001Yeah. All right. Good evening everybody. We're go ahead and call this work session and board meeting to order. Uh Mr. Moore, would you go ahead and call the role, please? Currently, Sale Daniel Gray here. Ava Coleman here. Jim Moore here. Ron McDaniel present. Dana Tony here. Norton here. Laura Walker here. Service. All right. Y'all join me as they stand for a moment of silence and then we've got a flag here. Will Daniel lead us in the pledge. Join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand one nation under God for all. All right. So, uh we're here to talk about uh the district conversion charter house uh merge with uh Jackson or Pilaski. Dr. Owen, take it over. Thank you, Mr.
002Great. Good evening everyone. We're going to start out with just some information about the proposed uh the proposed version charter and then we have department heads uh chairs who will come department directors who will come and provide additional information. And so we start with merging to meet the mission. And the goal is that uh Mrs. Noel and I've been working to make sure that uh this is a seamless transition based on the fact of our vision and mission for JNPSD. And of course our mission is that we will foster a culture of ownership and accountability through partnerships that create multiple pathways for success. And the proposal that we have for you all uh tonight board uh is the pathway to success we feel like for our middle school students and middle school scholars. And so
003we want to present that to you tonight for your consideration. So our work session topics are the district conversion charter and then of course we have the appraisal report for the warrant free property. So a little research about middle school scholars. Uh you have that before you u board members you have that on your device as well but performance in middle school is a strong indicator for our scholars future success. That's nationwide. And so we want to make sure our middle school scholars are set up for success as they metriculate through our school system. The nature of middle school is different from elementary. We we know that those uh who have children who are going through the process now know that elementary is completely different from middle school and having a high school student. I
004know that high having a high school student is definitely different from having a middle school. So their experience, their development stage and just how they learn uh is completely different from our elementary scholars and high school scholars. So middle school is unique and changing student population. So we want to make sure that we create an environment that's conducive to their learning style and their growing and developmental style as well. some pivotal factors that impact uh our middle school scholars development uh developmental changes, academic pressures, social dynamics, and mental health and well-being. So, we feel like we definitely need uh to make uh an environment that's conducive to their learning style, to their social and behavioral and mental health needs as well. And so, making sure that that environment really uh positively impacts them. Some national
005trends we have before you is that of course I just shared with you the success of our middle school students are uh it's predictive indicator of their academic standing when they start nth grade if they have a solid foundation when they metriculate from 8th grade to 9th grade they're are they are going to be successful uh just uh as it uh states before you the importance of setting high expectation personalized instructional methods middle school uh educational setting should be develop and uh and actually design differently than the way we do elementary and high school. And so it's important to create that learning environment with them in mind because the effective transition if we look at uh the research says it's not an event but a process moving from elementary all the way up to high
006school. And the transition between elementary and high school is really important. And so the effective transition uh means providing scholars and families accurate and useful information involving parents in the process of um making important decisions for their uh scholars. Also supporting scholars social success in schools preparing them for academic success uh in high school. All of that starts uh in elementary but really uh fine-tuned in middle school. So middle school years are very important. some local trends. As you can see, the attendance rate uh for our middle school in 22 uh we were a little over 92% and 23 94% and of course we're in FY2 uh5 now. Um and we'll have that data for you. Enrollment trends, uh you can see that we're trending upwards in um at the middle schools in sixth, seventh,
007and eighth grade. Disciplinary data is kind of up and down for us. and then our school rating as well. And so we have the data that shows that we really need to look at middle school and see what we can do differently to make sure that our scholars are successful uh at that age range. And so some of the things that um research shows that what would help us to come up with uh the right solution is looking at how we can vary our instructional uh setting and assessment aligning curricular with high school readiness standards that is part of learns act as well include inter disciplinary learning having our core teachers working together with the same uh goals in mind for our young people and then ensure educators who are at that level are knowledgeable
008about the age group. And a few measured metrics that we will continue to look at is of course student achievement, the student well-being, having highly qualified educators who understand that middle school age range. And then community engagement, continue to build those relationships with our families and community partners uh so that we can continue to create the ideal middle school environment. So, it's important that we run efficient and effective operations as we plan and go forward. Develop educators and staff members to teach the age group. Engage the community and we've done that with the uh community survey that we'll share with you in just a few minutes as well as prepare scholars for the future and young adulthood. And all of that will lead of course to drive student achievement and growth. And that's what we
009want. We want to make sure that they have a found a firm foundation as they metriculate to high school. So, some of the survey results we had, we did send a uh survey out to our families, uh, Jacksonville, North Lansky families, the Lighthouse families, as well as the community as a whole. We had 333 respondents. Uh, majority of the respondents were Jacksonville High School parents and guardians. Majority of the respondents prefer a K8 campus for consideration and then uh steam was the uh curriculum focus that was most preferred on the survey and then majority of the respondents roughly 43.6% said yes they would consider transferring their scholar to the new school location if we move forward with the conversion charter. these some more charts for you uh that just share you uh additional metrics based
