001[Music] 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. >> No. [Music] sitting on your finances to cons. [Music] >> Yes, sir. So make a motion to approve the consent agenda and minutes. >> Motion by Mr. Adam, second by Mr. T. Say >> I oppos. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank members of the board, members of the public. Again, my name's Cody Keys with Becket Billingsley and Keys. And we're here today as part of our court-ordered progress monitoring and uh report to the public. So, we are about one year into a roughly two-year order in the federal court whereby we we believe we're making strides in our efforts to uh continue to reach unitary status under
002the court order. Uh the school district has been under a desegregation order since 1970. So, um we we're hopeful to bring this to a close with the cooperation with the United States uh Department of Justice. So what we're doing today is we are we want to update the board and the public on our efforts at least in three particular areas. Um hiring particularly for administration and certified employees or classified employees those that do not require a teacher license are not under the consent order that we're currently under. But we do want to talk about the hiring that we've done in way of certified employees to increase our minority staff. We want to talk about recruitment and retention team. Coach Morgan's here and he can give you a little bit more about what we're doing in
003order to um increase recruitment and retention efforts, particularly with our um colleges, historically black colleges and universities, those that have an education program, our efforts to partner with them. Uh this is most of the information on here we've gone over before, but just for the sake of the public, we are a defendant in this lawsuit filed in 1970. Um it required all faculty to be fully integrated and the desegregation efforts under the original order dates back to 1970. And you know, it's had some es and flows through the years where there was maybe robust efforts to reach unitary status and then years where there was no activity. And I'd largely say that going into the 2017 school year, there had really been no activity to reach unitary status. And when I say unitary, I mean
004being considered by the courts to be a unified school system, not operating a dual school system, which we haven't operated a dual school system uh post 1970, but it's still those efforts to to reach the satisfaction of the United States Department of Justice. So in 2022, we attempted to obtain unitary status, which would require the federal court judge, the honorable judge Brian Miller overseeing the case in Little Rock. It would require him to enter an order saying, "Hey, England School District, you're declared unitary. You no longer have any court oversight." There were objections and comments received from the community. Primarily, those objections were related to the hiring of minority teachers and administrators. So, that's where that gets us today. the school district and the United States, again, the Department of Justice agreed to a consent
005order, which is simply an order where both parties agree this is what we're going to do to get us across the finish line. That order particularly spoke to the hiring and retention of certified employees and administrators. So, that's what we're looking at. The order is in effect till September 1st of 2026. So, it we had our first presentation to the public about a year ago. We had another one in February of 26. We'll have another one in February, excuse me, February 25. We'll have another one in February of 26 and hopefully our last report to the public will be September of 26 and then we'll go back to the court with our efforts. Uh this is only applicable to the hiring of administrative position certified employees. uh the parties determined that looking at our uh
006classified employees, the racial makeup was was was consistent with our student ratio. So, our hiring procedures which we developed in consultation with the Department of Justice and uh Coach Morgan and his team are doing a good job of making sure that we remain trained. We're seeking to employ the best qualified personnel in all areas of operation. We remain an equal employment opportunity employer. Uh we do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age or disability. So we don't discriminate based on those characteristics. But in our hiring of certified and administrative positions, we do consider race, but we're still going to pick the best qualified candidate, but we're tracking race. So, we have an open open recruitment process for filling new positions and locating replacement personnel. All positions are advertised on the district
007website. Our social media accounts, the AAEA, that's the Arkansas Association of Education Administrators. They have a job site that's very popular for people seeking jobs in education. We do at least one um online employment vacancy website and two local sources of publicity such as churches, businesses, and government offices. And we're tracking that and we have if you want the filings, it's all filings of record. Coach Morgan does a good job of when he post the vacancy, he takes a picture of it and then we make sure the court knows that we posted it at this public location. Race must be tracked at every level. We have a spreadsheet that's available. It's online. It's filed with the court. It tracks race at every um at every part of the process including the application, the selection of
