001Right. So, we are here for the February school board meeting. Uh, let's stand and we'll do the pledge of allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with justice for all. Follow that with a moment of silence. Amen. All right, Mr. Martin. All right. Welcome to the February um school board meeting. More importantly, happy birthday to Mr. Adam. First on the agenda is consent agenda. Are there any questions regarding that? Um with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that the consent agenda, financial report, and board minutes of the regular board meeting held on January 9, 2023 be approved as submitted. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion by Adam. Do
002we have a second? Second. Second by Jessica. All right. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. All right. Up next, we should have um schoolboard training training opportunity. I know that we've had a couple um express interest in attending the consortium of state school board association um annual conference that's in Tampa, Florida. And so I wanted to provide you with a um this is up here. It's outside your packet. a cost um of it for each individual per attendee. Um you know if if you go the registration's right at it's $600. Um when I looked online flights are around $600, hotel around $800 in meals. So for each participant it would be about $2,250. Um seeing this is something that some of the board may want to do, I thought it
003would be good for y'all to discuss it as a whole. And behind there's just the agenda and the registration link. I'm sorry. This before? No, ma'am. Um the first one they've ever had. It is the first one. Yes, ma'am. Um, if you'll remember last year, the year before, Arkansas School Board Association um decided to withdraw from the National School Board Association. I think they had about 19 or 20 states somewhere in there. They did that and this was their response to severing from the National School Board Association is to um create this association so that members could be part of part of it for um you know for networking for for growth and for collaboration and these all these hours count towards board member meeting hours. I believe yes ma'am. Do we know if any
004of our sister districts are sending anybody representation? I do not know. Okay. Who all looking to attend? Well, that was my question. Would it be where everyone would need to attend or just people the members that Well, I I think that's where you get into that's the direction I want to go. I don't know if you can ever have a year everyone can attend, right? Um and it is at 2250 a person. It is it is cost it it costs more than a normal conference, right? Um, I didn't know if that was if if that's something y'all want to do where, you know, a couple members go a year or or or or what, right? Um, from a budget standpoint, we do not have it in the budget this year. Um, it's something that we
005could work into the budget for upcoming years and everything. Um, we can work with Miss M. Bernell on that. So, just for my sake, you're talking about you school covering all costs. Well, yes, sir. That's what the cost would be. Um, now am I okay with us not covering all the cost? Absolutely. But, um, that's a roundabout guesstimate on what it will cost for someone to attend. You know, it's 600 bucks to to register. Your flight's going to be right around $600 from what I looked at. Um, hotels, I didn't check, but it's usually two around $200 a night for a hotel. You would have to stay for four nights and that's just the perm that we pay for um for meals. Yes. Mhm. As far as how we would decide who goes this year,
006would we vote or how would we But it sounds like we're not thinking of sending everyone. Well, um this doesn't require a vote because on a purchase price it's it's a micro purchase still. Yeah. Um, I think this is just something that if y'all are wanting to send people that y'all um have that discussion and that's what we're that's what this meeting is part of is having those discussions. Yes. Okay. Um I think you have you have districts that everyone goes including the superintendent. You have and maybe not this I'm just talking about right national conferences. You have conference. You have it to where they have a rotation to where maybe the the president, vice president, president, secret go. You may have a rotation where your newest well or or new me, you know, it's
007it's a conference that a new member goes to when when they come on to the board and everything. So, I'm sure districts work work those things out. You know, they're all all districts are different when it comes to that. Okay. But by us doing this, we're going to be taking any opportunities away from students or from teachers being able to go to conferences and and do things that are going to impact the the students, right? Well, it if it comes out of operating or professional development, Yes, ma'am. It does pull pull from that pod. Okay. Cuz when I said work, when I say put it into the budget, I'm I'm creating a a line item for it almost. Does that make sense? Would it come from the same funding as when we go to a
008state conference or district? It's the same ma'am. Gotcha. It's just more because it's national. Well, to be honest with you, it's more because you know your registration's the same basically. Um, your hotel cost is the same in Little Rock, Arkansas as it is in this one St. Petersburg or Tampa. Tampa. Okay, Tampa. Sorry. Um, and your melon PDM's the same, but what's different is transportation costs. Are you are you wanting more feedback or Well, yeah. I mean, I don't see how if it's the only difference is the cost of the the transportation. Everything else is what we would regularly spend on any meeting. Correct. Mhm. It the same registration, hotel, meal. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. I would I wouldn't say I wouldn't mind saying that. Okay. To at least three members going if if they were
