001Good evening and welcome to the July 24th, 2025 call board meeting of the Bear County Board of Education at 6 PM and the meeting is now called to order. We appreciate you all being here this evening. We have two very important items on our agenda tonight that impact our community. Could I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Madam chair, I'd like to make a motion that we consider the SRO and millage rate items together as a singular item due to the fiscal interdependency. >> All right. I have a motion to amend our agenda to combine our discussions regarding our SRO and our millage rate. Do I have a second? >> Second by Miss Kelly. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, raise your right hand. All opposed? Motion passes. Okay, we'll begin with Miss
002Houston um our assistant. Let's see her. She has a new title, but I always forget until the last second. Financial officer um to uh give us some information about the millillage. >> All right. Thank you. Good evening. Um we are here to set our millage rate tonight. I'm going to do a brief recap and we'll take um any questions afterwards. I have asked uh Jessica Garrett, our tax commissioner, to be here tonight in case you have any questions that she can help us answer. Also, our 2026 uh general fund budget is $226.3 million in expenditures and $213 million in revenue using a millage rate of 15.5 mills. This created a defic deficit um or use of our fund balance of 12.9 million. After our tenative budget was set, the board of commissioners let us know
003that they wanted to adjust the amount the board of education was build for school resource officers. We budgeted $1,65 million1,665,000 um excluding the bonuses. Uh and the board of commissioners requested 1,913 $32 million uh a difference of $867,000. To cover this amount, our millage rate would be an additional.195 mills. So that would bring us to 15.695 bills. And that mills and that is what we have advertised and we did our uh three budget hearings on or our three military hearings. In a separate uh event or talks uh the board tasked us with reviewing our vacant positions and we were able to identify 21.5 vacant positions that we could freeze while we evaluate the impact of these unforeseen unbudgeted expenditures. These frozen positions amounted to $1,862,000 which relieves our taxpayers of 427 mills. So we could
004go down to a millage rate of 15.268 and still come out with the same deficit that we originally budgeted. So at 15.268 268. It will amount to a deficit of 12.9 which we budgeted for after applying the additional amount that the board of commissioners uh gave us on the SRO's and freezing the vacant positions. Do you have any questions? Um we do have that little chart that I gave you that we can go through the millage rates. Uh but at 15.5 is what we budgeted for. However, um we've been able to make a couple adjustments and then of course the board of commissioners. So we would be looking at a 15.268 millage rate. Uh so we we would get back to the $ 122.9 million deficit. >> Um Miss Houston, I I do have a
005question because I' I've got the table that you had given us. I just want uh clarity on this. Um and I I think I have this right so help me. So where we're at with 15.268 a 268 as you you had mentioned before. Um and so what that would you know set us back or you know from the fund balance what is the difference between the 15.268 versus the 15.193. >> The 15.193 is a calculated roll back rate that the county gives us. And so that would uh give us less t property taxes of course 15.268 268 compared to 15.193 um less income uh property taxes. So that would amount to a a 300,000 a little over $300,000 increase in our deficit. >> So that's a $300,000 difference. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Hey, I
006have a quick question. And I'm really excited that you everyone's done the hard work to get us to a position where we can look at rolling going back to the roll back rate for this coming year. But we know that really close in the future we have a lot of things that we can't foresee and can't predict such as we know that um we'll most likely have an increase in the number of our um residents who take advantage of the agebased tax exemption next year because some missed the deadline this year for completing their taxes and things. We also know that we have a salary study come that we're going to conduct this year and that that may also have a impact on our budget next year. Um we've already been working in a budget
007deficit as we're spending 12.9 million out of our reserve fund this year and we don't really know what the full impact of the SRO um budget is going to be next year. Do you have any idea if we do the roll back this year what we might be looking at next year in terms of the millage rate? So, fortunately, we are um we do have that fund balance of $12.9 million that we can use, but that's going down. Um and we're not going to be able to do this every year. So, um if you a mill to us is about $4.5 million. So, just to cover that deficit, it would be about three mills. Um and then but we can this year look at um look at positions, look at um other expenditures, try to
008cut as much as we can. We'll have new property coming on the tax digest that may be able to help, but we still have the impact of that age-based tax exemption like you said, the SRO contract, and then we don't we can't continue to go into our fund balance um for the budget. So two three ms something like that. >> Any other questions? >> Yes, Miss Houston, I do have a question. Will you just briefly give us a little overview because I know a lot of the public have missed several of our hearings, but what is our current uh fund balance reserve and can you explain a little bit of where it's going and how it's been earmarked and give us a little information on that? >> Yes, ma'am. I love talking about fund balance