008the applicant to be interviewed, whether that applicant accepts the interview, offering of the position, and then if they actually accept the position, it's tracked. Again, you're not required to hire based on race, but it's tracked and it can be a consideration, but still ultimately want to hire the best candidate. must make all hiring decisions consistent with Arkansas law and district policy, which is based on performance, effectiveness, and qualifications. We use standard grading rubrics. That's really important because we can show when we've when we've interviewed someone, they've all been based on the same rubric so that we can ensure we're getting the best qualified person based on the rubric and it's consistent across the board. So, there's no no arbitrary hiring of someone. It has to be based on our rubric and we've been really good
009about consistently applying that rubric to all open positions. Then we must document how we determine which applicants were offered interviews and which applicants were offered positions. Again, we're tracking all that all filed with record and available for the public. And then we're keeping that those procedures available. Then we have a district-wide diverse recruitment and retention team. And again, Coach Morgan can speak more to that. The at a minimum includes our superintendent, a high school principal or assistant, high school instructional facilitator, a high school certified employee selected by the superintendent, elementary principal or AP, elementary school instructional facilitator, and the same certified employee at the at the employee at the elementary level. Uh the team was trained every summer. they were trained again this past summer over what's required in the order so they can be
010familiar with it and ensure to implement that as part of our ongoing des segregation uh obligations and then a big piece of this is partnerships and recruitment partnerships which coach Morgan's going to talk to these are the three that were listed in the order we've expanded that a little bit and again the the um consistent pattern being trying to find applicants that wouldn't typically or haven't in the past applied for England School District, we want to go out and at least make them aware of what we have to offer in this community and hoping to encourage them to apply. So, I will go back at this point and turn it over in no particular order to Dr. Hubble and Coach Morgan to give you a little bit more update on the current state of our
011hiring, the recruitment and retention team, and the update on partnerships. I want to commend uh Coach Morgan on what a great job he's done with reaching out. And coach, if you want to go ahead and do your part of the presentation, please. >> Um just wanted to give a quick update on the partnerships that we were able to develop. Um like Cody alluded to, we added one which was Shorter College. Um we agreed to a partnership with Shorter. Um we haven't signed theou yet. We've been kind of playing phone tag with them, but they have um agreed to partner with us. Um I've been in contact with Miss Kristen Bale. She is the director of recruitment there. And also Arkansas Baptist is another one that we were able to line out. Um we're going to
012go to their career fair. They're going to come and join us at ours as well. Um Dr. Nelson, she is the VP of academic affairs. So, she's been in constant contact with me um trying to develop a really good partnership with them and Philander Smith. Um we can't we don't have any luck with Philander and UAPB. Miss Britney kind of started some correspondence with them, but we just haven't been able to get anything lined out. >> Could you also speak coach Morgan? Oh, I'm sorry. Let me cut off the question. Go ahead. I >> I was going to say, could you also speak to the recruitment and retention team and y'all's efforts um as far as ensuring compliance with the order? >> I think we're signed up to attend the career fair at UAPB. Is
013it October? I believe Miss Tammy and she's a part of that team as well. Um one of the things that we did last year, um we're going to schedule another one in the retention piece. like we wanted to make sure that we met with um all of our new hires, especially the minority candidates to see what we could do to make sure that they stay here once they get here. And uh we had a good lunch with them last year and they of course offered some great ideas. And so we're going to continue to attend those career fairs and of course we have our trainings with the lawyers every summer as well. Thank you so much, Coach Morgan. I believe we made some really good hires this year. Uh, out of 10 hires, we have
