001Testing. Testing. I'm sorry. If you would please stand as we offer prayer, then a pledge of allegiance. If you would join me in a moment of prayer. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for our many blessings. We thank you for the opportunity to gather this evening. We ask that you continue to bless our first responders, our military, our educators. We also ask that you keep the family of Eddie Seal in memory this evening. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Sher Tobert, if you would, please. Salute. Pledge. I pledge 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. This time, Miss Vernon, Sandra, if you would please call the role. Steve Ward, here. Sherry
002Tber, present. Jason Daniel, here. Kim Shazo here. Kathy Brown here. like to welcome everyone this evening and at this time I would ask if there's a motion to adopt the agenda. If you've all had a chance to look at it, do I have a motion? Second move. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor, please say I. I. I. This time, believe Lisa Bright, Councelor Brightite, if you're here, if you'd like to speak this evening. Sure. Thank you. you. Thank you for allowing me to be here tonight. Um, and thank you for the prayers for the Seal family. Wanted to make a statement on behalf of the mayor and city council. Um, our deepest sorrows as the as Eddie Seal passed away this past weekend. And, um, great leader and servant heart for the
003city. Um, of course, Barbara, a longtime employee of Trustful City Schools, um, he'll be greatly missed. And just please keep that family in your prayers as they walk through um, these next steps of their grief journey. Um, on a on a similar note, we know we we keep having these storms in Trustful. So, we had like five roads that were closed or partially blocked over the weekend for the storm. So, public works is doing their best. They worked all day Saturday, all day Sunday to get those roads cleaned up as best we can. So, please be patient with them as they're continuing to get the trees cut. Power, I think power is completely restored, unless there's somebody in here that still doesn't have power. It was it was a lot bigger storm than we anticipated.
004So thankful for our public works people. If you see them, honk your horn and wave at them. Uh they're working really hard. We've had two storms back to back and it it really puts us behind in normal services. So please be patient with that. We do have council tomorrow night. Um I will say that we have removed the garbage fee from our agenda. So if you were planning on coming and speaking on behalf of that, that has been removed. We um also have leadership trustful which if you've never uh considered being a part of that we would en encourage you to do the application process that will be through the end of June. You can apply the nine-month program. It's fantastic program. Teaches you all things about Trustful, the history things going on. I went
005through it the very first year and I've lived here for 36 years and I learned a lot. So encourage you to do that. It's leadershipful.org if you're interested in participating in that program. And I think that's all that I have. So, thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Martin. All right. This this is one of our favorite board of education meetings and I look out into the crowd at at so many of our valuable employees and and we really have a chance to celebrate those of you that will be retiring uh at the conclusion of this past school year. So what I'm going to do to start is bring up principles uh from I'll start with you Dr. Faustst if that's okay uh with Magnolia Elementary School. So, Dr. Faustst is going to speak
006on several of our Magnolia Elementary School retirees, but uh Dr. Fast is also going to be retiring uh effective June 1st. Correct. I did call Dr. Faustst. Um I called her on Friday at 5:30 and I believe that was on May 30th. Am I correct? Yes. Because what Dr. Fa shared with me was that she was going to be retiring on June 1st, which was a Sunday. So, I reminded her that since her retirement was effective on the 1st, I would see her Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. And then also on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. Yes. No, we we didn't. She said, "I'll be there. Give me a call 30 minutes before you head that way." So, which was good. You know, Dr. Faustst, I'm not going to go through all of these. And and
007and Dr. FA started teaching science back in the 1900s. Correct. I guess I did. That's right. Had a chance to then be an assistant principal and then principal at the middle school, stepped to the ALC. And probably the thing I would say most proud of is the culture, climate, and family that you have created there at Magnolia Elementary School. So we congratulate you and thank you Dr. Faustst. I think we have a Yes. All right. Principal retiree Dr. Phyllis Fast. [Applause] I'll be happy too. Thank you, Dr. Martin. Yes, I randomly chose June 1. I'm just going to tell you. I didn't look at the calendar. Um, so I apologize for that, Dr. Martin. Uh, but you know, it was the first of the month, so that's that's what I went with. So anyway, uh
008I will tell you that this is the second um going on the second week of retirement for me and um it's going quite well. Going going very well going very well just so you know. Um, so at Magnolia, I am very proud of the culture that we have created and I know that it will continue. And so we are looking at Miss Cindy Burns. And I don't think Cindy is she at the she's at the beach. I think that's what I heard. But Cindy uh Burns, I was very proud of everything that she accomplished at Magnolia. She is a fantastic first grade teacher and I think that it is only fair to to tell you about Cindy in the fact that she has done several things within our school family. One of the things that
009she did was took over the at the end of the school year our celebration and we had the luau and so we hulaed and we did all kinds of things but it was because of Cindy and the way that she continued with that um end of the year celebration. And then the second thing which I am really most proud of is our journey through the genres. uh she wanted to kick up our reading program at Magnolia and she did. She basically thought this up on her own and hey, I'm I'm good. Let's let's go with it. And so basically, we looked at each um genre and our kids, we upped our reading and it was just it was fantastic. So, I'm sad that she's here uh not here tonight, but I do want you to
