Pine Bluff School District | School Board Meeting – June 23rd, 2025

001uh educators and administrators, welcome to our board meeting. I just have a a few comments before we get into our moment of silence and our pledge. Uh I just wanted to uh thank Zebra Athletic Club. They did an awesome job in golf tournament and I think supporting our student athletes across different um uh athletic areas and we really appreciate that. I also understand there's a fundraiser for Greg Walker uh being a number one fan that you please share information if you will. Uh let's see what else. I'm not I'm not a weatherman, but uh there is heat advisor. So please take care of yourself and uh uh stay hydrated uh if you will. And and as and as usual, I just uh thank God for the opportunity to serve this class. Thank God for opportunity

002to serve my colleagues. Um, as a graduate of High School, class of 1990, I've said it, it is truly an honor uh to do this honor to work uh with good people and also to work with a great superintendent who's taking our school district forward. All right, by my count, we have a forum the only director going to bring and director. At this time, we're going to stand for a moment of silence and prayer this time for our local national leaders for our parents and our teachers simply and administrators simply because they're really on the front line of support after the home especially when there is unrest in our community in the state and of course uh unfortunately in this environment around the world. So we really want to have a moment of silence and

003pray for them our first responders uh and those who are still working with our members in our community who are supporting those least and left out. So after that moment of silence, we have our pledge and then we're going to go into special recognition. So at this time, let's stand for a moment of silence and Thank you. Pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> All right, Superintendent Barley, special recognitions. >> This is exciting. We have several people in the audience tonight for our showing your stripers awards and Mr. Car, you want to help us with that? >> Tonight, we'll start with our teachers. >> All right. What was really

004exciting based on uh different legislation that's happened throughout the state of Arkansas, uh teachers in Arkansas can um earn merit pay, merit pay that's paid through the Department of Education. And we were fortunate to have seven teachers this year earn merit pay based on the qualifications for the Department of Ed. And we'd like to recognize our teachers tonight >> and proud principles. If you want to stand with them, feel free to do so. First teacher, we have Crystal Sweeney. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Stay up here. >> Next we have Shiante Evans. [Applause] >> Next we have Kendria Jones. >> She got on vacation. She is teacher. Tammy Russell >> on vacation. [Applause] [Laughter] >> Linda Foots, [Applause] >> Kim Mixon. [Applause] So, one [Applause] >> I don't know if yall know it's not that we're counting

005anybody out, but Miss is our our third recognition for you. So, we're very proud and she actually earned pay last year as well. So two years in a row [Applause] >> and so school district earned over $19,000 this year. So congratulations tighten up a little. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Next we have our student recognition. >> Oh >> well. Okay. >> Well, this year we had the honor and the privilege of opening several school banks in our district uh to advance our financial literacy initiative. So one of our schools we have a bank is James Matthews Elementary School that proud wave her hand [Applause] another bank we have is at Greenville our kinder center [Applause] we want to recognize students who took their first step in opening up a savings account so they're just

006diving straight into some of those financial literacy practices and what better practice to learn and to save So these students at a young age on bank pay they're taking that money to the school and they're depositing it. Uh and the students who who are the students at the school are actual bank tellers. So they're learning some of those skills about um possibly being employed one day at a bank. So they're learning some of those soft skills about I mean customer service um writing out deposit slips and counting money. So we just want to recognize those students and applaud them for opening up the um their accounts and supporting our school banks. So the first student we have is you want to >> miss Williams [Applause] Allen. [Applause] Can you stand up here? Can we get

007everybody? >> We want to cover your pretty face. [Laughter] >> Allen [Applause] Travis Martin Jr. [Applause] You are welcome. Thank you for your >> marin. [Applause] Congratulations, >> Zia. [Applause] Bryson Cross. [Applause] Maya Higgins. [Applause] Hunter, right? [Applause] Who saved the most money? Raise your hand. [Laughter] >> I should have known. down. >> Okay, I think I got it before. >> You're welcome. And now this certainly couldn't be possible without the support and help from our bank that is with us as well. Also, we'd like to also recognize Satasha Randp. [Applause] [Laughter] >> Oh. It may not stay. >> There you go. >> Everybody ready? >> Me right here. >> All right. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you. At this time, if we have any parents or anyone who needs to step out to do that,

008that's when we get into our very robust agenda this evening. >> Oh, wow. [Music] Thank you all so much. All right. Thank you. >> Before we go on, I just want to recognize the director as president. Good to see you. All right, moving on. We going to move to our approval of minutes from our regular board meetings uh dated May 27, 2025. Uh the meeting minutes were in our board packet that Superintendent Brian shared with us. Uh if there are no questions, comments, concerns, or edits, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve uh the minutes from the regular board meeting May 27, 2025. move to private second. Ready for question. Any questions, comments, concerns? Hear none. All in favor say I. >> All right. For me, all oppose say no. I have seven. Thank

009you very very much. All right. Now, moving on to our financial report. Superintendent >> on uh item seven in your board packet. You know, there's a link. So when you look at the local revenue collection and breakdown, what you'll see is the month end report for May and that we collected uh up until the end of May, we collected 24,952,528. We were still less 1.9 million in what we had budgeted as tax revenue. I will say since then, and you'll see it in your June report, we did get our June taxes in. Um, however, it's not the complete amount of that 1.9. So, I want to take a few moments and explain something that um, we discovered uh, just in the last couple weeks. So, it's almost I almost speak as plainly as I can.

010So, as far as the way school districts are funded, our local tax dollars, we receive them from January to December. However, the school budget is always focused, the school uh finances are always from July to June. You guys realize that? So, we're closing out the fiscal year this June and we'll start the new fiscal year in July. But the way that local tax revenue is reported to the state department is by calendar year. So, again, it's January of 2024 to December of 2024. And we passed the millillage on uh in August of 2023. So before August of 23, we had a lower mill rate. After we passed that in August, in the calendar year of 2024, we should be receiving tax dollars based on a 47 mills or 47.7 mills, which we were. We were

011the tax collectors that we were they were collecting our tax dollars based on those mills. However, when they reported that to the state department because the department of education takes in those local tax dollars and spreads it back out because of the Lake View case. That's that equity case. So, we received an email from the state saying that we were actually owed owing the state money because we had overcolcted. Um the state says that you can only collect 98% collection rate and it was reported that we were collecting PL school district was collecting 105%. And we knew that wasn't right because we've been keeping up with our tax dollars and we still hadn't received all the tax money in yet. And so after the figuring we realized we had collected at 93% of our 47

012mills. And so when we started digging, we realized that the information that was reported to the state department was reported based on our old old mill, the 41 mills, not the 47. And so if you remember when we had our finance training uh not too long ago, Mr. Mr. Beersley was showing that we were going to be less that last state foundation funding that they weren't going to send it to us because we were collecting. And so after we did digging, we realized no, we should be receiving that money. And so today, just we just got in today, we've got our last foundation funding payment, plus the state has also reimbursed us $922,000 to true up to get us to the 98% collection rate, which we were not at. So, it took us about two

013weeks to figure it out by but we knew something was wrong. And so, I just want to give praise to Jamie Reid um for doing the digging and making sure that we had that. Of course, we called Ray at First Security and other places. And I just want to say I'm proud and I'm so thankful because that was a huge it makes a huge difference for us. So, now instead of having to owe $1.2 million because they thought we collected too much, we actually gained $1.5 million of our of our uh tax collection. So, so it was a huge positive when it comes down to that local revenue collection, right? Um the next uh I do want to bring your attention to the next uh link where it says um the board report for current

014period. That's just normal. That's what you'll see. But the next one where you see the board report for all funds from the beginning to current um last month when we talked about uh repairing the roof the warehouse. I said that we could pay for it out of 5,000 because we have that in capital outlay, but we we would rather use a different pot of money and that's the money that's 20 it's 2023. So, if you look on your board report, you'll see in uh 2023 we have $75,000 and that's money that we've received through uh insurance payments like when we claim things on insurance. And so since we've been able to claim things on insurance and reverse that, we're going to use this money to pay for the roof that out of out of account

0152023. So you'll see that. Um the next the next link is the bank. Uh obviously we are still at a zero variance. Very proud of that. We continue to keep up with that. And then you have our check register under the building projects. Um you'll see in fund 3001 that's what we report in our um einance and it matches what we say is actually been on the next bond proceeds register as well. Our total project cost so far um has been paid out at 28,284,500 or $359. Um, I just want to say uh I'm so proud that uh we were able to find that and work hard and so that is the probably my favorite financial report that I've given this year >> and we thank you for that and thank you Jamie for for

016your due diligence. I think that's that's so critical as as you know all of us as board members learn more about finances and how taxes collected and distributed is very very important you know that we have a team working together that's you know that's paying attention to those details you know for our district all right any other questions comments concerns before I entertain a motion to approve the financial report as presented can I get a motion been moved to practice second that we approve the financial report as presented uh by superintendent barber read the question any questions comments concerns hear none all in favor say I >> for me all oppose say no they have thank you very much all right now we're going to move into board committee reports uh directors is not here

