00112th board meeting and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. 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. [Music] And now for a moment of silence. [Music] Amen. All right, Mr. Martin, I'm going to turn it over to you, sir. All right. Thank you. Welcome to the September 22 board meeting. Um, we always start out with the consent agenda. Are there any questions regarding the consent agenda? Okay, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that that the consent agenda, financial report, and board minutes of the regular board meeting held on August 8th, 2022 be approved as submitted. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make
002a motion. Motion by John. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Adam. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Everybody vote for any opposed? Nope. All right. We're good. Okay, up next we're under section four action items. We have uh up next is anou with the Arkansas Construction Education Foundation. And I'd like to turn that over to Miss Markville. Yes. So, um, last spring, Miss, um, Thomas, our college career counselor, had an opportunity to meet with the Arkansas Construction Education Foundation, and we were learning more about it over time, but we have an opportunity this year to um, engage in a pre-apprenticeship program. Typically, you have to be 18 years old and out of high school before you can start a formalized apprenticeship program. um think welding, con, master of construction, plumbing, and
003those kind of things all require a two-year apprenticeship program before you can be credentialed to be a certified bonded um skilled worker in those areas. uh ACF is working with the state and some surrounding schools and um technical institutes and is offering a pre-apprenticeship program which is exciting which would allow our seniors that are in interested and qualified to um go ahead and get a jump start on that apprentichip program while in high school at no cost to them. And they actually are going to work with us. They we've already sent a teacher in hopes that this will go through to training in at in Conway this summer. We have 10 eligible seniors who are interested. We did a preliminary parent night on open house just to gauge interest. We kind of did a draft
004of ourou and um in that what's exciting is at the culmination of the hours that students actually have to track hours as if they were on a clock time clock and we submit those weekly to the ACF. they are eligible to earn $500 um each semester that they can use toward tools of purchase will be supervised by us tools startup equipment um anything they might need for that next step in apprentichip or for postsecary education so we're really excited um to do this other schools like I said at surrounding areas and mostly in central Arkansas have taken advantage of ACF so far but this year NWTI I Springdale School District and us are going to partner up here and try to do this. So, um I'm excited about this opportunity. They also will provide supplies
005and things for our teacher. They actually have already set them up an account assuming this will go through when it is finalized at um Home Depot and Lowe's in the local hardware store. So, the supplies and things needed to make sure our students can get through the pre-apprenticeship. This pre-apprenticeship will take off a year of a formalized apprenticeship program for our students that are doing almost any other area except for plumbing and um I just lost my other train. Plumbing and um electrician is a half a year off their apprentichip program. So a win-win for interested seniors. They can do it during class time and things like that. So, I'd like to um ask that you review that and that we can move forward to this partnership and I'll answer any questions the best that
006I can. What's the cost to the district? The cost of the district is well, we had a teacher that was teaching in these sections anyway, so we're already planning for her salary just like she is. She's just choosing to use this programming to look at. really no cost, but I won't say no cost because we already hired the teacher. Okay. But it's not an additional cost. She would have been teaching these students anyway at this time. Okay. And where are they going to um are they going into a different location? Because we don't have a welding teacher. Yes, we were junior high school. We have all the things that they need. And actually the I don't need to do um we have all the things. They came and reviewed our lab space. um AC to
007make sure we had all the things we needed to do that and like the supplemental materials are things that would be consumable um that like we might use is what they're going to pay for. So we have the basic infrastructure pieces the large scale like the welding and the access to all the major things but things that we might use for these projects are what they will be supplementing through Lowe's and and the cost for the materials those they still have to pay for those with the ACF is covering that for us. So we have the major equipment but things like if you are welding the gas for example they'll offset the cost of like the gas building materials we have small tools and supplies that we normally would use will help us offset that
