001Uh we will call the meeting to order at this time. And uh Mr. Williamson, if you would do our invocation for us. Father, this is the day that you have made. We will be glad and rejoice in it. We shape the opportunity we have, the privilege and the freedom that we have to still come together discuss things and do what we need to do. Um we have some tough decisions we have to make in the next few months that hoping to take care of both the parents and the teachers. And Father, if there's ever was a time when we need your help, we need your wisdom and we need your direction, it is tonight. And Father, these are some things that uh very important I ask that for each of the administrators out here whether
002they're principals and superintendents and board members as well, I ask that you give each of us the wisdom that we need to make positive choices for the And Father, bless each person that is here tonight. I ask that you bless their homes as well as well. And Father, give us the freedom to do what we need to do and we pray for all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. And Mr. Williamson, if you will lead us in our pledges, please. Please rise. Ready to salute the pledge. Pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. To the Georgia flag. Salute pledge. I pledge allegiance to the Georgia flag and to the principles
003for which it stands, wisdom, justice, moderation, and courage. Thank you. We do need to approve the agenda. Do we have a motion? Motion. A second? Second. All those in favor? And now we have special recognitions. Mr. Raines, We do We were supposed to have our spelling bee winners here tonight. We had a little mix-up with the the time frame and the night they were supposed to be here and so I'm I got them on me. So we'll bump them to the next month. But these students were involved in a transition meeting tonight happening at the middle schools and high schools. Don't want to pull them away from that. So we'll get them back on the agenda for next month. That sounds great. Uh items of information, uh do we have anything for facilities today? Uh
004the only facilities follow-up last week following months of the re-purchase of our own routes now and that's that's all set. And then also the school board, I know you guys have been coming up here to be active and the tours are also middle, they're ready to go. So I can guarantee everything's good to go there. And the other thing uh spring your attention I mentioned at the action item we look at is going back on the March 23rd we had a uh bid acceptance for the Lafayette High School inspect line that was around $8 million and then we had a fee for Southern A&E that was 6% based on that. And we followed up in October, we had talked about this last October about it. This is another option you guys review that and then
005final approval after that project's been completed now for the fee. Southern A&E. I'm not sure if you have any other questions. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Uh superintendent's report. Two things. One, thank you for being here this afternoon. I know that was a a sometimes a hot schedule for you guys. I appreciate you taking the time for the RESA whole board governance training. The three hours that you guys received for your annual training. So I appreciate you guys doing that. You guys were a great audience. It was a good accurate training session. The only other thing I would add unless there are questions about last week's report is the winter work session potential dates. And I gave you just a few dates that I felt like would work. Um and you know, if we
006call the meeting at 5:00, we could go ahead and do it at 5:00. But 5:00 would give us another hour or so to go through the different discussion items. I included a few on the bottom of that, but I know if there are others that you want to have incorporated into that meeting, if you'll let me know as soon as you can a date that you guys agree on. I gave you three dates that are after this meeting, so before our next planning and board meeting. And then the other the last two are actually after the next board meeting, okay? And so time is not um it's not an emergency at this point cuz we'll be going into April and contracts in May and budget building continues, but I I think one of these dates
007will suffice for getting what we need to get done and accomplished as a board as we planned. So if you guys will just let me know what dates date works best for you guys and then the time, um we'll get that on the schedule. And then if there are other items that you want to discuss other than what I have listed there, if you can email me those specifically and we can get those questions answered for you as well. Any questions? Comments? Okay. Uh individual action items. Uh and now um the first one is for the school calendar. And just for clarification, which number is is this that we're approving that the one or two? I think this was draft A. Draft A. I want to get that in the minutes this week. Draft A.
008All right. It is recommended that the Walker County Board of Education approve the FY2027 school calendar as presented and it is draft A. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Um any All those in favor? It is recommended that the Walker County Board of Education approve the year-to-date financial report with month ending December 31st, 2025. Do we have a motion? Motion. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Uh it is uh recommended that we the board approve the fee associated with the original bid approved by the board March 18th, 2024 of HVAC lighting for Lafayette High School of $492,858.84. Do we have a motion? Motion. A second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? We have a recommendation for consent action items as listed below. Do we have a motion? Motion.
009Do we have a second? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Actually, you have new business. Um Mr. Williamson, I'll start with you. Is there any concerns that you have at this time? Uh no. The principal girls basketball plays tomorrow. It's uh um it's in the semi-finals for uh top four seed. We're going to go to the gym gym and it's the first time in 23 years they've had opportunity to go to the state uh playoffs. So last time one of our coaches played in the tournament. So we're excited to go to the tournament as well as probably all across the district realistically. They had a great year. They're 21 and three. Is that right? 21 and three? 22 and Three also. That was good. They did good in there. They're pretty strong. Okay. Mr.
