001All right. This is a regular regular scheduled meeting of the Gen School District board of directors. We'll now call the meeting to order. Madam Secretary, can you establish we have a quorum? >> We have a >> right. With a quorum established, we can be able to conduct business. Uh Robbie, could you lead us in a word of prayer? >> Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this uh day, this opportunity to come and serve uh the school district. ask you to help us to make all decisions with wisdom. In Jesus I pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> You will stand the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. We don't
002have special recognitions or public comments. So, we'll uh now enter into our executive session. The other person that will matter. We've ended our executive session. We need to consider the items discussed. >> Make a motion that we approve the personnel package as presented. Second. >> All right. We have a motion in a second. All in favor of that motion say I. >> All in descent same sign. That motion passed. >> The next item is approval of our minutes for the freest meeting. We approve to November 18, 2025. We have a motion. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motif say I. All them desent the same sign. That motion pass. Uh, next item is our financial report. Anybody have any questions? We're going to put Rhonda in
003the hot seat. There's several things going on, but I think there you are going to get a draft going down the line. >> That's I have a question whether jump ahead or not. >> No, don't jump ahead. If it's on the agenda, stay with what's on the agenda. >> This this right here. >> All right. If there's no questions, do you want to consider that proven financial report? >> Motion we approve the final. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. All incent. That motion passed. All right. Under our business legal financial consent agenda, we have a few items. >> Yes. Well, first is our master plan and it's required by law. we have to submit a plan to the state um basically
004a six-year plan of what we are doing with the school and Lesie Das is here from Dawson because she's the one who develops our plan for us and I gave you I sent that plan out in an email so that y'all would have time to look over it and review it. So if you've got any questions that is what she is here for. >> Yes it is um that plan it has to be submitted by February the 1st um of each even number of years. So, every other year I come in and I ask you guys for a new master plan. I'll ask you to approve it and sign a resolution. Uh, we have to have the resolution signed to submit it to the state. So, um, if you guys have had a chance to
005look over that and you have any questions, feel free to ask. >> Only thing I have, did you see anything irregular about or proposed about? >> Um, you've got three projects on here. Two have been on. Uh, one is an ongoing security upgrade project that you guys have and one is a fire alarm project that is uh you've received partnership funding for and that one's underway. Should be finishing up really anytime. >> It should be finishing up over Christmas break. >> Yes. So, um, that's taken right. Then we've got the K1 addition to Cave Elementary on there. So, that's the new project. But as far as the reports that I've run, um, your enrollments are projected to go down a little bit, but it's really not significant. I think it's around 50 students over the
006next 10 years is the projection. So, we'll get those new projections out in February. And if there is anything significant, I'll bring it to Miss Wolf's attention. She can share that with you guys. But really, you're you're tracking better than a lot of the districts I deal with right now because enrollments just across the border are down. Um, I I pulled your your building fund balance looks healthy for the projects that you've got. Um, I have pulled your maintenance and repair operations and your cost per square foot is good on that. That was right at the end of the report. Let's see what's your average cost per square foot to maintain 562. So, that's a really that's a good number. Some districts are sitting closer to nine, some are higher, lower, but you know, your
007maintenance and operations, all your utility payments and any kind of maintenance and all that comes out of that fund. So, doing great, but if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them for you. And this was put out for your public to view, too. So, it's been up on your website for several weeks, and I don't believe we have any comments on that. I don't think >> you got Anybody have any questions about that? >> On the master plan though, we don't have like demolition of like the the original primary school building, >> right? That's something. Yes. Um, and I talked to Jody and he was going over today to take some pictures and we were getting some information together and he was going to put some together some numbers for that too,
008just so we would have it >> from Napols. >> Okay. >> Do they would they be interested in >> Well, that's what he was going to to look for. Yeah. He was going to he was go leaving here going over to take pictures. had me find some information from Kendall on um the asbestous report which they have to do every three years >> to see what was there so that he could get some throw some numbers together. >> Hasn't has the previous report showed as best >> uh well I think all of the buildings show possibility. It doesn't show for definite sure. It just says these are some places where there could possibly be actually out of all of the but Rhonda and I were looking at out of all of the buildings primary had
009the least possibilities. And I think a lot of that has to do with some of the um upgrades they've done at the primary school. All of that asbesus abatement was done when they did those projects. So you looking into any kind of restoration or anything of that stuff, you know, air conditioners that may not be that old. >> Yes, they've already working on that. Anything new that they put in? We've talked about that. >> So we witnessing that that whole building would probably everything would come down besides the like >> the kindergarten. kindergarten. >> Yep. >> And then we would just have to deal with the food service. >> What about the little gym that >> we've talked about seeing if we could take it down and bring it out here to repurpose it, but
010again, that's something we'll have to look at. >> Any more questions? >> You want go to the next item? >> Well, we have to approve the master plan. You want to do that or you want to do them all together as one one deal? >> Yeah, do it separate. All right. >> I make a motion for the 2026 sixyear facility master. >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion in a second. All in favor of that motion say I. >> All in descent, same sign. That motion pass. And the next one on there is the electronic access control system additions and that's part of the cops grant and that's why Miss Wendy Schaefer is here to go over that with you. >> So the grant specifically identified several missing electronic access control uh components.
