001The meeting of the Chapel Hill, Carboro City Schools, the board of education. The application will come to order. The chair requests the motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed and that carries. And the chair requests the motion also to move into closed session at 7:00 p.m. tonight for the reasons stated on the agenda and I believe Ms. Jenkins will add to that. Yes. I move to enter closed session at 7:00 p.m. for the reasons stated on the agenda. and to discuss the matter of TH by KH versus Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, OAH number 25, EDC 01716. It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed. And the motion carries. Great. And that brings
002us to our first order of business, which is the swearing in ceremony of Dr. Rodney Trice. so I was just pressed into duty here about 30 seconds ago. And this is a great honor to swear in Dr. Trice. And I'm going to read you and you can repeat after me. So I, Rodney Trice, do solemnly swear. I, Rodney Tres, do solemnly swear that. I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States. That I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States. And the Constitution and laws of North Carolina. And the Constitutions and laws of North Carolina. Not inconsistent therewith. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office. As superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
003City Schools, so help me God. As superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, so help me God. Congratulations, Dr. Carrboro City Schools. Can I say a few words? Wow. Let me gather myself. I just want to say thank you for being here tonight. To our elected officials, our district staff, see you over there, our community partners, clergy, educators, but most importantly, our families and students. I'm deeply grateful for your presence, but also your trust. To my own family, my parents, Vert and Mary Trice, all the way from Michigan. My mother-in-law, all the way from Mississippi, who surprised me today, by the way, Mary Jones. To my sister and brother-in-law, April and Nate Coulter. I see my pastor, Pastor Nate. Thank you for being here. It's deeply meaningful and to the loves of my life, my
004wife Kenya, my daughter Sala, and my daughter Zuri is studying abroad, so she's not here today. But thank you for just being here. It's deeply meaningful for family and friends and colleagues to walk beside you in this season, but in any season. Assuming the role of superintendent is a very humbling and sacred responsibility. I stand here and I feel both the weight of our district's legacy and the incredible possibility of our future. I don't have to tell you all that our schools have had a long-standing and unwavering commitment to equity and excellence. And these are just not words on a website. These are not words that just hang in our hallways, but values that have shaped lives for generations. They are promises that we've made and promises we must keep moving forward. I'm grateful to
005have had a part in some of the most transformative years in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools under the leadership of Dr. Peterson. I see Ms. Gibbs out there who is my mentor. I like to tell people they raised me, so. But it's deeply humbling. And of course, I can't Forget Denise Bowling, who worked most closely with me, and Steve Scruggs, who always had a smile on our face. But if we're honest, we also know this: the next 25 years must look different than the previous 25 years. Not because we've lost our way, but because the world around us is changing. and we owe it to our children to meet the challenge. We live in a region of innovation and imagination, the Research Triangle, where there are unprecedented new approaches to teaching and learning, calendar design, to
006career exploration, student wellness, all available to districts around us. And I ask myself, why not us? Why not here? Why not now? Our students deserve nothing less. A reporter recently asked me, what do I want my administration to be known for? And I said, well, let me just make it through the first week on the job. No, but in truthfulness, I know. I want every student who graduates from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to have the most post-secondary options available to them upon graduation, not among the fewest. Whether that means a four-year college, an associate's degree, a skilled trade, military service, or launching their own business, I want our students to leave us prepared and empowered to choose from a multitude of paths. But we cannot achieve this vision from the top down. Real progress
007comes when people feel ownership, when teachers have the time and space and voice to shape the profession they love, when students are partners, not passengers, in their education, and when parents and caregivers feel they are heard, seen, and invited to help shape the way forward. In other words, we move together. We do not move alone. As we move, we also must remember where we came from. There are lessons that we must carry with us, even lessons that were learned in this very place, Lincoln High. A place where black students during segregation were educated with dignity, discipline, and pride, even when a system denied them equal funding and fair treatment. A little over 10 years ago, I remember David Mason talking to a group of our high school students and also other students from around the
008country about the legacy of Lincoln High. And he wanted them to know that the legacy was just not about overcoming adversity. It was about excellence that was already present in its students. Excellence that was cultivated that was lifted and that was passed on. These are the lessons we must carry with us to our future. So tonight, as I take on this role, I do so with great hope because I know the brilliance of our students. I know the dedication of our educators and the deep love this community has for its schools. And so I do so with one guiding belief. From here, right here in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, anything is possible if we move together. So let's get to work. Thank you. [ CLOSED SESSION ] Us is a proclamation of Juneteenth, which is tomorrow for
0092025 by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education. And if Mike we'd start with you and the first three of you would read two whereas paragraphs, the last three can get the rest. That would be great. Okay, whereas Juneteenth is recognized as National Independence Day and it's been celebrated annually since June 19th, 1865, 1866 to mark the abolition of sanctioned slavery in the United States. And whereas Juneteenth is about freedom, liberation, and celebration, it's a holiday for North Carolinians to acknowledge our history and the. Sacrifices that were made for freedom. And. Whereas on September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that as of January 1, 1863, all enslaved people in the rebellious areas with thence forth, thence forward and forever free, changing the nature of the Civil War. And whereas
