001school and so that it it meets that 1,098 hour requirement uh that we have to have at all our buildings. To get there, we had to make a slight adjustment at the junior high and high school. We're going to start them 5 minutes earlier next year than what we did um this year. So, they'll they'll start at 7:55 uh and go till go till 3:20. And so, um um I appreciate the work of our PPC committees. They they worked really hard. We had a lot of good discussion about uh what was best for our our students uh and our staff uh and being able to uh meet our educational goals and and that sort of thing. And so we feel that this uh calendar that we put before you really is a good calendar for
002next school year. And so when it comes to transportation for the buses, bus schedules have been rerouted for the make up that five extra minutes to get to them to school on time. We don't have to change a whole lot in the morning. We we'll start a little bit earlier those routes that need to. What we're really excited is is we're staggering a little bit in the afternoon to hopefully alleviate some of our our traffic concerns uh that we have, especially along Western Street uh and out in front of the junior high. And so, uh, we get kind of hung up right now transitioning from, um, you know, the primary middle school, junior high campus over to intermediate. And so, Mr. Hutchinson and his team's working really hard, uh, to to make some route adjustments
003can alleviate that, but we also think staggering that will help us a little bit there. So, we're we're excited. It's it's in science experiment, so it's trial and er, and we'll see what happens. But, we're looking forward to it. And so, why the two different calendars? Was there a requirement by the state for a prek or so it's it's two different uh authorities. Okay. And so you've got desi and state law that allows us some flexibility with the academic calendar for K12. Okay. Total different uh set of authority and rules for prek. Prek by law has to go 178 days in this. So they can't do hours. Can cannot do hours. Okay. In this calendar, we're able to to count hours and to do so, we were able to reduce 174 days. So, it created
004a little bit of a of an imbalance. What we did was Miss Markfeld and myself went and met with our prek staff and said, "If you have to have a special calendar, let's make it special." And so, we met with them and and said, "Okay, so this works for them." It works for them. Okay. It was it was where you want to put these four days basically. Perfect. They kind of handpicked them and felt like it was best for for their licensed through the state um through the department of human services. Their so their licensing is different to be a prek center. Okay. Versus um they are on our school campus. They are employees and all that but they have their licensing approval and the boards that they report to you. So they perfect. Awesome.
005Thank you. Any other questions? All right. With that, I would like to make a recommendation that we approve the 24 academic and prek calendars as submitted. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Motion by Ryan. Do we have a second? Second. Second by John. Any further discussion? All in favor? Mr. Randy gets to keep going. Up next, we have our student services report. Um, in student services, and you should have said paper that we had there. Um, in student services, we have uh in food service, we've got an ending balance for the month of February. Uh, $547,182.32 36. So, we're still uh have a healthy balance there. We're we're going to have to draw it down some just a little a little bit later in our
006meeting tonight. But um it's an important week for our food service staff. They are currently going through their child nutrition review that we do uh annually. And so uh they were on site this morning. They met with Miss Ferguson and Mr. Martin on some some free uh review. They call it a review. or not. Uh but some free review paperwork and different items and then they'll be here uh tomorrow primarily at the middle school. They they kind of signal about that school as where they're going to to do a lot of the review this year. Uh and then and then end Wednesday morning. And so they they they check our paperwork. They they watch us prepare meals. They'll watch students go through the line. uh they check our our certifications of our staff to make
