Clayton County Board of Education Work Session | April 27, 2026

001Thank you for your patience. If we would all If we would all stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I'm now going to do the roll call. District 1, Ms. Jasmine Bowens. >> Present. >> District 2, Mr. Mark Christmas. >> Present. >> District 3, Ms. Jessie Goree. >> Present. >> District 4, Ms. Victoria Williams. She's here, with us right this second. District 5, Ms. Dr. D. Haney. District 6, Ms. Mary Baker. >> Present. >> District 7, Ms. Sabrina Hill. >> Present. >> District 8, Ms. Joy Taylor-Cooper. >> Present. >> And myself, Benjamin Striker, District 9. I'm now reading the ethics statement in accordance with board policy BH, it is the duty of every board member to avoid both conflicts of interest and appearances of such conflicts. Does any board member have any known conflict

002of interest or appearance of such conflict with respect to any matter scheduled to come before the board at this meeting or appearing on our proposed agenda? If so, please identify the conflict or the appearance of conflict and refrain from participation in the matter involved. We now need to adopt the balance of the agenda. Can I get a to um adopt the agenda? Ms. Tellis Cooper. >> So moved. >> Ms. Baker. She seconded it. It has been properly motioned and um and properly seconded. Can I get a vote for the adoption of the agenda? >> Point of information, please. >> Should I go ahead? >> Yes. I would like to understand who I would operate with to revise the minutes. >> Yeah. >> I'm going to do it. So that that could be the chair. With

003my calendar, I give it to the lawyer. >> Mr. Dory, I think I'll throw it over to you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I I believe this refers to the inner superintendent um making a modification to the uh inner to the inner superintendent's report. Is that what we're talking about, Dr. Dory? >> What I'm talking about is the open record, the open meeting act. It means that in order for us to provide the agenda, it is what has been correct to have a proper matter to write down when we go to adopt the of the agenda and simply have it removed from the agenda. And what I would like to do was take time to have a quorum to before we start the meeting. So that I also uh take some about ethics. And it

004means that uh I think that's what I'm feeling right now is I have to state the article one and in that I specifically suggested to the team the matters and the meeting that we did not appear at the meeting because once you send out a revised agenda, it just kind of looks like >> Duly noted. Can I get a vote for the adoption of the agenda? >> One moment, Mr. Chair. Point of inquiry. Um I think that's a really thoughtful question. My question for you, um Glenn, is and I'm asking to learn. When the superintendent has his list or any superintendent, um today our interim, has their list that they are excited to present to the board, does that still need to go through the board if the superintendent has either one less thing to

005update us about or one more thing? I don't know. I feel like our agendas change all the time and I'm curious if what Ms. Jessie just outlined is for board items or the superintendent items. I think it's a good question. I'd love to learn. >> Right. I don't think that policy BCBD um was violated. The agenda was shared 3 days in advance. I think you're in a gray area. You know, the chair, the vice chair, and the superintendent historically meet to set the agenda and then distribute it. It's a little tricky to get into board action on interim superintendent report cuz that's the interim superintendent's report. Not saying any The question's not a good one. Not saying you couldn't handle it a couple different ways. There's just no policy against the way that it was

006handled. Ultimately, it comes where it should come. It's coming to this board for a vote. And then it is a different matter changing the agenda going forward. >> I see. Thank you. >> So, basically, what you're saying is that until we get to the adoption of the agenda, the agenda is really not necessarily set. >> There's a number of ways you could do it. The other thing you could do is just say interim superintendent's report and don't put anything under that and it's up to the interim superintendent to generate a report. So so there's there's a number of different ways and maybe today's not the day to figure that out. But yes, to your point, Mr. Chair, probably want to figure out and and do it consistently in fairness to all. >> Right. And and

007I guess it would fall in line with what we're about to do right now when we do our our board updates. It's just basically handing it over to the superintendent to do the same thing. Which is give his updates. All right, thank you. Can I get a a a vote for the adoption of the agenda? Ms. Williams? It's unanimous. >> Everybody got it. >> All right, we now will have board member updates and we will start with Ms. Bowles. >> Thanks, Mr. Chair. Um I actually prepared some thoughts tonight. So good evening, community. Glad to be with y'all. Um as we gather for tonight's board meeting, I am also grateful to Pastor Tutt for opening us up with prayer. And um as a nonprofit leader, a yoga instructor, and a gardener, I often find myself

008looking for the root of some of our challenges. And I think that in our schools, some of the root here is the vision that we have for our collective safety, sustainability, and success. So as I look at current events across the country and locally here in Georgia, it's clear that we're in a season that demands a specific kind of leadership. We need leaders to behave with empathy, clarity, and a deep commitment to our district. It's not enough for each of us to hold titles. We have to embody standards. And to me, I just wanted to highlight what I think have been five really helpful leadership traits as I think about my journey. By no means am I perfect, but I'm always working on a few of these. Integrity over hypocrisy. So, making sure that we

009lead by example. Living our values out loud. And working daily to close gaps between what we say and what we do. We also need deep accountability. True leadership is a form of service. We're not just accountable to metrics. We are accountable to families, to educators, and most importantly to our students. We must remain answerable to our community and welcome transparency even and especially when it's most difficult. We also need leaders who function with humility. And prioritizing mentorship. We need leaders who lead with empathy and have the humility to always listen. Our goal should be to lift while we climb. Ensuring that as we grow in our roles, we're always creating pathways for others who want to come behind us. Number four. I think it's then really important for leaders to be visionary. In moments of

010uncertainty or especially dark times, a leader's job is to be a source of light. We must offer more than just a plan. We have to offer hope and inspiration that reminds us why we're all here to do this work in the first place. And we also need unwavering courage. We need the courage to make the right choices, not just the easy choices. To have the necessary conversations, not just the ones we want to avoid. So, we have to stand firm in our commitment to our children's future. And challenge the status quo. Beyond those leadership traits, I want to remind you that one of the best ways for us to be leaders is to show up and vote. We're currently in a critical election window, and I want to ensure every member of our community has

011the dates they need to be heard. Early voting began today and runs through Friday, May 15th. Primary election day is Tuesday, May 19th, and our local community spaces like Lakes South Clayton, and the Flint River Community Centers are open and ready for you. Please make a plan to vote. Our schools depend on the leaders we choose at every level. And my last update for you all today is one of personal note of wellness. I want to invite all of you to come and take a breath. We've been working really hard this year, and to help us close out the semester with intention, our last yoga session will be next Wednesday, May 6th. Balance isn't something you find, it's something you have to create. So, as we head into the final weeks of this academic year,

012let's commit to creating the balance that our that we and our children deserve. Thank you for your partnership, for your passion, and for your presence tonight. I am looking forward to a productive meeting. >> Thank you, Ms. Ball. Mr. Christmas. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't really have a update, but what I'm going to say is uh every board member here probably disagree with me, but I don't think board updates should be on. >> You don't think? >> I don't think we should be doing board updates. If it's not about children, what are we doing? Our employ- These employees, superintendent employees, have been here all day. And it takes an hour or 45 minutes to do board updates. You want to do an update, send it in and let them see showing on the

013screen. Quit wasting time. Thank you. >> Ms. Goree. >> I make you say anything I want. I pray not to be Dr. Mr. President. But anyway, uh mine was about children. I had a very nice girls conference. Uh I think pretty much most of the board was there. Most of the 12, they were at the event. Uh I always try to have an event that will uh encourage and uplift our girls. Uh I sent the Valdosta Valdosta students to visit the one in the city of Riverdale. Uh most of us were there. Colin Kaepernick on Thursday. The employee retirement, I think is also on Thursday. And I do want to just say congratulations to all of our retirees who have given us such great service. It was pretty pretty much a tear jerker. And as

014the superintendent mentioned, he kept saying over and over again he was jealous. He was jealous. And so, and then of course we had our grand opening and that was a wonderful occasion because it was full circle. And it is about all about our children. I will say that I'll be a little bit jealous about the uh that building because our students actually won't be the first to graduate. I believe it'll be Clayton State. So, I wish we could have, you know, gotten them in there first. But I it was good to see Dr. Beasley and um Dr. Smith come back and join us. And so, just looking forward to all of the of all of what that building will bring to us and just thankful for it. The board and all the work that you

015put forth to make that happen. So, I'm going to hurry up and pass the mic. >> Ms. Williams. >> I'm not going to Hello? Can you all hear me? Maybe I'm just talking low. Uh I'm going to say what I say every week about taking care of yourself. So, every day is something new. People get irritated. People irritate you early in the morning, late at night, in the middle of the day. So, you have to pray through your whole day. >> Amen. >> On some days you even want to just take the whole day off. That's what I almost did today. I'm just saying. So, just take time for yourself. If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, just take an hour break and just go walk and just kind of you know, you need that that

016down time to kind of think about what you're about to do, what could happen, what might happen if you don't calm down. So, take time for yourself. Take time to rest. Don't let this work over overwhelm you. Any work that you do. You need to take some time just for yourself by yourself. >> Thank you for talking directly to me, Ms. Williams. Um my board updates really quickly. The opening of the arena, that was surreal. Um the week before I had to go and sit down in the arena because I couldn't believe it was real. Um I'm excited about the fact that there's going to be economic development around the arena, which do the math. For every $100 that that is spent in Clayton County, which this should increase, we get a dollar for for

017that directly to our East Point. So, we're looking forward to the economic development that is going to be happening around the arena now. The school system's done its job. And now we're looking for the cities in the surrounding um um county to actually follow through. Um next Colin Kaepernick was and Maro with his Lumi AI. Um the superintendent and I were sitting at the same table as we seen the presentations of these children and oh my god it was amazing. I mean these children were writing stories that were definitely publish worthy. And the tool that they're using it you know we we can use that tool as as as a framework and and and a blueprint for how AI could be integrated into you know the educational system. Um I came from the building of

018course from here today with a Mr. Trey Horton. Does everybody know who Trey Horton is? Trey Horton is the guy that played Marlon in the the Jackson 5 movie which was excellent. And Trey Horton came over to have an industry chat with the kids and oh my god it was unbelievable. And one of the things that I want to point out in regards to that as he was doing his industry trap the children you you it was you couldn't even get in the room. That's how many children were in that black box. And the amount of time that Mr. Horton said the name Brenda Ross and and and and Britney Lee was incredible. And it goes back to the trip that I went on with with Dr. Pitts and Dr. Horton and we came out

019of that trip understanding that relationship of what's going to get our kids in the right direction. And that was demonstrated today when I seen that industry chat and those kids said Dr. Miss Lee and and and Miss Ross's name over and over stating that they he he said they were the ones that got him in the position that he's in. He's on his way to an Oscar. Um lastly, October London, the performing artist October London, will be doing a reading with his son to our children next Monday. We're all excited about that and it's funny because that has sparked a lot of um other industry people to want to do the same thing. I was with Ronnie DeVoe at our community impact thing and he said he wants him and his two twins to do

020the same thing that October London is doing also. So, we're going to be getting partnerships all over with these people just to increase that literacy. Thank you very much for listening to my updates. >> Okay. Um everybody's kind of hit some of the things that I was going to hit, so good on that. Um several of us went to the vowels and cells and star students and I want just to give a shout out to Adrian, our intern, um who is a star student. I think he's hiding right now cuz he's afraid I call his name. Um and of course us on the board and Miss Kim take all the responsibility and credits for him being the star student cuz, you know, he wouldn't be that if it wasn't for us. Um but congratulations to

021him for sure. Um I want I just want to give a shout out to everybody. I mean, we've had back-to-back. We had the opening of the arena and then we had the retirement, both great events, but I just want to give a shout out to um Miss Bryce and her department her team of Wonder Women as I call them. Um and also maintenance because I know they were the ones who got us up and going. So, um there's just a lot of people behind the scenes that make it work. Um and gives me and others the opportunity to stand up and look cute. So, um thank you every day for what you do. As when I get Well, I'm talking about Ms. Rice and her department of Wonder Women. Um there was a fire at

