001I call to order this meeting of the Kawita County Board of Education, agenda 8:37, 6:30 p.m. May 13, 2025. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. I pledge algiance 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. You may be seated. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? So move. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Dr. Horton, turn it over to you for recognitions. Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I'll call on public information officer Dean Jackson to bring you our recognition for tonight. Mr. Jackson, thank you, Dr. Horton. Board members, we have one recognition tonight and that is of
002Elm Street Elementary School who's been recognized recognized this year as a title one distinguished school. And to make that recognition and talk a little bit about their accomplishment, I want to call we actually have both of our uh title one and federal program directors, both the longtime and incoming. I'm going to call on Dr. Latrina Gates for this introduction. I'm glad Miss Wimish is here to also be a part of this recognition tonight as well. Good afternoon, Superintendent Horton, board members, as well as attendees. Each year, the Georgia Department of Education recognizes K12 schools and school districts through its academic achievement program. The program honors title one schools in three categories. The first category is to be recognized as a title one reward school. In order for a title one school to be recognized in
003this category, they must be the highest performing or top 5% of the highest progress in the state of Georgia. And this is based on all subgroups, the all student subgroups for the two most recent years. The second category is title one distinguished school. In order for a title one school to be honored as a distinguished school, they must be they must rank within the top 5% of all title one schools and earn the highest performance for all students subgroups. The third category is the national EA distinguished school. And in order for a title one school to be recognized in this category, they must be a distinguished school. They must complete an application and go through the selection criteria. Only two schools out of the state of Georgia recognized annually. Now, for tonight, Elm Street has
004received all three of these Title One achievement categories over several years. In 2014, 15, and 16, Am Street was recognized as a reward school. Again, the top 5% earning significant progress. In 2017, they received the distinguished award once more, top 5% highest performance. And in 2020, they were recognized as the national ESCA distinguished school. Tonight we are recognizing M Street Elementary as the 2024 Title One Distinguished School from the 22 2022 2023 GMAS scores. Please help me in recognizing and honoring Dr. Christy Hildebrand as well as her school staff and school family for achieving this exceptional award tonight. They will be receiving a certificate as well as a sign. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you so much for allowing us this opportunity to um celebrate and be celebrated this evening.
005It's both an honor and a privilege to be able to stand before you tonight to celebrate another great milestone um in our Elm Street career. Thank you both um uh to our both of our directors for showcasing the history of awards as well. Not often you can say both of our directors. That's awesome. Uh tonight's award and all of the ones though that have come before it really belong to the teachers and the students and just our overall Elm Street staff, all of the families that have come together throughout the years. It reflects their unwavering commitment, their resilience, and their intentional excellence of our total school community. We remain proud of all the accomplishments we have earned including those uh highest progress awards, the highest performing awards and the national distinction. Uh and we are
006excited about the fact that this is now a top 5% award for us two years in a row. So we're going to keep that trend going as long as we can. But the recognition is not simply about test scores. It's the hard work and determination of everyone every single day. What our dynam dynamic teachers bring, what our students bring. uh day in and day out the trust in the partnership of our families and the shared belief that every learner matters. Uh it's that culture of thinking and high expectations across our entire campus and that level of excellence happens through intentionality. So really tonight I want to say thank you. Thank you to the incredible staff and students who bring their best selves to school with them every single day. And thank you to the families,
007the school community, the district leadership, including yourselves, who believe in us and help sustain our success. Tonight, I'm joined by our Rock Acceleration teacher, Elizabeth Rants, our teacher of the year, Molly Brian, and our assistant principal, Melinda Walden. And we stand before you just as proud representatives of our school. Thank you for the support you give us. We are uh proud and pleased to be able to stand here as a distinguished school. Once again, our staff theme this year was intentional excellence, and we're going to continue to strive for it day in day out as we work our mission. Every learner matters. Thank you. Thank you. That's fantastic. Thank you very much. Thank Congratulations. We know it takes a lot of hard work every day, just like Dr. Hillbrand said. So, do I have a
008motion to approve the minutes of April 1st of 2025? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Dr. Horton. Action items group one. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before we begin action items group one, just mention to everyone uh here in the crowd, um we still don't have the ability to project onto uh the computer screens and the television monitors after our recent cyber incident. Uh there are hard copies of all of the agenda items uh if um if you wish to take a look at them. So, we uh we apologize. We're going a little bit old school this evening. Um, first item I have for you in group one is to approve a resolution to adopt the new 5-year local facilities plan. Approvals requested for a resolution to adopt the new
