001Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here with us this evening. We're going to begin tonight's uh board of education meeting with a swearing in ceremony of Superintendent Deborah Harden. Judge Huninger. Dr. Harden, if you'll come forward, please. If you'll raise your right hand, I'm going to give you the oath in its entirety and then just ask that you swear or affirm to it upon completion. I, Dr. Deborah Herden Harden, excuse me, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will truly perform the duties of school superintendent of the Okone County School System in the best of my ability. I do further swear or affirm that I am not the holder of any unaccounted for public money. do this state or any political subdivision or authority thereof, and that I will manage the finances of the
002local school system in compliance with all applicable laws and and regulations. That I am not the holder of any office of trust under the government of the United States, any other state, or any foreign state, which I am by the laws of the state of Georgia, and prohibited from holding. I am otherwise qualified to hold set office according to the constitution and laws of Georgia and that I will support the constitution of the United States and of this state. All right. Congratulations. Thank you for your service. Call this July 7th regular session order. I need a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Mr. Tool. Second. Mr. Hammond, all in favor? Passes 5-0. Need a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Mr. Tulle. Second. Mr. Hammock. All in favor. Passes. 5-0. Next, we have
003recognitions. Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members and Dr. Harden. Uh we don't have any in-person recognitions tonight, but the fine students at Okone County Primary under the guidance of Katie Brimmanson have sent us some uh great artwork to look at. My favorite is certainly the hippopotamus. Got some superheroes on some other pages, some cactus, and then some nice tapestry pets. And I'm sure Miss Hilly will be bragging on her students a little bit later as well. But that concludes our recognitions. Uh these uh slides will be up this evening and they also will be on display on the hallway monitors throughout the month. Carpet. Next we have points of pride with the county primary school. Welcome Miss Hilly. All right. Good evening, Dr. Harden and board members. I am Shelby Hilly, principal of
004Aone County Primary School. We are delighted to have another opportunity to give you a glimpse into what makes the primary such a special place. We typically begin these presentations by sharing with you the foundation that we instill in each of our little chiefs. Our logo contains three arrows and each arrow represents a component of learning. Core academics, social and emotional needs and 21st century skills. They all come together to create our mission at the primary. Tonight, we'd like to share how our faculty and staff faculty and staff ensure these components are pervasive in our decision-making through the implementation of our school success teams. We feel that the work of our school can be organized through these four domains. Instructional success, student success, staff success, and family and community involvement success. We had the opportunity to
005present on our success teams at the national blue ribbon schools conference last school year and we've already had two schools contact us to further discuss implementing this model in their own schools this coming year. I will now turn it over to a few of our leaders to share about our four different success teams. Good evening. I am Jennifer Dalton, the assistant principal at Okone County Primary School. Our first success team is the family and community involvement success team. This team focuses on building relationships with our stakeholders. This success team builds the capacity of families as learning partners through school council, parent university, and volunteer opportunities. They established partnerships with our neighboring schools through initiatives like Car Rider Helpers and third grade reading buddies and events like the OCS homecoming parade. This team also looks for
006ways to build mutual partnerships with community organizations. Hi, I'm Jennifer Bon and I'm a first grade teacher at the primary school. I'm a part of the instructional success team. Members of this team represent each grade level and support teachers in our school. This team focuses on pacing, standards, and curriculum implementation. We share and learn about valuable resources and strategies that impact academic achievement. This team takes a closer look at new curriculum and resources that we have. We strive to make the most of all of our materials by working together to learn about it and share our findings with grade level teams. This has had such a positive impact in the success and confidence of our ability to navigate new curriculum. Our school also conducts peer observations. We have multiple opportunities to sign up to observe
007any teacher in our school, implement researchbased teaching strategies, as well as see them use new curriculum materials. We value the learning that we can gain from all of these experiences. And another little highlight from the instructional success team is the development of a word on the street. We identified academic vocabulary that the students need to know to make a video clip about it to show during our morning announcements. This has become a hugely popular moment at the start of each school day with both our students and teachers. Hi, I am Anna Stabell, a second grade teacher at OCPS. I co-chair our staff success team and we focus on building a positive culture and climate in our building. We recognize that our teachers give their best to make each and every day the best day ever.
