Board of Education Meeting - June 25 2025

001has already built great relationships with. Not allowing him to continue with his students will will indeed bring about doubt, disappointment, and disruptions for our students. We are exhausted with the musical teachers and staff at the school district. Parents are doing all we can to instill consistency in our scholars. They are met with so many inconsistencies. I understand all things have to be controlled but in this instance it can be. I am imploring you to reconsider your decision for the for what is best for the students of Mccclure North and respectfully submitted Mrs. Jones um and who will be getting in touch it will be I am happy to respond Dr. P. Walker. And this one is coming from Sabrina Drake. The the current bail schedule given to our principles is a detriment to many programs

002in our buildings. How are students who go to North Tech meant to be scheduled when their schedule changes drastically two days a week? How are our arts program meant to do any kind of meaningful work in a shortened period of 3 days out of the week? How can we expect that our students go to Flow Valley and Little Creek to have reasonable amounts of instructional time when they are bus there and have to be rushed back to buildings. You do not have to uh read the portion publicly. However, I am I will posit my suggest I don't know what that my suggestion here one more time having responded to each survey pertaining to the schedule for high school already. It is consistent and guarantees at least three instructional periods with each class a week and

003done correctly guarantees the same amount of instructional minutes and consistent passing periods of 5 minutes. My times are merely estimates and then there she's given a schedule here to uh that we might want to to consider. So who will be getting in touch with her? It would be Dr. P. Walker. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good evening, Board of Education members. This is coming from Dana Bell, Dr. P. Walker, and Mr. Mitchell, FFNEA members, Ferguson, Florison family, and community members. I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful summer so far. The FFNEA leadership team is looking forward to the upcoming school year and the new leadership roles that will soon be filled in our district. We look forward to meeting these new individuals who will be stepping into these key positions and working alongside

004us to support our students and our staff. As we prepare for the upcoming year, we are still awaiting updates on the comprehensive handbooks being developed by our invaluable educational support personnel. These handbooks are crucial as they outline the expectations and resources for our ESP staff who play such a vital role in our schools. Additionally, I want to remind everyone about the ESP professional development day that will take place during O week this year. This is an opportunity for all of the ESP students, I mean staff to come together, learn, and to grow in their roles. Though we may not be physically present this summer for the board meetings, we are actively engaged in watching the sessions on YouTube. Your efforts do not go unnoticed and we appreciate the work you're doing even during the warm

005summer months. As we continue to enjoy the rest of our summer, I encourage everyone to reach out with any questions or concerns you may have. Together, let us build a strong foundation for our upcoming school year. FFNA President Dana Bell and she submitted her letter because she is not here in person today. So, I'm sorry. Update my computer here. So from here we will go to the consent agenda. Our student representative is not here today. Okay. May I have recommendation to accept the con the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Any oppose? We have nothing from uh pulled uh from the consent agenda. So, we're going to go on to dispersements fiscal update. Dr. Singleton. All right. Welcome. Thank you. Is this on? Testing. Can you hear me? All right.

006Good evening to the Ferguson Florison School District. Um, colleagues and community. Uh tonight I will present the dispersements report uh for the month ending uh May 2025. So uh as always the mission and vision of the school district the mission of uh the mission of the Ferguson Florison School District is to provide high quality instruction to every student in every neighborhood while prioritizing equity and compassionate relationships. The vision of the Ferguson Florison School District is to is for all learners to graduate believing that anything is possible and prepared to realize those possibilities. Our monthly May dispersements for 2025, our payroll is 13,146,45511. Our operational dispersements are accounts payable bills total 5,27,97725 for total monthly expense of $18,354,432.36. Um it's worth noting that obviously May is a little bit higher than the previous dispersements because we

007had three payrolls uh in the month of May. Okay. Um I think we've gone over these fund descriptions um you know uh quite extensively uh as we've presented this. Um and so uh if we look at our total revenue that we have received by funds uh the current revenue as of 531 uh the total is 149,934,37,000. The amended budget is at 156,568,777. So, we're roughly at about 96% uh of the revenues received uh that we have budgeted. Um obviously the month of June will show some additional monies, our normal state aid payments, grant reimbursements, and things of that nature that should get us to that 100%. Uh these are graphic representations of the same information that we just showed you. On the expenditure side by funds, um we are looking at uh year-to- date as

008of May 31st um a total of 144,810,446. That's all funds. The amended budget was at $167,963,718. So we still got about $23 million to spend roughly in the month of June. So, we're at about 86% of total expenses for this month. Um, and here we are. Um, these are the graphic representations of the same information uh that we just presented. Um, we're going to go through the objects very quickly on in terms of salary. Um, year-to- date 79,627,199. Uh, amended budget 91,825613. available 12198414 uh for a total of 87% of salaries. Benefits kind of the same thing about 88% so a total of 27,650,392 uh 31,414,967 budgeted uh for an available budget of $3.7 million. As we continue on in our purchase services, again all through the month of May, um we had $18.7 million

009that we've expended so far. The amended budget had about $22.1 million, uh leaving us about 3.3 available for about 85% of the budget. Supplies, $7.6 million spent year to date. Uh on the amended budget we had about 8.5 so roughly a little bit shy of a million dollars left in supplies 89%. Capital outlay 8.5 million amended budget 9 million uh for available budget of a little bit less than a half a million dollars. So about 95% of the money spent in capital outlay. Uh in terms of our long and short-term debt um we see those percentages as well. $2.5 million. Um total expensed uh 4.4 million budgeted for an available uh budget of 2.4 million which is at about 51%. Um this is the uh tax receipts that uh we uh show the board. Um

010obviously tax season um is really important for our school district uh during those generally November and December months when those tax receipts come in. And so this schedule here just kind of shows you the year-over-year comparison of where we were um this time last year versus this year. And of course this year we outpaced uh last year uh by a slight margin. Um that concludes the dispersements report. I'd be happy to answer any questions. I have a recommendation to approve uh the the expend the expenditures for the month. So moved second discussion all in favor. I I Any oppose? Okay. Our budget approval for the fiscal year 26. Okay. Are we ready? All right. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Dr. Turman. Um, oh, there we go. We had the wrong presentation. There we we've got

011the right one now. Um, all right. Good evening again. Um, tonight we will present the preliminary budget uh for fiscal year 26 which is the 2000 which is a which is the 2526 uh fiscal year. Um and so uh let's go through uh a lot of this information we had uh gone through at our previous board meeting. Um so uh you know if we if if I need to slow down or uh emphasize something please advise and and let me know. Basically the budget process focuses on resources in the most efficient and effective manner to support its mission. Uh the annual budget creates a detailed analysis of the district's revenues and expenses and allows administration to direct its financial resources in a manner that best supports student achievement. And we believe that this budget does

012uh just that. Uh the budget aligns to the anti-racist uh district standards. Um as well um the uh budget um in contained in your uh budget uh packets uh you will find the budget message. These are the components uh the mandatory components of the budget book. Uh the budget message, the estimated revenues with comparative revenues, estimated expenditures or comparative expenditures, the debt amortization schedule and also the general budget summary. Um the next uh uh obviously uh the budget should include input from stakeholders. And so we began the preparation uh for the budget uh typically in December. Uh budget meetings were held uh with budget managers for the buildings as well as departments uh during the month of February and March. Uh the purpose of these meetings was obviously to review the budget uh request uh

013and needs as well as the data related to those requests. A preliminary budget was presented and prepared in March. Uh the FY26 budget was built again with input from per budget personnel as well as leadership to ensure that the resources meets the needs of student achievement. Um the FY26 uh budget has significant reductions from the FY25 in all areas uh due to the budget crisis facing uh Ferguson Florison School District. Um it aligns uh to the strategic plan priorities one and two. Uh it supports teachers through CTE uh MTSS um my side curriculum ELLL and so forth uh are components of the budget. Ultimately, the budget is a fluid document. Uh it should measure it will measure success on a monthly basis and that's why we give a monthly report. Um it's one thing to