014hired five minorities. Uh, Coach Jackson is our new athletic director and head football coach, and he does math intervention. And I am so impressed with him. He he is a fine person and he's doing a fine job for us. Uh Marie Kernney before I came here I was at UAM with their MAT program and Marie was one of my students so I knew she was going to do a great job and in my classroom walkthroughs I I have gone through her chemistry class and she is in there teaching chemistry. she's teaching that hard stuff and she's also an assistant volleyball coach and assistant girls basketball coach. A and I think that that she has been a very strong hire. We uh on uh Danielle Williams, our prek director, we have given her additional duties and
015Charles Chatton, our assistant football coach, we have given him additional duties as well. We had one Hispanic hire, Cassandra Rubio, our high school's fed teacher, and she has been wonderful to have. We've needed somebody who can do Spanish translation for us, and she's been a very strong hire. So, I am very pleased with that. Couple. So, board and community, what we do from here, I mean, we're really to the point where we're seeing the initial efforts of the order play. And so we'll be able this year after our second full year of having the recruitment and retention team to put the efforts. We've laid the groundwork and now we can really put our efforts into the job fairs, increasing our participation with those schools. You there's going to be barriers to coming to England. We
016talk about those a lot and and we know that there's always going to be barriers when we have schools that are, you know, paying potentially more or have just more options. But the recruitment and retention team, they're aware of those challenges. And that's why we're working with like having the the lunch with the minority teachers to say, "Hey, what can we do to continue to increase our recruitment efforts amongst minority applicants?" So, we'll continue to do that this year. I think the focus will really be going into the spring as we begin the hiring season, what Dr. couple May, June, July, we'll have a whole year of increasing our visibility amongst the historically black colleges and universities, which we hope will increase our applicant pool. And then we'll have the data through the rubrics to
017have really good interviews and then going into next school year be able to increase our minority hiring even more. That'll get us through to our September report and and continue to have good things to report to you and the public. Then go back to the court and say, "Hey, here's what we've done." And and asked to be unitary and out of um federal oversight. If there's any uh anytime the public has anything they want to relay, you know, my contact information is available, Dr. Hubbles is available. We can take that insight and continue to incorporate that into our efforts. Thank you again, Coach Morgan, for leading those efforts. And Dr. couple. It's all I have, Mr. President. [Music] >> I'd like to go into executive session to discuss personnel. Please understand [Music] Wait till we
018get out. >> Well, your public comments typically follow you. >> Your public comments signs up before the meeting. 15 minutes before the meeting, you didn't show up. Some of us signed up. >> I told Dr. Hob was following. >> Sir, there's a form right here. So, I mean, you didn't sign the form 15 minutes before. Let's check out that. >> I understand. I'm just telling you I know what the new law is. The law says you 15 minutes prior to the meeting we leave a form out here and you didn't sign a form. >> And I called Dr. Hubble and told her I would be speaking. So >> I mean >> so so you have your lawyer is >> well a second. I'm Let me speak to Miss Hubble. Did she asked to be on
019the form or >> we talked and you said you would be here. I don't remember you're saying anything about speaking >> for public comments. [Music] It's up to you. >> We're going to go to Zion. You wait till we get out. >> Copy. [Music] We got 633. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. U as we wrap up our report. Uh the the order does uh require us to answer questions from attendees about the update and information on our most recent status report. I know that the state law 902 says you need to sign in and I think that was our anticipation that members of the public would sign in. But just to keep with the sphere of the law, okay, with the board, I'd say let's go ahead and entertain any questions about the order
020and the update and then you be able to go on with your meeting. Okay. >> Yes, sir. So, any members of the public that have any questions about the status of the DSay case? Dr. Ellis. >> Yeah. [Music] >> I wanted to make sure I mentioned this, Mr. Keith, and you guys went into the executive session because I'm sure you didn't have the order in front, but the order says a little bit more than that. It says provide an opportunity for members of the public to share with the board relevant information about the order and the status report too. Okay. Um I'll try to be as brief as possible, but while we appreciate [Music] that I'm Are we done with this? I'm not using anymore. >> Yeah. go here [Music] again. My name is is
