001this time I'd like to call this work session for the Carol County Board of Education to order and if we would join me and uh well first off let me welcome all our visitors we're got a good crew here today and we got a lot of great stuff so I want to welcome everybody to our board meeting and now join me as we will do our Pledge of Allegiance here 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 thank you this afternoon um we have two decisions in a couple of tribunal appeals so today's Monday March 17 2025 and after reviewing the record of the disciplinary hearing of February 12th 2025 and providing
002for the representation of all parties concerning student 90092 it is the decision of the Carrol County Board of Education that we uphold the decision of the disciplinary action rendered at the tribunal next we have March 17 2025 after reviewing the record of the disciplinary hearing of February 12th 2025 and providing for the representation of all parties concerned student 90093 it is the decision of the Carrol County Board of Education that we uphold the decision of the disciplinary action rendered at the tribunal thank you okay at this time we would like to go over student achievement and I'll turn it over to Dr Jessica answorth thank you Mr Miller Mr Miller and members of the board we have worked and working together since June of 2023 towards our accreditation in today so I'd like to First
003Take a point of privilege to thank Miss April price and the audience for everything that she's done behind the scenes to help coordinate our accreditation with our department as well as many people in the audience today as well as other people who could not make it this is not something that could have been done alone but together our accreditation process has been wonderful because of each of them and their efforts to make today happen so with that we have a guest Mr wansley is with the cognia accreditation company and he would like to share information regarding our accreditation Mr wansley members of the Board of Education uh superintendent coward uh April Jessica all of those who worked uh with me in this process as well as other stakeholders who are present today it is actually
004been a distinct pleasure to work with this system I am familiar with uh many people who work in the system and it was uh a happy time when I was appointed to this I'm Jay wansley I'm a regional accreditation evaluator I have 40 years of experience working with with cognia so I've been around a little bit and I can tell when things are uh really running well and I I've got to commend you for just an extraordinary high score I'm just going to give you some Snippets from the report I did talk to a Mr Chambers from your local newspaper and he is going to I guess follow up but I think you all need to know just uh one of the things that struck me as I was uh writing the your report it
005gave me the idea that you are Relentless in your pursuit of becoming a premier school system I just thought tell you that you're already there uh the thing will be now just getting better and I think that's really what the the job of you all uh is are you all able to hear me yes sir yes okay good I was I'm going to share the report but let me just give you a few little highlights March of this month uh which is rapidly coming to a close because I got your report in in record time and it's only because uh April and Jessica and the many of those who work with me they gave me everything that I needed so I think we may be able to make the uh the March accreditation thing we
006accredit schools quarterly so I'm thinking that you will be in that Marge group and so you'll get early confirmation that you might be able to publicize that yes we have a six year cycle of accreditation so the next time you will be involved in this intensive process will be in the school year 2030 2031 I will still be working more than likely with cogia during that time and so we'll have what's called a mid cycle report and that will be three years from now so my job was to look at the uh information that you supplied me and the ratings that you did and you guys really really did a wonderful job it's very rare that I will see a an ieq score that's as high as what you did and I think people know
007uh one of the 100 best places to work uh I think you all know that and uh you just had outstanding Athletics and uh it it' be hard for a student to really not have opportunity to be successful so I'm going to share my screen you all let me know if you're able to see it hopefully you will everybody able to see my screen yes sir we are now okay good let me just get it ready to go give me a second here there Always Something There we go and so let's take a few minutes uh and talk about this report it's just called unpacking I'm going to get to the highlights of this rather than all of the Boer plate language here let's just kind of move along this is just a little snippet
008of me I think I've got the term is pixelated when you can't get the picture like you want it so that just sort of gives you a little idea about me and uh my experience but the overview of this when you get the report we have all these things on this agenda but I'm just going to get to the the part that would interest you and I will be leaving this PowerPoint with you by the way as soon as this is over because it will become officially your document from that point but this is cogni we have uh this is our 130th year of operation and so those numbers have grown up exponentially that you see on the screen now we way over 32,000 and we're in 90 plus countries so we're all over the
009world we are the largest accrediting agency uh in the nation and in the world excuse me little bit about history the fact that we know schools because we're in schools so we're a global nonprofit that helps schools improve and so as I was writing this with my colleague we really were trying to find some things that you weren't already addressing so you're very proactive uh I think you all have a similar just a talented bunch of Educators uh who really are committed to doing schools in our organization we have uh spent this many hours observing classes uh and we've been just in that threeyear span more than 5,000 schools and so forth so this is our system I'll just kind of Move Along quickly so I can get to the highlights but this is a
010cycle of continuous Improvement in other words you just don't do that because persons like myself are writing reports you're just doing this because this is how you do business so these are the components of the report that you will get first is assurances uh we'll look at what stakeholders say about you through surveys we'll look at how your students are performing and we'll delve into the classroom what is going on in the classroom are students ready for the workforce or the armed services or college and so forth four is what I'm really going to highlight on and that's the writings that I have crafted about R review and then six I want you to pay particular attention to that score we have a score that's similar to a FICO score this FICO is based on
