001So this is a two-minute warning. No, >> I don't have a phone. Just so everybody knows Fire Department will be having a drive tomorrow at Pearson Park and Saturday. All right. Following that public service announcement, I would like to call the U September 11th, 2025 uh work session for White County Board of Education to order. Appreciate everyone being here tonight um for uh for yourformational purposes. Miss Douglas is joining us by phone as she works to get Mr. James back uh on his feet and uh and and on the road to recovery. So, we're glad that he's doing well. Um so, we'll use this time tonight to review items on our consent agenda as we u start heading into our uh regular regular meeting at six o'clock. So, uh, consent agenda items were sent to
002you in your in your packet prior to the meeting. So, we'll go through those and see if there's any questions or corrections we need to make on any minutes and uh any anything we need to uh review regarding the uh reports that were given. So, uh, first we'll go through our meeting minutes from, u August 14th, uh, our regular, uh, regular SK regular meeting minutes. Anybody have any questions, comments, corrections that need to be made on our me August 14th minutes? Okay, then we'll move over to our work session. Uh did have work session uh minutes in your packet. Anything that we need to uh discuss add correct before we approve those minutes. Okay. Then u moving on we uh don't have any policy that we need to uh discuss tonight. There's nothing in our
003policy report. So uh that would lead us next item consent agenda is a maintenance report. Uh it's anything added to our packet. But Mr. Alli's here uh maybe you could give us an update Mr. Alley on things going across the district maintenance wise. recording purp. Hello. There you go. Um so uh this company is um a company that uh basically is made up of engineers and they go around and uh find projects and uh and help you work through projects. Uh you can see they've been in business for a long time. I'm not a great salesman, but I'm going to tell you the things that I that I thought we needed to know. Um, if I can get this thing to work wrong way. Uh, Ben Buckner is a person that that I've been talking
004with. Um, he's a tech graduate. Uh, really good guy. Um, and he's a specialist in in the Tupip hydronic systems. Um, basically like what we've got at Woodland Park and at High School. That means that when your chiller's on, your heat's off. And when your heat's off, uh on your chiller's off, uh he takes those systems and changes it to a system like we have in uh Finley that they can both run at the same time. So, one teacher can be running uh be warm and the other teacher can be cold and it takes care of both of them. Um so, uh Ben's a really good guy. Um I've had a lot of contact with him. Um, I'm going to switch through some of this. Ben sent me all this. He he said he would
005come up and present it, but I told him we weren't going to be extremely uh formal. Um, basically their their kick is that they can come up with our system, uh, check everything out. And what he wants to do is a full energy survey that they come up here and they they check every one of our school buildings. They check every unit that we have. Um see what year they are, what model they are, all of those things. And they provide us a uh printout or a uh a thing that says, "Hey, you've got so many 1980 model units that you need to replace." Uh all of that type stuff. This is free, by the way. They don't charge us for this. Um, the last time this was done was 10 years ago. So, it's
006uh it's been a while to to do something like this. It helps us to know exactly what where our weak weak points are and uh things that we need to kind of focus on. uh he will make out a uh a a projection of we can save you x amount of dollars in energy and you can take those energy savings and put it toward buying new equipment. Um so uh that's kind of their their spill for things. Uh saying that we would spend 700,000 um in in energy. Well, they'll take 300,000 of that and and put it into improvements. So, uh, if that makes went one too far. His his deal is is he said there's a projected baseline of say, uh, uh, we're spending I forget does that say 9 million and 9 and
007a half million and and then they would guarantee that they could get it down to 6.7 and uh, and save us money and that money will go toward fixing up and making new projects. Uh so uh their actual company does the entire thing. So their engineers design it, their company oversees it. Um we could use anybody we wanted as subcontractors. They will hire them as long as they meet their specifications. Um they do not their big thing and you can see it in black is no change orders. So once they give you a price on something, that's what the price is going to be. There's not going to be, oh, we've got to add, you know, $3,000 for this or $3,000 for that. So, um, it's a it's a uh long-term solution to basically getting
008us uh into the future, or not into the future, but into the I don't know what words I'm looking for, but catching us up, if that makes sense. Um, see, I think that's uh I don't know what all I got on there now. I'm I'm hitting Tokyo right now. I Yeah. Okay. Um, I know I went through that really quick, but uh, basically, like I said, we get them up here, they do a uh, gather all of our data, they go to the on onsite, then they do a presentation to us, and uh, and then we can decide as or you can decide as a board what would you like to do and uh, then they're going to get jump into the construction and commissioning. Um and uh it's uh it's something that the way
009he explained it and I don't understand this but the way he explained it is he they can come out up with money u through grants and things like that that will help us to to do uh some more modifications to our systems. So we're not locked into anything. meaning if we do all of this and and we don't want to we don't feel like that it's uh worthy to make those changes then we walk away from it. So it's not uh it's not like some of them that they want you to sign into a contract upfront. So uh this this is kind of really simple but questions on I'll try to answer what I know. No, we he'll do every school. Every school. Yep. He'll do everything in our in in our uh or all
010the schools. All the buildings. And you will have a report that that tells you exactly what we've got and and what they recommend. >> Board of Education be included as well. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. And and you'll be surprised how much stuff we how much old stuff we have. We have a lot of stuff that needs to be updated. I don't know on the financial part and and he he said that he works with like Chad to to work on the financial part of it uh and work on the grants and stuff. So he we kick that over to Chad and let him deal with that part. No upfront money, >> none >> to do the design or the just the assessment of our entire >> They're going to assess it. Uh he he
011said, "Look at the assessment as I'm trying to get your business." And and he says, "So, uh it does not cost anything to for him to assess everything." And it's going to take him a while. I mean, it'll take them close to to two months to get this done. So they're they're banking that they're going to find something that we're going to like and and go forward from there. >> All right. >> So Mr. Ali, appreciate you sharing that with us. Um brings up a u topic that does need to be considered. That's maintenance of our facilities. I mean, we've got several buildings and facilities that uh and over time they do nothing but wear out. >> Yeah. >> Um and I like the fact that uh the thought of doing an assessment. Um nothing
012against your department, but some of this from an engineering standpoint does get it can get a little bit more involved. Um the I board members would just say on something like this that we probably would need a little bit more information uh from the uh from the uh the gentleman that you you spoke of there in his his company because uh you there there's a couple things that I see Mr. Markham you might could confirm that my line of thinking on this is correct. But um we hire we have some discretion for hiring engineering professional services to do buildings and and things of that nature when we when we start a project. But then when you get into project itself, then there is some competitive bidding that has to take place. So, if I'm not
013mistaken, something like this would be we would have to make sure that if it even got that far that you'd have to make sure that we're not coming in here promising something or giving the appearance that, hey, if your firm is going to come in here, you make these recommendations and y'all just go with it. That we can't that we just remove ourselves of the responsibility of procuring the way we're supposed to in the bidding process. That would be that's something that comes to to mind too. But uh just for me, I would want to see a little bit more because I mean it's I understand I mean this is uh a great way for engineering firms to uh uh to sell their services and we might >> be the beneficiary of their expertise, >>
014but we probably would need to have a little bit more broad have a broader conversation about how we would approach this. Um, I do not I I have asked and and uh there's some kind of system that and Chad, do you do you understand what what he's talking about to be able to to do all of that work within their company? Do you understand how he says that they do this as school systems everywhere? Um, Right. >> Um board members, uh next month, part of the reason this is coming up, Mr. rallies scheduled next month to share with you kind of a state of the union as far as our buildings and grounds are concerned. And so, uh, that's where this is is kind of coming out of. Um, and if it pleases the board,
