Student Voice: The School Board Enthusiasts Blog - 5.1.19

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The UnifiEd Student Voice Team's School Board Blog

During the April 25th, special called school board meeting the focus was on bus contracts and the school system budget for the 2020 Fiscal Year.  The first part of the meeting was a special called school board meeting, while the second part was a budget work session.

You can watch the budget work session here or follow along with the agenda for the special called session here.  Both sections of the meeting were rather short and made for a good and entertaining school board meeting.

First Student Contract and Lease Agreement

• The Board was trying to approve a contract and lease agreement with First Student to serve as the operators for the school buses in Hamilton County.
• Many School Board Representatives had concerns about the fact that this contract was paying First Student 1 million dollars more than Durham School Services had been paid last year for its contract.
  • Rhonda Thurman was especially concerned and stated “We should be running this school system like a business”, a sentiment that she echoed several times throughout the remainder of the evening.
• There were also many questions and concerns presented about the way that buses are being stored and parked within Hamilton County, particularly in regards to the way that buses are being parked at Hixson High School.
  • Joe Smith was the strongest voice for this concern as parking the buses at Hixson is causing excessive parking lot wear, leading to safety concerns, and preventing Hixson High School from being able to expand their agricultural program.
• The discussion came back to the focus of getting students to school when Karitsa Jones reminded the School Board that they had a responsibility to get students to school.
  • Paraphrase: We have a greater commitment to these kids.
  • We appreciate you Karitsa!  
• In all, the lease agreement passed unanimously and the Contract passed as well with one no vote (Rhonda Thurman).

Budget Work Session
The budget work session started off with a rather intense video showcasing the growth and excellence of Hamilton County Schools.  Then, the meeting got intense with flashes of dialogue about encouraging growth to talk about some discouraging statistics.

The overall gist of all of the numbers was that we are doing great, but we have a long way to go in order to reach our goals.

• Our student to counselor and student to social worker ratios are much higher than typical best practice. (Best practice is 1:250).
• Only 2 in 5 students are deemed ready when they enter kindergarten.
• We don’t spend enough money on maintaining our schools.  (We spend $1 per square foot, best practice is $3).
• One of the strongest arguments Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson made was that we haven’t had a budget increase since 2005, as fact he gave while showing pictures of a technology comparison between 2005 and 2019.
• Proposed improvements if the 34 million dollar budget increase is passed:
  1. Hire 14 more elementary school counselors
  2. Hire 15 more social workers to make our ration 1:1,500 (Currently have 15 with a ratio of 1:3,000)
  3. Hire more faculty for Special Education
  4. Hire 15 Truancy Officers
  5. Hire a Behavioral Specialist for each learning community
  6. Increase current spending on school buildings by 15.1 million dollars
  7. Make currently part-time career and college advisors full-time
  8. Increase RTI support and hire literacy coaches (only 1 in 3 3rd graders are reading at or above grade level)
• To see the full budget click here.
• Visit https://www.hcde.org/FY2020 for more information from HCDE about the budget.
• The School Board will be asking questions about the budget on May 2nd and they will vote upon to budget on May 9th.  If you can’t attend stay tuned for more information.

Overall
​This meeting was primarily focused on the money side of Hamilton County Schools, which made the students seem like the subplot in their own play. As a whole, this school board meeting was interesting and gave really good insight into how our school board functions.