Tupelo School Board meeting has begun at the Hancock Center. All five board members are present.

Interim Supt. David Meadows is handing out a packet with changes to the agenda. He is asking for the board to allow Jeffrey Norwood to start immediately as graduation coach and for incoming assistant superintendent Matthew Dillon to be added as a consultant before officially starting on July 1.

He is also asking for the board to consider a change in administartive organization.

He said that the state has affirmed there will not be any changes to the MAEP salary structure for teachers. Meadows is asking the board to consider its pay scales, which will allow the district to produce teacher contracts as quickly as possible.

The board will not vote on any items at this meeting, but will do so during its evening meeting, at 5 p.m. today at Lawndale Elementary. It will hear presentations about the agenda.

 

12:19 p.m.

Board members Eddie Prather and Beth Stone are making a presentation about their trip to the National School Board Association's annual conference.

Prather said that school districts across the country are having concerns getting information out about Common Core curriculum. He also attended a session about boards and superintendents setting goals. At the session, they said that the important thing is to remain focused on student achievement. They also said that it is important to be transparent and not have a hidden agenda.

Prather also attended a session on improving board performance through self evaluation. He said it is important that the board hold itself accountable.

Prather said that Tupelo is doing some things to communicate the change to Common Core but that it should also look at other things it can do.

He attended a session about transitions to a new superintendent. Prather said it is important to create opportunities for successful and that the board and superintendent need to be on the same page.

Stone said that she and Prather attended seperate smaller sessions and met up for the general sessisons. One of her sessions was about strategic planning, it was led by a school district from Milwaukee. They talked about the theme of continuous improvement from day to day.

She said that the district sends a document to its stakeholders at the begining of each year outlining its strategic plan along seven different strands. Throughout the year, it studies and assesses the data it has and looks for ways to improve. The following year, the district provides a report from each of those strands with key results from the previous school year. It also had board learning sessions. They discussed things they wanted more information about and that they wanted to learn more about. They took onsite visits to see things in action.

Stone also went to a session on professional development that stressed importance of continuous improvement  -- every day there should be some type of continual improvement that you could call "professional development."

She went to a session on one-to-one laptop program and ways to continuously improve it. One of the common sessions was on the Kahn Academy, an online program that particularly works with math and science. It is a free online site, and Stone said that if parents know about it, they can use it to give their children extra help. Stone said they can be very useful over the summer, perhaps churches can provide access.

Prather talked about boards looking at their policies in response to the incident in Florida where there was a shooting at a school board meeting a couple of years ago.

 

12:40 p.m.

Dale Warriner will make a presentation with a synopsis of the district's federal programs responsibilities.

Warriner: We prepare applications with input from stakeholders and present to the school board and for approval at the state level. We bring ammendments throughout the year, hopefully for increased funding.

 

12:44 p.m.

Mary Ann Plasencia will make a presentation on the "Conucils of Excellence."

"I've think we've just put more bones to this framework. We are open to suggestions. We are jsut at the starting phase of this."

Goal is to start the first council at the high school. Goal is to offer a structured way to gather information from stakeholders to improve student achievement.

Hope is that this is another vehicle, a meaningful vehcile for 2-way disucssions with the community.

Hope to do some preparatory work during the summer and launch in the fall. Still have gaps to work though.

The process will be supported through an outsie facilitator, who was not yet selected.

"We thought it would be helpful to have someone who is neutral and who is experienced in this type of conversation."

Idea is for council to identify two or three issues. May need personnel to gather data.

"Whatever we need to do so that subgroup can make whatever recomendations to remove whatever barrier that is to learnig."

Would then make recommendations to the larger group, to the district and to the board.

Suggesting between 12 and 20 members. At the high school, would involve faculty Senate, representation of parents from all grades, student members, representatives from the district, business community, faith community and alumni community.

They would hope for a two-year commitment.

Plasencia said that during the long-range planning committee there was a similar commitment. The hope is that members would take it serriously and would be take attendance serriously.

"We want to make this as simple as possible in terms of what is driving that counicl and we hope members of the council would focus on three questions."

what needs the most attention at this school? What could it look likfe? How do we sustain it."

Said it would be helpful for converation to stay confidential and for the issues raised to be ones that are universal in the school community. Said it is improtant to stay in line with strategic plan.

Would like to have a facilitator sometime in June to launch this and give it more structure. Would then like to identify members to serve. One way is to allow community members to appyly, to volunteer and go though an application progess. (Said other districts have done that).

Hope to launch the council some time before school starts and start making some recommendations by the falll and to have some solutions during the winter.

Plasencia said her hope is that this beocmes a permanet vehicle at our schools, that we consider this a best practice to continue two-way dialogue.

Meadows: "I didnt feel like we should rush into this. We should very intentionally design and systemically lay it out and gather input at we go."

Prather: Board meetings are bound by law to conduct business. FOr the community and stakeholders to provide input and share ideas, this would give us an outlet to do that.

He asks that they look at the legal issues of what the board can and can't do.

"One thing that would really effect us is if the council comes up with a suggstion that we can't do."

Stone suggests staggered terms for when people rotate off the council so you don't lose an entire group at once.

 

12:58 p.m.

Pam Traylor will present the student transfer report. Approval of admission of six non-resident (tuition) students and of several students transfering to different schools.

1:01 p.m.

Jim Turner is presenting the personnel report. Includes the hiring of two personnel for 12-13 school year, a new position, four retirements, 11 resignations, etc.

For 12-13 school year, there are 28 forcasted vacant positions for licensed staff and 6 non-licensed staff positions.

Meadows is now speaking about the graduation coach position. He said that as Ms.

