001It is now 5:00 and I would like to call this meeting to order and to uh remind you that our mission here is to ignite a passion for learning that leads to excellence. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> At this time, we are ready for our invocation. We will be led by board member Jamie Muettton. >> Dear Lord, we thank you for bringing us together tonight. We pray that you'll guide our discussions and decisions so they serve the best interest of our students, teachers, and our community. We pray that you'll bless everyone here with wisdom, patience, and unity. Amen. >> Amen. pledge this evening, Dr. Williams. >> Pledge this evening will be led by Williamsburg Primary School second graders, Cora Wright and Oliver Fernandez. Ready when you are stand for
002it stands one nation indivisible with liberty Thank you both very much. Thank you. >> At this time, we are ready for a roll call. >> At this time, we're all present except uh Tony the Ward Buster. Okay. And we now we are ready for the uh adoption of our agenda. >> If there are no corrections or additions, I move that the agenda be approved as it is presented. >> I think we have one addition. And we have one addition and that addition is the attendance proclamation we will do tonight and it will be added between F and G of our uh board agenda. Only one one change. >> Okay. Now I need a second. You don't. >> Yes. We accept with the addition please. Okay. >> And I second >> with no discussion. Let's vote.
003A show of hands. Thank you. All eyes have it for. At this time, we're ready for approval of our minutes. We need a motion to approve the August 19, 2021 minutes as presented. And we also have another set of minutes, right? Town hall. >> Okay. Yeah. that time. Paul >> planning session that was held on the date >> August 29th >> the planning session >> August 29th >> I make a motion to approve the August 19th minutes as presented for board meeting as well as the town hall painting session on the 29th. >> Thank you. Need a second and I second that motion. We have a motion and a second. There's no discussion. Let's vote by show of hand. Okay, I understand it. At this time, we are ready for our financial report. >> Tonight,
004I have the financial report for August 2025. With the completion of August, we are 16.66% complete with the fiscal year. As you can see, your total revenues as of August 31st, 2025 were 4,226,875. That represents 3.53% of your budgeted revenues. If you flip to the next page, you can see total expenditures as of August 31st, 2025 were 11,456,510. That is 13.92% of your budgeted expenditures. And again, when you compare that to the completion of the fiscal year, you can see that spending is in line with the completion of the year. >> The next page is your general fund balance sheet. As of August 31st, 2025, total assets were 289,866,271 with total liabilities and fund equity equaling the same amount. Please flip to the next page. End of period general fund equity at August 31st, 2025
005was 287,51,810. The next page shows investments in all funds. As of August 31st, 2025, total investments were $275,673,781. The next 10 pages represent your purchase order incumbrance report. This is cumulative through the end of August. And I do want to point out that they are doing beginning of the year spending. So you are going to see this number tick up right now. Um but that is normal. >> Are there any questions about the purchase order incumbence report? Okay. And your final many pages represent your vendor activity. These are $5,000 by vendor for the month of August. Are there any questions about the vendor activity report or the financial report? >> I have no closing. >> Okay. There no questions. Did I have a motion to accept the financial report for August 2025? >> There's been
006a motion has been made. We need a second. >> A second. >> Yes. Been a second. No discussion. Just vote by show of hand. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> At this time, we have no public participation, so we are ready to go right into old business. And of course, our old business consists of the proposed roundabout. And tonight, we're supposed to make the final comments and a decision as whether we go forward with this uh project or not. So the floor is now in the comments. I do I like when we bring fresh ideas and that is a fresh idea. I've done a lot of research and check in where roundabouts are placed to see what was the significance of it. Did it really have a purpose? And I also
007thought about our car riders are getting less. Our enrollment is going down and our car riders are getting less. I thought about uh the fact that if we do this project at this time, it's going to affect the Cogna visit and for us to inconvenience everybody at that time. Uh, I had some concerns because the buses, I'm told from uh someone who checked in with transportation that they're going to have to have an access road for those buses, a special road for those buses to get up in there. And uh I checked also to find out what was the concern about the roundabout down here. Even though that is not our choice to make, they said that if they had to do it all over again, they would wish for more property because it has
008proven to be very inconvenient for those truck truckers with the logs, the logging truckers. They put the bypass, which covers part of Quaker Road in there because they didn't want all those trucks coming through town. and they discovered that it's already because they did not give a lot of thought to it. It's been five accidents right there on Quaker Road. My concern is it for safety that we're doing this? What is our really purpose? Do we have to rush? I also checked that normally we will bring ideas forward but it's in the fiveyear contingency plan. So what we need to think about and this is a recommendation. I'm not in favor of killing the idea but I think we need to put a little bit more thought into it. Why are we doing it? Is
009it really going to benefit? I even checked with some friends of mine about the one up there at the private school on Stermia and it's a roundabout that's busy at a certain time. We have the rush of traffic 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon and we have to think about how we are spending the money. I did notice that in the report that came out Saturday, no one mentioned that. That was not a concern. They had a concern about rigor. They had a concern about a number of things, but our chair will get into that later. They had u some other things that I think we need to think about. We've looked at the fact that our scores are down in reading because they keep changing. It's a new programs.