021Dr. Nelson and I represent the Guard Club Alumni Association along with some other members who are present here. And again, we appreciate the district's efforts to document their hiring procedures and recruitment activities as outlined in the U consent order. However, we also reviewed the attachments submitted to the stat to the status report. We have a few concerns regarding compliance, equity, and community engagement. Uh England's two still student population, I guess, for your 10day camp of 613 kids. I don't know if that's changed or not. About 260 of those are black kids, including 38 who would be mixed race children who have at least one black parent. That represents 42% of the student population. That's a significant racial disparity between student demographics and certified staff, especially in teaching roles. um your your hiring pipeline. You have
022had dozens of applicants of color who were not offered interviews or positions. Your rubric scores and your rationale documentation are inconsistently applied or missing for many of those candidates. We the consent order clearly requires job postings in appropriate local sources of publicity, including churches and community organizations. Nowhere in your documentation that was read in the status report is there evidence of outreach to black churches or black le civic organizations in this England community. That's not just a missed opportunity, but that's a direct violation of this order. And despite the consent order explicit requirement, you know, you put you put documentation at the post office, the public library, the fitness center, the district website, Facebook, school, spring, Arkansas job link, ASBA, but there's no evidence of any outreach to black churches in the England community, which
023is a specific part of uh paragraph 7 to local blackled civic organizations. ation, fraternities, sororities, alumni groups, which will be us, Gartra. And this omission violates paragraph 7 of the consent order that concerns us greatly. Also, you have desperate hiring outcomes despite diverse applicant pools. The district received applications from qualified black candidates for certified administrative roles. Many were passed over without clear rationale. Rubric scores were inconsistently applied. Interview documentation was vain or missing. And it it went so far as the board advocating their responsibility. Even in the superintendent hire, 22 people applied for the superintendent's job. Six black candidates applied. Not a black candidate received an interview. The process was delegated to interim superintendent Barry Scott senior who employed I guess an opaque and exclusionary approach without any oversight from the school board. I don't
024know if you just brought you candidates and you you dealt with whoever he brought um but Mr. Scott was a superintendent who in the records provided to the court had this documented history of not interviewing or hiring black candidates for certified teaching positions. That's going to be problematic with the court and we're going to to bring this information to the attention of Mr. Iikner at the Justice Department and Judge Miller as well. Some of the superintendent candidates without received interviews without any clear rubric scores. They had email exchanges with the former acting superintendent while other minority candidates received none of those replicates, none of those opportunities. That is problematic. There are compliance gaps throughout this report. The community engagement has to be more than procedural. Mr. Keys can tell you the meaning of procedural compliance.
025The recruitment and retention team, with all due respect to Mr. Morgan, um despite outreach, hiring outcomes remain racially skewed. The only documented team meeting that you had with your recruitment team all year long happened on July the 31st. The only meeting all year. That meeting involved multiple team members and legal counsel. There's no evidence of a monthly, quarterly or recurring meetings. Despite the consent order exit, there's an expectation of an effective team maintaining ongoing efforts, the superintendent, the high school principal, the instructional facilitators. You have certified staff, the technology coordinator and the legal counsel all attended this July 31st meeting. The lack of regular meeting is noted. One meeting in seven months is insufficient to demonstrate effective team operation. No minutes, no agenda, no follow-up actions from that meeting. It's a fragmented effort at best
026and you've missed a real community opportunity. There's no documented engagement with black churches and local civics groups or cultural organizations. This undermines the consens order mandating inclusive publicity. It's just non-compliance throughout I have real issues with these partnerships how they are set up but you you don't have a signed partnership to this date and if you have one with Shorter Shorter is a junior college they don't even have a teacher education program you are missing the real opportunities the consent order faculty and staff was filed February the 23rd, 2024, 18 months later. It requires you to develop recruiting partnerships with the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Lander Smith, Arkansas Baptist, that you demonstrate public engagement and that you document efforts to diversify recruitment and retention. An unsigned with Arkansas Baptist dated August the 28th, 2025