014present an annual budget. Uh but the monthly review of those budgets obviously uh keeps the district and keeps the board on track in terms of whether we're meeting uh our financial goals uh or not. Um budget training. Uh there's a summer boot camp uh that the finance department will be having um inviting all budget stakeholders and managers to attend that training. Uh we certainly uh encourage um administrators to make sure uh that their school personnel is here and available uh for the budget trainings. Uh the budget document again has those four components uh an executive summary, organizational, financial andformational sections. Um just some of the revenue highlights um that um uh that we uh will notice in the budget. Obviously property taxes are our largest source of revenue in the school district. Uh we generally

015start receiving those monies in the November uh and to December time frame. Uh this the district's assessed valuation is projected at $1.6 $6 million for FY26, which is a good thing. Uh because when you see growth in excess valuation, um obviously uh it means that property values in the school districts are rising. Uh property taxes are based on a projected tax rate, um which is a blended rate of $4, uh.7035 cents as the tax rate. uh no estimated uh tax no change in estimated tax revenues uh on the state in terms of our state revenues. Uh our basic formula is our uh biggest source of money. Uh the district uh will um the basic formula calculation and FY26 was used. Obviously, the calculation has certain uh components to it uh that all add up to

016uh what happens in the basic formula. So, we've got classroom trust fund, Prop C payments. Uh those certainly rely on the district's ADA uh and WADA, which is our WADA, uh for payment purposes. Uh Props Cy and sales tax are based on prior year weighted uh weighted average daily attendance uh at a pupil rate of $1,513 a combination of Wada uh 90% in WHAM which goes into next year's budget. Now this is good uh because we will see additional revenues um because of the recalculation of the weights of the formula uh basic formula state 8 the state adequacy target of $7,145 and a dollar value multiplier of 1.088 went into this year's uh this next year's budget. Uh the classroom trust uh gaming is is uh based on a projected four $576 per prior year

017weighted average daily attendance. Uh in terms of federal revenue um we still uh will see uh hopefully constant uh funds in our title one title uh one big A and small A. Uh title two uh A title three title four Perkins and CTE. Um there are no ESSER revenues which is one of the biggest differences you'll see with next year's budget versus the prior few years budget. Um the ESSER revenues are uh essentially over. Uh so that is the most significant change from prior years. Uh we heard it on the MSB update which is good that transportation aid uh should be funded uh at 100%. uh that is included in the governor's budget and so that is good news for the school district. Um enrollment projections, I shared this with the board. Uh we did

018some extensive work on looking at our enrollment projections. Um this year's enrollment or next year's enrollment uh looks to be about 8,778 students. Uh which is a small decline. Uh we do have a declining enrollment uh population. And so, uh, we just want to make sure that, uh, that our our board is aware, um, that certainly enrollment, uh, has a bearing on revenues as well. Um, and so we are, uh, in a period of where we're seeing declining enrollment. Um, let me just spend a couple minutes here um, on the preliminary budget documents. Again, it's included in your package. Uh but what we have essentially is uh the first three gray columns are the actuals uh from prior years. Obviously we're not done with this year. So those two columns are in blue. Uh the

019adopted budget um and then the final amended budget uh you will see uh that's adopted in blue. Um our focus is on the preliminary budget for next year. Um and you can see in that last column um kind of that that um tannanish colored column um where uh the differences are in terms of our final amended budget versus the preliminary budget going into next year. Um we see that revenues are going to be down. Okay. Um and we have accounted for those. We've accounted for those reductions uh that we're going to see. Um, and we're going to talk a little bit more about those uh in a couple slides uh when we kind of analyze what we have. So, $151,848,828 uh on the revenue side is what we've budgeted for. On the expenditure side, uh

020we're seeing $157,284,55. Um next year alone will certainly show that we are still deficit spending. Um and certainly as a school district we have to work our way out of the deficit spending model. Um and so uh you can see several uh years the amended budget as well shows that uh the district uh has been deficit spending. Um our overall fund balance uh right at about 6.8% is what we're projected to have. Unrestricted fund balance right at about 2%. Okay. And so it's going to be very very critical uh that uh not only does the finance office uh watch and monitor our revenues and expenses uh but but our board as well. Um and so we're going to have to make make sure that uh that we keep an eye uh on uh those uh

021those numbers uh so that we don't find ourselves uh having some significant cash flow issues. Uh the next uh uh slide here talks about the operating funds. It's the same information uh but it's presented a little bit different. And so if you will focus in on those green columns for next year. Those green columns are uh broken up into the four funds uh we talk about all the time the general fund, the teachers fund, uh the debt service and the capital projects fund. Uh so that information is there. Obviously the significance of the operating funds and the reason we highlight those is because that is the money that we use for our day-to-day operations. Uh you cannot use debt service money for day-to-day operations or capital projects. And so we show the operating funds and

022that's where obviously the concern is the very low fund balance uh in the operating funds. And so certainly we want to make sure uh that we're doing all we can to address that um in a very very efficient uh and effic and effective manner. Um in terms of the salary uh benefits and other changes again uh there will be salary increases next year obviously uh we negotiated raises with the union so we'll see some increase. Uh there were some overall reductions uh due to the elimination of administrative positions, attendance secretaries, deans of students etc. Uh there are some benefit increases due to the rising uh care uh rising cost of health care insurance and also our workers compensation. Um we are we do we have significant and substantial concerns as it relates to workers compensation

023in the school district. Our FTE uh full-time employee count is 1,424. That is the number uh that has gone into this budget both full and part-time salaries. Uh and other uh major changes uh again we have uh uh consolidated bus routes for next year. There's a proposal for that. Also uh we've closed um uh innovation and also merged the two steam uh schools. And so again this really is just telling our story uh on some of the significant changes uh that you will see uh in next year's budget. Other considerations again Senate Bill 190. It was mentioned in uh the uh MSBA update. Um and just to point out again uh there's a senior property tax uh proposal uh that could impact districts uh especially here in St. Louis County. We did some calculations in

024our budget. Um we reduced our um uh budget by about 200,000. And that was the calculation or the number that we came up with that could potentially uh we could lose or potentially not receive I won't say the word lose but not receive uh those revenues because of uh Senate Bill 190 and the senior uh property tax freeze. Uh essentially what we're doing is lowering our collection rate by about a fourth of a percent. Um, obviously other things, uh, open enrollment, uh, we've heard, uh, uh, the, uh, the ban, uh, the thing about the cell phone ban. Um, music, uh, we have to make sure that, uh, we budget for that. Uh, this year was a substantial increase in music. Um, and that deals with insurance claims in the district, uh, and just all across

025North County. Um, I I think lately we've seen our fair share of of property damage related to tornadoes and things. Um and so of course we have to make sure that we budget for music. One of our biggest expenses uh are insurance. Um uh the uh the presentation also mentioned uh about 727 uh in the school calendar and so we are in alignment. We have the 169 days. Uh so we will see a little bit uh of additional revenues because of that. Um, and then again, I I know that uh we've we've discussed this several times. Uh, but our cash balances are extremely low at this point. And so, uh, we do sweep, uh, we use the sweep method, uh, in finance, uh, but unfortunately, we're earning almost no interest, uh, because our cash balances

026at this point are substantially low. uh some recommendations uh that I've shared with the board um and um you know certainly uh will pass along to to all those individuals uh that are uh going to play a role in in uh in the operations next year. Um we must we must pass an operating tax levy increase. Um that is probably one of the most certain uh and for sure ways uh to uh to change the deficit spending model that we're in. uh we're in a pattern of deficit spending and you're you're not going to be able to cut yourselves out of uh out of debt and so uh we have to uh pass an operating tax levy increase. Uh there are some upcoming opportunities uh and I use the word opportunities because we certainly uh