"It seems almost impossible that a year has passed last April and May. I know now several things that I did not know earlier. One of the most positive things I can report on....Do y'all recall I almost casually mentiond that we started taking a look at Tupelo High School to see how many of our students were enrolled in classes to meet the right number of Carnegie Units." Found 100 students whose schedules were changed.

Meadows said the talk about there being 100 THS students who would graduate were untrue rumors.

Meadows said they found 71 people who were in jeopardy of not passing because of failure to pass state tests. Foucused on setting up a tutoring program. "I wish I could say all 71 passed one or four different tests. That didn't happen, but 41 did." Some had to pass all four tests and did.

"Thanks to those retired teachers and others who worked, regular classroom teachers gave thier time freely, it has been a joint effort."

Among those young people who will walk across the stage will be four people who left last year with a certificate of completition. On May 18, they will be given a Tupelo High diploma. They also have one or more people who have been out for at least two school years who will walk across the stage. They have 36 others who have passed the state tests.

If board approves Norwood to start now, he would work 55 days at his daily rate (until his current official start date of July 1). It will cost the district about $13,000. Said the he and new superintendent Gearl Loden know of at least 30 studnets who need that help now. They also need to work with students in the extended school program this summer.

Meadows said they will also be looking at High School Advancement Academy. 17 of the 24 students at the School Aged Mothers program will graduate. At HSAA, of the original students, 26 or 27 of them will graduate this year.

"I see the graduation coach, we need to get him in harness, so that we get that 100 percent," Meadows said. "While we can talk about graduation rate, what I am telling you about is the young people who will be walking across the state on May 18 who would not have....I literally had chills go through me when I learned about those young people who would not have graduated and they came back in."

 

1:14 p.m.

Meadows asks the board to allow Dr. Matthew Dillon to come in immediately as a consultant at his daily rate of $540.

"We need help immediately," he said. "We are on academic watch...We are asking you to allow Dr. Dillon to come on and work as many days as he can, maybe 10 or so in May and a few more in June."

Loden said he will have fewer than 10 days in Mday because he is finishing at Pearl.

Prather asks about how many days they are expecting in June so they will know for the budget. He asks if Loden can provide that information during the next board meeting.

Meadows said they found money in the budget for that. They will vote on it tonight.

1:18 p.m.

Meadows is talking about a first-reading of the abstinence education policy.

Last year, Haley Barbour signed into law HB999, which had specific requirements for abstinence education. Tupelo has had an abstinence education policy in place since at least February of 2000. Meadows said Tupelo's stretch was not in creating a new policy but in tweaking it.

There are two choices in the law: abstinence only or abstinence plus. Abstinence plus says you "must" teach all of the things in the law, while abstinence-only says you "may" teach these things. Meadows said that abstinence-only is the standard in Mississippi.

Meadows is recommending that the TPSD continue to adhere to state standard of abstinence education as standard of its sexual education policy. They will go with "abstinence-only" which says they "may" teach several of the points made in the law.

Meadows said the district has most of the requirements in its current policy but that it will tweak some of the points.

Meadows said the district has already been implementing it in 7th grade. It has been using a program called "Wait Time" that is taught by trained volunteers.

Meadows would recommend the district continue to designate seventh grade. This year, more than 95 percent of students participated in seveth grade, that means those students' parents opted-in.

The district also piloted it this year in health classes at Tupelo High School.

Meadows is recommedning abstienence only at grade 7 and is recommending "Wait Time" curriculum.

The law requires it to be an opt-in or opt-out program. Parents have to sign whether they want kids to participate or to sign that they do not want students to participate. In the event they do not have a signed form, he will recommend they do not put a child into the include group until they have contacted a parent or guardian.

This is the first reading of the policy. The board will not vote on it until May 22.

The district must send the policy, the identified curriuclum and the protocol to the state by July 1.

Meadows said that even if they choose the seventh graders, they can still continue to also offer it to the ninth graders.

Meadows said that Parkgate has trained a large group of volunteers.

Rob Hudson said that he did a five-day stint volunteering with it this year. He said there was a good turnout, that it was a surprisingly good experience and that the kids were receptive.

Hudson said that Parkgate's board also got good feedback about the ninth-grade curriculum.

Meadows said that parents would be free to come and read the curriculum.

 

1:30 p.m.

Meadows is discussing update for the responsible access and use policy. The policy must be tweaked to contain langauge now required by federal law.

 

1:31 p.m.

Dr. Fred Hill is presenting some changes needed to the extended school year and summer school policy.

Changes include:

Putting in correct dates and times, start of class and length of the day.

Also remove from 2008 draft, remove driver's education summer school schedule from that.

 

1:33 p.m.

Dale Warriner will present about the federal programs aplication. They always guarantee 85 percent of the previous year's allocation. For Title 1 and Title 2.

The budget will include funding ECEC with the 12 classrooms (same number as this yaer), support staff, class size reduction for first grade, parent involvement, professional development, technology, software, materials and supplies.

On ECEC, Warriner said application process is booming right now and that it has seemed to have taken hold.

Warriner said the district received an extra $229 in flow-through dollars for the Juvenile Detention Center.

1:38 p.m.

Warriner is presenting the application for the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program grant.

Warriner said they tell you to write the grant for $25,000 but last year the allocation was about $47,000.

Children in shelters receive after-school tutoring. It provides school supplies and certain technology.

Warriner said the district has 437 homeless students as of April. Homeless is defined by several criteria: the largest group is dobuled-up (living with another family because parents can't own their own home), also some living in hotels, on the streets at the Salvation Army Shelter.

"We have various types of situations," Warriner said.

1:41 p.m.

