001I don't know. Oh, here she is. She's coming in now. Oh, you're good. All right. Are y'all ready? Yes. Thanks for being here. Appreciate you. All right, Miss Nancy, I think we're ready. All right. So, um it is What day is today? October 14th. We're here for the October board meeting. We're going to start with the pledge. I pledge allegiance 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. All right, we're going to follow with a moment of silence. Amen. All right. So, I'm just going to kind of warn everybody. We've got a couple of people zooming in, so there's going to be a little bit of a lag. So, if they have questions and stuff,
002you might have to pause for a second after your presentations to allow for them to to speak. Okay. All right, Mr. White, we're going to turn it over to you, sir. All right. Welcome to the October board meeting. It's hard to believe that a fourth of the year is already over. Of course, first quarter is in the books. We start teacher conferences. Well, tomorrow night at K6. So, we're excited about that. You know, just thankful for the work that everyone's doing up here, our teachers and staff. They do an amazing job to make sure that our students have what they need. Um, first up on the agenda is our consent agenda. Are there any questions? Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that the consent agenda, financial report, and board minutes of the
003regular board meeting held on September 9, 2024 be approved as submitted. All right, so we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Ryan. Any further discussion? All in favor? You have to unmute to vote, please. Yes. All right. So, that's all five of us. Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right, up next we are doing some student success and recognition honor student achievement. The first person we want to recognize is Miss Ama Clark. Um she has been not she has been recognized as a national merit semi-finalist and being a national merit semi- finalist it's a prestigious achievement that it recognizes students who score in the top 1% on the PSAT. Um to to kind of put that in perspective, each year about 16,000
004students are named semi- finalists across the United States, representing less than 1% of the nation's high school graduating seniors. In Arkansas terms this year, there were 135. So, it's an amazing accomplishment. And semi- finalists are eligible to advance in the competition for NA National American Final Scholarships and receive recognition on their college applications. You know, I can't tell you how extremely proud we are of a her accomplishments and we can't wait to see what she does in the future because her future is limitless. Absolutely. Congratulations. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. I think just as a principal, uh I'm obviously proud proud of her. I think as a dad, I'll be super proud. Um but not only this, she's so much more than that. I mean that she has received recognition in track and she she's a national
005cheer champion. Um she she pushes herself academically taking advanced course work. Um and just a great student, a great kid, a great teammate and just an allaround great student basketball. So she's awesome. Hey, why don't you come up here and we'll get a picture of you. Will that work at all right? Yeah. No, no. Right there. I'm just going to move out of the So I'm not photobombing you. So now you got Ryan. So why don't you tell us what your what you've been looking at schools? What's your plans for next year? I've been looking at a lot of different schools. Um I don't really have any step plans yet. I do plan to double major in music and finance, but other than that Awesome. Well, congratulations, Ava. All right. Up next, we have our
006Hi, guys. Thanks for coming. Up next, we have our CTE modernization grant and Miss Jennings up here is going to present. Um, okay. So, um, I applied for this back in December. Um this grant is only available to um programs in the state that are considered H2 which is high demand high wage. So um there's only you know certain programs that could apply. So um we applied for Mr. Davis for our a power hour structures pathway. Um all you were allowed to ask for really was anything that was not on your um mandated list of what you should have for your class. So we went through the list and looked at everything that he needed um that he didn't have and it was around $3,500 worth of equipment. And so we got that grant. Him
007and I got together and got this all purchased. So they have brand new welding equipment, tools, saws, a bunch of things. I couldn't really tell you what it is, but it was on the list. We need it. Um, and so yeah, so that's been great. We've applied for two more grants, so I should find out tomorrow if we get them for culinary and for our medical students as well for some different devices and stuff. So fingers crossed for that. So that'll be great. Awesome. Absolutely. Thank you. And then I think uh this Mark wanted me to share some communications updates with you as well. So just to let you know kind of what we have been working on. So um Ray and I spent a lot of time looking at the website and what it
008needs and it needs a lot of things. Um but really trying to work with each school and what they would want parents to have access to quickly. Um we still have one one big thing I want to tell you about. You'd be surprised if you go on here one day that's going to change. And so hopefully it'll make things really easy to find. So the whole point is like what what do parents need to find quickly? What do admin staff need to find quickly and making sure those things are accessible. So even that little screenshot is just we added a bar to each page where you could at least get to something from the actual page without having to go to menu to go find things. So um be on the lookout for that because
009there's a lot more updates and changes. There's we've also been building pages. So we've met with counseling team and different administrators and just talked about what pages need to exist that don't. Um, so there's going to be a lot of things that we are working on creating and putting in there. Um, and then, um, Coach Cook's been working a lot with our interns on just all different types of media. So, they've been working on their photography skills. They've done some head shots. Right now, they're working on some reels. We've asked our administrators to participate in some fun videos that we would like to post for October for administrators month. So, be looking for those to come out as well. Um, they've been working on post for social media, design, graphics, um, doing a lot of
010videography, editing, things like that. So, right now they're still kind of in the learning phase, but in the near future you should start to see a lot more fun videos, reals, things like that posted as well to help kind of advertise what we're doing here. Can you explain the um kind of how the interns what that looks like for their day? And yes, how coach Kurt works with them in groups and Yes, we have anywhere some classes just have one or two kids. I think the most it's in any one period. Um it's probably five students, but they come here to admin. We have a room set up with all of our Macs, video editing equipment, all those things. So, um they come in each day and he kind of gives them an assignment. They're
011not always here. Sometimes they're out on campuses taking pictures and videos and things like that. Um but yeah, the interns are our students. Yes. Okay. Yes. I think they're mostly all seniors. A lot of them, some of them are finishing a program of study, like they've done graphic design levels one, two, and this is kind of the end piece for them to get to come do this. So, yeah, it's great experience. That's awesome. They're interested in anything in that. We have a new um outside of school. Oh, yes. Yes. And we do have someone from Hinwac as well who was um helping us. She's helping build some marketing materials. She's going to help work on a cat book type thing for us as well. Um so, got her also on our team. Awesome. That's exciting.
