001Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the fiscal year 2026 budget hearing meeting. And anyone like to ask questions, speak No one will wait our five minutes and feel free to come converse amongst yourselves. It's uh been five minutes for the for the budget hearing. We had no one uh speak. So we'll go ahead and uh begin the work session for June 10th, 2025. And we'll start with Mr. Black. All right. I'm going to turn it over to Miss Cody for the April 2025 financials. Okay. So, we will start with our um April budget amendments. Um there were two. The first was an increase of revenues and expenditures in the amount of $38,200 for the dyslexia grant. And then the second was a decrease of revenues and expenditures for the heavy equipment grant
002in the amount of $417,000. And then moving on to the general fund, um our revenues are at 91.3% of budget. And as you can see from the figure in red up there, our tax collections have exceeded budget by $946,824. Um the majority of that overage is the title adalorm tax and I did increase the uh fiscal year 2026 um budget a million dollars to kind of help offset that. Um our expenditures are at 78.9% of budget and the budget position is 8.3 83.3% as of um the end of April. Any questions on the budget? Okay, then I will go on to the investment report. So the only thing to report there is interest for April was $594,311.72. So, if there's no questions about the financials, I'll move on to the budget. So, the first thing
003I'm going to pull up is the consolidated budget summary. Um, so we'll start with the general fund. Um the budget is based on an estimated 8% increase in the tax digest and a 97% collection rate. The local tax revenue of 111,534,900 has been calculated using the current mill rate of 14.90. Total estimated revenues are $197,86,700 and expenditures budgeted of 197,000 197,86,700 will leave a general fund balance of um $25,200,89. And we discussed the mandated and non-mandated expenditure increases in detail during the April and May work sessions, but I'm happy to go back through them if anybody wants me to to do a recap on those. For Mr. Jackson's sake, can we Sure. Okay. So right here is where we have our um our increases and decreases. So for our mandated um the total increases were
0044,285,500. Um and that was the increase in TRS from 20.78% to 21.91% and then the increase in um state help for our certified and our classified employees. And then our non-mandated expenditure increases were $8,686,400. And that was our uh salary step increases for certified and classified. Um new positions, our lead academic and athletic supplements, our decrease for our RIFF positions, uh increase in departmental budgets, the decrease in our operating transfer, and then an increase for our um local salary and benefits. So once again that gives us the um expenditures of $197 million um $86,700. So we have a balanced budget and then that leaves a um general fund balance of $25,200,89. So, any questions about the general fund? Then I will go to our special revenue fund. Um there's an estimated expenses over revenues in
005the amount of $1,677,700. The majority of that deficit um comes from our workers comp payments. Um these payments are paid with our workers comp fund balances fund balance. And then so last we have our capital projects fund which includes eswash three, four and five along with our capital outlay. Um we would expect to see expenditures exceed revenues because es 3 and four are fully collected but we still have expenditures for projects included in those. Um so just kind of for the recap the major project for east 3 in 2026 of course will be the coastal community center for the arts. The main project in East Boss 4 will be the Glendale replacement. And then some of the upcoming projects for East Boss 5 include the BHS multi-purpose facility, the VHS old gym renovation, GA multi-purpose
006facility, Needwood Middle improvements, and Goodyear Greer and Stadium renovations. And then the two main projects in co uh uh capital outlay will be the um board of education renovation and then the BHS fieldhouse renovation. answer any questions about the budget. I think we can move on. Okay. All right. Then we will move to the uh facilities update with Mr. Haywood for the Eastwash projects. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Um the first project uh Miss Cody just mentioned of course from East 3 was our uh the performing arts center at the College of Coastal Georgia. They're progressing well in the construction of that. Um they've completed the waterproofing um for the building and the ex exterior stuckle as you can see um by driving down Altama and Fourth Street is about 90% complete. On the interior
007there are installing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems inwall and overhead at this time and they have started hanging a sheetrock on the first floor. Um, again, the project projected completion date January to February of 2026 is the projected. Moving on to Glendale Elementary replacement. Um, last time we met last month, we were waiting on the um, of course, after you all approved the amount to be paid for Enterprises, we're waiting on the land disturbance permits. We have the permit from the state. We are still waiting on the one from the county. Uh we met today with the engineers and with our architect and uh one of our principles who has a very similar traffic pattern as the one that will be at um Linda replacement and we had to make a few changes that will