010in addition to freeing enslaved people held in Confederate states, the Emancipation Proclamation enabled the enlistment of African-Americans in the Union Army as U.S. Colored troops, Anne. Whereas it took almost three more years of conflict and loss to win the Civil War and the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in December 1865 to officially end slavery in the United States. And whereas the news of freedom disseminated gradually throughout the nation, on June 19, 1865, two months after the official surrender of the Confederacy at Appomattox, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, and issued General Order Number 3 announcing to some of the last people who were enslaved in the United States. And whereas in 2026, America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking the freedom of
011the United States, though not all Americans were truly free. And whereas despite more than 150 years. Passing since the abolition of slavery, there remain economic, institutional, institutional and social barriers for black people in America. And whereas on this anniversary each year, organizations and individuals throughout North Carolina and our nation celebrate African-American history, heritage, culture and freedom with events and ceremonies that reflect the power of community, family, art and tradition. And now, therefore, we, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education encourage our students, staff and community to observe, recognize and celebrate June 19th, 2025 as Juneteenth in North Carolina. Thank you all. The next item on our agenda tonight is public comments. My understanding is there's nobody signed up. for public comments. So we will move to the consent agenda item. The chair does request
012a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed passes unanimously. Thank you very much. And that takes us to discussion and action recommendation for approval of Surrey's Insurance Risk Management Portfolio, Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening, board members. Superintendent Trice, members of cabinet and guests. This evening we have the renewal of the risk management portfolio for the district. Typically, this is presented to the finance facilities and operations committee meeting in June and then is brought forward on consent agenda. some to do with our cost of living increases and also increased losses coming back from the pandemic. And again, we just wanted to bring this for the board and the public's awareness and I'd be happy to answer any questions if
013any board members have them. Thank you, Jonathan. When's the last time we sent this out for proposals? So we have an agent. We switched agents, I think, in 2020. However, that agent does bid. They go out to market and bid to carriers every year for best rates. So we haven't changed agents, but every year they do go out. to the market to bid the carriers. We find that a lot of times, agent or carriers kind of specify, get specific in the industries that they serve. So we essentially, if we changed agents, we'd likely just be competing, you know, the agents would be competing, receiving bids from the same carriers. If the board desires, we can certainly look at putting out a bid for a new agent. Thank you. Sure. Any other questions? So you are
014asking for us to have a motion to approve the Suri Insurance Risk Management Portfolio for 2526. That's correct, yes sir. Can I have a motion to that effect? So moved. Second? Been moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carries unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Scott. And this brings us now to we have three superintendents reports information items to do, and one is our annual safety and transportation update. Dr. Stewart. Good evening, Dr. Griffin, board members. It is our pleasure for the operations division to share with you our annual update on transportation and safety. Usually we separate the two, but since we're coming at the end of the school year, we thought we would put them together. We routinely, every month in Facilities Finance and Operations Committee present our
015facilities update monthly. And it is a pleasure to be able to stand to bring to you two directors that have done a really good job for the district. Mr. Austin is coming for transportation. He arrived in March of 2023 when we were in a really, really tough spot in transportation, primarily because I was having to run transportation at that point. And we were coming off of a point in February of 2020 where sickness had swept through that department so bad that on a Monday, I believe it was February the 13th, we had 17 buses to carry 4,000 students home. And the last bus arrived back at the depot at 8:00 p.m. that night. So Mr. Austin has come in and he stabilized things and he's going to give you some highlights. Also, Mr. Holloway is
016here with you. He arrived in August of 2021 to establish our standalone safe schools department. And he's going to give you some updates on some of the wonderful things that we've done protocol wise, as well as hardware wise across the district. And I'll come back and give you some highlights from both, and we'll take any questions at that point. Good evening. Good evening. To the board, board chair, superintendent and to cabinet members. Just want to give some highlights. And first of all, I want to say we're very appreciative of all the support that we've received at Transportation because we give service to all. and that can be challenging at times, but we're trying to make sure that we operate in a way that we can have adequate drivers. We want to say thank you, first
017of all, for giving us the opportunity to offer $20 per hour to incoming drivers. This has really given us an opportunity to get some good people to come our way. Surrounding counties as well as some people that may have not been with us for a while, but they returned. Along with that, we've also operated with TAs within the county, custodial staff, and dual roles getting their CDLs and helping us out as well. So with that being said, that has been an addition added. We have added our safety team. We have people from our safety team that drive buses as well as from food and nutrition that helps us out also. And we're very appreciative of that. Pre-pandemic, before COVID we had 74 bus drivers and substitutes, 65 routes. and with that, we didn't have to