015I can set up that meeting. Maybe Mr. Buckner could come next month and present and explain exactly in more detail what they do and perhaps that'll give us more time to talk with Chad and uh, about the procurement process and what that looks like and have all those answers at that time. So, just a thought. Um, if we were to do a state of the district as far as maintenance goes next month, that then yet we follow that up. Somebody's going to come in and do an assessment. Would it not be prudent for us to somebody will come in and do an assessment at no cost to the district. As long as there's no commitment to use their services uh cursory look, then that might help. I don't know, Mr. Al, you that'll be your
016responsibility. So, I don't not sure how you if you think it would be better to if it could be more for a board, more informative us to maybe push yours back a month to give you guys chance to to work through that. Maybe more information to share. >> Um, I think we could I think that we could do that and uh if you you know might possibly move it back too and uh let me get him to to send you all a bunch of of uh he wanted to send me a lot of stuff and and I said, "Well, we'll wait and deal with that with the board members." So, uh, let let me get him to, uh, uh, see if he can't send you a, uh, a projection and and some things that's a
017little more detailed. And, uh, like I said, Mr. D can actually could could present it or or we can get Mr. Buckner to come up next month and present it. And, uh, then I will go from there uh, after he does his assessment if if you approve on it and then we can do our state of union after that. Board members, shall have any thoughts, comments on that? Okay. So, let's be clear on uh so we understand where we're going with this. >> And I'm sorry, what was the gentleman's name again? >> Buckner. >> Mr. Buckner. Okay. So either uh Mr. D or Mr. Alli will work on coordinating engaging with Mr. Buckner and to do to do a a cursory assessment and be able to and then with the intent of using that information
018to come back to us then in November for uh for state of the the district as far as maintenance goes. Is that what we're all hearing? >> Okay. All right. Then uh can be your your action item for leaving here tonight. So, thank you for sharing that with us. >> Hey, can you give us an update on Doy? >> Yes, I've got that in U right now. Um Doyle, the foundation wall is uh complete. They've got the first layer of block laid. We picked out brick color for the exterior veneer. um made a slight change for a little kick out at the end. There was an adjustment to the wall, but they've got that figured out. We're adding a water spigot to the outside uh that they currently don't have out there. Um but uh
019I think that's about where we are right now. So looking forward to seeing the the uh blocks coming up pretty quickly here should masons be on site and should start seeing the walls form pretty quickly. All right. Thank you. Anything else for maintenance, Miss Douglas, do you have anything for maintenance? >> Okay. Just want to make sure that we're still connected. All right. Uh going over on next be our budget report. Mr. Smith. The following reports presented detail the financial position of White County School System for the periods ending July 1 and August 31, 2025. The months of July and August mark the first two months of the fiscal year, but due to the 2025 accounting period close process, the July report was delayed and is therefore being presented here along with the August report.
020July tends to be light on both revenue and expenditures as compared to a typical month. During this month, most funds have little to no revenue collections. Of note in the July report is the 600,876 increase in revenues in the general purpose school fund for July 2025 versus July 2024. This increase is due to the $640,37720 received from the state of Tennessee as part of the Tennessee Education Freedom Acts provision to provide a new provide a $2,000 onetime bonus to eligible educators. This one-time revenue infusion from the state will continue to skew the county's revenue comparison for the remainder of the fiscal year, but it'll be much less evident in later months. Also of note are the several accounts with no activity during the month, thus showing a zero balance. This two will change as we
021move forward in the fiscal year. The August report shows a market increase in activity for the three school funds. Revenues during the month are filling or filling in as the county collects its first local option sales tax payment for the year and the state of Tennessee makes its first TISA payments for the school year 2526. Sales tax collections for the month are relatively stable and appear to be showing signs of normalizing. Also of note is the small decrease in TISA revenue during this month. The county's TISA payment for the month of August 2025 was $14,955 less than August of 2024. This is a trend that will continue to be monitored in the coming periods. In both July and August reports, the central cafeteria fund shows a negative estimated ending fund balance. However, this is due
022to several large blanket purchase orders that are issued for the school year and does not reflect what will happen in the long term. The central cafeteria fund has several significant upfront costs at the beginning of the fiscal year for items such as food and food preparation pro products which are ordered for the start of the school year. This fund cannot capture the revenue needed to offset these expenditures until later in the year as the claims for reimbursement for are filed monthly. This poses the potential to create a cash flow issue for the central cafeteria funds if they're not managed properly, not managed appropriately, excuse me. Fortunately for White County, this program has has enough funds in reserve to cover these upfront costs while waiting on reimbursement from the USDA. Overall, the school system appears to
023be off to a good start financially for fiscal year 2026. Mr. Smith, any questions uh regarding our budget report this month? Okay. Uh if not, then we'll move on to the next one is our budget amendments and transfers. Um there are were several items in your packet that were presented um in a uh a high level view. Uh we started receiving our money from for our federal programs that come that coming in. So this will uh get those in the uh in the ledger appropriately for uh what we what we budgeted. Um there was uh there was a decrease in uh some funds that were projected for CTE. They were projected higher than what they came in that actually came in at. And so that also is is included in there. Uh there were some
024state funds that were uh that were uh that were received and uh also need to be properly ledgered in the account. And then one thing that we we missed during the budgeting process and that is for the the district to fund the uh afterchool program. uh the second year of that that we uh that we lost from uh from federal funds uh last year. So if you recall last year uh leading up in school school year, we had to make a decision on what we were going to do with the the schools that were providing that uh that program, but where we were not awarded funding for that uh based on the the the two-year cycle that's on. and we chose to fund the programs. And so going through and reviewing the budget that uh
025those funds came from our general purpose school fund uh last year and would be expected if we were going to continue the programs to do that again this year, but we have to as board approve those funds uh to be used for that program in the same manner as we did last year. So uh I'll let Mr. expand on that on those on on that or any and all of those amendments. >> Yes, thank you Mr. Chairman. So on that particular issue uh 141 school general purpose school fund um this is um the board had discussed back during the budget process about funding the uh four schools that were not funded under the 21st century grant as they had last year. I think in that process, Miss Alli had held off of putting them in
026the budget while we discuss while the board discussed what was going to happen and then it just didn't get in the budget and so I didn't catch that either. So obviously we are running those programs. The board voted to pay for those but uh we didn't have them in the budget unfortunately. So that's an amount of $178,525 and uh thanks to Miss Griffith for her hard work to get that number down to where it was. I think we're well over $200,000 when we first started talking about that. So, uh this this runs the program well and thanks to our staff and site coordinators and making sure that they run it efficiently and uh and uh cost effectively. So, uh so we apologize that that wasn't in the budget. It should have been back in May
027and June. Uh but this will make cover uh those 21st century classrooms that were not covered by the grant. Uh the vast majority of the others are um federal funds that have finally come in. If Miss Felton has shared with us before, uh when we do the budget, we have state budgets. Uh but the federal dollars, we just have placeholders until about this time of year. And those then the major majority of those start to filter in. So all of our title funds uh and these 142 funds that you see, uh that's what they are. So I'll be glad to answer any questions. And Miss Feldon is here as well on those budget amendments. will remind me and and maybe others that might have forgotten the four schools that did not receive that that those
