001Order. Notices for the meeting were properly posted and provided to those who requested direct notification. Let the record show that all board members are present with the exception of Dr. Maples and Miss Huqua. We will begin with a prayer led by Mr. Young, followed by the pledge which I will lead. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight asking for your blessing and your guidance as we uh conduct the business of our school systems. We ask that you uh lead us and guide us in your like kindness and uh just lead us through the through the days to come leading up to the new school year coming up here in a few months. Fast in your name. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
002republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Board, we have an agenda before us. Do I hear a motion? I'll Mr. Hillyard offers a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Mr. Young offers a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes. We will now have our superintendent report. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um it's great to have such a group of students here tonight joining us in the summertime even. So, thank you for taking time out of your summer to be here. Uh first, we would like to recognize the robotics team. Um and I know I need this, right? Okay. Tonight, I would like to recognize the achievements of the Limestone County Schools Robotics Team, Team 34. The Rockets is
003a robotics team comprised of high school students from all over Limestone County and Athens City school systems that collectively attend the Career Tech Center. Team 34 is a first robotics team. FIRST means for inspiration and recognition of science and technology. FIRST is an organization that combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Team members call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate sport for the mind. And I can say that I always enjoy going and watching the competitions. Everybody's, you know, going back and forth to their stations and their centers getting everything ready for the next competition is pretty highpaced and and very intense. At the Rocket City Regional in Huntsville in March, team 34 was awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award, which celebrates outstanding success in advance advancing respect and appreciation for engineering
004within a team, school, and community. One of the team sponsors, Miss Monica Hobson, was awarded the Rocket City Regional Woody Flowers Finalist Award at the competition. This award honors the mentor that best inspires their students not only in STEM but in life. As the team posted on their Facebook page, "Miss Hobson is beyond deserving of this prestigious award." In April, team 34 competed in the Bayou Regional in Louisiana and competed very well in the qualifying matches. They were then selected by the number two team to be on their alliance and competed in the playoffs. team members participated with their alliance mates and made it all the way to the finals. They ended up losing after three grueling matches, best two out of three wins, but taking second place in the very competitive Bayou Regional was
005quite an accomplishment. In addition, the team was awarded the impact award for the second year in a row. This is the most prestigious award a team can win at any regional. It honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of first. With the following team, 34 members come forward when I call your name. I would like all team members to join me for a group picture along with Miss Hobson. Mr. Damon Ferris could not be with us tonight. Um but um he sends his regrets of course. And I will say the school board um they actually budget some money that um we put aside for each school and so they're always able to help um with the trip that team 34 takes as well. So
006thank you for for doing that. Okay, first we have Hayden Brown. We have Jonathan Browning. [Applause] Eli Clark, [Applause] Whitby Collins, Luke Durham. [Applause] Caleb Garcia, [Applause] Cooper Griffin, Anna Paige Hammonds, [Applause] Sam Hilton. [Applause] Congratulations, Daryl Higgins, [Applause] Landon Hooks, [Applause] Don't win. Congratulations. Alex Horn, [Applause] Marcus McIntyre, [Applause] Caleb McDaniel, [Applause] Scarlett Moore. [Applause] Tony Morelli, [Applause] Kale Olmstead, [Applause] James Pearson, [Applause] Logan Reing. Rling really. Congratulations. Thank you everyone. Michael Shaver, [Applause] Solomon Ciphford. [Applause] Congratulations, Ava Smith. [Applause] Chloe Smith. Camden Strickland. [Applause] Good job. You did. Yeah. Good job. Yeah. I promise it was intentional. Wesley Wasserberger. Congratulations, TJ Wilson. [Applause] Turn around. TJ, turn around. I was just like picture right there. [Laughter] And of course, Monica Hobson, thank you for everything you do for our students here. We really
007appreciate it. Industrial mentor. All right. Great. Thank you for helping us out. And then, of course, this is for Damon as well. So, we're going to try to get a picture. So, we may have to double stack here if you don't mind. Yeah. Tall folks in the back. Yeah, we need to bring them back here. I don't know actually. Um, go back towards that. Yes. Let your tall people get back here like you need to be back here. the Red Sea. All right. There we go. Am I good? behind you. So this all really appreciate your work. her season should be right. Good job. I'm so jealous of them. I would have loved their rocket team. I would have loved A lot of these are college. Okay, now we have the 2025 Top of Alabama