018have any outside resources to transport children to and from school. But once COVID came and we returned, that changed the whole dynamic. And so now we have currently 55 routes, 55 morning routes, 49 afternoon routes. And with that being said, we have to really hone in, because this year we've had a lot of sickness. And I don't know if you all have paid attention to the communications that go out in the mornings, but we've had a lot of drivers this current year that were out for sickness. And that kind of put us in a situation that we had to do a lot of double runs, returning back to get students, staffing buses differently for the afternoon to make sure that we were able to get the kids to and from school. And I will say
019this about myself, I came in and I gave a pledge to transportation that if they needed me to drive, I would drive. Dr. Trice, I didn't know it was actually going to come to... So for the past three weeks, I've been driving every afternoon, and mornings when they needed me to come in and drive. Yeah, so I was just like the regular substitute driver. I would get a call and say, hey, we need you to drive this bus this morning. Or in the afternoons, okay, everything is staffed and I look on the board and there's my name attached to a certain bus. I learned Raskis very well. So that was my school every afternoon for the past three weeks. So I learned A lot. I know where Estes is. Yeah, that was the first stop
020on my route. But anyway, I said all that to say everyone was involved in making sure that we got our kids to and from school. Currently we have nine office staff members. All of them have their CDLs and we've been utilizing seven of them each day so that we can make sure that we're doing what we need to do for children. We had three contracted services providers. We've cut that down to just one. And we're excited about that. When I first came, I think we were at close to $800,000 per year in contracted services. This past year we cut that down to $350,000. So we're excited we're excited about that, and we're hoping that this year we can make it even a lower amount. So. I wanted to speak about February 2024. We had 122
021absences, and they were all due to sickness of drivers. So it wasn't that we didn't have drivers. for some apparent reason, and it was beyond our control, they were just sickly. And June of 2025, if you could see that total up there, we had over 903 total absences, and they were all contributed to drivers being sick. So as we closed out the school year, a lot of those drivers were making their way back. and we were getting back to a sense of normalcy at the end of the year. And we're hoping to go into this new school year fully staffed again with everyone coming back healthy. So I hope you all are praying for transportation. Dual roles, as I stated before, I want to make sure that you all understand who's contributing to that. We
022have child nutrition, we have operations, helping out. We have safety, community schools, as well as we have drivers out of finance. So we have everyone contributing to helping us out in transportation. We currently have 15 consolidated stops and this has helped with the efficiency of arrivals in the morning as well as drop-offs in the afternoon. We're hoping to to continue to look at other areas that we can add more stops to make it more conducive for us. And with that being said, we're excited about this new year. We've had some challenges, but we are still in a good place. Thank you all. Oh, she's got a question. Mr. Alston, before you get away, there. Might be a question. Yes. Yeah, thank you for the presentation. We have 54 drivers as of the beginning of June.
023How many drivers do we need given the number of students we're projecting? We have 55 current routes, so in afternoons we do 49. So we have all of our buses staffed with 55. We would love to have some extra as far as subs go. Right now we have just enough to maintain the 55 routes and 49 runs in the afternoon if everyone is present and accounted for. We have four vacancies as of right now. And I would like to say that we have just filled three of those slots. So we're excited about that. And they're coming in already with CDLs. Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. Meredith. Thanks so much for the presentation. I can appreciate this is really challenging to keep these positions fully staffed. So I appreciate all your efforts. I just was curious to
024know whether you had seen any drawbacks or negatives to the consolidation of stops. And I'm not sure if the consolidation of stops covers what occurred where you increased the walk distance at one point over the, I think sometime in the past year, it was before school school started this year, I believe, as I recall. So I just wanted to see how that was going. I think your question is kind of two part as far as the Consolidated stops, that we really didn't have any drawbacks from that, but we had some ongoing calls and just some minor conversations about the walk zones. And I think for the first couple of months, we were speaking to concerns about that. But as the year progressed, they have all kind of died down. So we are excited about that
025part. We don't plan to do anything on the lives of walk zones for this coming year, and so it should be a much smoother start for us. Great, thanks. Yes. Thank you so much. And this is great news. I remember one of the early issues we had to deal with was all about transportation. So this is good to see that we're not getting as many comments about transportation. I do see some occasionally. I'm curious, I mean, I think you've gotten some anecdotal comments and it sounds like board members are curious. Do we survey families about transportation, how things are going? My kids walk to school, so obviously I'm not going to get any of those surveys anymore, but do we do--. Yes, ma'am, we do. okay, we do. So I can speak to that a
026little bit. So we partnered with Dr. Vilwolk and her team, and she sends out through qualtrics. She had been sending out surveys for transportation. We expanded it. So it used to be just ridership questions. Now it's satisfaction questions. Okay, good. How we can help. So that's something that we actually worked together this. to revamp that survey. Okay, perfect. Thank you. And then my other, I guess my, it's kind of a communication thing. Seeing that we had so many absences, I wonder if maybe we think about when we see an uptick of that working with our communications team, just to send out a gentle reminder to people that obviously just like our classroom teachers, we struggle to find people to work in our transportation department. And so, They may see some challenges if we have like
