BOE 6-30-25

001It's down here. So, technology, it's good and it's bad. When it works, it works. So, the board uh thank you for waiting. We had a close session there uh for a couple items. We've come back into open session. Wanted to kind of back up for the board if it's okay. Update has come to us from Dr. talks about adding an item to the agenda about prek at Blige Elementary. If that's okay with the board, uh I'd like to back up and add that to our agenda under action items. Uh Miss uh um Terry is right now making copies to give to the board of some late breaking information on that. Uh and we'll be bringing those in. So you'll see her come in and we'll be passing some papers here in a minute. So, if

002it's okay, I'd kind of like to back up and can we have an approval to amend the amended agenda? If that makes sense. I make a motion to approve the amended. All right. All right. Thank you, Miss Ward. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right. Any other questions, comments? Put it under the um child nutrition uh bin piggy bank. Put it at the Yeah, that's fine. Put it Make it number 10. That'll work. So, all those in favor of that being added, raise your hand. Okay, motion carries. Thank you for allowing us to back up there. So, we're just going to jump right in here. Uh, this is our June 30th meeting. So, it is in substitution of the regular June July board meeting u on there. So, we're going to start first

003with Dr. Cox and comments from the superintendent. So, you know, most of the time we have a lot of people here for uh honoring, but since um most of our teachers have now are on break and a lot of our 10-month employees aren't here, we are going to say first of all, thank you to everyone who worked summer school. Um I really believe it was a true success. Um we even tested at the end of summer school. We won't have all of that information until or do we have all of it in now? Is it all in now? Okay, so we can't say anything yet. Correct. Um, but we are very pleased um overall with um what we have uh done considering the year we have all experienced together. I'm going to pass this around

004to you all. You might want to pass it on. Um but uh thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of the school year and this with the closing out of our uh budget. Um we now get to focus on the next school year which we've been kind of been doing both for a little while now. Uh this Friday is Independence Day and so um the uh offices are closed and I I don't know why it says Friday, July 5th. the officers um are closed. Um but we're going to be having um quite a few things come up and added dates in August. We'll make sure that we add it to that running list um of events uh because we have new teacher dates that are upcoming. Uh we have lots of things that

005are going on. And so we are um you know really uh uh really excited about um we're really excited about uh some of the future things that we have in um Ash County School Dwell. I don't know why am I on the wrong date? Okay, good things upcoming. Um you see that there are lots of congratulations in order. Uh for the first time that I remember we actually have um uh me Megan Colbert is a finalist for the CTE Burrows Welcome Teacher Burrows Welcome Fund Teacher of the Year. And if anyone knows Megan, you know, we've honored her in the last couple of um last couple of board meetings. Uh she is Ash County High School's teacher of the year, but she's also our district's CTE teacher of the year and truly tremendous. And when

006I um spent some time with students over the last couple of weeks at school talking about what their vision for Ash County Schools is and um planning for the future uh for students, I wanted to hear from our students that had been been with us since they were in kindergarten or prek. And uh many of them who had Mrs. Culver said, "We need teachers just like Mrs. Culver." and they named her by name. And so I remember at the heart of the husky uh going up to Mrs. Colbert and uh letting her know that um what I had heard because I think people need to hear it directly especially when the compliments come from the students that you serve. Wow, what a change maker and what a difference maker she is. So anyway, so she

007is going to uh res u receive some honors. she will have um uh some professional learning that's upcoming and then uh later on um they'll have a dinner in their honor and I'm excited for her to be able to participate in that. Uh last month Ash County Schools participated in the the Appalachin State University public school partnership and um it was the uh they showed all kinds of innovations from 18 different districts. I believe there were um over a hundred people there and Ash County Schools was voted on by all of the other school districts um as the innovator innovative partner of the year. And so um I had asked um or we had asked Mountain View Elementary uh to present on our behalf uh their innovation because really it's about the work that gets

008done in the schools every day. Mountain View Elementary, if you haven't seen their booklet they sent home with uh parents and children, all children in Mountain View Elementary were charged with a community um uh task, I guess you could say, to help spread tourism and to really help extend learning throughout the year. And so things like Ash County Cheese, the Ash County Museum of History, um were there were five different sites here in Ash County where families could go visit. There were book selections that were matched and they used AI to help them to craft this wonderful booklet that they sent home. Uh anyway, that was the talk of uh this event. Uh they did a fantastic job in presenting. Casey and I um happened to uh be there for the entire event and there

009were some outstanding uh things showcased at this event and our teachers um came up on top. So they received a check for $1,500 uh for their school. And then um a uh uh person from Scholastic Books um I was talking to her. She asked what's next with this project and I said well I said when they come back to school um they are giving prizes to students who complete this um uh who complete these challenges and read during the summer. And she said, "Well, what kind of prizes you're looking for?" And I said, "Well," I said, "I think they're wanting to put books in the hands of every child." and she donated $2,000 worth of books that Mountain View Elementary can actually select themselves. So, we're really proud of that. Um, it never hurts to

010ask uh for things. And of course, you know, what does Scholastic do best? They put books in the hands of kids. So, u we're excited about that and what's to come. Um, we had lots of successes with Gear Up and our middle school, Christy Aldridge and Jessica Yates. Um so counselors at the middle school and the early college uh presented at the group counselor network showcase in Morgan sharing strategies that boost student success. And um of course Gear Up was the sponsor of that event. And so we are um first of all all of our counselors have participated in the national model on how to collect really good data to best support kids and the MTSS process and others. And so we're really proud of them uh for uh continuing their learning so that our

011kids can uh continue to grow. uh we had more teachers that were certified in letters and so you know that our elementary teachers um had gone through a pretty grueling process of getting certified not just the teachers but our administrators Mitchell Rey uh participated in all of the teacher PD and did all of the modules as an as an administrator which was which was a lot of extra work for him. Um but uh reaching that milestone uh Casey was able to go out and celebrate them and Courtney Binder, Amanda Black, Alicia Bro, McKenna Wilson, Hannah Barker, Jennifer Blevens, Angie Douglas, Alexis Henson, Kristen Prder, Alicia Roden, Marley Eller, Marcia Shepard, and Sherry Shepard. Um were all uh ones who uh were able to celebrate reaching that milestone. So, we're really proud of them and the

012extra work that they put in um so that they can um improve on their practices on behalf of kids. So, we're very excited. We celebrated last time um Mountain View's excellence in the cafeteria. Westwood achieved 100% as well in the cafeteria. So, it takes all in all of us to be able to um serve children and make sure that they have everything they need to be successful. And so, yep, one more cafeteria team uh who was able to uh um achieve 100% on their sanitation rating. Um anyway, lots of people in there, so many different announcements. Um we are accepting for anyone out there with a child incoming to prek. We are accepting applications with spots at all open sites for children who turn four before August 31st. you might be eligible for free NC

013preK which is fantastic. We also have a paid classroom too for those who are not eligible but there may be subsidy subsidies um available for um those students. Um but here in a little bit the added prek item I think we'll have maybe have more to uh celebrate there. We celebrated retirees across our district um who have put in so much service um to Ash County Schools and again uh we will be doing our convocation this year a pinning ceremony um to honor uh employment in Ash County schools once again. I know Lake worked hard on getting those numbers together for us so that we can ensure that um everyone who's getting their pen at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 uh plus years um is honored and of course several of you on the

014board um have that many years of service to Ash County Schools. And um project graduation, you know, we we graduated students, which uh Earl, I can say that right out loud to our graduation, right? Okay, good. I'm just making sure because sometimes you can say it behind the scenes and not blast it everywhere, but this is one that that's pretty easy. First of all, project graduation was another huge success. Thanks to all of our volunteers that made that possible. And a special congratulations to Ash County High School graduate Paige Roden who received a $12,000 Norman Cheek scholarship. Donna Bayer, who is the daughter of the late Mr. Cheek, presented that uh annual scholarship, and it's given to a student pursuing their education at AppState, but they also have to have volunteered a lot, including a

015project graduation. And anyone who knows Paige knows certainly fit that mold. um she's been volunteering for just about everything for as long as I can as long as I've been here anyway. So, congratulations to her. Um but here's and this is going back to the state of the schools. You know, when we have all of our data on our strategic plan and all of our data on what's next, we're going to be able to shout from the rooftops. So, what we've done, but I want to give you a couple of little uh uh bites of positive good things. one, um, we've, you know, we've wanted students to be in school and we want to make sure that students are coming to school on a regular basis. And, uh, that's really important to all of us.

