001Start. The Limestone County Board of Education board 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 except Mr. Young. We will start with a prayer which I'll lead followed by a pledge which Miss Kilgore will lead. Please bow with me. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight. Ask forgiveness of our sins, Lord. Ask for guidance in our meeting. Ask that you be with our students and faculty. It's in your name we pray. Amen. >> I pledge allegiance 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
002a motion? >> I offer. Miss Fqua offers a motion. Do I hear a second? >> I'll second. >> Miss Kilgore seconds. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. We'll begin with the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I get to recognize several folks tonight. I'm so glad they're here. I believe they've all come in by now, so we'll have a chance to to recognize them. First, I have a board resolution for the FCCLA National um competition winners. And in July, students from the Limestone County Career Technical Center competed in the 2025 FCCLA National Competition in Orlando, Florida. Through participation in competitive events, FCCLA members acquire industry insights and employable skills required to thrive in the 21st century. Members can select from over 50 competitive events that employ skills and
003knowledge learned through family and consumer sciences education. Competing on a regional district, state, and national levels, and competitive events enables members to explore career pathways. Competitive events align with FCCLA's mission to concentrate on multiple roles, including family member, wage earner, and community leader. Each event is curated to help members develop specific lifelong skills in character development, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication, practical knowledge, and career preparation. The foundation of these events is the belief that anyone can succeed, and participation in FCCLA's competitive events will equip students for life after high school. Tonight, the board and I would like to recognize three outstanding young ladies on their accomplishments at the 2025 FCCLA Nationals with a board resolution. First, we have Kylie Hargrove and she's a former culinary arts student who is now attending Calhoun Community College.
004Kylie won silver in the baking and pastry category of the culinary arts competition. I would like to recognize Kylie along with her instructor, Miss Taber Edgecom Eckles. If y'all would come up, please [Applause] of course this is the board um resolution and it talks about whereas the Limestone County Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education recognize you for your accomplishments. I won't read the whole resolution, but um you can certainly put that on your wall. And we're certainly proud of you as one of our students and proud of the instructor as well for helping her lead her in this process. [Applause] And of course, Limestone County Schools was also represented in the education and training portion of the competition. Addison Barnett, a senior at Ardore High School and the CTC, brought home a gold
005medal in the job interview skills category. And I would like for Addison to come forward along with her instructor, Miss Virginia Koken. Love it. [Applause] We'd also like to recognize Khloe Collins, a senior at Clemens High School and a student at the CTC. Khloe won silver in the early childhood education category. U Miss Lovevet is also her instructor. Khloe, please come forward to recognize to be recognized along with your instructor. [Applause] We certainly appreciate everyone's dedication. Thank you for for taking our students to give them an opportunity to compete. I think it certainly prepares them to be great citizens as they leave our school system. So, thank you so much. Okay, next we have a resolution to recognize Deputy Jason Pendergrass. He's in the back back there. And so, u when I was writing this
006board resolution, and of course over the years since I've been here, I've heard lots of stories um about Deputy Pendergrass. Most probably aren't true, but um you know, I just kind of ignored those and just passed those along as being untrue. Um but I wasn't quite sure what name to put down because he's known as lots of different folks over at um Elkmont. Um, of course there's Deputy Pendergrass, which you know that's a respectful name. But of course there's also JP which a lot of students if you ever we went back and watched the interview of some of the students and u you know they referred to him as JP. they had a really good relationship with him and um they felt like really he was he was one of them and and you know