012Absolutely. They're doing great work. [Music] All right. Up next, we have our middle school presentation. They're going, you know, the work that all of our buildings are doing with learning intention, success criteria, proficiency scales throughout the buildings and everything is is really commendable and it's improving student learning on a daily basis. So, we'll go ahead and turn it over to Miss Allen and Miss Shelton so that they can share the great things that the middle school. I'll have the flip for you. Sorry. Okay, that's fine. Got a lot of technology going. So, we did we have been dabbling kind of in some of the visible learning things and working on proficiency skills and things, but we wanted to make sure that we were really strong, had a good foundation in that and move forward with
013some success criteria things. So, um we're just going to share a little bit about what we've been doing this year. So, um, one of our big focuses in or starting the school year was our learning intentions and that we took our proficiency skills and knew what our learning targets were and our students knew what those were. So, that's basically taking our um, essential standards, breaking it down, what learning targets do they have to do to make sure that they're achieving proficiency on it and that the students understood what that was. So, you can see here's some pictures just from a few classrooms. um they are posted in every classroom. We've done learning um walks and we actually shared with our staff today. We're at 100% in all those learning walks where where these are in
014classroom. So that's a great deal. Um but they put those up for students to know what their goal is and what they're working on for that day. So those are our learning intentions. Okay. So the success criteria, so if the learning intention is like that target, right? We're giving the student that target so they can hit it. The success criteria is how we're going to measure where they are to hitting that target, right? And it's the steps. So, it's just providing that extra layer layer of clarity so our students know this is the goal. This is exactly what I need to do to hit it. And then they can have those conversations in class. Um, this is what some of our teachers are doing. This is posted on their whiteboards, but it's not only that
015learning intention, but it's like, okay, so here is the target and this is the pieces that we're working on today so that you can master it. Um, and so we've seen this, but I think we had 90% based on our learning blocks where you can walk into a classroom and see in 90% of the rooms these are posted. Okay, so we also we built a lot of this off of our prof proficiency skills. Um, we are also adding student reflection more in um our proficiency skills have those learning targets on it. It shows them what do you have? What does it look like if you're a three if you're proficient? What does it look like if you're exceeding? What does it look like if you're close? And they can very much tell you, hey, I'm
016close because I'm not getting this target. I might have the other three targets, but I'm not doing this. So, it really breaks it down. Um, I love seeing not only student reflection, but teachers putting that on there. Um, you can't see it very well, but one example there is one of our math assessments where they had the proficiency scale on there, they were grading it on there, so the students knew no. But then they've already updated their assessments this year and they've added in a student reflection piece where the students reflect, this is where I think I'm going to be on this. This is where I feel like I am on my learning targets. And then the teachers put their reflection and their grade on there. So then when they give that back, the students
017have their feedback. they can discuss why they got that. So, um we are really using those proficiency skills and at our parent teacher conferences tomorrow, the students have all their proficiency skills ready to share with parents. They have their script of hey, what's my strengths? What's my weakness? Why am I still working on in each subject for this quarter? And they'll be sharing that with their parents when they come in for conferences. So, okay. But I have to before I get to this, I'm telling you, sorry. No, it's okay. Um, so we had a student, the auxiliary classes just swap. So like if they were in, you know, music or whatever, they went to PE. Well, we had a student in coach's class and um she was talking like introducing the the she's like, "This
018is where you'll find the per the the success criteria and the learning targets." And the girl raised her hand was like, "We have learning targets and success criteria in PE." And she's like, "We get a grade in PE." and she was just like so up like actual like proficiency scales and success criteria for he it was awesome because we've been doing this work but now that everyone's getting on board just to hear those conversations okay um as an advent team a leadership team how are we um affecting you know causing this change happening in schools well the CLTs and the guiding coalition um they are collaborating a lot on what does success look like? What are my learning targets? How are we going to measure proficiency? So, these conversations are happening regularly. Um, also that
019correlating grading piece. If if I'm saying that the student gets a a proficient on this essay, would they be getting that same grade in a different class? So, having those conversations, making sure there's that alignment and we are really clear so that we can be clear with our students. Um, and then as an admin team, as teachers create their professional growth plan and they're making goals for, you know, they're they're learning throughout the year, we are asking that they're part of the clarity piece. So, choose something that is kind of what we're working on with clarity. And then when we walk into classrooms, we can make sure our observations are aligned. And then just giving them that time to go into each other's classrooms and look for um, so that's what we're doing as the