010can we hear a round of applause for Cindy Burns? Now, Wendy man I taught with back in oh my goodness back in the junior high days. And Wendy uh is a fantastic I don't see her here. Oh, there Wendy Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you're here. Now, let me tell you why. I'm so glad because Wendy does not like all the pomp and circumstance. So, I did not think you were going to be here. So, I'm very proud of you. Uh, but Wendy and I did we taught together at the junior high and we we go back a long ways. And so, when she was going to come over in this to the gate world coming from special ed, I was super excited to have her at Magnolia. Even if it was only for
011part-time, I shared her with Lisa. And so, but we we loved Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays because she is an outstanding educator. and I know you're going to go on to do great and wonderful things. So, congratulations. And last but not least, Thomas Warren. Come on, Thomas. Yes. Now, Thomas will tell you every time I see him, I always told him one thing, and that was get to work. That's right, Thomas. And Thomas has been at Magnolia, and he has been a just a light. Uh, everyone loves Thomas. Thomas just does his uh working on the job. And as you may or may not know, but with we have three custodians at Magnolia this year, we only had two. And so, Miss Joy, who is now out with um she had to have foot surgery, Thomas
012really he held it all together. So, I didn't have to fuss on him too much. He doesn't listen to me anyway, so it really matter if I fuss or not. But Thomas Warren, everyone, you take a picture, Mr. Would you take a picture with I know April's coming over. You go to the middle and that's the privilege. All right. Our our next building that we'll be looking at for retirees is Payne Elementary School and uh their principal, Dr. Lisa Lbike, if you'd come forward. Dr. Lost Bike will be retiring at the end of this month as well as a principal. Started in 2004 as a third grade teacher and then quickly moved into the math field supporting the school system in math. And and I think several of you may have seen this, but we
013recognized Payne Elementary School with a class banner award that they received uh in the area of math. And I know you were very proud of that. something you've worked very hard on. Um I I think that your uh your work in the area of math for trustful city schools uh will resonate here for many years to come. So we are very appreciative of you and your leadership at Payne Elementary School. So Dr. Lisa Laspike, principal and then I know that um I know that Janet's not here, but do you want to say a couple of words to Janet please? Please. Yes, I would like to. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Martin. Um, first of all, it's been a joy and a privilege to work for Trustful City Schools, and I have seven of the reasons
014that I'm retiring sitting out there, all those little people back there. And so, um, I'm going to be shifting from principal to Mimi. So, I'm really excited about that. Um, I wanted to take a minute. Janet Curley is also retiring and um she couldn't be here tonight, but I wanted to say a few words about her because she was such an important part of our school. She worked the front desk. So when you came into pain, that's who you saw. She was the face of Pain Elementary. That's what I always called her. But I want to describe her a little bit. She was the calm in the storm with 1300 plus students. She just kept everything so calm up there. It didn't matter what was going on. She was the voice on the phone you
015could count on. She followed up on everything and just did everything beautifully. She was the welcoming smile at the front desk. She knew everyone's name. I don't know how she did it, but she knew everyone's name. Um, she was also the funniest person I know. Just hysterical. Kept us all laughing. And she was the heart of our office. So, as great of a job as she did, her kindness and compassion just uh was just beyond that. She knew if you were having a stressful day, she knew. She was very intuitive. She wouldn't ask you anything. She'd just come grab you and give you a hug and she would even kiss you on the forehead. She used to do that to me all the time. And so she just kissed me on the forehead. And so,
016um, she's going to be greatly missed by Pain Elementary. And I'm super proud of her. So, a round of applause for Janet Curley. I would love to Absolutely. With the seven reasons that Dr. Please come forward. Yes. Seven of eight. Seven of eight. Okay. All right. Yeah. You all still have them. Take a Yeah, that's right. That's right. They're all yours now. A great picture of the family here. [Applause] All right. I'm going to ask uh Joy Tiner, principal at Kahaba Elementary School, if she would come forward and share with our retirees from Kahaba. Yes, I think we have three here tonight. And all three of these ladies were pivotal um with setting the culture at Kahaba. They were with me when we opened that building in 2016. So I'll start with Miss Angela Sharter.
017Um she is a kindergarten teacher. Um and she was my teacher. Um the majority of the experience that I had in leadership was with Upper Elementary. I didn't know much about kindergarten or first grade at all. I did my best to ask questions and sit in classrooms so I could hear the heart and mind of an early childhood educator. And Angela gave me a chance to learn. Um many of you know that not only did students in her classroom learn um breeding readiness and phmic awareness and numerousy, they learned all about birds, they learned about gardens, they learned about life cycles, and they had impeccable behavior when they left her classroom. So, um she taught us how much fun learning can be. And um we I I am pledging to keep that passion going in
018our kindergarten to where our students have a love of the great outdoors and carry on your heart for early childhood education. Thank you, Angela. So, Linda Odum um taught second grade. I know she you taught other grades too, but to me, you've only been a second grade teacher. And she served on our teacher leadership committee. She has been my prayer partner and a standin mom for countless numbers of young teacher mamas. She's been the voice of reason for nervous parents. She's changed the hearts of countless numbers with her hugs. Linda's wisdom and wit and our conversations about the best shoes for people our age will live in the halls of Haba for many many years. Not only in our hearts, but through all your former students and student interns that now teach because of you.