007it's nice that students have that faith and confidence in our SRO officers in our school system because it's someone they can rely on, someone they can talk to, someone they can count count on. But he was also known as Deputy Pickles or Mr. Pickles because you know sometimes elementary kids have a hard time with Pendergrass. So tenderass and pickles kind of sounds a little little similar maybe. Apparently the endearing nickname of Mr. Pickles came from when he was coaching baseball several years ago and a little girl could pronounce pendigrass. There may be others if you would like to share them with me after the meeting. Do you have any other names that someone's call Yeah. We know Mr. Trible worked with him for quite some time. So he probably does have some other names out
008there. you know, from from selling snacks to coaching sports to making positive um phone calls and sometimes not so positive phone calls to parents to even working in the school cafeteria. U Mr. Pendergrass, Deputy Pendergrass presence impacts everyone around him. You know, also understand you do a great Forest Gump impression. You want to do Would you like to do that? >> Okay. Okay. I got I got it. I got Just checking. We have a stage up here. You know, you can All right. And when he was interviewed a few years ago by Channel Channel 24 for Valley's first responder segment, Deputy Pendergrass said, "Working as an SRO is more than a duty. It's not just a job, it's a family," he said. I'm sure the Elmont school community can agree with that. So, thank you
009for being part of Limestone County's family and the family at Elmont. We really appreciate everything you've done. You can come forward. And so we also have a resolution um for you as well. Of course, the Limestone County Board of Education recognizes you along with the superintendent of education um for 14 years of service um over there and we certainly appreciate that and wish you luck in whatever your next endeavor holds. [Applause] Okay. I'm going out of order. So, the Alabama Association of School Boards recognizes school board members for successfully completing the six hours of required training, including whole board training as part of the school board's governance act. Tonight, I would like to present school board members compliance achievement certificates to all of our board members for their dedication to understanding their responsibilities and staying
010informed about best practices and legal requirements. Your dedication to serving schools is appreciated and I think you set a fine example by getting your required certificates. Just like students have homework, you have homework and we certainly appreciate that all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Ronald Chris, Miss Fqua, Dr. Herring, Anthony Hillyard, Greta Kilgore, Melinda Maples, and Mr. Young is not here. We'll save his. We also had um the Alabama Association of School Boards also recognizes school board members at various levels of training. The following board members have achieved a new school board training level that will be recognized at either the district 8 meeting on September 4th or at the annual conference in December. So, Mrs. Fuqua receives level two and three and of course she's one of our our newer board members. So, um
011we appreciate your hard work and and appreciate your attendance at those meetings. Um Dr. Maples, master level one year. So, um, congratulations on that. And then Mr. Hillyard is receiving the master honor role. Um, and we certainly appreciate your your dedication to the school board as well. So, congratulations to our school board. Thank you for meeting your requirements and exceeding your requirements as far as training in the state of Alabama. >> Still up. still still your heading. >> Okay. >> Still under report. >> Um I do want to share some things just about the state of Alabama as well as us looking at a little bit different way um at some of our scores. One of the things I wanted to share because many of our schools participate in the NAPE assessment. It's totally random
012which schools in our district are chosen. Um this is a test that's given to fourth graders in reading and math across the entire nation. um some year. I think last the last year it was given was 2024. It's given every other year in the United States. Uh I believe the last time we were given it in 24 we had three schools that were chosen to participate in certain grade levels. But as we were kind of talking about schools and scores early and we talked about where Alabama is scoring, I think this will show at least um from what the state has shared with us that Alabama on the the NAPE assessment that stands for national assessment of educational progress um Alabama fourth grade math in 2019 was 52nd out of all the states and providences.