027is included in that filing. That date is significant because it was presented one day before the attorneys filed this court requirement status report on August the 29th. And you did that because September 1st was Labor Day and the federal courts were closed. It is just mindboggling to sit here and listen and not know you. This board has to be aware of all of these things that are happening. And while I respect the fact that the board made a choice for superintendent, that's Dr. Huber. and that you run your school district the way you see fit that works with for the needs of this specific community. You still must follow this consent order. The consent order mandates that you develop these partnerships and an unsigned is not sufficient. I don't know, Mr. Morgan. I'm aware that
028he coaches here at the school >> and that the kids had an excellent basketball season and I commend you on that and from all accounts that I hear, you're an outstanding fellow, you know, and this this my comments are not meant to knock on you or Dr. Hubble, but fidelity, transparency are super important. Mr. Morgan, as a high school principal, lacks the authority to sign a contractual agreement with the colleges and universities on behalf of the school district. And then that same document will be submitted to federal court superintendent and board of directors do that. Philander Smith, I reached out to Philander Smith a couple of weeks ago and I mentioned to Dr. Hubble and phone conversation that I had as you indicated Mr. Morgan had reached out to them as well. You have no
029signed in here. I have asked them to reach out to Dr. Hubble exclusive of the Gartrail Alumni Association so that she and your building administrators can develop a plan that works for England and for Lender Smith. But Mr. Morgan lacks the authority to execute that contract, that agreement. UAPB Katrice Carter, her letter is included in your packet. I don't know if you have the packet in front of you or not from this recent status report. It's on page 140 and 141. If you have it and you want to look at it, please feel free to. It references an agreement with former superintendent Mr. Price and the Teach Pride program. Teach Pride is it's it is not a program that would allow you to forge you an actual partnership with UAPB. Teach Pride aligns with developing
030this on the campus of UAPB. It's a two-day internal training for UAP students and candidates before they get placed into an internship. It includes some outside partners, but it has been named England School District as a partner. And it's not a pipeline program that you actually need in this district to bring students to former UAP students to this district. It's just a it's just a paper that met a deadline for me and that does not satisfy the spirit or the letter of this. That is a procedural piece and it it does not work. It provides a written artifact that you can be that you can show to the court and the DOJ that says I have I we have this agreement in place. It sets the stage for future collaboration. Now, that fulfills the orders's
031requirement for ongoing collaboration and documentation, but it's not a program that works for this district. Teach Pride is for those students who are currently enrolled there at UAPB. It's a compliance toollet. The letter you have from UAP, that's all it is. And whether you got that from the attorney, I respect Mr. Keys. I know he's sharing that with you that you have to have these documents. The missing pieces, you need formal agreements with these schools and you need them to satisfy the court and for us to be satisfied with process of what you're trying to accomplish. And finally, I want to share a sheet with you. Is that sheet back there, Julian, with the yellow sticker on it? [Music] Now, it had a yellow stick. It has a yellow tab on it. We'll just give
032you one session. We'll wrap this up and has a yellow tab on. It's all right. You can't find it. That's it. [Music] I'm going to give you this sheet of paper you pass around the table. [Music] It would behoove you to be aware of this, and it doesn't happen often, but Mr. Keys is aware because he's been a school person for a long time that the court will call in schoolboard members too from time to time and ask them questions. So, I'm saying this about Mr. Morgan. Mr. Morgan is often referred to as the high school principal here, but you must report your administrators and your employees to the school information system in Arkansas. It's called the statewide information system, SIS. And I'm sending this around to you so you can see it. You don't
033list Mr. Morgan as your high school principal in your SIS. In your SIS, the elementary principal is Tammy Bennett and the high school principal is Whitney Robinson. Yet, this district continues to represent Mr. Morgan and document as the high school principal for local and for state recording documents. He does not only state recording sher now in that submitted data. There's always a risk to accreditation and funding. Inaccurate or incomplete reporting can jeopardize a school's accreditation status. in affect his eligibility for state and federal funding tied to staffing. Either he is or he is not the high school principal. And if he is the high school principal, we'll be looking at the state information system for the district to make that correction. We want to partner with you. I have expressed that to Mr. Price. I've