017so I'll kind of fill in her spot >> uh as we talked about and her committee is >> student affairs student affairs and policy. We uh went over some very very important policies based on changes in the state legislature as related to public comment, board elections and the bailtoail no sale policy. As it relates to public comments, uh we've had extensive conversation about that and as we uh as a board try to come up with a policy uh for public comments as well as a procedure. Now, one of our overall overriding goals is to number one, first follow the law, but also to do what we can to to allow the public to speak, but also to maintain the decorum that we have as a board. You know, you know, people have an opportunity to

018speak. They they have opportunity to express their feelings as relates to, you know, what we do and how the district is going. But we but we're being mindful and very careful that we have procedures in place, you know, to kind of protect the integrity of what we do on a day-to-day basis. We don't we don't want it to uh digress into something that becomes uh you know toxic in nature. We we don't want uh to have an opportunity where individuals feel like that you know that their comments are not that their comments can be used to divide the board or to to cause confusion uh within the community. So we've been working on that. We have a a uh public policy coming procedures tonight that we we'll definitely review and we talked about that in

019making sure that um you know it followed the law but also gave those uh community members who want an opportunity to speak you know to to basically do that. We also been working hard because we really want to be because this is a new policy or or a modified policy we want to be the model for this policy throughout the state of Arkansas. So when our community members speak, they speak. We maintain the quorum and then we we show other districts how they can develop similar policies so they can uh continue to to operate in goodstead. All right. Uh board elections. We talk extently about board elections and how many of us uh the these seats will become open. Uh I'm not going to go into all the details about that. We'll discuss that at

020that time and we talked about that and and trying to decide whether or not uh you know board members will serve for four years or six years. There's still an ongoing conversation and we'll have a discussion about that tonight. But basically because the law has changed in terms of how those schedules will happen and it's very very important because I think uh director lock you brought up just wanted to make sure that we know uh what the timelines are. Um it's important when you when you establish the timelines for the elections, you know, you got to get your signatures. You have to, you know, making sure that we're mindful of that. The community members know that as well. So, so those deadlines are not missing those people who are interested in serving. Then we also

021talked about the bill to build no sale policy. We talked to Len about that. U of course we did practice. Uh Bri probably can talk to you about that doing that superintendent report and what we need to do to kind of support that policy going forward to make sure again the father and letter of the law but also you know making sure we have that flexibility so we can continue to serve and do what we do best which is support student success. So those are my comments about uh student affairs and public policy. uh from the from the executive uh side, we just been training. We continue to train. Uh we're promoting the training. We continue to do that. We're talking, you know, we're growing together as a group, you know, working on our communication.

022And I think that's what's going to be key. All right. Um was that next report? Director Whitmore, do you have any reports? >> Not this time. >> Director L. Not at this time. >> Not this time. All right. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> And uh I guess I'm over facilities and our my report right now is it's it's normal as as we've done every other month. But uh I would like to tell you all that we are making progress on the track. I think they've gotten the track uh pulled up and removed. So we're moving on that. And we're now we're getting uh quotes for the lights for the track field. And then last but not least, we'll have give us a progress on the high school. >> We appreciate the opportunity to come.

023As always, uh Dr. Rice mentioned earlier the heat wave that we have, which we love. We'll take heat over rain any day in construction. We just start a little earlier in the morning. That's all right. Uh we hit a couple big milestones this month. Uh by the end of June, we will have slabs poured for all of the buildings. So, that'll be a big milestone to hit for June. We also rolled one year. Uh we started June 10th was the first day we had subs on site a year ago. So that was an exciting time. We had a few of the board members and administrators come out, have a little cookout for subs, just kind of celebrate them and appreciate all that they're doing for us and help get the building going. So we certainly

024enjoyed that and appreciate all the hard work from a lot of lot of folks uh all around the community. We will get us started here. So, as you can see, the auditorium uh is really beginning to take shape. Uh we've got almost all the steel up. The roof will start going on pretty soon with this building. Uh you see the formation. This is the beginning of the month. This is where the arena will be where all that yellow is. We were we've already poured in. Uh so, you're starting to see kind of the last building tape shape as we talked about. You'll also see the walls coming starting to come up right here for the side of the classrooms. This is over the main uh education room. We've got concrete poured for the second floor

025in this corridor right here. You can see metal decking down. Uh they're getting ready to start laying walls for the second floor. And we'll start these pores that pore actually already been completed and we're starting to work across. You'll see that a little later in the video. Coming up here, you can see that this will be the cafeteria. Steel is already up and in place, and we're actually starting to get a few more roofs on. Back around to the safe room. This is coming into the from the courtyard into the media center. Again, that big twotory volume. All that's going to have a lot of glass and will be very open, be a very airy feeling. Uh be a great place for student learning. As we're coming around here, you can start to see the

026second floor is starting to come up. This is actually the second floor uh building walls coming up. You can see that we've got decking now for almost the entire classroom wing and we're working across pores uh for the school right for the second floor right now. As we come on around, you can also see the cafeteria is getting a roof. Uh it's the roof on that is now complete. They were about 34 of the way finished when this video was taken. You can also start to see some of the steel going up over here for the arena kind of right there in the corner of the screen. As you can see, these guys have got the inside of the roof laid and just about finished up with the the north side there. Our goal will

027be to have all the buildings in the drive by September. So, we'll have every second floor on everything completed. Looking to have all our final roofs about then. As you swing around here, you'll see these things that look like big concrete bunkers. Those are actually called dead bin. We use those during the erection process. They're out here on this side. And what they do is stabilize the building while we're racking the steel and getting everything tied together. Those are about the size of a big lawn mo riding lawnmower or a four-wheeler, but they're solid blocks of concrete. So here you can see the track has been stripped and we are preparing to put the ceiling coats down and then start the the rework of the track. So that work is ongoing. Uh we've got a

028few more weeks to go through that. We are anticipating completion out in July and definitely have everything reopened uh by the end of July for the track. So we're excited to get that started as well and back open for the community. >> End of July. Any questions? >> We certainly appreciate it. We are finalizing uh waiting on this the state's comments to come back on the high school stadium project as well. Uh they should they're due in any day from them and that will allow that process to start moving forward and we're looking to have a full update from the board at the July meeting. >> We certainly appreciate it. >> All right. Thank you very much. One last piece uh for finance. We are all members of finance. We did meet to learn much

029more about the village. Uh we also make PPC to uh make sure we have a cordial relationship and continue to work together uh to do what we can to support uh teachers and staff. And so that's really uh important that we have finance. You know, again, we've been training training training and learn learning. And so uh It is it is a task and we're up for it. So that's the report that we have from uh the finance committee. Uh any other questions, comments, concerns? Okay. All right. If not, then we're going to move on to uh PPC. No, no uh updates tonight. No questions. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Then we'll move on to superintendent report. >> Awesome. >> Thank you, board. So, first on um and as a reminder, I'll report at

030from the six systems every time. And so, we'll we'll talk about academics. Of course, by law, we're supposed to provide academic data each each month, but um I want to share this piece of data because it's one that is specifically tied to the targets that are placed in my contract as far as the end of year literacy data. So, would you um would you bring that up for us, Miss Miss Ross, put this together for us because we you beginning year, middle year, and end of year. And so the the exciting just pause for us right there because this first chart is just the letter naming and the growth that we've seen in letter naming um throughout this school year for our kindergarten. Uh we have still 84% of our kindergarten students know all of

031their letters uh uppercase letters. If you look in first and second grade, we have 94% and 99% knowing all of their uppercase letters with a 95% tested rate. So, some um has fluctuated just a little bit on that testing rate at the end of the year. If you scroll up, the second chart is our lowercase letters. Again, still a very positive trend. And so, those students that are in the need of support in each of those categories, kindergarten, first, and second grade, they've been identified. Some are already now receiving services um in our dyslexia classrooms or just specific interventions or some have also been identified um in our with a special needs teacher. So, we can actually pinpoint each one of those students. We're proud of that. And then, um, if you scroll down to

032the very last one, this is our letter sounds. And so, every like right now, end of year kindergarteners, we've grown from 5% of our kindergarters starting school not knowing 5% knowing their sounds to 78% knowing all their uh their sounds. Um, so I'll say this about the data. It's really positive and we're excited about it. But now it's pushed us further because what we know is what we're going to start reporting on now is actually decoding and blending those sounds as to how many of our kindergarters are actually reading, how many first graders are reading, and how many second graders are reading. So, I want you to look for that data coming up next school year. I think we're we wanted to focus on this because it was something that we were very much concerned

033about when we first started um our move to pushing students in phonics. And so now I feel like we're at a really great place to now start pushing even further um because we want to be readers. And so this is this is some just very small data that will add into the rest of the day that we'll report on. >> Any questions about just the K2 data from the board? >> Yeah. In the that first column green. >> Yes, sir. >> Letter signs. Uh what's the what's the red? >> So when they that was like where they started the year before. So kindergarten. So those kindergarten students coming in, they were prek. So when they were prek, um it looked as if maybe 9% knew their sounds and that had dropped just a little bit.