Warriner is presenting about Camp Possiblity, for homeless youth. Last year the camp was four weeks and allocation was decreased. They are now looking to offer it for two weeks. It has been coordinated to provide breakfast and lunch with the camp inbetween for homeless students. The lead teacher will be Pam McAllily. It will be at the middle school and will be an enrichment program.

Warriner inlcuded some details about what will be included in those weeks. There will be counselors and instructional types of counseling sessions. It will serve 40-50 students.

 

1:44 p.m.

Finance Director Linda Pannell will talk about a consideration to refinance the district's debt.

She said each year Jim Young looks at the district's debt to see if it can be refinanced. Last year, it couldn't. This year, there are debts that may be able to be refinanced. The board's resolution would allow him to go to banks and see how much the district could save.

An estimate would be $289,000 to $300,000 between now and the 2016-17 school year. That is about $42,000 to $50,000 each year, Pannell said, noting that it is about a teacher's salary.

1:47 p.m.

David Meadows will present an administrative/ organizational chart. The board has two policies that cover this now.

Meadows included both policies and quoted out of policy CC. It says the supt. is authorized to reorganize the lines of auhtority.

Under policy CCB, Meadows said it notes that lines of authority not restrict the cooperative working together of all individuals at all levels. Meadows said that Loden is working to create a cooperative team effort.

Meadows is recommending that the board approves the elimination of the deputy superintendent position from the organizational chart. It would move Diana Ezell in a lateral move into assistant superintendent.

It would allow Loden to reorganize with three assistant superintendents.

Meadows: "With the two assistant superintendents we currently have, I often can't tell where one ends and the other begins. It is a matter of being a team and doing what we need to do to support students and support teachers in an efficient and effective manner."

Loden said that this is the first step in reorganization. He will have new job descriptions in June. He looked at what 12 other districts have done.

Meadows said that for Ezell it would simply be a lateral move and would not effect pay.

Prather said that if the district wishes to eliminate the Chief Operating Officer position, which is currently vacant, it would need to adopt a new organizational chart anyway.

 

1:53 p.m.

Board is discussing salary scale. Meadows said he always feels it is important to get teaching contracts to teachers before they leave for the summer.

Meadows said the district built itself a schedule that if the board approves, they will begin tomorrow calculating and printing contracts so they can put them in teachers' hands on Wednesday, May 16.Teachers will have 30 days once they get contracts in their hands.

The instructional staff salary guide will not change. The board approved a $100 increase to the local supplement last year. The district is at 55 mils on operation, meaning it can not go higher on that in tax collection. In local contribution, that amount will cost two teacher units, a little over $81,000. Thus, Meadows said at this time, he would not recommend, at this time, increasing the local supplement this year.

If the district approved it, the only way they could reduce it is to reduce the number of working days. Tupelo is currently at 189 days for teachers, two above the state minimum. Meadows said he doesn't want the district to be at the minimum.

Meadows also included the supplementary pay plan and said he would not recommend increasing those supplements. He said that the board and Dr. Loden could visit chaning that at another time.

Meadows said that if the board wants to increase the supplements, those contracts could always be ammended with that.

Meadows said that Tupelo's salary scale for a beginning teacher with a bachelor's degree is about $34,000, while for the state it is $30,900. "Isn't that a wonderful thing for the Tupelo Public School District?" Meadows said. "That is what prior boards and you have done for the Tupelo Public School District. That is what makes Tupelo a special place to work."

The board meeting is adjourned until its 5 p.m. meeting at Lawndale. It will vote during that meeting.

School board meeting is about to begin.

 

Jeff Norwood, expected to be named Tupelo High School's boys basketball coach, is at today's meeting. His hiring would be pending board approval. The Daily Journal's Gene Phelps is also here to cover that.

 

Board member Rob Hudson is not currently present, but is expected to be on his way.

 

Interim Superintendent David Meadows said there are a few changes to the agenda. The board will review its policy on technology resources and responsible access. Changes to the policy will be made to include changes that were made to the federal Children's Internet Protection Act.

He would also like to give the board an opportunity to study its summer school policy because it has not had a summer school in so long. The district is proposing

Meadows said that the board will recommend the employment of a school graduation coach/ head boys basketball coach for 2012-13 school year. He said that the person to be recommended will be coming back home to Tupelo.

Meadows said that Glenda Scott will retire as of June 30. She is the district's curriculum director.

School board president Eddie Prather said the board will change its second July board meeting from July 24 to July 31.

Rob Hudson just entered the meeting.

The board approved the agenda.

12:18 p.m.

The board approved the minutes from several board meetings. It includes four special-called meetings related to Calvin Ellis hearing.

 

12:25 p.m.

Meadows is now speaking about the technology resources and responsible access policy. It includes the changes mandadated by CIPA (Child's Internet Protection Act). This is a first reading of the policy.

Meadows said district must include phrasing that technology protection measures are in place and are used for all Internet access. Meadows notes that the district has a very strong filter that keys on language and particular combination of language. He said that the filter is so strong that sometimes it keeps out good emails.

The policy also requires Internet safety training to be provided to minors.

Deputy Supt. Diana Ezell has been working with technology director Brenda Meriweather and the technology staff on the new policy, Meadows said.

Ezell said the district will have a curriculum on acceptable use of the laptops and other technology.

"We have a lot of systems in place to protect our children and we want to continue to do that," she said.

Ezell said they are also working on cyber bullying and that THS Principal Jason Harris has been working with the attorney general to bring a cyber bullying program to the school.

 

12:30 p.m.

Board approves consent agenda.

Pam Traylor made the student transfer report, and the board approved it

 

12:35 p.m.

Personnel Director Jim Turner is now presenting the personnel report. It includes two retirements, six resignations, 24 summer curriculum teacher leaders and two literacy team members. Under classified, it includes one new full-time security position and several others.