027an uptick in absences. Just a reminder that these are some things that we do to address transportation challenges, right? We pull off a staff. We might have to run double routes so people know that it's flu season. And just like every other human being, our transportation staff may have to be out because they might get the flu or something. So. We have done some of that in the past. with the help of Mr. Andy. And also we do the communications in the mornings and we do emails directly to the schools in the afternoon. So we communicate that way and if it turns out to be something similar to what you just mentioned, then that's when we get Mr. Andy involved. Okay, good to know. Yeah, like I said, I don't get any of that. So
028I'm like, happy to not see it, but I know people sometimes will post on social media saying, The buses are a challenge, but then of course people politely remind them that our bus situation is better than some of our surrounding communities, unfortunately. So much better. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Alston, before you sit down, remind me again when you came, you said the date you started here. Was it March 1st of 2023? Of what? 2023. Yes. I ask only in the context, I'm remembering your first meeting. Yes, sir. And boy, we weren't talking about this stuff at all. No, sir. I think we've all acknowledged it, but I want to in our own way say this is so much appreciated of where we were not too long ago and where we are today. So thank
029you and your staff. And I don't know how else to put it. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Holloway, are you up next? Yes, sir. Okay. Good evening, board members. Dr. Griffin, board chair, vice chairwoman Jenkins, superintendent Trice, cabinet members. You too. All right. So I'm here to talk about the structure of the Safety Department and some of our responsibilities. So like Dr. Stewart was saying, since August of 2021, when I was hired and tasked with building the Safety Department, we've made significant strides. Right now, this is currently where we are. as far as a organizational structure. We have our safe schools director, which is myself. We have an emergency management coordinator, which is Vincilene Harris. We have a campus safety manager who is Thomas McCormick. And we have eight campus safety monitors. These campus
030safety monitors are based in our high schools. We have three at Chapel Hill High, three at East Chapel Hill, and two at Carrboro. We also have 17 crossing guards across the district. We have seven SROs, which of course consists of Chapel Hill and Carrboro police department officers. And I would also be remiss remiss not to mention our support, administrative support people who are Felicia Glenn and Elizabeth Ironside. Elizabeth handles our crossing guards and does a really great job with that. She was doing that before I got here and she's still doing it and, you know, does an exceptional job with the crossing guards. So some of our safety responsibilities when it comes to safety protocols, just to list a few, is we make sure that every staff is wearing ID, an ID. If they don't
031have an ID or if they lose an ID or break it or whatever, we ask that they immediately contact us and we will replace that immediately. for them. Our visitor management, which is, you know, we require everyone to sign in and out, not just our schools, but at all facilities that we have here, Shary Mar. Yeah. And all the schools. So everyone has to sign in and sign out, even District leaders. We monitor the anonymous tip line. The anonymous tip line is 24 7 365 days. So, you know, we monitor that and kind of coordinate with the principles on, you know, how, how they should handle that, who should be involved to take care of those tips to come in. Incident reporting protocols we've got in place for the district that whenever there's an incident
032at a school, there is a proper way that they have to report that to the district. So if we need to support them, we can. So we, we know immediately when there's an incident that's going on at the school. We manage the, our district emergency management drills. These are mandated by the state, our lockdown drills, our fire drills, severe weather drills, which tornado drill, and we also do some SRP. drills. And speaking of the SRP, which is, which is our standard response protocol. Those. Five protocols hold, secure, lock down, evacuate and shelter. These are what we use on a daily basis to, to manage any incidents that may happen within our schools. They're, as you can see, really simple language. but are very effective when used in these situations. Hardware and facilities. With the safety
033grant funds and the supplemental deferred maintenance funds, we have been able to initiate over $4 million of hardware upgrades. across the district over the last three years. And also partnering with our facilities team, we have installed four security vegetables and we have plans for an additional five this summer. And this year, as we do, every year. We have our two we had our two-day training at Chapel Hill High School. The training was for our summer our safety summit and that is for our administrators, district leaders, and our public safety partners. We have a two-day training session for. Those. And also, you know, this year we were able to have monthly training sessions in DLT when required here at the Lincoln Center with our administrators. And we also have opportunities, have a rose for school members
034of the team to train groups or individuals in various topics. And we will plan to have those, have this training again this summer with our administrators, but we also will have a one-day training for all staff as well. so we'll have a full day of safety training for all staff that's in the district as well. So before Dr. Stewart comes with the department highlights, are there any questions or? Thank you, sir. Board members? Yeah, Barb. Thank you so much for the presentation. I just had some questions about the anonymous tip line. Sure. So we, it's a vendor, right? Like it's a company. Yes. Okay. Do, and do we, we get a grant from the state to pay for that, I think, right? Like that's not coming out of, It's. Not coming out of Buffalo. Yes,
