001All right. I call this Mount Vernon or this meeting of the Mount Vernon Independent School District to order. Let the record show that a quorum of board members is present, that this meeting has been duly called, and that the notice of this meeting has been posted in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551. Do I have a motion to certify the agenda? Motion made by Donnie. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Linda. All four. 7. All right, Miss Kathy, will you lead us in prayer? Sure. Our dear heavenly father, we want to thank you for the privilege that you're allowing us to try to make the best decisions for the students and the teachers in our district. Lord, help us to be wise. Lord, thank you for the
002rain. We're waiting on the sunshine. Thank you for blessing us every day. Amen. Amen. Where's the flag at? 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. Honor the flag. I aliance to the Texas. One state one and indivisible. Let's open up with our information items. Dr. Yes, sir. Just Yes, ma'am. Real quick, on the end of year enrollment, we ended with 1567 uh which is an increase of 20 from the previous year. And then uh do we have any campus department? We have uh elementary represented in middle school, but they were not told to come prepared. So unless they just want to share something, they don't have to. Um our scores are all rolling in.
003Everything looks pretty decent knowing. Okay. I can agree. We're analyzing looking at things and making adjustments early. Okay. Thank you, ladies. Construction. We have Lou here with Jackson Construction. Actually in the person today, not online. You didn't have anything. Not a couple. You may want to turn around. Not sure what's going on. Oh, warming up. Um I give the information to our marketing lady. She puts all this together. So all this fancy stuff. So um now um we'll start with area we call it unit A area. I said it in the meetings. This is our middle school edition. We are uh currently completing uh a lot of the interior finishes. As you can see over there on the right, I believe that's a picture of the conference room looking out north. Um so I know
004the flooring's going down soon. We've got some doors and hardware here in about a week, week and a half that we're going to start hanging. Um so the the exterior there that you see, I hadn't been around there since last week. So, so all of this is Yeah, I'm going to I'll get I'm sorry. Yeah. No, no, you're fine. That all that that driveway coming uh or the the fire lane that's coming back over to the main part of the camp, that's all been concrete. Um the they're still working on the I believe they got the topping and striping here soon at that parking lot. Uh and I know y'all's furniture for that area A is coming uh about a week or so. So, we've got some exterior doors. Kind of a little bit of
005a delay there with just some hardware, but hopefully in the next week and a half, we'll have those exterior doors hung there and then some handrails and stuff for area A. So, it's it's not going to slow the school down for you guys to get the admin in that space. And we're going to take everybody from this area and move them over. Well, you guys are I'm not to to that area. So, we can start gutting this probably mid second week, early third week of Julyish. That's what we're kind of targeting. So, we can get you guys comfortable in that space over there. So, that's area A. And then when you guys start uh August, fall, that'll be a fully functional area. People can park on that side. And then most of that is going
006to be a principal's admin space over there. So, so will the the drop off route everything will change? Correct. For the fall, correct? Yes, we'll communicate that. Yes. So, that is that is our middle school edition. It's went pretty well and u so we should be here soon turning that over to you guys. Uh this is just our auditorium four years done. It's been done for a while. That platform I don't know if anybody's been in that auditorium what that's we call it a dance floor. U just for safety precautions. So I know the we had to get fire sprinklers in there. I think the fire sprinkler heads are installed. I know the painter I think Dustin told me today that the painter has started on those east and west walls solid black. And then
007all that wood slate that you see, we're going to paint that black as well. So once that's complete, that dance floor will come out of there. And then we've got all the carpet down the aisles that will get replaced as well. So, um, that space, that auditorium will be turning that over to. So, once you guys come back in the in the fall, this auditorium and the whole forum will be turned over to the school for for you guys. Look, I on in the auditorium, the front left area where we where we're having the leaking issue, that's part of being what's being fixed. Um Dustin's had the plumbers up there. Um what they have found that they believe to be the issues. Originally when it was built, there were three roof drains. For whatever reason,
008one was closed, not being used. So we have two. One of the two has gotten stopped up, has debris in it. And also when they got up there, they pulled some other did some more looking. He told me this morning um that one that has been stopped up the pipe itself is rusting some. So they believe that yes they they really think that's where the leak issue is. Not necessarily leaking through a hole in the roof but through that roof drain is what it's not allowing water's backing up in that drain and cause an issue. So they're they're working to clean that out and repair. They think they're going to have to cut out part of that pipe that roof drain that's rusted and repair that and dust leaves that should take care of the
009issue there. That's correct. Um, this is aerial shot that we took. I've got a better picture on another slide. So, the kitchen cafeteria is on that far west side. You really can't see it because it's north of it's just gray bean concrete gate gra beans that we're uh doing and some underground electrical uh which is your kitchen area. So, we're going to if you can see where the existing CTE CTE building is just south west of that just on that corner that's where your kitchen's going. So there's a lot of utilities and stuff that we're getting in that area and that's going to be here in a week or so, maybe two weeks, we're going to pour just that portion uh to get that covered up with concrete. And then we you'll start see as