The substitute pool is now up to 195 individuals.

Turner said there are 3.5 licensed positions to be filled and 19 classified positions that are vacant.

Currently, the recruiting season has ended until October, Turner said. Since January, he has interviewed 161 applicants from throughout MS and LA. Approx. 25 of those applicants were minorities, he said. He said they acquired many secondary math, biology and special education candidates and that it is unusual to have an abundance of those.

Turner said that as of April 13, 10 individuals have given written requests to retire and nine who have said they will resign at the end of the school year.

Hudson asks about exit interviews. Turner said that everyone who resigns is given an exit interview form and asked to send it back.

Meadows welcomes new assistant superintendent Dr. Matt Dillon to the school board meeting. Dillon has been working at principal at Pearl High School.

Board approves the personnel report.

 

12:41 p.m.

David Meadows now will make two recommendations

Meadows : "Ms. SCott, I can't tell you how much the district appreciates what yu ahve done during your time here. From the time you started as an administrative intern on to your time at Rankin, we truly appreciate your leadership. WE truly appreciate your leadership with the curriculum department. When I came to Tupelo, the things that Ms. Scott has done in the last 2 or 3 years with the curriculum department ahve been phenomenal. The summer work last summer served as a platform for the teaching and learing that have gone on in our district.

Words can not express it.

"I would ask that the board consider approving resignation of Glenda Scott effective June 30 to retire."

Prather: "I hate to entertain the motion for this, but I guess there comes a time for it."

Board accepts Scott's retirmement.

 

Meadow now makes another recommendation. "To welcome number 10 back home." He refers to Norwoods three state championships

AFter an extensive serach, I am bringing forward Mr. Jeff Norwood on behlf of Dr. Loden who parcitipated in interivew process and community members who ehlped us with the search, I am pleased to recommend Mr. Norwood today.

He brings not only a wealth of coaching experience in teh college ranks. I am also excited because I was on campus of USM up until 1995, so we almost corssed paths.

One of the things I consider a hgihlght, during Mr. Norwood's tenure there, in spring of 2003, USM recognized its boys basketball team for 100 pecent graduation rate. Isn't that wonderful? Cna you imagine the role model that MR. Norwood will be for our young women and men at Tupelo High School and particularly the men that he will be working with on the basketball court"

He is recommending Norwood as school graduation coach. Says it is a position that Dr. Loden has worked with before and that the board is getting a job description of that position. HE will work directly with middle and high school students encouraging them to stay in school and graduate.

Meadows is also recommending him as head boys basketball coach at Tupelo Hgih School.

The board approves the creation of the graduation coach position.

The board approves Norwood as head basketball coach.

Norwood is now making remarks to the board and those at the meeting.

Norwood: "I want to say thanks to the board and Dr Porter and MR. Harris. It is truly a blessing. THis whole process made me realzie I did have some dreams. I never could remember anything I was dreaming about. WHen I started pursuing this position I remembered going to the state tournament and playing against Gulfport High School (thought they would win). We played Gulfport the next day and it didn't unfold the way we expected. I thought I was in good condition. THose guys ran me to death. I always said if I had my own team, I would like them to take the court like Gulfport did.

There was a dream becasue I dreamed about having the same thing here. What makes me most happy is that it didnt even start about basketball it started with my pursuit of my faith and beleiving it was time to come back. (Said his brother Alex started asking him to try to come back and coach several years ago). It took a little maturity to grow up and realize it was time for me to serve and come back here...I've talked to a bunch of friends here in town and they are excited about teh basketball coach part. I'm excited that what really moved me was the graduation coach part. I was an average student and I didn't have hte ditection or foucs and I enver thought about going to college. I know there are so many students who can do it, but they jsut don't have that focus.

I know tehre are a large number that are so naive about if they can go out and do it and we ahve to reach out and go sit down and talk to them. I want you to know that I am here and ready to do that.

I know we will win basketball games becase Tupelo has always won in every sport.

My dad served as the first minority on the Tupelp Public SChool Districty board. I always wondered how I could measure up in this community and I am proud ot have the change to do just that.

AS each day got closer for this day to come, I got a little more excited. I tried to be cool about it, but I am very happy to be here.

I wnat to end by saying thank you agian. The main card is my mom is here in Tupelo and she still can fish...I am thankful. Let's go."

 

12:58 p.m.

School board accepts claims docket and financial statements.

Finance director Linda Pannell also presents the cash flow statement

Prather asks when MAEP will be approved.

Meadows said the last update he has had is that they anticipate doing that right at the beginning of May, next week. That was as of this morning.

 

Diana Ezell is now making a presentation about extended school year.

 

1:01 p.m.

The district will offer extended school year programs at Joyner (K-2), Pierce Street (3-5), Tupelo Middle School (6-8) and the Filmore Center (HSAA, Structure Day and School Aged Mother program). THere will also be one summer school program on the high school campus. It will be for 9th to 12th and will be tuition.

The district will also develop an afternoon program for students with dyslexic characteristics. They are still in the stages of developing that.

Rob Hudson asks when the district last did a program like this. Ezell said three years, but two summers ago. They've had two summers without it.

Extended school year is designed for studnets in danger of repeating or students in tier program who are receiving academic supports and need those supports during the summer.

Hudson asks if it will be mandatory.

Ezell: For K-2, teachers will recommend students. In order for them to be promoted they will have to attend. If they chose not to, they will be retained in that program for the following year.

Hudson: How will we measure its effectiveness.

Ezell each grade level will choose a beginning and an end assessment. They will also have assessments results from teachers to show which skills students mastered during the school year and which ones need extra help. Ezell said there will also be tests given during the school year to measure the progess of those students.

