Muscogee County School Board Meeting, June 29, 2026

001Don't forget to put a finger in my eye. >> It's funny. She works that way. We'll see. Hey, >> you getting away anytime this summer? >> Uh, actually, yeah, next week we're going to stay down at >> Okay. take my computer and work remotely from down there. >> Good for you. >> Try to stay on top of things. It's not It's not really relaxing to go on vacation if you're sitting behind. >> That's I always take my computer with me. There's always something to be signed off on or whatever. I'll worry about it not getting done. session. The executive session help Okay. >> Yeah, volume was up. It was up almost all the way. >> How are you? >> We'll be right again. >> That's fine. See where where is it? Uh >> second. The

002front sheet is on the front box on the website. I don't you can I already mess audio. Got a minute. Tell me house is here too. >> That's four. Where's the And it's like that's for the first two hours and then it's like $300 an hour. >> This is just >> drives me crazy. >> Well, I'm going to do the >> Okay. Ask Karen a question. One more to walk in. >> One more to walk in. >> Good. I was just making sure I was looking at the agenda, right? I see the consent agenda. >> It is >> allough individual >> in Chicago. where they're going to go from that weather to what we're having today. It went from 77 high yesterday to 94 today. >> All of this. All right. >> All right. Perfect.

003>> It gets pretty hot in Chicago in the summer. >> Oh yeah. When I went there, I was there for four summers and it gets pretty sticky and they don't have a lot of air. You know, some place air conditioning category made the categories. Okay, perfect. All right. Thank you. No one's on the but now who knows about the village rate. I don't know. I can't tell who it might be on that. I don't haven't had anybody so far but one never knows. But I need to >> But I need to read. Is Janice coming down? >> I'm have to start hearing now. >> Karen's in. She's >> okay. Dennis was here. I'll call her. Hey, you go ahead. Welcome to the Muscogee County School District. Serving approximately 29,000 students across 56 schools and programs

004and supported by nearly 5,500 dedicated professionals, MCSD is committed to excellence in education. Our vision is to be a beacon of educational excellence where all are known, valued, and inspired. Our mission is to inspire and equip students to achieve unlimited potential. >> Together, we are building brighter futures for every student every day. >> We are the Muscogee County School District. Hello, my name is Timothy Henderson. Why did I become a bus driver? It was out of necessity. My son was approaching his freshman year at Columbus High School and the principal shared with us that we needed to bring our students for the first two weeks. However, it was more than six weeks. After that time I said you know instead of complaining instead of saying you know this stinks make a difference. So I went

005online filled out the application interviewed went through the training and for two and a half years I've been driving for the Musco County School District Transportation Department and it's been a joy. Coincidentally, I got my son's router also and I had to leave him one day because he was not on time. I believe in functionality. I believe in thoroughess in terms of being responsible and being a bus driver for me has been a real joy at this stage of my life. Army. Foreign Hello everyone. I am Edwina Harris and I have been driving school buses for 12 years. I started when my son was in kindergarten and my son is now approaching his senior year and I've been crying ever since. But as a bus driver and as a parent of a student that goes

006to the same school system that you drive for, it is such a great experience because you are able to get your kids to and from school. You're able to get other kids to and from school. And my why is because I'm there for my son and his friends. And it is a great joy to join the Muscogi County School District driving transportation department because we are a team of one and we make sure we get your school your students to and from school safe every day. So come join us and take the wheel for our future. Come join us and take the wheel for our future. Oh. Good evening and welcome to our regularly scheduled board meeting along with um the third and final hearing for our mill rate adoption and we will go to

007our inspiration >> and while hearing >> well it's it's a couple >> I will say u we can do our pledge of allegiance you ready >> okay Miss McCrae Um just something to think about today and that is to look for micro acts of joy. Said scientists found that doing even one small act of joy each day can boost your mood by over 25% each week. It's based on an analysis of surveys involving at least 11,000 people. According to the survey, anything from a gratitude list to doing something kind for others has a sizable impact on mood each week. As one researcher put it, it could lead to greater well-being, better coping, less stress, more satisfa, and more satisfaction with relationships. It's the little things. Thank you'all. >> Thank you so very much. And now,

008would you stand with us to recite the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I did you hear from Miss Tiller? >> I need a motion to excuse Miss Nikki Tillery. Motion by Dr. Chambers, second by Miss Fry. We'll take a hand vote. All in favor? All right. We have on the phone with us u Miss Marggo Sly and Miss Karen. >> Hello, Madam Chair. >> And how are you? >> Great, thanks. >> All right. And Karen Jones is also with us now. I need a motion to approve the agenda. Motion by Miss Buckner, second by Miss Jackson. Hand vote. All in favor Chan. All right. That's

009affirmative for you also, Miss L. >> Yes, it is. >> All right. Thank you. And now we will go into our third and final public hearing that is required. um the hearing on the FY27 general fund budget and the mill levy for calendar year 2027. Um and I will turn it over to our finance committee, Dr. Chambers. Okay. Thank you so much and welcome to the public hearing, the third and final public hearing for the mill rate and the um fiscal year 2027 um general fund budget. Um I will read this uh required document into the record and then if anyone would like to ask any questions or clarify any information, you are welcome to approach the podium. In accordance with Georgia law, Mscoi County School District will hold public hearings on the proposed fisc

010year 2027 budget and fisc year 2027 calendar year 2026 millage rate. All interested citizens have been invited to attend and the following sessions um at the public education center boardroom 2960 Mon Road, Columbus, Georgia. On Monday, June 15, 2026, we had a public hearing at 11 o'clock a.m. On that same date, June 15th, we had another public hearing at 5:00 p.m. And you are now in attendance of our third and final hearing. Um, Monday, June 29th, 2026 at 6 o'clock PM. The board will vote on the fiscal year 2027 budget and calendar year 2026 millage rate at the June 20 June 29th, 2026, 6 p.m. meeting at the same location. Mscogi County School District is proposing a millage rate of 23.075. This is unchanged from fiscal year 2026. I'll say that again. This rate is

011unchanged from fiscal year 2026. However, this rate is 0.467 mills above the roll back rate which is 22.608 which legally requires the district to announce a proposed tax increase. State law defines a tax increase as any revenue gained above the roll back rate even if the actual millage rate does not increase because it reflects increased property values rather than a change in the rate itself. This will result in a 2.07% property tax increase. Though homesteaded property owners whose values haven't increased will see no change in their tax bill due to their homestead exemption. The board has determined that this proposed meal rate is necessary to provide the resources needed to provide equitable opportunities for all students, ensuring that they have the tools, resources, and the learning environment necessary to reach their full potential. Highlights of

012the budget including $3.7 million increase in budgeted health insurance and in addition to the state funded 30 literacy coaches and $420,000 for the mental health expenditures. A copy of the budget along with the five-year tax digest and M levy history are available for public view on the district website and through the Mscot County School District Division of Financial Services. That concludes the um statement that has to be written into the record. Are there any questions or anyone that would like to approach the board at this time? Okay, I've asked once and I'll ask one more time. Is there anyone who has any questions or who would like to approach the board at this time? And for the third and final time, I'll ask or is there anyone that would like to address the board at

013this time? Okay, hearing none, that concludes our third and final public hearing on the mill rate and on our general fund budget. And I'll turn it back over to you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you so very much. Also, we have from our um tax assessor's office, Miss Widen House, if you would come and make your presentation as well. >> Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, board. Um, just wanted to let everyone know that the notices of assessment have hit the mail as of Friday, uh, the 26th. So, the appeal period has opened and everybody should be getting their notices any any time now. I'm sure people are actually getting them today. Um, but they were mailed on the 26th. The notice looks very very different this year. On the back of every notice

014is an explanation of the changes on the notice of assessment. Um, and my office is ready to help answer any of the questions. The notices will no longer have the estimate of taxes on the bottom of them that they've had in the past. This is a uh change that was put into place by the general assembly in House Bill 566. Um, this was not a a change that we implemented. it was implemented by the state. Um, what it does show is the uh estimated tax savings as a result of things like the homestead exemption or any special assessment that a property owner may have. Um, so if you need assistance calculating your uh estimated taxes, um there we have some online tools. the um the back of the notice of assessment has a QR code

015and some websites that can direct uh folks to some online tools, but they're also welcome to call our office and we'll help walk them through the process of estimating their taxes. Um and that's pretty much it. >> All right. Thank you. Are there any questions? Miss Free, >> if I reme remember correctly, you mentioned in previous meetings that the uh time period for homestead exemption filing has extended to the deadline for the appeals. Is that correct? >> That is correct. So, if you missed filing it earlier um and you were in your house by January 1st of this year, um you can still apply for Homestead for this year. you have until the end of the appeal period and that is in fact mentioned on the notice of assessment but thank you for reiterating that.

016That's a good point to get out. >> Absolutely. >> Are there any other questions? All right. Thank you so very much. We appreciate that. >> Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Right now, we will move into our our board meeting. And I do want to um welcome our visitors over the summer. We do have some administrators here. If you would just wave from school building administrators, if you're on the leadership team as well. Um want to say hello to you. And I know Allan is not here. Um Stacy was here from the library. All right. and Maryann Rner from the museum. No. All right. Outstanding. All right. So, we will start with our board recognitions, districtwide recognitions. We did have some kids come in over this for the

017summer. They took their time to come get recognized today. So, I want to start off by saying the Muscogi County School District proudly recognizes the outstanding student athletes who earned first and second place finishes at the GHSA 2A state track and field championship. Their dedication, perseverance, and commitment to excellence have brought pride to their schools and our community. We congratulate the student athletes from Columbus High School, Shaw High School, and Spencer High School for representing MCSD with distinction and demonstrating exceptional sportsmanship and competitive achievement at the state level. Please join us in celebrating these remarkable accomplishments and honoring these students for their hard work, determination, and success. WOOHOO! My name is Olivia Du Quattro. I'm a rising junior and I'm from CHS. Hi, I'm Kilby and I'm a rising senior and I'm also from CHS.