011875 for credit ours is 400 and I don't want to get ahead of myself by telling you just how well you did on that process but here are the summaries these are what I but felt wor noteworthy about your system if you'll notice I have four standards there so I had to condense all of those into one so that's basically you have four in that one noteworthy practice other words the good stuff and this promoted positive learner outcomes is the statement so that's one of the first things I felt was noteworthy and I had to combine all of it in order for it to work in the report you have an outstanding culture people work well together and I think you really go above and beyond in trying to get stakeholders from having uh forums
012and uh sessions by the superintendent with different groups and so forth okay get to the second one rarely do I see governing authorities that are so supportive and so informed about how things are going so I want to give you all a shout out uh by just working collaboratively with everyone to make sure that everything goes so a real good shout out to the board again I have to com combine you notice I have two standards there so if you'll just kind of follow the math here you had a lot of things that you were doing real well there I had to condense a number of them and this is again you'll notice there four standards that I had to condense in some way and in my narrative make it more than one so if
013you looked at it you had probably about 10 things that you were doing that were noteworthy and usually when we get to three and above that's outstanding so your classroom you really are monitoring and finding out how can we make things better whether it's uh social emotional learning or English language Learners you all are doing all of those things extremely well now that's the good stuff I didn't see anything that was bad so it's probably not the best term to use but we always come up with some way that you can improve now that was a hard di for me I must have labored two weeks to find something that you weren't already addressing but here we go and this is not native to just Carol County but there are gaps um with subgroups and
014so we're just saying look at that performance you're already doing that anyway and the rationale is a reason Reon why we're we're saying you do that when uh students are challenged and supported uh then the academic achievement of all of them may improve so that's an area that you're already working on and when I do my midcycle progress report uh three years from now I'm pretty sure you will have already done that you would have addressed it maybe even reduced it further so that's one and here's the other one and that deals with professional learning and the rationale for that is when teachers effectively integrate and utilize digital resources then student engagement may increase that one crops up quite frequently because if we look at the classrooms it's the students use of Technology rather than
015the teacher so I think you're already getting there where you need to be and I just want to commend you for that so those two things three years from now we'll be taking a look at this is your index of educational quality score the maximum score is 400 and you guys were at The 91st percentile which is outstanding very rare this is Tall Timber where you are with that particular score I commend you for that I didn't have to give you anything you earned it every time I uh was asked do this system really that good that they warrant it and i' say look at the evidence look at the narrative it came back clean so you actually have an outstanding score so let's talk about what that is if yours was uh 365 and
016so we have a cut off of around 320 and then that's when we start looking at maybe what schools are doing and so forth so that sort of gives you an idea about that one this is the mid-range of our reports and of course this is where you are you're above 300 and I commend you for that that's just sort of gives you an idea of how well you all are performing uh it was interesting that the information I received said that you were dedic at uh to becoming a premier school system and I am telling you this is further proof that you're already there so I can understand why people would want to work in Carol County I can see why it's one of the 100 best places to work and your count is
017interesting in that you uh just have so many different communities and you're able to blend them all together into a working atmosphere uh I remember the first time time coming there uh I was in a city called root Bill and next time I turned around I was in another city and so it's a big County and the fact that you're able to just bring all that together and just do an outstanding job so I commend you on that it's I'm pleased whenever I can share some really really good news uh from the school board the leadership and the staff that you have Mr be happy to feel any questions that anyone might have Mr wansley thank you again for supporting us through this process and I'll turn it back over to Mr Miller if we
018need to entertain any questions at this time are there any questions for Mr Wy from the board I I just want to Echo what Dr answorth said we want to thank you for that glowing report uh you I don't know what's coming up next but I would I would be remissed I mean the people we're looking at in this room certainly uh with Dr answorth and April price and this whole great group uh we are we are totally totally uh in awe of this group and I think that uh this is their time to shine I I think it would be befitting if we all gave them a big round of applause and I would be remiss if I did not uh commend Mr coward for his leadership I've known him a long time I
019know that he has very high expectations for the work that's being done and uh I just commend him for the leadership and you as a board for that support there that's what really makes it work and I'm going to uh use your report as an Exemplar when I get asked for how is the the best way to do this and I just say just take a very proactive approach and so I think you all do that and I I just commend you and if there are any questions or anything that I might do even in interim so you're not getting through with me I'm going to be here assigned with you and maybe 12 years from now I'll still be here working with you all that's encouraging and I'm not sure but I think Mr
020Cow just wrote down how to get those 39o Gap he's you know I I think obviously if if this group knows that it's his leadership and certainly this board's proud of him and we're proud of this community and very thankful I don't know what all went into this body of work but I know it was immense if it's every six years and uh we're just so grateful and we're looking forward to greater things to come Mr Kyer you got anything to add sir absolutely uh Jay thank you very very much uh for being great to work with and and sharing these U things we're doing well but also sharing the opportunities for improvement uh you know it's so important that to be really good you got to want to continue to to look at those
