001One minute. You want to start? >> I would love to see that. >> She started you. >> She's starting early on us. >> It's We're going. >> The Limestone County Board of Education meeting is called to order. Notices for the meeting were properly posted and provided to those who requested direct notification. Let the record show all board members are present with the exception of Miss Kilgore. We will begin by a prayer led by Mr. Hillyard followed by the pledge led by Dr. Maples. Shall >> we pray? Our father in heaven, thank you for this day that you've given us this opportunity to come and discuss the workings of our school system. We pray that you will be with us and make help us make the best decisions that we can for our employees and for
002our students. We pray that you will continue to give everyone good health and uh throughout the school year and forgive us our sins in Christ's name. Amen. >> Amen. Algiance 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. >> Board, we have an agenda before us. Do I hear a motion? >> Motion. >> Dr. Hearing offers a motion. Do I hear a second? >> I'll second. >> Miss Paw second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes. We will begin with a superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh we certainly appreciate everyone being here tonight. We've got a a great crowd and I think we've got a lot of great things to talk
003about. And the first one, we're going to talk a little bit about um our art programs in Limestone County. And um the board has been so supportive of this. Several years ago, we put art teachers in the high schools and um you know, we had the art showcase downtown. Um we got to go visit during our board retreat last time. Just a lot of great things going on with our art program. And you know, I think Bradley said it earlier, it's about providing opportunities for our students um both on the field and in the classroom. And this is a great example of that. So Allison, you want to come up if you don't mind? So tonight, thanks to the board's ongoing investments and additional staff and expanded fine arts programming, our students are flourishing under
004the dedicated instruction of Miss Star Williams. Ardmore High School students achieved outstanding success at the recent North Alabama State Fair art contest, six first place awards, eight second place awards, and five third place awards. Miss Wings, we want to honor your commitment, guidance, and encouragement. Qualities that clearly inspired these accomplishments. Please join me in congratulating the students for their creativity and hard work and in thanking the board and families for supporting arts education in our schools. Let's give them a hand. So we have first place we have Carter Pew. Um sand art. Is Carter here? Okay. Um Addison Smith, still life. Addison, you come up and you can just remain up front. Congratulations. >> Addison Smith, pottery. >> Wow. >> Bryley Lawhorn toys. Bryley here. Okay. Cole Chrisman, abstract. Cole's here. Thank you for being
005here. Congratulations, Jada Dials. Characters Jada here. Okay. Second place we have Blake Talbot, baked clay. We have Emma Faulk, sand art. Kaye Honorado, toys. Miley Russell, watercolor. Brianna Patel is not here. Okay. Um, Will Goodman, abstract. Aiden Brooks, photography. All right. Third place we have Dalia Carwal. Carwwell sand art. Brena King, abstract. Gracie Smith, landscape. Jada Dal's animals and Diego Espano um abstract >> that was a good effort. >> Okay. And Star, if you'll come forward, please. Thank you for the job you're doing there at Ardmore. Mr. Ball, thank you for being here, too. Congratulations. Sorry. You get the picture from Yeah. Oh, y'all get closer. Yes. >> Make sure you're in the middle. >> Smile. >> Thank y'all. >> Congratulations. It sounds like y'all swept the the sand >> art. First, third. Yes. think
006I have any more. >> Miss Fqua is with us tonight and I'm honored to recognize her, art teacher at East Limestone High School for being selected as the 2025 secondary art educator of the year by the Alabama Art Education Association. Candidates for this award are nominated by peers and submit a detailed packet, education and work history, two letters of recommendation, a resume, and answers to a professional questionnaire which is scored against other nominees on a rubric. Miss Fuqua received this well-deserved award last week. Through her dedication and leadership, Mrs. Fuqua has transferred the art program at East Limestone. I've got to go to your class a couple times. always great things going on. She has developed a full schedule of courses, launched the National Art Honor Society with 18 active members, and created a strong