010you can see in that area E, which is our fine arts and tornado storm shelter building. Um y'all probably have seen it. The perimeter is a insulated concrete form. So they're stacking. This is probably a three or four old three or four day old pitcher. And so probably the end of next week uh or fourth week of June, we'll start pouring the concrete inside that inside that foam uh insulated form and then they'll pour 10 ft 12 feet and let it cure. Then we'll we'll call it a lift and then there'll be another second up to the roof. So that's our storm shelter there. Um which we're calling area and then of course where that you see where that boom crane is down there on the corner at our a facility unit G. Uh the
011beers are complete. So you know we're we're we're getting there and they're prepping and forming the great beans going east to west. And of course we've had three four rain delays. So that's kind of pinned us, but we're done grilling the peers in that area and uh we're looking at toward the end of this year as kind of a tended turnover first of the year for for the A facility. Um and then here's your we call it area F. Uh there's ICF or the insulated concrete form that you can see there with the scaffolding around it. It's a lot better picture. But that's your foyer area. And I think we've got probably five to seven peers, concrete peers that have been drilled in that front area. Uh we probably got about 25 more. So I
012think next week we've got clear skies and sunshine. So I'm praying that the week hopefully in the next week and a half we'll be out of the pier business other than the canopy that we've got over at the middle school. the deep here that we're drilling pretty deep. We should be done. Let me give a little information regard to this. I felt I just realized fa to let you know this on Monday because I was on the road. They're drilling the pierce here in front of the high school right there in front of what you see is the old trophy case that that's there in the middle. Um they they got into a underground electrical that was not marked on any drawings. Um so that again just little drawings didn't know that was there. was
013not marked, but they got into it that took the electricity out uh on several of the hallways. So, they moved summer school into the CTE building uh the rest of this week. Craig took care of that on having them move over on Monday. Um so, now they're gonna have to rerun some electrical, but but they're working on that. Yeah. Apologize for not letting you know that money. And then here's a I just call it site work. It's a little bit better picture. So that center picture is what Dr. McCall was that's all this is an older picture. So all that fire lane and stuff has been poured in and concrete uh which is also a picture on the right side. Picture on the far left is on the back side on the east side which
014they are uh demoing and prepping to pour that fire back there. And uh that tree disappeared. Um so that's gone. It's no longer there. But is that tree top? Yeah. The front, as y'all can see here in the front, we've got y'all blocked off almost like in a U shape on each end. So, and I assume we'll probably have all the way across where we'll start just take over that fungy tree up there. um it started doing just a lot of hardcape the the the fire lane etc. So lot going on. Um and then here's just a overall shot of of the campus and what we're tearing up right now. So hopefully we can have a lot of that that fire lane in the back on the east side. uh picked up and placed. So
015hopefully before you guys start school, we don't should be able to we shouldn't have to reroute any of the buses that come through back there, but uh that is where we're at. So can can you back up just you were asking about drop off and everything. So for when school starts, this side here uh is is going to be a little bit congested, but it becomes the pickup drop off for parents as well as really staff parking because this will be where all of us will have to come in even for us as as administrators even though we're going to be here at these offices. Um because they will be they will take they will then start here with in the next couple weeks they're going to start taking this front section of concrete um
016demoing it to get it ready for the new fire lane as well. Correct. Bus is this fire lane will be done. Does say they're going to um tomorrow is the last day of summer school for high school. So then they going to move next week to demo in the parking lot in the high school as well. So there's going to be a lot of again for the last part of the summer. rest summer. This back part's going to be being redone. As you can see, they've already got all the demo back here. This is now ready to pour and they're going to pour up to the plan was for tomorrow, but of course the weather has changed that. Um I think they were p coming to here or here. That's one of those where your
017finger right here. Yes, sir. The plan was tomorrow to pour to there, but because of weather that's been moved to Tuesday, that right I think that's what told me this morning. So then they'll start working the rest of the way uh to get that done. So bus pickup, bus drop off will still be back here for this next school year. Um and then the following year we'll move back up front where we'll have the canopies and some things like that. So So car riders for middle school, they'll come off of that. No, that's rutherford. And then they'll come in, come in here, exit out and come back here to Yes. connecting Dr. I'm sure we're gonna talk about this. We have a lot of elementary school kids that car riders that pick up there. So,
018they're going to have to go all the way back to Miller down and around. Is it is it going to be two-way traffic or one way? Which which direction? Here. Yeah. One way coming in like where that light vehicle is up front. Yeah. And then to come around and then to come this way. Okay. to go to go all the way down and then come in. Okay. Yeah. We'll have to adjust schedules. They leave a little bit earlier. Yeah. But so so we'll we will before school search course first part of August. We'll communicate that through on our website, through social media, parents square, things like that with a map showing pickup, drop off areas and flow traffic. So high school will be dropped off in the same where they go drop off be back
019in high school. Okay. Baby question. Any questions for Luke? Luke, thank you. You're welcome. Hey, it's good to see your face. Um, Helis is still working to finish the uh exterior gate. Um, a little bit left on locker room ready to do next week. We'll probably do a final walk through on baseball, softball, and tennis. Um, waiting on that. We're just dragging right along. There was some spots in there around home. There was some patchwork. Do you know if they you can't see it obviously unless you're up in the stands, but do you know if they fix that? Um, I am not sure. I'll find out. Right field. I think that part I think that part. What about the um What about at the football stadium? The water drainage with it ended up down there.