020the leadership team. So, as we walk through this and the students get more feedback, they are really more involved in understanding their learning where they're at. It also causes some struggle because it's hard and um holding them to that high expectation. Learning is hard. So, we have started shifting some vocabulary. We're going to really work on our PD day on Monday um with our teachers on how we're going to implement this of the learning pit and walking through that learning progression of if we're going to grow like it's got to be hard. So, how do we when we get down that pit and we're trying to learn something new, where do we have support? How do we get out of it? Not only for our students, for our teachers as we're working through all this
021too, like where's our support? How do we get out of it? Um but we're going to put this to our students. And one thing uh that we really want to focus on is after we get out of pit, you're always a little higher. We want to see growth ura come out higher and above that. So we're going to be implementing that as we have started seeing that as our struggle area as we ask this from our students. So that's what's going on in the school. Awesome. I have a question. So you said 90% of them have the um 100% had the int the intention. Is that what you're calling it? learning intentions and then 90% had the steps to get there. When will the rest of them be up to 100%. We are going to
022go back to success criteria on Monday also PD. We asked them to really focus at the VA of the year on learning intentions making sure those are really strong for an entire standard. if they feel comfortable start working with success criteria and we've been working on that PLC's but when we have our PD um on Monday we will really be going back and focusing on success criteria and that will be the expectation after that and the success criteria is going to match so if you're in fifth grade science it's all going to be the same correct okay yes and it really breaks it down in like hey on my assessments or on my projects this is what I'm going to have to do to show I'm successful So yeah, that's great. This is I mean
023you guys are a lot further than you were last year, so this is awesome. I like it. Any other questions? No. All right. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Now we're up to the action items in our agenda. The first item up in action items is um out of state field trip or out of state travel. Um we have three groups um requesting out of state travel. our winter guards. Every um every winter they uh they go into Missouri to do their competitions. They're requesting travel on February 7th to Boark, Missouri, March 7th to Springfield, Missouri, and March 29th to Nixon, Missouri. These are the same places they've gone in the past and everything. They're not overnight trips. On um see what the next one is. our high school baseball program. Coach Easterling is
024requesting um travel to Neoso High School on April 20, I'm sorry, April 18th and to Southwest High School on April 25th. And Miss Jacobs with our SCCLA culinary arts program is requesting travel to on October 25th of this year to the exit corn and exit Missouri. Are there any questions? Okay. Um, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we have approved the out of state trips as presented. 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? I'll second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Okay. So, no opposed. No ma'am. Um up next is for transfers every month. Um we do this. We have five students requesting transfer in. Um we have
025ample space in each one of the grade levels and we have one student recommending um wanting transfer out uh to attend B schools. Any questions? With that I would like to make a recommendation that we accept the board transfer as All right. So we have a recommendation. Do I have a motion? I'll motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second. Okay. I got Ryan. I got Ryan for the second. He spoke first. Sorry. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Yes. Yes. All right. All five of us. All right. Up next, um we are needing to change our November board of directors meeting date. Um, I kind of put some feelers out to y'all and I think we can all agree on November 18th at 6:30. Um, are we all in agreement on
026that? Yes. Yes. Okay. With that, I would like to make the recommendation that we move the November board of directors meeting date to November the 18th at 6:30. All right. So, we have a recommendation as presented. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Yes. I didn't see Eric. He's the only one I didn't hear. Did he say unstable? Are you Yes. On that one. My audio back. Okay. The date is on um November 18 at 6:30. That's perfect. Okay. Okay. All five of us. Got to love technology. All right. Up next, we have um a policy change that we're bringing to you for first reading only. Requires no action tonight. Um it's the facilities use agreement and that's where
027we will have a um a a fee where we charge certain groups to come in and use our facilities and everything. There's three levels of groups. of course the P Ridge partner um absolutely no charge on that. Okay. Um my Pidge group um we will have um no charge to it and everything. Um please take the next month or so read over it November the 18th. We'll bring it back for discussion and um go through that. Um if you have any questions please let Mr. Rainey or myself know and we will get those to you. They have worked very diligently on this along with Mr. hand so that we have the right um technology pieces aligned with that as well. Any questions? All right. Next, we have business and finance and we have our fan
028stand project. Um the next three Oh, I'm sorry. I missed one thing. Yes. We have homeschooling community relations and we have Missel and she's going to talk about diplomas of distinction. Thank you for having us here. So um today we are going to talk just a little bit about um the diploma's distinction success writing pathway guide. This is direct um rules and regulations that have come out of the learns act. I was fortunate enough to get to sit on this working group last year for the state. So that was exciting to be involved in the process and this is the product of that work and it has gone before the state board of education is now has rules tied to the law. So I was just going to briefly go over that because we're going