008help the traffic flow and make it as smooth as you can make elementary traffic at 7 o'clock in the morning and at 2:30. in the day. So, um again, once those changes are made and the architect has those changes, we'll give it back to the engineers, then they the county should sign off on the land disturbance uh permit. Once the land disturbance permit is received, it's about a six to seven week project on just the site clearing. And you know, that project is broken up into three phases. Phase one is site clearing, phase two is site development, and then the final phase will be the con um building construction. Um moving on to our capital funded projects, of course, the BHS fieldhouse. Um if you can ride by you can see they are erecting um
009some steel now hanging beams at this point and um they are in have they have installed a few of the door frames and then they will start laying mason masonry blocks tomorrow. And then lastly um and again the projected on completion of that project is still December. And then lastly, the board of education, of course, here, uh, wing three is moving along well. Again, all the door frames have been installed. All windows are installed. The first coat of paint has been, uh, painted on all of the sheetrock. Now, they have be painting the block walls in there. Um, the floor has been tiled in the bathroom uh area and all of the AC units are set outside of the outside of the building. The fireproofing is also complete. Duck worked is 85% complete. And the
010next step for them will be to start uh putting in the ceiling grid. Um any questions on any of the projects? It's not a question. Well, it is a question uh in reference to the overallou for the um performance art center. What is agreed upon? I know that we were going to collect the funding and the bill of the board of regents is going to take care all the architect construction management. So after everything's complete, what is it? What else is agreed upon on our end? There there is no other agreement on our end other than I mean they were bound to construct a thousand seat um facility and board of education had a seat at the table for choosing the architect and the structure manager and then as far as the uh the funds
011go it's a reimburseable so they have to show evidence that they've completed a section before we repay it but there is noou that I'm aware of as far as for the use of it after that yeah I would think raising $20 million for a facility that we can use um operationally for our drama club, our band concerts and things like that. It was no talk about using I I not that I'm aware of. I don't know if anybody who was here there's been since the beginning there was talk about first ride refusal for us, you know, for our for our programs. I don't know how it would look because you could really fill the place up probably every day of the week and so that would be that would be tough for them to try
012to you know raise money or anything else but maybe we need to look back and revisit it because I know there were conversations about it's not that there's none of that that's written in the MO unit that was given to me that was just based on construction and everything I thought graduation was too small yeah but you know $20 million that um everyone contribute to tax wise um and solely the college uses it. It should be something set up for the schools to use it and the local businesses and things like that to use it to show our appreciation of passing the esquash or something like that. It's something different than what we normally do with esquash. But I remember what Mike said we did have first ride refusal for it as well. just yeah
013just even check on because that there was conversations about that but I don't remember where that went obviously know where um yeah the onlyou I have is is what what was I guess what was what was on file when I arrived here so I'm not sure but we can check on it's worth checking we've also been talking about it for 10 years 12 I don't know a long time long a long time. Any other questions? Going to the good report. All right. On the good report, um it's pulled up. That is page six. We got our first collections on East Splast 5, which was from collected from April 1st through April 30th. And as you can see, we collected 3,213,358.79. And this is $110,71844 more than we collected at this time last year. So I'd
014venture to say that East Floss 5 is doing well. That's prior to the collection. Bunky. Yeah, the bunk still. Yep. So that concludes my report. Are there any questions with the Google? know if that contains anything from each plot for like we we kept getting residuals down at the bottom. They break that out if there's it was not separated out on the um our assumption is most of the well that most of the Eastbos force should be gone because it was we had gotten past the end of the first quarter. So I would assume that most most businesses had filed their taxes by that point. Has anybody looked into what they think BIES is going to add to us? Uh the estimates we've been given is, you know, close to $10,000 a day as far
015as on the one cent. We'll know shortly. which really just means we'll be finished more quickly, right? It doesn't really Yeah. Yeah. It could add three to 400,000 more per month on the collection. All right. Uh Mr. Waters, good afternoon. We would uh next we're looking at adding new stadium lights and we'd like to ask the board to please approve the request to purchase new lights for Glen County Stadium in the amount of 570,000 using East 5. Um this is a quote from Musco who has done our recent lighting. The stadium lighting right now is out of a group out of Texas. And so we're going to go with a new company um that we've having more success with lately. Um this is not only new lighting, it's new conduit and new cables. The cables