0095-year local facilities plan. Copy of the resolution is attached. Mr. Chair, um this um item uh is a result of a lot of hard work by Mr. Cheek and his team and also a recent visit uh by the Georgia Department of Education facilities validation team. So with that, I recommend approval. The superintendent is recommending approval to uh of a resolution to adopt the new 5-year local facilities plan. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. The next item I have for you in group one is to approve a proposal from the popular road elementary school PTO to purchase a digital message display sign. Popler Road Elementary School PTO request approval to purchase a digital message display sign. Estimated project
010cost is $24,368.33. Uh requirements of board policy FEA have been met. Supporting documentation is attached. Uh this project will be funded uh by the popular road elementary PTO. Mr. Chair, I recommend approval. Superintendent has recommended approval for the Popular Road Elementary School PTO to purchase a digital message display sign at an estimated cost of $24,368.33. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes 7 to zero. The next item I have for you in group one is to approve a proposal from the White Oak Elementary School PTO to purchase a digital message display sign. White Oak Elementary School PTO request approval to purchase a digital message display sign. Estimated project cost is $37,483. Uh requirements of board policy FEAE have been met. Supporting documentation is attached. Uh this
011project will be funded uh by the White Oak Elementary PTO. Uh board members, you may have noticed the difference on this amount of project cost compared to Popular Road. I saw that um when when the items came in, did get clarification. The work um to demo uh the old sign and to install the new sign at White Oak is much more extensive. So I recommend approval. Superintendent's recommended approval for the White Oak Elementary School PTO to purchase their digital message display sign at a estimated cost of $37,483. Do I have a motion to approve? So move. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. The last item I have for you in group one is to request approval of a resolution for placement of increased senior exemptions on the November 4th,
0122025 ballot. Approval is requested for a resolution asking the Cowy County Board of Elections to place increased senior tax exemptions on the November 4th, 2025 election ballot. Local legislation to increase these exemptions was passed by the general assembly after being requested as part of a broader resolution of the Kawiti County Board of Education on February the 14th of 2025. The Cowy County Board of Education's original resolution requested an annual 5% cap on reassessment of all residential homesteaded properties in the county. removal of the 20 mil cap that is specific to school systems as it is allowed by the Georgia Constitution and an increase to the general fund reserve cap from 15% to 20% of budgeted general funds. These senior exemption increases were the only item approved by the local legislative delegation and subsequently the general
013assembly at this time. Copy of the resolution requesting that these increased exemptions be placed on the ballot and the required public notice is attached. Mr. Chair, I recommend approval. Superintendent has recommended approval of the resolution to place the increased senior exemptions on the November uh 4th, 2025 ballot. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Any discussion? I will add just one quick comment on this since I was in involved uh nearly daily working with the local delegation. Don't want to thank them uh for their work uh getting this through. Uh as the superintendent mentioned this uh the senior exemptions was part of a a broader resolution and u when there was some discussion on that we worked with the local delegation and at our request and our uh approval they went uh forward through
014the general assembly with the just a senior tax exemption. So they uh we appreciate uh their moving on that. So any any further discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Dr. Horton, action items, group two. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first item I have in group two uh is to approve school nutrition bids for the 2526 school year. Approval was requested to approve school nutrition bids for FY 2526 school year. The bid tabulation sheet for the nutrition program has been provided. uh US Foods with a bid uh that's rolling over from actually school year 2223 of 7,68,739 for groceries uh was renewed for the 2526 school year. This is the third of four possible renewals. Uh Thomas Milk Company's bid for SY2526 of $874,97.3. Uh Thomas was the only milk bidder. Uh
015Imperial Dade's bid for 2526 of $38,996 for chemicals and paper was the lowest bid received on time and complete. A Royal Food Services produce bid for 2526 of $12,326.25. Royal was the only produce bidder and Flowers Baking Company's bid for 2526 of $250,714.80 80 cents and Flowers was the only bread bidder. Mr. Chair, I recommend approval. The superintendent is recommending approval of the school nutrition bids as he just uh described for the 25 2025 2026 school year. Um do I have a motion to approve? Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. The last item I have in group two is to approve bids for 2025 floor covering projects. Approvals requested for bids for floor covering replacement at the following locations. Eastside Elementary School, Arnco Sergeant Elementary School, and Nan High School
016building 600,700, and 800900. The low bid for East Side Elementary School was Torrance Construction Company in the amount of $289,968. The low bid for Arco Sergeant Elementary School was submitted by Mid-Atlantic Restoration in the amount of $253,487.61. The low bid for Nunan High School was submitted by Mid-Atlantic Restoration in the amount of $46,43844. Uh the alternate number one to install resonous flooring in restrooms is declined. Uh the bid tabulation sheet is attached. Board members, I will mention to you uh these floor covering projects at East Side and Arnco are coincide with the sewer projects that we'll be having this summer or that have going on over the course of the summer. And the floor covering at noon and high is the areas that we did not touch um the floors after the tornado. So, we