009want that would be I would say was being open to, right? Or around the equivalent of if we all went to a meeting in Arkansas. I know it'd be less, but Yes, ma'am. If not everybody's going, it kind of in certain ways would would b balance. Yes. Because not everyone's going, so there's not the cost of everyone is kind of what I'm saying, right? Yes. Mhm. Is this available virtually? I don't think so. Look at the but it's Yeah, John. I don't know. Yeah. I'm not sure because it looks like they have you in different locations and there's breakout meetings. It's more to get the experience of meeting people from different states I think that are in education. I would assume it's probably not. You you make more. Yeah. People show up. So that's it
010y'all. Um I guess my thing is I would from my standpoint I would prefer if this is something that we're wanting to do to push it a year so that I can build it into the budget and not take and and be prepared that way. I would just like some direction on if if that's something y'all are looking at, how much to budget. Does that make sense? So, when do teachers and principles turn in their training and their conferences that they want to go to? We're working on that correctly. So, you're you'll have that number and then we have this number cuz here's I if it's not in the budget here, I want the teachers and the educators to get their professional training. Sure. Absolutely. um they they need to be priority. Um this here
011needs to be secondary. And I think if with it being brand new, you need to look at officers going first. Okay. And then do another tier like the next year do two more people go or or the next year or a new person. Rotate it through. So a rotation a rotation. I mean that's my feedback. I'm not saying hey this is but that's just my feedback. I think that's good. So maybe looking at president, vice president next school year to go and then if there's interest if they don't want they could pass it to someone else then then go to the next two. I'd say two. Okay. Max I think given the cost two two is a max. Mhm. Um and and again and I mean this very sincerely when I say it and I
012know this is very difficult to answer. What do we get? What is the gain from it nationally? I'm just asking like is there was there a thought on the on you're meeting some other school districts? Yes. But Sure. I think it's the the opportunity for different types of professional development that they offer. Okay. You have breakout sessions that are there's five offerings and then you have some sessions where there's 20 plus, right? I think it it gets down more into detail over specific areas compared to going to um one of the three-hour events that we we have locally. And I think getting to hear a different perspective. Sure. I think um but I think we need to look at it as a well I think Arkansas is ranked 42nd in education. So, it'd be really
013good to hear from like the top five states in the nation like what are they doing since we're kind of leading the way for our school. I think that would be okay for next year or two. Yeah. Well, let's let's take a look at the budget and make sure that we have But if we if we have it then Yep. Yeah. No worries. We'll work on that for this year or next year. For next year. Are y'all ready to move on to the next time? Um up next is um our SRO's proposal for the for next school year. We have um here um Officer Fowler is outstanding SRO for us. Lieutenant Forom um is kind of overseeing that project right now. Um, one of the things I I what I hear from our community and
014I think y'all do as well is that they would like a SRO at each campus. And so the proposal that we're going to bring to you today um allows for that. Um, you know, one of the things that we're wanting to do is to be proactive on a daily basis and to ensure that our campuses are safe and meets the needs of all students. Um, and you know, you do that providing a safe and respectful environment for everyone. And to make that happen, you have to have a layered approach to safety and security that you're doing in your building. And also the programs that you're that we're dedicating to. And next month we're going to talk about school safety and and all the programs that we're running and everything from mental health to bullying to
015prevention and all those things. But today we're going to talk about SRO's a little bit. Um and last October and it was finalized November 1, um we had the Arkansas School Safety Commission um that Governor Hutchson um had um come out and the final report was released in these seven areas and it was general recommendations which that's just that it was like policy and procedure and then you get right down into it. the mental health prevention, the cyber security, the law enforcement and security, the audits, emergency operations plans and drills, intelligence and communications, and physical security. I our SRO's help in my opinion with five out of the six of those. The cyber security one, not so much. That's more Mr. Taylor's um avenue. But those five um they help us with every day and
016are an integral part of that. And inside that um recommendation of law enforcement security, the recommendation number one was campuses should always have an armed presence when staff and children are attending class or a major extracurricular activity. Um it and it also went on to say that the school Arkansas school safety commission continues to maintain that ideally every campus building where staff and students are present should have a a school resource officer present. You do have the um and I know I called where it's like a certified safety officer um that the school district employees that their only job is to be an armed presence but they are not an SRO but but that they have six officer 60 hours of training is it 60 okay 60 hours of training compared to the ex the
017continuing experiences that our police officers have um and when we get into that, that's why we're recommending um to have an SRO at each campus. Now, we would also like to increase that to where one of our SRO's is is here year round. And the reason why for the year round is I know school ends May the 28th or 29th or whatever it is. But the very next Monday I will have th we will have 300 plus kids on campus with athletics with camps with summer school with summer summer school with um we can't call it space camp anymore but what we are going um what we do for learning loss and everything our school does not shut down except for the last week of June and the first week of July which is technically
