Board Meeting 03-06-25

001e e e order for March 6 2025 of the Ash County Board of Education start first with roll call on my left Miss Janet Ward present Miss tra Calhoun present Miss Polly Jones present Miss Diane eler present Josh Ron present as well we'll start first uh let's see approval of agenda we've got on there everybody any changes or anything for the agenda there's something I'd like for us to be able to discuss and that is um special education driving for our special egg kids um if we could add that to that as a discussion or whatever we need to do on that particular we don't have Terry and Jody here I just want to have a discussion about that about special education what driving driver's ed driver's ed driver's ed yes yes yes yes and

002I'm not sure what that's got to do with them because it is an after school program okay I thought I didn't it's I'll give you my perspective on that we approve that that as a discussion it's a discussion I maybe that we can consider for later soon just to My ATT not like I don't know that I can answer any questions for you about it because I'm well has more to do with thank secret be just a discussion might not be a lot to come out of that's fine I just want make people aware and to see if we can move forward on it or not okay and that doesn't have to Beed today I just wanted to discuss it today so I'm making a motion that we add that to the agenda I have

003a second to that everybody in favor of the amended agenda raise your hand okay talk we can't talk about it we'll put that after discussion we'll just or after actions we don't to have We'll add discussion I guess um I want to do it before it won't take but a minute before we get into all the other stuffs let's that's everybody just real quick can we check so you want to switch put discussion before before action simply because we'll get into all that stuff to make discussion three and then action will be four is that okay yeah that's we just yeah it's more of a can we check into this a special education driver that's what I've got right exceptional children's driver said yeah I think that sound better well more appropriate okay showing my

004age so now we'll go open session after that and we've got Pledge of Allegiance so we'll get the that everybody will face the flag pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay so well we'll just pop right in here so go ahead I I don't mean to put a wrinkle in anybody's day but or anything but this came to my attention late yesterday afternoon that there is a an exceptional children's teacher who is willing to teach um our kids drivers education and she is certified and she's wanting to do it well of course she's doing it after school and as a person who taught drivers in during school for exceptional children I know

005that a lot of times they don't uh struggle with the driving part they got that part down pretty well it's the book work that they have a a a hard time uh doing and I was just wanting to know if we could extend a contract to her to teach these children um uh driver's ed cannot contract with your own employees on payroll but it's after not after matter I can verify that but I'm 100% sure we've turned other people down well the only the reason that I bring it up is that there are very few people who are qualified and she already has both degrees she has enormous experience and exceptional children plus she has her driving she can do her the driving piece too and the school in the schoolwork and I thought this

006is a win-win for our children now she could go through a lot of these yeah a lot of these kids can't play uh can't pay there should be no child that gets denied driver said okay so there can be a waiver there that we set the of who would they need to talk to H the counsel you mean the student or the the teacher that's doing this who would they school it's tuer I can send her if it's a teacher I'm thinking of yeah it's Jennifer trais sent her that information and she has all the certifications but right now she's rented a classroom I think at WIS community and they're meeting after school she's walking them up for her classroom and meeting with them after school so that they can and I think she's Pro

007probably providing some kind of Transportation home for a lot of them so that they can get the class workk they need so that they can have a better chance of passing this driver's test and let me tell you it's hard it is really hard for those kids to pass the book workk it's hard for regular kids to pass the book workk but but for those kids it's very difficult and once they get past that I will tell you a little story when big Phi how was driving doing driver ed he had one of my exceptional children's kids and we got him through the bookwork and Phil drove with him and he pulled across four lanes of traffic and stopped and and Phil was about to have cow because it was very scary for him um

008the boy now has his a little moped that he drives around and he does just fine with it but I don't think Phil ever tried to drive with him again because that was he said he' never he driven with lots and lots of kids but that scared him but to have somebody they know too is very beneficial as well talk too about but I'm pretty sure you cannot the IRS will not let you issue a 1099 and a W2 on the same person that's the issue yeah we can't in private sector I can't I can't any my employees if they're listed as an employee I can't get 99 them unless they're either one or the other but if you would send her that information of how that she might be able to do that he's

009always look up for drivers or instructors up here um he uses a lady out of OTA because he couldn't get anybody locally to buy I know there's a long wait yeah to get driven and all that kind of stuff I think it's better than it was on it it was horrible day when they first started K with that restriction but I think he's good right be good together thank you all right sorry no you're good you're good well it was good we had Amanda in here anyway so it to the rescue so you're the person for the whole session basically so we're gonna turn it over to you miss cing you had a chance to look at your documentation did that help to have that additional mentation ahead of time all the backup support um

010did but I would like to have had more time because we met on Monday and I think you sent it to us on Monday I did because we were finalizing some details right I I get that but if we had a little more uh more time I think it would have been more helpful for me that there was a lot of stuff to go through I swamp the last two two days I looked at it briefly this morning so yeah so we could get it was very beneficial but if we could get a little more heads up on I can send them as we clear them and put them on the sheet I send them individually back sheets into the Google do yeah that' be can do that but I appreciate you doing that time

011and effort um the only thing about the when we um scan in these documents I had computer and my printer's on the blink I usually print them out but my printer is not doing very good job of anything right now we have to we'll have to show you how because there's actually a little button where you can turn it I looked for the button I couldn't find it so if You' be glad to share that with me I'd love I that same lesson yeah yeah I do too apparently you're dealing with a special while you're here you might want to get us a technology literate while you're here 101 techology keeps changing yeah computer ready yeah I think we're ready so um most of you are familiar with this process for um looking at um

012the requests from the different schools and departments um as we take you through um every year and um this particular um day is to really go down through a lot of those requests um there have been some that we've been able to fulfill within little pieces of uh uh funds you know if somebody's out a month um you saves little money here and there we're able to uh buy some of the smaller things um with that but for the most part you these are asks above and beyond what we currently receive from the county and so any type of um need here this is to take to the county as a request I think we should just go order start order can I make one more comment start um are we going to vote on

013these individually or after we get done and I definitely want to vote on on these items whether we do them by section or school or whatever but I would like to have that in the record as to what we voted on and what we have not it's Lord's pleasure that's what we usually do kind of item by item we but you don't take a five vote on each individual because they're when do we not vote on when we ask for the $2 and a half million dollar from the County Commissioners we were I was told we would did not vote on those we put it in as a future project but not we didn't ask for the money I was told that we didn't vote on it so I would like have a vote and

014we didn't vote on it it was not in there we're not going to get into that discussion now I hope well you're getting into it I'm just saying that it was not in there I would like for it to be voted on we vote on it every time end of story it's voted on every time no it's not yes it is so we just sort of agree on it I would like to have a formal vote to you how you want to do do you want to do it by school or by project we usually went by school you know makes sense and usually this is you know either we're taking it forward to the county or we're not taking it forward to the county but we will have needs we'll have to vote again

015and have it on Rec April meeting I April ail when we get the document completed it'll be presented to you again as well so this is this is not appreciate to yeah you guys are appreciate I'm not trying to be contentious I just want the board would appreciate it as well from you as well they can go both way you have before so so let's continue okay Ash County High School well I'm G to start by saying everybody done a great job and they nobody was unreasonable in their requests um it's all needs that they they're asking for um I just really appreciate the time they put into it and the thought that they put into it so Ash County High School um they have presented doing a school within a school and this is

016to serve those children that um May struggle with in a regular High School setting um maybe an attendance issue or medical issue um a variety of things but he's asking for um a position to well it's a couple of things it's a position and it's a month of employment and then some field trips to do with these students some some additional things that they need just to enhance their learning experience um and he has had a need for a while to serve um a a group of students differently that are just not fitting well into the regular High School set and a lot of this um you know he's um you know they're they are um um making individual accommodations for kids as they need it so every you know child um has a plan

017however um unfortunately uh there's some kids that just don't fit the mold and sometimes they need to be you have it have something different obviously they still have to meet state standards and um but you know when you have um children that uh just struggle going from class to class and you they find them themselves in um different levels of um uh commitment themselves to their learning process um you know but this is one way that other schools have found that they can make nroads with kids who just aren't the traditional kids like possibly most of us were so can you elaborate like what kind of kids these are the like there is No Label for them and that's I think that's the beauty of it because it would be personalized so we have kids

018that are behind on credits um we have kids that um uh just struggle sitting in a regular classroom but yet they can do the work um there are um kids who um just need more personal personalized attention we've got some kids with anxiety that frankly um need to be in a structured situation so not necessarily home and homebound but to go and sit in a class with 25 or 30 kids is extremely difficult and so there is no mold or type of kid it would really be individualized and of course um through um what they're asking for some funds that they can um accommodate differently and make sure it's more personalized because you we don't usually have classes that just have 15 kids in them um or or able to do um or eight kids

019or how many ever it is um but this will allow them to be have some flexibility in how they serve kids and obviously partnership with parents and all that kind of stuff so they would have be able to meet individual needs of students um so there isn't there is no mold I guess you could say so understand this classroom is already started when did we discuss that or so he has um students this semester who he's trying to get graduated and they need um see not was a social studies teaching so when yes and no he does teach social studies too and so he also has part of his day that he um helps to manage some of the credit recovery that's going on and he's been doing that pretty much for the last couple

020years yeah um in um but this is allowing him to help to personal ize it but again um you know as as our um funding decreases and our ADM decreases we still have a good chunk of students that need something different I I think you mentioned you know some students that are struggling in different ways at the high school at the last meeting and this is a way to help to accommodate um kids differently and it's not for everybody and obviously um you know he wouldn't want it to be for everybody this would be an individual conversation with families and uh with students but you know when you have a kid that has four classes that they failed and um they only have a couple and they have three more classes to go you have

021four classes during the day you can get your credit recovery done in one of those classes and so some of these kids would be in and out but um some would actually might actually be there all day depending on how many credits they need so again a lot of schools um I do this they visited quite a few schools and it would help it I believe it would really help to accommodate some kids that are just struggling with Traditional School so can you know I used to teach the alternative program so I'm wondering um we already had had this kind uh situation where they came in with an assistant to do I don't know remember the name it used to be Apex or something but they changed the name of that online program so uh

022how would that be different than us doing a TA that what we've done before and I'm going to um you know to have an assistant coach um for this you know we've got I was in kindergarten readings yesterday and we've got a runner in there and they can't get an assistant to help with this Runner um but we you know how many kids does he have now there's just all kinds of questions I have about this program and we have done the alternative school kind of program um three or four times now and it doesn't seem to fly more than a year or two and then it is not uh feasible um I'm a little bit concerned about putting that kind of money in and I'm all for student recovery I am all for student

023recovery but at the same time is this the big biggest need that we have we have students that are in our classrooms that are not getting um help there um with that are they are supposed to have with inclusion we do not have enough inclusion teachers to go around um we have the funds for the inclusion teachers they're just not out there and Terry's done a great job of Ensure I mean we have low case loads for all of our teachers right now all of them they're way under what the state asks and so we don't we don't put that on our on our teachers and our population is dropping so we are having fewer numbers of exceptional children's teachers I don't think that this has anything to do with um not getting EC teachers

024well but that's a completely different po of money so our EC pot of money is very different from what we're asking for locally let me ask you a situation that my family had that I think is more in line with what you're wanting uh we had a granddaughter that on a school field trip was severely bullied in 8th grade and it was an overnight kind of trip and then she developed also anxiety and mental um help needed mental help um medical help with um getting uh such extreme anxiety that she was hiding in dark Corners 24 hours today and they had legally they had to force her to go to school but the school had no place to put her they tried homebound but the teachers coming after school to work with her an hour

025or two were insufficient and the they ended up putting her in a room next to a guidance counselor where she could try to do her work but there was no one there to coach her or help her she's not exceptional she was almost uh gifted quality but she had all these other issues and it really she really struggled to try to find a way to S to pass school and by the end of the freshman year she the medicine took effect and that helped and time helped but I see that as possibly what you're looking this kind of thing for these students who have some nons special education issues that are standing in their way and and we could have special education students in here but they would receive their special education services that are

026identified within their IEP um but for the most part these are going to be kids that are outside that exception and um is it my understanding that most of the high school folks if they go on a field trip have to raise the money for that um I'm understanding that if a teacher or a department wants to go on the field trip they have to raise money for that and um I haven't heard that is that not included is that not what I read Amanda in the synopsis that this would include field trips and those kinds of things as well um I'm I'm all for helping students but I'm not sure that this wisest use of use of our money we still have a social worker at Blue Ridge one day a week but if