035yes. And I guess, and I don't need data or anything, but just anecdotally, is it useful? I mean, yeah. Okay, because I feel like I have heard it is used improperly sometimes to bully students, it is used improperly sometimes to somebody's giving a tip about somebody that they're just mad at. And I guess I'm just wondering in your experience is it more useful than not? Yeah, I mean those type of tips, you know, someone, I mean like a bullying that would be referred to, you know, student support court services. But, you know, just someone sending in a tip, a bogus tip or, or trying to tease someone or, or it's not a real threat that's being made. There's not a serious amount of time that is spent on that, on that tip. Okay. I would
036like to add this. Every tip that comes is vetted through the system as well as throughout our people. So Mr. Holloway becomes our number one person who receives every tip in the district. It comes in electronically and then there is a phone chain that is called. So there are many nights if a school-based administrator can't be reached that that tip winds up with him and he winds up following we have reached out to parents in the middle of the night for different issues that have been serious. So your original question was, you know, is it useful? Absolutely. We deal with so many things from suicidal ideation to self-harm, and it has become probably one of the best things that the safety department does after hours. Yeah. So when we're away from the district, they take
037the lead on reaching out and connecting people with the proper folks. So he answers the phone, he will take that call, and then he's going to connect the principal or the social. Worker or. Whoever they need. Thank you. Anybody else? and so it really did, it really made me feel good just as a board member to go to a community event where they were asking how we can protect our students and when they heard what we're already doing they were like oh wow we really didn't know that and we're pleased to hear that. From hardening our schools to training to what to do if in fact an incident occurred in school. So I say that publicly to you to commend the safety department. It is in our key priorities. It is one of our first
038sentences in our strategic plan to promote safety and wellness of our students. And so I think it's really important to note it. So thank you. Thank you, Dr. Griffin. And I will quickly move past these last two slides, but these are just some of the highlights. Over the last two years, we have eight new yellow buses in transportation, and we are anticipating six additional buses for the start of this next school year. Also, two activity buses, one of which we put on display for the board during the board retreat. We now have the electric bus that is up and running and operating in the district. Mr. Austin made mention of this, and this is something that we're really proud of. It's the reduction and the amount of money that we're spending for vendor services. So
039with the board's approval tonight on the consent agenda, we have effectively gone from three vendors down to one vendor. And you can see the amounts on the screen that in 2022, that's exactly what we spent, $662,000. And last year we spent just over $280,000. So the goal is to continue to reduce this by building capacity on buses. That's where the consolidated stops come in. That's where we have less need of drivers because we're actually putting more students on buses at this point. In the safety department, they have just completed their third installment of Verkada installations, which is our security manufacturer, as well as some punch list things as as far as radios and walkies go across the district and on our buses as well. The board is aware, well aware that I report to you
040in January on safety audits and safety pop-up visits that we do in our schools, and we give that data to our school administrators as well. Two things that we're really excited about this summer, our August 5th, thank you, Dr. Harris and her team, we have the beginning of the year, we will roll out the EOP. So we're rolling out the manual for all things safety throughout the district. So you'll be able to find everything safety related in the EOP, which is so very, very important. So we'll be giving that to our district leaders on August the 5th. And Mr. Holloway made mention of this that later in August during the teaching and learning conference, we will split up into two teams and we will actually be able to touch every staff member in the district
041by training them on the SRP and all of the expectations and protocols around safety in the district. So everyone will receive face-to-face training. And finally, with the award this year, we have received just under $1.5 million in grant funding from the Center for Safer Schools that we have used for equipment and so many things throughout the district that we've needed. So that 1.5 million has fed into that 4 million that Mr. Holloway spoke of earlier. So with that, that concludes our presentation. If there are any questions, we'd be happy to answer them. Just general comments. Thank you so much. to all your teams and the work they do. Dr. Trice, thank you, Mr. Alston, thank you, Mr. Holloway. Just a lot of great work. I can tell you from the safety perspective, I definitely see
042a difference in how it is to walk into the schools. It's just really great. And I've been going into a lot of schools for a little bit of time now, and so it's just really great. Everyone is very safety-focused about making ensure your check-in and even the good new features when you do check-in you get a text message if you forget to check out. I will say I do forget to check out, but I've gotten better. By the end of the year, I was texting by so it would find me out. So, but thank you so much and obviously it's great that we are accessing grants so that we aren't necessarily utilizing our own money, but we're utilizing funds that are out there to make a lot of these important upgrades in our school. But
043thank you. Thank you. Can I just say a word of thanks as well? Audits are not just done in schools, but they're also done across, you know, central office. As someone who's gotten their hand slapped a couple times recently because my outside door wasn't locked, I just want to appreciate that. I want to appreciate that, you know, safety really does you know, occur not only in schools, but in central office. And there's been a lot done this year to make sure that even those who work in our central office buildings are safe and know what to do in case of emergency. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. That's something that you all have taken on. I'm very appreciative. Thank you, sir. Superintendent Trice. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. Thank To all of you, thank you.
