Dr. Bobby White:

It's only fitting to talk about remembering the vision regarding MLK's graduation last week. It was the final and last graduating class of MLK College Prep. We've been operating at MLK for ten years. And it was a bittersweet moment. There's a level of tears where all the tears are mixed emotions;  whenever you're ending something, there will be some sadness. However, the hope for the babies that graduated is the understanding that they have built a foundation, and we became the anchor school in that community. When everyone thought Frayser High School was going to be closed down. It was the worst high school in the state. One could argue, or it wasn't too hard of an argument to make, with Tennessee being 48th in education in the country in prison high school being a part of the bottom five in the lowest, highest poverty, highest crime rate in the state. It was markedly the worst or could have been the worst high school in the country. Over the past ten years, it became an anchor school. Folks started to have pride in it again. As a result of us being there. So many folks began to develop properties: Girls, Inc., Porter Leath, the new ED Rice Community Center, and the Renaissance At Steel apartments in the works. All these properties were born out of the idea that there was now an anchor school that folks could be proud of in the heart of the 38127 community on that side of Frayser. We had something to do with that within the first five years. The mayor deemed the area a three-mile radius of MLK—the MLK zone. There were dollars earmarked for homeowners to get $10,000 to $15,000 for home improvement.
Most of those dollars went to elderly folk, and they were able to get some things done, renovate their homes, and get some things repaired. Again, I'm super proud that we became an anchor school and brought hope back to the community. I wanted the graduating babies to understand that they were a part of why a brand new state-of-the-art high school would be built in that space. Without them and the people believing that that was the anchor school, all of that other movement that has occurred over the last ten years wouldn't have happened if that movement didn't happen. The mayor doesn't decide that that's the site where we're going to build a new Frayser High School. And so although there was this sense of, wow, it's closing. There was also this sense of hope around what we've done and the future of the graduating babies in the community. 

One crucial fact that people don't talk about is that ten years ago, the average price of homes in that area was around $25,000 to $30,000. People were buying homes for $5,000 to $8,000 in Frayser. Charlie Caswell was telling the story last week in Nashville when we talked about the opportunity schools and how the city had just given him ten houses for $1 each or something like that. But you know, he was trying to keep them up but didn't have the money to keep them up. Those same homes are at $90 to $100,000 in Frayser. I can't give you the exact percentage of the rise and the value, but it is astronomical. And we feel like we had a lot to do with that. And we know we had a lot to do with that. We know that we have impacted that side of Frayser because that new high school will be around for the next 50-60-70 years. The same way the old Frayser High School has been around since the early 50s. And you just got to feel prideful about it. And recognize that we have some real positive things at the moment, and with everything that we're going through with the transitions and all the challenges, it doesn't seem like it, but believe me, when you look back on it, five years from now, you will be like, "Wow, we did that." And so I want to ensure that you all stay true and hold on to that. 

Mr. Greg Thompson:

Financial Report May 14, 2024

Financial Update 5-14-2024

Financial Notes:

• Cash Balance: 

• At 4-30-2024: $2,752,942.98 (56 days of cash) 

• At 5-14-2024: $2,774,085.75 (56 days of cash)

School                                 MLK                Westside                Humes                Total

Budgeted Enrollment          540                  330                        195                     1,065

Enrollment on which FCS    493                  290                        193                      976

is currently being funded

The average per pupil funding for FCS is approximately $11,765 per student (net of ASD fee of 3%)