027we know that um uh that November uh is an opportunity. It's an election opportunity as well as April uh which is an opportunity uh to uh to put those measures on the ballot. Um if it passes, obviously we'll see those monies come in December of 2026. So about a year and a half from now. Uh but it is certainly needed and it is going to be critical uh for the district's sur financial survival uh in my opinion. uh the district must borrow um and again we've done some preliminary work uh to make sure that the tax anticipation note is there uh we will only draw from it uh when necessary um but I can assure you that it will be necessary uh much sooner than later uh this school year uh uh next school year

028than our uh current school year that we're in. Um, the timing of our revenues is also uh a concern. Obviously, with property taxes being our biggest source and us not receiving those revenues until uh well into the fall uh and winter, it puts us in a very uh very tight cash position. Um it is likely uh it is very likely uh that the district may have to borrow in 27. Um and simply because again of the cash flow challenges that we're having um and the fact that uh that there's I I think there's no opportunity uh to have an increase of a tax levy that will impact the current or the next fiscal year budget FY26. Uh so the anticipated tax uh anticipation note of $25 million uh is needed. Uh we've included the interest

029on that. Um, and again, we're making recommendations and we're still developing some things, some written things, uh, but to really postpone a lot of the major spending. Our focus should just really be on payroll. Okay. Obviously, we have to do accounts payable and things of that nature. Uh but if we're able to push some of those bills back uh until the later uh later time of the year when when revenues are uh then we will be less reliant on uh on the tax anticipation note monies uh that are there. Okay. At this point that concludes the budget presentation. Um in your board packets and assembly we have put together the budget book. Um, if there are adjustments uh or things that the board wishes to add or change or see differently, of course, uh please

030make us aware in the finance office. Uh but uh the budget book is about 70 pages. So, uh we didn't want to kill that many trees today. There is a PDF version of the book there. Um I've gone through it a couple times. We've made adjustments every time. And so, um, it may not be a very perfect book at this point, but of course, um, if if there are changes need to be made, please let us know in the finance office and we will make sure that we prioritize those changes. At this point, that concludes the FY2526 budget presentation. Uh, be happy to uh, answer any questions if I can. May I have a recommendation uh to adopt the district budget for fiscal year 2025 2026? Second discussion. Appreciate the work. I know there's a

031lot of moving parts and certainly we still have money. I think the biggest thing for me as we look at uh I know Dr. Fields is here is just thinking about the budget is the the personnel part and so monitoring where we're at. I know there's a staffing sheet in here. I appreciate that. I know there's some edits that need to still be made to it as things are getting involved and how many positions are open. Certainly, if anyone's looking for a position, we have plenty of teaching positions open, so please consider applying to come work here. But I think that's just something for us as a board to monitor as we know those expenses. Um, and I do believe that benefits are not going down anytime soon. Is that a fair assessment that they're

032going to keep going up more and more? It's very, very fair, Dr. Martin. Yes, sir. I think that's just something for us to manage. And you know, I just read in the news today about Riverview having to close a school um due to low enrollment and budget issues. So I think, you know, not that we want any superintendent coming in here to start looking at that, but certainly I think as a board, we've had some initial conversations that, you know, as I've talked with some folks who concerned about the budget, you know, I think we're at the almost past the payday loan piece, right? When you're thinking about your own finances, we're past the payday loan piece of like we're at a desperate time for money, right? We can't just keep borrowing to make bills.

033we have to really do something drastically different. Even if we do a bond issue, I still think we still need to figure out how to reduce our enrollment's down. I think from the last four years, we're about down 2,000 students. So, um when you look at look at those numbers, you you can't just keep sustaining the same number of schools with the same resources, number of teacher vacancies. So, um although, as you said, this budget's not perfect. I think it's a good starting point to get us where we need to go. uh and the finance team coming in to do some work with Dr. fields of really like refining, seeing where we're at in August is really what to me a next critical piece of how many teachers we have or subs and what does

034that do to the budget? How does that impact budget? Because subs we don't pay benefits to. So there's other factors that go into some of those things that I think we'll just need to monitor. But I appreciate the tightness around staffing for us to really have clarity because we know that's kind of what got us into this. But I do think the budget issues have been going on for years. It just kind of came to light more recently because we came run out of money to cover as you're down to I think 2%'s the projected fund balance now. Yes, sir. Which is better than what it was a couple weeks ago. It was 1.6%. Now we're at 2% but certainly a long way to go that we know we have to do some correction here.

035So appreciate the initial budget. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Martin. Any other questions, comments? I just want to jump in too just in regards to the enrollment. um just seeing the numbers like that, it's really concerning and just trying to figure out as a community what we need to do um in regards to enrollment. So, we all know that most people look for um when they're moving into areas, they look at the school district. And so, what can we do better at even still telling our story under the circumstances that we are in right now? Um that was one of the u one of the issues. And then the other part is I'm still not hearing for me enough conversation about what are we going to do with revenue. Um I know that there's

036four major pockets, but there are some things that we really need to start looking at in regards to how we going to generate more revenue besides just the cutting and the looking at the spending. But what are we going to do to bring um more funds and revenue back? We know starting with enrollment is definite, but foundations, grants, federal dollars if any comes. Um, just making sure that we are looking and tapping into all of those things. But, um, great job on the budget. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you. Thank you. I would also like to echo, thank you so much for hanging in there. Oh, yeah. I mean, you came into a It was a struggle, I'm sure. Sure. Just to get us to this point, but I appreciate the fact

037that you you hung in there and and you brought us this this final budget. Um although I mean I would love it if we had a little bit more money. A little more money. And if you had brought some more money, but but no, seriously, I I really do thank you and appreciate the work that you you've done to on this budget. Are there any other I do. Oh, okay. What Dr. Gra said, um, as far as like that enrollment, that was the like I've seen that number, but to see it again and just when I graduated high school, I graduated over 500 people. My class was my graduating class. Um, and that was just 2009. So, it's just very alarming. So, I'm thinking like, you know, budgets and communities work very close together. I

038I really feel like we need to have a community outreach team that really goes out in the community. uh you know knock on doors, talk to people and different things like that to kind of really figure out you know why enrollment is low to knock on doors and tell people to register cuz I mean some of these numbers are true but what we do know too is that people wait till the last minute to register their young people as well. Um but we just need to create different ways where we have we maintain connections that we have within our cities um and within our municipalities or dealing with our legislators as well as um our mayors and you know anybody in public office to kind of see what the decliners are and even see where

039our kids are going to. That's important as well. I agree. I was just going to say with that I think diving in I'd be interested to see not adding more into Dr. fields on anyone's plate. But as we do like community listen and learn of particularly our our families who elected private school to find out what why do they not want to be here to because again they're already in our boundary lines. It's better than trying to have someone move here but finding out what is people who aren't choosing to send their kid to our district but live in our district and paying taxes. What what what's the reason why? How do we get them in into our schools instead of away from our schools? And to Dr. Graves point and this not to you

040but when you think about the district guys um we just hear so much negative news and you know we don't just consider we don't think about or project our story like she was saying when you talk about steam being the 12th% of the highest uh school performing schools in Missouri or our graduating rate graduation rate at 93%. you know, I mean, we have so much going on in Ferguson, Flores, but that's not what's on the news. And I think that's what's driving, you know, uh, our our uh, student enrollment. And I think that if we get in front of that and really project our story, we don't have other districts in our neighboring districts that are uh, have student pilots, you know, I mean, we don't we're doing things that others are not, but you

041don't hear that on the news. And I think that to her point, we just really figure out a way to really communicate our story to the community and get a front a lot of this bad news, um, it would increase our our moment. Cool. Cool. Anything else? I look forward to what Dr. Fields has in place to uh, help us tell our story and tell us the the positive parts. Okay. If not, I'm going to call for the vote. Mansery Martin, yes. Graves, yes. Bailey, yes. Secretary Bo, yes. Mr. Tyson, Madame President, yes. And thank you again, Dr. Thank you. Thanks. Up next, we have McKenna Vento. An update on our numbers. Mr. Mitchell. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um, so as I transition uh to a different role and leave Ferguson, Florida, I just want