007sure they're receiving the training hours that that they must receive. They check our pre- and reduced u applications to make sure that we're counting those the right way. It's a it's a it's a full review and then and then we get better response back to make sure we're in compliance with all of our child nutrition laws. And so our team has put a a lot of work in, Miss Ferguson and her cafeteria managers in particular uh to be ready to go. So, we're we're we're excited for them. We're thankful. They are nervous as they can be, but we will we expect good things as as always. We we really do a good job with our food service staff. So, we're we're appreciative. Um in health services, uh if you were able to to come uh
008in February, we partnered with uh Boys and Girls Club, with Walmart, and Proctor and Gamble. Uh we had a a a dental uh event over at the the intermediate in the the gymnasium. Uh we were able to give oral oral care to 251 uh students. They they all got screenings. They had various activities uh that they were able to uh participate in uh and learn kind of the science of of brushing your teeth and and oral care and all those uh sorts of things. And you can see Stey Litzfield, our our director of nursing. She led that event in in conjunction with those organizations. And it was just a fabulous event. It was the biggest one. Um Proctor and Gamble is going kind of around the the nation. It's the biggest one that they've had
009thus far. And they were just thrilled with the turnout. They already immediately started making plans for next year to grow it, make it make it bigger. uh and and you know how can we communicate better and get more kids involved. Uh but they were just ecstatic with uh the turnout and what we did there. You can see that from our results, you know, 100% of patients need preventative care. 30% 36% of those 251 students need restorative work or suffer from cavities. We had four patients that they discovered needed root canals or some sort of surgery and one needs some paradonic work. And so uh uh it was exciting and a valuable service uh to get those students in and get them some some much needed oral care and some screenings and that stuff. They were
010even piloting some remote screening. So they had a hygienist in a trailer the student would go in and then the the actual dentist was in Atlanta and they were doing remote work and looking at things that way. So they were piloting some different things with property and the care team if they could do some remote dental screens and stuff. So they were able to do a lot of different ways. It was a a quite interesting event but really really enjoyable. We had some Walmart executives on on site that Mr. Martin was able to address. I highlight our school system, highlight our community, uh, and talk with those people. And, uh, I think the feedback that we received from everybody, they they had no idea of the wonderful opportunities that we have here in Didge, our
011school system, and our community. And the positive feedback that we got, they were just floored with with our school system and our community and and and you know, everybody that that they interacted with. And so it was a really good way to highlight our school district. Yeah. And um Boys and Girls Club were outstanding with this as well. Matt, the CEO of Matt, I cannot pronounce his last name, CEO at um Boys and Girls Club there, they're the ones who connected us um helped us connect Stad with them to ensure that we provide the summers for our kids and I believe we are already getting scheduled for next year. Awesome. That's a good thing. Very good. Uh, last piece I have is just a brief update. Our maintenance team, Mr. Vestal, is currently working on
012our, uh, summer plans. And so, it's I know it's March, but we're we're already working ahead on painting schedules, floor care schedules, uh, getting our state mandated in inspections that we we must do, getting all that stuff organized, our vendors on site. It's a big timeline piece. this person has to be here to get their work done before that person does and so on. It kind of trickles down and so we're we're working on that. I know he's got schedule to start meeting with our buildings and going through kind of their wish list what they would like to see done and so that we're ready for next school year and that sort of thing. So it's a big undertaking but we're well started off. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Rainy? All right.