020I have not been there. I did not go today to look see in the bathroom, but they they redid all the not all they redid concrete to valley that to the drain in the middle. And so I think that I think it's take care of most of it. I don't know necessarily after yesterday. So good time to double check all the leaks any puddles. I do know that Dana had asked for some additional pearl for around the pictures mount. Yes, I know that um um he called me or he called me today and Drew called me and said that he brought us something and it sit there and I'll let her know that. So, any other questions for me about the tennis courts? There was spots on it. I don't know if you remember that
021recently. I know that they they've repaired some spots a couple different spots throughout the spring. So if there's something additional, if you'll let him if you'll ask him to contact me, please. They got the paint right, I guess. Yeah. What about the bleachers football field? They wash them best. So they they've done what they what they can. He and I discussed that on the phone the other day. They used when um Gary's pressure was they used all the chemicals that they had that they had been provided and I think then went to rallies and tried some others. Um, there are a couple other options that the bleachers bleacher company's giving them. I be honest with you, I don't know if either one's going to to get it without diminishing the longevity of the bleachers. Meaning,
022we can put we can try some harsher chemicals, but I think it's going to um pit it or yeah, diminish the kind of eat into it a little bit. I don't know what. So when they when they had the issue last year having to take it back down, you know, they had erected part of it and had to take it back down. When it sat there, basically some of the aluminum um I might say the word oxidized maybe and so thought they thought that when they came to pressure washed with some of the chemicals they had would clean some of it up. to walk on it now there on especially on the bottom platform nature platform where you you get on um again um matter of fact well they can't clean it and replace it
023we'll find out I mean that's definitely facilities I agree and that was that was what I told let's see Like how much would they have to replace? How how big of an area? Just that bottom. You are talking the bottom walkway. So this is So that's the bottom walkway. The bottom's pretty. That's that bottom walkway. Bottom platform. doesn't look good. That's what I said. It doesn't look new. No. Not for a facility like that. Well, and especially when it's not it's not our fault. Yeah. It's not our upkeep. It's okay. I will. Thank you. Okay. Is that all for the helis? Anything else? They still pay us $1,000 today. Still there. We have not we we've not paid we've not paid them anything since when the last payment we gave them March maybe I think
024I think March. Yeah. We had made we haven't paid on the softball field probably since December. Yeah that's good. There's not much left. Uh they said it's a pay app uh late late. Maybe it was Friday. So there's um I think we're 440. Yeah. 440 left for the whole project. That's right. Somewhere around that and we're at day 3 3:30 around about 3:30 since August 9. Yeah, I'm waiting to have it face to face. He's supposed to be back Monday or Tuesday. We'll have that conversation. You actually been marking the calendar. they should. So, the next part is that beginning year two of five-year plan with claims administrative services. They they're our workers comp u insurance company. Uh last year we entered into an agreement for a five-year plan. Every year what they do is
025they basically give you an opportunity to re-up for a new five-year plan. Craig and I looked at it. Craig recommends that we just go forward with year two of the current plan that we're at. So, that's what we're doing. Just that's that's just information for you what we're doing with that. All right. Any questions on that? And then here for open forum. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion made by Linda, seconded by Kathy. All four. So no. Thank you. And we have our preliminary budget overview. [Music] Thank you, sir. All right, don't mind if I sit right here in my computer, dude. Okay. All right. Little overview. Just wanted to on the overview, we'll also have some stuff this current year we're in versus what we're going to
026do next year. Um, and as this is preliminary, this is um the best we can do and I'll go over some other things on that as well. this current year. Those are our tax rates that we had. M at 66.69 cents, INS 34.29 cents with a total of just barely over $1. Um our average daily attendance for the year ended at about 1467. and our certified values. And that is currently what the uh comproller has us at. Um we always have line barter go in and they do a protest on certain ones and everything and they always lower it down. But that is where we are currently sitting at uh for this year or for for the current year we're in. For next year, it looks like our M tax rate is going to compress
027some more. will be at 64.65 cents. INS is going to drop over three cents to 31.12 cents and then our overall rate will be 95.77 cents on that. Um can't remember when it's been below a dollar total everything. Average daily attendance for the budget numbers I'm doing is at 1470. That's only three more than last year. Just trying to stay conservative with everything. I don't want to, you know, get too happy on that. More there, that's the better. And right now, this is my estimate on our preliminary um values. As you can see, it's it's it's dropped. It's dropped because we got it and it was around I think it was 1 million 9 990 I mean 1 bill990 million but since we will be voting in November to add $40,000 ext exemption and then
02865 and older disabled veterans get an extra $50,000 on that. So looking at the information I got from the appraisal district, I came up with the 1,859 859 million. So that is less. Our tax rate is less. So I guess you kind of know what's going to happen with that. We're going to collect less taxes this year than we did in the previous year. Here's a little chart over our tax rate history from 20 2015 to to this current year. Um you can see that the total the gray is the total tax rate. You can see 10 years ago we were at a dollar almost a$125. That's just a little bit of information. You can see the blue is your M, orange is your INS, your debt, and then the gray is your total for
029both of those. And in the last five years, we the board has dropped over 27 cents from the total tax rate five years. And also, I said right there, the trend looks like it's going to continue because property tax seems to be big for Abbott and Patrick. So, I think next year we're going to have another we'll have another drop. Um, I'm pretty sure our compression will happen again. It wasn't as bad as much this year as it was in previous years. Still still dropped, which is good for all of us. Um, there's the taxable values. As you can see, 1819 barely over a billion. Now we're pushing 1.9 billion. That's 900,000 $900 million increase over seven years quite a bit and a lot of other people I'm just throwing this out here down there.