044That is Mr. Scott. I believe you're next on the budget update. Well, good evening again. Tonight I wanted to take an opportunity to present to the board and to the public kind of where we're at in our budget development cycle. we now have pretty finalized information from the Orange County side. Their budget was adopted, I believe, last Thursday or I believe last Thursday. And also we have several different iterations of budget, budget potential from the General Assembly. So I wanted to present to the board and to the public kind of where we're at and what our next steps are going to look like. So I want to start with is it not on? All right. So I'm going to start with the Orange County budget. When we created this presentation, it was a Orange County
045manager's recommended budget since and as I mentioned, the budget's been adopted by Orange County. So on the county appropriation side, there was a 3% increase to public education in Orange County. For us, that resulted in an increase of about 1.63 million. We had talked earlier that we required about a 5.3% increase to match our continuation request. This fell short of that, but it was closer to that average of 3.7% that they provided over the last five years. There was a minor change in enrollment. Our funding from the county is based on the ADM of Orange County Schools and Chapel Hill Schools added together to get a percentage. We saw a very significant, a very insignificant reduction in percentage as our enrollment is falling a little bit faster than Orange County's. But all in all, the
046county's appropriation, we're expecting an increase of 1.63 million next year. Additionally, we had projected a 2% increase in the special district tax just based on inflationary factors. When the revenue neutral rate came out and the projections were done by the tax office, that increase we had projected about 550,000 actually was going to account for about 382,000. So all in all the Orange County manager's budget recommended about a $2 million increase for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools recognizing we had a $3.8 million continuation need. Subsequent to County Manager Myron's presentation There was a budget amendment proposed by former school board member and county commissioner Dr. Amy Fowler to raise a special district tax by 0.76 cents that would have netted the school district an additional $1.5 million. Her logic with that was that it was going
047to close the continuation gap to the same percentage difference as Orange County schools. So that was one of several budget amendments that was voted on several weeks ago or actually June 5th by the Board of County Commissioners. The budget amendment did not pass in its proposed form. However, they were able to reach a compromise and the budget amendment passed at 38 increase of 38 cents, which will generate an additional $750,000 for the district. So all in all from Orange County, we can expect about between the Orange County appropriation and the special district tax, we're looking at about an additional $2.75 million. This is just the original Board of Education's continuation budget. This is the projections that we all worked on earlier this year. It included a 3% across the board salary increase along with matching
048benefits. Again, we had a $3.8 million need with estimated special district tax increases. You know, we anticipated that we would require about a $3.3 million, $3.3 million continuation need from the county. I want to take a moment to point out the retirement portion of that continuation is 33.5% of the entire continuation. That'll be important later because we did use a estimate on what we believed. the retirement portion would be based on prior years. Both the Senate and House budgets are significantly lower than what we anticipated. So that's some good news for us as we're trying to meet continuation. So now I want to talk about real quick about the general assembly budgets. We now have a really good idea of what the Senate and House budget proposals look like. Again, they're in conference right now
049to try and reconcile the two budgets to get to a point where both houses can agree and pass a biannual budget. General statute or from what I understand, the long session is supposed to end July 30th. So I'm hopeful that by July 30th, the conference will come out with a budget. It will be passed in both houses and ratified. I guess we'll see. Some years it does, some years it it doesn't. But right now, these budgets are in total expenditures across the state very similar, but they differ quite a bit with the effect that it will have on public education across the state. So we'll start with the Senate, and I'm just going to kind of move back and forth. So in the Senate for teachers, instructional support, assistant principals, basically all of our certified
050positions, we have salary increases ranging from 1.2 to 3.4. 4% in the first year. The house is very, very different than that in the sense that they want to really focus on beginning teacher salaries. I believe the beginning teacher salary right now is 42,000 a year. They want to raise that to 48,000 next year, increasing to 50 in the second year. So when we look at certified salaries on that side, you know, we're looking from 2% to a 17.6% a 7% increase the first year. So very different in the amount of salary increases. On the Senate side, those certified increases would cost about $450,000. On the House side, we estimate about 1.35 million. Then we have matching supplements on both sides, again, just under 300,000 on the Senate budget, almost 750,000 on the House budget.