016in the conduit have not been replaced since the stadium was built in ' 86. So um we're replacing the infrastructure as well as the lighting. The poles are still good. Poles are good. Is there any additional lighting to any areas that aren't lit? Now, we are going to add some lighting behind the poles kind of where you walk into the stadium. It'll be brighter there. Um, and we'll also add some lighting in the bleachers. So, it'll if you go to the stadium right now, our bleachers are pretty dark. Um, they're supposed to be lit at a 50% candle light lighting and they're at 14 to 20%. Um, so it's it's very dark in our bleachers. So we are going to increase some safety areas behind the bleachers and in the bleachers. Any other questions? Move
017on to Mr. Benson. So good evening. Tonight we have a couple of items for our um yearly renewals for the upcoming school year. The first of which is for our GoG Guardian. Um, GoG Guardian is the software that we use to manage student devices, including our internet filtering. Um, so tonight we are asking for a renewal for this. Um, last year we spent approximately 71 $72,000 for the renewal. So, it is up slightly um in the amount of uh $78,780. The current quote Any questions about GoG Guardian? Yeah. U have there been any issues in the last deal with No issues actually. We've seen increas increased use. So GoG Guardian allows for the teacher to monitor what's on the individual screens. And what we've gone to are is using our Prometheium panels, the large LED
018panel that you see in the executive conference room. We'll push those that teacher desktop to that panel so students are aware that um the teacher's watching and um they kind of see their screen up on the screen um while a teacher's working in a small group environment. So we're kind of policing one another so to speak um and so it's afforded us that capability and this also filters unsanctioned uh websites. Yes sir. So do we have any reports from school teachers that certain websites they want to get on they can't that early on we had that issue because they had to migrate the entire list of websites over from the old system. So that was when it when it initially rolled out but they've had to go back and and as teachers have requested one
019add every one of them back in to make sure they have them all. So the the bank of websites is essentially back up to where it was. So that constantly being renewed. Yes. frequently. Oh yeah. The reason why I asked because some students say we use our cell phones because we can't get on certain websites that the teacher wants us to get on. So they pull out the cell phone. That's that's one of the excuses that long as it's being being frequently updated. Yeah. And we like Mr. Blackerby referenced, we have to go in from time to time and open things up. So we error on the side of being more secure than open, which I think is a good place to be. Any other questions about GoG Guardian? So, we'll move to the next
020one. I believe at our April um board of education meeting um the board approved the computer refresh for the locations of Brunswick High School, Glenn Academy, uh Gekka, and here at the district office. So this this next request is simply asking for the items that will be part of those devices that will be part of the refresh to be declared surplus. And so just for your understanding these are uh desktop and laptops uh that were purchased in 2019, 2020 and 2021. And what we have found is um for some of these devices it's not that the devices aren't working. the updates for these devices so that we can access the different um software is just not available any longer. So um we are asking tonight to declare as those replacements occur. We'd like to declare
021those items surplus. You can't upgrade a 4-year-old computer in some in some situations. No sir, it's not possible. So what happens when we designate it surplus? Does it literally go in the dumpster? No. Okay. Some are used for parts. Yeah. Okay. You pulling things off. The others they're basically auctioned off or sold to another company. So you get some pennies on the dollar. Yeah. Okay. I would have said it's recycled. I mean, so what like Mr. Blacker referenced, the things that are of value to us, we are able to to kind of um collect those pieces and then the rest of it is is sold for pennies. But we don't sell like individual computers because it gets into a whole another issue. But we so we sell lots. So both on a pallet. Okay. The
022next one is our infinite campus. Infinite campus is our, as you guys know, is our student information system. It's where we house our student registration records, attendance, grades, discipline, and everything for student demographics. Um pleased to report just for your knowledge um in 2425 the renewal was 145,353.50. So um we are seeing a slight increase of $420 for next year. It's not a bad increase. Not bad given the the way everything else in this world is right now. So where did you see the increase? Was it the cloud storage? No, just the overall cost for Yeah. But when you're $145,000 price point, uh, a $420 increase is is what we would say pretty minimal at this point, we feel like. So, do we have any complaints on the infinite campus from the parents? No, we're
023actually looking to expand. There's some features that we've seen uh here recently that I've talked with Miss Cody and um so we've we we're looking to maybe purchase an add-on. Um just for the board's reference that would include an e-haul pass. So as students at our secondary schools as they move around, we would issue them an electronic hall pass. And so that would start to track the time students leave the classroom, where they're going. um we would be able to track if there are students that they shouldn't be in the hallways with. Um the teacher would get an alert saying so and so's already been issued a pass. Um so you know Mr. Jackson's out, he can't be out with Mr. Dodging. You know, Mr. Jackson, you're going to have to just wait until Mr.