030Um a lot of people don't will gripe and say that the appraisal district is just raising it up because they want to create more revenue more revenue. more revenue. Well, the appraisal district chief appraiser has what he's doing trying to appraise it, right? But then the state controller comes in and goes to what we say it is. And when you're lower, we we lose funding. The county doesn't lose funding, the city doesn't lose funding. We lose the funding if they do not meet that criteria with a certain percentage of error. Um this past year we were only 54 million. Um that's way better than we've ever been. And you can see that on the chart where the green is what the state says. Um but if you go to 2020 2324 the state said um
0311 billion 890 we showed 1 bill727. That's a massive increase from where the appraiser had it, chief appraiser had it. And so when tea sees that, they go, "Oh, well, you should have collected this much in tax and only had this much in state a state a drops." So, not only did we not collect tax, we're not collecting the state aid at the same time. So, it's a double hit to us. Well, and am I thinking this wrong? Because it hurts us when the values are off and not raised appropriately, but also values are raised, we compress our tax rates. So, correct. We don't get more money when values go up. That is correct. I just wanted to make sure that is correct. Values go up, the the higher the values, the more compression we
032will have on our tax rate. So, yes, it it's it's any way you look at it, it's they're they're going to make sure that we don't get everything. It's kind of aggravating. That is exactly correct. Now, this chart will be interesting within the next couple years if what the possibilities of happening in Franklin County happen. I mean, it'll he'll have to about double the size of his chart to capture what what property value will look like. Yes. And like one of the things our property values we went when I came here in 23 I believe it was in $8 million valuation in Hopkins County because they we have we go into Hopkins County just a little bit where we go is a solar farm. So, I watched it go from 8 million to last year
033to four or it was eight million the previous and then I can't remember what it was the previous year and then this past year it was 40 million. Wow. Now they're looking at to be like 55 million. So, it is increasing incredibly over there and we have a very small small sliver of that. So if we get one that's fully inside Franklin, it's going to be a lot. But that won't impact our M that would just impact our like benefit. No, it'll impact M because it'll make us compress more, but we will get more money also, but then it can throw us into recapture. start sending that money back on the INS side that I mean that would be awesome. You get let's just say it's a $500 million valuation on something. Well, our INS
034rate could be cut in half because they're going to pay so much more than everybody else doesn't have to pay as much. So, but yes, it will it will still impact us on the M side. We we'll make more money and we'll start sending some back. Either way, they're going to get um this is just a little fund balance history. You can see 2016 we were at 4.4 million. Um I am predicting us to be up almost six our 6.7 million in our fund balance at the end of this year. Um that still keeps us about 2 million over the requirement. Um 90 days reserve is what they're one and that would be 4.65 million on what we would have to have in there. It's not written in stone. You have to have it. But
035on your first report, they look at all your financials and everything. Anything under 90, you get deducted points on that for your evaluation. So, we always want to stay above 90 and the good stuff. All right. As you can see, I did the revenue side on this because we always look at our revenues and whatever our revenues are, we our we need to make our expenses match and be a balanced budget. I sometimes you can't, but you really want to try to strive to do that. You can see with the use of fund balance that um we had a budget of 18,888,000. We had um we've got budget amendments. That's going to be just a tad bit over a million. So that's where you get the total revenue of 19896 for budget. Uh year to
036date, we've received 17.8 million. Um we still have three months left. We haven't received everything from the state as well. next year's budget for the calculations and everything, we're looking at a little over 21 million. Even with about 400,000 less in taxes, but comes with that, the state says we'll make it up. Um on that there you can see that um where our budget was at 18 18.85 to 18.9 million went up to 19.9 million I guess you could say. We are looking at an increase of 2.1 million for this year with 960,000 of that is a state aotment for teacher raises. That's going to leave us 1,156,000 to use everywhere else. Um I show you the state aotment for the teacher raises because it's not built into it's not had calculated on weights and