034expressed that to Dr. H. But there must be transparency and there must be truth. And Mr. Keys, we will be filing our concerns in the strike here at the Department of Justice and with Judge Miller. Thank you. >> Some Any other comments with the public? >> Mr. I didn't [Music] elementary current enrollment is at 331. I've listed class sizes for you. I think they're very reasonable class sizes, especially compared to other bigger districts. Um, if you look at fourth grade, we do have a really small class size. In fourth grade, we had um several students who left and I did not move students around because I didn't want to change their home room teacher. Um so you'll see one class that has an extremely small class. Sorry, I think I'm fixing your packet. Okay. Um
035on the 3rd we have fall pictures. The 9th and the 19th are book fair. The 11th we have parent teacher conferences which were very well attended. On the 16th this morning, Energy out of Stuckart came and opened doors and brought their big bucket trucks for the kids to see. The 19th, we had the Red Cross safety program doing a presentation for uh first through fourth grade, and that just teaches kids like what to do if there were a fire, how to have a safe place to go, how to get out of the windows. Um, and then on the 30th, we start our chocolate fundraiser at the elementary school. Any questions for the elementary school? Thank you. >> Now, high school report from one of the building principles, certified, may I add. Um on Wednesday, August
036the 20th, Michelle Blast and Gang met with our seniors enrolled in concurrent credit courses with PCCUA. Um on August the 26th we had Life Touch on campus for fall pictures and they also came back on September the 12th and we had them take pictures with our seniors in their cap and gowns. Uh athletic update. Tennis is playing tonight. That's why Miss Britney is not here. She's watching her son play. Um they'll also be in Stgard on Thursday. Junior high football will be hosting beer on Thursday. Sean has a body this week and volleyball is hosting magnet cold tonight and will travel to Conway St. Joe on Thursday. >> Thank you, Coach Morgan. And I do appreciate the leadership you've taken in getting those partnerships. I know you've worked very hard on that and I want
037the board to know that. >> Thank you. >> And I imagine your name was not on that thing because they only had one slide. list one >> and >> we'll list you this time because you know you're you're good. >> You're good. You're good. And I don't know, you didn't hear Miss Linda, but she said you're a good man. And I think you are, too. [Music] Okay. Uh in your packets, I put the uh math meeting minutes just to give you an idea of uh our curriculum meetings that that we have. It's just something kind of for your information for you to look at. The same thing about chronic absenteeism. I thought that was just an interesting article and it makes me feel a little bit better that we're not the only people in the
038world who have chronic absenteeism. I talked to superintendents at meetings and it is just epidemic. Uh you would think in a 4-day school they could come to work, but uh not so. But anyway, that that was just, you know, for you. Now, we picked up some grant money. We've gotten $1,400 plus new mannequins for CPR training. Uh we are applying for an East update grant. You know, our East program is very important here at the school and uh Coach Dennis does a very good job with them. We got a or Micah got a fresh fruits and vegetables grant that was right around $20,000. And when Angie and I meet with the state every month on our finances, we tell them this and they're always very happy when we get even a small grant. And so
039we're happy with that. No, no grant is too small. Um, I have in the very back of your packet the letter we got from Triple A. Um, or no, maybe it's not. That's something else from TripleA. But anyway, they've issued us and Drew Central a letter of warning about the fight that took place at Drew Central. Uh, I noticed in the news that Barton and their opponent had kind of the same situation and they called their game in the third quarter. Nobody is sicker about this than Coach Jackson. He really took that to heart and he's worked really hard talking to those boys and getting them ready for the conference opener. We have a buy this Friday and then we open our conference at Powen and he and the other coaches are working really hard
040with drilling it into their heads that they've got to play a clean game. Uh you know it it's hard sometimes to do that when you're an adult, but when you're a kid it's even harder. And they are just kids. They're not finished products, but we're working on them. Uh, 14 of our players were suspended because of the fight. Four of Drew Centrals were suspended. Therefore, we had to uh forfeit to Mayflower this past week. But the good news in that is we had two weeks to get ready for a conference opener. Mayflower was non-conference and therefore, you know, really kind of a meaningless game. But, uh, we're trying to get that back on track. We played Bearden here, the juniors, Thursday night. And, uh, hope we have a good turnout for that. >> You have