008Regional Public Safety Competition. In April, cadets from the Career Technical C Center's public safety program competed with other students from across the state in the firefighting portion of the top of Alabama regional public safety competition. Broken down into teams, these firefighting students suited up in full fire gear and ran obstacle courses, all while carrying a hose and a 185 lb mannequin fire victim. The cadetses earned a first place finish in the competition. Tonight, I would like to recognize those students along with their instructor, Deputy Keith Pepper, with the following fire cadets. Please come forward. Lily Patterson. [Applause] Okay, pretty good. Very good. We'll get a picture. Here he is. Yep. And Deputy Keith Pepper. So, real quick, none of this could happen without our partnership with Athens Fire. So, Captain Patterson, please come down. Without
009his help and these cadet help, three hours a week after school hours, they put in work at the fire station. We can't do all this in the classroom. I don't have the time. So without their leadership and their help and their partnership, none of this can happen. And this year we got seven cadetses going to Atlanta, Georgia for the first time ever. We swept every competition in public safety. Awesome. So if you got a generous heart, we need some money, Georgia. So that that's awesome. We have Lillian Hill, who's not here, right? And and then we also have Britney Harrington and Jeremiah Scott. And I would like to add that Lily was the highest scoring female firefighter at the State Skills USA firefighting competition, setting an example of resilience, dedication, and teamwork. She also organized
010the afterchool hours with the students. Just another example of her leadership skills. So congratulations [Applause] Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] That's awesome. That's awesome. You get to Thank you so much. Thank y'all so much. Thank you. At this point, we'll be doing um individuals who want to address the board. Got to read a little something before we start. Any individual desiring to speak shall stand and give his or her name and the group name if any that he or she represents. The presentation should be as brief as possible. In no event shall such address exceed three minutes. Speakers may make statements about their particular concern with the school operation and programs and shall observe appropriate decorum in doing so. The board will not hear comments regarding individual students or comments regarding school
011personnel or persons connected with the school system that are unrelated to the performance of their duties, not tied to official business of the board or merely an attack on someone's good name and character rather than their conduct or a position they have taken. Mr. Whit, you're our only person. If you'd like to come forward, we have a microphone right here at the table. Mr. W, I know you know how this works, but Miss Kilgore will be the timekeeper. Do you need this? Board members in front of you is some data which of which I previously shared some in the past. Some of it is not has not been shared. It's new. Based on the information in the packets, I hope you will review as you get time. I request that any vote on item 10
012tonight be tabled until such time after input from teachers, administrators, support staff, A.E.A. local and district leadership members, parents, and students are at the very least allowed to express their opinions concerning the superintendent's leadership and direction. this district is headed. Furthermore, I request the superintendent's contract not be renewed when a vote is taken for the following reasons. But first off, Dr. Herring was elected by a 70% supermajority, ousted a 20-year board member. District wants change. At least each limestone does. Our district is currently losing the competition for student enrollment. Limestone schools brick and mortar overall enrollment has decreased from 2021 to 2025. I've given you the data from the state department of education and anyone who tells you student enroll is up is lying to you. Please do not continue to let this false narrative
013be continued to justify further radical changes of reasonzoning and other decisions. The decision to reszone which I contend many as many other parents has previously stated was completely unnecessary and was done more to field buildings or capital projects than it was to help schools, communities and students. Alabama Connections Academy enrollment is supposedly up several thousand and consists of students from all across the state. However, these numbers are unverified. Academics state and federal report card numbers are down. They're up from last year to this year, but down from three years ago. We are outperformed by all surrounding districts and academics holding the lower state and federal report card grade. We hold the lowest in North Alabama, including in all subcategories, almost all subcategories than all surrounding districts and also below the state average. This also includes
014numbers with and without ALKA's numbers. All surrounding districts outperform Limestone schools in AAP. Our scores overall are lower than all surrounding districts. All this data is in your packet straight from the state. Lack of competent strategic planning for growth in the county. East Limestone and Clemens are the only two brick and mortar schools in areas have who have increased enrollment. Everybody else has dropped. Everybody knows that area has been growing. But even the numbers at East and Clemens don't make up for the loss in the district overall. By some data, it's 29 students less than 2021. By others, it's 70 less. The tech school is the shining star in the district, but for some reason, we got a lot of good idea fairy spreading good idea fairy dust there and is trying to ruin it.