022one of the apartment complexes. Over 30 families lost their homes and she put a shout-out to people who cuz they've lost everything. Um and we just have a several of our men and our maintenance department who called her within hours talking about furniture and just things that they need. So, a shout again, we have people behind the scenes that are heroes even if they don't have capes. Now, Dr. Hendrix, we might need to order some capes. I'm just saying. But, um again, thank you for all that you do every day. >> Dr. Hendrix >> Okay. Really quick, um Dr. Goodwin over um he's now over here standing right next to Dr. Prince over here. But, he wanted to say thank you to the Board of Education as well as our chair and the interim superintendent

023for allowing our students to showcase their talents for moral high school, the band, who just recently returned from their iconic trip to New York performing at the legendary Carnegie Hall. Also, he was saying how the audiences were very enthused about students and how they really um perform and their mastery of music over there. He also wanted to thank the board as well as the district um for allowing Mount Zion to, you know, help them out over in Hawaii as well as the Jonesboro band as you know in London. And so, he was saying these opportunities cannot be made possible without a monumental collaborative effort from the band directors, of CCPS BOE, district leaders, community parents, and supporters. So, he simply wanted to say thank you on that. So, I was told to do that. So,

024Dr. Prince, make sure you tell him I did that if he's not looking. Also, I want to have some updates. Um I want to really commend um our intern, Adrian, once again, and Gabriel Addison over at Riverdale High School. As you know, Adrian is the class president, and Gabriel is the vice president. They went down to Macon to the Future Farmers of America down in Macon this past for last week, and um they were just Y'all probably saw on Facebook I was posting them. They were sending me pictures and letting me know they were down there working doing what they were supposed to do. And so, that was a great feat to know that they're representing Clayton County Public Schools. Also, as you all can see, the highlight up there. Turn back. Yeah, there it

025is right there. Y'all see them? D Yes, give it up to the D Yes Department. Come on, y'all. I call them my superstars and my jewels and my precious jewels because when I got there I was leaving a prom send-off. I got there. I know Dr. Crawford was like, "Didn't you just have on something?" I just changed real quick and got there because I would not and I did not want to miss that. And they danced me Can y'all please somebody dance me down? They danced me down at this prom, and I had a great time with them just being in the midst of those children and just letting them know that we are here for them. And when the parents saw that we were there for them and allowing them to be and to

026have their fun, you know, it was just a great just love going there. A thank you to um Ms. Trina and her team, Dr. Crawford and her team. It was just an amazing evening. And like, you know, um Dr. Brown said now they got one more time to dance. So, we had to play a a slow song for them to stop dancing. Then they got a little attitude and said, "Why'd you play the slow song?" Because they wanted to dance all night, but Riverdale was ready to kick us out of there. So, I just want to say thank you all for inviting me. I appreciate you all letting us know about that. And I was just glad to be in the midst of that. So, thank you. Those are my updates from District 5. >>

027Thank you, Dr. Andy. Ms. Hill. >> Um I just want I just want to say thank you to all CCPS families for the Community Love Day. You showed up. You showed out. It's what you do. Um and I'm so grateful to be a part of this team. And the photo that you see here shown is a financial achievement club. And this is a completion of a financial 6-month course that was done by our employees. And so, I just want you to know when you see this that this is an investment of our employees in asset for our district. This was volunteer. This was for 6 months every month for 2 hours from 4:30 to 6:00. And when I got there at 4:30, they had already been there 15 minutes, some of them 20 minutes before

028me. They were committed. They did not leave early. They did not make excuses. They were consistent. And at the end, there was a match. And whatever savings and however they increased their credit score, there was a match. So, whatever was lacking, we met them. And um every one of them were successful in um reaching their goals and saving the money and we did what we said that we would do. And this came off the back of the NACA Achieved the Dream. So, anyone who attended a NACA Achieved the Dream and they walked away and the only thing they were missing was a savings account, this is in support of that endeavor. And so, we continue to build our families by building our staff because when our staff is whole, our children are whole, our community

029is whole. So, I want to say thank you to my CCC S family. And when I tell you that's a family there because it was a bond. When you meet someone for 6 months every time, there creates a bond because there's a level of vulnerability. But we taught them everything anything they wanted to know entrepreneur. If they wanted to know about retirement, if they wanted to know about investments, anything they wanted to know, we made that present for them and they um definitely took advantage of all of the opportunities. The testimonies will bring tears to your eyes. And I want to say thank you to our department head who I invited at the ninth hour and they showed up in support of their staff member and that just was the highlight for the employee to

030see that their department head showed up to celebrate with them. So, I want to say thank you to my CCC S family for always being there in any capacity. Um it just it just brings joy to my heart to see you all and the work that you do. Because of you, I am. And I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Hill. Ms. Telescooper. >> Good evening. So, just a quick update just to give you a highlight. I had a reading is lit event at the flat at 1885. One of the things that brought joy to my heart was when I got there, so many kids came down just to get books. They were so excited that they I was there with the book. And then their last question to me is

031was, "When are you coming back with more books?" So, I immediately called Dr. Hendrickson I was like, "We need to find out if we can get something together and service these individuals in the apartment complexes because our babies wanted to read." So, I did want to highlight that. Some of the other um events that I want to highlight is on tomorrow, Georgia PTA PTA District 7 will hold its spring conference at um starting at from 6:00 to 8:00 at Forest Park Middle School. So, I'm inviting everyone out with Ms. Arvis Walker that will be presiding over that meeting. Also, the deadline for the Joyce Keller Scholarship Fund is on May 1st. So, if there's any students from Forest Park and Morrow High School that are still looking for scholarship dollars, that scholarship is still out

032there and you have until May 1st. Um and last but not least, um there will be an event that we will hold in the cafeteria, Ms. Shamida Conley is Is Your House in Order? This event will have panel discussions where we'll discuss wills, probate court, estate questions, or anything that you would want want to know. So, um she's partnering with myself and also Congressman Alfred Dickson. And again, that is on May 17th. So, uh at 1:00 p.m. So, I'm asking you to come out and support on that. And it will be in the cafeteria. That's my update. >> Thank you, Ms. Sellers-Cooper. >> Mr. Superintendent, Mr. Striker, >> Before you move to that, Ms. I wanted to shout out Ms. Williams and her son because she's telling us about being feeling good and all that

033type. But, um y'all got it? Are you all familiar with Y'all Got It? No, it's a song from The Wiz. And uh the Stillwell School of the Arts received the Shirley Moore award for Y'all Got It, and our board baby, Reagan Williams, was in it, and we we traveled all the way out to Cobb County for the event. So, I did want to Ms. Sellers-Cooper, it took a lot of time. We wanted We're going to talk about our board baby. a lot of time. We wanted We wanted to talk about our board, baby. >> Mr. Superintendent, the floor is yours. >> First of all, good afternoon, good evening, team. I'm talking directly to you. The same in every room. Lead with courage. Lead respectfully. We keep our children first, always. No matter what. I wrote

034to you in the leadership lens, and I wrote that from the heart. And I mean it with every beat of my heart. And I want you to make sure that we are leading that way every time. I want this community to know. And we'll always have doubters, but I want this community to know that every piece of work that we do is with the children in mind. Now, we don't always agree, even amongst ourselves. And as we put our products in the world, we'll find that there are individuals who don't agree, as well, and that's okay. That rub together is what makes us more powerful, and it helps us to get to the real answers. And I want to publicly say thank you. I've been sitting here and just looking at all of you, and

035just marveling at what we can be and what we're going to be together. So, I thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chair. Madam Vice Chair. Members of the board and our Clayton County community. Tonight, we will walk you through three areas that speak directly to where we are and where we are going. The proposed 26-27 budget, and where our finance team is in the process, the progress and direction of the 90-day plan, and an update on a recent literacy grant award, which we are extremely excited about. Each doing what is necessary, not what is comfortable, to strengthen outcomes for our students. The budget outlines how we would steward every dollar with purpose. The 90-day plan shows how we are organizing our work for clarity and impact. The literacy award affirms that our focus on early learning

036is gaining traction beyond our walls. Taken together, this is about alignment, resources, people, and priorities moving in the same direction. We look forward to sharing the details with you this evening, and we will begin with Ms. Ramona Bibbens. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board, colleagues, and community. This evening, I will be giving um update on where we are with the fiscal year 2017 budget process. Um it's still a work in process. Um we're waiting on some information from the state to finalize our um state revenue projections. We received preliminary digest from the county tax assessor, and um we've been working with the departments, meeting with departments, trying to find other areas to reduce um so we can have a balanced budget. This budget um that we are preparing prioritizes

037instruction um even even amongst the financial pressures. So, we want to make sure we keep, as Dr. Hendricks said, the students at the focus of all of our work. So, we are facing right now where we are a $23.5 million gap. Our total projected revenues is $713.6 million. Where our expenditures at $737.2 million. Um. On the revenue side, our property tax um projected property tax revenues um increasing by about $10 million. That's about a 3% increase um in the digest. And then the last year we had um had projected a 7% but we only had 4%. So, this year we're going to be a little more conservative and go with 3%. If we get 4%, that's good. But right now we're at the 4% 3% um projected increasing value. So, that would build yield us

038about $10 million. Our recording intangible tax increased. Our ROTC funding increased a little. However, our interest earnings um has declined because of the delayed one delay in getting the property taxes um in December instead of January. And we had to use more of our cash reserves. So, we didn't have as much money to put in that investment account to earn interest. So, we did decrease that for um next year. And then the TABT and the real estate transfer taxes um have declined some as well in that area. Also, if you call um if you remember from all the years you've been serving, our major revenue sources of course are local property taxes and our state funding. On the expenditure side, we have committed about a $10.3 million increase compared to the current year's budget. Of

039that, $423 um million dollars of that about that that $700 million dollars that I mentioned earlier is in the instructional area which is our core business. Um about $72 million dollars in operations and maintenance, 56 million in people services, the 47 in school administration, 41 in transportation, and then 22 million in central support services. Specifically, some of the areas that I do want to point out to you where some increases have occurred that we really don't have a lot of control over is our state health insurance has gone up again um by $1,716 per employee. So, it went from 11,000 um I'm sorry, 21,620 to 24,336 per year per employee. And this has gone up every year for the last 3 years since I've been here. Um So, that's something that's kind of out of

040our control. As well as a teacher retirement um contributions, the employer portion of it is going from 21.91% to 22.32% and that's a 0.41% increase. We've also included about $1.4 million in that in the total budget for the Riverdale Early Learning Center. Um charter schools, I want to talk about that because we've included even though we've been paying them the money that they earn through QBE and the local funds, that money has not been budgeted. But, as we're digging through, we're looking it has not been included on the budget side, but it's been on the expenditure side. So, we want to make sure that it's accounted for in the budget that you're seeing. That's going to be a little over a million dollars increase for that as part of our money that we're getting from

041fund balance. >> So, basically So, basically what you're saying is you haven't been um accounting for that money as as a revenue source. And then >> So, the money that they earned, the money that they earned, please delete the expense out of it. Yeah, because I you know, I with the QBE money and then we get their total tax dollars, but on the expenditure side, it has not That's not been aligned with the money that was distributed to them. >> Okay. >> For the charter schools, it has not been aligned with because of the deficit. >> a wash, though. It's It's It's um money coming in, money going out, which is allocated for charter >> But the money is but it hasn't been budgeted so there are increases in the budget because of the deficit

042and the expenditures are the same. >> Got you. >> Okay. >> All right. Since you all have opened up a can of worms, uh I don't I don't see this slide up here. >> This is the slide I don't have the outside of. That's what I'm talking about. >> I'll say it's in our presentation. Well, well, since you mentioned it and he started talking, he told me to let you just let you finish and we go back to it. >> That's fine. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I apologize for that. >> That's okay. So, fund balance and our reserves. So, I think this is the slide I was going to say. So, we have the $20 million which is still being budgeted but the $1 million within the charter school which is the

