001Okay, it is 6 o'clock and we will bring our meeting to order at this time. We will begin with our invocation. Mr. Willson, can you do that for us? >> Uh, father, it's been a good day today and we appreciate everything that you've done for us. We're mindful most of all of our troops who are minding the store might say uh so that we continue to have the freedom that we have to meet and do the things we need to do. Father, I ask that you be with our country and be with our troops and watch them. And Father, tonight for the recognition of these students, uh I say this just about every time because I know that they have worked very hard to attain what they obtained. And uh when one is honored, we
002are all honored. And uh so, Father, we're very proud of the accomplishments of Walker County, the teachers, and the students of all that they have done. >> And so, Father, ask that you bless these proceedings tonight. Give us wisdom and uh give us understanding as we try to make decisions that are best interest of the teachers and the students of county. So each person that is here this evening, each family that is represented here this evening, I ask that you might bless them and watch over them and watch over our school system in a very special way as only you can. And father, we'll give you the praise for all you do. For it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Mr. Richardson, will you do our pledges, please? >> Absolutely. If you'll please stand and
003join me. Pledge to the American flag. >> Attention. Salute. Pledge. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Georgia flag. Attention. Salute. Pledge. I aliance to the flag and to the principles for it stands wisdom justice moderation and courage. >> Thank you. >> We do need an approval of tonight's agenda. Do we have a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor and special recognitions. Mr. All right. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. We have tonight, in my opinion, a a good plethora of the mission and vision of Walker County Schools, and that's we're going to honor students. We're going to honor teachers, and then we're going to honor the opportunities
004that we're providing to our students. And so, I'm excited about tonight. I hate that we had to bump some of you guys from last month to this month, but we appreciate your flexibility. So tonight we've got the 2026 star students and teachers. Mr. Kut is going to introduce our folks from the chamber and then maybe even have the principles join us as we recognize teachers and students. Um then we're going to move on to our 2026 Georgia scholars. This is something that's been happening across our system for a couple of years and we're extremely proud of the accomplishments of these students. Then we're going to talk a little bit about industry certification and so uh some great things to recognize our students and teachers tonight and to put a highlight on some programming in our
005system. So Justin, if you'll take over for the star student and teacher. >> Well, good evening. >> I have the opportunity to recognize the star students from Lefett High School and Ridgeland High School tonight. Um so just to give a little bit of background of what the star student is. To obtain the star student nomination, high school students must have the highest SAT score on any single day test of their senior year and be in the top 10% of their class based on grade point average. Students then get the opportunity to choose their star teacher for having had the most influence on their academic achievement. And so tonight we're going to start with Lefett High School. And the star student for Lefett High School is Mr. Marvin Fuentes. His star teacher is Mr. Franklin Kobos.