008while they're working through their credentiing. Did I answer your question? We do have the welding. We have how many welding bays? five welding bays at the junior high school teacher looking for which teacher were we looking for high school Miss Coots is teaching at that we have the welding and those things at the junior high school I'm mistaken I'm so sorry that's okay so yeah it's it's high school courses on the junior high campus because of the ventilation requirements and things that those labs have been set up for awesome I'm I'm excited you know this is where for one year. So, we're going to it's kind of when I with advertising or helping parents piloting it, you know, this is such a huge need um overall in the area in our particular area, but just
009in I think nationwide. I mean, the trade area is tremendously growing. I hope this really sets us up. My long-term goal is to build a residential construction program and so I'm hoping that this can feed into that. Absolutely. That's awesome. 100%. This is This is great. Are there certain local businesses that are already kind of tapping into well through this to us? ACF has a partnership with some of our local um they actually uh Kimble Mechanical um Multicraft and they their goals also help them get the job for the apprentichip. So students are really interested jumping right into that apprentichip. Um the numbers out of central Arkansas I think they had 100% placement of all the seniors that successfully did, you know, met all the credentials they had placed in central Arkansas. So, I was
010excited to hear that. Great. Perfect. It's awesome. Any other questions? Well, I did have a quick one. So, when they leave, they is it like a certificate that they just have or does it just transfer over? I'm just curious. So, what they do is when they leave, we actually they apply with the um Department of Justice. So the these students are going to do application with ACF and they're also going to be registered with the department of what's justice department but do um department of labor. Department of labor department they actually will leave with an account I can think of department of labor. Thank you. So they actually will have a department of labor account that will be tied to them forever. Okay. So the parents because they are under 18, the parents u we're
011going to actually tomorrow if this is approved my plan is to go sit with these 10 kiddos. I've pulled all their demographics cuz you know they don't know all their information and help them fill out the application the best we can. We'll sit at home with the parents a department of labor application and the ACF. So we'll file that with the department of labor and that will carry with them. So say they even take a break for a year and then pick it up, they can pick it. It'll always be tied to them. Okay. That's exciting, too. Yeah, that's great. Awesome. Okay. Any others? Thank you. Not department. You're not in trouble. We're not in trouble. We're not in trouble. Um, with that, I'd like to make a recommendation that we approve with the Arkansas
012Construction Education Foundation. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. All right. Do we have a second? I'll second. Any other conversation discussion? All right. So, everybody who is I can't talk tonight. Yeah. All in favor? I just went blank. I'm like, what in the world? All in favor? Any opposed? It was the Department of Justice. I was all off filter. I don't think so. I just I am brain fogged this morning or this isn't right. All right. And up next we have our student services report. Mr. Ramy, um food service. Our month ending uh balance for u August was $469,3741. Uh we are still awaiting um reimbursements for July and August uh from the state. as we close out one year and then begin the next,
013it's always slow this time of year on reimbursements because we have to wait for every school district in in the state to complete paperwork and some of them are delayed. They don't do quite as as good a job as Julie does of getting her her information. So, um we do have outstanding reimbursements. I think it's right in the nature of about $45,000 kept to us which will be added to that balance. So, our balance uh continues to uh stay strong. Uh we are seeing a little reduction in um uh the amount of students that are eating at school. Uh it's due to we've gone back to having to pay for lunches and so our families are choosing uh to bring food from home and that sort of thing. Uh but our staff continues to do
014a really a really good job of uh this is our big time for free and reduced lunch applications. And so right now we've got about 45% of our u uh student body that has has completed those and turned them in. Uh we should see an increase here over the next two three weeks because that 30 day window where if you qualified last year rolls off the books on Thursday of this week and so families will, you know, right now they're under um they still received three meals from last year's applications. that will end uh on the 15th and then they'll start to to be charged and receive some phone calls and stuff. So that'll kind of kickstart us to get some more applications and things in. Uh October one is a big deadline for us
015because that's when state pulls our our numbers and we get some of our percentages for funding. And so we always try to get a lot of applications in before October one. Families can fill them out all year long, but it's a it's got a crucial date for our district. And so we continue to kind of push that that information. um in in transportation uh we are uh experiencing some of the things that that other districts are experiencing and uh I know you guys have seen the the notifications with the a bus is delayed or a bus is late or whatever but uh we've got a shortage of drivers. We are actively working uh to get some people certified. We've got a a couple that have come and seen us and some more interest other places.
