April 18, 2023, Board of Education Meeting

001thank you all those who can't please stand for a pledge of the allegiance [Music] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice that was a good one there's something about the voice of little children in the background thank you all very much thank you uh thank you um the move to approve the minutes from the the agenda for approval any modifications let's go for the agenda for the agenda I would like to make a motion to move the budget to item for discussion as opposed to Consulting okay uh do I have a second second all right uh to move the agenda item from budget uh you want to discuss but you're okay with moving forward with it as a as a vote okay so adding a discussion of the budget uh have a first

002and a second all in favor say aye aye all right we will add that um and keep it where it is um appreciate it and then I need an approval of the previous minutes of the board members had a chance to review and move those I would call for a movement to approve previous boards minutes well do I have a second all in favor I I approve those minutes and the agenda from last time which brings us to our spotlight I wanted to add a point of clarification okay are we having to vote on the Budget prior to the discussion of the budget are we having a vote on the budget post the discussion on the budget well I think it only makes sense to discuss it first so we will do that okay while

003we're still in discussion okay that okay yeah okay all right that is what we will do thank you for the clarification our first Spotlight this evening is for College Heights Early Elementary Learning Center actually College Heights is not able to make it uh their presenter was not feeling well so we're going to move them to next month so we are going to start with our Georgia young authors and I'm going to ask Miss Courtney Simons to come up and Lead this presentation good evening Board of Education superintendent Dr Maggie Fuhrman City schools of Decatur students families friends and staff my name is Courtney Simon I serve on the teaching and learning team at the CSC professional Learning Center and it is an honor this evening district-wide literacy and student achievement the purpose of the young

004Georgia authors writing competition is to encourage students to develop enthusiasm for and expertise in their writing to provide a context to celebrate their writing successes and to recognize student achievement in arts and academics prestigious competition has been engaging Georgia students for more than two decades and is open to any student currently enrolled in Georgia public 6K through 12. the competition is sponsored by the Georgia language arts supervisors and the Georgia Resa network with support from the Georgia Department of Education the young Georgia author City schools of Decatur system level winners are in kindergarten Elliot Scott from Glenwood Elementary School we're so proud of you Elliot let's get ready [Applause] I'm not sure if you are a teacher or principal and you came to support your student please feel free to come up for the photo

005app for first grade we are celebrating and congratulating Molly Singh from Winona Park Elementary [Applause] congratulations Molly [Applause] next we are congratulating Lucas Simpson from Glenwood Elementary School are you coming for the picture yeah is going congratulations [Applause] next we will be celebrating and congratulating Tatum Gibbons from tally Upper Elementary School congratulations for fourth grade we are congratulating congratulations congratulating please take my pardon um Caitlin Roberts from The Fifth Avenue at Upper Elementary School [Music] congratulations Caitlyn and for the for the fifth grade we are congratulating Talon Terry from the tally Upper Elementary School [Applause] congratulations and for sixth grade we are congratulating Carolyn Devereaux from the Deacon Hill Middle School [Applause] congratulations thank you and for seventh grade we are congratulating Catherine Henry from Beacon Hill Middle School [Applause] congratulations [Applause] he's also from

006Beacon Hill Middle School where our eighth grade winner is Camilla giatti congratulations congratulations high school we would like to congratulate and celebrate in the ninth grade Liam Aldridge Byers congratulations foreign [Applause] 10th grade we're celebrating Jude Harper bar six congratulations 11th grade we are celebrating and congratulating rain Reinhardt [Applause] and our 12th grade winner and one of our seniors is Victoria McCallum congratulations the life of principal lost friends oh Elliott okay perfect perfect okay we're still in that Center but we're almost done thanks for being a great audience um this year's young Georgia author Metro Regional Educational Service Agency known as Risa 10th grade winner is Feud Harper parsing you're very welcome congratulations [Music] Duke's writing piece was selected throughout she's the winner for the entire metro recess yeah has now moved up to the

007state level and we will know the results at the end of this month too congratulations thank you [Applause] this year's Beacon Hill Middle School spelling bee winner is our eighth grader Ian Cobb congratulations amen thank you so much everyone for your participation we're so proud of our Scholars have a wonderful evening and thank you Dr Bean to your assistance thank you [Applause] I am honored those people that you've exited ready to exit stay for the budget okay [Laughter] thank you congratulations how's it open [Music] because the place I'll just do my remarks again we are ready for our second spotlight I am honored to introduce the good Equity Troublemaker award for the second year since last year at this time we have experienced many changes of the school system and change bring brings growth you

008know we have developed a new strategic plan that finally weaves Equity into every area of our school system so it is no longer a standalone initiative and it can no longer be ignored I know the good Equity troublemakers that we are going to recognize tonight will Propel the progress that CSC is already making towards breaking down systemic inequities in all areas so that all students in city schools of Decatur will experience the same benefits and Equitable outcomes for that all students can achieve like to welcome Mr Anthony Downer to the podium to begin awarding our good Equity troublemakers for the 2022-23 year dear Herndon members of the board superintendent Dr Furman and members of the CSC Community I'm proud and honored to present the 2022 2023 good Equity Troublemaker Awards our second annual celebration before

009we show some examples of good trouble I want to take a moment of silence for Ralph y'all a 16 year old shot twice while trying to pick up his siblings last week he's currently in critical condition you can join me in a moment of silence Congressman Lewis stood against violence and for our youth we continue that struggle today before he went on to glory in 2020 Congressman John Lewis left us a love letter and a call to action no I may not be here with you I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up to what you truly believe in my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of Peace the way of love and non-violence protection [Music] when historians pick up their pins to

010write the story of the 21st century let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heaven burdens of hate have asked and that peace finally triumphalaviolence aggression and War so I say to you walk with the wind brothers and sisters and that the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide 65 years ago an 18 year old boy from Troy met D Dr Martin Luther King Jr he soon joined the Nashville student movement then the Freedom Writers in the student non-violent Coordinating Committee and for the next seven decades John Lewis could not stop would not stop struggling for freedom justice and liberation flows to the school couldn't stop him arrests couldn't stop him the governor of Alabama not even the president of the United States could not stop

011him in 1963 John Lewis was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington after an early draft of his remarks leaked he was told to tone down his message toned down his criticism of the government tone down his fire and realness but when I met him and heard him speak as a student at the University of Chicago He urged us to do what he did all of his life get in the way and get into good necessary trouble we are here tonight to honor some of the baddest troublemakers and Equity out there they may not have been arrested 40 times I don't think their good trouble might look different but like the congressman Lewis they do it for the next generation of agitators and disruptors change ages and drum Majors for justice the good Equity

012Troublemaker or get award recognizes staff members in our district who have acted in the spirit of Congressman Lucas who have got in the way of the status quo and inequitable educational outcomes by consistently contributing to and leading efforts to ensure access and opportunity for every CSD scholar our district is closer to his vision of celebrating the whole learner and paying back our education debt because of these individuals from the bottom of my heart I want to thank these individuals and all of our staff and community members who show up and fight for our Scholars every single day we could not build this Beloved Community without them and now for the honorees each School level award recipient was selected by a local school committee and received a frame certificate and gift basket today they will receive

013an award that reads for exemplifying John Lewis's principle of good trouble through your work towards Jedi or Justice Equity diversity and inclusion in CSD the gets or the good Equity trouble maker award recipient from College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center is Brianna Bauer I believe Howard a prepaid teacher I believe that Pre-K students can Envision a world they want to live in and they can start working towards it right now culturally responsive teaching is not just about learning about holidays with the shared values that all people have in our class we have worked to build the classroom community that is safe and fair where we can have fun and make mistakes where we could be different but still honor one another where all families are welcomed and included we demonstrate kindness and respect we've learned