006And then we also have Miss Lacy Smith here with us tonight on behalf of the Walker County Chamber of Commerce. She is the president and she has some certificates for them. Um, and then I want to read a little bit about Marvin and why he chose Mr. for Kobos. Marvin Fuentes is the star student for LHS for the class of 2026. Marvin is an active leader in Rambler Nation, making history as the first state officer from Lefett High School, serving as Skills USA Georgia State Reporter. He has also served as Georgia FBLA region 8 vice president and participated in SGAA, HOSA, Beta and NHS. An internationally rec recognized pianist, Marvin is a state champion in Skills USA and placed in the top 15 at the FBA National Leadership Conference. He also advocates for the Latino
007community through teaching Sunday school and coaching youth soccer. Marvin plans to attend Georgia Tech to study business administration with the goal of creating a nonprofit and expanding educational opportunities for marginalized communities. Marvin shared that he chose Mr. Kobos as his star teacher because of his passion, humor, love, and connection with students. Mr. Kobos has always supported me and my family, but he has also supported students in the school who don't speak English by giving them equal education access through breaking language barriers. He has always encouraged me to become better each day and this has given me a drive to make him and Rambler Nation proud with the board. You changed college. >> Oh, you changed for college. Where are you going? >> I'm going to Colia. >> Colia. Congratulations. >> Hey, let's do it on
008three. One, two, three. >> One more. >> Let me get one. I apologize. One. Two. All right. Congratulations. >> Now to recognize Ridgand High School star student, we have Mr. Eli Earl and his star teacher, Dr. RYAN BANNY to read a little bit about Eli and why he chose Dr. Bandy. Eli Earl is the star student for RHS for the class of 2026. Eli brings a sense of respect, honor, and integrity into the world that few others at his age encapsulates. Eli is a member of the Ridgeland Honors Academy, is the valid Victorian origin high school, member of the cross country team, and the National Honor Society. He is the editor for the yearbook yearbook and vice president of the student government association. He will further his studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology and
009major in biomemed engineering. Eli is wise beyond his his years. He loves to travel and explore new places and also learn about cultures and society while doing so. A savant as some could say. Brilliant in his academics, but most importantly, Eli brings a true sense of sincerity, humbleness, and an unfaltering work ethic for a young person his age. Ridgeland is proud to present him as our star student. Eli chose Dr. Bandy as his star teacher. Eli chosen partly because his human geography class showed him how incredible the learning of a subject could be. Dr. Bandy's passion for teaching combined with his ability to make the content both exciting and easy to understand truly motivated him to learn more about the world and its people. Eli says that he he owes a whole lot to Dr.
010Bandy. Dr. Bandy says that Eli truly loves to learn. He doesn't just do the work for a grade. He does it because he's curious and enjoys understanding new things. His attitude towards learning is refreshing and makes the classroom a better place. It's always great to see someone excited about learning every day. Mr. Eli Earl and Dr. B on three. One, two, three, and one more. And then we also have the ability and opportunity to recognize our district star student. And so it obviously comes down to these two. And a part of the district star student is whichever one has the highest ACT score across both of them. And as a result of that, that student that we will announce here in just a moment will receive a $500 scholarship from the Walker County Chamber of
011Commerce. So without further ado, the Walker County Star student with an SAT score of 1470 goes to Mr. Eli Earl. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. That was a 14 or a seven. >> Three. And one more. >> All right. So, I'll ask our two high school principles if they'll come up and talk a little bit about Georgia scholars. So, Miss Staltz and Mr. Morrison Center here, if you guys will come on up. I know we had a couple of students that were working this evening and so I I'll make sure that they um are recognized as well. And I know you brought along perfect. That's perfect. I appreciate them. We have a designate to talk about >> perfect administration right there. >> Is that it takes an extremely it's a
012long process and a lot of hard work. This is not something you're just granted. They have to want to go through and so I I was thankful for the kids who did so. >> Go to the details. >> Good evening. Thank you for letting us come here. You've already heard two great achievement stories here tonight and uh I would just like to add I think uh one more specifically and I think some more than that too. So um anyway um every year the Georgia Department of Education recognizes high school seniors who excel both in their school and in their communities and they recognize these as Georgia scholars. The list of achievements a 3.75 GPA on an unweighted 4.0 0 scale, a 31 or higher on the ACT. That alone takes out the vast majority of