009um because there are so many misconceptions out there. Uh fund balance is made up of an accumulation of our net income or net losses over the years that the school system has been in business. On our 2024 financial audit, it shows our total fund balance $97 million. However, school accounting is totally different than other governmental accounting and business accounting. We have about 20 funds can in that column. So $9.5 million of that fund balance was outside of the general fund. So, it wasn't even the general fund money. 15.7 million was assigned for future year appropriations or balancing our 2025 budget. So, we had $71.7 million in unreserved or unassigned fund balance. Even though our financials are not done right now, we do not anticipate using the full 15.7 million fund balance for our fiscal year
0102025 due to not filling positions and departments not using all of their budgets, filling positions at a lower rate um than the previous person had left that position. Um so our total fund balance at June 30th, 2025 is projected to be $83 million. That's total fund balance, but we have assigned a portion, $16 million of that fund balance for future needs. We also are projecting using $ 122.9 million in this fiscal year um for the expenditures that exceeded revenues. In other words, we are not covering 12.9 million of our expenses with a millage increase or current taxpayer funds. So, the balance of an unassigned unrestricted fund balance is $54.1 million. And just to ask and clarify, what is the state's mandated rate that we have to have in our uh fund balance reserves and what
011is good practice? >> There's no mandated. Um but it the good practice is 2 months um or about uh I think it's about 15%. And um we our budget is 226.3 million. So we're at 23.9 million 20 23.9%. This means if we receive no funds, we can cover 2.8 or 2.9 months, about three months of next year's budget with our fund balance. Another way to look at this is that we can cover seven furlow days. If y'all remember back in the two 2008 2009, we had to uh do some furlow days. So we could cover teachers pay, our pay for about seven days. Um like I said, best best practice is to have no less than two months of current year expenditures. So, we are in a great situation. Of course, you don't want to
012have too much in your fund balance because it could be misconstrued that you are overt taxing your taxpayers. >> And can you also explain how that helps us when it comes time to we borrow money as well, our fund balance and our physically overall >> the health of our school district, how that's helped us over the years. >> That's right. Um, so the way uh school budgeting works is that uh our our year is from July 1st to June 30th. So, um July 1st um through September, we're still paying teachers and we're um getting school supplies and and our subscriptions and everything lined up. So, we're spending a lot of money in our July, August, September, October dates, but we don't get tax income. And that's that's a good portion of our budget. We don't
013get that until um October, November, December. So, we have to be able to cover those expenditures until that property tax money starts coming in. Also, a lot of our federal programs are um reimbursements. So, we have to pay ahead and then wait for that reimbursement to come in. we have to have a cushion there um to be able to get our schools open and started with all the needs that they have at the beginning of the year. >> Miss Houston, I just want to go back to um and just make sure I I wrote it down right. So, I'm just going to ask for clarification again. So, our fund balance amount is 83 million. >> 83 million is our going to be our projected total fund balance. Okay. All right. And that is I think
014you'd mentioned 23.9% of our overall budget. >> 23.9% of our overall budget. >> Okay. Um and so just as a matter of comparison, um do you have the availability of the board of commissioners um overall, you know, their fund balance? >> I did look this up. Um um I looked this up a few weeks ago. The board of commissioners fund balance as of their last audit was 40.8. 8 million unassigned was 38.9 million and that's what you really should use as your unassigned fund balance. >> So the 38.9 million >> 38.9 million. >> Okay. And so what percentage of their budget is is their fund balance? >> Uh their 2026 budget for the general fund is 66 million. So their percentage is 54.5% or 6.5 months of budgeted exper expenditures. >> Okay. All right. So,
01538.9 million is their unrestricted, right? Because that's what you said to go by. >> It's estimated because I don't I have I don't have their um what they did in 2025. So, they might have had to use a little bit of their fund balance. I appreciate that. >> Um so, we're probably I did about I I estimated um about 36 million is their unassigned fund balance. It's 38.9 million in their audit, but then I think that they're going to be using a little bit of their fund balance to balance the 2026 um fiscal year. So I took that out also just like we do for us. >> So from a comparison standpoint, we have 83 million and again we this that's our estimate as you had mentioned before which is 23.9% of our operating budget.