017need to get all that flooring at noon and high uh on the same schedule, so to speak. Uh so, I recommend approval. Superintendent has recommended approval of bids for floor cover and replacement at East Side Elementary, Arnco Charlotte Elementary and the 6700 building and 8 900 buildings at Nunan High School. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Action items group two trips. None there. So on to superintendent's report. Dr. Gordon. Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time, I'll call on assistant superintendent for finance Keith Chapman to bring you budget report, sales tax, and our first budget workshop. Mr. Chapman, uh budget report, uh substantially under budget this month due to just timing differences across the years as we project out cumulative. We're approximately
018a million and a half under budget at this point. Do not project going into reserves as we've stated earlier. sales tax uh good collections over 3.1 million. However, it's slight decreased year-over-year about 4/10en of a percent from one year to the next, but basically flat. Go ahead. Budget workshop. Uh this is the first of two budget workshops. The second one will be next Tuesday night, 6:30, same location. Unfortunately, we don't have the screens. Um we'll work from the budget workshop document. that's uh we've used in the last several years. I don't know if you can see but [Music] looks we start with our current year FY25 budgeted revenue just under 300 million. The first component of that is our state funding. Uh our projected funding for 25 last year and I I current year, excuse
019me. I I know we're working in current year, but we're getting to 26. Uh just under 139 million. We saw an increase of 8.2 million to our QBE funding. Our local fair share increased, which is a decrease to our funding over $2 million. that increase would have been higher other than due to the level of funding that the state has. It's capped right now. Uh at some point we will see an additional 10 million decrease there as funding increases, but for now it's 2 million. Small decrease in transportation, small increase in nursing. Uh projected initial aotment of $144.5 million for FY26, $5.8 million increase in state funding. And u please remember that number that'll be important when we get to some following pages here. Uh not protect projecting any change in midterm expecting similar to
020current year slight increase to federal indirect costs just just as the federal programs change the amount we can charge back to the general fund may change. Uh bus replacement there was a large grant available to us for the current year that is not there for FY26. So, there's a substantial decrease, some additional school safety funds, an additional safety grant, uh custodial supplements, we did pay in 25, however, they were not budgeted because that information came out late. Uh half a million dollar increase. Other state grants, those vary from year to year. Don't anticipate any material change in our interest income rates are dropping slightly. uh had they not dropped we would have projected an increase. Title aorum tax still seeing small growth there so slight increase other taxes the miscellaneous we don't anticipate any change
021when we did the militaryrate for the current year we did not roll back which allowed us to maintain funds to so we would not go in reserves and that's 5.7 million using a 5% digest increase maintaining the current military at a 15.41 mills. That would be $7 million increase. Uh projected revenue increase right at $19 million. Total projected revenue for general fund 312.3 million for FY26. Look at the expenditure side. Uh 313 million projected expenditures budgeted in the reserves. $812,000. That's one of the lowest figures we've had in many years. Salaries and benefits, $285 million, 91.09% for general fund. Um, the main changes in our budget were personnel related. You'll notice a few of these items are highlighted. The items that are highlighted were dictated by the state. We had no control in those. And
022those are over $10 million. So the changes mandated by the state exceeded $10 million when our state funding only increased $5.8 million. Uh we have increased state health for certified employees as well as classified 2.2 million on the certified because their rate had been higher 4.2 million on the classified employees TRS rate increase small decrease in ERS rate $1.8 $8 million increase. Steps for certified employees, $1.8 million. We are also looking at steps for classified employees and administrators who've not received them. Classified nor administrator did not receive them last year. Also looking at cost of living 2% for all employees certified, classified and admin. Uh we have five remedial teachers, one regular teacher in as growth positions. We hope we don't have to use those, but to be safe, we do have a few positions,
023not as many as we have budgeted. We've reduced three teaching positions just due to enrollment change. We haven't decreased, but the population has shifted from location to location. So, it you may pick up a teacher at one location, lose one at another. The net effect we're putting in there right now is three. We anticipate it possibly being as many as nine, but to be safe, we've only put three. The custodial supplement, again, we paid those in current year FY25. They just weren't budgeted that information. Other major changes, we had the increased safety grant, 627,000. We've not been able to maintain nurses as employees. We've had to use contracted services. So, we've added funds to the budget there. instead of salaries budgeted for dealing with contracted nurses. Next page, it's our major expenditures. We've had this
024page for several years now. Um I'm not going to go through all of them. You see utilities are by far our largest SRO software we have to transfer to some other funds uh help sustain things there. um insurance, maintenance items, fuel, transportation. Uh all of those amount to 27.2 million, 8.7% of the budget. All other operating expenses, 653,000, or less than 1%. Projecting our reserves at the end of the year to start July 1, 2025, 46.6 6 million just under 15% 14.88 and on the horizon we're looking as always maintaining a healthy reserve. Um as y'all just approved the item to go on the ballot potential increase in the senior exemption and we also need to catch up on our facility maintenance renovation items that were del delayed excuse me due to the nun high