013students who uh just have to be at the absolute top in order to get that. You have to be a registered voter in order to win this award. Georgia continues to try to encourage patriotism and love their country as well. And so they want to recognize students who are academically achieving and also plan to vote and be citizens in that. So, um, also be competing in three or more intercolastic activities, hold two leadership positions in school sponsored events, hold two leadership positions outside of the school as well. So, an individual who can do all of this with the grades, with the standardized test scores, and be involved in all of these different areas, is a very busy student to say the least. Um, for 2026, out of more than 480 public and private high schools
014in the state, Georgia only recognizes 162 Georgia scholars this year. That's all that out of all those students that earned this recognition. One of them is Grand R. So, please join us in congratulating our LHS Georgia Scholar, Emily Mon. We have one. >> I want to put this achievement. It's in a little bit of perspective here and make them stand in the spotlight that much longer. Um, but uh of the four Northwest Georgia counties, Dade, Walker, Tuga, and Tusa County encompassing 10 high schools. Dade, LHS, RHS, um, Gordon Lee, Oakwood 2, Triumph, Heritage, LFO, Ringold. Only four students in this area earned this accomplishment. And well, I always like to brag. Um, we have both Lefayet and Ridgand here tonight. And all four of these students from this area are walking students. SO THAT'S UM
015OVER THE last three years, Dage, Tug, and Tryan have combined for zero. George scholars Katusa County of with Lefay, excuse me, Lake V for wringle and Heritage had one. Gordon Lee has produced one. Ridgeland this year has three. All of Atlanta public schools over the last three years have four. and Emily for Lefayet brings Lefay High School's number to five over the last three years. So congratulations again to both of you and schools. One, two, three. One more. Congratulations. >> I don't know if you noticed these are two junior board members as well. So I just add that to their accolades as well. >> And we had two others from Ridgand, Jocelyn Putman and Daniel D. So, we want to make sure that we recognize them. I think work, so good for them. They're still
016putting in those hours. So, thank you all. That fantastic. All right. And now, Mr. Cruz is going to come back up and talk a little bit about a program that we're extremely proud of, the success that has been achieved by uh several of our amazing teachers. Absolutely. So, the second opportunity that I have tonight is to talk about industry certification. And so, uh, Miss Sarah Jenkins and Miss Cindy Langford, they both teach within the healthc care pathways, uh, at Lefett High School. And they actually went through the industry certification process this year. And so, let I would like to read for you how the state describes what being industry certified means. uh that says it it's receiving a stamp of excellence which represents the apex of program quality. Only those programs that have successfully undergone
017rigorous reviews by leaders from business and industry are recognized with this distinction. and Miss Sandra Martin, who is the program specialist for health care with the Georgia Department of Education, when we were sitting in the the media center at Lefett High School, she shared that these two ladies here needed to lead a professional learning on how to interact with our business partners, our advisory board members, and how to translate that to our students because those students were truly being prepared for work after high school. And so I would like to bring them up. And on the day of industry certification, they looked at me and shared with me that they deserved three things. And those three things were a million dollars, an honorary doctorate, and a tiara. >> That's your list. So I've got them
018a check for a million Rambler bucks for the rest of the year. >> Your administration don't even have that. >> I've got them honorary doctorate degrees for healthc care pathway awesomeness. >> And then I've got you some Tiara. >> Excellent. And just to confirm, they were able to provide us the banner of showing how hard they truly worked throughout the year of being industry certified. I'll let y'all hold that >> here. We might should take off our crown. >> And bringing it back to what Mr. Warren said as well, we're celebrating Lefet High School industry certification, but I can proudly say that all of our healthcare programs within Walker County Schools are now industry certified. So that is extremely exciting. >> Here, we're going to take them all for this. The official. >> Yeah, the
019official. Don't >> two three and one more. >> One, two, three. >> Would you ladies like to share anything about this journey? I know it was a journey. >> It was. Yes. I mean, it it was a process. It was about a year-long process of it's it was really all the things that were already doing. Um we just had to get it all into one place into one platform. So um >> that was ever changing the entire time that we were doing it. >> Right. >> But just lesson plans and just proof you student work and um just proof of everything that we're already doing and just um but then we also had to work with those industry partners and um have them come in and >> three times as a matter of fact on