027this is helping kids to graduate we need to do this because we need our graduation rate to stay up there because we're going to get deemed at the end of the year bad enough as it is this may have set the stage for next graduation class two we need to we need to think about those kids that are not going to graduate and that's in the scheme of thing that's not a lot of money where I'd like to put the money is lower down where we can prevent those getting that to that situation it's too late to put it lower down for these kids as now never it may be for those kids but I don't know that those kids have been identified yet have they so what grade are we talking about with all

028this this this be I know high school but is it 9th through 12th or just 12th grade it could be 9 through 12 I don't want to put any labels on because kids come in with different needs and we don't want them to get behind and again that's sometimes they need a more personalized setting and that's what this would be for but also if we do open that in the ratio teacher per student would that number say next year double and then each time it get more and more kids are seeing a way out of regular class setting and getting into that and I think these are these are kids um that have have demonstrated and and quite a few ways that they need this kind of personalization there are other kids who will that

029we can get through and we do get through um pretty regularly we just there there are those that fall through the cracks and we don't we want to stop that from happening and you know I think that you know Dustin's been there for two this is his third year and uh he's visited um several different um schools that have various levels of um programming this just different for kids you know we don't have an alternative school I don't think we need an alternative school um I just think we need a different way to personalize for children and um having a teacher who can instruct and who is a motivator um it can really be helpful to kids to get them through and then you know with some of these uh funds you he can have

030um teachers um through their planning to come up and do individual lessons with kids um Diane mentioned Apex there are quite a few programs out there ad mum uity Apex um but you know we will look at that through um anyway and see what is going to be most engaging for kids and work best and um they also going to be most cost effective because we we need to make sure that we are spending our funds wisely um but we would do that for some credit recovery but sometimes kids just need somebody to Champion them differently and they need to feel it differently I agree and and I agree that there's a lot of kids that probably slip through the crack um but what about Sally over here that's barely getting by but she's still

031not eligible to get into this class so are we doing Sally a disservice when we're putting John Boy into it but we can't put Sally into it because she's not quite at that level to be in that class does that make sense and I think there's c those Services would certain kids would get that but then the rest of the kids that need a little help in other areas they're gonna be left out I think we have to Pilot this in a way that we can see the most success in it and see what that what that really looks like and hopefully we are personalizing that in our other classrooms as well some people can manage that differently than another group and you know when you have skipping being one of the top you know

032discipline things that we have and it's the same seven kids um that are often doing different things some of these kids are not a behavior problem at all so they're showing up to class they're just not making it work in a traditional setting so you know I get that there may be more of a demand than what we realize at this point um I don't want to overwhelm this particular class and I do think that um individually um all staff members um you know who have direct contact with kids need to be identifying okay what is it that that child needs in order to not just get by right to be successful would they have like an IEP would they have to have an IEP to get into this class No in fact um most

033of the kids with an IEP probably wouldn't be in this class because they're already getting specialized instruction in other classes they they do have other opportunities but that doesn't that doesn't exclude them from this opportunity most of the kids I would imagine um all of them would have a plan in place so a written plan to know here's the goals that I have here's what I have to accomplish now and here's where I'm going next and then the field trip dollars I guess field trip is probably not the best um I mean it is a field trip but um it be more of an experience we want to be able to utilize those funds to take them to places that are local where they can get some experience maybe see something uh that is purposeful

034um really Target that experience for kids some kids get that all the time some kids are in CTE classes they get to um have some of these experiences and some um just aren't receiving that through whether it be home or at school and we'd like to personalize it more and you know I think you can do that with a few extra dollars and bu trip do cost money so so what's the justification for having him an assistant with he's going to have maybe 15 students there um it says ta position to support Mr Brady so we're already putting in um several thousands of dollars 15 children it's in the explanations it's in the back you know getting what they need to you know that and I've said that many the link and I why do

035we need an assistant with him with 15 high school students when we don't have assistance when we need other places that we might put that money for other places I don't understand that we've got teachers who have 9 to 100 Kids a day and yet we're putting um an assistant with 15 and they're not exceptional children they are not exceptional children obviously is what you just said so why are we including a um an assistant in this program so first of all when you have kids that are in that many different classes and doing the recovery yes you could have one person in there however um if you go on an experience you need somebody else in there not everybody's willing to get the same thing if it's personalized number two you're going to have

036kids coming and going so you may have some of them that are in that classroom all all day some of them may not need that and they have to go to another room there's just a lot of moving parts and I think that if we're going to make something work um I think we need to give it it its best chance to work so this teacher's going to be teaching like you're going to have students maybe English freshman English some biology some in math so think about having 15 students and different subjects they're all on the computer it's not like that they're actually teaching those classes these classes are on the computer but you have but you have to Aid and you have to help them for myself I mean high school students are a

037different breed of students from the elementary middle school I'm here da I know because I've done middle school and in high school and I think that there there is this whole if you're not IEP special education um Regular student that I've had so many students in the course of teaching high school over 30 years that we would lose because of that hole for example I've I've had a student walk into my classroom that spoke only Mandarin and I was having a teacher I had a student that was teach that that came from Mexico that had only been to school for three years but his age they put him in my high school class I had um uh there was another example that I thought fit this better and it's it's gone out of my mind

038right now um but there are lots of things that can happen in high schools that they these kids need more help and more care but they're not IEP they're not special education and I because we're graded on how many we get through and because that high school diploma is so important I think this is a good resource for our money I've seen too many people drop oh I know I had a freshman come into my class who I took him to the library for for a report and he wasn't doing anything and I went up to him and I asked him his topic and he told me and I said well the dictionary is the first place to start and he looked at the dictionary and he said where do I look I said an

039f and he just looked really puzzled he didn't know the alphabet he didn't know how to spell and I tested him he couldn't read and he had been passed through eight grades I get that and and didn't know anything so that's not happening today but I see that that is valuable use of of funds for the high school and at least for a year Test Pro to see if it works are we going to be able to come up with funds to help um let's say the elementary schools to help meet their needs well I don't think we can Middle School needs because the early excuse me because the earlier we get them maybe we won't have that situation is my point if we put our money lower down and I know that's not going

040to help those particular children right now but I also know that this kind of program is we've done it three times in this County I was a teacher in one of those things and when you put all those children in there together um a lot of times it creates a situation that uh is not conducive to learning because they don't feel like that they're a part of the school they do not feel like that they are um they feed off each other what level of you experienc this at uh I was at the middle school doing a project turnaround that was a school within a school sure was I've done it all honey unfortunately in my many many years and um we've tried it more than once PA you can remember and it hasn't worked

041and I don't mind putting this money into programs but I do I do think that we have covered this recovery before with an assistant and now we're doing teacher and an assistance alternative schools that the high school fell because I had the wrong teachers in the classroom and I'm here to tell you I'm a fact not a guess of course that I will admit that was before we could put my computer and and meet individualized need and I wouldn't put them in with it with an assistant they need a teacher and that's they need a teacher and the assistant is on top of that on top of that teacher we're talking about kids who are not making it I mean they're not making it in Traditional School they and their parents will pull them out

042to home school and they're coming in even further behind um we have families who uh whose students have um anxiety and no matter what setting you know we want they want to be in school but they can't handle all the movement between classes that is a struggle for some kids uh this would allow us to personalize differently for students um and again I know Dustin is visit Dustin and his team have visited quite a few schools I've seen them work myself um and anyway it's a way that we can get kids um across the stage but also with a plan so that they can be successful um as far as Elementary we do invest in our elementary and our early learning we're you know we have a very strong prek we're opening up another prek

043class we're getting ready to open one in the fall at bluebridge we also have five to eight teachers outside side of the classroom in every one of our elementary schools that we do not have in the middle or high school and so we do invest in that early learning and provide them interventions and supports but often times you know kids who have attendance issues they were the same kids having you know attendance issues early on and we've missed it somehow even with those extra supports and so this is this is our effort to um really help our community by getting students in with a skill and I I'll give you another example um WS Community College um we I I shared with you in an email recently I had met with Dr Marsh and a

044year ago Dr Marsh and I talked about we had made such significant strides in our colleg goinging students earning college credit W high school we have over 60% that's well higher than the state state average of students earning a college credit while high school and you guys have seen the statistics on how many um associate degrees that our um students in the early college and the high school are earning but as we're really missing some things because we have 40% of our students that are not um they don't think of themselves as a college student but um the CTE programming um both within the high school and at the community college are ones that are going to yield pretty high paying job jobs and significant ones within our community so you know he came to

045me um said I've been really thinking a lot about it they've aligned five programs to our high schools one of them was the fire program that you guys are well aware of and we've have 13 people who have completed that program now and they're looking for another cohort to start this fall um they have one that they want to open up in agriculture one in industrial engineering which um they we already have Community Partners that seek these positions uh there's one in welding one in automotive and then we have um an electrical program now as well and so with those oh and then the um not the cosmetology the manicurist because students were not finishing um through us because of too many hours um so we have aligned the manicur that's what the students have

046been most interested in completing so all of those are aligned with the high school and Early College schedule to make it easier for students to access those classes um and Earl has done a fantastic job of aligning what we currently offer at the high school so that students can both get credit um for that uh class um from a high school class if they reach a certain threshold and then go Direct ly into uh the class at WCC that will allow them to to gain that certificate which our employers are really looking for and so things like that I think are going to really help students here um when you're looking at students who struggle often times they need to be able to access that as well and so we want to set them up

047in a way that they're getting their high school credits they're being successful in that way and that way they can attain something uh not just a high school diploma but a real credential or certificate that will allow them to be immediately employable so some of these field trips may be to um go to work for part of the day so that they can actually work with a an employer we may be able to work with employers to do that now I think also too other kids need to have that experience 100% agree and and I feel like that's where the lines being drawn because I what I see and what I've been seeing and what I've been told from parents is that I agree kids need help kids need encouragement we need to help our

048kids but say for instance I just have a hard time accepting this one just because I don't think it'll be fair across the board there is kids falling between the cracks and these kids it's their choice I mean when you get to the high school you have a free will when you go into the high school you choose whether you're going to go to your classes whether you're going to do your homework it's your choice and if we're not doing that for our students we're not we're not helping them get to the Future to where where they make a choice there's consequences and I think there has to be some we have to do that because if we don't we're hurting our own students well have consequence right now is they are dropping out or

049they're not finishing and we're but then you have Sally and John Boy over here that doesn't fit this whatever you call it to get into that class but they're not going to get the experiences either they might come from a home where they can't go out and do these experiences just as this Billy Bob over here can go into this class and have the experience it's just not the same I think it should be across the board everybody has the same experience I Mr War I did want to refer to one of the comments she made about other high school students not getting job experiences there are opportunities that we've okayed in the summertime for that and your CTE classes all offer job related experience for any student that wants it so that choice is

050there it's just not all of them will take advantage of it the academically Advanced often go to the AP type classes but that's their choice but they do have a choice to have Career Technical experiences how how many students do he that now since we've already started this class what I had wish had happened is that we could have had a discussion about this class and the ramifications of it before we have to decide whether we're going to budget it or not and that's not your fault man that's not anybody's fault how many students is in the class right now I don't know the exact number um don't four or five can we verify how many that is why do we not have 15 in that class now I I don't know I I yeah

051think it matters to me whether we're funding a 15 class thing or a five class thing because I we have X amount of money we're going to have to ask for this money I want as much bang for our buck as we're going to get and if we're only going to get four or five kids I do not think it's worth it to tie up an instructor an assistant for for that and not that I don't care about those five kids I mean I went to summer school a couple of times and set right with some children that their parents asked me to to help them get uh recovery I've done that myself so you know and I don't mean to put everything on me I'm not I'm just trying to understand and try to

052help us it looks like we're have a lot of needs on this paper I would like to recommend that we set this aside and have somebody try to get some answers to these questions cu we're going to be here till midnight if we don't move on just let me make four points before we move on this because really I think we should put on it I think it should pass see we do have a strong C program I taught in high school for all those years the problem is can we afford it I think we can afford it because do we want 15 dropouts every year I mean do we want these kids dropping out of school we can't get PL to see it in high school now can we aren we on sea level

053of the state the other thing is here in my years of teaching at the high school this is the way it was you have all these kids up the talk and get all this special attention epic classes and all I totally agree okay then you go down to the bottom you got all these kids who got all this special attention then what you've got in the middle is all these kids are left out fact I know from a fact if they don't get it from the home if they don't get it from the teacher in that classroom they don't get it so this is something to have those kids that are left out in the middle that we forget about I know what I'm talking about because it's the truth you guys remember we're just