019And I think one of your former students is actually moving into your classroom. So, thank you, Linda, for giving so much of your life to education and to others. Thank [Applause] you. And last but not least, our fantastic cafeteria manager, food, nutrition, soup, whatever they call you. We all call her Miss Peggy. Peggy Rinholes. Um, Miss Peggy transformed a boxy cafeteria space into a happy, inviting place for children, staff members, and Kahaba parents. So, after a particularly challenging day finding spaces for all our parents and grandparents to sit while joining their students from lunch, I had a conversation with Peggy. because I felt like our cafeteria had turned into the hottest lunch place in town and we couldn't keep up. We were pulling tables out in hallways and everywhere else. So, she was she was
020always good. She always stayed on schedule. The food was always great. She always got that 100 on those health department checks. But that's not why people loved our cafeteria. And it was because Miss Peggy, always free with compliments, always encouraging, and all those smiles that she gave to all 544 of our students and teachers. So, thank you, Peggy, for treating everyone so well and making Kahaba such a special place. We love [Music] you. Yeah. ladies. Thank you. Our next school is Huitt Trustful Middle School. And um I I do want to mention unfortunately this evening Jared Me is not able to be here. Please keep the mess families and your their family in your thoughts and prayers if you would. Uh standing in for Mr. Me is Aaron Maguire and she's going to represent us
021for the middle school. All right. So, I get to speak about Miss Barbara. And um if you've ever been in a middle school, she could probably tell you some great stories about what she has seen inside of a middle school in almost her 20 years. We were talking earlier that she's come with us from the old middle school, which is now Kahaba, into our current building. Um so, she's traveled with us for a long time. Um, what I want to say about Miss Barber, besides just being an excellent employee and giving all that she has and working very, very hard for us, is that she loved people, that she loved the staff, that she was very concerned about our kids. Even to this day, she still asks about our kids, um, our spouses, our pets,
022our just everything about our life that she really was someone that truly loved being at the middle school, not just for the kids, but also for us as adults and checking in on us. So, Miss Barbara, if you come on up and receive your plaque, congratulations on your retirement. [Applause] Thank you, M. All right, we have uh Huitt Trustful High School and Mr. King is at a conference this week. Uh so he is not able to be here. But I would ask Miss Joy Young if she would come forward please. Just looking through Miss Young's resume here. She has been in the business of business. Wouldn't you agree? Taught business for several years. stepped into an academic role as the director of academics and then has been our CTE director since 2012. Um I I
023would say one of the highlights I'm sure for Miss Young um is what she's done with our CTE program. I actually received a phone call from an area superintendent who they also have STEM certification through Cognia and so he was very excited about that. But his next comment was well now we hope that can translate into wonderful programs like you have in CTE. So we are known in not just the Birmingham area but statewide for having a wonderful excellent CTE program. And that is something that you, Miss Young, have worked very hard to build. So, I congratulate you on that. One other thing that I would like to say, and this was something that predated me, but we had an opportunity at the high school to honor Miss Young. And so many teachers stood up
024and thanked her for when the ship was a little rocky, she grabbed the steering wheel and she directed the ship to shore. And I think she deserves a round of applause for All right, I'm going to get this picture. [Music] All right. Next, we have our transportation department. And I'm going to ask Mr. Kirkland if he would come forward. Come on up, Dell. Um after several years uh with us now uh Mr. Posey has uh decided to run out on us. Um no he um he has been a transportation director for um about 10 years now and um has done an absolute phenomenal job. um when I uh was interviewing and and I actually reached out to to Dell and asked him if he'd be interested and of course had to talk him into it
025a little bit. I did a caveat and I said he might have to drive a route here or there. Um I oversimplified that by a stretch. Um, what a lot of people doesn't know is that Dale D usually drives a route in the morning, works his shift, and then drives a route in the afternoon. So, you know, the summers we do 410s and and Dell kind of laughs at that because he does way more than that. Uh, but that's Dell. He's always done so much uh beyond what is necessary. uh he has become he became an advocate for his drivers, his mechanics uh and the students that he carries. Uh he has so much pride in the kids that they bring to school and take home safely and it it is truly a mission for
026him and uh he's become a friend and uh I'm going to miss him a lot. Um but uh he's done a phenomenal job for Trustful and um please uh join me in a round of applause. [Applause] All right. Well, I appreciate it. We have a few other retirees. Mr. Mr. Massie is actually our shop foreman and his retirement date is the end of August, but he's at state conference right now. And their drivers we have retired and oddly enough, we hit a middle school, a high school, and an elementary school um at each one of those. So, Miss Sison is the only driver that's here today, but uh Mr. Duncan is a Kahaba driver. Um, and these folks, uh, if I was a teacher and an assistant principal, so I kind of went through the
027whole thing, but driving a bus and getting up when nobody else is up and moving around. And, uh, Mr. Duncan also works another job in another system, it's just just this side of the world was not what I expected it to be. And it's pretty impressive what what these folks do. Um, but Mr. like I said, Mr. Duncan's at Kahab Elementary School and he is not here this evening. Let's get Mr. Duncan, a round of applause, [Applause] please. Mr. Pardington is a high school driver, and if you want to know the latest route we have, you would just follow Mr. Pardington back to the high school at about 5:00 p.m. every afternoon. He would come rolling in, which was the route I luckily got to drive a bunch because he had to retire on medical
028leave. So, that was me coming in every afternoon at 5:00 p.m. But he was a guy that left. I don't know what time the man left. No matter what how early I got to work, he was already gone. So, um, Mr. Partington was a high school driver. Those guy, he he went they just they they they carry like 20 kids, but his rout's two hours long because not a lot of high school kids ride. So, um, Mr. Parton's a great guy, just like Mr. Duncan, hs driver, uh, Bob Partington. All right, Mrs. Sison, come on up. Mrs. Sison, she is here this evening. I know this is going to make noise. It's hard squatting over. So, Miss Sissen is a middle school driver. She's also an early bird. Um, I have lots of stories for
029her. Most of them are good. She she got uh back before we were all air, all of our buses are air conditioned now. Thank you, Mr. Kirkland and Dr. Martin. Um, but before that, it was based off of length of route is how we end up doing it. So if somebody went on a field trip, they would take an air conditioned bus during the day for field trips just so you wouldn't be sweating your eyes out on the bus. Miss Sison, I don't know. I'm not a medical doctor, but I think she might have a touch of OCD in her body somewhere. She has a 2018 bus, and I'm telling you, if you went over and looked at it on the lot right now, you would have thought it just came off the showroom floor.
