001Call this July 9th regular session to order. First of all, we need a motion to approve the agenda. Mr. Tol. Second, Mr. Ham. All in favor? Passes. 50. Next, I need a motion to approve the minutes. Mr. Tol second, Mr. Hammond. All in favor passes 5 Z. Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members and Dr. Branch. We have several people to recognize this evening. So, if you'll step forward, join us up front. As you do, I will point out that the art this month is uh being provided by students from Dove Creek Middle School. Uh these slides will be on display in this room this evening. and then also on the hallway throughout the month. Beautiful pieces and we appreciate Miss Laya Burden and her staff her students rather for providing these for us.
002First this evening, the board will recognize the FFA state aggracience fair awardees from Malcolm Bridge Middle, Elizabeth Morgan and Sloan Gety. Second place in division two animal systems, Theo Ibing. Third place in division one animal systems, Asher Grace Bailey and Nora Brewbaker. Second place, division 2 social systems. Dear Marotra, second place, division one social systems. Ava Allred and Sophia Holmes. Second place, division 2 power structure technical systems. Christopher Butler, second place, division one power structure technical systems. Chandler Teeman and Caitlyn Kramer second place division 2 food system. And to hear Marotra, state winner in junior prepared public speaking. Their adviser is Emily Corson. [Applause] [Laughter] Next board will recognize the 2025 FFA state awardees from North Oak County High. Blake Allen, Devin Busby, Josh Chansy, and Coulter Steinamp, state champions in senior poultry judging. Lena
003Steinamp, Culture Steinamp, and Devin Busby, grand champions in Lamb County Group. Culture Steinamp, grand champion in senior dough fitting team. Scarlett Harris, grand champion in FFA reserve senior dough fitting. Aiden Allen, Hazel Brewbaker, Anna Lee Greer, and Brady Smith, third place in junior poultry judging. And Hazel Brewbaker and Analia Nunees, third place in division 4 state agroscience fair plant systems. Their adviser is Tim Griffith. [Applause] row a little bit row. You're fine. Next, the board will recognize the 2025 FCCLA State Leadership Conference Awardees from Okone County High School. Abigail Tallet, Annabelle Bloom, I'm sorry, Annabella Bloom, and Zoe Small. first place in nutrition and wellness and Zeff Muro first place in instructional video design. Their advisor is Christy Glaze. Next, the board will recognize the 2025 state science and engineering fair awardee from Malcolm Bridge
004Middle, Nvy Misra, gold medalist in NAA. A taking the pulse of the planet. The adviser is Elizabeth Patrick. Next, the board will recognize the class 3A girls soccer state champions from Okone County High School. Camila Clifton, Ella Hudgens, Caroline Ellman, Frankie James, Katherine Rickardson, Jordan Gra, Jasmine Lockam, Berkeley V, Drew Martin, Darby Ban, Sarah Worth, Kate Walker, Claire Ulman, Addison Mooney, Alex Clifton, Sydney Jackson, Ava Davis, Sophia Clifton, Maddie Cass, Allison Winters, and Hayden Jones. The coaches are Justin Hamby, Mark Levitton, and Anna Gentry. [Applause] Next, the board will recognize the class 3A girls tennis state champions from Okone County High School. Cadence Keys, Caroline Smith, Hayden Stoultz, Jenny Hu, Mary Linda Vite, Ellie Johnson, Nieta Patel, Marin Torres, Abigail Tlette, and Mahique Desai. The coaches are James Blo, Jim Blo, and Christine Rainwater. [Applause]
005row. Perfect. [Applause] Next board will recognize the class 3A girls track and field state champion in the 800 meters, Cadence Keys. The coaches are Jacob Forester and Kendra H. Hotton of Okone County High School. Okay, she's running 800 [Applause] meters. Congratulations [Applause] board members. We have one final recognition, but I'll ask you return to your seats for this one. Mr. Ransom. Thanks, Stephen. Y'all bear with me. It's hard to wrap up 13 years into a a short summary like this. Stephen and I were talking earlier today. I hadn't ever really considered it, but 13 years is just right. So, Dr. branch came in with the kindergarten class and saw him all the way through graduation. So, he gets to graduate, too. But we'll start off with a list of long accomplishments that I've uh summarized
006with Stephen's help. Thank you, Stephen. We'll start off with teaching and learning. Highest achievement in No Coney County High School's history. Increased graduation rate from uh 90.5 to 99.1 over the course of 12 years. Increase ACT scores to the number one ranking in the state at 24.5. Increase SAT scores to number three ranking in the state with an average of 1161. Increased AP achievement rates to 94% from 72%. During that time, Dr. Branch shook the hands of 8,512 students at graduations. It's a lot of handshaking. I don't know if y'all realize, but some of them come up there with a firm grip. So you got to take Advil before and after special education increase the number of special education teachers from 65 to 86. Raise the special education graduation rate from 84% to 100%. It's
007the highest graduation rate in Okone County School's history. increase the parent survey participation from 65 to 712 parents and the positivity rating from 54% to 97%. Human resources. During Dr. Branch's time, he has recommended the hiring of over 2100 new teachers. All six of the current cabinet members are division chiefs. 12 of the current division directors, 12 of the current principles, and 18 of 19 of the current assistant principles. That's 98% of the current principles were recommended for hiring under Dr. Branch's leadership. Business services. During his time, he oversaw a combined budget of over 1.15 billion in 13 years. Recommended a cumulative uh pay increase from 2015 of 21 a.5%. Recommended step increases for all educators from 22 to 30 years. OCS has been ranked the number one school system in Georgia for financial efficiency
008by the Georgia Department of Education and the Governor's Office of Student Achievement five straight times in these years. For operations, he's implemented over $184 million building campaign to modernize and enhance instructional and athletic facilities to include building new schools of Dove Creek Elementary and Middle School and the instructional support center, renovations to all 12 campuses, additions to six schools, and modifications to three schools. For athletics, he added turf fields and track resurfacing at both high schools. Updated lighting at both high schools and middle schools. Resurfaced all tennis courts and added lighting. For buses, he recommended purchasing over 60 buses for a total of $6.3 million. Also, all those buses, in case your kids have not told you this, are air conditioned, which is a great improvement. and instituted a bus replacement cycle plan that turns