028fundings was that Park Finley Bondrath and middle school. >> Okay. Did we decide not to pursue the middle school? >> Yeah, we changed the middle school programming to mainly a tutoring program. So we it was very targeted as the people that needed to be there. So it's really not just open to everybody. Uh they weren't having the results there. So it was another cost savings to back that pedal that back a little bit. >> And am I wrong in thinking that when we apply for these grants in the future that all schools will be under the same contract? >> Correct. >> They'll be under the same application should we get it? Yes. >> Okay. And is there a reason we shouldn't get it? >> There was no reason in my eyes why we didn't get
029it this time. So there's no rhyme or reason, but uh you know they giveth and they taketh away. And um so >> and those are federal funds coming from the federal government. Correct. >> Correct. Correct. >> Make some sense out of them. So, I got a question which I'm pretty sure it's been asked before, but does somebody get an itemized list for the instructional materials and supplies? Do we have to show an itemized list? But with that being said, every one of those is accompanied by a purchase order which will include the specific items that were purchased. >> Miss Ally was on top of it. >> Yes. >> Excuse me. Uh does this mean that when we presented the budget to the county commissioners, we was $178,000 off? In essence, yes. And so, uh, but
030this will be transferred from our our savings account. So, it won't be additional money we'll be asking the county for. It'll just be transferring from our bank account into the active budget. >> Can Mr. Markham tell us how much we have in our savings account now? Does that have we already taken out the bonuses that the extra bonuses that we was going to give? >> Thank you. >> Any other questions regarding budget amendments, transfers? Okay. If not, we'll move on to uh next item in is our personnel report. Uh send with personnel report uh in our in our packet uh that showed the transfers and and uh and terminations and uh and new hires uh coming in. Seems like this is a busy season for substitute teachers and uh people in substitute for food nutrition.
031Um Any questions on any of our personnel report? >> Are we having trouble finding sub substitute teachers as far as classroom wise or is miss having any trouble finding nutrition subs? >> We are not having trouble finding substitute teachers right now. Occasionally it's a struggle to find some cover some maternity leaves but I think even those are covered at the moment. Uh but we we don't have a problem in the classroom. Um school nutrition seems to be doing well. You know, they they run into a little hiccup every now and then, but they seem to get it covered. So, in fact, we've we've had good luck of moving some of those substitutes into some permanent roles as of late. >> So, so I noticed that we normally have a big turnover, it seems, here lately,
032for our um janitorial staff. Do you know if we're Are we all covered there now? >> Yes. Yeah, we we've we've had good luck of we have had several applicants. We're able to interview those folks and and get replacements when they when they come open. Any other questions regarding our personnel report? Okay. Then the last thing is our threat assessment report. presented with this threat assessment report uh up through the 29th of August. There may be some updates to that from this afternoon. >> Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh I reached out to our behavior specialist, Mr. Bumble. Had him follow up on this. So, we're showing se several well two or three of these that were still open cases. Um two of those three have been closed. U the third one is just
033not closed because we're waiting on some information from uh from a physician. So, that student is not in the school right now. So, not a threat to anybody. Uh, so we're just waiting for that documentation to close that one out. So, no no threats that are open right now. Thank you. Any other questions regarding our threat assessment report? Okay. Then uh one thing board members that uh failed to properly coordinate in your in your packet. However, you were given this information on your weekly update, but uh you have a draft of uh theou between us and the uh county sheriff's department for uh for the central view property. Um you have a hard copy uh to review as well. So that is a budget item tonight. just apologize for not having that uh that document
034in the folder, but was again it was sent in your uh in your packet or excuse me your your weekly update. So uh we can uh we can visit that item uh at the proper time in our regular meeting. Uh but just want to let you know that that document is available to you and we can review for discussion then. Um then as we go through and look at the uh remaining part of our agenda for tonight's meeting um the survey for the fireh hall property at at Bondicoft. So there is a preliminary uh sketch uh points laid out for a property that uh would be considered deeding over to a an entity. um that would be then have uh we'd be turning loose control of that that part of the property for uh for
035the the fire department's use as was requested last week. Um we just have to give a cursory approval of the um of what what's uh was shared with us on the on this plat tonight. um it will have to go to the planning county planning commission for their approval and then there will have to be um some coordination on who what entity this property would actually be going to. It will not be going to an individual. Um it will be going to uh a properly properly vetted uh organization that uh fire department I guess is looking into. So that will be something that uh uh will happen at the county administrative level and then once that gets satisfied then it will come back to us for uh for actual uh our approval for dealing that
036land over. So, uh, just make you aware that's will be just, uh, something that we'll take a, uh, uh, a vote on approving the the plat that's, uh, that's presented, but it's pending several approvals before that would, uh, go on. But the planning commission would just need our approval that, uh, uh, that, yeah, we were considering doing that and for them to take a look at it. uh more administrative than than actually taking action on anything. Okay. Any other uh questions, comments uh during this time? We do have uh a new member for our board, student representative, uh was unfortunately not able to be here tonight for prior to commitment. Um are you going to make that introduction during your student report? Okay. Um, that would be uh that'd be great. And uh so we're
037looking forward to having that uh having that announced at during our meeting. So looking forward to looking forward to uh our student reports. All right. Well, if that's if there's nothing else, we'll uh we'll turn our uh work session and start a regular board meeting at six o'clock. Thank you. So, got our two-minute warning. Two-minute warning and we will start a meeting. I don't care. [Music] If I could have your attention like to call the September 11th meeting of the White County Board of Education to order. Like to welcome everyone tonight. But before we begin with our pledge and the business at hand, I'd allow for us to pause and consider this moment in in time. Today is a very somber mo somber day for our country from the events that took place 24 years
038ago uh claiming the lives in and of first responders and victims in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC. uh to the lives of those lost in the tragedies at Charlotte and Utah in the recent weeks and locally for the unfortunate accident that took place of last week affecting families of our community. Please join me in moment of silence as we reflect on the gift of life and our responsibility to society and our fellow man to promote the value of life and show respect for those whose time came too soon. So, if you would join me in a moment of silence. >> Thank you. This time, I'd like to please stand and ask Mr. Jason McDonald to lead us in pledge. To the flag of the United States of Americ cons consider approving tonight's uh agenda,
039please uh note the following that uh Tennessee code annotate and board policy 00 states that every meeting of the board is open to the public except where law allows for a closed session. Board meetings are posted on the district website at www.whitecochools.net at least three days prior to each meeting. State statute requires that each meeting uh agenda contain uh include an item for public comment. A signup sheet has been made available prior to the beginning of each meeting. Individuals signed up prior to the start of the meeting to speak will be recognized in the order listed on the signup sheet and at that point in the agenda designated for public comment. Board meetings are streamed with the help of our central office technology staff for live or recorded viewing. Links are provided on the district
040website and attending or speaking during tonight's meeting implies consent for comments and appearances to be used. With that said, we'll move into our our next item on our agenda, and that is uh conflict of interest. If there is any board member that have a conflict of interest of any item on our proposed agenda, please let that be known at this time. >> Mr. Chairman, as I do each and every month, no conflict of interest for me tonight on anything on the agenda. Just public record that my wife is a teacher in this district and uh the opinions and and things that are stated by me tonight are are my thoughts and my thoughts alone and have the best interest of this uh the students in this district at heart. Thank you, Mr. McDonald. >> Mr.