054today deciding what to take the Commissioners we're not saying today so we're not making the final decision on this okay could have sa and I think we need to to talk about each one but all make a look at all of them before we make a decision on the school I mean all that's at the high school and then say how we rank them if nothing else and if if I could make some comments about or ask questions on the instructional coach the 11th month um how has that been being done for the uh the high school regarding summer school credit recovery so they've used their dssf funding for that in the past and they've held some back each year for some recovery you know it's just like anything else thund are just getting Tighter

055and Tighter and with ad ADM going down the DSs is a so it goes down well some of this Hine hurricane money that I've been looking at help pay for this because they there was some comments on the TV about some of these bills passing to help because of Helen our areas deal with summer school to help these students catch up so we said submitted a project serve grant that you guys are all all aware of that had a whole list of things one of them could actually pay for um I don't know exactly what in it but some of what they're asking for so if that Grant goes through here soon um we would already have the funding to be able to do this so we may not need this some of these things

056the 11th month position is a permanent change the 11 month is a permanent change and so we don't want to put a grant in that's one time for 12 or 18 months however long they um approve it for into something that would be a permanent 11 month versus 10 months okay is this I have a Is this different than the career coach that's already there I know this is instructional coach no it's the same person same person so the one that's the one that's funded through this college oh no that's different right okay I know we've got a career coach there too we don't so the career coach um only works essentially with a college uh not necessarily with high school stuff so I mean she does a great job with what she does but

057her limitations are she works for the college would they would she not have a role too in convincing those students who are going into the new um heavy equipment program would she not have any influence with those students either would she not be meeting with those kids as well as the academic children career Co at this position the the wils coach well we'll just call her the wils coach to do with this right here just make sure no but I I think the what she miss Elders mentioning they would be pushing you know there're to help the kids figure out what what they want to do and if heavy equipment's that then she can direct them you've got to go here and do this so which is different than I'm asking because I wanted to

058make sure that we're not overlapping programs there uh when you mentioned being able to talk to to these kids about these opportunities and take them on these but to me that's what that career coach from wilch should be doing as well for all kids not just some kids and she is she she she does a great job I mean yeah this but she's mainly looking at careers this is just looking at this is summer instruction helping with scheduling data data review helping them break down their data each summer so you know you are placing your children in the right place is there someone already in mind for this position she's already she's already she's the 10-month employee we want to which would probably make the scheduling process a lot easier it would it would be

059I mean last year was because of Infinite Campus they redid their schedule three times which is that will happen hopefully that'll never happen again man I'm having a hard time with the math so the Hill school that's 60,000 would cover an instructor and the field trips and the assistant no it covers an 11 month of the instructor because we're already paying for the instructor out of funds we have now so what happened to social studies he teaches social studies too he'll still be teaching teach to do both yes currently yes maybe with this population of kids I don't I thought he was completely doing that program now because they moved over to the other building and all that that good stuff they all students have to take four Social Studies classes yeah I know so

060he's still teaching social studies part-time and this other part-time correct okay I just want to make make it clear majority of it is the TA um with Benefits it's about $51,000 you know our benefits are out of control right now retirement is 24% the insurance is probably going to be about $9,000 a year per person We're not gonna we're gonna not KN no yeah the closer I get to that okay I'm just trying to understand because it's hard guys it's really hard so you want to bump on talk about the trees yeah next and then kind of come back overall I know Bradford trees are one of the shorter living trees 20 to 25 years and then they split really badly and they're beautiful they've been beautiful the last few years but $300 per tree

061for work is that's pretty reasonable is well I've got a question on that seems like Cooperative Extension had a program where you could pull the Bradfords and put a more durable because the Bradfords are taking over their new overall was to get rid of yeah that's my kind of I have on here remove something better and in fact of not this going to do us any good right this minute but um wils is having a um Bounty the end of the month you bring it they give you something else well if you've been only for I don't think it's for tree for tree is it it was here at one time five free trees you mean you take your tree down and they give you something could we talk to the Cooperative um see if

062there's something they can do to help us with that and so that we could save that money if necess no but they might give you a new new needs to be replaced look really for the $300 you can just probably pull the whole thing up yeah I would I talk with them and see if we can just pull them all out yeah I'm surprised they didn't fall apart during the I storm well I go mym but I mean I'm surpris I just I just made those two notes they are pretty at Spring but they're not they're not a party tree yeah and if you're across from third day Market they've been pulling all those up in that field long yeah they they've got rid of all theirs pretty much pretty much on there take care

063of the trees no question about that okay the forestry used to do some programs too to help you redo some trees and that kind of thing I don't know if they still do that or not I know that the Millers are real it's Casey isn't it they're real good about what they do and I'll um I'm trying to sa m i sawes those were mostly kind I think when we've had Timber removed they helped with the cost of replanting in Pine or we could choose some Hardwoods but it's a limited selection right it's a nice so I can do okay okay that's the high school okay we need to figure out individual I think that'd be easier because we're going to lose track after all of these I think that was my you know I

064think it'd be easier to do them as subsections so V on the high school yeah to see what you want to move forward well I'll make a motion that we table the Hill school until we get some more information and that we go ahead and approve the instructional coach and we're going to check on tree removal but that is a uh something that we'll do if we can't find something cheaper what do yall think is that a good motion is that what we're talking or no that I like some more information on the hill so yes what information would you like how many kids are in this going to be in the class how many is in there now so approximately 15 students would be up there I don't know how many are currently in

065I'd have to have to check I mean this is just started with you know trying to personalize to get kids across the state could you just ask them say you know if they look at a list and say this kid this kid kid just to give us a number of how many would be in there compared to what be eligible for the program it not 15 that they yeah 15 is what they said would be but how many kids are eligible are we taking is this every semester is this uh so it's on student needs it would be based on student needs so some kids would you know be in there and finish some of their credit recovery and be in another class um that this would allow them to do that um and sometimes

066it might be a full year for them to be in it depending on how much that they have I would still like for for us to discuss this and consider it again until April that was part of the motion until the next time we meet that we could get more information and I will think about what other kinds of information I'd like to have what time do we have to have this to the Commissioners not gave us yet not yet it's usually the beginning of April okay so that would make it a very tight but we have to remember we told Mr farmer that he can do what he needs to do to change the culture of the school too here we are handicapping oh I didn't know that either yeah well I mean he's

067got to do what he's got to do to make the thing work because well I mean high school was in bad shape when he took it over I'm sorry to say and it still has ways to go yeah take a dictator I would like to reduce drop out rate not because the state wants us to reduce the dropout rate because that benefits children so us looking that we reduce that so that it can show up somewhere else is not important that's a side perk so um so kids can actually survive and do what they need to do and need a diploma Community issue they have to I would like to go see this program in action myself we got a motion on the floor on there do I have a second to her motion or

068we kind of got in discussion a little bit there what's the motion so her motion was to table the top the Hill school till April go ahead with the instructional coach and then check on some information for extension or you know possible replacement of those trees in there and then come back in April basically to look at the Hill School okay and if the Commissioners doesn't need it right now let's table the I second that I'd rather table the build school I just not got the I don't know okay so discussion any more discussion on that I agree with the second two but not the first one first part I want the move the the Hill School forward for at least a year let them give it a trou So when you say a year

069that would be till next yeah one more have it fully operational for a school year to see and then re-evaluate in a year well then like Poli I don't want to handicap DUS we have a motion to second on the floor another discussion right now any other discussion can I take mine back then well or we can vote and if it votes down then you can have another motion okay okay yeah so if it doesn't then there's another motion on there somebody wants to make another motion so here no other discussion all those in favor of the motion raise your hand okay those opposed and I by no means want to handicap Dustin but I do feel like that we have to be good stewards of our money and that we have to make sure

070that what we are doing is in the best interest of all the students and not just a handful I agree with that too that is why I made the motion that I made and it has nothing to do with supporting Mr kids get 12 kids get to take a English make sure the te KS knowledge it's it the top and it's to the middle that gets and it's enough discussion do we have another motion okay so I will motion that we do the Hill school for a year and then of course the other two we ex and then reevaluate and reevaluate thank you help me because I don't know what I'm doing but I know what I can say so motion to approve the school for a year approve the second one and then check

071on what we can do with the trees and I can second that okay any discussion or comments on that he nothing all those in favor of the motion your hand those the post I'll get you a name of the person who's with extension we've got to enter him and I've tried to find his name and I can't find him right now but he would know about the tree part Jessica used to be yeah she would but I've got his number but I could think of his name I'm drawing one in blanks and Dr M looked at something through wils and it is five trees that will give us5 down the number we need extension well he's the director of wils and doing an interim since we don't have one okay yeah John is his name

072and I can't think of his is Alex Kissinger still in WIS I don't know I don't know he would help us out if anyhow let's move to the middle school yeah we don't want to take an hour on each one we definitely I think want the scrubber because the one that's there is old carrying those things upstairs has got to be horribly heavy they're taking it outside and down the sidewalk and yeah somebody and it can be moved to the new middle school so that makes could it be yeah they for the last s years have asked anything they couldn't move to the I make a motion that we approve the for scrubber okay second thank you both of you there any other questions comments anything else to scrub he none all those in favor

073raise your hand all right good okay Blue Ridge okay so they've asked to upgrade their speaker system in the I don't know if you've been to any of the awards things in there their little dance parties and things but their sound system is pretty pretty sad you can't hear probably just another one of those things is probably just time to replace and that's what he's got a question on here for it is it never did work right sorry well that's a big space to carry sound I mean did you have a professional come in do that I don't know uh that was so many years ago who remembers but I doubt it seriously come with the be and it was never intended to be as used as much as it is so it's really bad

074and I don't really think that quote's that horrible if you want my opinion on AV You Know audio stuff yeah Westwood and Auditorium audio stuff and it was I think it was 40 or 50,000 I know yeah so this is reasonable I would I would like to I'm a little confused on what all the playground stuff and maybe I did not read it carefully enough if you could recap what playground stuff we're um replacing and I know the fence around the one that was intended for pre is smooshed but it needs to be repaired because I've seen it firsthand but you know you know how peculiar daycare license is so we're going to have to upgrade that equipment some of the original equipment I think got moved to the Early Learning Center closed the um

075pre down in the schools so they are really without anything if we do but a classroom that the kicker is going to be is that mulch that they have to use on the playground has to be N9 in F and it has to be the special kind that's run through the machine to take all the metal particles out of it because you got four year olds on it can they use rubber MCH on that or no oh you're talking I know it's very but we to do it David's school when he had that request and it was yeah I know extremely expensive it just lasts though that's it's expensive but because the wind blows so hard and it blows without would they be putting this down on the existing playground since uh is it possible

076those kids would be using that playground or just the one that was designated for pre he said it's the outdoor area adjacent to the second classroom so that's the one when you go up behind the school it's the one right there on the left I think so or the original playground or the yes before the Edition before the Edition they have a special one just for K2 behind the building or pre it was supposed to been designed for pre right that's one I think they took the um P ear on this oh they took that down it was still there last week just certain pieces of the equip not all of it okay okay but that's outdoor wom space is one of the areas they get graded on with daycare licensing and they're so picky

077that age gosh and that area of the county so badly and provided it's the 38 and felt would meet his needs for [Music] well they have the equipment they need not playground equipment but all the other equipment that they want to do the pr yes so yes like many many regulations about we just had room license what two weeks ago so the uh the equipment that they need will be about $20,000 um but we already have that covered through that Grant I believe um they were going to able be able to fund um uh anyway it it'll go to one classroom and then the stuff the stuff that we currently have because we do have some materials will go to the one at Blue Bridge well I'll make a motion that we approve blidge expenditures

078and I guess the other question I had after we well it to the Comm to Commissioners yeah we'll come back in July whatever the the capital outlay goes to the commission so got a motion to approve this one on the floor do I have second second okay I Comm not asking for things notary flip vote on it all those in favor raise your hand okay we're good okay for build you stor in the building I think I think that's well Justified tell me again Amanda is the um I'll get back in the swing of this in a minute psbr RF is that are all these funds what we're asking for the commissioner no I didn't think that one was that's the public school building repair and renovation okay that's what I anything I thought was

079fit well in there put that in there and you got a sheet with your stuff that shows our Bal in the public school build and prot that's what this single sheet does all right we haven't got our full allotments yet from the state on that but less than that money's being to SP the one request on here that Dr C went back and forth about was the tra they used to use it well let me back up they use it for scraping that gravel playground at the top of the hill and they used to use it for um moving snow but now they have trucks with clouds on it I hesitate a little a $34,000 tractor for an elementary school I agree I agree too that one doesn't me more fies at all well it