043operational side of the $20 million with the $23 million that they budgeted for the fund balance is um to offset that. Okay. >> So, you want to finish that or you want to >> I'm I'm done with this. Yes. >> That's it? >> Mhm. >> Okay, because that slide is misleading. Because number one, you say you need to your fund balance you have to mention. Our fund balance right now is right at $170 million. >> No, ma'am. >> And and your Well, that's when we go down to your report, that's what it says. When you do the financial report, that's what it says. And I asked the question about this and it's a fallacy here because if you're saying you you need to budget for it, but from my perception, it looks like we're saying

044that that's inadvertently you you're going to you're going to get your money because the charter schools earn money for this district just like everybody else is. All the other district's children do. So, if I think really when you put that in there, you're making it look like oh, he's we have the charter schools and and it's uh you know, it's hurting our our bottom line. >> No, ma'am. That's that's not what we mean by that. Okay. Okay. Yes, ma'am. >> And and so, when you when you put stuff out there, you need to it really you need to have an explanation as to what is happening because, you know, we do have another charter school that will be a part of the school district as well. And and that it looks like oh, we we

045have the charter schools in there hurting our our budget. When we're they will be money will be coming for those children. We earn money for all of the students that are in Clayton County. >> And you say this is your last slide. >> No, ma'am. I have I have a few more. This is I have about six more slides. >> Before we move on, I think Mr. >> Mr. Christmas had a question. >> I I do. I have some finance questions, three, but I'm happy to wait till the end of your presentation and just ask them all in a conversation. >> you had something. >> Yeah, I'm I'm looking at the the 23 million that we taking out the fund balance. >> Yes, sir. >> We took what? 20 million out the fund balance last

046year? >> So, for 2025, we used about 30 million dollars out of fund balance. >> 30 million. >> Last year for the 2026 budget, we budgeted it 20 million, but we're actually going to probably use closer to 25 because we just needed a 3.8 million dollars for that um one-time payment for everyone. And then we have um about a million and a half closer to no, 2 million dollars. Million million and a half, I'm sorry, for the um arena that we're going to have to um for the operating cost that's not budgeted. >> So, I understand the expenditures are going up. What are we doing to stop the bleeding cuz we can't keep pulling from the fund balance? >> So, I'm going to talk about that in a few minutes. >> Yeah, I guess that's

047part of your presentation. Yes. Okay, keep going. >> Okay. So, um So, as Mr. Christmas mentioned, over the last 5 years, we've utilized $72 million of our fund balance. Um We we've been relying on that to balance our budget every year. Some of the things that we're looking at this year to reduce even the $25 million the $23 million deficit for this year. Um we're looking at getting rid of duplicate costs, any duplication of services. Dr. Hendricks has us going through contracts. My staff has met with almost every department. I think we may have one more that we had to reschedule. Not sure if they met with them yet, but we're going through every contract to see if there's a duplication of service there. So, we're looking at that to reduce some of those >>

048of the 1.3 that I >> No, sir. >> Okay, that's not part of the 1.3. >> No, those are salaries. >> That was Yeah, that was the one-time payment that we >> No, no, no, no. I'm talking about the 1.3 million that you said you were reducing. >> He's talking about for next year. >> For the restructure? >> Yeah, the restructure our organizational chart. I don't think that that includes this. >> I Not I don't know if it's in there. I don't think it's in there because we didn't have everything yet, but it will be in there. Um We've also reduced travel for every department. That is in here, where we reduced that already. Excuse me, and we're looking at other areas. Um one of the things that's not included in here that Dr. Hendricks

049is asking us to look at, and I have some numbers for it, um is an is a pay increase. We have not included that in here yet because we've got to get this deficit down. Because to give a one-time salary increase, I've got my cheat notes up here with me. If we just did a one-time payment to all employees, $1,000 for full-time and $500 for part-time, that would be $7.4 million. If we want to give If we want to give a pay increase, a step increase for cost is nine, a little over nine million. A $1,000 increase will cost us about um $8.9 million. And a $1,500 increase will be a $13.4 million. Um expense. That includes salary and benefits. So, we're we're feverishly and I mean diligently trying to reduce the expenditures that we

050have here so we can try to do something for our employees next year. Okay. So, we about we always talk about financial best practices for the level of operating reserves. Um based on the estimated FY 2027 expenditures, um one month reserve would equal $61.4 million. Right now, we would be above that minimum amount. Um but below the recommended $2 million um two month operating cost. So, you see reserves of 122.8. It's a two month operating cost. Three months would be 184. >> Ms. Bivens, >> Yes. >> would you speak up just a little bit? We're getting some comments that you're not being heard online. >> Uh okay. Okay, thank you. Good. Um So, again, as I stated, we're approaching that one minimum one month minimum threshold. Um if we were to look at approve this

051budget today as it is, then our ended fund balance for 2027 would be 106.8 or 0.9 if we round up. That's 1.7 months of operating reserves. Again, it's above the one month um minimum, but below the two month um recommended. And that is trending downward if we continue on this trajectory as you'll see on the next slide. This is based on a 3% increase. Um if we continue on this trend, we will be using about $20 of our fund balance every year. And by 2029, we would be down to 1 month's of our we would be at our one minimum um month of operating reserves. And that's all I have. Okay, so I can answer any be happy to answer any questions. >> Question in regards to the uh reserves. Um if we do not

052get to the two month operating reserve, you're probably going to approach me and say, "Can I get a 10?" Am I >> That is correct. Yes, sir. >> So, I got to really depend on my superintendent to really thoroughly go over these duplicated services to make sure that that doesn't happen, correct? >> Yes, sir. And that's what we're doing. >> I Anybody else questions? >> Let me >> Several. >> May I May I uh say something about the duplications that I think Mr. Christmas just said that you couldn't hear it. 90% of our budget goes toward staff. And so, look, I'm this is not an alarm and I'm not talking about people in positions and and doing that kind of thing. At some time though, we have to think about the vacancies that we accrue

053and whether or not we consider whether or not we're going to rehire. We also have a reduction in the number of students. Um last time I checked, we were somewhere around 49, close to 50. And so, there are things that we have to do that we have to talk about that will be discussions before actions. But, it's going to require courage from all of us. And we can't fall into the pits that we fall into before and start feeling like people are doing something wrong because they're making hard decisions. And so, I just want to make sure that for the future we're all ready for hard decisions. And I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about vacancies right now. Um but, Mr. Christmas said it well. There's no way you're going to get it from

054duplications. There's not enough of them. But, there are some. And there are other expenditures that we're looking into. Um stipends and other things that we are considering at this point. >> Thank you, Dr. Hendry. So, we're going to start with Miss Bowles and then we will go around. So, if everybody would wait their turn, we'll start with Miss Bowles. >> I thank you for helping us understand that the charter money is being expended, but not accounted for as it comes in. And so, my first question would be why? >> So, that's a question that I have also. >> Miss Bowles, um and as I stated, I'm in going through the budget to see um we were looking at the line items and we I noticed and staff noticed that the charter school money was not

055budgeted in that particular line item. It has been paid every year, but not budgeted there and this is to correct that. It's been that way for the past before I came on board even. Um because I we went back that far to see how long it's been since it hasn't been budgeted. And I I can't say why that wasn't done back then, but we caught it and we're correcting it now. >> Okay. I I'm sure you that's part of why you're addressing it now. Is Is >> I just want to name what a huge oversight that is. And one year, this being the one I'm thinking about, is way too many. But, to hear that it's been multi-years back-to-back, um sounds beyond um negligent. And I'm going to hold all of us alongside you for

056that. But, I'm wondering um I I do thank you because I also was struck by that slide. And so, my curiosity is like, how can we help? And again, not asking as a gotcha, asking as a wow, what could we do differently for our internal practices to rectify this moving forward? Um and now that you helped me understand that that piece, cuz that slide again got my attention. Um if last year we relied on 30 million from our Excuse me, if for fiscal year 25, we moved 30 million from general funds. And this year, we moved 25 million from general fund. And this new proposal for fiscal year 27 relies on about 23.5, about 25, um from general fund. I'm curious about our specific long-term strategic solution um to not only fulfill this gap, but

057I want to think about how we administer our finances, um all without compromising our biggest priority, which is excellent classroom instruction. And And again, it's probably a loaded question. And I just want to lift how important that is because the depletion of the fund balance, um I'll I'll sit that question on the table. That was question number two. We can talk about it, but long-term solutions and if you have any, I'd love to hear it, but I I hear you on what we might expect building up to fiscal year 2029. And one of the most key points that again I appreciate through your upfront transparency in this presentation and even in our conversation, but in fiscal year 2029, correct me if I'm wrong, we might be looking at less than two months of reserves, right

058about 1.7 months. And so you're right. Costs are going up for all types of reasons. You You talked about health insurance, gas prices for our fleet, TRS expenses. There's so much that's out of our control, but properly allocating charter funds seems to be within our control, and then this depletion of our general fund balance while making long-term commitments that are um high-ticket cost items. We can talk about what those are. Um but just raising this flag. That gap, I want to know what we'll do about it and how we can improve our accounting on the front side for all of our schools including our public charters. Um but 1.7 months of reserves um we've worked so hard to get out of that type of situation and I'm curious about what we can do prior to

0592029 to think through how the board can help. >> I'll take that one. We've got to make some tough decisions. All of us. And some of those tough decisions will affect people we know and things that we cherish. Um And I'm not necessarily talking about riffs, but I am I'm talking about the consolidation of some of our facilities has to be a consideration in the future. Getting rid of some of our vacancies. Again, 90% of your money is in people. And in order for us not to affect people, not just us, but our team as well has to get used to doing more with less. And so, we all know that our student population has continued to decrease, but our staff workforce has not always met that same level of decrease. And so, we're going

060to have to get used to doing more with less. And that's going to in some ways be painful because change is painful. And um but it's also necessary. And so, consolidation of buildings, um getting rid of some of the things that people are used to. We don't need all those t-shirts. You know? Um taking some of our vacancies and deciding that we can still get the job done. Those are the kind of things that we're going to have to make hard decisions about without anybody accusing anybody of doing something for, you know, reasons that are less than honorable. Uh in order to save this district, we have to have funds. And so, we will make the hard decisions, but we also want the hard support. And I'm asking for it from everybody because everybody will

061feel it because it should have probably been done a while back. No disrespect to anything or anybody prior, but it's just the work that we're left with. And so, we have to do it together and stay together in the process. So. >> He answered the question. >> He did, and I appreciate it. And I again, I offer this as support, how we can help, not at all to um criticize. So, thank you. >> Mr. Christmas, you're up. >> Well, since we're making hard decisions, uh I don't really have a question. I have a comment. Um we have a lot of vehicles that we purchased. And we got P-cards that fill up gas tanks. If we going to make the hard cuts, let's really make the hard cuts. And and get some folk out of those

062vehicles that don't need it and put them where they need to be. Uh if everybody in here going to ride in Tahoes, why don't the board get a Tahoe? Joy want a Tahoe. Reed want a Tahoe. Everybody want a Tahoe. That's That's joking now. We We got our own cars, but that's how it looks. It looks bad uh when when we have all these automobiles and we talking about cutting budgets and doing all these type of things and and and cutting people with services, but we can buy equipment that we don't use. >> Yeah. >> Uh and and I and I appreciate your cuts. So, let's make the hard cuts. I I I'm I'm with you on that. But, also the only person that I remember that the board said rides in the automobile was

063the superintendent. And and we did that. But, that's that's my comment. >> I think it's a great comment. You know, I I've been here less than 90 days in this seat. And I do see what you see. I do see individuals in cars. Uh I think most ride believing that it's a part of the job because it was allowed. It is one of those tough things that people are going to have to deal with. I called each and every one of you on the phone and told you that I was going to address that. I wanted to address the org chart first. But there are departments and people who need cars and we could take away all the cars and we still have this problem. Right? Because this problem is 90% of our money is

064in our people. And so we're going to have to address it. But to your point, Mr. Christmas, which I do believe is a good point. My colleagues know it. That we got to we got to address the vehicle piece as well. Because even though some of the cars were paid for with grant money, the gas is paid for out of the general fund. Now we do have to compensate people for driving their own cars around. And so we have to consider how that's done as well. But the cars will be something that we address really soon. The team is ready for that. They're they're committed to that. Let's go, Marie. >> I'm going to clarify the statement. The board took the car away from the superintendent Israel because there's an allotment in that salary. So