008The staff success team works to plan fun themed days that go along with holidays and national holidays and provides pickme up treats, raffle prizes, um, and festive activities for all staff. A few of our favorites include the woot woot wagon there, gratitude bingo, and order out lunches. I'm Paige Bowen. I'm the PE teacher at OCPS and I'm on the student success team. We have teachers and staff from all grade levels and support areas on the student success team to address the needs of individual students such as making and getting along with friends, finishing tasks, difficulties arriving at school or other social emotional developmental issues. In addition, we coordinate recognition for achievement of students individual goals including social emotional goals, academic goals or behavior goals. And finally, we facilitate compliance with our schoolwide PBIS behavior expectations.
009We look at behavior data as a committee to identify students having individual struggles and brainstorm ways that each student can be given strategies and/or assistance in order to turn their struggles into success. We think about schoolwide behaviors as a whole to determine a character trait that we focus on monthly. Staff members acknowledge students they see exhibiting the trade of the month by allowing that student to participate in things like signing a bulletin board in the hallway for being an encourager, adding a link to a paper chain strung in the school entryway in recognition of showing cooperation, or adding a heart to a bar graph for showing kindness. Our student success team gives teachers ways to acknowledge students who show our schoolwide PBIS behavior expectations, which are respectful, responsible, and ready. Students are awarded tickets for
010exhibiting the three Rs and can save those tickets for things they choose from a menu that include items like bringing a favorite stuffed animal to school, reading a favorite book to their class or former teacher's class, or choosing a book from our book vending machine. Teachers also recognize students from their class monthly who are remarkable role models who consistently show respect, responsibility, and readiness. These are our super chiefs, and they get to enjoy a special treat with our administrators. One of our most loved new initiatives that came out of our success teams is an award called Warriors Working Hard. This award is special. It's only given quarterly and each individual teacher or staff member gets to choose a special little one that they would like to celebrate for something that they have been working on
011individually. It's different than super chiefs because every child's goal is different. Some of them have behavioral goals, some of them have academic goals, learning their site words, being a good friend. Um there's so many different things, but this has absolutely been the best thing in our opinion that has come out of our success teams. So, at this time, we would like to present two of our little chiefs, and we're going to show you how Miss Hilly and I give a Warriors Working Hard award so that you can see it. And then they have a little token of appreciation for Dr. Harden and the board members. What do you think about that? Solon comes to school every day and gives his very best. He is such a hard I wanted to give them the opportunity to
012share with you how this makes them how this award made them feel. My name is Solomon James Williams. I'm in second grade. I am at OCPS. I got the Warriors working hard award for me always my my good attitude and always coming to school ready. How did this award make you feel Solomon? It made me feel happy, joyful, and proud. Awesome. We are so proud of you. Okay. All right. I'm holding down and take a picture, Miss Hilly. [Applause] Thank you, Miss Haley. Next, we'd like to welcome back Dr. Hart. let her uh lead off with the superintendent report. [Laughter] But I want to thank Miss Hilly and your wonderful points of pride very special off. I want to begin my report by extending my appreation to the board. giving me this opportunity to once
013again serve the school district and the community. I deeply appreciate it and we're going to work hard and we're but I also want to extend my gratitude to central office staff, the instructional services center staff. They have done an awesome job on boarding me And my notebooks are big, but they did a great job and I'm very pleased to have partit. Great. So now, I will not repeat it. Uh the leadership, I want to update you on some things that have happened since our last meeting. Uh Jennifer Haggood, is she in the audience? She is. Uh is are now is now our um director of uh elementary education. Uh Mike Stanton is principal. Ferry Elementary. Where are you, Mike? There you are. Uh Eric Watson at Malcolm Bridge. And u I'm excited about the skills
014and talents that they will bring to our district. Also want to announce that unfortunately Suzanne Cornold has announced her retirement at the end of December at our end of December. And I need to say that the service that she has provided this district has been stellar and we will miss her. So we'll celebrate a little bit later but not now. Uh I do want to mention Colum Ferry Elementary School has received the school bell award by the Georgia Association of uh elementary school principles. uh it will officially uh be awarded in October, but this award is uh for outstanding programs in curriculum and organizational leadership. So I know that uh um Eric, not Eric. Okay, say it again. Mike. Mike. All right, I get it till I get in front of a microphone. All right.