011So that's our badge readers uh that open our doors remotely. The two areas that it identified as in the highest need were the wellness center and then the cape office. And that's because there's no line of sight for part of the part of the that section like the cave front office. Um the the door that's down by the third and fourth grade, there's no window on it. So you're opening it open opening it finally. And then the wellness center, the same when the nurse is sitting at the desk, she can't see out to who's coming in. Um so what this is going to do is correct those two needs. We're going to add badge readers and a camera at the wellness center. Um and then event that this will allow the entire Cape office to
012be locked. So Miss Cody was keeping the front door at Cape locked um and people would come up to the window to to do whatever they needed to do. But when we switched our um door locks over, a lot of the teachers didn't have the mask or key for the door and so they can't get in and out. So, right now the office is open at Cape um where it was locked for a long time. So, this will completely lock up the Cape office. And then pie in the sky is when we get some more security money, we'll do the same thing for the GHS office. We just didn't have enough in this fund to the quote was way over what we could afford at this time. So, this will take care of two of
013our two of our big issues. Um the other thing is I did seek three bids on this. No one no other company was able to provide the missing components that compatible with our current system. They would have to replace the entire electronic control system throughout the district which would be like outrageously expensive. Um, so Genesis Data College is who we currently use to manage our electronic access control and go to this. And again, this comes out of our COP's grant money, but as a district, we commit 25% to that. So, you've got on here what the grant's going to pay and what the district is responsible for. The district's responsible for around six it's $6,411 >> and then the cops grant pays $19,235 >> Dennis Genesis data maybe I'll ever use them for >> that's
014who we use now our badge and electronic >> so they're familiar with what you have >> yes they come and work on anything that when we need things worked on they're out here working on it so >> where are we going to be missing anything we can have enough money to stuff everything. Where where else are going to be missing a bonus? >> The high school DHS front office >> the interior office. Not not any exterior doors that the exterior doors have them. That's just that interior door that goes straight into the office and have all of our classrooms, you know, lock automatically. Ideally, we would have that front office locked down too with card readers. We have two doors on each side of the ghs office and then we have the front door to
015the GHS office. So eventually, I think when more security money comes out, we'll have that locked down. It has a window as well to where people can pass things through to the secretary. Um, and the this this when we redo the cave office, u Miss Cody, the secretary will be able to click open the door to the front office remotely, so she won't have to get up and go open it every time. >> So will the high school and middle school be compatible now? Like the same setup or same system? They're on the same system. Now, this is just adding those additional components that we don't have on those interior doors of the building. >> Going on the interior >> middle school. >> Yeah. >> Will we be able to continue to apply for grants
016to hopefully, you know, kind of secure the rest? >> I did Jason Weatherly with the safe schools unit tell me that >> um after June 30th of this year, they're going to have another round of school safety funing. So at that point we'll have to get together and decide if we you know depending on how much that is. We have fencing ghs is still a serious priority and then securing the front office with the electronic access would be the other priority I think >> that we would have almost everything else going to be covered >> by then and complete with the cops. >> Will our portion come out of our building funds account or where did that come out of our >> portion is coming out of operating. operating yet. >> Any more questions? >>