015But math and English three years ago didn't work. Now we got science trying to force more people out there. Texas was a great thing. I just wish that the all 12 classrooms were not being used just for science and history administration. Unfortunately, the tech programs are not going to benefit as much. I personally experienced other things. I know Senator Orus contacted you, Dr. Shrauss, about lack of transparency and public documents. I've still not received the public documents I paid over $100 for. In conclusion, I'd again request that this board delay any vote until such time as stakeholders have had an opportunity to express their opinions and hope the board will find a new way forward because what we're doing is not working. That's time. Yes, ma'am. We cannot spend in capital project our way out
016of our current situation. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Hub, you are up next. seventh month in our fiscal year. So, we're 58% of the way through. If you look at our local revenue, we're at 22.9 million and that's 74% of what we did our sales tax. thatchil. So that's all getting moved over. If you look at our expenses there, we're at 58% right where we should be with expenses. If we look at our one month fund balance, our one month fund balance is 12.2 million. We're sitt our little chart for you guys. You can tell that we went up a little bit this year from March to April, which is really good. Sometimes we're completely flat. have any questions? No, ma'am. Hey, we're good. Thank you. Board, we have a consent agenda before us. Do
017I hear a motion? I'll offer. Mr. Kilgore offers a motion. Do I hear a second? Mr. Young offers a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes. Item eight. I'm sorry. Item seven, discussion approval of personnel action items. Do I hear a motion? Wait a minute. I'm trying to get there. Okay. Mr. Hillyard offers a motion. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Mr. Young offers a second. Mr. Chairman, is is the reading specialist that's listed here, is it at the central office or is it at in the schools? That reading specialist position, the reading specialists are located at the individual elementary schools. Okay. So, it's in the field. In other words, it's not non. Were you talking about the job description or the actual Well, I I was looking right quick
018uh at number seven and you know for personnel action it said listed reading specialist. I was assuming that was a a a position that we were setting up for that title, but that's an update to the job description, right? It's it's looking at that job description to change it from a nine month to a 10-month employee. So, our math coaches are already 10 month employees. Um, just being fair and consistent. The state has recommended that we go to to a 10-month contract because they have to work the summer program, there's a lot of data that they have to put into power school um showing for those kids that attend our summer program. And so, based on the recommendation of the state and coaches that are in the same building. So, we typically call them reading
019coaches, but their official title is reading specialist. They've been in their building since 2005. Okay. This is not a new position. It's just a new definition of an existing changing from 9 months to 10 months. And there was a few other things. We did change the name um just because Over the years, they were originally called reading coaches. Then they moved the name to literacy coaches, changed back to reading coach. The state has been for maybe the last five or six years called a reading specialist. So we did update that just to match what the state calls them. So really what we're doing is we're aligning ourselves with what the state is recommending and and trying to parallel that. Correct. Can we get funding for each position that A school that has any configuration of
020K3 receives an allocation for a reading specialist. Okay. And is that reading specialist funding allocation? Is it uh 100% or is it do we have to split that up? It depends on where they're at on the salary schedule. For most, it's a set amount for each reading specialist, but it just depends on, you know, if you got someone that's 30 years in the position and has a EDS degree, the district may a small portion, but other coaches that are 10 years, you know, we probably come out to a little bit on the good. So, you can use it over [Laughter] elaborate on that. But no, that's how it works. They give you like a set amount. It's it's 80. It's 80,000 per her reading specialist. And she's correct. So if you had a reading specialist
021that was um had their masters in five years, their total salary and benefits might not be 80,000. But if you had so that they had 20 years experience, right? So you would still have enough with your cover. So the amount would be out for that. Okay. So the intent is 100%. The intent is is 100%. So that's why across the state they looked at it and they give you a flat amount for Okay. Thank you ladies very much. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor. Motion passes unanimously. Item eight uh adoption of entire state approved list for the CTE Health Science Human Services Cluster Textbooks. Do I hear a motion? I'll offer a motion. Miss Kilgore offers a motion. Second, Miss Bqua offers a second. Any discussion? Why the
022entire state approved list? Yes, ma'am. We are science program. So we have a new teacher coming this time and so those we are going to allow her to review the text that she wants to use since she was not here instead of us making a decision on the she instructor within the next years then we could revisit the textbooks that are available for those courses that we would be adding to the So, we're approving all of them but not purchasing all of them. That's why we don't have a total on the how much it cost. That's what I was getting to. Okay. Well, makes better sense. Okay. Thank you. Got to vote loud now. Got a train. Any other discussion? [Music] Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Uh item nine, adoption and
023purchase of Biozone Anatomy and Physiology third edition 2023 textbooks. Cost of $41,846. Did I say everything right? Do I hear a motion? Can you Well, I'm sorry. Can we read it again? It train was here. I'll read it again. Okay. Last page. Yeah, it's the last item nine, adoption and purchase of Biozone Anatomy and Physiology third edition 2023 textbooks for a price of $41,846. Do I hear a motion? I'll Mr. Young offers a motion. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Miss Kilbore offers a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Item 10, renewed employment contract between Superintendent Randy Sher House and Limestone County Board of Education. Do I hear a motion? I'll Mr. Young offers a motion. Do I hear a second? I'll second. Miss Kilgore, Miss Both seconded.
024Any discussion, Mr. Mr. Chairman, I I I want to address based on the calls I got today. I did a little research and I discovered from assistant principles in my area. Uh I asked their opinion and their opinion was overwhelmingly for for us to extend the contract. looking at it from a business point of view. Now, we're not a business, but we're responsible for funds. Yes, sir. Looking at it from a business point of view, one of the things that a business wants is stability, what can they predict, what can they focus on in the future? and it allows them to uh project what they're going to buy, who they're going to hire, things of that nature. And um I believe after what I've heard today and I've heard a lot. I just want to
025say that as a personal comment. I've heard a lot today and uh and I I've had a chance to talk with uh numerous individuals. Uh, I'm I'm to the point I'm voting for the stability and the improvement we see right now in my schools, in our county, and I want to see us move forward and kind of put some of this to rest. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? passes unanimously. Item 11, adjournment. I'll offer offers. Thank you. Second. I'll second. Miss Kilgore seconds. All those in favor passes. I have no glasses.