018I'm Elizabeth. I'm a rising junior and I'm from Columbus. >> I am Millis and Brooks Millander and I am the head coach. >> Namo Keys and I'm an assistant track coach. >> Casey Mills, assistant track coach for distance. >> I'm Jerome Wley, graduate from Shaw High School. >> I'm Brand I'm Brandon Lewis. I'm a graduate and I'm from Shaw High School. >> I'm Woodro Clay. I'm from Shaw High School and I'm in 11th grade. >> Am Nickerson, rising junior in Shai High School. >> Javvon Flein. I'm the head coach of Shaw High School track and field. >> Dan Miller, I'm the throws coach at Shaw High School. >> Randy Pringle, jumpers coach at Shaw High School. >> Quavius Gillum, hurdles and sprints coach at Shaw High School. Um, so didn't the Shaw girls, >> they're

019next. >> Oh, they're next. Okay, I'm jumping. Okay. >> Well, congratulations. Outstanding. We are very proud of you. Are are there by any chance any parents of high school students? >> That's awesome. They usually use lead the parents at home. That's great. ahead. >> What area um was it a group or were there individual? What event? >> Tell what place you were in the event if you wouldn't mind. Sorry. >> Go back to the microphone. >> The event and your place. Um, I came first in the 3200, second in the 4x8 and mile. >> Um, I came first in the 800 and second in the 4x800. >> I came second in the 4x800. >> Uh, we came first place in the 4x2 and fourth place in the 4x4. >> Okay. First place in the 4x2

020and fourth place in the 4x4. >> Okay. First place in the 4x2 and ninth place in the 100. >> First place in 4x2 and fourth place in 200. >> They also broke a state record in the 4x200 as well. >> Outstanding. Outstanding. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Good job. Good job. The Muscogi County School District proudly recognizes the Sha High School girls track and field for an outstanding achievement in capturing the GHSA 2A state championship. ship. Woohoo! OUTSTANDING. On May 14th in Athens, Georgia's the Lady Raiders earned the state title W with a team score of 96.33 points, demonstrating exceptional talent, determination, and teamwork throughout the season. This remarkable accomplishment marks Shaw High School's first team state championship since 2001. WOOHOO! We commend the student athletes and coaching staff for their hard work, dedication, and

021commitment to excellence. Congratulations again. >> Oh, my name is Payton Keeling and I'm a 2026 Shaw High graduate. My name is Kashai Waka and I'm a 2026 Shaw High graduate. >> My name is Ariana Riley and I'm a rising senior. >> My name is John Cara Davis and I'm a rising senior. >> My name is Aia Scott and I'm a rising senior. >> My name is Somaya Fields and I'm a rising 11th grader. My name is Michaela Bledson. I'm a rising junior. My name is Olivia Roland and I'm a rising junior. My name is Kayla Ray and I'm a rising sophomore. >> Again, Coach Fluan, Coach Gillum, Coach Pringle, and Coach Miller. Um, in this state championship group, uh, these girls also were runner-ups last year. Um, this group also has completely um, demolished and

022changed the Shaw High School's record books for track. Um, in this group we also have athlete that has received a full ride scholarship to Livingstone University. Um, Payton Kein. >> Um, and put together these young ladies have a combined 3.5 GPA. >> Outstanding. Are there any parents? Yay! Congratulations. Congratulations. Outstanding. Outstanding. Great job, ladies. >> Congratulations. >> See you next year. Do it again. Go do it again. Go do it again. Dr. Byebye. >> Oh, I'm sorry. The Mscoi County School District proudly recognizes the Columbus High School boys tennis team for an exceptional season culminating in the GHSA Class AA state runnerup finish. The Blue Devils completed the season with an impressive 155 record and earned the title of region champions, demonstrating outstanding skills, determination, and teamwork throughout the year. Individual honors were also awarded

023to several student athletes for their excellence on the court. Matt Dickinson and Jaden Shaw were named to the all Chattahuchi Valley first team while William Brown and James Jimmy Russell earned all Chattahuchi Valley second team honors. The team's accomplishment have brought great pride to Columbus High School and the Muscogi County um I mean Muscogi County School District. I forgot where I was. And the entire community. Congratulations guys. introduce yourself. >> Jaden Shaw, recently graduated senior. >> Audi Delana, rising junior. Jan Delana, rising junior. >> Uh, James Russell, rising sophomore. >> All right. >> And Will Gen, head coach. Are there any parents or supporters, y'all? Did y'all tell them? Okay. All right. Good job. >> Good job. Congratulations. >> That concludes our June board recognition. >> Miss Green. >> Yes. I do want to say

024that u it's commendable that these kids have graduated and still came back to honor their school and honor that district and I think that's very commendable and >> and their parents >> spirit. Yeah. With a good school spirit. >> Yeah. And their parents knew because you know high school will leave their parents out of it, >> right? >> Yeah. So that's very commendable. Good job. Proud of them. >> Yeah. >> All right. That concludes the district-wide rep recognition. So, we have a presentation. Oh, no, I'm sorry, public agenda. There are no um participants for our public agenda, but I will take this opportunity to say that all official meetings of the board shall be open to the press and the public. However, the board may meet in executive session. Speakers remark should be directed to

025the board and shall be limited to five minutes. Citizens are encouraged to address items on the board agenda or to initiate presentations of issues appropriate for schoolboard consideration. If an individual desires to speak, they may contact the superintendent's office to be placed on the agenda. The board meeting or work session is not the appropriate place to address either criticisms of particular employees or individual parent complaints. When such complaints have not been first addressed to the attention of the appropriate administrator for a resolution, citizens are encouraged to follow normal channels to address individual parent complaints or concerns. And um again, you just go apply through or request through the superintendent's office. And so now we will go to our presentation of custodial services for 2027. >> Yes, sir. >> Good evening. Dr. Travis Anderson, chief operations

026officer, and I'm here tonight to answer your questions about our analysis for in-house versus outsource custodial services and our proposal for fiscal year 2027. So when we look at custodial standards for the whole district, whether you are in-house or outsource, we are budgeted at APA level two. APA levels are fairly standard national standards across the district, across the board about custodial services as well as other facility things. What Apple level two stands for is considered orderly tidiness. Ordinary tightness. And so it's um a really described definition that our in-house custodians as well as our outsource custodians have to follow in order to make sure they're meeting our standards. The standards are based upon our frequency expectations as well as our inspections. That's how we monitor and inspect what we expect. You should receive this information

027in detail in your email so you can see the exact frequency chart as well as what we are expected and inspecting them on. So we inspect all those areas. They have areas that they are supposed to address the type of task associated with each area. And then there's a frequency that talks about how many when they're supposed to do different things in those areas. And again this is for outsource and in-house custo. This is just a snapshot of what the frequency chart looks like. It is a very long document, but this is just a small snapshot of one particular area in a school and how frequently they're supposed to do various tasks. Whether you are in-house or outsource conal services, we inspect the very same areas that are outlined in the frequency chart and the

028ratings can either be failed to meet expectations, needs improvement, meets expectations, or exceeds expectations. If they are an in-house custodial service program, it is the principal's responsibility to make sure the custod team is meeting those expectations. If it's an outsourced custodal team, then we work with the vendor directly plant services in order to make sure they're meeting those expectations and to develop the corrective action plans if they are not meeting expectations during the inspection. For fiscal year 26, we had 29 outsourced schools and 25 in-house schools. So we're little more than 50% of our schools are outsourced for fiscal year 26. Primarily most of our elementary schools are the ones that are outsourced for fiscal year 26. So when we look to prepare for a new fiscal year for fiscal year 27, we always weigh

029the same options. Is it better for us to do in-house cons outsource or should we add additional schools to our outsource? So those are three options that we go through every year for fiscal year 27. Of course, we started with where we are for fiscal year 26. When we do this analysis, there's some frequently used terms that you'll see as I go through the presentation. Cost avoidance, which is a big thing. We want to make sure that we are proactively avoiding potential costs. We also want to identify what our direct costs are, our indirect costs, and the most opportunity costs. Lots of things are not done because we're doing some administrative task. So, we want to make sure that we're giving the staff members who are able to do other things to focus on other

030things. So, we take all those costs in consideration when assessing whether or not we should do in-house or outsource custodial services. The thing to keep in mind is that there's a full cost to custodial services, not just the cost of wages compared to the contract cost for our outsource vendors. This the costs fall into several categories. Wages, which is a direct cost, benefits, burden. When we think of burden, we think about all the things that we have to pay above and beyond the wages for the staff member just because we have them on staff. our supplies, equipment replacement costs, and our temp services. Temp services are used when custodians don't show up to work. We have to have a sub essentially and we use temp services to serve as those subs. Some of the indirect

031costs for managing the consoto service department are all of our administrative costs which are shared between the supervisors, our principles as well as HR and our finance department. And then of course our outsource costs are our primary direct costs, the things that we cannot predict workers comp. We can have a year in which there are no injuries. We can have a year in which there are lots of injuries. So our workers comp cost is always a flexible thing that we are not able to accurately predict because we don't know what will or won't happen. So it's something we have to take in consideration. It is our wild card. The fewer number of custodians that we have on staff, the less likely we are to have workers comp issues. The more custodians, the more likely we

032are. So those are our expense categories. When you look at the totality of a custodial program, when we start to assess whether or not we should make a change, we take some general assumptions into consideration. The first one is that we assume we're not going to give raises. The next one is that we assume our vacancy rate will and turnover rate will remain the same this year for our in-house custodial services. That was about 21% turnover rate throughout the course of the year. That's significant amount of staff members that are being interviewed, hired, and going through that process for the principles. Equipment replacement costs we assume will remain the same and we're assuming that our benefits will be about the same. We currently have about 65% of our league custodians take benefits and then 33%

033of our regular custodians. So those are assumptions that we keep in place in order to do the calculations. For fiscal year 26 with our in-house and outsource custod services, our total cost, direct cost was about $10 million, $10.5 million for custo services, both in-house and outsource combined. Option one, in-house custo. With every option, there will be challenges. With this option, for the first year, we'd have the initial cost to do the equipment for the 29 schools that we currently do not service. Many of them we have not serviced in-house in years. So, we don't own any equipment for those schools. We'd have to buy that equipment to start them. And then we'd have 143 vacancies that we'd have to fill. We'd have the administrative burden, and of course, at that point, we'd have 277 worker

034comps, custodians on staff that we'd have to worry about for workers comp. You'll notice that for the first year there is a significant increase in the cost for option one. It would not be an ongoing annual cost because that is just the initial equipment cost for the first year. With those challenges come cost, direct costs, indirect costs, 143 staff members that we'd have to try to find. 277 would be our focus for workers comp. And again, that's the wow card. the opportunity cost there for both our principles who are managing that process and HR as well as our finance department to take on that additional administrative burden. When we look at option one and we make the assumption to just one change in the assumptions and that is if every person took benefits at 100%

035of our custodial population if every one of them took benefits that would be worst case scenario but that is a fluctuating number. We don't know what it would be. We see what the increase would be. it would go to $15 million if that were to happen. That is not something that we can plan for. We don't know who will and won't take benefits. We can estimate based upon historical practices, but that could very well change. That is an unknown variable of $3.8 million. It could fluctuate anywhere between that. Our historical low and the projection high if everybody took it. We don't ever project that all custodians would take benefits, but we have to be prepared for anything in between if it increases at all. Option two, if we maintain our current fiscal year outsource levels,

036the budget would be 11. One second. >> Sorry, my mouth is a little dry. >> Bottle water right there. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Option two, if we maintain our current levels, the budget would go to $11 million. a little more than $1 million. Of course, with that option, there are challenges. It does not address the principal's request. Principles have requested, some principles, not all to be fair, not all principles have requested. Some principles are requesting to go outsource because they do not want to deal with the challenges of managing in-house custodial services. And so, there are principles who have made those requests. And if we go with this option, we would not be able to address their request. Our workers comp would still be at 134, which is lower than having all