065really nobody Everybody was riding around fine before we bought the cars. The the allotment for central office was $100 a month. I used to work in central office as well. Uh I'm going to say this. We One of the One thing that would help the fund balance would be we try and I will say I I want to thank the board for being unified on this. We had one of our state representatives took a bill, tried to take it to the state house to get the squatters that are over there called the world's busiest airport, the Atlanta airport, to pay taxes. And unfortunately we could not get all of the elected officials in Clayton County to support that person in trying to get those taxes. Those that money that would help us considerably with our

066fund balance and anything else. But again, uh maybe next year we can get everyone in the county to come together because the the people with the biggest budget is of course us. I don't believe uh Mr. Superintendent, did they invite you to the table to have a conversation? You know, someone said they were going to have a conversation. >> Who Who is they again? I'm sorry. >> Huh? >> Who is they again? >> invited to the table to speak to the mayor? >> Um no, I was not. >> Right. And so that is that's the one thing. But personally, as we talk about uh using the fund balance, uh I'm I'm going to say this. I don't necessarily have a problem with using the fund balance because I I was hoping that this presentation would

067be about us giving some raises to our employees because there are some employees that need to have some raises. And uh of course, everybody wants to have that so-called rainy day fund. But what I'm I don't I wouldn't even have a problem if it went down to 1 month. I would like to do something for our employees. And I will have a problem when we start talking about these hard decisions where we say we're duplicating services because I've heard that before when we take things away from children. That's going to be a problem for me. And I will be happy to vote no, but I'm sure that, you know, it'll it will pass. But I will have a problem when we when we take services away from our students when where we duplicate services. That

068is, we have some employees that are doing some jobs that uh you know, they do one job the whole year. And those jobs could be given to someone else. So, I'm just I'm going to uh pass the mic because like I said, I was looking for a little bit more of a presentation to show if we were going to be able to get give raises and which departments might end up going. I do agree with the superintendent. I've said this before about empty buildings on the north side of the county which where I represent, our building we have a we have a real decline in enrollment. But yet we continue to operate those and I looked at Atlanta Public Schools today and saw where they are actually closing some of their consolidating and they're using

069those buildings for community things. They're letting the community they have uh they're giving away food. They have a clothes closet. Uh they're letting the community use those buildings for uh community events and all that type of stuff and I think that we need to consider doing likewise. >> Mr. Superintendent? >> I agree. >> Ms. Williams? >> Well, I was going to say you can look on the bright side sometimes and maybe and if you know Hello. Is it on now? We can look at the fact that we did we did open up the arena. So, hopefully in maybe a couple of years we can start seeing some money from that. If everybody support the arena, get some businesses down here that will benefit the school district also. We might lose some somewhere else, but maybe

070we could gain it somewhere else. And we can do cutbacks. We all can stop eating, you know, I like eating, but I can stop eating. I eat it house. We could stop having food at every single event and people can support the local economy and buy your own food. >> I I have to um totally agree with Ms. Williams and and that's the mindset and perspective that I have also. Um as we as we venture into this this tight time, um let's look for partnerships. Let's look for businesses to come in that want to do business with us and, you know, take some of that financial burden off of our plate. Ms. Williams is 100% correct. If the projections come out right within the next 3 years with the TRP group and the arena, if

071those projections hit, we should see a 4 5 million dollar boost right there. So, every little bit counts and these private partnerships, private um public partnerships, the three Ps, you know, they're they're out there for us to do it. Nonprofits that go out and get grants and then give us services because of that those grants. In my 11 years of being here, I've been approached by many nonprofit organizations that say, "We just want to be in your school. If you give us the entry into your school, we'll provide the services because the grant that we're writing just needs a sign-off that we will be able to be into those schools." So, at just like Ms. Williams, I just think that there's creative ways to combat the money that's that's going out. >> Okay. Um I'm

072sure I'm speaking to the choir here and and um Ms. Ramona can tell me if I'm wrong on my numbers, but I tell the community for every mill on our taxes, City of Atlanta gets 40 million dollars and we get 11.4. >> They get about 52 million and we get about 12 12. >> up to 52 million. I can't match that. I mean, I have asked time and time again for the print shop to print me money and they refused to do it for some reason or another is legal. But, the fact of the matter is is when I talk to people about this arena, anything extra that I can bring in, I can put back to our children and to our staff because I cannot keep up with City of Atlanta. Um I will

073ask the superintendent to cut where he has to. If we cut meals, I don't know. We can bring a food truck out front, y'all. You You Y'all can just buy out of a food truck. If that's what it takes because and and let's get rid of the vacancies if we can. >> Mhm. >> Because I was here, Ms. Gorey was here. Dr. Hendrix was here when we had to do RIFs. And I have I never never never have to do one of those again, I will be a blessed person. That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do is to look people in the eye and say I'm sorry you have to go. And these are people we've known for years. So, this isn't So, this isn't We've all had to tighten our

074budget from one time to another. We can't do the McDonald's the extra time. We're not going to Starbucks. We're not doing this on our own budget. So, please keep that in mind when we're doing this. If I we're doing everything I can to save every job I can, please pray for us. Because what we're asking is not easy and we can't keep taking this fund balance down. You can't God knows we saw a rainy day called COVID that we were never expecting. We never know what it's going to be or if it's a fire or if it's this or it's that. We don't know. So, you have to have that because I at the end of the day, y'all expect to be paid. And I don't want to take out a loan if I don't

075have to cuz I don't like paying interest on money I don't I I just don't want to pay somebody else that if I can't pay you. I want to be able to use our money to pay you and not pay interest. So, do what you have to do, Ms. Pittman. >> Dr. Haney. >> How is our partnership with the chamber? Because the chamber I think should be I mean I see what they they send these little um their announcements out or whatever, but I'm just looking at the type of businesses that they're getting in here that I question that sometimes. Not saying no business is not a good business, but I'm looking at the quality of the business that's coming to Clayton. You're just putting everybody in the chamber cuz they're paying a fee. That

076needs to be stronger. Maybe that can help us as well. Um and like you said like Dr. Hendricks had mentioned at one of the well, when he was over at Jonesboro. Um we have to be careful how we and I purchasing does a great job when they're saying how to do business with Clayton County Public Schools. How we vet and I think that we we are always approached. I'm not knocking this community. I would love for every partner to partner with us. But there has got to be some guidelines in place. Everybody wants to partner. We are not a bank. And you know, I know everybody wants to bring their services to us, but we have to vet those services in order to streamline the funding that we have. And I mean we have to

077you have to bring something to get something naturally. And so, Dr. Hendricks made that point is that he has to go through that and vet that we're not discouraging those partners in the community. But somewhere on the line we have to have some type of agility to say, "Hey, this is what we are." Or give a timeline. And I love the fact of how you all do that in purchasing. But I think that there needs to be um a concerted effort in how we get those partnerships. Um everybody mooches off us, but we don't get anything in return. Everybody wants the Clayton County name, public schools name, but we don't get anything in return but a thank you and and use our staff. And I just think there needs to be a stronger or more

078rigid type of guideline in regards to that. Um so that we can see some funding coming in here for our students as well as our staff. And to ensure that the everybody We can't make everybody happy, but to make everything equitable across the board. So, I think there needs to be a stronger alliance with the chamber that we need to work on and help them as well. Not knocking Ms. Williamson over there, but at the same time, I'm just looking at the caliber of businesses that are coming. And you're right, Ms. Bivins, we're not Atlanta. Um I don't try to strive to be Atlanta, however, because we don't have that base. However, we can be a little bit more creative in how and I just help me to help cuz I'm all about the partnerships,

079but I think um for us as a district, we just need to streamline our protocols and what takes for them to be partners with us. So, we won't be all over because I think, like you said, Ms. Bivins, with Ms. um Brewer, who does a great job with that, she has those guidelines in place. But also, when you say no to those partners, please give a reasonable reason as to why you're saying no. So, there won't have any type of animosity or we won't be like we're to be the demon on the other end because we're trying to satisfy everybody, but at the same time, we can't be used by everybody. >> Ms. Hill. >> Can everyone hear me? I just want to say thank you to you, Ms. Bivins, and to you, Dr. Hendricks,

080for affording us this opportunity to have the real conversation. After 5 years, I feel like I get to do my job and talk about finance because as a board member, this is one of three primary responsibilities. One that I've been asking over and over again about our fine finances and where we are. I've asked for a 3-year projection. I've asked for a 5-year projection. And here we are and it's almost like crisis mode. So, I wanted just raise up a long-time request from Ms. Bowles to have a finance committee. And when she raises that question, it's a committee like you see in Congress where people come together and we get to ask the questions. We get to dig deep. We get to go into depth as to what and how and where and why and

081all the things that we can come together as it indicates on here as the board with the district because that's how we're going to overcome this. And while we look at our fund balance, we did give raises and we voted on that, but that $20 million still has to be sustained. So, that's another $20 million though that happened in FY 2025, that $20 million has to come out in 2026, that has to come out in 2027 along with our health increase and all the other factors that we have no control over. So, this is a very healthy, timely conversation, but this is only the beginning. And three on threes does not allow us to really come up with a strategic way of dealing with our financial situation. And so, what I'm hearing here today is

082that we need to do the work. We need to do it collectively and we need to do it now. I agree that we always have to keep in mind our staff, the cost of living and what that looks like. Because that is how our babies learn is when our our staff shows up. In addition to that, we have to be realistic of the cost we incur. So, as I indicated, we're paying $20 million out of our fund balance until we have opened the convocation center, which again, I agree, it is a wonderful opportunity for us to at some point in time have revenue. Right now it's costing us money. If I understand correctly, we said $1 million in February and another million dollars in March, and this money is coming from somewhere. >> Mhm. >>

083The state said, "Hey, I need y'all to pay $2,000 to certain employees." But because all employees matter, we said, "Nope, we can't do certain. We have to do all." So, that's another $3.3 million. And Ms. Bivens, correct me if my numbers are off. So, all of this is coming out of where? Our fund balance. And then to your point, Dr. Hendricks, our student enrollment is decreasing. Well, our student enrollment is what brings us revenue. So, if that's decreasing, then we got a problem. In addition to that, when you look at our CCPRI, it's saying that we're paying more per pupil, but yet our academics are not increasing. So, there's a lot of work that we have to do here, and I love that we're having this conversation, but I'm asking that we talk about this

084in depth before June that we can make a sound decision that will sustain our district going forward. Because legislation is proposing that there's going to be another change in our property tax assessment. If that happens the way they desire it to happen, we are going to be faced with our revenue coming in after November. And if I'm clear, we can't sustain November and December. That would require a tax. So, we need to really get to work and understand where we are and where we're headed. And we can only do that collectively. But, I want to commend you, Dr. Hendricks, for the transparency. Because I am elated to be a part of doing what I know will make a difference for our community, for our employees, and most importantly, for our scholars. Because they're going to

085be okay. But, it is our responsibility to have the conversation. And so, I'm asking for our business services to really be more meticulous about the work that they do because these are costly mistakes. And we cannot afford another mistake. This is in addition to what was the findings of our last audit. So, I'm going to need us to really hone in on where our money is, where it's being spent, and how we can do better. Thank you. >> May May I say this really quickly? First and foremost, part of the transparency is to let you know I didn't do it. But, it's my responsibility collectively with you all with you all to fix it. Second of all, what I want to say to you is we have to establish what our wants are versus our

086needs. I think sometimes we engage a little bit too much in our wants. And we need to do what we need. This is something that drifted into this position. It didn't happen overnight. It's we failed to look at our student population, which is going down because the birth rate in the world is going down, and other things that we probably self-induced. And we failed to right-size ourselves every year. And so, this won't happen in 1 year. It's going to take consistency over a few years to right-size and to catch up with where we are. Our spending is still at a place where our revenue is none. We're spending out of our checking account and our savings account at the same time. Which I can argue you don't have as much savings account as you think.