034So what you see in first grade, when they came to first grade, 82% knew their sounds, but when they tested in the beginning of first grade or they were kindergarteners leaving kindergarten and when they tested in first grade, there was only 62% knowing their letter sounds. However, it wasn't a It was a grade band, a cohort ratio. It's not an exact studentto student ratio, but it was also something that we realized. We talk about what learning loss causes because we did have that gap. So those students left kindergarten at 82% knowing and then came back um in first grade at 62% knowing. So we we kept we gained that gap back if that makes sense throughout the year. So what you see for the 80% those students when they were in first grade they might

035have been at 87% and when they started second grade they were at 80%. So it might have been a loss but it's not an exact student to student match because some students might have moved in or moved out as well. Great question. Anything else for that? Okay, Mr. Sims, would you go to the next link? So we're gonna This is our dyslexia data. And I just wanted to bring this to your attention because this was something we were uh really had a big focus this year to make sure we were serving all of our students. And just so you know, in last school year, and this is a piece of data that we have to report out as well for the July uh cycle report, but last the 2425 school year, we served 346 students

036for dyslexia services. So they all get that means each one of those students were receiving either take flight build or uh Barton. It was depending on what program they were in but they each one were receiving those. So if you notice the actual number of students that had um qualities were 372. And so you may ask why did we only serve 346 of the 372? Well, those 372 were identified and then after certain interventions, some of them didn't really have to didn't have the stronger need for dyslexia interventions. They just needed to be have intervention and progress monitored and so they actually tested out so they didn't serve the whole year if that makes sense. It's broken down by building, but that's the district that I'm just going to share. Any questions about those services?

037>> Thank you, Mr. S. Next, when we speak about district operations and fiscal governance, um what you'll see if you will click um on that first link, this is policy, not that one. Go back to the other one, Mr. Sims. Policy 1.14. Oh, well, goodness. I don't know why I didn't pull up there, but that's okay. Policy 1.14 is our uh policy that we discussed as far as the public the meeting agenda and in the meeting agenda the updates that were made or how we were going to go with public comment and so public comment according to um the new act that we talked about uh at our last board at our last board meeting. So each anybody who wants to sign up for public comment what we decided uh what we can I'm asking

038to recommend I'm recommending to you tonight for the side on, forgive me, goodness, is that um the public comment period would be uh we would give a 30 minute period for people to sign up. So if our board meeting starts at 6:30, then we would put out a signup sheet at 6 o'clock and from 6:00 to 6:30, anyone can sign up for public comment. According to law, anyone that lives in the district, as a resident of the district, as a student that attends the district, or a staff member of the district can sign up for public comment. Um, once that 30 once 6:30 hits, then it will begin our actual public comment time. And according to this policy, which is law, the person who signs up for public comment will have three minutes to speak.

039So that was what uh it's required that they get at least three minutes and we are required to have at least a 30 minute public comment time. So ultimately 10 people could speak for three minutes and so that would be so after the 30 minutes of public comment is up then we would move on to our regularly regular board meeting. This is al oh also public comment can be done at any board meeting not just regular it can be special call any board meeting we have to offer the opportunity for public comment so that's the policy it didn't change we already had it in policy that anyone who wants to be on the agenda to speak to the board they can also be afforded an opportunity to be on the agenda and so it wouldn't

040be like a public comment speaking they would be on the agenda and have an opportunity just like we would with PC a speaker. And so we still afford that opportunity as well where they could um submit in writing to the superintendent what they would like to speak to the board about and then um and then we would place that on the we would review that and place that on the agenda as well. So there's still basically two opportunities to have public comment. The next link that Mr. Sim's going to click on is the one that Mr. that Dr. Rice was referencing as as is just a procedure. And so this is how our procedure will go about. We'll place this on our website so that people everyone understands how the public comment procedure will go.

041Um when when they're recognized and it's time to speak, they will um the person that is on the the signup sheet will say their name, whether they're a resident of the district, a parent or guardian of the of a current student, and or a current staff member. They'll state their physical address and the topic that they would wish to address to the board and they may have that opportunity to speak. It was discussed that we would use a timer on um like you know an internet type timer that we could place up there. However, I I would still like to talk to the board about possibly ordering another timer in case the internet's not working and we wanted to make sure we'd have an a timer set up for someone like that. So, just so

042that we could be very clear for anyone. Yeah. So, those are policies as far as uh district operations, physical governance. Any questions about those two things, board? >> Okay. >> So, uh I just want to get some clarification. Okay. So basically for public comment >> say >> okay. So let's say that 12 people how does that work those people next >> come back >> for the next question >> anyone else okay the next uh under district operations and fiscal governance I'm just bringing your attention we already have a policy our procurement policy states that um when I bring a request a purchase to the board. It's based on the state bidding threshold and they have raised the state bidding threshold. Right now it's 20 until July 1 it's 25,700 but after July 1 it will

043be 26,500. And so I just wanted to make sure you guys were aware of that as well. And then also under my report we had two students request board-toboard transfer to Star City. And again you guys gave me the authority to approve that. Uh, and so I just but I'm supposed to report it to you. And these were students that already lived in that area but missed the school choice deadline. And so they they didn't realize they had the choice because they'd already been going to start city. Next under my section of facilities and transportation, we have the public construction update, the track. Um, Mr. uh Sean Carol gave you the update on that. Um, next I have a a specific presentation that uh I have two gentlemen here that is going to give a

044presentation about our transportation department because if you noticed under purchasing we're going I'm requesting some purchases for our transportation department and I want them to be able to give the information on that. But first, I'd like to say one of the things that um we discovered when we were looking at uh our finance training the other night was, you know, districts that are close to our size and student population. And one of the one of the pieces of data that was on there was the square footage of the area that that district covers. And of the top, I think it was 10 districts that were about our size um and student across the state of Arkansas. We were the number one the highest square footage or square miles, I'm sorry, square miles for the transportation

045department to cover. So, our transport, our district itself is 596 square miles. And I and I think that's important to talk about when we speak about transportation. So, I'd like to invite up um our transportation director, Mr. Davis, and his assistant, Mr. Mr. Herd. Good evening. How yall doing today? >> When we we're just going to give just an update of things going over uh and the new changes that we brought to transportation this year. And so when we first got here, transportation really didn't have a system on like the so buses were kind of crossing each other and kind of everywhere. And uh when we first got here, we kind of had to just go in place, but we were able to um purchase in the middle of the year, which uh helped the

046rally and the time picking up students and click update and show you how transfer works and how it's used and how helpful it is to us. hand over he does our rap and he's actually he's great at it and he's everythingbody record. So, I'm just going to first pull up all of the as Dr. So we currently have 92 So all of these blue. So every color that has numbers are that we cover. We go out as far as 270 in the Whiteall area. Here is all timer in the Wika area. This green route is out in the TO County area. And then we have another green that goes out Highway 63 toward the county. Um, as Mr. David said, when we got here, we could not track what student. This software allows us to

047assign every student that signs up for a bus to a trip. Um, so for the upcoming school year, we made a QR code for bus registration. What we had posted on the district's website and Facebook page for parents. Currently, we have 171 students. Get off that page. >> Thank you. So with these routes up here, each one of these numbers here are stops. This is the area that the stop will cover. So at any given time if a student moves into the area in their register um in the district through east school it will transmit over and automatically place the student on bus and we won't have to go through and manually place them. If you look right here, these dots that are colored, these are students that are already assigned to busy based off

048of the bus registration form that we got from the parent and we've already assigned them to trips. The good part that I like about this is we are able to run reports. So at the beginning of the school year, we could send each school directly to all the students that us. Um it also generates a parent letter that we send to the parents that says this is your student. They ride this bus. This is the pickup time in the morning. This is the delivery time they'll be home in the afternoon. It's very specific for parents that way. This has been a lifesaver for us. This um it helped us out a lot with figuring out the student's name. We have to type the student's name in. We have a parent that calls requiring the bus

049information. We can type the student's name in and it'll give us the direct bus stop location. So, also with this system, we were able to get a GPS on buses. The GPS on the buses actually uh tells us where the buses are, how long they've been sitting, how long they've been idling, and it also gives us an update if it's been able to stop more longer than five minutes, and it also gives us an update at the end of every trip of how much gas we save, how much gas that uh we're going to need, and how much we're saving every day. So, this has been great for transportation. kind of gives us an idea, you know, in the area that we need to work on. And also, you know, when parent concerns when they

050call in and the bus might be a little late because the girls had a accident or or some type of uh problem going on the buses, we can actually look up and tell them, hey, uh that bus is around the corner. It's probably five or 10 minutes away from you. And it also lets us know the driver, his speed, how fast he going, is his seat belt on it. It just it just it's great. It's a great system. And we love our number priority is safety for our children. So it is great. It keeps our eye on the driver. It keeps us truthful, you know. So we love it and we just honored and thankful that we were able to get this system because like we got here. We're kind of behind like 10 years

051behind and we on paper house over here and my house over here. It was kind of just everywhere. So, but it was great getting a system and getting kind of organized and seeing where we need to uh in our kind of >> any questions about transponder. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> So, those those dots that you were showing us, >> do the numbers that represent a stop or does that represent a student? >> The numbers represent a stop. So in the here, let me take. So this is a specific route that picks up kindergarten students off. So the the bus route will actually go in the order of the numbers. So it'll go around that way. There are a couple is already assigned, but we will will have last minute parents to sign them up

052and it'll be a lot easier for us to go in and do a mass assign versus a every day. We do one at a time which will be good for us. >> So when you are looking at this in particular, >> is there how do you know at what point that bus is? Like how do you know how many students are? >> So if you look right here, it says that there are 21 students assigned to the bus. I don't know if you can see it. I don't know if I can make it bigger, but currently there are 21 students assigned to this bus. And this bus is a 71 passenger. >> We would never put 70 kids on a 71 passenger. >> We try to keep it between 40 and 50 students. and it

053kind of gives a layout of the the the kind of the the whole route and how long that route should be and how many stops. So, we actually have a print out paper that we can actually give to the drivers before the school year starts and give them idea who's supposed to be riding their buses the uh the stops. Uh like you can when parents call in and they want to give like put a little uh you can put little reminders and things of where you need to put them up at or side. Um, you know, it just kind of gives a driver layout of what he's looking at and versus just wondering where to pick up the child at. So, you know, it's great. The good part that I do like about this is

054we do have a lot of older drivers. And I can go in and edit the route sheet. It may say turn live on Second Street, but I can also put in parentheses by the greenhouse or a landmark or something so they'll know exactly where to turn cuz some of our streets don't have actual So that does help. I also can take a screenshot of this from the computer to kind of give them this map because on the route sheet is really bunched up together, but I can kind of blow it up so they can actually see the streets when they're using it. If they don't like the actual word route sheet, we can have the actual map as well. >> I have a question. This is my So do you see that in real time?