010Richardson, anything what do you think? Uh no, ma'am. No new business at this time. Mr. Williamson? I and Mrs. Carwile is here in the You're here. Mrs. Carwile, do you have anything tonight? Uh no, ma'am. Thank you. And I do not as well. Um next on the agenda is public uh discussion. Um Mr. Raines, do we have anyone signed up for this? Uh yes, ma'am. We have one individual who followed the procedure laid out in policy BCBI public participation. Uh and that is Mr. Craig Bruce um for financial and tax matters. Okay. And uh on your way up, let me remind uh our speakers of the parameters for addressing the board. A copy has been provided uh for you to review and uh Mr. Richardson is going to keep our five minutes. He'll let you
011know at one minute. I'll wave back at you. I got you. Sorry about that last No, no, no. We're good. So just let him know when you're ready. All right. I think I'm ready. So Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you so much for entertaining these Please listen to what they to say. I'm just trying to do what's right. As a we in the community, and I say we because I run a tax and channel office. And as people are going through and we're discussing taxes, these are the things that I've heard of concern that have come out to me. And so, again, my whole purpose in being here, and I've been here since October, is really just to give you a sounding board back that the decisions that you make have serious consequences on taxpayers
012that are out there. So, if it's an issue where you're running a surplus, I beseech you to consider reducing your bill or millage rate, or whatever the bill is. I suggest that you give a refund to taxpayers as an option, versus just setting it aside and putting it in some rainy day fund. As stated previously, I also ask that if our contractor comes in and gives us the benefits and glory of coming in under budget, that we thank him. That we seriously consider them for the next job to be done. And that we don't encourage them to just because they were allocated a certain amount of funds to go ahead and spend that entire amount of funds that's allocated there. That's just to me frivolous spending, and I'm really concerned about that. The example that
013I wanted to go over and didn't even have the opportunity last time was this Ramblers radio club. Talk about a phenomenal group that was here last time. I was truly impressed by them. I went home and talked to so many people about this. Just a middle high school teacher who has a passion for educating kids in the area of radio last year. He won top honors in the country. I had no idea that this was going on. These are the things that we need to be aware of. But even more impressive than the titles that they acquired through the process was the amount of money that they spent on doing so. Zero. All their equipment was donated. They're working and operating out of a concession stand in a football field. To me, that says if
014you have a passion, you can make it happen, and it doesn't take money. So, when these things come up and you're talking about $8 million contracts, $400,000 contracts, please just seriously consider is there a more effective way that we can do it? Can we get by? Are there ways that we can tweak? Is there an opportunity to be able to say over the next course of the year, "Hey, that's not in the budget this time."? Or can we freeze and get by with what we have for the moment to be able to reduce what we've got? I have no idea if this is true or not, so please fact check me on it. But I've heard that Walker County is one of the lowest paying for teachers in the Georgia area, the North Georgia area.
015That Catoosa teachers are paid higher, and that Whitfield teachers are paid higher. And I don't know if that's a challenge for us or not. Maybe that's something we ought to look at investing instead of buildings and football fields and everything else we've got going on. And that's seeing personnel taking the opportunity to go up. As you do a web search on how our grades are here in Walker County, what's out there is not very impressive. Now, they're older results, but why don't we start talking about instead of investing in physical things that are out there, investing in opportunity to raise our grade levels, increase our performance that are there for students. Getting back to the core principles of what education is really about. It's not completely about the sports experience. It's not about uh you
016know, these field trips that you take and everything. It's basic core math, English, science, and encouraging kids to get engaged in that. Not just come in and click a clock and get out of here as soon as they can. Enjoy recess more than they do the actual tech stuff that are in there. Finding ways to engage our students that doesn't cost a boatload of money. One minute. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. So, again, I'm going to be here for months coming up. I didn't see a fiscal approved. I found out just now this will December wasn't approved yet, and that's why I hadn't seen it posted online. Let me know. As of the end of November, we were running at a loss. So, again, this just goes to show the importance of making these
017financial decisions, of approving these contracts, while we're still running at a loss in our county. Just asking and praying. Thank you that we do pray before every meeting. I thank God that we have you here to be able to serve. I just ask that you open up and look for fiscal responsibility in the coming years. And thank you so much for my time. Thank you. Um and we do have reason for executive session for reasons of personnel. Just personnel? If that's all we have, then we have you've got the list. If if we need to have discussion, we can. If not, if you feel comfortable with it, then you can sit on your hands. Okay. So, we do have a reason uh personnel uh Do we have a motion? Motion. Second. Second. All those in
018favor? So, we are in executive session. I'll do it. Please. I'll do it in the executive session.