025school project. Thank you Mr. Chapman. Any any questions? Uh, Mr. Chapman, board members? I I have a couple of questions. Um, for the safety grant that we have been given, what are what are how those to be allotted? The additional funds that we are that we anticipate receiving, we haven't allotted those yet. Uh, although we have been in some discussions with the sheriff's department related to some equipment um that they may want. Um, last year safety grant funds we used to help pay SRO's. Um, part of that was used, well, actually all of that I believe was used to help pay SRO's. And Mr. Latimer, if I'm not mistaken, those grant funds have to be spent down by 26, correct? Mi Mr. Chap Oh, did you finish? I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Mr. Chapman, I
026did have a couple questions u on the uh increase in the state uh health benefit for uh classified employees. If I'm not mistaken, the school system, we have to pay 100% of that. Is that correct? And that would be bus drivers, custodians, um those non-eing positions. So, we paid $22,620 per employee. I mean, well deserved and and but that's this it'll be the same amount for certified and classified when this goes into effect, but the state does help us pay for the uh the certified employees. Okay. So, that's a big a big increase. I just wanted to to point that out. So, and then the uh 2% cost of living raise I think is in today's climate with the economy is is a you know very reasonable and u effort there. So that's all of
027my questions. Thank you. I have one other question. Who negotiates state insurance? I know that is handed down to us but is who who does that negotiation up there? Is it with the state house and senate or is it just they negotiate and then hand us down the extended cost? I I'm not aware. I'm sorry. Um, yeah. I'm not aware who who they're negotiating with, but I do know that that the legislature approves whatever changes and they're they're passed on to us. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Farmer, I had a question. I had a question u on the contracted nursing services. Yes, sir. Uh, I think I'm clear on it, but I just want to make sure everybody in the audience and the public that's in addition to our regular school-based nurses, correct? Right. It
028it's there are some places we are not able to fill the position with an employee. So, we contract with an agency to place a nurse in our facility. And and could you go back to the um fair share and and go over that a little bit? I I couldn't make out what you said. Sure. About the 10 million that might be currently our local fair share is going up $2 million. So, it's decreasing our state funding. The local fair share is capp based on the state funding level. Right. And at when it reaches certain levels, it will be fully implemented. Right now, due to some restrictions on the state funding, our local fair share is capped to by approximately $10 million. It would be over $50 million if it were fully implemented. And I mean,
029that's not going to occur in the next year, but as state funding increases, that will increase. And as our digest grows in value, our local fair share increases. Also, I had a quick question about the expenditures on the expenditures page. I know in my household expenses seem to be increasing. I'm sure it's the same way for the school system. How much is that bottom line increased year-over-year? Do you have any idea? I know it's not on here. Very minimum. They're trying to work within the same time, same constraints as current year. Thank you. And Mr. Dubose, you referring to the major operating expenses? Yes, you insurance. I, you know, I'm just very minimal. Yes, sir. That sort of thing. Yes, sir. Most of the, as you can see, most of the the increase in the
030budget is is due to those rising personnel cost. If you look at insurance, um the TRS employer increase, Mr. Chapman alluded to it earlier. Uh in certified steps, all of those that are passed down to us, that's $10.1 million. That's those items that are highlighted in yellow. Um locally, the discretion comes in uh on those steps for classified employees and that 2% cost of living. um that that is um you know where a lot of the local discretion comes in because the state uh hasn't hasn't passed on raises for uh employees this year like they do in some years. Uh the other thing I will mention to you uh we are projected to be down teachers. Um we're we're looking at between three and nine is where we are right now. We track um enrollment
031school to school day by day uh with our human resources department. Uh so we watch that very closely. So so even in a year where we're looking at um being down on the personnel side, costs are still going up, especially related to benefits. Uh and that's where you'll see a lot of the increase in the budget. So I say that to you because I know a lot of times you get asked questions about why are we spending so much or this or that the other. Um personnel, we're we're reducing personnel but costs are still going up. So just want to make sure I give that to you for clarification. Also, uh salary breakdown for you. Uh just so that you're aware, administrative central office salaries, uh represent 2.99% of salaries. Um school-based administrators, that's 5.49%
032of our salaries. Uh certified teachers, 72.27% of salaries. And of course, our classified employees, that's 19.25% of our salaries. Of course, that makes up 91.09. 09% of our budget. We'll also mention to you um I've talked to other superintendents. I've seen comparisons. We compare very favorably uh related to the number of central office administrators and staff that we have. We have formulas that we use um to to make sure that our schools are staffed appropriately and we track those uh all the time in the interest of making sure that we're good stewards. Mr. Chapman, thank you very much. If anybody Nobody has anything else, we'll we'll move along. Thanks. Next item I have for you is I'll turn it over to Dr. Kemp for your board goal report and your staff and student attendance. Dr.