010I want us to make decisions based on is this the priority at this time. Do we have other building projects that should take president over this or is this something that is really necessary? Are we doing it for safety reasons? Are we doing it? Uh because we it that's a popular thing right now. Roundabouts just about everywhere you go. There's one up there on Old Augusta Road and some other place. That's a busy one. That's a very busy one. This one is busy down here, but it's proven that that bypass was put put in to help uh alleviate all of that traffic coming through. I am not saying let's kill the idea. I am saying let us do some additional research and think about what are the priorities and line it up in the priority
011list with the contingency plan which will be the five-year plan that will be presented at the retreat. normally comes at the retreat that uh five-year plan because we have to do it again and it needs to be a recommendation coming from the superintendent. Now that's what I wanted to mention to the board members. I am not saying because I'm a positive minded person and there are lots of new ideas out there concerning education but I want us to give it a lot of thought and I'm not ready to move forward at this time. I'd like for us to extend it because we don't need a write up for everybody being inconvenience during cogna because that's a difficult evaluation system and I we got to do whatever we need to do to help the superintendent put
012the rigor back in these schools and give these principles what they need. >> Now that's what I see. >> Thank you Dr. V. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> Uh, so I I do believe that it is a safety issue. Um, there's there's more to it than just the roundabout. It's the widening of two roads uh affecting three schools. Um, so if we want to if we want to put it on the agenda for the retreat, that's great. Um I would we can we can talk about some more than >> I believe that um some really good point. Thank you for several of those. Um it's also something that I don't want to kill you either. Some um additional research may be necessary. I do feel it's a big safety
013issue. Um I'm in I know it seems like it's only 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon. Um the way that our the traffic's currently flowing, it's holding up a lot of traffic. It's causing a lot of issues in the morning. This morning, um I was almost sideswiped. I might have blowed a little horn to the car that tried to swipe around me. Um but it is putting our students in harm's way, sitting on sidewalks waiting in traffic. So I do see it as a a safety issue. I know the concern with the um number of students in school is going down. That's something that's going to fluctuate every year and I don't think we should base it off of that because parents are going to take their school their students to
014school every single year. It doesn't matter what you do with your bedroom, put them on the bus, but they're going to go. I see it as a safety issue is my big main concern. So, I think it's something that we we do need to look forward to. Okay, if you're looking for my comments, my comments, I've I've weighed the pros and I've weighed the cons. Um, and I don't want to um say that it's not necessary because it may be necessary, but I think there's some other things we need to look at at this time before I've talked to parents who are are dropping their children off. They do see an issue, but they don't see the roundabout. They see uh two lanes. I don't understand that and where they are, whatever, but not a
015roundabout because the roundabout causes a lot of confusion. I know with the construction and we have a lot of elder, I would say older parents, uh older grandparents or whatever dropping their children off. So, we um I'm not totally convinced that a roundabout is what we need at this time. So now we going to do more discussion. I said tonight was going to be tonight, but if you want to continue to discuss it uh uh we can vote on it tonight. It doesn't it doesn't matter with if you want to pill around it some more because it's not something that can be done right away anyway. >> It is not there there Dr. Miles is exactly right. There's no need to brush right there. >> There there's no deadline to make this decision. Yeah. Um,