Ezell said the assistant principals who are working during this time will not be under their contract and that the district will need to pay them extra for this.

Ezell said the projections are about 500 students. 95 for 9-12 extedned day. She is not sure about summer school. She said they have also opened it up for school districts around them that need to repeat a course for carnegie unit.

They will not offer subject areas they will be taking for the first time but they can take classes they have failed. She said the hope is that it will repare them for the state test retest in August.

Meadows said the district budgeted for this last spring.

Ezell: "This is part of our dropout prevention strategy helping those students who need extra supports outside of the school year."

Ezell said this part of several summer programs: Opportunity camp, summer school, extended year, extedned school for special education students, adding a dyslexia program and a camp for ELL and homeless students.

On dyselxia program, Ezell said that three teachers in the district are dyslexia therapists and they will be planning that. They hope to have a K-2 group and a 3-5 group and if there is a need for more, "I hope to serve the students who really need it."

Wheeler: How will you determine need for me?

Ezell said those students who ahve been diagnosed with dyslexia or show characteristics, we need to identify those. Will need to see how many can come becuase those students will need to provide their own transportation.

Wheeler: Recommendation will come from the teachers? Ezell: yes.

Board approves motion to add extended school year this summer.

Board also approves offering summer school to students at Tupelo High School.

 

1:15 p.m.

Board votes to move its July meeting from July 17 to July 31 because of a scheduling conflict.

The budget meeting will also be moved from the 17th to the 31st.

Prather is referring to future agenda items. He is asking about board retreat to state goals. At the May meeting, they will discuss agenda for the retreat.

Retreat will be June 12-13. They are still working on a location. They will discuss superitendent evaluation process and procedures for the school board to monitor itself.

Prather said National School Board Association will host a conference in Mississippi this year. It will be held on the Coast. It comes every seven or eight years, he said.

Rob Hudson said he would like Mr. Turner to think about the best way to provide us feedback from exit interviews. Maybe he can give feedback on his ideas. Maybe what percentage of people fill them out and what that content looks like. It might give us ideas of what we are doing well and what we can address to improve retention. Hudson said it might also show ways they can increase feedback.

Hudson: "Often people say everything is fine, but sometimes they don't. If we are not getting feedback, there might be other districts who are getting better feedback through other methods."

 

1:23 p.m.

Board adjourns.

The Tupelo School Board meeting has begun.

Kenneth Wheeler was just sworn in as a new board member. After the swearing in, Wheeler recognized his family, which is in attendance, and thanked Sally Gray of Parents for Public Schools for her support. He recognizes incomming superintendent Gearl Loden, who is in attendance.

 

The board adds a line to the personnel report, which is the recommendation of an assistant superintendent.

 

The board will go through the agenda at this meeting, the noon meeting. It will vote during the 5 p.m. meeting at Lawhon Elementary.

 

David Meadows is speaking about component 4 of his "Moving Forward Together Plan." He said that at a meeting last week of Tupelo High School staff, he asked the school to become part of the first Council of Excellence. It would be a group of various constiuents to research various issues "of how we can support and help Dr. Loden as he builds this community of excellence." It would have students, teachers, parents, community members, administrators, etc.

 

Meadows is also share information from listening sessions with various constituencies. Board members met in groups of two with various community members. Administrators were present for some of those meetings.

 

Meadows is presenting a summary of some of the main ideas that emerged in those meetings.

 

He said one topic was safety and security. He said one group said the district should analyze its bomb threat procedure. Someone also mentioned the need to look at filters for the MacBooks.

Other categories that stood out to Meadows:

Building more trust: including exit interviews of families and employees and to continue to work toward outreach opportunities.

 

Academics: To strenghten foundational basis on which PK-5 schools are built. To focus on children without overemphasizing testing. State testing was mentioned several times. Along with that also came the importance of communicating the value of that testing.

 

Discipline appeared on several pieces of information supplied to Meadows with standpoint of consistency. It includes where does Postive Behavior Support System fit in. Several people noted that the district has decreased the number of assistant teachers in K-6 grades. Meadows said that came up several times.

Miscellaneous: Textbooks. Concern for maintenance of our buildings.

Meadows said communication appeared numerous times and making communication more than a one-way street. "Set up a system that would make communication have an easier route to travel from the hearers and the sharers."

Accountability that administration asks the board creates and make sure we always have job descriptions.

One of the things that came out repeatedly under academic achievement was the achievement gap. We need to be transparent about the achivement gap and we need to be working dilligently and consistently to focus on the achievement gap until it is eliminated.

Another thing that came up was alternative schools. There is a need to continue to evaluate that.

Meadows said he will continue to work on getting a thorough list completed. He said the district met to begin putting in a strucutre to establish a vehicle for councils of excellence. They will also meet with community to get input on the makeup of those councils, how they should be made up.

Beth Stone: Once we establish the councils, what happens with the information at that point?

Meadows: We proabaly want to ask the groups themselves, to the point of do we need an outside facilitator. In my opinion, the answer would be yes, but we need to ask the groups.

Meadows said the district would want to get the list (of what had been discussed). He would like to turn the list over to Dr. Loden and the school board. A next step may be to return to the council and ask them to break up into subgroups and have them be a part of identifying each part of an issue. For example, maybe a subgroup to work on discipline or on achievement gap.

Meadows said the subgroups would need to come back to the Council of Excellenace as a whole and share their research, discussion and points of action and how the district can move forward together. He said that one action will be, if there is a list of 5 or 6 issues, the larger council of excellence should provide input on priorities. "Establish a priority against which the district can measure itself in terms of moving forward in that particular area."