024Dodge gets back to class. So we've been we've been using actually there's some part of what we call workflow suite that we've like to take advantage of some of the other features that are out there with Infinite Campus. So So no four block uh gym right here. That's right. There's also an online um payment option where our elementary school parents can pay for their after school care online. So, we're going to pilot that in a couple of schools at the beginning of the year in the fall just to see how it runs and if it runs well then across the board online payment and that would be for K 12 actually just see online payments for for everything versus cash coming in even when we do the the physicals you can do with the infinite
025campus you can do anything. So, any other questions about Infinite Campus and that renewal? Okay. And then to finish us off here this evening for some of the software, the last one is um Egeneuity and Egeneuity is our online learning provider for that we use for credit recovery and some of our in some of our alt ed situations. It's also used at the middle school level for situations when we don't maybe have a classroom teacher. We use egeneuity as the teacher of record and we're able to um put a parrot in the classroom and facilitate instruction that way so that we can continue to afford some middle school students those opportunities for credit. So there is a again a slight increase with um this quote um versus the 2425 number. Um, this one actually went
026up just over $10,000. Just want to be transparent with that. But again, continuing to meet our needs and students are able to work through the content and earn the credits that they need as they work towards graduation. Is edenu ed is egeneuity uh statemandated for alternative education? It's not statemandated. There are other providers out there. Um, but it's what our teachers have been using, I think, from the ground up. Our teachers have had played a pretty big role in developing the content and being able to make sure it's meeting the standards. And, um, for the most part, I would say, you know, when students take those milestone assessments that are associated with the egeneuity courses, they're prepared to pass those assessments. So, it's served us well in that regard. You know, I think we've got
027a great great graduation rate. I mean, that we've celebrated that at graduation night. Um, but like Brunswick High had a has 100% this year for the first time. Um, but I'm looking at possibly trying to even increase the rig rigor increase the student achievement, not just be satisfied with graduation rate. Yep. Are other programs more rigorous or that can still meet the needs of the milestones? You know, boy, um, you know, just uh start the conversation. Yeah. You know, obviously we've been using this and it's been working, but hey, let's now let's start start the push of, you know, let's let's not just be educated, let's continue to be highly educated. There there's really two things that come to mind with that statement. One of which Miss Miller and I have spent some time as
028we roll out new standards for ELA next year. That's going to be this new set of standards that comes out. We've spent some time this past spring working with teachers to look at exactly what you said. What is that standard asking students to do and making sure that we are delivering instruction at that standard and then assessments that also match that. The second thing that comes to mind on for me um for your statement is we're also looking to move students from different levels on the milestones assessment. So if a student has been accustomed to you know just coming in taking that test and maybe they get a level three well what would we need to do to push that so that we can see a level four from you? Really looking at that growth
029component for us. um not just the overall student achievement that we often look at that percentage but where were you from at the beginning of the year and then based upon the instruction that you received where were you able to to finish the year? I think with with our successes, I think we can start that conversation now. And then the I'll move to the RFP for special education. So, currently um in recent years, we've had some trouble filling some of our special education uh positions and we have issued an RFP. Our current RFP for pair professionals was with Sunb Belt and we just put it back out to bid and we were pleasantly surprised that when we did so we received 20 responses. So if you've been on the board for any sort of time
030you know that when we worked with Sunb Belt the going rate was $55 an hour. So you will see a fairly significant decrease here tonight. Um, Sunb Belt did calculate that hourly rate at $22.45 based upon our current salary scale. So, if there is a um increase to pair of professionals that would be approved by the board, there would be a slight increase or adjustment to that hourly rate. They start ESS uses that base um hour rate as where they start. We I think it's safe to say, Miss Cody and I have talked, it's safe to say that going with ESS is going to be a significant savings versus where we've been. We would also say that this is a last resort. So, we feel like the salary increase that's going to potentially occur with
031the budget will attract more people to those paraprofessional positions. And we'd like to be in a position where we wouldn't have to use a outside vendor like ESS. Okay. But we don't know what that's going to happen. We know that there for students with disabilities there have IEPs and we need to meet the requirements of those IEPs. So this is a backup plan. This is to make sure that we do have the staff we need to provide the student services that they're entitled to. So this company hires peer approach. Correct. And the and the markup is because they take on the recruiting and you know the search process to find those individuals. Has it been successful finding because that's on a case-byase basis. There are some individuals where we have said this is these are