016But from a chronic absenteeism, we know that regardless whether you're sick or you're just not in school, um, it does make a difference and we want all children to be successful. our chronic absenteeism um has been decreasing significantly. So in 202122 school year some of our schools were at 10 plus absences of over 78 uh% of our kids with that many absences. Um 18 plus absences um was high as well. Um and that's too much for kids to be out of school that many days. And we know that there were contributing factors with COVID and sicknesses and things that were beyond our control. Um but it's also something that um we needed to get kids back and see the value of being in school. This past year um across our district um we are um

017almost back to precoid levels of um chronic absenteeism. every single school has decreased the number of students that are significantly absent from school and that was one of our goals. It's something we've been working on and will continue to work on. Um but we are uh significantly doing better across the board. So I'm proud of all of our counselors, our principles, our teachers, a lot of people making those phone calls on a daily basis, our social workers who make home visits. a tremendous amount of effort and we're going to continue to work on that positive path and it's been declining uh which is a good thing but this year we made even u more of a decline even this year during um what was challenging overall in getting kids to school. So secondly, I think

018the biggest thing from um a strategic plan and the difference that we're making across the board and I cannot believe that Miss Tammy is here. Welcome. Probably the biggest thing that when I came to Ash County Schools, um when we looked at the data for our strategic planning and I had uh Mr. Pennington to pull the data for me. Um the biggest thing being a mom of boys um and knowing how important it is to graduate from high school. Um one of those one of the biggest challenges we had um was our boys and not just not graduating but a lot of them were dropping out. And so we made it a goal in our strategic plan. And before I came, one in four boys was not graduating from high school in Ash County, which

019there I spent, as some of you all did as well, teary night just thinking, what are we going to do to re-engage our boys? So, we put it on a strategic plan and said, not only do we want to decrease the number of dropouts, which has been decreasing, um, and hopefully it'll continue on that path, but this school year, we have moved from about 84% graduation rate a few years ago when we made that goal. This year, 92% graduation rate. and that's among some of the highest in the state as a district. So, kudos to and this is not just a high school thing. You know, this takes everybody. Kids sometimes say they're going to drop out in the fifth grade and they keep that in the back of their mind until we have a

020an opportunity to grab them and help them to make a difference. So this is all in throughout the entire district. It's wonderful community partnerships. It's our CTE classes that we have expanded 18 different pathways so that we can capture as many kids as we can. Um it's our partnerships with the community college to re-engage our students. We have significantly increased the number of um students with internships and those are all throughout our our high school experience from your top kids down to the kids who need something different to look at to to remain engaged in school. Um kudos to everybody who's played a role in that. But 92% it's highest ever last year at 80 88.89 was the highest we'd ever been. This is a significant jump yet again. So, thank you uh to the

021board of education for all your support. Um but thank you to the people boots on the ground who are doing this work every day. And I will end it on that unless you guys have any questions. Do have a question. Um are we still doing the endowment golf tournament on the 25th? Because I didn't have that on my calendar. Yeah. No. Um, I don't know why what I copied and pasted over. I think it it copied and pasted. We do not have any of that on the 25th. So, none of those are dates. So, I I'm going to delete that right now. And if you all refresh because um that was a boo boo on my part when I pulled over all the good things. Everything else was right at those dates. Um, none of

022them were correct other than July 4th. Every time I do that, it won't it won't let me. [Laughter] My computer going off. I didn't know what it was. So, I was like, y'all look. So, no, my apologies. None of those dates were correct. So, I will get the corrected dates up there, but except for July 4th is still a holiday, right? But the holiday is not on the 5th. That's just Saturday. And I know you were closed anyway on Saturday. Not just working on Saturday. Yeah. Friday. Yeah. I'm gonna have to get a blue bucket. In Rotary Club, we've got a blue bucket and money goes in there for Alzheimer's research for a a trust uh on there. And at our Rotary meetings, if somebody's phone rings during the meeting, you have to put a

023dollar in in the Alzheimer's bucket. We're going to have to give us a bucket. Uh I wanted one of those at work. anytime anybody's cell phone goes pay up, you know, on there. So, anyhow, no, you're good. It's okay. I was just panicking. No, I was looking. No, we don't. Okay. Well, we're going to get some more updates from Miss Allison Kimp Sullivan for the new middle school. Did not have a formal report this month. Um but I will share with you um that we have rebar coming next week which is very exciting. That means the building's going to be starting soon and um the next week after that um the contractor that's going to be starting foundations will be mobilizing. So that is a big deal. So rebar coming. We also have um a

024precon on Monday with the soil nail contractor. So they'll be mobilizing soon. So that's three big big key milestones that I've had several people comment that there looks like there's a lot of dirt being moved right now and they are excited that they're moving dirt. You can see it from 221 and if it would stop raining it would help. Yeah. And the more I read your reports and all the documents connected to this, the more I appreciate your expertise that you're providing for us. Thank you. Yeah. Anybody have Yeah, yours is. Yeah, you're on down here. You're coming up soon. Yeah. All right. Any questions for Miss Alen? All right. We'll see you in a minute. Yes. On there. Next, we'll go into action items for the board. First we've got under there is personnel.

025be a little different. Uh in the amended agenda, we broke some things out. So, uh what we'll look at first is doing the we're pulling out of that the assistant principal at the middle school and the superintendent contract for a separate vote um on those. So, the first item is the personnel minus those two. So, and that includes the personnel and the addendum for that. Do we have a motion to approve the personnel and the addendum? I make a motion we approve the personnel and the addendum. Do I have a second? Second. Any questions, comments? All those in favor, raise your hand. Next, under there, we've got the assistant principal at Ash County Middle School. So, do I have a motion to approve that position? I move we approve the position. Thank you, Miss Ward.

026Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Jones. Any other questions or comments? All in favor, raise your hand. Motion carries. Next, we've got the superintendent's contract in close session to go ahead and inform the superintendent um she did have a evaluation of distinguished um overall on that. So, this is to update her contract by year. Do I have a motion to approve that contract? I make a motion that we approve it. Thank you, Mr. Calhoun. Do I have a second? I second. Thank you, Miss Ward. Any questions or comments? All those in favor of the motion, raise your hand. Motion carries. Next we've got on there is the um CN furniture package. So, Miss Allison, I guess you're back up. What is CN? Oh, okay. Thank you. All these acronyms may not mean

027what I think they do. the CM Clark. So, as part of the overall budget, um, FFN, which is, you know, anything that's not fixed, right? Um, and that's going to include, um, telecommunication equipment, too. That's AV um, furniture, fixtures, equipment. Um Clark Nexon's uniquely is um I got a proposal from them to do furniture specifically and for obvious reasons because they are the designers for the building. Um it seemed it's a seamless process to go to them because they already know the the building, the floor plans, the design and you know they they understand building and and the goals of where we're going. Um, for the entire building, we have a little less than $4 million for all of the things that need to go in the building. This is cameras, this is security, this

028is all the equipment they need to go in the IT um closets. Um, you know, in my own numbers and working beside um interior designers myself, I think it's going to for just the furniture itself, it's going to be around $2 million um for furniture. Um I have gone through this before it's all a lot of day with clerk Nixon asked a lot of questions and feel like um we're in a good good place with them. Um it's about a three-year process to work with them to get to where we need to be. So that's the proposal I'm bringing it to you. It's about a six-month process. At the time you um actually order the furniture to get it delivered. It's a you have to be very timely with it. If you order it too

029soon, you're going to be storing furniture. You don't want to put it in a warehouse. If it's too late, you don't have furniture to sit in. So, it's a lot of work. I've been beside this process for years. It's not something we really can do in house, but many of them. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Will some of this be customdesigned furniture or they are going to be select? I know they will be selecting from things already available, but will some of it have to be customuilt? I'm assuming because of the designs that may be they will be working with um manufacturers but they do have selection process where they can select the the um fabrics that will work with the design of the building. Um but it won't be custom

030though. Okay, because we obviously don't want to spend money, right? But it we want to make sure it's durable and we also want to make sure that we want to buy things that are um if we can't own state contract and possibly if there's enough people it might be that we can actually bid it out and get better prices than it own state contract too. That's something I want to pursue. Okay. Won't be possible for everything because you might need one of these or 10 of these. But if we have, you know, 200 things, we might be able to bid it out. It's going to have to be a process. We'll have to work the school system to to do future crossings and they will do that work for us, but in conjunction with meeting

031with the staff and the school, right? Yes. I'll have to help in that. They won't be out here as far as like scheduling the trucks and know helping doing touch list. I'll have to help with that. So, I have to stay around. We're happy that you're staying around. That's That's up to you. That's a lot. But thank you. It's a lot. There is a lot to it. I didn't get a chance to go over to the middle school to look, but it's really modern stuff that Sher really likes. We don't have to cart all that stuff that's been around the last 50 years to Well, I would like to take a there's a few pieces that are new that are functional that um like Mr. has a few pieces in CTE that are functional. Yeah,

032that are good. I wouldn't throw away. It's broken. Yes, I agree. Or or if it has termites, it's metal. Metal. They're metal. I wouldn't I wouldn't throw I'm too practical. I wouldn't throw anything away that's good and new. And and I talked to about that. I said, "We have to incorporate those things in the Any other questions?" Thank you, Alison. I don't I wouldn't know where to start on myself. I'm glad you do. Thank you. So, do I have a motion to approve the CN furniture package and procurement? I make a motion. All right. Thank you, Miss Calhoun. Do I have a second? I second. I got two. So, um, thank you to both of you for the second um on there. Um, so any other questions, comments? My heart stopped when you said how

033much, but then I realized of We won't get rid of it anytime soon. So the f the new furniture I know it's a lot a big space but it's a big space and they deserve that the new building like cafeteria tables and I mean there's a lot of things that are considered FFN. It's 150,000 foot building. That's everything that goes to the building. And I'm sure you plan for the contingency on this one. It's in the budget. Yeah. Thank you. All those in favor, raise your hand. Thank you so much. Next we've got on here is the consent agenda for the board, which are the uh the minutes from the June 2nd meeting. You've got some dates for the board meeting date changes. That's when they fall near holidays, etc. for the upcoming year. And

034then we've got the uh procurement or procedure, sorry, we just talked about procurement, but procedure 3320 on field trips on there. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion that we approve the consent uh budget there. All right. Thank you. Do I have a second? Yes, I think that's Thank you. Any questions or comments um on the minutes? Um, could we have a little more information? I know it's hard to pick if there's too much or there's not enough, but I tried to research some things and it was very hard to do that. Um, so there if we could get a happy medium there on uh just to remind me of what we did discuss last month. Okay, that's Thank you. Lori used to write a book. Okay, good.