030She waxes the hood. She waxes the floor. I mean, am I lying? It a sub drove it one day and there was some trash on the floor and I came in the next morning and she was in the seat shaking. Uh, so I actually made a deal that because she kept her bus so clean, we didn't take her bus on field trips. Her bus stayed put because nobody could clean it as good as her. And to be honest with you, I don't want to listen to her complain about it. So, I made a deal. That was a pretty story, right? And then not not of personal information, but she lives in Trustful Springs. So sometimes a train will stop in Trustful Springs, right? So when I say to you, please don't crawl underneath that train
031to get to the bus to drive your bus. And you did it anyway. She wasn't going to miss. I mean, I don't know that she ever missed to be honest with you. She had uh I've driven her bus on occasion when things have come up and I had to look up and see if there were kids on the bus. They were so dang good. It's unbelievable the control she has over these kids. Uh it's pretty impressive. So anyway, Rhonda says everybody [Applause] [Laughter] Oh, and by the way, it means stop. [Music] All right. I we have one more individual to recognize from the board of education. But before I do, I would invite everyone that's here if you would like. We're going to have a short reception after the board meeting uh for all of
032our retirees. Uh which looking at our retirees, they're saying you need to move through this board meeting pretty quickly. So, we'll make sure we do so and then have a short reception to honor you afterwards. Uh, our last individual, our last retiree from the board of education is Dr. Cheryl [Applause] Gilbo. All right. I actually printed off your resume here, Cheryl, because I wanted to share just a couple of aspects from this. Um, I've said this more than once, but uh, Dr. Gilbo does have a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University, LSU. If you go into her office, you would know that. Um, she is an outstanding special education director. And so when I saw they were building a walk-ons right next to our board of education with a window overlooking it and the scent
033of Cajun food coming towards our office, I began to be a little bit concerned. Um, being from LSU, wonderful Cajun food, I was concerned that you would be looking at retirement and heading back that way, which I think that you are correct. Dr. Gilbo has countless degrees. She has worked for NASA. She has a doctorate from Vanderbilt University. Cheryl, I believe you could have done anything in this world that you would have liked to and you dedicated a 30 plus career to students with special needs and I think that says everything that you have to say. I think that your heart is in that area. You've had meetings with parents, uh, parent advisory committee meetings in the area of special needs. It truly is your heart and it has been our blessing in Trustful City
034Schools to have you leading that department. Thank [Applause] you. Again, to all of you, the retirees, thank you for all of your service. We appreciate you very much. I believe at this time it's time for our financial report. Mr. Kirkland, [Music] sorry, had to get my eyes on. I thought the cake was for those who made it through the financial report. We might be on might be on to something here. Um, actually this month uh due to uh the early board meeting, I don't have our normal monthly uh financial report uh to bring to you. We'll have it at at our next um board meeting. Uh however uh uh we are bringing our budget amendment to you tonight and as normal um the budget amendment is usually norm kind of minor kind of small uh
035there are a few things that we have to do uh in order to um present the budget back to the state department. Basically, uh, as we'll see in the next couple of months, uh, we'll be having budget hearings for the next fiscal year. Uh, so, uh, we we bring to the board a a budget recommendation before the current fiscal year has ended, uh, which is natural. So after the fiscal year has ended uh we have to amend the budget to bring forward those ending balances into uh the current year. So that's the main reason for a budget amendment is to bring the 24-year ending balances into the 25 year budget. Uh also there are funds that we received from the state department that at the point in time we did the original budget uh we
036either didn't know about or u hadn't had the applications approved or or various reasons that they were not in the original budget. So we have uh several situations uh like that. Uh and then just some minor tweaks here and there. Uh I will say uh again very little uh uh adjustments to revenues or expenditures. Um payroll we're running right at 2% of budget. Actually a little bit less than 2% of budget. So uh I didn't really see a need to significantly change that. Um so that'll be uh pretty good ending. revenues. We have um uh sales tax is a little lower uh than budgeted. Um not by much but some. Alorum is right on budget and but we also have some other um revenues that are coming in above budget which kind of washes all
037of that. So really I didn't tweak uh revenues that much. Um and I know this is very small and I'm sorry. Um but one thing you will uh notice in the general fund column which basically is the operation of the school district um revenues at $64 million uh expenditures at 69 other uses of five for a um uh a use or expenditure of $11 million over revenue. And that's usually uh kind of uh obviously not normal, but if you'll go ahead to the next slide, please, April. Um this is um a a three-year comparison of our fund balance. And it'll kind of explain just like I said, uh one of the reasons why we have to do a budget amendment is when we receive funds from the state, uh that was not in the original
038budget. And if you look at the um 2425 budget um we had uh budgeted um ending at $26 million but if you look at the actual right in the middle the net change was 11.5 million which mean we had that much money rolling over into the current year. So now if you look at the 2526 budget, you see we have a deficit of 11.1 million. So basically it it we're spending what we received last year, if that makes sense. Um, so but if you look at the bottom balance, you know, um, we went from basically $26 million to $28 million, which is right on that fivemonth reserve, which we've talked about for many, many years that we're trying to maintain in in the general fund. Uh, and I'll say most of that money, the $11
039million is in two sources of funds. um ENT budget which is about $5 million and the $4 million from the Aworth grant for the softball. So that's nine of your $11 million uh right there. So that's unusual and that's why I wanted to point it out uh specifically just in case you had any questions there. Very good. Thank you. Um also uh each year um we are required by law to undergo a financial audit. Um it is a a process that takes um several months. Um we have people come in and look at the financials, look at uh legal compliance with uh various programs. And tonight I would like to introduce Jason Hart with Car Rigs and Ingram who will present to you the final uh report for our audit. Thank you, Jim. As Jim
040said, I'm Jason Harp. I'm with Carri and Ingram. I laid uh the financial statements, the draft at each of your place, and since I realized there's cake going on, I was going to go through all 71 pages, but I'm going to go kind of kind of short and hit some highlights and certainly entertain any questions that you may have. and is Jim did a great job of introducing that related to a financial statement audit. And if you'll turn to um page well it's not really page number maybe four or five pages in you will see a letter head uh that has a bunch of small writing on it and that's that's from us. That is our u audit opinion and it and we're doing an unmodified opinion which sounds unusual but that's what you want.