037ADA and everything. It is a flat. You're going to get this amount of money period no matter what because they're looking at the number of teachers two to or three to four years and the number of teachers five and up. So it's 4,000 and the 8,000. So that's how they that's why I wanted to show you what that was to show you that apples to apples from last year's budget to this one we will have $1.1 million more. So the the 2.116 that's what you said the budget's increasing. We're getting that much more revenue from the state. Is that what you're saying? We're going to get that much. Yes. That's what I'm predicting was that much more revenue. Yes. Well, and that and it also has to do with their with with what it is
038when they compress. They also has the whole harmless in there to say, "Hey, we know y'all lost this much money in taxes that we didn't. we're going to give you this, right? So, they're increasing money. So, they're increasing that. Yes, they're they're increasing the money there. So, you don't 960 of that's going to teach 960. And then we have the left for other expenses. Correct. Correct. Well, some of that. Yes. Yeah, some's in safety, some's in special ed, some is that fixed cost a lotment that they're giving us. Small piece of that is increasing basic aotment. Um what else? There's increasing for like insurance and transportation cost a lotment. Yes. And then the other one we've got about 62,000 and that's going to be for your uh not your teachers or your administrators but everybody
039else to give them a raise as well on that. All right. So it comes with and if you ever have if you ever get bored and everything you can come to my office and I can show you the spreadsheet that way do all the calculations. It may take a week to get through it, but we try to. It's a lot. It's a lot. There just to show you then that tax revenues decreasing due to the compression um and the lower taxable values on the new exemptions for homesteading over 65. And they they will put that in there to help us with that. um our federal res uh revenues, if you'll notice that we had budgeted 235, we've only collected 52 and I'm only budgeting 50. That's to the new reimbursement changes um that came through
040and they're just not covering everything and the reimbursements are not there. So we there's a lot of people that are actually choosing to get out of the charge program reimbursement program because there were schools that when this hit we actually got a check. I can't remember how much it was. Some schools had to write a check back. We were lucky we got 15,000 and some schools were writing 50,000 back for 70 years ago. Not just for was that right? They're sending back for what they audit came from 2010. Yeah. So, 2010. Yeah. A little breakdown there. Tax rate compression of two cents. Homestead exemptions are going up. Um the over 65 disabled and veterans, they're increasing 50,000. Um interest rates are also expected to drop over the next 12 months. Currently, they're holding, but from
041what I'm reading, they're kind of expecting maybe two cuts before the end of the year. That would be 50 basis points, 25 each one. Um, so I did some historical balances and did some things on that to figure out what our interest rate would be, our interest income would be. Um, the state they're going to do a hold harmless loss for our tax revenue that is M and INS. Um, currently right now they have our INS at $462,000 they're going to give us for loss from the from the compression on that. So, and when we when I go in and do the tax rate, I have to also put that as an income from the state to show that. So, that's where that compression comes down even more. Um, there's new allotments for the teacher,
042the support staff raises, new allotments for for sped. Um, their evaluations, each evaluation that we do, a full initial evaluation, they'll reimburse us $1,000. So, we have that coming. There's new uh security. It was 59,000 last year. I think it's 129 this year. Um extra $10 per per child and then 15,000 to 33,000 some change per campus. So, it's about $18,000 per campus increase on that city as well. That should have happened a long time ago. Um there's also some increasing in the waiting of the student a lotments and the small midsize school funding that they put in there. So that helps with the increase on that. On that federal side, I just said that the shard reimbursement is decreasing due to their changes as well. And that's kind of our preliminary where we're at.
043Um continue to work. I will not know well I really won't know what the true tax taxable values will be until 1 of January because we'll vote the 1 of November on that. We all know that's going to pass but then it backdates two years. So, not only does it cover 25, it's also going to go back and cover 24. But when that does happen, the state sees it, compares it to what they've paid us, and we'll actually get some more from that for the back years. That makes sense. Because the funding that we'll get from our taxes this year, when they go and they back and make sure everybody that's paid previous year and everything, they will issue refunds. So when they issue those refunds, that's money that we won't that we won't get.