021things that need Improvement I want to point out to the Board of Education that uh in our next Advance this spring we will go deeper into this information and share some of the deeper looks at uh not only what Jay has identified but we identified some things that we feel like we need to get better at that we want to share with the board too um but the biggest thing I want to do is much like uh Mr Miller did to all the people sitting in the room to all the people who help that are not in the room uh to all the work that was put in Dr aworth April I mean all the group right here uh our people are what makes Carol County Special uh we've got great Educators at the district
022level we got great Educators at our school level uh and we just got great employees across our system and that's that's really Jay what drives us to be as good as we are uh as long as we continue to support and and let these good people do their work then I think we've got a chance to continue to be a premier School District so thank you very much no thank you and uh I'm not surprised you're telling me he's trying to find the Gap now and four to figure it out Jay all right I will just bid you all farewell then thank you thank you very much thank you thank you Mr Miller I have one more item and that is our West Georgia Risa contract uh this is for supplementary services this includes job
023Alik trainings professional learning sessions the cost for physical year 2026 is 5 $57,400 and that's based on FTE this is an annual item and it has been included in our physical year 2026 budget that we've prepared for the board and we recommend this agreement be placed on the consent agenda for Thursday night okay any questions or any concerns with us putting that on the consent agenda for Thursday night I don't have a question for that but I have a question for the presentation for Dr angor okay all right let's uh I want to are we good with that and then we'll go to to Dr Brooks's question we're good with that on the consent thank you ladies thank you you all so much yeah go ahead with your question Dr Brooks where is the documentation
024to support the standard stored for future references where is the documentation we provide for the accreditation yeah uh yes where is it stored for future references that is a great question we have that in Google Drive and we had a discussion today that um the importance of putting backup items on our internal share drive as well because from a historical perspective we don't want to lose all this good work for when we have to do it again in six years okay great question and of course we keep we keep hard copies too oh okay all right I just okay any any other questions from the board for Dr anworth I just Mr chair I just wanted to recognize one thing I'd love to said it before before they got gone but I totally respect that
025um the the the thing that we can't forget too is each of our classroom teachers Rose to the occasion to meet that and I know you alluded to that uh but how powerful this group is is is has done which has done an amazing job which is phenomenal with all that they are required to do uh it really is indicative of those of those in our classrooms rising to what the need was and being able to fulfill those specific needs and so we can't be grateful enough for those that are there that assisted you guys and I can't say thank you enough for the hard work you guys put into it would it be uh would it be available once all this comes out that we could send something out to uh from the board
026possibly thanking all of them I think so okay good point Mr Turner okay great report great report all right uh now let's go to stakeholder engagement uh Mr Scott coward all right uh Mr chair uh we had a CCA board directors meeting lately I was unable to attend but uh Miss Knight was there uh so she'll share an update from our CCA board of directors meeting uh we uh did have our meeting on uh Friday February 14th and uh we were able to be at the 12 for Life uh facility um I always enjoy when I'm able to go there and see what's going on um we had a student named Matthew githens who was in the industrial maintenance lab that presented to us and um he he did a really great job and I
027think I could identify with him because he had said he had a very hard time speaking publicly which I get my tongue all tangled every time I try to say anything so but he did an amazing job and I said to see that they had not only helped him grow of course but he also had that confidence to be able to present us and so that was a very um that was a very enjoyable thing to be able to see um we also were told that they are going to be um looking to fill a vacan SE a vacant seat on the board for a business and Industrial representative so if anybody has any um recommendations I'm sure that uhu they would appreciate knowing that because Mr Bale who had been on the board um
028didn't have the time anymore to that he felt he needed to be able to give to it so but it was it was a great uh meeting and um I don't know um Dr anworth was also there she might need to add something I've left out but you did an excellent job I think to see James uh showcase our Advanced manufacturing pathway that sits at our 12 for Life Center it was just amazing to see his growth and you you did very well capturing that that's a great team that that board's a great group and so I hope we'll we'll consider helping get somebody that that'll serve really good they they uh they take it very serious I know Mark Mark Foster uh leads that group and he's just Absol fabulous but it's it's always
029good to see the students because we always get to see you know did I see that we got like is it like, 1400 and something en roll now that's between the two isn't that incredible y yeah any other questions for for for either one on the CCA report good deal good deal all right anything else Mr C on that no sir okay at this time we'll go to Mr Glenn Harding for organizational excellence thank you Mr chair each year you know we update the board in in all areas but fine arts is one of the areas around this time uh and I say this every time and I and I I mean it with all my heart we're blessed to work with a board that puts the whole child in the Forefront and Fine Arts