010on what I just shared with you. As you can see, uh grades the K8 which the highest rated and followed by fifth and sixth grade campus and then the sixth, seventh and eighth grade campus. These were the curriculum focus areas steam and then career and tech followed by gifted and talented focus. The last metric would you consider transferring your scholar to this school location? So, additional comment, several parents have expressed interest in seeing the new uh new location possibly serving a ninth grade freshman academy. Uh, also additional comment regarding curriculum of focus area. Uh, several parents have expressed interest in seeing the new new location support scholars who may not qualify for life skills, which uh is part of our uh special education program, but still face academic challenges. So, they would like for us
011to consider that as well. Current enrollment as you can see fifth grade total for Lighthouse and JNPSD uh 336 students. Sixth grade uh 355 and then 7th grade 320 total and eighth grade 356. So our proposal uh is to um submit for district conversion charter. These are the components for the conversion charter application for the Arkansas Department of Ed. uh there's an executive summary academic plan. So we would need to have that academic focus and be able to specify what those what that focus or focus uh areas are and then the academic performance student service uh services what services we're going to provide our scholars special populations what the school climate uh and how that differs from what we already offer the organizational plan what the governance will look like school administration faculty staff transportation
012uh food service, safety, facilities, so forth. And then section six, the financial plan and fiscal sustainability of the conversion. So all of these sections will be uh be completed and submitted and the deadline is next week. Um spoke to Dr. Smith at the charter office and we have uh April 21st, April 22nd as a deadline. But most of this you'll see from the team have already got these uh uh areas covered and completed. And so we'll just put it all together in the uh application. So these are the educational options uh that we could choose from based on the application. Classical, traditional, virtual, college prep, career, CTE, hybrid, uh performing arts, and special populations. And so that's for consideration as well. and you'll hear more from the team. So the proposal is to on the
013new campus to possibly move our pre-K program uh to one side of the uh building and then serve an inter intermediate campus fifth and sixth. But the same focus areas that uh we have at the fifth and sixth campus. We would also like to continue to have that at the seventh and eighth grade campus so that it's a continual uh continuous uh focus on those areas uh academic areas and themes uh from fifth fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade leading into the high school hopefully supporting the career academy career and collegemies. Uh we would our goal is to apply for a prek12 district conversion charter for possible expansion uh in the future. We would like to start with just fifth, six, seven and eight for this upcoming year. See how they uh work and then
014later come in with additional uh conversation with you all uh board members to see if we want to uh actually expand uh in the future. So next steps uh we would need final board approval to move forward with the conversion charter. Uh submit the intent to charter conversion charter application charter authoriz uh authorizing panel presentation which is May 15th and then state board of education meeting in June for the final approval. Any questions? Yes sir. it would would we have to wait until June in order to start getting the building ready for whatever plan we proposed or whatever was approved I guess. Yes. Yes, sir. We would have to wait until June because it's two actual uh processes uh that are taking place at the same time. We're going through our process to obtain a
015version charter and then the Lighthouse Academyy's uh academy is also going through their process. So once state board gives the final approval that they could actually uh come under us as our conversion charter then we will be able to move forward with uh with the property and and all of the additional uh uh programs that they have funding that they have uh all of that then would be able we could move forward with that process of securing all of those resources. So June um potentially there's uh a process for us to uh petition for uh mid June, early June. When is the meeting state forward? I can look it up, but it's usually like the first first and second week of each month because that would only give you two months 60 days before first
016school, right? Uh but there may be an opportunity for us to petition for Lighthouse to go or Lighthouse to petition petition for them to uh start their process earlier than or do it at the same time as as we move forward with ours. And so that we would actually go at the same time, but they would have to uh go through that process to see if they can move their dates quicker. Looks like June 12th, the state board meeting. Thank you, Mr. Richardson. June 12th. Dr. Well, we went through a when we detached from the county, we went through a transitional year. Is this not something you want to look at? We we Mrs. Noel and I did talk about that. We talked about a possible uh transition year as an option if the board
017would like uh to move in that direction. And so uh that could look in a variety of ways. uh they things can stay the way they are right now or we can start looking at the grade configuration and move forward. So it's really up uh for an option for the board to to make uh if we wanted a transition year or if we want to open and move forward um in August with the conversion charter. I mean we can still go through the process of applying for the conversion charter and then still work out a transition plan to make sure that We have all the pieces in in place. Uh if that's the pleasure of the board. Mrs. Noel, did you want to add today? Transition plan, possible transitions here. I think this would be
018a little different situation than what we did previously. It's a quite a bit uh different transition than than uh switching from PCSSD to to us. Um, but uh I'm not so sure that that would be it'd be like just delaying it a year as far as the transition in my off the cuff. But again, the transition couldn't look the way we we wanted it to look. So it be said that the transition would be um you know we understand that we're going to transition in 2627 fully transition in 2627 but we're going to slow walk different pieces but we're under or a part of Jacksonville North last week with finances and this and this I mean it's it really is up to the boards to make that change. Any other questions or discussion for me?