051principals, non-certified personnel and all central office staff, Senate's fairly straightforward at one and a half percent per year. It would cost us about $220,000, two and a half percent per year on the house, $440,000. And again, proportional increases to the supplement of just over half a million dollars on the Senate side and a little over half a million dollars on the house side. Senate side. So total salary and supplement impact is very, very different. One just under one and a half million on the Senate side, a little over 3 million on the House. As I mentioned, the retirement rate earlier, we had anticipated a retirement rate of about 25.4%, recognizing that was about 33% of the ask. Both houses are looking more in the 24.7 to 24.9%. So that will reduce our need for matching
052retirement to just under 700,000 on the Senate side and about 1.2 million on the House side. And then the health insurance premiums are very close to what we projected at 8500 per person, just under $300,000 for each budget. Again, matching benefits, 1 million on the Senate side, $1.7 million on the House side. So there's a little bit of variance now moving into the Senate budget. In addition to the salary increases, they were also proposing a $1,500 bonus for all public school employees. That just won't be this year, it will also be next year. That would bring an additional 1.5 million dollars. $1-3 million cost to the district. And on the house side, they're proposing the reinstatement of the master supplement similar to what the board asked for in its expansion budget. Again, we don't have
053great data to try and calculate what that'll cost the district. We kind of went back to the work that we did with the expansion budget. Right now we're estimating that'll cost about 1.1 million as the legislation gets finalized. If that becomes a final item in a final budget, we will be able to probably sharpen our pencils a little bit and get a little bit closer on that number. They may have to do some surveying of staff to determine their highest level of education. So then I just kind of laid it out, the board's request, the Senate budget and the House budget. you know, our estimated continuation need after factoring in our estimates on the special district tax was 3.2 million dollars we would require from the county to continue. Now that we know what those
054County increases are going to look like, if the Senate budget was to pass in its current form, we would be just under 1.4 million dollars short. and if the house budget passed in its current form, we'd be about 3.6 million dollars short. So that just kind of gives you an idea. I think we're going to land somewhere between those two numbers. And again, we won't know with any finality until the general assembly passes. All is not lost as the board looks at this. You know, please remember that we did have pretty significant cuts with the reduction in force. We had tier three reductions moving into next year. Those reductions are more than adequate to balance any of these contingencies. But there may become a question of how quickly the board wants to reload its fund
055balance. And I think right now it's kind of premature to talk about that until we really have a good idea of what we're exactly faced with next year. But I say all that to say, like, Yes, we don't have continuation, but we do have things in place to deal with some of this. And I think once we have a clearer picture, we can come back to the board. And if we can't replenish fund balance as fast as we thought we could, because of some of these continuation needs, we can collectively decide or you can decide at what pace you'd like to replenish that fund balance based on what the general assembly decides to do. And this is just kind of a summary of next steps. Again, we're really just kind of waiting for the General
056Assembly to take action and then this will all come into focus pretty quickly for us. And at that, I'd be happy to answer any questions the board may have. Mr. Scott, one thing I've learned in my three and a half years on the board is when we talk about budget, people key in on certain things in the public. And a minute ago when you talked about some of the deficit figures, you also said that our adjustments, our RIF and other adjustments are sufficient to cover this because I don't want the story in the morning to be Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools facing three and a half million dollar deficit. And that's exactly exactly what can happen if we're not clear tonight that we do have the money in our budget as a result of steps taken in
057the past year to cover these amounts of money. So let's be real clear about that. So could you say that again so everybody's very clear? Sure, sure, I certainly can. In fact, I think there was a news article in the last couple days about this. Again, if the board and public recalls, We went through a three-tiered strategy earlier this year. It was a reduction in force. Part of it had occurred the prior year through allotment changes. There was a significant reduction at central office in September of this year. And there was a phased-in approach for the schools in changes in allotments that will become effective on July 1. We tried very, very hard when we did that to honor our employees and give them runway if they had an impacted position by allowing the school's
058positions to remain. It's been very, very tight for us. We're expecting we'll be revenue neutral this year, very close to it. That was a tough projection to make in September. but all in all it looks like we're about revenue neutral. Because of that and because of the revenue neutrality that we have, all of the tier three cuts that we made or that are about to come into force will be recurring savings to the district. And if the board recalls, when we talked about the three tiers and the need to replenish fund balance, there was a lot of talk at that time about trying to target as much of that tier three as possible to replenish our fund balance back to a safe level. I don't recall the exact number, but I believe tier three was
059somewhere in the neighborhood of five million dollars. It was like four or five million dollars. So we have all of that that we can utilize to balance our projected shortfalls next year. So again, as you said, we do. We don't have the revenue coming in to meet continuation. However, the district has already made strategic reductions to lower expenses by that amount moving into next year. So you're correct in saying that we don't have a I would like to see all that money go to fund balance and us be back where we were in three years. However, recognizing that, you know, we're in some pretty austere budget times, you know, across the state and country, it may take a little bit longer to rebuild that fund balance. recognizing that we don't want to have to make
060any more significant reductions moving forward. Okay. I think we all agree there, you know, the fund balance is an important topic of ours and a need, and I just wanted to continue to reiterate that despite the fact that we're showing a deficit as a result of our continuation budget not being fully funded, we do have the funds to cover that this year. This year. We do. I'm gonna say it twice. This year. This year. Correct. And the other thing is like once the biannuals, once we have the biannual budget, we'll have a really good idea what continuation costs will be next year. So then we can take all of that into account and really kind of build like a three year projection of what the costs will be, what we anticipate the county appropriation to
061go up. and we can kind of model the same way we modeled the fund balance being drawn down. We can model a fund balance build for you, and then you all can determine if that rate is acceptable, if we need to take action in other ways to increase the rate or, you know, vice versa. Yeah. Mr. Scott, thank you. You hit on the head. What I was going to say is, like, obviously, you and I have talked about this a lot. It's like, I want us to get to the point where we're looking at our finances, not just year, you one year at a time, but one, three and five years out. So we can begin to one, increase our fund balance, but then also create some space in our budget as we think about
062what do we want to do next for our schools, right? And so I appreciate looking into that. And I know, I know we've talked about this, obviously it shows these numbers, but we want to wait until June 30th. We get a lot more clear picture from the state before we start talking about what are the impact of some of the changes that we did make this past fiscal year and previously as well to how it's going to look for us for 25-26 and going forward. So, but thank you so much for bringing this forward. Obviously, this conversation is going to continue until the state adopts their budget. Thank you. Appreciate it, Mr. Scott. Mr. Crogie, I believe you're next. Bond Project Update. So good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. Trice and guests.