041a question on this. >> Yes, sir. >> So, I know we said Coach Jackson's doing these things, uh, talking to these kids and, you know, I know we had 14 and I got to go watch the film and look at a little bit. I saw some of them, they got spend pulling people off, but >> it is what it is. part of the qualification and I commend you on what you did and the other coaches and stuff that they did as well getting kids out of there and safety being first. Um >> some parents are really parents too. Um >> I wasn't there so I didn't get to see it or anything but uh >> you know we have something like this happen but what I wonder is are we taking the time and opportunity
042to also use our counselor to check in on these kids that have gone through this things like that. Maybe there's some underlying issues. maybe something like that might have been happening and it does affect you. Yes. >> Athletically, and academically. Um, but are we doing anything to have our counselor check in on these kids to >> That's probably a good idea. That That is probably a very good idea. So, we're going to try to get that back on the track. I think volleyball is going great guns. I think those girls are good. Now, if you all will check your emails, I your school email. I sent you the information on the annual ASBA conference in Little Rock in December. So, if you'll just check your your uh school email, I have that information in there
043for you. [Music] >> Uh yes, >> yes, but some sometime in October. I'd have to look. >> Yeah. October. >> Yeah. >> October 6th, November 3rd. >> Yeah. >> You ready to do new business? >> All right. This is the board meeting where we approve the annual budget. Angie, >> that's your cue. >> It's in your packet. Um, it's near the end. say annual financial report one and level two. >> It's really just kind of the same old thing. Um if we stay within budget, don't have any major expenditures. I'm looking for us to end at about $4 to $500,000 more than what we did this current past year. Um, I did go ahead and budget a transfer from operating funds to the net legal balance. I just went ahead and scheduled that. Um, so
044that'll be in there cuz I'm very optimistic that we'll be able to make that transfer. If we're not able to, we don't have to, but I have it budgeted in and things still look good to [Music] as we have attrition, we're going to close the gap unless it's just something that we have to have. If it can be absorbed, we're going to absorb it. And the last financial meeting we had with the state, they indicated to us that they thought we were doing a good job with that. They uh they did look over our budget this past week when we met with them and they were impressed with it and said it looked really good to me. >> Questions make a motion to approve the fiscal year 2026 budget approval. Mr. Joy Adams motion save
045Bobby John. All in favor say I. >> Oppos 70. All right, we need to buy some new computers for the high school business classroom lab at the cost of $23,9125. >> We're going to be reimbursed. >> Yes, I'm going to let Erica tell you about this. >> Um Mr. Robert Rey, who's the CTE coordinator at the co-op, he um is applying for Perkins grant funding on our behalf and so it won't cost us any money out of pocket. And the reason we're coming to you to get this approved is because we're going to do a reimbursement situation because we are tax exempt on these devices if we purchase them. However, if a co-op were to purchase them, they are not tax exempt. So, we would if we buy these and they reimburse us, it doesn't
046cost us anything out of pocket, but someone else can benefit from about $2,500 of Perkins money. So, we just thought that that would be a good faith thing since we're getting a whole lab for free if we do that and allow them to have those funds to give to someone else or something. >> And we'll take that kind of deal any day. >> And this will should be approved tomorrow at their board meeting at the co-op. >> $23,9125. >> Make a motion. >> Motion by Mr. Trish Cart. Second by Mr. Bobby Jones. All favor say I. I7. [Music] >> Okay. On see thisou with the co-op keeps coming up. Uh Mr. Barry Scott when he was the interim, he had said no, he did not want to participate in that and I respected that. However,
047it's come to my attention that we're not going to get GT services unless we sign thatou. And we have new GT people who really need that scaffolding. So, I think thisou is about $2300. I put it in the back. I would like for you all to please reconsider that because uh I I think it's $2,300. Uh how much? >> It's the next to last page. >> Oh, yeah. But it doesn't have an amount on it. [Music] >> I I'm pretty sure it's about >> Yeah. $2,300. >> Are you recommending it? Our GT people are floundering. We do need that. Yes, I am recommending it. So, we >> make a motion to approve the advanced learning specialist with WD Mills Cooperative by Mr. Adam. Second by all favor >> and I'll be at their board meeting