009over buses every 20 years as they need to be replaced. Student services collaborated with the board of education and the board of commissioners on student resource officers and implemented the first SRO program in Okony's history. Recommended the raptor visit management reunification system along with Centiggics as we were one of the first in the state to employ Cintigics. Many other systems have come and followed our lead and come here for training over the years because of his visionary accomplishments. Recommended the addition of security vestibules at all schools. Added multiple sports including esports, dance, flag football, lacrosse. Slow six pitch softball was brought back and recommended allowing sixth graders to play in middle school athletics. For communications, we have over 23,000 followers, which I believe you were the communications director when you first showed up, sir. and
010recommended live streaming for BOE meetings for easier communication after CO technology recommended and oversaw the purchase of 36,000 student Chromebooks, over 3,700 desktop computers, over 2,300 staff laptop computers, 1,600 projectors and whiteboards, class audio systems for all elementary schools, and a onetoone Chromebook program that came about during CO. It's a short list. There's many other accomplishments over 13 years and we're very proud of you and glad to say that you're one of our own. We appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] And that concludes recognitions. Michael, I'd just like to make a quick comment if you don't mind. Um, I just wanted to express my appreciation for Dr. Branch. It's um, yeah, thank you. It has been my privilege to serve under your leadership on this board. I'm grateful that my kids graduate graduated before
011you left and just the amazing impact that you've had on our county. And I think a lot of people don't realize how influential and respected you are in the state and across the nation. You are impacting publication, public education far beyond just county's borders and getting that recognition because you've done such an amazing job here. So, just thank you and I look forward to all the great things that are to come. And as I've always say, I've come to learn in this role that a job in public education is a lifestyle choice. It's not just a job. And I I don't know how y'all do it, but especially in higher leadership positions, it's a sacrifice to you, to your wife, to your kids, there are things that you give up to have this job. And
012again, I'm just grateful that you did. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next we have points of pride with Dove Creek Middle. Mr. Eddie Good evening to the board. It's kind of hard to follow that. So, okay. Good evening to the members of the board and Dr. Branch. As you know, I'm Dr. Mike Eddie and I have the privilege to serve as principal of Dove Creek Middle School. First, we would like to sincerely thank the board for allowing us this opportunity to share some of the accomplishments and highlights that we make that we've made this past year. The Dove Creek Middle a place of pride. Your support makes it possible for our students and staff to grow, lead, and succeed in in meaningful ways every day. At Dove Creek Middle School, we take
013immense pride in the accomplishments, culture, and community that defines us as Knights. Our points of pride reflect the values we hold. academic excellence, student growth, leadership, and a strong sense of community. Whether through outstanding academic performance, awardwinning extracurricular involvement, or the everyday acts of kindness and integrity shown by our students and staff, the spirit of the Knights is always present. Tonight, we're especially proud to have this presentation by students who have demonstrated one of our core Knight characteristics, traits that embody what it truly means to be a Dove Creek Knight. These students have gone above and beyond in showing the character, commitment, and leadership that make our school community so special. Their actions remind us why we celebrate our points of pride and continue to uphold the night tradition of excellence. This time, I'll turn
014this over to Mrs. Thomas, our Dove Creek Middle School assistant principal, to discuss our mission and vision, as well as a little bit of our nights of the month. Good evening. I'm Lisa Thomas, as Dr. Eddie said, and I'm one of the assistant principles at Dev Creek. It's a privilege to open a brand new building, and so I thank you for that honor. As a leadership team, one of our first goals was to create our vision and our mission. We asked ourselves, when people think about or talk about Dub Creek Nights, what do we want them to say? What do we want our students to be known for? Thus began several meaningful conversations about what it means to be a Knight. The statement that shows on the screen was developed by a team of teacher
015leaders along with ourselves as well as getting student input. What you will see tonight is the fruition of our vision from those early days. Being a Dove Creek Knight is not about being perfect. It is about being a person of high moral character and resiliency. It's about being one's best even in the face of adversity. The best people that can tell you about this is our students. Each student you meet tonight represents one of the traits of being a Knight. Oftentimes, these students go unnoticed because they're always doing the right thing. But at Dove Creek, we want to make sure that they know that we see them, we appreciate them, and they are our leaders. So, it is my honor to introduce you to our very first night. This is Baron Bahar. I'm Baron Bahar
016and I just finished sixth grade and I'm going to be talking about knowledgeable. A knowledgeable person is one who has or shows a clear understanding of information about the world or a particular subject. At DCMS, being knowledgeable looks like listening to your teachers in class so you can be knowledgeable about the standards you're learning or listening to the announcements in the morning so you can be knowledgeable about what is going on in your school. My name is Isaiah Lahed and I just finished sixth grade at DCMS. And the N in night stands for noble. A noble person has personal qualities that people admire such as honesty, generosity, courage, etc. At DCMS, being noble looks like treating people with respect. So think before you speak and use manners. Having appropriate classroom behavior. So participate and listen.
