices. >> I I brought this up in another forum. Um I love Oregon Trail, by the way. I brought this up in another forum, and I know it seems somewhat crash to do so. Um because we're obviously here because we love children, and we want their education to be as much as they can be. But there's a um there's a practical aspect to this. The school system is a foundational part of any community. If we do not have this right, it is going to be poisonous to the growth of the community, especially economically because what's going to happen, this is a story I tell over and over again because it had such a pr profound impact on me 11 years ago. I was with the Chamber of Commerce and we went over to Atlanta one day to the Georgia Power Office where they entice businesses to come to the state of Georgia and I asked the question when they were showing all these wonderful things they do, all these plots of land, um all these resources they have, rail, access to rail, access to seapport, the demographics of the area. Well, when you get to the school system, do you bring up any private schools in the area? to bring up schools in the surrounding counties. And the person paused and said, "If we have to do that, we are going to lose the business. They are not going to come here. If we can't address these issues that we have in the school system with these test scores and the fact that the kids can't read, >> if we don't fix it, it may not happen in five years. A lot of us in this room may not be here anymore. But if we don't fix it, Athens Clark County, even with the University of Georgia, is going to be in economic trouble time and time again. Mississippi had to do what it did. It got all these people to agree, Republicans, Democrats, white, black, men, women, it doesn't matter your background, because the state was dying. And they knew if they didn't fix it, it was never going to get any better. It's a matter of will. Well, first thing is we need to admit that we can't read like that's even at the beginning the introduction said like oh you know CCSD is great except for these these >> let me comment on that for some um is working very well >> I bet I bet your kid is doing fine uh my kids both went through this through this system and they did very well and I know others but what we have have not given attention to for the for those who it's not working for. We have just sit back and let it happen. Know that it's not not happening and just showing up. I'm running for the school board cuz I want to make it work for all students. >> That's okay. >> Also to go along with what Mr. Smith just said, and I've said this before, we've got to stop lumping all the children in the same basket. We keep saying they can't read. Like he said, there are several children that can read. My do my granddaughter is a ninth grader in Clark Central and is doing well. My granddaughter and my grandson took the science test in 8th grade for 9th grade and passed it. This is where parents and the community have to get involved. We've got to say and communicate with the teachers and administrators and see if your child is failing, don't wait until they get in middle school and high school and then say, "Well, they didn't teach them anything in elementary school." It's too late to try to turn the clock back. >> Start communicating at the elementary level. Talk to the teachers. Talk to the administration. See what your child is doing. We can't say that the school board's going to fix it, that the schools have to fix it. It is going to take all of us working together. And again, that's why I keep saying it takes a village. But we cannot say that every child in the village cannot read. Those that can read, okay, pair them with be a reading buddy. >> Let them help that one that can. Sometimes peer pressure works better than an adult standing there saying, "Oh, well, you need to do this and you need Okay, if they see someone on their level that's doing it, that may aspire say, "Oh, well, Johnny can do it." Maybe I can, too. But if we say, "Well, Johnny's doing a great job, but Billy, you just don't you can't read. I just don't know what to do with you." We've got to stop putting all our children in the same basket. Address the ones that can't to push them forward. move them ahead. And I think as incoming board members, we don't have all the answers. The questions are kind of geared for us to say this is what is going to happen. This is what's going to be done. We don't know what when Mr. Elder asked what policies are we going to enforce. We don't even know what the policies are because we are not on the board. We've got to sit with former board members, talk to them, see what they've done in the past, and try to see what we can do to make it work. I I don't seem to be this out. >> Take one more little comment from Billy. We're going to take one more comment from then we've got two more questions that we want to do. We've only got about 15 minutes left in this. >> So, there's a scam that I think that's propagated on to the public that annoys me and probably annoys some other people in the audience where like the top 15% of of CCSD, that's fine. You'll hear someone, oh no, there's a a kid who graduated who went to Brown, so obviously Ste is doing great. No, no, it's generating illiteracy. I don't I don't think that makes >> as long as there is a no fail uh policy and and that it's going to continue to happen. >> It's going to continue. Well, I don't think it's just a no fail policy, >> but I think that is a huge piece of it. I think that's a huge piece of it. But also the parents don't know how bad it is because the exceptional students, you'll say, "Oh, well, you know, Bar soccer team is great because like they did fine in the game." No, they did fine cuz my daughter my daughter graduates. The team's going to be horrible next uh next year. I'll tell you why. Because we're bad