035So, all those in favor, raise your hand. Motion carries. Next, we've got the 2526 interim budget resolution. Thought Miss Amanda would have a binder, but she's just got a folder. My dad was right. The older you get, the faster time goes. It feels like I was just here as budget resolution for 24 but as you know they have not passed the state budget. There is no state budget in sight here maybe October that would be fun. So, in order to continue paying salaries on regular expenses, requesting that the board approve the interm budget resolution provided in your packet. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the budget amendments? I make the motion. Thank you. Do I have a second? I second. What' you do? That's an emotion. Oh, emotion. Whoops. Yeah. It's not the

036first numbers make her excited. Any questions or comments? Are there any things in here, Amanda, that we're not we have not discussed before? Well, that's budget amendments that's coming up. This is this is this is the intern budget resolution. Oh, that is just keeping salaries going out. I didn't make a comment keeping us roll 25 plus until I'm hoping they would do some mini budgets but they did not many zero disappointed well considering people want to be paid a good thing and this keeps it at what it what it's been until the changes any other questions if we change if they do change the uh like state salaries and those kinds of things. Would that be retroactive? It typically is. Okay. So, that's up to them. That is up to them. Okay. Hearing none. All

037those in favor raise your hand. Okay. You're good to go. Which I think you're coming back. Um next I've got on here is the uh Oh, yeah. Why did I do the wrong one? Now we've got the budget amendments. So, here we go. Now we're Now we're in there. Sorry. I clicked on the wrong one. So, typically throughout the year on the state budget, they do some minor adjustments. This year they were a little more than minor just because hurricane money for transportation and different things. Um, you know, they gave us the summer recovery money and it put us a little bit, but that's 272,000 covers that children auditors are. Um, I had a question on capital outlay. Um, what did that go to? The six million. Uh, it says 7,700,000. So even though the

038county pays for middle school construction, we still have to book it on our books. Okay. So that was a recommendation from the auditor that amount because I think they're right. Allison's already gone, but I think they're right around six million right now expenses they paid out. So we will do this next year when in the following numbers and the budget resolution order has recommended putting about $40 million in that line because the bulk of our expenses are going to be the next two years. So you'll see a large number in capital that is not really our money but is our money but general accounting principle require us to book it on our book. Okay. and the rest of the revenues were mostly from hurricane relief funds. Uhu. Um on I want to talk about current

039expense a little bit because that was basically due to charter school increases. We're just seeing more and more kids enrolling in Virtual and Cyber. We had a new one come up this year, Pine Springs Academy that is offering virtual services. We started out with 35 or 36 and ended up with 45 kids at 230 some dollars. lost to 73 I think right now a month per child. So this is the loss of adm. Well and they could come from homeschool into the charter school but if they live in our county or they could have been out of county for some other reason and gone to charter and then we pay for them. We just don't we don't get paid our homes kids as long as their address is within Ash County. the money comes to

040you to pay them. It doesn't it doesn't this is our from our current expense a lotment the commissioners give us we are required by law to give a portion of that to charge that's what I meant by and we don't get it on on the other end so what we have in the first 20 days is what we have from the state from ADM so if they are not with us we don't get those uh funds when they come back to us and typically they come back to Yes. Any other questions? Do I have a motion to approve the 2425 budget amendments? I move we approve the amendments to the budget for 2425. All right. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, raise

041your hand. Okay. Motion carry your signature. Okay. You do the first. Okay. I've got facilities use next. Oh, that's she's getting a baptism by fire in policy. Good times. Yeah, it's fun stuff. Yeah, we have um presented the policy with stripers. I think y'all had requested that. Do you have any questions about what was presented? I'm a little bit concerned about the the fee schedule. I think it's a little bit high um for our county um for the facilities or for the personnel um facilities mainly. Um I wasn't sure what that's we didn't change anything there. That's the only thing we changed was the custodial piece. My question was on the opposite end because as of whenever this policy was last adjusted or changed, you had these exact same dollar amounts. There's been a lot

042of inflation. So, how much is this inflation there going to impact us? Is it going to hurt us or are these things something that you've determined remains pretty stable? I can say that, you know, we don't have a lot of facility use. Um, what we do have is recurring things. Um, the bowls, empty bowls, empty and if they use our kitchen, then we have to charge for that and have to have somebody there. But we don't charge them. I mean, it's a that is a good community event. And so that comes for me and I'm like, you're good. and we move on because they it is a service to our community. But we have we do have to charge for the personnel. What ends up happening is it most of the times it puts them

043in time and ahead because they've already filled their duties to us. Is that why the I knew they weren't making that kind of money. No, it's it's time and especially um on our custodian because we've been so short-handed. there's no way they could adjust their schedule during the week right now to um be there on a Saturday to cover an event like this. So, it's we're losing money on personnel is the issue at the moment. Okay. So, I'm I'm going to um we are keeping uh the community use and all of everything else. It's it's just basically that the um fees have changed for personnel. Is that what you're saying? Just a few changes in verbage. Yeah, that one. And I took out the part where it says that for profit's not available to use

044our facility or not allowed to use our facility. So, I did take that out because we do have a couple of businesses that use it and they are forprofit. Um I'm I'm very thankful that we do have um our community can use these facilities because as we discussed last time it's very difficult to find a facility here that can be used especially I know they had one at the high school I believe this last weekend a fundraiser for um yeah and we did not because it was a fundraiser for the hurricane we did not charge them for the use of people if they needed it but not for the actual space. That's a good thing and we've been doing that for a long time. But as far as even before I came, you know, we've

045had forprofit places actually use the facility before, even though it's said in policy that they weren't. And so that's why we wanted to change the policy because there are some reasons why somebody in the community might need a space because there are so very few of them. And when it comes to child nutrition, if they if they need to use the cafeterias, it is a liability for them to be in there without a cafeteria staff person. It is dangerous. There's a lot of dangerous quizzing in there if you don't know how to use. Right. Plus, it's also I think it's part of your policies. Yes, it is. It's under the um all of our passive and everything like that. All supposed to Yeah. anybody in that kitchen unless there is a staff that were there

046serve safe staff and and Janet I was basing my um I looked up um a gymnasium rental at um family central is $15 an hour so ours seem to be quite a bit if we're not having a lot of use of that then you know but uh it seemed if I want to have a birthday party that's not going to work that's a little expensive right and I don't think It's set up to discourage, but you know, every time you flip those lights on in that gymnasium, it's it's a high cost. Energy is just crazy right and they have to have custodian on staff. It I it almost makes it impossible when they're forprofit people come in, they need to be reimbured for what they're saying. I'm just curious, what would people rent for? I

047mean, do they actually wrestle for birthday parties? No. That's not happened in a long time. And used to be a lot of reunions, but they got waved usually. I didn't know if that you know, you have such smart. I thank you for doing the leg work on this for us. Thank you. So, do I have a motion to approve this policy? I think we approve the policy. Okay, I got one. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, thank you. Any other questions, comments? All those in favor, raise your hand. Carries. Next, we'll put you on the chiller. Can I do you know the high school chillers? We've been babying along for three, four years now. Yes, they are older than the wastewood dealer that went out. So, it we've been holding our breath a little

048bit on them and Joy's team has done some work on them this spring, I believe. Yeah, we just replaced two motors in them last week and we're reing those motors in process now. So, they I mean, they're starting to show their fatigue motors we pulled off were original, but plan is to replace and have those. And we have concerns of one of the compressors being gone on it now. So we we would be really eager and urge the board to approve a chiller because lead time on any of this equipment is very very very long. Um previous experiences even when we worked to buy budget in Washington there was a crunch on time uh within with the by annual budget. So uh as as with board's approval we would be able to have that installed

049at the Yeah. The bid contest takes a little while. We'll have to get free and get him to write the bid up. Jody's going to work with Matthew Ward from DPI who he has done some preliminary work, but um we need to deal with more which that service thankfully is free. Hopefully he's not backed up too far. When I went to the conference and their their team is thin. They were they are thin. Yeah. Um, but we would like to move on this as quickly as possible just because of the lead time. Love to have it in next week for our summer. I appreciate the advanced planning as experience with Westwood and that no air in the gym. I um move that we approve this. Okay. So, got a motion to approve the chiller. Do

050I have a second? Second. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? When it says the county of Ash has provided the 887, what fund did that come from our regular funds or is that from sales tax or what fund does that come from? I have not talked to me about it. Notice it was one of one of two items that they had listed out specifically that they were funding. Okay. Because I know our sales tax next year I think will go to the new middle school. tax will go to probably for the next what's that what $200,000 a year or so you don't have a ball park on that sorry that's just what a percent of the sales tax is for that one and a half% one half not one and a half oh one