030is part of that and the dedication that y'all have shown to this district and it it goes without U it goes noticed by everyone in the schools and of course um Mr Ruby we talk about it all the time he he goes off to many events and that is a topic of conversation with other uh band director Coral directors and things like that so again I want to take this opportunity to thank y'all for being a board that puts Fine Arts at such a high level I also want to take the opportunity ask Mr Ruby to come up he's our coordinator of Fine Arts and all the work that he does so Mr Ruby report good evening we've had a a busy and a successful year since um I last spoke with you last March
031so this this past year has been incredibly successful uh for our Fine Arts programs um first our Performing Art Center um has hosted 89 Fine Art specific events since last March as well as hundreds of other events at our Performing Art Center um many of those events our fine arts groups have provided music and entertainment for um and I want to take a moment just to to say how thankful we are for the Performing Arts Center and Miss Aaron and her staff um thas and Seth and Kelly for all the work they do to provide a a premere facility for our groups to go in then and provide Premier Events it's it's it's been absolutely um incredible that what we're able to do there um as I said 89 specific events that's not 89 days
032but events and several of those events last multiple days and several of those events involve multiple groups within the same day we've got two very large events that are coming up the in the next two weeks where Carrol County will will be the host for the Georgia music educators Association district 7 South large group performance evaluations for both band and uh chorus we will host over 130 performances over eight days at our Performing Arts Center which is absolutely incredible just so you know gmea large group performance evaluations that's the equivalent to like a state assessment like Georgia Milestones where our bands go and perform for adjudicators um trained adjudicators approved adjudicators to assess them in many different areas and um it's it's a wonderful event for us to be able to host and we're very
033honored that our district has chosen us to do that now I think for the fifth year um it's also amazing to to think back that we've been in the Performing Art Center now for eight years and during that span um thousands and thousands of our students have have had the um opportunity to be involved in Premier Events across many uh different curriculums um I'm going to go uh quickly through some of our highlights that that we've had um the written information and the the pictures are are uploaded on eboard uh for you to go back and review um wanted to uh draw attention to our our fine arts fair last we used to call it the Music Fair this was our second year doing it and um this year we included Visual Arts drama and
034theater we had 20 uh colleges attend including the um uh Army and National Guard band and uh we increased those groups coming in by six from the previous year um within our band programs as you can see those pictures cover uh several areas our our band exhibition had record attendance this year and we equate that to the increased media presence that we've had that has um uh attended and live streamed our event um allowing folks from all over the world it's it's been really awesome to get the feedback that we've gotten from all over the country and all over the world about our band programs they interview our students or interview our band directors make them really feel special it's like a game day atmosphere four of our students um receive the Norman L pageant
035scholarship fund which is uh benefited um by by the county band exhibition and of note um I thought this was interesting six of our current music teachers in Carol County are products of Carol County schools and four of them are past recipients of that scholarship so that's been really awesome to see we had eight students in in Carol County and four alternates from uh all five of our high schools and one of our middle schools uh selected to the All State band which is the highest honor a band member can receive and we had five students selected from Carol County and all state chorus we had eight students selected to the gmea Statewide sixth grade honor chorus um both from Central Middle School and Temple Middle School um moving on to our Elementary programs um
036we brought in the Atlanta Opera uh a studio uh tour Performance Group who did a presentation of The Magic Flute for all 12 our Elementary School chorus programs and um Mr coward when we when we first um talked about this facility we talked about instead of sending our students to Atlanta let's bring those major events to our Performing Art Center so here's another example of that um our gmea Statewide Elementary Honor course we had four students all from rootville elementary that were selected to attend that prestigious event um and I'm very very proud that last summer we put together an elementary music Blue Print for our music teachers at the elementary schools this was created by a dynamic team to assist our teachers with the Georgia doe state standards and with vertical alignment with each
037cluster we've seen enormous success from that already in less than a year moving on to our Visual Arts um programs we had four middle school students that had their artwork selected to be um premiered at the capital Art Exhibit and their work is currently being displayed at the Georgia state capital uh and um the Quan art showcase we had four High school students uh earn top honors of that and a villa R student high school student won best in show this year and um that's four of the top five were all Caroll County students so we're very proud of that and then the Caroll County art Galla which just um concluded last week every school in Carol County participated in it this year um and it's the largest number of participants we've ever had and
038this increase participation and quality is due in large part to the board's support of adding full-time visual art uh teachers in all of our schools uh moving on to a few Honors that I wanted to share with you we had three teachers Fine Arts teachers that were selected as teacher of the year at their schools uh Janie Jackson art teacher at Villa middle Scott Jones the band director at Mountain Z high school and Lee Kilgore the art teacher at Bowen Elementary School that picture on the left um was something that's very been very special and a huge honor for Carol County is the Elevate chorus and this consisted of two uh Forest students from uh all of our elementary middle and high schools that were formed specifically for this event they performed at the opening
039session of the Georgia music educators Association in service conference um as the chosen group to promote our theme honoring the past celebrate the present and creating the future the Grammy music educator of the Year recipient Mickey Smith Jr was a keynote speaker and spent some time visiting and speaking with our students as you know you joined us uh this past summer for our leadership Advance um speaking of the gmea conference 29 of our music teachers attended the GMA conference this year where they received Advanced professional development through clinics and performances our support of their attendance uh through covering registration fees and Subs has been instrumental in the continued elevation of our programs um one teacher I wanted to share this comment with you because I thought it was it was very meaningful uh she said