016they have 38.9 and again you give them that little caveat there but that is 54% of their operating budget they have in their fund balance that is what I calculated that's a significant difference >> miss Houston and I just want to some of us are business people in the room and some of us aren't but it's not recommended to ever pay salaries and benefits out of a savings account or a fund balance is it >> right you don't want reoccurring expenses to come out because you're going to deplete it and it won't be there. >> Yeah. >> For any sort of unforeseen expenditures. Um we've had a lot lately, so it's nice that we had that fund balance there to cover us when it was needed. >> Thank you. >> Miss Houston, you had mentioned
017uh you were talking about some of the freezes when we first started out uh the job freezes and the freezes that the board set in place are not specifically uh to fund the SRO position. Is that correct? That's my understanding. >> Right. It was a separate um thing that the board tasked us with. The freezing of the vacant positions will allow us to evaluate the financial impact of unforeseen unbudgeted expenditures while assessing the ongoing need for each position. This approach aligns with the directions given to us by the board. As attrition occurs, we will carefully review each vacate vacated position to determine whether it remains essential both operationally and financially. In accordance with the board's directive, all positions will be evaluated on a case-bycase basis as they become vacant. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Men,
018can you tell them what this board's bond rating has been over the years? >> I don't have the exact rate, but it's like a triple A plus. I think there's only three other uh board of educations that are higher than us, and I think one of them's Cobb. Uh yeah, but we are for Scythe Cobb and and another one, but we are right up there at the top. We have a great rating >> and that's based on our ability to pay our creditors back >> because of the way we've managed >> because of the way that we've managed our money over the years. Correct. >> Absolutely. We're real proud of that. >> Um Miss Houston, if if I could um I do have a couple of more questions regarding finances. Oh, thank you for I
019mean I know we've got this on our screen. Perfect. Um so regarding some of the questions that we were unable to get answered um because of our inability to have the the ongoing meetings with the board of commissioners regarding tax um taxes and I understand that you've invited our tax commissioner and so some of these questions uh you know I'd like to start us out with that if I may. Um, so Miss Garrett and Miss Houston, you can stay up there too, just in case I go back and forth. Um, so Miss Garrett, the uh board of commissioners said it can no longer use citizens tax dollars that are in the general fund for school related expenses. The county said that is because county voters approved last November to exempt seniors from paying school taxes.
020So, my first question to you is, how long has the Barrow County School System had a uh senior tax property tax exemption? >> The first senior property tax exemption was in 1998, and it was House Bill 985 for seniors that were 62 and older, and it was a $20,000 exemption based on a $20,000 or less income. >> Okay. So, we've had one since 1998. Um, and I'm assuming that last year was not our first year obviously because you've got 1998. Can you just give me a brief um timeline? So, obviously there have been changes since 1998. Can you give me a brief, you know, timeline and what those highlights are to this point that where we voted in November. Is that all right? >> Yes. And the exemptions do not go away. If if a
021senior has this exemption and they don't come in and apply for another one, that exemption still stands. So, we do still have some seniors that only have House Bill 985. >> Okay. >> Um 2007, we added House Bill 1124, which raised the $20,000 exemption, an additional $60,000, and made it an $80,000 exemption with an income of the federal poverty guidelines. And then in 2025, we added House Bill 1088, 1087, and 1086, which are the current exemptions we're applying this year. >> Okay. And so what um because as I recall just in the in the limited research and and understanding, obviously you have a far better understanding of, you know, the tax commission than I do. So in the one in 2025 um what if I'm not mistaken in ' 07 I think it was um
022you know with the age based and of course you have the income based as well so I think there's certain criteria for that but what was the basically the cost or the appraisal value was it was it 200,000 in '07 >> um yes the most of the expense homes were 200 250,000 >> so what does that mean so if I own a house and and I I re so I I have the right age you know if I'm 62 at least 62 63 what have you and I re um I I meet the income you know what's required on that exemption and my house is $250,000 so do I what so if your house was generally about 2007 we were about an average $150,000 home community so you're you would take 40% of the 150,000
023and then deduct your 80,000 exemption for most seniors. That would zero out the school taxes. >> Okay. >> For most. >> Now, so my understanding in what we passed this past November, um because our property values increased significantly. Okay. Which not necessarily a bad thing, but it did increase and so therefore our property taxes would increase. Um, and from what I understand, so the average um, senior citizen that had a home of that cost, now it was increased, you know, the property value was increased to where they paid significantly more taxes or taxes again, whereas they didn't pay taxes. Am I correct? >> Yes. If when the values increased in 2023, some seniors that had not paid taxes for years, we're now seeing a portion of tax increase because they had to pay a difference
024based on what the exemption did not cover. Okay. And so obviously that was a move with the prior board and legislation to get that passed. So those seniors that were before um exempt from paying taxes would be exempt again. >> Yes. The meetings I was involved in, it was a point to try to serve the seniors who had not seen school taxes in many years. >> Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Miss Garrett, does the county uh the other side of uh the taxation of this county, do they have any specific senior tax exemptions for Bear County citizens? >> They do. They have a senior tax exemption, which is House Bill 1767. It's for seniors 65 and older. It affects the county M portion. It is a $20,000 exemption with income of 25,000 or