041you don't want us changing our opinion. And if you read through this, it really goes through a lot of the processes and procedures that we do in a financial statement audit. So, we do a lot of internal control testing, vouching, uh, analytical procedures, you know, asking a whole lot of questions, doing a lot of confirming, those type things. And this this this letter in this report kind of goes through that. You know, you'll hear that term audit. And you know there's materiality limits. We don't necessarily look at every single transaction that goes through. That's a different kind of audit. A financial statement audit has different things that we're really shooting for and aiming for. And that's this letter talks about that. The other thing I want to point out is if you'll flip page uh
042nine and forgive me for again for it being such a big u financial report. Governmental uh accounting is really unusual. It's not like corporate. There's a whole lot more that goes on with it, but we mainly live, and as Jim just pointed out, we mainly live in a fund world. So, you'll hear general fund and capital projects fund. And page nine is the fund income statement. And I kind of like to go when I'm doing these kind of highlight that. And in our case, really, the general fund is where we like to hang out and live a good bit. And you'll see we had a very healthy increase in the general fund during the year into 93024. We added about $11 million and that ended with about a $34 million uh general fund fund balance.
043That's very important. And I think if you work through the calculations and Jim may have done this probably with you, it's about six months of operating reserves. You're required to have 30 days. So you're you're certainly above that. And I think that's a testament to the board and to Jim and to Dr. Martin about fiscal responsibility. And that's kind of a hard thing in a government because you want to be able to, you know, do everything you need to do, but at the same time, you want to have some fiscal responsibility and health uh with your entity. And I think that's uh indicated by this. We're not necessarily given an opinion on that, but I think that's certainly important to know. And um lastly, way back in the back on page 64, we release uh
044a letter we call required communications. And I think if you're reading through this uh it's helpful to to go through this letter because it tells you a lot of things we do again in a financial statement audit there is uh you know we've had no disagreements with Jim there's a whole lot of estimates that are involved in in one of these audits and and even in your financials for instance pensions tons of estimates go into pension accounting you know you don't want to it gets really complicated but mortality tables those kind of things your other postemployment benefit liability. Tons of things go into that. Health care costs. This this letter among other things kind of talks through that. You know, what's how estimates are involved in your financial statements and even goes through new pronouncements
045we have to go through. You know, each year things change and it talks about that. So, I think that's important, you know, this letter to go through those items. Um, and lastly, I certainly want to thank uh Jim and his staff. You know, an audit is, as he said, it's a pain. And God's got a sense of humor. Because over the past year and a half, I've been helping another over the mountain local government with some interim finance director duties. And one of the things they ask is, "Hey, can you handle the audit?" And I said, "Well, yeah, that's easy to do." And after about two weeks, I said, "This is the most irritating thing I've ever been through. They keep asking questions. They keep coming back wanting stuff I've already given them. I'm about
046to lose my mind. And after several decades of doing this, I finally realized on this side, this is not fun. So anyway, thank you, Jim, for having patience with us. And he's right. It's several months of a lot of a lot of questioning and bothering him. And really, you know, they have their daily job, so they've got to deal with that and then deal with us. So it it really, you know, um you've got a good finance department, and I appreciate that. and um and that is a very very critical thing uh in any kind of local government. You want good finance people. So anyway, I appreciate that and uh certainly appreciate everything the board does. So with that, I' I've condensed this 71 pages into a few minutes, but I certainly will take if
047you want to talk about government accounting, I'm delighted to stay here all evening and talk about that. But generally that is not a hot topic. But but anyway, I will answer any questions you might have though. No, we can talk about that over cake. Yeah. Yeah, that's I'm sure everybody would love to talk about gas 84. So anyway, thank you very much. Appreciate it. And to re reiterate, Mr. Kirkland and your staff, thank you. We appreciate this very much as always. Thank you. We're at the point now where we have a consent agenda. Everyone's had an opportunity to look at that. Does anyone Do I have a motion to adopt? I'll make a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second. All in favors, please say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. Motion carries. At
048this time, Dr. Martin, there's anything you'd like to bring up with just the only discussion for consent agenda. We have uh the approval of the budget amendment that Mr. Kirkland just provided. Uh a couple of bid renewals for facilities items such as janitorial, school lawn care, uh facility use agreements. You'll see several summer field trip requests. Do want to mention that uh Coach Walker has brought to the board of education um a renewal of our agreement with ATI which they provide uh sports therapy services. And then Miss Chamberlain has requested a uh an agreement here with ALT, which is the Alabama Leaders in Educational Technology. Essentially, what this will do is instead of each individual school system across the state of Alabama approving individual contracts with vendors, this is a a a source where we
049can all go and once agreement has been approved, we can access those through ALET. So, that's a a good service for us. But no, Dr. Ward that is uh consent agenda for the evening. Okay. Thank you. And we'll move on to personnel issues. All right. Uh items here under the personnel report. Uh members of the board can see we have a few retirements. Uh we have four recommendations of resignations. A resignation of supplement. Members of the board can see item number four there. Recommendations for transfer reassignment. Item five, recommendations for employments. You can see that our principles have been busy here already into the summer uh making recommendations for personnel requests for the various uh positions that they have open at this time, employee extra services agreement, recommendation for schedule change, a few coaching recommendations,