017Motion that we approve electronic access control system. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. >> All in descent, same sign. That motion passed. Next one is the metal detectors and this is another component of that. >> This is another component of our cops grant in our security plan. Um we are recommending that the board approve the communication technologies contract is 29,74725. And what we're going to do there are two types of metal detectors. And I think in your packet you should have the >> Yeah, it's all there. >> So if you've been to like their courts or a lot of different football games and things like that and seen these power metal detectors and they're portable metal detectors. Um they're very very sensit the the sensitiv
018sensitivity can be adjusted. So you can um screen for just simply firearms or or weapons like that. And you can adjust it all the way down to where you can screen for vapes and things like that. So when we're having graduation at the auditorium, we can pull these over there, set them just to detect weapon, and people can, you know, come in and out pretty quickly. Um, if we're wanting to have a serious screening at high school, we can turn the the sensitivity up and it's going to catch almost everything that's in their backpack. We wanted to get one set of these. They're pretty pricey. Um, but we wanted to be able to use it at football games, basketball games, the auditorium, if we have community event at the auditorium. Um, just different things like
019that. The majority of the time they'll be at GHS. So we can we can screen at GHS with those but we can also use them in other areas of the district. Um along with that we are getting a more standard walkthrough metal detector for Cave. And the reason we're we're doing that at Cave is for one it's significantly less expensive and for two there's less chances of things coming into Cave. Um, but with the mobile towers, we can also if we want to have a day or or we're having an event at Cave and we want to have more extensive metal detecting, we can move these over to cave. They're super super light and portable. They're also going to be wrapped in garden pillars and um they have a little stability gate with wheels that
020you can hold them around on. Super easy to move around. So, this um board action item would purchase one set of walkthrough towers and one more traditional metal developer. Again, it's the same 75% of the contract is paid by the cops grant. So that's 72,310 and there's 25% is paid by the district. So that's 7,436. So the the one that would you would suggest or cave um so I was just talking to a cop the other day that is at archadelia and he was saying like their original metal detectors that they had were just like so sensitive that they were you know it was taking them out like an hour to get their kids and now they have these mini versions the other ones and it's just so much quicker. Um like weird things will
021catch it like an umbrella he said but like other things like they're doing super good with. So is the one that would go at cave is it going to be where everything is gonna like they have like where we're pulling out laptops and >> things like that. >> The the s this is still an upgraded this is not the old school metal detector that you're thinking about >> like we have to pull everything out. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So the one the walkthrough one is an upgraded version of that but it's not as adjustable as the the tower >> and obviously not portable but yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking like time wise to try to get these get these through. So, >> and if we're wanting to do like some kind of
022more serious screening again, we can pull the those towers over there. >> I was looking for those towers. What the longevity or is there a warranty or some kind of insurance for those being they're being moved so much? >> There's a 2-year warranty. I've contacted um Jimmy King at Archadelia who they've dealt with for years and he they said they love them. They've had no issues with them at all. They move theirs quite a bit or do they have multiple? >> Yeah, they move. They do have multiple ones, but they move them around. >> That's what they're using to screen everybody coming into their football game. He said the only thing you have to to take out is like a stadium chair eyeglass case, which I thought was really weird. Um, and that's about it.