041Chairman, my husband works for the school system. At this moment, I don't have a conflict of interest. My opinions are mine and mine alone. >> Thank you, Miss Officer. Likewise, my wife works for White County High School and the comments and opinions and thoughts that I may share are are mine. >> Thank you, Mr. Smith. So, uh, Miss Sims, please let the minutes reflect that Mr. McDonald, Miss Officer, and Mr. Smith, all indicated they have spouses that work for the district, but nothing on the proposed agenda at this time would constitute a conflict of interest for them. So, with that, we'll move on to the next item agenda, and that is consent agenda. Including our consent agenda is approval for the board minutes, meeting minutes, and work session minutes from our August 14th meeting. Uh,
042we had did not have >> point of order. Mr. Chairman, you forgot the approval of the agenda for this meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. McDonald. >> So, let's back up. >> Board members, we have an agenda in front of us for uh consideration for approval. So, I'd entertain a motion for approval. >> So, move. >> Motion by Mr. McDonald. Thank you. Second. >> Second, Mr. Smith. Any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I post. Thank you, Miss Douglas. Uh opposed. Motion passes. All right. Next uh next our consent agenda. Um so we have a uh seven seven items on our consent agenda uh that are consistent each meeting. One is approval of our board meeting minutes from August uh both our board meeting and our work session. Uh policy report
043which there was no policy report items. We did have a maintenance uh report tonight with presentation by Mr. Alley uh budget report was given. There was budget transfers and and amendments that were presented that were reviewed uh to appropriate uh federal funds and state funds for for programs as those monies have been received and a personnel report and our threat assessment report. So those items are in our consent agenda and um if that's what they include. Does any board member wish to remove any item for separate discussion in our consent agenda? Okay. If not and there's no objection, the consent agenda will be adopted by unanimous vote as presented. Next item on our agenda is uh memorandum of understanding between uh the white county school system and the white county sheriff's department for utilization of
044the central view property for training purposes. Uh board members, you were presented with information, a draft of that memorandum of understanding. Uh this is for us to review and if any edits or changes need to be made or you have a question for our director, let that be known at this time. Otherwise, we will uh consider approval of thisou uh that would go into effect October 1st. Mr. Dberger or Mr. Chairman, I have a quick question. Um and I and I like the fact that you've you've integrated this in with um thisou of the one-year duration. Um, I like the fact that at any time we can give 90 days notice to reclaim that property for our use. I think that's something that needs to stay uh yeartoear and I don't want to see us
045do a multi-year agreement. I think it needs to be something that we visit each year um preferably in August uh that we're as we're doing now. Appreciate that. >> Mr. Chairman, I've got a question. uh if we foresee that we might need to the use of center view school and it says 90 days notice could we give them 90 days notice while we're still in the midst of that year okay in because you know school in time for the beginning of a school year >> yes ma'am 90 days notice at any point in time on calendar Notice that u you look through the um um theou uh specific about the uh the use of the property uh again as as noted uh service building and reclamation clause in there. So uh the uh property remains
046uh district's property and we reserve rights to claim as uh at our discretion. Um maintenance uh be maintenance and facility responsibilities uh they will that will be incurred by the sheriff's department as well as insurance and liability. Um and then uh again just as we have a right to reclaim they also have the right to uh ate the u theou as well. So it is a is a mutually agreeable and uh thisou would supersede anything any other agreements or u implication uh things implied orally uh at any previous time. So this would start fresh in in October. >> Mr. Mr. Chairman, does that mean the sheriff's department is going to do the maintenance on the building? I know it's in need of painting or and there is a few windows out or have they agreed
047to fix those or is that still our responsibility? Would >> you like to speak to that, Mr. T? That's u in section four. The sheriff's department shall be solely responsible for all maintenance, repairs, utility upkeep, or other financial obligations associ associated with its portion of the property during the term of theou. That doesn't mean we can ask them to renovate the facility, but they would be responsible for use and how they would want to uh the facility present itself. I guess my next question will be for Chad. Um Chad, on the the insurance and liability on that building, I know the building will still belong to the school system, property still belongs to the school system, but are all of our buildings under a different insurance policy through the county or do we fall under
048the the same as the courthouse and and all of the other county buildings that that we that the county owns? So would we would we transfer the liability and the insurance from that building to the sheriff's department's policy or would that still be under us? Okay, thank you. >> We had a tenant once before and the the school system retained the insurance on that and as we're retaining rights to the building should we ever need it again. So, um it is part of that whole blanket of buildings that are u or that policy of all the buildings that the school holds. Um, that's a good question. But, uh, I would imagine if we're going to retain the rights to ownership, they would retain the the insurance rights as well, but a good question to raise
049potential risk if they're going to be doing activities that might violate that policy. So, that's something we'll have to explore. >> Mr. Douglas, do you have any questions or comments? All right. She said she had no questions. Couldn't hear that. All right. Um, so with that, if u there's no further discussion, anything that we need to uh clarify on thisou, then I would entertain a motion for approval. So moved. >> Motion by Miss Boward. I have a second. Second. >> Second by Mr. Smith. Any discussion. Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I opposed. Motion passes. Next item on our agenda is survey for file file fire fire hall property on Bondicoft who's uh as you know last meeting we were uh was requested that uh we consider deeding over the u
050property which the uh volunteer fire department building is uh is located which is uh on our the property that we have uh with Bonnie Croft School. And so coming out of our meeting, we uh looked for uh get a proposal for what that would actually look look like from a surveyed plat standpoint. Um Mr. Markham secured Christopher Vic out of Cookville to put a plat together approximately 1.08 acres uh to for their for their facility. Um and so the the process uh the way this would would work is that u um with this uh with this this plat we would uh uh motion uh and or take make a motion and and approve the the plat that that would be the the the area that we would be willing to to give up. This would
051have to go to the county's planning commission for approval and then after that it would uh have to go to uh the uh county because and to work out who this property what entity this property would be going to because under no circumstances would it be deeded over to an individual. it will have to be deeded over to uh an entity. Whether that entity is established now or will be esta will have to be established. Uh that's something that's uh fall with the fire department and and the county work that out. So um so what we're doing is just we're approving this u this plat. It would circle back to us to actually approve the transfer. So it would be a two-step process. Um, anything I'll leave out on that, Mr. D? >> No, that's