051half Okay. Five. The half cent sales tax. Five. Yeah. Yeah. That's what the Have they been giving that to the hospital? No, it's it's a different public school money. Is it? Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. So, that'd be around 200 something compared to other things that I know. I know that it goes loan after when we start paying the loan back whenever that is. That's how we pay for our school. We've got a motion and a second on that. Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, raise your hand. Right. You can get on the get in the cooling order. Um, Mr. was able to step in quickly in this role. Well, got a lot of good ideas, a lot of plans, I think, to help us get things on track. But we want permission

052to buy a activity bus that was the other item that the county had line items out in the budget. Um, we have the other budget on order or the other budget the other bus on order, but it the deadline I think is still August that one. Is that the act that's the handicap medic? Yeah, this one and leave time on this. We are desperate for activity buses. How many do we have? Um, I didn't bring my budget thing, but I think there's eight or nine. One of them's over 30 years old, but it stays in the county. Make it CT hauls stuff from high with it sometimes. Sometimes 1990. Yes. That hurts my heart this year. I graduated high school. I bet the new one won't last that long. I I was totally shocked by

053how much it cost. Um I'm going of course when you look at a new vehicle of any kind, it's it's gone up. Preco they were about 92. Yeah. That's why I was going oh my gosh insane. And then the lead time on them are ridiculous. Like we haven't gotten the newest one that we ordered last year because they make them from scratch. They build them. Yeah. Well, appreciate the commissioners filling the gap on what we've saved. They really pointed out as a concern. Janet was there and really worried about all this going out of Well, these all have air conditioning, too. I wrote on the ones without air conditioning in it. years ago. All right. So, do we have a motion to approve the purchase of this activity bus? I'll make a motion. Thank you.

054Do I have a second? Any other questions or comments? All those in favor, raise your hand. Good to order. Yeah, you do not have to get up. You do not have to get up. So child nutrition be it on the piggyback. I like the name for that being in nutrition and could have called it bacon back or something. So one of the beautiful things of being in the northwest corner of um the state is that we live in a great beautiful place. However, when it comes time to purchasing things, sometimes it's a little far to come. And unfortunately Cisco who um formally withdrew their bid that they had provided and you all had um approved at the beginning sometime during the year during the normal bid process. Um they withdrew it and so we had

055to scramble thankfully. Um Tammy found out while she was at her child nutrition end of the year conference and was able to talk with um a couple of our surrounding districts to see if we could piggy back off of their bids and we had looked at a couple of different school districts and what the possibility was but the best option for us ends up being Alageney County. Now the downfall to that one is that instead of being $4 per case it's going to be $450 per case. But the good thing is is we'll actually be able to feed our kids and it was going to be 450 in Maka also. And right still had to done an additional bid for paper supplies and all all that stuff but they're with a different company than Cisco

056and Cisco did not get the bid for the others. So this is really our only option. Well, do we have a motion to approve this bid piggyback? I'll make a motion piggy bank. All right. All right. Do I have a second? A second. Got a couple there. Any other questions or comments? Could you explain to me again why it was more lucrative to go to Alig? Is it just simply because of the paper supplies? Is that Yeah, basically because you know the fi the the pro the process of putting out a bid I still had to follow all these regulations right and so you know the 10 days of having it out for bid and all that there wasn't the time you know to get it in even before I hurt myself you know you

057know trying to push it to get everything done so I can update the software and we can get our first orders in and August. I mean, it's just it's just I think it's good practice to go ahead and do that with Alagany and then at the next in next March I will have to bid out again. Have to bid out. Yeah. And it it's probably going to be more expensive and I don't know, you know, that's that's all that's just the you know, that's up to them as it goes. Well, and I think we should share with them as well. So, if there's an opportunity to pull more together, if we're going to get what we need, we might be able to get a better deal. For sure. What does it look like for federal

058monies, and I know that's not part of this, but I've been really curious as to how some of those things have filtered down for the new school year, you know. Um, of course, we lost that LFS grant, which is local foods to schools is what that is. And that was a uh it was all fresh produce that that we purchased from it's not the not the fresh fruit and vegetable. That one is still that one's been approved and we are signed up to do that again next year. Um that this one was totally just produce that actually purchased from local farmers but you know we didn't have any local farmers that are GAP certified close enough to supply the need that we had. So I was buying it from farm to school. So that was

059it was great and so that is the biggest removal of any kind of money at this point. Uh we've been a you know trip was here trip one was here on Friday and he assessed my claims and everything and so that was approved and we will have the uh no cost meals again next school year. So, we're just holding our breath, you know, with child nutrition because it things are changing and things will continue to change. But, you know, we just have to wait to see what the lawmakers decide. Wait, wait. And then, you know, retroactively pick something, you know, like, you know, we understand. So just at the mercy of the situation at this point just I feel blessed that we will have we've got food coming and we you know we'll be able

060to feed kids and you know the rest of the world thank you for your um commitment and especially under those conditions. We appreciate you how you handling this and you know it just worked out that they decided that you get to not wait until Wednesday. I thank you for partnering with other folks. It's pardon the pun. It's not always good to have all your eggs in one basket. Um but uh it's good out because you know I spent Thursday morning in Wils with the director from Wils and the director from Alagany and they had contact with I mean you know there's a process to all of this because you know Alagany has stepped away from a manufact so we're sort of you know in the same area of having to update our systems and create

061you know work on our meetings and everything together. So it is creating a a bonding there's a better way of saying that professionally I'm sure but we will all do better because we're working together. Any other questions? All those in favor raise your hand. Car. Thank you. Next, we've got the added item for action under there, and that is the Justine prek classroom approval at Blige Elementary School. So, you all talk about that. So, I'm first of all, um, proud of the team that's been working to make this happen. Uh thank you to Mitchell and Terry and uh Jod's team. Um to get the room set up be but before you can do all of this stuff, you have to have everything up and ready to go uh with the intention of opening and then

062you go through the actual approval process. And so there are many steps and we're just glad that this uh was able to happen now so that you don't have to go back and consider it after the fact. Um, but I I'm really proud of our team for uh working toward having a prek classroom at Blige Elementary School. It'll prevent uh students from having to travel so far from their homes and uh families uh can feel good that that's where they're going to be next. An easy transition into kindergarten. Soft drop. I got one. Thank you. I might Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Amy. Um, but this is a an application that as a new site, even though Blige previously had a prek, um, we had to go through the entire process again because it had been some

063time and this allows us to apply um, for Blige Elementary School to have their own prek. Currently, we will have 14 students. So that means we can take four more in that classroom um as an NC prek classroom. Uh and then of course um we've had the prek I don't know what it is. I don't know all of a sudden. Thank you. Thank you. Um, but I think this is our goal is to have universal prek, be able to offer every fouryear-old an opportunity, not as a requirement, but if you want your child in prek, we want to be able to provide that for you. I'd love to be able to offer every classroom for free, but NC PreK is free. So, for the families that qualify. So, we're we're very excited. And um, Terry,

064is there anything I'm missing in that? Very well explained. We're excited, but um it has been a team effort to be able to make sure and it it is a process that will take the rest of the summer, but we're going to get there for the first and also has been part because of our licensing licensing consultant in the meetings and things that we have to have. But the fire alarm health inspector um the um licensing um consultant from Raleigh DHS have all been involved in this process. I do have a question about the playground. That playground that's in the shaded area in the round part. Yes. Is that going to be totally prek playground like it used to be or is that going to be a more I know the fence needs to be

065fixed. Okay. So that area will not So the um playground area that is connected to the building there on that wing that would be the prek area. Yes. So it's it will get some new equipment. Yes. It and it already has it's gotten tricycles. It got new mulch. It got um the sandbox taken out because the sandbox is usually a hazard for outside play for NC prek. Um so it's already up to standards and it will be inspected tomorrow. Okay. And on the other playground, is that fence going to be fixed? It is. Yes, that that request has already been put in and planned so that it is updated. Um, and then there's some other updates to some of the other playgrounds as well that we're looking at and having later this summer before school

066starts back. Playgrounds have gone out the roof too about, you know, fixing and installing playgrounds. It's really expensive. Yes, we we have we it has to be um um licensed also for NC preK. So, they worked really hard on getting making sure that that is licensed also ready for lensure which process will start tomorrow. And you said you have positions uh available for parents who might not send their kids. Yes, I have four four position four students um four openings for um children at that site. Is that a direct? Yes, because I know some uh parents have been reluctant to send their kids on the bus that far. um to um early learning center. So, I'm really excited about putting this prek back where there there's an additional hour less on the bus from Blue

067Ridge every day. So, I'm I'm really excited about that. We called every parent that was had the address of Blist um that applied for NC preK um about two weeks ago and made sure that every parent that lived in Blue District had the option to choose Blueidge. That's cool. That's cool. Well, do I have a motion to approve this prek site at Blige Elementary School? I will make the motion that we approve the site at Clearidge. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Got two. That'll work. Any other questions or comments? All in favor, raise your hand. Motion carries. That's great. Next, we've got some updates, discussions, considerations for the board. First under that is the dress code policy 4316. So um the policies that we have brought to you and some communications will help