016>> so let's just take a look at that until >> the retreat. >> Okay. >> All right. We're ready to move up. >> Our early head stop, Miss Willis. We're ready to hear from you. >> Good evening everybody. >> Good evening. >> This is our budget report for the month of August. So, we'll start out with our funded enrollment, which were funded for 94 children. Um, our actual enrollment in August was 92. Uh, the on-site program was completely full, but we had two slots awaiting two pregnant moms that have since delivered um for our homebased program. So, now we're completely at 94. Um, the breakdown for those children for each classrooms is there. um for each age age group there and then we have a a average daily attendance for the month month which is
01787. Um the number on the waiting list is five and that is because when those parents were offered home base they did not want home base. They want on-site care um but we just don't have any slots open. So if a child uh leaves or transfers something of that sort then we can open that five slots up. But right now they'll wait there um until something comes available. Our number of transitions will be 11 children um that'll transition out at 3 years of age. We have uh 11 pregnant women in our program. Our health checks are up to date at 92%. Shots are up to date at 100%. Monthly center uh reportable center health incidents zero. Thank you. Um number of children with disabilities we have four currently. Uh that was in August but September
018that number changed. We should be up to 10 now that our consultants have come out to observe the children. Um staff training activities one parent involvement activities six. Our inind is at $17,124. uh school nutrition report, we are serving um our average daily at 68 children for both breakfast, lunch, and snack. And if you go from there, we'll look at the monthly financial receipts. And we just had uh two Walmart totals which was $135.20 on August 6 and $27.38 on August 6, both at Walmart with a total of $162.58. Then our budget here for the year January through December, our ending balance is going to be $599,125.35. Our monthly expenditures for the month of August that total is 161,970.90 for the month of August. And then year to date from January to August, that total
019expenditure is going to be $1 million $161,5816. And next we have some incumbrances uh that's still yet to pay. Then that total is $37,95649. And that concludes Thank you all. >> Thank you, Miss Williams. Are there any questions? Okay, we need a a motion to accept our report from early head start. >> I make a motion to accept the early head start August report as presented. >> I second that motion motion and second and let's vote. >> Miss Williams, thank you for the tour the other day. I enjoyed it. >> You're welcome. and I noted the new changes that have been made. Thank you very much. Okay, at this time we are ready to hear from our school resource officers. Lieutenant Monroe and do some introductions and some updates. >> Okay. >> How you doing
020today? It's been a while since we've been here. So, wanted to introduce um some new people that we have. Um, of course, I'm Lieutenant Michael Monroe. Um, I don't want to say I'm in charge, but this is the one team right here. Um, I'm been here nine years. I'm grateful to be here. I love B County. Never thought I'd work for B County, but I enjoy it. Um, I love teaching Chance to the kids, fifth grade kids. They're they're phenomenal. They like to listen when the parents tell me that they've been in the classroom and I enjoy being here. >> Thank you. >> Sergeant Mark Bwell. I thank you know my fourth year with you guys. I'm at the high school. Uh Deputy Py Parker going on my second year at the primary not primary.