055Do you see those dots moving? >> Now, we can't see the dots moving in real time from transponder, but from the actual GPS, we can. >> Okay. And also, are parents able to know if they have a child on a specific bus? Are they able to see where that bus is at a specific time? >> Now, they're not they're not able to see where the bus is at a specific time, but we are. >> I link to the GPS on that second one. If you I don't know if it will show anything, but it is there. Close that >> says GPS. >> The GPS works very well. Mr. Davis watches it from sun up to sun down. So we are we are aware of where drivers are in case and we do have times where

056we have parents to call and say hey the bus didn't come by where the bus came early and we are able to see in real time what time the bus actually made that stop. So there are times where we can see where the bus is still in the neighborhood and we'll call them on the radio and have them to go back. >> And that's the good thing that I do like about it. Good question. So for sub drivers, um the route sheets really do play a big part in it for the sub drivers. Um because they don't drive the routes every day. And me being new to Pablo, I didn't know where the streets were at first. I had to use Google on my phone. So with us actually having the sheet that gives turn

057byturn directions. It really did help a lot. I actually looked at it today. We have a bus that's at the shop in Van Beer and I actually saw them. So, it does give us a big distance on where the buses are. We have another one that was in Conway that I saw as well. Now, do you do that also? Track extracurricular. >> We do. >> So, yeah. So, I'm coming, you know. >> And I'll say while while Mr. is pulling that up, another thing that we're looking at board is there's a availability with this program that we could get iPads like a that actually has the GPS. It's a tablet is what it is. It's not an iPad, but it's a tablet that's like loaded in their bus that shows their route that way as

058well. like you would get maps on your car. We can do that with a bus now. So, that would help with our subd drivers as well. So, we're looking there's a there's an opportunity to use some of the safety grant money to purchase those. So, we're still trying to write the grant for that for the state to pay for it. >> We just got it at the middle of the year this year. >> As you can see, this is our GPS's. This is one of our bus. This is bus 100 100. It has been on a lot of is currently in the parking lot and it shows the last time it's uh been moved was 51 12 p.m. today and probably because they're gassing them up and you can just see it just gives overview

059of the uh of the bus. You see where it has the engine hours and you know how much fuel it has, the battery usage and just gives us a overall if something wrong with if something is wrong with the bus and something happens while the bus is on the route. It actually will tell us it'll show us, hey, this bus filter is full or uh the tires been blown out. Uh the engine is not working properly. overheat and they need to pull this bus over and actually sends us an alert while we're in the office and we we're able to call a driver if they're not, you know, don't don't really know what's going on. We we actually can tell them, "Hey, pull over and shut the bus off and we're going to bring another

060one to you. I'm going to show you bus. I'mma show you bus 101. This bus is currently in the shop. As you can see, it is in Conway and that GPS is still on and we know our bus is still at the shop and we know when they moving, we know when they take somewhere else. So I I just love that this is when I get this back when I get in every day and on my phone on work I can call him. I say, "Hey, why this bus over here or why we're moving it?" I just love >> He does every day. And the next link that you had, Mr. Davis, was the link for the fleet. Oh, you got one more thing. Go ahead. >> So, this is uh a bus that I

061actually drove today. Um driving one of the routes for the upcoming school year. You can see that blue route is everywhere I went. We are able to actually play it back. If you hit that play button right there right there. So that's the bus. >> We going fast that fast. >> We can't be >> but it just gives you a quick overview of what the actual Buster has taken. Dr. >> this I want you to update the board about our fleet and just the things that were on your notes right here. >> Okay. Uh so this year uh we actually transported 2200 students uh that drove bus and transport uh to school. Uh we we currently have 315 students now enrolled for next year uh to ride a bus. Uh we have seven vacant uh

062routes that we have open, you know, putting out there to let people field. If we uh if we get a field time, we can go uh with the route that we already have set up. If not, with the transportation uh system, we can actually uh combine routes, you know, drivers out or sick or something and we have to do something last minute. We actually can add a route together, you know, We uh we did not have to add to our speed. We had extra key that needed transportation. So we had to do a check with our do our special needs. Ucy buses. We currently need some extra buses because we have special needs. We only have three working city. So, we're going to future special. Uh we currently have two new buses that we use

063for field trip buses and athletic buses. So, we use those buses. So, we have you know like activities outside of you know we send those buses out uh to go on different trips. Uh We currently also are using our buses as spare buses. So when one of our buses break down um it actually we have to use one of our buses. So, you know, with that, you know, the shortage of buses that we have, you know, we might, you know, be a little behind with getting some of the uh the future out on time, you know, so we just have to, you know, make it work right now. And also like right now, we have at least four uh buses to transport uh uh students. like especially during athletic season. Uh so right now I

064tell you we have two buses that we current two more buses two more buses are done with routes uh they have to you know come in so we can get those other activities and other students out to those field trips and games and things of that nature. right now we have we have really no spare right now. So right now we just you know make it work. You know we really bus tears down tears down we just have to try to do best to get that back up because we don't have any know that's how many that we have today uh right now and we have some next year you know for our district. Like I said about you know any uh any additional bus will help you know anything will help right now just

065to make sure that we have enough buses to transport our students and make it a little more comfortable for our coaches and you know our extra trips and things that natur going on. But that's kind of, you know, overview of everything. And right here, this just a list of all our district vehicles. Uh, as you see right here, we really don't have any district vehicle that's under,000, you know, and these are just a list of all of the how many miles, you know, they had uh you see as you see highlighted the ones that are certain that not working. And we also have other right here. >> This is kind of update of all our buses that we have and you know and you know the ones that are out of service is and the

066mileage and things of that nature and you know just over that we have >> and I included that in their packet so they can see as well. >> Do you have any questions? >> How many buses do you have now? Currently right now we have 29 students out drivers out already on their way to church still buses. break down something. >> So, and I'll say just even in the meeting the 35 is not deal. However, we have what they said is 27 routes, but we don't have the 27 buses to run those 27 routes. We have to do a double up route on two of those for sure. And so then, and our routes for special needs, we double up. I think we need six total. We only have three buses for our special needs

067students right now that are that are actively working. So even though he's saying they're extra, what happens is the trip buses that we need that are newer because they go further, we're having to use those as route buses right now because we don't have enough buses for our routes >> and that'll be it's under the purchases and we'll talk about how we're going to fund that. Yes. >> Okay. My question is self-driving buses. You're not trying to get >> in pretty comfort. Mr. Herd, I wanted you to just discuss about our CDL training. How many are you currently training for our CDL? >> Okay. Right now, we currently have six drivers training. Yeah. So that would be six more bus drivers. >> Um throughout the year we've probably had about 10 and maybe half of

068those have actually went through the whole process and completed and they got their CDL. Um we are the only site in Jefferson County that can legally train school bus drivers. >> Um we're working to get the testing site set up at our bus garage. It's something that we're actively working on that right now to get it painted. Um, and that would help us out a lot cuz then we could give the CDL test directly here versus having to pay them. I >> have a question. You see the training six six people now? >> Yes sir. >> After after you give them the training, are they obligated to work for us or they >> Yes, sir. >> We don't take anybody that don't want to work for us. >> Okay. Okay. So, there is some language

069that says, you know, we train you to get your license and allow you the bus to train to pass through license that >> that you obligated to work for the college. >> Yes, you have to if you don't have anything come in the door, we train you. You know, we've had that in the past and I've heard other district people just come in just get a CDL for free and leave. But we also have it where, you know, we make them sign, you know, doc that we help you get your license and you at least have to do a year with us, you know, before you can leave, you know, once we give you that license. >> And and one other thing, and I don't know, I think talked about this years ago about, you

070know, even our and I don't know what the rules are, but I guess you have to be you have to be on 18 to drive a bus. Correct. What's the minimum age? >> 18. >> And and if we had those students that were 18 and older, they were interested in getting into the CDL arena. How will we kind of coordinate that in terms of, you know, say they're a senior and they're about to graduate or they say they're, you know, interested in to not only driving a bus, but maybe a big re that kind of thing. How do we how do we support that? Because I don't think that's one of the things that we doing with our CTE. >> So, currently, uh, we've got with the HR department and where they go out to

