White County School Board Meeting 3/20/25

001You may need two minute warning. Nope. Um so u call our work session to order for uh the uh March 20th uh meeting county board of education. to order. Um, so what we'll do, board members, we'll go through uh as we normally do, we'll go through consent agenda items and we'll include some uh some reports that u uh some members will be uh given the opportunity to uh address during this time. Um we'll go through our our consent, see if there's any items. Again, if there's anything that needs further discussion, have opportunity to pull those out. do that at uh when we uh uh discuss the approval of the uh agenda for this meeting. Uh add those in your business items as we uh proceed through our through our agenda. So uh with that I'll

002we'll start through uh through our list including your in your electronic packet was copy of the uh uh minutes from our work session and regular board member board meeting in February. So I'll pause now if there's any uh questions, corrections, clarifications that need to be made on the uh the minutes that were provided. Okay. If not, then we'll uh we'll move on to the uh next item and set item, and that's uh item 6B. Uh there's some uh some budget amendments that we'll uh address tonight. No new money coming into the district, unfortunately. Um there's some coding corrections that need to be made. Um, and then there's some items that were over budgeted that uh based on director's recommendation, we need to uh consider moving to uh other categories so they can be uh be

003used there. So uh I'll let uh uh director speak to that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um first is uh general purpose school fund 141. It's amount of $6,000. Uh this is budget funds received from Stellar Therapy Services. um to offset the cost of nursing supplies. You'll remember, if you'll recall, I believe last year the board passed to allow Stellar to track the services that were are used with um some of our tenure students and then that money then gets reimbursed back to the to the uh county back to the district. So, we've received $6,000 back for just allowing them to turn in uh those costs and recoup that for us. So, so with $6,000 that will go back into nursing supplies for our school system. So um budget amendment uh the next budget amendment is

004fund 142 sub fund 951. This is the out of school time uh career pathways. This is a CTE grant. Uh this is u this is a a coding change. We're just changing it from uh the revenue code change from one uh code to another. So this is $75,000 that we had received in that grant. Just changing the code for that uh in accounting. where it's in the line item that's placed. Uh the next is uh funds 142 again the 951 out of out of school time career pathways grant. Uh this is an amount of $5,7155 to amend a budget transfer of unused funds to be budgeted into a line that allows for purchasing purchasing of those materials not considered instructional. So just moving it into the appropriate line uh for that that equip that that

005spending of materials for that cost of materials. And then finally uh fund 142 uh sub fund 802 this is CT Perkins reserve grant in the amount of $5,17.58 to transfer unused materials and supply funds to the equipment code to complete the criminal justice project. So criminal justice I believe bought some partitions for their classroom. Uh they have some 911 call centers set up in there. They're very impressive. And so this is to use some unused money and supply materials to purchase the equipment. And that's all the budget amendments for this month. Okay. So you had an opportunity to look at those in your uh in your packet uh prior to the meeting. So any questions for director on the budget amendments and transfers. So, is the $75,000 is that just is that a new income

006income stream or is that a one time? Um, no. It's it's uh I'd like Mr. Lard to probably speak to that specifically. I don't know, Paul. I know it's uh one I really don't know if it's recurring or not. I'd have to ask Mr. Ward. I want to answer that and be incorrect on that. Um, do you recall? I don't. Okay. I'm sorry. that is familiar with those. Um it's a lot um it has to do with the out out of school time. So it has to do with um I think trips to uh like TCAT and the field trips and things like that that they take to opportunities for students after school um and uh along those lines. So that's that's but I can get more definition for that from Mr. Ward. Please do.

007I will. Okay. Good question. Any other questions regarding budget amendments and transfers? Okay. Um then uh next we go through the uh consent item. Um tonight uh policies uh 5106 and as well as 5118. Those are coming up for second second reading. As you recall, um there was some verbiage change in uh in that in those policies uh changing SHA statements to May statements May statements and uh in order to regarding the reimbursement for background checks. So uh those policies are coming up for second reading tonight and we'll uh go into effect if they remain in consent agenda. Any questions, comments on those policies, changes there? Okay. Um uh second item in that I I want to thank each of you for uh your diligence in going through and reviewing uh uh section three policies.

008Uh I know I gave you probably a little short notice, but you know that might be better. It might be better for me to give you short notice so that way you're not like if you're like me, you tend to procrastinate on things if I give them the length you time amount of time. But, uh, there was, uh, some really good review in that and and I appreciate you you looking at those. Again, looking at the policies, there's a couple of things I think that, um, um, serves us well in doing this, especially considering some uh, board members that may be going through this uh, for for the first time. Um, one, if uh there's question on policy, it gives you the opportunity to uh uh reach out to a director and and ask that

009uh and try to get an answer there. And so that's uh that's good. And I understand that several of you have with some of the questions that you you post. Um then also it's uh good reminder for us as a board to look and see if there's anything that we should be doing that maybe uh drawing some attention to that uh maybe needs a little extra effort. So um that's opportunity for us to to do that as well. And then the the last thing is just um the the verbiage of the policy as as it as it reads uh to see if there's anything from a uh that may come out in the policy that we question, you know, are we really doing this? Should should we be doing this? Is anything changed? So, it's

010all uh it's all good. So, I appreciate the reviews on that. If my count's correct, I think there was uh there was approximately nine nine policies where I give you the opportunity to sit discussion um that were recommended for discussion. I didn't given the fact we put the agenda out for uh for tonight's meeting uh prior to the fact gave you everybody the chance to u uh to review that. Um we if there's anything you'd like for me to put on uh our next meeting agenda, we can we can certainly do that. Um but uh if there's any comments on that, if you want to want to address I know Miss Fowler, Miss Officer, Miss Stone, and Miss Sacket all had uh some comments uh there. So, if there's anything you want to uh anything

011you want to maybe consider for an upcoming meeting, um let me know now or we can uh or you can give you some time to think about it and u um come back to on mine. You know, there was some uh stuff that I'm not really sure about like who has keys to the vehicles that's and then some of the security stuff. So, I thought that was very important details that we might ought to go over. Okay. Um any u of course I'm sure we probably have some procedures for as far as giving out keys and to uh to uh to those that who can drive. But could you maybe speak to that one for just a just a minute? Um, I'm not sure exactly which one it was, but the, you know, keys are

012within the school vehicles are kept at the school under the direction of the principal who has procedures on how they're handed out. I know our our district vehicles keys are kept in front office and u we have a schedule and a calendar of who uses those and how and how they're how they're shared out. And another thing it said it said shall uh like uh the vehicles shall be drove by bus driver only. Don't don't some of the things get like the cheerleading bus and some of the others get well has to be school employees p school personnel. So are you sure that's the way it reads? I don't know which policy are you talking about? Uh, the one that my name was 3402. I think I Yeah, you did. Maybe you need to go

013back. I'm not going to spell anything. Yeah. School buses have to be driven by school bus drivers or those with a CDL. Well, depending. Yeah. To carry passengers, but the board owned vehicles or not just not we're not we're differentiating those from school buses. So those that would include any really uh any school employee is is covered under our uh insurance to cover to drive those. So our vans and our our vans is different. Cars. Yes. Then the bus school buses. Yeah. School buses require especially with passengers require CDL langu license. Yes. But I didn't know like the 15 passenger van if I didn't know that would be considered. Well, I don't know that we have any 15 passenger ones and you couldn't do that either because when you have to over over I guess

014when you get to 15 passenger van you'd have to have a passenger endorsement on your license as well. Now I knew that. That's the reason I wasn't sure about that. But they can carry in those seven passenger vans. They'll carry they we have several of those and we have the the Dodge Journey uh my truck any of the work uh vehicles at the maintenance department. They all have to be school employees would be insured to drive those. Uh but but passengers are is a different story. But you should be able to carry just in a you can just a coach could drive a van as an employee and have six ball players with them. It's a good uh good question. That's uh what this time's for. One other thing. Um so do school bus drivers

015have to have a CDL or is it just a endorsement for a chauffeur's license? You have to have CDL and and yeah. Um you have to have a S endorsement and a P endorsement. S is the school bus and P is passenger. I know at one time it would used to just be a like a special chauffeer's license. Yeah. So the passenger is the one that gets you the the of over 12 or 12 passengers I think 15 passengers and above. But you for school bus you have to have a specific S endorsement. Okay. And you you have to wear and record the use of your CPAT machine. Just saying really or they will take your CDL. It's a trade. Wow. It's a trade. And during CO they will come to your house and confiscate

016your respiratory uh machine. I've just heard I've just heard I have a question about policy uh 3.301 is because it talks about the use of pagers in two-way radios over cellular phones and I thought that was a bit outdated because pagers aren't really used anymore. Yeah, I I agree. Um they I think that came up at TSBA sometime and they can be um and they can be I think the conversation then was um because they are reliable in some um situations where cell phones do not get good service that pagers tend to do better in some regards and uh that's why uh hospitals would still use them um and have repeaters and things and so that doctors even long after cell phones came about. So, I think that's why that why if I remember correctly

017why that language was still there, but I have no plans on uh issuing pagers to everyone. But, um it's a good point. It's it's a good call and we can I can follow up on that and see if there's a need to remove that. the price me of providing cell phones because so many people now just use their own personal cell phones for work or or personal use. Um do we have fair amount of those in the system? We do. Um the uh schools are responsible if principles have those and like I say at the high school if the all the principles have those uh cell phones the school themselves pays for those. They pay for the bill on that. Uh there are a number of uh central office staff that that have their cell

018phones that are purchased or paid for um because they do so much of their work that day and they have to be on call uh for their work. So that they're paid for. Uh but beyond administrators there's and maintenance u that have to be on call. Uh there's not there's not many not a lot of teachers or uh any any really any teachers I know of or department heads that have those. Most of our a lot of our supervisors don't even have uh office phones. just mainly those that are on call for any purpose like like head principles and uh maintenance and myself. Okay, good. Other questions, comments about policies to be reviewed? I just had a question on 3215. Um it's the board inspection and acceptance policy. How is the board member responsible for

019that activity chosen? So we build new facilities. Is it something we just vote on? So um the um so when we go through uh new construction um and I think Mr. Markham might speak to this. We work in conjunction with the the county on on this. Um not a 100% sure about the process as far as selecting the architect. If uh if those are if we present the project and then architects build bid on doing the engineering work because construction project you're going to have the engineering work then you're going to have the con the the the general construction work two separately. I know that we did some uh some process of bid going through a bidding process for the construction. How do we do that on um on when we're doing new facilities say