016And so we're actively working and trying to rectify problems so we can kind of get back to our normal routes. But you know, as new areas and new subdivisions come online, it's kind of making us change and g adjust and we're seeing more riders from different places and so it's put some stress on us and uh we're trying to work it out kind of as as we go. And so, uh, uh, we're thankful for our families because they've been really patient and flexible with us. Uh, but at the same time, we know we got to get some of this stuff resolved for. And so, we we are working on it. Uh, I can't thank Terresa Bean and Marian Holland enough. They they've pulled about, uh, really like 10 and a half, 11 hour days for
017about 3 weeks straight. Uh, just to keep us kind of up and running and they're answering phone calls and running students down to to Rogers and everywhere else. And so they've kind of gone above and beyond the call of duty and we're very appreciative of them. Also, we've had several of our coaches step up and be willing to drive the routes in the morning and help drop off in the afternoon. And so, uh, the important thing is we're getting students to campus and we're getting them back home. We may be 5 or 10 minutes late, but we're getting them here and then we're getting them home. That's kind of our our our goal right now. And then uh we'll add it out as we as we can over time. Uh but we are we are
018working and we thank our our community for for being patient with us. Um since our last board meeting and it seems like uh forever ago. Um but in maintenance uh you know we had our our board meeting I think the week before school started and then that Saturday we had tragedy at the high school and we had some some painters in on a Saturday uh doing some some work and they hit a a sprinkler head and uh for about 12 minutes we had water just flowing 100 miles an hour in one of our classrooms and uh it's I say one of our classrooms it's what we call a quad it's four classrooms in one so it's about 32 3500 ft and it completely flooded and uh uh I'm thankful for our maintenance team and our
019custodian. We put about 60 hours in in two days so that we could have school at the hospital on Monday the 15th. And so uh very appreciative of those people that that came up. We we when we first walked in and looked at it, you didn't know where to begin. I mean, we just had water and stuff everywhere. And uh they didn't hesitate. They just got got after it and went right to work. CR Crawford, our our construction company, extremely involved in the the process and are involved today. We're talking to them today about insurance companies and and information needed and those sorts of things. And so, it's a work in progress. The the room has not been released back to us yet. Uh it's still very much under repair. We've got supplies and things
020in order, but we're working with the third party insurance company. And so they're requesting things and they've been on site. And as we get that cleared up, we'll see that work begin to to to, you know, finalized. We've got electrical work that has to be done. We've got ceiling tiles got to be replaced. Lights have to be replaced. We've already painted in that room. We've got flooring that has to be completely replaced. So it's it's a little bit of a chore, a big project. We'd hope to have all of it done now, but it's just like everything else, supply chain issues taking time. And so, uh, we are working, uh, on those things. We've submitted on our documents. Uh, now we're just waiting on on on insurance, third party review. Sarah Crawford's kind of taken
021the lead because it was one of their their contractors. So, we are working working through that. Hopefully, we'll get it back uh soon. Um, the other thing that we've got is our ESG, our our HVAC, and our roof project. The roof work at the junior high is is pretty much completed. We've got uh Queen City that's doing the roofing out of Springfield coming on on site Friday. And so we'll kind of have the final kind of walk through uh with them. We'll look at uh any items or anything that we've got going on that they've completed uh the bulk of their work. We appreciate them for I mean they work seven days a week and and did it a lot after hours and stuff when school got started uh because we didn't want them in
022there with with kids and different things. And so uh we thank them for the work that that they did. Uh Middleton is still waiting on some parts for HVAC. And so uh we hope we've kind of said this for the last two or three months. We hope it would be completed. We're not. We're just waiting on stuff to come in. Then as it comes in, they've got plans in place to install and get us going. But when we've had issues with with anything that has already been finished, they're on site that day. And so continuing to work through through that project. It's been what, two years? Yes, there. And so, um, we've started to to use our our our system and our our teachers in our our two buildings, the junior high and the intermediate,