033Kemp, welcome. Thank you, Dr. Horton. For the eighth attendance reporting period, the highest staff attendance was Arbor Springs Elementary School. The highest attendance attendance in the program area was Central Educational Center. The highest elementary student attendance was Thomas Crossroads Elementary School. The highest middle school student attendance was Madress Middle School. And the highest high school attendance goes to home of the Cougars, Nunan High School. Yes, sir. Moving on to the board um the board goal report for this month. Board goals report. I would like to draw your attention to our upcoming administrative workshop which will be held Monday and Tuesday, June the 2nd, June the 3rd, 2025 at the Donald W. Nixon Center for Performing and Visual Arts. Both school and central office administrators will collaborate and participate in training activities that align with our
034system strategic plan. The theme for this year is visible leadership for visible learning. This aligns with the book our staff will begin reading over the summer, the illustrated guide to visible learning which emphasizes the impact on student learning and highlights the best practices. Additionally, our focus this year will include preparing for upcoming school system accreditation accredititation visit scheduled for early next school year. Participants must also concentrate in budgetary matters, student support issues, legal updates from our attorney, Nathan Lee, and many other continuous school improvement topics. Thank you, Dr. Kemp. Last item I have for you, board members, before we turn it over to Mr. Wilson and Ed Planners is your facilities and construction report. Uh, you can see New High School BP1. Uh, we paid that 100% of that. Also, 100% of bid package 2.
035Uh still working through some punch list work on door modifications and HVAC issues um on BP3. Hope to get that completed here in the very near future. Uh Northgate tennis courts, they're going to get started uh here in the next couple weeks. Uh trying to remediate um the issues that we've had there. CEC uh preliminary design drawings have been submitted and approved. Uh we're hoping to have final plans approved uh this month and that would allow us to bring uh potentially the CEC project to you uh for your approval uh hopefully late the later this summer. Uh the Arnold Middle uh re- roof uh work will begin as soon as we get out get out of school uh at the end of next week and we'll have that project completed uh prior to the start
036of school. Same can be said for our shield projects uh at our middle schools at Arnold uh East Kawita Middle and Lee Middle. Some work has begun in those locations, but the vast majority of that work uh will be completed over the summer. Uh and we're scheduled to have that completed uh prior to the start of school. Uh you've heard a lot about sewer upgrades at Arco Sergeant East Side. We'll work to get those done over the summer and have those finished prior to the start of school as well. And then after we finish graduations, uh we're planning uh on May 28th and June 7th uh to finish uh some renovation at no cost to the system on the synthetic turf fields uh at Northgate and u excuse me at Nunan and East Kawita High
037School. Uh board members, I'll take any questions you have. You approved the floor covering tonight, so we've already got that one covered. I do have a question about the uh the shield projects. Once this list of of schools are complete, will that be all the schools we will have done for the shield or we still have a few more to go? We will still have um two high schools that we'll have to finish. Nunan, we did that one um when when we when we built new over there. We still need to do uh Northgate and East Kawita, but it'll get all the all the elementary schools and all the the middle schools. So, which is main concern. Thank you. That'll complete all elementaryaries and middleles. Yes, sir. All right. And with that, I'm going to
038call on Mr. Wilson uh from Ed Planners. Uh while he's coming down, I'll I'll do a brief introduction. Mr. Wilson was a superintendent for many years years ago. And uh he's been doing demographic work and enrollment studies for systems uh for for several years now. Board members, you'll recall about every two years we try to have an outside group, either Mr. Wilson's group or another come in and check our homework so to speak uh to make sure that what we think we're seeing in the way of enrollment uh is what we're actually seeing. So with that, Mr. Wilson, I'll say welcome. Wilson, I say welcome and we're going to turn it over to you. Everybody does have a hard copy uh of the the presentation and sorry for the technical difficulties. All right. Well, uh
039so thank you uh for that introduction and Mr. Chairman, board members, superintendent, it's my pleasure to be with you tonight. Uh, and as Dr. Horton mentioned, we were back here in January of 23 doing a report similar to this. Uh, a lot of school districts uh, do this every five years. There are more and more school districts going to every two years or yearly to get an update because of the growth patterns and the need to be really tight with uh, your enrollment and knowledge of your enrollment. So it's it's my pleasure to be here two years later. So the second page uh it says the annual report and as as I stated uh we were here in January of 23 so it's uh two years before the report really focuses on two things trends
040and indicators. So we take a look at uh trying to make it where you would have knowledge based on initiatives teaching aotments building utilization attendance zone needs and those kind of things. And we we use indicators and trends. And the indicators that we use, we use the GIS, geographical information system. That's a software that we use to map and track building permits, housing, other types of things that would occur in your county. We always use the US Census Bureau. We use the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. We use the Atlanta Regional Commission. We use uh the online analytical statistical information systems which is basically your um department of of community health. We use the uh building permit database. It's a national database. We also do your local um building permits through your local cities
041and and county. So, we try to get as much information as we can to put you in a better position to know where you need to add or do work for your schools to be able to house students the way you really want to. So, the third page they're most of them are numbered. Some of them are not, but most of them are numbered. So, this is this is a brief page on enrollment factors. We look at live birth. We look at birth rates. We look at market and housing trends and mobility. In some of the slides, you will see where we try to track some of your subdivisions that are being built or your housing. So, we know just how that is going because you need to be prepared for that. Obviously, preK and