020the engineering frontend work? So under state law, as long as you have an existing relationship with a architect or engineer or somebody that offers that type of professional service, you can just extend that that relationship to the next project. So So if we're working, for example, with Upland on something um and we have in the past, then we'll be able to just utilize them for any additional project. in order to choose a different architect or engineer, we'd have to go through a request for qualifications process or something like that. And you know, that's a that's we've done that on some projects before. We've gone through a process like that and and chosen an architectural firm and some other projects we've just used one that we've got an existing relationship with. Okay, great answer. You answered

021a question that I don't think you asked regarding policy. Um the uh um typically and you speak to this on accepting a new facility um go through contractor they'll be a contract on uh that's laid out on the beginning of the bid process and go through and they'll have punch punch list that ultimately when all those conditions are met within a certain percentage I'm not sure if it's 95% or some negotiated percentage there at that point in time that punch list is complete that would come to the board If all conditions of the contract were met, then we would vote on acceptance. Is that close? Yes. And then Well, and then the board will sign off when they issue payment as far as the the final payment since we transfer out of contingency and and

022in the project. That's the board's confirmation of that project as well. But it comes at a recommendation of the architect who we've hired that that that the project has come to completion. And with every payment that we make on the project, we withhold 5% and put it in an escrow account as as contingent or retainage on the project and then that's not released until everything's finished at the end. So yeah, there's there's a process that go through that u uh to make sure that you know when it's the work's done, it's done to to expectations. Good question. Any other questions on policy? I had a question about one of my sections. Yes, ma'am. Emergency preparedness plan. Yes, ma'am. So that's 3.202. So the sha statement actually has to do with the principal. So it says

023the principal shall rarely check the quantity, locations, and conditions of fire extinguishers and shall give all school personnel instructions on how to properly use fire extinguisher. Um where I work, we have a service that goes around and checks on the fire extinguishers. Um, so do the principles actually check all that and give instruction? So I would think uh though I thought about that. Um, we do have a service that make sure that they're all up to date. We do have uh custodians that go and check those and make sure that they're still showing green even after they've been checked. Uh there's a list for that. As far as training folks, um when I know the elementary schools when the fire department comes and they train, they show the students and they show them how fire

024extinguisher works. So, we kind of consider that as training, but I'll have to look and see how we're doing that at middle school and high school because I haven't seen the fire trucks there uh for any good reason in a long time. So, uh so we need to follow up on that, make sure that everyone's trained on that. Um you know, uh there was a time when I was here at Northfield, I put fire extinguishers in every room as a safety measure because you couldn't put a weapon in a room for obvious reasons, but uh fire extinguishers, they will take your breath away. They're a they're a smoke screen. Uh and when it's it's an eye irritant and it can be used as a weapon if needed. So, and no one objected to you putting

025extra fire extinguishers in your school. So, uh that may be something that we want to look at. I mean, it was there's a little bit of a cost, but even if you just had the $20 ones from from Sam's Club, you know, that it was an inexpensive way to provide an extra safety measure as well. So, Miss Officer, if I if I think I understand where you're you're going with this, u the way the policy reads, it says principal will do will do that. The principal shall be the one doing the instructions. Um maybe that's uh you know, maybe that's something that if you want to make a recommendation of how that language might could be check uh changed, you could present that at our next meeting and we could uh read it. that might

026be a revision that we want to make on that policy because I think that's a that's a excellent point on just you know some of the language and and clarity not saying that it's not being done but you know you just like to or designate principal designate or principal shall principal shall be responsible to ensure that these things are being taken place have taken place I've made a note of that that's a good good call the other one under the same plan again for me just as a a new member um remote learning drill um that's something I'm not familiar with and I know that that is probably something that came out of co but with the weather being out there some days you know remote learning is something we actually definitely do I just

027don't know how that drill is conducted Russ do you want to speak to that sure so uh the remote learning drill is all that they're required to do is make sure that the students know if they go home and take a device, how they would log into it. So the process is the teacher gives them all a Chromebook, they show them how to log in and then they make sure that they know how to get to their assignments and that's considered the remote learning. Thank you. So question on that. What's what's the grade that starts at? Well, really any kindergarten take they could take. We have enough devices that everybody could take a device. So we can't depend on a kindergartener remembering how to log in. They they also have well so when when co

028happened they they give a sheet on how to log in and they use QR codes. It's not they're having they're not having or KOB is not having to remember a password or a username. It's it scans a card. It logs them in and and typically these online programs that they're using they're already using in the classroom now. So, it's it's repetition. It's not they're going to go home and do something brand new. Okay. Also, in reality, from the folks that have had to use virtual days, um usually K2 is a paper packet and that has that's gone over. I don't I haven't heard that the state department has objected to that. As long as the students were getting learning, uh that was better than fighting the technical aspects of parents that didn't have internet were

029fighting connectivity issues. And so, uh, the reality, uh, this, in practice, that's the way that reads. In reality, the younger ones are probably going to get a paper packet. All right. Any other policies you want to uh, need to discuss, mate? I got I got I've got two. I've got two. I've got two right here. Okay. You still got another Oh, sorry. Okay. No, go ahead. Okay. The commercial advertising on the school buses. Are we full? No. Um I believe we have some space from others that's a revenue sharing program and that money goes to the what we call minor sports or non-revenue generating sports and uh it's been very successful. Um Coach Crane oversees that program. Uh currently I think it's $500 per sign per year and u that's been very successful in helping

030share um spread the wealth for those programs. And uh I know uh soccer was beneficial. Got help with their uniforms this year, but then next year it might be baseball and then it might be tennis the next year. So it's been a good program. So how do we advertise that it's out there? Um we probably need to put things out on our website and Facebook and things like that. Coach Crane is just kind what we've done normally is when we've needed it and say tennis, we'll use soccer as an example. If soccer is not sold any signs and soccer's asking for money, then we would ask the soccer team. Well, then you as a group need to go out and sell a couple signs. And we've kind of done it within the programs themselves so

031that they had some ownership in it. Uh and then they they they reap the benefits. Okay. All right. So, my other one real quick, and if we need to move this to maintenance, we can. Okay. Um Witherm Park. We all know I've got a prek student at Witherm Park. That is horrible getting your student in there because so you either pull in and you park on one side because you're not supposed to park on this side. So if you park right here, there's only limited space or people park in front of the sidewalks where the awnings are, which that's very aggravating when it's muddy. Then the students walk through the mud. Or you have to park over here in this little parking lot. Then you have to walk through the mud if it's rained to

032go across where parents are coming up to drop their children off and there are no walkways and people should know. But believe it or not, I about got hit the other day. So, um I just feel like something needs to be done in that area. I feel like it's something to look at. And of course, that was 3.2. So that was a perfect time for me to bring that. Yeah. Yeah. It's a challenge. I think a lot of our schools were built, which that one was built in 1980. Um, you know, times are just different now. Nobody rides the school bus, right? And, uh, so we have difficulty getting the school buses in. We actually bring the school buses in off a winding lane and they come in against the flow of traffic that's exiting.

033But that's a and we put signs up to say, "Watch for the big yellow buses." But that's a better plan than what I was seeing which was buses passing up a hill around a curve on a two double yellow line. Yes. To bypass all the people waiting in line so they could get up get you know it's just not a good situation. We can see if we can I know they've moved it different times but with that side uh pickup entrance over there and um you know we can look at what can be done there but it's just a tough situation. It's a small parking area. Yeah. Well, I know it's actually the the no parking's actually worn off over here on this side as you're coming in and so people park right here. We

034can definitely do some things with paving and lining and things like that. But and then I also thought like you said over there on the side if you know there's a few little steps if if we could just put some more steps more parents could park over there instead of walking through the mud or something when it actually walks and and p painting and lining and yes absolutely that was just an idea. I made a note of that. Thank you. Good good idea. All right that got your two. I'm done. Yes. Okay. So, I first have a question on 3203 and it's kind of like what Miss Officer had where the shall statement is for the principal and it says that the principal shall develop a crisis management plan um for use in times of

035crisis. I guess I was more or less wondering is that presented to the board or to you so that you know that the school has a crisis plan in action that like meets all the requirements that it needs to and that everybody like it says um that it has to have a crisis team and everybody's aware of what the plan is like how do we know that that's being reviewed? So that is happening in monthly we have safety meetings we have what we call cert meetings and there are different meetings in which administrators come and sometimes it's more uh the building teams of cert teams when within each school um those do exist mo there they exist with the guidance and the help of our safety supervisor Mr. Brian Haley oversees that all schools have

036those and have them in place. We don't publicize those and bring them to the board for safety for security reasons. Okay. Uh those are things that exist in some of our procedures. U but they they most certainly do exist. Each school has one. Uh they have been I said orchestrated with the supervisor to make sure that they haven't. So it hasn't been that Castville's come up with their own. we've helped them at at the district level say and then and then say here's a model and then we kind of built some uh specifics to Cville into their plan as far as their building and things but they certainly do exist and we go over those uh and we we practice tabletop exercises monthly uh based on those plans of what would you do at your

037school if this happened. Okay. And then in a lot of the policies it'll say like in the top left corner review annually in October. Does that mean the policy is reviewed annually? And then I guess that's what it means cuz you answered my question that the crisis management plan is reviewed monthly. So, but is that referring to the policy or to the plan? When it says reviewed, this is the review. So, it just when the board looks at it annually, that's what it means it to be reviewed. And if they had a question, this is the type of setting in which we would those questions would be answered. So, okay. Thank you. Just sorry. No, before you go go off that and I appreciate the fact that you you're diligence and looking at policy. Um

038uh just one thing here when you when when you're reading this in times of crisis including it says suicides, shootings and deaths of student or faculty member and is one type of crisis. Then you have another type of crisis that's more safety related and how you how you how you uh do that. uh is crisis in when something happens a student maybe it's not on campus off campus off that's crisis too for for students that's probably separate apart from safety crisises um principles I'm do they just is there anything formal about that or do they just come together and manage the situation as it arises far as hard you know providing counseling or for the for students that may make pe make adults available for students in those times. Yes, there are there are protocols

039for that as far as if there's a death or a suicide and how they follow how they handle it who who you call who you have set up for counseling and that's been shared with principles. So in the event unfortunate event that that happens then our our guidance teams lead that lead that charge and uh they have they have protocols and steps that they follow. That's great. That's good. Good to hear. Sorry. No, you're fine. Um, and then my other questions are kind of the same, but it's on 3212 and then 3.4. But I guess I was just wondering that like in 3212 it's about district water testing and then the other one was about like um bus reports and like maintenance and stuff like that. But if a parent or one of us was