025less. We also have House Bill 1485 which is a frozen exemption and that's available to every citizen with homestead >> and that's all they've ever had or is there been more before that? >> Those are the two that are currently there and that we've had. >> Okay. And do you know what the dollar amount that the county takes in from seniors over the exemption amount is? >> I can't give you a specific dollar amount. In order to find that, you would have to touch every home that had that. I would say the average that the county takes in on a $300,000 home is about $500 per parcel. If I'm estimating, we have about 5,000 senior exemptions currently, and that's a rough estimate, probably about 2.5 million. >> And is there any uh other things that
026those tax dollars are exempt from? That would be outside of my purview. I wouldn't be able to answer that question. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Do you know of any communities that have similar tax exemptions? >> I do know that Jackson County has three new exemptions going in this year. Um, I think they have a 62 to 65, which is a $40,000 exemption with an income of less than 400,000. 65 to 69, which is a $75,000 exemption with income of less than 400,000. And a 70 and older that get $125,000 exemption with income less than 400,000. And then they have some independent school districts that have separate exemptions from that. Clark and OKone have a tax value freeze with no income limits for their seniors 65 and older. And then Walton has a home
027and one acre are exempt from school tax with no exclusions. And then after 70, they can be exempt. A home and one acre will be fully exempt. in any land over that gets an additional $75,000 exemption. >> Do you know if any of these communities, these counties that you just mentioned also have intergovernmental agreements where their counties and their school systems split cost? >> That would be outside of my purview so I couldn't answer that. >> Okay. Um, thank you so much for that. Uh, madam, does anybody else have questions? >> I have one more followup. >> I did. I have a question on those counties you mentioned. Do they have um their county commission have an additional tax exemption for seniors? >> Their county commission? Not that I'm aware of. >> Not that you're
028aware of. Okay. >> Um just a comment. It seems like since we've already had a tax exemption in place, the most recent one was because of the increase of property values in such a sudden manner. It was almost more of a correction in my opinion than just an all of a sudden tax increase or senior exemption like it was already there. We had to do a correction because of the the increase that happened so suddenly. >> Would you consider it a correction? I think it was more in my point of view from the meetings I was in, it was more an outreach to serve the community better. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Right. I think everything was processed correctly. It just >> once the values changed, your community that you had been able to serve, you
029were no longer able to serve as well. >> So, I guess that's that was what I was kind of trying to say is that it seems like it was sort of like a correction to make sure we were still serving our seniors. Mhm. Yes, ma'am. As far as the meaning. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you, Miss Bragman, for that because that was going to be my comment as well based off of of what I was trying to see before. And that that those were some of the questions again that we had for the commissioners because this was not a new tax exempt. This was just a correction or a modification of the existing one. Um and again, we've had one since 1998. So, um, this was the one in November was not done specifically
030to exempt seniors from paying school taxes. Um, that's not an appropriate statement. I I agree, Miss Bradford. It's more of a correction of what was existing. So, thank you for the clarity on that. >> Yes, ma'am. I just wanted to comment and say thank you very much for being here and allowing us to ask you these questions about the senior uh tax exemptions and just reiterate real quick that we have had a version of a senior tax exemption in place since 1998. And it has not been an issue until this point for any kind of discrepancies uh with how we collect those tax dollars. And again, those are only school tax exemptions, not county ones that we have in place. And the county has their own senior tax exemption that's separate from ours. But we've
031had an iteration for the school M taxes since 1998, and we've just updated those throughout the years through different house bills. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Thank you, Miss Gary. >> All right. So, I think it's time to vote on the military, >> unless you have any questions. >> We added it. We combined both of these. So, we're going to get through the full conversation and vote at the end. >> Got it. Got it. Thank you. >> Thank you, ma'am. Dr. Bowen, I think we may have some questions for you now. >> Hello. Uh Dr. Bone, I'll go ahead and start if that's all right. I just have uh one of the questions that I have for you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You're ready? >> Yes, ma'am. So, um, and again,
032I I know we've all done a lot of research. Um, in your research of other school systems that are similar to ours, can you please let us know what you believe is a fair compromise monetarily that this board can do or send to the board of commissioners so that our commun community can continue to heal and become more united? Well, when when looking into other systems, we find a couple of things. Um, one is there there's renegotiation going on in many other systems now. Um, but what I found um on on average seems to be um somewhere in the neighborhood of the school system contributing 70 to 80% of salary and benefits. seems to be about average or fairly normal and uh that seems fair to me. I think that would be not only fair
033but it also represents a sizable increase on our part for the contribution. So I would I would fall in that range of 70 to 80% of a school system contribution for salary and benefits of SRO's. I also should have added to start with and excuse me for for not doing that. We have um invited Sheriff Judge Smith to join us tonight in case um which is very likely that you may ask me things that I don't know that he may know and and have a strong opinion about. So we uh we certainly want to engage uh Sheriff Smith in a conversation as you all see fit. >> All right. I appreciate that. So, let me just kind of go back and to and again there's um numerous other schools in our area and obviously uh