017Striving for excellence in all that you do. Do your best. And being honorable and a person of integrity. Do what is right. As a knight, what can you do to be noble? Hello, my name is Charlotte Clark and I just finished seventh grade at Dove Creek Middle School. And today I'm talking about what innovative means in nights. An innovative person uses a process or a series of steps to create something of value that doesn't currently exist. Solve a problem or address a need. At DCMS, being innovative looks like innovation improves upon prior knowledge, requires vision, use of creativity, being persistent, and cap collaborate with teammates and experts from different fields. I'm Llaya Long and I'll be talking about generosity and I just finished 8th grade. A generous person is one who unselfishly gives up their
018time, encouragement, money, or items to someone in need. At DCMS, being generous looks like helping to straighten up after class or an event, supporting classmates and staff with actions and words, and serving through charitable giving at school and in the community. I'm I'm Liam Pastor and I just finished up seventh grade and I'm going to talk about humble. A humble person does not believe they are they are better than others and may have healthy self-esteemes without needing to boast. At DCMS, being humble looks like celebrating and empowering others, staying open to constructive criticism, accepting praise with grace, being selfless and generous, practicing the art of listening. Um, my name is Alex and um, I just finished the seventh grade and I'm going to be talking about tenacious. If someone calls you tenacious, you're probably thinking,
019I mean, you're probably the kind of person who never gives up and never stops trying. At DCMS, being tenacious looks like persevering especially when times get tough, having a positive attitude, asking questions when you when you don't understand, doing extra practice to understand harder concepts, and setting clear goals, taking steps to achieve them. Hello, my name is Aubrey Sour. I just finished I just finished sixth grade and today I'm going to be talking about successful. A successful person works to achieve one's desired visions or planned goals. At DCMS, being successful looks like being organized, learning time management, avid reading, asking questions for help or understanding, getting sleep and eating healthy, and having a growth mindset. And good evening. I'm Lisa Vaughn, and I'm not going to tell you what grade I just finished. I am
020honored to serve as the other assistant principal at Dove Creek. Just want to thank our students tonight for providing a snapshot of what it really means to be a Dove Creek Knight. These students are leaders in our school and they represent the spirit of Dove Creek. And what they don't realize is that themselves and all their peers are helping to build a foundation that's going to help so many and impact so many kids for years to come and we're so thankful for them. Dr. Branch and members of the board, we want to thank you again for all you have done to support Dev Creek Middle in its opening. As is evident tonight, we are very proud of our school. For the past two years, it has been a joy for all of our stakeholders, for
021our students, for our parents, our faculty, our staff, and our community to be a part of establishing this school. But we could not succeed without your support and dedication. And for that, we are very grateful. Thank you for allowing us to share with you tonight. And go Knights. [Applause] Next we have the superintendent report board members and staff, community, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for the recognition. It's been my honor and privilege to to serve this community. Um, want to thank our high school uh leaders, parents, and students. As the board knows, we had the opportunity to graduate 687 Okone County High School and North Oak seniors um May 23rd. I know that was especially uh significant for Mr. Ransom and Miss Parish as you got the dual role of being a
022parent and a board member that evening. Uh a very accomplished class, $6.2 million in scholarships that is excluding Hope and Zel Miller. They've been accepted to 150 universities, colleges, and militarymies across the United States. Appreciate and excuse me. And it's it was a a great cap to a a special special year. So, uh, as we say, and I joke with the kids, I should have had a cap on and been able to throw that up with them. Um, as you saw, we were able to celebrate several state championships tonight. North Oakone Girls Golf U will be celebrating as well. Fifth straight title for them. Okone girls soccer was the third straight championship and Okone girls tennis were state championships this year as well. Um, we got many, many students and community members, uh, that are
023looking for their kids to be the next state champions. And thankfully, our coaches and staff members are willing to spend their summers uh, running athletic camps. And so, the Warriors and Titans of the future are honing their skills at camps through June and July. And, uh, I've been asked to make sure that everyone knows registration is still open for some of those camps and it's available on social media. uh as well want to thank Dr. Yansy. Uh he was not able to be with us tonight but he did a wonderful job of setting up a uh first of its kind in our system safety summit uh that was held last week. Uh all principles, all assistant principles and many district office personnel were on board and at those meetings along with Dr. Harden and myself.
024Um, the Georgia man Emergency Management Homeland Security Agency, the Okone Sheriff's Office, the Okone Emergency Management, the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders, and then two of our safety, uh, partner companies, uh, Centiggics and School Dog were present, and it was a very valuable summit covering a variety of topics. We had great feedback from our leaders at all levels and again want to thank Dr. Gansy for his work on that. The last thing I have for tonight's report board members is to just thank you for your participation in the GSBA annual conference last week and the time that you took away from your family and your and your work to uh hone your skills. Um tonight we do have board norms and protocols listed as an action item. Those board norms and protocols are the same
025board norms and protocols that you have approved previously. But each year, Georgia School Boards Association asks that the school board and governance team agree to those board norms and take the public act of approving those uh in a board meeting. So we'll have those later in our action items and also our meeting dates uh for the 2526 school year. That concludes superintendent's report unless there are any questions. Thank you, Dr. Branch. Next, we have teaching learning for Miss Whitaker. Welcome. Good evening, Dr. Branch and board members. The Oak County Schools teaching and learning report for June 9th contains four items of information and no action items. The first item of information is teacher appreciation week. During the week of May 5th through 9th, schools throughout our county recognize teacher appreciation week by honoring educators and
026staff members with a variety variety of thoughtful gestures. From handwritten cards and floral arrangements to food trucks and special treats, our dedicated teachers and staff members were celebrating for their unwavering commitment and impact. The second item of information is advanced placement exams. Okon County Schools administered AP exams for 27 courses during the FY25 school year. These courses range from AP art history to AP Calculus to AP Physics and include four world languages: Chinese, French, Latin, and Spanish. These offerings reflect the district's commitment to providing a rigorous, diverse academic experience that prepares students for college and career readiness. The third item of information is CTAE end of pathway assessments and scholarship awards. In May, CTAE pathway completers took part in end of pathway assessments, earning industry certified credentials that are valued by our workforce partners. We