015Um Mike share the some of the u glory for this award with Dr. Brown who has moved on. But I know having been a building principal that the assistance principal does a lot of the heavy lifting. So thank you. Um and before I conclude, I would like to inform the board uh that I have directed our chief operating officer to Dr. white to have a third party recommend and conduct additional testing at um our elementary school. That concludes my report. Dr. Harden, thank you for being willing to serve Okon County. Again, next we have presentations and discussions. First, we have teaching learning report. Miss Whitaker, good evening. The Okon County Schools teaching and learning July 7th board of education report contains four items of information and one action item. Our first item of information is
016ESOL summer camp. Our science discovery camp was held June 2nd through 12th at Malcolm Bridge Elementary School. We had the pleasure of welcoming 31 rising second, third, and fourth grade ESOL students from across the district. Throughout the week, these students engaged in hands-on investigations centered on rocks and minerals, the weather and water cycle, and force in motion. The camp introduced key science standards students will encounter in the coming school year with a strong emphasis on building academic vocabulary. On the final day of camp, families were invited to join their students to celebrate discoveries and growth. I would like to extend a special thanks to Natalie Stowe, director of CTAE and federal programs for her leadership in this program. The second item of information is meet the teacher. Okone County Schools meet the teacher event will
017take place on Monday, August 4th. Each school will follow the schedule shown on the accompanying graphic and we can't wait to welcome our students back for another fantastic year. Board members, as you are aware, we conduct an annual review of our policies and regulations. This year's updates reflect changes required by recent legislation. The third item of information from teaching and learning is board regulation JCAR1, civil rights of minors. This regulation has been revised in compliance with Senate Bill 154, which requires local boards to update policies and regulations to include references to the US Department of Education by including the phrase US Department of Education or its successor. Item four is board regulation JAR2 equal education opportunity section 504. This regulation has been revised in compliance with Senate Bill 154 which requires us to use the
018language US Department of Education or its successor. And our item of information for tonight's board, excuse me, action item is board policy JBC1 homeless students. This has been revised in compliance with Senate Bill 154, which requires us to update policies to include references to the US Department of Education or its successor. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve placing board policy JBC1 homeless students on the table for public review and comment at the July 7th board meeting. This concludes the teaching and learning report unless there are any questions. Thank you, Miss Whitaker. Next, we have student services, Dr. Yansy. Welcome. Good evening, Dr. Harden and board members. The July 2025 student services report contains four items of information and four action items. The first item of information is our summer youth
019athletic camps. This summer, our high school athletic programs had offered sports specific camps for younger students throughout the district. At the conclusion of the camp season, we'll have we will have offered 26 camp opportunities for our community between both high schools. Camps began the first week of summer break and will continue through July the 25th. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our high school coaches for their outstanding job of developing the next generation of Warriors and Titans. The second item of information is our school safety summit held on June 3rd. School and district leaders participated in presentations and discussions with representatives of the Georgia Emergency Management Homeland Security Agency, Okone County Sheriff's Office, Coney County U Emergency Management, the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders, Strategics, and School Dog. Throughout the school summit
020topics included school safety legislation, behavior threat assessment and management, our SRO program, the AED bill, and emergency planning for the upcoming school year. I would like to commend our school leaders for their hard work and dedication to providing safe learning environments for all of our students. The third item of information is an update on our school resource officer program. During the month of June, members of our SRO division and district staff attended the Georgia Alliance for School Resource Officers and Educators conference and the GEMA and Homeland Security School Safety Conferences. Both conferences provided professional learning and opportunities to connect and learn with other agencies and districts around the state. In addition, as a reminder, at the June 9th board meeting, Mr. Kofer mentioned that the Okoni County Sheriff's Office currently has eight officers assigned to
021our SRO division. Our staff is continuing to work with Captain Mark Smith as we approach the start of the school year to designate school assignments for the 2526 school year. The fourth item of information is board regulation JB-R1 student attendance student attendance protocol has been revised to be in compliance with Senate Bill 123 which requires local boards to update policies to include references that no student shall be expelled solely due to due to aptism. This statement has been added to our board of education regulation to make it compliant with Senate Bill 123. Student Services has four action items for tonight's board of education meeting. The first action item is an outofstate field trip. North Okony's football team would like to travel to Copper Hill, Tennessee on July the 17th. Superintendent's recommendation is to approve the