050and then recommendation for a leave of absence. Um, and so there is one item that I would like to speak to under the personnel report. Uh, but how about I do that after I answer any questions members of the board have? No questions on personnel report. Okay, good. Uh, there is one individual that I would like to uh to bring to the attention of the board who's here with us this evening. Uh back in the month of May, we had the opportunity to celebrate Coach Tanya Hunter and her family for the contribution that they made to Trustful City Schools. As you all know, Coach Hunter is moving into a administrative capacity serving as our assistant athletic director and supporting Coach Walker. It is it is my great pleasure here in the month of June to
051introduce our new girls basketball coach in the corner. I'm going to make her come up and she's probably not going to like that. Um her and her family. This is coach Kayla Alexander. She is our new girls basketball coach. If we can give her a round of applause. All right. Her husband is in the back and I know the two twins are here but okay they must be with Lorie Walker. Yes. All right. So I had asked Coach Walker if he would come up and tell us a little bit about Coach Alexander. Thank you. It's an exciting night for us. We want to welcome Coach Alexander family here. She comes with great experience the last decade. she part of the associate staff there and really have a vital role in all that they accomplish. So
052her her and her husband Tim and her family actually live here in Trustful. So as we went through the interview and talked with her, she said a lot of great things, but one thing that I wrote down, she said, "The goal of a high school coach is to impact the young people in the community, and there's no better place to do that than the place you go." So, coach, welcome. We're excited about season coming up and welcome to the HUS family. All right. I I was going to ask Coach Alexander to say something, but we have probably about 15 20 high school basketball players who are going to be uh joining us at 6:30. They have no idea who their new coach is going to be. So, I'm going to ask her reserve her comments
053for the team if that's okay. Thank you, coach. But that is our personnel report for the evening. Very good. We'll now move to new business. Approve. Approve personnel. Yeah, personel. Uh we'll need to move on this particular personnel. Do we have a motion to adopt the personnel report? I make a motion. I have a second. Second. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. Thank you. Congratulations. All right. Thank you, coach. New business. New business. All right. Item number one under new business is a recommendation to approve the 2526 TCS salary schedule effective July 1, 2025 as well as job description titles that match the new schedules. This is an action item that is a followup to one that we had in the month of May. It is sat now
054for 30 days. And now we bring that back to the board of education for final approval as well as implementation. Do I have a motion to adopt? Some have a second. Second. Any questions, comments? This is the lean frog, right? This is the lean frog. Yes. Very good. Yes. And some of the some of the surplus or some of the money that Jim was referring to that will be rolling over is going to go That's right. the salary step. Yes, that's correct. Did I have a motion to adopt? We did. We did. We did. Yeah. All in favor please I I any opposed hearing none motion carries. Believe we now I'll let you introduce a crane with okay we move to that Miss Crane Moore believe if you're with us right now if you have
055a report to make for us. Okay. So, I'm Ava Kramer from Alabama Association of School Boards and we partnered with the Trust City Schools to be an outside party to do the evaluations of your superintendent and CSFO. By law, they are required to have their evaluation presented in public unlike us that get to have them in private. So, we do have a virtual meeting beforehand. So, there are no surprises in public, which we did meet and discuss some of the scores and everything can follow along in another positive announcement. So the board also can leave com comments for the superintendent and the CSFO. It gives them feedback on how the well they're doing, which is the point of the evaluation. This is not a get gotcha situation. This is just probably feedback that we are
056on track that if there's areas that we need to change or strengthen. So it's positive feedback that lets them know how they're doing. Um so as we move along with Dr. Martin if we go to the rating scale as you're aware so we are looking for proficient that is meeting expectations he's doing all his job duties and he's doing them well so if you go to the next slide the overall rating from the board the superintendent was proficient so proficient is ex is good that is the best you know what we look for but in strategic leadership he did come out as accomplished which is the highest score and a couple of indicators for that just so you're aware is build a posit ive collaborative working relationship with the board to create a shared vision
057and establishes clear priorities of system goals and objectives that the comments I don't read them since they're individual and don't speak for the whole board but overall reading the comments all the board members who did share feel that they do have a positive and collaborative relationship with the superintendent for instructional leadership was proficient and I want to point out these proficient when I say that they are leaning towards accomplish they are just a tenth of a point way. So they are highcoring proficient ratings for instructional leadership. He does set clear, excuse me, district objectives, targets and high standards focused on goals for teaching and learning and collaborates with staff to ensure implementation of best practice for teachers and students. Um I reviewed your report card before I left today and as an a system that