037of them. But we still have that burden and that wow card. And then of course we have the administrative costs. So we have direct costs, indirect costs and opportunity costs with those challenges. If we were to make that one change in the assumption that 100% of the staff members took benefits, we see the increase significantly for our budget primarily with the benefits and the burden. That's where we'd see that increase. Again, that is an unknown variable that we are not able to predict but have to be prepared for. And in option two, that would be 1.8 million. Option three, if we outsource additional schools, what we are proposing for option three to outsource additional schools are Blackman Road, East Columbus, Gentin, and Jordan. Two of those are at principal's request. Option three with the basic

038general assumptions is $11 million. We still of course have challenges. No option is free of challenges. We have the workers the workers comp flex card, but that number is going down. That variable number is going down. And we still have the administrative costs and the opportunity cost for 108 custodians that we have on staff. If we were to assume that 100% of the staff members took bon took benefits, it would go up to 13 million. So it's a $2.1 million unknown variable. When we look at the options, options one, two, and three, option one is the most expensive. Option two does not take o advantage of the opportunity cost and know cost avoidance. We miss those opportunities. And then option three is the least expensive. When you look at them, you see there are certain

039areas in which we have outlined what our cost avoidance are primarily in benefits and burden and then supplies and equipment. That's where we have the opportunity to avoid some costs. You'll notice with all of the options, as the outsource number goes up, the other numbers go down, but the total number decreases as well. So even though the outsource contract value is going up, all of the other numbers are going down which causes the total number to go down. So option three is the least expensive and you can see the difference between the two options which leads us to our recommendation of option three which is what is currently listed in the budget as well as the contracts that are listed to be approved. Any questions? >> Yes, we have questions. And what I see is

040all of the options are over $11 million. And I um would think that considering either way we're over out of $11 million over $11 million that the schools who want the outsourced ought to ought to be given the outsource and the schools who want their Mr. Johnny's in the building should have their Mr. Johnny's in the building. Um because I I was expecting to see um significant difference. Um but I I don't I don't see that. And so I just and the the industry standard that we are contracting with these outsourced um people. I don't accept that they can have up to two days of dust um on the floors or in the corners. And I think that we ought to have uh MCSD standard um instead of going by the industry standard. There needs

041to be um uh there are just some things we should not accept when you were talking about uh custodial service and we're spending over $11 million for any of the options. I I just want I just want uh I just want to talk about that further. Not tonight, but I want to talk about that further. So the APA standards which speak to ordinary tidiness and the two days worth of dust and that those types of things that is based upon square footage and how many staff members should be available to clean that square footage. The higher you go up in the Apple standard so if you go to Apple level one the expectation is that you have more staff members and so then in order to budget at Apple level one we would have to

042whether it's outsourced or in-house because they're all managed and judged at the same level. we would have to increase the budget in order to get to the higher level which is Apple level one. There is a higher level than level two but that is more cost because you'd have to increase your staff in order to maintain that expectation. So whether it was in-house or outsource if we did Apple level one across the board our cost would go up. >> I understand that it's going to cost more. I'm talking about having a standard um of of of exceptional cleanliness. That's what I'm talking about. having a standard that is not at the industry we can clean every other day that I don't I don't I don't have any appreciation that we are contracting for that minimum

043standard and and now now I understand why um I can see the difference in the buildings that have the contracted um custodians versus the ones who have and and I'm not saying all the custodians are are top tier, but there are some who have um school pride um and work ethics that have extremely high standards and pride in the work that they do in the schools, which is why we can see why they are so clean, just pretty much spotless. So, >> I'm not exactly sure who was first. So, we'll just start on one end and come all the way down on the other end. Yes. >> What we see across the district is again in-house and outsource they're budgeted at the same amount Apple level two. They're held to that standard. They follow the

044same expect the frequency chart as well as the inspection whether you're in-house or outsource. What we see historically throughout the district is that our outsource custodial schools are outperforming on the inspections than our in-house custodial schools. We ended this year with a significantly higher percentage of student of schools that were not meeting expectations that were in-house schools than outsource. Our outsource vendors are doing a better job than our in-house because it'll >> so the data shows that the outsource is doing far better job. >> Yes. And those details were provided for you and even along with the frequency chart as well as the um inspection reports. >> That is a change and that's good to hear because at one time we were getting um bad reports on the outsource. So I'm glad to hear that

045that has shifted. I do have a few questions and I want to I'm going to ask them all at one time and if you need me to repeat them that would be um okay. Um one I want to know about the hours of the custodial staff for elementary school. I want to know if that's different. I just know that sometimes with elementary schools there are a lot more accidents during the day and so I want to know if the hours are the same. And then if you can provide some type of insight on the reason that only 33% of the regular custodians are taking benefits but 65% of the lead custodians are taking benefits. I don't know if there's a pay a huge pay difference between the two or if you guys have looked at

046that, but I would be interested to know if there is a reason why 33% is really low. And I do understand healthcare cost. Um I thought I heard you say the principles were interviewing for custodial positions. That that gives me concern. Um and then who is the custodial company that companies that we are using and where are they based and if I am a principal and there is an issue with a custodian and it's a contracted custodian what's the chain of commands for me to get that corrected if I am if we're not employing them how do we oversee and hold accountable And so that's just a couple of questions I had. >> Awesome. The first one is about your hours for custodial workers. We do not dictate to the contractors when the custodians have

047to work. We set expectations that there has to be someone there to open the building. Has to be someone there to close the building. Has to be someone there in order to maintain the standards from the day. They develop their own schedule. If they are not meeting expectations with the schedule they develop, then we will work with them to develop a schedule that makes sense. And so it fluctuates per school. it fluctuates per grade level as well. So, as you said, um an elementary might need a different level of service in the middle of the day than a high school. And so, the custodial companies are able to develop that on their own. And if we don't see that it's working, we'll have them change it. For in-house custodial services, it is up to the

048principal. If we see a pattern that the school is not able to meet expectations, then we will work with the principal to develop a schedule that's more likely to meet expectations. For example, there's some schools that had all their custodians scheduled during the day. Well, it's very difficult to clean the whole building if the custodians leave 30 minutes after the students leave. And so, we help those principles develop schedules that made a little more sense to get their building clean. And so, it's either up to the vendor with our approval based upon their performance or up to the principal with our review based upon the performance. The next one was about why Lee custodians take benefits over regular custodians. There's significant difference in their pay. And the other part would be that our um Lee

049custodians are more career oriented. They've been with us for a very long time. So when I talked about that 21% turnover, that's not with the lead custodians. Those are regular custodians. So they're a little more transient in their positions and less likely to take benefits. Um principal interviewing. Yes. So principles are responsible for supervising those staff members. We have partnered when I say we plant services and custo to take some of that burden away from principles. Many principles choose not to allow us to interview. They still want to be the person interviewing their custodians. And so we will represent them at job fairs. We will interview. We'll screen and we'll say we got a perfect candidate for you. And their response is but I didn't interview them. And so they want to interview. Many of

050them want to interview their custodians themselves. So that's what they choose to do. But if they don't, we are more than what we are happy to take that on for them. The next one is if a principal has issues with a contracted custodian, they have the ability to reach out. Even with contract custodians, there's a lead custodian in the building as well as leadership structure for that vendor and the principal can reach out directly to that person or they can reach out to plant services and we can handle it for them. And then of course if it's in-house the principal is the contact because they supervise and if they need assistance they can reach out to us to provide additional training and support with them but they supervise those staff members. So they're responsible for

051that performance management. I I keep hearing that or or thinking through as as you're talking that having the the outsourcing can lead to greater efficiencies, much more streamlined, and let letting those in the building focus on our core product or our core uh goals, which is educating our students. So, I'm just throwing that out there. Uh letting letting everyone do what they're really well really good at. um may may and it's good to hear that we're we have see good success with with the contractors. >> Um it she can go first. It don't matter. >> You go. >> When you're hiring these folks, how many people are when we hire their local people? When they hire, are they are they local folks or are they ordering from out of town? Are they hiring from out

052of town folks? Because I think supporting Columbus, Georgia with our public needs the first choice of a job if they're qualified for it. But if they're not, but if another one's bringing them in from Lraange or Phoenix City, and I'm using these examples here, but I much rather the employees be Columbusbound people than I would out of town just because we're we are Columbus. Excellent question. And Dr. Chambers, I forgot one of your questions. The companies that we have, our outsource companies are ABM, Paramount. Those are our two. And if we were to get approved for another vendor, which is on the budget for tonight, it would be Elite. Parammont and Elite are two local companies to smaller local companies. ABM is a large national company with a large footprint. Um, what we see is

053that many of our current custodians when we transition from in-house to outsource at their school, they're given the option to either stay at their school with the contractor and they'll stay or they can go to another district site. But just like with any of our lower paid positions, those staff members, whether it's a contractor or in-house person hiring, they're hiring directly for the the district, they're local for the most part. The pay is not to the point in which they're going to attract people to travel from outside of the area in order to take those jobs. So, for the most part, they're local to our community. Um, and when you see them, they whether they're contracted or not, I go and I see them. I their students are in our school district, their family, they're

054part of our community for the most part. >> That's very important. Also, when you're talking about the the principles, you said some don't like it or some don't. I've got one that spoke to me very highly about it. Um, what is your base as far as how many principles like it and how many principles would rather stick with the insource compared to outsource? What are we looking is it 50/50? It's you know what type of numbers are we looking at as far as principles? I put a lot of shoulders on the principles and if they they like having their own employees I think that's very important right there if they don't if it's the other way I think that's you know we need to know both ways right there what what do the principles feel

055like so I don't have those numbers many of our schools especially the elementary level have been outsourced for a very long time so those principles don't know anything else um but we can certainly get those numbers for you at the high school level most high schools are in-house and that is not some if it's an outsourced high school it was at the principal's request so Dorfside requested to go outsource. Hardway requested to go outsourced and Jurn is a new one that's requested to go outsource. All other high schools are in-house. Is that accurate? >> Or is that accurate? >> Carver. Carver is another one. I'm sorry. Thank you. I thought I was missing one. So if it's if it's a high school and it's outsourced is at the principal's request. Um we have a middle

056school that's outsourced again at the principal's request. For the most part, the elementaryaries have been outsourced for some time and those are the ones that they many of those principles don't know any difference. But we can certainly find out for you what their preference is. What I have heard anecdotally, there are principles who want who have outsourced and want in-house and they've gone from one to the other, but their in-house custodians weren't performing well. They like the idea of being able to supervise directly and be able to control what the custodians do, but they don't get better results. >> All these high schools are, how long have they been outsourced? what you're looking at. Are they on two, three, four years or first year doing this? >> Northside would be the one that's been out.