019Dr. Walker, my turn today. Yes. And she can see up here. We came together, Celestia and I, and we looked at the various uh departments that we kind of oversee. And so we wanted to give you just kind of an overview and kind of some action steps because we really couldn't kind of wrap our heads around everything until after we did a walk through today which gave us uh more of an idea of where we need to go from here. So we're going to start off with Mr. Hunt with So based on conservative estimates of us adding 200 additional students by bringing on the items. Right now, the state, as we talked about before, is projecting that our enrollment next year will drop. Somewhere between 45 and 70 kids, right? We also know that the
020state, we don't know if they voted today or not, but we're hoping that they voted today for the additional foundation funding, which would offset us and put us back to even for next year. We've talked about that previously. So, in my view from finance, anything we take on needs to be able to stand alone and carry its own weight. You with me so far? So, we started to build a budget based on gaining 200 additional students. You do have some fixed costs regardless of what you choose to do. Your first fixed cost, which is rather large, is going to be an additional debt service payment depending on how much debt you take on. That is on an that $600,000 annual payment over the next 20 years based on borrowing six7 million. Okay, that's a fixed
021number. Once it's done, it's done. Um, by taking on additional land and things, we've got to take on, if we move prek over, you've got to take on at least two more custodians. That's fixed cost. If you don't move prek, you got to take on four. Um, you got other if you want a CSSO on that campus like you do all the other campuses, if you move prek over, you don't have to add one. do move. If you don't move them over, you will have to add at least one. Cafe, you're going to add four people by taking the campus on. You go on down. Some things are still to be determined. We do not have special education figured out yet because, as you know, we don't know what that population looks like. So my
022best estimate right now for you, you do a 56 conversion charter, it's that number before special education. We're determining some of the other things in yellow. There are still things that we just don't know. I'd go ahead and add another CSSO to that. I mean, I would see two campuses, even though it's one campus, if there's still two schools there. If you add preK in fifth and six, because two points of entry and two buildings, I don't think that would be that easy. Click a button. We added one. What else you want to add? We we can add whatever. I'll stop. It'll keep going. Um but my best estimate is you need to be aware that it is it is going to be an upside down proposition at least in the short financially. I know
023that's not the deciding factor but that's my department. So you at least need to know that now you can get all the kids in this 56 charter. Obviously those numbers would swing, right? But we don't. But my job is not to present you the very best case scenario, right? So if we got to 400 kids, this number down here would shrink dramatically if we could retain 90% 95% of students that they have and additive students that we have, which is obviously the goal. But our data said that about 43 44% would consider. So we use half coming up with our numbers. Did we survey the charter school parents? Yes. Yes. Okay. Didn't see the questions for me. Conversation still at the end. But let's see. And once again, this is using very rough numbers. U
024the averages and things that I use are very much real. the cost of benefits are very much real. Um, would we have to add 10 teachers? We may not, but once again, it all depends on our configuration and how everything comes out. So, so I have Thanks, sir. Miss Logan's next. Okay. Um, so, um, if we went to a 56, currently the goal would be we would move all staff that currently teach at fifth grade and sixth grade over to the new campus. So, currently that we have 12 12 fifth grade teachers and 15 sixth grade teachers, but no, we have already projected to move away from block scheduling next year. So, that 15 for next school year has already turned into 12 for next school year. Um, so basically we said at 12 and
02512, we would move all that staff over and that's going to cover essentially just your core um for fifth and sixth grade. Um, so that's good. We won't have to hire those people. We already have them. Um, the idea is to move a principal that we currently already have on staff. So we wouldn't hire a new allocation for that. Same thing with an assistant principal. We would move an assistant principal over. We would not hire a new allocation for that. Um, again, we would move a CSSO if we got preK. We would probably also pull a CSSO from the middle school since they're going to drop down just to two grades. We would move one of their CSS CSSOs over um and save that allocation from higher. And we would also move a counselor over