027are proud to share that students from Okone County High School earned 121 industry credentials while students from North Okoni earned 100 credentials. Highlighted certifications include 16 certified clinical medical assistant credentials, 29 certified personal trainer credentials, and 16 FEMA community preparedness credentials. All are nationally recognized credentials that allow students to demonstrate workforce readiness and gain a competitive edge as they pursue employment and post-secary opportunities. 10 OCS students are currently preparing to attend national leadership conferences this summer. Eight middle middle school students, four from OKone Middle and four from Dove Creek Middle will travel to Anaheim, California to compete in the FBLA National Competition. Additionally, two high school students from OKone High will represent our district at the FCCLA National Competition in Orlando, Florida. While these trips offer exciting opportunities for our students, they can also come
028with significant cost. We are thankful to the OCS Alumni Association for their generous support in helping fund and offset these expenses. Qualifying students were invited to apply for travel scholarships and the alumni association awarded a total of $750 across three scholarships. We especially appreciate that for the first time, middle school students were included in the selection process. Our final information item is the K3 standardsbased report card revision. With Georgia's new K12 ELA standards taking effect in 2025 2026, our district has updated the K3 standardsbased report card to align with these changes. The revised standards emphasize early literacy, including a new foundations domain focused on phonics and evidence-based reading instruction. Selected K3 teachers from across the district have contributed to revising the report card to ensure it reflects classroom practice and the new standards. This alignment
029will provide families with clear standardsbased feedback on progress towards standards mastery. That concludes the teaching and learning report unless there are any questions. I just have a comment, Miss Whitaker. I want to celebrate you and our high school principles and teachers for the CTA pathways. I think that's very important work and I'm encouraged to hear so many students are taking advantage of that and they're finding success in that. So, um, you know, as always, I encourage any parent and student to participate in as many of those classes as possible because that's how we find out what we want to pursue after high school. So, that's that's amazing. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you. Next, we have student services, Mr. Kofer. Good evening, Dr. Branch and board members. The June 2025 student services report includes
030three items of information and four action items. And don't worry, everyone, Dr. Yansy is coming back. I'm just filling it. The first item of information is regarding our student code of conduct. We have no changes to the student code of conduct at this time. As we do on an annual basis, we are presenting the student code of conduct for the board's review for next school year and that is attached in assembly. The second item of information is to acknowledge our high school athletic accomplishments for the 2425 school year. Both high schools have had a tremendous run of success over the past five years and this success continued this school year. Two attachments in assembly summarize the performances of both high school athletic programs. The first is a breakdown per school for overall athletic department achievements
031at the state and regional levels. And the second attachment shows state and regional finishes per school by athletic team. Together, both high schools had eight team state championships, two state runner-ups, eight final four appearances, 23 region or area championships, and both schools finished in the top three respectively in the Georgia Athletic Director's Association Cup points in the state. A few notable performances to recognize. North Okony's football team winning the 4A state championship. North Okony's boys basketball team winning its second straight state championship. Okon County's boys cross country team winning its third straight state championship. Okone County girls soccer team winning its third straight uh state championship. And North Okony's gymnastics team winning its sixth straight state championship. I want to take this opportunity to applaud our student athletes, parents, coaches, athletic directors, and the school
032communities for a job well done competing this school year. And I know I echo the sentiment throughout our two high schools. We appreciate the board's continued commitment to athletics and look forward to continued success in the years to come. Our third item of information is an update on our school resource officer program. Our team was notified by Captain Mark Smith that Corporal Johnny Richards is no longer with the SRO division. As of today, the following members are designated to our school resource officer program. Captain Smith, Lieutenant Maxi, Sergeant Dorsy, Corporal Nmith, Corporal Swisser, Deputy Shook, Deputy Gallagher, and Deputy Reynolds. School assignments for all of these school resource officers for the 2526 school year are still to be determined by our administrative team and the Okoni County Sheriff's Office. Student services has four action items
033for the board meeting this evening. The action items are four out ofate field trips. The first field trip is for Okoney County Middle School FBA to travel to Anaheim, California later this month. The second field trip is for the North Okone girls golf team to travel to Pinehurst, North Carolina to compete in a tournament. The third field trip is for the North Okone boys basketball team to travel to San Diego, California in December to participate in a sanctioned basketball tournament at Tory Pines High School. And the final field trip is for the Malcolm Bridge Middle School band and Chorus to travel to Charlotte, North Carolina in March of 26 to perform at Kirowind. The superintendent's recommendation is to approve the out of state field trips as presented. This concludes the student services report unless you
034have any questions. Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Carefer. Next, we have special education with Miss Cornold. Welcome. Good evening board members and Dr. Branch for your final uh board meeting tonight. Um, the Okone County Special Education June 9th, 2025 board report contains one item of information and no action items. We had a magnificent May uh for special education. Our first item is to discuss our high school high-tech program that we partner with. It's an outreach program part of GVR. It provides our high school students with employment and career opportunities. This year they organized a computer contest where nearly over 150 applicants across the state participated and only about 70 were selected to receive a computer. One of the students was an Okone County high school senior Paul Dwags. He was a 12th grader. He actively
035participates in activities for the high school high-tech and he also um created a PowerPoint presentation that centered around um the importance of a PC for transition to work or employment after um high school and he won. So we were very proud of him. The second is our 10th annual mock interviews that we hold here in Okone County. This is a collaborative effort between North Okone and Okone County High School. This milestone marks 10 years of preparing our students for the real world job experiences through invaluable practices uh with community engagement. This year, our interviewers were Dr. Jason Branch, uh superintendent of Okone County Schools, Mr. Brock Tulle, school board member and business owner. We had Miss Omer, the program director from Destination Dogs. We had Miss Wright, she's the owner of Okone County Preschool Academy.