020top of our regular um advisory committee meetings and things like that. So they had to commit to helping us as well. So it was a big undertaking and you know to make sure that they are what's the word recognized as well for their efforts to help us get to this point and they're hiring our kids. So that's good news. >> They are absolutely we between the two of us I would >> I don't know at this point >> 15 or so kids >> between work base and jobs after high school and all those things. Of course it's taken us six years you know to get to this point when we both came on board teaching healthcare at the high school. So, six years, we're finally, that's what we said, finally seeing the fruits of, you
021know, all the labor on the front end. So, we're happy. Yep. >> Thank you. >> So, you can see proud moment for all these that were represented tonight and the hard work that they're putting in. And I I just love the Georgia scholars. I I hope we're all really paying attention to that. Not that we want to beat everybody around us, but it really felt good with those zeros with some of the high school, just FYI. But, um, that's not the point. The point is the opportunities we're providing for our students. And so, to see that we're taking advantage of that, and I say we're taking advantage of that, but Eli and Emily, I mean, I don't know how you were an actual child during that time with all that you're doing on top of
022being a student and being a great student. So, just hats off to you guys. And then of course Marvin and Eli as well for your um star student recognition. And Marvin, I can't believe we don't have you as a junior board member. You were probably so busy we couldn't work it into your schedule. Um but those are proud moments of our school system. And I've always said the vision that comes from the board, the implementation of that through administration, but the hard work is coming at the school with the teachers. They're doing this every single day and the kids are the ones that benefit. And so we're just so appreciative of our teachers and our administrators, but our teachers especially because they're doing that heavy lift every day. So, thank you for being here and
023helping us recognize them. I'll give you a moment if you would like to exit because I know you probably don't want to stay for the remainder of the meeting, but you can. Um, but I'll give you a moment if you need to leave. Feel free to exit now. We'll continue on with the meeting in just a couple of minutes. Thank y'all. Count it down. Not yet. >> Y'all ready? Yeah, he did share that with me. Make sure that they're >> okay. It's just us. uh superintendent report. >> Couple of things I just wanted to um I know we added a couple of things to the agenda and I wanted to make sure that you guys had an opportunity to ask questions. The first one was we had talked a lot about the school food service
024budget and so that has been added to the agenda. I just wanted to pause and see if you guys had any questions. Michelle's here. She can answer those questions if you need. Rachel is here as well. Um, but I I know that was something we popped on you during the planning time, but then we added it through the week. So, were there any questions about that budget or what that recommendation looks like at this point? >> One thing that I I was concerned about um on the when we were talking about moving funds to make their fund balance keep from bottoming out. Was that just for the equipment or was it for the equipment and possible increase in the food cost? Was which one was it both? So what we were talking about was the
025potential. We knew the equipment was a big one. Okay. So that was one. And the reason you see that number on there at around 400 plus of the 1.1 is because that's equipment that they can get in have installed and ready to go before June 30. So we thought if we can get it now, that's perfect. >> The other thing was about we we we talked about the plate cost. It's got to go up with the inversion of the pyramid. We don't know if that's going to happen. That'll come through the feds. The other thing we mentioned though was their benefits. their benefits are running 1.7 million. And so the thought was to shift some of that burden back to the general budget. And then during the course of the year, as they're building fund
026balance back up, they can begin to take that back over. >> Okay? >> We could leave it all there and, you know, going into it at the end of the year, you're probably going to have a deficit either way. We were just trying to find a way to do that to release some of the pressure on the whole department. >> Yeah. >> As we're working through the year, but that's completely up to you. We don't have to do that. we can leave it in school food service and then at the end of the year just like Mr. Richardson said I think he pointed out the end of the day we're going to have to write a check if they're in the hole at the end of next year. Does that make sense? >> It does.