021Um my friend school deputy Dukes. Uh, I've been working with y'all for about three years going on. Born and raised Burke County. Uh, I have a lot of kids, got four of them. Uh, two of my little girls are going to the primary school here. So, it's really important uh in our minds that keeping the school safe because I have stock in the school and with the count. Um, so I want to make sure that I can keep my children safe and everyone else because uh it's I'm not just working here. I actually live here as well. Um, just want to thank y'all for allowing us to be here, just having time to speak, see everyone face to face and it's pleasure working with y'all. >> Deputy Robinson and I've been with our since February
022of last year. I'm Deb Moore. Um Deputy Moore, Coach Moore, Officer Kiwi, whatever you want to call. Um I've been in a SRO for about three years now. I've been at every single school except for SBA. Um I love I love my job. Uh newly on the SWAT team in B County, so that brings the extra level of security I feel to it. SRO division. Um I just love what I do. We are missing one SRO but we did interview for an SRO today. SJA as much as possible. >> Yes. >> Thank you all for your service and and it's a pleasure to get to see all of you. So I will recognize you from now on. I know you. I know you. >> We have lots of activities this afternoon. I think they're all
023>> 21st century. So much >> at this time, we're ready to hear from Mr. Middleton, CTA. >> Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Good evening. >> It's good to see you all again this time. This is a a fabulous time of the year. I get to see you all and present our uh for approval our CTA first our CTAE grants, our annual grant approval. And again, these grants for CTA are listed in in the attachments, but they're used to uh fund resources for our CTA classes, help offset some salaries for our CTA personnel um and also for our ad department as well. So, I'm here for the annual approval for the various CTA grants for FY26. Okay, we are going to do uh the Perkins, right? >> Yes. The uh >> and the uh CC CC.
024>> Yes. So, that's >> that's middle school 21st century. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we need a motion to adopt the Perkins uh five local plan. I make a motion to adopt the per approve the Perkins 5 local plan. >> Okay, we need a second. >> A second. Okay, there's no discussion. We need to vote. A show of hands. Thank you very much. Now, we need to look at the 21st century uh 5-year grant. >> I need a motion. >> I make a motion to approve the 21st century 5-year grant. >> Second. I second that motion. Been a motion and second. Show of hands. >> All right. Thank you. And the pamphlet I gave y'all before the meeting is our CTA state report. How CJ is doing statewide. We kind of kind of working trying
025to get some of this together for Burke County, but want to show you all kind of what's some stats of what CTA doing around the state. And a lot of the statist statistics in this pamphlet, we mirror those here in Burke County. Uh it was a 97.8% graduation rate um for those concentrators. We're at 93 94% graduate rate for our for our concentrated and completes. Uh so CTA is making an impact around the state of Georgia and here in Burke County. We want to see continue to see it flourish here and thank you all for your support. >> I'd like to just make a comment. Uh usually when I go to conferences and I see all the other school systems listed or presented, I always find the person who's responsible for doing that. And so
026it's been six or seven years now since we presented anything at any conference for you know GSBA. That's what I'm talking about. So that's where we go. And I looked at these and I was very proud of it. A Hart County and then you have a you have Dutchtown and uh for Beach High School. I can't look in. So, Bur, >> how do we get in this? >> I'm be honest with you. I don't know how these students were picked or highlighted or I don't we never got an email to to >> We got to find out. >> We'll find out. I'll definitely work on that. But, um, these thought they start presenting these yearly and so I definitely worked to get some of our alumni who are doing great things in the CPA realm
027after high school. Yes. >> Doing a great job and and we're proud of it. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Miss >> Thank you. >> We're ready to move right along. We have a field trip. >> Yes. Um the high school has a um senior committee >> and they are working to uh do some things for their senior year along with their um advisor which is uh assistant principal um Boyd. And so one is coming up pretty soon and I have it here. They it's on a Sunday, Sunday, September 28th to attend an Atlanta Falcons game. Um so certainly asking approval for that one and all the details are there in that attachment, but also they're planning some other things and I will get those to you. So I kind of want permission from the board
028or approval from the board for them to add some additional field trips. These will all be related to seniors and I'll get the list to you, but of course they didn't have them all worked out um up front. So this is this is the first of of uh several. >> Okay. So at this time we need a motion to approve the senior trip scheduled for Sunday, September 28th. >> I make a motion to approve the senior trip scheduled for Sunday, September the 28th. >> I need a second. >> I second a motion. >> And it's been second. And if there's no other discussion, we'll vote. A show of hands. Okay. Eyes handed. Thank you very much. I compliment them highly for taking a Sunday to do this with our children. Thank you very much. Next,