052right. Tonight, the board would just be approving to proceed with the process. It'll go to the planning commission. Mr. Markham says it will go to a steering committee because they will have to determine who the entity would be and then it would come back for final approval before this board. >> Would that entity have to be a 501c3 entity >> or something of the like? Yeah, it wouldn't be an individual. Okay. you know how the other volunteer fire departments are structured relative to being able to accept this? >> Well, they're currently, I think, in the same format as Bondicoft except with the exception of one that has an active 501c3 >> that may start a trend for volunteer fire departments. And I just want to be clear for the board and the public that the
053reason that this is coming about is the they the Bcraftoft fire fire department wants to enhance that property. They they want to get apply for some grants. They want to um just make that a better facility and for the safety of the community and they can't do that as long as it's in the school board's name. And so that's what is that's why this is transpiring and that's the motivation behind all this. So, uh, we want to do that for the benefit of the of the, uh, community in Biccraft community. Uh, so we think it's a good thing to try and help them to improve their facilities and improve, uh, the safety for the for the community at Biccraft. >> Mr. Chairman, I would uh, in the absence of Miss Douglas not being here u,
054and this being her district, I would make a motion that we uh, approve this plat uh, to send to the planning commission uh, for uh, for them to study. uh and then bring back to us uh for final approval to deed this over to the entity that is so noted by the county commission. All right. Have uh motion Mr. Mr. McDonald to proceed with the process of the platted uh uh the plat as presented to us to proceed that to the county planning commission. Do I have a second? >> Second, Miss Fowler. Any discussion? >> I do have a question. the septic drain field. I'm assuming that's the from the school, right? >> The area you see in green, the septic area, that's actually the tank area for the fireh hall and it actually extends
055out into the southern portion of that lot of base. Um, >> go to the the next one. It's the next >> Yeah, the septic field. I think that extends out from both directions actually. So into the school area. So there we might have to have some easement there for them. Okay. >> That'll be noted on the plat if there's an easement there. And there's also uh the gas line kind of goes to and fro and there's an easement there. So that'll be noted on the plat if there's any utility easements that need to be made. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. So, have a motion and and a second. Uh, any more discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. Motion passes. Next item of our agenda,
056uh, welcome back our student representative report. Uh so Miss Sacket joining us for her second year here on the board and so we look forward to hearing your uh your report tonight. Miss Sacket, >> thank you. Well, first off, I'm really excited to be able to introduce um someone who's actually not in attendance tonight, but I'm very excited to have Cali Odell serve alongside me as the junior representative on the school board. uh she is very excited about it and I know that she has a very strong articulate voice that she plans on, you know, using to represent our students and whether I was working with her through move to stand or student council um or attending Tennessee strong together or really just being close friends, she truly is great and I know that she'll
057bring a lot to the board and has the interest of our students um in the forefront of her mind. And it's still pretty early in school, but our seniors are working closely with our heirs foundation, which is new to the high school this year, but we are very much grateful for them. I know I can personally say that they've made me feel so confident in my post-secary readiness. So, being able to work with them and I know that they had every student in the high or I'm sorry, every senior fill out their Tennessee Promise application within a month. So, that's great. And every student can say that they have a backup plan. Um whether that's their plan or their backup plan, they've got a plan after high school. So that's great. Um our student council
058has been meeting and planning homecoming. So we're excited to announce the theme this Friday. And teachers, if you're listening, you can tune in on Friday to Warrior announcements and get a free year drink. And um our move to stand students and our warriors for wellness students. We worked with Carrie and oh dang it I can't remember his name but we worked with them and we got to make a plan for our Warriors for wellness program this year working with the elementary school students and not actually having to travel to each elementary school but figuring out a plan to just have one day or I think we're deciding on two days where we're going to get to have them just come to us. So, that's going to work a lot better and takes a lot of
059time. Um, gives us a lot of time back to actually being in class. And, uh, we're very excited. I know Callie's super excited. And I want to close with inviting everybody to the breakfast at the barn on September 20th. All you can eat pancakes. Uh, superior auction items. You can see me. Uh, we have a new officer team and we're really excited for this year. It's my favorite event that we put on. So, I'd like to extend the invitation to everybody. >> Thank you, Miss Sacket. Any questions for Miss Sacket regarding our student representative report? >> All righty. Look forward to Miss uh Miss Odella joining us next month. Next time on our agenda is our uh uh district update. Uh so, we'll turn over Mr. Troberger. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh overall, the status
060of the school district is good. White County Fair has come and gone. This can often be a sketchy week in the schools, but this year the reports were the all things went uh fairly well. I want to thank our local fair board for their hard work and providing another great local fair for our community and for the partnership with our schools. Uh personnel reports in your folders. Uh we're currently seeking a high school sped teacher which will be hard to find, but we still have a good contingency plan in place. Uh legislatively, I met with state representative Cheryl recently uh to discuss the upcoming session of the general assembly. I appreciate the support that our school system has from our state legislators and their willingness to sit and talk with me and us uh at
061our at our request. Academically, we're still celebrating the district's level five status on academic growth. Uh in the coming months, we expect to receive school letter grades and teacher level of effectiveness scores or what we call LOE's. Those should be coming out in the next month or two. Uh on the safety front, we've partnered with the sheriff's department. Uh Mr. Haley is working with our SRO's to provide gun safety presentations for all students as required by new state law. Uh information was issued to parents or will be issued to parents. Miss Rust, has that gone out yet? The tomorrow afternoon parents will get information about that and that will include a link to the training materials. But we're excited to have our SRO's be be leading uh that training for our safety presentation for our
062students. Financially, our financial status in the school system is on track, looking good. We've received the majority of our federal funding as you've heard tonight. Uh we're budgeting those funds, assigning them to the specific personnel and programs. Athletically, elementary basketball has begun. Yippee is in full swing. Uh WCHS volleyball picked up big win, a big win this week. the White County High School football team defeated the team from up north uh last Friday and I think travels to Toma tomorrow. So, congratulations to all those folks. Uh building projects, the foundation block has been laid at Doyle Elementary. The brick color has been selected. Uh new playground equipment is being installed at the Boncraftoft PreK playground. A major water leak was fixed very quickly and efficiently by our maintenance crews at White County High School this