027It does. U and and I was thinking through that and I thought are these separate things and so I was trying to departmentalize them in my mind >> and it's a great thought because we're crossing two fiscal years. We're we're talking about stuff this year that we can do and then we're also talking about next year. Rachel did point out something as we were talking prior to the meeting. the the Department of Audits wants you to if you know you're potentially going to have to we keep saying bail out and I hate the term bailout. So make that transfer of funds at the end of the year, you have to go ahead and budget that. So when we present a budget to you, we're probably going to have a set aside or reserved amount that
028shows the potential for that next year just so we don't have to come back to you and ask for a budget amendment later on in the year. Y >> okay, great question. Yes, I do plan to amend this year's budget for this transfer amount, but probably next month we'll do a budget amendment >> for this transfer. >> Okay, >> thank you. >> Any other questions? The LHS digital sign was in quick addition, too, but you saw that where the money was the funding was coming from. It wasn't a big item. I just wanted to make sure if you had questions. Um we we're in the process of uh redoing our contract with REACH, our REACH scholarships that we give at the middle schools. Uh if you remember, we signed up for four and it's a
029$10,000 scholarship if they maintain this from 8th grade all the way until their graduation. They get that for college. Um we only have to pay of the 10,000 we only have to pay $1,000. We qualify for that low. I guess it's based on our poverty rate. The question has been asked by REACH and by our REACH coordinator. Could we move that to five? And I'll tell you the the justification. They're finding that every year they're naming these kids the first place ones and they're having somebody in second that's just so close. It's like if we just had one more scholarship. So I think what their plan is one at each of the middle schools and then what they're calling it at large. So maybe a a vote of all your second place finishers and maybe
030you give out one more of those scholarships. Now where does that money come from? It comes through the clear wire or the bandwidth dollars that we collect on a monthly basis. Those aren't connected to students at all. It's not connected to property taxes, sales taxes. That's where we've been paying for that right now. We've actually had several of these scholarships our our portion donated over the first couple of years. And so it's not really cost us a lot. So I just want to get your thoughts on doesn't really take board action. It's just giving me permission to change that from the 40 to5. If you guys feel okay with that with that process and we'll write up a new protocol so you'll know kind of what that atlarge person would look like. It would just
031give us the opportunity to have five kids with that potential $10,000 scholarship at the end of their high school career going on to college. And so I I'll just open it up for any discussion or questions, comments. >> I have no problem with it at all. I think it's a good it's been very well received and the kids are have been some of our kids you wouldn't typically be recognizing but they're getting this opportunity and it's really providing a lot of momentum. So I definitely appreciate that. Uh the other thing I had was um if you remember we we're working through the bond resolution right now. So we've got the advertisement completed. Rachel's done her and Angela have done Yman's work on getting that corrected and back to them. We'll have to have a called
032session on Tuesday night the 28th to to approve that bond resolution so we can make it over to the May 7th county commission meeting. Okay. My question is are you all do you want to look at a five o'clock time period because that would be the only thing on the agenda is just the approval of that resolution. So it's going to be a very quick meeting. We can do it at five. We can do it at six. I just wanted to kind of get and you don't have to tell me tonight. Just start thinking about that and I'll send something out. But I wanted to make sure it was on your calendar because that's an additional meeting. So, >> uh, something else and I had actually talked to Rachel about this. I would like and
033we can schedule it another time. But, um, I would like a meeting on just the East Lost. I think a lot of times people don't understand that we're very limited in how we can use that that it's it's based on fund accounting and you can't use it for teacher salaries. You can't use it for all these things that you feel like need it. you are limited. So, I would like to do some kind of a a short board meeting and it can be in May or whatever just because I know a lot of uh we have some new board members. I want them to understand that too. >> Sure. It's a great idea and I I would just ask the question if we meet at 5 and this is all we have to approve. Do
034you want to include that in the discussion since that's we're building into the bond funding being available? It wouldn't I mean we could do that in a pretty quick time frame. It wouldn't be a long meeting, but it would kind of connect perfectly with what you're approving, too. If you're okay with that. >> Okay. I'll send something. >> Can you have something together by then? >> Exactly. What are we waiting? >> Just some kind of general of of how we how we do the east, how the money comes in, how we bond it out, and what that east bloss is limited to. Something along those >> just some of the parameters of how it can be spent. We can definitely put something like that together. I'll send something out to each of you about the