036Miss Walton, the manager of Publix. We had Miss Rosar, uh, representative for Food for Kids, Miss Kim Walbright, the owner of Joe and Sams, Miss Clark from Child's Closet, and then Mr. Rusty Stewart from uh Akens Ford of Winder. Their presence is a testament to the importance of community involvement and the connectivity and supporting our students of all abilities. I also want to express my gratitude to all the teachers, the support staff and the administrators who work tirelessly with our students every day and give them that confidence to always say yes I can. And lastly for November, we had our Civotan student of the year. The international OKone County uh student or Civotan students uh recognize two students um also high school seniors from one from Okone and one from uh North. Their mission is
037to serve students with all abilities. Therefore, the club designates an award for two seniors to represent their service in academics, arts, athletics, community service, self- advocacy, and what their transition plans are after high school. And we had um McKaya Parnell and Savannah Patton receive those awards this year. And that concludes the report for special education, unless there's any questions. Thank you, Mr. Gold. Next, we have technology, Mr. McCullers. Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members. Dr. Branch, Coney County Schools technology services, June 9th board of education report contains no items of information and one action item. Action item number one is the technology surplus. Division of technology services conducts an inventory analysis at two key points in the school year. Technology has finalized the spring technology surplus list based on our technology replacement cycle
038which is attached in assembly. This includes our student Chromebook devices, laptops, desktops, and server pieces. Again, it's in assembly for your approval. Superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve the surplus list as presented. And that simply is the technology services report for this evening. And unless you have any questions, thank you. Thank you. Resources. Welcome back, Mr. Kofer. Good evening, board members. And for one last time, Dr. Branch, the human resources report this evening contains two items of information. Our annual biometric screenings are scheduled for tomorrow and Wednesday here at the ISC. This is a convenient and confidential wellness opportunity um for our employees and their families to check on their health. During the screening, a health care professional will collect basic measurements such as height and weight and draw a small
039sample of blood to evaluate important health markers including cholesterol, glucose, hemoglobin, and triglycerides. These screenings not only provide a clearer picture of overall health, but as an added bonus, participants will earn 120 points toward the goal of achieving a gift card through the state health rewards program. It's a small time commitment that can have a big impact for our employees health and their wallet. Our second item of information is the GASPA best-in-class retention practices award. GASPA's best-in-class award recognizes districts across Georgia for excellence in areas such as employee handbooks, recruitment, retention, website development, employee benefits, and strategic practices. This year, Okone County School's human resources division was honored with the Silver Award of Excellence for our retention practices. This recognition highlights our ongoing commitment to celebrating and supporting our employees. Among the practices that contributed
040to this award are our monthly pursuit of excellence recognition, spotlighting different job families throughout the year, our annual service pins, which honor staff who have dedicated 10, 15, 25, or 30 years to Okone County Schools. Most recently, we celebrated individuals with over 40 and 50 years of service to Okone County Schools. This year we also introduced our alumni badges which recognize employees who received summer all of their education here in Okoni and made the choice to return and serve the next generation in our schools. Another standout initiative is our unique approach to se uh selecting the district teacher of the year. While most districts rely on central office staff to make this decision, we believe the real experts are still in the classroom. That's why our district teacher of the year is chosen by a
041committee of six previous teacher of the year honores with zero influence from the central office even when they jokingly plead with us to help break a tie. These efforts to value and recognize our employees are part of why OKone maintains a retention rate well above the state average and why we were honored with this award. This follows last year's awards earned for excellence in the area of website development for our user-friendly one-stop shop for leaders and employee benefits for our hands-on personalized approach that includes one-on-one support for anyone who needs help navigating or enrolling in their benefits. I'm incredibly proud of our HR team and the heart that they put into supporting every one of our 1100 employees. I want to take a moment to recognize Dr. Lisa Manros, Suzanne Graves, Anna Davis, and Christina
042Williamson for their outstanding dedication and exemplary service. Their work is a key reason why OKone remains a destination district for top tier talent. This concludes human resources report this evening. Unless there are any questions, thanks for business services, Mr. Adams. Good evening, board members and Dr. Rants. and also echo the final time. Uh the business service report for tonight's meeting contains nine items of information and four action items. U our first item of information is our May cash balance report as of May 31st. The closing cash balance represents a negative 7.79% decrease over last month, but our state funding projections are very stable. Our cash balance for May is still strong and we are well positioned to meet our financial obligations for the fiscal year. The second item of information is our list of all
043vendors in paid in May. We paid 517 vendors $1.6 million for the month. Our third item of information is our budget report for May. Our revenue collections are positive with a 99.25% 25% collection rate. Expenditures will be expected to be at 91.6. Our monthly reports show us at 89.2%. This indicates that we are on target for the period, maintaining a balanced financial position, and we will continue to monitor these figures closely as we head towards year-end close. The fourth item of information is our ELOs collections report. We've had a decrease of negative 5.88% in collections over last month, but an 8.5% increase over May of last year. So, our collections are still strong year to date, and I believe we've hit 13 million in collections. The fifth item information is our ELO 6 report. Revenues
044and expenditures have been updated through the month of May. Our sixth item of information is an update on our federal funding allocation and expenditures for the month. These funds are reimbursement based and we continue to see these funds as they come in throughout the fiscal year. Our seventh item of information is board regulation DIIB R financial report capitalization for capital assets. This regulation has been updated to reflect changes by the federal government and capitalization thresholds. We've gone from 5,000 to 10,000 and we've also matched some other state agencies that have gone to 100,000 on buildings, land improvement, land, and intangibles. Our eighth item of information is board regulation DM-R1, reserve funds fund balance. This regulation has been updated to reflect our agreement with the Georgia Department of Education strategic strategic waiver school systems Swiss program