042special needs classrooms are important to you because the housing needs of those students, the enrollment factor of that is a little different than regular classrooms. House Bill 251, which is school choice, has been around for a long time, but that allows uh teachers and employees in your school district to bring their child to work and to school. So, that can change the enrollment of a school u pretty quickly. uh then other type of programs that your district offer, whether it's alternative ed, online learning, homeschooling, and and various other things. We try to track all of that and be knowledgeable of that because it certainly helps us as we forecast. The first two or three slides are going to be more global or national or state. Uh and then we'll get more right down to your
043county, but it's uh so page four it's just uh we look at in migration because you as a uh county are a growing county and you grow in various ways. Sometimes in affordability uh you will see that maybe your first and second grade total enrollment is one number. Then when you get to the sixth or seventh grade that enrollment is increased. Now, it could be because of in migration, but it also has a factor in there that affordability. So, maybe as a 25 year old with a four-year-old kid or or six-year-old child, maybe a few years later I can afford a little bit more or a different subdivision. So, we track that. So, that's what this slide basically is is just the migration of people moving into your your district. page five is you see
044a a black part that was actually a little video that we were going to show but uh it looks good but anyway that's the reason for that but the important part of this is Atlanta in the Atlanta area the Atlanta itself is the third highest population increase in the United States second only to Houston in Dallas Fort Worth and there's another slide that I've shown before that shows the eight top uh cities in the nation in growth and they're all in the mouth. The next slide, slide six is important because uh you see the darker blue parts and the next slide after this will be even more showing. Uh Atlanta has grown but we are now growing out. So counties like Gwynette, I'm sorry, Kawita and other counties surrounding the inner part where Gwynette and
045Dicab and Atlanta and Fulton and Cobb it's now moving out and that's just an indicator here and the next slide shows it even better. So I call this kind of the second perimeter because um you can see what used to be called the big four. They're growing and they're still growing, but by percentage they are not growing anywhere nearby by percentage that the second perimeter is growing. The next slide will show that even more. Page eight, you'll see that the Atlanta Regional Commission and I and I use the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget because they go out to 2050 and they're about to go out to60 trying to forecast the enrollment all across the state. And so we we use that information because it's valuable. And you can see
046that the current forecast from the Atlanta Regional Commission indicates that the fastest growth area is what I am now calling that second perimeter. And you're a part of that. Pauline, Cherokee, Forsythe, Barrow, Walton, and Kawita. And you can see on the right hand side the the 2020 population and the 2050 forecast, the highest percentage of change of growth. you're in you're in that. So that alone would tell you that you need to be taking a look at this because the growth is coming and and so it's important for school districts to be able to look at at this growth and really start being able to put themselves in a position where you can forecast for new schools, attendance zone changes, and all of those kind of things. The next slide, slide nine, is simply an
047indication of your population in your county in 2022 was 152,882. That was up 19.5% from 127,939 who lived in the county in 2010. You look in the bottom leftand corner and you can see that we received this information from the US census. For comparison, the US population grew 7.7%, Georgia's population grew 12.4% during this period. So that's what I said a few minutes ago that uh there's another slide I've used in the past where it shows the eight fastest growing areas and they're all in the south. Uh page 10 and page 11. Uh so we try to track the building permits and the next three or four slides will show you that because you need to know where the building is of apartments or housing or single family homes so you will know where you
048need to be looking in future property purchases and a multitude of other types of things. So we just put this slide. This is called a heat map in 2024 the calendar year of 2024. These are the building permits and their locations. doesn't have the number, but you can see the the more bright color is the more uh building permits compared to the other lighter colors. The next the next page is new home sales and it and we just simply did this with a heat map too to show one year of growth. So you can see some of the middle schools. We've listed all the middle schools and their percentage of growth in that one year. So you can see where your very first middle school aren't all middle school is 6.8 growth in one year
049in home sales. That's an indicator. And this whole report is about indicators and trends. So you look for those indicators so you'll know next steps and future steps. On slide number 12, we just did the elementary five-year growth. And you can see in some areas you've gone down and other areas that you've gone up. And that's that's a trend too, but that's also why you need to monitor that because over the next year or two that could drastically change. So we look at it very closely. The next slide 13 is the high school tenyear growth by percentage. And you can see your three high schools and you can see Northgate had the highest growth percentage of students in um the 10-year period. Mr. Wilson, if you don't mind, board members, just want to call your
050attention on Northgate. Remember the redistricting from East Cowita to Northgate. So, some of that some of that bigger number that you see there is is a little bit self-induced. Sorry, Mr. Wilson. No, no, thank you for uh clarifying for me. Then the the next slide just simply says looking ahead. So, when you get to slide 15, 16, and 17, we're we're literally putting on here uh subdivisions that we're monitoring. And it's important because these are new developments. These are land purchases. They're existing neighborhoods entering into multiple phases. And it's important to know where those are. How many permits are coming out of there, how fast they're growing so you can just so it's something we do. We just keep an a a close watch on your growth across your county, whether it's apartments, whether it's