018the AAA dead. Yes, ma'am. Wherefore kids can't be on campus. So, we have enough kids on campus that I feel we need at least one during during the summer to keep us safe and secure. And this is all about providing an arm presence on all campuses. It's about having a safe and respectful environment. This also allows us our summer activities, our practices, camps, summer schooling events. And you know the the best thing I see out of this proactively addressing our issues, but if we have an SRO on each campus, we can provide programs and education and training that is grade band specific for those kids. Um, I'm so excited that it if y'all prove this that we can do bicycle safety for some of our kids. We can do internet awareness for for the correct
019age ranges. um all the way to uh dating violence at at the high school level and having our kids have programs that are that are tailor made for their age range and everything that our SRO can work with, you know, our auxiliary teachers, our classroom teachers with our counselors to to make to help our community and our kids be safer. There is a price difference. Um, last year we spent about we're right at $145,000 before overtime. I think with overtime we'll be at about 175 180. We're not finished with the overtime piece yet. Um, with ball game duties. This 275 for five SR going from 3 to 5 and one full-time also includes 500 hours of overtime. Okay. So, that will help absorb that cost. This is not the true cost to the to the
020program. The city is pitching in their part as well. Um, now this also, if y'all approve it, it can we cannot move forward until the city approves it as well. Does that make sense? Because they will be adding personnel because we we're basically a purchase service of SRO's and it they're city employees and not school employees. Um, would y'all like to add What would you like to add? No, it's uh this is, you know, I've talked to Mr. Martin about this quite a bit. Um, you know, with things not changing as far as some of the safety issues at her school. This is something that um I think will be beneficial not only for the schools but the community as a whole to also add again those uh classes and special programs that we can
021offer. also having that armed security. Um the chief and I are very adamant to our even our patrol officers. Our patrol officers are supposed to be making constant stops in the schools and patrolling the the uh not only the hallways but the the parking lots. Um, and this just also adds to our ongoing active shooter training which we do every year in your schools as far as very realistic training and um, you know, god forbid something were to ever happen in one of our schools, I think we are really prepared to to take care of of the situation. So um, all that being said, this is this would be extremely beneficial again for the schools and the community as a whole. So you calculate those h 500 hours of overtime. You took those by the
022amount of time that they've been doing it so far or it's a guesstimate. Um the time the game starts from the time Yes, ma'am. Um you got to remember Friday night football games have a lot more overtime hours than a a standalone basketball event that may require only one SRO. A um a Friday night football game requires four or five SRO's. A basketball game requires one and so a 500 I think we we can stay within that. The one thing that we will be doing is we have been covering the cost for security for every event. Whether it's um a PTO, whether it's no matter what it is, we may ask um if an organization has an event where we feel security is necessary that they will pay us for the overtime rate of the
023officer being there and we we will just be a pass through and send that to the city. Does that make sense? I would like to add to that also. The city does absorb some of the overtime. So if it's an event we're contracted for like a ball game or a school dance or something like that, then the school pays it. But if it is um criminally related, so if I'm investigating a case and have to stay over an hour and a half instead of the school having to pay overtime for that, the city compensates with comp time at my goal is to have an SRO at every campus. How does So we have we would have one on camp one on every campus. How does that compare to the other schools in our district otherwise
024in in our area? In our area, I'm sorry. Yes, sir. In our area, we you you can't be staffed more than that. Um you'll you'll find very you you're seeing districts doing a blend of the certified school safety officer and SRO's. Um, every school, every um, district in our area is trying to move to as many to to meet that one-on-one, that one:1 ratio as possible. Um, I can get you those numbers. I've got them. They're they're they're a wee bit old. Yeah, we I mean, we we've talked about in the past and I what I recall it was nowhere near one to one, right? after after you valdi I think you know if you have an event heaven forbid on on campus and you don't have somebody present I don't know how you answer
025those comm those those questions to your community right um a lot of districts in the area various ways how do I get an armed presence on campus and we we've talked about it uh quite a bit you know school security officers and different things but you know they have specialized training our SRO's We have a fantastic relationship with our city, our chief and our and our SRO. And so if you bring in the C this, you know, certified school security officer where you've got a different arm presence that may or may not speak the same language. You know, they have 60 hours of training in August or what happens when your events in April and maybe I don't remember as fresh as as earlier in the year. And so, um, this seems to be the
026best fit for our school district, you know, and and what we we feel like and what we feel keeps us the safest. And so, that's the recommendation I think from for Mr. I have a followup. So, each SRO would be assigned to one school all the time like the primary so they could build relationship with the teachers and staff which would create a sense of community and security. Plus the kids would start to know who the officer is because they'd be there daily just like a staff member. Yes, ma'am. And the budget for it is already like there or I know we have to approve it, but I guess my question is we can afford it. Okay, that was my question. Okay. Um, we can afford it. Um, you know, when I talked about being