023So, they were really, really pleased with them. This company provided me with a list of several school districts in Arkansas that they're dealing with. So, I feel good about that. They're used to Arkansas schools and the kind of needs we have. And then Missy had contacted Superintendent >> Hot Springs. >> Yeah. Mike Hernandez. >> See what they thought about the open gate towers and they go by. >> Have they had any issues with their portable batteries being that they're like I mean basically it's just a drill battery. If you leave 12 say at our front office all the time. Does that have any effect on the battery? >> They haven't stated that there's been any issues with it. They've been very happy and it's been useful. No problems reported from them. >> The fact too
024is that they come down and they do like a full it's like a two-day they they adjust the sensitivity. They show us how to adjust. There's a whole training process that they do that's specific to schools as well. >> I miss the first part of what you just said. Did you say two day? I think two days like they they're available for two days if we need them to be to come down and set them up, show us how to use them. Um, and it's a school specific training that they have. [clears throat] >> If I'm understanding this right, you said the sensitivity like you could have it at a level that would get weapons, guns, or whatever and then maybe down to bait. I'm assuming if it's a metal detector, it's just the amount
025of metal that somebody's going through. Yeah. With >> you know, on big events, if if you have the sensitivity set really high, it's going to take forever to get everybody like a football game or something like that. >> So, at that point, you just want to be screening for the bigger objects. Um, >> but yeah, they they said that for high school, you know, you can adjust it down and try to catch that kind of thing, too. And I think it is just the amount of metal. >> Yeah, >> that would make sense about the glass, you know, case because, you know, >> the metal the metal in the >> but with these things being mobile and considering the warranty if how durable are they as far as like if they get dropped. >> Archelia,
026Jimmy King at Archadelia said that they have had no issues and they move theirs around constantly. Um they're not heavy either. And there there's a mobility kit that we're ordering with it. Um it has a stability plate. So like if we take it to the football game and it's super super windy, they they're mounted in place. They're not easily knocked over. >> How many people train? However many we want. >> It would depend on because when we do this, there will be teachers assigned and administrators to do duty at the metal detectors to monitor as they're coming through. So it would be whoever you're going to have at that particular duty post, they would need to be trained and of course all administrators. So I still would be at that back door side of Amy's
027office and then >> yeah the long hall >> and then middle school or elementary would be the main front door. So kids are on the playground they'll get routed back around the front. Okay. >> Only thing that anytime concerns me about that is that if it got to be it's taking too long for the human nature aspect to turn it less sensitive so we can hurry things along. And that's that's kind of the rock at the door deal that >> yes >> we have trouble with now. I mean uh you got to use it for it to be effective. >> Well, if we're investing, we're going to use it. >> Yeah. >> Is there also their battery power, right? There also an option to to plug them in. >> I don't think there is. Um
028That's a question that I'm not sure about, but they did not mention any any um ability just to put them in. >> And we already currently have Wendy, how many wands do we have? >> Three. >> I think there's actually four. >> There were at one time there were four at the high school. I think they took one over to AL. So, we do have the metal detecting ones that we've had for a while. >> So, if they go through and they need a secondary screening, we already have those. >> How long does RW have there? You know, >> uh, several years. >> And their batteries are still up to par when they were not outrageous in price either. buy the battery. >> I want to say they were three or $400. >> The batteries
029have I think one year warranty and then the metal detectors have the two full two-year warranty. And Ardelia had said that uh the company is great for you know anytime they have an issue. >> Which which company they use? They use the same one that we're recommending, communications technologies, and that they're they're the ones of the three bids that I had. The other two were more had more out of state schools. When I asked for recommendation, communication technologies had multiple like 10 plus districts across Arkansas that they're working with. So, that seems to be the gold standard. And for all three companies that I got bids from, they all said the open gate um towers and walkth through were like the thing to get now. Any more questions? We'll move on on that. When we
030approve the uh communication technology 9,747. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. >> On descent, same sign. That motion passed. >> Okay. And the next one is the repayment of tax to the Clark County Treasurer. We did receive a letter that we had received a tax overpayment and Rhonda has been on top of that information and we have someone from the county here to answer questions if you have them. It was a clerical error that occurred that caused us to be overpaid and so now we are obligated to pay our overpayment back. Yes. questions. [laughter] >> Yes, we don't ever like sending that money the other way. >> Say we don't have it. We We got to keep >> guess for Miss Karen. This