014to recognize Injustice and to take specific to create the change that we want to see thank you so much Mrs Bauer it has been a pleasure to delay your class with you [Applause] get award recipients from Claremont Elementary School are the members of the school's Equity team their team is led by principal Dr Armor assistant principal Mr gusta and nurse Cox members are Jasmine Adams Lori Bigham Katie green foreign jolly and Sanja Lewis Jillian Fowler and Tyler mogasco this model group of racial Equity leaders confront the challenges the challenges facing their teachers and students head on local to the Claremont e team s follow the address and eradicate racism racial biases and racial inequity that plague our school community and the world around them the equity read about is a full-wide initiative engaging students in

015conversations about Equity diversity inclusion and advocacy through literature by acknowledging and celebrating our agenda our differences we create a welcoming environment and find Connections in our humanities at Claremont we believe that all students should have exposure to lessons that access to higher order thinking and personal talents realizing the need to prepare or identify more students of color an English language Learners with different Services we have created and implemented a creativity class that all students attend once per week this class provides an opportunity for students regardless of gifted or Amplified identification to participate in activities that further Challenge and strengthen their critical thinking and problem solving skills Obama if we think solicit is the assistance of Georgia State University professor staff is participating in training that is ourselves to critically examine their own identity and develop

016an emerging understanding strategy for addressing inequity and improved problems as they are representing but building off of last year's march on Fairmont our full Equity team and the TPA Dei committee will collaborate with our students to enact a march on the cater and extinguishes on March 31st The Claremont crew and our community supporters will march to feed the cast History Center using our voices to speak out against racism sexism heterosexism and ableism we introduce to you conversation of understanding we recognize the new facilitate conversations to shine a light on these issues particularly around race and ethnicity therefore we sought a way to bring a conversation to the community not only to educate but also to ensure our residents feel supported and included in these important that changing conversations that help bridge gaps along a lot

017of differences at Claremont we are committed to meeting our Equity needs of actions our creative Partnerships with District Personnel parent and Community supporters and doing the purpose to fight the social justice in our food we will continue to empower generations to promote Equity interest I want to personally thank Dr Armor for his racial Equity leadership um this year his partnership as an example I wish you the best we're going to miss you and kill them thank you congratulations [Applause] foreign recipient from Glenwood Elementary School is Jill tolma a professional coach and Equity leads what is my wife I can sum it up in a well-known quote by Martin niemoller a pastor and an outspoken critic of Hitler's regime in the 30s and 40s it was the last thing I saw leaving the Holocaust museum in

018Washington DC many years ago because first they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist then they came for the trade unionist and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me silence is white people get points for doing this work and black people experience pain this is an awareness that I sit with and share because of what I'm sharing with you now this work is layered and complex and ever evolving to be a good Troublemaker I must acknowledge my complicitness in upholding white supremacy culture while consciously working to interrogate and

019question that complicity in order to dismantle it especially when it's uncomfortable I've worked closely with Jill and I want to say thank you so much for welcoming me to the district and it's been a pleasure to work at it get award recipient from Oakhurst Elementary School is Charles Dawson paraprofessional [Applause] I do naturally try to Encompass uh embody the concepts of Justice equality diversity and inclusion I feel that my students which are currently kindergartners I really appreciate the fact that I'm on level with them I'm going to include them all they come to me it doesn't matter what the student is or what's going on in their background what's their level of academics I'm going to come and take them all in and just work with them and be fair and true to them this

020would often have been described as Fearless kind Dependable funny firm caring compassionate consistent intelligent Relentless I wish I hadn't seizure like that come on [Applause] award recipient from Westchester elementary school is Jamie Montgomery first grade teacher have a safe place to be amongst themselves such as these are authentic self and share their own thought in a non-judgment Zone I currently facilitate our black student Alliance at Westchester elementary where at the moment our black students come together twice out the week for 20 to 30 minutes to check in with each other to have a moment to just share their thoughts share their ideas with each other and just really be in one room where all of them are together [Music] excited thank you so much [Applause] an award recipient from Winona Park Elementary School is Kelly

021stops first met Kelly at our first my first Equity team it was actually my very first time being in school and they told you next time How nervous and quiet I was that's changed huh but but I want to appreciate Kelly so much for all the work that she's done and how she's pushed Equity to the Forefront in her first year in construction so thank you so much Ellie award recipient from Fifth Avenue Upper Elementary School in Nyla Hardy hi my name is I represent faith and in my humble opinion I should be this year's CSD good Equity trouble thank you that's really real close can you really be a good troublemaker and be humble a good seller the Troublemaker needs to be open-minded and as we say I say it's important to be kind

022engaged and responsible okay I would think I have always been that type of good Troublemaker but this year I was very intentional about it here's how as a culturally responsive educator I have attempted to follow the do-4 framework do for self I closely studied the perception data of the different racial groups as saved and utilize this data to address the greatest needs of our students do for students I started and I have led these Young Ladies of Excellence Jen and partnered with girls on the run at the liaison I'm also assistant parents in establishing an Asian American student Club I've initiated and led cultural heritage month through school-wide engagement such as the heritage image Choice activities and school workout Gatherings I've brought back space student council and at the end of Black History Month bipolar

023and cultural performance celebrated diasporic black history due for instruction and do for curriculum I've established a professional development pilot project to teach the added perspectives in our social studies curriculum I feel that through these Ventures I consistently support the growth of Jedi I've gone above and beyond to be a change agent in my school and I engage in activities ux students this is why I should be this year good activities thank you as part of the party said I've heard [Laughter] the get award recipients from tally Street Upper Elementary School are the members of the school's diversity Activities Committee congratulations [Applause] foreign I just want to show some of the activities that they have led just this year all right they have fun and suddenly I um appreciate the invitation to judge your doors um

024I don't know who who won recipient from Beacon Hill Middle School is Vivian Dawson [Applause] 25 years ago I became the founding coach of our middle school debate team we have addressed current topics that require future Solutions these topics are such as Criminal Justice Reform think of George Floyd I think of Flint Michigan and now back to Mississippi technological and security of protection by NATO think of Ukraine and Russia and next year we're going to deal with income equality that would be a basic national income how am I a good troublemaker well I have provided my team with the resources to be successful by having adequate adult supervision and having improved my skill set through webinars and basic professional development workshops I am never satisfied with the status quo so what proof do I have

025of being a good troublemaker I've received numerous Awards what I'm most proud of is in the 2021 school year that the Beacon Hill debate team won the Atlanta urban debate league community service award this was an award that was made during year and we put community over competition and um get award recipients from Decatur High School are the team of Dr Lena Hamilton and Amy judon Unfortunately they couldn't be here tonight but to accept their award on their behalf is principal law strategy I will be accepting them [Applause] our attempt to exemplify the Jedi principles there are things that we do every day that go above and beyond for our students um the famous thing that's the most for us is the needs of our kids come in with that are behavioral in nature so

026that we have a whole set of supports in our classroom that are set up to address the change in the assistance their room particularly the kids who come in who have internet um housing situations or any food or just need someone to listen and support their emotional growth um and I think that we are change ages um our actions do exemplify our commitment to our students um first and foremost we are there to kind of Meet the students on all levels emotionally socially um academically I also think kind of like meeting them where they are in terms of their skill set and what they what they have acquired this far when they come to us is really important because it helps to establish a level of confidence um within them and then from there we're