071like, uh, job fairs and things of that nature. We give them a list, you know, that, you know, for college students or maybe, you know, people that's kind of come out want to get their foot in the door, you know, we kind of give them information where they can start and get some information on how they get started and get their CDL and, you know, give them a contact number where they can reach out to us and we can provide them with step they need, you know, to get started. >> Yeah. Sorry, not to cut off because I know there were a couple years ago there were several UAB students that were interested in getting their license to they were on campus but then you know Friday night, Saturday nights even in the daytime they

072would be available to >> help you drive those routes and stuff. So you know just making sure we >> positive thing about that they also will start contributing teacher retirement that would be you know as a college student. I've talked to a couple here recently. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Um under human capital I just want to sell today to talk to you about today we're going to have some updates to the salary schedules and uh just to explain that we we were really trying to organize the salary schedules so so that there wasn't so many different ranges and so that we could make sure that we were organized with that. Um, we had some salary schedule updates uh for the classified salary in May because we've updated

073the nurse's salary schedule and I told you we were still working on the bookkeeper secretary. So, we've added those and we've made some adjustments like we took off some of the stipens off the um additional duty because it was just part of that role in that job and it was figured into their salary. And so, we so some salary uh ranges you'll see a slight increase to that. It's because the the schedule removed this siphon as well. So, um we're still in the hiring process as you see in your personal action chart. This is a was hot off the press. I updated it again um right before the meeting so we can talk about that during personnel. Um and then we have our convocation July 21st, 2025. That's Monday. That's our teachers first day back.

074All staff will be back on July 21st. Um and so of course I'd like the board to be a part of that. if you want to come that morning. Um I'll get you a firm schedule on when that is so you can be a part of that with us if you can celebrate. Um as under student support we have uh handbook updates because we're starting the new school year and in your packet there's just this document that uh Mr. Sams has pulled up. So what you have at your seat and I'll ask Miss Hatley and Mr. Carlock to come up and talk about the handbook process, but what you have at your uh seat right now is actually last year's handbook. It does not have the updates yet. We weren't going to print it all

075until we had everything ready for you, but I wanted you to see what the page numbers were and how those things would be changed. We also have it online if you wanted to look online as a flip chart, but I wanted to make sure you had a paper copy at your seat as well. >> Good afternoon. [Laughter] Everyone knows how this process works works. What we do is every school site department. You have to have parents. around. So you end up with a document that looks just like this part and then from that process it goes to a meeting which was held on June 4th at one time a little different. We also came back on June the 11th >> and brought our building and back to the meeting. Let them review again what the

076changes were. So um our handbook is updated updated and does a complete makeover every two years. So we did this last year. So I'm turn it over to my boss, my supervisor. [Music] [Laughter] >> She's trained me on how to present. So >> Okay. So, a lot of the changes that you'll see uh before you and even on the screen, a lot of them are just wording uh just some logistic things like um phone numbers, uh person personnel changes. Um like we see there'll be like on page 16 updates to the kindergarten family report card. They won't have your regular or traditional ABCD abdating scale. Uh it'll be based on the standards that they're supposed to learn. So we're piloting that this year with our kindergarten uh students. So next you'll see um two grades

077a week that was in there, but we're adding per subject. So that teachers are reporting two grades per week per subject. And that really matters in elementary school because you have teaching that that span of uh subjects. Uh so you look down, you just see some removals of wording. Um a little bit further down uh you see page 24 through 29 update graduation requirements to match policy. Uh we notated the policy there. And believe it or not, on page 28, we still had the word go away from before we consolidated the district. Um, so, uh, there's a change on page 29, physical education and summer school. Um, just some of those things have been omitted and deleted because they were unnecessary in those sections. Now I guess some bigger changes you go look at page

07876 electronic devices and we've had some extensive discussions on that. A lot of those discussions have been guided um by some boundaries or parameters been given by the state. So um but I guess what will be unique to us is what's going to happen in first event, second events, third events, fourth events. I don't know if you want to have discussion about that or not, but I'll I'll breeze through it and then afterwards if you have questions on page 77, um update to section six to include pro progressive discipline uh for vaping. Um, so we were just thinking about something that we looked around at other districts and we wanted to see what was unique to our district and have have some things that um are specific and unique to what how we need to

079treat in the district. Uh 77 we look a little bit further. It's just removing since I guess another notable one would be on page 78 the cost for Chromebook um if they're damaged and um he'll be happy about that. We can collect money and our younger pouches which is new if those are lost or damaged. There is a cost for that. That will be it on the handbook updates. So everything else will pretty much remain the same. >> Good question. Do parents can always get a topic or do they do they get the link to the hand? >> We provide 20 to 25 >> and do they sign back saying that they understood this? Any other questions? It was I say it was suggested that we had like a hot topic session section for the

080handbook of the things that were very specific with meaning like graduation requirements, discipline, dress code and so that's something that we were looking at putting a section that was suggested by the principles when they had the meeting. So that was good as well like just those specific things that are easy for a parent to turn to. Yeah, for this the new camera. Yeah, >> one thing we forgot was that we also had supply in their package for approval as well so we can get that >> and it's on I've got it on here. >> It's not approval. We're just going to share it. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. Next, Mr. Garlic, don't go anywhere. Um, one of the things that is required is that we uh provide uh an update on the yearly bullying

081report like how That's part of legislation. However, we want uh Mr. Car's going to share just our overall discipline data for the 2425 school year. >> Okay. And I'll go real fast. I have a power pack five slides, I believe. So, the discipline data and bullying report. So, um our data speaks for itself in a lot of ways, but what we are excited about is that our data is trending trending down in a lot of ways. So right here you see major ODR comparison. ODR is not 030 rack. It's office discipline referral. So um as you can see it it's kind of backwards in my thinking but this is our current year the 24 25 is in the blue. Uh so we can see that um from 22 to 23 to 23 to 24 we

082see that those major office discipline referrals have trended down. Um now the total number of office discipline referrals includes the major and the minors. Um minors could be something as easy as throwing a sheet of paper across the floor and hitting somebody or throwing a sheet of paper across the room and hitting someone. Major will be more like fighting or even if we get into vaping and different things like that. So some of your more serious offenses. So next someone to click the click. >> Yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. So this one is uh behavior by year comparison. Uh number of students um with one or more ODR and you hear a lot of people say um 20% of the people well 80% of the people are doing the right thing and you may have 20%

083that you may have to work on that may be causing those problems. Uh we're getting closer to that 20%. If you notice in uh the 22 23 school year, we had about 32%. And that includes just a lot of people repeating and cycling and doing some of the same things. Uh but that's trending down as well uh to where we're getting lesser a lesser percent of students that are causing some of these uh OVRs whether they're minor or major. And I just attribute that to a lot of the systems and structures that we have in place um through our student support services, capturing kids hearts, uh teaching and training our teaching and training our teachers on how to handle students u from those minor offenses all the way to those major offenses and then just

084using a lot of our internal resources to help support students. So this one uh our top major infractions may have to spend a little time here because your eyes got to jump. Uh but if you look from where it started our top five 22 23 school year you had insubordination fighting disorderly conduct cutting class that's not that's just a number code that's 17 but cutting class physical attack or harm on a student. Then you look at the next year, you mention we didn't have those exact same top five. They kind of switched order, but you had fighting insubordination, disorderly conduct, physical attacks or harm on student and cutting class. And with a lot of those, if you look um like even cutting class and 22 23 197 23 24 it was 94. Uh over here

085it kind of spiked a little bit. Um but we anticipate that just continue to trend down. Now what you see in the new 2425 school year and that's one reason we have vaping. Um we're addressing it in the handbook is because that appeared in the top five. So um we don't have historical data to uh base anything off of. So we have to have a plan of attack going into this new year how we can address vaping uh that's in becoming that's on the rise in our district with our students. >> Okay top is this the same? >> Yeah this the same one a different chart versus >> yes so this is just a different way to look at that same type of data. Okay. And this is number of bullying infractions by school year.