034in the state and throughout the country that have u SRO programs in the schools. Now, you mentioned 70 to 80% of salary and benefits and so and I know in our prior discussions we um so what's considered salary uh and benefits are direct cost and then there are indirect cost. Um I didn't you didn't mention that. So that might be a question that we can bring in the sheriff for um and really kind of discuss in those points because there's a big difference in that. Um you know so if we could um so Sheriff Smith, can you just give us you know an overview of what's considered direct and indirect cost? >> Yes ma'am. A direct cost would be salary and benefits as you've explained. Indirect costs would be head to toe, what we call
035hat to boots, equipment, cars, guns, licenses, training, all the extra gas, fuel, you name it. That's the indirect cost for that employee or that deputy sheriff, SRO. >> Thank you, >> Sheriff Smith. >> This might be a you are a Dr. Bowen question, but I know one of the points in the community that's been brought up is that we do receive some safety grants. And so this might be where Dr. Bowen might step in on this, but can you explain really how much each school kind of gets and where that money goes and why it might not be applicable to pay SRO's with it? >> Yeah. Yes. We um we've been getting um the number that's thrown out there now for the upcoming year is 68,000 per school. We haven't been getting that amount. That's
036a that's a new or increased amount. We've been getting 47,000 per school, which we want to clarify too that um we also have three programs in Barrow County Schools and also three other sites including the PDC maintenance and transportation. six sites that are not receiving those grants because they are they are sent specifically to schools. They're not sent to programs like AIM or SIMS or Horizon. So, if we're if we're dedicating money to an enhancement to a school, which is one of our buildings, we also need to include all the buildings, not just the schools, which would include, let's say, three programs and three other sites where we have employees, staff, we have visitors, and even students in those areas, too. So, we've been receiving $47,000 um and and Governor Kemp and the legislators have
037recognized both the increase in need, but also the increase in costs of these these safety enhancements that are needed and they have since raised uh their generous commitment to school safety to increase it to another level for this year. We thank the governor obviously and the representatives for for trusting the schools and investing in school safety. There is no guarantee that grant funding continues. There's certainly no guarantee it continues at that level. Uh grant funding typically also comes with some strict uh spending parameters at times that can change from year to year. But uh in addition we have made um the the grant funding typically comes with spenders but but in addition to that we have made other purchases using um in addition to to uh the SRO discussion. it seems appropriate to bring in
038other um things that we purchased for classrooms including classroom phones. We've purchased metal detectors for middle schools and high schools as you remember. We've also purchased the strategics program um alert tool that allows us, you know, an emergency alert system. And that was not a one-time purchase. That was a five-year agreement that we are in uh two years in now. So, in three years, we're going to have to renew our strategics agreement or a comparable system because I think we all agree that that is a a vital part of our of our safety plan. Uh the cost for that renewal is probably going to be in the neighborhood of $900,000. So, a very uh a sizable amount that we're going to need, you know, that that's what that's one of the things that safety grant
039funding is designed to do. That's one of the enhancements. We're also considering some other enhancements, some other upgrades. We need to upgrade our access control system which governs building safety and access to buildings. We also are looking at some other uh camera software to help us with uh weapons detection. Uh those are all necessary as well. So in summary, I would say I'm giving you a long answer, but in summary, I would say it's difficult to use grant funding for a long-term recurring expense because it's it's not guaranteed. And um there also we don't want to dedicate it all to one particular expense because we have multiple expenses and layers that we want to add. Um these continual layers of safety that the board has committed to adding have made our schools the safest places
040that our students will ever visit. And they're safer than the grocery store. They're safer than the mall. And they're a lot safer than the skating rink. No offense to the skating rink people. Um but um we want to thank you all tonight for that commitment. >> Thank you. And I do appreciate any of the funding that we do get from the state and I welcome that to continue to flow if anyone is watching. Um but I will say that uh as much as I appreciate that when you break it down to per school, I've seen invoices come in in a regular board meeting where it's hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace video camera equipment. We're talking about some of the just the nuts and bolts of things that have to go into it that
041aren't necessarily line items like metal detectors or centics removal uh excuse me renewals. So we're talking this is helpful but it's not really scratching the surface of the total buyin of what school safety cost outside of an SRO. >> Agreed. That's correct. >> Dr. Bowen, um >> go ahead. >> Excuse me. Um this may be a question for you or or maybe Miss Houston. Could you tell us a little bit more about the million-dollar fellow federal grant that we received, what that was for, and when we applied for those funds? >> Yep, that would be me. >> All right. Um, so, um, on when when the incident happened on September 4th, we had a lot of, um, a lot of FEMA and and GEMA, they all came in and they're like, here's some here's some
042avenues that you may want to go down. So we identified the US um education uh grant is called project serve back on September 9th and we started talking to them about how um we could use those funds to help us um recover and um so me and Dr. Thompson and Pam McNamera we all um kind of worked on this grant over the next uh eight months trying to get all of our expenditures. I mean, we had uh the small pod that we used. Um we had transportation back and forth to Chi East. Um we had uh the substitutes at Appalache High School to to help our teachers be able to get out and get some therapy themselves. Um we had an additional administrator at Appalache High School. And then um we had the big pod