032really these are top of- pair of professionals and then there's some individuals that we've had to say we don't know we no longer need your services but the uh RFP allows us to work either way on that there is a non-compete clause in it so if an individual does sign on to an outside vendor they cannot become part of Glen County schools there has to be a year in between those employment dates. So this is all new parapose or existing as well. This is for existing. So um if we're not able to obviously fill the positions, this would be working in into the months of July and August that we have a backup plan so that we could get somebody we don't I'm assuming like with any kind of tip a you don't have to
033provide any benefit anything that's on them. Everything's on them. their pay everything, right? We're paying them 2245 an hour. So for the parapro we we will pay them. So they they handle that part of it. I understand what are we paying the company the 2245 an hour uh approximately 27 something. So there's a markup. So that's so this is what you're they're guaranteeing our employees. This that I'm just trying to clarify the 2245 is based on our current para salary schedule. It's not based on the potential new salary. What are we paying the company per hour based on our current salary schedule? We would pay them 2245. So where's the 27 come in? Because I know how tent labor works. That makes sense. If we approve the umudget, the budget budget's approved, right? Then it
034goes to the new budget hourly rate, which is 27. 27. But but there's a is there a markup over the 27 to the temp. So the markup is from what we pay our Glen County schools pair of professionals. Yes. To their hourly rate. There is a percentage markup there. What is their hourly rate? What's the I I guess I'm not fully understand. I'm not I'm not so we pay them an hour is all. Let me tell you what. Let me tell you, let me tell you what my issue is. It's and this will probably explain it, but um if we're paying ESS 2245 an hour and that's they say, "Okay, we we we build y'all a,000 pair of pro hours at 2245, what's to prevent them from trying to pay a pair of pro seven
035bucks an hour?" You know, the the markup. I mean, that's that's what happens with this. Like 55 seemed like a high amount, but were we getting better quality? was there, you know, there's got to be they can't they can't operate for 2245 an hour and provide benefits. I would say that would be between the employee and and ESS or the employee, but it lines up between being between us and ESS because if they're getting poor quality because they're not paying them. Like if you get greedy is not the right word, but you get overly aggressive and you said, "Okay, hey y'all, we're we're gonna we're going to charge the board of education 2245. We're going to pay them 12." That's how that works. And I that is an agreement, but we have a vested interest
036to not to go get that I mean you can make that wherever. That's the problem I have with I I need to see what we're paying them. What are we paying them per hour for a pair? You're saying what is the company paying them? No. What both? We don't know what the company's paying parro. Well, what are we paying the company? The 2245 based upon the current salary schedule. Yes, we would pay 2245. And we need to know what they're paying. I just think we have a vested interest in saying you're not going to pay our employees less than I mean that's fair less than what we already what are we like what's the average per hour right now for repair program is average ball parking I think starting like 169 something I think is
037year zero so all this is based on year zero the markup is based on year zero I mean I understand how it works I'm just saying that's not a very big margin for them I'm worried about the relationship because I don't think they can make any money doing that but I don't run the company of course but that's going to be tight Was they providing workers comp, right? Liability stuff. Yes, sir. Background check. I'm not That's on them, I guess. But that's that's a tight margin, I would think. Certifications. That's a tight margin for them to operate. That just makes me nervous that we went from I don't know. They would work. Response is I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say, was the $55 rate for parapros or was it for like
038the school psychologist and some of the other position? Yeah. Of the 20 responses, was this the lowest? This was dollar costwise. This was at the bottom. Um, but it was also a company that we've looked at for other services. It was somebody that we felt comfortable with. We've met with ESS as part of if you know we looked at contracting for substitutes and some other things areas and we were comfortable with you know what we heard from them for that regard. Are we going to continue to recruit internally as well for pair pros and if we hire them that's okay? These positions are currently posted posted. Okay. So we're hoping to get somebody but we are we contractually required to push them to ESS for employment. No. Okay. use these type of contracts to pay
039higher hourly wages versus the organization that contracts them out. And what we have to carry is benefits, TRS, things like that. So they looking at per hour usually that's how it normally works. Yeah. And so if you think about where they're at right now, we're paying those employees, our pair of professionals around $16 an hour. And you know this would be it. They they're collecting 22, but we were surprised to not be near this $55 an hour rate. You think about what our costs are for employees, right? Like so we can't we can't operate for $7 every we're paying people. It just doesn't work that way. That just when I actually have that I actually calculated that. So it cost us 80 grand for a teacher that makes 40. You know what I'm saying? I