03528th. That's a drop dead date. We've got to have that. Then the time frame and then we'll put together a little some talking points and send those out to him. We'll be happy to go over that that night if that's agreeable from the board. Sure. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Perfect. >> After we review the bond documents tomorrow, we've been going through them and they made some other amendments. They were sending to me tonight. So after we review those, we should be able to release some of those documents through email for y'all to review for next week if you need, you know, >> All right, perfect. Last thing is the uh FCA banquet is tomorrow night. I know I've already gotten a couple of responses from you guys about not being able to attend. Um I
036I still have several seats. So, if you're if you can come and you want to bring a spouse or if you have family that wants to come up, we've got eight seats at the table. And I don't mind eating by myself, but you know, it's okay. I don't mind eating by myself. It should be a great uh program. They've got uh they're calling it an all-American banquet. And so, it's got Priscilla Adams, Rick Honeyut, and Stacy Surles, three all-Americans from this area. And so, it should be a good banquet. And we feel like we need to support them because they do so many good things in our school. So if you if you change your mind or if it's something you want to attend, let me know. If not, we'll get some other folks um
037to attend for us. And unless you have questions about last week, that's all I have. >> Questions? >> Okay. Um facilities report. >> It sort of sounds like I have nothing new to add uh other than the recommendations are on agenda tonight. And if you have any questions from what we discussed last week, I'll be happy to answer. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh we do have um some individual action items. Uh the first is recommended that the Walker County Board of Education approved the year-to- date financial report for the month ending February 28th, 2026. Do we have a motion? >> Second. >> All those in favor? Um, it is recommended that the Walker County Board of Education approve a $2,000 supplement for employees. The supplement will be paid in May. Do we have a motion?
038>> I have actually have a question about that. >> Okay. Let's do the motion then how about Okay. >> All right. Motion. >> Second. >> Okay. Questions? >> All right. So the question I've got in the in the recommendation, what was I guess my question, what was the original set aside from the state as far as which employees got that? Because I know with with that supplement we were looking to add, you know, to make sure we were including everybody, but in the in the list here, there was no no custodial folks listed. There was no maintenance and operations staff listed. And and also like mechanics up at the garage, you know, with buses. I just wanted to make sure we were getting we were including everybody in this. And yes, I just wanted to
039make sure >> we we hard and fast that every employee uh classified or certified. Um we had to look at, you know, the same criteria we look at for anything that's a year-long. They didn't want to call it a retention bonus. It was a it was a bonus from the governor. Um and so we looked at it from a certain higher date so they got the full year in. Um, so a couple of criteria we looked at, but we definitely made sure that everyone that was an educator because they first said teachers and educators, but they left off quite a few folks just like you pointed out. They actually left off the assistant principles as well. We're not giving them I'm just kidding. We So, but but the whole point was we we definitely wanted
040to we knew the board's wishes was to look at every person out there. And I had mentioned that they sent us about 1.98 million. It's going to end up costing us a little more than 960. 000 to make it up for every employee, but every employee would get that. Yes, sir. I just want to make >> Yes, sir. Great question. >> In addition to the 1.981 billion that the state sent us, the state prek sent us enough to pay all the teachers and parents in prek, but they I mean they went through a formula that I did reach out about the assistant principles, but they said, "You're getting what we said." Okay. brow dropped temporarily with them, but it came right back up. So, >> yeah, but but everybody, >> any more questions? >> All
041those in favor? >> Okay. Um, it is recommended that the Walker County Board of Education approve a salary formula for the new assistant principal assistant superintendent position. We need a motion. Second. >> Second. >> Any questions? All those in favor? >> It is recommended that we amend the capital project capital project limit from 25,000 to 75,000. Do we have a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any questions? All those in favor? It is recommended that the Walker County Board of Education approve the school nutrition budget for the 2026 school year. Do we have a motion? >> Second. >> Any questions? All those in favor? Okay. We also have a list of consent action items. We need a motion. >> A second. Any questions, comments on the list? One question if if we if I may.