080don't mow the yard either it all so the only thing they'll use it for is well JD has been out on leave so I didn't get to ask him specifically so I talked to Mr grael and he said it would be like if trees fell he could remove Limbs and things like that um smooth out the gravel at the top um I to me it's just not a necessary expense right now when we have other big items AG with you yeah I think maintenance could handle those things much more economically for us we can and if we need a tractor for a day spend ,000 how are the law what is the lawm more situation are they good okay at first I thought well maybe they're going to use the tractor to mow that's what

081I was thinking too but that's not the case you know everybody is is struggling with we replaced a more at M Dew last year so he's he's pretty good in that aspect um Everybody we're going to see a lot more mowers coming through just just the nature of being how come their Furniture is different than well okay it's a floor scrubber versus a burnisher never mind okay I thought we were looking at the same thing I don't use either one know what scrubber does but I'm not real about the furnisher is it polisher polisher yeah okay sorry I just I knew two different prices there and then you know Mountain View is getting some age on it and the Saints are looking pretty rough and honestly anytime you go to another school and you go

082in the bathroom it's like you don't want to use it we don't ever want our buildings to get looking like that so um he has put a request into place of sinks but you're covering those under the yeah and that can be done in this year we can move that forward if we and get it on maintenances summer L to do since I took so much of our time I'm I'm pushing these motions so I take a motion to do the burners sure and the bathroom sinks but leave out the tractor and okay I move that okay right with a practor or just by yourself I don't know she told me I move it so I don't have without the tractor without the tractor second motion all right right all those in favor go ahead

083and raise your hand okay all right I used to teach that okay partition in their bathro they looking a little rough and they do not fit and why do they call him gang back question I hate that but it's because you have the elementary school I'm telling multiple STS yeah Min games ask that on Maps for the new middle school and that's really what they call if you Google it I know I never like that name for it at all and you're pulling that out of the P yeah and and I especially like the fact that he said that they've worked on the vandalism and it's down so that when we get new ones they're not hor hopefully pretty tght do damage so I'll make the motion we approve that especially since we don't have

084to ask anybody else for the money second it so I got a motion in a second all those in favor ra okay keep going so the next thing is Ash early college and this is she's requesting a position curriculum instruction coach she has and that's one of the reasons I provided and she had a big long explanation I had to make it big it was Tiny I could feel her passion in this so that's why I wanted y to see it for yourself can we take a break and come back to this one yes' this if you want to take just like minute break just a short break short recess we'll call short recess bathroom break than you're about out of coffee well I don't need any more Cofe I have aath I had a

085MIG IA didn't know that dilate all the time oh Lord I've seen some people have that little ear piercing you know like there and they say that helps e e e all right so we'll go back in from Recess right now about 11:27 so we're picking back up with the Early College Ash early college and I asked if I could know the number of students enrolled there as well as the Staffing that they have so I believe they have 646 students at the Early College that [Music] many and will that number become um well they have all four years there correct or five five so they can send to a fiveyear I think this coming year they'll have 13 kids choosing to go a fifth year you and that way they can finish their associate

086degree they have to finish all their High School requirements um but this allows them to finish their associate debris while in high school okay now in addition to um the principal and the counselor what other staff do they have and how many teachers so they have um five teachers well and they're fully staffed right now so they have five teachers they have a counselor principal and they have a um secretary data manager you T person she's an allinone she does everything she does an all one correct amand um is the how much of this is Sal and how much of it is always got my notes how much of it is salary and how much of it is um benefits salary is $592 a month so for an 11mon position it' be 65,7 so this

087is much more than a teacher would make on the teacher scale on the teacher scale here uh Master's 15 anytime you don't have a we don't payes okay instructional coaches get paid but everybody else she must have wrote it down there bottom I had done that I stopped and see you need to scroll help with numbers I'm sorry questions that's right here that I did not see I apologize so what's f f f um that's your Medicare everybody pays into F if you're okay what they would get 5,927 a month right yeah that's what our instructional coaches on average make with Master 15 years of experience that's what we for 11 months when you're planning you go middle of the road you go high you go low and you hope you hit somewhere so where

088are we at are we we don't have anybody in this position have to yeah it looks to me like this person would be um taking covering the CTE and and testing kind of of helping with that and data connected to that it I'm seeing that they would also have coaching responsibilities as well as um management assistant principal kind of and currently they do not have anyone in that the in that test um coordination role and the uh right now now what they've done is a teacher who doesn't have a test subject has been running it at the school so they've split their duties but it becomes a lot on a classroom teacher to um to do that piece as well so if you do the math they have 29 students per teacher on average yeah

089so that's heavy load right I just want to make sure there's no doubt she gets that you know it's to the principal how that helps the only other question I get is what kind of support do we get from wils Community College on this area because when they return when they turn a certain age a lot of that responsibility goes to WIS right they have classes with WIS so um wils Community College um through theou um we pay for um we pay for it it comes through the grant it's designated through theou um that and designated through the Cooperative Innovative High School structure that we're bound under um a person that works for wils not for us so they designate everything that they do or don't do and um they are the ones who schedule

090the college classes so the college classes professors or what instructors they get paid from books oh yes books that we so we we have a new early dayson and there um I think she's fine she's she's fine it's just she's restricted in what wols will allow her to do now I know it used to be that in this state um students could stay in high school till their 21st birthday if they hadn't successfully graduated and the 18 transition is um to um not getting free schooling is um irrelevant with the fiveyear schools these early colleges because the state is is funding supposedly through the high schools but it's one of those not fully funded issues that we deal with we're really funded at all in some ways so um what about the grant that pays

091for the counselor liaison and the office support which is the required positions with those three things we're still run in the hole about $16,000 and then there's textbooks on top of it yeah we cover the teachers from our other allotments and then we're paying for the textbooks which run about $112,000 a semester and those are going up yeah yeah High School textbooks are now running higher than what college textbooks were they are are well and that's one of the you know one of the reasons why we were able to use estra dollars for our Ela adoption because we knew we would never be able to afford books in that magnitude again based on the number of um dollars that we receive so um Lindsay could use the help there um to be able to do

092the things that she knows as necessary um again we can take it for and if it you know I suspect we'll get funded on a percent like we always do and then and we can come back what well you know in a an Ideal World I would fund everything that they ask for please don't think I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing because you are we're trying to be a good Steward and it's GNA get worse but um oh bring it on but you know you know when you Lindsay does a good job and those are good kids up there it's not that it's just how do we make our buck cover enough stuff and do enough of the right things and so this is hard give me a burnisher I can do $6,000

093for a burnish you got to have that but with Personnel it's it's much more difficult but it's much more difficult so could we go ahead and what say yes until we find out differently you money or back in July to see if we can do any of this possible yeah but if we can I think that early college is a wonderful idea for our students and that there's a lot of administrative work that has to be done and it concerns because she's burning herself out we're and I'd rather and rather this money go I can see doing this money with no question compared to the 60,000 the Hill school if you want out the truth so she definitely needs a lot more children this will benit yeah all of those students and staff help us

094keep our staff yeah because we got some good ones up there that in a motion yes who I'll make a motion that we um ask for this money second do I have a second I'll second yeah they did they did any questions all in favor morning that we're going to be having the summer program year and her custodian is currently 11 months she Tri to split two weeks in June and two weeks in July to cover the mo season but he's going to need to be there that whole month of July and we've contracted with him anyway um specifically to help out at other schools during the summer when we've been down so we're always in need of somebody to work that is that extra month that the Early Learning Center is going to need

095it and you can look in that building he does an excellent oh my God those flers are just shining well hudo doesn't charge us for the extra counseling he gives those [Music] children I call holds her hands walking in the morning and say he's not there get him out the car he's a sweetheart I'm hearing good things motion I I move that we approve the custodian I have second second okay got two that's good any other questions all in favor raise your hand that one may be one we have to approve a little bit ahead of time just because of the timing of and the timing of when we have to come back for our second worksh can we find that money somewhere else um I was going to tell you all this before we

096were closed it's just a fun fact you know a nerd like that where we were closed in October and most of January we have saved 12% on oury so you know there's some funding there it's already budgeted for those things and they're she's amazing at moving things around find $1,000 doll here and there for different things they just a fun thing and we're pretty TI before we start on the next one um you know how I feel about Turf pill so I'm going to keep my mouth shut you know how I'm going to vote on that one but while are we it Disturbed me that theou is not working with the hospital and we're asking for $70,000 why are we not why is thatou not working and what can we do to fix that mou

097before we ask there's not one to be found he's the only well so if we even ask for that money I mean if we found one which it's not going to matter whether we can pay him from this fund or that fund so we're only will the hospital do that um again so I I've requested Brian to actually look at more options so either talk with the hospital and and figure out what what he needs to make that work I know in the fall there's a new for all wrestling I think it's practices in games that they have to have an athletic trainer so it adds another sport uh to it um along with football and I don't know there's a there's a list of things that they have to um be at regard whether

098it's a game or practice um so i' I've requested that he actually looks at that need and how we might be able to fulfill that need whether it be through the hospital or somewhere else and so that's what he has been um doing um me um since I'm on the hospital board I've tried to stay away from thatou um and uh I was actually asked about it this morning and I and I said um Brian Hampton is the one you need to talk to um about making this these needs work because he's the one who knows that's that's the person who's over um uh figuring it out for the high school and really countywide um so anyway um the $7,000 You' like to have somebody on St if it does work I'd like to know

099why just that the EM is not working is not sufficient information I think it's it's probably not enough 11,000 we're asking for 70,000 yeah that's why we ask the hospital can't find one he has posted it multiple times Brian has reached out to shers they do not have enough Lake trainer on staff to help and then we had heard that alagan and some other counties were using bapst Baptist he reached out to baptist and they said they couldn't serve our area because is it noon right provider here well novon is who's over hour they're under a they're under something they're under Atrium Atri own he's tried to go some different routes I don't know what about waga they're under UNCC but I don't know if the UNCC no thing would have anything to do with

100that for sou is no yeah for sou is yeah yeah why can we talk to for sou because the radiologist comes from for and different things so we may have talk to baptist for is the one the teaching Hospital yeah well and Baptist has a hospital in wils County too yeah they they bought wils I don't know that we've necessarily explored all of our options because when this came to us um we started talking well we've been talking about longer than that because our students have a need our our Athletics program do have a need uh to have an athletic trainer you know some schools have one full-time that are on their staff and some some schools contract uh like aligan um so he's still exploring those options but this opportunity the fact is is

101he needs an athletic trainer and more Services than what we're currently providing I don't know whether it's 70,000 but 70,000 would seem to be what a beginning plus Adrian did tell him that their beginning salary for 56 is $50,000 benefit had that on top so let's let's talk about the elephant in the room then would Adam be willing to come back if we increased his salary to make it more beneficial for leaving his family and and all of that I know they've had a lot of extra stress with uh their son and and what he's been going through but he is the only athletic trainer in this District that I know of and I've asked around some would he be willing to do that I don't know that that's an appropriate conversation for now talking

102about someone else's well it's it's talking about this right here I don't want I don't want to talk about a current Personnel person here I would like to talk about a couple other things on this whole list first of all I was thankful that he broke down the lighting and I understand from past experience conversations some areas in especially football field are dark and dangerous when you have large crowds there so I would I'm opposed to the whole thing at once but doing like the football field and then next year asking for another um because those lights are really old and there is a lot cheaper and brighter it's not cheap to buy them but the energy is um I'm opposed to the football field because of the cost of the lighting and all I

103don't think we can do both and the wrestling mats is there any way that the uh athletic booster club with the monies they raise through um the concession stand could buy those as Their donation to the school I think one of the jusic ations for doing the football field is they would have plenty opportunity to raise money through the booster club correct yeah but didn't they P they finished I guess we kind of drained them didn't we I doubt it they got money 50,000 or something it wasn't that much I mean we have in the past split cost with booster clothes we've done 50 and they've done 50 so I I will say that the wrestling mats are required to actually have a wrestling team and if we're going to fund something for athletics I

104think we should fund the required things and then our um uh Boosters club and other can fund the more fun things I guess you could say things that are not required to actually do the sport um these mats are getting old they're ready to expire um it it does become a safety issue and I think we do need to have the mats in our wrestling program [Music] um if if we're funding anything we certainly need to in my opinion need to um fund the mats again they're going to need them I was just suggesting that because it was the cheapest item on his expensive list and the lighting he wrote here said could potentially be it was could potentially break down well we broke it down we broke it we asked for it to be