040I learned practical things that I literally Ed first thing Monday morning when I got back but I was also inspired by all the creative sessions and concerts it always gets my wheels turning about what I can do at my school to be a better teacher for my students and Community involvement thank you Carol K schools for making this possible for me to attend also wanted to um give recognition to Anne Wilson who's the associate band director of villa high school she's been selected as the Georgia state chair um for the women band director International which is a huge huge honor for her um four of our Fine Arts teachers have been elected to serve as gmea District s officers um that's four of the five are all from Carrol County from our district um kyy
041Hamilton Lord at vill R Middle School is our district secretary our district uh treasur is Courtney nart from Central Middle School our corus chair is Scott Smith from Central Middle School our band chair is Kevin Brown from vill R high school so we're very proud of them and then lastly um we were chosen again this past March almost a year ago um as a recipient of the best communities for music education by the N Foundation um this is in recognition of outstanding support of music education from school systems and communities alike um we are a two-time recipient of that and we should hear about 2025 very soon so Mr coward I want to thank you and the board of education for your continued support of the Fine Arts this does not go lightly with us
042we know that we're different and we know that we're very special in the support that we get my role in gmea the past two years has allowed me to travel all over the state of Georgia and visit uh school systems and each time I walk away um just being reminded how special it is here in Carol County and how fortunate we are and I want to just thank you again for all your support at this time I will entertain any questions questions any any questions Mr I'd like to uh I'd like to recognize something I thought was very interesting started his presentation with it and that was the amount of usage for our Performing Arts Center I noticed over the last couple weeks there have been some mistruth there and so it tickles me to
043sort of get to hear that that we sort of verified some things didn't you say there was 89 Just Fine Arts events yes sir in the former Arts Center and I wrote down also you said hundreds of other events and uh and then even then microing down to what's going on this week and last week and the next week after that about 130 performances over just an 8-day period that's pretty impressive so very thankful number one that our Fine Arts uh Performing Arts Center is being used and utilized and and of course a senior member on our board you know Mr cater you know thank you guys for supporting something like that and just having the ability to to do it I know as a parent it's been wonderful to be able to go there
044and enjoy that that's my that's my first thing the second thing is to see all the many things that are climaxed you know throughout our Fine Arts speaks volumes to how it affects the rest of our entire system you know we see and you've highlighted tons of things here tonight about Fine Arts and what our students are doing what they're involved in and at such a high level and recognizing across the state uh but we can't uh cut short too that those students impact the rest of our system they impact us academically they impact us you know just in their commitment to represent our system so well and so thank you uh for me for your leadership and your guidance under Mr Cowart and this board uh for doing what you do to to see
045to it that we're premere all across the board in our fire Arts thank you very very much thank you IO the same El I I I too want to say this that uh we are blessed to have number one the position uh that was created for you to do this but a position's one thing and and it's like Mr Turner said you got to have that person and so I was thinking about when you told me the story about coming to work at either Temple to start with and then Mr card convinced you as a principal I believe to come to Central many years ago but for you to you to utilize your your gifting uh for this system is incredible I was thinking about a few things you got to have energy you got
046to have aptitude attitude drive and then you capsulate that with your your knowledge of this whole thing to bring all this with an energy and excitement that is incredible I finally want to say thank you for this the uh the program where you bring in all those colleges I think I was talking to Mr Turner that typically you know a couple of of colleges might go to a high school for Fine Arts but now you got 20 of them and you're bringing them there I think think that's huge for the the the things that can happen for those students not only now but what they can see for their future so you know we could go on and on what a tremendous report and uh thank you so much thank you all right all right
047Mr chair I will remind the board also that that was just a snippet if you go to eboard and you look at his summaries you will see a lot more updates there that we can be proud of in Carrol County U moving on to our safety um I wanted to do a quick reminder of a couple of things uh first remember uh last month I told you that Governor km uh provided $1.1 million to our uh school for safety upgrades and funds remind you we use that to upgrade our CICS software and we did that in additional sro's for this current year and I will tell you too it didn't make this summary but um just hot off the presses the CICS have we've had the crossover and uh Mr Turner you asked about the
048connections directly to uh emergency services that that is happening now so um and and the schools are aware of that also last month I told you that we were preparing for the GMA audits that has been completed by GMA and Russell Grizzard our coordinator so now he's working to gather that information and report back to the schools on uh their individual report and then U kind of analyze that what what can we do with that report and what changes can we make U and and around safety I'll remind the board that we continue to watch our our state lawmakers um um and reading and and keeping up with that uh because I think we'll have several uh bills that may pass that we may have to address uh move into FY 26 um that is