Wheeler asks about Positive Behavior Support System.

Meadows said it is a program that was adopted a couple of years ago. He said it would need to fall under the area of discipline but that it might need to be pulled out of there for more study of itself.

Heyer: We don't want people to think this is the end of our communication because we are moving on to the next phase. We want to keep that communication open.

Heyer said there may be some community members may not want to sit down with two board mebers but may want to email or call. She said there needs to be a way for those people to express their concerns and for the board to provide feedback.

Meadows said they need to use every avenue of communication. "We need to make sure it is not a one-way street and that it is not a street that becomes blocked."

Heyer said some people may be more comfortable with a phone call or email. Meadows agreed and said that the district needs to communicate that.

Hudson said he wants to make sure that the board will continue to monitor progress in these areas. He said they must avoid the temptation to take one issue, work on it and then move on to the next.

Stone said that some of this can be incldued into board goals. However, she said, some of them may not rise to that level and that board must also pay attention to those.

 

Prather said that he thinks it is good to break it down to the school level and to give elementary parents

Hudson: The board doenst know everything. This is a great opportunity for the board to know everything. All of that information will be shared with the board, and it gives us the ability to ask the right questions, the more that we know.

 

12:33 p.m.

Several principals are presenting what they learned from their visits to High Performing and Star schools in Mississippi. The principals were to visit those schools to learn things they can take to the district.

Rob Hudson: There is a lot of good information gathered, do we know what things were so impressive that we will go back to our discipline and try to implement.

Assistant superintendent Fred Hill said he has heard from several formal and informal conversations some things they want to bring to the district. One example is a Study Island, a computer program that third- to fifth-grade schools have since added.

Prather asks about the dual-enrollment courses.

Talina Knight (of Tupelo High School): Each school was on AB block. She said that Northwest Rankin is looking to add 36 hours of college credit. It saves students a lot of money in the long run.

She said one thing that stood out at the high schools she visited was that they had a reading specialist who worked with students who were struggling in reading.

Denisce Salter of the School-Aged-Mother program said her visit to Pontotoc High School showed they did a good job with differentiated instruction. She said that is a key to closing the achievement gap because they are able to help students with their individual needs. Subject area teachers were able to get together to develop lesson plans that would help students in their class with respect to their individual needs and individual learning styles.

Hill thanks the board and Meadows for giving administrators this opportunity to visit high performing and star schools. He said it has been very helpful and that he thinks this is something the principals will continue to do if allowed.

12:44 p.m.

Finance director Linda Pannel said that tax collections for operations and debt are above normal for this time of year.

12:44

Julie Hinds and T.J. Higgins will make a presentation on the district's security cameras.

Hinds said they have looked at the cameras that were put in seven years ago and they have a proposal for additional cameras they would like to add.

They would like full coverage of hallways, coverage of cafeteria serving lines and the small cafeteria and coverage of the stairweels in the ninth-grade building.

She said they met with high school administrators, asked them to list what they'd like to see covered. She said this list represents the top priorities.

They propose six exterior cameras. That would cover several areas and capture license plates as cars enter and exit campus.

They have seven cameras that they would like to relocate or adjust angles.

 

Total cost for the new cameras would be $64,890. That would include a new server and an upgrade of two servers. The servers would allow for longer storage.

 

The new camera would also allow for a greater range.

Kenneth Wheeler asked a couple of technical questions about the kind of cameras that would be used. He said the question is whether you want more clarity or more information. He said the question is the mission of the camera.

Higgins said for inside hallway cameras, they want clarity, they want to be able to recognize person's face.

On parking lots, Hinds said they currently have relative good cameras but they are focused on one area. They would like to put computers in both guard shacks so that when security officers have down time, they could monitre those cameras.

 

1:04 p.m.

Wheeler asks about day-night cameras, which go to black-and-white at night. He said that helps see images in the dark. He said that would help and that it doesn't cost any extra.

 

Prather asks about the timeline. Julie Hinds said they can try to get an answer on that for tonight.

Hudson asks where the cost fits in on the budget. Meadows said there is a seperate line item on that and they had planned to upgrade security cameras. He said they had a portion of that money in this year's budget and with Dr. Loden's permission, they could also include it in next year's budget.

Wheeler makes a recommendation about the network and the ability for administrators to view the images from their computers.

1:10 p.m.

Diana Ezell is making a presentation on projected enrollment for next year. The projection for K-12 would be 7,219 students. Pre-K would add about 275 more. There is also data for each school and grade level. Ezell said that Meadows worked on the projections and that in the past, his projections have proven to be accurate.

The report also contains projections for special education and for gifted. She said the district would like to add two teacher units for gifted. Right now the district's ratio is 45-1 for gifted. She said the state prefers 40-1 but has given district's flexibility becuase of budget cuts.

 

1:15 p.m.

Pam Traylor is presenting the student transfer report.

 

1:17 p.m.

Jim Turner is presenting the personnel report. It includes two retirements and one resignation for licensed staff. For classified staff, two new hires, two resignations, a change of status, a retirement.

Now have 195 individuals in the substitute pool.

Turner said he's just returned from recruiting for the district. There are three remaining trips. They have spoken with 111 applicants, 26 percent were minoritiy. That is currently five applicants for every open position, plus the applicants through the district website.

As of April 2, there are 12 licensed staff position and 23 non-licensed staff positions listed.

The board will go into temporary executive session to look at licensed staff for the next school year.

2:07 p.m.

The board has just come out of executive session. Prather said that no action was taken in executive session.

Rob Hudson will present the claims docket tonight.

Julie Hinds is making a presentation about bids for uniforms for maintenance and transportation mechanics. Low bid is G&K Services.