105broken down because there's no way I mean $1.3 million almost is a lot of money and one ask but if you're chipping away at it um you know lighting is a need you know which of the four Fields um is in the most need of them being replaced in terms of safety and in terms of breakdowns cost whatever because there's a wide range of pricing there did we not have a cycle that they were going to try to uh do those on last year when we talked about this there was a plan where we were going to do football first football was first and then whatever but I'm you know not I'm not too willing to repair it play it again and then I'm wondering how the baseball field is twice as over twice as

106much basball BT well I'm looking at the breakdown here two fi I'm looking at the breakdown here and my question is different than I'm here yeah baseball is twice more than twice as expensive as the softball field to do this on so I know that baseball fields are bigger but we we need some other things before we Turf that softball field it needs some other stuff done to it oh you're it's on the lighting okay I was on the lighting sorry sorry I can see Sor good so you're talking about down here at the baseball soall and stop right is that where you're at let me get back to I think's the I was looking at the turf I was just looking at all of it and and I could not are any of those

107fields slated to be and I'd hate to use the word danger but in danger with the new Middle School construction I don't think so okay all right I think I didn't think so but I just you know I knew that we had talked about it I hate to do something and then that's pass before we Turf that softball field it needs to be renovated because you go to The Dugout and then there's a drop off there that could be potentially dangerous for people walking around in the dark out there um not walking around behind The Dugout it just right off and the last time I checked I don't know if they've got their of course you couldn't put the batting cage up in this wind I don't care if it were made of steel but

108um but it's that before we even talk about Turing that that needs to be repaired I can't imagine just turfing something without making sure that everything is there and I don't know what that includes specifically in that quote if it's just a sh texting right now I'm not I'm not interested in Turing see what you know and guys if I might make a comment here um Ash County's been hit hard this year and there are lots of expenses that the County's going to have to pick up that that will enable us to get back to some sense of normaly because we're still not there agree and if you go up the river um it is awful um it's terrible we still have roads that are not been repaired we still have a lot of of

109things and I think for us to ask for for3 million dollars that are not completely necessary this year we may be shooting ourselves in the foot before we ever get started yeah and I don't mean that ugly by any means um any means I appreciate Mr Hampton for having the vision that this is where we would like to go because you know we need to have visions and we need to continue to improve whatever facilities we have but this year may not be the year uh we're looking at Landfield issues we're looking at trying to recover from the hurricane issues there was a lady in um McDonald's last night who was homeless and she couldn't get anywhere to go so these are all issues that have to be funded so for us to ask for

110$3 million for athletic bills right now may not be a u proper ask or a a timely ask I guess how do I need to St and state that a timely ass there um I I hope we will continue to improve but if we have to ask for this they I don't know I'm say we say that would say some you know somewhere in the future we' like this to happen but not say would want it this time I can see asking for the lights for the football field first and say somewhere in the future as money becomes available we would like to continue put l in Tenn baseball ath fields also not all at one time do it you know do it one each year and I know we have to have that around

111that those two Absol I mean I'm not saying I'm just saying suggest some when you make suggestions do we suggest that that they do this and this is something we have a vision for we don't expect it to happen this year do we have to do the football field all at one time either because the area that is the most needy is back there at the back it's not actually the football you have to do it all at one time and I think they us the regular the polls that are existing yeah paying a higher price for half the field good for the whole field okay I'm just ask that's I move that we okay I move that we okay the football lighting the athletic trainer and the wrestling mats and Let Brian know the

112rest is for later consideration but but not this year and you know like we did the last time just put a suggestion for Commissioners to be thinking about this so when when our new maintenance person comes on board um we have we're going to work with I know I know um but when he's on board the um we plan to uh do a similar fiveyear uh cycle that we did about five years ago uh looking at our facilities needs in general and um you know we'll have a a lot of these things I'm sure will be on there once and needs um but we'll have him take a look at that and we'll have a comprehensive look at all of our facilities at that time and we've been able to check off quite a few

113of those things but I think you'll find that there are some other needs that are coming up as well so got a motion on the floor to to send forward the football the athletic trainer and the wrestling mans do I have a second to that second i' comment about that um I would really like to find out why we don't have anou for the hospital for this uh trainer because they paid for that before we didn't have to pay for that we do have anou it's it needs to be updated it's a two but why are we asking for $70,000 then if we can might could get in the hospital or for some of them to fund that completely that is that going to in so many different places I don't think you going get

114one business to give youbody to do all those things hree what the requirements are too to ask until we know what to ask absolutely but this was the ideal from the high school standpoint this is their ideal and like I said I've requested them to take a look at what all the options are including the needs to meet that the new needs for theu how much I'm sorry how much did the hospital give before so well on our part but then the boosters are paying for a third of oh okay and am I right that it only covers football and wrestling theou because it says here they only cover the required Sports football and wrestling so wrestling has a new requirement for all practices upcoming and um you the football is the one that's been

115required for a long long time so we will it will increase I just don't know how much um to be able to cover those new sports um or you know the practices and things for wrestling that were're not on there before and with paying for this enable some training to go on for our baseball teams our tennis teams or is that just strictly for the football and the wrest it would be potentially for whatever the schedule would allow we obviously have to follow the law first but right um on top of that you know it depends on really on the schedule I would love to have them available to take you know ankles and elbows and whatever um you know before the school day ends um you so that they're ready for a game practice

116but I guess what bothered me was the write up about it it there was just not enough information to make a good decision about what we were looking at and what our needs actually were and else about that so we we'll bring back more information on that one um we'll get more information to you on that one including the number of people that he has talked with as far as theou and what those specific requirements and if we have anou you guys will it'll be brought to you all all right so any other comments questions all those in favor of the motion raise your hand any post okay okay so this from media Amy she's the guru of all um you know we've taken on a lot of big events over the last little while

117back to school what else does that correlate to sorry School complications huge um part of the Husky and we are out of space we have nowhere to store anything part of Technology supplies are stored in Dr Cox's office and if Dr Cox has got somebody in there they can't get in get their supplies so we are out of room here um what she would like to the you know out here and that's where the in if we can find a spot of land which we're about running out of land in this little section to most that behind us is when you got it needs to be here on this side because that's where all the planning and everything comes here um it's just we're not everybody we're just down space so you're need only 400

118square footages but you're asking right and would there be offices or like an office in there just Storage storage have you ever thought about one of those pods that come from like down south you I think that we're looking at um also potentially heating it thank you of supplies will be deteriorated if you don't have moisture control control so for example we've got out here we had a donation of backpacks that we will be using for back to school last we get them when we can because you get them on sale you get them donated dian's really familiar with that with Project Graduation um you know it anyway it just requires a place to put some of this stuff so what what I guess what fathers me is paying $100,000 for 25 a $20,000 building

119okay so what other options are there other than that could we build something on top of what we already have build on top of that and she had U should might that's what it says on here do these estimat for she said she felt like they were little High um right for that and that's probably Mike's probably thinking fully finished out um insulated all if you're if you're going to heat it and do Moisture Control need installation you need installation and you need to F out the walls electricity and I don't um it was she felt like it was a high number um if we can find a spot here we can do an out building it's just walk we are there any we don't have a parking right now yeah you'd have take parking

120any opportunities for this that could be involved with like some of the CTE oh yeah where they could help you know in years past you know they used to build things and and involve the project with that I don't know if that's if that can be even be done now or not I know things have right yeah I mean that's a great they built the swimming pool actually Mr has a project down in his request that is involving his students didn't know we can check on that um but you we can't build without permission or you know have another building put on a site without permission so are well so the 100 is the worst I get the idea of the storage space but that $100,000 is just going okay that's all L um so

121um T Jefferson should build it for us since we're here in their San and they keep us um they why don't you call him C Graduation was very fortunate that we had one uh needed to us and it's been exteme it's not heated but it's been extremely helpful but um we can what's the take that off would be $20,000 St when you look at that 20,000 50,000 and you come over here it's 100,000 that's not a good look I think she just wanted to give you all options well I appreciate that so and uh our new maintenance director when he gets here can he come up he may have some ideas that will reduce the cost for us he absolutely may have some ideas um I think but that'll be next does this find the

122taable till he comes you know I don't see that I mean this is we do a lot of projects for the community and we have a lot of stuff that we're gathering over time um so it is a need but it's not our number one priority as far as an ask is concerned a i you're reaching out to oh here's this okay so we're take so I make a motion that we go ahead and table this right I second that okay and then I'm add break for lunch okay all right I don't have all right so we've got Motion in a second to table and break for lunch uh please tell everybody concerned that we are not knocking the IDE there we're just looking for options because those prrams are very important to our students

123we want to make sure that we can keep that level up for those kids uh it saves families a lot of money it saves um it's a a big Community Endeavor and we need to keep that stuff where we can do it and I have some mental health um materials that I'll add to the mixas myself wait we're going to lunch first don't go to mental issues yeah all in favor oh you didn't that was end I've got a box of materials it's actually for the Middle School career day e e I can't e e e all right so we'll catch back up after recess for lunch here at 12:30 we're moving into CTE looks like so the first item are the seamless welders um it is a need so that we um can keep

124kids moving along um you we do have a huge interest in welding in our school district and um uh this come from local fund what the certification is completed after welding grade or or someplace um they have there's a fourth class in fact we have a little girl that we saw yesterday that is in her fourth class but it's through I believe well um how many they have 12 14 students and they and and they can have more they can have more students in there um uh I don't know what the limit is on welding um text ear and find out specifically what the limit is and it's all regulated but um right now they're sharing some and we had been using the ones at the community college but they move theirs down to the

125wils campus and so we have the ones that we had uh previously purchased I'm saying this all correct right and how many students are taking W3 um 4 14 12 14 thing on the class which is a lot of gets in that type of a class maximum for most classes is 20 well they're saying they currently have 12 to 14 students um and just a lot of them are standing around waiting because have six or so so welders or something like that um we have here I'll find it says local it I think we only have six okay I think they're sh I think they're sharing like we have three students sharing a device that is a lot of downturn correct and it's like I said it's growing in popularity I just want to say

126they've got a new curriculum do collegewise a go right into that simp they make good money too and that school that they go to for six months is so expensive but you're done within three months or six months or something and then Eli Mass went off he went up to but they went off and they made you can make it up I seem to remember in Kataba County in 205 welders were making $45 an hour doesn't surprise and so we had we started welding programs down there because we didn't have enough welders good pay second thing Greenhouse storage this is the one he's doing as a a project for students CTE can only pay for certain things so he needs help with the concrete and footing Roofing and students are currently designing the storage shed

127storage shed for their tractor I reached out to DP because it was a little fish we use School build FS he said we could but be careful how we worded it not to say it was tractor storage so I didn't anytime somebody says something like that to me a little is this the right thing to do or not so it may be that this would project but we'll definitely clarify which of money it has to come out with this is something you like to support and it is student programming so technically we take local as well right possibility yeah I like and the next thing he asked for you know last year we did um some computer live chairs and this project would finish him out and also provide chairs at Early College too because

128they're using some old and finally his big ask is for an EG teacher he um a season and she is doing some great things but she split between a other SCI so this would give us a two two teachers one for each pathway and it would help serve more students Wonder students we have that's a good question 900 and some students at the high school and early college it would be eligible to teach those CL or take those classes but how many are ined currently full they're like 20 kids in a class and that would be full and with our County having the regional research area and uh with um our main crops being Christmas trees and P pumpkins in the agriculture area and cattle in the in the the the science area if we

129have the enrollment we need the teachers so the um you know how CTE funding works with the Perkins funds yeah and you know we they are grades 8 through 12 is what it serves and of course we have seventh and eighth graders taking some of these introductory classes Etc um which is important um to be able to introduce kids younger and younger um to careers we support more Pathways than just about anybody else especially for our size and when you get into some of the larger school districts they only serve a couple of different programs and specialize and we've always likeed to support a diverse number of programs because people have different interests so from Health Sciences to agriculture to um the uh Project Lead the Way classes they're all very different and serve the

130needs of different kids and so you we'd like to expand on that without having to cut another program and that's the kind of choice we have to make in order to um use just the um months of employment that CTE provides are they currently doing in the um agricultural agriculture uh CTE um student committee or club I'm trying to keep FFA F I couldn't remember the initials but um having a second one would also help support that and farmers are on the decline and it's becoming a critical issue Nation wide getting enough people enough students interested to pursue farming and agriculture generally speaking so I would like to see this and they could also use that new ad building that's coming on as an extra person to take take students over there and hands- on