043that we brought in so we were able to get those students back on campus. Um so we submitted the grant on May 6 and um we got the award on June 20th and that was a million97,000. Um we would have loved to gotten more because we had so much more in expenditures. >> Uh we had uh the grading of the pod, but they don't cover anything construction-wise. So that was $650,000 that we we are not going to get reimbursed for. uh the pod lease, they're only covering it to March of 2026. So, we still have another $1.5 million that we're going to have to pay on that pod that we're not going to get reimbursed. And then obviously the future renovations of Appalache High School, um we're going to have to look into that and
044we can't get reimbursed um for that either. So if you combine the federal grant we received for about a million and then the state funding >> the federal grant of one million >> of one one million >> one million >> and no more um and then the state funding we received um we roughly received about 2 million >> about two million >> and our expenditures are well over um 5.2 to just for uh the pods, but then we talk about the weapons detecting system detected detectors. Um so that was another 800,000 u or 600,000 there. And then the um phones in the classroom was about 300,000. So we're well over $6 million in expenditures. >> Thank you, >> Sheriff Smith. Will you remind us when our first IGA or intergovernmental agreement was in set into
045place between the county commission and the board of education for our first SRO or our first partnership? >> I know it well. My mom was the first SRO in this community in 1997. >> Oh my goodness, that's awesome. >> Yep. 1997 at Westside Middle School. Westside, the best side, as they say. That's awesome. >> Under under the direction of Sheriff Joe Robinson, the retired sheriff before. >> Thank you. Um I also have another question or two if if I may. Um so would you mind similar to my question to Mrs. Garrett, would you mind sharing what you've kind of learned in your research about um and the other sheriffs that you speak with regularly um like some of the best approaches to an IGA such as this and um best practices? >> Well, I talk
046to a lot of sheriffs, but the main thing is communication. That's the first and foremost thing. Talk with your school system. Try to figure this out. Now, I will say in in full clarity that not a single IG is the same. There is absolutely zero template for it in this state. I don't think there's a national template for it. I believe it's what your community wants is the template that you use. And what they expect and what you pay your elected officials to do and put as a priority is the template. >> Sheriff Smith, I have a question for you as well. I I look through all the years uh of budgets for the county obviously when we're looking at each other's budgets and trying to understand where money's at between the two of us
047especially and it was bizarre to me because I had seen uh that you had a sheriff's office budget and then you added detention budget in previous years. >> That's correct. >> So can you explain to me why there was a need to add an SRO budget this year? That's never been an asked item because obviously those budgets that you're asked are asked from the BOC. >> I was directed by the county manager at the direction of the BOC to separate the funding for the SRO and completely cut it out of the sheriff's office side. So in the past, the SRO budget, the complete budget was funded out of the sheriff's office side, detention separate. This is the first year that I was asked prior to our budget to separate the direct and indirect cost for
048SRO's >> and obviously that's a huge undertaking. Sheriff, I I understand that. I see our budget numbers and working with Miss Houston all the time. It's it's a lot of money to look at. And uh so how how did how did your team go about separating? So the number that we received from from the BOC that the BOC showed us, is that specific to an SRO or is that specific to you sheriff as a sheriff's deputy that works for you? because that's what they are. >> That's specific to a sheriff deputy. >> Okay. >> They just happen to have a title and you asked to mention you mentioned the the work that went in it. Um, Colonel Mike Ham, my assistant Danielle Austin, Trey Wood, the CFO, and his team sat down and spent hours
049down the details down to what a bullet cost from head to toe. when I say direct and indirect cost. And >> so, one of the things that we've heard from the other side uh that the county commissioners during their meeting, one thing that I've heard um that sometimes troubles me and I think the problem for us and why we're at this impass is because we all serve the same citizens. We're all here to serve the same. You serve the same citizens that I do. And so I I I think that hearing the possibility or the desire by members of the BOC to privatize our school resource officer program uh which is ran by you and the sheriff's office right now. Um I I did a little bit of research, don't know much about it, but
050you as the expert, can you tell me what that might cost? Um just an initial startup and uh I'll have a followup for you after you give us those, please. >> But just if you were to create Barrow County School Police Force with what we currently provide, you're looking north of $8 million to start that today. that does not include your liability in any way that you're going to take on. >> And so that's >> it is another duplication of law enforcement services in this community. >> And so that's why we typically have an IGA. So we don't duplicate those services. You have a service that this communic that this community already receives through you and then you can serve as well in the schools as your deputies serve as SRO's. Correct. >> That's the
051way I agree. And let me clarify because I know when they were sending it to me as a IGA. That's an intergovernmental agreement because we speak in acronyms sometimes and my husband used to be a county county commissioner. My former my late husband he passed away. Um but Clay always said, those of y'all that worked with him and knew him and you heard him say this many of times, it's all the taxpayers's money. It just depends on what pot it comes out of. And I know Judge, you heard him say that many of times. Um, and that's true. Back when I was on the school board and Clay was on the county commission, we worked together with Beth Cwell, John King, Paul Withers, and that group that was there then. And we helped keep the