068inform they will come back to you in August um for consideration under action. Um but this is to help us to prepare all the student handbooks and the um to make sure that we are following the policies and it's what our principles and teachers um are wanting as far as the policy is concerned. um as well. Um so the first one under there is dress code and um our current dress code um policy has a whole laundry list of things that um that had been discussed um back when I think it was back when Dustin first became principal of the high school. And he apologized for not being he's on vacation this week with his family. Um but what he has asked or requested is that we go to the standard schoolboard association policy to

069make it um first of all um I guess easier to enforce and um the big sticking point uh for for him specifically was the hats and um you know I think he was a big proponent of not having hats in school when he first And then I think, you know, is that the battle that you want to choose when you're trying to keep boys in school? And I think that was probably the main thing. And then of course when you get into um appropriate and not appropriate and start measuring skirts and pant like that's a really tough thing to do. So it leaves it to um our principles to say, "Okay, you're in school. um cover it up, give them a t-shirt if you need to. Um pull up the pants, whatever that means for

070them. Um and that's still included in here, just not as specific in here. So that um you know, as far as the dis disruptive or obscene or health and safety of others, that's what the school board um non-discriminatory. That's the big piece that we could get into if we start seeing girls and skirt length. So, so this is specifically um keeps it simple from a um from a policy standpoint and that way we can move to um having that in our student handbooks that Jamie and uh Dr. and are now working on alongside of the principles. Did I miss anything in that conversation, Lindsay? What was the problem? You said had a problem enforcing the previous policy. Well, I you getting the I think they realize that boys want to wear hats to school. I

071mean, they they wear hats all the time. There are very few um that don't. And um I think that was the biggest thing. I think he thought he would be able to um keep kids in school and uh we must battle. We are locking down the phones this year. Um we are um we want to make sure that we are enforcing the rules and able to do that across the board. And that was one of the things that became a a battle that I don't think he was maybe not worth fighting that battle. If I could make a comment here, it there are hats that will be obviously detrimental, like if it's too high, too wide, and this does allow them to do that. I have a granddaughter who at puberty her hair started turning

072really curly randomly over her head and the rest of her hair was completely straight and she was totally uncomfortable unless she had a beanie on covering her entire head. And so they're saying that all hats are not allowed I think creates issues especially with cancer patients and other medical issues and my granddaughter's situation. So I um like the simplicity of the I have a problem with the the new policy because it really doesn't give very specific there's a a a tradeoff here. What is interpretive is provocative or sing obscene. That is one of the things and that is very interpretive. Um what a 15-year-old may not see as provocative, a school personnel might see as provocative. And to be frank with you, I have seen some um dress codes come out of that building that

073are embarrassing to say the least. And um we had a help, you know, a policy here. Whatever policy that we adopt, it needs to be um upheld. It needs to be enforced. It needs to have consequences. And this is just very little of, oh, well, whatever you want to do, let's do it. How how is a an assistant principal who usually deals with these things, how are they going to, you know, it says violates a reasonable non-discriminatory dress code adopted and publicized by the school. Well, that's what we have now. So, how what is that? um you know and we spent so much time and effort from we had committee after committee and input from parents and middle school and elementary school and high school and we worked on that a long time. This is

074not an old policy at all. Um compared to some of our policies, right? I think it was 22 22. So I'm a little bit hesitant to go to something that is this wide open. Um maybe maybe hats need to be included. I know a lot of the I'm personally against the hats, but I know a lot of the teachers said that took out some battles in schools, but at the same time, is that different for middle school? Is that different for high school? Um this policy that we already have um everybody had input as to what was acceptable. And I don't, you know, I don't see that I see a lot of unacceptability here. I see, you know, a lot of it's open. It's left open. It's le it's not specific enough to enforce. So

075why even have one, right? I mean, the way it reads, there's no there's no dress code here. I mean, well, I mean I mean, you can't put anything on. I mean, if you have private parts hanging out, you obviously can't wear that. So that would be provocative or obscene. um if something is, you know, chains that are hanging off of your um hands, that could endanger the safety of others. So that would be not allowed. Um but that's in the policy we have now. Those things are in the policy we have now. Correct. But I think it's it's very specific on that policy that includes that. So I mean, what would you all like to have in there? and we'll we'll do our best to enforce um as much as they can and expect our

076teachers and principles and assistant principles to enforce those. So, if you want to say no hats, I mean, obviously, we're going to we're going to work to follow that um that policy. But this is the schoolboard association policy. You can make it tighter if you'd like. um something that's going to be enforcable and I know that the feedback from um our principles uh of course is that it you know hats versus no hats is that a battle that they don't necessarily see everybody that comes in is that a battle that they want everybody to fight then um I really like about this as a parent um of of girls um is is that does talk about um you know requesting that parents outfit their children with clothing that's conducive to um and talking about you

077know dress and grooming standards as determined by the student and because of the parent will be acceptable to me. I appreciate that um as a girl mom because it's it's it's hard and you know especially with shorts and y'all know my my girls are pretty conservative but I felt like with the old policy it it was very hard to dress my girls and still allow them to fit within like lengths and the conversations at Matash is is as WG has my sixth grader had the same thing. It felt it felt very you hats or no hats. The current policy is very hard for a mom with female students, especially a principal who, you know, or or a board, you know, our our kids get looked at for like what are they wearing and um are

078their shorts too short? Which my kids don't wear and if they do they I fuss in them. But I do appreciate that it's in there the parent and the way I the way I turn to and I think a lot of the administrators, you know, dress code really needs to be a conversation when and and I think what I've noticed is when you have that conversation with student, you know, about why it's not appropriate, I'm not going to say all the time because they're kids, right? But a lot of times they'll understand why, you know, it's not appropriate for the environment you're in. Sure, you want to wear it, you know, on the weekend or out to the movies, whatever. But what's And I, again, I think there's some educating that we have to do

079with all these other things with um cell phones or whatever. But what I do like about this is it it doesn't you know it's one of those things where when we start locking oursel into stuff and you have to pull out I mean Earl was an AP at the high school when and I remember having when I was there as a student and I remember or when Mr. McNeil at at the West Sharps Elementary and the and the all the girls having to stand up and put our arms down and the measuring and like so I do feel like whatever we do I like the parent piece in there. I think it it trusts our parents and it opens up conversations for um us to have with parents and that you know hey we do

080want you looking at what your kids are wearing and talking about what's conducive to learning. I also like that it takes some of the heat off of our female students and and gives us a little bit more autonomy there. Um because I know as a female student that that was it was hard. It was hard when you felt like people were looking at the width of your straps or were your shorts too short, you know. Um so I do appreciate that as a girl mom. Um, and I also appreciate that as a as an administrator, I've got the autonomy to have those conversations more than just like picking it out of a list. Um, so but I also I also see, you know, are we is it too open? I have no um dress code's

081really hard and it was hard as a teacher um and then a male teacher having to address female students. Um, dress code is a very hard thing. And I agree with everything you just said, but sitting up there, it's very entertaining as a mom sitting up there and seeing these kids come out. I mean, they're in like short little halter tops, belly buttons showing, little spaghetti straps. And I understand it's a beast up there and it's something they're going to have to enforce. But as a mom, I don't want my boy seeing some girl walking around in something that's not appropriate. It's un and we are teaching our kids that this is okay. Do you go to work dressed like that? No. And we're supposed to be educating our kids. And I think if we

082have a standard of saying this is what we expect, this is what needs to be dressed because as a mom of a boy, I don't have no girl and I thank the Lord I don't have girls but love you all that have girls. But as a boy, we're we allow we opening that can of worms creates a lot of other problems without going into discussion of that. That opens a lot of can of worms. And I think I truly believe we have to set expectations. This is what we have. Parents, you need to be parents. Look at your kids before they go out in the mornings. If they don't pass dress code, you know what? Call mama. you need to come get your kid, take her home, dress her, whatever, and then bring them back.

083I think we have to tighten it. I mean, if you don't, we're just wasting our time and we're wasting our time with these policies. I have two girls and they're both in managerial positions and both of them have standards that they have to have for their employees as according to dress code. Uh she uh one daughter works for Made Well, she's not allowed to wear any jeans to work except Made Well jeans. I mean there each company that we have and I'm sure Josh has dress codes in his company as well have these dress codes. And if we're to prepare these students for the real world that they're going to be out in, then I think we we are re if we have a reasonable dress code, then we should enforce a reasonable dress code

084um for these. It's preparation for them for later. Uh, and I'm I'm iffy about the hats because I know how the boys are and I know how they love their caps or whatever. But I walked into school near you the end of school and here's this kid walking around with a construction hat on. Okay. And I'm going what? And if that is not a problem in the my class, that would be a problem for me as a classroom teacher to have some kid sitting there in his construction hat. What's the purpose there? Well, it's self-expression. But he's also going to get a lot of comments. It's going to cause some uh learning problems there, I think, for what kinds of hat. Now, a baseball cap probably not. Uh they're used to those. They're farm boys.