057I'm going to start making up stuff if I don't call in the experts. Ward, come help me with this. >> Uh, North Side is the longest one that was outsourced high school. Um, Carver, this is will be year two for them. And of course, Jordan will be um approved, you know, with approved. They'll be going out this year, first year. Ward, how long is North Side? >> Hardway was is they're on their third year at Hardway. >> And how long's Northside been doing it now? >> About five years. Okay. Thank you, sir. >> Better be, Madam Chair, for me. >> Um I was s wondering as as you um explain the u all the cost involved. So, um, you also showed us a sample sheet of, um, all the various items and and the ratings.

058Um, so I'd like to know, um, let's say if there we showed a sample sheet, not the whole sheet. You said there were a lot of items on there. So, let's say there are 100 items and let's say how you rated um, there were three options, meat, not meat, and need improvement. Um so mech means maybe 75% um appro um 75% okay with of items or 50% what does meat mean and what does not meat mean and what does uh need improvement mean also um I know it sounds like um I hope we're not just leaning or preferencing um outsourcing because it's more it's uh more cost effective. Um as Mrs. Green said, you know, it's often times we need to consider not just cost effectiveness but also uh if the buildings are um are

059being cleaned as Mrs. U. Chambers indicated and which I thought would continue to happen and uh actually nobody's talked to me about um about the um custodial at one time they did. They all all talked about how they like the the um our employees because I always thought that um the difference between the outsourcing the custodial custodial staff and the uh having our own employees. What's the difference between people who own houses and people who rent it? When people who own houses, they invest in the house in a neighborhood. people who rent, they're temporary, they're transient. And the custodials, custodians that I do know, they love their schools. They wear their school shirts. They participate in the games. They even some go to the games. They are involved in the community, in the school community.

060And um so often times when you're involved in your school com uh school communities, you invest more you invest more in in making sure that your school is clean and you often have that pride. So, I like to know how they're rated because to see um in my own mind, you know, when how how they're rated like 50%, you know, how how do you define meat? How do you define not meeting? >> So, in your email, you see a you see a copy of what the inspection form looks like. meets expectation means that it is meeting as described on the frequency chart and as described by Apple level two standards. And so when they go to inspect, they're expecting that horizontal and vertical surfaces are clean, the trash has been taken out, the restrooms are

061clean. It's a lot of detail about what needs to happen in the restroom, floors are clean, the fixtures are clean, the um it doesn't it doesn't have a smell in the restrooms, and then the offices and it talks about all those different things on the frequency chart. That's what they are meeting expectations is that you have done those things. >> Everything must be met. >> That's correct. >> Okay. So that's what I'm so uh so not meet means everything is not met. >> That's correct. >> Everything is not met. >> And then they have to have a they have to have an improvement plan put in place because they're not meeting expectations. >> We have schools where everything is not met. >> I'm sorry. >> We have schools where everything is not met. >> Where

062every single thing is not met. No, I don't I wouldn't say there's a thing where everything is not met. >> Okay. That's what I'm asking. So, so what does need improvement means? Half of um not met means half of the things on the uh ratings are not met. >> And who does the rating too? Also, >> the ratings are done by three building inspectors and plant services. Needs improvement means that you did not meet expectations in all categories and so you need to work on improving one category. In order to meet expectations, you have to meet expectations in all the categories. If you're not meeting >> all in all categories or else so in a category, how many items are in a category? Do you all the items in a category? >> Yes. >> All

063the items in a category. Okay. That's what uh So what's the difference between according to what you're saying now? What's the difference between not meeting and and needs improvement? Because it sounds like the same according to what you're saying. But I'm not going to even deal with that. I I'm just trying to make sure that um the ratings are I'm making sure I just want to make sure that when we are rating we're not rating with the thought in mind that we're saving money based on money monies being saved if they were outsourced. That's what I'm saying. >> No. So in-house and outsource custodians are rated the same using the same criteria. And so the three building inspectors who are making those decisions are also not involved in the budgeting process. So they're not thinking

064of it from a budgeting standpoint. They're thinking of it from a expectation standpoint. >> Who are the three people? >> There are three building inspectors who work in plant services. >> Okay. Well, these building inspectors that I'm talking about. >> Okay. So we have three building inspectors. Um, you know, I I know they're not involved in the but they do know that money is being saved if they uh from outsourcing. I mean, I'm just trying to make sure that they are not going to the ratings knowing that out uh being out outsourcing is cheaper. That's all. >> Okay. >> And I know you said that they're not involved in the rating. They may not be involved in the radio, but they they they do know certain things about about the rating that and as you

065have explained to us tonight, it's it's cost effective to outsource. >> It is more I know you you said that. No, I didn't. No, it's about the same amount of money to outsource as it is to do in-house. There's a very small difference. The difference is the opportunity cost for HR, finance, and for our principles. The difference is the cost avoidance of having to replace equipment every so often. $10,000 per piece of equipment. When that goes down, that's our responsibility. When it needs to be repaired, that's our responsibility. When someone doesn't show up, >> it is it is slightly more cost effective. >> All things being considered, all things being considered, >> I know. All things being considered, it is more cost effective to outsource than to have our own employees. >> Not really. >>

066All the things you said. >> Yes. >> All the things. See, I moved it on all together. It is more cost effective to outsource than to >> uh use our own employees. as it relates to direct cost there is a marginal difference that is beneficial to have outsourced custodians. Of course it is because when you consider you know all things being considered if you consider just one factor now you you did indicate that you don't know how many people will take our our benefits but when you consider the cost of health insurance those people who are taking health insurance and you know how much that costs that is an overwhelming cost expense. So our employees have the opportunity to take our benefits. Our benefits are we have lots of benefits. It's a benefit to work

067for the Muscogi County School District. Not just in terms of the wage. You explain the wages and the benefits. So even when you consider those to me, we know just from that aspect, it is more cost effective to outsource. As a matter of fact, most of the times when we outsource anything, we are outsourcing because they take on the responsibility of finding those employees. But we also in general most people take it on to save money. Generally, it saves when you're outsourcing money is being saved because >> people to your point um >> I just want to make sure that they're not tackling that thing just because we're saving money. That's the only thing, >> right? To your point. Yes. Um based on the information that has been presented, outsourcing does present a savings particularly

068in the area of the cost avoidance issues like workers the workers compensation um and which which is which is going to always be an unknown >> and benefits >> and and the benefits which is always going to be um an unknown. You're right, you know, and that that's why I was saying that the schools who are not having the experience that your data is showing with outsourcing, if they want to have their um in-house custodians, I think they should because when we're looking at the cost, uh we're still paying over over $11 million. So, we're going to go to Miss McCrae and >> there were some questions that Miss Buckn asked that I did not answer. >> Oh, I'm sorry. go ahead and answer the question. Um, so there was a question about the vacancies.

069What we see with our in-house vacancies and and the uh commitment >> I do want to know the answer >> the commitment for custodians being committed to their school and when it's in-house the perception that custodians are committed to their school. I think that what we have seen since COVID with our vacancy rate across the board, whether it's bus drivers, school nutrition, teachers, what we've seen with that is that we no longer have custodial teams, whether they're in-house or outsource that are dedicated to that school and their long term. We have had points in the year in which there have been a whole slew of custodial vacancies at one school and they're only supported by temporary workers. They're in house in-house school, not outsourced, but this principal has nobody on staff and we have to

070use temps to service that school. That happens a lot. So gone are the days in which you have a custodial team in which you have 10 or 15 people who've been there for 15 or 20 years. We don't have that anymore. And so our vacancy rate at 21% is significant and sometimes it hits schools harder than others. There's several schools throughout the year that had no custodians. They were in-house, no custodians, nothing but tent workers. And that's far worse than outsourced because even though they're outsourced, they're still assigned to that school and they come to that school every single day, they wear the school t-shirts, they are part of the family, they just don't get paid by MSO County School District. Temp workers, which is what we have to do when an in-house school doesn't

071have anybody to come to work, those temp workers, those are the ones that are just showing up and we don't know who they are because they show they go through a background check process and all of that, but they show up because nobody came to work that day. And so we're using a temp service and that happens with in-house, not with outsource. >> All right, Miss McCrae. >> Yeah. >> First, you know, some of this started because in our budget it looked like we were trading $660,000 for 1.7 million for these custodial services, which is a significant difference. Um, you know, my concern, and I know I keep harping on it about third parties, is every time we do this, and it looks like we're moving to all of them being outsourced at the rate

072we're going, we're becoming more and more dependent on them. So, when they do go up in price, when the contracts get higher, we can't do what you said, which you because you illustrated it to go back to 100% in-house would be very expensive from all the upstart things. So the more and more we go down this route, the more and more we are dependent on people outside of our realm to take care of our needs and as to what they'll charge us to do. So that's, you know, one of my biggest things. I I I like to keep our stuff in house. I like to keep it with our people. I like to know more about who's in our buildings. And we have more chance to better we have a better chance to pay our

073people better if if we are not having to pay all these third party expenses. I don't feel like it's total apples to apples because as you mentioned the hours we're probably getting from these outsource comm um outsources are not the same as what we're getting from our in-house. And if we have to go up on the hours that we need from the outsource that's additional money, right? I assume we're paying them. No, we don't pay by the hour. We pay by the expectation. So, they are expected to meet the same expectations in the frequency chart. If our principles schedule their staff members to work 40 hours a week and they have four staff members in order to meet the frequency chart and the expectations, but if the vendor, for whatever reason, if they're able to

074schedule their staff members at 30 hours a week and meet the expectations, that's not for us to decide. as long as they're meeting the expectations. What we see across the board, whether it's in-house or outsource, they're working the same number of hours because it's the same work that's being done. But it's not for us to tell the vendor how many hours they have to work, which also works in our favor because if there's a school, some of our schools are challenging. Our brand new schools are easy to clean. We build them with that in mind. Some of our older schools are harder to clean. And so the outsourced schools at a harder elementary school, a multi-building campus, a campus that's not very accessible, that has old custodial closets and old flooring, it's harder to clean

075those schools. That's their responsibility. That's their overtime, not ours. Because we're not dictating how many hours they're work. We're dictating what they do. They decide how they accomplish it. >> Again, I'm very concerned about the dependency issue. I also don't like the idea that we're doing it for principles that we're not asking for it. If they were happy with their current service, I don't know why we want to make this change. So I can address that if they have not if they have not requested if the existing principal has not requested to go outsource the only time that we go outsource would be when there's a principal change. So if you notice those are princip those are new principles and so those are the ones that go outsource the new principles and so they haven't

076had a chance to be in the building for years and to establish it. It's the new principles when there's a change is when we go outsource unless a principal requested. So that's how you get those. >> The trend seems to be that we're trying to outsource everybody, but I will let everybody else finish. >> Is our goal to outsource? Is that our goal? >> Our goal is not necessarily to outsource all schools. Our goal is to be good steward of taxpayer dollars to make sure that we are meeting the standards that we need to meet across the district and to allow our principles to focus on what they need to focus on which is instruction. >> Okay. So that so once again is our goal to outsource >> our goal. We don't have a goal

077to do 100% outsourcing. Thank you so much, Dr. Anderson. I want to ask just a follow-up question about cost. Um, are we just for clarification, are we competitively bidding? We're putting out an RFP competitively bidding and we're rating each one of these vendors pay based on cost and their past performance. What are we looking at? So we are using a state competitive bid. So they have already gone through a state competitive bid process. Okay. >> To include our local vendors. They've already gone through that process. And so we are able to compare what their services are. Um we are able to identify what their past performances. Many of them we've already worked with in some capacity. They might have done small contract work for us. That's the not when I say many our two smaller

078companies that we're bringing on outside of ABM which has a large national footprint. They've already done work for us in the past. So we know their work and we are intentional about trying to identify those smaller companies because we see that they do a better job when they are able to have five or six schools as opposed to 22 schools. And so we want to have more and more of those smaller local vendors that are established in our community. Not only are they hiring from our community, but they are based in our community. >> Okay, that sounds good. And they are charging us based off of the square footage of the building. Correct. >> That is correct. They charge off a square footage, not hours. >> Okay, perfect. Sounds good. Thank you. >> Anything else?