042to be transparent in terms of McKini Vento um students that we served uh balances owed by some of our neighbors as well as some outstanding payments that are scheduled to go out in this last pay cycle. Uh shout out to Dr. Fields. He and I have collaborated several times and talked about some of the processes we could do forward for next year, but I did want to just share these numbers. Uh, and I also got some good news I want to make sure I report out as well. So, as you can see, I made a quick little one pager for everyone. Um, total numbers of students served for the year were 1,852. That means that number fluctuates. You know, at one point a kid may have been there for three days, but we did serve

043that many kids throughout the year. Uh you'll then see in the second uh section that we are owed 712,000 700 plus thousand by some of our neighbors. But I do want to report that after this was submitted, we did receive checks um from Hazlewood for 23 plus,000 and Normandy for $10,000 plus dollars. But I do also want to say that my office has sent certified mail. We've contacted every CFO and every superintendent of these surrounding districts uh to recoup the funds as well as use some other resources. Dr. S made some personal phone calls with CFOs that he knows. I'm in a support services group. We've kind of had this conversation. So, if we can just get those checks to us, that will just put us in a better fiscal position. And then lastly, we

044were able to catch that we over spent uh with assist in the amount of $105,44 and that check is on its way back to Ferguson Florison. And so we have recruit recouped some funds. If you look at the budget, we're off probably about $200 plus thousands, but if we can recoup some of this money will be in the positive. So thank you to the support services team for all of your work. It has been a pleasure Ferguson Florison uh in this capacity. So good luck to you all moving forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. Appreciate your efforts. Um, and if you need someone to ride with you to go, you know, to the You still have what's how many more days? You can Okay. I'm just saying. But thank you, Mr. Mitchell. Any questions?

045This was for information only. nothing else. Let's go to board travel as we continue to talk about money. So, this is being brought forward to um talk about the budget that that the board has for for travel and for other um for other items, but mainly for travel. And we have let's see where is it budgeted next year $92,283. Is that correct? Yes. For pardon me. Yeah. for everything for travel. Um, we have for H I'm sorry he's had an expression. I just want to make sure you said we budget. This just says full. That's just how much the travel is. But I don't think that doesn't mean it was in the budget. Do you want Yeah. [Applause] I'm sorry. Yeah, we did have something else in our packet that had our entire board budget.

046Yeah, that's what that's what I was just kind of confirming, but I guess nobody got that, right? And so this is travel. So, and that's really what we want to talk about. uh focus on. Um we've had several discussions about the look of Are we talking about the budget? Yeah, we're trying to see. Mr. Bailey thinks he saw it somewhere. We're trying to see where we thought we saw the board. It says like legal food, food, travel, supplies. But since we're only addressing the budget for travel today, we're trying to see if they match is what we're trying to get at. Okay. And even without the having the specific number, well, I mean, it would be nice to have that, but al Exactly. Exactly. So, what what we're supposed to do is have a discussion

047around should should the board use those funds to travel or should we repurpose or send those funds somewhere else that can be helpful in our in our um in our district because of the position that we're in financially. So, let's have some discussion around that and what we think would be best in terms of um how we should handle our travel budget. You want to start? I'll say just two things. I think one, I think the board just needs to be mindful of travel uh in general. I think we obviously have an obligation of professional development. uh our state offers something that's local um that I think you know serves its need potentially for board members who want to attend that training or not attend any training um as an option. I do think MSBA

048is whether we love MSBA or not. It is what we pay our dues to and what represents us at the state legislative level that I do think there's some obligation for us in order to meet our own criteria to move up in certifications to have some form of trial. think we just need to be mindful of travel overall and how do you reduce cost and not do as many conferences as this portrays. The other thing to Dr. Graves's point though I do think it's hard for us to approve anything without knowing what the full budget is. I'm looking at we have something in Google our Google Drive that says fiscal year 26 BOE budget. I don't know if this is what the final one was which does lay out how much we have for legal

049services, how much we have for BOE travel. Um, so if this wasn't the same one that Dr. Singleton put in the budget, it would be hard for me to say, "Oh, yeah, because this this shows that there was 28,000, so 4,000 per each board member for travel." If that was the case, that was what was calculated. Then each board member can decide how they want to spend their $4,000 on travel if that's how this was approved. But I don't know if this was the number that's used because I'm just googling my Google 28,000 for board travel. Talking about the total 4.33 million because 3.8 million was music. 3.8 music's our liability insurance. 325,000 is legal services which includes the settlement costs and other things. But the board travel what on this document was is 28,000.

050I don't that's what transferred over to the budget. If that is then that but I don't know what that's the number that we pulled in 2800. Okay. And travel is is that including flights uh hotel registration. Okay. So it's like 4,000 a person. Mr. Begley, would you you said are did you want to say something? Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I was going to say Tony Michael. I did, Madam President. Yeah, because what this document also represents is that we all go and I've been on the board almost five years and I think probably twice we've all went somewhere together. Um, so it doesn't it doesn't happen a lot. So, um, and then, yes, going back to the point, we've already said we'll do the 4,000 and not this 92, which means everybody goes on every

051conference. So, this doesn't even represent what we've already approved. This this exaggerates it greatly that we're saying that we're all going to go to every conference and we don't all go to conferences. And I think I don't want to speak for Miss McWell from last year. This document just shows how much each one would cost. So if a board member wants, let's say we each get 4,000 right in the budget. If you want to just go to Cube, for example, it's estimated to cost 37.50. So therefore, if you want to just go to Cube, that's the only conference you want to go to, then that's where your $4,000 could go. If you want to go to MSBA only, it's about $2,500, which therefore you could go to MSBA, and that says $1,500 of like the

0524,000. But it sounds like we approved 28,000. So the board overall can't go over 28,000. Now, that's only from July 1. That's not MSBA Summer Summit because that came out of this fiscal year. So, we're talking about July 1 through. Now, if you want to go to next summer summit, that would come out of this year's budget, but this would really just be from the MSBA column over, which we're really talking about because the summer summit already happened this year. So, it would just be for next year. People have to be mindful if they've already spent the board's budget on on that. Where did that uh $4,000 come from? It was put in the budget. So what did that $4,000 per So the the budget request and I don't actually So let me say this.

053I so I know last year I think yeah it was like $25,000 and they helped it just slightly. Okay. Um but the $4,000 whoever and maybe you walk who who developed the board because that that's not I was I didn't you know I was not the person involved in the board but that's not Well, whoever developed the board's question uh put in $28,000 as the number for and of course we got seven board members. So that's where the 4,000 comes in at. It's the total of $28,000 to travel and you've got seven board members. So everybody is in in essence will get 4,000. I mean and I understand that. I'm just asking where the number came from. This year's budget, I'm pulling up the same like shows that we had $94,000 budgeted, which would be

054to Terry's point if every board member went to all of these things that was last year. So that we just finishing right now. So it could have changed because of registration fees could change, whatever the case may be. Okay, got it. So basically, go ahead. So basically right now we don't have accurate information um to say that these are the numbers or not the numbers or whatever we're going off of. So I'm wondering is the question actually should the board be traveling? That is the question. Um that is the question. And uh if we are asking people to limit their travel, should we be doing the same thing, setting the example and not doing as much traveling as uh somehow curving this this this budget for travel? what what how does that look for the

055board to be, you know, going to Vegas and even though it is professional development and we really do get um uh get things out of that out of the travels or out of the um the sessions that we go to and that we attend. But at this point, because of where we are financially, should we be thinking about curbing the the budget for travel for for the BOR? I do just want to caution when we keep saying the word travel for people who are watching that we are just mindful of our language choice of it's really professional development just because if we say travel people think we're going on vacations which again I just want to be clear like we're talking about professional development which does involve some have more expensive travel than others right