as a system of skill development. And I'll tell you something interesting about girls sports. You can judge a school by their girls team sports because if you can't teach girls how to do the skill at a team level and you're going to have to do it because it's kind of counterultural, then you're not teaching boys how to read. And so this like Clark County is bad at skill development. We're not admitting it. And we're using all of this kind of smoke and mirrors and choreographed dance to kind of pretend that we don't have a fundamental problem of teaching people who don't want to learn how to do hard things. And that's the business of school, teaching kids who don't want to learn how to do hard things. >> Okay, Jeremy, we're going to move on to uh the last two questions. >> Excuse me. Can I I'm sorry, but I may I know I'm out of order. Just cuz you kick a soccer ball don't mean you agree. And I don't think to say because girls are good at sports that boys are flunking academically. Well, that made very little impact. >> I'm going to stop you right here. This is a discussion that we can definitely engage in later, but we want to take these two questions. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Hey, you guys provided the perfect segway into my question. So, look, when you look at the data, third grade, fifth grade, 8th grade, high school, 30% of the students cannot pass the milestone in ELA or in high school in the lake. If you look at black students, it jumps to 80 to 85% cannot pass it. >> Yet, we do not retain. >> There might be a few exceptions, but as a general rule, Clark County has not retained in 20 years. 20 years ago, they piloted the transition academy for eighth graders. I mean, it was a disaster. I would say implement that again. But so many of you brought up the Mississippi miracle but didn't bring up the fact that retention was a major part of that plan as was ability grouping which is a political hot is a mess. I'm glad I'm not running because I wouldn't want to get into that. So I'm curious how many of you would support creating a policy to retain students who are failing and if so at what grade level would you do it? >> 100%. Can I can I when you get on board, you give it a go. >> Yes. >> Right. But I think we're looking at this the wrong way. >> Okay. Right. We're looking at this kid. We're like, you are a failure, child. That's what we're saying. But we're not looking at ourselves. Right. The biggest problem we have is that we we we we trust a test over a teacher. That's our biggest problem. >> You're giving me all these numbers. Give me a name. >> Exactly. You can't. That's the problem. But my teacher, Hold on. MY TEACHER CAN. MY teacher can. Give me a name of that kid who can't read. You know how I know? Cuz I was that teacher. I knew the kids who couldn't read. And guess what I did? I stopped everything that taught them to read. And I didn't give a damn about the test. Right. You want to fire me, Cal? Go ahead. Fire me. But you know what? That kid's going to read. That kid's going to succeed. But that kid's not going to go and sit in the jail on Memorial Drive. That's what we're talking about. We would rather trust all of this other stuff than the people who actually we train to do the work. >> Right. >> I like this. >> That's that >> I mean that that's that's just that's just the bottom line. The Mississippi miracle happens because they decided to trust the people that they and they got and there don't get me wrong, there are some people that need to go. Okay, there are there are some there are bad teachers. I'm not not going to say that there are there are right and those are the people that we have to encourage to go and work for Carl. >> That's that's frankly that that's frankly and I'll be very brief. Um that's the hardest part of it. what they did in Mississippi. >> That was >> I'd like to speak to >> I would say to answer your question, third grade. >> Third grade. That's when third grade actually actually lived in Mississippi for a year and a half and they it's right when they started the third grade is what they called it. >> So sorry you guys, I'm just going to interrupt. We actually have two more questions which means we got five minutes I think. So, if I was listening correctly, you were asking how many people would actually support retention. >> Can we just do a quick show of hands? Okay. >> And third grade. And third grade is the is where you would start >> cuz on the flip side, >> what's worse >> holding them back or keep passing them on and they don't have the basic correct and then they end up jail. But to throw this in very quickly, >> what happened in the Mississippi miracle, so to speak, the projection about how men would be held back was was way over the board. Small small small end up being a very small percentage being held back. So again, cuz the kid and everybody understood that there was consequences to not learning to read, but right now we just pass them on. Pass them on. That to me that seems >> and the longer you wait the more difficult it becomes. >> Very very quickly two points on this. That was one of the problems of of the state of Georgia's implementation of this is that you didn't have that component. They are addressing that and it's gotten better. But the other thing about this is if you're going to do that you've got to have clear protocols in place about okay you had an issue this last year. You can't just do the same thing again. What are you going to do in terms of getting resources to that particular student so they can not only >> get to where they should be, but they've now got to catch up, right? >> It's not just telling them that they're failing. It's telling them that they're going to repeat a grade and give them the support that they need within that time frame to get them. That's why it's called a reading gate. You don't go through the gate