131and do all that stuff and we already have fifth graders that are going to go over there here weeks to introduce them as young as that we as we can so that they can see a wealth of programing how do we currently do I mean we still teach both horiculture and animal sign correct so was one person doing that okay this would just be splitting it between two it would be would it make the classes smaller probably allow us to serve more kids okay okay and the teachers would be more ex expert expertise in the areas that they're teaching so so if they're full right now now is there a waiting L to get on to get in these okay so they're in the current process of scheduling for classes next year and of course

132they have to you make choices but she the current teacher that we have in there is dynamic she's really the kids really like her I make a motion okay for they accept this that exist all project listed yes I would hate to have to eliminate any of those we have a good CTP cogram we need to really support it's probably the best in state we need to it's been the most active you know we support a lot of different programs that others don't have the opportunity to get exposed to so catch up just a little bit Miss Calhoun I heard you did okay good all right all right well good I didn't want to leave nobody out and I second okay and Miss Ward seconded the motion any other questions comments all those in favor

133of the motion raise your hand okay sorry I didn't think about the m so Human Resources just wants to keep their level funding exceptional children wants to keep their level funding stent services so the ask Center clinici is U currently currently we've been able to offset her salary her Grant expired and did not get renewed and able to offset her salary with the some of the mental health funds we got for Hurricane we did a little shifting around two social workers in the hurricane money put Elizabeth and local social work money to cover that this year so going forward is our concern take you all know the importance of ask probably all had a has had some experience we just feel passionately about this one Dr Cox can elaborate okay unfortunately this is something that

134um we don't get funded for and we have a growing need and you know I wish there were um better ways to do that we are seeking other um means um but you know once you start doing something well sometimes those things don't get funded because they want to find somebody else who's not doing as well in a certain area so unfortunately um we still have a need for our ask Center and our social workers and of course it's the same pot of funds um whether it be local or 07 funds that fund um counselors and other of our outside the classroom people which um that fun the funding need is never going to go away unfortunately um we will continue to seek additional funds if the project serve grants is funded we will have

135you know we'll have part of that covered uh for next year um you know I wish we had more than what we currently have in this area unfortunately um you the funds just aren't there to do that what is apption able to do for us for the ask Center I know that Elizabeth who she us us so they fund their other people um and we paid for part of their other people people as well students supervisor and then they provide the grad students that are in their guess internship so the doctoral level students are I mean that's essentially how they're funding them they give them a little is the ACs or the ASC the correct it's ASC yeah okay okay as County Schools versus ASC it's ASC yes now here I go again about the

136elementary school but I understand that we're the the way we're setting up now with the tier program there's not enough support for tier two do we have a plan for that as well or is it I love to ask them I really do there's more counselors there and are we do we have plans for our elementary schools to have some support there if we Implement I understand we've implemented the NSS model that's required by the state so what kind of supports for tier two do we that level so you're talking about elementary level I can Jamie is going to bring a that to the next board meeting so some of the mental health services that um you get requested and so you'll get to see exactly what that looks like um but we have um

137counselors do tier two that's I mean they don't do a whole lot of tier one which is um that would be for everybody in the classroom they do a lot of tier two and that's what the work that most of the counselors are doing we also have social workers uh that pull small groups we have a school psychologist that also small groups in some of the schools you only have those are Elementary a social worker one day a week she's been reassigned to the middle school she's only there one day a week and that is that is temporary right now because of um the need at the middle school and um we didn't have a counselor and it's been posted for months potentially keep your fingers crossed fingers cross on that this is an area

138I'm not as familiar with how much of this is unfunded mandates none of them are mandates none of them are mandates so but they are completely unfunded but I I can't imagine our schools if we were to tell them we were taking away our social workers the ask Center our counselors um it would be a big problem it might be another place where we need to um write a letter explaining what's happening and what the need is and and all these services that they're providing for us because it sounds essential but money's going to be tight this year like Diane's pointed out well I'll vouce for the ass CER because I worked very closely with them um on several projects they do an enormous amount of work and I guess I look back to a

139u the students and um if we can save one and we do have some Cutters we've had some kids who've attempted some things um every year and I mean it's just recently I'm just speaking recently and um if we can help that then we'll have students to serve if we if we cannot then we're looking at more disasters than I want to even think about I I agree and I think there needs to be maybe a campaign to our representative Senator and representative about how there's no help with this coming from tax dollars and this is a lot of money to continually have to keep looking for working to get from Grants so um last year the Year for Amanda when they added um a position to 07 so two years ago they did add

140a position to O7 funding which is Under the Umbrella or that is the umbrella that covers a lot of these things it's instructional support and so um instructional support is a lot of things so there are instructional coaches who are doing pullouts with tier 2 and tier three academic Services um they are um our counselors they are our media Specialists they are our instructional technology facilitators all of them under that umbrella and we only receive funding for seven and then we pull funding from a whole bunch of other places and you know we have like 30 of those people in our district our ATM drop ended up just breaking really digal position has have you heard anything or having any interaction regarding because I know on state line I heard that one of the things

141our um legislators are looking at is totally changing the school funding form um it I think we need to keep a close watch on that somehow or another is that being done so I'm on the committee that the public school Forum has pulled together okay um they have represent atives from large and small districts across the state superintendents Representatives um people in finance other positions in public school um taking a look at what a new weighted student formula could look like and um there are other models out there U one being um I think Kentucky another one in Tennessee um there are other places that have developed new funding formulas the only way it's going to work is if everybody's funding increases from where they are now because nobody has decreasing needs um you know

142there's still a lot of unknowns about how that would impact a small school district because one of the things that we know if um we get position allotments and some things and they'll pay for it regardless of how expense of that employee is but then they're putting also more more and more pressure on local school school districts because of benefits and um the things that are behind the scenes that nobody really sees and so um we got to keep a close eye on that and make sure it's prioritized well so for example um an exceptional children's student cost us more money to educate um many times they have multiple people that service them throughout the day or multiple people all day long depending on the need um versus somebody who might have a learning disability

143um you know they they they don't have as high of a need as someone who is wheelchair bound and um in a self-contained class so um you know if we get more funding for each of those in realistically um we could gain more funding because we have a higher percentage of exceptional children in our district but if they limit it so that they're not um so they're only special education children and not regular egg children first as they all are um then you know I I worry about what that funding could look like for us so so to answer your question is yes we're watching it real closely um I had a face tof face meeting in in the Raleigh area um a couple months ago and I had a zoom meeting about a month

144ago um and really there it's more of a listening and learning and giving incremental feedback back and there are some lawmakers on it so I don't know where that's going to take us well in the meantime um I said earlier uh we don't get if we don't ask and I think this is important so I move that we um approve these two items to go forward as part of our budget okay do I have a second one second any other questions comments in favor raise your hand okay next item up is from K12 curriculum um she's needing some additional funding for clients that that and Ela books content she's put a better description in her name if you want me to Julie's that English teacher actually she writes really well I would like to see

145us giving the teachers what they need but we spent how much money last year on this new program the new curriculum and um that wasn't science though all textbooks textbooks are on a fin rotation cycle depending upon at least they used to be because I was on some textbook Improvement committees but did I still don't fund it like that do they they've never funded it well enough no no they don't and you know no mask coming up and that will be a large expense they're still struggling struggling in that area so they're looking at outside sources of things students what they mean down there that is the way I'm getting a book for every two students for the anchor 30 students you're get 15 BS with each other I think what they would do be

146pass them around they check check them out at different times is what I understand different titles with with my understanding I have this right here I think it come froma we we have it P oh I'm sorry sh um I mean seriously I think everybody need sence it's been over 10 years since they've had something what yeah well what came with the why are these two grouped together so what came with um what came with the wit and wisdom because we spent a fortune cbles I think are more the letters not wh well it says wh right here thing in the bottom well it also says it's just for the K2 yeah W wisdom whereas the science is for the entire fifth through eth fifth through eth grade science classes well you know me I

147want I want books in the hands of children but if we have to choose between what we can fund and what we can't um you know the science stuff we need it's probably or 20 years old by now um but at the same time we've just spent a fortune on wit and wisdom why didn't the Wht and wisdom thing come with all of what we needed to teach standard or she's just saying here we're tempting to boost the Wht and wisdom part so so one of the things you this is the first year of implementation for Whitten and wisdom and or the you the actual curriculum and just like having the teachers choose wit and wisdom which they did um now they are starting to understand what other needs that they have in order to

148supplement so these are supplementary materials so if it doesn't have a certain thing for a certain grade level that we're finding that it needs that's what um part of the request from the ELA perspective is the science wasn't even looked at because this is a new new curriculum so I would be more inclined to um by the new uh K two Whitten Winston because I don't think that what we have is appropriate for kindergarten they have come out with a 45 minute version this year that really would help our Kinders that that curriculum is not appropriate for developmentally appropriate for our Kinders through second grade so instead of buying additional materials it would be great if we could buy our kindergarten that program that will allow them to teach letters and all the other things

149that go with it we have a 90 minute program for our kinds 90 minutes and I know they exchanged I know they tried to revolve the topics and all that but it's a 90 minute class every day for our kindergarten students and that's too much it's not developmentally appropriate and I have looked at the materials I've looked the manuals it's awful so um why are we buying additional materials when we don't have appropriate materials it has to be appropriate that what we have it is not what if it wasn't this we be hearing this curriculum was geared for sixth seventh and eighth grade it was a more curriculum for that and I've talked to some other people in some other school systems and they feel like that K2 stuff was tacked on to sell it

150to the whole system that it is it has not been thought out or developed privately as good as our um you're talking to other school yes ma'am what about the teachers that are teaching it they hate it they don't think it's development appropriate the kindergarten and now the older teachers seem to be okay more it's the kindergarten first and second grade program well they have liberty no they do not they have to teach it to Fel teach everything well as to it's a scripted program and they have to teach it to this program there's not you know teachers just add a little spend where they make it easy for them to teach because we got some good teachers that can spin it and make it more I heard this side i' like to that side

151because I'm seeing different faces over here so I'd like well um couple of things we've been out to do observations and it is a beautiful thing what I am seeing I am seeing kids being able to write sentences at a much younger level and we know right has gone down down down down since we quit testing it um the the questioning types hearing little kids saying I wonder and I notice and being exposed to such a wide array of topics it is absolutely amazing do we have a couple naysayers of course we do but I think once they start seeing the benefits as it goes up and up and up each grade I think everybody's going to be on it is a lot more rigorous the language um is um more Rous um and the

152writing is more rigorous and yes there is structure to it right now but they have to learn it to be able to implement it and you can't pick and choose the things until you know what's going to work and if any year that they can Implement something and find out if it's going to work it's this year um you know they have a lot of um we we've had a tough year and and so if they can try it and see what is going to uh work best in the classroom and see the results that we're getting um I am supportive of um our curriculum and our teachers being able to do that one of the things that um I've heard over over the years is that we've gotten stuff and they never follow through

153with implementation and so I think it's really important that we don't make our hard the students hard and so ensure that we Implement and try and then be able to give appropriate feedback to say okay what what isn't working is it that it's 90 minutes straight and a kindergartener can't handle that well let's change the schedule so that we can break it up and make it work differently I just think we need to try it um but not be afraid that the rigor is going to um that it's too hard I hear a lot it's too hard and you know I don't want is it too hard because we're making it too hard maybe is it too hard because it's too hard for the students maybe um but I think that the rigor has got

154to increase because our younger grades um are way behind and then it's not until middle school that they're catching up and you know we do that all along but those kindergarten first and second grade classrooms that language development is really important we're still doing letters and our teachers are still um spending time on letters because that phic awareness um is really really important and um the teachers from my understanding I wasn't here a long time ago um but we had pushed back at that time on implementation of letters because it's a change from what we were doing in the past now we've got to find the balance between the change and you know what we've always done and is this something that gosh we really need to fix but I think until you do it

155it makes it really hard to make that judgment I'm just questioning why we're asking for more materials when we've not P well I think this is some of the gaps that they realize that they um probably do have in the classroom and so these are based on what they're hearing from teachers when was the last curriculum purchase last year we spent a million dollars on the k laa curriculum with ESS yeah with ESS dollars no at all I'm just wondering why the company would decide that it that the initial 90 minute lessons were too long that have reissued a new 40 some 40 of that and as what they're selling this year it's a new it's just has um redone so somewhere along the line someone has decided that it's too R rigorous or that