056like we know going to Atlanta their hotels might be more than Kansas City so therefore there's more cost involved I'm just giving an example of I just want to be cautious that I know we we're talking about travel in general, but if someone just joins in, they might think we're talking about going on trips now, although we don't get paid. This is for professional development. So, I just want to clarify that piece, but I do agree that we need to limit professional development and people need to be, in my opinion, mindful of what development you feel you need. Uh, and be mindful of we all know the the district's cost. You if a constituent, in my opinion, comes up and asks you, why are you spending $1,000 on professional development for yourself? I feel like

057each board member, in my own opinion, need to be able to justify and speak to the constituents that ask that question. Personally speaking, that's just my own belief that you need to justify, you're one of seven, that you need to justify to people who we answer to, which is the community. And so, if you feel you can spend $20,000 yourself on professional development and you can justify that, then I feel like to some extent that um there should be a conversation, not saying we approve it, but a conversation. It sounds like the budget, we proved a total of 28,000. So, unless we amend the budget, which we just approved, we can't change the $28,000 amount as of now. And just also for clarification, the the professional development that we attend is not set by the

058board member. It's not like I say, I want to go to Atlanta because that's where I want to go for my professional development. the professional development locations are set by the agencies or the the conferences that we're a part of that we're spending money to be a part of. So, it to me it makes no sense for us not to participate in professional development with these with these organizations if we're paying our membership fees to these organizations. Now, I must admit that as a board member up to this point, I have had the beh privilege and was able to attend more conferences than others because my schedule permitted and things like that. But I do understand that now that we're in this uh fiscal uh um condition that I can't attend every conference like I

059have up to this point. But I dare I don't think anybody would say to me, Tyson, your role on the board is not significant enough for you not to get any type of professional development. You have a tremendous responsibility on that board and the professional development I get from this board has taught me so much as a board member and being an effective board member to this community. So I agree that we need to curb back. I 100% agree that I I can't attend every conference even though we are members of all of these agencies, all these um entities. Um so yes, but to the point, how did we come up to the $4,000 per board member? And I didn't even think about that one because where did the 28,000 originate from? Particularly when you

060see Q being 3,700 by itself, which means at the way it reads now that we one a board member can only go to one conference when there's five five available for them. So I'm just curious to know how did we how did we come up with the 4,000? But there may be another I think that was just a suggestion um in terms of uh being fair to every board member and just giving them a budget because I think there was other discussion too around people like for example if somebody wants to go to cube and then you also want to go to an MSM uh MS well yeah you can't unless someone says well I'm not going to cube you can have part of my budget part of my $4,000 and we could share it

061that way. There was some discussion around sharing if people did not want to to to use all of their monies uh for travel for professional development. But as a board, we never voted on that. We not No, I said there just discussion around it. No, we did not vote on it. But now it's in the budget as if the discussion was had that this is what we're going to do moving forward. um whichever the number,000. Yeah, I don't think it was never done. No, no, no. Um and that's that's one of the points I just wanted to make. But my whole thing is professional development is very important and wherever you get it, how you get it, you just need to get it. Um and I don't know moving forward, is there a ban on

062travel? Have we said that to administration that no, you cannot travel this, you know, upcoming school year, whatever the case may be. So I don't want to take a lot of the practices that we did moving forward if it's not built behind okay this is what we're doing everybody knows across the board because I know we sat here and said nobody travels but then we heard across the district that people still had conferences that we're paying for we heard about miss conferences like all of these things and so whatever the guideline is going to be whatever we decide it needs to be standard and it needs to be across the board but we all know that professional development is important. We can't do our jobs without it. And that's with anybody in the district. And

063so I think administration has to decide on what's going to be important for them. What is professional development going to look like for them? For for us, it might not even be these conferences that we've basically selected and pinion hold said these are the only conferences that the board members are going on. I know of several different conferences um that or different things that I'm a part of such as schoolboard partners such as LE where it's additional conferences that are not even listed and so I think we need to come up with a better way um maybe even look at policy since we are governed by policy and regards to what does board travel I mean board conferences board professional development really looks like instead of deciding on this particular page this particular conference because

064we don't even know if the numbers are even the same. So, I would like to make a suggestion and um that we maybe come up with a small committee to sit down and talk about uh a plan that we can share um with with the board. How about that? And that way we would have time to get the exact numbers. Um, and if you're interested in being a part of that, I mean, first of all, how does the board feel about doing something like that of having like three or three people to work on a a plan? I mean, I don't I don't mind spearheading that. I mean, that's not Why Why am I looking at you? Thank you so much for doing that. I'll join Courtney. Okay. And again, we know that the budget's

065going to be amended anyway. So, we just know the starting point because is that so it only would be the three of us because other than that, it would be Okay. All right. Thank you so much for for this discussion and we'll we'll learn a little bit more once we sit down and talk about u some ideas for for professional development is so important for us. Okay. Uh, district uniform policy. Oops. Uhuh. No, that was just for information only. No motion. So, you mean for the uniform policy or for the Oh, no, no, no. That was just that was just for uh discussion only. um our uniform policy. Um do you want to talk to any the co- soups about the policy that we we're going to we just want to make sure that's that

066the community knows that this is what the policy is. We do have a policy in place. We are going to adhere to the policy that we have voted on. there's not going to be a change in terms of of uniform for our schools. So, the community knows and the specifically each one each of the schools should be putting out a note to parents about what is expected in terms of of of uniforms for every one of our schools K12. Okay. And our Yes. I'm so sorry to interrupt. Um I wanted to add something to that whenever you're you're okay with that. Go ahead. Oh, okay. So, I I requested that this be placed on the agenda for the purpose of talking about enforcement. Uh, community members have reached out and are concerned that we have

067a policy for uniforms and that some families are in compliance monitoring their children, making sure that they show up in uniform. And then other uh families, and I'm not speaking about people who don't have uh the means. I'm talking about people who are aware of the policy, but their children may not want to wear the uniforms or the parents may not support the policy. And the the feeling that I'm getting from some of these constituents is that their children are tired of being the small percentage in the school that actually wear the uniforms and other kids are not wearing uniforms. They're wearing what they want to wear. And then you know so this parent that reached out is really concerned about what the board's plan I mean what's the what's the plan on the part

068of administration to enforce the uniform policy and I know that uh we can talk about what's been in place before but if it hasn't been working we have to think about doing maybe something different. So, I just wanted to to mention that we just we have people that are concerned that we have a policy that we may not be able to enforce and that is a legitimate concern. Um what what I have observed across the district is we have some schools who are just you walk in and you know that there's a uniform policy because people are complying. They're doing what they're asked to do. They're coming to school in uniform. And then we have other schools where you see a uniform every, you know, every 20 25 kids, even less than that. And so,

069um, Dr. uh, Pow Walker did ask to have this put on the the agenda because the parent raised some very good questions. How are we going to enforce this policy? Uh the expectation is to follow the policy and that every administrator, every building level administr administrator will have in place an expectation for their buildings and that they would be putting that out to parents and letting parents know what the expectation is. Um consistency is part of the issue for some buildings. And so, how do we and I how do we make sure and I hate to use the word enforce the policy and for students to be in uniform and for us not to become the uniform police and students lose losing valuable time in classrooms because they're not coming in uniform. We need to

070have something in place um incentives, you know, make it do something that's more positive rather than punitive in terms of of uniforms. Sometimes that hap I mean that that works, sometimes it doesn't. Uh the responsibility for for from for me as a board member is that there's an expectation from the the school leaders leadership team that they are responsible for the uniforms in their buildings and that that students are wearing the uniforms on a on a regular basis and that they are contacting parents and making sure the parents know what what the expectation is. Other than that, I mean, we've got that that we we need to be concerned about as well as now the telephone situation and the watches and that students are not to have them in school at all. not even during