031has been fixed where this can't happen again. >> Well, it wasn't an error from my office. It actually was there in the collector's office, but on my watch, it's not going to happen again. >> Um hopefully you did earn a little interest on the extra money that I normally would have been earning and given back to you at the end of the year. But yeah, it when we got ready to disperse the funds, there was 13 cents in the account in the fund. So it's not good. It's the most stressful thing that's happened in my time. [laughter] >> How's this affect us, Miss Rhonda, as far as the counts go? >> Well, November is always our biggest month for collection. And so we had gotten our really big check that we were expecting, which is
032actually a little more than we were expecting. And so, um, and looking at kind of comparing this year from last year, we're once we pay this We're going to be pretty even where we were at last year. We don't do >> That's right. >> Buy no new Cadillacs. >> Make a motion that we repay the county treasurer. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. on descent. Same sign that motion passed. >> Last thing on there, there's nothing for pass on this. This is the fun time of year for DURA and Rhonda and myself. Uh, it's audit time. So, the annual audit has begun. Our auditor showed up this week to do some interviewing and all of that. So, it's time to turn over all
033of our records and let her start sorting through to make sure she doesn't find any irregularities. So, just so you know that it's happening. So, if you need anything from Rhonda, be real real nice before you ask. And also, may remind them that if she hasn't contacted y'all, she probably will be. So, I don't know if that goes by letter or email. So, just kind of watch. Her name is Warner. So just kind of pay attention to any kind of email or mail that may come from her because she there's a good possibility you're going to get contacted also. >> And and that's come from the legislator state. Yeah. I think I received a letter. >> That's all on that. Oh, baby. This is director's report. >> And it's not really new data, but I
034just wanted to go over with y'all because I I sent it out in an email before and I know the new my school info is up. So, the new site that everyone can go to, anyone in the state, anyone anywhere really can go to this and see district letter grades and see the school letter grades. And I wanted to make sure you really knew what it looked like because it gives you the breakdown of the district's letter grade, which everybody knows we got a C along with 39% of the state schools were C's. But it breaks everything down as far as how we performed in the important areas like meeting grade level standards. We're below, we're not far below, but we are below. Uh the growth of all students, we were above, growth of low
035performing students, we were above. Graduation rate, merit distinction of course are areas of focus for us. And graduation rate, remember that is a lagging statistic because this is not the 2025 graduation rate. This would be 2024. So it's always going to be a year behind. But when you go through and look at all of this, you can see all of our numbers where students are meeting grade level, where they're not meeting grade level, where we've had growth. You're going to be able to see it. And it's colorcoded so it makes it really easy for anybody to go in and look at this information. And this is what when people are going to be going in and looking at schools in the area and maybe moving to the area, what are we looking for? It's an
036easy way for them to go and look at the schools and see where they want to send their kids. These are two areas right here that we are really focusing on. One is that graduation rate and the other is that merit and distinction. and merit and distinction. Right now, the formula is a little different than it's going to be 27 28 going forward because right now we're still getting credit for concentrators. Going forward, it's going to be completers only and it's going to be those students getting nine hours of college credit. All of that's what's going to add into our merit and distinction. So, these are our focus areas at the secondary level especially. But as far as the district letter grade goes, the formula they are using is the same formula they used to
037come up with the high school's letter grade. It's going to be figured the exact same way. They're just compiling all of the information from the district. But if somebody wanted to go in and look and see what Prescuit looks like, what Archadadelphia looks like, what we look like, it's all right there laid out for them to see. So, if you have not gone in and looked at this stuff, it's something good to make yourself familiar with to really see where we are and you can see where we need to improve and what we need to do. >> On the on the graduation part, have y'all do y'all have any what factors are >> Oh, yes. >> I mean, oh yes, Dr. Jones, we we and Miss Led Better, we go through and look because there
038we know what's going to ding us on our graduation rate. We are working on how to remedy those things that we know are going to ding us on graduation rate. When we lose students, we have to keep track of those students. That's it. >> When a student leaves here, we need to know where they're going. If they're going to another school, if they're going home school, whatever they're doing, we need to know because if we know where they are and we can put it in the system, it's not going to hurt us. There are some that we absolutely can't control. If a student leaves the state, those are harder for us because sometimes it takes months for a school out of state to send us a transcript request. And if we can't account for that