040to ask, can I see the results for the last district water testing? Is that something we provide to them? We could provide that. Yes. And then um with the bus driver thing to like you um review and make sure everything is up and running and right and they have the right signage and stuff like that. But if I was a parent and I was to ask you, is this bus like this? Would you present the report? Yeah, the appropriate way to do that is just to do a public records request and then and then it gives us time to get those records together because I obviously don't have them with me right now. So, we but we can get those things. Uh, and I would love for someone to request the records on our maintenance

041garage because we are the only district that I know in the state of Tennessee that's had I think six years in a row that we've had a SC score of 100, perfect score from the Tennessee Highway Patrol on our bus inspections, meaning that our fleet's ready to roll and uh safe for student transportation. So, um, yeah, but the appropriate way there's there's a policy for that as well where you how you, uh, uh, I believe it's in section one and how you request public records and then I and then I would follow through to make sure and we have seven days to respond to that and to tell them how quickly we can get those records to them. Okay. Thank you. Anything else on policy? All right. Good discussion. Thank you. Um, thank you for

042being available to answer those questions. Um, maintenance report. I'm so sorry. I don't have a maintenance report for Mr. Alley because we were out last week and I think he was out of the office, but uh all schools are functioning well right now, but I did want to circle back to the out of school time grant that we talked about. Mr. Ward, I sent him a a question. He responded to me and reminded refreshed my memory. Um a lot of that was used for field trips uh like STEM field trips. Uh a lot of it goes to the STEM program. They've bought a lot of things like 3D printers and consumables for that program. The grant uh runs through next year. So, we will get $75,000 one more time going into next year. And it's

043for a lot of those opportunities, like I said, in STEM, our STEM program and in um cyber security and the opportunities to take field trips to some uh post-secary options. So, just wanted to thank you very much. Is there anything you want to speak to regarding uh proposed dual edition plans? U you had uh you had floor plan and as well as elevation drawings that were included in your packet so you can see what's going on. that that program and and you've had some updates on that in your uh weekly uh emails. So, do you want to speak to that kind of where we're at with that? Sure. Just uh over the years been looking at Doyle and you know Doyle's functioning well, but Doyle runs a little a few more students than this school

044does and I think back when this school was built, we thought this was going to be the the big uh flux of of folks in this area. Um for whatever reason, Doyle has has peaked in enrollment a little bit. So, they just don't have a lot of space for storage and and could use some more classroom space. So, there it's been the talk for several years to maybe look at uh a few classrooms on the front of that building. So, we've had our agreement with Upland Architects uh Upland Design Group to uh to look at that. A very simple uh addition to that school was if if you look at the front of the school, we're proposing to add seven classrooms to the front. So, the actual facade wouldn't look a whole lot different than

045it does right now. It's just you're going to bring it forward. uh that what you're looking at the front of the school right now if you're standing on the playground is an actual hallway that leads to some rooms on the other side. So we would just be adding classrooms on this side of that hallway. Uh and the rest of the facade would actually look very similar to what it does right now. I got to go down and visit today down at Do and M. Johnson was showing me where everything was going to be. And uh one of the things that that really intrigued me was the big patio, the big covered patio uh in between where the flag pole is now. Uh and then the connection um going out into that is going to be

046a a nice little space there. So, we want to utilize that space, but we understand they're already a little bit cramped in the front as far as playground space. We don't want to encroach on that too much, but the plan would be to also add pave a walking trail in the front. Um try and utilize the existing p uh pavement area that the city technically owns over there. And we're going to talk to the city of of Doyle about that. um because we're going to take up a little of the pavement spot uh to put the classrooms in. But feel this is a very simple addition. It's one of the simplest projects that we've done. There's not a lot of water involved other than sprinkler system. Um did we have to put sprinkler in? Yeah,

047I think we do. I don't know if we answered that or not because the other side of the hallway is not sprinkled. Um it's it it's the other side's not sprinkled so I don't know if we'll have we should have to I would think. Okay. Well, yeah. Other than that, there shouldn't be any water involved. It's it's there's no kitchens, bathrooms, or anything like that. It's just a simple block, you know, classrooms. And so, uh, I think the biggest we settled on HVAC, how we want to do that. We estimate that project will be less than $2 million. Uh, the plan to propose to the board that it would come from our savings, which is very healthy. Uh, so it wouldn't be anything that we would need to bond or take and increase any taxes

048to do. Um, but it would meet their needs for quite some time and be able to continue program. um you know in well into the future at Doyle. Now we're not bringing that up for discussion. That that's just the you're just justformational purposes. Justformational purposes for you. So you'll there'll be uh there'll be more to come on that, but that information wasn't I would say that I would agree with Miss Johnson and and that road, the main highway, the McNeel Highway, a lot of traffic has gone off of that highway, but that curve that's right there and not getting the pushing the playground out any further than it has to be. uh would be a a great thing to keep the playground as close to the school as you can because you know there's still

049idiots out there that like to drive fast and take that curve and uh you know come over the come over the hill into the into that playground. So uh god forbid that ever happened, but um you know keep our kids as close to the building as we can. So uh like the idea of the walking track. I think that's a that's a added plus for those kids that just want to get out and and move and walk. So, I think it I think it'll be a good addition down there. Okay. Any other questions on that maintenance? No, but we do have a gentleman here from the fire department that might want to speak after um while so we may want for him to be able to speak. We may want to move maintenance to public

050comment. Well, we're if So, can he speak because it's up here? I mean, yeah. Do you need to Are you asking to do it now or are you talking about asking do it in public comment? In public comment, but I just want to make sure that he can speak because Yeah. Just sign the uh Okay. Sign the form and we'll recognize you when we get to uh um to that portion of our agenda. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Um, so we had in our packet uh school report um that uh looks like everybody's uh gearing up for the testing uh the testing period uh that's uh coming up. Um, one thing that uh uh that I think plan to bring up in the uh regular meeting um stood out to me that uh we

051have uh uh back-to-back winners of the Quest Quest Bridge uh program. just two two backto-back years we've had a winner of the Quest Bridge uh program award uh that consisted of getting a full ride to Vanderbilt. Um that was uh that was uh if I'm not mistaken Shane Barnes. Yes. I'm actually really that mean. I'm actually really good friends with both of those people. And the first one was last year. His name was James Seers. Uh it's for kids who are lower income and they go through this extensive program where they have like it's not just a simple scholarship like it takes a long time and you get to choose out of like the top schools and like in a list of like hey I like this one and like you rank them and if

052you get accepted into one of them your highest ranking one you get accepted to you have to go to like it's it's binding but you get full right you get to go uh and James Seers was best friends with Shane Barnes Oh, that's great. So, he showed him how to do it. So, now he did it this year. So, that that's fantastic. That is fantastic. Well, Shane Shane is trying to tell people about it. Oh, that's great. That That's fantastic. Uh that it's that is the um the QuestBridge program. Yes, QuestBridge program. That's great. And then uh also notice that Mattie Rust and Lucas Blackman, Blakeman, Blakeman, excuse me, Blakeman uh received recipients of the UT Distinguished Tennessee Awards. So that's uh that's uh that's good. So that was thing that stood out to me

053in the school report and plan on mentioning them in in in the closing comments. Yeah, they got right to you, too. That's that's great. I I love it when our see our high school kids making money our educational institutions. All right. Um so that school report any any comments, questions on school report? Okay. I'm sure Miss I'm sure Miss Rust is appreciative of that scholarship to UT as well. Yeah, it's wonderful. Um so uh next budget report, Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh always thanks to Mr. Markham and his staff for the great work that they do. And board members, if you didn't look at the full report that he provided this time, it's a lot more extensive. The other report was great, but this is phenomenal. I was wondering where that really breaks

054it down in a different light. So, for me, especially to be able to understand uh more how the budget uh pieces work. But I've got several paragraphs I want to read here, but I'll I'll go fairly quickly. The month of February typically represents the county's largest cash positive month as current property taxes are due by the end of the month. As of the end of February, the county had collected 95 57% of the budgeted 2024 property taxes and anticipate being on target for 100% by June 30th. Local option sales tax while within the budgetary range did not come in as high for the month of February. Uh these funds received in the state of Tennessee during February represent sales made by consumers in the month of December. Collections in 2024 for all situses fell about

055100,000 short of the collections for the same period the last year uh following Christmas. We normally see a significant decline for January sales and hopefully that decline will not be as significant this year compensating for the lower December 24 collection numbers. The general purpose school fund is performing very well this year. Expenditures are up as compared to the previous year, but so are revenues, which kind of makes it a wash. The TISA receipts for the year are up 190,984 compared to the same period in fiscal 24. Uh it's important to note that the state's TISA fund accounts for roughly 75% of the general purpose school fund budgeted revenues. Capital outlay expenditures in the fund are down appro approximately 685,000 for the same period last year. This is due primarily to the high the high school

056softball facility which was funded in the 24 budget capital outlay category. Uh overall most major expenditure categories are hovering in the 50 to 60% range of budget expenditures and have been made or encumbered. It's roughly 10% behind budgeted expectation which is keeping the fund in a positive financial position. The school federal projects fund is showing a significant decrease in expenditures as compared to the prior year. This is due to the completion excuse me the complete liquidation of the SR3 funds which in part funded the Bondicoftraftoft elementary school addition. This stream will continue through the remainder of the fiscal years as all those funds have been extinguished. Uh one more big paragraph here. The Central Cafeteria Fund appears to be trending well, but we're carefully evaluating expenditures of the fund considering the significant increases in cost

057experienced over the last few years. Food prices specifically have made a significant impact on potential for a positive bottom line total for the fund for the fiscal year end. The school year has brought up about has brought updated community eligibility program percentages which we anticipate will help offset some of the increased cost. Overall, this is buried the lead. Overall, the school system remains in a very healthy financial position moving into fiscal year 26 budget process. Great. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Smith regarding the budget report? All right, then. And uh Miss Douglas TLN report. Um okay. I have about eight different items of interest that I thought I would share with you all. And you've probably already seen a little bit about them. These are different things that are coming down through. They are