029we have the UG extension. Yes, this is an annualou signed between um um Burke County Board of Education and the UG Cooperative Extension primarily dealing with um the 4. So there uh this is theou for this uh fiscal year and asking um for approval of that. >> Okay. We have a motion to approve theou between the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and the Burke County Board of Education. >> I moved. >> Okay, we need a second. >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and second. No discussion. We'll vote by show of hands. Eyes have it. And at this time, we ready for a proclamation. This is a proclamation of September 2025 as attendance awareness month. Whereas good attendance is essential to student achievement and graduation. We're committed to dedicating our resources and attention to reducing
030chronic absentee rates with a focus starting as early as pre kindergarten and kindergarten. And whereas students and families are more likely to show up and engage when there are positive conditions for learning at school, including physical and emotional health and safety, a sense of belonging, connection, and support, academic challenges and engagement, and adults and peers with social, emotional competency. And whereas reducing chronic absence, missing 10% or more of school for any reason, requires a comprehensive approach that starts with prevention and early intervention, including developing routines and trusting relationships that create a sense of belonging rather than responding with punitive action, which research finds is not particularly effective. And whereas improving attendance and engagement takes schools, families, elected leaders, and other community partners working together to rebuild regular and trusting communications and to identify and address
031barriers to being in school. And whereas taking attendance daily in a caring, consistent manner is essential to identifying when students began to miss too much school. and for engaging students and families as early as possible and engaging students and families with needed support and resources. And whereas supporting the health and well-being of the school community and sending the message that students should avoid missing school for minor symptoms of illness is essential to reestablishing daily attendance routines. And now therefore be it resolved. The Burke County Public School stands with the nation in recognizing September as attendance awareness month. We hereby commit to focusing on reducing absenteeism by addressing the factors that cause students to miss school in order to ensure all children an opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. We recognize that
032we must work together to build an engaging school environment that motivates that motivates attendance and sends the message that learning matters. Specifically, the Burke County Public School System will engage students, families, educators, and the broader community, including civic and elected leaders, local businesses, clergy members, and nonprofit organizations, and working together to identify and remove barriers to get in to school in our community and develop meaningful solutions that ensure all children and youth. Keep learning despite today's many challenges. Affirm the importance of showing up and engaging in school and discuss with students and families what is needed to make showing up to school worthwhile. And the last work with schools and districts and use an expanded set of data including analyzing attendance, digital assets, availability of working contact information and relationships to school staff to monitor
033outcomes for all students. raise public awareness, establish goals, allocate resources, track progress, and assure accountability for an opportunity to learn for every student. Okay, >> picture Thanks. >> Thank you. >> We'll continue. Next item, board retreat. It is a time to look at board retreat dates. Um I've just provided some information there. Um in 2024 the dates were February 15th and 16th. Um 2025 it was February 6th and 7th and I just made a note there that winter break is the week of February 15th um this this coming February. So, just need to be looking at some dates so that Kelly can go ahead and start trying to secure venues um and make those reservations. >> I believe you mentioned what you said. >> Um what I said earlier before the meeting is not going
034to work out. Um I proposed the fifth and sixth again. So first week of February that Friday, Thursday and Friday. >> Mhm. >> So we're going to go with what we have. >> The fifth and sixth of February. >> Okay. >> What's he said his other dates didn't work. So he's proposing the fifth and sixth. The fifth and sixth and >> well the seven Thursday and Friday dates. >> The sixth and the seventh. Okay. But you saying >> fifth and sixth is Thursday and Friday. Okay. >> Fifth and six. Okay. >> 67. >> Okay. >> We were looking at his schedule. >> That was 25. That's what we did this year. >> Okay. >> 26. >> Yeah. >> So, we need a motion. >> Make a motion that we set the dates for the board
035retreat for 2026 for February 5th and 6th. >> Okay. I second a motion. Okay. There's been a motion and a second. Any questions? No questions. Let us know by >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> At this time, do you all want the same location with me? >> I like that location. >> Yeah, >> that's the housing. At this time, I would just like to to take a moment >> to thank everyone who participated in our recent town hall meeting. The feedback we received from our community was valuable and gave us insight into both the strengths we can build on in the areas that we need more attention. I especially appreciate the openness of parents, staff, and community members who shared their thoughts. This is exactly the kind of dialogue that help us serve