027just able to kind of build that up and have them be just as successful and I think also our expectations are not low for them just because they're in this RIT class we still have the same expectations that we would have for any of our students in traditional classes um and I think that that is really what makes us change it just Dr Hamilton and as we continue to prepare heal and move forward at the high school and on um one key day that occurred in December they wrote this about that and so we were waiting when our children came running confused and angry back into our ability our building a place where words of hate and burning words of cultural death and shame were uttered in their space of learning we stood between these

028children and that which would destroy them We Stand still congratulations [Applause] more the get award recipient from the Elizabeth Wilson Center for school support is Dr Marianne Banks [Music] everyone wants to ask me what I did for fun and I surprised them and myself by saying fight for educational and social justice then I had a lab because as nerdy as it sounds it's actually true in addition to this job I serve as the Georgia assessment reform Network coordinator for fair test and vice president of the Georgia chapter of the National Association for Multicultural education I spend most of my free time enhancing supporting developing and fighting for educational equity for marginalized students and I do it because education was withheld for my ancestors and their spirits and sacrifices urged me to continue verifying the group

029Jedi and csdm must also grow myself so I am constantly reading studying reflecting practicing and messing up with my friends colleagues and loved ones I'm trying to develop my becoming as an anti-racist revolutionary limited educator and yes I am that one friend and family member that when I'm around everybody's eyes and says oh God you can't say x around her we're only learning when it comes to Jedi we don't make mistakes so we're going to make mistakes and that's okay but we have to try imagine above and beyond the short answer is no until black student associative change in academic and discipline outcomes until we pay our debt nothing I do is above and beyond my more in-depth answer however is exists it's hard for me to distinguish what is above and beyond because I

030do what I love and I love what I do but I first applied for this job I told the interview team that I wanted this job because I believe that we can make a difference anywhere it will be here in city schools in Decatur and that wasn't just something I said to get the job I still believe that there's been implementing High leverage policies they're like real change at least I hope so the monthly every newsletter Dr Banks has guided our district to understand the how of good trouble and Equity I am immensely blessed and honored to work with her every single day she is a brilliant mentor and quite literally I would not be here today without Dr Banks thank you to my supervisor Dr Banks foreign to get out final individual will receive

031an award that reads an Exemplar who embodies John Lewis's principle of good trouble and surpasses everyday actions to fuel the fires of Jedi work and CSD selected by a district-wide committee of staff and community members they will spend the next year with bragging rights and if a new position with from which to advocate for all scholars in addition they'll receive a parking space at their school not here [Music] a feature in our newsletters and on our website and a free trip to the 2023 National Summit for courageous conversation in Houston Texas all right [Music] in almost every corner of our district that I learned about for CR programs I find this individual's footprint sorry fingerprints I hear about their impact and it has been impressive to watch this individual advocate for differentiate for build for

032coach for equity in the true assist I was not surprised when this individual had multiple combinations they entered spaces with probing and challenging questions that lead to deeper discussions around Equity they are what's called a ratchetemic educator they are authentically and fully themselves rooted in their culture identity and determination to teach the truth I have the immense pleasure and honor to present the 2022-2023 city of City Schools indicator good Equity troll maker Award of the year to none other than Miss Nyla Hardy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you congratulating all honorees thank you and good night thank you all right at this time when we move on to the public comment Dr Furman do we have members of the public sign up to share yes we have one uh member signed up for public comments okay

033okay we read this Whenever there is I'll try to do it quickly as a reminder for the speakers and members of the audience the public comment portion of the meeting is a time for public to address the board is limited to District parents students residents employees businesses and organizations the time limit is three minutes person speaking will not be permitted to transfer unused time comments should not be should the address to the board of the body not the individual members speakers should be courteous professional the chair May terminate comments that are profane I can get going vulgar defamatory or disruptive speakers may not address confidential student or Personnel matters you may submit such concerns to the superintendent in writing members of the board will not address persons presenting public comment or speak to the substance

034of any comments made during public comment however a member of the admin team will follow up with the person speaking at the board meeting Dr Furman if you can call our speaker yes um our speaker is Kristen denius good evening everyone and that will be fun I was loving this party my son had her for fifth grade that's very apprecially amazing um so I'm not surprised at all so what I I don't have any formal comments today um but I just did want to reiterate some comments that I made in previous meetings around grading but take it in a little different direction so previously spoken about mode I'm still not the biggest fan of the idea I don't think it's a terrible thing generally I really don't like the way we use it and I'll

035give an example if I have time at the end but what I want to say about our grading generally is that it's incomprehensible right so it one of the things that I've also talked about previously is communication the whole purpose of grading is to communicate students and parents how they are learning and if there are deficits and the way we currently grade is so complicated people have no idea I have a master a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and a Juris doctor I have spent 20 years as a lawyer analyzing complex problems and finding Solutions I think I might understand I'm not 100 sure I don't think I could explain it to somebody that doesn't do any that doesn't do any good to anybody right my my students my kids think that they understand it

036but what they're really learning is how to gain it you're learning especially in the middle school is a piece of mode they're learning how to analyze the grades they've already gotten and figure out what grade they need in order to stay where they are they're not thinking about how to succeed and learn more they're they're trying to figure out how to maintain their grade that's not what we want them to learn in middle school because I know what I want my kids when I want to learn concerned about the content as much as they are about how to play the numbers and come out with an outcome a great outcome that I'm not sure that they understand the process either so one of the things that I tell my kids all the time is something

037gets too complicated the universe is telling you you're not doing it right it's not supposed to be so complicated that it means degrees and charts and Legends to understand and we need to consider starting over and figuring out the weird as far as I can tell the only place that has ID grading and Georgia standard grading with different scales that apply to different things we have mode in some places we have other things in other places every time you switch school you have to figure out how the grades work again and so that that's not helpful and it's not something that really provides any information to our kids or our parents about how they are performing or learning um just as a very quick example I have a student in the middle school I'm not

038going to say what class I'm going to say what grade she started out this term with a six in the subject I go one summative to this best well for one it was one assignment that included so expand to two summative says nine standards one assignment except nine standards she now has a two in the class this is the way the grace one assignment that doesn't teach her anything about the content that teaches her that she needs to she's literally doing the math to figure out whether she needs to shoot for a three or a four on her last summative so that that can be her mode that is not the way we should be exercised thank you uh I do not have any comments this evening all right oh I have some chairs report

039um a lot of good things happening in the district want to kind of share um first off on a very brief you know April 11th the board unanimously approved the appointment of Dr GMA Whitaker as the next superintendent uh the board approved a contract which you can find on assembly if you have questions or interested do it Dr Whitaker will also be attending some school and community events as we end the year the Decatur High School band performed at lgpe that's the large group performance evaluation at the Georgia educators of all of our kids that perform there are six categories you can get everyone received excellent or Superior one or two in our music Performance Group congratulations the band The National Honor Society held a blood drive uh in March 110 students volunteered I want

040us to give a special shout out to nurse Shonda Moore uh Karina green has gave out a bunch of student passes for that and just think about the literal lives saved as such a cool way to volunteer uh Decatur Career Academy traveled to the skills USA competition at the uh Georgia State leadership and skills conference where the students interacted with business and industry partners with a hands-on experience we got a couple of words uh Nia Henson uh got first place in nurse assistant and qualified for Nationals uh mayor ferrett finished second in architectural drawing Robert Nobles second in construction math Jamin Park second in related technical math then Daniel's second in basic drawing and Logan Cesar third place in mathematical Concepts so the Career Academy I feel like we constantly hear great things being done