026from the middle school to save on that allocation because typically at our secondary, we have one counselor per grade level. So, that middle school would turn into a 78 campus. So, we can go adopt a counselor there. Um the not so fun slide is this one. So on top of all of that with staff we wouldn't have to necessarily hire for new allocations. This could potentially be what we would need to hire for new allocations. Um we would need a nurse on site. Uh prek currently does not have a nurse. Um so with roughly around 600 students plus prek we'd want a nurse on site there. Um uh special education teachers and special education paras are kind of unknown. We have to run the numbers to see where we are at 56 right now. And
027then also with the new students we get that are currently enrolled with um Lighthouse to see what that population requires us to hire as well. Um we would want a reading specialist on campus, our 56 numbers um support a allocation for that, but also we have an allocation already at our schools out there. So I can't they don't have the capacity to swing um so we would need a new allocation for uh the new campus. Um, same thing with GT and Esau. Um, instructional facilitator or dyslexia parah. Again, those are based off of numbers. So, it would just depend on where our numbers sit. Um, if we would have to hire additional staff for that. Uh, we would need to pull over um one PE and health coach uh for that campus. Um, and then
028we would also need to pull over um I think we want to have an emphasis on steam. So that would be, you know, a new allocation as well to run that program. And we would hope that that would be a coaching position as well. Um, one lead library media specialist, one music, and one art teacher that we would have to do a new allocation for as well. So again, those are just allocations that that we know. Um, most of those positions are on the licensed salary schedule. So we know according to learns, we have to start them at 50. And that's just that they have zero years of experience um, coming right out of bachelor's degree. Um and then adding their fringe, you know, that costs us about 70,000 or so um a pop if
029if they have zero years of experience. Questions for me? Uh so at the middle school, do we just have one PE coach for We have a few. Um I think we allocate one of those back based on their numbers. Um, we have two right now and we've already have projections to uh reduce that number based off of going from a block schedule to a seven period day. So, one of the positions that were cut already will move over there to the new um allocation. So, they still require two over at the middle school. Is that correct, Mr. Miller? And I think what are you what did you have this year? Three. Four this year. Four. Yeah. And is it the same for GT? There's multiple GT specialist GT and Esau. They're kind of still a
030question mark, not necessarily the one yet. Okay. So, we have enough in the district what we currently have. And so, and we've got them allocated pretty tight. They travel between buildings. So if our numbers stay roughly the same, we have enough that we'll just add a new building for them to travel to. If we take on more scholars that need those services, we might not have enough to travel that building. So it's really a numbers game with that don't know those numbers. It'll just depend on how many of the White House scholars have those services. So that that could be a maybe or maybe not right now. All just a numbers game. It's all there and sped is the same and dyslexia. No more questions for me. If the next slide is curriculum and instruction.
031So we know that moving over uh fifth and sixth grade then we have our core curriculum that we implement. So that would go and we would just bring move that over the materials and supplies. Um there are certain course offerings that we have to implement because of accreditation which is that music art PE library and then we talked about that steam focus. Uh but we could also look at some other focus areas as well. Dr. O mentioned some when he was talking earlier. So that's kind of up in air. uh we t we're thinking about what does the teams look like within the fifth and sixth grade. So we're looking at a how we want to model that team and then master schedules. A lot of that master schedule our scholars are going to drive
032that master schedule. Um more scholars then we may have to have additional staff. If the numbers aren't there, then of course uh that would drive if we have to look at uh courses or adding and then if we have any materials that we're implementing uh as far as steam or some other focus that may be an additional purchase as well. We would also have to inventory to see what's there at Lighthouse that is um something that we could utilize within um that we're already utilizing. If not, it's something that we'll have to um purchase. Of course, we've talked a little bit about Esau, ET, and dyslexia. All of that depends on numbers. If we have more scholars, if there's any uh particular material, we'll have to purchase that. Any questions about the curriculum instruction piece?