027a growing school district, um, this is one of the benefits of of being a growing school district is that you get to add pro you have the opportunity to add programs from time to time. And the school off school resource officer program is one that we've added to. Um, I think if you ask our our average parent, they want an arm presence on each campus and our community does as well. So Jessica and I went to a training um and they had the three different and you you talked about the the armed I call them the equivalent of like a security guard um versus officers versus armed teachers. Mhm. Officer Fowler, you I would love to hear your opinion on armed teachers versus, again, I know it's not the right term, security guard, but security
028guard versus having actual police officers. And either one of you would you mind? No, I don't mind. Um, the thing you security guard is just a gun person. Uh, they don't work for us. We don't train them. They may be involved in some of our training, but again, if something happens, we don't know if they're the first out the door because the 60 hour training isn't something you guys oversee. Okay. I mean, we would probably and, you know, do some type of training for them, but they would work for the school district. They wouldn't work for us. Okay. Um where with uh armed teachers, that's that's completely obviously a team. But um as far as police uh officers, we have constant training. Um we put on again active shooter training, firearms train, tactics training, plus
029the equipment we bring to the table. I just purchased every officer uh tactical shields and and light has evolved as far as taking rounds coming down a hallway. Now we are able to to to have shields as we go in tactical equipment or helmets or breaching tools, our our certifications and knowing how to use those things. Um whereas the security guard doesn't have any of that. So really the security and then not only to mention that crimes do happen under school. Our SRO are the ones that respond to that and investigate that. Having security you just had two or three SRO's and the other security guard for crime so happens the security guard can't investigate that and SRO has to go or police officer has to investigate that. So having a new school would also
030be able to spread that out amongst the SOS a little bit more as far as investigation goes. Um but uh yeah, I I think ultimately um you know having that police officer is almost like his own his or her own little unit and then they've really take ownership of that campus and and can provide those programs, those teaching opportunities because of the experience, the training that we have plus all the training and stuff that comes with that. So as far as and I've talked to Mr. smart about getting high quality, high level SROs. We're not talking necessarily putting rookies or the guy that's retired on duty. Um, we've uh we we really want we are fortunate in this city that we have uh very uh great support from the community and we are not strongly
031hiring police officers as opposed to some other communities. So, um we we think we can get really high from those. So, you're going to get us four more, right? Well, we only have we have the three, so I need two additional two two more. Sure. No, I can work on that. All right. I just feel that the SRO is a is a better option for us than a certified school security officer. I agree. I just wanted to hear somebody else's opinion instead of it just being us sitting here saying that. So yes. All right. Anything else? Okay. With that, I would like to make the recommendation that we approve an increase in the number of school resource officers contracted with the city of P Ridge for the 23 24 school year from 3 to five
032full-time officers with one officer being contracted for 12 months. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? Second. Sorry. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next, we have um approval of an inter as we continue to grow, we have to grow our staff. Um appro to to consideration for an intermediate middle school assistant principal position for next school year. Miss Markfield, do you want to talk about this? Yes. Um I just want to tell you a little bit about the why before we ask for any increase and stuff. I think it's important to realize that um we're getting close to the threshold. It requires a 0.5 um assistant principal which is 500 um we're not
033quite there yet and won't be you know probably next school year but in the next immediate future. But with the academic needs and the things that are increasing, um we see the need to add a split assistant principal between the middle school and intermediate. Um Miss Taber and I had the opportunity to meet with our current principles and we discussed a variety of options. um what we thought would be best for academic coverage, what we thought would be best for um supervising, what we thought would be best for school safety, all the things that are out in front of us that were considering special education, all the needs that are hit in those campuses. They've had amazing success and we've seen some growth and with using our instructional facilitator split between those two campuses and
034the connectivity it has caused and um we really were able to speak articulately to that. U Miss Bolan had actually served as an assistant principal between two campuses. So, we nailed out the pros and the cons and the four of us felt that this was the best recommendation because it allows us to keep our instructional facilitator and that momentum growing strong and um it allows the assistant principal to have defined similar roles on both campuses. So, we won't walk in the door say at the intermediate school and this is my role here and over here at the middle school it'll be something different. So, it just allows for a better alignment um to meet the needs. We toss out a lot of creative options. I think we Miss Bowman's not here but we threw out