until you are prepared to go through the gate. >> Tell them tell them we failed him. >> Yeah, >> that's the part that Yeah. what what gets me as and believe me this time of year as the test scores are coming out and we're taking our tests uh we teachers believe me we we wonder is that student like what's best for the student what's best for all of us what's best for the kids that will be dealing with that student when they come up like I teach eighth grade if we retain three or five or 30 of our eighth graders who are failing perhaps the seventh graders coming up we now have plus 30 in that grade level and Lily is completely right it's it's a money thing like and and so the better that we can articulate the reason I didn't raise my hand to your simple the simply put question of would you support retention I don't view it as a simple issue I don't think any of us do but the nuance the devil's in the details right if we just say if you don't get this if you don't get a 70% on this you're back here next year bub that what happens when half the grade level fails and we didn't budget for that for this next year so I support the intent absolutely but where the rubber meets the road is how much more we're willing to pay in taxes to cover that how much more we willing to lobby our state legislators and the federal ederal government to give us money to make up that difference. I'm with you 100%. But when we all start saying if it's going to double my property tax, no, make it cheaper than that. If we're going to give the interventions to these kids to get them where they need to be so that we're not failing them, I just I I hesitate to say yes, third grade or fifth grade or eighth grade, whatever. I just think a lot more conversation needs to happen like this with systems where it's working with our superintendent, with our teachers, with our principles to take all their perspectives into account because heaven help us if the nine people that y'all elect for the school board are the ones making the final call on this. It shouldn't be in a vacuum. It should be all the stakeholders, y'all included. It's not a simple answer, right? There's so much writing on this that I just I I couldn't do a quick yes. >> All right, we're going to go to the next question so we can make sure we have time. >> Hey y'all. Um, >> so I heard something that horrified me a little bit and I I this is mostly kind of a clarification give me more information question. Um, I heard the word control that there was a school that in the mentorship program maybe there was a control school and compared to >> Yeah. Yeah. There's always a control school when you're doing a an empirical scientific experiment. So I guess my my question is is this clarify for me in the district is there a school that has intentionally not given a mentorship >> but this is all related to the >> this is program yes this is all related >> storytellers which partnership with with the school district to go in and mentor and so in order to you Grace Bagwell Adams would be the better person to ask because she's the one who runs all the data for it at the um the education college but you the control school is just there There has to be a school that doesn't get the mentor otherwise you don't know if the mentor program is working. >> And to clarifate is there are we picking one school that's not getting >> we are not this is books for keeps not books for keeps and so books for keeps is running this program and the only way you can you can't test data if you don't have a control group. It's just impossible. And so I mean this is something that is >> I can jump in on this too. I'm a four-year literacy mentor as well. Um so the the control group um was the second school that was selected. >> So they started with one school with the program and the control group was the very next data set that was almost exactly similar. Same school size, same demographics, same scores. Um, and so it wasn't necessarily that we're we're looking to have a group that we're not giving stuff to a student schools that need it and this is them in hype order essentially and we're expanding to a general school in the fall like we're at we started at Straoud and then now we have Fowler and we're adding that hasn't been announced yet prove that it is correct before you can get into the correct >> Thank you. I just really needed the clarification. Yeah. Yeah, that problem >> phrasing broke my brain. >> What it proves is that when you work with kids, >> it works. >> It works. >> Exactly. When you work with you read with kids, they learn how to read. >> We spent $100 million. >> And guess what? It cost the school district. >> Nothing. >> I have a I think I want to hear what everyone feels about like technology in the classroom. So, you know, I already said >> Yeah. minute cuz like >> like like a hand raise. >> Well, can everyone talk about it for a minute or people? >> We've got one more question from a constituent and then one more question there. >> Hey. Um, hi. >> I recognize >> I'm a little disobed. But, okay. So, my question is I keep hearing that the kids don't want to learn. They don't want to read. And I grew up in a school district straight out of the homes apartments. We have a program with UG with mentors. We have big sister programs. We have big brother programs. We have none of that. Our community has turned their backs on our children. Lake Park does not have a program where we used to be able to go and sit down and do homework, do work. So, what can y'all do to give back to these kids who are struggling, who are not getting it at home because mom has to work two jobs because everybody wants to charge $2,000 for a twobedroom. So, there there are things that's happening in the community that our kids are coming to school and reflecting off of. So, I just want to hear some thoughts about that because I hear what we're