041there um CF designation that's the American school counselor Association and they designated specifically Beacon Hill Glenwood Oakhurst tally and Westchester so he recognized as model program schools it was a two-year process I had the absolute Joy of participating in it at uh Glenwood Elementary and part of the process they will actually be recognized a black tie event at the asca's annual conference Monday July 17th at the World Congress Center continuing to work and develop our approach to mental health is a priority of the district and I'm glad to see those schools work towards that uh best buddies at Decatur High School is an international order the best buddies program but the one at the Decatur High School strives to create one-on-one friendships between neurotypical and neurodivergent peers uh they create an inclusive community where they

042are buddy up there are 15 friendship matches and 15 additional members who helped plan the events they will have a friendship walk on the April 22nd to high school there's also Bulldog buddies at the Beacon Hill Middle School where they designated to create meaningful relationships between students with and without intellectual and other abilities to Foster not only a system of inclusion but a friendship and a friendly face for someone Bulldog buddies made a big poster to celebrate disability awareness month when you walked into the school you saw it as well that will send out uh to celebrate that and the poster was hung up by Miss schroer who did a presentation to share with students about developmental disabilities awareness month and promoting inclusivity thank you Miss thrower and all of the Bulldog Buddies mock trial

043team uh took place in the event on March 18th outstanding attorneys Decatur needs more attorneys for Gnome Siegel and ruby Kelly and outstanding witnesses to ASA Bala Bailey congratulations to the mock trial team it's a great program participated in myself nine to five Schuler nominations so nine to five of the play the Schuler is the high school version of the Tony Awards for Georgia uh and Decatur High School was nominated for best overall production and so as a result on GPB on April 20th they're going to do a live broadcast where our students will be able to perform one of the songs congratulations to the theater department on an awesome Schuler nomination uh let's see The ddhs Culinary students hosted a cupcake Showdown a little jealous I didn't get invited to judge that one they

044were judged on the flavors of the cupcakes icing they actually had professional uh Bakers there to taste and judge the cupcakes they were judging on craftsmanship and professionalism and presentation a way to go to The Culinary students just always incredibly impressed with the work they do uh the Young Ladies of Excellence and the gents uh attended an inaugural College Tour um of local experiences that included Auburn and Tuskegee University the day was interactive activities focused on career and educational Explorations they said the compass visits and exposure helped the students identify what was exciting and what opportunities they were in college they returned home more engaged and ready to start their college search excellent program uh the junior graduate model Atlanta Regional Commission Mark has a leadership for DeKalb County two of the eight students or

045Sarah Deshpande and Juno Rogers of Decatur High School so representing us well uh as you all saw the good troublemakers we had a king award uh held here the joint Awards went to the students who had also won the good troublemakers for those things I want to kind of recognize them now Quinn Sanders and Walker Sims for Claremont Elementary Gideon Crawford and Elijah Wilson from Westchester Alice Kaplan and Declan Lewin Llewellyn from fave Devin Chandra and sajan Shah from tally Josephine Atkins Rector and Ellie Stewart from Beacon Hill and lualu eganage and Samuel walja gorgeous from Decatur High School who did an amazing video of the high school seniors did that looked like it was uh something that would trend on Tick Tock um there you go our boys golf place finished first in their

046opening tournament um DHS alumni Jordan Walker who I took my young daughter to see play baseball made his Major League Baseball debut with the St Louis Cardinals on the 30th he was a 2020 C FD graduate the son of Derek and Katrina Walker Decatur High School Ela teacher congratulations to Jordan I know I'll be following your career with interest I know the baseball team is proud of you um uh this morning actually to demonstrate its commitment to empowering students to promote equity and Justice we saw a little bit there congratulations Claremont for taking the lead and DHS students were selected to the governor's honors program finalists uh five students were actually selected it's a fully funded program takes place it used to be at Berry College they're doing it at Georgia Southern now Ida Chapman

047and communicative Arts Margaret Kyle from communicative Arts Genevieve gardez in science Grace Goodman Cohn and social studies and Sicily for Z and theater performance all of those students of the 15 School nominees we also had six of the seven of finalists go to participate in state interviews Governor's honors is a great program and way to demonstrate how awesome Decatur is our Winter Guard I had a state championship the DHS JV and varsity Winter Guard teams competed in the state that was April 1st and 2nd the JV finished fourth in the state The Varsity got a second place finish in their Scholastic class congratulations to the color guard and finally in terms of good happenings the DHS architecture students were named finalists in The Design competition for Atlanta several of them were named as finalists a

048record 211 awards were so award submissions took place this year to hater Decatur High School were four of the 12 student finalists for the entire Atlanta metro area Michael Wolff in particular with a shout out received the first place award uh my final comment is I kind of wanted to talk about um we're as bored we're well aware that you know that's not all roses although I do believe we need to sing great things that are happening from the rooftop probably the hardest part as a board member is your role as a a hearing board for you know student issues faculty issues and it it's inappropriate as a board member to comment on those to get involved because it ultimately comes to you to be hearing it but then to sit around and hear of

049a bunch of um you know good troublemakers there's a little bit of tension there and so I just I I want to say I'm going to ask my other members of the board if they have anything to say that that the cater believes strongly and all members of this board in the values of inclusiveness that we have a shared violence racist history in this country and it is very rarely probably never appropriate to joke about it or to make people feel unwelcome through it and I hope that our students know that I I feel confident that our faculty and administrative system are working towards achieving that that doesn't mean we'll always stop it but it does mean that they are things that we we value I doubt that was as eloquent as I'd like to

050be but opening up to any other member of the board who would like to add on to the chair comment there um I will say that was a trigger for me when Ralph Laurel was mentioned because I can think about the multiple times that I've sent my son to go get my other children from their friend's house multiple times and so every time I hear that name or see that story um it's very triggering for me and what's also triggering is knowing that sometimes in our city the city that I love and that I've that my children are being raised in and I don't plan on going anywhere but we also have issues rise up um that remind us um that we still have a ways to go and so in light of what's going

051on in our country in light of what's going on in our city and how James so eloquently put we can't always talk about it but we can tell you from the from the standpoint of this human being not sitting in the seat of this mother that is sitting in this seat that it's disheartening it is extremely disheartening when some of these racial tensions come up in our city and it is not something I would take lightly it isn't always something we can talk about but it is always something that we're talking about every time we get together and it elicits tears that elicits anger frustration all the things that you all are feeling as community members and staff and parents we still at you so just know even when there is frustration amongst the community

052if never doubt that everything we do up here is to try to eradicate those racist situations and unfortunately we can't stop a loss but we recognize the pain and the frustration that you all are feeling because we feel it just as much um I think um disheartening is an understatement I think over the past several weeks I've been disappointed and I think it's it is it's difficult to to sit here in a position of leadership with the support of the community if you put me in this position and not be able to to to lead with the Fidelity I think that maybe we want to um I think with some of the SE fellow board members in the position that when we're not allowed to comment it almost it causes me physical pain um because

053I feel like um not only does the communities deserve a response from us um we walk through that door until the mother took four black children I'm still the proud wife of a black man and um some of these some of these things are just personally heartbreaking um there's no excuse for them um I struggle to find any way that makes it justifiable because there is that one um so not being able to be that vocal change agent that we want to be at least I want to be so we are well aware of the limitations we have by the law um but it does not stop us from being parents community members positions it does not stop me from being a black parent so no no bad and uh these are very difficult uh

054these are very difficult situations for me to have to discuss with our children a bit more to have to discuss with a governing body and I think that as we were talking about it um recent incidents here in our district um it reinforced uh our commitment to our Equity work that we're doing here in the district and the need for it um you know to think that someone thought it was okay to make a joke about slavery the horrific history of slavery um is um is heartbreaking um I'm reading the 1619 by Nicole Hannah Jones and I'm also in school work and registration some of my work is around um black girls and to hear the history of um certification um and exploitation of black women and girls bodies um during that time and that