035all the things and last year for Miss Allen became our principal. She was a facilitator split between two buildings. So that those ladies had just lived that experience and um we just threw out all the things and poached holes in each other's plans and ideas and felt this was the best recommendation to bring to you today. Um we feel like with our budget, Miss Brunell has approved this position and this is something we would like you to consider. Any questions? Okay. Um, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve an intermediate middle school AP position for the I'm sorry, assistant principal position for the 23-24 school year. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. All right. We have a motion by Sarah. Do we have
036a second? I'll second. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Um up next we have a student services report. Mr. Rainey, um our food service balance is u 478,45846. And so our our budget there continues to be uh really strong. Uh last Friday I had the the pleasure of spending uh about two hours at the high school working with our food service ladies and behind the scenes uh the attention to details that those those ladies go through uh from measuring everything that we do um to preparing for the next day. You know, we're we're finishing lunch, we're cleaning up, and they're getting breakfast stuff ready for the next morning. And uh the hours and the time and and uh the way they they go about their job is is to be
037commended. and I had a I had a great time with them that all of our kitchens operate the same way. And so it's a testament to uh Miss Ferguson, but also her her team as well. And so we're we're really proud of them. Um in the last month, we've had two uh inspections uh from the state in in regards to facilities and transportation. Um we had our our driver's records checked. Uh Teresa Dean is responsible for kind of maintaining all of that documentation. Uh they check everything from uh you know do we have current driver's license to uh drug testing random drug testing um u you know physicals and everything's up to date and uh Teresa maintains all that when you know somebody's about to expire she gets them u uh you know to the
038the doctors or anything that they need and we we got a clean review which was was really good. We're really proud of it and so uh she's to be commended for for uh that. Uh the second thing that we had happened last week, uh twice a year, the state department walks our facilities. They come on on site and they they check everything. Uh they they check our fire extinguishers to make sure that we're doing our our monthly uh checks to make sure that they're all working properly and that sort of thing. They walk uh buildings and classrooms uh to make sure that we're in compliance with little things such as uh you can't have an item stored 18 in or closer to the roof. and so for fire code and so they walk and make
039sure that you know we we maintain that that distance and and know when we don't uh you can't have Christmas lights in classrooms and when they do they write you up and and and all sorts of things and so um we we went through uh all of our buildings last week um we had a couple areas to to note and so we've uh we've made those those corrections and and some of them are ongoing all minor stuff that can be you know if you got Christmas lights in a in a classroom, you take them down, it takes 30 seconds. And so, uh, just little things like that, nothing major, uh, uh, reported, but we were, uh, we were pleased to, to go through that. Um, the other thing was noted in our our study session,
040uh, in regards to to maintenance and facilities and all that is that there's a changeover happening right now, and Mr. Stein referenced a school due, and that's where we turn in our work orders. That's where we we u you know if we have a a room that didn't get cleaned or anything we turn in for custodial needs to come and deal with this. So you know we've got a a TV that needs to be hung or something. Um but the the state has changed to a new group called operations hero. And so we we did our first kind of overview of what that's going to look like and uh the change from school dude to operations hero. Now, we've got we started working with our our maintenance team as to what it's going to look
041like on their end, but then what that rolls out to our staff and everybody. And so, it's going to be an ongoing process, but it'll start in August. And so, we're starting now to kind of learn about that new system, what it looks like, when will the change over for us happen, which we're going to be one of the the the first schools in Arkansas. So, we'll we'll see how that works. Um, but we do just initially we kind of like the the program. It's a it's an updated software and a lot more userfriendly. So, we're we're excited about it, but it it's a change. Um, and then, uh, the last thing that I'll just report on, uh, because it's from a safety standpoint, but, we've been touring, uh, and are continuing, uh, next week
042with our, uh, local fire and EMS, and, you know, they're they're a full-time unit now. And so we've been walking to all of our buildings with them to familiarize them with our floor plans so that they know where our electrical panels are at where they they know where our riser rooms are at in each building, what keys they need uh and different things. And so uh um to continue that that partnership with the city and the SRO's, we also are doing the same thing with with fire and and EMS so that they uh have updated, you know, floor plans, they know where everything's at in the event that we do have any kind of emergency. um you know, they're on site and they know immediately where to go. Uh we we label all of our
043exteriors, you know, A1, B2, C3 and stuff, so they're familiar with where those exterior locations are so when they get maps, they know right where uh they're going. And so, uh we've uh Chief Bowen uh reached out and we've been we've been doing that. We've got a couple more tours cuz they have different shifts. Uh and so we'll do that u u over the next week or so. But uh uh it's been good from a safety standpoint, you know, that they know kind of what's what's going on. Any questions? Thank you. Up next, we sent you some policies. Um this is just the first reading. This is just giving you an opportunity to know just please read them. If you have any questions, please let us know. Please remember this is not going to be