0524 program back then. I'm sure Judge, you probably remember that. Um, and it is it's all the taxpayers money. It just depends on what pot it comes in out of. And so that intergovernmental agreement is so imperative because we do we represent all the people. We represent the same people. So when I heard this was an issue and we had some commissioners that were kind of standoffish with this. I didn't understand it because I go around and I work with our our legislators and talk to them all the time and represent Barl and say, "Hey, let's get together because we're all representing the same people. We shouldn't reinvent the wheel." >> And that's what we're trying to appreciate what Darlene and what Jared have done. But I'm kind of concerned that that's not what's going
053on. We all represent the same people. We shouldn't be reinventing the wheel. We need to work together for for our citizens and do what's best for Barrow. >> I agree. So, Sheriff, uh, a followup to that question on the privatization of the police force is um you obviously talked to other sheriffs uh and other uh law enforcement officers. What what I what I've seen in uh talking to some of your SRO's as well, they're sheriff's deputies first and they they they work at your pleasure and they enjoy their job working for Sheriff Jud Smith and working in that department. So, if we were to privatize it, um I don't know if y'all have actually talked as a as a group or with the leadership there, but is there a number of SRO's that currently serve
054that would even consider going to a privatization? >> It's hard for me to say. I'd say probably less than 10% might come work for the Bear County School System. Not knocking y'all as a system, but these are not these are seasoned tenur deputy sheriffs. >> Absolutely. >> Lots of years of service. They don't want to keep that on on the table. Um they work here because of Lieutenant Tim Lateral and Sergeant Maxwell and Sergeant Boyd. Absolutely. >> I get to work beside him and so that that's why. Um, but to answer your question, the easy way is if you were to create a police department today, let's say you voted on it today, good luck. You've made your schools less safer. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff. >> Sheriff Smith, I have another question.
055And I I've been pondering this in public a little bit myself and the impression I got was that the board of commission no longer feels that our public school grounds are part of public safety. And so I just want to ask you, who do you include in your definition of public safety and who you're obligated to protect and serve? >> Every single person in this county. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I just want to I want to publicly thank you again. This is our state sheriff of the year. I want to thank you, your leadership, and every single one of the men and women that serve under you. They're I feel safer in their presence. I know my son is safer in their in our school system because of them and
056in our community. um and so many of the people in this room and outside of this room that I care about. Thank you for your leadership and your care and I'm proud that y'all are our SRO's. And I say that I'm proud of that. >> To echo that, this board and these men and women and John Skinner have put into place, you put into some things into place that help us make it easier to make it safer. So, thank you. I have a rising senior. I have a vested interest in this as well. A lot of people don't think that. They don't know that. They don't understand that most of our deputies have a reason and a vested interest and many of you do too as well. When you drop your child up, we have
057the same vested interest. >> Thank you, uh, Sheriff Smith and and the same, uh, as Miss Hendricks was saying, but I still have a couple more questions for you, so you're not so just hold that thought. Okay. >> Um, so when you were talking about and I know Dr. Bowen also gave us some examples of school, you know, schools between the board of commissioners, board of ed, 70%, 30% sharing those cost, 80% 20 um and and I understand it differs and depending on the county and you even said yourself um there is not a single template for an IGA and I can certainly appreciate that. Um, so a couple of questions that I want to get really specific when we're talking about direct and indirect costs. So, um, you shared what those indirect costs are,
058vehicles, weapons, etc., bullets, um, uniforms, all of that. What's really direct cost is salary and benefits. Okay. Um now my first question to you is if we were able to approach um and understanding that um the board of commissioners have asked for direct and indirect cost um for obvious reasons we have concerns with those indirect cost. Um give me your thoughts if you could on um direct versus indirect and really what would be the best approach um going in that direction. Please take this respectfully when I say this, but I trust that you're going to buy laptops and school buses. I don't need my board of education buying pistols and AR-15s. It's not your lane of travel to or purchase things that keep our deputies safe and our kids safe. It is a a tool
059that we use every day, but I think that is a very dangerous slippery slope that you will be purchasing items. And might I remind you on the side of that that explorer it says Barrow County Sheriff's Office. >> I see >> if you purchase that, you now own that item. Does not belong to the board of commissioners. And maybe that's the plan. But I think that is a slippery slope to ask for these items. I trust that you're going to buy equipment that makes the classroom a better classroom and make our students a productive citizen when they graduate. Mhm. >> Leave the leave the safety up to us that the citizens have tasked us to do until I'm replaced or till I retire, whatever comes first. But that that's the short version. I don't think
060that you need to get on the slippery slope of ordering uniforms, bulletproof vests, tasers, weapons, firearms, bullets, hats, boots, licenses. I don't think that's your lane of travel. And I say that with all due respect because you're very smart people, but your purchasing policies are way different than mine. >> Thank you for that. So, if I could just one more follow-up question >> with that. Um, and so I understand your feelings regarding indirect versus direct. And so what I hear you're saying is the focus should be on direct cost. >> That should where the negotiation be. Yes, >> I understand. Okay. Thank you. So, Sheriff Smith, if the board of education was to make an offer um to the board of commissioners for 100% of salary and benefits, what do you think that offer is?