055to know that that Legacy continues today um and the legacy of that horrific time um we see it in our opportunity guests and um in our achievement gas um discipline disproportionality those are all legacies of um of the horrific time and so to know that uh someone considered that funding is heartbreaking but it's um I think we were in consensus that it reaffirmed our commitment to doing this work that we know that we have still a long way to go but if this reaffirmed our commitment to um disrupting uh that system of um what Supremacy white physics and um but we you know the board felt committed that you know the limitations of what we can discuss um as it relates to students and Personnel but it was important that we share um you know

056our personal feelings about life subject matter um to let the community know that you know we are not just overlooking the harm that has been committed because we feel it personally the truth is the truth is it would be easy for me to ignore it it doesn't have any impact on me if I want to stay isolated or alienated from it we sponsor on the word arm a lot in this work and that can be viewed abstractly I think by some white people I sit on this board and I am honored to sit on this board with three incredible black women who are my colleagues and I think of as my friends and I watch the pain in their faces as they talked about this internet today this is real harm and I encourage the

057community and I especially encourage my fellow white members in this community to see that harm because it's real so thank you for witnessing that for me thank you for helping us see it and I am deeply sorry and but I will say is that I will commit to the work to get us as close as we can to where we don't have to keep thank you all for sharing and subscribe we now move so what I'm going to do is move to consent items which includes the Personnel report School nutrition financial report and e-rate selectees um may I have a motion to approve consent items one through four th one through four do I have a second all in favor consent items Personnel reports School nutrition Financial reports and e-rate selectees pass I'll move to

058informational purposes next um you were provided with monthly School data reports as information only Dr Furman is there any additional information they should know about this month informational reports this time excellent those are included in assembly it includes data etc for stuff happen to schools we'll now move on to the discussion items I'll stick with a first for the district audit report um Dr Ferman can you welcome the audit today I'd like to welcome our audit team from Feldman Jenkins um to present the um to sy22 audit report I think we have a new guest someone got off the hook this time [Music] oh you don't have to hey Dave for the last seven years thank you for having me uh this evening I was sad to see all the people go I thought they

059were showing up uh there should have been uh I think four different documents attached to the agenda packet um we have the plus performance audit the annual report which is the larger one and then the Auditors discussion analysis I will stick closely to this has it has a few financial highlights required Communications and then the most important the audit results so on page two this is some information about Malton Jenkins and our governmental practice as you can see there we audit over 650 governments uh throughout Six States 13 offices we provide over 135 000 hours to our governmental clients it's a good bit of what model engines does it's approximately 30 percent of our farmers uh my name is Christopher McKellar I should have started with that uh the lead engagement partner Adam Fraley was

060the quality review partner and then Doug Moses was the support partner on page three uh this is the audit results uh the basic financial statements are the responsibility of management and our responsibility as external Auditors is to issue an opinion based on our audit about the fair presentation of the financial statement uh what I'm sure you all would like to hear is how did the school district do we did Issue an unmodified or clean opinion which means that the financial statements present fairly in all material respect uh just a few financial highlights here um the government-wide or full accrual financial statements the total assets were approximately 267.8 million offset by liabilities and deferred influence resources of approximately 208 million uh leaving a net position of approximately 59.4 million um that was an increase from the

061prior year of approximately 5.3 million that's further broken down between our debt investment Capital assets which is your Capital assets less any related debt was approximately 136.1 million uh with 8.9 million being restricted we had no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies for fiscal year into June 30th 2022 so the standards require us if we find any journal entries to assess those for internal control deficiency purposes and for fiscal year 22 we did not have any material weaknesses or significant efficiencies we did have one management recommendation it doesn't rise to the level of the finding but just something we noted as we were doing the audit that we'd like to bring to everyone's attention and this really centers around the federal grants funds so these are reimbursement based grants so your expenditures and badge there are

062instances where the general fund kicks in some local match for federal grants and when we came in to do the audit that journal entry hadn't been made yet like I said if it wasn't material didn't rise to the level of the finding but something to point out and we've discussed this with management and they're working on for next year to have this journal entry made before we show up um and now our required Communications so one thing I wanted to point out on this page was during the uh fiscal year ended June 30th 2022 we did Implement Gatsby statement number 87 with leases uh so this was a new standard that required uh all leases to be recorded on your statement of net position as a long-term asset and a long-term liability uh whereas in

063the past you would have Capital leases or operating leases in your operating leases being more uh annual expenditures so that was a change from last year um we received a full cooperation from school district management and staff of Juanita and the rest of the finance department they do a great job uh having things ready for us uh when when we asked for something they'll get it to us just as quick as they can and it takes a good bit of work to put together the annual financial report should be commended for their efforts and and getting all that prepared we had no disagreements with management about any of the accounting uh issues um there were no unrecorded or past audit adjustments so all audit adjustments that included in the annual financial report and we are

064independent of the school district which is required by aicpa standards and government auditing standards and it's what you would want from your external project um just uh a few financial highlights from the general fund so the general fund fund balance was approximately 12 million which was an increase from the prior year of 1.3 million and this equates to approximately 14.7 of total expenditures for the general fund uh oftentimes gfoa recommends 16 to 25 percent to three months um so you're you know just under that so you have a healthy fund balance um so one thing I do like to mention is we we do have uh governmental advisory services at modern Jenkins so we try to be a One-Stop shop for any and all services that the school district would need uh surrounding the accounting

065um so they're oftentimes operational and uh performance studies that are done um David Roberts and his crew do an amazing job and uh governments it really enjoy that information from them so something I like to point out and then we also have I.T and cyber security um Solutions as well with the cyber security framework engagements uh vulnerability testing penetration testing next is the accounting for announcements that are coming down the pipe uh I won't go through all of these but I will point out one that I think May uh affect school districts more than other governments and that would be the guest Gatsby statement Number 96 would be subscription-based Information Technology arrangements are often referred to as savitas so that will be implemented for the fiscal year into June 30th 2023 and this is similar

066to the leasing standard although this is related to your subscription-based technology so if you have a contract with some I.T Arrangement that lasts for a five-year period where you're making an annual site license payment it could be under this standard and required to be recorded as a long-term asset and a long-term liability would that then make it capitalizable yes it would be potentially available for squash funding yes okay good to know the first step will explain right before 9 16. I'm assuming Essence hearing that in the background uh and lastly I'll point out the free quarterly uh CPE that we offer to our clients so you know these are some of the past topics that we've done but certainly if any of you all would like to be a part of those you can let

067me know and I'll get you on that list to be notified when those happen that is all I have for you unless there are any specific questions on uh financial statements or uh pfoa again 16 to 25 no no what is but they that's not just schools right that's all governments and that's for a June 30th fiscal year yeah my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong with my understanding is that municipalities have a much higher risk of variable um requirements expenditure requirements and due to the nature of the higher level of predictability in school systems um we've consistently talked in a 10 to 15 range and that was based on a recommendation that we received from Anita I don't know if you can help me out here but they're I'm sorry yeah and that's

068not but that's not arbitrarily our decision like that is made by a recommendation of somebody there and my understanding is that's fairly consistent for other school districts as well so I'm curious about the 16 to 24 and whether law does have a maximum of 15 okay the gfoa recommendation it is for all governments I will caution you not not to persuade your decision one way or the other but I will caution you that you know State funding could drop uh property taxes could drop just like cities or counties and you would need that fund balance available to you to keep running I I do know about the 15 rule I will say I do know that there's a lot of school districts that are well above that um and they're using um flexibility um waiver