013In 2022, we moved to 40th and in 2024, we were 32nd. That is the highest Alabama has ever scored in math. Um, and Alabama was on one of only five states to see improvement um in fourth grade reading. Only Louisiana um had higher gains than Alabama in reading. Um, and Alabama was actually the only state out of all states tested that actually showed improvement in reading and math. Um, when we look at reading back in 2019, Alabama was 49th. In 22, Alabama moved to 39th. And in 2024, which was the latest testing, um, Alabama moved to number 34. So, as we see some of our mass scores not where we necessarily want them to be, but I think it does show that our test are very rigorous in comparison um to the national average. And
014so, just wanted to kind of share some of those highlights um from the state based on the NAPE. Um, one of the other things that they've noticed in on the NAPE testing as well as ACT, um, on the NAPE, they noticed that that overall the state of Alabama has really closed the gap with different, um, racial and ethnic groups as far as the black and Hispanic population. Those gaps have um, clo have gotten much smaller. as well as on ACT the improvement that they saw across the state was the gap between our all students and our poverty students our students who are economically disadvantaged that gap is closing and I think that's why it's so important that we are able to offer ACT prep and things like that for our students um on to college
015that we offer because not all families can afford those extra ACT prep classes and so I think being able to offer those types of enrichment activities for our students is very important as we continue to want to improve our scores. Um, as Dr. Sraouse mentioned earlier when he was talking about the state really when he goes to meetings they are really looking at levels two, three and four that we do know that those students level two even on our report card we get a half a point for those. Those are our students who are able to work successfully. You know they're sufficient. We we want everybody to be proficient because we want them to know those standards backwards and forwards. But I thought we might want to look at where we are compared to the
016state when we're looking at um our brick andmortar schools compared to the state. Um when we're looking at levels two, three, and four. Um and so if you look at second grade, we are still slightly below if we look at levels 2, three, and four in LA. And you would be able to see that on that very first report that's in your um AAAP in that report. But I'm um without Alabama connections with just our brickandmortar schools, we were at 86% where the state of Alabama is 88. So we're slightly lower there. If you look at third grade, we would be if you count all three of those categories, 92% 2% above the state at 90. If you looked at fourth grade, we're 84%. So 1% above the state. Fifth grade would be the same.
017Sixth grade, we're above 3% from 88% to 85. In seventh grade, we are 1% below. We're at 85 and the state would be at 86. But in eighth grade, we're at 90 and the state is at 88. So slightly above there. If we looked at math, second grade, we're slightly above with 81% to Alabama 79. Third grade 80%. And I think when he was talking about when they talk about sufficient for the actual reading test, that cut score was even lower. And you got to remember this is including all kids, not kids that possibly moved in the day before the test was given. And some some of those scores will not necessarily they count still for that student, but they don't count on our school's report cards. Third grade, we were at 80 where the
018state would have been at 79%. So a point above them. Fourth grade math, we were at 89% to the state's 81. Fifth grade math, we were at 84 to their to the state 79th 79%. Sixth grade, 85% to the state's 80%. Seventh grade 70 to 68% so above there by 2%. And eighth grade up by three, 77 to the state 74. Um, we were also ahead of the state in fourth and sixth grade science. Fourth grade science, we were at 91% if you're counting all three categories to the state's 86. Sixth grade, we're at 92% to the state's 89 and we were even with the state and eighth grade science at 88%. And then the one thing that I wanted to share about um our ACT scores when you look at Alabama's um when you
019look at Limestone County when we're just looking at our brickandmortar schools you can see that every you know as a district that's that very bottom line on the ACT report that we improved in every area when you look at our brickandmortar schools. So, I think the things that our schools put in place really did have an impact um this past year to raise those scores. Sometimes it's just a tenth of a point. But if you've ever been taking the ACT multiple times, sometimes getting that, you know, just moving up a point or two sometimes can be very difficult. And so, we were excited to see that those scores rose for overall our entire district in every category. Um the only thing I would like to caution is the uh NEAP scores that showed improvement. Our