033One of the things I was thinking about earlier is that we would have to also look at if they have any grants, if they have anyus. Uh we would have to look at that and see what what's we're obligated to that's already in place. The next section is special education. Uh again is numbers. We don't know how many sped teachers we'll need. Now, we've looked at some numbers, um, but we really won't be able to determine how many teachers. We won't be able to determine if, you know, if we had need paras for one-on-one scholars until we can get in there, have access to that data. And then uh we would definitely have to train because we have a set curriculum that we use for dyslexia because our spit teachers deliver that piece of it
034uh for the spit scholars. And of course this kind of is in Mr. Lester's lane with uh the compliance with ADA. We have to look at the classroom. We'll have to look at bathrooms and playground areas um to make sure that they're in compliance. And of course, we would do any inventory as far as curriculum that they may have that we can currently utilize. Any questions about staff? Are there any approximate numbers that we can I think Miss Darington, you ran a few numbers today based on our current enrollment of fourth and fifth graders, which would be the fifth and sixth graders. At this point, with just those numbers, I would need four and a half special education teachers over there. That's not to say I have to hire them, but if I have two
035special education teachers at Biometer right now and I wanted to pull one of those, if that one special ed teacher goes to 26 students, I have to have two because they can only have 25. So again, it's all a numbers game. Professionals, if we did 56, since we're not going to have a specialty class, would only be based on scholar need. I know I have one student that would be over there that requires him oneonone and all of the ADA compliance because he's in a wheelchair. So I have to look at emergency if he's upstairs I have to be able to get him down the stair and then so I have to have one of those special. So all of those So you say no specialty class like no CVI no life skills so they
036would go to middle school. I checked with the state department and we can continue to have fifth graders at the elementary campus and sixth graders at the current middle school campus in our life skills classes so that we don't have to they don't have we don't have an ADA accessible restroom classroom combination that we could do a live skills program. So we're not going to do a triple check. It's good to know that they could still stay and be accommodated at those facilities that we have. Next portion is going to be Mr. with maintenance. Just a quick walk through we got these are things that we would look at that we do not know now based upon the information tonight. uh building inspections, of course, we'd have to have them come back through. The fireworks
037will have to come back through. Anytime you change uh configuration at all, they'll come back through and test all that. So, any building inspections would have to be, you know, redone. Um HVAC, plumbing, electricity, um you know, just a quick walk through with that. the plumbing for the uh pre preK. Um it's required to have a sink and a bathroom if possible. Bathrooms you can do in a hallway, but we would have to redo those bathrooms there. U but we would have to put a sink in there. Fortunately, we only thought there was there was two rooms that had uh sinks in it. ended up being uh five in the section that we were going to be there, but they would have to be the sink would have to be lowered down based upon the
038size of the bathroom. So, um and sinks if we if we have to put sinks in, they're around 10 10 to$20,000 a piece. But, so that's the norm we got room there. Um, but again, fortunately, uh, looks like their plumbing goes along, uh, where we needed to go and there's more sinks in those rooms than we thought. So, that's that's a good thing. Um the bathrooms uh that's in the hallways of the where we plan for prek uh they will have to be tiny toilets and they're 500 to a,000 per per uh fixture and there's 12 fixtures in there. So we would have to that's the money we would have to go through. So and again those numbers can fluctuate depending upon when they get in there in the plumbing how it is. They may
039already have some that are at that level because it is their elementary school. So, we'll just have to go through that. Um, custodial services. Um, if we move the prek over, we've got two that will go over. It' be a total of four for that campus and the square footage. So, we would only be doing two custodians if we move the preko. uh maintenance schedule based upon um the square footage and the uh acreage. Uh we would need to hire one additional maintenance person and grounds person. Again, inventory when we went through uh found out tonight they lease their um kitchen equipment. So, um, talked briefly with Clint, but I did talk with him briefly afterwards. Um, and it would cost the highest end to get us up to to par would be $140,000 to
040do both kitchens, but that's the high end. When it gets in there, we'll see what we got on there because there is one walk-in freezer that won't that's not on wheels, so it'll be there. So uh and he'll look to see the capacity of that but they they lease uh all their kitchen equipment. So that will be some mandatory technology. Um Mark is in here um looking at the drops today. I know the the what we talked about this evening was uh the worst case scenario is 250,000. Correct. Yeah. Before uh we when I designed it today, it was based on the elementary being in elementary, not pre-K. So the price should be lower than that. Um but uh one of the things that I thought today that is going to be a little bit