not doing as teachers and I hear what our kids are not doing, but what about y'all? What about the community? What about the people who are looking down on these kids? These 39 40 kids that come in that haven't ate breakfast that live from Monday through Friday because mom can't afford it and food stamps are cut off because she makes two or $3 more than what the econom is asking. >> Good. Um, I I've I spoke about this in a previous forum, but it's it's it's getting community members and getting these nonprofits that are that are willing to help in situations like this on board and truly engage, not just saying, "Oh, we're doing something with such and such or whatever." It's truly taking the time and and personally, are you asking us personally if we've um I've never done it, but I've considered doing the books for geeks mentors. I think I talked to Jamie about it, but um those sorts of things and I I mean I run the the booster club at at Clark Central for the track team and I make sure that the kids have sandwiches when they go out to meets and that they you know as a booster and that we provide that through the booster club and it's just it it takes community members like that and the involvement and the engagement of community members like that. We have to lure those either nonprofits or just individuals in and like we say it's a village and all those sorts of things. >> I heard Dr. Hooker say many times when he spoke to various groups uh that I'm a part of. I I've got to have time. I got to have time. And I not to speak for everybody else up here on the stage, but all of us recognize to some degree or another, and I think it's a lot all of us that it's the individuals. It's It's not. Yeah, you can throw all the money in the world at something, but if that's just another computer, if that's another book, if that's some new get, you know, fix it fast thing that just going to handle all this in the next 6 months, it's not going to work. It's going to take individuals that are going in there and I really don't care who they are. U students, someone who's retired, someone who's got an hour and they just want to go make a huge impact on a kid's life. It's going to take those people going into the schools in some way, shape, or form having an impact on that child. And what's so sad about the whole thing is don't take much. >> It's the smallest things that will transform that child's life. Again, I mention collaboration and working with people. And if I'm on the board, if and if I'm not on the board, uh I'm going to be still doing that. But if I'm on the board, I want to push strongly for us to reconnect and bring those resources back into the community at the grassroot level to work with to work with our kids. I started by out by saying this is a great community. There's a lot of great resources around pound for pound, population to population, a lot of folks, but we're not reaching out to them and and getting them to get involved. So, I'm going to push to bring that back. >> You have to you have to meet people where they are. We always expect parents to come to the school, but sometimes the school needs to go to the parent. We need to be in the communities. I served on um the feed my sheep board. It kind of dissolved in the pandemic with Reverend Ellison and uh Rodri Flanigan and and Mary Bakby and we would do tutoring. I would go over, you know, to Nelly B and we'd sit in the resource center and do tutoring and the kids would come in to get that help, but we we need more of that. It has to be targeted because people take it for granted that, oh well, the kid could just go to the library. I I actually took the time to explain to someone how long it would take to ride a bus from Cedar Scholes to get to this library and they'd have about 30 minutes before they had to get get back home to get the last bus and they wouldn't even get home till almost 9:30 at night. So, it's this lack of understanding of what it takes to get to the children and give them the resources they need. And parents need help, too. They don't know what they don't know. They can't participate if they don't know they're being given the opportunity. And we can't just say, "We're going to have a meeting at 5:00 on Tuesday." Well, they're still at work. you know, have it have it more accessible. You know, that that is what we can do with community and collaboration and communication is make it more accessible and take it into the neighborhoods. Now, I know you're going to be mad at me, but it's 8:00. We need We need to wrap this up. I >> We're going to have to go see what I heard Dr. to speak at the town hall meeting at Clarkson City shows and one of the things that he said was they was building prison system based on our >> third exactly which is what he as a board how are we going to counteract that as a community as a what are we going to do to stop that because that's the really important thing that I'm that I want from from the board of members is how are we going to put our set our kids up for success >> well I'm going to cut you off >> I'm I'm going to cut you off this early because it is 8:00 we got to get out of this room What I will say is that the family advisory board is an incredible opportunity to do just that kind of thing. Um, so I want to make sure everybody knows that these kinds of conversations are the conversations that we have in family advisory board. They're it's where we distill a lot of that information that we then take to the superintendent that in influences change on a systemic level. Um, thank you guys so much for coming tonight. Thank you. I appreciate you guys coming here. We're going to get inside this room at 8:00, but the library closes at 9:00 and so we need to be outside of that room and continue. >> Absolutely. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much, guys, for coming. I appreciate it so much. Good night.