086Now, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Uh we actually had three. And what we did, and I I just really attribute our department over here, our student services department and our schools with having um student um student intervention teams uh to really look at student data and really call things as they are. Now everybody wants to call everything bullying but bullying has to follow certain criteria. Um one major thing is it's causing hurt or harm to someone. It's repeated. Um those are some things that we look at and it's not just the principal looking at that. We actually bring it bring it to a committee and the committee looks at all the data and the information around it and if it doesn't meet that bullying criteria, it doesn't mean there's no consequences. It just

087means that it's something else and it falls under another category. >> So there Yeah, it falls under harassment or or something different. But um we really been trying to make sure that what whatever data we put in, it is what we say it is. Um not something that we thought was that or something that could be that. So we do see u we did see bullying trend way down this year. >> And I think that's important because and thank thank you and your team for that work because it just shows a change in culture. >> Yeah. >> You know, in terms of the environment, you know, students feel about themselves, how they feel about other students, and so just want to commend you. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's a team effort. I think we've really been

088focusing on it. I think this is the last one. >> Last one. Okay. >> Any questions for Mr. Crow? >> So 23 25 >> No, that's consistently been the same. Now, types of bullying over the year have years have changed because you got cyber bullying, whether people want to uh bully on the internet or Facebook. There's other modes and methods of doing it, but the way that we're identifying bullying is is different. Um, what's changed with our district is that we don't have a sole person just trying to identify and make that determination. It's become more of a team effort. And since it's a team effort, you have more people who are trained on identifying and knowing what bullying looks like. Um, another thing with with more people on our staff being able to identify

089bullying, we can also transfer that knowledge to parents. So parents are flooding through the door saying this is bullying all the time. They'll tell you about an incident and let us make the determination. >> Did you want to add to that? >> Yes. Yes. Uh just the example I would use, Miss Calhoun, would be your son would have to report that the same kid is bullying him twice before it goes into that category. Other than that, the first one will be law as harassment and that's kind of high. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Um the next link on there uh under student support is the school supply list. This is something that Miss Hatley gathers with uh principles and teachers just to look at. So I will say what you see next

090is again this school year I'm I'm going to ask that you guys that we continue to purchase the free backpacks for every student in the district. And this year again the free backpacks come with a small set of little school supplies. However, it doesn't come with a full set. And so this is another if a parent would like a school supply list, this is it. Um, obviously if students do not cannot get the supplies or or their parents can't afford it, we of course supplement that as well. But this would just be a school supply list that we'll put out at uh our local stores for parents to purchase. >> I have a question about 7th to 12th grade. The wired headphones, the wires, what would they be those for? >> For uh testing or

091if they're doing individual in their classroom. Now, we provide headphones during the Atlas assessment, but this is another opportunity for watching a video in class or something like that with their school their school provided device because they're not allowed to have their own airpods. >> Anything else about the supplies? >> All right, real quick. Under student support, I have Miss Rose Smith here. Smith. Um, would you mind talking about the backpacks and the different all the different places you checked and looked? You don't have to name all of them, but how many different quotes you got? I didn't put a link. I just brought the backpacks through front. >> Okay. >> I didn't put a link. >> I I I see. I wasn't expecting to speak to you all tonight. Thank you, Dr. Barbara. >>

092You're welcome. >> Good evening, everyone. I'm not going to be before you long because I know it's summer and everybody's trying to get a half price shake from Sonic. So I don't want to prevent you from that. So yes, as Dr. Barbara just explained, um for the past few years, the district has provided free backpacks to our students. Um we use title four funding. Um part of title 4 um deals with providing a safe and healthy environment. And so what that is is being said with a clear mesh backpack, that means security personnel at teachers can easily see what's in the student's backpack as opposed to a traditional backpack where they're likely to bring something. And so my recommendation tonight is a company called Dollar Days. Um we used them last year. So this is

093a sample that we used last year. Um we got some great feedback um during our handbook meeting. And so we had a student from the high school. She said, "We appreciate you all giving us a backpack." She says, "I'm in AP classes. I have binders. I have things like that." So, can we get mesh? And so, Dr. Barbarie was very responsive. And she said, "Bro, get on it." And I did. And so, I went around and so I asked I'm a spreadsheet person, so the students got a spreadsheet for me with various prices and things like that. But, Dollar Day was always really responsive. He got to me right away. I said, "Hey, my boss wants me back post, but I already got clear ones." And so they actually sent samples from Phoenix, Arizona to

094us. This is a clear example from last year. I'm going to bring them up there to you all. And so if you want the clear one, this is what we provided last year. And so like stated there. These backpacks will come with a small supply pouch and it's based upon Raybans. So, elementary has like crayons, glue, just those basic things, erasers. Secondary you might have it'll include ink pens, highlighters, and then they get it in a zipper pouch. >> Well, students have a choice or it's either one or the other. We're going to go. Our recommendation to you all tonight is mesh based upon the feedback schools. Here's the thing. Some of our schools still have backpacks left over from previous years. So if a student or a parent specifies they want a clear one,

095so then they can ask the school for a clear one instead. But our goal this year is to go based on the feedback that we received about the mesh backpacks being more durable. We want to try that this year. >> So the parents are required to have these backpacks and what the parents decide they want to buy. >> The parents can bring their own. Now this is just a courtesy because a lot of kids still parents, you know, kids like name brands and stuff like that, but this is just >> but it still has to be clear. >> It has to be clear of mesh with the exception of preK. PreK students can have the little My Little Pony or whatever else, but K12 has to have a clear or mesh backpack. So like Yes,

096sir. >> Which sir? Faster. I think that for the quotes that we have >> and so I can get the quote adjusted when I speak with him tomorrow because usually so last year when you guys approved it, I called him the next morning and those backpacks were here and we had them loaded in the back a week later. So, >> so what you see in your in your packet, there's a So, the neon ones are 17 inch and they're 5.75 a bag. And then if you look at the black one, it says four colors, but that's the 18 inch and it's 1039. And so, we could do all those four and there wouldn't be neon, but it would be all like the black one. >> Different colors. >> Yes, but there's four different colors. The

097same quality as the black one at 1039 a bag. Okay. >> And Dr. Barb said the same thing when she and I met on Friday. She likes the black one. >> Sorry. >> You know, I had to grandparent. I know what you bring in classroom. So that is it. That's our recommendation. It's just a courtesy that the district provides. Like we said, parents and students still have the autonomy to purchase their own backpack long as it is clearer mesh. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Smith. >> I'm sorry. >> Um so the next section in our uh in my update is about stakeholder community engagement. I have um Miss West because you will see a purchase in your um in your new business about a new website called Aptigy. And

098so I wanted Miss West just to kind of talk about Apty real quick. >> All right. So currently the district uses school status for the two-way messaging communications and we use schooling sites for our website. But we're going to take those two platforms and go to one which we're hoping to start in July. Uh this will help us streamline our communications. It's going to help a lot of what the uh teachers are using like classroom dojo. It has a part a piece in there for uh student recognition for behavior where they're able to give points. It gives real time notification to parents. So if a student is sitting in Miss Sweeny's class and she gives him three points for good behavior, automatically Mr. Whitmore, he'll get that notification. He'll be able to see that. Uh

099the teachers will have a thing called like a classroom or their room where they're able to do like live posting. Uh today we're learning about so and so so and so so and so. There's an area for them to talk about the classroom information. U of course the behavior piece in there. They would put the assignments. Parents are able to see that. Um and they're also able to do that two-way communication with parents. So if they need to message the parents, the parents can receive the message in their language because it translate. So if that student uh Spanish automatically translate that message and it comes back to the parent and go two ways and it's just between the uh teacher and the family. Um what I'm liking most about it is I can do one

100message. I can write one message and it's automatically going to go to the app which we will have a mobile app. It's going to go to the website. It'll go to Instagram. It'll go to Facebook. It'll go to X. It'll be a push notification. text message, a voice call, and an email. I can do all of that with just one message. Right now, I have to log into this. Then I have to log into this. I have to do this, this, this, this, and send it out. So, I'm really excited about that. They're offering us unlimited training and real time support, and supposedly they respond within 60 seconds for uh supporting us. >> And I will say that she didn't mention, but having those two different platforms, it actually cost us more to have the

101two different platforms than it will to have this one platform. And so in your packet, what you're going to see is a three-year contract, but we still only have to pay it one year at a time, but we are agreeing to work with APG for three years because you get it at a cheaper price that way. >> Question, how many people would be trained to actually send the message out? You be the the content person districtwide messaging will be just administrators and my team. But for us within the classroom, every teacher wave a message of their families. >> Thank you, Miss West. Any questions for Miss West? >> Yes. >> Do you know of any other schools? >> You're the last ones to get it in this area. I looked two years ago and I

102had we had just signed a contract with school status and I looked around and everybody had it but us. I tell about it, but we were in a contract and so they've been calling me and calling emailing when you gonna do it, when you going to do it. So, I feel like this is a good time to transfer. >> We're out of the contract. And as a superintendent, I've I've just added you before. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Miss West. >> Um, and the next thing I do want to share uh is about partnerships. And I was going to read this. Um, I was so fortunate. I got um a letter was delivered to our district office from um the local chapter of the NAACP and it was addressed to me and you guys and

103I thought I wanted to be able to share it to you all and um it said dear Dr. and esteemed members of PLA school district school board. On behalf of the NAACP Conliff branch and its membership, I extend our heartfelt congratulations and sincere appreciation for your decision to hold the upcoming high school graduation ceremony at the University of Arkansas Comllo. This thoughtful decision places our students in an environment that not only celebrates their academic accomplishments, but also inspires them to envision higher education as a tangible next step. By hosting graduation at our city's four-year university, you are helping to plant a seed of aspiration that could influence a lifetime of opportunity. Furthermore, this initiative gives UAPB an unprecedented opportunity to connect with and invest in our young people at a critical juncture in their lives.