 

2:10 p.m.

AEE President Brent Waldrop said the organization will fund 17 grants totalling $67,000. It will reveal the names of the grant recipients at its annual banquet on April 19 at Thomas Street Elementary.

 

Board is discussing future agenda topics.

Prather said that with the process of having dialogue with community members, he'd like to have some structure with it, perhaps rotating two board members available at a certain time and day of the week. He'd like to find a way of doing that without having to change someone's schedule at the last minute.

Heyer said that the board used to set up at Kroger at set hours.

Board will adjourn. It will meet again at Lawhon Elementary at 5 p.m.

Board meeting has begun. The board will discuss the agenda at this meeting and will vote at tonight's meeting, at 5 p.m. at Joyner Elementary.

 

Four board members are preset: Amy Heyer, Eddie Prather, Beth Stone and Rob Hudson. Lee Tucker's term has expired and he has not yet been replaced.

 

12:13 p.m.

Interim Superintendent David Meadows is making a presentation on part 4 of his "Moving Forward Together" plan. It involves communication between the district and the community. Meadows said it may be good to reformalize that goal.

 

The four parts of his "Moving Forward Together Plan" released over the summer include:

• Recommit to safe, healty schools

• Reconfirm highly qualified teachers and administrators were frontline instructional leaders

• Reesatblish focus on student achievement and academic excellence

• Re-communicate the eight recommendations of the curriculum audit.

Meadows said that focus on this recommendation could help the community "unite behind our new superintendent."

Meadows said that the school board agreed to meet in groups of two with various community members and that administrators were present for some of those meetings (if the constituent desired them to be there).

Meadows: "I would like to recommend that we build on that...By April 10, I would hope we could collect, compile and share the common themes."

Meadows said that some of the themes that he found include: improved student discipline (expectation and students being in a relationship that is fair, firm and consistent), improved academic achievement, an increased focus on teamwork (if silos exist, tear down those silos, be willing to focus on students, instructional leaders and support and resources), do whatever we need to do in terms of restoring trust and confidence (Meadows: "I spoke earlier in the year on trust. I recall saying trust must be built one person at a time, and trust can't be given, it must be earned."), create a culture of personal and collective accountability (understanding there are multiple customers, primary customer being student but also closely related to parent and communty; Meadows said always be thoughtful of customer service and respect to customer), how we overemphasize testing especially with younger students, what about technology (things need to be looked at and addressed), what are we doing with textbooks.

(Parenthesis note Meadow's ellaboration on each point).

He hopes that board members could also share some things that they saw.

"That would hopefully serve as the chasis for this vehicle that we can hopefully provide together to give Dr. Loden and our school board a broad look about what our stakeholders tell us about the Tupelo Public School District and for each stakeholder to feel like he or she has had opportunity to tell us their opinion."

Meadows calls for a Council of Excellence in each school to be able to discuss and resolve school-specific and district-specific issues.

By April 10, Meadows, recommends board to think of all of the various stakeholder teams that have a hold on the Tupelo Public School District.

Meadows: "Let the stakeholder groups come forward with the representatives they think need to be available."

Includes parents, teachers, etc. He said for stakeholder groups to come forward and say who should be represented.

Meadows said they should consider using an outside facilitator to serve the Council of Excellence concept. That facilitator should be used to help with the process.

Meadows would like to announce that process by April 10.

He said he would like there to be a report by May 22 with broad constituent input on the issues and opportunities.

Rob Hudson said he thinks it is a great opportunity to involve the stakeholders. He said the stakeholders can help with the integrity of the process by noting whom they think would be needed in their group (such as an outside facilitator).

Eddie Prather said the board's meetings with community members was helpful and that the board looks forward to giving Meadows a report from those meetings.

 

12:27 p.m.

THS Principal Jason Harris is giving a report on the transition to block scheduling. He said that the master schedule is nearly complete and they have been able to work in athletics and other extra-curriculars.

He said that department chairs have had a lot of input into the scheduling, discussing placement and configuration. For instance, they will look at some AP science classes being year-long two-credit classes leading to AP exam in the spring.

Harris said the Kagan training has been a defining moment for the high school. It included four days of trainers going into the classroom and observing every teacher for 20 minutes. He said that teachers called it the best training they had received in years.

The block scheduling committee will be hosting Q-and-A sessions. One will be on Monday at the High School. They will also host sessions at St. James Catholic Church and at Haven Acres.

Harris said that TMS Principal Kristy Luse has communicated the information with the eighth-graders (next year's freshmen).

Harris said there are many different versions of block. He said the high school will use a tweaked version that will accomodate athletics and extra curriculars (he said that athletics and activities make Tupelo High School great). He said they made add a Zero-period for remediation.

Harris said that the teachers are ready to start implementing the block schedule.

Eddie Prather asks about the logistics of students making scheduling changes. Harris said that in the past, they will come anyway and see and make sure their schedule is right. He said they are also looking at data on placement of students and making sure they are set up for success and not failure, looking at how they have scored on MCT tests.

Harris said that on the block when there are students who are struggling, you can build supports for them.

12:36 p.m.

Next item is the consent agenda. Includes charter bus service for field trips, rental service for school facilities and donations.

12:39 p.m.

Pam Traylor presents student transfer report. Includes 11 in-district transfers and admission of two non-resident tuition students.

12:39 p.m.

Jim Turner presents personnel report.

Turner said he just returned from a recruiting trip to Alcorn State University and that he has also gone on such trips to University of Memphis and to Delta State University. From those three trips, there are 32 applications interested in Tupelo Schools. Of those, Turner said, one third are highly-qualified minority applicants. Turner said he has provided their names to the district's principals.