049my update and reminders for safety any questions Mr chair of the board any questions okay uh next we have our facility update U these the main two facilities that we're talking about right now each month is Central Middle School and mountains Z high school I'll tell you uh Central Middle School is moving right along we hit a milestone been able to get all the block up and the roof on uh the weather has really been good for us uh but now we have opportunity even with the weather's bad to get some things done we've been working real closely with the school over the last couple of weeks for the design and branding of our uh cafeteria Furniture so that order has been placed uh just real tickled and excited about this project it's uh interesting
050every once in a while me and Mr KY were to get a random email from Colleen Jones the principal just how excited U not only her administrative team is but the teachers um at that school there's a lot of good things happening there um so we look forward to that being on schedule and um everything being roughed in on the inside where we can get a lot of work done even if the weather's bad as far as Mountain Zion also on schedule there um blocks going up um on the addition of the band room and the classrooms um and then the pad for the multi-purpose building down there has started I look forward to seeing that's starting to go up in the next couple of weeks um had a really good visit last week with
051the administration and the uh athletic department and the band director to kind of look at the things that are happening up top on our campus uh extremely excited about the additions um being able to move our greenhouse and being able to have a full um well not necessarily full field but a band field that would be for our band being able to be on grass where the multi-purpose building is going so we had to accommodate for that so very very proud of these two projects uh um want to thank Mike beers for all the work that he's doing with all our contractors and those projects are moving right along so any questions about the two facilities uh currently good all right uh next we have our field trips and fundraising those are attached to eboard
052and we ask for you to review those and place those on the cassin agenda for Thursday night okay any problem with adding those to the consent agenda everybody good thank you thank you Miss moris thank you board okay anything else for Mr Harding thank you for that report Mr Harding at this time we'll go to Mr lean wolf with the financial thank you Mr Miller for the January financial report the first page includes the month to date and year-to date transactions for each fund then moving down to the general fund Det details revenues were 14.2 million in January expenditures totaled 15.8 million fund balance is 52.8 million after adjustments with 2.8 million in outstanding excuse me 2.7 million in outstanding incumbrances spoed revenues told tot a 2.1 million which is a 6.3% increase over the
053same month last year and expenditures totaled th000 leaving a balance of 8.3 million for the scheduled projects I'd be happy to answer any questions on the financial report any question on the current Financial report very good okay and next I have a budget update um beginning with an update on the current year budget we've received our preliminary um midterm Amendment allotment sheet from the state and there will be a $2.4 million increase um presented in amendment number two next month and this is due to to the Statewide cap on the Local 5 mil share um per state law the total Statewide local F mil share cannot exceed more than the total Statewide um QBE of 20% a the budget amendment along with recommended Investments and one-time expenditures will be presented at next month's meeting in
054any questions on the fy2 update before I move to FY 26 should be good for the next fiscal year budget or FY 26 beginning on page one with the calendar excuse me at this time we're in the first phase of the calendar with um monthly updates to the board um the next phase begins next month um with the tenative budget scheduled um for the tenative adoption in April and the final budget scheduled for um adoption in May the last phase is the millage rate process to fund the budget that is adopted the next page of the report are the includes the budget assumptions these assumptions include um employee compensation revenues as well as other expenditures um similar to the um midterm Amendment for fiscal year 25 for the current year the most significant change is
055for the local F mil share and that has been unchanged to um have a zero change from the initial fy2 to FY 26 budget although we do not have the um preliminary allotment sheet for next year from the state yet I have received some information that the Local 5 mil share will be capped again in fiscal year 26 this is positive news as we're um working on the um budget framework excuse me um the next um page includes a summary of the um budget change estimates starting um at the top the estimated um Revenue budget changes total uh 7.5 million this would be a 3.8% increase over the initial fiscal year 25 budget for the state revenue the increase of 5.9 million is driven by two things um first of all it is um 3.5
056million of that is for enrollment growth and St step raises the remaining um 2.4 million is um partial funding for the required benefit cost increases that have been set by the state then um a decrease of 1.4 million is estimated for Equalization due to a a decrease in the total Statewide Equalization budget and then um 2.9 Million for local and other changes um moving to the expenditure section the total change is a 3.3% increase over the fiscal year 25 budget or 6.5 million the largest um portion of that increase is is due to the mandatory State benefit increases for health insurance as well as t s um almost half of that $5 million increase will be funded by the state the remainder would um be require local and other funding there's also a $3.1 million
057cut in the expenditure budget The increased Personnel for the enrollment growth um plus raises for employees over that would be a 1% increase in the local supplement for certified employees and an overall 1% raise for classified employees that totals 2.9 Million operating cost um increases total 1.1 million and 0.6 million for one-time investments in school equipment and supplies overall this expenditure budget is based on um 2.6% increase in enrollment as shown in our um State reporting on a per learner basis it is a 0.6% increase in the budget allocation per learner the next page of the report includes the items for Budget consideration those that are marked with with a star are already included in the budget framework those that are not starred have not been added to the budget framework and are um for