044But then line barter goes in and they do their protest and everything. And when they submit it and everything, they'll say, "Okay, well, because of the back betting on this, you're getting this extra funding from that, which is makes it a lot more complicated should be. But I'll have a really a better better idea of what our taxes are going to be um July 25th when they have to give me their values." and they'll give values that are based on 140,000 exemption and then 200,000 for those that are 65 and older. So, they'll give me those and I'll have those. So, it'll be a better one. But, I came up with a rough estimate and I'm actually hoping that I lowered it more than I should have. That'll be the way. Any questions? Remind me
045of the 21 million. How much of that is salaries and staff is like% 75 to 80 75 to 80% yes any further questions on this [Music] Oh, that was fresh. Thank you. We'll go ahead and start. All right. Do you want to Okay. Open it up. So, now we're now we're going to move to discussion item A on absences related to semester test exemption policy. I was asking Bro, what I've got for you copy for everybody. Did I just print out I think sorry I just print out one of these copies? No, I don't think so. So, what I did was I looked at surrounding districts uh to compare our policy. Well, sorry, I'm step ahead on that. Sorry, exemption policy. You'd asked to bring this up. I know that there at the end of
046the school year, we had uh some concern from some in regard to our exemption policy. Um apologize. Mr. Glover is sold his house and they are living in Texas can at the moment as they're trying to get here. They move into another house next week. So he said he could be available by phone if needed. U but the reason why this was put into place and how they came up with that was in an effort to um um to to encourage better attendance during the spring semester. Um as you see there's the policy. If you had a A or 90 or above, you could have up to five absences. Um 80 or above was three, 70 or above no more than one absence. They had some more things in there related um says for purpose
047of final exemptions only school related absences will be excluded. Uh that would basically mean if you are participating not going to watch uh would be considered a school related absence. Also had an air viewer in three or more days of ISS or OSS or DAP you you were couldn't you be exempt. So reason for this was I know there was some conversation that we had in regard to um whether or not going to watch should be counted as a school uh related absence. So that's why it's here for us to have that discussion. It's not to make a make a final decision but it's to have the open discussion if we need to come back uh and do or if if through the discussion if I need to have a conversation with the high high
048school in regard to their uh student handbook. um to make a change. So, and how much because I do and I'm thinking back because this was when did you say put in place? This past year. Just this past year. We didn't we didn't do fall uh exams. We just did spring. Uh and again, it was because our spring absence is usually our attendance is not as strong in the spring as it is in the fall. What? And and we've previous conversations had also been since COVID we've struggled as a district keeping our attendance up. Is that correct? I'd say our attendance is on average about 2% overall less than what it was pre-COVID. I think this year was a little better. I know middle schools was kept theirs pretty good. Um high schools is still
049consistently 2% less overall. Yeah. Than what it was pre-COVID. Elementary's creeping back up to be pretty close. I know middle school was this year as well. Yeah. All right. Well, um, anyone want to bring anything in for the discussion of I think there was a conversation of post not just any watching postseason. Is that still something like state? Yeah. Stateumption days for people that want to go watch state competition. I don't care. I think that would be fair. Anything. Yeah. I think can you So, so that's that can be again and I think as we kind of talk through this I think going in next year. Um I mean I think that can be an exception rolled in. Um again use the example that we had one act play advances the state again. If we
050have a student who wants to go who has an A but already has three absences that that one day doesn't kick them out of exemption because that would be going to support a state event from students. But it's got to be documented somehow. Say how are you going to verify because I know they'll say yeah I would well so so with so with that I would say in the past I would say in the past that falls on the administrator who's there which we have someone that they have if you're there. So if so if I'm your child and we go, you let me go or we go together, then I might have to go to Mr. Glover or Mr. Hammonds, whoever the administrator is, and sign in sign in or do something because that
051that's they'll have to work that out in regard to what that looks like. Yeah, there have to be some type of can't be there because that's me. I'd be I be finding me somebody. I've been buying it some photo copy. So there'll be there'll be there'll have to be something put in place. Does that again is that kind of seen the is that the consistent like a state not just any like post but it's not for it's not for semiinal or but now you may run into something like as far I mean just talking but like a travel day. I don't know how that works you know like one night play didn't get done till what time? I mean when when was it? Wednesday night or Thursday night? It was 5:00 really about 5:00 on
052that Wednesday, I guess. So, I mean, I'm not sure 11 11:30. I'm not sure how that Yeah. So, okay, we we'll we'll work through that if y'all y'all are okay with me working with high school administration to work through what they look like. Yes. Okay. Is this just simply for testing? It was just for exemption. I'm thinking like unexcused. Would it be unexcused? Because we have a lot of kids that go to to that as far as access. This this deals just with exemption policy. Yeah. Yeah. And then uh leading off of that, the next discussion item is um extracurricular absence policy. Okay. So, we put that in there for you as well to see currently what we have. That's where I was trying to go a while ago. I was a step by the
053one ahead. So, our current policy use uh says that the district shall make no distinction between absences for UIL activities and absences for other extracurricular activities approved by the board. A student shall be allowed in a school year a maximum of 15 extracurricular absences not related to postdistrict competition. However, a student shall be allowed unlimited absences for participation in post district or state competition. So what I did was I asked Julia to run a report for me just for high school and to to show now what this isn't going to show us is the number of students or the number of absences that are post district absences but out of the high school students we had 45 that were above the that were 16 or more. Okay. So uh again one student I don't mention