063Tonight is a fairly lighthearted topic. There are no decision points for you this evening for once. with the bond. But at the last facility finance, excuse me, finance facilities and operations, I'm kind of partial to facilities, we had a very robust conversation about the next steps in the timeline, knowing that you approved the resolution for CM at risk, that we would be bringing forward at the earliest in August, you're recommending an award for a project management company, But then shortly thereafter, we would begin working with the school, the key members of the design team, to select an architect, possibly in September, October. So the topic at the last month's meeting or this month's meeting was really about dashboards. What do we want to show the public? So we got into a lot of the details
064of the types of information with that, and with our goal being one, to demonstrate that we are fiscal stewards stewards of tax paying funding and monies, but also to ensure that there's transparency and community engagement throughout the process, meaning just access the information where in years past it may not have been readily available so everybody was just on the same page. And clearly that's really for us just to improve and ensure transparency as well as building and maintaining public trust. So that was kind of the spirit of the meeting. But one of the things that came out of that was that's the cadence of presenting information to the FFO committee. But then it was about beginning to talk about and bringing it to you just to have an initial discussion about what our thoughts are
065with the cadence and myself or other team members presenting the bond project update to you, be it starting with the replacement of Carboro Elementary School. So with that, I just want to share with you when we look at communication stakeholders for bond projects. There are actually three. You as a board are the number one, but you also have the finance facilities and operations committee. And our idea would be that information would channel through the FFO committee first, to the best of our ability, then move to you. But then ultimately, the county has talked about that interlocal agreement where they want to have what they're calling kind of a core team of folks that are represented from our district, Orange County schools, as well as Orange County government, where we meet periodically to talk about the
066bond projects, to talk about consistency, parity, funding, anything that may be germane to the topic. No decisions have been made with respect to when they would meet because we really haven't begun that process. But the initial thoughts, talking with the county, is that that might be monthly and might be every two months. It just depends upon the needs of the projects that are happening. But what I would recommend for us, obviously, FFO committee meets monthly. But for me to come and present to you, we wouldn't present the same level of detail, but there would be a lot of things that would be duplicated between the meetings, such as just sharing with you as a board the financials, the Milestones that have been met in the project and are yet to be met. key decision points.
067There may be times where I and my team would have to come to you to ask for those decision points as we get through the project. And part of that would be financial versus scope and trying to figure out what's in the best interest, knowing that not only for the first school, but for future schools, as well as sharing photos of progress from if it's the clearing of the land to the the foundation, just allowing you to see the historical context of what's happening within the project and then also sharing timeline and next steps with you as a board. So realistically, the cadence of this is what we would recommend is to start with monthly frequency for FFO committee to meet with you formally quarterly. So four times a year. However, I don't want you
068to think that it would only be four because if there is a change order or something in the process that requires your information and approval, that would be in addition to this. So it could be that we have a quarterly update, but it could be that in between those two quarters, I'm still presenting to you two or three times on other topics. So it's not gonna be that we would wait until that quarterly report to bring something to you, but this would be the official channel so that it's set and it could be modified. But what we wanna make sure is that we have a, and we have to wait for the county side to really think about that process of how that's going to operate because there will be things that will arise that
069will have to possibly skip over the FFO committee and come straight to you or go to FFO and not come to you as far as making some decisions that don't require full board action, but it just requires direction because you still have the project actually happening. And you, you know, time is of essence. So if you have to do something depending upon the level, the gravity, the cost, the change in scope, you'd want to make sure you get to the right venue, but yet you don't slow the contractor down, which causes delays. And that's going to be something that we will feel as we go. But obviously, you as a board have certain parameters that we have to follow by policy. But again, I just don't want you to think it's going to be a
070very static timeline. It will be dynamic at times. But we think that this will be a good start. And realistically, given, you know, project management could be coming to you possibly the second meeting in August. The architect could be late September, October. So a September, if we go quarterly and start in September, that would actually start the cadence for bringing that to you. So with that, and I'm going to jump back to