022out ofstate field trip as recommended. The second action item is board policy JBCD transfer and withdrawals. This policy has been revised to comply with Senate Bill 123 and House Bill 268, which require time frames for releasing student records for withdrawing students and receiving student records for enrolling students. In addition, House Bill 268 discusses the disclosure of student information from the enrolling parents or guardians to the receiving school. The student superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve placing board policy JBCD transfer and withdrawals on the table for public review and comment at the July 7th board of education meeting. The third action item is board policy IDFA, equity and sports. This policy has been revised to comply with Senate Bill One. In this revision, the term sex replaces the term gender found in
023the proposed board policy. The current board policy is consistent with Georgia High School Association's regulations governing gender. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve placing board policy IDFA, equity and sports on the table for public review and comment at the July 7th board of education meeting. And the fourth action item is board policy JGA, suicide prevention. This policy has been revised to comply with House Bill 268. In this update, the policy has been revised to include the language that the policy explicitly states compliance with requirements set forth in OCGA 20-2-779- or.1. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve placing board policy JJA suicide prevention on the table for public review and comment July 7th board of education meeting. This concludes student services report unless there are any
024questions. Thank you Dr. Yans. Next we have special education miss. Good evening Dr. Harden and board members. Uh the special education report for July 7th, 2025 has contains one item of information and no action items. Tonight's uh information item is on ESY which is our extended school year which are services of special education services and related services that are provided to students beyond the normal school year. We provide a free and appropriate public education in accordance with FAPE and IDEIDA and is aligned with each student's IEP. This is at no cost to the family. ESY this year was held at Okone Elementary School. We had uh 40 students, special education students from elementary, middle, and high school that attended the services three days a week. The services um were based on u an IEP team
025decision at each student's IEP and whether or not that student met the qualifications that the state aligns for a student meeting extended school year. At that time, if a student does qualify, then the IEP goals that need to be further addressed during ESY are chosen. not all of the goals that are being worked on throughout the year, but we picked the most um goals that are going to be most needed or that could show regression or recruitment and needed for the following school year. Um at that time um we have then solidify our teachers and our staff and I do want to you know commend all of our teachers and pair of professionals that work beyond uh the school year to come out and service our students um during the extended school year. So they
026are a huge part of the success that we have going on with our extended school year. So, I want to thank them and of course um Miss Lockbridge for allowing us to come to Okone Elementary and service our students there. Any questions? Thank you, M. Technology. Mr. McCullers. Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members and Dr. Harden. Kon County Schools technology services report for July 7th includes one information item and no action items. Our one item of information is online payments through Infinite Campus. Over the past few months, technology services has collaborated with the business services team to implement a new online payment system within Infinite Campus. The goal of this initiative is to provide a consistent and convenient method for families to complete school related transactions electronically. Through the infinite campus portal accessible
027through the website and mobile app, parents and students can now make payments for various school items and services depending upon their individual school. For example, a parent can pay for their elementary students ice cream, their middle school students technology fee, and their high school students field trip all in a single transaction within the Infinity Campus platform. To promote the new system, a flyer currently displayed on the screen has been distributed to school principles for inclusion in their summer messages and newsletters. It also it's also been shared with our district's social media platforms. A pilot program launched in June allowed both high schools to begin accepting payments for parking permits for the upcoming school year. To assist parents with this new process, technology services created a help document with screenshots specifically for parents and students. A
028sample document has been included in this month's assembly report. In preparation for full implementation, a training session is scheduled later on in July to assist school bookkeepers with the item posting and fund reconciliation. Our objective is to have th this online payment system fully operational districtwide by the beginning of pre-planning. And with that, that concludes technology services report. Unless you have any questions. No, but you're really limiting the excuses of parents when it comes to ice cream money. So, let's just keep this between us. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. McCullers. Next, we have human resources, Mr. Kofer. Good evening, Dr. Harden and members of the board of education. The Okone County Schools Human Resources Division report this evening contains one item of information and one action item for this evening. Our item of information is an