071passing time or lunchtime. So it it puts the responsibility on our administration, building administrators, staff, um our our SRO's, our you know, everyone who's the adult in the building to make make sure that we are following policy. So this is this is a hard one. This is a difficult one. Yes. I'm sorry, Dr. Thurman. I also wanted to just name that it the responsibility also lies with parents. Oh, absolutely. And so, you know, it's because there's only so much administration can do without the cooperation of parents. If parents aren't going to make their kids do what they're supposed to do, I don't, you know, often kids won't listen to us because they know their parents are going to back them up. Mhm. So I don't necessarily have an answer but I do think that there's

072has to be something around engaging parents on this topic so that you know when we see this pattern of behavior with kids kind of bringing those parents in maybe there's some sort of um like you said an incentive or potentially some sort of a consequence but something that has to be meaningful and at the same time we want kids in class and learning but I just think part of This work is also about making sure kids know how to follow rules. No, there's this this is not the only place where you might be told in order to be here you have to follow a rule. You might have to wear a uniform for your job. Like some of these are just things we all have to learn. And I just I just worry sometimes there's

073just too much flexibility around I'm going to do what I want to do. And then we sometimes have parents who support that attitude and it's not okay. We cannot do this work without parents. it if I may I won't go down my soap box too much because you all know how I feel about uniforms but certainly I think the board voted and that's where we're at and so I think to me I think the clear communicate we love to use the word cube I don't know if that's still around about clear communication and to me you know I know Dr. fields in the audience of just like let's have a uniform standard consistent policy that we do communicate to parents and everyone up front because I think one of the fears I've heard from some

074parents is administrators feel like they cannot put all the referrals in the system right for whatever reason I know we as a board have said we want to see the real data because if we don't know the real data we don't know how to support and so I think this board continues and I don't want to speak for everyone but like we want to see the data this is not about saying this school has this many referrals We want to see the data and if we don't see the data and people are entering referrals, we don't know. But I do think if we are clear where we engage our office of family and community engagement where you know maybe there's a a a continuum, right? A very clear regardless of who you are. Here's our

075uniform expectation. The first time, you know, maybe it's a warning. The second time maybe we're giving you the proper attire. The third so that way now you have it. You can't say you didn't receive it. then maybe it's going to like more out of school suspension. I'm not saying we don't want kids at school, but to your point, Dr. Paul Walker, these little things do trickle into the classrooms. My bigger concern saying with cell phones and smartwatches, which is going to be a huge transition, which is state law, it's not even board policy anymore. The fact that you cannot have a smartwatch even displayed during the school day, is going to be an issue. And I think the more we have a uniform consistent K12 policy that one parent cannot argue and say that well

076at my son at this school can do this but over at this school they can't. I think we just need a uniform K12 continuum so we can get parents on board and be very clear up front like regardless of who you are. If you have a smartwatch the third time here's your consequence. I do believe the governor will probably sign. There's some legislation about ADA funding for kids who are suspended. Keeping the funding doesn't count for us for ADA wise. I don't know the whole legal piece of the law, but there are some kid there some legal pieces that may be helping us financially. So, if a kid is suspended, we still may be able to keep the ADA money, which again, I'm not saying we want to suspend kids, but what I am saying

077is we have to have some policies and procedures because otherwise it just trickles down to other things. The last thing is if anyone's interested, I did share with Dr. Fields and Dr. Thurman uh Tooth and Keiny is offering a free webinar for an hour about the Senate Bill 68 particularly around cell phones. So if any board member wants it's a free webinar there's no cost for it. It's in August. Um I sent it to Don if you don't mind sending out to the rest of the board members. It's just a free webinar to log into if you want to learn more about the policy and procedures around cell phones as well as some other things that changed if you want to get that update from just a different legal perspective from a different lawyer and

078law firm. Uh but again I think to Dr. Paul Walker I would like to see some clear communication of what are the consistent K12 expectations for cell phones and that while providing support but that does not mean provide support every single day because the other thing we've heard from parents and teachers is it creates a negative interaction which is why I don't like uniforms right I don't like IDs is because it creates a negative the very first thing people don't they acknowledge the the deficit side not the person side right I acknowledge you as a human for not wearing uniform before I even say good morning to and it just sets the wrong tone for people. And so I think teachers also by having some clarity around that um they can hold administration accountable and

079we can hold administration accountable but I think administrators also want some clarity around what the expectation is. So if Dr. fields or the board starts asking questions about discipline numbers, they don't feel pressure that they are need to hide quote unquote which is what we've heard from people hide numbers but we want the real numbers because if we have a school that has I'll say a thousand uniform violations we need to figure out what's going on at that school do we need to do something provide some additional support but if we don't see actual numbers everywhere we'll never know what the truth really is and then it's all hearsay and then we hear from teachers and parents so I'm done with my soap One thing I want to mention too though, I know we we've

080talked about uniforms and different things like that, but my heart always goes to, you know, I know we did it last year, but I think part of the kind of messaging needs to be that we are trying to find partnerships to get the uniforms clean because that is a barrier. Um, and I know that we do have partnerships, but when those things aren't those messages aren't being sent consistently to our parents and our stakeholders, that creates a lot of challenges because a parent would keep a kid home if she couldn't a he or she or whoever the caregiver is can't afford to wash the uniform. That is a big deal for parents to have multiple kids. It costs almost 20 to $30 to wash a uniform if you have multiple kids and to dry it

081and stuff like that. So, I do think we need to help kind of remove some of those barriers as well and get that messaging out that we are here to support fully if those are certain challenges that you're facing. I agree. Uh I agree with that, Mr. Oh, I'm sorry. I was I'm sorry. I was just I just was sitting here thinking and then pushed the button. I'm so sorry. I was just going to say, Mr. Bailey, I agree. But I do think that if I'm if I'm recalling correctly, the administration has done that. Like I think that they have put things in place so that families know that, you know, we have a washer and dryer. We can do whatever we can do to support you. I really don't think that's I just don't

082think that's the issue. I do think we need to address that, but I think the the biggest issue we have is just people doing what they want to do. and um want you know us having some difficulty figuring out how to corral those folks and make sure they understand that yes the policy applies to you too. I want you to know I agree with you but I just think if if we were to make a pie I think that's probably maybe 10 15 20% of the people and I think there's stuff in place to support that cuz we've asked for that. The rest of that I think is people and it's some and I also want to give parents a break here because we sometimes have kids who leave home in uniform and then they

083do something else on the way. So we know how kids can be but I just Yeah. So I just I wanted to just just mention that I that I I just don't want us to lose the momentum around discussing the compliance piece worrying about whether or not we are trying to meet the needs of people who don't have it because I think you know we're we're trying to do that. At least that's what I've heard. Yes. And Dr. Martin, I'm just kidding. Excuse me. Uh, Mr. Mitchell. Yes, ma'am. I just want to um Lord, put a watch over my mouth. Um, as a principal, right, and Sean Jane, Dr. Fields, Dr. Martin, stop me if I'm wrong, but as a principle, my uh I can be hired and fired based off test scores. right? Student

084attendance and other data. I would just encourage us because Fergus and I love y'all. Encourage us to find data that supports what the uniforms are doing in our schools. Support services. I just gave you a presentation. We have 1,800 plus McKini Vento students in our district. We have a high population of tier 2 and tier three kids. our social economics that allows us to feed every one of you for free. I don't know if we should put so much value on what kids wear versus what they do when they sit in the seat. As a principal, if I'm spending two hours trying to get kids in the right clothes to sit in the seat, I'm losing funding that I'm accounted for. I'm losing data that I'm being held accountable for. And I don't know that