058not into law yet, but things that I thought were very interesting. Uh one of them is the governing body to provide the public with opportunity to comment at meetings. Um, it requires that a government body uh to reserve a a period of public comment on any matter relevant to the subject under consideration. And that would include our board meetings. uh display of historical documents in schools in prominent locations in each school building actually which is sponsored by Senator Paul Bailey and it authorizes local boards of education and governing bodies to display the ten commandments, declaration of independence, US Constitution, Tennessee Constitution and Bill of Rights. Um election of school board members. This would affect us of course, but uh beginning in 2028, it would require that all board members to be elected at the same

059election at the same time. Establishes two-year terms for members elected in the first election occurring on or after January 1st, 2026 in order to align all board members as terms. Uh can I speak to that right there real quick? Yes. So TSBA is opposed to that because of the simple fact that you would have possibly could have at every time a brand new board all the time. And um that would be detrimental to our our schools honestly because you need the you need the overflow. you need the the overlap and that's why TSBA is opposed to that and they're they're lobbying against that. So, um please be aware that it could be detrimental to every school system across the state um if we're all elected at the same time, you know. So, because we need

060the veteran ones like I'm being I'm a new one, you know, all those new ones. We need because we have questions. Well, we're all new. Well, that would be quite serious in my opinion. Uh, another one is to reduce the amount of statemandated assessments for students in grades 3 through through 12. Uh, prohibiting food or beverage items that contain red 40 to be sold or provided to students on school property. Removal of all end of course assessment requirements for students in grades 9 through 12. Wow. Wow. Replace it with ACT. Replace it with ACT. Right. I've been preaching that for years. You've been asking for that a long time. I I think I've worded this correctly. I feel like I have. It's a substitution of course credits for a full high school diploma. Students completing

061a CTE program of study can substitute up to four CTE course credits in place of the chemistry, computer science, world language, and algebra 2 credits that are now required. Is that worded correctly? But we don't offer algebra 2. Integrated. Integrated. Okay. And then suspension or expulsion of students uh prohibits suspending or expelling students in grades preK through two unless the students behavior endangers the safety of others in which the student can be suspended for no more than three days. Um so they're looking at that as well and and there's a number of others that are are going going through and you hear them even on the news often what's going through but those are some that got my attention. Those are some really good ones. Appreciate you bringing bringing that up. Um, any questions for

062Miss Douglas on the uh on the uh TLN report? Just one quick repeat if you will. So the EOCC's would go away for 9 through 12 and replace with ACT ACT. Yeah. Um I don't know how they can I don't know how that that's really going to happen or not. It' be there certainly a transition because we currently wouldn't have like they they back when we first started talking about they had plan and explore that we were doing even in 8th grade and so which we're not anymore. So there would be a lot of conversation about this would be a years in the making kind of thing to try and transition out but u but the argument all along has been that no college especially Vanderville cares what your high school e exit exam is.

063They want to know what your college entry exam is. And so we're all by law forced to take that. So why don't we just utilize that instead of adding another test that no one in the world cares about. Yeah, that's probably where a good example of where decisions are best left at the local level, not at the state level. Something like that. Okay. All right. Then we'll move on um in our in our agenda and excuse me on our consent agenda items. Um you're given a monthly threat assessment report and also personnel reports. Any questions uh regarding those two reports? You have a couple items that were still open on the threat assessment, but uh four and two were closed. Are they all closed? I don't I don't believe they're all closed, but they're nothing

064nothing that's serious. Nothing nothing serious but uh but uh but open will be working still under consideration. Yeah. Uh any questions on that or personnel? Okay. Then um have been requested to approve the uh field uh field trip uh for the White County High School archery team that's going to compete in the national archery tournament in nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. Uh that will be coming up in May. Yes. May 18th. May May 8th. So, uh, that has been requested our our approval for for that. Um, just given constraint on time, I'm going to ask that we move that discussion on snow days for for support staff down to new business. Give us a little bit more time to talk about that. Don't feel feel pressured. So, we'll move item K down to uh item 12B

065and uh we can address that then. But, those would be making up our consent agenda items for tonight. So unless there's any uh uh opposition to that uh that's what we will uh we will approve under consent. But I'll give you the opportunity before we approve our our agenda to pull any others out if you feel me. Okay. So uh with that being said, we'll uh adjourn our work session until uh and then have our uh regular board meeting start here in about eight minutes. I love it when it's like spread out. could have your attention. Like to call the Y County Board of Education meeting for Thursday, March 20 20th, 2025 to order. If you would please rise and special guest Kaden Young, top scorer for the White County Middle School archery state championship

066team, is going to lead us in the PL pledge. Kaden algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Thank you, Kate. So, uh, again, like to welcome everyone to our meeting tonight. Appreciate you. appreciate you coming out and uh and joining us as we discuss business of the district uh for this month of March. Uh Miss Peak and all those staff here at Northfield appreciate you hosting us and uh and giving us an opportunity to get out in the district and see the facilities. Tennessee code annotate and board policy 1400 states that every meeting of the board is open to the public except where law allows a closed session. The agenda for

067the board meetings are posted on the district's website at www.wh coastschools.net at least three days prior to each meeting. State statute request requires that each meeting uh agenda include an item reserved for public comment. A signup sheet is made available to prior to the beginning of the regular meeting. Individuals who have signed up prior to the start of the meeting to speak will be recognized in the order listed on the signup sheet at the point in the agenda designated for public comment. Board meetings are streamed with the help of Warrior Media for live or recorded viewing. Links are provided on the district's website. Attending and or speaking during tonight's meeting applies consent for comments and appearances to be used in that manner. So uh with that uh like to uh uh stop here at this

068moment, pause and we have this is a special evening uh for uh uh for us as board members uh because we're going to get to recognize the White County Middle School archery team uh who com who uh achieved uh recognition of state champions of the tournament this uh this past week. um to give you uh just a little information on what this was. Um, NASP is the National Archery Schools Pro National Archery in the Schools program and it consists of both uh static or or 2D uh tournament shooting, the typical target shooting and also 3D where uh the uh archers will be uh have the opportunity to shoot against uh 3D targets and uh the scoring is uh is a little bit uh more complex in that and ob obviously they have more opportunities to

069uh take higher degrees of difficult shots and so it would be like shooting against uh uh some of the uh uh animals that you see the 3D animals out maybe in somebody's yards practicing for for archery but that's uh my understanding that's the uh championship that the team won and uh so we're here uh have them here tonight like to recognize them um Brian and uh Mackie Steel Mickey Mickey Steel uh coaches of the middle school team and they're here tonight. So like to recognize them if they'd like to say anything about the team and the accomplishments. Never known Mickey. I've never known Mickey not to have something to say. Well, I called you Nick. Actually, my daughter Natalie and my husband high school. Got you. Well, I would love for Natalie to speak and

070and and Brian and share. What was What did you I want you to tell us how f how fantastic your team is and what a great job they did. Well, I'm so very proud of them. Can I read what I put in my in the news article? Would that Absolutely. That'd be great. So, the White County Archery program continues to build on its legacy of excellence, achieving remarkable success this season thanks to its athletes dedication in the community's unwavering support. I'll skip over my In 2013, we expanded 3D archery after a few students pursued it individually. Thanks to our incredible sponsors, we were able to secure a full set of targets and launch a high school team. This year, I was determined to grow the program further by introducing a middle school 3D team. These

071young archers trained relentlessly, practicing hours each week, and their dedication has paid off. They won the state championship their very first season. We had two boys, Kagan Young and Drake Goodwin, placed in the top 10 3D of middle school male individuals, which I think was like 200 something like that. The Bullseye team also placed um fifth out of 30 teams from the state. From the start of the season, both teams were ambitious. They both teams set ambitious goals for their scores. However, um as tournaments began, they continuously surpassed those benchmarks, requiring us to set new goals week after week. Their commitment led to an extraordinary achievement, winning nearly every local tournament they competed in. As the season continues, our journey is far from over. The team will hopefully travel to Louisville, Kentucky for nationals in

072in May, hoping to qualify for the World Championships in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina this June. We're very, very, very proud of you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for representing the district well in the state competition and we hope that continues on to uh to the nationals and you said it was world. So that's that's great. I just like to to recognize the the archers um as uh who were who were listed on the on the on the team. Uh Kaden Young, Drake Goodwin, Sammy Benson, JC Goodwin, Gina McCoy, Canon Dildon, uh Degan Smith Sims, Silus Rust, Gavin Rutherford, Caleb Moore, Lanny Roberts, Luke Benson, Eli Rice, and Addison Henry. Did I leave anyone out? Okay, that's so uh very much appreciate you being here tonight. Like to to recognize you and just thank you

073for all the uh all the hard work you put in to uh to have Sparta White County being recognized on the state level. So one more time. So uh we uh you are more than welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting but if you have uh have engagements you need to uh tend to we certainly understand if you need to excuse yourself at any point of the meeting. Um but at this time we'll go to continue through our agenda. Uh this next item is disclosure of conflict. So if uh anyone on the board has a conflict that needs to be disclosed tonight uh regarding anything on our agenda, please let it uh be known. Now at this time, Mr. Chairman, as I do each and every meeting, I u I will let you

074know that my wife is an employee of the of the school system and uh nothing on the agenda tonight has any conflict uh with her being an employee here. Uh just want to make it known that all the things that you hear from me tonight are uh made in the best interest and the best decisions for White County Schools. Thank you, Mr. McDonald. Mr. Chairman, my spouse is an employee of the district, but there's nothing that conflicts tonight and all the opinions are mine in my heart. All right. Thank you, Miss Officer. Much like my two esteemed board members, my wife also works with the Qu County School System. But my my thoughts, opinions, and comments will will be mine and mine alone. All right. Thank you, Smiths. Please let the minutes reflect that Mr.