036our students better. Our next step will be to preview the feedback carefully, identify common themes, and develop an action plan to address the concerns raised. Once again, thank you, and I will turn this over to you. Yes. I have just a short um report this evening. Um last month we talked about attendance and I gave you some overall numbers and so I brought those numbers to you tonight by school so that you can see the comparison from last year's October FTE to where we are as of today by school. And so you can see there that there's a decrease of anywhere from 20 to um one situation we have 40. >> Okay. >> Are our children having homeschool or are they in private schools? The reduction >> it's noticeable. >> Combination combination. Um we uh
037the central office um teamed up with um the school administration last week and did some walkthroughs in all five of our schools. We did not do the life center because as you know they are on computer computer based >> and um so during those observations we were able to capture 188 observations each of them lasting about 20 minutes. Um this is a using the tool that Cognia um will use certainly when they come. This is our third year doing this and we'll do it again in February um large scale in that way. And what we found um during those observations there's a lot of great things going on in our schools. The raised expectations the rigor um students are working hard to meet their uh teachers expectation and also their own. We saw a lot
038of active engagement. Um, one of the concerns we had was uh the dependence on devices. We have seen a big decrease in that. So that was great. And then uh based on the data, one area of growth that we've seen for the third consecutive year is uh digital learning and that is uh using digital learning for research to collaborate with their peers to um create original works and those kinds of things. So that is what we're that is definitely an area of growth. Um we're just not seeing the um the use of the the digital um technology which is necessary when we talk about preparing students um for other environments. So that is an area we'll be working on as well. Um graduation requirements we have um in order for a student to qualify for
039early graduation. And again, this is something we've been doing for the last um guess four or five years. Um students who meet all graduation requirements by the end of their first semester of their senior year are allowed to do early graduation. There is no ceremony. They graduate in um the spring with the other students, >> but the requirement it requires them to have a GPA of 2.0 or above. There is an application approval uh process. So, first of all, if the student is under 18, the parent has to um sign off. The counselor has to look through their their transcripts and make sure that everything is in order. The principal signs off, Dr. Evans signs off, and then it comes to my desk. So it had goes through several um sets of eyes and we
040try to encourage those students who are saying that they um want to go to college to stay in just reminding them that they you know getting but some of the students still um want to take a semester and work and try to earn money. They have various reasons for wanting to take advantage of this. So um we have 31 students that have applied and qualified um as of today. So, um that is a plus. So those students are have um ahead with meeting their graduation requires. And then just an update on where we are with our facilities. Um primarily at the high school, the media center. Um we're working on waiting on lights um can lights that come in that go above the ceiling tiles. We have no um date right now as to when
041they will be here, but they're telling us they have been shipped and once they're in um three to five days, we should have things together. So, that's what we're waiting on there. Auditorium is coming along nicely. The seats are in place, most of them. Um I think there's a couple of rows down at the bottom near the stage that um have not been placed. And they're also working on the classroom and the areas behind the stage. So, things are coming along very nicely there. And we have um in the counselor's office uh we've got to put some cabinets in there. They're living out of boxes count um and a few things like that, but those things are coming along nicely. And so we did not today get an update on where we are with um
042the life center. We know that the drawing um was near complete and um but the architect was not a part of today's meeting. So I don't have an update on you update for you on that. But we'll keep you updated on that. And that's all I have for today. >> Me, too. Thank you, Dr. Williams. Um, >> I just want to say I'm not a uh Facebook ad, but I do watch Facebook and I have seen a lot of good things going on in our schools. Yes. And I just want our principles, I just want you to know I'm watching. I'm looking and and things like you're just moving up from where you've been to a whole new level and I appreciate that and I thank you and I want you to know that I'm
043watching. At this time we are going to close our open session and go into executive session. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your evening. We need a motion now to go into executive session. I move that we go into executive session at this time. I guess we discussing certain >> personal personnel only. >> We don't have any real estate. Okay. Person. Yeah. So, I need a second. I >> Okay. Thank you. Let's move to go into close session. Thank you very much. We are now in close session. Good evening. Good evening. that stress. Thank you. I have a parent that wanted to do next month. Like a little three to four minutes.