040just, you know, I just, that's how it's always been. Just our health insurance next year for a 190day employee is going to cost us $14.88 an hour. That's just health insurance. Are they going to offer them health? But not our health insurance. Not ours. It's a different type of health insurance, right? Is the company going to offer them? Current payros have access to health insurance. Correct. Yes. Is this company going to get provide them access? But whatever it is, it could be some terrible plan, but are they going to provide them access? Correct. But that's between we that's between that company and I know but here's the first question that's going to come up because it was in the paper last year when we did this. They're paying a company. We all know how it
041works. They don't understand. They're paying them 2245 an hour and they're paying us 16. We all know there has to be a markup. I'm not arguing the market. I really I'm not arguing that we're trying to do this. I just don't think that they can efficiently do it. I mean cheapest is always best. I mean, we just spent, you know, a bunch of money on other stuff on lights and, you know, renewals and stuff and this is important. I just don't want to go cheap on something that I'm I'm concerned that they're not going to be able to do it for that. But, I mean, if we can still go out and hire people as well, and we're not going to quit trying, right? The intent is to not use this, right? Backup plan. It's
042a backup plan. So if you can't find the parents, then is it we send them to them? We suggest to them. How how does that work? What we've done in the past is when we haven't been able to find them and like for example when we get about two weeks out from school starting and we still haven't had anybody to, you know, to take the position. Then we start saying, okay, we need people, you know, and so then we'll look to them typically and they'll send a roster of people and the principles look at who they've got. They'll look at over their applications and things like that and then they'll have basically interviews with those people and they'll select who they need and then they turn them around and put them in the room. So
043probably within about two or three weeks before school starts that starts to happen because we've had the July board meeting. You know, there's not going to be another board meeting until probably the day of school starting or the first week of school. So at that point, we've already exhausted everything we could over the summer to try to find these particular positions and that's when they start talking. I don't think we should ask them to disclose what the pay scale is. I mean that's is that I mean that's not like we do federal contracts all the time where they make us charge a certain rate and they say this is the rate you're going to pay a mechanic or you know a mason or whatever. I just I would like to know unless they're hellbent on
044not telling us. I'd like to know what their starting rate is going to be. They do disclose it's a 32.5% markup. Okay. Is this something that we do need to vote on today? Um, Mr. Benson, the question is, is this something we need to vote on today or can we wait till the July meeting? You can wait to the July meeting. Um, obviously Miss Seals said, you know, so we've got these vacancies posted, posted. So, what we're trying to do is be prepared. Should we not get applicants for those positions? So, they're they're going to start based on that percentage. They're still their starting would be less than what our starting is. Not necessarily. Well, based on 94, what is it? No, they're going to start wherever we start, Mr. Holy. Okay. Yeah. With a
04532.5% markup. What's 16 plus the 32% markup? What you're looking at? Yeah. Is that what it is? I went 14. That was good based on that rate backing out. Right. We got 100% graduation rate. Thank you very much. Increase the record. Right. That is true. I did 37% off instead of 32 still. All right. Hope it works. as long as we still in earnest continue to try to recruit, but we're pulling for I mean we're also recruiting the same people at about the same rate. So, let's can we pull this until the July meeting and I I think we've had some great discussion. I I encourage more of it. um just to get some clarification if any of us may have some other future questions and also you know hey this is a last resort
046and like missile says they really don't get going until the beginning of school so I think we have time on this we've had to do it other things too and counselors and stuff and a lot of that stuff is virtual so it's just different than hiring um warm bodies I just we don't have to wait on my account I would like to see the numbers and like them to we can we mean we can wait till July. I'm not necessarily asking that. I just and any of the benefits that they may receive. And if I understood you correctly, our principles are actually interviewing the people and can decline a particular person from Yeah, we've had that happen this year. So, they're not just coming to us blind. I guess the principles the way we've worked
047in the past with the prof the pair of professionals we've contracted with um last school year they had an the principles had an opportunity to interview them and they chose the person that they the people they wanted at their schools um and if there was an issue they also acted as any other time you know so can I ask one more question just wearing this out I'm sorry I'm just intrigued by this when you have this the the temporary pair of pros like this Do you typically get them for a year for a school year or do they just roll? No, we have had some that have been that have been with us for more I think about a year or two. Yeah. So you're not you're not having turnover every six weeks or something.