051single family homes, or whatever it may be. It's just an important one. The next slide is an example. Again, you can see a popular popular reser preserve. It's nearing its end. It started in 2018 from Dr. Horton. It was a planned 596 home subdivision. There are 382 new homes that have been built as of the end of calendar year 2024. That is is a good subdivision, but it also can affect schools greatly. in its population. Yes, ma'am. Quick question. How do you know how many of those homes may have children? Because I know you've explained that to us before. You do. You did some kind of math. We do. Uh we don't we don't use the math that you used to use in demography where you just every house had x point number students and
052you just really can't depend on that any longer. So, we do go and and we use it several ways. We use the census to help us. We use your city planning and your city uh governments. They all participate and help us as well as the county government. So, that's the really the most accurate way that we use that now because the old formula just simply doesn't work. Absolutely. Sure does. Yes. And I that's a great question and thank you for because I I kind of mentioned that in the beginning uh because you'll see if if you analyze and I'll show a slide here in just a minute where you have the first grade and the second grade and the fourth grade and you grow and some of it is not people moving they're moving in
053when they can afford to purchase that type of housing. So, and and you see that everywhere you go that uh you'll see um there's one county that I work with and and they're they believe they and they are actually in decline. Uh a large district that's grown for years, but affordability now has become an issue for them. So, when I do theirs, the first, second, and third grade are in decline, and then when you get to middle school and high school, they go back up. And and and there's a rationale for that. And as as you get a little older and you make a little more money or whatever or you save a little bit money, then you get to the point where maybe you can afford a larger home as your family grows. But
054that that's uh we we try to track that the best we can. And that was kind of your question too. And the count uh 17 is just an introduction. The next three or four slides, we simply show you by bar chart the your enrollment growth and history. So this slides 18 is just your systemwide 10-year enrollment history. It is important for us as demographers and planners to take a look at that and you'll see in 2020 you were down well that's the COVID year. So that's again another trend and an indicator. The good part about that is as this looks just like every other school district in the state that it went we went down in 2020. The good part about this is you go back up and you start showing growth and and then
055we we just broke it down. So in slide 19, it's an enrollment history and it's talking a little bit about the the past COVID because we simply wanted to show that you rebounded and you rebounded very well. A lot most districts did, but some districts didn't. they lost students and they didn't get all of them back or even a close number because the change was uh multiple fa multiple factors there. But it's it's a good slide because it shows you rebounded which is a good thing. Then we put one together that uh is for elementary. It's the next slide and you can see that we just tracked it for five years. You can also see on the left hand side where in 2020 you went down. that was the COVID years. And so it's just
056another indication that you're coming back up in the elementary schools. The middle schools, uh, somewhat the same way. Uh, so we we just track you for the last five years to see where the enrollment is. And and and it's a slight enrollment growth and the same thing for the high schools. It's a it's an enrollment growth. If I can move to slide 23. This is an important slide. So, I went two or three slides there pretty quickly, but on slide 23, if you can follow me, it's a little bit hard to follow, but it tells a real good story. So, if you go to the kind of the bottom leftand corner where it says 2012 and then the green line that goes up, we're basically tracking your current senior class for the last 12 years.
057And there's a lot of things to look at. So, did it grow? Did it drop? Uh, did you maintain your students? And you can see that uh if you look at kindergarten in 2012, you had 177 kindergarteners that year. As you go through, you maintain pretty well. So in the in their junior year at 1700 1717 students you dropped a little bit but your senior class sometimes graduates quicker and some of those kind of things with work study but it's important to look at this and look at it carefully because there's a lot of indicators and you see the red circle. What that red circle is is that in kindergarten you see a red circle in 2012. So, the largest kindergarten class that you've had in the last 13 years was in 2012. Okay. Then,
058if you go way over to the right hand side, you will see in the 12th grade, the largest um uh class of the 12th grade for those 13 years matched is two 1713 students. And that was the class of, if I go across correctly, 2021 or 2022. And and so it's important to look at this because um as you do your planning for each year for for aotments, you will see that some grades are different. And if and it's important and it's really good that you can track. So, so what we do is we we go and do your history and we track your kids from the time they get in kindergarten all the way through and it helps you in a in attendance planning and what you may need over the next 10 or
05912 years knowing each grade level of students. So, it's a good slide and and we're forecasting and you can see in the bottom lefthand corner expect middle school to have its largest sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes next year. So, you're you're growing and you're growing in the middle school area. And board members, I'll mention here um and you're well positioned for that growth. You brought a new middle school online uh four years ago, Blake Bass Middle. You just redistricted students a couple years ago. I think it's three years ago now from East Kawita um to Northgate. In addition, um, at the high school level, every block, we have several hundred students that go out to dual enrollment, uh, to the central educational center. So, we're we're well positioned. Um, I say that because I