075McDonald, Miss Officer, and Mr. Smith all indicate they have spouses uh that work for the for the our district, but nothing on tonight's agenda would constitute conflict as defined. So, next item is approval for the agenda for this meeting. Uh, board members, it was posted uh the uh our agenda was posted with with a couple mod uh additions or modifications from what you uh what you may have seen previously um in in new business added uh two topics. One uh healthier school challenge uh that uh is was something that Mr. Canard asked us to consider. And then also as we uh moved out of our consent discussion on snow days for uh pay for support staff. So uh those are the only two uh changes uh that have been made on the agenda since it

076was originally published. So this time I would entertain a motion for uh approval of the agenda for this meeting. Motion. Motion by Mr. McDonald. I have a second. Second. Second Miss Fowler. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Next is our consent item, consent agenda. Uh so tonight in work session, we uh reviewed the uh minutes that were held from our uh meeting in February. Uh went over budget and transfers. had uh couple of uh budget amendments that were discussed uh that are being proposed but no new monies or any money's significantly affecting the budget. Um had policy have uh policy 5106 and 5118. Uh those would be approved for second reading tonight in our uh in our consent agenda. We also had uh discussed

077uh some plans for uh expansion at duel uh reviewed their school report uh budget report uh district is uh financially in in in good shape uh TLN report monthly threat assessment report personnel reports and then uh a field trip request by the high school archery team go to Louisville Kentucky for uh for nationals in May. So those are items on our consent. Uh nothing was pulled out. It was identified as something that needed to be pulled out. So all board members in consensus of this of these items. So uh this time we'll uh solidify that vote. All in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Uh next we uh like to recognize Miss Beth Peak, principal here at Northfield for a school presentation. Miss Pete, welcome to Northfield.

078Um, are we ready to recognize our special folks? Absolutely. Tonight I have three people that I would like to come forward. I would like Reed Langley to come. Oh, Tegan Phillips to come forward and Miss Kesha Winn to come forward. You're great. I'll scoot over. These three um people are representing Northfield as our health heroes. And so I just want to tell you why that they um are heroes at our school. It's absolutely true that Reed and Tegan are health heroes. Managing diabetes daily requires immense discipline, knowledge, and courage. Here's why they deserve their rec this recognition. They are diligent about monitoring their blood sugar. They are great carbohydrate counters. They can administer insulin appropriately and they are emotionally resilient. Living with diabetes can be emotionally challenging and they demonstrate resilience in managing the day-to-day

079demands of this condition. Reed and Tegan's dedication to managing their diabetes is a testament to their strength and determination. They are truly health heroes and I'll have to tell you they have taught me a lot about this. And so um they I can I can do it. Can I read now? And our third person that we want to honor is Miss Kesha Wet. She's our school nurse. And um she is a pro of taking care of us well at Northfield. She spends her day passing out ice packs, band-aids, and lots of hugs. Kesha is knowledgeable and always willing to help out in all situations. Northfield is proud to honor Kesha Winn as one of our health heroes. Come here for a minute. Come here. We're gonna get a photo. Parents, please if you want to

080get in better position, take those uh pictures, feel free. I want to absolutely told by his mom. Take your time. Yeah, she's here. She's here. Right over here. She's over on this bridge. Okay. Thank you, Miss Peak. We appreciate that and congratulations to our to our health heroes here from uh from Northfield. So, next we'll go to uh our district updates. So, Mr. John Barber, if you give us a update on schools. I will. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh board members, there's personnel reporting your folders. You can see the transactions for the month. We are currently interviewing teaching candidates for next year. that happens earlier and earlier every year. Uh we do not have many openings, but we're seeking the best teachers available to fill our known vacancies at this time. Uh legislatively, I continue

081to serve on the TOSS legislative committee and share information about the ongoings of the general assembly as it pertains to education. Some of the current bills of interest, as Miss Douglas mentioned, involve the student athlete transfers, reduced assessments for grades 3 through 12, school board elections, and most importantly, uh the prohibition against red dye number 40. So, down with Skittles um scope, uh Mr. Keith Brown, White County High School social studies teacher, who was joined by school board member, uh Miss Lisa Officer, uh to Chaperon High School students, Mr. Mr. James Freddy and our very own Miss Joy McIll at the recent student collaboration on policies and education aka SCOPE. Uh TSBA president and district 5 school board member Mr. Jason McDonald was also in attendance. At this time I would like to open the

082floor to them to share briefly their experience and uh what they got to see and enjoy as part of scope. So who would ever like I'm not real happy with her. So she her okay so moving along her group beat my group in debate. So yeah we have mon officers debate. Yeah. Uh me and James actually got put in the same team, which never happens. It was great. So we all collaborated and we came up with ideas. It just so happens that our group had the opposite of what they had and we won. So just just saying well kind of they they they won by cheating. That's not cheating. Oh, you would say that. Okay. In and took a picture of the white board of And they had spies coming to ours. So That sounds

083rather creative. Expect it to go that way. I will say it was a very eye opening experience for me uh being my first time. I know Miss Mcigill went last year u so she was a she was a pro at it but um just the simple fact of the best of the best the smartest kids that are I mean we had all seniors is what u miss officer and I both had and um those kids are smart they're you know some of hers had you know perfect scores on the ACD and and some of them were at 34s and and it was just very high ambitious goals one wanting to be I don't what did I tell you the one that I wanted that I had that she wants to be a corporate lawyer yeah

084she's going to Cornell to be a corporate lawyer so uh it blowed my mind I you know here I am nowhere qualified to be talking to these kids but um very very eye opening experience I would recommend anybody go and and uh volunteer for that I had 21 students from across the state of Tennessee and so we did a mock talk school board meeting and then these lively debates is what we're going to call that. They prepared for that and they were excellent. I had the FFA president for the state of Tennessee in my group and they were all very very good as far as they were engaged and they are going to be good leaders for our state one day. That's great. Very good. Well, thank you all for going and representing our school

085well and thank you to Mr. Brown for his leadership each year and his willingness to go and always representing making us look uh great at at scope. Um as far as academics go, our students and staff returned from spring break this week and are in the final push towards the testing season. There are a little over uh hard to believe only eight weeks left in the school year. I'm proud to and I am proud to announce tonight that Miss Malia Johnson of Doyle Elementary has been named the White County Principal of the Year and Miss Farah Griffith uh has been named our supervisor of the year. So, congratulations Miss Griffith. Uh congratulations to these ladies and their efforts. They'll both move forward to the regional competition level. Uh today also uh as far as academics

086are concerned uh President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education while keeping some of the essential functions of that agency. So we'll have to see where that goes uh and what effects it'll have. Um we we we think initially the initial thoughts that the money will still flow to the states but we'll see how that happens without the bureaucracy involved. Uh as long as far as safety is concerned, Mr. Haley, our safety supervisor, participated in a state level safety training today in Nashville along with representatives from Homeland Security. We continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to help keep safety a top priority. Financially, as you heard in the financial report, we're on track fiscally. Uh this is great news and suggests that we'll be able to continue

087to fund our positions and programs with confidence. Uh we'll be having a district-wide budget meeting uh in early April. As we schedule uh these meetings, we will be sharing that with school board members. Uh athletically, uh the WCHS girls basketball team made an appearance in the state tournament this past week and made our district very proud. Was an incredible season and also as we heard earlier, the middle school archery team is a 3D state champion. We're very proud of the coaches and the archers for their great accomplishment. Uh White County takes great pride in our athletic pro programs and pursues excellence in all endeavors. um building projects. We recently met with the architects and engineers on the Doyle uh elementary proposed classroom addition. This addition would address the need for classroom space at the school

088with without creating ongoing costs in the future. Uh we are also prepared preparing for a renovation of the science lab at the high school this summer. Uh congratulations to Mr. Drone Berger, who for the first for the first time in recent memory successfully confirmed hotel reservations for the entire school board at Park Vista for the summer law conference in July. All right. Um I've asked Miss Ally to pull a p from my trophy and uh that's a joke. We're not spending money on that. Um but we are we are reserved for the park vista this summer and look forward to that uh that legal conference with you all. Um, at this point, this does uh end the the uh complete the director's report. I'd be glad to answer any questions you have about the district.

089All right. Any questions for our direct director on the uh on this district report. Um so, thank you for getting us at the uh at the host hotel for that uh for that uh that event. And uh the advice is uh get there early, get your parking spot, don't leave. And don't leave food in your car. And don't leave don't leave food in your car either. So great. So uh next we'll move on to our next item and um a discussion on uh policy 1701 district planning. Um I when uh was talking to Mr. Strongberger about about this district planning and what that means and and uh for new board members and and even us uh some of those incumbent board members. Um it's good for us to understand two different types of of planning

090that's going on. Um a district academic plan that is uh largely based on uh satisfying state requirements and uh state objectives. Um there's also capital outlay plan, five-year plan that uh that we work on. Um so thought it would be good and and just for us to allow him to speak to that those those uh that information was provided to you in your packet. Um but thought we would uh we would speak to that and give board members opportunity and the public opportunity to the board members opportunity to ask questions, public uh opportunity to get an update on um on the the plans going on in the district. So Mr. Strober. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. These uh plans are actually part of the review process of your policy manual. And uh at this time

091of year, it's the time that we would review, the board would review the district plans. Um, so what I've presented to you are, as the chairman stated, the capital outlay improvements plan for our physical buildings and facilities and then also, uh, our annual district plan, our academic plan that we work on in conjunction with the state of Tennessee, TDOE, uh, and folks from the core office. So, um, so the capital improvements plan is pretty self-explanatory. It's a five-year plan for our building and facilities needs. Uh, we've worked through quite a bit of that. that goes through I think fiscal year 27 right now. Uh so there'll be time that both of these plans would be things that would be probably best discussed through the board's workshop or retreat uh to get it really dig into

092in depth. Um the academic plan is quite extensive. It takes uh really several many weeks of planning and work of strength hard work by our curriculum team. Uh a lot of people in the office sit in and put in on that. There's three goals, basically three goals of the academic plan. Literacy, we have a math goal, and then we have a college and career readiness goal as well. And there's many, many layers within that. This goes, this process goes back and forth several times with the state department verifying that they they like what they see and they they have everything in there. It comes back to us several times revisions necessary uh before it's finally approved. So, uh and this happens annually. It really is such a process that it's almost by the time we

093finish it and get it approved, we're starting on next year's already. So, uh just thought this was the best way to present to you how this policy is being met uh by providing you the academic plan and then also the capital improvements plan uh which is agreed uh voted on by the school board. Thank you. Academic plan, as you can see, is it's rather lengthy. Uh for those of you that involved in education, you may have been had some exposure to this before. Um but it's uh it is something as uh mentioned with that work conjunction with the state. Uh 33 pages of academic goals and um and and objectives and uh so it's good information for us for us to to be aware of and understand how that that comes together. questions on the

094district academic plan or the capital outlay plan. So, just a couple of things on the on the outlay plan. These are um I guess listed as top priority uh from one through whatever. Several of these have already been taken care of. So, I mean these are from 2022, correct? Through 2027, correct? So was looking kind of at what we got going on now. The baseball facility, uh the baseball field, the the irrigation there, is that is that something that's been pushed out a little bit with um I don't know. I know that's not been taken care of yet, but um is that something that's it's in the in the works? I know it says 2024 and you know we're we're in 2025 now with Yeah, I think that got changed just a little bit with