044the first set of policies that we send you with the legislative session that is going on. I would expect a lot of changes um coming through policy and everything in the near future and we have to have all of our policies adopted I believe by June 30th for next year. So we'll be working on that for the next five months. Yes, ma'am. Oh say it was in June. Okay. Okay. Up next we have our teaching and learning update and that is Miss Taber. Sure. Um about this time last year we were talking with the board about um within the state some of the plans that they were pushing out to help us with the teacher shortage and recruitment and retaining of teachers. And one of the goals that we had at that time was to
045start a grow your own model so that we could support our students who wanted to be teachers and getting connected to our our schools and then helping them get started on their education to do that. And so we were approved for um offering the educator prep program with concurrent credit through NWAC for our students. Um in the fall we started that with five students. We have a sixth student who's joined us in the spring. Um and so we wanted to just update you all on that. You have some pictures here. Um, they have completed last semester they completed about 25 hours of field experience across our five campuses. And this semester they're doing even more. 2 days a week they spend their class period in either the primary or the intermediate in a classroom working
046small groups working one-on-one with the teacher. Um, we also have four students who are tutoring after school and we're able to pay them as student employees because they have um, you see the picture there, they're going through our HR team and getting their fingerprints and getting their official badge. Um, so they've started tutoring. They attended several conferences throughout the the fall. One of them at Arkansas Tech University, a state conference, um, one at a local regional and at the state conference, one of our students actually placed second in impromptu speaking. So, we were very proud of her for that. Um this the team itself prepared uh for an ethical dilemma uh presenting a case on an ethical dilemma. Uh and so we hope to go back to that conference again next school year. And then
047I have a few more pictures. Sorry, you're fine. Um this is just showing them doing some of that learning uh with the teachers in the classroom. We also spent the fall semester bringing in program directors to help them better understand what it meant to be a teacher. Um, and so you see them doing an activity there with Miss Shackleford, our social worker. Um, but we've been very proud of them and the work that they're doing and very excited to see them. Um, all of them after one semester still hope to be teachers that none of them changed their minds and we even recruited a sixth. So, we're we're doing well. Um, and started recruitment for that for the the next school year as well. We just got our approval to actually make that program a
048an official career and technical education program, which means we're now eligible for state funding after we we live it for another year. Um, so we'll be able to get some uh different resources for our program. The next one will be on a second. Oh, sure. I want to also tell you that Miss Taber did all the work to become the certified INWAC teacher. She submitted all her transcripts. You have to be an administrator level to do that. and she submitted it, pestered them till they finally approved her. But she's the one that's going every single day. But Miss Conor's helping too when she gets small gown, but she's the one who actually acts as their professor. So in addition to helping, she's also teaching. So we need to thank her for all that. Everyone that's
049not the best hour of the day. It really is. Yes. Okay. Are we ready now? Yes. Sorry. Uh we also this spring you probably have seen a lot of social media especially because we got iced out on several of our activities. Uh but we were approved for a second round of our literacy grant for this school year. It'll be this year and next year in that second round um it funds the majority of it goes to fund Lexia Core 5 um which you probably see the Lexius superstars on social media but it's a intervention for literacy. Um, but it also has funded this year our one school, one book program that we had at our elementary campuses. And so you probably have seen put a screenshot there of Mr. Martin reading a chapter of the
050book from the intermediate. Um, the primary has coming up their um decoration contest where they will decorate a dog sled. That's a part of their book or draw a pig. Um, and the middle school has um been reading Out of My Mind, which is an excellent book if you haven't read it. um and connected to other empathy lessons in school. And so we're really proud of our elementary campuses. Our librarians have really led the charge on this and they will be connecting to parents at parent teacher conferences to kind of help promote um the learning from that literacy event as well. Yep. The work that Miss Taber and Miss Markfeld are doing and our principles and our teachers, it it's phenomenal. Uh you know, we are now through in my opinion through the pandemic. um
051when it comes to but we are still addressing learning loss and the work that our teachers do day in day out to help address learning losses. It's inspiring when you see it and you go into classrooms working with kids and everything. They're there every day and they are working diligently to do the very best we can for our kids. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Um up next 2425 budget. Okay. Every year we have to approve a budget that is two years out and um this is required by law. Um this is it's it's required by law. um is uh for the proposed budget of of tax expenditures with tax levy for the fiscal year beginning 2020 July 1 of 2024. And when you look on that second page, what it's about is the um state foundation