020scores were basically the same. It's just the rest of the country sharply declined because of COVID and we maintained because we didn't close as much as the rest of the country. >> That is correct. So even though we went from 50 to 32, it was more. Everybody else went down. >> Had we scored higher in 24? >> That's where our best score was was in 24. Right. >> Well, they have to catch up. >> We just we got ahead of >> where we ranked overall when the test when the testing took place. That's where the state of Alabama ranked >> because our scores were pretty much 262 and they were basically the same as what they have been. It is just the rest of the nation has gone down so much. I'm all about beating
021them. Let's go. >> I'm not LSU being ahead of us. >> Come on. Whatever that hear. >> Yeah, I heard that. We also led the nation in the lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the in the nation, which was very surprising. >> We don't feel really good about that. >> We feel like our chronic absenteeism is high, but um we actually led the nation in that as well for the lowest chronic absenteeism. And so >> interesting kids, the state's doing a push for us to even lower it even more. They're really wanting us to try to lower it by another 50%. So, >> wow. Any other questions from the board comments? Hearing none. >> Who's are you screw enrolling? >> I got one. >> Oh, okay. Yep. >> So, I do want to share with the
022board some information about um enrollment and um if you in your packet, you should have uh one that says 86 2025 and then one that says also uh 2024. Um, you can actually compare the years, but I'll just run briefly through these because what I did is look at day five enrollment compared to day five last year. Um, and so Ardmore High School actually dropped by 27 students on day five compared to day five. Blue Springs dropped by 11. Uh, Cedar Hill gained 25. Clemens High School lost six. Creekide Elementary School um only gained four. Um so their growth has slowed a little there. Creekide Primary School gained seven. East Limestone High School was the only high school that gained students. Um they did gain six students. Oakmont Elementary School gained 12. Oakmont High School
023lost 14. Johnson gained a lot of students. They gained um 45 students. And um so they're certainly growing there and they also have a large number of prek students there as well because I believe they've got um right around six classes. Um so that adds a lot of students um to Johnson as well that's not included on these numbers. And then uh Sugar Creek lost 11, Tanner gain elementary gained one, Tanner High School lost 18, West Limestone lost three. So, we basically had a net gain of 10 students. Um, kind of the trend we saw last year where our high schools or losing students, but the elementary schools are gaining students. Um, and I did look at where folks are transferring a lot of going to virtual schools. There's some home schools. There's some transferring
024um to private schools, but there's a lot that are transferring out to virtual schools um from our high schools. >> What percentage Um I don't have the percentage but you know in some cases you have and I don't know it's probably 40 something students transferred to a virtual school um from our high schools last year. So you know pretty pretty big percentage. We had some high schools, you know, you've got kids like East Limestone, for example, they um they lost 80s something students, but then they had a net gain because they had that many students coming in as well, which kind of tells you a little bit about, I think, growth in the area. But you've got a lot of folks moving within the state, within the area, but um there is a large number
025attending, you know, virtual schools as well or even homeschool. So that's day five. We'll look at it again probably after Labor Day. you know, that's kind of a a big milestone where a lot of kids may be moving in from northern states and, you know, school is um they anticipate school starting a little later, even though we did start earlier than that, but um we'll look at it again to see what those numbers look like going into the fall count in October. >> Any questions? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. We're going to look at June tonight for our financial report. So that's the ninth month of the fiscal year, 75% of the way through. If you look at our local sources of revenue, we're at 83%. And I'll just say of that 83%, we've really
026collected another a little over $2 million in sales tax that because of the lawsuit penny, I've had to move over into the until we can reallocate at the end of the year. So, it's about almost 28 billion that we've received in revenue this year. Um, if you look at expenses, we're slightly under 75%. We're right there, but we're still when you're talking about that many dollars, that's a lot. Um, if you look at our fund balance, because I did had to have to move a little over $2 million over, we're sitting at 48.9 million, which is still four months fund balance. We've put $4.5 million in sales tax in the capital projects fund already this year. And our money market interest, we're still getting a little over 250 $255,000 a month and we're a little
027over 2 million in interest income on just our money market account this year. So, if you do look at our my general fund analysis, you'll see that this month that we dip down just a little bit like we have every year. And that's but not quite as much because we're having to move money over because we hit the floor on the sales tax. Y'all have any questions? >> Any questions? Anyone? >> No, sir. >> Pretty short agenda tonight, but would y'all like for me to take a break? So, those of you that may want to walk, take a go home, y'all can >> escape. I'll take a few minute break. We're not asking anyone to leave. Everyone's welcome. >> Yeah. It always disappoints me when they jump up when >> I always remember that blank