023they we've got it up and running where we can monitor remotely the thermostats and and what we're seeing and doing. So, all of that is is working for us. So, the systems up and running. We still have all of it completed at this time. So, as we get it as we get it done, then we'll be fully integrated. But um we're we're getting we can see the latitude of the time. We just haven't run through it yet. It's almost there. [Music] That's it. That's all we got. Awesome. Any questions? I guess I did have a quick question. I know that the transportation has been on the minds of parents. If they do have questions, just for their information, if they're concerned or not sure what time their child's getting on the bus, who can they
024contact? Just so it's an easy right here. Okay. They can call the transportation department or the the district admin that'll come to me. Okay. Cuz I know there's been a little bit of like, well, it said they're late, but I don't know what that means and I'm already at work. So, there are a couple of days we were really late. Okay. And well, and yesterday was one of them. And what happened was we had a tree across the road and just the latest about 20 minutes. We were waiting for them to get it out of out of the road for us. Right. Right. So, just some unforeseen stuff, but uh you know, then some of it's been a shortage of drivers and we've had to run double routes and do do things to to make
025it work. So, that's what we that's what we do. Okay. All right. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. Anything else? All right. Mr. Mark, up next under curriculum instruction. I know this is very a very long um approval. Then we have the approval of the Arkansas Department of Education statement of assurances for programs under elementary and secondary education act 1965 as amended by the every student succeeds act. This is something that we do every year to we sign off that we are in compliance with title 1 A um title 1D, title 2 A, title um one part D. I mean, and what this is, it just it's showing that we are following all rules and regulations when it comes to the spinning of money. We talked about free and reduced lunch forms the other day. This
026is categorical funds. Our free and reduced lunch percentage drives a lot of what we of the funding that we get in this. That's why it's so important. But what we're doing is we're signing off on the asurances for our title one part A um which is free reduced lunch percentages. um title one part D which is children of youth who are neglected, delinquent or at risk and title two part A that's um teacher training and prep um PD title three which is our ESL kids or English and second language and title four part A which is student support academic enrichment and the last part of it over there is the McKini Dentto homeless education act in compliance with all these federal um categorical funds. Are there any questions on the document? Okay, with that, I'm
027going to read it really long again. With that, I would like to make the recommendation that we approve the Arkansas Department of Education statement of assurances programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? Second. Right. All in favor? Any opposed? All right, Mr. Martin. Up next, we have approval of the budget for the 2223 fiscal year. And I will turn it over to [Music] Miss and just a second. [Music] Thank you. Um, good evening. Um, I've created a a short presentation on how I do budgets and um, some of our historical data. So, primarily our goals here at P Ridge is we always want to
028strengthen our effective programs and we want to retain and hire the best personnel. Those are two key factors that I use when I budget. Um, some of the budgeting principles I also use is we always want to spend less than we receive. So, I always budget revenue low, expenditures high. That way I can make sure that we're a tax. Um, we always focus on improving learning in teaching and um I distinguish between what we need first what people want. We always want to take care of our needs first, our required needs, and then we go to the um our key budget components are our property tax assessments, our student foundation funding, and our student membership. Those are the three key factors in how we generate our revenues. Here's some historical information on our property tax
029assessments. As you can see, it continually increases year-over-year. Um, next year we anticipated increasing again with the um, this year we had a new assessment year which is why you had such a big jump. Next year it'll jump again because we have all the new housing developments coming in two years. This is our average daily membership and this is what we are funded on from the state. Again, as you can see, it's increased. We've increased over a 100 students. Now that 20 333 is an average of the first three quarters of last year. So we receive our initial funding based on last year's membership or last year's student count. Right now I believe we're at 2449 was the last number that I Yeah, we're right at 24. Yes. So when I budget student foundation or
030state foundation funding, I only budgeted at the 2333. I don't budget that difference in what our actual account is. We'll receive student growth money in December or January and then another portion of it at the end of the fiscal year. One of the reasons I don't budget it is because it's not guaranteed to us. We have a drop in enrollment, we won't receive as much. So, I don't I only I don't budget it. It's also a safeguard to me. I use it for consistent for me if we have an issue like we had at the high school and thankfully in this case it was the insurance company's going to pay for it from the contractors. Um right now our per people st foundation funding is we're funded at $7,413. It's an increase of about $231