058consideration only the next page are is the increase in positions um for each School followed by the total proposed um govern governmental funds budget for all three funds and then the last um five or so pages are the details for the general fund um by function and then object I'd be happy to answer any questions any questions from the board Mr Wolf I'd like to ask one thing uh regarding the timing if I could and I'd like to uh bring the board in this and then ask leadership we've got the timing set to adopt this budget in May would the board or the leadership uh be be opposed if we move that back a month possibly in order to get more information and have more sure information from the state and from the tax uh
059that would be coming in would that would that be okay with everybody state that again if if we moved the timeline back to give us another month to get more information so that we make a more informed decision in June than may we had used to do that previously but we moved it up a month yeah that would put it back to way we've done it in the past if we did what Mr Miller said it would help us gather more information for the board before you were asked to to approve a budget so from our standpoint Mr Miller that would actually be a good thing would the board have any opposition to that and that's gathering information from what the state's going to supply to us and and as well as local fund but
060yeah this timeline actually came from you guys suggestion correct so if you're willing to you know I mean you it was your suggestion so if it's your suggestion to get back in the same Groove I don't see yeah I'm asking that but uh yeah if if we're all okay with it it we had hoped we' get the State numbers earlier but we're not going to get them and we I just hate getting out ahead of that without knowing what the for sure what numbers I can recommend to the board U Mr chair U may I ask a question yes ma'am when is the last day for General Assembly they are I think nine days away now so or is it eight eight eight or nine so I think they're planning on next Friday I think
061I'm right on that Dr Brooks okay um but they're definely and trying to get it done before the end of March oh okay Mr chair I have a question so this budget if I understood you correctly I know we were going through a lot of different things this this budget actually at this point has in there a 1% raise for our employees is that correct yes sir is that what so we're accounting for 1% as the way it stands uh is you know I think you put in here I see like some possibilities if it was 2% or you know I think that may be just for classifi but have we reviewed or looked into the possibility that that those raises could be at 10 2% across the board or could we look at that
062or is that something I know that's what we've sort of been doing the last few years but you know i' I'd love to see if we could consider it but also keeping in mind that you know i' love to see if our budget can get us to a rollback scenario for this coming year too for me personally we anticipate um receiving the state allotment sheet in April okay and then it would be May at the earliest before we um could receive numbers from the county on the estimate for the local um portion of the budget and so I think the um the calendar change that was um recommended would help allow for some of that information to come in to be considered and I think that would be even more helpful to the calendar change
063for me once we get those numbers we can definitely share with the board what impact that would or wouldn't have and let you make a decision is what you would like to do as a board so if I'm understanding we could look at both scenarios and the impact it would have on what we would need to approve plus what we'd be able to do as far as to Mr Turner's point the roll back yes sir any questions on that or any other board members comments for that no We Will We Will Morris Miss Sandra you got any any any thoughts or questions no I think that sounds good to me if we can get more information before we make a decision it'll it'll please me we we work to get that information up and give
064you some options on that anything else for Miss wolf thank you for that tremendous report at this time we'll go to Improvement Mr Jerry griffi Thank you Mr chair uh you'll see an eboard anou from Georgia Southern University it's a renewal of a previous agreement that allows our student their student teachers in our schools to complete their teacher preparation programs and gain valuable experience from our teachers we recommend this mou be placed on the consent agenda for Thursday evening okay any any questions or thoughts on that everybody good with with putting that on the consent agenda okay sir thank you Miss Morris thank you everybody the HR department recently had an exciting opportunity on May 4th we hosted a session called ignite your passion for teaching uh we put out flyers and Communications uh throughout
065Carol County uh inviting people who are interested in becoming a teacher uh or possibly just pondering it uh to come sit down with the HR department and learn about how to become a teacher in Carol County we had around 25 people attend over 30 signed up most of these individuals have a four-year degree um they just did not know that that four-year degree would allow them to teach if they jump through certain Hoops so uh we hope to pick up some uh local teachers who are tied to West Georgia to the Carolton area through this process we had such a good turnout we're going to try it again in July so we look forward to making this an annual event um for our community we also recently completed the application process for the 2025 26
066aspiring leaders cohort we're excited because this is our seventh cohort um this has been happening for several years now a lot of our uh leaders within our schools have come through that program and it's a good betting process for Carol County Schools um you'll see in the Personnel action reports this week our principls have been busy hiring for the next school year you can also expect to see the leadership Personnel recommendations and eboard Thursday night that concludes my report Mr chair thank you sir any questions Mr Griffith did we pick up any of the uh um hires through the student teachers program that we've been able to partner with with been able to to offer that to complete that program in well four of the six will complete it in December okay and and um
067so uh they are eligible to apply for jobs now because they already have a four-year degree you're talking about the par no I'm I'm sorry I'm talking about the ones that are students currently fixing to graduate uh you know that we've done yeah block four sorry yeah my bad block four students yes we're we're hiring several of those um there's a number of them on the report tonight uh that are currently doing student teaching within our our district good so they so the college was did pretty well on referring and getting the word out that's great so so what does that mean so if you're a graduating uh senior at College in education they're student teaching now they're going to student if they're ready for their fourth block if we have an opening you know