104The exposure and access you have provided through this choice may shape educational and career paths in powerful lasting ways. We commend you for your leadership and for keeping the well-being and future of our children at the forefront of your decision-m is with gratitude and pride that we say thank you for the considering our children first. with appreci appreciation. Alvin Whitfield, president and the LACP branch. And I just like to chime in and say I want to thank President Whitfield and the uh Pine Love NAACP for the Athletic endorsement which is important because there was some conversation on social media about you know why the graduation was wanted to be in EPB and there was some uh some back and forth with with some community members and and just know we we are we might we're

105reading the comments. We might not respond. We're reading the comments. And again, just continue to reinforce as this letter indicated that it's always a beautiful thing when zebras and lions collaborate together. Zebras and Lions. So, thank you, Dr. Bob, and thank you again to President Whitfield and the Pineup NACP. >> And the last thing under stakeholder and community engagement, um, I'm excited. What you'll see in your packet tonight is we have finally kicked off our UAPB residency partnership. If you Remember, as part of our strategic plan, we have a grow your own goal. So, we're growing our own educators. And so, this school year at UAPB, they have 13 students that are in their internship project in their educational uh pathway. So, we are ahead of the game in ways because in the 26 27

106school year, it's going to be required by the state of Arkansas that anybody with a traditional education degree has to serve a year-long residency. And so, we're working with uh UAPB this year to embrace these students. We won't have all 13, but we will have 11 if you guys approve tonight. Um 11 of these students will be able to get their internship for their education degree in one year as well as work as a pair professional for the PMLO school district and earn money while they're getting their last year. And so of course this helps them so they don't have to have a second job. They can be focused on actually teaching and they're in the classroom and supporting our students. And the goal of course would be next school year that they're employees of

107PLO school district. Um, of the 11 that we're receiving, I'm going to ask uh I'm going to recommend tonight that we hire 10 of them as pair professionals throughout the district. And one of them actually um I'd like to ask that we hire as an actual teacher of record in our music class in the elementary as an aspiring teacher because she has um passed all of her tests and everything like that so she can go through the aspiring teacher pathway as well. So I wanted to share that again. It's it's really exciting um partnering with UAP for this as far as growing our own. And that's my report. >> All right. Thank you, Senator Barbie. Any questions, comments, concerns about the September report from board members? Okay, I hear none. Let's go ahead and move

108on to new business. >> The first item on your agenda for new business is to approve an extension of a three-year financial advisory agreement with First Security. And so I have um Mr. Ray Beersley, our financial advisor, is here to talk to you about that. >> Thank you. Please. We currently serve school district for many years as their fiscal agent financial advisor. Fiscal agent is the issue of bond election. He handled the bond issue and that's the financial advisor provide information to the district. We work with the district treasur, the board, the superintendent, many many avenues of help there. We do not charge anything for this. The only thing we charge is if and we do issue a bond. There is a fee schedule attached on the right hand side of the back rates have

109not changed in 20 to 30 years. Been a long time. So of we're asking extend it is we are looking at possibly raising our rates that we've not raised that long. So we want to lock your rate in for three more years uh at the current rate. So we have really enjoyed serving school district and taking care of their financial needs and so forth. So we ask that you continue our employment. We enjoyed it. Any question board members? All right. At this time, I'd like to ask a motion to employ first as financial advisor for a period of 3 years effective as of the date of adoption. >> Move the private second. Ready for question? Question comes concerns. Hearing none. All in favor say I. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next item is

110I'm asking for approval of an electronic fund transfer for Lewis Architects. We received an email from their uh business manager saying, you know, we we mail them checks and sometimes they're tens of thousands of dollars up to maybe a million dollars. And they were worried about mail fraud. And so this would keep us from having to mail the check that it would just do the electronic fund, which we we've approved this for other companies. We do it with our our teacher retirement things like that. So we just have to have board approval to add them to the electronic fund transfer. All right. At this time, I'd like to um ask for a motion to approve the EFT for Lewis Architects. Second, we move the private second. Ready for question? Any questions comes, concerns? Hearing none.

111All in favor say I. I for all say no. >> The next item we have are the approval of the student handbook changes that were presented to you tonight. If more changes happen, we will bring that before you as well as an addendum. This is what we have for tonight. >> Right. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the 2025 2026 student handbook changes. >> Proper second for question. Any questions, comments, concerns? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I for me. All post say no. >> The next item are the approval of policies 1.14 and 4.47. Remember 1.14 was the meeting agenda policy. The recommendation came from Arkansas. association and was presented at your uh policy committee. 4.47 is the bell to bail no cell. So it's the electronic

112cell phone or electronic devices personal electronic device policy and this was brought before a committee. We had ASBA suggestion. We had our bell-to- bail committee and that came before our uh board committee this week as well or last week as well. >> At this time I entertain a motion to approve policies 1.14 and 4.47. move to private second question. Any questions, comments, concerns? See? None. All in favor say I. >> All right. For me, all post say no. Yeah. >> The next item you have are the adjusted um salary schedules. And so in your packet, the first tab that you see is the additional duty pay scale. What we did is we removed um the an $8,000 stipen that was a security stipen. We removed a $10,000 stipen that was a part of a job

113duty. Um, and then we just adjusted based on what we looked at last time. We moved up the incentive pays where we we pay out the special education fulfillment incentive, the retention incentive, the high needs instructional, and the CDL incentive. We just put those up at a higher section in the I don't either now that I look at it. It needs to have the CDL on there. Maybe it's at the top. It's a Yeah, it is. It's right there. It's It's at the top closer. So, we made that adjustment to the additional duty pay. We didn't take We didn't add anything. We just took two things off and moved one thing around, a few things around. The next tab that you're going to see is the district support services. And this is where we combined

114some of those positions and made it a little bit longer on this. So instead of having different salary schedules. So you have the copy center uh operator that did not change. Building secretary, it did not change. Secretary bookkeeper, that was a change in the role. And so that's an addition to this salary schedule. Then you have um technology assistant, it stayed the same. The executive department level support, it stayed the same. The district communications, it was lumped in with another schedule. It's just brought out here. So that we have that there. Um accounts payable SIS coordinator. This is a position that was stip had a stipen included with it and so we we adjusted that so that'll have a small increase. The payroll HR coordinator that was a a person that was also not considered

115a u an executive. Well, not I'm using the wrong word. So with the new labor laws, unless they supervise someone, they are they qualify for overtime if they hit a certain if they don't have a certain salary. And so our payroll person um this would make it to where the payroll coordinator would not qualify for overtime because she oversees someone, but this would make that that a little bit of an increase for her salary as well. Then you have the business business manager treasurer. That would stay the same. The next tab is just these are all classified positions as well. The next tab are the classified salary schedules. You will see an adjustment to the child nutrition director. This person was receiving a siphon. We've included that siphon as part of the salary schedule because

116it is part of that job. The director of safety and security that's included this that person was receiving a siphon or that job role was and we've included that into the salary schedule. The next group was the same. That did not change. Uh those are the directors of maintenance, transportation, and grounds. The next one is the director of health services. This was one that you all all voted on already. We just added it to this salary schedule. The director of technology, that person now, well, he's always supervised other techs. And so as a supervisory role, he does not qualify for overtime. So that is his direct that's what he would make in that salary schedule. And then the director of finance, that's all that has not changed. Any questions about the salary schedules? >> All

117right. Hear no questions. At this time, I can entertain a motion to approve the updated salary schedule. Second, ready for question. Any questions comes concern hearing? None. All in favor say I. All right. For me, I'll pull say no. You guys have >> So, the next section is approval of purchases. We have our 95% curriculum. This is the professional development for that curriculum. Um, and it's for coaching and coaching days where the professional people come on site and it's also uh for them to go into the classrooms and support that. So, it is it goes right with our curriculum and we pay for this out of title one money. Um, we've reduced the days. We had more days with this last year, but um we've got more of our sal I'm sorry, more of our

118teachers um trained in this. And so we do have a little bit of a reduction in days in this professional learning, but it's $119,600 for 23 days of professional coaching from 95% group. >> Where did those come from? >> Title one. All right. At this time, I'd like to enterain a motion to approve the 95% curriculum, professional development, and coaching. >> Move properly second. Is there ready uh ready for question? Any questions, comments, concerns? Hear none. All in favor say I. >> I for me. All the folks say no. Yeah. >> Net is a consulting group that is already working with our lead teachers. It was approved by you guys last year um on our le uh and we had grant money to pay for that and we still have some of that grant money

119left over and this is now also providing coaching and support for our um building level leaders and our instructional facilitators and with that uh NIT proposal it is six on-site days one big building walk and then five onsite and coaching virtual days for support. And it's a $33,000 contract that we paid out of the state PLC grant money. It's not even in our in our uh it's it's funded to us. All right. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the NIT PC leadership coaching and support. Move the private second break for question. Any questions, comments, concerns? Okay. None. All the things say I. >> All right. For me, all the pull say no. >> Yeah. >> The next item you see is the API three-year contract. If you scroll, I'm not

120sure exactly. I think it's page seven. The overall payment schedule is there. And so for the three-year contract, it's $90,86. Uh the first year, which would be this school year, we do have an um a startup fee that's included in that first year. But that first year our our um our payment would be 25,866 a year for Aptigy and currently we are paying 37,300 for the two platforms that we use. So it's a cost savings as well. So I'm asking for permission to do the three-year contract at a discounted rate, but we would pay it one year at a time. And we pay for this also out of um title one communications money. I have a question before motion. So our current contract is up. >> Yes sir. >> That means that there's no residual

121no overlap in terms of you know this is approved tonight in terms of set up the new >> That's right. >> All right. At this time I'd like to enterain a motion to approve the after threeyear contract. >> We would probably second read the question. Question comments concerns hearing none. All in favor say I. >> All right. For me, all post say no. The eyes have >> the next item in your packet board, these are going to come with um the different types of maintenance and trans uh transportation and grounds. And so this first uh purchase is a purchase for Kavota tractor. We do not currently have a tractor. Um and we need to bush haul the different areas that we have. And so in your packet, what you see is a quote for a

122tractor with a cab and one without a cab. Um, Mr. Greg is making the recommendation that we get the tractor without the cab, but it does have the front end loader. And then we're also going to need that uh the bush haul itself, the inch rotary cutter. So the total cost for that K Cabota tractor is 44,770 for the package that we need. This was the lowest bid that we had. We did seek bids from other companies. >> Where did those funds come out? >> This will come. Okay. So, these funds, the next few that we're going to talk about are all going to come out of next year's budget, and it will come out of 5,000, the capital outlay funds. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to purchase

123the Kabota tractor with load and rotary cutter river valley tractor. probably second the question. Any questions, comments, concerns? >> Yes, sir. I have a question. >> Yes. >> Um why we can't get >> it cost more money. >> It does. Right. >> The one we got don't have no air condition,000. >> We were doing it for savings. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> All right. Any other questions, comments, concerns? >> All right, hearing that. All in favor say I. >> All in favor say I. >> I for me. All post say no. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So the next item you see in your packet is a quote from Central States bus sales and this is to purchase a new 2026 diesel powered 89 passenger bus. Um, >> we reached out to other companies.