031per student. Um so that is guaranteed for each student in every district. That 7,000 is not just made up of state foundation funding. It's made up of a portion of our property taxes and the state found in the state funded. So every so depending on what where you are in the state of Arkansas, it could be you receive more from the state because you receive less property taxes because the values of housing is lower where we receive more in property taxes. Um, our local revenue per student is calculated on 98% of the assessment just on our first 25 mills. We're right now we're at 47.2. So, we're guaranteed 98% of the 25 mills. The other mills is just based on collections on whether people pay their property taxes. On average, the past 5 years, we've
032gotten probably about 96% of those. And we do get delinquent taxes as well. So when people pay their delinquent taxes, we it does catch up eventually, but year after year, it's usually about 96%. Um, so this is how we're funded. As you can see, it's $7,413 per student. Our percentage from our property taxes is about 1,6 49 and the other portion comes from the state. And so it's about 22% from property taxes and the other 78 is from the state. That's been pretty much the same year after year. Um, as you can kind of see, I show the historical data of how we're funded between local and state. our operating fund projections, our revenue, our growth fund, which I don't budget um because they're not guaranteed, and then our expenditures. This is the makeup of
033our operating revenue. As you can see, it's primarily made up of state foundation funding and property taxes. We do have some state uh revenue sources. We get some state special ed money. We get some categorical money which is our professional development, English as a snake language, our AL program and this one and professional development. We get four sources and it's all considered state money. Even though it's in our operating fund, those four are restricted based on those type of programs. So when we get funding for AL, I cannot use AL funding for a non AL student. We get sped funding. I can't use it for a nonsp specialist. Our operating expenditures, as you can see, our salary and benefits pretty much make up the majority of our our budget. Then we have utilities and our
034debt service. And then our other expenses, it's about 8%. So we don't have a lot of excess money once we pay for salaries and benefits and our debt services for other things. Now I'll go over the um 222 budget. Can I ask a question before you do that? Yes ma'am. So the the 7,413 that we get per student do we get that even for school choice students? Yes ma'am. Okay. It's any student enrolled enrolled. Okay. In August. Yeah. That is where your 25 meals comes in. Um the what is the 47.2 47.2 months 20 was that 22.2. Um that is locally funded. That is what we as a district have voted on with it and we paid those 22.2 mills basically for bonded debt service or this the school's mortgage payment for for all of
035our buildings and stuff. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. In your packet, I believe you have a copy of this. This is a little hard to read, but this is the on the screen right now is just our operating fund. So, it's our operating money and our debt service. I've shown you three um three columns. The first column is our 2223. That is my proposed budget. I show our 2122 actual where we ended the year at. and then what our 2122 budget is. Um so as you can see in revenue, our top two um line items are our foundation funding and our property taxes. Um our other state funding again is that categorical um money that we receive. We do get a donation of 97,200 from the Accelerate Foundation and that is strictly restricted
036to our prek program. So, it helps pay for our prepaid salaries and some of their supplies that they're needing. Do you want to scroll? Yes, ma'am. I'm trying my best. I was trying I was going to click. I was trying. I'm sorry. No, you're I didn't. Okay. Keep going. Okay. Um so on the um operating funding expenditures you can see our salaries and benefits are our our primary expenditure that we budget and then debt. Um I made a few notes on some of our expenditures on textbooks. That's not just a physical textbook in under textbooks. I also include any um software that we purchase that takes the place of a textbook. So like our Lexio learning, our W wisdom, um any math or literacy curriculum or science or social studies curriculum is all linked into
037textbooks. Um on other professional services that it also includes like our um we contract out with the Northwest Arkansas co-op to provide prek services for our special ed kids that are um prek. So that is under professional services. It also includes our website management company. Um our tuition is our concurrent classes. So we have some students that have taken current classes and we pay for those classes for them. So that's what the tuition is. And then um our printing and copers that off that's not just um the cost of printing that's the lease payments that we make for all the copters in the district. And so that's our operating fund. Our building fund is our construction any type of construction projects that we have. Um it fluctuates from year to year. This year what I've