048Okay. Consistency. Okay. The average rate of a parapro is 3250 in Camden. I just want to just keep keep in mind that this is special ed pair program to make the kids more accessible. So we we want to make sure that we have enough personnel that to implement this because we have some that that's that are wheelchair bound and need to be fed and stuff like that cuz we got a lot of one-on-one cuz um as long as we kick this can we eliminate somebody not being served because we want to have put all the options out there and start recruiting as soon as possible. It's a good point. What's I mean all things being equal. If if you're seeing if you see Glenn County School website, there's a there's a special ed pair pro
049being hired and there's this place called ESS that is the same parapro position being hired. What would make me as a applicant choose that instead of directly working toward the employer. We have more benefits and all that jazz, you know, I just and maybe I mean I don't guess there's any harm in just having it out there as a backup, but I just I don't know why somebody would go and apply to work directly for them instead of us. Um, it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I know it saves us money, but I'd rather have them working directly for us if we're going to do it. We're we're looking at the same people. Unless they have some out some of these other companies has, you know, a wider reach.
050Yeah. If we're asking for people to be in Glen County, I mean, nobody's going to move from South Florida to be a pair pro here. You know what I mean? Um, you you you have some people in the in the workforce who look at hour to pay. I live right here in the city, but I'm going to drive all the way out there to Brooklyn to work at car wash, the truck wash, cuz they paying $22 an hour. I don't have a car no more. You said I can get a job getting $22 an hour or $17 an hour. Across the street is elementary school to help with special needs kids. And my little cousin special need. Oh, I can do that because I'm looking at the hourly pay because some that's all they looking.
051Hourly pay. That's what they look at. But if you had two car washes across the street and they both paid the same thing and you had better benefits than one, why you going to go to this car wash? If you're walking or driving the same distance and why are you doing the semi washing semi trucks pays a lot more than washing a regular SUV and they go out but we're talking apples and apples and apples and oranges, I think. But I'm not arguing with I'm just saying that I just don't understand why we're That just seems like a low rate. We can delay it or we can vote. I don't know. I like the conversation. We we did look at ESS is used by some of our neighboring school districts. Um we know Wayne County
052uses ESS. So we did talk to some folks from there and they were satisfied with the services they've received. So um just wanted to throw that out there as well. I'll say it again. I don't necessarily want to be compared to Wayne County. Glad you said it. At the present time, how many do we have actual number of paras from ESS? We don't have any currents. No, we Okay. From the current company. From the current company. I'm from Sunb Belt. Yes. Get you. I'll get you that. [Music] She will get that. I will get that answer for you. I I know. I looked at the list of vacancies today and I thought there was probably four positions currently posted that we may would use ESS for if that helps you. Yeah, actually some more. So
053that ends our report. All right. Thank you, Mr. Black. Thank you everybody. Uh that brings us to executive session. Um, I'll entertain a motion to go into exe to executive session for personnel, land, and legal. So, move second. Motion by M. Mr. Holsey, second by Miss Lee. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. And it's unanimous at 553. Second motion by Mr. Holsey to return to open session. Second by Mr. Madala. Any discussion on that? All in favor raise your hand. Turn to open session at 6:30. Uh entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move. Motion by Miss Sam, second by Miss Lee to adjourn the work session. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. And it's unanimous at 6:30 also. So, give me a second to catch my breath. Immediately following. So,
054I'll call to order the regular schedule meeting for uh the Glen County Board of Education for June 10th, 2025. Would we all please rise for the invocation and pledge of allegiance by Miss Sams? By Miss Sams. Okay. I thought you said Lee. That's why I was hesitating. All right. Um, we'll bow our heads first. Dear Lord, thank you as we come together this summer. We know that the kids, the students, the teachers are on break at this time, but we please wish that you watch over them. Bring them back to us safely in August. Everyone have a restful break. Lord, we pray that you're with us through our decisions, the the decisions that we're making for the next school year, that we always keep the children in in the forefront of all of those decisions.