069that's available but there are some that are that are under the 15 as well thank you any other questions about the audit or thank you and also one of the things Juanita and her team for another clean audit well done next item up for discussion is the 2024 tentative budget um all right I shared with the board a memo and the preparation of the budget we have been discussing the budget since November 2022 we've had presentations um over the course of those several months so the budget is up for discussion ready to take questions in order the board can discuss the budget as needed you moved it so I just I want to make a couple of uh clarifying points about the budget for the public are we are proposing a 97 million dollar budget

070if I'm not mistaken 97 million dollar general fund most of my comments are going to be able to get the general fund yes that's correct 97 million dollar general fund budget when we last received the presentation on the budget there was I'm not going to remember the exact number but it was something like six and a half million dollars estimated of uh State mandated expenditures related to health insurance and salaries and a couple of other things that were coming our way and and since that last budget presentation and this budget presentation that unfunded mandate has dropped from six and a half some million dollars to now I'm adding it up right here it's two and a half million dollars correct where are you getting that information so so it also includes the offsetting revenue that

071we're getting from the state so part of that 6.6 is the part of that is not just stuff we're doing locally but that's the revenue from the state as well so let's let's drop that you know I don't I'm not sure where he's getting an I don't so I was adding up on the budget um the budget document that was shared with us which um we probably should make uh it's linked to the yeah it's linked in the agenda it said I'm I'm looking for the exact Department with me it was oh I apologize let me I'm uh practice this is the some of the details that you sent uh around some of the questions right so um we were going to be the total cost of all of the changes from salary and staff

072was 2.2 million of which the state is funding 8.29 or 829 000 we are funding 1.37 million dollars in that case uh the other element was Health Care sorry 2.2 so yeah the total there is 2.2 million dollars just to pass on the two thousand dollar raise to every employee correct that's 2.2 and the space giving it some 800 1.4 that we're covering in this budget so so the from a I'm thinking from the perspective of a citizen that is being taxed we are asking for 1.4 million dollars of their tax dollars to fund these increases yeah so um these increases meaning salary correct cost of living for faculty and if we don't pay above the 800 000 the states way would be to give it to some of the staff not all right yeah

073the debate here isn't whether we should do it I'm trying to make sure that we're clear on where the numbers are so 1.4 million dollars um of unfunded increase in our budget from the state due to these rates uh similarly there's a 3.7 million dollar increase for health of which the state is I'm going to do the exact map but of basically the state is it funding 1.2 million dollars of it right so they're they're funding the bulk of it what is that 2.5 million we have to come up with 1.2 they're funding 3.9 Juanita we're just funding for certified yeah they're sending us an extra 3.7 million dollars I see no no okay so it's 4.4 million it's an increase they're covering three points through the financial basically the sentence I'm reading is the

074financial impact on the 24 General budget after deducting the amount covered by the state is it in yeah right okay so the combination of the 1.4 and the 1.2 is the 2.6 the two and a half million basically that I was saying is the increase in the budget due to these items correct and some of that because the overall impact of the budget is 6.6 correct yeah understood got it right and so the difference between what we saw last time where we weren't sure what the amounts were coming from the state and this time is that we've gotten much higher Clarity and the state is covering more than we anticipated or no that's it's the same okay so two and a half million dollars is what we're incurring for razors and everything that we need

075yeah yeah Healthcare basically things that were we must do really up to and yes as well yeah of course um and then so the balance of to if we're at 2.6 and the total increase that we're talking about in the budget is another 6.2 6.6 million so the four-ish million dollars difference three some million dollars difference is all increases that came out of that bucket of items that we looked at last time but it has not cleared it off yes and so that's where I think some conversations are are required and I don't know that we have the information in a way that can be presented here but that that is you know a lot of increases that we haven't really had a conversation about um Al and why and where and what is needed

076uh where put like so basically I don't have visibility into this budget where the puts and takes were but what what came out what what things were finished in departments where did spending get reallocated out of departments what are the increases all for some of them are pretty obvious I mean I think we've talked about additional Equity positions we've talked about additional Health mental health positions but that you know there's still two and a half million or so dollars of additional spends there that I think we need to have a public conversation about in in in a in a budget I mean that's that's what he's you know at least in order for me to be comfortable voting for it I want to have some kind of documentation that goes through each one of those

077and justifies it in a public conversation so you know when we go to the public with what is shaping up to be something on the order of a seven percent tax increase the public has an understanding of why that's going forward and I what I am struggling with right here with this budget is that I cannot get from the last budget which the one we approved in June was 85 million there were 97 million that's a 12 million increase but there were some additional budget amendments weighed over the course of the year I don't exactly remember what those total amounts were so 87 is probably more like or anything it was 87.5 87.5 so we are doing a net increase of a 10 million dollar budget this cycle I would just need to see what

078all of that net increase is but that's where I'm I'm struggling a little bit of that net increase 5.3 is coming from our increased revenue from the state so the state is increasing our Revenue by 5.3 so that's the majority of it then we're making up a lot of that the 2.2 for covering the rest of the health care benefits and costs so at 5.3 plus 2.2 we're at 7.4 what was that means so if it's a 10 million dollar increase and the state is providing us five it means that we're basically going to the citizens for the balance the difference of that five right or yeah and last month I provided the board with the budget Playbook which listed all of the proposed um enhancement yep but we I mean there wasn't we didn't

079have a conversation about the priorities of those or which ones we thought were most important which ones we so some of them that weren't a whole conversation about what's going into this year's budget that our citizens are paying for that we owe I think a public conversation about what each of those and all of those things are and I didn't realize the board wanted to get into that kind of a detail about the budget we did that in last year's I mean so like a part of the budget process is to talk about what the puts and takes are and you know we talked about we wanted to increase Equity positions we talked about you know a half a dozen other things as priorities last year I know we have a strategy that we just

080did all the work on it would be interesting to understand for all of the increases what buckets do they fall in the strategy how is it supporting the strategy as right now what I have in front of me is a you know seven percent tax increase with a bunch of additional positions and increases in the budget without any understanding of what the logic or justification for all of those increases are and I am not suggesting that I wouldn't support them I just don't know what the justifications are and I I would suspect that if I'm a taxpayer in the community taking a look at it they probably also don't understand that was the point of the memo um because it listed all of those with the values and then linked the um budget requests at

081the bottom view that that's every budget request that was approved can we bring that up is that possible sure and I think just briefly imagine I think it looks like although you have a significant increase in Revenue the I think in a nutshell it looks like there's significant increase in expenditures and maybe that lower yeah 6.6 is salary benefits so maybe that's what we need to make clear if it's if it's this for me the the trouble here is that a lot of this is a lot of health care benefits or Healthcare expenditure that's the majority of it we can make that we can put that up where people can see yep and what percentage of that increase in the overall budget has to do with the health because we have to pay that we

082can't get out of paying that if where the remainder is that's maybe where we need to kind of line item a little bit and see um where those expenditures are so that we can make sure that folks understand yeah where those tax dollars are going to sure the other thing too and looking at this and so if I'm wrong but you know it looks like even to make this to be able to keep the mill rate flat we're still going to have to pull 1.9 out of fund balance so um that might that that's something that I don't know I feel like it'll work for this year but then over time if we continue to improve these health care costs you know how would we yeah there is I mean that's a long-term discussion on