045which weighs the 15% fund balance recommendation. Our ninth item of information is our budget development calendar. Our budget process is on track and as a reminder, the fiscical year tenative budget for general funds and federal fund expenditures was approved at the May 22nd or excuse me, May 12th board meeting. The board was also presented a detailed expenditure by primary function area during the 421 business services presentation. The tenative budget hearings were advertised in the legal Oregon on 5:15 2025 and budget hearings were held on 522 and 529 as required by law. Our first action item is the final f fiscal year 26 general fund budget for your consideration. It includes estimated expenditures of 120.5 million and estimated revenues of 119.1 million. These figures are based on an estimated roll back millage rate of 13.919 mills
046which represents a 2.32 decrease over from the fiscal year 25 millage rate of 14.25. The fiscal year 26 considerations of 7.8 $.8 million. Our salary steps at $1 million. Health insurance employer contribution increase of $3 million. Our teacher retirement employer contribution increase of $1.1 million. And our school resourcer program at $2.5 million for a total again of $7.8 million. We have budgeted expenditures, continuation expenditures of 112.6 6 million and additional considerations of $7.8 million, bringing total expenditures to $120.5 million. With additional considerations, salaries and benefits are at 88.5% of total expenditures while operations are at 11.5%. The 88.5% covers around 1100 employee salaries, TRS, health insurance, and retirement. excuse with the remaining 11.5% allocated to covering all operational costs of the school district at $13.8 million. These costs include district-wide utilities, repairs and maintenance, curriculum,
047and of course transportation. I asked the superintendent to recommend approval to adopt the fiscical year 26 general fund budget and the tenative roll back millage rate. While the tax commissioner has informed us that the tax digest update is forthcoming, we do not anticipate significant changes to the roll back rate. Therefore, we recommend proceeding with the adoption of the tenative mill rate at this time. Our second action item is the fiscal year 26 federal funds for your consideration. It includes total anticipated revenues and expenditures of $7.6 million. These grants are reimbursement based. Therefore, we must initially outlay the funds and then await reimbursement. I ask the superintendent to recommend approval to adopt the final fiscal year 26 federal fund budget. Our third action item is board policy DIIB financial reports. This regulation has been updated to
048reflect changes made by the federal government to the capitalization threshold as I mentioned earlier as well as updates from other state entities. Again, this is taking that uh items from five to 10,000 and the rest from 25 to 100. The superintendent's recommendation is for the board of education to approve placing the board policy DIIB financial reports on the table for public review and comment until the July 7th, 2025 board of education meeting. And our fourth and last action item is board policy DJAA board approval. Due to increased cost of goods and services, 25,000 no longer represents a high value purchase. Updating the threshold to 100,000 better reflects the current economic climate and aligns with best practices in public sector procurement. The superintendent's recommendation is for the boards of education to approve placing the board policy
049DIIB financial reports on the table for public review and comment until the July 7th, 2025 board of education meeting. And that concludes my report unless the board has any questions. Peter, I'd like to thank you for the budgeting process and everybody involved. I think y'all did a great job. Y'all allowed us to maintain local control. um the smart financial management and still provide taxpayer relief with the full roll back. So great job. Thank you. Thank you. Comments. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Next, we have operations with Dr. White. Good evening board members and Dr. Branch. Congratulations on your last meeting as well. Operations has five items of information for this evening and four action items for this month's regular session. The firstformational item for operations is an update on our energy report. Our kilowatt usage per
050day for 1,000 square feet has been updated for the month of April. The secondformational item is our transportation update. For the previous month, we had 46 field trips, 16 athletic trips, 17 special education trips, 139 buses deployed for a total of 7,033 miles. Our third item of information is an update on school nutrition participation for the month of May. Board members, you'll see that we saw an increase in participation for breakfast of.33% and an increase of lunch participation of 2.24. 24 2.24% as compared to May of 2024. Our fourth item information is an update on our school nutrition health inspection scores. Each kitchen is inspected twice a year by the health department for a total of 24 inspections. For this school year, 20 of these 24 inspections were perfect 100s for an average district score
051of 99.63, which is the highest in the last five years. I'd like to commend our director of nutrition, Caitlyn Bran, our nutrition managers, assistant managers, and nutrition support staff for their dedication and hard work. Our fifth item of information is an update on nutrition, breakfast, and lunch costs. As a reminder, nutrition is currently supported through revenue generated from meal purchases only. The current price of breakfast was set in 2014 and lunch was set in 2017. Over the last decade, we have seen increases in food, labor, and supply costs. We're proposing an increase of a quarter to breakfast, and lunch prices. The current and proposed meal prices have been attached to this report for your review. Although this note requires no action by the board, we wanted to update you on this change. Our first action
052item for tonight's board meeting is the FY26 school food bid, which is an annual action item for the board. As a reminder, we are a member of the Georgia Educational Cooperative, which is a group of 42 school systems that pull their buying power for competitive pricing. Superintendent's recommendation is to approve the Georgia Educational Cooperative for the next school year for the products presented. Our second action item for tonight's board meeting is for new ovens at North County High School. The current ovens are in need of replacement. is the superintendent's recommendation to approve mobile fixture and equipment at a cost of $42,171.70. This project will be paid for using Georgia DOE grants and school nutrition funds. Our third action item for tonight's board meeting are illuminated bus signs for the remainder of the bus fleet. Transportation
053has been piloting these illuminated bus signs on 19 buses to allow motorists to easily identify a school bus in a variety of weather types and improve motorist reaction time. Summan's recommendation is to approve Thomas with a bid of $55,41468 for 58 illuminated school bus signs. This project will be paid for using elost and general fund dollars. Our fourth action item for tonight's board meeting are fully illuminated stop arms for the remainder of the bus fleet. Transportation has been piloting these illuminated stop arms on 19 buses to increase motor awareness of bus stops and ensure high visibility of the stop arm in all conditions. Super superintendent's recommendation is to approve Thomas with a bid of $55,272.34 58 eliminated school bus stop arms. This project will be paid for using elost and general fund dollars. This concludes
