001Well, I can do it before we go back. That is >> all right. Before we get started, Dr. >> Yes, sir. Uh, so board, we had a family that had a fire uh in the temperance lossville area. Uh, four uh students. We have one at AC, one at the high school, a at Ammerstell and Temperance they're temperance family lost everything so we are uh they're working with Red Cross and we're going to try to get closed and things like that so as before we start I just want to thank those folks recognize them before we do our moment of silence call this meeting to order please rise for a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance Now join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
002and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. Well, I want to thank all the board members for taking your time to be here. This is not our normal board meeting tonight, but we do have uh a short agenda, but it's a lot on the on the agenda tonight. So, um board, do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion to approve agenda. >> Second. >> All right, we have a motion. I'm sorry. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. >> I vote I. Any opposed? All right, we have an agenda. All right, so um first up is consent agenda board. What's your pleasure? >> I make a motion to approve the consent
003agenda. >> Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I vote I. Any opposed? All right. Consent agenda is passed. All right. Moving on to 3.01. Uh discussion, consideration, revision of proposed 2026 2027 school operational budget. So, um, I wanted to bring the board and the community up to date on where we are, uh, with the budget process. I'll first start with the state. Uh, the state has not yet approved a budget. Um, and it doesn't look like they're going to do their uh, work on that anytime soon. So, um, we're kind of in a holding pattern for that. But the the county uh board of supervisors did meet on Tuesday and uh did finalize their budget process. Uh they set the
004tax rate, the property tax rate uh at 56 cents um and also approved the budget allocation uh for uh for us. Uh we were asking for 1.9 million uh of which that was uh broken down. Uh essentially we uh we needed 1 million of that to bring back the CIP allocation that we had put into operational uh for this year. We needed uh roughly 600,000 to recover the LCI, the local composite index change. That's where the state essentially decides uh based on what data I don't know, but that the locality uh itself can afford to pay an additional amount. In our case, it was 5601, I believe. Yes, sir. >> 560,000 to be as exact as I can at the moment. So again, roughly 1.6 million. Um the additional ask in the 1.9 was we
005were asked to um do a 3% raise across the board for our staff to match the county's 3%. Um and so that's kind of what broke down the the 1.9%. Just as a recap for the board and anyone uh listening uh to tonight's meeting, um let me first say um I do not envy in the slightest the work that the board of supervisors have had to do um through this budget uh process. Um it has not been easy for them. Uh there's a lot of you know discussion and conversation about the budget process. Um I can say uh Dr. Hoden, myself, Dr. or Dr. I made you a doctor. Um Mr. Arasi uh met uh with uh a few of the board members uh on several occasions to discuss the budget process and what our
006needs are. And um ultimately the board approved funding for the school division. um of an additional 1.1 million. Um and so I I first want to say I am I'm grateful for that. Right. Um you know they they could have left the funding the same and that would have made it even more drastic for us. All right. Uh but the reality is is that uh even as as grateful as we are with that, we still now have uh some difficult decisions to make uh as it relates to the budget uh because we are um if you're looking at 1.6 if the if the state gives us the 3% then we'll be um back down to the 1.6 which means we'd be about 500,000 short. Um, and so that's that's still a lot to make up.
007And whether it's made up through additional cuts through CIP or uh positions, uh, that's the decisions we've got to make as a board. Um, so I've asked the superintendent to put some thoughts together that we'll discuss um, in in close session because obviously, you know, any time we're talking about individual positions, we can't do that in public. So, um, that's kind of where we are, uh, with the budget process. I wanted to make sure that, uh, you were aware of of exactly where we are, where, uh, to let our community know as well. And and I guess I'll finish up by saying this is that what everyone needs to know is that this board is 100% focused on how we have the best impact in instruction, right? Meaningful instruction for our kids, for our students,
008right? So whatever decisions we end up determining as in the end result of this process, it's going to be because we as a board felt like that's the best direction uh for our students in the long term. So um you know again it's not going to be an easy process. I don't I don't look forward to it, but it's a process that um the hand we've been dealt and so that's kind of what we have to do. So any any questions or comments on that? Uh Miss Justice? >> Yes sir. Thank you. So I had the opportunity to watch the meeting, not the whole meeting, just the school part. And the question that I was having a bit of trouble with was the part when we say bringing back money into CIP. I'm not certain.