085I get that. But in the workplace, if you go to work for um even Life, uh whomever, they're not going to allow you to wear your hats. So, are we doing them a disservice saying, "Okay, y'all can wear whatever you want to." And unfortunately, we don't have all moms that are as concerned about what their girls look like as others. Uh what is acceptable to you is different than another mom. But as you say, we've got if you've got spaghetti straps and belly buttons and and I know the shorts thing has been an issue with many many parents, many parents. So maybe that needs to be adjusted as to, you know, what is acceptable shorts. And I know in this day and time, even as short as I am, it's hard to get them long

086enough. And so Larry Birds back in style. The Larry Birds are back inside. Can can um I ask a a question about getting input from the principles at the different levels of what they would like to see that is minimal but covers some of these issues have been talked about so that we could then move forward with how to in increase it because I don't want it six pages long like it was. Uh but there is some reasonable reasons for adding some minor um adjustments, variations. I think everybody can agree that we don't want it to disrupt the learning environment as with any other behavior, right? So it but it also has to be manageable and and it's just it's it's hard to manage when we have that laundry list. Um, so I think that's

087a good idea if we can kind of come up with an idea of how you know what's the what's the definition of disruptive? Um, see that's the problem that I mean what's disruptive for me or Paulie may not be disruptive for some of our younger teachers. Uh, we come from a different era probably and you know is the middle school need to be different? Does the middle school need to be different than the high school? Because the middle schools where you're going to have kids pushing the envelope as far as they can push it without getting in trouble and if you you know so that's why if you haven't crossed the board it's everybody. Yeah. I but remember you'd have to put your hand down and your shorts have to come below your I've had

088girls and a caveat to that in seventh grade I grew an inch a month for six months and if and my family was very poor at that time. So if you make it too detailed, you're you're hurting some people. So So how about if I make a Google doc for the principles and I'll share that information with you all. Good. That has one on it. I I'll ask you. Yes. Thank you. And I I understand their headgear piece. I'm I'm kind of I'll fall into the old school a little bit because what I notice in public, the headgear is not so much an issue. It's a sign of respect. Exactly. when you enter a building and you take off your hat for for gentlemen, for men, you know, and I'm out in public now and

089at events and things like that and you have the pledge or you have the national anthem played and it or somebody has a prayer, they don't take that hat off. Yes, I'm sorry that bothers me. Now, protocol states that if it's below zero, you can leave your hat on. It's okay. If it's very cold or raining, that protocol allows that. But but I to me it's a sign of respect. Just visited Washington for the first time ever this past week when I rode on the trolley. I'll get tore up. Sorry. We drove by Arlington Cemetery. I removed my hat out of respect to those that were turned. I was not even in the cemetery. But I mean for me to teach my son who was sitting with me, we're going to take our hat off

090for these folks, you know, on there. I understand it's it's the thing that's in style right now, but to me it's it's it's a learning piece as well that you learn that cap that top comes off at certain times and it's not because you're you're not going to get sunburnt in that classroom, but it's just a sign of respect that you're entering a building and I'm showing you respect. Jefferson Landing, if you go in there and you're playing golf and you're wearing your hat and you come in to have lunch, there's big signs, take off your hat when you come in. It's a big no no for the golfers to come in with their hat on um on there. So, I understand both pieces. To me, it's just kind of a it it's an outward

091expression of my respect for whoever's doing something else is to remove the hat on there. And I can understand like beanies and things like that. That's different um on there. I think we need to look at students who are having health concerns and address those uh separately. And of course there should be exceptions if if the chemo is an issue or how you know whatever is an issue there. I think you know that could be easily worked in as an exception to some of this. But you know to have this this open I I just cannot have it this open. I I cannot approve something that doesn't have more guidelines than this. And and I understand what you're saying Lindsay. We do need to look at see what's reasonable for certain girls and what's not

092and and and even in middle school, you're right. Um Dannet, they grow monthly. I can remember replacing shoes every month and pants and especially year in high school every month. It's when they the boys grow. So, there's that issue as well. Uh it seems like dress code um our dress code policy uh does have more guidelines for girls than it does the boys and u so I don't know where that weighs in. I've got mixed feelings about that as as well. I think it comes down to a lot of parenting. So, if your parents, if you're listening out there, we we we need to um you to parent. And that's hard sometimes in this day and age to say, "No, you're not wearing that to school." Um, you know, but I think some parents use

093dress code as, "Oh, I can't let you wear that to school. It's against the dress code, too." I think some parents use that as their rationale for clothing as well, which is good. It takes pressure off of parents in some cases. So, I don't know. Maybe we need to review this. Do we need to redo the committee and go through this again like we did before? We spent an enormous amount of time before we adopted the one that you see before us right now. The Google Doc will work good if y'all can get them on board the Google doc. Uh we could send it out more broadly if you want us to include parents in that too. I just, you know, I'd rather that I'd rather keep it with Well, especially if we got this

094before conduct I would rather that have to enforce it having uh the sign significant input and that timing we address them. But if the parents are involved, they're going to make sure they're not going to waste their time and money of sending their kids in something that don't need to be worn to school. It's just on website. Well, I think too the educating of the why, like you know, Diane said that saying, "Well, that's just against dress code." Well, why is it against dress code? I mean, Josh just gave an a very moving reason why it's respectful to take the hats off. So, do we need to be, you know, in in home rooms? Do we need to do some education on why the dress code is the way it is? Um, you know, here's

095there. just not a rule. We're not just trying to like, you know, stifle your self-expression. We understand there'll be medical issues that'll come up, but this is why we're doing what we're doing. Um, I feel like a lot of times when the students and the parents can understand the why behind it, you know, I think we just need to push more more information out as to why. We're not just trying to be but if parents are involved, it's going to help the teachers and it's going to help the principal because it's not going to be that big of they're not going to have to waste their time and take away from their day and their teaching. That could also be done with a Google doc, but you know, I'm a person that has to have

096the wise, too. And uh my children always had to have the wise. So, if we have the wise, I've got grandchildren that have to know why, Nana. So I think the wise are important as well as if we can justify why this is this then I think it's it's going to be more widely acceptable if we know why like I have I appreciate that as well. So you know maybe we need to tighten it up and then put more wise in there. What what's what's kind of a deadline um by the end of July? Well, we would bring it back to you for the August 4th board meeting. Was there so is there a good way to have like a deadline for principles and staff and whoever looks at it with this Google doc with

097us to look at too? Yeah, absolutely. And then maybe social media put it out there. We need input. Here's what we're looking at and if find a way that they could and you know for parents that's want to buy clothes for before school starts. I mean is that is that doable or am I out of left field? I would say by mid July then by probably the Friday the 18th because that gives us two weeks before that next board meeting and it gives you some time to review it and see what that looks like and you may not have anybody click on it but then you know they're also going to need time to get the printouts of everything that they need to pass out to the students and the teachers by the time the

098teachers come well July I wouldn't either because then then I don't want to assume anything. Right now, the policy is no hats, no shorts, that you know, you've got a cover up. I mean, that will remain the policy and the and our schools will be expected to enforce that policy um if if nothing changes. But this, you know, came from the schools as far as the request to maybe lighten up, especially if the hats was the sticking point. Um, and I do know that um short sizes have gotten smaller um in in the stores. Um, so that makes it hard especially if you a little bit of weight. So, you know, it they look shorter. Why Why was the why was the hat policy not followed in the spring? Well, I don't know that it

099wasn't necessarily followed. I just don't think that that was their priority. um keeping some kids in um in school. I don't know that they intentionally didn't follow them, but um I can't speak to that as far as why, but whatever policy we have, it needs to be enforced. That's correct. We completely agree. Completely agree. Yeah. I mean, it needs to be enforced and it will be enforced. If that's the policy, then that's what we'll do. Okay, everybody's good. We'll go to the next policy if that's okay. 4318. Well, with the introduction of younger pouches, then we were looking at our um policies to uh share what um what other things that we needed to do to ensure that we were able to operate. Our current policy gives a little bit of um flexibility. says that

100teachers can use um cell phones for instructional purposes um which we don't want to do. We have other devices for that and kids don't need another excuse to be able to access their phones during class. Most of those instructional purposes are done through um anyway we have other devices. We're now one to one which we weren't when that original policy um came out. So they can use um their Chromebooks um for that technology to access technology. So um this one removes that specific or could remove that specifically from the uh policy. In fact um this policy is the recommended from the school board's association. The one thing that did pass in the general assembly was a no cell phone um policy. I've not seen the final draft um or I haven't seen the final um

101but it doesn't say how it needs to be enforced but generally we've said no cell phones in schools but u well in class that is not in school. Right now with the yonder pouches at the high school students will at high school early college students will put their their phones in the yonder pouch. It will be locked so it stays with them all day and then unlocked at the end. So they won't have access to it during lunch in the hallways when they go to the bathroom. Uh they'll they will be cell phone use free at that point in time. So we wanted to make sure that our policies reflected that. So um this one says authorized use is generally permitted before and after school. Um which would be before they enter the building because

102when they enter the building uh they will be locked in the aud pouches will be um um will be unlocked. I had been reading about the policies that are going um it looked like it was going to pass both house and the senate, but it had some components to it that this local school board were going were going to have to address and one of them was cell phone use in the classroom by the teacher um for classroom activities. So, um there are I think three components to that new they thought there were going to be three components um to that one being um not during class time unless the teacher had a specific purpose for the use and the other one was um for people like me who keep checking my blood sugar that's