087You actually have a checking account that's actually supplementing and part of your savings account is your checking account. But we can do this if we're brave enough and if we have the courage and if we stop saying, "Well, don't pick this one, pick that one." Or "These people are more important than that one." Or "This is more important than that." We don't have time for that. We don't have the bandwidth for that. What we got to do is address the issue. The money is in certain places, so we have to address this problem through those certain places. And so, we're going to be working hard on the inside, and we want you to stay informed. The transparency is important, not just to you all, but to the community, too. Last point I'll make, and then

088I'll be quiet. We are not in dire straits. We don't have to call King Jaffe Joffer yet, right? If you've seen Coming to America, you know what I'm talking about. But we do need to pay attention to our circumstances. And we need to start fixing them now. And it takes collective action. So, I have personally met with every department and looked at their expenditures, and we will continue to do that. And there are other things that we'll implement and we will keep the board informed the entire way. And I want to commend Dr. D, too. Great point. Everything free is not necessarily what we need, either. We have to vet things and make sure that they fit our our plan because everybody wants to be near us and everybody wants to be a part of

089what's going on, but one, everything doesn't fit in terms of what our strategic plan is and sometimes things just come because people are getting money and they want to say that they helped us and they did nothing, really. And so, uh vetting uh those that want to get near is extremely important as well. But I thank the board. I thank the board for being open to hearing this because this is real information. >> Listen, may I just follow up with something? >> Um Dr. Hendricks, to your point and I again I want to say thank you. Um just um quick out of curiosity, with the org chart um in the re- organization, um I recognize that we went from eight divisions to 13 divisions. Um does that also still reflect a cost savings? >> It

090does because what you see is different reporting structure that created where some of those divisions may have been compounded under one area and now we've lifted chiefs up to be divisions and so it didn't cost us anything and then we uh respectfully moved some duplications and other things. So, um we went from eight to 13 and without it raising any cost and I haven't asked you all for any positions. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Ms. Sales, could you close us out? >> Yes, I'll close you out. I think Dr. Hendricks kind of summed it up. Basically, what I was just wanting to say is I know that maybe a hard conversation, but a much needed conversation. These are the conversations we were having board meetings before last year that we may one day end

091up at this point. And like Dr. Hendricks said, we're not in a dire straight. We're not But there's some tough decisions that have to be made. But what I do want him to clarify closing out in his summary again is just to cuz I don't want anybody to leave here scared of what's going to happen to me. Do I have a job? I want him to clarify and be very clear that he will start with the vacancies >> Absolutely. >> But just for reassurance that he will start with the vacancies and any job duplications. And there shouldn't be a large mass layoff of anyone with their job. And also, I want just to clarify and ask a question. I know the 1.3 you've been talking about that, but how much of a savings do you

092think we'll have with the vacancies, the job duplications, and the cars that Mr. Christmas was talking about if you have a estimate of that. And then third of all, just so the public knows, I think it's very important that they know because one of my board members did bring up about raises. I think if I remember correctly, Ms. Bivens did when she started her presentation. She did talk about them trying to look through to see. She gave us three different options as to what they were looking at and how they were going to try in the upcoming year to make sure that our employees get what is due to them and bring it to the board. So, I did want that clarification. And then Um, Hendricks, if you could just kind of address what I

093brought up. >> Yes, ma'am. You You talked about three things. First of all, uh when the time comes, we are talking about vacancies first. If that shifts, we would tell you. At this point, we're we're not there. Uh but when we start to look at how we're going to save money knowing that 90% of that money is in positions, we do need to consider those positions that are vacant. That will be a consideration. Consolidation of facilities, possibly. We'll talk about that at the appropriate time. Right now, we're not there. All of these things have to be considered. You also asked about collective savings. I would ask that Ms. Bivens and her team, they're already working on that. Put that together. We're talking about reduction in stipends, reduction in meals, uh reduction in travel, we're talking

094about other things. And and we'll bring that collectively to the board. And then the last thing you talked about is um possible raises and or bonuses. Those things are things that we do want to consider uh because the price of gas is not going down and employees expect certain things. And they should expect that their organization take care of them in that way. I think I heard Dr. Correa and others mention that. So, we are looking at a couple of things. It would be premature to put those on the table because sometimes when you say those things, people take them as, "Okay, that's what we're going to do." and they hold you to it. But that is the plan. It's always the plan to invest in our employees. And that's why we look for duplications.

095That's why we see some of these things that are actually uh roles of employees and we say, "Let's pull that back." It's not that these things are not good. It's just that we have to consider whether or not we can do the job and whether or not we can take that other money and invest into these employees because they have children and lives and all of those things as well. We looked at how much of how many raises, how many cost of livings we've given to our employees in the last 25 years and we really need to catch up because we haven't done as many as we should and could. And so as much as possible uh increase for our employees, investment into our employees is always on the table. >> Thank you for the

096explanation, Ms. Williams. >> I don't want to make Can you hear me now? Hear me? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. Yes. I know. Okay, well, I'm going to talk loud if they can't hear me cuz I can't hear myself, so I'm not sure. But um some of the stuff we're talking about with the budget, the 3.5 million dollars and the the the money that the million dollars we're giving to the arena, 2 million, whatever it is. >> Mhm. >> Last year when we did the budget, that wasn't supposed to come from us. So, stuff comes up that we don't know comes up. So, I don't want to make it seem like we're not managing the budget. At the 3.5 million last year, we didn't know Kemp was giving out raises for us to have to

097give out the 3.5 million. So, some stuff that we can we can have all the conversations in the world, but we don't know what's happening, we don't know what's going to happen. >> That's a good >> So, we have to look at stuff like that, too. Don't make it sound like we all misusing the money, misusing the funds cuz we all been here. All the departments are here and they it's up to everybody. So, stuff does happen, so we do need some kind of fund balance. But some of the stuff like the the bonuses, we want everybody to get it. But if he gives out something again next year, we won't know that now until they they give out stuff. I just wanted to put that out there. >> Thank you. I think Go ahead,

098Ms. Ms. Davis, you can wrap that up and then we'll move to the next topic. >> comment. Ms. Bowles asked about long-term solutions, and Ms. Haney Dr. Haney hit something that made me think about it. She was talking about the type of businesses that's coming to us. What would help us is if you all would advocate for the school district with our development authority, with our county's economic development department. For instance, the development authority, they give a back tax abatement to lure new businesses. I'm okay with giving some tax abatements, but giving them 90%, 80%, 100% for 10 years at a time? That takes away from money that we could get additional tax revenue on. So, if you all can That's one thing that, you know, I think you all could do is advocate for

099on behalf of the school district and our scholars is that you're giving up that much revenue over that long a period of a of time. So, question. >> Yeah, I'll go after D. Yes, my question was, does the Board of Education still have representation on the Development Authority? >> Dr. Ms. Bivens. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I'm I'm fussed all the time when I go in there. >> Sweet. Thanks. >> Is this mention what you just suggested, Ms. Bivens? Is that mentioned at the budget advisory meetings that we can have some type of >> It has not, but I will make sure we talk about it our next meeting. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right, Mr. Superintendent, I think that's it for this topic. >> Yes. Next up, we have Dr. Ebony

100Lee, who will be talking about the 90-day plan. >> Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, Interim Superintendent, Dr. Hendricks, board members, colleagues, and community. I do have the pleasure of presenting the Interim Superintendent's 90-day plan. I wish I could advance with the clicker. Okay. Specifically, I will highlight some of the accomplishments from 90 days, as well as how we're continuing to advance the work forward. And while I'm presenting this evening, any of my colleagues really could have presented this presentation, because this has truly been the work of our day-to-day efforts. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that while Dr. Hendricks had the vision, developed the plan, we have collectively embraced it and are fully implementing. So, we're excited about where we're headed. The plan was designed to bring clarity and consistency, and

101the word that we all keep hearing, which is coherence. And that's exactly what is taking place. We're level setting to level up. Dr. Hendricks began at a very important phase with listening. And listening has continued throughout each of the three phases. Listening, assessing, stabilizing through our board-hosted listening tours, as well as our classroom visits and other community meetings, so that he could receive a 360° view of our school system. From the diagnostic period, we began aligning, correcting, and organizing, and you'll hear later in the presentation the work that is coming out of those cross-functional meetings. And as we close out the 90 days, we are executing, monitoring, and institutionalizing those practices that we know will help to improve outcomes for our students. You heard it earlier, the children eat first. That mindset has been beyond

102words, but truly indeed. So, the that graphic here, who many of us we've seen now through our reorganization of structure, places our students at the heart, signifying that the children eat first. They are physical representation of the almost 50,000 students that we serve. You'll notice in the heart of it, the core is teaching, learning, and assessment, the new division for teaching and learning, and all other divisions are centered I'm sorry, wrapped around teaching, learning, and assessment. A very important part of the 90-day process, prior to Dr. Hendricks onboarding as interim superintendent, as senior deputy superintendent, he administered climate surveys to all divisions. An expectation is that from those climate surveys, we develop corrective action plans. A comment that is often shared by Dr. Hendricks is that our children feel everything. So, they feel the misalignment,

103or they feel when we are aligned, and they also feel when we are not executing and following up on efforts efficiently. The very first week of Dr. Hendricks' appointment as interim, he level set everyone with the professional agreements of owning your work, being the model, following protocol, hearing other voices, treating others as professionals. And those professional agreements are what we embody as we lead and work with our colleagues. I've already mentioned the listening tours. Many of us were present. We saw that they were standing room only. And the first voice that we heard was the student a student voice, as well as other board members and other our community and school leaders. Lastly, I would like to just lift off the slide the leadership lens. How many of you received the leadership lens? Raise your

104hand if you received the weekly leadership lens. We can Yes, and and just like with other communicative efforts, it has been very well sequenced. It started off the leadership lens going to school leaders, our board members, core cabinet staff, and now our community members are receiving clear expectations of how the work is advancing. Everyone has a part. Everyone is instrumental. Dr. Hendricks is not leading from a me standpoint of I can do this alone. Additionally, one of probably the hardest decisions that he's had to do as interim superintendent, but with courage, is to place the students first. And that did require some restructuring, and as you heard earlier, transitioning from 8 to 13 divisions so that we could clarify roles, reduce duplication, but more so have efficient decision-making so that our students could receive the

105support that they need. That resulted in a net of $1.3 million, and those funds can be distributed to our student improving student outcomes as well as lifting other um programmatic priorities for our school system. The next area speaks to the cross-functional meetings. Why do leaders exist? To solve problems. We know the core work. We run to the problems, and we have several cross-functional team meetings, such as time and attendance, the onboarding process, literacy, co-academic coherence, facility usage, and there are several others. And that requires that we're working together so that we don't have unilateral isolated decision-making where we're not examining all perspectives. It is a model process for for problem-solving. And we have clear communication protocols. We often heard during the listening tours from our families and others that we needed to work on home-school

106school-home communication. That's now cross-functional team led by Dr. Ratcliff. So, it sends the signal that we're not just listening and not just hearing, but we're actively working to address any urgent matters. A part of the student experience and climate improvements from the 90 days is we now have an updated universal discipline behavior matrix that has been shared for a feedback at every level from the students to parents to staff, etc. And will be implemented to support more equitable implementation of our student code of conduct. We are excited to share that we received a no determination of significant disproportionality among racial ethnic groups with over identifying students for specialist. So, let's acknowledge our student support division and department of exceptional students to speak to equity in the work. And then up here, just acknowledging that our

107students need experiences beyond the classroom. So, while we have great attention, we continue to have attention to the four E's: enrollment, enlistment, employment, and entrepreneurship. We know that prior to that, we do need meaningful, purposeful, and free partnerships so that we can create those pathways and those pipelines for our students. So, under Dr. Hendrix's leadership, we officially opened our Junior Achievement Delta Discovery Center. We've had all over 2,000 students, middle school particularly, to matriculate through those experiences learning about business, marketing, etc. And we're excited that we have we're one of only three states in the nation to have the Dream Accelerator, which was a vision of Interim Superintendent Dr. Hendrix. We also learned that we earned five national industry certifications in law public safety pathway, which basically is a stamp of approval and confidence that