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• It's the time of the year when we complete our TCAP and EOC tests. I want to express my gratitude to the school staff who worked hard to complete those tests, especially at the middle schools. They did a great job of getting kids in and ensuring they got tested. Humes was the show's star at 100%. Students are now doing diagnostic exams and IReady, our intervention system. And they should be finishing those up. Sometimes, it's harder to chase folks around something that's not an actual, mandatory test for the state. But we will get those done. That's an important data point for us to finish out the year. I will let Dr. Clark share how the testing went. 
• 
  There is one story in particular I wanted to share. Over at Humes, Mr. Thomas has been teaching a math class. He was so excited that he felt like the school was in a good place and that they had done better on the most recent math exam than they had expected in many subjects. Even when the teaching person was not in a less steady position than we would have liked, but kids in his class in his math class were excited and could tell him specific things that they saw on the test that they remembered from class. So that's always a good feeling to hear that those connections were made and the kids understand that we are giving them what they need to be successful. Now we watch the results. A lot of data will come in, and once we get an initial score file, it will be used in situations where you're using those scores to calculate into our final grade. So we will get that first with some calculation assistance, then later in the summer, and on into the fall, we will get successive files with the actual score level. For example, the following file is below expectations, approaching, meeting, and exceeding. I will also add a file that contains percentiles for each student. We'll be able to match up those percentiles with their predicted percentiles from the TVAAS. Predictions this year, and have a good picture of how things played out, where students grew, why they grew, and why we had students who fell short. Connect some dots and see some trends that are not sometimes evident every year because you don't sometimes get that percentile connection, but we should get that this year. 

Dr. Lawanda Clark:

• I want to give a big shout-out to the BTC at each campus, Mr. Cooper, Mrs. Morgan, and Mrs. Clark, for their exceptional work supporting each other. It was just amazing to see. Then, I had students run up to me to initiate, I did well, or I did better, even saying I didn't do so well, but I'll do better tomorrow. Even then, just having them excited about a test was exciting this time of the year. So, I'm excited to hear the results, especially with such a high participation rate. And I'm hoping those kids showed up and showed out they need this. Parents have already called today asking when the results will be in, so the kids are going home and telling their parents they did well. So we need this energy. 

Mr. Brett Lawson:

• I wanted to talk about the convening that happened in Nashville. Dr. White and I, Mrs. Gibson, and Dr. Harvey went. Unfortunately, Miss Perry was unable to attend. Stephanie Love was there as well. It was all about opportunity schools. It was grounds all convening. Greg Lippman, who some of you have met, is the leader of that organization. And they just did an outstanding job of pulling together a broad spectrum of people who care about kids who are either formerly incarcerated, have attendance issues, or are over age and under-credited all those kinds of problems. We met at Belmont University in Nashville. We heard from a panel of students from Nashville who had been through alternative schools there.

• The main event was to hear from educators who have been doing this work and have different models and approaches to doing the work from around the country. There were a couple of groups we had yet to experience from Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, and DC. A representative from Maya Angelou School in DC was represented there. There was a lot to learn from them as we continued to consider what it would look like to apply for a charter to run an opportunity school, and I was inspired and very excited about the folks in the room. There were individuals from the Tennessee Charter Center and members of the Tennessee School Board. I spoke with one of them, and she said we will need support from people who are out practitioning thing to set the metrics for these opportunity schools. We've discussed in the past that the legislation passed to allow the creation of charter schools are these opportunities for schools, and they get relief on the accountability model. But the state school board has to draw the lines. They have to say what that relief looks like and the accountability model for these schools. And that's really where their rubber meets the road. Once that's completed, they will know how attractive it will be because it immediately sounds very attractive for the school district to accomplish many goals in one spot. They can take the most challenging population to reach for academic achievement. They stood by a lot of growth, but it usually takes a lot of work when you're behind to grade more to get your achievement level up in a single year to where you are proficient. Still, they would receive some relief from that and then have those students in a school meeting their needs. And that's the big part. Currently, in most school districts, when a student is expelled, or while they were when they were expelled, they go to an alternative school for 45 days or 90 days or a year. Then, they return to the regular school, and typically, they do the same thing again, or once they are in high school, they drop out, and that's just the pattern. And right now, due to the pandemic, the situation is worse than it has ever been. And so many students are absolutely not in school and not being tracked. They have just dropped entirely out of the system, and in Shelby County, the legal system needs to be more adequate in getting those students back into school. And so what do you do? Here's an opportunity to build some schools that are attractive to those students, meet their needs, and provide them with an environment where they can deal with their issues and feel safe doing it or not. The academic piece is essential. But it is not the only thing that's important in the school. And it's not the first thing you think about when you walk in the door. It's the connection, teamwork, and relationships that these students need to build to stay with school and graduate. Many of these schools have some components that deal with getting certifications or licensure for the students so that they can be successful, you know, beyond high school, whether they go to college or not. And so, our job right now is to consider the model we want to implement earnestly. It may be one of these models, and we may be supported through professional development from one of these organizations, or we may glean the best that these models have that fits our community. The best thing to do is to create our model in either direction. We have some work to do immediately to get working on that simultaneously. We've got a few other things going on, as you all know, and I'll go and speak to those now that might fit somewhere else better, but we have a lot of activity starting up again after the testing around.
• I got some calls today from MSCS. They're ready to get back into MLK and start tagging, moving, and doing everything they need. We still have many meetings between MLK and the other schools. Miss Perry has been very involved in that, and I very much appreciate her carrying the torch to make sure there are kids that MLK finds the right spot to be next year. Students went on tours to Trezevant, Raleigh, Egypt, and Craigmont. They came away from Craigmont very excited. They saw a lot of things there that were very positive. They got to go to the planetarium and enjoy that school.
• I know some parents have to make some difficult decisions about what their choice is going to be. Humes students had a trip to Booker T Washington (BTW), and it was also a short visit. I don't think very many of the parents are going to be sending their kids to BTW. And so we are doing everything we can to invite them to bring their children to Westside next year, and we will be running buses from Humes to Westside. We will do precisely the same buses we are doing until we see how many students are coming next year. But we're just going to run it like we're taking those kids from that neighborhood and bringing them the Westside. If that occurs as we think it will happen, it will be a real boom for us next year. Everybody in the neighborhood still acts as though Westside is the neighborhood school. But we're trying to change that culture and get everybody to understand that Westside will be a different place next year. It's going to be running very differently. It's going to it's going to act differently. It's going to have a different energy. And we're very excited about that. 