095there was a coaching change and there was some other needs that they had. We did considerable work at the baseball field. We painted the facility. We put a roof on the concession stand. We moved fencing on the foul lines um and some other work over there as well that the coach wanted done and so it pushed out that the irrigation idea. Um, and there are times that sometimes things will take precedent. And then there are times maybe a grant comes through or an opportunity too good to be true. We need to go ahead and jump on that that might push a different project forward and might push another one back. And these are these are our proposals. Um, they're they're set up by fiscal year to put money in the budget for those things. Um,

096so not that we couldn't do that right now, but that one had been pushed back a little bit. So, one other thing going on with the baseball field. I know there had been some some talk and some conversation about the lighting there not being idea. Um, you know, I know there was some some issues early before the season started. Uh, I know we got that taken care of, but is there I know at the at the softball complex we you know, we installed new lighting there. Is there a chance that there's uh in the budget anywhere for new lighting at the baseball field because it's very dark. I mean, having a child that played there, um, very dark in several spots on that field and just want to, you know, I just want to present

097a a good light for our our athletic program. You know, we've we've not had the best of baseball programs over the years, but looks like we might be turning around and uh and and just want to be able to uh present a a good park. I know it's uh it's kind a little bit out of town and and everybody would love to be on campus, but you know, it's just not feasible. Um but we got a good program, a good a good facility. Um lots of good amenities over there. Uh but just want to make sure we're investing in those kids like we do all the others. Yeah, certainly something we can look at and as we as the board as we talk about capital improvements plan, as we go back and say, "Okay, um

098we want to re revise this, as you said, we've we've already checked off many of those things on this list. We could redo the five-year plan now and send it out to 2030. Uh and that could be definitely part of that that conversation." Okay. Any other questions, comments? I I would like to say something and this may not be the time, but this dull addition um I've had some phone calls about it even though I'm not from down there and I've thought a lot about it myself. We've been told numerous times that they're not overcrowded. I've had a lot of phone calls about the gym. I know we I've already brought that up before, but I told him I would voice my opinion tonight. I feel like nothing against Dole Jason because I think the

099world w my grandson went down there but that gym has an issue and um we need to fix it. And I know y'all have said before that if they got one Bond Croft would have to get one. Bond just had an uplift and that gym is bad. you. There's no there's lots of people that have to stand in it during the ball games. And I know they don't What do they play? Six ball games down there, maybe five. But to me, that's a fire hazard. If the fire marshall come in, I I just don't think he'd like it too much. And parking, that's another issue down there. and parent pickup. I feel like those things should be addressed more than adding seven classrooms and a storage room and taken away from the existing playground because

100it goes out that way. That's my opinion. I am one person, but I told them I was going to say that tonight because from somebody that's been down there in the parent pickup, it's really bad. It's really bad because you have to stay all the way out on gooseeneck and sometimes the cars they're stopped out on the dole highway because you can't turn on gooseeneck and then you have to go all the way down and then you have to turn on that what is it college do college street or lane or something then you have to come all the way back up. Now that's just my opinion. I personally feel like if they're not overcrowded that there's some other things that could be addressed down there besides the addition of classrooms. That's mine. Okay. Thank

101you for listening. You're you're welcome. Thanks for I I agree um that uh that is a very dangerous curve right there. Uh getting in and out of that school because I've been in and out of there a lot too. something. Somebody's going to have a bad wreck right there on that curve. And uh if we and just like she said, the gym is way overcrowded right now. If you add seven more classrooms down there and you bring more students in down there, that's only going to make all these other issues worse, like the overcrowding in the gym. And I don't know if the cafeteria is big enough or will they have to start lunch at 10:00 or 9:30 to get them all fed. And uh you know, I don't know how bad the overcrowding is,

102but if we could just move two or three roads to Woodland Park or something, we could probably alleviate that. And with the tariffs coming in right now, I would think the building materials would be going up. I don't not sure it's a good time to start a big project like that. And and as y'all know, I do think spending two and a half million on Dole is a lot of money when you could probably spend 200,000 and open Central View back up because uh basically it's centrally located between Castville and Dole and that would eliminate any overcrowding and we have lots of road frontage that that 200,000 is really inaccurate. But but it but but your point's taken and I'm not I'm not against looking at that again as far the looking at the gym

103crowdedness again. I mean that's for elementary basketball. That's the only time that comes up and so um you know and it is it is crowded. I've been down there many times myself. Um but as said it is six nights out of the year and I mean we could play basketball in another gym if that's the issue and it wouldn't cost us any money. Um the road concerned is the same problem we talked earlier about Woodland Park. Um you know it's just people just don't ride the bus and you know for whatever reasons and um you know you just have a lot of parents coming at the same time. And now as far as being backed up on goo on onto the highway, you just can't do it. It's against the law to be parked out

104there. You just need to not do that. And uh you know we talk to our friends in law enforcement. You know I used to have the problem as principal here at Northfield. You know we we reworked it because you couldn't be out on the highway. So, you know, we just begged our parents like come at 3:10. Those little babies won't melt. You know, they they'll be fine and you can drive right up and get them. But if you want to be there right at 3, we have people that come at 1:00 and wait. And I don't understand. But anyway, um you know, there's just things that you can do, but you know, we're just it's difficult to uh you know, to manage with the with the parent pickup thing. We did move that. We did

105change that parent pickup which takes you down the I think it's Doyle Cemetery Road and back around um to make that better. But u um so there are things we've we've tried to do. Um those are good all good points. We'll look at it. Um I I'm open to rethinking that. Um the parking in the back, we can we've talked about that. Uh but then there was also consideration of moving the playground to the back. Uh and um but uh the a problem back there is that is the septic field. So u we can't just pave over that. We could provide some areas of gravel park and we did a little bit, but there's some considerations there. So there's there's lots of things we can do. Uh this is just the thought of uh and

106if you're going to add on to Doy and you're going to do those improvements. The initial need is space for all these RTI classes and all these pullouts and uh you know that they need uh that they have um they're having them in closets and when aids are out of the room they're moving kids in there and so that's the extra space that they're needing. When you get to the point that we're talking about actually overcrowdedness to the where the building can't function, I think you'd start with the classroom space. Then you would look at maybe does the cafeteria need to grow and then does the gym need to grow. I think you would do them in that order rather than build the gym and then the classroom space that the students would need for

107instruction because those are extracurricular activities. So in my mind that's where the where the classroom space would come first. certainly open to consideration of all those things and u you be glad to look at it and the only you know I certainly uh have great respect for central view community and I know we don't get into all that again but the the idea behind that is there is space there it would take considerable amount to reopen that school but that would also have an ongoing cost uh which has always been the consideration there is that you'd be running another school with staff and and supplies that that you wouldn't by just having an addition somewhere. So, but open to whatever the board's uh thoughts are there. This is just offering the information of where we

108are in this process of consideration at this point. So, um I think where a board we have more influence on would be the capital outlay plan as opposed to the district academic plan. Um because that's heavily tied to to state requirements. Um but uh as we look forward the next couple of uh couple months and start thinking about you know some agenda items, things we want to do um including uh board retreat and and how we would put that together. Uh maybe that would be a topic of conversation we put up for further discussion where we can have some time to prepare our thoughts and prepare uh you know a meaningful agenda to address capital outlay because um because we are in uh we're we're probably somewhere hovering in that three to three and a

109half three three and a half year period mark of this plan. Plans you know they they they change or circumstances might cause your your plan to change. So, it does need to be reviewed. So, well, and CO changed a lot of our five-year plan. I mean, it did it did a a big number on our five-year plan. Yeah, we started spending a lot of money for the government. Wasn't we supposed to look at our five-year plan this year? Am I right? Did we not make that decision at one of them, one of our meetings? Did we not talk about that? Go back. We'll go back and look at it, but we did. We we'll we'll we we may we may have and it slips in my memory. But I'll go back and look because if

110it is then we need to try start to have start having preparing for having that discussion and we probably need to go ahead and be thinking about our retreat. I think what she's talking about is is we talked about the five-year plan at our retreat um last year. Correct. And I think that's when that's when that came that discussion came up and we was going to look at Okay, I believe that's correct. So we need maybe circle back around to that. Okay. I'll I'll make myself a note for that and start thinking about our retreat because it's March. We're almost at the end for some of us. So, we're just getting started, right? Board as a collective as a board. We're just getting started um at this board anyway. All right. Yes. Any other questions

111for uh uh district planning? Okay. If not, then we'll uh have our student representative report either be Miss Sack or Miss McIll. Thank you. So, we kind of already covered a lot of the student report with highlighting um our fellow peers who just honestly went above and beyond and received extremely um awesome I was thinking of a fancy word, but extremely awesome scholarships. So, we're very proud of them and then also of the archery team at both the middle school and the high school level because they are both advancing to nationals. And I know that that's something that um happens quite often for the high school team and those are students that truly apply themselves not only in the classroom and honors classes and other organizations, but also archery practice. Um, and then we also

112wanted to talk about blue and gold blessings. So that's something that the FFA used to do as their community service project where they feed city workers uh it was one year and then the police department and 911 the year be or after that and then this year we partnered with Skills USA and was able to fe feed the nurses at the local nursing home. So, we were um very happy with that and I know the nursing home and nurses were very very thankful and we are always um so appreciative of all of the community service members in our community and uh we're very hap happy to be able to serve them. And then the FFA will be traveling to state convention this weekend. So, I'll have a kind of a fun report when I come

113back from that. That's great. Very good. Uh, like Isabella said, you guys kind of stole everything we're going to talk about. Well, well, so, so ladies, I'm sorry. Just keep in mind we had some uh discussion in our um our work session, but if you'd like to recognize those individuals uh by name in this setting, this is the appropriate time to do that. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. uh with me and Isabelle have been trying to expand more than just our knowledge of what we have what's going on in the schools and talk to teachers and the principal because you know they see more of it than we do a lot of the times. Um obviously scope uh there was one thing I want to say about scope is that I really enjoyed the aspect where you

114get to do the mock school board. That was one of my very favorite things to do. I enjoyed the debate obviously, but the mock school board was very nice because we got to come together and we even did um Robert's rules of order in our own little way. Uh and we got to come up with our own policy for vaping, whether it should be zero zero tolerance or not. And that that was a very interesting experience. And on the way back uh with Mr. around. We got to engage with our chaperon teacher and have our own little debate on history and that was our own little lesson of it in and of itself. But you lost that one. Yeah, I guarantee you you lost that one. Uh obviously with the basketball team, do I need

115the same one? Uh and I know for the band solo ensemble is coming up. Uh that's where each student will either prepare their own solo or get together with a couple other students and form an ensemble and they find the music themselves and they practice in their own time and then they go to a little competition where they get judged for it. Um let's see. And then with the second two years in a row with Vanderbilt full ride scholarships that is amazing. Full ride to Vanderbilt got to say. And that is James Severs and Shane Barnes. Uh and the two full rides to um UT to UT. I couldn't remember which one it was. Okay. And that's Lucas Blackman and Maddie Rust. And we're the only county in the state that has two to get

116that scholarship. Uh and flag football, their first official season is is this season. And we actually had a recruitment to Colia from our flag football team who we weren't even actually like a team last year and recruited Caliana Griggs. So that's pretty awesome. That's pretty good. Yeah. That's fantastic. Great. That's all we got. That's wonderful. Any questions for student representatives? You want to talk about All right. If I may, you talked about Vanderbilt and we've talked about Tennessee, but just important to note the logo that's on her computer. Just Tennessee wanted to point that out. Just he just wanted to point that out. Just want to point that out. Just make sure that uh that whoever gets full ride Tennessee Tech that we recognize them as well. So, make sure one of that happens, Mr.