029to be presenting it to our um students at the high school and at the junior high coming up in their college and career career readiness classes. And um we'll also be doing some information about it um I think the junior high parent teacher conferences um next week. So just to get in front of you first to understand what this means for Bri students and all students. Um I don't want to really read this although I am going to highlight on some things. This is not an additional diploma. It's like um an additional criteria to add to everybody's diploma. This is an option so to speak. It won't physically change the look and the appearance of your diploma as you are presented it in the mail or when you pick it up, but these are distinctions
030that will be reflected. We don't know exactly how on the students transcript as they move on um from the state of Arkansas and as they met their requirement. So, let's talk about that just a little bit. The law is intended to to really focus on the entering students of the 9th grade class of 2425, which is this year's 9th graders. However, once I get through the criteria, you'll see that we'll have students already that have qualified for this just because they've been on a strong course of study or made some um just because of the rigor of the educational path they've chosen or they've chosen like Miss Jennings with some of those interns to be completers and some things like that. So, we're going to have some students that meet this criteria starting with this
031class of 2025 this year, seniors. You don't have to have this criteria. Um, everybody's going to have a well-rounded diploma base just like we're used to. Um, does that change the number of credits required for graduation? That is still in our handbook and our policy. This is just something that's an addition as part of the learning act. So, let me get into it. Is it going to take away cords replace some of the cords that are currently this has nothing to do with any of our practices and procedures and just wanted to clarify that one. Now, we may add a cord or a metal or something like that. We haven't got to that yet. Okay. Um but knowing that it will be reflected is my understanding. Now remember I I've told all our administrators all
032year a lot of these things are the law was passed. We've spent time interpreting the law as individual school districts and now the rules are finally getting front in front of the state board of education and approved. But they're also making amendments and changes. So what I tell you today is if I I checked with the person in the state. I said yes this is presentable. this is ready to go. But if they come back next week and make a little tweak that could we'll let you know. Perfect. Okay, we'll get it out for you. So, um let's look at this graphic. What's the best way to look out of it? Graduation requirements for all students. As we know, all of our students for many years have been doing student success plans with a um
033focus on the Learns Act. We're ramping up our look on that. The state went to a just statewide student success plan template that our students have access grades 8 through 12 this year and they do all that through their college and career readiness. You remember years ago we added to our policy that every student takes a semester of a college career readiness grade. Um we do the 7 through 12 and this really has been fortunate for us as a school district as these things are coming about we have a vehicle already in place to get these things. A lot of school districts are struggling to find the right time and place in the school day to get this to their students. So, we're very fortunate um to be ready for that. But in that green
034area of this where it says gradu graduation requirements for all students student success plans, we're used to that. They have updated template, but it's very similar to the one we're getting used to. Um it, you know, we are focusing on as a counseling team and a principal team, especially grades 7 12 to really access this tool more. um readily during CA conferences and career action planning as we prepare students for career readiness and college readiness, you know, whatever their pathway be. So, the next piece of that green is academic core courses. Like I said, graduation requirements have not changed. We're still at, you know, our requirements as outlined in our student handbook for English, you know, format. All of those details, none of that has changed. um what the intention is to allow students with
035successful planning and strategic planning to be more successful in their choices. And so we're really working on um honing in the use of that student success plan to give the students, parents those tools to maybe really know and explore the programming available to them and be rich purposeful courses in a success ready pathway. This piece is a little different. We've always had um where students were eligible and took so many career related electives. It just didn't have necessarily a purpose or a focus. The status learns is really having us focus in on trying to get students like Miss um Jennings mentioned a level one, a level two, a level three in the same pathway. That doesn't mean that students can't explore other programs of study. Say you like culinary and you like willing. You still
036have time in your day, plenty of time to explore more than one. But really, we're hoping students to kind of get them through a program of study so they can really be hit that readiness readiness benchmark and be eligible for these next two credentials. So, let's talk about a merit demonstration. So, remember these are add-ons. Everything in the green is what we're used to, our standard diploma that our students are used to receiving on their transcript. None of that changed. A merit demonstration. I'm going to read it word for word. Students who have exceeded standard graduation requirements to earn a diploma of merit include post-secary credits, advanced placement, international bachelor art. We don't offer that in Cambridge, CE, that's concurrent, things like that. Um, etc. And there's some other options the state has filled out.