013Um, next we have the first reading of our policies for the 2125 school year. I sent you a lot of pages electronically on Monday. Um, and everything. This is just first reading. U, we'll do a second reading in April and approval in May. This is this this is to formally, you know, um, do the first reading. Please let us know if y'all have any questions. There's no action that's taken tonight. um send us an email. There's there's a lot of them and I'm afraid there'll be some more added to as we hear back from ASVA. Do y'all have any questions right now on them? These are all of the recommendations they have thus far. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yes, ma'am. And these will go into effect one, right? Section three and section 8 um PPCs have
014to vote on um the other ones it just goes to the board and everything. Okay. It takes some time to review input from everyone. input from principles and everything to make sure that we're we're doing the best we can for district. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. See, okay. A few months ago, y'all requested that we give an update on our energy savings and we finally got that information back. Uh we have our I sent that I think a couple weeks ago our measurement and verification report and it's from November 22 to um last October, October 23. And just to review the project a little bit, our scope of work were lighting upgrades throughout the district except at the high school. The high school was new and it already had all LED lighting. Um new HVAC systems
015at the intermediate and junior high campuses. um um HVAC control upgrades throughout the district so we could be automated and be able to control through occupied and occupied times to cut down on to reduce um energy usage. Water conservation improvements. That's everything from the lowflow screens to the pedals on the in the cafeterias for the ladies so that you mash the pedals and the water comes out so you're just not running water. um power factor correction at the junior high so that we're getting a better clean energy rate and everything. And those first five bullets, the power factor correction in the next slide, they're actually measured verified savings. The bottom three, the building envelope improvements, you know, that's putting weather stripping around, sealing up doors, um the new roof system at the intermediate junior high
016campuses, and the ice machine heat exchangers. We agreed to a cost of what that would save us because it cost more to verify the savings than the actual savings were. Uh but getting the new roofs was very important for us. Yes, it was. And so our goal is to have a costneutral solution through a guaranteed energy savings contract. Um our funding sources, we had two funding sources. We had partnership funds from the state of Arkansas through warm safe and dry money about 4.6 to 4.7 million. And then we had a second lean bond that we did with local funds for right at right under 2.9 million. Now this is year one. This is November to October of this year. Um we had a total verified savings of right under $175,000. And our guaranteed savings for
017this year was $163,000. We are also seeing some significant cost. And to be honest with you, not buy a bunch of air conditioner compressors and everything with the new units and everything. And that is saved in your operational cost, which is the third line. So the first one on the slide four, the first five, they're done with pre and post. You know, the electric bills, the water bills, and everything. We're we're seeing a dramatic decrease in usage. And to be honest with you, our electric bill hasn't gone down that much because the utility rates have gone up, but it's maintained the same and we've basically added on another building. So, it's been very beneficial for us. And the guaranteed savings, that's what they had told us that they would ensure ensure that we would save
018and if not, they would pay the difference. Right. Okay. Just making sure because I know not all of us were on the board when this happened. Um, now the savings over the term of the project during the construction period, you see the $4.7 million on there, that's the that's the savings we received from the partnership funding. You know, the district did not have to per pay for that. Um, and then we had a savings um, we also had a savings of while the first thing they did was come in and install the lights. While the construction was going on, we had a verified savings of a little over $100,000 with energy savings and everything through the construction project. The construction project took a took a little longer than we thought. We thought it was going
019to take one year. It took about two and a half um with um supply chain issues and everything. So through um right now totals through year one we're right at verified savings of 48 $8 million or $4.9 million which is substantial for our district. Um we were also able to generate some rebates back. These checks were sent directly to the district. Uh we received right at $19,500 from Sweepco for lighting and HVAC incentive and our biggest rebate was from Black Hills Energy for efficient gas furnaces and everything and we're right at um about $50,000 that there will be no more rebates. We're through the rebate part, but it was good to get to receive those. And so right now our total savings in next year will be a little bit more because this is over
02020 years. Um, we are right at a total savings today of right under5 million at $4.9 million. That's awesome. And you got to remember, um, we all saw the trash cans in the in the junior high hallways. Um, the leaks and everything, they're gone. We're able to dedicate more maintenance effort to not addressing roofs and lights and air conditioners. So, it's able to provide a better learning environment, saving money, and um, just meeting the needs of our kids. So, it's been a really good a really good project for us. Any questions? Oh, it's phenomenal. Thank you very much for sharing. Thank you. It almost became common for us. We used to have every time we drive out the junior high, Mr. E, who does all of our Hback stuff, we have one Yes. Every single
021time they're like, over there today. Yes. It was on the fine arts lane. It seemed like every day I would drive by that truck was there. That unit. What are we projecting? Our like year our year two savings and year three savings are they going to be in the $175,000 range? Very similar to that. Um I can send you I can't remember if it's in that report or not. I can send you a breakdown. So the yearby year warm safe and drive dollars from the state are great, but if you look at the the district local funds and you look at the savings, it's a 16.3 year payback. Yes, sir. Let's see. Next, we have two. Mr. Ry, you want to take this? I can't. Okay. Here. You got the ditching. uh you got a
022you got a a single sheet that that we had and we wanted to show um exactly what we were purchasing. Um and so we met with Miss Ferguson, we went kitchen by kitchen with the exception of the newest building with the newest equipment. Uh but in October, we received a letter from child nutrition that uh our balances uh were too high in in food service. We're uh we're in the minority of food service entities across the state and that we operate deposit and most school districts do not. They are negative and have to do district funds to to recoup those negative balances. Uh we do such a good job, Miss Ferguson does such a good job that we're positive. And so we received a letter that said you're $234,000 over what you're allowed to have.