117Smith. All right. Um moving on. Uh then we appreciate the report. Our next item, public comment. Um have uh Mr. Shannon Smith has indicated he'd like to be recognized by the board uh to speak tonight. The agenda item discussed would be maintenance and so uh Mr. Smith recognize you at this time and give you five minutes uh speak. Well, I appreciate y'all letting me come down and talk. Um, as everybody knows that Bodley Croft is part of the school system up there and that station was built in 1978 with all the new technology and equipment that we are getting our building just like the other ones of the school building that's on there is not up to handling all our equipment. and was just asking is since it's on school property are who's actually responsible

118for the upkeep of the building? That would be a uh that's that's a great question. Um have not seen that come up on the uh school budget where we provide any maintenance or any uh support for that for that facility. I would think Chad Mark probably Mr. Markham, uh would you have any insight as far as uh fire department Bonnie Croft or any of the uh other fire departments as far as who they uh uh where they get their funding or how that's that's done. So the county provides allocation to to the department and also pays utilities and sets aside certain amount of money for equipment each year. that for the fire departments to operate. Is there any differentiation to the fact that that one's on schoolboard property? Maybe similar to the way central views

119is. Is there any has there ever been any crossover between school system because it's on that property? No, I think I think probably what should have happened and and probably what needs to happen at some point is is that needs to be ded off. I mean, we've got the same issue I'm sure that at the time that was just kind of that made a logical sense, you know, to do that. But yeah, because some of the even like the tax or like property viewers will show it's hard to differentiate what's really schoolboard versus county and I mean and because of the 81 act I've always cons, you know, wondered what the difference was at that point. But yeah, I mean by by the the deed of those properties, they they belong to the school board

120and so you know the the building on the on the property, but that's never been the it's been the school board's responsibility to take care of Excuse me just so Mr. I what I understand you're saying is that the property and the facility that's on the that's on the school board's asset register if you would and there's no agreement lease or anything between the school system and the fire department whether it was just you know a dollar a year for you know a dollar for the next hundred years or whatever there's nothing on that that defines any not that I'm aware of Mr. Smith, are you aware of any document like that? No. Um, only thing I'm aware of that when this first started back in 78 from I've heard from the grandfathers of the

121station that it went up for a 99-year lease that leased from the school. And that's all I pretty much know about it. And I have a solution if it like Chad's talking about to deed it off to have y'all not liable for that building to deed it off to the fire department and let us upkeep it and bring it up to standard. So I'm sorry, Mr. Martin, go ahead. I I would think that would be the fire department's responsibility anyways. I don't think that would ever that's never fell on the school board to take care of those buildings. When when we turn in our underwriters report, we don't we don't Yeah. We don't turn that into our our insurance as being owned by the school system. We idle we we assume it's a White County.

122So basically what we're if we wanted to build on we got to have y'all's approval. Yeah. That's that's where Yeah, that's where we'd have to talk about the deeding of that. But I'm certainly, you know, as far as the maintenance concern, I've always concerned I've always assumed that the fire department would take care of the maintenance of their own building. But we're certainly willing to partner if if there's equipment, if there's trucks or equipment that we have that they could use. We've always partnered with the county to I was just kind of hazy on that. Excuse me. I was just a little bit hazy on it. Yeah. And I think it I think it goes to Mr. I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. I don't mean to be speaking out attorney, but I think it goes to

123what Mr. Markham was saying is that the deeding issue of whose property it really is. um you know right now legal legally I guess that's showing on White County schoolboard property which makes that difficult for you to do what you want to do but so that may be the issue we need to really look at from the county commission side of thing is how we get to that point but regardless the school system's interesting in remaining good partners with with the fire department and so if we have a bucket truck or a forklift or anything that can assist you I mean I see that as county assets that can we can help each other without costing you more money. So, so if Mr. Smith, if I could if I could suggest I mean, obviously there's

124nothing we can do tonight tonight's meeting to to this, but I appreciate you bringing this up. I'm gonna ask uh and board members if you have any better ideas, let me know. But I'm going to ask uh think that we should ask Mr. Dberger to maybe get with Mr. Markham uh uh Executive Robinson and they get together and let's come up with a uh look at the risk that opposes both you and school system do a little risk assessment there and see what's the best uh option for going forward and maybe if somebody might have that 99y year lease and we can go back and look at that if it it you know if it it truly was there but uh I think for your I think it's clarity uh because you have needs and

125you need some clarity and I think we can I think we should probably move towards towards getting some some uh some action on that because no if you need to improve the quality of fire service you're delivering you don't need to wait on us. We need to we need to move this forward. The community is growing as that white county is growing. Yeah. And to be able to grow you got to grow with it. Absolutely. What kind of funds are you looking at as far as adding on? I know you uh probably got bigger trucks now that are won't fit in your building. Yeah. Our original building was only 8ft doors. Okay. So now you got to have 14 16t high doors. In order to build onto a side of the building there, we going

126to put 14t doors in there. a 30 uh 36 by 50 edition we was looking at doing but not before you know we got to have clarity right yeah uh let's let's try to work and let's try to work have some clarity and I'm not sure it probably be the the clarity and understanding probably take care take place outside of this setting um then what'll happen is somebody will come up with either you or Mayor Robinson come up with that uh plan and then present it to board. We would we would take action at that point in time. Okay. And Mr. Markham, I just from what I'm hearing here tonight, we might want to look at um all of the properties that are in question like that. I was going to say um that we

127need to, you know, we need to do something so that we don't run into this again. I mean, like Mr. Young said, "I'm all about being in in good good faith standing with our fire departments because they provide um not just for our schools and our kids, but our communities and and I think that we need to be we need to make sure that they're taken care of and get everything that they need to make their equipment top-notch. So, um that might be something we want to have as as a list of properties that are shared with the school system and the fire departments." I think maybe just ask because as you do that let's not let's look at let's look at bond let's look at castville let's look at central view any any place

128else that uh that there may be some uh uh some some need some clarity on because that you can do that you can bring that back to us keep us updated on that. Okay. Yes sir. Thank you Mr. Smith. Thank you Mr. Smith. Can I could I ask how uh the area that you're wanting to build on uh how big an area is it going to take off the school's property? None. School property. Plenty of room. Okay. Yeah. It's actually right up there right up against the highway. So, it wouldn't take nothing of the school. Okay. So, that should be a simple fix then. Correct. Yeah. And we talk about that. And I know you had an interest of doing a side entrance maybe coming off our driveway. We can work on that. We just

129need to work out. We'll talk to the county executive. We'll work on these bigger issues and then we can start talking about specifically what we can do to work together to make that work for you. I appreciate it. Yeah, really do. Thank you. All right. Um nothing else on public comments. So we'll move on to new uh new business. As mentioned, uh Miss Canard had uh request to be on the uh the agenda. I saw our email uh late and I apologize that for miss for that miss Canard. So uh recognize you now the sheriff's on the healthy school challenge. Oh man. Yes. I like to have color too. Okay. So the healthier schools challenge was set up by TSBA Tennessee Department of Education's Division of Coordinated School Health and Wellpoint. Wellpoint is one of

130the MCOs for tin care now and they used to do this. Now I've been here for 10 years and we've never done it. So it was previous prior to that 10 years they would do a healthier schools challenge and so Wellpoint approached TDOE and Lorie Paisley and they discussed it and they rolled it out at the TSBA annual convention. So what it is is there are 13 areas that a school can meet and to get platinum status you have to meet 12 of those 13 and as we are right now I think we have two or three that we're not meeting and so my goal is to get us to that I want all 13. I don't just want 12 to get the platinum status. I want them all. Um I was taught go big

131or go home. So that's what I want to do and part of that is wellness for our school board. And so I have to have 50% of the school board members cookies participating. Cookies are moderation. You can have cookies in moderation. And what I my thought process was and what I shared with Mr. McDonald was that we monitor your blood pressures once a week. If you don't have a way to check your blood pressure at home, you can stop by one of the schools and one of the school nurses will be glad to check it for you. And then a minimum of 30 minutes three times a week walking. I'm not asking you to go out and start jazzer sizing or anything crazy like that. Just get some physical activity. And I would like to

132track I would send each one of you your own Google document so that it's private. But that way we can track your blood pressure and your minutes walked each week and to see if there's a correlation with your blood pressures coming down with the more physical activity that you're getting. So that's what I propose for y'all. Um if you would like to know some of the other things that we're doing that meet each one of the little standards, you just ask me and I'll let you know what we're doing. So doing lots of good things in the school. So are we the the 13th that you're uncertain if we're doing? Is that what you're saying? Well, you're one of those. Okay. There's um maybe one or two others on there. Um I do need students

133to participate at our um shack, which is our health council meetings, and that won't be a problem. We can get them to participate by getting prior approvals for them to go. I know of two right now. Yes, I already I had already thought of two that we're gonna I'm gonna hit up. Um, and Isabella has been great and so is Joy about working with Move to Stand and going in the schools and helping us do health education. Um, they do all of our bullying prevention education with our fourth and fifth graders. And after testing, we're working on some things to do with fourth and fifth grade that center around um healthy drinks, mindfulness, physical activity, and vaping and tobacco prevention. So, Miss Canard, would we see you after this meeting to sign up or are