029update on the hiring process for the FY26 school year. As of today, not including any candidates who will be placed before you this evening. We have welcomed 87 new hires for the fiscal year 26. 58 of these are certified hires representing seven different position types. Of those 49 are classroom teachers and we are especially proud that six of those teachers are alumni of Okone County Schools. All of them this year from Okon County High School. Mr. Stevens, it's always meaningful when former students return to give back by shaping the next generation of learners here in our community. In addition, we have brought on 29 classified employees covering nine different position types, further strengthening our team across all levels of school and district operations. As in years past, we'd like to provide you with a glimpse
030into the breadth of experience represented by our new hires. Among our incoming teachers, we have individuals just beginning their careers, as well as as those with over 20 years of experience in the classroom. This diverse range of expertise brings both fresh perspectives and seasoned insight into our schools. What unites them all is a shared enthusiasm and commitment to the students of Okon County and their excitement to join our family. Here you'll see a breakdown of the degrees held by our certified new hires represented as present uh percentages. Notably, nearly 70% hold an advanced degree in the field of education, underscoring the high level of expertise joining our classrooms. At this time, I'd like to take a moment to recognize the outstanding efforts that our school principles and district leaders put in to recruiting top tier
031talent for our students. Their dedication to finding the right fit both in skill and in alignment with Okone County School's values is truly commendable. And frankly, the competitive competitiveness between our elementary school principles is fun to watch. I also want to extend sincere appreciation to our HR team and the business services department for managing the significant work of onboarding and processing each new hire. Their behind-the-scenes contributions are essential to ensuring a smooth start for our students and staff alike. Our action item for this evening is board policy G AR, employee leave and absences. Board policy GR has been amended to include living and organ donation to adhere to recently enacted legislation. Each public school teacher and employee shall now be entitled to receive the following leaves of absence without loss of pay. Not more than
032seven days for the purpose of bone marrow donation or trans uh transplantation and not more than 30 days for the purpose of organ donation. Neither of these will be deducted from an employes available sick leave and shall be included as credable service for the purpose of determining any retirement or pension benefits. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve placing board policy g employee leave and absences on the table for public review and comment at the July 7th, 2025 board meeting. This concludes human resources report this evening unless there are any questions. Thank you, Mr. Ker. Business services, Mr. Adams. Uh good evening board members and Dr. Harden. Uh business services report for July 7th contains five items of information and three action items for tonight's board meeting. The first item of
033information is our June cash balance report. As of June 30th, the closing cash balance represents a 1.8% 8% decrease over last month, but our funding projections are currently stable and our cash balance for June is strong and we will are will be and are well positioned to meet our financial obligations as we close out the fiscal year. Our second item of information is the ELOS collections report. We've had an increase of 1.59% over last month and a 2.70% increase over June of last year. Our third item of information is the ELO 6 report. Revenues and expenditures have been updated through the end of June. Our fourth item of information is the fiscal year 25 general revenue general fund budget amendment for 2025. Uh the fiscal year 25 general revenue will grow $3.5 million more than
034anticipated due to local revenues and interest income. And as you can see on the slide those came from our uh interest is at two million and then adalorum and vehicle title tax. That's your TATV. That's really where that money came from that we've done. And we did adjust the budget this year to reflect those increases for this year's budget. Additionally, we're able to operate within our adopted budget for expenditures as well as utilizing additional funds to continue districtwide projects such as new curriculum, the Rocky Branch renovation, and the district-wide generators. These revenues are also reflected in the amendment to the budget expenditure report shown. Our fifth item information is our federal funds budget amendment for 2025. Grant budgets have been amended to reflect updated grant allocation and corresponding budgets that have been approved by the
035state. I also have a tax digest update that's not on the calendar because we really just got this off from our tax commissioner. Uh we received our official tax digest and we are currently reviewing the information in detail. At this time we are still recommending the adoption of the roll back rate consistent with the tenative decision made during the May 12th board meeting and we will continue to evaluate the data and we'll provide further updates as necessary prior to final adoption. So, our goal is once we get the numbers reviewed that we we received, we'll get that posted in the newspaper as we're required uh this month and then we'll bring that up to your for adoption at the August meeting. Our first action item is the 20 fiscal year 25 general fund budget amendment
036for your consideration. I ask the superintendent to recommend approval to adopt the fiscal year 25 fund budget amendment. Our second action item is the fiscal year 25 budget amendment for federal funds for consideration. I also ask the superintendent recommend approval to adopt the fiscical year 25 federal fund budget amendment. And our third action item is board policy DIIB financial reports. This regulation has been updated to reflect changes made by the federal government to the capitalization thresholds as well as updates from other state entities. The super superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve board policy DIIB financial reports that was on the table for public comment at this at the June 9th 2025 board meeting. And there were no public comments at that time for that we've gotten on this policy. So, and