037We don't necessarily offer some of those in P Ridge. Credential of value in a high wage, high demand career field. Remember we talked about that modernization grant that agriculture power structure. If a student were to take for example an NCCER certification and we're in that area or an AWS welding depending we have a list that exactly meets a high wage high demand and it's a a um industry level credential then they would be eligible for this as well. Does that make sense? So you don't have to do all three of these bullets. You can do a combination, but it's, you know, from this bulleted list for merit. Another is a seal of literacy. I know you've heard us talk about that before. We've had students who've earned their seal of literacy. So, that's exciting. So,
038those students, like I said, we're going to have seniors who meet this credential right away. Even though this law was written to really focus on this year's nth graders, nth grade is a year you typically start earning your first high school credits. Although we have many eighth graders, we have actually all our eighth graders earning their health credits, but you have many eighth graders doing advanced math, advanced science, and some other things to earn um high school credit. Let's talk about the distinction demonstration. There's been a lot of talk about this and some of the um specifics are still being given to us from the state department, but I think it's we need to go ahead and start educating our community and students on this and what we know. students have earned merit. So, you've
039gotten your green, you've gotten your credit, you've done the merit, and now an addon on top of for distinction. Remember, the bullets aren't you don't have to hit each marker of the bullet. You can hit just one of the bullets or some well, you may hit all of them. You just never know. Students um who have earned merit and have completed an associates degree. I remember last year graduation, we had two or three students that have done that. An AIC diploma, like I said, we don't offer that. That's a Carnegie. um very popular in the northeast part of our country and on the west coast. Um an IB diploma um international balara that's a program that's similar to advanced placement just a different set of credential we don't offer that in P Ridge um an
040AD scholar with distinction we have many students that you know strive for that we have some that definitely do that we saw a lot of fours and fives out there on their signs and students we we see ourselves improving and I think Mr. and reported out on that earlier this morning. Yes, you did. And then youth apprenticeship leading to youth apprenticeship leading to registered apprentichip. So I know you've heard of our students. We have interns and our like our media is our great way. Our communications those are not official registered with the department of labor approved apprenticeships um or registered apprentichips. Those are more in the technical field like welding, plumbing, construction. We have students that go to NWTI. those are fitting that more registered with the department of labor. So I don't want that
041to be confused with we offer internship and practicum opportunities for our seniors which is great because that gives them most of them to that merit of demonstration but is not the same as a youth apprenticeship or a registered apprentichip to be I want to be really clear on that because that can be confusing those are registered with department of labor. Okay. So that's just an overall good graphic, but let me highlight some things and then I'll quit talking on page three. Um, pathways leading to state marriage. Um, when we're presenting as soon as the family, I'm going to go into more detail on some of these things that you can read. It goes into a little bit more detail on those things or those two um, blue boxes there for distinction. I do want you
042to look at that bottom third of that page where it talks about those pathways right here for those that are online. Um talks about um these pathways. These are what the state has and what the department of labor has decided and Arkansas higher education coordinating board. These are the pathways and programs of study that are considered high wage and high demand in the state of Arkansas. Now um these are eligible to change every year because as we know industry trends and things change what is high wage today may not be high wage tomorrow what's demand may not change you know there are some things for example I would say that I don't see on this list hospitality hospitality in the northwest part of our state is definitely a high demand but it doesn't meet that
043high wage in some areas so they're talking about adding you know just in discussions from the state level adding possibilities of some regional highway high demand pathways. It'd be the same thing for the south, you know, the south part of the state or the east part of the state. You know, there's going to be industry specific areas like for example um some things on the close to Memphis side of the state over there that have some different industries that we don't that you see here that wouldn't apply to Northwest Arkansas but are high demand say on that side. So like that. So just to know that these are the ones that are definitely approved. I also want to point out and I something I was going to say. Oh yes, I want to go back