079>> All right, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right, board. We're moving into our action uh agenda. Item number one is the general fund FY27 budget. Motion by Dr. Chamber, second by Miss Frey, question Miss McCrae. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I I am grateful for all the information that's been provided for us. I'm still trying to kind of get my head around the deficit and the pattern. I don't know what's happening. Sorry. >> Go ahead. You're on the phone. So to backtrack and make sure I have things right, in FY 2025, we had additional funds at the end of the year that we then used for stipens that year. Correct. >> Microphone. >> Right. But that was money that we had left over from FY25. I mean, I know leftover is

080a loose term, but yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So when we look at our FY26 deficit, does that include the money that we paid out for those stipens? >> Yes. >> And so what was and what are we projecting as our total gap for >> for 27? It's about >> 2026. Sorry. >> Oh, for 2026 about 21 million. >> Okay. And how much were the stipens? um just under 10 under I know the one was seven and I don't remember the other one off the top of my head because it was a combined >> um okay so taking out that our gap for 2026 seems to have been around 14 million right >> okay so again we're looking at a gap this year for 13 million so we haven't really closed it any and we

081got about what 20 or $25 million more dollars this year expected for FY27. >> There was more add there were additional funds. Yes. >> And how remind me again that number. >> It was either 20 or 25 which is significant. I just can't remember. >> Okay. Either one. >> Sorry. >> Either one. You know, we had substantial more revenue, but yet we continue to have a lot of expenses that we're not closing the gap. We are now down to getting I mean at the end of FY27 we are projected now to get pretty close to what we're supposed to have which is 60 days. And I harp on it a lot. I've always harped on it a lot. That concerns me and I get and I've tried to look at the things. I can't tell

082you what to do differently. I don't think we're supposed to really do that. It's hard for us to get in the weeds that much. But as a board member, I can't continue passing budgets that I think are headed in the wrong way. I have done it in the past because at least in there somewhere somebody was getting some really good, you know, raises or money, but in this one there's not really that. It's just kind of doing business as usual, but somehow more much more expensive. So, all that to say, I can't vote for this, but I'm explaining why and then we can move on. >> I just want to share this sentiment. I am going to vote for this budget because we have business to take care of. But I do want to say

083that I am concerned with um continuing to pull so much money from the fund balance. But I do understand or let me not say I do understand clarify for me the increase in health care costs, the increase in other cost for for the district and how that's affecting the budget and why we're having to pull um more money out of the fund balance. >> Do you want that right? You want me to comment right now or just get that for you? Um, I want you to give me like a summary. I don't expect like line item by line at them, but because we are pulling that amount of money out of fund balance, if we're not adding a new program, if we're not um increasing student headcount, which we are not, um there is a

084reason that the budget is going up. I'm I don't want to assume, but in the back of my h my mind, I'm looking at the increase in health care costs. The state keeps going up on what they charge us to cover benefits for our people. Since 85% of our budget is employees, in the back of my mind, I'm assuming that the budget is going up because we have to pay our people. We have to make sure their health care is covered and things of that nature. But I want to hear from the CFO. What do you think is a summary of why the budget is going up and we're having to pull the 21 million out of the fund balance? >> Well, um, a lot of it there's a couple different things. Um, there are

085additional funds that we were getting from the the state um that you know, yes, they funded us 30 um, literacy coaches, but they didn't fund us all 30 all of the funds for that. So, that you know, that's part of it. um the health insurance the TRS increases continue to go up. Uh in addition to that um there like you were saying just the um general cost of things is more and um that different things that um we've had the outsourcing of the um uh special ed positions that um those are those are not an area that is probably where they're costing us less money. There are um places just with the the transportation, the uh the athletic transportation that that is increased this year uh due to um just the um some of it

086changing of the um the zones. Some of that has to do with the um the fact that we don't have the bus drivers now. So, we're having to out we're having to outsource that um transportation. Uh you know, we are putting some things into the schools with some um new programs that um to uh to help with the achievement. >> Okay. >> Um thank you for giving me the summary. I know I told you a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to check out a MCSD computer so I could get all the finance stuff down on that computer. I still will be at your office to do that because as finance chair I think that it's important that I understand the numbers. Um the other thing is and I'm just saying this for the

087record. I want to figure out a way and I know we're doing a comp study. want to figure out a way to give teacher raises. I do understand that we're already using a lot of fund balance, but is there some room in the budget? And I'm not asking for an answer. This is just a hypothetical question. Um, if there were room in the budget where there are some programs or something we're outsourcing that could be cut so that we could provide more wages for our teachers in that supplemental line. >> You mean a supplement, not a raise? >> Supplemental line. Yes. It ends up being more money in their pocket. So, it's a raise. Um, that is what I would like to see. I think Miss McCrae and I both have asked for that and

088I haven't seen the results of the study, but I'm assuming that because we approved it in the budget, it's coming to us pretty soon, right, >> Miss Buckner? Um I'm sure that um for every board member here, every board member is concerned with being um fiscally responsible um and being attentive to the budget and um I think for the last um particularly in the last few months that had that has really captured our attention and Um also during uh when the ESSA funds were in 2025 at that point we also that was also a moment to capture attention about um things we have added you know and uh some we were trying to maintain and some had to be eliminated. So, um as uh I think and our uh we have been trying to um

089at that point at this point we have been trying to uh deal with um the budget and make sure in certain ways that we are uh trying to capture our 60 days again and I think we have been working toward that. So what do we see going forward? We we are at a point right now. What do we see going forward maybe in? So one of the things we are doing as a cabinet and this will be something you'll get a chance to weigh in on uh we are evaluating and costing out every single program we have in the district. Uh that's going to take some time for us to do that just so you can all have and then we'll bring recommendations as to what uh you we think you should consider cutting going

090forward. Um clearly there's either reduction in cost or increase in revenue and both of those are hard to predict from one year to the next. Health care we do know that's going to continue to go up pretty much guaranteed. We just don't know how much that'll be. Um, so we're looking at all these programs and we're costing each one of those out. Then we'll bring recommendations, but you'll see the whole list and you can make suggestions or revisions to that or whatever. Uh, because again, we get to the point where we're talking about programs and people and programs are people. And so just want to make sure everybody is aware that there are things that we have to look at. There are certain basic functions I obviously have to run, but there are also choices

091within that that we have to make some hard decisions. There are things that we do as a district uh and have done it for a district as a district for a long time that we don't necessarily have to do. Some of that relate it falls into transportation. It falls in other areas. So there'll be some choices to be made. We'll bring those recommendations to you. But again, uh we feel like that this is a responsible budget based on what we have at this time without because one of the charges was made to us early on was to avoid layoffs and that's what we have done to this point. And we we do budget parameters early in the process that were board approved and that's what we built the budget on was the board approved parameters.

092We had small group sessions with all the board members to kind of share where we were throughout the process which brought us to the big budget we're talking about on the general fund budget today. Other things that we don't know and can't predict is federal funding. We started the budget term uh knowing what or thinking we knew what the budget federal budget was. We got an email last week changing some of those federal budgeting streams. So there are adjustments we have to make within that as well. So again, some of those streams, even though we may think they're predictable, federal funding always used to be fairly predictable, that's no longer the case. So u those are all things we have to take into consideration. And as we go forward, again, there are some things we

093don't have a choice on. When there's a special education identified pair professional identified an IEP, we don't have a choice whether they want to or not. We will provide it. That's federal law and those are all personnel costs. Uh we're looking how we can streamline those, but it might mean realigning some of those programs going forward. Uh some of the outsourcing is not because of choice, it's because we simply don't have the people, can't find the people. SLPs are a good example of that. Some of our specialized services in student services. So, uh, in order to make sure the students have the services they need, we have to outsource those in order to find that. And we're not unique in that. >> And not just the services that they need, but that are required. We

094don't have a choice, >> right? So, uh, again, these are not unique just to MSO County. Um, they are, this is consistent across the state and nation. Uh, that federal funding streams um are unpredictable. Um, we're finding that everybody's having the same problem finding some of the same professional staff. So, uh, those are all things we're taking in consideration, but like I said, we have been working on this for some time now. We're working on and we'll continue to work on it. But we'll bring you um the cost of every single program that we have in our district and bring some recommendations to you going forward and then we'll need direction from the board as to what you want to do. >> Miss Jackson. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I am going to support

095um this budget and thank you Miss Bloodworth for going oneonone with me, explaining everything to me. Um, but the one thing that concerns me is the mental health. And I know that grant is for uh middle and high school. And I was just, you know, wondering if we can just look into maybe doing something for um elementary because, you know, we we we know that we have some kids in that's in elementary that need some type of support. I know you guys got a, you know, um, some decisions to make, but, you know, mental health just doesn't start in middle school, >> right? I know I know the grant is for and I'm just saying maybe if we had something where we can give some type of service or just look into it. Well, I

096I do know um that a lot of that burden financially does fall on the district because um IDA doesn't even fund at 15% and I think the congressional promise was somewhere around 20%. I think the average in Georgia is like 12% of that funding. So a lot of that will fall on um local school districts because those services not is not just you know taking care of the needs of the students but we're also required and um to your point um the earlier we can support the better outcome we can we can see. Um, Miss McCrae. >> Oh, somebody I was just going to say if you would keep us up to date on the federal funding information, I think that would be good for us to know and be aware of and changes. >>

097You still have something? Um, >> yes, ma'am. And I won't belabor it, but I think what you just said was was was very poignant, especially as we're looking at the millage rate and everybody's talking about, oh, all the money and this and the other. we are not being we we don't have the money to meet the basic needs of some of our students and that's the reality. That's the reality is we need to make sure that we meet our basic core needs of our students. And so uh when we're talking about, you know, maybe it's going to cost us a little bit more uh personally, you know, like the bus driver said, let's take the wheel of our future. Sorry, throwing it out there. >> Yes, M. You got something? I got >> tracked up