054her name but look at her I know that so some of her absences were because of the one act play I mean because they would miss three days I think each week that they were gone had a travel day a practice day or maybe it was a travel and practice day a competition day then a return day I mean so each one of those so you're looking at about 15 days of absences right there for post district absences mistake might have been four days were they maybe four days a whole week a whole week so it was you know so in saying that these these are I don't know how to we don't know how to necessarily break those down so out of out of all high school students with the policy we had that
055would have affected 40 45 out of our high school students roughly 475 students but to I'm sorry but to clarify we don't know how I don't know for I don't know how many of those are post district out of those. which actually might not affect probably probably not all 45 of correct now I'm just so so what I did do was I looked at surrounding districts Mount Pleasant River Chapel Hill Winsboro Sulfur Springs Pittsburgh and Mola only two of those district have sim similar policies to ours Mount Pleasant their policy states a maximum of 10 absences riverest is sim is like ours of 15 extracurricular absences Chapel Hill Winsboro Sulphur Springs, Pittsburgh, and Minnola. Theirs says the district shall not limit an eligible students absences related to participation extracurricular activities. So I looked at seven
056surrounding and we've got five that that don't have one at all. Um you know I I can again I can see both ways. Um, again, we don't part of it is is from a instructional standpoint as superintendent, I want to somewhat guard instructional days, but on the flip side of that, we've got a policy that we've not been following in regard to the 15 days since I've been here. Um, I say that in regard to I say that in regard to the 15 as well as by going to a 4 day school week, you know, we have 150 days of what we have anyway. 15 is down to 135, you know. So again, I can four weeks of school. I I can see both sides of it there. Uh but it comes down to, you
057know, if we're going to say we're going to limit and let's say a student is in um is in our a program is in um plays baseball, one act play and tennis and they get to 15. You going tell and and you still got you still got two weeks. I mean which you know let's say they've got an event the very next day. or we're gonna say that they can't go. But most of those kids that are involved in all those extracurriculars, they're going to keep their grades up and stuff because they have to to be eligible on the no pass, no play. They do. You're correct. They're going to do Yeah. So again, so experience. Yeah. High school experience. You do it once. So again, if if we if if it is the board's
058decision to move toward a policy change, then we'll work with our policy consultant and bring that back at a at a later time to to change policy. Is that would you like some options in regard to that? I mean, in regard to um again we can we can we can either we can move it from 15 to 20 if you want to take it off as no number. There's option of shall not limit again the I mean again the 15's been there we again we've just not been paying attention to it so well I'm I'm with we need to align with our policy as far as what we do and I'm just thinking the only part I would want more information on how our teachers would feel from their standpoint if it's one thing if
059we're just not doing it now and we change it but how if it goes against them feeling supported if they do feel like they're struggling to keep kids in classes. Does that make sense? What you what if that's what you were saying is true and it doesn't matter then why change it. Does that make sense where you're not following? Okay. I was saying I would just want to make sure that the whole reason it was in place is to keep teachers in there and if you have struggling kids that falls on the teacher. Correct. But your struggling kids won't be eligible. Well, that's what I'm saying. So, if that's true, then it doesn't matter. But and but for some, as we know, it's a six weeks at a six weeks time. I mean, there could
060be that student gets to week five that's missed several classes that could that we that again he's not paying attention or that shouldn't be too much the case but could be program person whether it be one act play or tennis or whatever be checking on their yeah should be and their grades and are you keeping up with it and they may not have to go but I've heard plenty my just my junior high kids. I got to have a note. Coach Wallace is not going to let me do this or this if I don't have a note. I have to have enough shows me I'm passing. Okay, we we'll work on a policy. So, the original I'm a little bit confused. I stay confused. But the the original question from the parent was could a
061student go to the state one act play and not have a that was counted count against the exemption. Yeah, that would be count against the exemption. That's what we just talked about in regard to making that state going to watch that state competition not count against it. Okay. And we'll work with the high school administration to to put some clarifying language in there. Okay. Anything any other discussion on that? That's good. All right. Now, it is 6:14. We will convene to close session for personnel matters pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.074 and to address legal concerns, implications, and questions regarding the posted agenda items pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.071. Okay. It is 8:49. We are convening back into open session. And what time? Sorry, it is 8:49 p.m. And we um have
062a couple action items here. Action item A, consider and approve bank depository contract bids. All right. on that. Um, all right. With that, it's actually attached the board book, but I did that today because I had to add some things to it. Um we had three bank three of the four banks submit a bid prosperity guarantee and alliance and we opened those Monday afternoon maka me Jessica and Christy Blair we opened those up they were all sealed so we opened those up went through everything um the results of this of the opening and everything everybody qualified with the requirements of what we needed to have um when it came to interest rates. Um the summary guarantee B guarantee had a negative spread on their checking accounts and a zero spread on time deposits. What that
063means is every most most everybody except for Prosperity bases their what they're going to pay on their accounts by the 13-week treasury bill. That's just what they everybody kind of goes by on interest rates. Um guarantee offered a negative theirs was whatever the 13we T bill is minus 125 basis points which is 1.25%. less um Alliance did not have a spread which means whatever the 13we T bill deal is that will be your interest rate and both of them had a 4% ceiling meaning there won't go over 4%. Which is not going to be a big deal to us. We're at five right now but interest rates are fixing to drop some. They're going to make some kind of cut. We're currently at 4.3. So if they make a 25 basis point cut, we're gonna