085that makes it a productive day. If you go to a school, and trust me, the three of us are in schools all day long and we go back and forth with kids who won't even get a watch. They walk home if they have on cell phones, etc. I don't know that I would focus as much on what the kids have on versus what the kids can give me academically because we're at a point now to where you've got a lot of vacancies. So the manpower to even enforce these uniform policies would be difficult for next year. I just think that maybe we should involve our student voice committee to kind of hear the voice of the kids in terms of uniforms. We did that. I think that we also should look at the data because

086we were in them for a year. Did we see an increase academically versus the increase we had academically last year before we had the uniforms? I just think that's all you should look at coming in. But that was my two cent. The principal in me just couldn't sit here and not say that. So, I apologize for my soap box, but that's just what I wanted to share. Thank you. And we did do all of that before we voted on whether to have uniforms. They did say no. They did they did say no. Um the other part too is I know that for security reasons uh that was a big issue for us because we have so many kids who are coming in off the street to join our join their friends and having uniforms was

087also a way to help you know to identify our students. getting on the bus. That was another thing that we talked about and how uh we had people getting on the bus who didn't even belong to in the school district. And so that was another a deterrent or another way to identify students. But we did have all these discussions prior and that's how we voted. Now, I'm not I'm not saying that um we can't go back and revote, but for now and for next school year, we need to reinforce what's in policy. So, we need to move forward with what we have in policy and and look at best practices, maybe to talk to uh uh Dr. Fields to make sure and reiterate when you're meeting with administration that this is a an important piece.

088This is policy and the expectation is is that you have some plan in place uh to help parents to understand and students to understand that you are to be in uniform uh this year. Uh we can revisit this but at this point we're going through with what policy we have in place. Did you have something? Yeah, I just had a quick comment and I appreciate that um Mr. Brent uh Mitchell but uh Mr. Martin, you stated that the um having a uniform policy across the board for all schools may be the reason why there may be some schools not in compliant because administrations administrators are not clear on what that looks like. Um which actually gave me comfort because Dr. Thurman your when you made your comment that some schools are not doing it and

089other schools are. I'm sorry I got here. I got a little upset because we're one district united. You're paid to do a job. This is what the board has asked for. Like Dr. Martin, I don't necessarily agree with uniforms either, but it was the decision of the board. It is policy. I don't have a choice, right? And if if there are people operating in our district so defiant to what the board is saying, do they want to be here? That's what it says to me. You know what I mean? Not you don't have the option of being a rogue administrator. You follow the policy. When you don't follow the policy, what happens? What happens? That's the answer. You don't have the option of being a rogue administrator in this district. You don't follow policy. What

090happens? Now with that said, I agree with you. There are so many other things administrators are focused on, but with all the things that are coming at us, right? I mean, we have to deal with what's coming at us and we trust that our administrators are following our policy in doing getting the kids in the seat dressed appropriately, right? doing what you need to do to get the kids in a seat to perform, but dressed appropriately. That that we've made it a mandate as a board. So, I need that to be on your list of priorities, right? Yes. I I mean, because otherwise then you're slapping me in the face. You know what I mean? Otherwise, you're saying to me as a board member, I don't care what you have to say in your policy.

091I'm going to do what I want to do in my classroom or in my building the way I do it because I'm the principal in this school and not you. Well, I mean, if that's how if that's how school that's not how we do it in the corporate world, I'll tell you that. Right. But if that's how it's done in the school districts, then forgive me for being immature in that area. Um but okay. So thank you for the clear policy and um as it relates to expectations, expectations have been and will continue to be shared. We have title one funded planners that have been purchased and ordered and will be coming in and the first front pages of those have information around the cell phone policy that is going to be coming down the

092line as it relates to law and that the expectation is as Dr. Powwalka indicated that parents assist us in that work. We cannot spend hours of instructional time attempting to confiscate phones and put them away. And as as per the law, the law states that we are no longer responsible for those phones as previously we were um because the it states that they should not be bringing them to school. They should not be utilizing them during instructional time or in hallways and passing or at lunch. And so that is going to be of course a difficult piece for us to um to enforce, but it is the law. And so again, I am asking our families to um assist us and your children in ensuring that smart watches, smartphones, etc. are not brought to school

093and if they are brought to school that you speak with your children over the summer about keeping them in their backpacks um until it is feasible for them to use them before school and after school. That is what we can do. We will have clear communication as we have in the past. Our phenomenal communications team has already created um documentation. And I believe the uniform piece has already gone out to families and also a newsletter related to um cell phone usage and what the new law states. And so we will absolutely continue to do the work that um that we have done. We will again communicate that policy. All of our families receive that information during registration about what the policies are. We will be monitoring um for daily compliance. It is our hope that

094it does not impede us doing the good work that we are called to do here, which is to educate children each and every day and to ensure that our teachers and staff members are able to establish and build relationships and keep them and not let this be a barrier to them doing that. And so, absolutely, we too have seen those emails from community members that are concerned about enforcement. and um as part of the conversations that we'll be having after July 1 with um Dr. Fields and the team talking about what are the things that we need to ensure are in place. This of course is one of those things that will be on the list um about how we will politely um figure out how we do the work that needs to be done

095and ensure that school continues to go on as well. Are there any other comments about uniforms? I'm sure that there's going to be more discussion around Do you have something? Yes. I just need comfort in knowing that there are not blatant administrators out there. They don't care what we're saying. Let me defend my people on that. Yeah. Uh so so number one there are not principles who are saying hands down I'm going to let my kids wear what they want to wear. I think it's kids saying that. I think it's parents saying that. And I would also encourage you to look at what grown folks wear to school every day. That's a different conversation. Um but I think that again speaking through the lens of a principal, right? When I got 300 kids without the

096right kind of clothes on, what I'm going to do with them? put them in the cafeteria all day and give them a Chromebook, then I'm gonna get you gonna get emails about that. Uh, we just got to figure out a way to effectively enforce the policy, but still do it with a way from love because some kids, to Dr. Mr. Bailey's point, some kids are wearing what they have, and we get that. And last year, we were able to buy uniforms for kids. This year, we're not. Uh, we did partner with a few people to wash uniforms. So, I'm excited about those opportunities. and we got a few people who are going to give us uniforms, but we just need to ensure that as a principal, I'm only talking about the people who that's all

097I know how to do. I've been running schools for 20 plus years. I know that when I walk in the door, my objective is to get these babies in the seat to get some good oldfashioned instructional time, if I can't get them in that seat, then that's when the the chaos and confusion starts because the kids get agitated. The parents are not going to take that phone call the third time. Let's just be real, right? And then you got to figure out ways to provide support for those campus leaders. Well, we're going to move forward with putting in place those practices that and expectations for every building and for every principal and for every student and for and then we will work on those students who are and families who are consistently out of compliance

098with with the uniform. We may not get all 300 that day, but if we can start, you know, with 15 or 10 of them and we can get them on on, you know, on board with doing what's right, we can we can just work that number down till we get to the point where we are at least 90% of our kids on a daily basis are are in uniform. So, but I I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying. But also to Dr. uh um P Walker, Pew Walker um her her comment about the expectations that people are that you know parents need to understand and students need to understand. There are rules that we do have to follow. You know, we have kids walking into school in pajamas with blankets and and

099right and and fluffy house shoes and things like that. I I just saw it not too long ago at the end of the school year and we just cannot you know there's an expectation that uh we need to follow and principles, administrators, teachers and all that and it's not going to happen overnight and we just want to be supportive and we want to make sure that your your principles, your teachers, your parents are trying to working to um to support this policy with Fidel ity. Okay. So, anything else with Oh, I see. I just wanted to make one more quick uh comment, too. I I think it's also important to note that prior to there being uniforms, there were dress code major dress code concerns. Right. Exactly. So, for me, there's a there's a deeper

100issue around compliance and parent partnership here. we talking about uniforms, but this issue comes up in many other ways with other things. Um, so I just I want to mention that because we're really talking about uniforms and that's cool. Have them or don't have them, but you still always going to have that segment of the parent population that that is just really struggling to be in compliance and do, you know, to kind of make the work of educating their kids easier. Um, so I just I just want to call that out because we're talking about uniforms, but it's really for me it's about parent partnership, parents understanding that we can't do this work without you. Um, so yeah, that's it. Thank you for that healthy discussion around uniforms. And again, this was for information only.