048in the morning and I'll take care of it over there. Now, at leadership meeting, we've kind of kicked around the idea of maybe trying to change co-ops because BB is so far away. Uh, Pine Love co-op would be a lot closer. And I know that people think Pine Love is unsafe and that kind of thing, but I worked at that co-op 2 years and it was a good place to work. I never felt Yeah. I I never felt unsafe. Of course, I wasn't on a bad street at 2:00 in the morning either. Uh, but Britney Robinson did point out though that a lot of our people commute in from the north. So, I don't know. It might be. But would you all be opposed to my just sort of looking into that, maybe calling the
049Pine Bluff Co-op and seeing if they might offer us more stuff than than Wilbur Mills does. Uh, and >> what school districts are in the Pine Love Co-op? Uh, Sheridan, White Hall, Watson Capital, Pine Bluff, and >> No, Woodlines at CR. Um, I'll find out. That's my >> obviously. >> Well, we wouldn't do it till next year. >> Yeah, we're locked into this for this year. >> They have teachers right now. Well, that that's one of the first things I would do would be to have a stronghold [Music] >> Cersei. Uh yeah, >> that's a big >> Yeah. And it's a long way from here, too. It It's a little bit better than an hour's drive and it's over a bad road. >> It is a long way from here. >> Yeah. >> We take
050action there. >> No, no. I just wanted to to know if you all would be opposed to my looking into that. All right. Now, uh in my opinion, we don't have enough electives at the high school. I don't want kids in study halls. They need to be in a class whether they want to be in it or not. A kid's going to tell you, "No, I want to be in study hall." But they don't know what's good for them. So, we have an opportunity to put in two more electives. The triple A does a student officiating class where our students can actually become uh athletic officials. And I think we might have some interest in that. I think that would I think it'd be a one semester class, but I I would like your permission
051to pursue getting that. And also we want to start an introduction to teaching class. Uh I had good success with this at Fort Ice like England it was difficult to recruit people to for ice there's no place to live there's nothing to do there's nowhere to eat so uh we started an intro to teaching program and much of it one of the good things about it is that any certified teacher can teach it. You don't have to have a specific certification. Uh you do it kind of like an internship. You would have the kids out helping in classrooms doing things like that. And I had three or four kids over there that I knew were going to spend their life in Fort Ice for whatever reason. And I told them, "When you get through college,
052you come back to me and we'll get you a job." I got me a sped teacher that way. I got me a math teacher that way. and I got me a baseball coach that way. So, it does give kids some idea of the teaching profession. And the third class, we would like to revive driver's ed because, you know, as a parent, you get a discount if your child has gone through driver's ed, but they need to be doing stuff like this instead of just laying up in study halls and getting in trouble all day. We going to utilize our current car we have or >> Well, I noticed Snickers out there when I said that. I don't know anything about that car. >> I think it's still good. >> Yeah, it is. >> Okay. Yeah,
053>> I like driving. >> What? It's good class and it just stresses me that >> you want to teach it. >> Stay, you know, stud just not the way to go. >> Oh, I can teach it, but she always put that break on the passenger side of her. You got to break over on that side, too. >> You need a motion for that. >> Yeah. I' I'd like to have a motion for us to uh incorporate the officiating class and the intro to teaching. Of course, we all we don't have to do drivers yet. Those will be two new classes. >> Motion by Mr. Tiny. Second by Mr. those all the time. >> And we have a few personnel matters here. Uh Kelsey Boyette is our GT director and we need to add 10 days
054to her contract. Make a motion. Motion by Mr. Jones. Second by Mr. >> Okay. On the next sheet, uh, we need to hire Latasha Binham for food service. >> Make a motion, Mr. T. Second, Miss Joanne. All in favor say I. I. >> Seven of them. >> Uh, on the next one with Angie Seir, uh, Belinda Livingston took her retirement one day last week. She sent me an email said she was retiring effective that day. So, what I want to do is to absorb that position because she was a high dollar teacher. Uh, I would like to take Mindy and have her split her time between the elementary and high school. We're going to take what federal programs she was over and give them to Angie. And Angie's going to have all the federal programs.
055Nobody It It was Belinda, Mindy, and it was scattered out. It didn't make sense to me. But I I want all that into uh this office and Mindy won't have any federal program responsibilities and she can concentrate on instructional facilitation. And I would like to have Angie's salary increased by $20,000 a year because this is a great increase in her workload. >> Make a motion. >> I'll make motion by Mr. Adam. Second. Second. by Robert Jones. All favor say I. >> And we have one resignation. Teresa Murray from food service. >> I will second by all in favor say I. 70 will >> Mr. T second by Mr. Chris. Allos.