028ship kid was sitting at the top when we said that one night and he was out. I was like, he really can't go. >> Oh, read. Yeah, >> he's also very tall. [Laughter] >> That was worth it. That was really That was worth it. >> Okay. Uh, item number six, our consent agenda. Do I hear a motion? >> Motion. >> Dr. Herring, did you offer a motion? >> Yes, sir, I did. >> Do I hear a second? >> I'll second it. >> Mr. appeared. Seconds. Any discussion? >> I need to abstain from 7 I3. >> 7 I3. I got a few questions. And I'm sorry. Uh I just wrote down the numbers, but 6D1, 2, and three, the funding source is not listed in our backup documentation. Can somebody tell me what that is? You
029have you already >> Yeah. >> Before it was listed and I can't remember what it was, but one, two, and three. It is not listed. >> Yes, it's contracted services through special education. You remember we had the you had the backup because you weren't sure if one of those agencies. So the funding source of that is special education. >> Special education funds. >> I thought you said B instead of D. >> Yeah. Yeah. Is D. Okay. 6 F3B which I think is playground equipment. Is that part of the previous playground equipment we approved or is this new playground equipment we're approving? >> It's a new piece. Um several of us wrote a grant for the prek playground. So, the playgrounds y'all are working on or that y'all have approved were the elementary playgrounds, but not
030those preschool ones. >> And so, this was there was a special ed innovative prek um grant. And so, we wrote it for a piece. So, it's a sway fund glider that allows um students. We have approximately 60. >> It's a sway. It's a what? >> A sway fun glider. >> Glider. Okay. >> On the back of Can they see the backup? There's there's a picture on the very last page, but it's it's a if you've been to Tanner, Tanner High has one on their inclusive preg um playground. But anyway, it's a piece where students in wheelchairs along with students who do not have any disabilities can be on and it kind of they pull on it and it sways back and forth, but it can have adults on it if they need to be in
031there with the ones in wheelchairs. But it's just an inclusive, excuse me, an inclusive piece of playground piece of equipment, but it's all grant funded. So, u we got $50,000 and so I think the quote was $13 less than the actual grant. So, >> okay. And is there a 7 A2 and a 7B one and two? Is that also on the consent agenda? >> Yes. >> Why are all those down? Nothing ever goes down. >> They're renewable and the costs from last year to this year are listed and at least one of them's down dramatically. >> New position. >> No, no. I'm sorry. I I probably can't read my handwriting. I told you I wasn't prepared when I was writing this right at the end. But there's three positions. I mean, three things we voted
032on on the consent agenda that um and they were all less money. Not complaining, just like to understand if we're getting less of something. >> One of them contract. >> It may it may be >> I think that's a big one. Um we took off middle school. We've not been using six, seven, and eight. Um so we've taken them off for summer school and we had them included in the number. We adjusted the number. There was also >> I appreciate that. That's not what I was referring to. >> Accelerated reader. Am I on? >> There we go. >> Okay. It was slightly less just the cost. It's based on the number of students that we have from year to year. And so sometimes when you have a large class that moves out of your numbers
033and so um it was just slightly less this year than it was the previous year. I believe the previous year was 72. >> It's like 71 and 72. And then the next one spire materials are both addition. >> So that's my probably my real question. Are we comparing apples to apples when we list those two numbers? You see what I'm saying? If previous cost was 25 and current cost is 18, am I looking at the same purchase? Because it sounds like you're saying no, >> not the same amount of material. >> So for those shouldn't be the previous benchmark advance, we have that same price for six years because it's an adopted material. And so these are more fillins that where we have an additional unit at a school and so we did not have
034enough teacher materials so we had to order um additional materials. Spire is one of our intervention uh programs and so it just differs from year to year how many we have left at the warehouse to be able to meet the needs of how many have been ordered from the school. >> And then what about the additional benchmark advanced materials? >> Dramatically less. That's the same. We just need an additional. >> And what's the funding source for that? >> Textbooks, state textbook funds. It's our adopted reading program. >> Okay. So, when you you get on that barf form where it says district agreements, purchases, renewals, and other items. Look, there's two rows right there. And judging by some of the other stuff on here, you get to choose what shows up. Is that how that works?