083that but I think and then that's the kind of place into Honda's point is where you know some of these Physicians that we're adding at their one-time expense at one time positions like somebody you're hiring with for Contracting one thing but if we're talking about somebody that we're tending to hire and keep year over year with Benefits year over year then maybe that's also something you need to yeah we need to just make plans guys I mean just to be very direct about this we have roughly the same number of students as we had in 2019. we are a 24 million dollar larger budget since then so in five years we've increased 24 million dollars that is a 33 odd percent increase in the total size of the budget so I mean the cater is

084a 100 year old system and in the last five years we've jumped by 33 odd percent it's it's just these are very very very large numbers that have happened very very quickly and I think we owe more than just a line item bulleted memo of where some of these increases are to the public we're going to ask for this kind of an increase I think there really does need to be some level of detail on what the puts and takes are and just so that I'm clear for the public because I don't want to say that some of these increases aren't Justified that a lot a lot of these increases are actually teacher salaries which be really really clear I mean I think we went through lanita I know that you showed us a breakdown

085of that it was it was well over half of what we're talking about him try when I mean you might even be closing in on 70 of the increases were related to teacher pay and so you know I'm not in a position to say we shouldn't have done that I think we absolutely should have but I don't think anyone in the public looking at this memo and looking at the documents would know that and we want them to know that like we want to be able to talk about what all of these puts out I think you want to share my screen from the previous work session right yes exactly yes we talked through this at the work session um so the first part of the memo that's in there just kind of explains some

086of the major budget implications talk through our anticipated revenue for this year um identifies that one of the priorities is to pass on the two thousand dollar budget uh budget uh not budget uh raised to every employee all the also the increased health care and then these are the tentative budget enhancements that are above and beyond this it makes everything below tentative right from my conversation that we had a work session was the difference between the 6.6 required to meet the state requirements and why we're up right okay yeah um so and we did not approve every budget request and I've only put the ones on here that were approved because we felt that these were ones that were absolutely necessary to move the work forward in a productive way and maintain current classroom learning

087experiences for our students and the majority of the increases are at the local schools we did add some positions for equity and for restorative practices at the essential office so Decatur High School put in budget requests we approved two enhancements to they are tentatively approved to enhancements to their AP and IB budgets to make sure that we have the sufficient funds to cover the testing fees for those parents that cannot pay those we also are paying for some additional training and materials there the high school asked for a paraprofessional to support their online learning campus which is their Apex courses so the students that are doing Credit Recovery have previously been put in a classroom within school suspension students we wanted the high school I would say the high school requested to separate those so

088the students that need to do Apex are not feeling like they have to go into that classroom and then also this frees the influence Ascension teacher to really dig in and help do restorative practices with her class so this pair would monitor those students doing Apex courses they asked for three additional classroom teachers due to student growth with that large 8th grade class moving up to the high school so we approved those three classroom teachers Beacon Hill identified the need for an additional instructional coach for their English language arts program so we approved that we definitely know that reading is a focus and we want to make sure that we have those approved we have those supports for those teachers at the middle school um they also asked for another gifted specialist their number of

089students receiving gifted segments has increased they have not been serving those students as well as we would have hoped they would um so we've uh we tentatively approved this request as well Decatur Career Academy needed another teacher to help support our students that are our college-based students that do dual enrollment students that are early graduation to make sure that they've got that support and someone helping them on campus these students take the training they go to Georgia State or they go to Piedmont they're there by themselves we knew we and they we were seeing an increased job route rate for those students so we wanted to go ahead and provide them that additional support they also requested additional days to one of their teachers so that they can provide that courses the course that's needed

090over the summer days so that just is extending that person's contract um under teaching and learning this is curriculum materials after being corrected me this is actually um intervention session so this is supporting our students during intercessions and this is dramatically less and this program here the curriculum material the interventions this was happening um we were paying for this with after funds cares funds um so we need to move those intervention programs to the general fund or we won't be able to do those in this upcoming year Wilson reading materials and training this is another support for our students that are in mtss as well as students in the special education program to make sure that they are all of their teachers are highly trained in the science of reading and are able to deliver

091high quality explicit instruction when it comes to reading interventions for those students mtss reorg we identified a need for our staff to really be able to focus in on their support for mpss there's as we've been starting kind of looking at the program and what's working what's not we're seeing that there's the balls kind of dropping in between some things that we needed to enhance those and providing some additional stipends for the staff that are monitoring that so that they can do the work that needs to be done there and this is spread across our schools also helping to recreate make sure that we have an equitable um the word Equitable student to teacher ratio across the schools because some schools have one mtss teacher with seven students in their building in mtss some have

092one mtss teacher with like 21 students in their building so we knew we needed to make that a little more equitable um we are implementing brand new math curriculum and brand new map standards so we wanted to provide our elementary school teachers with a particular math coach they have been implementing a new reading program and new reading standards last for the past several years so we wanted to make sure that they had an explicit person to be that support to help them with that work as they are still learning and using our um the art and the foundations uh let's see and then one of the recommendations that came from the investigator was that we hired someone specifically to focus on cultural responses education professional development we opted instead to identify a person and pay

093them a stipend to do some extra work for us to help move that work forward state and federal programs requested some additional Staffing positions we did not approve all that they requested they requested two for each of these we were approved one we do have increased enrollment in our students with esol and increased service expectations for students needing occupational therapy so we felt in order to maintain a level of service for those students that we would have to increase and hire additional staff there when you if I could ask really quickly when you say earned based on enrollment is that offset by some kind of is that a little bit it means that we've increased numbers but the way they fund these Staffing positions doesn't necessarily mean we get the full funding so we'll get

094a little bit correct um Esau budget we are in dire need of additional Esau materials for our students so this will supplement that budget there equity and student supports we're looking at adding a director of restorative practices and student Behavior we had moved students discipline and student conduct with me over at the Athletics but that is looking to be a lot more than what we need um so with on top of all of the work that Rodney's been doing the one that's doing that along with restorative practices PBIS was being overseen by our Behavior interventionists but she is overwhelmed in books with books with supporting students with behavior needs particularly post-pandemic what we're seeing when the students come back is this extensive need for additional Behavior Support so this position will help us not only

095deepen our implementation of PBIS training people in restorative practices will also oversee all of the um student Behavior we did um were Dr Huddleston did request a full fuel psychologist but we found a way to pay a siphon for some interns we do feel the need for a new social worker and felt like that was necessary to help support our families and our community in this time and then Lily do you remember what the supervisor stipend was yes this would offer a five thousand dollars providing that you uh okay down into nursing and safety um we have licensed we have nurses at all of our schools when they are out we have a great deal of trouble finding substitutes to come in and fill in for them um so we are hiring kind of a

096stellar sub nurse that will be on hand full-time when there are nurses out across the district um security officers we are dealing with um you know trying to work with the city they do have a staff shortage there and have pulled the school resource officers from our building but even before that we do know there is an extra need for safety and security officers in our building these will be unarmed officers that will be supporting um and really leaning into that restorative practices developing those close relationships with our students to help work on that prevention piece how many offices we're going to look at two and how many [Music] well and in addition to so once they restore back our school our school resource officers we want to the recommendation would be to keep these

097people as well we're double it will be four over okay yeah Transportation our Fleet is getting older so we needed to allocate some additional funds for maintenance and repair Communications they requested twenty five thousand dollars for the audit I took that down to 15 and asked her to find make up the difference in reallocating some stuff in her budget Human Resources uh recruiting and onboarding the biggest chunk of this is bringing our new teachers back for a full week instead of bringing paying them for a full week of training so that they can do intentional focus on our Equity work we know that that's a big list when people join our team and we want to make sure that we are bringing them in for a full week instead of just the three days so