098for a second about what um Miss Jackson said when she talked about uh with her concern about elementary students. And I um remember I went to a national uh schoolboard conference and there was discussion about um students and the change of students behavior. And I mean I was in there about uh our our middle schools. You know, we have problems with middle schools and at our games a lot of times the games problems were started by the middle school and the middle school and then a lot of those people said, well, most of our stuff come from elementary school. You know, I was they they were saying that um you know, they have issues with um they were saying that they had more issues with that uh early early students and I was quite surprised

099by that. So I just want to uh comment on that what you said about uh and I know as miss we just have to look at it as we do the budget. Uh I was started out to talk about the budget again. Of course I will be supporting this budget and I um as I said before we all are concerned with the budget and we all have attention to the budget. Um and now not now but always probably we're focused but more now more we are focused focused on the budget. Superintendent has said and uh our CFO has said that they are looking at ways to address that and uh so of I will be voting for this budget. What will happen if all the board me we have bills to pay. What would happen

100if all the board members up here would want to say as a protest vote that they will not vote the budget for the budget the bill the budget cannot pass. We have bills business have to go on at this point. We know that we have to focus on the budget. We have plans that they're looking into to try to address it. So at this point we have I'm going to vote for the budget. We have bills to pay. the system has to move move forward and we are having a plan to for um uh the superintendent and our CFO are engaging in ways that we can uh tackle that and we uh what we have to do is just to keep um uh we have to keep paying attention to the budget also and to

101see and to find what way not to find ways but to uh urge and to suggest for uh uh during this time but we have bills to say the system has to go on the budget. >> Thank you, Miss Buckner. Miss uh Dr. Chambers, Dr. >> Okay. I am ready to move forward, Madam Chair, but um can I request um information on any um outside districts in which we are spending funding for um like in the area of special education? Are we do we have students that come over for from other counties if their county cannot provide those services? >> Used to be one. >> Can you look in Yeah, that used to be the case. So, if you can look into that and get that information to me. >> Don't we know already? >>

102Do we know? >> Okay. >> I'm district students at Woodall. >> Okay. I just just a dollar amount if you can get that information. It's just something I personal. I just want to know. >> And another. >> All right. We're ready for the vote. >> And another expense we have. Okay. I'm sorry. >> All right. Calling for the vote. Calling for the vote. >> Miss Sly, are you are you able are you able to vote? >> Yes. >> All right. This slide. >> Yes. I haven't voted yet. >> You already voted. You're logged in >> in the chat. Yes. >> In the chat. Oh, no. Okay. Affirmative for All right. Did it pop up yet, >> Mr. Canrell? >> All right, that passes. Item number two to the recommendation of the FY27 mill rate is

103ready for adoption at 23.075 mills which remains unchanged. Motion by Dr. Chambers, second by Miss Frey. We're Any questions? We're ready to vote now. Miss Sly Affirmative and yes. >> Are y'all can y'all see her? in the chat. Yes. >> Did you say yes? Affirmative for Miss McCrae. Mr. Cantra. >> Affirmative. >> No. >> I'm sorry. No. Mr. Cantra. Thank you. That passes item number three. Oh, recommendation of Mr. James Holman to serve as a d executive director of techn technology learning and support. Motion by Miss Jackson, second by Dr. Chambers. Are there any questions? We're ready to vote now. Miss Sly, >> I voted in the chat. Yes, >> y'all monitoring the chat. All right, that passes. Congratulations Is he here? >> Mr. Holman here. >> Mr. Hullman is actually attending a conference. Uh,

104so he could not be here, but he does thank everyone for their vote of confidence. He uh could not be here because he was in charge of a whole bunch of people at a conference that he was. >> Congratulations, Mr. Holman. >> Item four, Dr. Lewis is recommending the appointment of Dr. Venita uh Farms as the assistant principal at Allen Elementary School. Motion by Dr. Chamber, second by Miss Jackson. Are there any questions? We're ready to vote now. record >> affirmative for Miss Chambers. All right, that item's P. That item passes. Congratulations, Mrs. Kums. You here? Are you here? All right, come on. we make you come down and say a word, introduce your family so we can clap for you all over again. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Lewis and all the board

105members for this awesome opportunity. >> Oh. Oh, yeah. And and we take a picture, we jump in your face and take a picture while you're talking multitask. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Uh, I look forward to serving the the students at Allen Elementary School, working closely u with Mrs. Sanders, the the members of the community. Uh, so I'm just really excited for this opportunity. I have with me today my my sister Deborah and my friend uh, Miss Allison Waldra from Fox Elementary. She said, "You need me to go over there with you." I said, "Oh my god, it's different." And so I called her her today and she said, "I'm coming." So thank you so much u, Mrs. Waldra. So again, thank you so much and I appreciate this awesome opportunity. >> Congratulations. Okay,

106sister, wave your hand. You were you were videoing. Okay, good. All right. And your bestie, good friend to have on the spot at the last minute, the Allen family, school family. All right. All right. Item number five, Dr. Lewis is recommending >> There it is. Lindy Dunn as the assistant principal of Aaron Con Middle School. Motion by Dr. Chambers, second by Mr. Cantrell. Are there any questions? We're ready to vote now. Who is it? >> Green and Chambers. >> Okay, it's affirmative. >> Yeah, we voted. Affirmative. >> You want me to do hand votes? >> All right, that passes. CONGRATULATIONS. >> Thank you. >> Yay. >> You know, let me tell you something. I I really appreciate it because I I I was looking for chewing gum and everything through that budget process. So, thank

107you. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thanks. Um I'm Wendy. So hello everyone. Um I want to begin by thanking Dr. Lewis for the appointment for Mr. Richberg for his leadership as region chief and Dr. Lawrence for bringing me on as his AP and taking the risk. I also am incredibly grateful for the many mentors who have invested in me throughout my career. The guidance, encouragement, and wisdom. I could not have been here without it. people such as Penny Gorm and Patrick Noff. I really do appreciate that. My family surprised me, so that kind of like changed my speech a little bit. They weren't supposed to be here, but they actually got to come today. So, my parents came. I could not be here without their support. They have been my biggest cheerleader through life. They have

108stood by me through everything, and I am just so incredibly thankful for them. I am also blessed to have friends in Columbus who have become my family and they are here tonight and sat through this meeting so they could be here and be my rock. Um I'm so thankful for them. And then finally, I can't accept this opportunity without giving thanks to the Lord. He I am deeply grateful for his guidance and provision throughout my journey. My prayer is that I will be his hands and feet wherever he places me. and then Aaron Conn I will be able to serve with purpose be his light and love on the faculty students and staff. So thank you very much. I am sad to leave my RAA team. I love them dearly but I am so excited

109about this journey with Aaron Con and what comes next. So thank you. >> Wait wait wait. Okay. Now, now you you have to call out your family members. >> Y'all have to stand up. Y'all have to stand up. She does. >> Good deal. Good deal. Congratulations. Thank y'all for surprising her. All right. Next item. Six. Dr. Lewis is recommending Dr. Alan Miller as assistant principal for George Washington Carver High School. Motion by Mr. Krol I believe second by Dr. Chambers. Are there any questions? We are ready to vote. Yes, I did. >> All right. CONGRATULATIONS. CONGRATULATIONS. Uh thank you so much ma'am. Uh it's a pleasure to be here tonight. I want to begin by thanking uh Mr. Day and Miss Magwood and of course Dr. Lewis. Uh I will say that this whole process

110of being interviewed and and onboarding has been exceptional. It's a wonderful staff here. Really great folks. Um, I'm finishing up a career in Alabama as administrator and I'm excited to start a new chapter of my professional life here in Mscogi County. Uh, I know just from the conversations I've had with Mr. Day and his team, uh, it's going to be amazing. They're really talented, passionate people, and I just can't wait to get started and hopefully be a great, productive part of the team and place at Carver. We're going to do some great things at Carver. I know that. Thank you'all so much. >> All right. Did you come by yourself, wasn't it? >> Yeah. Yes, ma'am. I can't follow that. I'm sorry. Okay. Looks like you have your Carver family. >> I do. Yes, ma'am.

111>> Congratulations. Uh, Miss Buckner. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I I I meant I meant to I turned you off. Turn it back on. >> Can you turn your mic back on? >> Hold on. Just Just before Mr. today. >> Alan, >> Mr. Just want to say one thing. Welcome to the hill. >> All right. Item seven. Dr. Lewis is recommending uh Miss Roxan Jared as assistant principal at 80 middle school. >> So moved. >> Motion by Miss Frey, second by Dr. Chambers. Are there any questions? We are ready to vote now. I hit record. I promise. I'm Yes. >> Congratulations. That passes. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Um, first I would I'll smile. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, I just want to give honor and praise and just glory to God. Um, just thank you, Lord.

112Thank you, God. Um, to my husband, thank you for your constant prayers and unwavering support. My mom and dad, thank you for your love. I just thank you guys so much. Um, my daughter Lauren, my son Trey, he's too young to be here, but thank you for sharing your mom with so many people. I just thank you for that. Um, my god sister, thank you for being by my side. Thank you, Dr. Lewis. Um, the board, Chief Magwood, thank you. Um, my JVHS family, thank you for making me feel at home from the very first day. Mr. Hudson, thank you for coming and thank you for pushing me beyond my comfort zone. I will always remember you for that. Um, Mr. Willoughby, thank you for always listening. Mr. Hample for your patience. Miss Muborn, thank

113you for reminding me of my why on a daily basis. I just appreciate you so much. Mr. Josie, he could not be here, but thank you, Mr. Josie, for encouraging me to grow and actually apply for the position. Um, my mentor, Miss Banks, thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself sometimes. Um, finally, Mr. Az, I am just excited that you are trusting me to be your right hand. I will not disappoint you. I will be your right hand at Eddie Middle School, and I am humbled by this opportunity. I'm grateful and I look forward to serving our students, staff, family, and community with integrity, compassion, and excellence. Thank you everyone. >> Congratulations. >> Okay. Okay. You know, they got to stand up. The old Carver family. Okay. And you got

114your old Carver family. Mom and dad and Congratulations. Congratulations. >> On the eighth item, Dr. Lewis is recommending uh Germaine Coleman as the assistant principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School. Motion by Miss Jackson, second by Dr. Chambers. Are there any questions? We're ready to vote now. >> I said yes. All right, congratulations. That passes. Okay, come on. I was going to say, wait a minute. I hear all this cheering. Okay. I thought you were pranking me. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank Dr. Lewis. Uh, Chief Magwood smile. Board member smile. >> I I started to write a a super long speech, but I didn't. Um, but I'm so grateful and thankful uh for this opportunity to have an opportunity to lead. Um, and just for what you all