Ms. LaTisha Warren:

• The good part of my news is the gala is completely sold out. We have a total sell-out, and I'm super excited. We need everyone to show up. Everything looks good. I went to the Bombay Ballroom for a walk-through to see what everything would look like next Friday; Beth set up one of the tables to let me see our colors. She showed me a chart of how the table setting will be. I could envision the numbers and who would sit at each table. Dr. White and I had a brief meeting today. We went over the run of the show. Everything looks good. You all are going to be amazed at what we have going on. Our videographer is doing a fantastic job for us with the videos. I spoke Stan Bell last night about how everything will flow. He is ready for our gala. I also met with Mr. Shawn Williams to finalize everything and make sure everything will be delivered by next Thursday. And I'm happy with everything and how it's all coming together.
  I'm looking forward to next week. 

Dr. Bobby White:

• We have the agenda in place, but you, Ms. Warren, and I need to figure out the entire show run. It's one thing to see it all written down. We know Stan Bell is the Dj, and you're the MC. How will everything flow as it relates to the agenda? Otherwise, I will tell people who want to get their tickets that we're sold out. I told you all I thought it would be a stretch to sell it out. But now I just saw Miss Perry put in the chat that people are reaching out asking if they can get a ticket. The folks in schools had first dibs on it all. You know that we don't have any tickets. I wonder if there's a way to have a waiting list. If nobody shows up, we can call and say you can come now. I know that's not an option. Ms. Warren has done a phenomenal job dealing with all of our personalities, including mine, which can be irritating from time to time. And she figured this thing out for us. And I know it's going to be absolutely amazing.