 

12:43 p.m.

Linda Pannell is presenting the financial statements. She then presented the cash flow statements.

 

12:46 p.m.

Pam Traylor is presenting student discipline report.

 

12:47 p.m.

Assistant Superintendent Fred Hill will make a presentation about options for the district's alternative programs.

Hill wants to explain how Ombudsman program came to be and to provide some data. March 30 is the deadline for determining whether or not to move on.

Hill said that during the summer of 2010, the district went into a contract with Ombudsman. The program was designed to serve both academic and disciplinary students. Started with 30 studnets and grew. The school began focusing more on discipline than on academics so they saw a need for transitioning program. They had 60 spots but added an extra 30 spots in the spring of 2011.

Ombudsman said their focus was more on academics, so the district revised its alternative programs. It needed a plan to seperate high school students for discipline and academic. It added the HSAA Academy upper level for students who were behind in the upper grades. The Structure Day Program was added for studnets with discipline problems.

The began the year with spots for 90 students at Ombudsman. Enrollment was down, so in January they reduced that to serve 60 students.

Ombudsman was wrapped in the HSAA Upper Grades program. Designed for students who were two or more years behind cohort. Designed for students to remain in the program for one successful year. The primary method of instruction is the A computer program.

Hill said that what makes the Ombudsman program unique is that students can forgo seat hours to receive Carnegie units (credit). Students can get as many as 12 credits in a year, while students at the high school can only get 7 or 8. Students can work at their own pace. They can graduate with traditional graduation requirement or with district option (which the school board approved earlier in the year).

At the beginning of the year, 78 students at THS were identified as behind 2 or more years behind. 37 students are currently enrolled. 70 studnets were identified to attend. 15 never enrolled (a lot of them were 19 or older). 8 enrolled in other programs (2 in school age mother, 3 in structure day, etc.), 9 transfer out of district, 9 dropeed out, 1 elected to enroll in THS, 1 completed graduation requirements midyear, 9 transferred from Structured Day Program into Ombudsman program, 1 Tupelo Middle School student advanced to being a THS student.

In the Ombudsman program, an average of 4 credits have been received. Hill said that number will go up with 7 weeks left.

2 students can graduate with 26 credits. And 10 can potentially graduate with 21 credits (if they meet testing requirements).

Potential enrollment for 2012-12 is 88. 20 are willing to return. 68 studnets may be 2 years behind cohorts.

 

Hill is looking at a cost comparision.

Based on 60 students, Ombudsman contract is $483,000. Staff would include director, 5 teachers, part-time counselor and secretary.

Hill said that if the district were to staff it themselves. Salaries would be $498,315, plus $23,600 for A program and money for computers (didn't get that total). Total would be $581,115.

Hill said if the district would compare it to what Ombudsman actually has there. (fewer staff and no security officer), cost would by $453,988.

Hill said his recommendation is to provide a notice of non-renewal to Ombudsman to meet the March 30 deadline.

Hill said the district is already paying extra to fund security at Ombudsman.

Hill said that the district decided last summer to no longer off the Ombudsman diploma.

Prather said that at one time, we thought the student could graduate from there and not count as a dropout from us. Hill said that no longer is an option. Meadows said that now all students must pass the state test to be able to graduate.

Hill said that junior colleges were not accepting the Ombudsman program. Hill said that they decided that students in Ombudsman program needed to graduate with TPSD diplomas so there was no question whether they could use that degree to go on to college.

Heyer said that if the district does not go with Ombudsman, it would get back control over the program and autonomy. She said that when the program didn't meet Tupelo's standards, the district couldn't do anything about it.

Fred Hill said the cost comparision that compares apples to apples is the $453,988  for the district to run it compared to $483,000 for Ombudsman. The other cost comparision ($581,115) includes costs that the district is already paying in addition to the $483,000 it pays to Ombudsman.

Prather asks Hill how, besides cost, he defines success of the Ombudsman program.

Hill: It is always good when students walk away from there with diplomas in their hand, and it if they stayed at Tupelo High School, they wouldn't have had that opportunity (not because of a problem with THS but because of extra opportunities provided by Ombudsman).

Hill said the program should continue, whether they go forward with Ombudsman or not.

1:14 p.m.

Diana Ezell is making a presentation about the Summer Opportunity Camp. It will be in June at Lawndale. She said there are a lot of offerings, including music and art. It will start June 4 and end June 29. Cost is $80 per camp and $60 for any additional camps.

Prather asks about how many kids participate.

Ezell said that last year, they had to add classes. There are spots for 300 students (15 per class).

Ezell said there will also be camps at the high school. She said it is the first time they are offering camps up to 12th grade.

1:17 p.m.

Evet Topp is presenting the Career-Technical Center Local Plan update. It includes the new digital media technology program.

1:20 p.m.

Board will discuss future agenda topics.

David Meadows said that in the minutes are: an update on Moving Forward Together (done today), an update on video security cameras at THS (Meadows said he'd like to add to that report, cameras at Tupelo Middle and at Church Street...He said updating those will include a large expenditure of funds because it will include new servers....Meadows said the update was built into this year's budget with anticipation of doing it over two years).

Meadows said the district has taken the imput from schools on the points where it needs additional cameras.

Meadows said the board has also requested a listing of academic competitive teams to which students can become members. He said the district has had tremendous success: four teams moving to national competitions (bridge buildings, math teams). He said they reestablished academic decathlon team and that THS hosted its first debate.

Meadows said the board also wants a grant summary at the end of the year and an extra-curricular report.

Prather said the board has talked about a work session. They may pick dates at the next meeting.

 

1:26 p.m.

Board considers a temporary executive session to consider a personnel issue and a possible student matter.