060don't want you to be alarmed by the fact that our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes will all be our largest next year. That bubble that bubble will work its way through just like it's moved from elementary now into middle school. That's right. Absolutely. The next three slides are just simply showing the attendance zone for high school, middle, and elementary. and the percentage of u of students in each of those areas. Uh so you've got middle, you got high, middle, and elementary. And what the superintendent was saying is we are really forecasting that you're going to continue to grow more in the middle school area. And so we did that for each of the three levels. Uh so slide 27 just simply shows every school their 10-year growth, their five-year growth, their 2020 FTE numbers,
061their 2024 FTE numbers. We we received information from the administration here on the number of IUs and the capacity of each of the schools and the percentage of utilization. And and so there's there's two or three ways that school districts determine their their capacity and their uh utilization. And so it works best when the school district itself creates that formula. There is a very outdated formula at the state level. And then building utilization sometimes works when you really try to get down to all of the special needs classrooms that are a different population of size of number than other classrooms. So this is uh the information that we got from the school district and we think they're doing it very correctly because it's important. So, as the last slide I have, and I know I've
062gone through these rather quickly, but it's an executive summary. And and the reason that these type of uh studies are important to school districts is because, like I said, the enrollment study identifies trends and indicators. And if you follow those trends and indicators then in your planning and your finance person did uh his report on the budget it's important for him to know where the growth is. So these kind of studies help finance in their planning and it's just truly um indicators and trends that help and you see in the very first paragraph um the aligning attendant zones with current land ownership and parcel data which helps you uh predict future developments and it helps you build across two school zones to create an opportunity which is always good if you can that is more
063direct feeds And and then in the last paragraph we mentioned that um and we use a formula for live births and it doesn't work quite to the level that it used to because of the Kenny McKini Act and House Bill 251 where you've got abilities to move around that that live births don't predict. The good part about the live birth part is I looked at it just today to make sure um the the way the formula works. You take your enrollment um you take your live births for Xy year. You move forward six years later and that should be a predictor for your first grade. Now in your case you're at every year I went back 10 15 years you're at 90 something% on every year. So you are maintaining or keeping or families are
064staying here. So in their birth of children, six years later, they're entering schools. And in some cases, you were all but just right on that number. So I go to the live births at the Department of Public Health, I see the number of live births that were here in this county and and if they're in the military and they're overseas or whatnot, if they're home addresses here, those are counted. So it's pretty accurate count of live births for your county. and one I just did last week, they were at 80%. They were pleased with that. Well, they don't know that you're at about 95% because they would be very pleased with that. So, that that's just an indicator that when families come here, they stay here. And so, that also helps you as a school
065board and an administration know that you've got children coming and you need to prepare for it. So, questions if needed. Mr. Wilson, just want to want to thank you once again. Uh board members, I do want to point out on the next to the last slide, if you look at our building utilization, uh districtwide a system total 90%. Um 88% elementary, which is right where you want to be. Our middle school total is 94 and then 90 at the high school. That that that means that um we we don't build unless we need to. Um there are there are avenues we can use. He mentioned redistricting if we need to uh as a result of gathering this information. Um the staff has it. We're taking a look at it. Uh and we will we will
066certainly adjust accordingly. This this reinforces for me though uh that we're doing the right work. We're studying the right things. Um I had hoped that the areas that we were tracking um that that it would show on this and those areas where you've seen pretty decent growth, those are areas that we've already been tracking. So, more to come. We'll keep watching it. Uh, and Mr. Wilson, I'm sure we'll be talking again sometime soon. Thank you for your help. Thank you. Thank you. That's all I have. Mr. Chair, each month at this time, we set aside 45 minutes for public comments. Uh, we did not have anyone signed up to speak this month. So, we'll move on to board comments. Do I have any board comments? Looks like no board come. I do. I'm sorry. Um
067go ahead, Mr. Dubos. Just as as we are winding down the school year, I just want to give a couple shoutouts real quick if you don't mind. Uh number one, uh Northgate has had a band director, and I say a band director. He's been there for 29 years, is retiring this year. So, I want to give a shout out to Mr. Alan Armstrong for all that he's done for Northgate and the North Gate community as well. Um, another educator, uh, Miss Becky Bush. She she's a coach in the middle schools and she just, uh, won her 20th Kawita County Middle School Championship, uh, for track this year. So, congratulations to her. Uh, give a shout out to a couple teams, too. Uh, Northgate girls soccer is playing for the state championship Friday evening in Duth.
068And as we are sitting here right now, the Northgate or excuse me, the Newton baseball team is currently playing in the final four. They won their first game. I'll give you an update of nine to one. Uh so they're I think about to start game two. I don't have an update on that one yet. So that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. At this time, do I have a motion to uh enter into executive session to discuss personnel, real estate, and potential litigation? Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passes seven to zero. Thank you for everyone for being here.