052aid about how it's distributed out, but there's more to school funding than that. So every year we have to approve this budget based on these eight criteria and in reality knowing that our actual budget will not be this budget any questions okay so with that I'd like to make a recommendation to adopt the attached proposed budget of expenditures with tax levy for fiscal year beginning July 1, 2024 to and including June 30th 2025 and to approve approve the related sample ballot. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Up next, we have a bus purchase request. And I placed in front of y'all the invoice. I forgot to put it
053in the packet. that has masters on the top of it. Um, you know, as we continue to grow and everything, we need to become more flexible in how we can transport students. Um, we have some districts around here, they are using 14 passenger mini buses to transport small groups of kids. That can be field trips, athletic events, day-to-day operations, you know, just during the school day. The wonderful thing about these buses is they do not require a CDL, which means any one of our employees who have a valid driver's license in good standing can can drive the bus. U perfect example is uh Miss Miller went last week and I believe Miss Coots did as well down to Prescuit um for the um for one of their events and they had to take two vans,
054two of our minivans um to take seven seven eight kids. We could reduce that down to one one of these which is safer and everything. This bus has all the safety features that a school bus does. Um, it has the flashing lights and to be honest with you, people respect the yellow school bus more than they do a to Toyota Sienna minivan and everything. And so it it easily identifies that this school bus kids and everything. Um, we're under we're at the point where it's very hard to find bus drivers. This will provide some relief for that. Um whether it's the golf team going without a you know going on this instead of a school bus, whether it's a basketball team going to a tournament on one of these instead of a school bus. We
055I know they're a little bit pricey. Um but all vehicles are. But what this will allow us to do is to better provide transportation services to our students and not necessarily have to use our bus drivers to drive all these routes because one I don't have enough of them and well and that's two as well. No problem and everything. They are about $95,000 a piece. Um and but when you think about it, a lot of vehicles are in that in that price range now. A school bus is a lot more than that. These are airond conditioned high quality vehicles. Um cameras. Oh yes, ma'am. They'll have they will not have the four to five camera setup that a normal school bus does because you're looking at 14 passenger instead of 71 passenger. You're just simply
056not going to need that. But yes, ma'am, it will have a camera system, all that stuff. The the other good thing about it is is that they are um I'm going to call them regular gas or unled, whatever it's called. They're not diesel. And so a lot of times our faculty and staff feel better about filling those up than a diesel over there with the 18-wheers. Okay. And stuff like that. That was going to be my question. I would think that the fuel cost would be a lot less to I don't know compared to I think I think it's probably a push. Okay. Um where we're see where we'll see the where we'll see the gain is we're not going to have to use our minivans from a safety issue. we're not going to have
057to rely on our our wonderful bus drivers, but it it's a strain on them to drive events and trips and everything. And another perfect example was choir and band last week or the week before, I can't remember, with all the ice and snow enclosures. Um, they can take a minivan, I mean, a mini bus down there and be a lot safer than in a than a minivan. So I think I think it's good for our students and I think it's good for our staff as well. That's more the practicality. Yeah. Right now our fleet is a bunch of large 70 passenger buses and we have two two minivans. Um one minivan I think has 140,000 miles and the other the other one has like 165,000 mi. So they're getting older, you know, and they're pushing.
058But we get trip requests all the time. It seems like seven, eight, nine students constantly. Well, you we can only get five in a minivan, so it's either two or it's take a 70 passenger bus, which is not cost effective. This gives us some flexibility. These also have storage in the back. So, let's say the golf team was going, they can securely they can securely transport their their golf clubs without them. Well, that was actually my followup. Are we going to keep the minivans if we get the new? Yes, ma'am. And we're probably going in a few months, we'll probably bring you a request to purchase one. Probably another one because I have that me, you know, with our staff going in everywhere. It's so much um cost effective for us to send vehicles than
059to pay mileage. And I feel it's it's better for the employee as well because when the employee is in in a school vehicle, it's school insurance. It's right, you know, it's it's protect it's protecting the employee more. Yeah. Last week over a Thursday, Friday, we had five requests over those two days for minivans, but we only had two, right? So, you know, two people got them or groups got them. So, the other three we had to put in personal vehicles cuz we weren't going to take a 70 passenger bus. And then you get into just what Mr. Martin said. You know, they're not taking school vehicles. So, it's not school insurance technically, and they're just better protected. And so, to do right by our staff, to do right by our students, this is the best
060opportunity. Now, students are always transported in school vehicle, but let's say, you know, staff members want going to hot springs for a conference. I don't know. Um, I feel much better about putting them in a school vehicle where, you know, their own school business, our insurance is the one responsible for it because when we pay mileage, if there's a wreck in a personal vehicle, well, we're paying you that mileage. It you're not on our Does that make sense? You're not on our insurance. Thank I was just wondering if this was an addition or a replacement and you answered the question. No ma'am directly. I think we're always going to be adding. Okay. Um, another thing is this will not come out of general operating. Um, these purchases have been approved through the state department for