064be pretty much right at four. So we're gonna we'll be at our ceiling still getting the maximum amount that we can with alliance. Um Prosperity had whatever their posted rate was for their interest bearing checking account plus 50 basis points. Um right now their posted interest bearing account is 0.15%. So that would be 65% on our checking accounts. Money markets was a little bit higher. They were uh it's kind of tiered. We would have been over the million mark. So right now their current rate would have been 3%. On that like I said we're currently hitting 4.3 with with Alliance but that can go down with that. Um on guarantees it was 10 1.25% 25% less. Um they they gave an example now of March their uh the T bill rate was a 4.2. They
065would do their deduction we'd get 2.95. So still on that. Um so with the alliance and what they have they are offering a floor both of them had a floor of half a percent which means if interest rates bottom out like they did five years ago where nobody was getting 0.5 we would still get.5%. because there was a time where interestbearing accounts were making about 10%. Excuse me. So, we would still make more on that. So, with those opened up um when it came to fees, there was no issues on that. Nobody was going to charge any fees. So, our recommendation is that we stay with Alliance Bank. Any further questions on that one? All right. Do I have a motion to approve Alliance Bank as the depository contract? Motion. Motion made by Linda. Second
066by Donnie. All four seven. All right. Action B. Consider and approve interlocal agreement between Franklin County and NBISD for tax collection. This is something that we is just a continuation each year that we do. Um as you know they uh collect our taxes for us. So this is just the interlocal agreement for them to continue to do so. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the interlocal agreement between Franklin County for tax collection? Motion. Motion made by Kyle. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Linda. All four 70. All right. Action item C. Consider and approve policy update 125. So there are a few local things, local policies that are uh involved in update 125. Um we'll go through explanatory notes just real quick on the local ones. Um BD8A local recommended
067this local policy on board officers duties and requirements. Um and board officers descendants indicated the board may assign a district employee to provide clerical assistance is recommended for deletion since the superintendent rather than the board manages staff assignments uh including providing support to the board under terms and duties vice president revision language clarifies that when the vice president automatically becomes president due to a vacancy then they serve as president till the board reorganizes. So that's some language change in BDA local. Next is BDB local board internal organization board committees. Policy has been revised in coordination with BDF local to clarify the difference between board committees and advisory committees. Accordingly, the subtopic with this code has been changed from internal committees to board committees and new provisions are recommended to establish how board committees are formed
068and outline their purpose. Uh then BDF is board internal organization advisory committees. again more language change for that one or language clarification I mean um FDE local admission school safety transfers at safe schools data bullying is added uh as recommended for inclusion as an offense for which district must collect and maintain data so that's just an addition of bullying to that for FD local FC local is attendance attendance for credit um says basically revisions and language clarification for clarity. Um and then FAC local as well as health services medical treatment legal framework the code reflect the new department of state health services rules on unassigned medication for respiratory distress and that was it. Those are the local policies with change uh or that affect change for us. Again, most are um terminology or language clarification.
069Um any questions on any of those? Again, nothing super major. Any questions you had in your book? You had you had the blue blue additions and red markouts as as annotated in it in your board book. Any questions on any of that? All right. Do um any questions? Sorry. All right. Motion to approve the policy updates for 125. Motion made by Donnie. Do I have a second? I'll second. Seconded by Kyle. All four 70. Thank you. All right. Action item D. Consider an approved district compensation plan. Okay. As we know the governor has signed in the uh new compensation for um teachers with three and four years experience and five plus. We want to include uh counselors and librarians with that. So recommendation is going to be that we adjust our teacher pay step for
070zero to two which was not included uh in the legislation but we want to increase that by 3,000. Of course 3 to four is 4,000 5 plus is 8,000. want to recommend a 10% increase for support staff and to uh pass the $8,000 increase across administration as well. All right. Do I have any questions on that? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the district compensation compensation plan as recommended? Motion made. Motion made by Kyle, seconded by Donnie. All four. Behalf of all the staff. Thank you board. Okay. Action item E, consider an approved vendor for new AC and installation for junior high gym. Because of the cost of the number of units we had, Bobby put this out to bid. We received three three quotes. Uh want to make the recommendation for John
071Wayne company uh for the comfort maker unit uh with the cost of 78,000. Uh but there is a an additional $5,000 cost for crane rental. Um, and these will be put on as soon as the new fire lane is put in and Jackson Construction gives us the okay to put a crane on it. Um, Dustin said approximately two weeks after it's put in, the fire lanes put in that we could be able should be able to do so. Uh, the recommendation is for John Wayne company to install those with a total cost of $83,000 which will include the crane. Any questions on that? They quoted two different ones. They quoted they quoted carrier and a comfort maker. But we're going with the comfort maker. Bobby said uh both are basically the same. One has a
072carrier name on it. One has comfort maker. So he's he's very comfortable with the comfort maker. Okay. And so the the company that services our ACs, they'll still service these. Also, these will currently be under warranty with John Wayne company. Uh but I'll find that out. I don't know that answer for sure, but I'll find out for you. Yes, ma'am. Do I have a motion to approve the vendor for new um AC and installation for the junior high? Motion made by Linda. I mean Donnie, do you have a second? Seconded by Linda. All four 70. And uh do you have a personnel report for us? Yes, ma'am. knowledge or excuse me knowledge three professional contracts that you gave me the ability to approve Cheyenne Shu Kimberly Pelum Christian Lad and then acknowledge resignations of Leslie
073Reese and Beth D. It is 9:00 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all very much.