041of a concern is the server rooms. Um the size of the server rooms, uh the heat. Uh we'll need to do some air conditioning in those areas because it's pumping out a lot of heat. Uh so there there may be some HBAC that we need to look at in those areas. Um but other than that, yeah, I think that's a good estimate. If this is what we're calling a rip and replace, like taking all the access points out, put our access points in, all the teacher computers, uh, and not using anything existing on the um, inventory. Of course, we have a server at the prek. If we move over there, we have a server available to us that we would just move over. So, that cost will go down. Um, I know this is we'll
042get to security in a minute. You could go ahead and do the next one. Any questions on this one. Learning management is really just this the software uh additional software that goes into curriculum that we would have to look at. Safety and security. We have uh plenty of cameras that we can move over that are updated cameras uh to the u uh from the prek if we move them over. Um, we have some from Bamea and Merl Taylor left. Was there any concerns about the number of cameras that we had available to us? No, I think we're we should be good on camera. So, we shouldn't have to buy any most of the plus if we move our the access control system, the S2 system that the district uses. We have one of those in
043place at Homer. So, we don't have to buy one of those. just be labor um pulling in equipment out of home and moving it over as far as the access goes and the cameras. So, I think we've got plenty of cameras class. We talked a little bit about um well, these are procedures that we would put in when we got in the building and figured out the configuration. We would go through the safety procedures. CSSO officer, we talked about a few minutes ago on that. inventory. We've got that. Um, there is a safety and security grant. I didn't I did not ask you on that. Uh, I know that you did fencing on last year's. Have y'all y'all I think you received around 83,000 this year. Have you spent that money on anything? No. Okay.
044Have not. So we would have to petition uh the state uh to go back and see we could utilize that for cameras, servtors, anything like that. So that's fortunate that they haven't spent that yet. So child nutrition we talked about um the staff um for that amount we're looking at close to 900 kids. it would take seven um cafeteria staff there, but we already have three at the prek. So, that would be a total of four that we would have to add there. Um again, we'd have to go through and do the inspections on on that uh the building as far as the state department does one every year for us. They'll just have to go back through. Have y'all had yours yet? You have. Okay, good deal. Inventory touched briefly on that. they lease
045um all their kitchen equipment. So that's what we would that 140 top end that he talked about uh would be in that inventory. Any questions about child nutrition? We got some really good ner news on child nutrition money. So we are going to be excited about bringing that when we put the numbers together. So the legislation uh legislators put in that we would have free breakfastes. So he's done the numbers on some things. So we've got some really good news on on that. So but that's for another night when he gets that together. Transportation. Uh we found out tonight from Miss Noel they they have one bus that they own and two buses that they lease. We were looking at this year actually purchasing a couple of buses and we were going to look the
046lease route buy leased buses because they're two years old. They're most of them are in great shape. So now we can just take a look at possibly purchasing from uh Masters Leasing. So we'll get in talk get in touch with them because their lease is up July July 1 to 30. Okay. um we would have to look at our uh maintenance fleet and we've already done that already for the district itself. So we could come back with that later but we it's something we really can't put the numbers tonight as far as that goes. Um the routes we could absorb um Mr. Beck and I talked when we were over there and they we would just look at you know a time whether five six would be what time they would be opening. Uh we
047would look at you know the routes that we would have to take but it can all be worked out. Uh because we're going to have to look at it anyway because as you know last board meeting we talked about reszoning Jacksonville Elementary. So we're going to go back and look at the routes anymore. So but that can be absorbed. Any questions on transportation? Okay, that concludes the department. Thank you, Dr. Larker. Mr. Liz, the board, any questions? Any followup concerns? State again the amount of students each facility holds roughly. Yeah. the max enrollment or capacity um for the elementary it should be 344 and I think for the high school maybe 466 does that include the gym that has three classrooms in there's three we were pleasantly surprised that there were classrooms in there so
048So, can you go back to the capacity numbers, enrollment numbers that you were projecting? It's like one of the first slides you had for next year for fifth and sixth grade. Yeah, that's over 69. We put six fifth grade campus. So, these are current numbers now six. This would be what they would be for next year. No, no, this is what they have. We know that fourth going to 600 for the 2526 school year in sixth grade. Yes. for6 and and let me just say that's the tap that gave always and there 16 we use three and four on the gym four well three the three in gym area and then four of the classrooms that are on the elementary for the fifth and fifth grade scholar as well. We looked at possibly just doing