007program that students are eager to join. Her talent for inspiring students and cultivating a passion for the arts is evident not only in program growth, but also in student achievement. Two students earned honorable mentions in the 2025 Congressional Art Competition with their work displayed in Congressman Dale Strong's office. 17 students have pieces featured in the Huntsville Museum of Arts Children Gallery. And last year, two students were included in the Museum of Art Youth Art Month exhibition. These accomplishments reflect Mrs. Fuqua's commitment to artistic excellence and to providing meaningful opportunities for her students to be seen and celebrated. Mrs. Fuqua's contribution extend beyond classroom instruction. She actively seeks grants and other fundings to strengthen the program and organized a school trip where students participated in workshops led by local college professors and received guidance about the
008college application process. Mrs. If you please come forward um to accept your superintendent commendation and recognition of your AEA award and your tireless advocacy for the arts in our school and community. Okay, there are a couple other groups I'd like to recognize informally tonight. Um, it is National School Bus Safety Week and we see those nice yellow buses running down the road. Um, actually we're um, bidding buses and buses are not as cheap as they used to be. As we know, they're about 150 grand a piece now. So, prices have certainly gone up. But this week, we want to observe National School Bus Safety Week held each year during the third full week of October. It's a time for parents, students, teachers, motorists, bus operators, school administrators, and community members to come together to renew
009our commitment to keeping every student safe on the bus. Limestone County Schools proudly operates 133 buses with 114 devoted bus drivers and also aids that ride the bus as well. Our buses travel about 3,800 miles each day and safely transport roughly 38 to 4,000 students to and from school and all the other extracurricular activities as well. A heartfelt thanks to Mr. Dr. Russ Cleveland, director of transportation, and his entire team of drivers, mechanics, and support staff for their daily dedication to our students safety and wellbeing. Congratulations once again. Thank you to our bus drivers. Um, and it is National School Bus Safety Week, which we remind everyone, please watch out for students as they um go to and from school. And those buses are big and yellow, so I know you can't miss those, but
010just a reminder to for everyone to be careful. It's also National Principal Month. Um tonight, um this month as well, October has been designated as National Principles Month, providing an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the hard work and leadership of principles across the nation. Principles serve as the educational leaders of their schools, set high expectations, and fostering a culture of learning, collaboration, and student success. They're responsible for creating safe, inclusive, and welcoming school environments where students and staff can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally, and also play a vital role in implementing educational policies, supporting teacher development, managing school operations, and engaging families and communities. And I think Stephen, you would agree, pretty much every day is a pretty exciting day, right? um a lot of awards, rewards that you get, but also a lot of
011challenges um for sure. Tonight, I'd like to recognize and honor the outstanding contributions of our principles who inspire excellence in education every day. And thanks to our principles. Um we do know they have challenging jobs each and every day but thank them for what they do keeping our kids safe as well and also providing um academics and academics excellence for them with support of their teachers. It's also storytelling week and I got to go over the storytelling which this is a great activity um for our county that our students get to participate in this. And so today I went over and it was fifth grade and um the kids were were great. Um they really were they were participating um active involvement in the storytelling festival. But I just think it's so great that Athens
012puts this on each and every year. It's a great opportunity for our students. And so they participate this year u from October 21st through the 23rd. 3rd and fifth graders as well as students from 7th and 11th grade will be listening to stories from internationally renowned storytellers, award-winning liars and worldclass musicians. Um you know when they tell the stories it really takes you back to your childhood. Um so I encourage you if you get a chance to go listen to some of their stories. Students from across the district participated from across the district participated in the student storytelling competition last Thursday night at the Athens Limestone Public Library. These students will represent their school at the annual Athens storytelling festival. And so we had um Zarya Picket from Blue Springs Elementary School, Llaya Robinson from
013Elkmont Elementary School, Rayan Ton from Sugar Creek Elementary, Molly Caswell from Tanner Elementary School, Fowler Dardy um from Elkmont Elementary School, um Cila Gun Prader from Creekide Elementary School, Carolyn Lutter from Cedar Hill Elementary, Olivia Allen from East Limestone High School, Gus Silcox from East Lime Limestone High School and Deasia Carter from East Limestone High School. So, Thursday night um some of these students will actually um tell their story at the storytelling festival. So, um just congratulations to those students for being brave enough to get up. I know a couple years ago, this is the best story you could have. A couple years ago, one of the students got up there and kind of forgot um her story. And this probably made me cry, but um she forgot her story, but the kids started chanting,