063week. And thanks to all their hard work. Um, and at this time I think that completes my director's report. Be glad to answer any questions that you have. All right. Do we have any questions for our director? Thank you for that thorough report and and good update. All right. If no questions and we'll move on to the next item on our agenda and that's public comment. Per policy 14 uh 1400. All meetings 1404. All meetings require us to have an agenda item for public comment, but there's no one that has signed up to speak on any of our items uh on our agenda tonight. So, okay. Um so, uh you want to speak on an item on our on our agenda? Okay. All right. So, uh Mr. officer has uh asked to speak on item
064on our agenda. So uh board members, unless there's an objection, I will allow Mr. Officer five minutes. U thank you for letting me speak and I appreciate you what you do. I know it's hard to be on the board and deal with employees and deal with all the budgets that you've got to deal with. I I sympathize with you. I know a little bit about what you're going through. Uh the item I wanted to talk about was the counselor uh you know we uh there's been a lot of confusion about it. We were we were told that we were going to get it and then you know later on we found out that we weren't after the paychecks were were submitted or received our paychecks and u you know we've always signed a teacher contract
065ever since I've been educator for over 20 23 years. We do teacher duties. Uh we, you know, stay after school and do what what teachers are required to do. Uh our evaluations, you know, depending on whether you're middle or elementary or high, you know, your evaluations are a little bit different. Uh we don't go into the classroom, but we do have direct contact with students every day. Our offices are often filled students one at a time because of the nature of the middle and high school. That's how we deal with our students. Occasionally we meet with large groups but uh most time we're deal with oneon one be able to do the the teacher evaluation where like the classroom teachers do require an administrator in the office with us and often times we assistation it's
066also my understanding There are some folks that did get bonus that operate similarly the way we do similar evaluation we did. I don't know why that is. I know that all the counselors I've worked with both love our kids work hard at what we do and dishart. Any rate, I appreciate your time listening to me. I'm thankful for the $500 that we did get and I do appreciate all y'all's hard work. >> Thank you, Mr. Officer. All right. Um, next item on our business uh on our agenda is new business. Uh there was an item in our packet that should have been an old business, excuse me, new business uh item and that's regarding a director's travel. Um Mr. D, I'll allow you to to speak to that. You can articulate that uh what that
067conference is about. >> Yes, thank you. This came up after um the agenda was uh and the materials were set. But um as part of the McKini Vento grant that we receive um for homelessness in our community, u my wife who oversees that is required to go to the national conference. Uh it's national association on the education of homelessness for children and youth. I think it says NI conference. Um and uh that's in Dallas, Texas the 1 of November. and uh she has asked that I would accompany her in that trip. Um because the conference the grant pays for her registration and the hotel. It may be very minimal cost for me to go. Basically the the flight uh down there and maybe a couple meals um approximately $500 I think is what it would
068cost. I think it's good for me as a director to go. I'd also like to accompany my wife to um a major city far away that she doesn't want to go by herself. But um I can take the vacation time to do it, but I would be working and uh I would only miss really one day of school. The second day that I would be out was a Tuesday and that is election day. So we don't have students that day. So it'd be a good time for me to be away. So um rather than use vacation time to do that, I would be working and I think it'd be good information for me to gain as well on homelessness and and the grant itself. Uh, so I'm asking permission to use uh 500 about $500
069approximately of my travel funds to accompany her to the National Homeless Conference. Uh questions, comments on on the request we're being request is that uh we pick up the the expenses for our director's travel portion to attend that conference. So just clarification, are you attending the conference or simply working remotely? >> I will probably uh a little of both. Uh the conference fees are pretty high, so I was going to save the the uh uh the district that that amount. I could probably uh sneak into a few and I plan to until I get caught. But uh u but my plan is to participate and and be a part of that. But it it is it is about $850 I think for the conference fees, which is crazy. Um, but I think I could I
070I would like to just be a part of that on the fly on the wall if I can. But regardless, I can do a lot of emails and phone calls while I'm there and and I'll be working and be glad to log those hours. >> I'd make a motion we approve it. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. McDonald for approval of travel expense for Mr. for John Ber to attend the National Homeless Conference in Dallas in November 20 November 25th first and second of of No, >> but he was trying to say November of 2025. That's what Bob's trying to say. >> Yeah. >> It's the third and fourth. Fourth is election day. So I we'll actually leave on Saturday the 1st, but I will miss the third and fourth. Monday, Tuesday >>
071travel allow him to work remote uh on the third and fourth. So have a motion to have a second. >> Second by Miss Bower. Any discussion? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I opposed. >> Motion passes six to one. Thank you. All right. Next item on our business is old business. Uh board members, there is two old business items that uh put on our agenda tonight. Uh we'll take the first one uh on the list and that's discussion of the Education Freedom Act that was part of our state legislaturator's work this past spring. Coming out of that legislation, the state the state funded a one-time teachers bonus based on criteria that the state set. Um it was intended for teachers and in I think as as we all realize
072that uh teachers can be used teachers people can be teachers on a teacher contract or been a teacher and working in different different aspects of the educational process. But the state when they sent out when they passed that and said they were going to pay this this uh this bonus to teachers, they were very specific about the educators that were eligible to receive this bonus. It was not uh if they had any it was probably very limited input from any districts, any uh anybody that had uh had a stake in in this. It was something that uh that they made uh in in the halls of legislation in Nashville. And there's code Tennessee code far as what design what defines a teacher or existing educator in uh that would be that would be eligible to
073receive this this bonus. And so we as a district, we had the option to either participate or not participate in that. And we through resolution said that we would agree that we would pay part we would pay the bonus as it was stated in the by the Department of Education. So basically saying we will pay the $2,000 to those that were eligible to receive that based on their their their definition of what an educator is for these purposes. So take you back to May 29th of 2025 from from our board meeting. Um that was brought up and that was part of our discussion because we had to in the budget in in the budget process we had to uh make determination uh one that make sure that those funds were included in this year's budget.