049like a sixth grade campus and leaving the fifth grade at the elementaryaries for maybe one year or is that screw everything up? Um and there especially at one of our campuses they are they're growing and so that's why we're that's why we're also reszoning it and to relieve some of the capacity there. But uh was one of the questions on the uh survey was there a concern about I mean I when we lose kids it's usually at the middle school level. We did look at we if we increase or we we make it earlier where they're they're taking their kids out of elementary is that a potential to lose more kids going into the fifth grade year versus going into the sixth grade year. Yes, we did look at those numbers and it is a
050decrease. One of the populations and I miss Dr. Clark you gave me the numbers. We lose a lot of our GT scholars, our gifted scholars from fifth grade to sixth grade. And I don't remember what that number was. I think I think you're asking the opposite question. Like right now our loss is showing mainly from elementary to middle. But is your question that if we make it a year earlier, it fourth grade basically. So when they go into the fifth grade, that mentality is I'm leaving elementary school and I'm going to a junior high, middle school. I mean even. So, it's going to relieve the capacity issues and maybe make the middle school more bearable, but are we also increasing the potential for loss from fourth to fifth grade for just students or parents that
051are scared of that transition or whatever the reason they're pulling them out. We also don't know what we don't know though. could be creating a better environment for that transition into a smaller facility and we see a difference of not and for us elementary stay a six so five and six are still considered elementary students or elementary student and then of course seven and eighth I'm just going to be blunt you know we've got all brand new facilities And that was a big selling point for our parents. And uh lighthouse facilities are significantly older and they need a little bit of love. Um so u lots of painting and lots of upgrades to make them equitable and comparable to every other campus. And I know that that's going to make a difference for some parents
052is where their kids are going to school. So, it'll be a, you know, if we don't do some significant work, it's going to be a pretty big difference from where they're going, where they came from. That would be a concern of mine. Do we know that? And we talked about that and we talked about a plan to upgrade and so yeah, we a low 60 days. You get all that done. Did you see me sweating for tears? No, realistically, we we knew that with the timeline of getting the state board approval, the final approval that we would be hardressed with the August beginning date of school, but we would pace ourselves out to transition like with the aesthetics, the painting, the logo change and things of that nature. That wouldn't completely take place before with
053the capacity issues that Lauren brought up as far as the 344 and I know we had four extra classrooms. So that's probably what 60 actually seven seven extra class three in the gym that we didn't know about and then we have we were going to utilize four in the elementary building that were connected. I mean, you basically throw the that back together. So, we don't have any concerns about the fifth and sixth grade numbers and the capacity at those two campuses. We don't we we talked about it in detail for the past week and in even more uh conversation today to make sure it worked. And that's how we came up with the additional classrooms on the elementary side to be able to use for probably specials. And then of course like Mr. Leester just
054said when we learned about the additional classes in the gym area that actually is added benefit having in the space. Can I ask a question about finances? This lighthouse academy of course is going to get state funding. If we take it over we get state funding. What about private funds? So they get private funds from from uh grants or anything. You get private funds because your lighthouse charter. We do get we get grant money. Um we get the same federal funds or federal grant. You get over. Okay. So, so is the recommendation to move forward with the district conversion charter as y'all have presented it. Is that really a is is it is that really a conversion charter or I just heard move stuff around. I didn't What's the charter part of it? Well, we
055would have the ability the flexibility with the waiverss versus what we have as a public school. And so we would be able to look at the instructional day. We'll be able to look at the offerings that we have of course uh as you see um one of the survey results stated that steam is one of the focus areas. So we will look at how could we really uh develop that program. Uh there's an agricultural uh focus already. We want to expand on that. Would that move up to like the high school like our existing high school level or would it just be for fifth and sixth graders at that campus? So that's the reason why I ask you all to consider seven and eight. Uh because we would like whatever we do on the the