108our students are receiving quality learning. So, let's acknowledge our various divisions, Dr. Pam Pitts and her team, CTAE for national certification. And then finally before we close the economic advancement around the arena. We've had some discussions here to already tonight about it, but I think collectively the message during the grand opening and the ribbon cutting is that it's a hub for learning for our students. And it's also an area for economic advancement, employment opportunities for our employees as well as our community. So we're looking forward to seeing the outcomes that occurred with the the arena at South Lake. And we also secured an arena operations partnership during our first 90 days with Dr. Hendricks. Finally, the foundation to it all is ensuring that our students can read, compute, and they have executive functioning early. So

109prior to Dr. Hendricks becoming interim, even in his role as senior deputy, he made a decision that we were going to prioritize it at kindergarten first grade so that we create readers by the end of first grade. I would like to just celebrate that we have a new literacy mantra that speaks to the heart of literacy. That it has to live beyond our school system, in every classroom, community, and beyond. And so this is our logo and we're wanting this logo to be a part of every every time we have a literacy focused event because Clayton County Public Schools is where literacy lives. A part of that banner, it's the launching of our books and board members. How many of you have seen our read alouds produced by communications in collaboration with teaching and learning

110and school leadership? So let's just acknowledge our vision for books and board members and our board members. They are Nyla approved, very engaging, and just um really speak to the importance of oral language, you all. When kids are entering kindergarten, they should be coming with at least 5,000 or more words. And the way they do that is through read-alouds, through discussing the books. And so, this is a very important initiative and it will continue with the next group of individuals. Along with the literacy effort, many of you know we partner with the Rollins Center Atlanta Speech School. Learn for life is the what's the liaison that really allowed us to learn of the opportunity to scale the work. Dr. Hendricks was at the table from the very beginning. And I must acknowledge Dr. Charmaine Johnson

111and the early learning team for bringing it full circle. So, I am excited to share that we get to scale our work in kindergarten first grade for producing that foundational literacy due to being awarded a $4.5 million literacy grant from the United Way of Greater Atlanta. So, congratulations Clayton County Public Schools that we can scale the work, more students, more teachers, more families getting the wrap-around support from experts. So, that's warranted of an exuberant round of applause. So, literacy and justice for all. So, I think this is a great place to conclude the presentation. Dr. Hendricks and as we and everyone as we look forward what's to come. You all have said I think Ms. Hill touched on it. Continued transparency. >> Fantastic. I'm going to I'm sorry, go ahead. Go ahead. >> Yes, continued

112transparency and progress with where our challenges lie, greater confidence that the systems are in place for academic success, the reorganization of our various divisions moving forward, and then our summer leadership symposium has been redesigned to have all leaders in present so that we can have confident leaders, coherent systems as we build a better tomorrow today. Chairman, this concludes my update and I wanted to just once again acknowledge our interim superintendent for the vision and for the board members um vision and wisdom in bringing him on board to lead us during this transition time. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Board members, I think that this um kind of wraps up the beginning of um of what we started when we um appointed the interim superintendent. The 90 days are over and what I'm going to

113propose to all board members is that we now begin the discussion of um what we're going to do going forward. But, I do propose that we do this after the graduations. Let's get past the graduations first and then let's work with our board attorney and start having conversations about what our next move is is is going to be. So, I'm I'm employing all board members to start thinking about what that next step is going to look like and let's begin having conversations within ourselves to get an idea of, you know, which which way we're going to go. Ms. Bowles? >> Dr. Lee, you were so excited to get back to your seat and I'm sorry, but I have two questions for you. And no worries. I um And these also might be great to table.

114Just wanted to lift them. Um I'm so proud and congratulations to the entire district on the $4.5 million grant from United Way for literacy. That's incredible. My first question, again, something that you may not have the full answer for now, but I'm curious about our immediate next steps for dispersing or deploying these funds. Um what's our first step? Um is this for literacy coaches? Is this for curriculum? I hope not. But, you know, people um and not that curriculum is not a great thing. Just as we think about how our scholars learn, it's often those more small group touches and literacy coaching has been a big part of how the Mississippi miracle was made manifest, right? Where we've seen decades of literacy growth just with our neighbor. And literacy coaches had a lot to do

115with that. And then my second question for you about the 90-day plan is related to another compliment, which is really proud of our district for having no determinations of significant disproportionately from the state. That's huge. And how can we ensure that these findings are codified more deeply in our policy? This sounds like a practice that we should all just be proud of. I love that. How can we take this from a practice that just got great feedback to a policy? And so I lift that perhaps as an a way to address the student discipline regulation policy JB or the the the R part of that, the regulation. So those are my two questions. Just proud of us and curious about the implementation of those literacy funds. And then how we can align our great feedback

116more into policy. >> So can I take the second part real quick? The discipline matrix will take care of the disproportionality and it's already been codified into policy, I do believe. And so what we aspire to do is be equitable in handing out discipline by tearing discipline and giving guidance to schools on a range of discipline for certain types of infractions, which means across the board we will be more aligned instead of being what I think as though I'm an individual contractor working in a space rather than a school district. That's a system that should be all together. And so we think that that's going to help us dramatically and that's the work of Dr. Melvin Blocker and Dr. Egbuna. They've been superior with that, as well as Ms. Robinson. And so, I'll pass it

117back to you so you can talk about the plan. We had to go before uh United Way with the plan. We had to go a couple of times, and we also had to have a body of work, which we had already been instituting under uh the leadership of Dr. Charmaine Johnson. And so, you can speak to what we're doing with the 4.5, but it's a plan. It's not just spending money. It's what we submitted. >> Yes, so the big pillars, and please know that we release we received the letter and permission to share regarding the grant, and we're waiting on further permission from the people who sit first chair to give us insight into how to go into more details. But, just at a high level, the pillars that was submitted with the grant was

118to scale our work, strengthen our early literacy. So, now instead of implementing with 18 schools, when it comes to plan to 25 elementary schools, we are onboarding 15 reading interventionists or specialists who will work directly with students and teachers, as well as ramping up our family engagement efforts, and ensuring that our professional development is scaled and aligned to the science of reading. Um so, we'll be able to go into more details um later, but the funds are for fiscal year '26 to fiscal year 2027. >> Thanks, Dr. Lee. >> And we And Clayton County actually received 2.5 million. 1.9 million goes to Atlanta Speech School Rollins to support the work that they're doing in partnership with us. So, it's all for Clayton County Public Schools. And as Dr. Hendrix mentioned, Dr. Johnson and the team,

119they had to go back and forth justifying, but when they presented where our students have been and where they are now, those success metrics, they also sho- saw the strength of the implementation. It was Yeah, it just really was a vote of confidence. Well done and thanks again. >> Dr. Johnson, kudos to you and your team. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, Ms. Hill. >> Thank you so much. This is really great information and I'm happy to hear all the great things. I just have two questions. What baseline data and program monitoring systems are in place? And also, how will progress be reported to the board consistently and transparently? >> So, one of our cross-functional teams that we have launched under the leadership of Dr. Colbert is the transition. And a part of that transition CFT is

120outlining on the front end a timeline of what data points will be shared from localized data that could be our curriculum data to our measures of academic progress map data to our state and national data. So, the board will receive from that cross-functional team the timeline of what data will be shared with the board and when it will be shared. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Superintendent, I think that concludes our superintendent updates and now we can move into the proposed agenda. >> Excuse me. >> Yes, I'm sorry. >> I'd like to follow up on that what Ms. Hill and you just talked about data. I had actually had a conversation with superintendent today you mentioned map map data. >> Yes. >> And being transparent, do you all realize we have not seen we're about to

121finish the year and we haven't seen any of that data at all this year. And we also I know we purchased a uh What was it? What is >> dashboard >> analytic view >> Yeah, we we need it would be really nice if we could have some access to that. I think I probably sent an email sometime ago in regards to that. And um you mentioned some climate surveys that Dr. Hendricks did as the senior deputy. Uh could we see the surveys, some of the results? >> I don't mind giving you a summary of that information. I think that's what would best benefit you. Um but I I I don't mind sharing a summary of >> Yeah, that's what Yeah, we we'd like to see some of the summaries cuz you know, of course I

122have I'm very happy about the grant uh from United Way. They've been in partnership with us for some time. And uh I'm really glad to um see we we talked about the science of reading and we we've also talked about money in the grant and I do believe that we should have some money for additional reading coaches based on some of the legislation that was passed in the General Assembly this year. So, I think that will uh benefit us greatly. I'm I'm going to make another suggestion cuz I was I mentioned to um Dr. Hendricks today, I was driving my little grandchildren around and they were talking about how do how do you spell kind? And so, my granddaughter started explaining um about phonetically Orton-Gillingham. You know, I talked about Orton-Gillingham for many years. My

123grandson said, "Well, you're telling me that it's spelled that way, but my friend spells their name k y n d." And then, of Of I just had to play and say, "Well, you know, that's one of those ethnic uh spellings." And so, but I just was just amazed that when she recited all the rules for it, the different words, and I'm and I was saying to myself, "Man, at some point uh our kids I know some of our children can do that as well. So, I'm really happy with the way we're moving, but of course, you know, I still think we're moving a little bit too slow. And I hope that with this grant we'll pick up a little bit more momentum and not continue upon, you know, like one grade level at a time

124because I still am worried about all of those children that came through COVID that were about to graduate that I mean, you know, they're probably in high school and they're still not reading, and I think we're moving a little bit too slow. And I think we need to try to train every teacher that teaches reading to students in Clayton County. But, I'm really proud of every all of the accomplishments that you all just mentioned this evening. I just think we need to pick up the pace. >> Thank you, Dr. Lee. So, with that being said, I uh on our proposed agenda agenda from the superintendent and chair, first up would be Ms. Ramona Bivins with our financial report and budget amendment and splash revenue report and purchasing report. >> Good evening. Good evening again. So,

125let's see here. Okay, there we go. Okay. So, the first item is the monthly financial report as of March 31st, we are 3/4 of the way through the fiscal year or 75% through the fiscal year. We have collected 66% of our budgeted revenue at $480.8 million. Um of that 79% of our budgeted taxes have been collected. We collected 62% of our state revenue and we're 89% on our federal revenue. And on the expenditure side, we've expended 64% of our budgeted expenditures. We're at $465.7 million. And Miss uh Dr. Goree referenced earlier that we have $170 million showing on this report. That number changes every month based on our total um revenue that we received and our total expenditures for the year. So, if our revenue exceeds our expenditures, that number will go up from that

126um estimated beginning fund balance. If our expenditures exceed our revenue at any point in time, that number will go down. So, that's where we are as of March 31st. So, once we get to the end of the year, that number will change. So, I I did want to point that out. Any questions on the monthly financial report? >> Any questions? Seeing none, you can move. >> Thank you. Next, we have I have four budget amendments. The first one is from the CCPS Foundation um in the amount of $6,174.09. And this these funds were provided to support the prom expenses for the Department of Exceptional Students. I think you saw that earlier. And for reimbursement to the district for meals provided for our budget advisory committee meetings. >> Any questions in regards to the amendment? No.