074But then we had the opportunity uh to say if we wanted to do something else that we we we had debate over that. And during the course of the discussion of that uh of that of that u of that budget item um there was it was presented to us uh uh it was presented as as a recommendation to uh uh to pay license administrators and other district-wide personnel not part of that the Tennessee Department of Education's definition of a teacher. Um it was a motion it was presented that we include those, but that motion uh the motion to remove that from our budget um was uh was made and and seconded and through the course of budget amendments. What came out of that as a district, we agreed to pay all employees a $500 bonus
075who did not receive the $2,000 bonus. Per the legislation coming out of Nashville, we had no obligation to pay any more than what the state was requiring us to pay uh for for those for those teachers. However, after significant debate, uh several motions uh and several motion failures, but ultimately a motion that was agreeable by the board. Um, we did include that bonus to uh to uh to others who did not receive any who who who were not on track to not receive any money at all. So that was the action we took and uh understand that that was a complicated time in trying to communicate what our employees in the district should expect. teachers specifically um because the state was not clear with their final definition of what a teacher was till later in
076June. So there was there was ample time for the uh for something to be presented and then it get revised and ultimately have a a final a final verdict on what the eligible educators what what those definitions were and so that that took place. So, the reason this is on for discussion tonight is for us as a board to say make sure we understand we got questions how that played out, what actions we took. And in my mind, if there was any if there was any potential for somebody that should have received the funds based on how they were classified in 24 and 25, the 2425 year if that might have got missed if they changed positions during the course of last year versus where they are this year. Um, for the for for your
077the record, the state working with our administrations, they did three rounds of tests to qualify to make sure that what we were showing as those that would qualify to receive this bonus matched up with what their records showed. and with a with the final version um coming out in um I think it was middle of June uh when that last reconciliation of of of positions came about. So, state went through working with our with our uh our central office to make sure that we were those that were eligible and met the criteria that they were that they got the the $2,000 uh bonus. And then we as a board budgeted during that same payout period, we budgeted $500 bonus for uh for the others who were did not meet that criteria. And so um there
078had been some calls as Mr. our officer explain maybe some some uh some cute confusion on that standpoint, but wanted to bring it up just to say that's what we decided. That's what that's the action that we we took when we were considering that that matter. So, just want to make sure that we understood what we were doing. >> Mr. Young, I've got a question. I was reading over this and um on this uh section It says, "Please note that a teacher and um then it says including prek interventionist, school counselors, librarians, media, and other roles." But I don't see where it it gives that thing that we had talked about that they had to be in front of the students that length of time. Where where is that listed in here that that they
079have to be in front of students? >> Yeah, there was a update and unfortunately they came out in verbally the state said that they were going to include first of all I want to say that as I've said before I wish every person that had a certificate a teaching certificate would have received the bonus. I've said that before I'll say it again. Um, you know, I can make an argument for our counselors, our coaches, our principles, our supervisors, uh, who were all left out in that mix. Um, but then later after they verbally told us that in the meeting, they came back with a memo which from June of 25. Um and on the third second page uh they note that please note that a teacher in Tencompass includes a wide variety of roles with
080direct supports to students including prek teachers, interventionist, school counselors, library media specialist and other roles. Categories excluded from this list are instructional supervisors and administrators. And then the next line says aligned to the statutes and rules detailed above to be eligible for the bonus. An educator must also u and it's delineated spend a majority of their day in direct services students be employed employed more than 120 days and be in full employment time status. So from that calculation the state pulled their records to determine who is doing that and they have records of what students are tied to them in what classes. So, they sent us a list and said, "Here's who we determine are your teachers." And then they had some false and true qualifiers, whether you're a partial year exemption, more than 120
081days, and more than 50% of the day in front of students. So, they sent us the list and said, "Here's who we say are your teachers. Prove us wrong." So, we had to go back two or three times and verify that their list was true. So, like I said, it was the state's definition. And I'm not passing the buck, but I am because this wasn't Kurt Grumbarker or White County Schools or the White County School Board. This was the state of Tennessee. And the argument over and I disagree with them, but the argument over what a teacher is is the definition of the Tennessee Department of Education, which is where that grievance lies. And I will fight to get that changed, but there's a lot of people in this room that are deserving of it
082and didn't get it. And but that I and I in the email that I sent to those that reached out to me um what I shared with them, what I my my displeasure in this whole thing is that it pit school boards against their employees. It put them in a difficult position. It it made people feel unvalued. Um it was I think it was hush money to begin with over vouchers. Um the whole system was wrong. And we had teachers that said, "We don't want it at all because we know we think we're being bribed." And then we had other people that said, "I want it and my feelings are hurt because I didn't get it." It was bad all the way around and it was very much was and and it would and that
083that's that's something that although I'm sympathetic to needs to be directed towards your legislature and the Tennessee Department of Education >> and and I think we need to be addressing the legislators because these uh people went to college and got their lure that makes them a teacher and uh who's to say uh like you say just like Mr. officer, he has a student in front of him probably a lot of the time it's just not 30. So, uh, that is very vague. And with them getting an email saying, you know, I would have read from this and when it said counselors, I would assumed I would have got it, too. And so I can see where uh the confusion was because it stay on this thing school counselors, but they're saying if you're not in
084a a classroom setting, which is very vague, and I think that uh the um government in this case has done a a very disservice to our teachers and if they hold a lure, they should have got it. And uh I wish uh this board would had the money to give everybody that have held a teacher lure the money that they well deserve. But uh I'm I'm I'm a majority of only one. >> Thank you. >> I want to follow up on something that she just said at that right there at the end. Um, is there a way that we can get a number on what it would cost this board to give uh those folks the remaining amount of the money uh that was left off of that list? And and I and I want
085to say, Mr. Officer, Miss Taylor, I appreciate you guys being here tonight. Um, thank you for and and I'm I'm sorry that we did a disservice to you guys on my feeling is we did a disservice and not as this board we did a disservice but the state did you guys a disservice and and I want to apologize for that. But Mr. D, can you get us a a list of who was left off of that? Um what it would cost us to pursue making up the remainder? I know they got 500, but that that'll be another 1,500 that that we would give to them. Can you give me Can you get us a a list of those folks and and what the money would cost um this board to be able to make this
086right uh in the long run? >> Can I I believe we shared that information already. There was approximately 35 people that were that hold a teacher's license that didn't get that, including a lot of people in this room. Um, you know, $35,000 is going to be $70,000. Um, but I think I remember correctly. Go back and watch the video. But it, you know, my my thought there is is, okay, you make an exception for those 30 people and I'm I don't if I get it at all, but if I make an exception for everybody that holds a teaching license and and the board makes an exception, which you're perfectly in your right mind to do, if I'm a hardworking educational assistant, I'm going to think, well, I work hard, too, and now I'm excluded. and
087you're treating those you made an exception for all those people. I just think that's, you know, it it puts the board in a really bad position to spend a lot of money that you didn't budget to spend. And not that they're not worthy. I'm just saying that that's the slope that you you get on. And I think some of the conversation too was what happens next year when the state says that we're going to give, you know, band directors, no, just I'm just pulling that out of the air, but they want to give them a big brace and then you're going to feel compelled to match that again. just sets a precedent. Um, and I think that was some of the conversation that that the board had at that time. I can get you whatever
088number. And again, I want to say I'm for everybody getting that bonus, but this again was bad from the beginning. I take responsibility for any miscommunication that came from my part. Um, that but I was just relaying the ambiguous information as it was coming in from the state. Um, but what the board did, the board, the White County School Board didn't pay anybody $2,000. The White County School passed money through from the state department, but in the White County School Board in their good grace saw it to it to honor everybody uh with with a bonus uh so that they felt valued and acknowledged and uh and I certainly support that and appreciate that. Uh, I get you what you'd like, but um, you know, that's it was just a difficult situation that the state