124This is the only company that could get us a bus this school year. Um, it won't be like right now, but they're ready. They're ready for it. So, when we reached out to the other bus companies for a new bus, we wouldn't be able to get it till this time next year because they build it and things, but Central State has a bus that they're ready to getting ready to build and ship. Um, the total cost of the bus is um quite expensive. However, it is the best value uh for that size of a bus. It's $177,963. Um we will also use the 5,000 account to pay for this at next school year. >> No, not yet. Not there yet. >> No, not yet. I don't have a picture of this one. I just gave

125you the details. >> Nope. It's a real bus. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to purchase a 20269 passenger bus from Central State Bus Sales. Second question, the question comes concerned. Here you go. All in favor say I. All right. All say no. >> So now what you see next board, I want to present to you. These are used buses. So when we knew we needed to update our fleet and we knew that buses cost 77,000. We knew we couldn't afford three of those. However, um Mr. Davis and Mr. Herd and Mr. Greg have reached out and used M talked to Mast's uh corporation before. They're used bus sales your used bus sale salesman and they have a 2020 Bluebird that only has 65,000 miles on it for 84,900.

126Um there the next one that they have also that I want to share real quick is a 2019 30 passenger bus that also has wheelchair lifts and will hold six wheelchairs. >> Yeah. >> And so Uhhuh. And so and it only has 65,000 miles on it. I'm asking for permission to purchase these but we haven't yet. I mean but I want to tell you that this company is going to drive the buses down here since they're used. They'll drive them down to us and let us keep them and and use them and and practice with them first to make sure that we're satisfied with the quality. And um if we are then we I'd like for permission to purchase the two used buses as well. So this would give us two fulls size buses and

127one special needs bus for our fleet. >> How long how long do we get to >> We get the kids for two weeks. >> Two weeks. Oh, the wheelchair lift. Both of them are okay. So 859 is the first one. They're both on one. No, 849 for the larger one. 859 for the wheelchair lift bus. And again, this comes out of our capital outlay. This uh reading has already started figuring the budget for next school year. And so we budgeted about 450,000 that we can spend on our fleet. >> Okay. At this time like to entertain a motion to purchase a 202071 passenger bus. The 65,000 mi 2019 13 passenger special needs bus 65,76 miles from M's transportation. Second move second rate for question. Question comes concerns. I have one. As we talk about our

128our current and future transportation needs, are there any incentives or grants on the state level? Uh I know they they've supported some stuff, you know, related to our security and and safety, but are there any grants or any pockets of funds we can tap into on the state level to support us with our transportation needs? >> Not on the state level at this time. Now what they have agreed to is to let us put safety things safety features on our buses. We can use safety grant for that's like the tablets and the GPS. We can use safety grant money but not for purchasing a bus yet from the state level. However, Mr. Davis is exploring grant opportunities through electric buses that are available as well. And so that's something that he has applied for and

129that if we ever had an opportunity to do that that we could look into that as well that they would grant us u money for electric buses and the different charging stations and things like that. >> They do not maintenance and operating. >> Any other questions, comments, concerns? All right, hearing none. All in favor say I. I for me. All say no. the seven. >> The next purchase for our fleet is a purchase of a maintenance truck. This is a used truck from Everett. Again, we had three different quotes. This truck has 16,000 miles on it and it would be um and it's a >> um a 250 ton. >> It's a one ton >> to haul. Um, and this would come out of 5,000 as well. And the reason um for that purchase is

130if you looked back at our fleets for all of our trucks, the we do not have a truck that has less than 80,000 miles on it. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the purchase of 2024 GMC Sierra 2500 truck from Everett. We Ready for question? Any questions, comments, concerns? >> Yes. >> Lawnmowers, trailers, whatever we need. One that uh we use now has 200 what,000 miles on it? >> Yeah. >> 10. >> And it's not really safe to drive. >> Can it pull the tractor, the Kabota? >> Pardon? >> Would it pull the tractor as well? Yes, ma'am. You'll put it in low. You put the track on the trailer and we'll pull the trailer. >> Any other questions, comments, concerns? Hearing none. All in favor say

131I. >> I for me. All say no. >> Um the last purchase under purchasing for tonight is uh the purchase for the mesh backpacks and it's through dollar days. However, what we're going to do, Miss Smith and I, because on this, you see a quote for the neon. We're not going to purchase the neon 17 inch. We're only going to purchase the 18 inch mesh backpacks at 1039. >> Yes. At 1039 a bag. >> All right. At this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to purchase the mesh backpacks at 1039 a bag from Dollar. Ready for question. Any questions, comments, concerns? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Items. All the post say no. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> The last item on the agenda is personnel. I can explain the

132personnel. I don't I don't necessarily need executive session unless you do, but I'd like to explain the the list on there. >> What's the pleasure to buy? Do you all want to go into executive session? I don't I don't think we need to unless I mean I can tell you who's on the list what the list is about. [Laughter] >> All right. Okay. So, so Robert, >> so on your personnel action chart, what you'll see are the certified hires. I'm excited to say that um well we are hiring one, two, three, four, five, six, seven certified special educators. >> Um and then of course we have a special educator in the district. We opened up for the an LEA director and we have not been able to find someone that has the experience that we

133need for the district at this time. However, we would like to um and we've spoken with Miss Tanya Smith and she's interviewed she's our current inclusion specialist for the district and we'd like I'd like to hire her as our assistant LEA director with the support of the state department and Mr. Carlock in special education to really help with that with that process. And so for this school year, I'd like to recommend her to be our assistant LEA. The next uh group are actual classroom teachers. Um, not every one of those, there are three on there that are not fully certified, but the rest are uh already licensed classroom teachers and they're filling roles that um were vacant. I mean, that we have to have. It's not it's not in addition to those that have either

134resigned or left. Um, and so we're filling that role with those classroom teachers. Um, we would like to I'd like to recommend to hire three district level instructional facilitators. This school year, we had three. One of them we've hired as an assistant principal. So it left us with two. And so this will give us a set of five instructional leaders. It was something that we instructional facilitators. It's something that we knew there was a need and we could be able to pay for that out of title one money. We have um we had a vacancy for a librarian. So this you'll see the librarian uh position on here, the media specialist. And then the elementary music, that's our aspiring teacher from UAPB that we're hiring for the elementary music position. Um, then you have the

135uh special education pair professionals. That list, remember, I did not bring to you all a list of pair professionals. Um, we had uh people that were serving as special education pair professionals. We really need to fill 31 of those positions. And so we haven't completely filled it all, but So we've reduced the number of special education pair professionals. Um the next uh section are pair professionals that again we did not hire those back. Those are building level instructional aids and we still have not filled all those but these are the current ones that we've interviewed and have filled those positions that will be used in various buildings across the district. Um the what I talked about the UAPB residents as pair of professionals, that's the list of UAPB residents that are going to serve as

136pair professionals in different areas of the district based on their um education, what they're getting their education degree in. And then what you see the office staff, these are those that will have either a secretarybookkeeper or this building secretary. So the board knows every elementary will have a bookkeeper secretary and a secretary. The secondary schools will have a bookkeeper/ secretary and two secretaries. One because of the support that they need with credits and attendance and things like that. Um there are some district level uh office personnel as well that are at the bottom of that if they don't say secretary bookkeeper. We are hiring security. So these are replacing CSSOS that did not come back or a security guard that did not come back. So all those are replacements to keep our security full. We

137do have a certified retirement two of those miss and then we have one classified retirement. All right. That report this time I'd like to enterain a motion to approve the personnel report as presented by superintendent barber. Move the private second to bring for question. Any question comments, concerns? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I for me. All post say no. The eyes have. All right. That brings us to the end of our meeting. Before we go to adjournment, I just want to thank for coming out the parents and teachers and staff. Also, we want to give a shout out to Facebook Land Zoom land. Uh those individuals out there uh continue to support the crime athletic club. Thank you for supporting the fundraiser Walker and I hope you all have a pleasant evening.

138this time a motion for German. Any questions?