127>> Okay. The second budget amendment is to accept funding for the AI STEM Integration Initiative from the Georgia Department of Education in the amount of $20,000. >> Any questions? No. >> All right. Next is to um increase the account, the revenue account for the GBI fingerprinting fund um by $20,000. We've collected We've done more fingerprinting, so we have more invoices to pay and we collected more money for that as well. So, we need to incorporate that into the budget. >> Any questions in regards to the fingerprinting? >> And the final budget amendment is to accept a grant received from the United Way of Greater Atlanta in the amount of $90,000. This funding will be utilized for the Kinder Camp program and during our monthly meetings, one of the board members asked about this grant and

128I did inquire and it's for a summer program to prepare our students for kindergarten that we have every summer. It's a 2-week camp. >> questions, board members? >> No. >> All right. Next, we have our SPLOST revenue collection for the month of March, we received $5.7 million. Although that is a decrease from the prior month, it is in line. If you look back to last year, we collected 5.4, so we're actually trending ahead of our what we collected in the previous year during that period of time. Hold on. Collection to date is Hold on. I'm on the wrong page. $103.6 million and we're actually a little over $6 million a month on a SPLOST. Yes. >> So, right currently we're at $6 million on the average. >> On the average, we're collecting $6 million a

129month. Yes. >> So, the the arena district, we're waiting for about a year and a half, 2 years >> Yes. >> before that goes up. >> Yes. >> Hopefully. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Any questions on SPLOST? >> No questions. >> Okay. So, next we have our purchasing report. So, I actually have the purchase report in a supplemental report. I do the regular purchasing report first. So, you have three reports. Report A is your consumable purchases made with a value of $10,000 or more. Report B are your non-consumable purchases made with a value of $10,000 or more but less than $100,000. And report C of the non-consumable items with a value of $100,000 or more that require board approval as detailed in the executive summary. Any questions on any of the items on the

130purchasing reports? >> Any questions on the purchasing report, Ms. Bowes? >> Yes, thank you. Um two questions. One is um I noticed a sole source opportunity and one of our largest expenditures on this purchasing was for the um about $141,000 for catering for graduation. That feels um food feels important. I'm also glad that this is according to our records a minority business enterprise and a woman business enterprise. Love all of that. I think my question um is is this or is this not a sole source, meaning no other people could bid, um due to our relationship with the arena and their vendor? And then if that is the reason, um is there anything we did to ensure um fair and competitive pricing um with this I just noticed this is one of our largest expenditures

131on this particular report. >> Okay, sure. Um so, the reason they it was a sole source is because we have to use a vendor that the arena has um I guess contracted with. No different than when we were at the GRCC, we had to use the catering vendor that they had. So, it's the same thing, except we're paying for it instead of us paying the money to the arena, we're paying for it directly. So, we have to bring it to the board. >> I see. Thank you so much for that. And then my second question um was about multi-year partnerships. Like, um, we're having a renewal of 352, 352,000, with Georgia Tech, and that's for our magnet program, which also feels great. Um, I'm curious about our oversight of something like that. Um, how do

132we evaluate this program's success, or is it just auto renewed and at the tune of about 400k every three years, five, or what's our >> I believe that is something that falls under Dr. Wiley's purview, so she is actually walking down the steps to come to speak to that. >> And super short, so this is not about the magnet program. This is purely about the, um, our partnership with Tech at 352. >> does that, can I um, uh, um, can I follow up on the question that Ms. Bowles also asked about as far as that sole source, and then Ms. Dr. Wiley answered that. Because I was just looking at the amount, and, uh, I'm sure that, uh, it's, uh, a lot less than what we've been spending, but just a suggestion, is is that

133money just Who are we feeding? Is it Will that be our our employees because as Ms. Williams just mentioned about the whole food thing, you know, we have a lot of other people that show up to eat, and since we we will have a it'll be at the arena, and I hope we'll have some concession stands. Can those people go to the concession stand >> Okay, so >> this time, and, uh, >> I'm going to let Ms. >> not the people that I I'm assuming is this for our employees that are going to be >> So >> working. I'm going to let Ms. Let me give you this information that she sent me earlier. So, meals that we paid in the past two years at GICC for volunteers, VIP, safe and security, and transportation in

1342025, I'm sorry, 2024, we spent $170,331. Last year was $166,671.25. Now, I'm going to let her elaborate on who we're feeding this year. >> And and really, you're saying a number that I thought it was considerably more than that. Is I thought the number was more like in the $400,000 range, but yes, please go ahead. >> Good evening. The total that was paid to the GICC was in that $400,000 range, which included more than just the food. But yes, so the the food will include our employees who are volunteering for the event, as well as our bus drivers >> Okay. >> who are transporting our students, as well as our uh security. Um and then those um any anyone else who was just there for for the for the long haul of graduation. So, that's

135who the >> Okay, yeah. And I And And that's why I'm asking, because I have no problem with it going there. >> Mhm. >> But then, you know, we have those other folks that come in. And I just want us to direct them to the concession stand. >> Right. >> So, that way we can make some money off of the concession stand, and that will be some money that comes to us, cuz we have some people that come in they bring a the whole team of themselves, and they partake of quite a lot of our food. So, I just want them to And then maybe some of them are looking, so they can bring some money with them this year and spend it at the concession stand to help our economy and our budget. >>

136Yes, ma'am. >> Good evening, Ms. Bowles and members of the board. The Georgia Tech grant is paid through or a contract is paid through the Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant, the competitive grant, and it's a 5-year grant. So, we use the same company. It is evaluated through our external evaluator, which is uh required for the federal government. >> Five-year grant, thank you. Federal government, thank you. Auto-renewed or not? >> Um as far as the contract with Georgia Tech? >> Do we Yes, the contract. >> Yes, yes, because it's >> uh they don't There's not like a um bid process? >> Correct, because it's written in the grant and approved by the federal government. >> Thank you, Dr. Battle. >> Any other questions about purchasing? Seeing none, this is Superintendent >> Thank you. >> Um Oh,

137Ronnie. Thank you. Uh good evening, Mr. Chair, uh Mrs. Vice Chair, members of the board. Dr. Hendricks, you received two reports from the capital uh improvements department. First being the school construction update for the month of April. Uh total payments were 15.2 million dollars. There were three deductive change orders totaling 211,000 dollars. Additionally, you received the capital uh purchase report for items uh below 250,000 dollars submitted for information. Uh are there any questions at this time? >> Ronnie. >> Seeing none. >> I'm sorry. You said deductive? >> Deductive, reducing reducing the contract amount. >> What was that amount? >> 211,000 dollars. >> Okay, that's what I thought. Thanks. >> Are there any other questions, Ms. Ms. Baker? >> I just want to give kudos to you and your team. Um that arena opening is amazing.

138Amazing things are going to happen. I heard all kinds of good things. Now, the backstairs, we got to fix those, but um other than that, I I did I heard from numerous people how impressed they were with this and the work you've done. So, thank you for being one of those crazy nuts that just wouldn't give up. >> Great job, Mr. Joseph. >> I got a question. >> Go ahead. >> What about the change order before 5 minutes is up? The deducts that tell them about >> Yes. >> prices went down or something or >> Uh yes, embedded in all the contracts we include allowances for unforeseen conditions. Uh for example, um unstable soils, rock blasting, and so we reconcile um all those allowances at the very end and what's not used is deducted back

139to the contract. >> You go to the document room? >> No, ma'am. >> Did What did you ask about the >> the money back in the 45 minutes? >> No, because I I you had a question about uh the change in the athletic field that I thought that we was that we approved, but that seemed to have been changed. Can you maybe send us a an explanation of what happened with that land that we approved? Just, you know, if you could email it to us. >> Uh >> Because remember the rendering was one way, but what's up there is not what we approved. And I think there was a reason for it, but I'm not sure what it was. >> Yeah, I'll give you a a summary of what these deducts are and what they

140entail uh for for more clear clarification. >> Okay. >> Excuse me. >> So, since you know, you have have you done your purchasing? You you've been through all of that, all right? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Uh you One of the things that I saw was purchasing the rubber tiles um at Lake Ridge. I think it's about $17,000. I'm trying to find out is that to replace the gym floor that's at Lake Ridge? Or is that something else? >> Yeah, that's not on my report for Lake Ridge. >> Okay, because I you know, I did send you all some pictures about that and of course you know my question again is about that playground equipment. That we're about to close out the school year and we still don't have playground equipment at Lake Ridge and

141maybe some other people and I wish that we could come up with a better plan with uh getting that equipment and also I want to know when Four Church Streets of marquee can work out. We're about to finish the school year. We've done all of the renovation and we still don't have a a marquee that's like everybody else's. We need a little equity. It's still there. I don't Do I need to like bring some extension cords or something and plug it into the >> Uh no, ma'am. >> or just I sure would like to see the home of the Wildcats show up just one time before we close the school year out. Can you get that company to come out? >> Uh yes, ma'am. Um regarding the playgrounds, we did get a delivery date for

142the equipment. I believe it's May 1st. Uh so you'll start seeing that uh equipment come in and we'll begin work uh as soon as possible. Uh in terms of the uh sign at Church Street, um in terms of um equitable deliverables, there was some uh concerns expressed to us about the size of the marquee. We made those changes and so we'll find out in terms of when can we get that live and uh get get get you an update on that as well. >> Are there any additional questions? Seeing none, thank you very much, Mr. Joseph. Ms. Alicia Albrighton with Human Resources. >> Good evening, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board, interim superintendent Dr. Hendricks, colleagues, and community members. The personnel changes report summarizes all personnel actions for the period of March

14317th through April 13th, 2026. Human resources updates were submitted to the Board of Education for your review. I am happy to answer any questions. >> Are there any HR questions? >> Just one. >> Go for it. >> Um I first want to commend you and your department for what looks to be um very few voluntary resignations um or dismissals during this period. And that's really exciting. So, kudos for that. Um and the low number of spring resignations is great news, but that April 21st hiring event really curious about how that landed impact-wise um in proportion to our vacancies for the high-need roles, not the vacancies we've been talking about eliminating to to be um great stewards, but for the things that we cannot eliminate that are really important like bus drivers and other critical roles.

144How did that 421 event do on closing those gaps? >> Absolutely. So, the 421, the April 21st hiring event was phenomenally successful. Um I must commend the team for excellent advertisement. There were over 400 job seekers in attendance. >> Good job. >> In terms of transferring those to hiring requests, um there is the opportunity for hiring managers um predominantly school leaders to make requests for hire on-site. So, some of them have done so. Others prefer to bring them back to the building for a school tour, maybe an interview with a a teacher panel. So, in the coming days, I will share with the board how those hiring requests are impacting our bottom line in terms of vacancies. We on And generally try to give at least a week lag time between the event and sharing

145that data knowing that all do not submit their request for hire on site. >> Well, that's good. >> anticipate receiving that. >> Are there any other questions? >> Yes. How many uh vacancies are we anticipating having next year when we start the school year off? >> I can share with you that um as of April 14th we had 340. And again, those are vacancies that we are sourcing for now for school year 26-27. >> Okay, I I noticed a couple of situations where we had some dismissals and it seemed I I won't call anybody's names, but I was just wondering with dismissals are these situations where those em- ployees decided to resign in lieu of termination or do are we not holding tribunals or what would be uh the rationale for that? >> Okay. So,

146the dismissals outright are a result of employee discipline. Um and so those would be um transactions in that process. >> So, when we dismiss those people and I believe and they're tenure people, do they not get the right to a tribunal? And did they decide to resign in lieu of termination is my question cuz when I see the word dismissal, that just tells me what I interpret it as is that you've just been fired. >> Understood. Um Ms. Garrett, are you able to elaborate? >> I was going to say, "Good evening, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Hendricks, and the community at large. I was actually going to ask because unless it it depends on dismissals, if it's a classified one, then it wouldn't be an individual who would actually qualify

147for a fair dismissal hearing. If it is a certified individual, then yes, you are accurate. In that instance, if it is not an individual that actually came to you, the board members, for you all to review a tribunal panel determination, then you made a decision whether to ratify that, whether to modify it, uphold it, or I outright deny it. In that instance, there are individuals who do decide in lieu of going and moving forward with a hearing, they do have that right. They decide that they do not want to move forward with the hearing, and then they tender their resignation. In that instance, I'm not sure why it would reflect as a dismissal because that would be a resignation. >> Exactly. So, I Is there some way maybe going forward that we can maybe have

148some type of way of understanding what happened because I just hope that we're not that we're just sending I In the past, I know we've had leadership that where they actually fired people, and they were sent home. I would hope that we would have you know, that we've at least given due process. And I know with the classified in the employees, that doesn't happen, which is that's also something that I disagree with because we don't seem to give classified employees their due process. >> Yes, so actually Ms. Albritton just shared with me those four individuals and two of those individuals were classified employees and the other two were hearings that did come to the board for review. >> Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I wish we could kind of like note it note that because