037that concludes my report unless the board has any questions. I have um a few. Sure. So um one just a comment just wanted to say thank you for sharing the um tax digest updates and sharing that we do remain on track um for a full roll back. I'm excited to to hear that continues to be the case. Um when I'm looking at the budget amendments just to confirm that's going to be an adjustment to the amendment to capture the actual results from the prior fiscal year. Yes. Okay. for closing out the fiscal year 25. Yes. Thank you. Um and then on the um action item number three board policy vib financial reports um can you confirm my understanding this is going to be to align with essentially the standards for the state of Georgia. That's
038correct. When it comes and the federal threshold correct that was changed. Yes sir. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you Mr. Adams. Sir operations Dr. White. Good evening board members and Dr. Harden, excuse me. Operations has four items of information for this evening and no action items for this month's regular session. This first information line item for operations is an update on our energy report. Our kilowatt usage per day for a th00and square feet has been updated for the month of May. Our secondformational item is our transportation update. For the previous month, we had three field trips, 26 athletic trips, 32 buses deployed for a total of 4,662 miles. Our third item of information is our annual transportation update for FY25. Board members, you'll see the daily wrership for AM and PM by elementary
039and secondary with a total of 4,975 daily riders. In addition, we had 293 field trips, 746 athletic trips, 202 special education trips, 1,681 buses deployed for these trips for a total of 108,289 miles. Our next time information is an update on our school nutrition regulations. USDA has implemented a new regulation for next school year which only allows school systems to purchase up to 10% of their food from non-domemestic sources. This includes items like bananas, pineapples, mangoes, and mixed fruit. Over the next 5 years, school system will be required to lower this percentage to 5% of their total food purchases. This is a new metric for nutrition staff to monitor and report to DOE and USDA. This concludes the operations report unless there are any questions. Thank you, Dr. White. Yes, sir. Facilities, Mr. Rickson. Good
040evening. The operation facilities report county schools operation facilities June 7th, 2025 board of education report contains one item of information and no action items. First item information is a districtwide generator project. The new generator at Colum Ferry, Malcolm Bridge Middle, Rocky Branch Elementary, Okone Middle, Okone Elementary, and the IT building on School Street have all been installed and placed into service. The generators at Okoney High and North Okone High have been placed and are in the process of being connected. Now, all generators will be operational in time for the return of school uh for the start of school in August. Okone County uh high practice field lighting upgrade. All the work is complete and the lights are in service. North O County High door hardware improvements. The work is complete. We're working to schedule final
041inspection now. maintenance shop paving. Uh Steve added some video for us this week. Uh the good news is they they prepared this u the uh subgrade last week and they actually paved today and they said they won't go home until they're finished today. So uh uh the pavers love this hot dry weather and they're making great progress with it. And with that said of Coney High parking lot again uh the contractor has continued to make good progress on the project. The sidewalks are complete. They are preparing the base for paving with the hot and dry weather. We should have no problem completing uh in time for the return of students in August. That concludes the operations report unless there are any questions. Thank you, Mr. Richardson. Thank you to the board. Mr. C. Thank you,
042Mr. Ransom. Board members of Dr. Harden. Good evening again. Communications report this evening contains one item of information. June social media. Coney County Schools had 29 social media posts in June for an average of 14,349 views. For the month, 17 posts were viewed more than 11,000 times, including two at 35,000 and five at 20,000. Two of the top three posts featured staffers being promoted to new roles as well as potential staffers joining our team in a variety of open positions. And even though it was posted in the summer a couple of weeks out, meet the teacher information was very popular. OCS gained 75 followers in June, giving the district more than 23,146 across Facebook, Instagram, and X. We thank the parents, students, community members, businesses, and media outlets that follow and engage with us on
043our social media accounts. And that concludes communications unless there are any questions. Public communication, Mr. Ransom, we have four county citizens signed up this evening. Before I invite them up, I'll read this. Policies BCBI and BCBIR1 state that only Okone County residents or school system employees may address the board and that members of the public shall conduct themselves in a respectful manner that is not disrupted to the conduct of the board's business. The board allows three minutes for those who sign up prior to the meeting. Please state your name, address, and topic. The board requests that you refrain from making any disparaging remarks about school system personnel. There will generally be no response to comments or questions posed by citizens at the meeting. All comments and questions will be taken under advisement by the board.