115saw in me there. And I want to second what the other gentleman said. The process from which the interview happened going through human resources. It was so uh smooth. Everyone was super nice. Um the process made it uh made you feel like family in advance. So I just want to thank you all. I want to thank Principal uh Thompson for all of the support she's been giving me uh since this process has started. And I'm just excited to lead. I'm ready to uh work. I'm ready to get at MLK, work with the families, the students, and to support the community and the uh school board at large. >> Congratulations. Did you bring anybody with you? >> Yes, I have both of my sisters here with me, my daughter, my dad, uh my nephews, and uh

116one of my good friends that actually taught with me. And then my nephew got u off his police motorcycle and made sure that he got down here with me. Thank you, sir. Congratulations. Outstanding. Outstanding. All right, that's that's the all the appointments. All right. Number nine, uh, revised policy JCD AG. Is it ready to >> It has been on the table for 30 days. Motion by Miss Frey, second by Need a second, second by Dr. Chambers. Are there any questions? All right, we're ready to vote now. All right, that passes. Item 10 is the revised policy. G A R H the employee leaves and absence. We'll be back um next month for a vote. 11 is board travel resolution. >> Motion. There's some discussion. >> We need we need to put it on the table

117so we can discuss it. Motion by um Dr. Chambers, second by Miss Jackson. Question. >> Asked to make sure the legal council had reviewed it because it looked like we just added a couple of words to the existing one and I'm not sure that that fully takes care of what we were trying to do. Greg, do you know if you've looked at it? >> I know Miss Jones has been out on vacation, which she much deserved. This is uh G A R >> the travel resolution. >> I don't remember that I have looked at the travel. >> I think we need to >> I'm sorry >> table it because I think there probably is going to be some more. I mean one I think he needs a chance to make sure it's in line with

118what we were trying to achieve. And then I know there have been a little discussion about if or at least I had proposed miss Dr. Chambers had been in favor of maybe setting some parameters on that. So, but at least for now, I think we need legal counsel to have looked over it. >> So, what you all are proposing is it in this draft? >> No. Uh because I asked Well, I'd asked for legal counsel look and then it didn't come back in any new form. So, I didn't know we were moving ahead on it. >> Huh? them to look at the policy because uh there you said a couple of words or something but uh but then you said you and Miss Chambers said discuss something could you share that with the rest of

119us >> so we or just at least send it back so that if it's going to be revised it can be revised with what what you're what >> concerns discussion >> yeah what you're discussing >> revisions I would have been mentioning would have I mean I wouldn't really send that back because that would have to be approved by the board to really revise it. But we had talked and what initially was going to be doing was just adding, you know, the inner city trip to it, but everything else about the resolution talks about interaction with school district people. So, I don't think it's really incorporating the language that needs to be in there for the inner city trip to be included. >> Oh, >> and I had asked that and again, we've been more focused

120on budget and stuff. I didn't even think to look until tonight to see if it had been looked at again. So, I just assumed if it hadn't been looked at by Greg, we weren't going to try to vote on it tonight. >> Okay. Oh, just to include the inner city trip. That's that's it. >> So, table. >> Yes. >> All right. So, I need a motion to table >> table. McCrae, second by Miss Buckner, >> and a hand vote, I suppose. Yeah. All in favor of tableabling this until >> next month. >> Yeah. July meeting. >> I won't be July. >> You need to you need to have your input >> if we don't have urgency. We only have one in July which doesn't really give us much time to debate anything. Um unless we

121want to look at it. I mean we won't have >> tableing until July. All in favor? like to August. We won't really have time to discuss it when we have one meeting. >> All right. Then restate your motion. >> I would like to August to a work session and a board meeting so that we can discuss. >> Is that a lot to discuss? I mean, I'm just saying >> that's what I was thinking. It's you're just trying to add >> really change language while we're all sitting here. But that's fine. >> You can do it tomorrow, you know, so it can be ready by July. I guess usually we kind of vote and see if people like it before we rewrite. Usually y'all get on to me when I start writing things. But that's fine.

122>> Is that all that needs to >> It's just the language. >> Tell you, >> it's really just one little word so that we stay within the budget. We're not trying to add the inner city trip as an additional trying to say two out of three. that it's an option that that you have these three options. >> Okay. >> And so it's just that one little work. >> That's your suggestion. One word and you have something else to add to where people going to a year >> and and the three things were I know the uh national school board, >> the state uh the regular school uh the December one, the summer and the winter school boards. Those are the three things >> cost. Mhm. >> Okay. The national, the summer, and the winter. Okay.

123And then we want to put um >> the budget is the budget. >> Okay. Whatever we're budgeting for that would include it. >> So, if the money is there, >> are we talking about two or three things, huh? Yeah. We need to we need to bring we need to bring this back and have a discussion. >> Uh we'll go ahead and put it down for August. All right. So the motion is we're going to table this until August and I'll take a hand vote. >> All in favor of going to August. One, two, three, four, five, six. All right, that passes. Thank you all so very much. All right, next item. Um, the resolution that was presented at U Senator Harberson's uh retirement. All right. Motion by Dr. Chambers, second by Miss Jackson. All in

124favor raise. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we're ready to vote and I'm ready to go. So, yeah. Which one's faster? We got a lot. We got a lot We got a lot to do. >> It didn't come up yet. Affirmative for Miss McCrae. All right, that item passes. Item 13 is the board meeting date change. >> Motion by Miss Freay, second by >> was it Buckner? All right. And this is the request for the Monday, October 12th, 2026 board work session be rescheduled to Tuesday, October 13th. We're ready to vote now. >> I don't know if they get a fall break. I'm affirmative again. It's not popping up. >> I'm good. >> Mr. Kra, affirmative. >> Affirmative. You said >> yes. >> Affirmative. Affirmative for Mr. Kra. >> Yes. All right, that item passes. And

125the last item on the action agenda is the student behavior code of conduct booklet motion. Is it ready? >> All right. So, we'll bring that back um July, >> but so make sure y'all look over it before we get to our July meeting so we can make whatever changes and words smmith and reviews. All right. Then next we have our consent agenda. And you can see it looks different this month because it's all broken up into the different uh categories and committees. Do you Does anyone I need a motion for the consent agenda? >> All right. Motion by Miss Buckner. second by um >> Miss Jackson and then question um Miss Chambers. Okay, so we have 15 items on the consent agenda and then we have a section that says finance and there are probably

126about 200 items underneath that >> I just said >> and I just >> they're broken up into categories this time. I just want to make sure for for clarity sake because there are only 15 items on the consent agenda. >> No, all of that is the consent agenda. All of it >> is not written that way. But okay, >> that's why I just said it looks different. >> Leading to my point, it does look different. And I just would like to say that if there is any way possible for us to not put 200 financial items on and I do understand we've been talking about the budget since May maybe. >> But see these are the same items that were on the work session >> and so typically they'll put them all on the consent

127agenda. >> Let me finish. Let me get my point across. I feel like we can be more studious, read these items, know that we are not just a blanket vote on 200 items, but I have time to I like to mle over the items. I like to check it against last year's what we spent. and and it takes away the opportunity to do that when there's so many to vote on at one time. Now, some of these items are timesensitive. I get it. We have to vote on them because the school year is starting whether we're ready or not. But some of these items in this particular um consent agenda is for the next it says contingent upon the next budget report. >> And now now >> I just want to >> let let me

128just let me just recall because I sat here last couple of weeks ago and you went through every >> I went through every single item. >> I did. But you're saying you're talking as if you're if something is on here that we didn't discuss. >> No, we did discuss all of it. But what I'm saying is if it's not I mean I've been on the board 12 years. We haven't always voted on 200 items at one time under the consent agenda. If we had, then I would not be bringing it up. But if y'all get the budget, it is about 400 pages. And if you are really taking the time and if you want to really take the time to read it, that's not enough. 30 days is not enough time. And so I do

129get um us voting on the tenative budget as a whole. But these individual items, if it's timesensitive, yes, we need to vote on those. But if there's a way for some of these items, >> we can do it tonight. Would you like to make a motion to pull out some items so we can vote? >> This This is my Yeah, it's not my point. My point is there is a there's a way to do this where the board feels included on the money that we're spending. Um, and there's a way to do it where it's so massive that we may miss something. And one of our primary responsibilities is to be fiscally responsible and to oversee the budget. We only have like three jobs and overseeing the budget is one of those three >> probably

130number one. So I confused. >> What I'm saying >> I'm confused because we went over every single one of these items. I'm confused. not talking about going over what I'm requesting as finance chair to the finance person or whoever brings this to the um agenda is that we do not have 200 plus items to vote on in one night so that we can be more responsible and read these items and be and and I do understand I did you guys were ready to go home last week, right, two weeks ago. And I did read each item because I wanted to make sure that we at least reviewed all of the 200 items. But if we don't have to make a blanket, yes, where we can actually have time to ask our questions. If we had

131questions about 200 items, we would still be here from last week. So then you have to pick and choose which questions you're going to ask because you don't want to bellay bird the point. But it's just a request. My request would be to please give us more time to look over the budget items and if it's not timesensitive if we could break it up so that we can do our job and be more responsible with the budget. That's my request. I will agree that it felt like this month we had a lot more than we ever do. And you know, by the time I sat and kind of looked through it and realized that it was too late to say anything, but it it did feel like a lot. So it did I mean I

132know we went through them, but yes, by the time we got to the end, even I didn't feel like asking some questions because we were ready to get done. So I think the point isn't necessary to change what we're doing tonight. It's just going forward could we try to avoid having this many all in one sitting because and you know it is important that we look through it. I mean we noticed that one of the contracts you know that that amount was different last time and not that it saved us any money because we wouldn't have paid it anyway. We would have paid it on one year but we from looking at it you know realized that not as much was due this year as we thought. So I think the main point is just

133going forward if we because we and I've been on it for nine years. I I've never felt like this in a June before. June is heavy but not this heavy. If we could try to avoid having so many in one meeting. >> So I looked at >> so so we got the we got our we >> we got this information like June 4th. Um, we had an extremely long work session to go over each item and I agree that it's more than it than it has been. Um, but I don't what's what what should we do differently? >> You spread them out. How? I mean, have two have one in one month and the other this I I read each item. I read I read each and all of these because like you do I

134will say you were right. I was overwhelmed by these. Um you were right about that when I looked at it. I was trying to figure out if all of it was the consent agenda. So >> I take took time and read all the items. Everything was pretty much it was about the budget and all of them, most of them were uh contracts we voted on for maybe three years or five years and we were actually just um renewing or voting on it per year, but we've had that stuff before. most of it was three-year stuff or that we were voting on this year from from uh uh June to 27 and um so it was familiar because it was things that we were just uh voting on for for the three years or the four

135years but um like you said it was long but I I don't see unless you split them and you start the budget. Are you going to start the budget? The budget is >> I will say whoever whoever idea it was to put it in categories that also helps to find something in particular if you're focused um that helps you to kind of center your focus to put it in all the categories. >> But we still can discuss whatever anybody wants to discuss. If you read something >> instead of talking about this, I'd rather pull out an item and discuss it some more. discuss the point. The point is just going forward in future years, could we avoid what happened this month? It has not happened in the eight other years I've been on this board.