149>> Is there any way to make an indication of that in your written reports? >> Parentheses so we kind of understand that. >> Is that >> I'm going to actually defer that to our team doesn't manage the personnel changes, but I do think what you'll see is maybe an asterisk. Maybe I was going to say you mean you want to know hearing or you want to know because it has the actual position. So maybe an asterisk. I think for those certified are you wanting to know which ones have come to the board? >> Yeah, I would just say an asterisk because that's what I was looking at was I knew what was certified. I just want to make sure that you know, that they had to do diligence. Maybe if you put an asterisk by

150it then we know that it is that either they decided to resign or whatever they they left on their own accord or either they did have a hearing and it came before us because we can't always remember what happened, you know, the way these reports come. They're a little bit behind or whatever. You see what I'm saying? >> I do. I do. I work with Ms. Albritton. I think I hear what you're asking. So in terms of what you just want to asterisk. So the two that actually came to the board you just want to asterisk so you would know that that actually although it's lagging it's as a result of a hearing that came to the board, but it's being reflected on this report because that's when it was processed. Okay, understood. >> Got

151that, Mr. Superintendent? >> Absolutely. My team heard it and they're magnificent so I know it'll be done. >> Thank you. Any other questions for Ms. Albritton? Seeing none, we can move forward. >> Thank you. We're now moving into board matters. We're coming close. Um the first item on board matters, which we do not vote on today, it's a first read, is policy series I. Is there any discussion on policy series I right now? Any? >> Yes. >> I'll start with Ms. Bowles, and then I'll go to Ms. Goree, and I heard a yeah over here. Who was that? Dr. Haney, all right. So, I got three people. >> Okay. Um for for future discussion, nothing we have to solve right now, but we have a new AI policy, which seems great. And part of that

152policy prohibits elements of the AI use. For example, grading, and different Well, grading without human review, things like that. Sounds great. There's also tools we're using that are AI. And I think that maybe we can do for for our discussion and continued work, perhaps we can do a better job of trying to distinguish, um you know, there's a portion of the AI policy prohibits AI grading, and then a portion that um requires AI I am lit- AI literacy. And so, what PD are we planning on that helps our staff understand um literally the what is prohibited and what is encouraged and incentivized. Um I see you, Andy, and I'm so grateful. Um my second question is we have a new policy element in the I series that wants us to be better stewards of our

153accountability measures when it comes to authorizing charters. And part of this policy says any denials are a thing, right? So, if we know that there's new state policy for accountability of boards that may or may not deny charter petitions, how does this info find its way into our evaluation rubric and processes? Um we know state policy changes every year all the time and it's really important that we are equally responsive. So, what are we doing about that? And then my third question in the I series um is shout out to home school students. And I'm I love that part of our welcoming of home school students allows them to take the SAT and the SAT in our schools. There's that's what one of these policies is about. So, that's great. But, my question is do

154we have the administrative and testing capacity ready to accommodate something like that if and when we find our neighbors wanting to seize this opportunity. Um and I'm thinking about facilities, but also administration of people. Um again, we can table these and think of them later or um Mr. Sykes is ready to answer the first one or we can talk. Whatever y'all think. >> Well, please. Yes, sir. Um well, good evening Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board. Um as far as the AI policy goes, that was actually worked on uh collectively, not just by technology. And the main reason for that is we began creating an AI position statement about a year ago for the district and how we will operate with AI. And the benefit to the position statement is you can

155make changes as you need to with how you're going to implement AI, what you're going to do on a day-to-day basis because the technology's changing faster than you can keep up with a lot of times. But, in addition to that, what we discovered while we were doing that is there are some things that need to really be there to protect our students and to protect our faculty and staff. And so, that's why you see the policy in there when it comes to grading, when it comes to FERPA, COPPA, and CEPPA, and just making sure that we are actually doing on the things that should not change and that we cannot waver on. Those are the areas that we said, "Let's make this a a part of our policy um to make sure that we have

156this stance in there and that way it's not only understood by uh those within our school district, it's those doing business with our school district as well and keeping that also there. And for professional development, we what we've done in part of that that position statement is we've already begun uh putting out mandated professional development for AI um at different tiers in the district. So, we've already sent this out to teachers. Um it's content that's created internally, but in addition to that, the state has created some content as well that we're sharing also. So, there's there's that for teachers, there's that for staff. Really, the only area that we have we've done it for students as well. The area we haven't hit collectively yet is district leadership, but that's on the road map as well.

157So, we're we're starting it from where we deem it most important uh on that professional development area and sort of working outside from there. But, we're uh we've had a CFT for AI for over a year and we've been just been constantly working and evolving on that. Um so, >> Thank you, Mr. Sides. That's actually really cool that your team works with the policy folks. Like, that's some of the cross-functional work we're talking about and I think that's awesome. So, thank you. >> And I don't see Dr. Rump Carter, but I'll ask that Dr. Wiley uh get with her so we can answer the charter question, but we will go ahead and answer the testing question with Ms. Jacqueline Johnson. >> Good evening, Board Chair, Madam Vice Chair, Board, and members of the community. To

158answer your question about what is our capacity right now, it is a house board rule, so we have to be ready. It's not something we can't do. We have um set up on our website. We have to publish when those dates are going to be, and we also have to have an application process so that we collect that information from the families who are interested. And we have a a process set up with our school test coordinators where those home school students would report to the school that would be their home school if they were actually enrolled in our district, and they would report there for testing, and we communicate that behind the scenes. Right now, we have not had many uh parents who have uh addressed us wanting that, so we've only had two

159who have wanted that, and actually they were not from within Clayton County, so we directed them to their actual county where they would be going to take those assessments. >> Very cool. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions? >> As a follow-up to that, >> Yes. >> uh I know that a couple of tests that we offer to our students anyway for free, uh are we allowing our home school students to to take those without any charge or what? >> Yes, we are required to. Anything that we offer to our students because the house board rule says that we must also offer those same assessments to the home school home study students. >> That's great. And thank you. And back to uh Mr. Sykes, I I you were talking about all

160the training that you all are doing, and you're coming up to the to the staff. Uh one of the courses that we're off that they're offering for GSBA in the summer uh that we're about to go to the conference is how AI is uh in our schools. And I'm going I'm definitely going to sign up for it. One of the things that I enjoyed about uh Colin Kaepernick coming. I even told him myself that maybe I'm going to try to embrace the whole AI thing because I'm I'm I'm just kind of fearful of technology. I still can't really operate my iPad very well and I it's quite embarrassing when you with your little grandchildren and they can just go across it. So, I think maybe as you engage the staff, can you all also consider

161engaging board members if if we so desire because I'm signing up for it. But, thank you for that. I wanted to go to the charter school uh policy that we have. And I just want if there's a way, I know we you have this color coding, but I found this to be quite confusing with all of the the black, the red, the purple. And one of the things that is I'm trying to read this I know that actually I've been in a meeting Miss Baker and I with Dr. Ron Carter because we're trying to get our charter in line with the new state regulations and everything. But, as I was reading the policy I got down here to the purple which says it talks about a timeline and as soon as I tried to click

162on it because it talked about uh compliance and deadlines. Now, we have made it red, so I guess we're I don't know I've forgotten what the red is. Uh it takes you to the state website and then instead of the state website having a date on it, then you got to go back and read all of their paperwork to try to figure out something. Can we just at least put some dates on this policy? And of course it would change from year to year based on, you know, what it is for the next year, but to me that just makes it simpler because to me that's just confusing if you're trying to be in compliance with the school district and then instead of the school district supplying um something, we have a hyperlink. And that's

163throughout all of our policies, even when you go look at board policies, you'll you'll click on one of our policies and it'll it's in reference to OCGA. Then when you click on OCGA, then it takes you to Lexus and then you can't then you got to figure out how to get in there to even see what it is that you're trying to read. So basically that was um just my concern cuz it's it's it was just very confusing to me. And I just want to I'm sorry, make sure I'm referencing I uh page two. Is that that uh I'm just saying if you you start out yeah from the it just starting and then I you know, I tried to go through all of it with all the different colors cuz I couldn't remember what

164what's what's red, what's purple, what's what. Just trying to figure it out. And then when you clicking on links, then instead of me finding out any information, then I got to go back to what the state has and that that means I got to read another 15 pages to get to just you could just tell me it's due on January the 2nd and then just fill in the blanks. And then next year when we were doing the policy, we just know we need to you know, change the dates so that uh you know, so that everybody would know what they need to do in order to be in compliance. >> And may I ask um the board's perfect Is that Is that okay to put that in the regulations instead of the policies because one

165of the reasons why is it does change. Um that would allow the administration to be able to drop it in case there are some additions. So, I do I do believe I understand exactly what you're saying. You're saying instead of it linking to that, we'll go back, look at the policies instead of it linking to the actual um the code or the board rule, you're wanting that pulled out and actually dropped in for the dates for quick reference. So, um I'm proposing if we put it in the regulations which are attached to if it's attached to a policy, then that way it'll be easier and quicker for us to just make the change and bring it to you all for information so there's an update to a change in those dates. Okay. Yeah. And I

166think um and Clem, I think Clem was I think we're talking about the same one. It's the second paragraph on the second page, but we'll go through that entire um that entire policy is worded. >> Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. >> And and just a quick 30-second um comment to Ms. Bowles' um question. Uh Dr. Ron Carter texts me and said that they have been working with the National Charter School Institute to revise the policy along with the state law. And so, we'll give you a written response um before the close of business on Wednesday. >> That's fantastic. And and the policy update sounds really smart. I'm more curious about our our practices. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Cuz we know having it written down in policy is fine. Do we implement it and well?

167>> Correct. So, both of those. Thank you for that though. >> I think I think that's it for um policy series I. That's a first read. Um all of the questions and discussions that came up means that we have ample time to actually um shape this policy the way that we want it um shaped. Um please, board members, send blast off those emails. Um blast off the emails so that we could all get the discussion going, pick up the phone, talk to each other, and um, when we get to that final read, you know, let's let's make sure that we ironed everything out. All right, the next is the policy regulation JDR-1, which is a regulation, meaning that is for information only. Am I correct, Ms. Garrett? Right, so it's we we could put some

168input in, but we won't have to vote on this at the at the next meeting. >> You do not. Um, again, good evening, uh, board members. One of the reasons why we wanted to bring it to you all because of its importance. Um, as you can see, it was referenced today, uh, in the superintendent's plan. The most important thing, and I think you all have been, uh, some of you were actually on or, um, involved or made aware of the CFT. It really took about a year, so it was a very comprehensive review to look at, again, how the school district, um, um, in acts its code of conduct, the student discipline code of conduct, but then most importantly, I think that, and I would say, um, kudos to our discipline team, was the creation

169of that universal discipline matrix, which is why you see, to Ms. You see a lot of red, and that's the staff. That's the staff changes, and that purple would be, um, the staff attorneys, and then you'll also see the green would be any board member recommendations, but you see a lot of red because it was readjusted, realigned. Um, there was a CFT with teachers, with students, with staff. The community had input put, and it was done over a year's time. It started back in May of 2025, uh, gone over several months, and then in February we started the formal meetings to bring it to you in the, um, uh, policy review schedule process and align it within that process. >> Dr. Blocker, thank you for you and your team for putting that matrix together. I

170think we are moving to the business agenda. This is something that we do have to vote on this evening. That's the approval of the Everybody has received the proposed board meeting agenda for May 4th. I'm looking to get that approved. Can I get a vote? Miss Baker. >> So moved. >> Can I get a second? Miss Hill. The motion has been made and properly second. Can I get vote for the approval of the proposed board meeting agenda for May 4th, 2026, which is next Monday? All right, it looks like it's unanimous minus Mr. Christmas. Madam Vice Chair, have we covered everything? >> We are good. >> It looks like we've covered everything, folks. Thank you for your patience and attention this evening. The time is 6:28 p.m. I I correct