054the operations report unless there's any questions. Thank you, Dr. White. Thank you. Operations, facilities, Mr. Ricketts. Good evening. The Aon County Schools operations and facilities June 9th, 2025 board of education report contains two items of information and one action item. First item of information is the league custodian meeting. The May league custodian meeting was held on Thursday, May 8th and was hosted by the team at of Okone County Primary School. The team discussed summer equipment readiness, pressure washing, pressure washer usage, and upright vacuum care. Our custodial teams are be commended for the rigorous work that ensure our schools are clean for health. Second item question is the uh uh construction update uh the districtwide generator project. We've completed uh the we've completed the the generator at Colum Ferry, Malcolm Bridge Middle, Rocky Branch Elementary, Okone
055Middle. We have startup of the generator at Okone Elementary this week. Work continues at North Okone, uh Okone High and the IT building. Uh there's work remaining to finish the project this summer. Next is Okone High practice field practice field lighting. Lights are completed and operational. Next is North Okone door hardware improvements. Uh the existing hardware has been removed from the doors and we've prepared the doors to accept the new hardware. The new hardware has been ordered expected to be to arrive later this month. Maintenance shop paving. The work will begin at at the site this week. And lastly, upcon high parking lot edition. The work has begun. Demolition is underway. New new curb and gutter will begin this week. We do have one action item and that's for the column ferry elementary school playground
056edition. It's the superintendent's recommendation for the board to approve OC playscapes for Colin Ferry Elementary School playground project for a proposed cost of $75,000. This project will be funded with principal account and PTO funds. That concludes the operation uh facilities report unless there are any questions. Thanks Mr. Richardson. Next communications Mr. Carter. Thank you, Mr. Ransom. Good evening, board members and Dr. Branch. Communications report this evening contains two items of items of information. The first item is May social media information of Coney County Schools had 50 social media posts in May with an average of 14,985 views. Four of the top 10 posts focused on the two graduations, the honor graduates, and the senior walks. four more featured team and individual state champions. For the month, 20 of the posts were viewed more than 12,000
057times, including two at 50,000, three at 40,000, three at 30,000, and two at 20,000. Okone County Schools gained 153 followers in May, giving the district more than 23,000 across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the first time ever. In addition, the OCS newsletter released on May 29th had 8,544 unique opens, which is a rate of 68.8%. The industry average for education is 39%. We thank the parents, students, community members, businesses, and media outlets that follow and engage with the OCS social media accounts. The second item of information is the May highlights video. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] And that concludes communications unless you have any questions for me. public communication. Yes, sir. We have two Okone County residents signed up to address the board. Before I invite them up, I'll read this. Policies BCBI and BCBIR1 state
058that 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. However, 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
059for the meeting or prior to addressing the board. Please remain at the podium during your public comment time. Our first citizen is Sarah Danis. Welcome, Miss Danis. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Sarah Denis and I graduated from OCS in 1997 and am the proud parent of two Okone students. Um, I'm here because I love our schools. Uh, not because I want to be a complainer, but I come back to you again this month with continued concerns about the health and safety of OCE for its staff and its students. Because as far as I know, nothing has been done about the concerns that several parents have approached you with. Um, parents have been signing a petition of concern and it's up to over 250 stakeholder signers at this point and I realize this is
060your last board of education meeting, Dr. Branch. Um, but the rest of you are going to continue to be here and we don't want to have to come here and talk about this anymore. All we want is acknowledgement of our concern and to have things followed through. Um, I hope that you don't think that parents would come up and lie about the fact that teachers are coming to us and encouraging us and begging us to continue speaking out. We're not making that up. Um, teachers are the boots on the ground. They're the reason why OKone County Schools is number one. It's not because of fancy people dressed up behind computers. It's the teachers. It's the administrators that are doing the work and helping our kids to thrive. and to all the ra all the wonderful
061raves that we've heard about all the things that our kids are doing in sports and in academics. And we need our teachers and our students to um know that we're concerned about them. And if our teachers don't feel like their health matters, then how does that impact the underlying current of the school? All we're asking is for a company whose specialty is mold and mildew to come out and inspect the school. That includes the third grade pod where my son was all year. That includes the gym where I personally witnessed water bubbling up in the middle of the floor. Um, and then the rest of the school as well, just to see how things are. It's an old school. Um, yet in an email response to me from Mr. Ransom, he stated that operations now
062considers this matter resolved with no further action necessary, and we just don't understand. The school is old. It's normal to need repair. You know, you can't slap a coat of paint on something and expect it to be brand new again. That's just not how that works. um for the impermeable gym floor to have water bubbling up. You know, it feels kind of ironic. It's supposed to be impermeable. At what point was it impermeable? Is it still under warranty? If so, can someone come out and check it? If not, if it if that impermeability was stated 10 or 20 or 30 years ago, whenever it was installed, whenever that impermeable label um was received, it doesn't seem like it's impermeable anymore because I have I witnessed it with my eyes. the water that was coming up
063in the middle of the floor. And if the water is in the middle of the floor, what else is happening? Um, Dr. Branch, I think that I know that you uh have led this community and this school district for so long and I appreciate that and I know people that know you in the community and that you're wonderful in um many ways and you're stepping away from this position, but don't leave us with this. Don't leave us with this concern. I can't sleep well at night and I don't know how you all knowing that our kids and our teachers are having to deal with this. So, please consider helping us to get this checked out and get this fixed with the potential problem that's there. Thank you, Miss Dannis. Actually, I have a follow-up comment