103going down rapidly. And so our policy needs to I've got it right here. my policy needs to our policy needs to reflect those things because they're going to make us do that. That is is now a statute or going to be a statute. So, we we may be a little premature here. And I know you want the yonder and I still have the Okay. Do we or do we not yonder pouch? You know, I do have some pouch and I don't think we're premature. No. And I I think the white head says that's not going to work. I have not used the Chromebooks, but what would a student need to use their phone for in class that they can't do on the Chromebook on a bigger screen? I'm just saying that's what the legislature is

104those guidelines that we have to follow. And I think those are minimum guidelines. Um, if you want to say no cell phones, you as a board of education have the opportunity to say no cell phones. I think that you have um with the yonder pouches for the middle and high school, but the Chromebooks um I can't think of a thing that teachers would do. Can you principles think of anything that u would the kids aren't using it for instruction? They just aren't. I mean, you bring your Chromebook every day to school with you or you don't you don't get to access another device. Um, in fact, we shouldn't be bringing other devices because then security on our network uh could be compromised with those other devices. So, um, it's important that, um, which that's a

105growing concern, right, Miss Walker? So, um, yeah, I I just think we stay away from using phones for instructional purposes at all. Um, because every teacher has a device, every student has a device. Um, and that's K12. I mean, we're one to one um, school district, so we have that ability um, to do that. I I And I think the more you open that up, the more excuse there is for why somebody is accessing their phone and maybe texting a friend in between using it to take a picture of something. And I'm just curious, does the teachers need their cell phones? Do they have every access on their Chromebooks and their computers that they would need during the day? I Well, you are you asking my opinion? I'm just asking does the teachers need their

106phones in their meeting? Are we using Remind with our teachers cell phone? We are. Okay. And that's a major community. They can access it on their computer. Yeah, they can access it on their computer. I just, you know, I really think we should treat our adults as professionals as long as they don't. That's my That's my personal opinion. Um I think for the most part people do the right thing and that's what we want to continue to uphold. I I wouldn't give them any reason to not have them and then we just need to address it. When there are teachers that are sitting there on their phone during the day, then that needs to be addressed. But for the most part, I don't think our teachers are most of our teachers are not doing that.

107So that's a And that would include substitutes as well. Is there a way to get the draft legislation that they're working? As soon as I get it, I will pass it along to you. Look at between the two. I heard about it on on property. So with the state the way they did us during COVID, I mean, they made us made decisions on top of and if it was really that important to them, they should have made it statewide. So that's my opinion on that. Uh, so I think, you know, if they have legislation and ours is more stringent than theirs, I don't see why they would argue with that um on there when we were forced to make decisions we really shouldn't have made during CO um on that. That that should have been

108a state decision, not ours um on that. That's I I think this would be good, but I'm interested to see how the states looks that hopefully ours will be more strict than the state if we're going to wait till if we're going to uh want to look at the draft and maybe this is another policy we need to approve next the next time we meet. Mhm. It definitely needs we need some more information before we can do this one. Um and even this is the recommended one right it's not the one that we have already that is not the one we have already that is the recommended policy we don't have 4318 we do not but we have in other policies this would give us the guidelines and then we do have another policy that

109has that it can be used for instructional use but again I don't think I don't know that there's a purpose instruction I mean yeah so I agree If we're going to do the yonder pouches, we can't use them for instructional purposes. So, we're going to have to change the policy regardless of what the state does. Agreed. And um you know, the state has a way of putting these Yeah. And right now there's House Bill 87, which is self cell phone free education that is still it's a crossover bill still eligible. Um that was sent to the rules committee on the 26th. I do not have yet the updated one and that's what we're waiting on. So, as soon as I do get it or I'll go searching for it, I'll get it to you all.

110Well, I read one thing and I didn't know if I could believe it or not that it had been sent to the governor, but I don't know. And I had heard that too. I've just not have not actually physically seen it. And I see the one that's been sent to the rules, but I have not seen it as a Right. And it may very well be. Any other questions on that? We'll move on to yonder. Move over yonder. I appreciated the um administration's timeline on how you're going to communicate this with parents. And we have some we have some things for um everybody to go out following this meeting uh today. Um and of course I'll send it to you all as soon as um I'll send it to you all first before it goes

111out to everybody. Um but we worked um on really getting communication pretty sharp. we borrowed from another district that has already implemented and made it our own and we think he can't overcommunicate this one. We'll have to communicate and communicate and communicate and overcommunicate. I think you might want to hear a comment. A parent called me up and said, um, I'm very anxious about my not being able to text my my kid during the day. And I think this is a very real thing. It's not just parents. Our kids are anxious. Our parents are anxious. And we need to build more trust. And she says, "I don't trust you people." And I don't think it was us as I think it's the trust factor in general that parents the things that we've been through the

112school shootings the things that that can happen that I didn't have to deal with when my kids were going to school is very real for a lot of parents and they feel like there's a component with their kid having or having access to their students at all times and I think we've got to be educating these these parents. Yes, we will take care of your kids. We will be our teachers will be what's between your kid and harm. We have to keep repeating that we will take care of them that they can trust us. And to be honest with you, a lot of our communications is digitally. It's harder to build relationships as we all know digitally. But how do we communicate with parents? We send a Remind message. We do an email. We've got

113to take more time to have that personal connection with our parents. Uh, and I know that's hard, especially with all that we have to do now, but we are losing that relationship because of the digital access. Um, I'm thankful I didn't have that back in the day because it it made me have to reach out to our parents personally. And I think we need to emphasize that again. We've got to make a personal connection with parents so they do trust us so that we are not seeing them. I mean they're saying hey I don't want this for my kid. I want to be able to get access my kid to them that is more important than whatever educational benefit they may get from it from some for some parents and these are very educated parents

114that I'm talking to. There is a anxiousness just like there's an anxiousness with the kids being separated from their phones. There's an anxiousness that our parents have because they do not have access. Oh, is there a way that we can the timeline is talking about internet communications to the parents but not personal question answer times. Um I don't know. I my impression is that the back to school blast is tends to have more elementary students showing up, but like a booth at that for questions and answers about school policies or just announce a meeting at this the high school gym where parents who have concerns can come and talk to administration. I don't know if that would be helpful or hurtful, but that would help um provide an opportunity for personal one-on-one communication. Well, we

115um of course tomorrow's July 1st and so that's when I intended to, you know, send out to faculty and staff uh information so that they're aware. I want them to get the information first. Um, of course, you know, some of them may be listening, but there are a lot who won't check their emails until they come back in August. Um, principles on July 2nd, we're going to open that up with their families. Um, then on the 7th, we were going to send a parent letter um out uh that includes the surgeon general warning that I sent you all. Um, it's in English and in Spanish. um and also uh do all of those electronic communications because generally parents are uh not around at that time. They're on different vacations and stuff and we wanted to

116match but there's no reason why someone can't come in and talk to a principal. I mean Monday through Friday um their buildings are um are open. You they can call us here too. Um but then on the 14th we would do it again. And so it would be another um school level communication and usually they're pretty responsive to those. In fact, most when we've every year when we do the um title one night survey to parents um they prefer the electronic communications but me personally I say there's nothing that replaces a phone call. So, you know, to get to the masses, of course, it's going to have to be blackboard, which, you know, they'll be hearing from the principles um on uh the blackboard, but um from an individual, if somebody has a concern, you

117know, for us to know that they have a concern, I just say phone, call the school, and say, I, you know, I'm concerned about here, and maybe we can put their minds at ease. But really, you're right. Kids and adults are addicted to these things and it's not healthy. And we're seeing I know we put up there the anxious generation um that's coming up on the second week of school. We intentionally did it early so that we can have yet another partner in this. You know, a lot of families are um you know, they wait until the first day of school to start thinking about some of these things. Um but August 9th we will have a parent information session. So anybody who shows up and that's um prek through 12th grade even homeschoolers uh

118is can come to our back to school blast for all the free supplies and information. And I hope um that they are willing to listen. I hope that everyone shows up at the high at the high school um in August for our anxious generation because that will be geared to families as well and um very powerful and hopefully we have a big turnout for that but that'll help to give some of the why behind it. I think the surgeon general's um letters will help provide the why behind it but I think we all know the why behind it and I think the lack of communication um is just that very reason. I mean, it impacts adults and it impacts our students. And we want kids to have the phones away, out of sight, out of

119mind, so to speak. Unless, of course, they have that medical issue. My son has a medical issue that he needs uh the phone. And me as a parent, I also have it. It was born as him going low first thing this morning. And so, you know, I get that anxiousness when, you know, you can't necessarily be face to face to help. Um, but I think there is time. We'll be posting on August 11th. Um, you know, our updated handbook and procedures and stuff. That's when the teachers come back because we want to be able to our teachers have to help enforce some of these things uh that are happening. We're all partners in this work. And so we want to be able to have that out there by then, hence the timeline. And then we

120will be setting those expectations um during in you know what happens during instructional time and during the day. And really this is all the get back instructional time. So if they're distracted by a text coming in from mom, it's easy to pick it up and say, "Oh, let me check Facebook." Or, "Oh, let me check something else when I've got a text coming in um from somebody that may have a legitimate reason to get a message to a kid." But we all have phones. The teachers have phones in the rooms. oftentimes they have remind um you know we don't want them to be distracted by the phone either during the day but they do have that level of communication and we can always take a phone call in the office um to get messages to