058means you have a high achieving board and governing governance team. So that's congratulations for your system. Managerial leadership was proficient. Leverages system resource to attain their be their best use to support learning goals. Ensures the safety of staff and students by developing safety crisis emergency response plans and the systems security plan through the comments as read them. There's common theme of setting high expectations for your student achievement and for safety of all. Human resources leadership was proficient. I know in human resources, one of the areas that many systems, not not just Trust City Schools having is with teacher recruitment. Um, that's something we discussed during our virtual meeting. That is an ongoing process that the board and the superintendent will continuously be looking at, especially at this time when we do have a deficit with
059students going into education. If you're not aware that uh education in colleges is really low, so we don't have a lot going into it. But as human resources leadership, he engages system leaders as a professional learning community to advance the systems goal and strategic plan. It advises system and school needs regarding recruiting and hiring new staff. Climate engagement leadership uses multiple sources of feedback to create and maintain a positive environment and climate for the system. Monitors the climate of the environment uh in individual schools and throughout the system. I understand that uh Dr. Martin is seen a lot in the community and is actively involved in numerous clubs and um was seen about quite everywhere. So for the superintendent overall score is a high proficient. Does the board have any questions for the superintendent before
060I move on? Okay. Also Mr. Kirkland had his evaluation as a CSFO. He had the same rating scale and we are looking for proficient. Before I start the CSO evaluation, I'd like to remind everyone that a CSFO is not made in college. In college, you receive the finance or accounting background and then you come back and if you become a CSFO, you then have to go through a certification program. So, it's on. So, you're learning as you work and you're going to school and getting certification and it's a continuous one. So as we go forward for the next for the categories, his overall rating was accomplished and I'll go through three categories for fiscal leadership. The highest just a few things I want to point out. Monitors analyze the system budget and financial information monthly
061and keeps the superintendent board fully informed of the systems financial position. assist the superintendent to align resources to support the systems vision and goals and audits received and unqualified opinion. Her collaborative leadership communicates with department heads in planning and managing specific budgets and projects. maintains clear consistent open communication with principles and school staff to ensure they understand financial policies and practices and professional learning to keep this certification for as a CSFO improves professional knowledge and skills by participating in and in and completing annual financial training specifically attaining and maintaining CSFO certification and demonstrate skill in planning organizing and prioritizing job duties in a timely manner. So the overall score was accomplished. So what I'd like to leave with you today is know that your superintendent from the board is proficient leaning towards accomplished in his
062duties and the CSFO is accomplished which is a positive evaluation. Do you all have any questions? No thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. Just as a uh followup to this again, Dr. Martin, thank you for everything that you've done and doing for us. Mr. Kirkland, thank you for everything. We appreciate everything that you're doing. So, with that, move on to our next item and have a resolution to the uh superintendent's contract. Okay. And I I'd like to thank Miss Cranmore. Um, appreciate you. Uh, handled that very well in what probably I think I speak for Jim is the most awkward moment of our school year as we appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. So, um, moving on to the next item. I think this has to be the This is an item that
063the board of education initiates and requires no superintendent's recommendation. The next two items. Yes. Right. So, it'll take a motion and a second from the board. All right. Thank you. We'll move on with that. We'll go to I can do I can do it. Well, I mean, first of all, just I mean, we we've had a a very positive night tonight. We've had a very good audit um and with no opinion which I think is is I don't think we appreciate how unique that is because we get one every we get it every year but that is because Jim is just so good. So I I commend you and thank you for that and also getting the evaluations tonight. I mean it's just a fabulous just a just a testament to to the hard work
064that's going going into our that our CSFO does and his team. Um and then the same the same being for our superintendent. I mean y'all like we know where we've been and we know where we are and we know where we're headed and it's just oh like again I think that we are all just so grateful and just so glad to be where we are. So um so thank you for your leadership and we're very appreciative of that. So I would move that with that that um I know that Mr. Coven has drafted us up a new contract. Um I think it is certainly well deserved to to give these two gentlemen a well we'll start with Dr. Martin first I guess. um that we give him a a a meritbased raise and then and
065then make some tweaks to his contract. So I would I would move that we um approve the resolution that has been prepared and you've all seen um and put that into effect. Are you making you're making a motion? I'm making the motion. Yeah. Okay. I'm seconded. And I want to say too this you know you made the statement this is awkward. It's in public and who else has their evaluations done in public? But it's a very thoughtful process and I'm sure I speak for the rest of the board. I mean I really took my time on that and one thing that stuck out stuck out to me and said it's not an evaluation of the school system but it has to go hand in hand. You know it's an evaluation of your leadership skills and
066all that but it's also evaluation of how it looks working and I we appreciate your leadership Jim. I mean and you thank goodness you had Jason right behind you tonight lifting you up. So that was a great thing. But thank you and it's a pleasure to work with both of y'all. So second from me. So is that a vote? We take Yeah, that's a motion and a second. Second. All All in favor say I. Any oppose? Hearing none. Motion to carries. Again, thank you gentlemen very much. All right. We do also approve a resolution for the contract for chief financial officer. We need to carry that. Make a motion. Do we adopt that? I'll move to adopt that. Second. I second it. All in favor, please say I. I. Very good. Motion carries, Mr. Kirkland.