101Um, so we are going to move forward with uniforms and we're going to support our our buildings. We're going to support our principles. We're going to support our parents. Um any way that we can get uh resources to to families who need um you know, shoes or or uniforms or even you know, some schools were so great that they um had closets for parents who would come in and be able to purchase or just to take uniforms or shirts or pants that they need for for their for their children. So, it can be done and it can't it it's not not going to be done overnight, but we're going to work uh towards it. So, thank you so much for that discussion. Uh the next item on the agenda is public comments. And I have

102to confess I put this on prematurely. So, if if it's okay with everyone else, we will come back to this. Uh Miss uh Manser Ray and also Mr. Bailey, you guys are working on this, right? And so if you would let me know when you're ready to have the discussion around it, then I will put it on the agenda. Okay. Thank you so much. Is there any new business? Hearing none. Oh, we do have new business. Okay. Business. Is it new? It's new. Okay. It's new. So before we move forward, I'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank a very special group of leaders who are concluding their distinguished service to the Ferguson Florison School District. Today we honor our administrators on our team who are retiring, individuals who have dedicated their careers

103to educating, leading, and uplifting our students and staff. On behalf of the board of education and the rest of our colleagues, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to each of you. Your leadership has helped shape the lives of countless young people and built a legacy of excellence and that will continue to last when you're gone. We'll still be talking about you and the things that you did and maybe even giving you a phone call. I want to especially thank Dr. Jane Crawford, assistant superintendent of secondary education. Dr. Crawford has led with clarity, compassion. Yes. and an unwavering commitment to student success. Her influence on our secondary schools has been profound. Thank you, Dr. Crawford. Yes. We also want to thank and honor Dr. Chenise Terrell, director of special education. Dr. Terrell's advocacy and leadership has ensured

104that some of our most vulnerable students receive the support and opportunities they deserve. Her work has made a lasting difference in the lives of students, families, and staff alike. Let's give a round for Dr. Chenita Rail. And of course, Dr. I'm sorry, I just gave you a doctorate. Mr. Terry O'Neal, assistant superintendent of operations, maintenance, and transportation, whose efforts Yep. behind the scenes kept our school safe, functional, and running smoothly every day. How many years? Oh my goodness gracious. 50 some odd years. When we talk about he went to school here, listen. How many years total? 13 years here in Ferguson, Florida. 54 in the district as a student first, right? So, yes. And to all of our retirees out there in the world and um in this room, we wish you peace, rest, and

105fulfillment in your journey ahead. Your impact here will not be forgotten. We thank you so much for your service. Let's give them all a round of applause. [Applause] Thank you for that new business and thank you all uh on behalf of the board how much we appreciate the work that you have done and you've left um you you've left an imprint for the rest of the the the future of Ferg floor and also uh not just not just our students but for us as a board for your friends that you've made along the way. Um, I know that when you go, you're going to probably want to come back and we're we're going to allow you to come back as subs or whatever it is that you need to do uh or if you change

106your mind. But no, seriously, I really do appreciate each and every one. I've had the the distinct honor of working with uh with you for so How many years have we worked together? Or did we? Oh my gosh. Well, Yeah. The discipline. Yes. I know. Yes. Yes. So I I appreciate you and I the other thing I want to say in front of everyone, I appreciate the fact that you have hung in there to the very end. You have been here. You've done the work and you've shown your dedication to the district. And I want to say thank you so much. It shows. It shows. You ought to be um we we love you. We're going to miss you. Yeah. Mr. O'Neal. Okay. I won't get emotional. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart,

107I say thank you for the work that you've done. And you've put in a lot of hours. People don't see you when you're here before school starts and after school starts and 3:00 in the morning to the point of your health being impacted. So, please take this time to take care of yourself and and to rest. On behalf of the board, we thank you and it's a personal thank you for me. Appreciate you. Go have fun. Play some golf. I promise. Okay. And there are some who are not here uh who will be leaving. But I I just want to say that um it's this job is not easy. You get more negatives sometimes than you get the positives. And every now and again when you get those positives, it makes you think, "Yeah, this

108is why I'm here. We see you. We saw you. We thank you." President, can I say something? Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, Terry, thank you. you know, thank you because you've kept me with this committee and I appreciate you. But Dr. Crawford, um, because of you, my son is 3.7 uh, grade point average. I didn't even think the boy was going to get through school, but I don't know what you did over there at Steam that flipped something in this kid. So, I so much appreciate you. Okay. I love you. Yeah, I love you too, Terry. But I mean, no, seriously, I didn't think my son was going to get through high school, but we got him over there to steam and Dr. Crawford got it and we would talk. She would she would call

109me on some and this boy is a junior at Alabama&M. Wow. in grade point averages. I'm like, who? Look at this kid, right? One I never thought would graduate high school, man. Thank you, Dr. Crawford, for all that you've invested in him. This is telling our story a lot of times, and we talked about this earlier. We don't often hear all of these good things that's happening in Ferg. We hear the things that make the news. But it's time for us to start talking about the good and the the the wonderful families we have, the wonderful students we have, not to mention the awesome staff that we have. Uh we need to we need to change the narrative about how negative things are in our schools and and talk about the positive. So that that

110should be our mission as as as the board um coming up for next year. and even having something where we we we talk about our um maybe maybe have a segment where we talk about hey this is what's happening in the in the district and this is this is um this is a highlight so that people can hear the good Mr. Mr. Bailey, did you want to say something? Yeah, I just wanted to say something about uh Terry O'Neal. I think, you know, when you're in facilities and stuff like that, a lot of times people just assume that the work is just supposed to be done. But I wanted to say personally, I don't think you really understand like when it comes to sports and different things like that, people just think the grass gets

111cut um because somebody's just out there cutting it. Uh people think that, you know, practice fields and softball fields and all of those things. I don't think you really realize like I'm a product of the athletics here. I don't think you really realize how many kids you impacted that you have never met that was a part of athletics here playing on those fields having district championships um going to state ML North went to state Berkeley's track team and different things like that. So, I just think like those things get overlooked, but I want to personally tell you thank you. Um, because we can have all the uniforms, we can have all of that, but the way those fields used to look back in the day, people wanted to go here and people wanted to play

112here. We took pride in in in our field. Um, and that's a lot of thanks to you making sure the fields were cut, making sure that know they were lined up and just for all sports. Uh, of course I'm a football guy, but it's just one of those situations where you know that the pride that it takes, uh, and we know that the heart and soul that it take because it's one thing just putting a lawnmower to a field, but it's a different thing of some of those fields used to look like college fields. Um, and I just appreciate that and just to, you know, I just think about a lot of the people I graduated with and different things. We've had so many athletes come out of here. Um, so many athletes are in

113NFL and coaching and different things like that and that's a product of a lot of things that you've implemented to enhance the facilities here and I appreciate that. Not to mention the fact that you get them to school too on those buses. you you've done a lot and you have impacted many I I wish we could come up with a number of how many kids you've impacted over the years where it's whether it's sports or getting on the buses or being in clean schools. I mean after school programs figuring out their why like after school programs are important and you you transported kids to and from after school programs that define their why. Um it just didn't have to do with sports. It could have been banned. It could have been robotics. Those are kids

114that are literally live in our district and we got kids that go to Harvard, Princeton, and that's a product of the environment that they're in here. We could go on and on, but we won't because we have to go back into closed. So, uh, may I have a motion if unless there's something else to to go back into close. Second off the vote. Um, Was that who was who's Was that Kevin? Yes. Okay. Bailey, yes. Martin, yes. Manserie, yes. Graves, yes. Tyson, yes. Secretary Bose, yes. Madame President, yes.