055Thank you for all the blessings and all that you provide for our school system. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge 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, Miss Sams. This time it brings us to spotlight with Miss Doer. All right. Good evening everyone. Good evening. In May, three elementary schools were recognized in the 2024 single statewide accountability system for awards for academic excellence. Ogal Thorp Point Elementary earned platinum. Golden Niles Elementary earned gold and Greer Elementary earned silver in the greatest gains category for student progress. Oelp Point also achieved platinum status in the highest performing category, making them one of only 53 schools statewide to earn both honors. These
056awards developed by the governor's office of student achievement and approved by the state board of ed are based on a school's three-year CCRPI scores ranking at least in the 93rd percentile for content ma mastery or for progress uh score. Tonight we welcome point principal Mrs. Cox, career principal Mrs. Hunter, and Gold's assistant principles Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Heck. While Mrs. Renee could not be here tonight, she asked me share this. We are honored to receive this award which reflects the hard work of our entire school family. Golden Niles is truly a special place. Thank you for recognizing our effort and I look forward to building on the success at the county level in my next role. These achievements reflect the dedication of our educators, students, and families and we couldn't be prouder. Please join me
057in congratulating them on this honor. Did y'all have anything y'all would like to say? Yes. Speech. We would like to thank you guys for your support, the community and the board. And also we'd like to thank our parents for trusting us with their kiddos um and the teachers for all the work they did to make us look good, right? And our kids. But that's all I have for this evening. Awesome. Congratulations and thank you for all y'all do. Yes, y'all do an amazing job. Thank you. All right, that brings us to citizens address the board. Did we have anyone sign up? Would anyone like to address the board? And all right, if we don't have any, we'll move to approval of the agenda. I hear a motion to approve the agenda. Motion by Mr. Jackson.
058Second. Second by Mr. do it. Any discussion? All in favor in favor to approve the agenda, raise your hand and it's unanimous. The consent agenda. We just had a just had a work session, so we discussed most of these. Um I'm assuming now we would like to put these on the consent agenda. So, what I would like to do is add uh item seven, approval of the Mayboard meeting minutes. Item eight, personnel, which we just discussed. Item eight um 8A, personnel. 8B, field trips. 8 C1, the good report. 8 D1, approval of the April 2025 financials. Item 8 D3, approval of lighting for Glen County Stadium. Item 8 D4, approval of the GoG Guardian renewal. [Applause] Item 8 D5, approval of the computer surplus. Item 8 D6, approval of the infinite campus renewal. Item 8
059D7, approval of egeneuity renewal. Any additions or deletions? You can add policy. There's nothing. All right. And item E, the policy committee. I entertain a motion to approve to approve the consent agenda. So motion by Mr. Doden, second by Miss Lee. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. All right. And that brings us to the approval of the FY 2026 budget. Miss Cody gave a really detailed report on the budget. It's done a wonderful job uh throughout the year updating us on different changes. would you mind just hitting a few highlights for in you know the overall budget some of the mandated non-mandated U Sure. So um for the we'll start with the general fund budget. Um our uh estimated re revenues are $197,86,700. Um expenditures 97 million86,700 believe a general fund balance of
060$25.2 million. Um our mandated uh expenditure increases are uh $4,285,500 which is the increase in TRS and then the increase in state um certified classified health insurance. Our non-mandated expenditure increases are 8,60088 sorry $86,400. Um the increases are our salary steps for our certified and classified uh new positions, academic, athletic and lead supplements, uh increase in departmental budgets and our local salary and benefit increase. And then um we had decreases for um our rift positions and our uh operating transfers. Do you want me to do special revenue and I think we're good. Okay. I will entertain a a motion for to approve the FY 2026 budget. So move session. Motion by Mr. Hosley. Second by Mr. Jackson. Any discussion? Again, I'd like to thank school system, Miss Cody in particular, and her staff that with
061all the hard work and all of y'all for that matter, because everyone's been involved for uh the time and the process that uh it takes to approve such a a big ordeal. So, this is one of the things that we are we are mandated to do as a board. So, thank you. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. And it's unanimous. We just got out of executive session. I'm sorry. It brings us to item D8 or 8D. Uh approval of the RFP award for uh special ed pair pro services. Uh at this time, we're going to table that for our next meeting. And we just came out of executive session. So we won't I don't think we need to go back into it for any particular reason. We adjourn. No, we don't. I'll
062draw that motion before we adjourn, I would like to take a personal privilege moment to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to Miss Terry Miller. She's been with the school system [Applause] She's been with the school system 33 years and stopped me. I probably not going to get it correct, but teacher, assistant principal, principal, all the way now to assistant superintendent, and uh you've just done a wonderful job and affected multi-generations of students for our community. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you. It's been a wonderful ride. Met a lot of wonderful people, worked alongside the best in my book. Um, and also, um, it's been wonderful seeing the the lives that can be touched as far as our community members and students go. Thank you. All that while taking care of Craig. So, that's
063really a feat in of itself. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, move motion to by to adjurnn by Mr. Holsey. Second. Second by Mr. Dodin. Any discussion? All in favor, raise your hand. And we're journ at 6:41.