039student, then it's going to count against us in our graduation rate. That's once they get to 9th grade. >> Yeah. I've seen the difference between 84 and 90. Do y'all know is that a statistical significant difference? I mean, it's still a pretty close number. Yeah, it it's significant. We're hoping coming up next year >> should be looking very nice. >> Yes, our graduation rate for next year should look really good. We knew this one was going to to hit us pretty hard because we were still looking at the loss of a lot of CO students honestly that had gotten behind or gotten lost into the void and we just couldn't find them. Amy Led Better spent I don't know how much time calling places, calling these kids and asking them where they were, what they
040were doing, and where they had been, and if they had any proof of where they had been, trying to get those cleared up because you have a certain amount of time to go in and correct those, >> but there's only certain things the state will take as corrections, >> right? Our hands are tied with some of it. Yeah. You know, if they go to a juvenile facility, >> Yeah. that counts against us. >> That even though >> they're there, we have to prove that. still counts against that still counts against us. So, >> and there are certain components that they have trained us on that we've really started to talk about together as three um to be very proactive with it. That's why we've got to be strong on our attendance. you know, if a
041kid's gone more than so many days, we should be following behind that, checking that out because a lot of the times they'll they'll leave and this is a common time of the year that they leave and they don't come back >> um and they may go out of the country. So we have to be very aware of every child and if they come back from the holiday break or you know where they went, what happened and if we have a student who leaves and gets their GED, it counts against us on our graduation rate, but it doesn't count against us on our dropout rate. So yeah, the the graduation rate formula is another one of those that has made those of us at the secondary level go, I don't understand what else you need me
042to do here. I unless you want me to physically go out and track them down and get beat the information out of them. I don't I don't know what you want from us because there's some that when they leave, we just never see them again and they don't leave a forwarding address. >> Somebody's choice to not graduate and get a GDED. How can y'all be held accountable for that? because we didn't do more to hold them >> in school and and get that diploma. >> Yes. >> I mean, if they're very small, you're looking at one or two kids that may have >> decided to drop out. Well, how is that going to affect us? Pretty big. It's going to be a big shift there with that percentage and stuff. So, yeah. >> Yes. like
043this 10th grade class we have right now is so small >> that if we lose a couple of them that's that's going to put a big dent in the graduation rate. >> But yeah, this wonderful new dashboard that they've put up there, it does make it a lot easier. It's it's more user friendly than the last one, >> but it's all out there. And they've the district letter grades this year are like last year simulated. They're also grading the co-ops as well and they're moving on to do to doing a few other things and adding some other things in, but right now that's what it looks like. So, yeah. >> What what merit deals are they looking at? >> They're looking at if a student graduated with concurrent credit. If they graduated with some college
044credit, like some of our students that take concurrent credit through SAU, how many credits did they graduate with? And think the minimum number they're looking at is nine. if they graduate with nine core credit hours, that is a point for us towards merit and distinction. Students who are graduating with um credentials, you know, all of those programs we're looking at adding like with Mr. Massing and the welding and the carpentry and all of that, those would give us merit as well. It's anything that they are leaving with that is college or career ready according to the state pathways, that's merit for us. So that's what they're giving us points for >> and it's easy to find. It's my schoolinfo arkansas.gov and you can go in there and and look at any school in the state
045and see what they're doing. They have laid it all out there bare for us. So there's no hiding behind anything. Okay. Guess the only fair thing about that all districts are under the same >> right everybody. Yes. [clears throat] >> Nobody's hiding. If you're a public school, you are not hiding. And I will say this, I'm just glad that I was not one of the superintendent testifying at the state board meeting. Well, >> next future business. Christmas break from December 22nd to January 2nd. >> Yeah, our teachers will be back on January 5th for PLC work and then students come back on the 6th. >> Um talked with NAB Holtz and with French today. They're working on budget numbers now. >> Not yet. They're still waiting on the soil package. So, but it's it's looking
046like the end of the building down there is probably going to be the most reasonable. If there's no more questions, uh last thing is a board meeting January 20th and we'll move to adjourn. >> Make the motion. >> We have a motion to second. All in favor of that motion say I.