014"You can do it. You can do it. You can do it." And really encouraged her to finish her story. Um it was just that was heartwarming to see students do that. So storytelling festival going on right now and a lot of our schools and students are involved in that. Thank you. These are still under you, but I can announce it if you want me to. >> Yeah. Presentation of the fiscal year 2024 audit report. >> Yes, please. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. >> My name is April Per. I'm with the Department of Examiners of Public Accounts. I'm here in accordance with the provisions of act number 2006 196 codified in section 1613A73D commonly referred to as the school fiscal accountability act. I'm here to present the audit report on the Limestone County Board of
015Education for the audit period covering October 1st, 2023 through September 30th, 2024. We conducted our audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards for the purpose of rendering an opinion on the financial statements and determining whether the board complied with applicable laws and regulations. We also conducted an audit of the board's federal financial assistance programs in accordance with those same standards and requirements of title 2 US code of federal regulations uh also known as a uniform guidance. We issued an unmodified opinion on the board's financial statements, which is the best opinion we can issue as of and for the fiscal year ended September 30th, 2024. This means that the financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. In addition, we issued an unmodified opinion on the board's
016major federal financial assistance programs for the fiscal year were the child nutrition program cluster and the co 19 education stabilization fund. There was one report one finding reported as 2024-001 as follows. The state department of education als requires the general purpose financial statements to be submitted on or before November 1st annually to enable the ALSDE to provide accurate data for student state funding. the Limestone County Board of Education. The board did not submit the general purpose financial statements for the fiscal year 2024 to the board until ALSDE until March 13, 2025. Policies and procedures were not in place to ensure the board complied with the ALSD policy regarding the submission of its general purpose financial statements. As a result, they were not submitted on or before November 1st. We just recommend that the board should
017implement policies and procedures to ensure the general purpose financial statements are submitted as required. This is uh the entire report is available on the website allison.legislature.state.al. us. If anyone would like to view a copy, just go to that website under the search audit reports tab and you can find a copy. This concludes my presentation. I would like to thank you and everyone for all your assistance and cooperation during the audit process and look forward to seeing you all again later this year. Thank you. >> Give it to you >> just break. That's okay. >> Anybody who'd like to that's just fine. Congratulations. >> You're making it. >> Miss Hubard, it is your turn. >> Is it my turn now? >> It is. >> Okay. we are going to look at August and then we we
018in the work session we talked about some of the other things. Um so we're 11 months we were 11 months at this point in the fiscal year. So that's 91.6% of the way through the year. Our local revenues were at 93% in the capital projects fund. We had 5.6 million over there as well in August. So remember the board, we moved 500,000 over a month in our sales tax for our capital projects fund. If you look at our expenses, they were 90.5% of what we had budgeted. If you look at our fund balance, one month fund balance is 12.3 million for one month. We're sitting at 4.2 months. in that $52 million includes about $4 million in state money that has to be spent in 26 that they went ahead and have sent to us
019in August. So fund balance without that money is about 48.5 million. And if you remember I said we're anticipating somewhere around there when we get done closing out the year the end of next week. If you look at our um our money market interest, we always like to look at that. We're at 2.7 million at the end of August. We got $284,364 in the month of August, which is good. And our fund balance went up just a little bit, but we had that influx of that extra state money that came in. So that's where that money was. Do y'all have any questions? >> Question or comment from the board? Okay, thank you. Uh, item number six, the consent agenda. Do I hear a motion? >> Hello. >> Mr. Young offers a motion. Do I hear