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• So, the 2024 CEO evaluation for this fiscal year is actually in progress. Dr. White has received his email and his communication to begin his self-evaluation. Everyone, including the network staff, will receive additional communication from me once Dr. White has completed his self-evaluation. He has been given a deadline. Dr. White, I'm not sure if you saw that deadline, but when he completes his self-evaluation, be on the lookout to complete the FY2024 CEO evaluation to ensure that we complete this before all of us clear out for the summer for the school year. 
• 
  Next up is FCS board member recruitment, so Dr. White and I have been in conversation with Arlinda Cathey, our vice chair. We are working on a recruitment strategy for the FCS board. We will be recruiting new members, but I'm working on a plan I want to have prepared by the June meeting, so if you know anyone in mind, there may be a different process of what it looks like in terms of board recruitment. If you have anyone on the top of your mind, please feel free to drop those names or email those names to me, Dr. White, or Ms. Warren. But I have a strategy I'm working on that is in progress that I will proceed with at the next board meeting. Next on the agenda is the reconviction of committees. It's been a fantastic year for you all, and our focus has been all around the ten-year Gala. And so we didn't have an opportunity to have our different committee meetings. So, the goal was actually to reconvene those meetings by July. I'm going to look more into that. I know there is some interest on some of the committees, and I'm reaching out to each of my current board members to gauge your interest in where you would like to serve. Which committee would you like to serve? Some of us initially had committees you have been serving on, but your interests may have changed. So, look for some communication regarding those committees coming from me. 

Dr. Bobby White:

• The new superintendent has put a pause on all purchases. As a result, the district is giving us a lease that we will sign at a reduced rate. It is a one-year lease. I'm still holding out that before July 1st, I can talk with her, the new superintendent, and move the needle from least to a purchase. Nevertheless, we know that we have secured Westside for next year. We could not predict all of that has happened over the last year with the superintendent that we initially started conversations with having to resign. Then the interim, we had the conversations not being selected and then the new superintendent. We couldn't control these dynamics. Although we did everything possible to secure this purchase, I think I shared this with you guys. They put the school on the market intending to sell it to us because they had determined that they no longer had a use for it. We were the only ones who wanted it because we operated the school and have been for the last six years for the better part. So, putting it on the market was to promote community schools. That's why we were so positive a year ago: this would all be what we needed it to be. And with where we are right now, the confidence that we are getting a reduced rate lease for the 24-25 school year. With again, this in mind, the hope is that I may be able to have a conversation with the superintendent to change that to a purchase prior to, but if not, we will go into the 24-25 school year with the understanding we have at least, and then I will spend next year trying to convince her that a purchase is what's needed. And then we'll move forward with that when one thing we don't have to worry about is not having a building. We will have it either as a lease, which is likely to occur right now, or a purchase. But that's the least likely at this point. But we don't have to worry about a facility at this point. I wanted to ensure that the board and the network team understand that.

• We could not have our network meeting on Monday or yesterday morning because we were doing our annual breakfast, which we fed the staff at each school. Today was Westside, yesterday MLK, and tomorrow we'll be Humes. And so we weren't able to have our staff meeting.
   

Mr. David McIntyre:

• 
  I'm the eighth-grade math teacher at Westside Middle School. I spoke with you in April regarding some issues that have been resolved with the repassing of the minutes. That should do it. Also, regarding functional skills services at Westside Middle School, Here is a little background, which I should have given last time: this is my 12th year as a teacher. I also have a JD from the University of Memphis, but I'm not a practicing attorney. That's why I sometimes email with no legal advice. I also taught at an alternative school for about five years for kids with behavioral and emotional challenges, but that's neither here nor there. Last time we spoke, I tried to remember which board member asked for an update at this board meeting regarding services for Functional Skills at Westside Middle School. So I'm here today to first comment that there has been no meeting. I could not meet with anybody. A meeting was scheduled with Mrs. Gibson, but that meeting was canceled for unknown reasons. I'm still waiting for a response on that. I immediately emailed Mr. Lawson and Dr. White to ask if they knew this meeting had been canceled. Is there an opportunity to reschedule? How would you like to read to proceed? I am still waiting for a response from them. And so, on Friday of last week, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request. So, I filled out the Information Act request on Frayser Community Schools to seek information related to the services and the way the services are described and provided. In one of my responses to the emails, I spoke with all the ELA and math teachers at Westside. We are very concerned about what will be called compensatory services, which are services that will be privatized as compensation for the students not receiving the services throughout the school year. There are two ways to calculate: a quantitative way and a qualitative way. We feel it should be quantitative as an hour-for-hour. But we're talking about hundreds of hours for dozens of kids for whom we're not providing services, and we're very concerned that they won't receive the services or at least anything meaningful in the way that has impacted our classes this year. So that's all.