061ESSER funding and so it will not come out of general operating. This is a onetime expenditure and it will come out of Esser funds. Okay. Yeah, we do anticipate having them by at the latest summer. We'll think we'll have them early summer at about the latest, but they are on site. Any questions? Okay, with that, I would like to make the re recommendation to purchase two 14 passenger buses in the amount of $185,968 from M's Transportation. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Sarah. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next is approved bids and contracts from for -ate services. Mr. Taylor about 8 years ago, we purchased new um network switches for all our
062buildings, which didn't include the new high school at the time. um through an e-ray project. Um they were refurbished at the time. That was the best bit the best options I could we had to do through the the bidding that we did. Um we are needing to get them replaced. Uh so I went through our rate process um bidding process and we have some contracts in front of you for that. Um, just to clarify in case any with rate, um, on your phone bill, there's a universal service charge, little line item. You wonder what that line item for, whether they take six bucks out of your bill or 15 bucks. That goes into a pot of the at the federal government level. the SEC takes that off and then they they debut that out to
063schools um for it to be used for internet uh purchases and also networking networking inside the schools uh and they discount uh discount the a discounted rate based upon our free reduced lunch percentage. Um with our free reduced lunch percentage we um should be paying about uh 40%. So we get a 60% discount. So it's pretty hefty. at least not as nice as uh uh some of the smaller schools that they they they pay 10% but so but that's that's what we got. Um so part of uh the process for um we have to approve uh have you guys approved these contracts? uh they we had to follow some federal federal bidding guidelines as far as releasing RFPs out for 60 days I believe it was and giving people uh vendor opportunity for for answering
064questions. Uh the truth is we didn't get that many that that many that many bids. Um for the um the additional internet option there that we have on there from Cox uh we only had Cox bit on that because they're not really that many options for that. And then for even for the other ones there we've had we had uh for one had two but the rest of them we only had have one one one bit. Um so are there any questions? I guess we just need the the the approval of qualified Cox contract and a next step contract uh that was has a Yeah, Kevin, I do have one question. Yes. And I guess I should ask this before the um the Cox is that a monthly rate? That is a monthly rate. I
065So that brings it over to the $20,000 threshold. Okay. And and then for that the the $20,000 satisfy the local requirements. Okay. for for the federal requirements, I have to approve them all regardless of cost. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Yes, sir. Any any questions? This is a one, you know, Mr. Taylor has done an outstanding job with our infra, our technology, infrastructure, devices, um, you know, getting grants, doing the C rate and everything. um you know we have a a fiber network that runs to every building and that's through his hard work and and securing these. So with that I would like to make the recommendation that we approve the next step um next step bid and Cox bid as presented. Oh and the contracts sorry and the related contracts. All right so we have
066a recommendation. Do we have a motion? motion. John John gets that one. Do we have a second Sarah? Hey, I did have a question. So, the the next steps is a onetime purchase, but then the Cox is the reoccurring monthly. Yes, ma'am. Okay. That the Cox is basically our internet. Okay. Just making sure I understood Mr. Mr. Taylor right. All right. So, any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next is personnel. All right. Do we see a need to go to executive session? Anything? All right. So, this will work. Okay. I I would like to make the recommendation that we accept the resignation of Robin Scott with regret. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Jessica.
067Any further discussion? This makes me really sad, though. I mean, Miss Scott has been here for a long time, so she'll be missed. Yeah, I think she will be missed. She's probably around 15 years with that. So, all right. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. All right. With that, I'd also like to m make the recommendation that we hire um Abby Taber, Ashley Hackler, Courtney Davis, Jesse Osborne, Morgan King, Barbara Blevens, Monica Luke, and Carrie Jones. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make Go ahead. Jessica motions. I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Next is transfers. Um I would like to make the recommendation that we transfer um Jamie Barren and Carissa Cook both from food service employees to cafeteria managers. Okay. So we have
068a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? Second by Adam. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. That up next is the renewal of contract renewals for our administrators and directors. Do y'all want me to read the list or would you like to do it as presented? I'm fine with as presented if y'all are anybody. Okay. Um with that, I would like to approve the contract renewal um for administrators and directors as presented. Right. So, we have a a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? You know, and with that renewing their contracts, you know, just I just would like to thank them
069for their work. Their work is is non-stop. They have the the the pleasure of taking a phone call from me at any time. And um their phones are never off. They work countless hours and sometimes their work goes un it sometimes it it can be it's sometimes it's thankless work almost but it is very much appreciated. Absolutely. We greatly appreciate all y'all. Thank you with that. That's all I have. All right. So I will entertain a a motion or we go second. I'll second it. All in favor? Thanks guys.