020a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. Hyard offers a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item I'm marking them this week. Item seven, discussion approval of personnel actions. Do I hear a motion? >> Hello. Mr. Young offers a motion. Do I hear a second? >> I'll second. >> Seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item eight, additions to the vaping section of the 2025 2026 student handbook to comply with act 2025-43. Do I hear a motion? >> Okay, we're going to do jumping jacks if we don't uh >> Did you make a motion? I'm sorry. Dr. Herring made a motion. Do I hear a second? >> A second. >> Dr. Maples seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item
021nine, discussion, approval. 2520 2025 2026 Elementary social studies textbook adoption curriculum committee. It's going to be a long meeting. >> I make a motion. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Dr. Maples makes a motion. Miss seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. And all those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item 10, discussion, approval, 2025 2026 elementary arts education textbook adoption curriculum committee. >> I make a motion. >> Dr. Maples >> second. >> Makes a motion. Dr. Herring seconds. This is where I like to see any discussion hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unan unanimously. Item 11, discussion approval 2025 2026 secondary social studies textbook adoption curriculum committee. >> Make a motion. >> Dr. Maples makes a motion. Do I hear a second? Miss Fqua seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes
022unanimously. Item 12 discussion approval. 2025 2026 secondary fine arts education textbook adoption curriculum committee. Make a motion. >> I'm gonna make a motion we change the name of these committees. >> Dr. Maples made a motion. >> Mr. Young seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item 13, discussion, approval. Adoption and purchase of Sgage. Is that right? Sing gauge fundamentals and investigations forensic science textbooks by not important who it's by. $38,450. >> I make a motion. >> Dr. Maples makes a motion. Do I hear a second? Miss Fqua seconds. Any discussion? >> Question. >> Yes, sir. Is is this involved in our uh science program at the uh career tech center of the public safety um CT program that's why we didn't adopt it last year with science because it actually
023falls under public safety. So they were making some new textbooks and we >> Very interesting. Thank you Mr. >> Is it Bertino? Is that who it's by? Bertino and Bert. Is that how you say it? Bertino. >> You just say it twice. >> I was thinking they get royalties off of so they probably do. It does matter. >> It does matter. Bertino and Bertino is uh who the textbooks are by. Any other discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor. Motion passes unanimously. Item 14, discussion approval. onetime pay increase of $1,000 for all full-time employees with benefits as of October 1st, 2025 and a $500 one-time pay increase for board approved part-time employees who work 17 or more hours per week to be paid in December 2025. I hear a motion from Dr. Herring. Do
024I have a second from Mr. Hillyard? Any discussion? >> Nothing. >> All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item 15. This one's going to get quiet. Nominations for the election and delegates of the December 2025 AASB conference. Four delegates, one alternate. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll make the motion cuz I'm not going to be there. >> Mr. You got to nominate somebody. Your motion needs a name. >> Oh, well, I'll nominate Miss Belinda Mel. She's my favorite person. >> Oh my lord. I nominate Anthony Hillyard. >> I nominate Mr. >> Yeah, it's your turn. >> Oh my lord. >> Yeah, your turn. >> I'll nominate Mr. Ron Chris as our own. >> Listen, we're we're looking. There's five people going to get nominated and there's only six people here. >> That's right. And
025I'm out and he's not going. >> Course you could always nominate someone that's not here too, right? That's the one you really pick on. >> Miss I'd like to nominate Miss Greta Kilgore. >> And did we did this motion end up with me as the alternate? >> Yes. >> Sounds good. So, uh, >> I was looking out for Well, uh, the nomine the motion is for the four delegates to be Dr. Maples, Dr. Herring, Mr. Heryard, and Miss Fuqua with the alternate being myself. >> Did I get I think I need a second. >> I'll second it. >> Dr. Maple seconds. >> Yes. >> All those in favor? >> Come on, Dr. Perry. Come on, Dr. >> Let's go on and make it unanimous. >> Oh my lord. not make it unanimous. >> Motion passes
026unanimously. Item 16, adjournment. Do I hear >> Wait, wait. >> We do have Miss Martin with us tonight. Um, who's going to be our new school improvement coordinator um for the district. So, glad to have you here tonight and looking forward to working with you. I know they're going to miss you dearly at Cedar Hill for sure. But, thank you for being here. >> Thank you. >> One of the schools. >> That's all right. Miss Fqua offered a motion. Do I hear a second? Oh, I offer >> Dr. Maple seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? >> Wait, you didn't even let us discuss. >> Motion. Motion to journ. If you