068there was a new law passed that said we could actually hire them and actually be paid employees during their fourth BL block and so it sort of allows us to have an advantage and them an advantage we've done that the last few years haven't we it's a new thing it's a new program we you know life happens sometimes and uh we just had a situation last month where a teacher had to relocate to another state and we were able to hire a block for student for that vacancy that was student teaching in that building and that's always the hardest time to try to hire somebody in the mid contract so knowing those students are available it's a big win for our potential I was just curious to see if we had a good result from
069them this year too okay thanks that's great anything else for Mr griffi I would just like to say as someone that deals with Staffing you know we call it hand toand combat it's it's a difficult environment and and I would just like to praise you all for outside of the box type thinking looking at something a different way very impressive that's great chair I do have a quick update on board planning um the last couple years we've done two board advances one in the and morning in the spring and just want to plant the seed with the board if it'd be okay if if I could get mic to start polling the board on some potential dates maybe in in either late May or June for our second one um one of the things we
070would do with that is is go much deeper into the cogni report being an example of one of the things we would do uh and then U you know depending on where these conversations go with budget it be a great time for the board to go deeper with M wolf on some budget pieces and in some other things that the board may want to talk about so if it's okay with you we'll start putting out some dates and seeing you know if we can find a date what works for the whole board I think that'd be good and the kind of another thing that follows with that it's also time for the gsba uh Summer Conference planning if you if you're planning on go to the Summer Conference in Savannah that's uh June 5th through
071the 7th and the June 5th is the actual Workshop day for you as board members where you can get is it three hours credit Michel they can get six six hours credit so if you would if you're planning to attend if you'll let Micah know she'll take care of your registration um in your hotel and things of that nature and and one of the things is a part of that each year the board has designated somebody is a delegate to participate in the gsba delegate assembly the last two years has been Dr Brooks but Mr chair if if the board would consider somebody who might willing to do that we need to send that name in is that correct do we need to do that tonight if we could or would anybody be willing to
072volunteer to be our delegate if there are no um oh I do it I love holding that little [Laughter] thing Let Her Go Let Her do I think we got a chance no we're not we're going to rephrase that we don't have a volunteer we have a champion not would not remove that pleasure from you of holding that little thing up ma'am thank you Dr Brook Dr Brooks does a great job and I'm honored to have her represent that's right thank you Miss Mars okay all right so at this time is there anything else from Mr griffi for that we're good at this time we'll we we'd like to move to public input at this point I don't see any public so we'll move right along are there any business items to be brought before
073the board tonight no sir none tonight okay uh we've got the agenda we the review of the agenda for the March 20th 25 board meeting uh I think we need a a move in a second to accept that agenda I make that motion we do not not no just okay just review my my apologize for that Mike are there any changes have been suggested okay okay okay at this time I'd like to make a recommendation that the board meet an executive session to discuss the future acquisition of real estate Safety and Security Personnel pending or threatened litigation and recommendations that are exempt from disclosure under the open records act I'll make that motion we have a motion Dr Brooks I'll second and a second by by Mr Lana all those in favor please raise your
074right hand and that's everybody and Miss Morris M mors yeah yes okay since we have her on the phone I would suggest we might stay in here for the meeting that' be that'd be fine with me yep everybody good with that yeah at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to adjourn executive session motion have a motion by Mr Turner second okay we have a second by Tom seore all those in favor please raise your right hand and Miss Morris yes okay we now we uh I'd like to entertain a a motion that we uh a recommendation that the board approve the Personnel actions as presented by the superintendent I'll make that motion second by turn all those in favor raise your right hand and Miss Morris yes and that's everyone this time
075I would like to go to any board member comments we might have this evening only thing I want to say thank you for the gift I'm assuming it's from from board member appreciation thanks yes ma'am I was just fixing to say that uh we've got those we got cards from your distric and whatnot thank you for all that you do those vests are pretty nice though you think you'll like those they're really cool gifts so we we appreciate you uh we still need to I think it Thursday night if everybody will come dress for it we'll need a picture a whole board picture okay we could get that U remember that mik could do that and Thursday night's meeting is in here because what uh Mr Ruby was talking about the events we're having over
076there we need to be in here Thursday night uh and also without you know saying too much tomorrow is the actual referendum day on the spast uh election uh it's uh a big day for us uh I think I sent out to you Friday uh afternoon about 2500 people have voted uh the last time we had a stand alone um which would have been I think in 2016 I believe it was we had had 2,000 people vote total Standalone because the this last vote was during the co the mailin year so it it was it's kind of hard to pull it apart um really proud Friday there were about 600 people that voted Friday which is our teacher work day uh we know that a large large large percentage of those were were people that
077were employed with the school system um we will be down at the elections office right about 8:00 uh to receive the votes would you like to invite any of you would like to be there with us uh we would love to have have you with us there tomorrow and obviously if you know people who who haven't voted uh please encourage them to get out and vote tomorrow absolutely anything else not I'd like to entertain a motion that we adjourn I'll make that motion thank you motion and second all those in favor please say I I did that for M Morris we're jour than