134we as board committing to do that or I'm in I'm in. I'm ready. All right. So, do we have You need I'm looking at it like y'all to get around. No, no, no. We're being volunttoled that we should. Okay. So, uh Miss Canar, just see us after the meeting. We'll I really appreciate it. If we do get platinum, which we're going to, um, then we get recognized at the TSBA convention in November and an $8,000 reward. So, well, that's it's worth $8,000 worth $8,000. There we go. And I might be able to give you your award. Well, wouldn't that be nice? So, so we can buy $8,000 worth of cookies is what you're saying after this is over. How about $8,000 worth of like strawberries or blueberries or something like that? Okay. They might dye

135them strawberries with that. Thank you guys. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Canard. All right. Um All right. Next time on our new business is discussion of on snow day pay for support staff. Um, we have uh we've talked about uh support staff and how uh when we have snow days that they're a little hindered from from earning some uh uh their their wages for that day if schools schools closed. Um and so uh you provided some information about the cost if I'm not mistaken we have this was on our in our discussion last month. Um but basically what the cost was for the uh uh support staff for uh for one day of one day of school. Um Mr. D provided us with that information. Um, and roughly the cost for support staff

136employees uh districtwide uh for one day is approximately $31,000. So if we chose to uh to provide that uh that date of pay for compensation uh for date for that day missed uh or days. Did we decide on the days? Well, no we did not sign that was just per day. So I if if I could just interject, I'll just say this there's nothing that needs to be decided today. I'm praying praying praying that we're done with inclement weather this year and we're we're kind of out of days anyway. Um but this comes up every year. It's been a it's been a problem that I've seen over the years. Um it's it's always something that's bothered me because I feel like um most counties around us their their staff are paid on those days. they're

137just it's almost like a reward for, you know, for hard work that they put in and maybe the the lower salaries that we don't pay in the first place. But it's always bothered me that we we save money by I feel like taking it out of the pockets of the people that need it the most. Um, you know, teachers are paid on their contract whether it snows or not. A lot of staff people like myself are paid whether it snows or not. I do work on snow days. Um, but staff people don't. A lot of our staff don't get paid. And I've I've checked with a lot of people in the upper Cumberland. Most people don't work on those days. Most of their staffs are rewarded with the day off with pay. Um, there are

138many people that would be on call though, may your maintenance people have to be on call, custodians in case there's a water break or something. Uh, obviously I'm I'm working, but um, there's there's just u there's a lot of people who remain on call. Um, but right now currently we have uh secretaries that have to come in, uh, bookkeepers that come in, custodians, maintenance, and the the push, the problem has been that I felt I couldn't let people get paid to stay home when I had these other people that had to come in to get paid. And so, um, so our our teachers, A's, teacher assistants is the biggest bulk of this group, uh, that that doesn't get paid on those days. Now, in my heart, I wanted to say, let's just pay that. But

139it is a $31,000 per day cost. That's the amount of pe money that it costs for the people that that we're saving because they're not getting paid that day. Um, this doesn't include some the people that are are already there. The money is there. I mean, it's in the budget for those days because if it didn't snow, we would pay those people. So, the money is there, but it if you multiply that times 11 days that we used this year, that's $340,000. So it's a considerable cost. Um so that that's the rub. I it it is a cost savings measure for the for the district, but uh it is one that always just I hear from our staff that uh you know the board is always faithful to allow them to make up time and

140they make up five days. It takes if you work 15 minutes extra every day of the year that equals five days. So you can see how much time it would take to make up 11 or 12 or 13. So it's this is just for the board to consider. Uh really just forformational purposes tonight. It's nothing that needs to be decided today. Probably maybe next meeting it would have to make a decision because we'll get into budget season for next year. And if that was something that the board was wanted to consider um this comes out of my heart for our staff um and out of my mind of what other districts around us do and u just for the board's consideration and conversation. So just for for clarity um now I recall we u we

141had uh approved them to make up that time for time five days five days and so what we're saying here not take any action tonight but considering for next next budget cycle whether or not we would include that as uh where support staff would be it paid on for snow days regardless. Yes. Okay. So, we have some approximate uh six more days. We have uh we have approximate amount that we would be looking at, but this is really something that would be in discussion for as we go into next year's budget cycle. Yes. Okay. Which would be next month because we will be having budget meetings next month. Okay. Ju just for my clarity, I guess. Um 13 days or 11 days, right? How 11 days. It was 11 this year because it's 13 days

142by law. It's It was 11 this year because we used two of those days for teacher and service and those days those staff were able to work. Okay. So 11 days, that's $340,000 that would be coming that we would need to add to our budget next year. No, it's just money you wouldn't save at the end of next year. It's already in there because we've already got money budgeted to pay those people if it doesn't snow. But if it does snow, we didn't have to pay them. So it's money that's left over at the end of the year. So right now they're they're making up five days. There's So when does that six days the making up? It has already. Okay. There's six days that they're going to be without pay. Correct. This year, but

143we're looking to alleviate that next year and pay this. If we're out for snow, they're out for snow. They don't have to make up anytime. Correct. That's 11 days. That's a suggestion um that I want the board's input on. Um, you know, it's it's a financial decision because it's money that's already budgeted and you're not raising the budget. You're not raising any taxes. It's just you got to understand that it's $340,000 at the end of the year that you won't have to put back in the general fund as we did this year. So continue discussion but basically what you're saying is that's the information that we would be based on this year what we'd be looking at per day in we could consider that on how we want to address as a board snow day

144pay for support staff in an upcoming budget cycle. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for the information. for my clarification. Is it a policy written somewhere saying that we're not going to pay them? Um I don't know if that's in policy. Um that's our procedure. It's our practice that I don't know that's in policy that we do that. But um it it actually there is there is I may take that back. There is um in the it's in their uh in their pay scale as far as their hour hourly time worked. So if they if they haven't worked it, it's not on a time sheet to be paid. So because they're hourly employees. So that's how it shows up in our in our accounting procedures. Okay. So sorry. Yes. So we would just need to

145think about doing it for 11 days. And that's kind of maybe how we would word it. Or are we Did we put two PD next year? No. 13. So it's 13. So it be 13. Yeah. So it's back to 13 because we did not use professional development days. So it' be a total of 13. Again, the money will be budgeted for those days. You just got to recognize that, you know, whatever we put back this year, give or take, you would subtract close to $400,000 from that. If if that's provided, if we used all those snow days anyway. And so If you only used one snow day, then you'd just be putting in $31,000. The budget money's already been budgeted for. You're not going to So, I think uh I think it's good good discussion.

146Does everyone understand kind of what what being the information being presented? So, I think we come into our because we're not going to take any action tonight uh on this um be a budget item for next year. I think this is more just to prepare us when we get into those talks next month. Does that accomplish what we want to accomplish? Okay. All right. Um then we'll uh if that we'll move on to old business. Just a reminder, um, as a board, we have to pass a resolution, um, and that we will, uh, for the Education Freedom Act of 2025 that, uh, we will provide a one-time bonus of no less than $2,000 to public school teachers um, in our in our district. And, uh, so we have to, uh, we have to, uh, pass

147a resolution for that. A draft resolution was presented last month. It's put in old business just for just the fact that we realize remember that we have to have this done. It has to be done by June. So June June 1st. So probably what we'd want to do is uh just ask you to review that resolution again and probably don't want to procrastinate. We'll probably take it up in our our April meeting. Okay, which is about three weeks away. So, we'll look at drafting a resolution, having that uh ready to go so we can take care of uh take care of that if that's what we choose to do as board. So, uh any questions, comments on that? I have a question. Yes, ma'am. Did you ever receive any information as to who was considered

148a teacher? So, yes, good question. The uh state is still defining that. I think the legislature is still defining what that is. The original definition is uh classroom teachers or teachers that have students in front of them 50 more than 50% of the day. Uh so that excludes a lot of people. Um and that is something the board's going to want to consider as well. And I I brought that forward. There's um of how much I think we estimated it would be an additional for every certified teacher in our district. It would be an additional, I think, $140,000 for the district to match uh pay that $2,000 bonus so that every certified teacher got that bonus. Um and uh because by the state's definition, they're going to leave out a lot of lot of our

149staff. You know, certainly all administrators, principles, um curriculum coaches, um many uh Encore or RTI teachers that do uh have have different classes. Uh so there's a lot of people that'll be left out of that mix. So that will be I'll have that information for you uh by as soon as I can. I'll get that to you. If not in in next meeting, I'll have it in your uh weekly updates. I'll get that information. As soon as they give me that definition, we'll know and then we'll be able to determine what that dollar amount is that the board would have to consider. Uh or not. You know, I've talked to other districts. Um you know, a lot of districts are having a struggle. I think we could take it out of the bank. Um but

150uh and I think that would be a great thing for the board to to acknowledge our teachers and such. And I don't mean to put you on the spot. I'm just saying I'm just kind of thinking out loud, but um it's put it's put districts in a difficult position because you're going to have to make a decision. Are we going to try and pay all of our teachers or are we going to just give it to these people that the state's going to allow us the money to and then it doesn't do anything to address support staff? And and that's that's where I think maybe we can do something with support staff on this other. So, um so I'll give you more information in your weekly updates. I'll give you the definition of what they're

151classifying a teacher as soon as I get it. Uh but that's why I brought it forth as just continued discussion tonight. But um it is something that doesn't have this doesn't have to be decided till June 1st. Um but if you're talking to it about from a budgetary perspective, it'll be something we'll want to address that part of it pretty soon and I'll get you the information as soon as I have it. Okay. All right. So, uh any other questions regarding the uh resolution for teacher bonus? Okay. Uh if not then we'll move on to chairman's comments. Uh a lot of recognitions tonight uh that were that were made then certainly want to uh uh recognize the as we did the middle school uh archery team but also white can warrior at basketball team for

152their appearance in the state tournament. I appreciate the work uh that the the ladies and coach do and staff did and they're representing our our district well and so congratulations to them. So, our next board meeting will be April 10th uh at Woodland Park. We'll have our work session at 5:00 and our regular board meeting at 6. So, that brings us to conclusion of our agenda. So, this time I entertain a motion for adjournment. Motion second. All those in favor? I. All right. Y'all have a good evening.