023You got to spend some money or we want a check. And so we said we'll spend some money. And so, uh, what we did was, um, they allow us to have a three-month carryover balance. Um, it's about 290,000. I think at the time we were 5, 40 or so. And so, they gave us an amount that we needed to spend down. So, we went through all of our kitchens and started looking at, you know, what do we need to replace and where can we be better in our food service uh department to provide higher quality meals, be more efficient, and do better for our our students and staff. And so, uh we we came away uh with these items. As you can see, we're going to uh we're going to primarily address the intermediate, the
024junior high, and then the middle school's going to get uh just a little bit, but uh uh our serving lines, uh improving those, dishwashers at the intermediate and and the junior high, uh ovens at the junior high, um serving lines at at both intermed intermediate and the junior high. And then, um we need to save some space at the the middle school with a stockp range. got a range of that we don't use. So, we're going to shrink up and and get into the statements with some of our inspections and things that we we run into. But, um uh total cost for all of these items uh is $269,950.34. We did bid this out. I think we had three bids come back, maybe four. Um and then we had another company that chose not to
025bid out of Fagville. uh FEB uh at the lowest price which is a company that we work with closely spring out. Uh and so we would uh request with Mr. Martin that we we purchase these items for our food service department. Yeah. Um, I know everybody kind of looks at you got to draw your balance down, but we're going to improve our equipment and everything before we write a check, send money back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Know, absolutely. If we can and but it be honest with it makes us food prices are going up and so um we have tried to provide quality meals to our students also be really fiscally responsible and uh We'll drop it down. We're used to seeing it in the 500,000 range and it's we'll drop it down. It's not going
026to be there. And so we'll work hard to keep providing quality meals and build back where it needs to be. Is this a federal law or a state law? Yes, sir. We we did this well the year before the everything's been a little different for the past four years and we had to draw down about four years ago as well. um quite honestly should have probably been a draw down every year but that's what I was going to say is this reviewed every 3 years reviewed every year and that's where we have that but um you know the price point um you know just that dishwasher right at 60 61,000 total so it's you know equipment's expensive but um it's much needed as well any questions okay with that I'd like to make the recommendation
027that we purchase is food service equipment from food service equipment brokers in the amount of 26 let me start over in the amount of $269,950. All right, so we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion by John. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Do I the 34? Yes, the 34 cents. We got to we got to make sure we include that. Um, up next we have personnel. No, no need for executive. Okay, we will start with resignations. Um, I'd like to make the recommendation that we accept the resignations of Henley Barrett, Michael Herod, and Dustin Osborne. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion with regret because coach Herod Absolutely. I was hoping Ariana
028would get to have him in high school, too. So, I'll make a motion with regret. Do we have a second? I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Mr. Eric, I think he's been here 23 years, but he has 38 total, I believe. So, His retirement is well earned and deserved. He will absolutely I'm sure you will see him playing the his whole diamond box group around Northwest Arkansas. Mine's just personal. He's the one who uh Gage aspired to be like when he decided to go teach. So we we really like Coach Herod. Absolutely. Um up next we have employment and I'd like to make the recommendation that we hire Jimmy Ball as All right. So we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion motion by John. Do we have a
029second? I'll second that. Any further discussion? All in favor? Okay. That's all. All right, John, you're up. Motion to adjurnn. I second. All right, guys. Thank you. Thank you.