156that is not appealing to for whatever reason so there are some new manuals out there uh a new curriculum that is not as um lengthy as this one uh seems to be more developmental appropriate and I'm not looked at those new ones I have on we have here and I went through a lot of when we we had the book thing here I went through every every book we once because I wanted to see what it was like so I guess we can ask for more feedback but I know that um and I know that uh Julie and Casey have gotten a lot of feedback from teachers and the feedback they got from teachers that they need the they wanted these materials so I don't know whether that was before or after a new 45

157minute thing was available I don't know I hadn't heard about that tight end I wonder U I wonder how if we've got all these other materials if this is just the manual the teachers manuals how much are they that if we could and I'm not trying to take Julie's job or any of that kind of thing but I want it just to consider that how how much would a manual a manual be just for the manuals kindergarten in first and second grade without it should have some of the same support materials I would think mainly the same support materials made it more development appropriate you would think that they would have the same support materials we don't it's a good book isn't it so she actually requesting uh decodables for that are I guess a

158better more wider range of interest for kids and those are the actual books that students will have in their hands are so expensive they are but but I mean I'm just saying that in general I'm not saying that as a yes or no I'm just saying books are so but we didn't pay for the previous came from eser huh came from Esser they said well I mean I mean we still paid for but I mean it wasn't budgeted I mean didn't come out local exactly right and we get very little from State funds for textbooks in fact they've combined a lot of textbook and Technology together um which makes it hard and then of course the other P the other things are fifth and eth grade materials for science those are the tested years for

159science our high school uses a lot of Open Source um materials so um that was not a request from them um but the the science team actually vetted um these materials and they finally put out a list from the state because before um they didn't even have any one of the things that I know that's happening in publishing is that they're moving textbooks into license on computer agreements for one to three years I like books in hand but um if push comes to shove um that might be a more economical short-term possibility the problem is the students can't take it with them which or and it's not it's not there at the school after the license runs out well and you know they can use it on their Chromebooks um so they do take that

160with them however a lot of times the code that they give you is only good for that particular year and so it limits what we can do the early college has a challenge with that too with some of the college textbooks so where you give it to your person the next time they've already done the online workflow part question um our fifth grade and eighth grade testing is dependent upon building those skills every grade level why are we just asking for Fifth and eighth grade materials it's so the wooden wisdom does have um informational texts um and that was one of the appeals um I guess one of the reasons why they really liked um Whitten wisdom is because it focuses on that informational text so there's a lot of um reading materials specific to

161um how do you approach a problem um unfortunately that wasn't the ask um just you know they're getting their science and social studies a lot of times through Reading which is unfortunate but you know when you have time and you're really trying to get kids to learn those foundational skills um you utilizing text in Reading can often help you bridge that with activities that you do within science and teaching the science standards it seems like it was Heavy loaded on social studies instead of science it's both but yeah okay I remember a lot of social studies we have very good Science grades T School fifth and eth and so you know we don't need to Short Change personally I'm in favor of getting a that something you need it and Judy should know science teachers

162should know what they need and as a CTE teacher I know what it's like to spend years teaching without no any books at all so I'm when there's books out there CT was always the bottom of the the barrel for getting textbooks so is science yeah yeah least for I well you know high school literature books you can use for more than you can I used one set of books for 20 years they were great and I took I mean seriously brought them to the new hospital with me Ed them there because they didn't have money to buy me well if it's science connected and the books are 20 years old they're out of date yeah there you go years older day yeah it's progress is happening so rapidly I guess guys my thing is

163how do we juggle all these pieces and I guess we'll just say we'd like to have them and if we don't get them we doing what we're saying everything we else come back see what we can we can get some more M I move that we approve recommending all of these textbooks okay do I have a second second any other questions all in favor raise your hand good on that one this [Music] is this is issue of had lots conversations about it when they passed the new features in 212 they put a no CL in it so like we had always the $600 and the $300 supplement to certified that was me oh sorry my the $600 $300 supplement for year since I've been here it's been $639 um what the plan says because the

164state gave you this $900,000 you can't reduce your 600 you're giving each teacher an oet cost that's what they're if it's a supplement huh even if it's a supplement even if it's a supplement what it did was to force your local community supplement we are um I did a survey of 12 counties three of us play pay a flat rate everybody else is on a percent um this would be a percent model kind of based on the longevity model one and a half% for a certain year 2% 2.5% on up to and a half years service so it would uh it would continue it's it's going to be an ongoing request it's going to have to take for years till they either take the state supplement away or what this also does is allows us

165to honor unlike the state our teachers in smaller increments and increase locally so your 25e teachers would get a higher percentage of their pay um in a local supplement so it would be tiered um are you saying it would have to start at 300 for the the one and start at 600 no she's saying percentages percentage so you do a percentage on her salary and would start I think we started at two one and a half one so the fear is if we caught in plant there is no Grace they will pull back that $9,000 and we won't be able to buy that settlement repeat that again I missed the first part if we get caught in a supp where our it's a it's a huge formula they use current salaries versus what we were

166paying one and it's a uh they make sure you're not pay less currently than you paid in 2020 that's when they pass the if we get confidence of plan there's no Grace they will pull back the whole $900,000 it will be gone there will be no suppl so then we're not only we going to go back to the 600 for teachers we will go back to 300 for certified or non-certified post because we increase non-certified because certified we getting an increase so it's a huge impact if we become percentages so we don't have to this was the suggestion so that we don't get caught in a supp land so the districts that are paying the flat rate are the ones across the state that are getting getting themselves in trouble with with forming that never

167changes because it does never it never changes so this is actually a we're asking for a supplement increase for pretty much all of our employes that um it would still be that flat rate for the non-certified because they don't get the state funding for and they're not caught in the suppliant you don't even have to give your noncertified we have the highest non-certified supplement in the state right now um and this would bring them up um even further but this would give an increase locally um to our uh certified supplements based on that percentage Yeah do you have a question yes I wanted to know how much this 750,000 compares to what we what are we currently paying total for this so this would be on top of what we're paying so what we're actually

168paying now is around $250,000 you add benefit on it probably comes to 325 so what's the I'm seeing that they're allocating 911 that's State that's the state and that's very different from this percentage everybody would get the percentage in this formula so um 911 is only instructional teachers your instructional support and certain assistant principles if they're being paid on the teacher skill because sometimes assistant principes make more in the classroom than they do assistant principal their Ser I don't see the percentage that we're it's a tear I didn't this short thing is kind of confusing but we it is so it's 2% if you've got your zero to four it's just like the longevity I believe it is two and a half 5 to n years 10 to 14 3% 15 to 19 is 3

169and a half% 20 to 24 is 4% 25 plus is 4.5% so that again 20 25 out at so 25 is 4% right and does that includes non-certified noncertified will get a flat increase of an additional $500 which would bring those up to $2,000 2000 local supplement for our our non-certified staff your custodians your that would just be like a bonus for the year it's a supplement and we do it twice year split it so 1 Black Friday sales and we give oober what is NG stand General Assembly North Carolina General Assembly that she provides the other funding so the state's given us the 911 they've been joying that for the last couple of years okay so that's how our supplements have been closer to comparable to aligan and waga and other others around they

170left out the big five school districts as far as the number of students are concerned and then they gave um funding for um B basically a a list of certified employees and then locally on top of that everybody else um to bring them to it because we have people paid out local people paid out federal that aren't necessarily designated uh in that way there's certain uh people that wouldn't have gotten that so you all had voted to um for everybody to receive that increase another question how much is 2% of the zero beginning teacher what it varies plus our salaries vary so year zero is 4100 41,000 year a your one would be a little bit that's I was just asking for the beginning year so that I would know so every year they would

171get an increase in their supplement and so I know that you know it's been important um here a lot of our teachers you just their salar stay stagnant and their um supplement has been you know a flat rate the state has given them that little bit of a boot but this would allow them to get more money more years that they're in service so the 750 is an addition to what the state's given us yes but it's every bit but but that's the 750 is helping us cover everybody correct but but and it's additional for teachers so this is we're asking for an increase in supplement locally for that for everybody so the 911 is not figured on the current staff that you have state fund it's just a number they're giv us correct so

172it's not off our actual teacher number and it's taken that you know Miss ELD worked she's a 20-year employee I'm a two-year employee you know no you know and our differences they're just okay and another question confirmation I want if you have a beginning teacher at 41,000 their supplement would be $820 a year and we can't on the old what we're currently doing it's 600 so if we drop the 2% even to one and a half% we're going to go below that 600 and we'd lose the whole okay that but what are the Chan that so we don't already Tak it I think sir got sir get there remember which we can find out that for you I'm just curious up I'm just curious anybody once I saw the numbers we have to do this

173isn't ask if they depending on what they give us we can figure out how yes but this impacts every staff every teacher every principal so we may have to make some tough decisions later on but this right here U is one of the reasons we still have what we have to keep our quality that's going down Dr moan quite frequently we're losing teachers anyway actually have a lower how many I know just curious for me learning how many employees is there in the School System 500 roughly there's about 4 30 full time we're the largest employer in the county are if you counted part time and substitutes you're getting up 6700 of course we can but fulltime we have 430 430 plus we have regular part time which would give us up when you calculate

174I don't see got a choice I didn't either so I I move that we um send this forward to the commission okay and make sure they I would recommend that you do the dollar amounts showing what we're currently doing the percentage breakdown for just one year maybe and then say if we we have to do this to keep the 91,000 and we also have comparisons to other districts so that you can see that some of them pay a lot more than this however this gets us closer to what I feel like our our people deserve um just simply so that it is more real yes they need to know that my my pool is one thing but you know so so so and so we have already had to deal with this it's a difference

175to me somebody second your motion need a second I second okay making a note before I got back to that okay PA you okay yeah you in favor all in favor okay got her from the look standing in the corner for all right the next One Transportation unfortunately we can't get school build Public School building repair and renovation funds anything that's not an instruction she has asked for a canopy to cover the gas P we repl the gas last year they're super nice and are easier to use ever had to go a car and I get where she's coming from I have stood in Rain she's asking for a can so is it is it the time that you would have like at a gas station okay here's the next how wind resistant is it

176that's was one of my questions well there's no wind be it yeah it's especially Wendy there um but we would have to have that she would have to have that assessed before in installation on that we'd have to have the actual when whatever that reading is um um to make sure that it's above what we need because we get some pretty substantial gusts I make a motion we put up a Wind Tower oh a windmill wind we could fund all this wind idea we wouldn't have to have the problem with with windmills is I drive through part of Wyoming visiting my dad where it's a window Forest they gather hundreds of thousands of bird IES from the base every I know but the birds could watch out they don't they're big enough you can miss

177that those blank faster than so we have $50,000 banked of the money that we set aside we set aside the 25,000 every year so we've got 50,000 the total cost is 169 that is almost D what a bus cost just keep going out question are these buses handicap accessible we are we actually have one on order that should be here before the end of the school year because we don't have a bus that's handicapped sess we have one coming we the board approved last last summer but they don't keep those in stock they build them as you order them when will that one get here do you think need to pay it this year we'll be carrying it over in the next year got Lisa keeps checking on it for me I know she's tired

178of me asking keep asking every month I go through this so one good thing that's come out out over our new um athletic alignment is that we won't be traveling as far which is wonderful wonderful wonderful but how many buses do we have now that are currently able to be used I think there's only three or four she would let go out of the county we have six I meant to pull that out of last year's because she had done that spre sheet for me yeah um CU that makes a difference it does make a difference yeah it's just like me I want a new car but I'm not yet ready to pay for that until mine dies I remember the activity buses were lacking in last time we talked about it because we had

179several always be old ones you know how old are they it varies by bus and the state is the one who controls when we can allow that to um become parts for something you good at a bus cred yard that's why we had so many um sitting in the bus graveyard for a while bus well what's that even the athletic buses yeah the yeah athletic buses the activity buses activity buses yeah how many do we have those that are I don't think we have too many that are just sitting around of those did we purchase them new or were they used no we purchased them new um and then once they get to a point where we can't use them we use them for parts and so we're told that we can do something different

180with them they've been around a long time then oh some of them are really old wow we've got the date somewhere and assembly decades ago oh she's looking that up on the min bu I see that Mini Bus everywhere went up too, two years ago it's almost double well yeah the mini bus is being used in a lot of areas other than Athletics because I think it's a good idea um even our e um are using it sites and stuff and we are not having to pay drivers extra because don't yeah and so more flexibility regardless about the 72 passenger I would like us to include the Mini Bus yeah I would rank the mini bu2 on bus too I just between either 72 or depending on so what I'm hearing is we're probably we're