044However, any board member shall be free to respond and make public comments if he or she elects to do so. To any citizen wishing to provide documents for board members, please submit them to the director of communications before the meeting or prior to addressing the board. Please remain at the podium during your public comment time. Our first citizen is Esther Porter. Welcome. Good evening. I am Esther Porter. My address is 111 Summit Circle and I am pleased to say that Dr. Harden has already answered my question because my concern was the mold and she stated in the paper that she would look into this and I do appreciate her following through on it. I do have one question. Will the results be publicized or will it be given at the next meeting? It'll be presented
045at our the meetings here. Thank you very much for allowing me. Next is Cara Frisk. Good evening. Good evening board members and Dr. Harden. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight and thank you Dr. Harden for directing additional testing at OCE. Um I will still read my prepared remarks in as an active stewardship to the parents and community members that I'm representing tonight. My name is Cara Fresque and I am an Aonyi County elementary school parent residing at 11:01 Victoria Road in Watkinsville. Tonight, I'm here to deliver a message supported by nearly 300 parents and community members who have signed the petition I shared with you this evening. You should have a physical copy. We are united by one clear concern, the health and safety of our children and their teachers. That concern
046is what brings us here asking for something simple, responsible, and proactive. Professional mold testing at a Coney County elementary school. The strength of that concern is underscored by the fact that parents have expressed a willingness to help fund the testing ourselves. But let me be clear, this is not something parents should have to pay for. The district has the resources to make this happen. What we're asking for is not extravagant. It's a basic health precaution that countless workplaces and public institutions take seriously every day. What's been harder than the lack of testing is the lack of two-way dialogue. The standard answer that humidity levels were checked does not constitute meaningful transparency. It does not answer our questions. It does not address teacher resignations or health concerns. and it certainly does not rebuild trust. In fact,
047the absence of real conversation and lack of clear, credible testing data has had the opposite effect. It has fostered skepticism and eroded the very trust we want to have in the leaders of our school system. Tonight marks the first board meeting under new leadership. We are hopeful. We were encouraged by Dr. Harden's recent words about transparency, about being willing to sit down and talk even when we may not agree. That's all we're asking for now. a willingness to take this concern seriously, to go beyond proxy measures like humidity testing, and to invest in professional mold testing that demonstrates care for the long-term health of the people in our schools. We believe this can be a turning point. Please show the community that our voices are heard and that safety, transparency, and trust are priorities worth
048investing in. Thank you. Next is Mandy Morier. Welcome. Hello, Dr. Harden and the board. Um, yes, my name is Mandy Moriera and I am at 3475 Downs Creek Drive. I'm here once again to discuss the potential mold at OCES. We are so thankful to hear those words, Dr. Harden. This has been heartbreaking, very upsetting, very stressful for the parents and the community with this whole situation that's been dragging on since before spring break. Um, I still want to discuss these areas because I'm sure you've seen the videos and read the reports and all the things, but again, the lack of transparency, the lack of communication, all of the things. Uh, it's just been unbelievable this whole process that we've all been left in the dark. And um, I just want you to know of these
049areas of concern to make sure that they are being addressed. the gym, which I've been in personally. I'm not sure if you guys have all visited or if this is your decision now, but the gym is in really bad shape and you can tell it when you walk in. It's been closed up all night or closed up for an hour. You walk in, you smell it, it's in the air. My child is there as well. Um, we lost both of our PE teachers and one put in her resignation letter is because of the mold and how sick she's been. And that is just unbelievable to me. I'm just devastated that we have lost her in the other one. The second area of concern is that outside third grade pod my child was in all last