038budgeted is it's just the final payments that we have for our energy savings project because that's the only project we have ongoing. Um last year it was in full stride. We had a full year of the project. And so that's why there's such a difference in what happened last year versus what happens this year. And it's so our funding will come from our um partnership money that we get from the state. This is our federal fund budget. This is where we get our title one or special ed money. Um, and then our ESRE money is also included in this. Our federal fund money, this is based on preliminary allocations. the state will finalize our allocations based on our student count on October 1st and we'll get those final allocations usually towards the end of the
039calendar year and so we have to adjust the budget at that time but usually it's just adjusting revenue and adjusting an expense so they zero out they always should balance whatever money we have coming in I have to u budget the expenditures and again it's primarily used for salaries and benefits. The the high dollar amounts we have in technology and supplies and other professional services, that is based on our ESSER funding. We still have quite a bit of ESER funding that we're going to expend and those are some of the places that we had originally earmarked them for. But we'll meet, we periodically meet to see what our needs are because we can change those needs with the state as as they come back. And this is our last fund. This is our child nutrition
040fund. The money in the child nutrition fund can only be used for child nutrition. I cannot use any revenue generated for student food sales for other things. We can't pay off student accounts using that money. We can't use it for any shortfalls. And so, um, it's based on federal and students, uh, sales. As you can see, this year we lowered the amount of federal funding we expect to get because we're not funded 100% this year. And we increased the amount of of revenue generated from student adult savings. And again, it's primarily salaries and benefits. And our food costs are generally our expenditures for that program. um our activity funds are not budgeted. Those are our student groups and so the money those groups raise stays with them. So if FFA raises money, it stays with
041FFA. It cannot be used for youth football. And so um those are generally not budgeted because it depends on their fundraisers and what expenses. But they each have a sponsor and a student group and they decide what they use those funds for when [Music] they are there any questions. No, I I want to say thank you. Thank you for taking the time. Thursday you put all this together and had a training session for for all of us and I greatly appreciate the time you put into that and taking it and breaking it down and explaining it to it was me and Adam but to the board. Um so I greatly appreciate you doing that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Pell. I can't tell you how much of an asset she is to us
042telling you and everything. Um, you know, um, Mr. Taylor's department, um, Miss Pell, they they literally touch every department, every organization that we have in our district and the work they do. Um, if it's a restaurant, they're on the back of the house, but the back of the house keeps the front of the house going and they keep it going well. So, I'm very thankful for that. Absolutely. And like I said, answering all of our questions and breaking it down for for some of us. I appreciate you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Do y'all have any additional questions? Um, with that, I'd like to make a recommendation that we approve the budget for the 2223 school year. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Adam.
043Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Jessica. All right. Any conversation, discussion? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? All right, Mr. Martin. Okay. Uh, next we have approval of salary changes under act 1120. Act 1120 came our way about oh about seven or eight years ago. And what it does is it requires um schoolboard approval for um salary increases for the year ending fiscal year ending July 30th, 2021 compared to people's salaries ending fiscal year July 30th, 2022. So it's already happened in the past, but um it it allows for transparency for you to see salary increases. Some of the salary increases look like a lot. Um, we have one individual, they drove a bus one day, one year, and the next year they were a full-time bus driver. Well, it's a
0444,000% salary increase. Um, but anything over 5% we're required to report to you. So, this is the document. Are there any questions? Okay. With that, I would like to make the recommendation that we approve the salary changes under Act 1120. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Motion by John. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Sarah. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? All right, Mr. Martin. Up next is personnel. And I'd like to ask if we can go into the same session. All right. So, it is 6:38 and we will go into executive session now.