067Thank you. Administrative reports. Dr. Martin. Administrative reports and and we're continuing with uh sharing out on various departments across the school system. And so this evening we have Coach Lance Walker who is going to be sharing with our athletic department. Coach Walker. Thank you, Dr. Mark. We had a great year this year. Really proud of all our student athletes for all they accomplish our coaches. You know, since the filming of this video, we actually still one of our baseball players baseball last night. Fortunately, we have the very talented Chad Summers who put this together for us. Go ahead and play that. This is Walker, athletic director with Trathth. Let's take a look at some of our highlights now. Varsity cross finished third at best finish since 2011. The girls varsity cross country team finished fifth
068at state. their top eight finish for the eighth consecutive year. In varsity football, the Huskys qualified for the playoffs for the 10th time in the last 11 years. The seventh and eighth grade football team won the Metro Championship, going undefeated in the process. Varsity girls flag football went 13-2, advancing to the state semifinals. and the volleyball team had more wins than any other Huitt Trustful team in the last decade. In winter sports, the varsity basketball team won their 20th game for the first time since 2007. The seventh grade girls basketball team won the Metro Area Championship. In varsity girls bowling, they qualified for the state tournament and the middle school girls bowling team were metro champions. The varsity boys indoor track team finished third at state. The varsity girls indoor track team also finished third
069at state. In wrestling, the wrestling team finished fifth. It was their 13th top eight finish in a row. The middle school cheer team finished second at nationals in Orlando, Florida. In spring sports, the varsity baseball team won the area championship and were also ranked in the top 10 nationally. The varsity softball team advanced to postseason play for the seventh year in a row. The middle school softball team won the metro area [Music] championship. In varsity girls golf, our ladies finished third at [Music] state. The varsity boys track team finished third at state as well. And here at Trusty Middle School for the first time ever, won the all sports trophy in the Metro Conference. Sean Osmo was awarded the 7A football assistant coach of the year. and softball coach Taylor Burke won her 300th game
070at Huitt Trust [Music] Bowl. Special thanks to our board of education, superintendent Dr. Martin, school administrators, coaches, and everyone in the city of Trustful that supported the Huskys this year. Our teams are already hard at work preparing for the fall, and we hope to see you soon. Go Huskys. [Music] This is Lance Walker, athletic. Any questions for Coach Walker? Okay. All right. Thanks, Coach. All right. The uh the last administrative report that we have um for this evening, we've shared this with the board of education. This is something that I'm I'm pretty excited about. Um, April Chamberlain and her team have been working very hard on a new website that will go live tomorrow. Correct. So, it's it's gone it's gone live as of now. Okay. So, I know that you have a video that
071you're going to show as well on the new website and and let me share. I usually do a postboard meeting video for the community and both of these videos will find a way to make sure this gets into the uh social media of the community of Trustful. So, Miss Chamberlain, well, we were a little late on the video, so I'm your live video for today. So, the video is actually coming out tomorrow. Um, so we are changing our URL. So, typically we've been trustfulityschools.com, which is really long. Um, and so we have shortened that to tcsk12. US and I want to point out the US because from Mississippi uh dot another one is from North Carolina. There's a lot of TCS's school districts around. So we are tcsk12. us. If you still type in trustfulschools.com
072by tomorrow it will still it will redirect you to our current our new site. So I just wanted to take a moment to show you some highlights of our new site. And so we are live here on the screens that you see. Uh we wanted to keep it very similar to what we've had in the past. So we've got some great pictures that are going to scroll through. Underneath we have our icon panel of those are the top things that our parents ask us for such as athletics, the calendar, the quick links into all software that the students need, what's for lunch that day, powers school for grades and registration which we are in new student registration right now and we will start returning students um in a few weeks. We all have our great
073mission statement and seven pictures that encapsulate what the district and each school's page mimics what the district is. So you'll see seven pictures that encapsulates the school. Underneath the pictures, you will see news and announcements such as the award that we're the 2025 best communities for music education. Also, if you advance to the next one, our in the loop newsletter that goes out each week, you'll be able to find that easily on our web page looking at what's the quick summary and the highlights and to read the entire in the loop. You'll click this button here. We also Mr. uh Dr. Martin mentioned about the board summaries. So, each one of these not only will be on the main district web page, but also will be located on the schools pages. So, we'll make sure
074that everyone gets to see those opportunities. And then we have our upcoming events for parents and students. The most critical place for you is across this red bar at the top where it says students and families. So everything that families need are navigated on this page. You'll notice we have the popup for watching tonight's live board meeting right here. So I'll close that. And every school, like I said, mimics the district page. So they have students and families also that's specific to their school information. So this is the hub for everything you need from the athletics, the arts, uh themies, information about attendance. One thing I want to point out that's pretty interesting with this new site is if you click on calendars on the district page. Now on the school pages, it just shows
075the schools calendar, but on the district page, you can find the printable version of our next two years calendar, but we were able to pull in all school calendars um over here on the left. So, I'm going to go back to the month of May of May, which had a lot of events going on. So, if I was a family that had a child at Kahaba, the middle school, and the high school, and I wanted to see what all is going on in my kids' school life that that uh week or month, I can take off all or deselect pain and trustful uh pain in Magnolia because again, my students are at Gahaba Middle and High School. Say update calendar and it's going to filter and show me just the events at my children's schools.
076So I can now see what's going on at those schools. I can print it out and I can even subscribe to it so it will update me. So that's something unique to be able to see at a glance what's going on across all your children's schools. Uh you can get to it from that location or calendars here. So there's a lot of things you can find out uh from the students and families. One other thing I would like to highlight is the menu button in the upper right. So you can find out more about more specific information about our district. Um, so since we're at the board of education right right now, I wanted to click on that to show you. So if we click on board of education, you'll be able to see along
077the left side navigation where I can find out who are my board members and how to contact them. Our policy manual, the board meetings and minutes, and then office of superintendent, so how to contact Dr. Martin and Sandra Vernon. So all this information lives within uh the board of education site. So, please make sure to explore our website. Um, our school and district communication teams have been working hard on making sure the content is updated and pulled over. Um, but families, if you find something that um is not on the website, please let us know. We'll make sure to add that to us. And last but not least, we would love to invite anyone that's interested in joining our team to click our join the team button on this right hand side. is going to
078give a little more information about how what is important uh in our district with teaching and learning, student services operations, and even how to become a substitute teacher. And so we have that information along with job openings and descriptions and why you would love working for us in Trustful City Schools. So, thank you guys for letting us share this opportunity and move forward with a a new and updated uh website. And I I certainly appreciate April and the team just countless hours going through and making sure this is up to date. And so we're excited to roll this out tomorrow. I believe this time we have no one that has signed up to for public participation. With that in mind, do we have a motion to adjourn? Dr. Lost, your your grandchildren were the best
079behaved kids. Some had to skip out the ones that are that are left. I mean, they quiet as church mics back there. So, and that folks join us for reception, right? And those those of you would all of you encouraged to stay for the reception. So, we are partially adjourned, but we're really not. But anyway, thank y'all for coming. Enjoy the rest of the evening. Thank you.