044to um this page and go up just a little bit in that second paragraph there. In order to qualify a diploma with distinction, a student must complete the requirements for diploma with merit and complete one of the following items. um you know I listed those but go up to that one bullet before for merit that nine postsecary credits are as another bullet that I don't think I talked about and that can be those nine postsecary credits say I did a program of study in um marketing business social media and I did my nine credits of concurrent were in college algebra finite and comp one those were fine so it didn't have to be nine postsecary credits in any specific program that could be a student trying to get their first semester of college out of
045the way in high school. So, I wanted to make sure that we any nine concurrent credits and we've seen an increase in our ninth graders taking um concurrent credit. So, I think we're going to see that a lot more students getting those first, you know, first two semesters or even more associate degrees as we keep going. So, that's exciting. And if you look at the last page I gave you, you see all those programs of studies that have the career technical education pathways. And then but I also want to point out um to earn that merit and distinction. These are other programs of studies just so you can see what equates to a level one, a level two, a level three, and level four. For example, for a general bachelor's degree preparation there, they give
046it example enrollment of what that might look like. So that's a very brief description and there's a lot of intricacies to this. I'm really proud of the junior high and high school team. I've been encouraging them and inviting them to meetings as early as last winter. They're like, "Okay, we hear you." But now the um rubber is hitting the road and this is getting into action. That's awesome. I will do my best answering questions, but if I don't have an answer, I'll look it up and report it back out. There's a lot of intricacies here, but we're we're getting them out. Oh, thank you for that update. Yes, for sure. And I think um I'll be working with the high school and like I said be at the junior high doing an infro session on
047this for parents and you're going to let the students know kind of where they're sitting. Well, I think they'll be able to use our students success plan honestly and and mark it off that new student. Perfect. That's exciting that they're taking action. I like it. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you, Miss Martfield. And the information like this is on our website for right now or question. Yes, let me ask Miss Brand's question. Um, it is not on our website yet because we didn't want to put it out till we presented it tonight until the parents so that parents had a foundation. Then we'll add it. I think Miss Jennings counseling page. You'll probably see it on multiple places on our website. We may I talk a group, but it's already changed. Um, and there's been several changes
048recently that I can't even tell you about, not allowed to tell you about. Um, so it's kind of questionable. I mean, my last question in the last CT meeting was, um, when would you suggest, like, if this is already in place and happening and is going to count for kids this year, when would you suggest we present this knowing that there are changes that I don't think will be official or finalized until like January. Um, so we may have to put it out there, but just some, you know, like a coming soon. Well, we've got parents coming in. Just so you know, this is going to change. Not it might, but the base of it is is still the same. and they just added some additional like features to it. So I didn't really get
049a good answer on on that question but there's absolutely we got parents coming in for parent teacher conferences. This is a good these are definitely good pointers to start talking about. I think that you can't I think Miss James I've been sitting in the last saying many throughout the state and she just came back from the um career technical education coordinator meeting and we cannot wait but we also have to know these are foundational and so if you're sticking to it the intricacies may change with that Mr. Riley go ahead. Oh yeah. So I I love this which is really really exciting. My question is just curious um do we see where this program in place elsewhere do students go directly into a very entry level position in those careers or does this help them
050get into a program in college? I think the assumption is what comes next or the assumption what comes next is college. I think that it really Hey, can can you restate what he asked for everybody? question um was are these pro are these pathways and credentials set to either lead a student on a pathway of straight to the workforce or to like post-secary enrollment in um college or something similar. Thank you. And I think that what I think the answer is yes to all of it. I think that the the whole intent behind this work with learns is to really focus on our students on readiness. So whatever readiness category is their area of interest or aptitude that we have provided enough foundation but I do believe because they're asking us to focus on a
051pathway that students are going to have more credentials in their pocket to be workforce ready at a higher level than maybe just a touch above entry level versus before um where they were not where they were all over the place. Like I mentioned, they can take the six career electives in any field of study. And then on the second piece, I think when you see students um looking at maybe for they're wanting to do some post-secary enrollment either in a 4year or two-year institution, you're going to see them if they're striving for that diploma distinction that the research tells us that when those students are hitting those bullets, they're more likely to be successful in that post-secary collegiate journey by hitting some of those markers. if that makes sense. Thank you. Yes. Any other questions?