042Um, and this probably this may be Mr. Guthrie. I know you've worked on the bus routing been working on the bus routing software. Um, I'm assuming that that talks to Infinite Campus, our student information system. >> Twothirds of their customers nationwide are on Infinite Campus. And u we we did a pretty thorough betting process and met with several different providers. Um this company is simply used. Um they were most affordable for what we needed and they have the parent app. They have everything that we need that would lighten the burden of transportation where it goes as much to it will give you an alert. If you set it up as a parent, it will tell you an alert. Your estimated drop off time for your student is seven minutes if that's how you want to
043set your app up. But it does work with Infinite Campus and very user friendly. So is it and I guess previous experience that I had and I had done a lot of leg work looking at this stuff too and knowing that of course at the time we had power school and and the data was not necessarily you know if >> if you had if you didn't say east Highway 136 instead of just Highway 136, it would throw it into chaos. I mean, it, you know, and I know that there's been a lot of adjustments made to to kind of update that because a lot of folks are using Google Maps and Apple Maps and all that. But anyway, um, as far as as far as this goes in and building the the routes, is it
044pulling like student addresses from Infinite Campus and building the routes based on that or is it taking like the previous routes and going like tracking? Of course, I know there's GPS tracking. Does it track that and then kind of design or redesign the routes? >> So, initially an initial set up. It will build off of the campus and student addresses. Um, it has a driver portal that allows drivers once they're stopped for the end of the day to make amendments to the route. Like um, say your GPS takes you to right here, but your stop is actually at the red mail box across the way. They recommend that you put them there at the red mailbox across the way. and then it modifies the routes. And one thing that they're currently working on, one of
045the top selling points for us on this was they are a live cloudbased um system where if you say, "Hey, we've realized we need this." They will write that into their program and for no additional cost and add it to your features. And so currently they're working on live route building where if you add a student or if you have to double a route, you and it may tell you to run it for the most feasible way completely opposite of how your mind would say I'm just going to run my route and then run this route. >> And um so it's a I mean all in all it's met our needs for what we wanted the most and it should help us with route times, delivery times and um take the guesswork out of it.
046And the great thing about it is um you know you you were in transportation so you know you can put a brand new bus on the road and it make it five miles and then quit. And u this is all based through a Samsung tablet that plugs in hard plugs into the bus. Mechanics roll up with a new bus driver just pulls the tablet goes to the next bus and it picks up right where he left off and you go. So it's a like I I can't express how simple this stuff this is to operate and that was a big selling point as well. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yes sir. >> Any other questions comments? >> Our goal is Kevin day one at the beginning of school we hit the
047ground running with this in place. They guarantee that that we can get that right. >> All those in favor? Motion passes. Uh, next on our agenda is new business. And as usual, I will begin with Mr. Middleton way down there. >> I don't I don't have any at this time. Thank you, >> Mr. Richardson. >> No, ma'am. M >> for me. And so, um, public participation, uh, Mr. Reigns. >> Yes, ma'am. We have one individual who followed the procedures laid out in policy DCBI public participation in board meetings to address the board. Notification was received today before the 10 a.m. cut off. Um and that is Mr. Craig Puce and his financial and tax matters was his um talking point. >> Okay. Um, let me remind our speakers of the parameters addressing the board. A
048copy has been provided for you. >> I think you're familiar with it. >> Five minutes. There's my timer. >> Yes, Miss >> She's got one minute warning. That's correct. >> Give me a second. >> Just let me know. >> All right. Go ahead. So, as you know, since October when I've been here, November, since I first spoke to you as a board, my whole purpose in coming every single month is to do one thing and one thing only, and that's to in essence reflect back the decisions that you're making and how they do affect the taxpayers at large that are out here. And while I do have children that are in the system, most importantly, I'm here to represent taxpayers. You see, I run an accounting practice and I just got out of taxi. completely