181down to the EVAP cool hearing that the first three are probably a mask yeah so um it gets really hot in those bays in the summertime that air just doesn't move yeah and she'd like to if the and show it picture yeah surpris you don't have one in there before me too it gets really hot in there oh so it's a roll around kind portable air conditioning so those are cheap much cheaper because that price it's not bad I know I just think will one do the job she seem to think it would start with one this year that's one of those things that transport can't pay for and time Once Upon a Time it' been okay without air condition but not anymore you can't so all those how do we have a motion on

182those well we've got $50,000 activity bus right and does that count what we would contribute this year we would technically since in 25 26 we' have 75 so we would have $75 already toward the big 75,000 I'm sorry we knew what you y we yeah everything talking that that would lessen that that would lessen that one so I make a motion that we seek funding for all those things second now if if the canopy cover doesn't flush in that wind we'll have to go to plant B right yes well we may have to reevaluate everything because this is a lot of money but it it is a lot of money and I don't I don't see it all in favor good to go back to the end so we know the Saga that goes on

183with chillers at the high school it has been a beast this year they taking it together this is an old quote I don't know what I added 3% for inflation without having a maintenance director here it was hard to get anything done when Jody gets here and gets started he'll be able to help us with some of this stuff but we could the 300 ton is the one that's the worst that's the one that they're having struggles with and fixing all the time we could just replace it there is a huge C statement if you go ahead and replace both and typically they say that if you replace one it puts more strain on the other one because it's not as what can I make a point before we discuss this any further I am

184still concerned about our water tower at at Westwood and it doesn't seem like we've made progress in getting that resolved and um you know I didn't have this paper earlier so um what are we going to do about that because I have a grandson in that school I know a lot of those kids in that school and yes supposedly we've got that covered but it's get I want it fixed we don't have a solution so Anthony tried multiple different things he um they tried to do a straight connect I won't know all the right words for this but they tried to do a straight connect see if it would prove the pretty sure would not the the main thing is they can't keep the water which Jefferson can't keep the water tower full that's because

185the chemicals go bad the West would can water but then we don't have enough pressure pressure but do we know if it's full will it still give us the right pressure I think seems like I heard even if it was [Music] full three or four different things so I thought even with it full it still that he'll have some I've talked to him and he says at building is there just not water up there sorry I didn't mean I mean not pushing enough water out there but I mean I know we're get we're on Town water out there but is there a possible way for a whale that just we don't want just supplies the spring that now still have to I W to get that fixed I don't care what we have to do

186because that we're talking about lives here and yes we think there's enough water pressure there but they passed that dagum hydrant for years and those sprinklers without it being adequate and I want it adequate for our safety of our students and um now is that responsible Commissioners to do that or no West are C responsibility it's in the town of West jerson what is where's that they promised when they built that school beer as supposed to building that b said that they would provide enough water to run that scope I Sharon promised that they made that have we got that riding some it's PR we're back in a minut to go back there's a resolution about the water we found that became a very big prob remembers it was a very big sticking point got

187PR between us and the town for a little while we would like to me that thank you I understand about men and fences but we're talking about you know it's the sprinklers in the auditorium rest of the sprinklers are fine it's just those but if you have 400 kids in Auditorium how fast can you move them out of there something fire but I understand too that that Hy that's supposed to do the school might not have enough pressure as well if they were fire to we'd have to pull in trucks or whatever and every few minutes might count I am not happy with us not having adequate water okay so is there a grant is there some way we can put pressure West Jefferson has plenty of money they get it from the ABC Store

188okay I'm not kidding they pay the town of West Jefferson for the ABC store they have money from the ABC Revenue put the water I don't mean that the way it sound but IUN ask question yeah AR they cannot provide enough water for Westwood how are they going provide water for all that mdle scope it's not that they don't have the water they have just not put the water out too much they don't have enough water they're not pluming it out there but they're not puming it out there because if they keep the tower full the chemicals will not water water add chemicals as it comes out the bottom Instead at the top have to ask so T I think we all agree with you on this one it boggles my mind that we've been

18920 plus years of not knowing that this thing didn't work and now we're tasked with trying to come up with a solution and nobody has been able to tell us a solution that's going to work and so we need to find somebody else um that can tell us a solution that's going to work before we put a million dollars into a water tower and then it not work either and it be something else so you know I completely agree on the other but I it is on here but the solution we were thinking about was a gas of $500,000 we could use that out of public school renovation funds potentially um but I think you're right it's going to be a joint Adventure it's going to be a joint it really should call if he

190can put somebody up in outer space CH to goodness we can fix I got him on speed we want it funded too I think my frustration is that they don't see our kids the West's children their these are their children this is their Community who you talk the town of West chers it's like they don't see those children as theirs you know those are their kids they're in their Community well AR you know we're we've got the best grant writing people I've ever heard of is there not a grant that would allow us to fix how do we let it somebody's SP it got to this point okay well there was it was never inspected over 20 some years it was just passed and then we get a new somebody to look at it and

191all of a sudden it doesn't pass I mean that's essentially how we found out about this or we would never have known thankfully we know and we can do something about it before a tragedy occurs that's my concern and uh how many fires have we had in this County this week so I mean it's it's a potential I mean I'm I'm just not gonna hush about this one because it needs to happen whatever Grant we have to do whatever people we have to pull it up there whatever fund we have to take this from we need to get this fix water tends water grants tend just go to municipalities cities and counties so we have to collaborate with they really are oig to do that I don't want work in M Municipal areas as to

192okay let's talk lawsuits then now you jump in there let's take baby step all right so this is a priority for everybody I'm assuming yeah all right U I think this might be something we need to elevate to the state as a project um we need to get it to to get something sometimes you they they did turfield this seems to me like it could be if we could if we could have a solution then it would be easier to get the money than if we're just trying to go out there and do whatevers yeah but we you know if we could get a solution for the problem then I think we could go after the money and I think we could put some influence or whatever you all want to call that on some

193folks who make those decisions because we have some former school people that are involved in that uh Alderman we have some people who care about the school system we do absolutely and uh I don't think they realize what an issue it has been so uh it's time to he did feel like a new pump house might be the solution so we can get more information from him but are we stabbing in the dark again well that's that's been the problem all along we've not gotten two people to agree on exactly what that would be and even the original Engineers came why like it but as far as the chemicals concerned I'm pretty sure that we could put chemicals somewhere beside in that big tank and make them just as effective I don't know the laws

194to that but there are a lot of laws around water well we do that at Blue Ridge is there a tank up there oh yeah okay yeah another and and and yeah it's only water up there and U we do it at the middle school as well we we treat those Wells up Springs up there as well but we don't currently have a well up in the speak right yeah was all right let's move along I was G to say where we at high priority we please so when we did the fiveyear facility plan that's required by the state five years ago we hired the this company Bas kind of do it it was one of the best experiences think I've ever been through with a company that that they were so in depth and

195questions they ask and and he's a former maintenance director from Guilford yes Guilford County Schools and he was super excited about all our projects we had going on he bragged on us for using the CM for the middle school he was just super nice when I talked to him the other day um he did go up a little bit like everybody has like 15% on his contract but I think this would be a good thing for Jody to go through when he gets here with him and it make him very famar with that sounds like an excellent idea and this last one y'all I do not know how to um do an estimate on cubic yards of concrete so that's why that holds blank how much is it a yard though it's up there it's

196a lot that is a need at Mountain View they have some sidewalks that are cracking and becoming a equp hazard the 46 playground has a crack in it you're playing basketball there her do we need to address the water issue behind the building before we need to fix that sidewalk so that it will stay repaired behind if you've ever been behind Mountain View school there's a big ditch back there is just it is that fix FEA yeah yes be a FEA if that's the same one I think so Bott P yeah it goes at the bottom of the PIN at that hill where the hill meets the the it out the hurricane came through along with that sinkhole that came into playground so those two are on the list for nothing and they'll build back

197better huh and they'll build back better get actually that's seriously seriously that's exactly what they mitigate and make it better the next disaster W get it funded so well I think this was absolutely fun um we are this is you want to get on me on my Soap Box I've been there done that stuff is an absolute nightmare we are plugging along we getting things checked off the list we're come to submit projects like we just done the Trea so we submitting that project um as soon as Casey gets me a bill we have to pay up front and sell my back part and they send us the Mone back U but like we had to have somebody monitoring Casey B was cutting treaties the whole time so I get that salary back for that

198person that monitored um it's just it's been on top of my regular duties to manage the Fe of Stu and I cannot imagine what a Mitchell County McDow or any of those that so devastated now they're even running their school systems and trying to figure out how to build schol don't know and I'll tell you I thought Amanda was going to leave us when they said that we had to measure the diameter of every tree down no joke diameter and length every tree I thought seat Le had a hand on me so so little things like that are actually not little to us I who has time to do that so that's the level of detail that they want for everything contractor did us a deal I'm talking about the measuring of the trees because

199there's a way to stand back and measure the height without things that do measure trees yes he got them to finally agree to do an average and if we did the G for of the boundary and they accepted it and we had that's like the soccer gos got broke we had to give them the gis coordinance where the soccer were every little sinkhole washed out sinkhole GIS coordinance it's Insanity Insanity we have we have to prove that our electricity oh I did too but are they are you meeting in person still because I found that when you meet imperson with these people out at Family Central they they have access to stuff that don't you just because we're doing the public assistance program since we're School assistant we have a feema representative and then we

200have a person from the state Emergency Management FEA is a cost share program so typically we would be responsible for 25% of the cost but the state of North Carolina picks up that cost for us so they have't find us a state agent to work with us and he's fabulous he raids the theme of people back in when they kind of get a little crazy with their ideas I just can't speak enough how he's helped us it's been it's been awesome it's been better since the election about that so would that I guess my question is would that concrete repair not come under FEA that's a maintenance that happen before hurricane you know is it sidewalks coming into the school Carline or it's the whole and the whole basketball court is just crumbl yeah and

201I've seen that it's yeah there's a lot of repair needed there and I asked about public schol building Mone and it walks if it was touching an entry we we could use it but it's not so well those have been there try not to use our money for anything use 30 Mountain views 30 plus it's over 30 Blue Ridge is turning 30 right because they right before they built Blue Ridge but my concern is the amount of underground Springs over there if we don't deal with them um I grew up my grandfather lived across the road so I played over there all my life but there are so many underground Springs that if we don't deal with them I don't know that we can have a basketball court that don't trle or sink holes that

202don't happen or that kind of thing because there's a lot of underground Springs in that on that property okay well I make a motion we go ahead and just want to includ include all everything all okay I don't know how you say it but you know what me all right and the final page I just want to everybody good with that all in favor okay sorry increase you know when the state the r they not this dollar dollar cost so explain it unfunded mandates yeah we don't ask for the salary portion of the increase since we do get some funding for the from the state but we do ask for the benefit side of because I don't even know that it's dollar for dollar not dollar probably like cents on the dollar what they actually

203give us hard tell because everybody's s is different yeah so this is over and above the other that were asking for some the benefits this year I think my promise in in three Insurance when I retired went from zero to 72 $7,200 this year by the time you add up medic Medicare used to be covered it's not and when you add up all those insurances for two p we were Promise free when we signed contracts back in the 1980s so it's and then before before we finish I just wanted to um go back to the public school regulation funds so you know to complete um with the upcoming funds right there's one more I know they don't it to but they don't I would love to see us get to the point we're not put

204fixes on everything we can save it a big project right now build are so any we've been doing a pretty good job of making sure we tackle those first when we can but we do have some chillers and things that I'm afraid we're going to have to invest in pretty quickly so do we have another meeting after this with another budget or is this all of it come back back July okay everybody is crazy in July everybody's trying to take a vacation yeah might but April bring a document back to them that has all of this cleaned up with what you all have decided and what that percentage increase that we're asking for is and then um it'll be a document I don't know that last few years that but those things that I asked

205clarification on for April that we we can give you all that yes absolutely didn't we last year meet with the Commissioners with you and you talked for the group but we were there is that yeah we had a joint me so typically they will um invite us to elaborate on what our needs are and that will occur in we have no idea what month does it usually occur May May May June May they have to have it passed by June they do have to do by June they're supposed to have have it to us by the end of June I have two trips coming in May but um I can zoom in if it's not a traveling time last time we were at po Hall college or at the community college Ash campus they give

206us a lot more Riv yes and they they've done in that tiny room in the back of their uh of Commissioners as well [Music] yeah all right well we're through that I've got next motion to adjourn I so move all right have a second I second questions on that comments all in favor I just always check supposed to raise your hand all right we're good very [Music] good e for