035So, we really need it to be checked on both lines, right? It's a purchase, but it's also comes from a funding source. That needs to be the next line. Am I understanding? Cuz some of these have two two checked. See it? Some if you look at >> like this one has two. Mhm. >> You see, >> tells you what the funding source was. >> That's just Yeah. It doesn't have the the funding source is what you're saying. Right. >> I gota >> like this one doesn't either, but we asked that a minute ago. >> Right. Right. >> Okay. I'm all good with this one. >> I I just Anyway, thank you. Any other questions? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. >> Are we on seven? >> Item number seven. Discussion, approval of
036personnel actions. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll offer. >> Miss Kilgore offers a motion. Do I hear a second? >> I will second. >> Dr. Mel second. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item eight, resolution on physical education scheduling for grades six through eight. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll offer. >> Mr. Her offers a motion. Do I hear a second? >> I will second. >> Dr. Maple seconds. Any discussion? >> Is this going to be the presidential fitness incor? No, we're we're saying we're giving them less PE. >> We're giving them less PE. >> They're not. >> Well, >> he doesn't want you to say that. >> More time. Maybe you can dress out 10 minutes and have more time out on the floor. >> Just every
037other day. >> You're going to go every other day because it block >> because that Yeah. >> I don't like this. I don't >> I needed to eat. I still do. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes. Uh, unanimously. Uh, item nine, fiscical year 2025 budget amendment. Do I hear a motion? >> I'll offer. >> Miss Fqua offers a motion. Do I hear a second? Anyone? I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> What's the What's the amendment? >> I'm fixing to tell you. >> There we go. >> Okay. Every year we have to do an amendment before the end of the fiscal year. In that amendment, we have to go back and we have to add any of the additional grants that the state gives us and then we have to add
038those expenditures. The big thing we have to increase it for is the advancement in technology funds. So, the general fund would go up. What happens is we get the revenue now. We spend it next fiscal year. So if you look at the general fund, it's an increase of three million. If you look at the capital projects fund, it's 13.8 million because they approved our application for what we sent in. If you look in our special revenue fund, that's where our federal funds sit. We have carryover every year. We have to go back and we have to add the carryover and add the expenditures for that. And then during the year also, we got our lieutenant governor's grant. I had to add that to capital projects. And then during the year, we'll have some projects that
039that we start based on our capital plan. And we have that Ardmore Elmont paving project. You know, we did the Tanner High School and elementary. We've worked on those renovations. We've had some architect fees. So, I have to go back and budget for that. So, it's not anything that hasn't been approved by you guys or it's not additional money given to us from the state. And then we have to adjust. What happens is when like FY24, let's get in the right fiscal year, FY24 financial statements were approved, the ending balance on those becomes our beginning balance in FY25. So, I have to go back and adjust those beginning balances and update those for the actual balances. >> Lord, I had to ask. >> Yeah. Advancement in technology money is additional money though, right? >> It
040is additional money and you see it go in in FY25 as revenue. will spend that money in FY26. >> Yeah, that's the big spike that we see from last year. >> That I'm looking forward to >> that you're looking forward to in a couple months. >> It was very very nice that we got that pot money this year, >> but and we've already put that that's 13 million that's in the capital projects. >> We haven't put it in yet. >> It's part of this budget amendment. Okay. We hadn't received the money yet. >> No, it was approved and it will be there before the end of the fiscal year. So I have to go ahead and put it in. Once I got the approved application, it was emailed to me. Then I go ahead and
041add it. >> Yeah, we're we're amending a budget. We're not voting on the actual. So I get it. It's money that's going to happen in the future >> that's required by the state. >> Any anybody questions? >> Anything? Everybody good? All those in favor of getting $13 million? >> 15, >> huh? >> 13 15 million. >> 15 million. >> I'm all done better. >> I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I said. All in favor of this motion. >> Motion passes unanimously. Uh it's it's adjourned, right? >> That's next. >> Uh do I hear a motion to adjourn? >> Let's do it. >> Dr. Herring offers a motion enthusiastically. Do I hear a second? I'll second. All those in favor? Passes unanimously. Thank you everybody.