049exhausted. But the good news is that frees me up more to be able to have conversations with you and what's going on. And I just had a conversation with Mr. Reigns today. I'm going to be meeting with him hopefully sometime early in May to go over further things related to the upcoming budget that's there. So in reflecting some things back uh I do have to mention right off the top in just a moment just like that. I mean we didn't even go one by one by one on these things. It was just a bunch of action items and do we approve or do I have a motion and so on. 5 31,143 just got approved. Boom. Half a million bucks from the taxpayers money that went out the door. No disrespect against the transportation, what
050have you, but that's $122,000 worth of it. If you're looking at overall software related, you're looking at 200,000, $250,000 just in software and hardware related items from hard drives that got approved to a brand new uh software that's going to take place for transportation and buses. I just got to ask how much of this is absolutely necessary. Is it there reason or purpose? Are we thinking about these things as we go through? Is it absolutely necessary that we have these things going forward? We the taxpayers see nothing but increase year after year after year of these monies that are coming through and obligations that are being put on every one of us. In asking questions across the board, I've discovered some things such as uh it's my understanding and this is, you know, just supposition,
051but I'm going to be looking into it that throughout the region of Walker County, there are unfair practices that are occurring in taxation. that some areas are taxed at a lesser rate versus other areas that are taxed at a higher rate. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but again, another area I'm going to be looking at and exploring going forward. Uh, further disappointment had to do with this evening. If you take a look at what you just approved as a board to allow decisions to be made and uh things to be approved that are above 75,000 or under 75,000 basically takes out one two three four five of these programs which in total was another $250,000 from the gold key lock at 32,000 device management software of 42,000 Minute Man security of
05262,000 crater flooring of 35 and uh Chromebook purchases basically. So in essence, what you're saying is the administration can make all these decisions that are underneath $75,000 and you the boards won't even think about it or review it. That is an extreme disappointment to me that you won't take the time and the opportunity. You didn't even consider going halfway because I remember this conversation coming up last fall regarding increasing the purchase limit uh potential to 75,000. No, it didn't go from 25 to 50. it went from 25 all the way up to 75,000 which is a lot of the purchases that get made. It's like a a complete disregard of your responsibilities and taking a look at and considering seriously every single purchase that comes across the board. You see the only thing that we
053the taxpayers have the opportunity to do is to count on you the elected officials of the school system to take responsibility for your decisions to avoid comments or or thoughts of well we got an overage and so no big deal. To amass a $52 million war chest sitting in the bank account is gross negligence in my opinion when the taxpayers could use that money. So instead what we're doing is just sitting on top of $52 million bank account >> would be >> thank you very much. Also considering this this bond thing that's coming up when you look at the bond thing I again I don't completely understand it so I'm going to get into it but included in the bond is a quart of a million worth of interest that's just going to be thrown
054out the door for $3.3 million you're going to pay out $250,000 in interest that you're never going to be able to see recuperate or otherwise. This is fiscal mismanagement and I just beg and I implore you to consider these things as you're going forth on the budget. I had said last month I don't envy you and the decisions that you have to make. But I do ask you to take them seriously to consider these decisions to ask are they absolutely necessary at this time and to consider us the taxpayers that are on the other end. And I can tell you this in my conversations with my clients that have come through this past month. Every single one of them from Walker County I've had a conversation with regarding this and not a single person has
055said this is great. Let them do whatever they want to do. >> Thank you very much for your time. I'll see you next month. >> Thank you. Thank you sir. >> Okay. At this time uh we do have a need for executive session for personnel. We need a motion. >> Second. All those in favor? We are in executive. Okay, we are back in session. We have a recommendation of personnel for certificated um non-certificated. Do we have a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor? We need a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor. Would you?