050year. There was a room that was um converted to a storage room. It was the room that Miss Faber was in two years ago when she was starting to get sick and complain. She was moved one room over and was still sick this year. She has also resigned. We have lost her amazing teacher and in her resignation letter she stated mold. The third area which is probably not on anybody's radar because the staff has come to me and talked to me is the fourth and fifth grade split pod down the stairs. Um they are terrified to come forward. They don't want to get relocated and they're worried about their job stability, but somebody's got to look into that area. that pod flooded over a year ago and the remediation of it was not done properly
051and um and staff's having issues in those rooms. One of them has been chronically sick this year and she's kind of hiding it at this point. Um we also lost our nurse and she stated that as well that she is um not able to keep up with this situation in the school anymore and um she put that on her resignation letter as well. It was made clear that Mr. Ryan White told me the superintendent had the final say so on the professional mold testing. So we are thankful for Dr. Harden coming in. Um to hear those words again is just um I don't know it's it's a big uh it's a big piece over my head right now just to think that that might be happening. We've all put a lot of time in this
052and a lot of energy and it's been very stressful. So we really appreciate you reconsidering. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Carrie Cohen. Good evening. I'm Carrie Cohen. I live at 1260 Summit Circle. I'm a parent of an elementary school student at OCE. And I am here to thank you for um for what I heard this evening that um you will be looking to testing for the mold situation. I'm going to take it one step further. As I understand it, there's not an acceptable countrywide number for what the plan of action should be should mold be found. So, I'm going to ask that you please consider regardless of what the number is that given the examples um there is a plan of action and that we are communicated with about it. That's it. Thank you.
053And that concludes public communication. First action item is board policy JCB1 uh homeless students. And I would recommend that the board adopt placing this policy for homeless students on the table for public review and comment until the next board of education meeting. Motion moved Mr. Tool second Mr. Hammock all in favor passes 5-0 the second policy is the board to place board policy G A employee leave and absences on the table for public review and comment until the next board of education meeting need a motion second Mr. tool. All in favor passes 5. The board will vote. I'm sorry. The It is the recommendation of superintendent for the board to vote to take off the table and approve the board policy DJ EA. A motion. So moved. Mr. Ham. Second. Mr. Hammond. All in favor?
054Passes 5. I would recommend that the board u place board policy JBCD transfer and withdrawals on the table for public review and comment until the next board meeting. Motion Mr. Tulle second. Mr. Hammock. All in favor passes 5. I would recommend the board vote to place board policy IDFA, gender equity and sports on the table for public review and comment until the next board meeting. Motion, Mr. Tulle. Second, Mr. Hammock. All in favor passes 5. I would recommend that the board vote to place board policy suicide prevention on the table for public comment and review until the next board of education meeting. So moved. Mr. Hammond, Miss Parish, all in favor? Passes 5 Z. Uh, I would recommend that the board uh approve the North Oone High School field trip to Carpa Hill, Tennessee on
055uh July 17th, 20125. So moved. Second, Parish. All in favor? Passes 5. I recommend that the board vote on the final FY20 25 general fund budget amendment. So moved. Mr. Hammond. Second. Mr. Ham. All in favor? Um and finally, uh the board will vote. I would recommend that the board vote on the final FY2026 federal funds budget amendment. Miss Parish. Second, Mr. Tool. All in favor? Passes 50. We do have a need to enter into executive session to discuss personnel matters and I need a motion to do so. I'll make a motion that the board will adjourn to executive session to discuss or deliberate upon personnel matters as described on the affidavit to be attached to the minutes. Second. All in favor? Pass 5. Return to executive session.