064to Sarah's comments. Thank you so much for coming to speak and you know, as you know from our conversations as a board members and Dr. branch know from my conversations with them. I do want to acknowledge your concern and I personally as an individual do think we need to have specific mold testing at the elementary school so we can determine if there are elevated levels of mold and if there is elevated levels of mold what types of mold are present. I think that's important for us to deter determine the next steps there and that's something that I'll continue to advocate for. But I did want to say in followup to that, I think everybody up here and probably everybody in this room, you know, student safety is at top of mind. That's the number one
065concern. And I am hopeful and I feel confident that at the end of the day, we will come up with a positive solution to move forward on this. So, thank you for being here this evening. Our next speaker is Terry Thompson. Hello. Um, my name is Terry Thompson. I live at 1100 Silverleaf Road um, in Watkinsville and I'm here to talk about the community works uh, report that we submitted concerning the superintendent search. Um, so we had uh, 23 people show up at a meeting that we held a few weeks ago and um, some of the people who are in the room were at the meeting. I wondered if they could stand up and we could thank them for their help. Dr. Margaret Holt facilitated the meeting and um first let me just back up
066a little and talk about what community works is. It's a brand new organization that we just started um the last couple of months and we want we wanted to form a group of volunteers in Aon County to address needs that are in the county that are not addressed right now. So, one of those needs we saw was an a way a a vehicle for the community to provide input to the superintendent search. We know that UI has put out a survey online, but that didn't seem to to be sufficient for some people. They wanted to be able to comment, not just check boxes on a scale of one to five about something. So, at any rate, um we had uh as I said, 23 people meeting uh come to our meeting. There were parents, there
067were former teachers, there were people who don't have children, but all of them are taxpayers in Okone County. And there quite a few um comments were and issues were made about um what we would like to see in the next superintendent. So um there were we asked people to comment on three in three areas. One was personal and professional characteristics that they'd like to see in the next superintendent. The other was interview questions that they would like to see asked. And then finally, issues and concerns that they would like to be um the next superintendent to be aware of. And I'm just curious, I know we sent the report out. Did you all have a chance to read it? Okay, that's fantastic. And I have a copy here, but we were told I'd come up
068if anybody would like another copy. Um and then in the summary on the report, there were four key issues that seemed to be coming up time and time again um over the 90 minutes that people uh stood up and spoke uh spoke about what they wanted to see in the next superintendent. The first was the need for clear transparent communications between the board of ed and the public. The second is the need to address the mold issue. That was a big topic. think people are quite concerned about their the staff in the buildings as well as their children and they were equally concerned about bullying issues that they feel aren't always being addressed upfront and a lot of parents have concerns about that. The third key issue was um widespread intimidation of teachers and staff.
069It was brought up time and time again that teachers and staff don't feel comfortable coming forward and they feel like um they just don't feel comfortable coming forward with negative or negative comments that need to be addressed. There's a strong Oops, I'm out of time. And the last issue was the need to address the quality of education for all students, not just those that are collegebound, but those who are falling through the cracks and are socially promoted. So, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Ransom, that concludes public communication. Thanks very much. Dr. Branch. Yes, sir. Uh, as stated earlier, the Georgia School Board Association encourages all board members and governance teams to adopt the board norms and protocols each year. Those have been attached for your
070review. We'd recommend approval as presented. Motion, Mr. Tulle. Second, Mr. Hammock. All in favor. Okay. We've also attached the board of education meeting dates for 2526 school year and we recommend those be approved as present. So moved, Mr. Second. Mr. Hammond. All in favor? Pass. 5-0. You heard the presentation on our yearly technology surplus and we would recommend that surplus list be approved as presented. Miss Parish. Second. Mr. Hammock. All in favor passes 5-0. Pleases the board. We can take D, E, F, and G together. They're all out of state field trips. We'd recommend those be approved as presented. Get a motion. So moved, Mr. Tol. Second, Mr. Hammock. All in favor. Pass by Z. Uh up next is the Colum Ferry playground uh project uh by the uh school leadership and school PTO. We'd
071ask that be approved as presented. Cost of $75,000 funds to be provided through the principal account, the local school level, and PTO funds. So moved. Second, Mr. H and Mr. Tool. All in favor? Passes. 5-0. Up next, our FY26 uh Georgia Educational Cooperative School Nutrition bids. Of course, doing that saves us money by cooperating with all of our systems around the area. We'd recommend those be approved as presented. So moved, Mr. Tool. Second, Mr. Hammock. All in favor? Passes by zero. All right. You heard we need some new ovens in North Oak County, so we'd recommend those be approved as presented. So moved. Mr. Tool. Second, Miss Parish. All in favor? Passes 5. If it pleases the board, we can take both the illuminated bus stop signs and the arms at the same time. Yes.
072Uh so we would recommend that uh outstanding safety enhancement to be approved as presented. So moved. Second, Mr. Hammond, Mr. Tool, all in favor zero. Okay. Up next, we did have the uh board policy DJA board approval. Uh the board we'd recommend approval to place uh the this item. And we can do all these at one time or we can do them separate to place all of the board policies on the table for review public input. You would then approve or reject those board policies in the July meeting or they could also be modified as needed throughout that process. So I'll make a motion to uh table the DJ EA for uh further in July for the actual wording of it approval. Okay. So, we would need a a second and a vote on that.
073Second. Well, to be clear, you're you're asking to table it completely, not for review, but we could still it still review it and make changes. So, yeah, that's right. So, my tableing it. Correct. So, the motion would be to leave it there for review for the July meeting. So, as is. Okay. So, we have a motion for Mr. Tool. We need a second. Second, Mr. Hammond, all in favor or hammock. All in favor zero. All right. Up next is board policy DIIB financial reports. Again, recommend that for approval. Motion. So moved. Mr. Tulle, Miss Parish. All in favor? Okay. Up next is the general fund budget for FY26. Uh lots of great work done by the team and uh Peter and his group as well and we just appreciate all the outstanding work that's been
074done. We'd recommend approval of the general fund budget as presented. So moved. Mr. Tool. Second, Mr. Hammock. All in favor? Passes 50. Okay. Uh same for the federal funds budget for FY26. We would recommend approval as presented. So moved. Mr. Tol second. Mr. Hammond. All in favor? Pass zero. We do have a need to enter 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, Mr. or Miss Parish and Mr. Tulle. All in favor zero.