056focus areas we have at fifth six we also do at seven eight and then tie those or align those with themies at the high school so there's that consistency. It's conversion charter but it covers five six seven and eight at both campuses. Okay. Yes sir. Thank you. Say it out loud. Any other questions? So that's the recommendation. That's the recommendation. Yes, sir. But we we're still in a work session. Yes. Any other discussion on the district conversion charter before we move on to the second item on our work session? All right. Next item we've got to talk about is the appraisal report. And did you We have a men need some fun stuff to some projects we have upcoming. It sounds like So hopefully everyone was able to bring that up. I also brought it
057on the big screen. The property formerly known as Warren Dupree Elementary School located at 700 Gregory Street. Um before you is about 10 acres. Uh and of course you can see before you that the appraised value is 1.4 million a little over 1.4 million uh for that property. So any discussions uh about next steps moving forward with the I'll just caution everyone appraised value is not always market value. Um, so, uh, what a willing buyer and a willing seller come to is is not and this this, uh, this appraisal was just a kind of a, you know, there was no contract in place. So, buyer to get ready. Well, the first uh step of course we got it reszoned the C2 so that we could get it appraised for commercial. At this point, I haven't
058received uh any notifications of potential buyers. We do uh we did hear from Mr. birch at the city that people that would be prime location especially with the new bridge that that will be uh located uh right there near the property. We have we haven't really advertised it as available for tail. So is that is that kind of that would be the next step in my opinion was to decide if we want to hold on to it for future use or do we do we need it for the future? If not, are we willing to let it go? And I think that's kind of where we've been leaning and going. Uh so then if if if we do want to sell it, how do we want to sell it? Um suggestion I have would be
059to solicit for some proposals from some commercial realtors to give us a proposal on what they would do to market it and uh and sell it for us and the costs involved. And kind of like we did with the appraisers, just put it out there. And might take a little bit longer than 30 days to get some good proposals together. Uh maybe 60 days or so. and see who proposes the what we can get and then put it on the market. Dr. We talked about that little strip of asphalt street, if you will, behind those people's houses. That was never, according to what was given to me by the city, it's still part of the school property. There was only a small portion down at the end on Gregory Street that the state highway department
060follow. So, uh, bottom right, it's right here. Yeah, there's an asphalt drive down there. Is that right? You go to the this part of this page of the survey. It's got the survey in there. Yeah, that's the part you're talking about, Mr. M. down that the people use that to get in their backyard now because the front the state highway department way they have the bridge forecast to go in there's only one entrance in the back way that I could tell from the map that the engineer showed but there was some conversation that it had been um whole thing had been given uh in the appraisal but it wasn't was still in the school district property area. So what would be the next step? Uh well I guess the board would need to decide. I
061would suggest that that's going to take care of itself when whoever develops or purchases a property and brings anything to the planning commission that can be addressed through the development stages. Then I think we try to start doing it now. It's going to complicate it. So I would just leave it like it is and let the planning commission handle it when it comes before them. Yeah, we can do that. I can do that. Okay. Could be a long time. You never know. And no, that property is going to go fast. I'll be glad to reach out. You and I sit down. I can get you some connections and reach out for some I'll help with that. Not yet. Any other can't do any votes in work session. Anything else on that? So, we'll go ahead
062and go ahead and close the work session down and uh how about a threem minute comfort break before we start the board meeting. I'm I would So, it's not They're there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That would be writes that Yes. Yes, that's true. You have to do it. to me. Perfect. Jingle send it down. Okay. to get [Music] something true. It'll be a little bit. All right, we all back. Yeah. All right, I'm going go ahead and call a regular or excuse me, a special board meeting to session. We got two items on our agenda. First, the district conversion charter. Dr. O, what's what's the recommendation? We recommend uh to the board to uh allow the district to move forward with applying for a prek12 conversion charter with the start of implementation with the fifth, sixth
063campus as well as seventh and eighth grade campus at the current middle school. Right. Any questions? So move. Motion. Second. And a second. Any other discussion or questions? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right. That passes unanimously. And then we've also got a personnel report and this was on the this was the full we don't have to this is not an addendum to the agenda, right? We're we're good. Okay. Uh any this is a personnel report. Got a recommendation here before us. I would remind the board that any discussion on personnel will need to be held in executive session. Is there a need for executive session? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve as presented. So move second. Motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I.
064Any opposed? Okay. It is going to be that short. I just uh we wouldn't had a comfort break. Sister McDaniel make a mot. All right, we are journalist.