121kids by the end of the day. So I'm anxious to see the anxious generation. I've read the book on there that's and it's a nationally acclaimed book. I don't know that he's the author of the book that I look um on there, but it it it it changes your way of thinking about the devices uh especially with youth um and everything. So, I I think that would be a good event for a lot of people to go to. I plan to attend that myself. And so if there's something more you want us to do um from that timeline, we're h we're happy to communicate as you c we cannot communicate enough changes especially changes to communication and we all agree with that. So if there's something got the newspaper, we got a new reporter with

122the newspaper. Um and this would be a good topic to touch on. Yeah. A new old. Yeah, he's been with before. Absolutely. In fact, I do later today. If you're still doing any of the of course some folks listen to the radio that needs to be u if you're doing any more podcasts or any of that kind of thing that needs to be addressed there too. I think any way that we can address it with our our folks and we as employees can talk to parents that we see out because that's where they get me is I go to the grocery store. What's this about a pouch that my kid has to Okay, you know you need to call the school. you need to talk about. We've got some guidelines going on. You know, the

123parents are are terribly anxious right now uh about stuff. And Dr. Cox, did you mention middle school? Because I a minute ago, is that just talking in general? We're just doing it for the high school and the early college, right? Correct. Right now, we've gotten it for the high school and the early college. Um I guess you know, testing it out the it really hasn't been an issue at the middle school. Um, and Sherry, I think, would tell me if it had been, but if we need to implement it. Um, but we do have kids in the elementary school. Uh, we had a student that, um, Miss Walker was testing during testing. Uh, and the child was very anxious, fifth or sixth grader, very anxious about access to his phone. When do I get my

124phone back? Where do I get my phone back? So, we have younger kids who have open free access to their devices all the time. Um, now, not necessarily during school, we're having them put put them away, but you know, there there's a true addiction there when um children can't think about anything else except for access to their phones during the day. And that means they're, you know, to me, plug their phone in in the parents bedroom at night and don't give them access. um all evening so they can be on their phones. And if you look at the data, um kids are staying up all hours of the night on their electronic devices. We can't do anything about that when they're at home. We don't want to do anything about it when they're at home

125other than inform parents of what that can look like. But while they're at school, we want to get our instructional time back and we want to make sure students are learning the skills so that they're able to um they're able to uh function in life by having good conversations. More to come on that. Anything else for yonder? Leave yonder and go to substitute teachers. All right. So, substitute teachers. Um, the highlighted portion, and I have mixed feelings about this, I always have. Um, but for substitute teachers, um, currently um, we have to um have an associate degree or 48 semester hours. Remember when they did that? that is no longer a state requirement. No, if we don't. And so anyway, I have mixed feelings about this one because we're here for education and we want

126to make sure our people are um highly educated that come before our kids even as a substitute. Um, however, we have some good people that don't have 48 hours um or and do not have their associate degree who would be great to come in and substitute for a teacher um you know a couple of times a week or how many ever days that we have people in. And of course, we know that we have a shortage of teacher of substitute teachers. Now, that's a double-edged sword because we want to make sure our teachers are in school with teaching. Um, but also things happen. I don't necessarily think I would put them in as a long-term sub unless they had credentials. But to come in for um a day or two or substitute, I think, um,

127anyway, it's something that I'm willing reluctantly to consider. Um, but we do have good people. I know one specifically that works for us in a different area who uh shared with me that she would love to be a substitute teacher. I think she'd be great in the classroom with kids, but she does not meet those current qualifications. And again, I think, you know, obviously background checks and references and all of those things would be um still um taken into consideration. And just because you sign up to be a substitute doesn't mean you're going to be good at it or that somebody is going to pick you to be a substitute. Some of our teachers are very selective when they have to be out and they want certain people to come in and care for their

128kids um and or tend to their classrooms. But that's just something anyway we are one of the few districts that still has this in our policy. Is there any way we can continue to pay for effective teacher training for these folks that do not have it? I mean, we don't pay for it now, but I think that if we could require it and pay for it initially for for those who do not have the 48 hours, could we do that? That's what 48 $50 or something. It was It was a cheap Target. [Laughter] training. I didn't think that statement was that controversial, but I mean, they're just All right. Well, I would like to comment that um I think that your way of wording it that you're going to take prioritize teachers with licenses and

129the effective teacher training it is making those the priority first choices, but it allows you to have options when they're none of those are available. And I think we do need to have a body in the classroom that's as confident as we can get. So, and we're pretty selective on our people. I mean, there have been people that have um made it one day in a classroom and we've asked them to not come back. Yeah. Or I've you call a reference and and if I say would you want this person subbing or being rent and they say no and that's people with credentials. Yeah. Well, I do think the effective teacher training would be helpful to those folks and especially if we make it we might even pay them to do it or you know

130pay for their and and get them because that gives you some hints if you've never been in a classroom before and you're wanting to sub that would be a useful tool to have not count I mean I'm not talking about the eight associates degree or the 48 hours but that in itself I think would be helpful when we can get them to do that and I'm all for require them to do that. It's required. All substitutes, even the ones that don't have the 48 hours. Well, could if we could help them get that. We're not talking about a major amount of people. I wish we were. I wish we had 200 people that wanted to do that. I don't even know what to say. So, that would stay in the new policy, the effective teacher

131training. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. I haven't gone. Well, I would really like for us to help pay for that because I know of one person who did not do um substitute teaching because she she honestly didn't have the money to do it, which is I thought was sad, but she didn't. So, we could help pay for that. So, we're find that it's an online module right now. Okay. Okay. and we have them come in and do an orientation doc with Dr. Mochen and um we can put any piece of information we want in that orientation. It's just more helpful if they do it on their own um beforehand and and I think if you really are serious about subbing um you will more than make up for it after you sub one day. And

132my opinion is that I don't think saying that you this the county will cover it if we could determine we would needs to be in the policy. We just would but it's a good thing to research and do if we can. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Any other questions there? So, we'll bring this one back to you um in the uh in August. Um, and if there's any more information, it's $50 for the and we still pay the same rate the state still rate. That is a piece I'd like to talk to agree about. It'll be up. Well, we haven't had any budget, anything any time to do any of that yet. Yeah. So, middle school roof, current middle school, current middle school roof. So, I put this on here to keep it in the forefront.

133Obviously, we don't yet have um plans back. Um we will have two decisions to make before we get anything final to send to DPI. One of them is the type of roof and uh the other one is a commitment from the commissioners for um how much we think that's going to be because obviously what was proposed before will not cut it. It's not even going to come close. Um I wonder what kind of questions that you might still have out there. Is there any information that you would like to have? Um, and of course, you know, since it's our building, you guys are the ones who are going to make, you know, the decisions now. Um, but I think you guys got a feel for the commissioners last time, too, even though budgetary decisions were

134made. Go ahead. I don't think that we can proceed unless we have very concrete information of what it's going to look like. And I think it depends on what we do is what the commissioners might do. I think it starts with us. Is that right? It does. We have to say make a proposal. This is what we'd like to have. This is the help we need for this. And uh we can't do that. We don't have the options presented. I mean, we did have a presentation, but nothing concrete. Well, we won't have until it's put out for bid. You won't have a concrete number on what we're actually asking for. I think we should go ahead and put it out for bid. It's got to happen. Well, we've got to get the design from the

135architects first. Correct. Well, and then they have to send it to DPI. But even before then, the type of roof that you want it and there were a couple of different options shared during that meeting. That's what we would need to know. And so I didn't know whether you had a different that be beneficial to know that now. Uh well, it's discerned. That way we can get timeline put out in the and the title rate you want to get in front of the architect. That will help. Yeah. So between what was it PVC and the above my head? I have to look back at that. I don't above my head. So that was on the special call meeting. If you want to pull up um Oops. May 7th. No, was not. It was Oh, I'm

136sorry. It was a regular meeting on the 5th. Two ply in a single bite. Correct. Yeah. Second both of them are involved in ripping the roof. second before the meeting and being used the PBC I think. So, their option one was the proposed roof design of the two ply modified uh roof system. I don't know what that word says. Um that was the one, the first option was the one that they even um shared that they would probably do. The estimate is 1.85 to $2.45 million. Um the single ply roof system was 1.53 to 2.14 and they said that was also acceptable. It really depends on how long you want that roof for. And they both have the same warranty basically. I think the commissioners going to need to make that final decision because they're

137the ones that are going to own the building. Yeah. They're going to use the building. They said they were. They have plans for the building. Yeah. So, with your permission, I can take that back to the commissioners and see what they want to do, if they want to move forward at all with it, and and bring you back what those options are. Yeah, that works. either one either option fixes the problem for us, but I would, you know, if but it depends on how much they want to put into it because they're going to have the long-term ownership of the building if they keep it. And we had the 500,000 that we had committed from the public school renovation um funds, right? Okay. So, we're just waiting to hear back from them. Okay. Good. on

138that will follow through with whichever plan they want us to use. Then we'll have to talk numbers. Then we'll have to talk numbers and it'll have to be put out for bid to get a final. And of course, Teraccon will be doing that for us um as a part of our they'll have it the majority of the time we're the well right now. Three years is what we believe we're going to be in that building moving three years from now. still need to do it. Any other questions, comments on that? I take make a motion. All right. Which one? Motion to close neat one. What do you want it to be? I second motion that we adjourn. All right. Anybody else ready to all in favor? Raise your hand. What do we need?