098that they can get that Equity work before they walk in the door um there is a need in both finance and human resources for some admin assistance they've not had admin assistants and we are seeing that stuff is not getting done in a timely manner so we wanted to add those we are increasing our daily substitute rate we want to be competitive with our substitute Force so we are increasing those rates significantly so that we can pay our substitutes and attract and retain substitutes and how much roughly is that on uh is so we are we're going from a separate for a hundred dollars from non-certified to 150. 145 for certified to 175 and then 165 to 200 for a long-term sub and that puts us at the tops in the Middle where does that

099put us relative oh she's a conference um it puts us really at the top yeah it's not at the top left if not one first very close to that so hopefully that will address our substitute issue um an activity stipend we have trouble finding staff that are willing to do what we were paying them to cover activities so we needed to substantially increase that amount of stipend um again I said we needed an assistant they both asked for full-time I said they had to find someone that they would split or find two part-time we know our energy costs are significantly increasing we are currently struggling to find money in our current budget to cover the increased costs with inflation and energy plus Rising um so we have you know done the bare minimum to increase

100that budget there um ninety five thousand dollar storm water this is a tax we have to pay to the city for storm water that is nearly increase from previous with Athletics we do continue to have to pay rental fees for athletic fields that we do not have um they also at the end of the day are struggling to find transportation for their feet to their away games so we needed to increase that cost as well as fuel costs there um and then coaching stipends is another area that we were not people to come in willing to do all the extra work to do the coaching so we significantly increased our coaching stipend Decatur Virtual Academy they requested several things we did approve the cost of increased course offering so as the Virtual Academy transitions I

101think it's gva to paying what's the rationale there the courses that we were getting for free were going to have to start paying for so we needed to increase our budget so we can pay for those course offerings um and then Information Services requested several things uh we have I attentively approved a position upgrade to retain the person that we have in the position because the salary that he was making was no longer competitive that is our those are the budget requests question on comment question is but the Virtual Academy everything we do there it seems like it would be student driven and so have those numbers been consistent are they going oh they kind of fluctuate Christy do you have good numbers last year in DVA do we know it's okay if you don't

102know maybe graduated or that we're in the program so about half do we think are we planning assuming it's going to stay stable at 50 or we planning based on thinking it'll go to 25 they just kind of we're providing services and if the students show up we'll deal with it there [Music] [Applause] uh um thank you because when a student get on the joins worker virtual in the first month semester after that okay and so then my comment redoing the math from the work session so that's 3.1 million dollars in new things with the two biggest or being the high school stuff the teaching and learning stuff being oh almost 1.2 of that and then 6.6 million for salary and health care for staff Etc that gets you to your what nine point eight

103I had us an increase of 9.6 Hans when you started asking the question so that seems like that adds up and we are our state QBE funding did come in about a million dollars above our anticipated projections um so that is what triggered us to fund a couple more things um that we had denied initially and where are we coming in projected this year uh in terms of fund balance rollover and how much out of the current budget is going to end up in fund balance versus spent uh we'll have about a million dollars as we shared at the last board meeting at the work session we anticipate about a one million dollar unspent fund balance and spent funds at the end of this year at a minimum but we do know that because of

104operations running kind of in the red for a little bit we're going to have to allocate some of that to operations to pay for transportation and maintenance and nursing services so it'll be a lesson I think I could say less than a million dollars being unspent at the end of this budget year I I would thank you for bringing that the question to me it speaks to we need to do a better job of broadcasting the change they're making there are very few things and then I'll leave it up to the board if anyone wants to comment on any of them many of these are Excellence what our community is asking for are the improvements mean uh three hundred thousand dollars towards Equity services to help I mean that's a priority for the board and

105the community we heard it over and over and over again 000 for improving test scores and focusing on these I mean we are we see these news releases that people in the community love to send us that are like we just committed to six million dollars over the next five well we just committed to six million dollars over the next four years for equity and you know the my math is a little off but you know what I mean like I I think to answer Hans right speaking loudly and with pride what we're doing not yeah as a person that is not fluent in budgets should be able to look at the documentation that we have and understand where things are going and that's not it with where we have and what we have right

106now that's not what we have it's not easy to take a look at this and figure out where we are and and what it ends up doing is I think it it shoots Us in the foot a little bit because people just are going to see the Top Line it's a 10 million dollar increase in the overall budget and it's all going into the Wilson Center I mean that's going to be the message it gets taken away from you and I don't tell you that people like because there's nobody that's going to go through this with a calculator and add things up out of each of the different buckets that's what I'm saying I mean this is this ends up being a critical part of the budget is effectively communicating it to the people that

107we're going to take the money from to funding and I don't I I would like to see this put forward in a way clearer and more able for the community to observe hopefully people have will listen to this listen to the recording biggest chunk is uh committing to not just providing a teacher salary increase for what the state has provided but for everyone who is eligible that's you know that's that's the biggest chunk here and that we've submitted to making sure that we are able to provide that and this this increased cost to employee health care that's that's the that's a huge amount so and more than just in this project and and then I think she has outlined here some of the things that people have asked us for teacher training a lot of

108things that you know the principles have asked for specifically and sometimes you know those things come at a particular at a particular cost so and then full transferences I'm still learning about budget this was actually pretty helpful for me so overwhelming spreadsheet now you know I'm not the budget expert but um this highlighted for me things that I could see you know and I I asked questions earlier when we talked in terms of um all the curriculum materials LED across all schools or is that just for specific schools so I guess there could be more detail right there but um it was a little it was a little easier for me to process now in terms of kinds of things adding up all of those numbers yeah I also helped three town halls for the

109community um then shared all of this information so so I don't know how much more I could communicate out there plus the work sessions and the board meetings communicated very clearly about what we were doing with the budget particularly with the town halls that were open we held three and recorded it and then also sent out the recording for people to watch this is this is the first board meeting where we have the distilled list of what all of their requests are with the specific dollar amount for the users grab them at the last board meeting no you had the list of everything which was 12 million plus dollars of all requests this is the first one where we've downshifted to What specifically has been authorized right and it's because we moved this to discussion

110as opposed to it being on consent that we're actually having a conversation now with everybody and so that I I just I I do believe that that this it was hard for me to track from where we were in the last board meeting to where we are in this board meeting I do appreciate the breakdowns here but that's where I wanted to have a public conversation about it and to be able to go through what all the justifications are for each of the things especially since we're a third larger than we were five years ago um I think that the public deserves to have extreme Clarity on it's not a bad story like I'm not trying to say that this is a bad thing again the vast majority of it has gone to teachers salary

111and I just don't think that's well understood at all and it ought to be well understood yeah can you remind me directly uh when the tax address comes out to the end of May the other the other quick question that I had I just want to make sure that we say this publicly and that we're clear about it um Dr Whitaker should be able to have access to all of this information and be able to familiarize herself with it yeah so I just want to make sure that we're providing that and that that she has kind of unfettered access to be able to see all of it that's any other questions about the budgets as a discussion item my I'm hearing a lot of suggestions that the way we talk about the budget and display

112the budget uh we need to continue to come about but I moved to approve FY 2024 or I'm asking if someone would like to move to approve the FY 2024 tentative budget approved the 2024 tenant budget do I have a second okay all those in favor all right I think that was unanimous Lord proves the FY 2024 incentive budget Dr Furman thank you for your flexibility moving into the discussion item there are the last seconds um next item is future dates of the board anything we need to be aware of we have a meeting on next week correct next Tuesday a work session at three o'clock and then the following meeting is the ninth okay all right any questions about future dates nope all right then I moved to adjourn this meeting of the board

113of education at 8 41 pm