The Lakeland School Board (LSB) met electronically Monday night (6.8.20) because of COVID-19 and Dr. Ted Horrell, Lakeland School System (LSS) superintendent, acknowledged the question on everyone’s minds.
“I acknowledge the #1 question on everybody’s minds is what will school life look like when we get back. If you thought you were going to come to this meeting and get the answer, you will be disappointed because we don’t have the answer to that,” he said.
Link to agenda: https://lakelandk12.org/res/web/06.08.20%20BM/06.08.20%20Business%20Meeting%20Agenda.pdf
Link to meeting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hyGfUIBIMw
Chairman Kevin Floyd was not at the meeting which was chaired by Vice Chair Laura Harrison.
During his monthly superintendent’s report, Dr. Horrell addressed a number of topics related to the fall opening of school as well as a land purchase for a future elementary school, the new high school, recreational sports and race relations within LSS.
Of plans for the fall, Dr. Horrell said, “What I can tell you is we’re continuing to work, continuing to prepare for a number of scenarios.” One significant thing is that he has been working in concert with other municipal superintendents to try and share resources and ideas and brainstorm together. “We did collaborate to a certain degree on a parent survey to get some feedback on primarily where parents are right now in terms of their preferences. In certain scenarios it wouldn’t matter what we do if parents weren’t interested.”
A SurveyMonkey was launched around noon Monday and just before the meeting there had been 508 responses, said Dr. Horrell. That number represents about 1/3 of LSS students. “That will give us some good data.”
He added, “Our goal is to get the kids back in the building every day. That’s where we want to be. Obviously we’re taking the information from the health department and local leaders very seriously and we’re going to weigh all those things together. In some cases, it will come down to what we are allowed to do.”
Dr. Horrell said the main focus is trying to determine if staff and students are able to go back into the buildings, how would the System follow recommended distancing and circulation. Would teachers go to the students instead of students moving, he questioned. “But we’re also aware that when students leave school, in many cases, they are mingling with other students. Those things are happening outside of school.”
Of the move to return to classrooms, Dr. Horrell said it is a moving target. “We’re constantly getting more information. For the most part, most of the information we get is encouraging, in terms of what school might look like in the fall. But we’ve got to be prepared for situations if there is a turn of bad news.”
Although he was unable to answer the #1 question, he did say the System is not seriously talking any change to the instructional calendar. “Obviously everything is on the table when it comes to student safety. I think there would have to be a pretty big change in the status quo before we started talking about a change to the calendar like some of the colleges have done.”
Dr. Horrell mentioned some concrete steps LSS is taking now to be prepared:
- Installed Plexiglass in reception areas of the schools
- Currently installing hand sanitizing stations in each classroom
- Purchased and received additional Chromebooks to go to complete remote learning if necessary
- Purchased over 100 thermal thermometers
- Purchased washable masks for faculty and students who don’t have masks, if they are needed. He said masks could be the 2020 equivalent of “I forgot my pencil.”
- Ordered clear plastic face masks for nurses and high needs special education classes
- Ordered bulk sanitizer
“Despite the fact that we don’t have a plan, I do want everybody to know we are spending a lot of time and energy to make sure that we are prepared in terms of having the things that we need while we are having conversations about what are the things we need in terms of instructional delivery and professional development.”
Land for future elementary school
The Board previously approved a land purchase for a future elementary school at Old Brownsville and Evergreen Roads. Dr. Horrell said the seller of the land would like to have conversations with the Board regarding ways which might better suit their development (for a subdivision surrounding the possible school land) and help LSS. “We don’t have an accepted offer at this point but both sides do want to work towards a successful offer,” said Dr. Horrell.
“There’s not a clock ticking on this land purchase. We’ve got the luxury of being able to spend a little extra time for due diligence,” he said.
The second elementary school project is not eminent, said Dr. Horrell. “Land is going quickly in Lakeland, land that has access to utilities in a geographical location that makes sense for our schools.” In November 2017 he and Board members discussed the need to identify and purchase land for a future elementary school.
Lakeland Preparatory School
The construction documents for the new high school (to be adjacent to the current middle school) are complete, said Dr. Horrell. “They are out for bid and being reviewed by regulatory agencies like Shelby County code, the Fire Marshal and the City of Lakeland.
We are working with our contractor Chris Woods Construction Co. and hope to receive a guaranteed maximum price in the next week and a half. So we are continuing to march toward the construction of the building. Stay tuned on that.” Once construction starts this summer, the school is to open in August 2022 to grade 9, with an additional grade opening each year to grade 12.
Recreational sports
Dr. Horrell said a lot of what is being done is outside and in small groups. He mentioned girls and boys basketball are holding open gym this month; cheerleading is holding virtual tryouts with practices starting this month; timing for fall sports like girls soccer, volleyball, football and cross country has not been adjusted.
Last comment from Dr. Horrell
“In the Lakeland School System we’re obviously aware of the national conversation on race, racism and the challenges of black Americans. And as educators we want to be part of that conversation. It’s important to us that the voices of our black students, parents and faculty members are heard and acknowledged and we’re very fortunate to have educators in our system like Joretha Lockhart, Lakeland Elementary School principal, and Kim Louis, central office instructional facilitator.”
He said Ms. Louis has agreed to accept the chairmanship of a new ad hoc committee of black stakeholders in LSS
to head the way in making sure we are doing our part as a system to be sure our students and staff are working in an environment where black voices are heard and racism is not allowed. The committee will report back to the Board if necessary.
The rest of the meeting
Among discussion items, #2, ethics committee, was removed because it was handled in November, #5, changing the July meeting date was tabled at the request of Board Member Michele Childs. Items #3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 passed unanimously.
Mrs. Childs gave an update on the legislature, noting the biggest update is that the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to hear the voucher appeal bill so that case goes to trial court. It will not launch in the fall of 2020, she said. It’s been delayed until 2021. The other big news, she said, is that the state budget is being reduced due to the decreased revenue from COVID-19. State agencies have been asked to submit budgets with a 12% reduction.