052All right. Thank you, Miss Martel. That's awesome. Yeah, it's exciting. It is exciting. Said we'll be presenting the new updates. More to come. And it will be every month. Um up next on our agenda are um three projects and then a bus purchase of three projects will occur out at the football field track. Um the first one is the band stand project last month. Y'all were kind enough to approve the resurfacing of the football field and construction of new track. um the gray square that you saw in the concrete pad. Well, this concrete pad first we need to go on top of them. And so what we're um requesting approval for is a bleacher system that will house about 200 band students. They have a deeper um this the instead of 24 in is 30
053in in depth to allow that. It has a 5ft walkway in the back to allow for the the tubas and things like that to be back there in the back. They're designed for band. Okay. And so, um, we're asking for that. It will free up it will free up seating in the stands as well, but it will also allow our band to be more of a focal point during our games and everything instead of being in the stands. They'll be on they'll be at the north end of the field and everything. Talk with talked with Miss Thompson and Mr. Brown and they're excited about it as well. Um, so it's good stuff. Um, 200 I know right now we are at I think including color guard we're right at 100 kids and so that allows
054us plenty of room to to grow in the future. I don't know if we can plan for more than 200. So yes, ma'am. No, this is great. I'm excited. Okay. All right. Uh, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve the purchase of band stand bleachers in the amount of $74,700 from Stadium Pros. And I forgot to say, they are part of cooperative purchasing. So, um, but they're the vendor that most everyone uses it around. All right. And what was the total again? Uh, 74,700. Okay. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Uh, just one more question. Oh, okay. ask a question. How how long is the warranty on this? The warranty? I got you. There is a I have no idea. I
055can get that, too. They usually come with a one-year warranty, but what we do is we have someone come in and inspect the bleachers every year for um for changes. The one thing a warranty does not cover is I'm going to call it discoloration. Um in the metal, it has that sheen on it and that sheen it it will oxidize. There's no way you can get away from it, but I can follow up with you on that. Okay. I just know this is a pretty big chunk of change and it is. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. All right. So, I made a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Ryan. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor? All yes. Yes. All right. All five. Okay. Up next is a proposal to change the sound
056system at football field track. If you notice lately, it's struggling a little bit. Um it's 12 13 years old and I believe um it's well and I believe it is on its last leg. What this will do is this proposal from commercial audio systems who is also tips staff with cooperative purchasing. It will completely change the dynamic of the sound that we have out there. It will it has not only um right now we have speaker systems that are considered short throw speakers. Therefore the home stands only. This includes two long throw or two or three long throw speakers. So the entire area within our stadium will be able to hear and hear clearly which we are struggling with. This will also help not only during football games but during track when we have the
057announcer saying final call for long jump, final call for whatever they will be able to hear that as well. So, it also includes new wireless microphones for the officials and everything so that we can have a better experience for our not only our students but our community as well. And when we do the band competitions, it'll help with that, too. Absolutely. Okay. Um, any questions? Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve the purchase of a new sound system for football field track from Commercial Audio Systems in the amount of $64,882.94. [Music] All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. All right. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? Was that Eric? Okay. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Yes. Yes. That's
058all five. I'll just I just jump in. Absolutely. Yes. But Mr. Martin, I'd say that not only are they 12, 13 years old, which is a lot of wear and tear like that. The technology that we have now compared to the technology we purchased a year ago, people are evolving. So, this is very exciting. Yes, sir. It is. Our system is obsolete. There's no there's no doubt about that. We couldn't make an upgrade. We'd have to do the whole thing. Huh? Uh yes, sir. We are experiencing that right now. Um for the to finish up the project at the football field track is a piece of paving. Um, right now we have chat or gravel that is by the concession stand all the way to the indoor all the way to the gate that the
059ambulance and fire truck come in and out of. Um, the one thing with a polyurethane track is we do not want chat on on the track and it's not a a pleasant looking and it it's not aesthetically pleasing. I don't know how else to say it. So, um, surface, the company that is doing the football field and the track, um, the cheapest time to do paving is when you're already mobilized. So, they came in, it's roughly about 4,800 square ft and they came in at the price of $26,000. So, that is a um, you know, laser grade the the base that we have to have now and put a 2-in asphalt base on top. So, that is a very competitive price. Um, of course, third parts are tips tabs as well. I was afraid if
060we go out and have someone else do a mobilization fee, you're going to have to pay for that as well. So, they'll do it while they pave the track. Okay. All right. Question. Yes, sir. So, in your map, your picture? Yeah, I should have done that color. Sorry about that. Okay. So, I'm assuming it's the black. Yes, sir. It is a very black piece right there. You mentioned concession stand. Are we not considering the area in front of the concession stand? That's already that's already that's paved. Okay. So everything that is chat from the fence in will be paid about this square here. That's just what square that's grass. Okay. That's that's there's the there. No issues with ambulances with that. No sir. All right. Any more questions? Okay. With that, I'd like to make
061the recommendation that we approve the price of the paving project from Geo Services in the amount of $26,000. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? MOT. All right. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Ryan. Any further discussion? All in favor? That's all five. Okay. Um, thank you so much for that. I know that's four projects to get football field trash completed, but it will it will um change the environment there and and benefit our students and community. So, we're excited about that. And we are hoping to start construction after football season kind of in into end of November, Decemberish, and get it done as quickly as possible. And again, we're we're getting it ready for other sports that could potentially come in the future.