136>> Well, what's different? What happened? It's longer. It is longer. >> I'm I'm asking Miss Miss Bworth, what happened? What's different? >> Concerted effort to try to have before the board the items before we begin to spend the funds. This was a concerted effort to do that to ensure that you're seeing the items before we actually start spending the dollars. >> Let me let me say this to and um you know, >> we thank you for that. >> Let me um ask this. If the rest of the board doesn't want it ahead of time, I will I will if there's any way possible for me to get it ahead of time so that I can do my due diligence and so that I can feel that I am doing what I'm required to do to

137make sure that I'm not just checking a box. >> Are you going to be able to have it before now? Because we have to go through audit committ. Um the other thing is in this particular budget there is an excessive amount of not to exceed not to exceed not to exceed which means to me that we are putting placeholders for pockets of money. So if it's not to exceed 450,000, that's a placeholder. But our policy says that if $15,000 is 15,000 is spent, it has to go through this board, >> right? But if you have 200, >> but if we have already if we have already put 450 in and agreed, Vanessa, you go ahead and spend that 450. I really don't know how. I know the category, but I don't understand how the 450,000

138and that is one of the items on here. >> But they still have to come back >> is being sent >> before the board when it when it gets to the threshold. Even though it may say not to exceed, they still have to come back to the board. >> Not so, which is a pretty big threshold. No, they still have when they because now >> does every item that means we're voting on this twice. So does every item >> Yeah. >> Okay. I didn't think so. So So this is just my request and if no one else wants this information, that's fine. I just feel that I have a responsibility that if the policy says we're supposed to approve over 15,000, it's hard for me. It may just be me. It's hard for me to

139understand and to be able to break down in my mind where the dollars are going if we're placeholding here, here, here, here, because when it's time to spend it, I do understand making a concertive effort to tell us before it's spent. But we're in July. So June of 2027 when that money may actually be being spent, we may have forgotten that we approved it. And so I have always been able to follow the budget to the point where it told a story for me. I could look at the budget and say, "Oh, we're getting a new I person." Not because it was written, but because you could look at the budget and tell from last year to this year, there's been a huge change. I haven't and and this is me. I just haven't been

140able to follow it like that. And so I'm just asking for some additional information so that when I vote yes that I feel comfortable that I know that that is actually you know something I wanted to vote for. And so it's not a huge change. It's just and I'm not asking you not to put it on there. I'm just saying if you give me less than 200 items then I can do my due diligence. give me time to research and make sure that I don't have any questions before I have to like vote on everything from the entire budget at one time. >> Okay. So, so what I hear is to um look at the items um that are not pertinent. I I don't know how you're going to work that out for to be

141for us to to vote on in June. But in light of the fact that we got this around June the 4th, I don't how much further in advance would we be able to prepare these documents so that everyone will have more than a month >> to review it even I mean by the time we got to some of these last two weeks ago because we had I mean June is a full time anyway because we have a lot of other items. >> Oh I'm sorry hit your mic. But now we used to have we used to have more than two meetings in June >> when >> yeah we used to have and that was a concern of the board because June is too much. We we we went to two meetings. We used to have

142a meeting just for the budget only just >> this many items. >> My point is we're asking for more time. We're asking I want us to be um pretty specific so that you just said more time. I mean >> I'm saying not as many items at one time. I don't remember a time when we had three million. >> Oh yes ma'am. >> You've been on it a lot longer than I have. >> In fact, Miss McCrae, it was your suggestion and I agreed. >> Maybe it was right in the beginning. >> Yeah. That we do to not have to have those multiple meetings in June. last several years that we have had, we have not had to have this many at a time. I understand what you were trying to do. >> I'm sorry that

143but I I don't think that this much information at one time is doable for us to be able to give it the time and the debate that we want to maybe it is my little brain. Um but so maybe we could balance some of it out between June and July because a lot of this starts coming in as the school year starts. That's all I'm asking. I think it's got to be done by July, right? >> Not everything. >> July 1st. Yeah. The budget and the budget. >> The budget. Yeah. >> The budget has to be done by >> June 30th. >> Right. >> June 30th. >> I'm talking about the ex number of expenses on this month. >> There was a point in time where we began to bring the items um earlier in

144the year, maybe March, April, May. We spread them out over the um couple of year u months. So you would not have quite so many especially the things like you were saying the routine things the the custodial contracts and that sort of things. It was the board's request that we not bring them prior to the point at which we were asking for the board. I'm just saying between June and July, maybe spread on, maybe even August. I I I don't I mean that's a whole very big difference. And I'm not asking, you know, I'm not pushing it off March or April. I'm just saying let's try to piece it out some to where it is not so much in one month. >> I I don't think it's feasible. I mean, most people I mean, I

145get a lot of y'all work year round, but a lot of our other staff is not I I don't think making June so heavy is a good time. People do have vacations. We don't have schools in session. A lot of people are not paying attention to give us some of their input when we do all of this so heavily. Again, I know we have to do the budget, but when we get down to some of these approvals of specific expenses, it would be nice not to have so many at one time and one month is what I mean. >> So, go back to what you were doing and ask us, you know, ahead of time. So, we won't have it done right now. I am concerned about July just because we do have schools starting

146in August and most of the things we are >> that's why I said go back to what they were doing before just back it back up in the beginning of the year. Um but again it was board request. >> Yeah I have asked us to vote on money ahead of time before >> I don't know what y'all going to do but just try to hear our comments so that um try to do >> I have a suggestion so I'll bring that to you at another time but I will bring that to you. I have I have a question. Oh, my my question is um for me uh and I understand this like I said like like to rephrase say again that everybody all the board members are concerned with the budget. you're about to on

147the budget want to be fiscally responsible all of us and uh so um but I do have one point uh I looked at like I look at all those items like I said a lot of it was was redundant in terms of uh things that we have for several years and we just had to vote it for that particular year but um to Miss Chambers point uh there were uh a couple of things that um gave a u um not to exceed because then on the one one point it said one was the actual amount and one said see um uh not to exceed now I don't know whether that is part of what we want to do also um and what prohibited when when you say what are the factors that prohibit us from

148um actually giving an amount Well, for example, in special in student services, those services depending on how many students based on revi reevaluations of IEPs, things like that might require special services and the students need to start the service as soon as we can. So, we try and get an open, it's almost like an open purchase order up to a certain amount to allow us to go ahead and start providing those services. >> I remember one time they also said is we we were uh certain something was going to go up. um um we had to get within that particular time for a certain price for something one time, you know. So, okay. I I just want to know because she her point was that, but I >> generally because at the start of the

149school year, we may not know how much we're going to need of those services. So, this gives us an opportunity to do that before we have to come back to the board to get approval again, which would might delay the services from being implemented. >> Most that was a plant services. Um those are plant services things that were not not to exceed. Um they weren't like student service. Most of it was plant service stuff. That's why I was asking you what pro what prohibit prohibits us. You know many of the items in plant services that have a not to exceed is because we're responding to things that we don't know are going to happen. We can project that we're going to have roofing issues. So, we'll have a PO not to exceed a certain dollar

150amount. We base that dollar amount on historical practices and what we've seen happen, but we don't know whether or not we're going to have a roof leak or not. We project how much we're going to spend in HVAC repairs, but we don't know if there's going to be HVAC. So, we base it on historical data and we say not to exceed, more likely than not, we're going to spend very close to that amount. And often times you'll see that throughout the course of the year we'll come back to you to ask for a PO increase because we spent more than the original projected amount. And so that's why because most of to Dr. Chambers's point $15,000 our limit for a minor repair in plant services that's more than $15,000. So that would mean almost everything

151that we're doing would have to be after the fact. it would come to you kind of as an emergency as opposed to saying we want to we want your approval to spend up to this amount on this type of repair and once we go over that we'll come back to you and say we need more money for that type of repair. So when you look at the plant services not to exceed it specifies the vendor and it specifies the amount that we're requesting and we'll spend up to that amount and then come back to you. So, an operation, an organization this large has to be able to operate. And so, um, to your point, you're not just making up a number and making a placeholder. You're basing it off of whatever it cost in the

152past, um, which is likely to be a similar cost. Um, unless inflation has hit it, then you'll come back to us, um, for the approval of a different amount, >> right? That's what you're saying. All right. Any other questions? Anything else? >> I I don't even know, Naomi. I I don't know. >> That would be great. Y'all would love it if we go back, right? >> It would be simpler. Okay. So, are there any other questions? Are we ready to vote now? >> There is gray area. We can try to get things but just not all at one time. Thank you. We voting for consent agenda. >> Voting. We are voting for the consent agenda. And I and I do I know we're going back, but this format is kind of cool. That way you

153can see all the different areas of the consent agenda. But we are voting on the consent agenda and all those items which are broken up into categories of um operations, information services, Chattahuchi library, human resources, teaching and learning, uh student services, facilities, and then um yeah, operations of facilities. They're all broken up into categories. All those items including the summary from the audit. Ain't that one of the things we have to do? Doesn't it go to audit and then we prepare for the budget? I mean, no, we don't have to. Okay, perfect. That's the caffer I'm thinking about, right? Okay. All right. Did everybody vote? >> It didn't pop up, but I'm >> mine's not like me today, but yes. Thank you. >> All right, that item passes. And then Dr. Lewis, did you want

154to say something before >> I think Miss Bworth clarification or correction? Go ahead. >> Yeah. Um, I wanted to talk about the literacy coaches that the literacy coaches, yes, the state did fund us for the literacy coaches. However, um, they are only funding us at the base level. We will not get the training and experience and the health insurance that we would normally get for positions like that until next year. It's a year lag in that. So, this first year upfront, there will be additional cost to us that is above what the state funded us for this year. Before we already >> Yes, it is in the budget. Yes. Um but >> before now >> pitch your microphone. >> Now they're actually giving us money to help pay for them. >> Right. They are um

155they are not a lot of them are not new positions. We are just changing the funding on them. >> Sorry. >> We're basically repurposing those positions. These are not all brand new positions. are being repurposed from if they qualify and meet the requirements of the specified in the grant >> those positions to the grant >> right so again taking it what you all told us not to do is to avoid layoffs so to the extent that we could we took the other coaches that could be qualified and considered them for utilizing them in the literacy grant coaches others were then either repurposed or reassigned either to some other positions within the district that was a vacancy >> right my point know that it's not really hurting our budget because we're already paying for them before.

156Now we're actually getting some money to help us towards them. >> No, that's not exactly right. >> That's what you told me last two weeks ago. >> What I No, what I told you is we're repurposing. What we didn't get is the additional funding for the health insurance and some of the T& that we get next year. That's where the lapse comes. >> All right. Anything else? All right. Um, I move that we go into executive session for a student appeal and a legal issue. Motion >> to go. Who's first? Okay. Motion by Frey >> and Buckner. Okay. Raise your hand, please. All in favor? Thank you.