061Is that a good offer? Is that a reasonable offer? >> The offer >> 100% of salary and benefits. That's direct costs. >> You are more than reasonable to make that offer in my opinion. Sheriff Spiff, I have a question. When we're talking about direct versus indirect cost, would it not be when we're talking about intergovernmental contracts, would it not benefit the county also and the taxpayers instead of having a county police department or a a school system police department for the county not to have these people out there all over the county where we have schools and we're paying for the building and the lights and the all the other things that we pay directly, but to have y'all housed out there also, so if something happened all over this county, y'all can quickly get
062to it as well. Is that not a benefit? >> Some would say, and I and I'm I'm just going to assume, Miss Kelly, what you're trying to say is some would say, and I've heard it said on the board, that they should never leave the school building. And if I'm paying 100% of the cost of your ass, they never leave. >> Right. >> But let me explain to you that they are a deputy sheriff, >> right? And at every policy it says that the deputy sheriff acts at the discretion of the sheriff or his designate. That's every one of my policies. >> Right? >> So if you they work for you if you own your police department. They do not work at the discretion of the sheriff which I work at the discretion of the
063people. >> Right? >> So it would be a benefit to the county as long as it's still county, not school system. >> The benefit is you've got more deputies closer to other options. right? So that they can be utilized by the county. >> We debated this. We've had deputies leave the building >> and by some standard >> by some standard and some on the board believe that they should not leave the building. Period. >> They're very uninformed. >> Not on this board. Okay. >> They're very uninformed and uneducated with that comment. That's what they are. Okay, we'll call it what it is because if that's the way that you want to believe, the day of September the 4th, Deputy Matt Cook locked down Haymon Morris and was the third deputy four, excuse me, fourth deputy
064in that building ready to handle business. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you, Sheriff. >> Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Um I'd like to make a couple of comments and a statement if I may. Um, Sheriff Sis, I I think I speak for everybody on the board. It is not our intention at all to have any SRO that is not associated with your department. We are not looking to privatize the safety of our children. >> Thank you. >> Okay. As a board member, I believe we should remain steadfast in our commitment to the community. And when we are faced with adversity such as this, I think we should lead with grace and integrity in making decisions that prioritize the well-being of our students, teachers, staff, and the broader community. We know that ensuring a
065safe and supportive learning environment is essential for academic success and peace of mind for our families. That is why we have been committed to building the SRO program along with the Barrow County Sheriff's Office across our county. Their presence is a proactive step towards strengthening the safety and security of our schools while also fostering positive relationships between students and law enforcement. At the same time, we also understand the importance of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. In that spirit, I believe we should take meaningful action by rolling back the millage rate, providing a muchneeded tax relief to our community while still investing in critical priorities, especially in light of the year we have all experienced. I believe this decision would continue to reflect our dedication to balancing safety with fiscal responsibility and ensuring that our
066schools remain places of learning, support, and security for all. Madame Chair, in alignment with our values, our responsibility to the community, and our commitment to the safety of our students and staff, I move that we roll back the millage rate to 15.193 and pay 100% of the direct cost of the salary and benefits for our SRO's. >> A second, Madam Chair. >> All right, we have two motions on the floor. Let's begin with the first, which is the millage rate. We have a motion to roll back the millage rate to 15.193. And we have a second. >> Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor raise your hand. >> All opposed. Motion passes nine to zero. All right. And then the second motion is related to our SRO's. And the motion is to consider paying
067100% of the direct cost of salary and benefits for the 24 approved SRO's starting with this school year. this school year, the school year. Was that a second from you, Dr. Callaway? Oh, Mr. R as well. Okay. >> All right. Any discussion? >> Madam Chair, I just have to add in that that would also go for any additional SRO's in the future that this system needs and this county needs. >> All right. >> Not just for those 24, but anything in the future >> for the 24 and any future. Yes. >> SRO's. >> All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor raise your hand. Motion passes. None zero. Thank you all. Um I would like to take a moment to thank Sheriff Smith and Jessica Garrett for being here tonight to answer questions for
068us. Having a clear understanding of the financial impact of this controversial issue is imperative to us making the best decision for our community. I know that the full board also appreciates all of the community members for coming out this evening as well. This board is ready to resolve this issue once and for all. It is desired of this board and has been the desire of the board to work actively and transparently with all of our elected officials within our county as we all represent the same citizens. It's important to note that under intergovernmental agreement between Bar County schools, the sheriff's office, and the board of commissioners enhances community safety and maximizes our resources by sharing expenses and personnel, leading to a more effective and efficient service delivery for all residents. This collaboration and partnership reduces
069overhead cost, eliminates duplication of tax expenses, and fosters a unified approach to addressing community needs. As Sheriff Smith said, just hours after the tragedy, we will get through this together and love will prevail. If we have no other business for this evening, we will now adjourn.