009I understand that. When I hear that, I think we're putting money into savings. And >> no, it's not it's not savings. It it's it was and Kim, please correct me when I'm wrong, >> but we essentially we pulled that money um out of our CIP line for things like buses, >> those things that would have been capital expenses to put back into operational to help us in this budget year. So, we put those expenses off to help us this year. And so, we needed that money back in our budget to help us to meet our operational needs this year and and our CIP needs because >> we haven't bought buses. We don't we don't have enough new buses, right? Uh and so we've got to make sure >> that our fleet is working. An example
010I gave Dr. and and we'll talk about it uh tonight is um you know if and I don't know how many bus routes we have but if we have 100 bus routes and we have 99 98 working buses and and five that are always in the shop well we can't put off buying a bus again right we've got to buy a bus >> we have 57 buses on the road every day and we travel over 1.1 million miles in a school year >> but don't we own 75 buses is that what I heard >> that's correct you have to have so many for spares so that if a bus goes Okay. So, we currently have 75 buses. Are they all working? >> 57. No. Well, it depends on the day. >> So, and then they
011also have to go in the shop on a daily basis for their, you know, for >> So, we have 57 that are on the road every day. Yes, ma'am. >> On the road every day. And does that mean if we have 75 total, that's an extra 20 to fill in? I'm not certain. I understand. >> Yeah. So, we you have to have so many spare buses so that um when um the mechanics do what's called a 45day check that um when that bus has to come in and they have to physically put their eyes on it and do an inspection on that bus every 45 days. So, if something were to happen to one of those buses and they have to pull it out of service, we have to have a spare. >> Just like
012in the mornings, if something happened and the drivers do a pre-check on their bus, if something happens and they find something wrong with that bus, they have to do a pre-check. We could also have things like recalls. Um, we've had as many buses as six or eight buses on a recall. So, if all those buses are at Sunny's that we have to have enough buses in spare to use while those buses are being fixed. >> And Dr. What's the age of our fleet? Like what's the average age? Um, I could get that for you, but we, you know, we try to have um buses no older than 15 years, but we have several that are over 15 years old on on the road. >> Okay. Another question. One of the things that I heard um
013from the board of supervisors last night was if we if we could go ahead and not do the CIP but because the budget from the um legislature has not come yet and we won't have it until July. My un what I thought I heard them saying was that in July when we find out what that budget is to come back to them at that point for that money for the CIP. And so my question is if if we did that would that then allow us to continue to get these positions that we need? >> Do you hear what I'm saying? >> Yeah. And that's a conversation that we need to have and and I did speak with the the chairman and he reiterated that exact um message to me that they're hoping to to wrap
014up their audit. And so based on the findings in the audit, if there are additional funds available at a later date and depending on what the state does with their budget that the board of supervisors are certainly willing to come back and revisit uh any of those CIP allocations. And to answer your question, Miss Justice, in the uh border retreat document, you have a sheet that I provided with um all the buses, the age of those buses, and how many are on the road. So, >> and the issue like um we tried to explain to the board of supervisors is sometimes um it's a misnomer that you know a bus is a it might be a a capital thing but we have to have it in the operational budget because if you do the math
015we should be buying four to five buses a year to recycle those every 15. We're only getting two and maybe sometimes three. Now, we were lucky a couple years ago, we were able to purchase several used buses, and that kind of got us a little bit over the hump. But if we continue to only buy two per year, then in in 15 years, we've only bought 30 buses >> and we're that's that's half. So, that's why we're that's why we really need to keep them in the operational budget. And it's a hard decision because we have to have people and we have to concentrate on curriculum, but we also need to get students to school and focus on our operational. So, it's a very ve very very delicate situation. >> Yeah, it it's definitely a
016balance, right? You can't you can't operate a school division if you can't get the kids there and if you don't have the facilities in the shape where you can have instruction. Um, so I mean, all of those pieces are are important and part of the puzzle and and something we need to take into consideration. Any other thoughts or comments on that? All right. So, we'll get some more information uh later on about that, but I just I wanted to get everybody uh up to date on it. All right. So, hearing no more comments on that, we're going to move on to public comments. No one signed up, I assume. Uh no one's here in the audience, but either you two like to come up and address the board. You're good. All right. Um, and I
017did I wanted to put public comments on there for tonight's meeting in case the public did want to come talk about the budget. That's why I had that add it. >> So, all right. With that, um, that brings us to, um, item number five, closed meeting. So, uh, or is there a motion? >> Motion to go into closed. >> Oh, yes, sir. >> Sorry. Pursuant to section 2.2 2 3711A1 of the code of Virginia. It's recommended the board convene a closed meeting for the following. A1 personnel matters specifically for discussion of employees 1 through 750 regarding assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, discipline, resignation of specific public officers, appointees or employees of any public body and discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment. specifically being the review and discussion of applications and development
018of interview questions for the position of superintendent. >> Uh just one quick point of clarification that doesn't just limit us to talking about superintendent, right? We're able to talk about the other positions >> through 750. Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Just wanted to clarify. >> That's fine. >> All right. So, we had a motion. Do we have a second? >> All right. So, I have a motion and a second to go into close. All those in favor say I. >> I. I vote I we are enclosed.