089put all all of us in. And, uh, and I'm sorry for anyone that felt unvalued and unworthy uh, in that process. >> Mr. Chairman, if I may ask, Mr. D, what what's the protocol when it comes to u pay increases? Is there a and I'll use example at at tech. I get an email from the HR office said this is your new pay. H how does that get relayed to the staff overall if there's a pay increase in this case if there was a bonus given and and when would that occur? >> So pay increases are on the step scale which is salary scale which is posted online. So um that's available to everyone to see. Um, this was communicated mainly through email and principal uh principal communication during principal meetings about where we were
090in the process, but it was like I said that information was coming in in pieces um and then through this forum as well through the school board. Any other questions or comments? Just just one more. I I think we can all agree how this was handled from Nashville to here is could could have been better. Um what we did as a board I um I I stand behind the two phone calls that I fielded were one don't feel valued because do have a teaching license. I I I hope I was able to to share that that's not the case. Um but the other concern was the communication and and if this we do this again or the state does this again, we have to be better at that. Just plain and simple because you're talking
091about people's money, their livelihood. So, all right. Any other comments? Okay, we're going to move on to the next item on our old business, and that's discussion of snow day pay for for staff. So, in our uh weekly update, uh Mr. has brought this up because as board we did not take any action on this prior. So administratively what he has done is he has allowed those who would otherwise back up following proper accounting procedures and laws for um uh for acred time. Um we're doing away with that and basically giving those that would not receive typically um pay for snow days and where in the past we have come back and supplemented as a board uh the days for them giving them opportunity to make up time acrew time to get that uh supplement
092at the end of the year. Um Mr. has put in place a plan where these individuals are given the opportunity to work um extra time uh and get paid compensated for that now. Um so we will not be having to having to keep up with our cruels and then trying to to uh uh rectify those at the end of the year. So that's what was that's what he shared with us. Um I think this is more just to make sure awareness of board that we won't be having taking up uh action on on uh compensating those that are giving people opportunity to make up time towards the end of the year because they were not going to get for the time they missed due to snow. Uh handling it on the front end, painted on
093the front end. However, if the board wants to change any policy about snow days for those that typically would not uh not get compensated for for not working, then I asked Mr. D to put that on our budget list and start the agenda for our our budget work session in May of 2026. So that way we don't forget about it. If we want to take any action other than what we're do, what's in place now, we'll have the opportunity to do that. But right now it's just forformational purposes that that's what it what's in place. So um I'll let you expand on that, Mr. D. >> No, you said it well. I just that I know that comes up um every year and it's confusing and what we had in place was really an improper
094accounting practice of you know keeping up with comp time and then fixing it at the back end. So what we're doing now is those a lot of those people were already working extra 15 minutes every day. we're just paying for it right now. And so we've explained to them, you're gonna you you've your day has been increased uh for everyone, all of our support staff, that that 15 minutes. Um so they're earning that time now, but they're getting paid for it right now. But when it snows, it snows and there's no makeup. There's no time to make up. You've been working all year, but you've been get paid all year. Uh but it will mean at those last checks of the summer, if we have nine snow days, they're going to get nine days deducted
095at that time. So uh that's the correct accounting practice. The board is certainly welcome to rethink that. And as we go into the next budget cycle, we can discuss if there's something different that the board wants to do as far as staff and snow days are concerned, but we thought in in lack of any changes at least we could have a more appropriate accounting practice and bookkeeping practice uh for their hours at this time. >> Can you tell me how we did it before we changed it? So theoretically, if the comptor is listening, there might have been um you know, let's say a a educational assistant would help with parent dismissal or students dismissal at the end of the day. They would work an extra 15 minutes and they would bank that and bank that
096and bank that every single day. And then if we missed five days of snow over the course of the year, that 15 minutes is going to equal about five days or a little more of time. And so when the board then would say, "Hey, we're going to forgive five days. We're going to let you make up that time." Tech, theoretically, they've already made it up because they've been working all year long. So, um, not the best accounting practice. But now other folks, maybe food service, they did some things different. They had some days where they could come in and they would work all day on a day that that was off or they uh they would come back in and work extra hours. Not just food service, but other people would work extra hours to
097make up the time that the board has allowed them to make up to five days. So what we're what we're doing now is just paying them for that 15 minutes legitimately that they're working right now and they won't have to make it up later. >> So what I've been asked is there a way where they could actually get the checks in the summer instead of adding it on to the checks now where they could get the one lump sum. Well, with like I said, we fixed that accounting practice to pay for what they're actually working. That would be, I think, going the opposite direction to be paying later for work, >> but that's what they requested because they feel like the 15 minutes on the and I I mean, I can see I mean I
098mean I was self-employed most of my life, so I didn't have a paycheck like that. But >> that's a that's a good point, but I don't think people that run payroll would be able to uh I don't think that would be allowed. One one thing one suggestion I can make is is as we go into the spring um we see how many snow day we've snow days we've had and uh the board can consider in the budget process if they want to do something the board could say hey we're going to give you five days next year just because you know we want to and that could be on top of the 15 minutes that we're just going to pay you for five if the board wanted to you could pay for all of them
099but that that number I think we looked at that was over $400,000 and that was where the because there are districts that pay everybody where and they everybody just goes home they shut down their central office and everything and I'm all for that. But um there are that was a big number and that in this budget in this this economy that I think that wasn't palatable to to the board. So, um, but we also talked about with, um, this process, the budget process moving forward as we have those step raises in place, the and we talk about bonuses, the end of the school year when we look at our fund just to say, "Hey, we've got this much money left over." That would be an appropriate time, I think, for the board to say, "Hey,
100we want to think about some bonuses here." And at that time, I would say, "Let's do everybody the same and and treat everybody respectfully." Uh, but that would be an appropriate time at the beginning of the year when you don't know what July is going to look like or June's going to look like, it's not a great time to think about budget or even September. But at the end of this year, that might be a great time to say, "Hey, you know what? Those counselors are really important and we can make make up some difference or uh just a suggestion, but that sort of thing. That might be an appropriate time to to look back on some of those things and maybe some of our support staff that missed x number of snow days at
101that time. That would be a more appropriate time, I think, with left remaining funds to look at that. Okay. Thank you. >> Just a suggestion. M >> Mr. Chairman, do you have um available the policy number that goes along with snow days? >> It's actually under uh school year. I think it's in schoolboard in section one. Um I have to look at I don't know top of my head, but the school year it mean 200 days and it breaks down the insurance I mean excuse me the inservice days. Mr. McDonald, ask your question again. You asking how many days? >> No. What policy in our schoolboard policy manual is it so that I can go and read that policy for where it talks about the the school year, the 200 days, 180 days, the educational
102system, snow days, all of that stuff. Do you have that available? 18 1800 is 1.800 is the school calendar. Okay, board members that was uh that item of business was uh as I said that was uformational purposes. We can we can come back and revisit that uh later in the year and uh we have that noted to come back and and visit and in uh in our May May time period. All right. Any other comments on u snow days? Okay. If not, then we'll move on to chairman's comments. Our next school board meeting will be on October 9th, 2025 here at White County Board of Education. We'll have a work session at 5 o'clock and board meeting at 6. Uh and we will get you agendas out on that as the appropriate time. So other
103than that, uh that leads us to our last time. Our agenda is adjournment. So entertain a motion for adjournment and motion by Mr. McDonald, second by Miss Fowler. All those in favor? All right. Thank you very much.