062Correct. Absolutely. And stripes for soccer and and everything as well. They were light gray lines. We did not go with yellow, but they're light gray lines. So, as long as they fall within policy or whatever the rules are. I don't know much about soccer other than nephews played, but as long as we're in the whole realm of it, that's great with me. Absolutely. Um, next on the um business side of it is a bus purchase. Well, two bus purchases. Um, right now we have two activity buses. We would like to go to four. Um, we would like to also look at purchasing two 83 passenger buses. We do not put 83 high school kids on the bus at once, but what it does is it provides more seats. Um th those buses are about 6
063foot longer than our average bus and it will allow us to hopefully not only transport our football team band and cheer at once but also cut down on a bus that's going to out there as well. Um because bus drivers are are precious. They're premium and everything. And we're at the point now where we need two larger buses when we're doing field trips. This will allow us instead of running four buses on a field trip for a grade level that we can run three. Okay. And that's very important during the school day. These buses can also be used on routes. They're a little bit longer, but they can definitely be used on almost every every single one of our routes if needed as well. Okay. They're expensive. Um, school buses have gone up just like
064every other vehicle. Um, I remember about 6 7 years ago when we got a good bus with air conditioner for about $88,000. That is no longer the case. Um, an 83 passenger bus comes in at 142,800. The other price that we were given was right under 200. Yeah. 193 a bus. So, this bus is the same, I believe, the same drivetrain and transmission, all that that we currently use. So, Mr. Marion and Mr. B. That was my next question. Are there going to need to be any special parts or anything? Okay. No, ma'am. All right. My question is like if this is going to be mainly our activity buses and we have to have another bus that holds our equipment and such like for football players they have to have um other stuff for pads
065cheerleaders bring bags equipment. Is there an idea or a way that we can probably get one of those buses that have that undercarriage? Well, these have storage underneath. Okay. I I know you don't see it. There's a black and white. They are not the storage of a I say a greyhound. Yeah, that's what I'm in my mind that's what I'm thinking where you crawl all the way underneath. It's not that. It has I say bay like that deep all the way. But yes, ma'am as we grow programs and growing pits um that's where you get into do we need another box truck because again we'll be making those evaluations as well. Okay. Cuz I mean like that would save on another vehicle but Okay. Yes, ma'am. So you said two. Yes sir. So that's 285
066285,600. Now the thing is I'm I will be I'm hoping to get approval tonight. This will not be purchased out of this calendar this fiscal year. U is about an 8 to 10 month turnaround to get. So we are basically asking for permission to approval to purchase but knowing that we will purchase them in the 2526 school year which we already budget. We will budget for we will do a lease purchase program like we've done with everyone and make you know do three payments and um and add on to that as well. Okay. Okay. [Music] So this affects no budget this year. It is next year's budget. Yes ma'am. Okay. All right. Any further discussion, questions? All right, Mr. Martin. Um, with that, I would like to make the recommendation to purchase two 83 83
067passenger school buses for a total amount of $285,600 effective for the 25 26 school year. All right. So, we have 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? Yes. All right. All five of us. Up next. Can we go for a ride? Absolutely. You can be first one. You just can't drive it, Eric. We're taking applications for that. All right. I don't think we need executive session tonight, so we'll just keep moving. Up next on approving additional personnel, um I've met with Dr. Basset, um Miss Markell, Miss Bernell, and we're needing an additional special aid in the hospital help one of our students and so it's it's much needed. Is this a one-on-one? Yes. Yes. Okay.
068Mindy fights over my questions every time I go to see. Sorry. Let me also explain that with a one-on-one aid while yes, the service is I'm taking care of Mr. Martin, but I'm also concerned other way, but the main priority is one student. Yes. Okay. So with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve um a special needs um a made at the high school. All right. So we have a recommendation. I think Jessica had a question. Just one more question. And so is this a contract ongoing contract or are we going to renew this last year next year? It'll be a contract for the 2425 school year. All contracts and all positions are renewed at an on an annual basis. I believe at the April class. Yes. April. So it'll it will
069we'll we'll review and see if this position is still needed and then we'll go forward with it. Continuing next year? Yes, ma'am. Okay. We're growing school district. We are not declining in enrollment. So yes, ma'am. I don't see it continuing. All right. Yes, ma'am. Oh, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve the an additional special education aid to serve at the high school. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? Oh, second. All in favor? Yes. All five. Up next, we have uh personnel um for resignations. I would like to make the recommendation that we make the recommendation that we accept the resinations of Lacy H, Laurel Stevens, Dena Shelton, Robert Coke, Alyssa Bradshaw, Jimmy Ball, Mercedes
070Sweat Sleep, I'm sorry, and Carrie Jones. All right, so we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Make a motion as present. All right, so motion by Ryan. Do we have a second? I'll second with regret. All in favor? Yes. Yes. That's all five. Okay. And last, we have employment. I'd like to make the recommendation that we hire Kathy. Valaderez um as high school math teacher and Robert Hosper as middle school custodian. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Do we have a second? Was that John? Yes, it was John. John. Okay. All right. So, John second. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. All five. Yes, ma'am. And I will make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second. Second by Jessica. All right, guys. Thank you very
071much. We appreciate it.