001All right, welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our Monday, June 23rd meeting. Um, a quorum is present and we have Miss Taylor calling us uh today by phone. Uh, Leslie, you there? Awesome. All right, everyone has the agenda in front of them. take a minute to review and then let me know the pleasure of the board. Second. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Wyoff and a second by Mr. Johnson. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. I. All right. Those opposed? Nay. The eyes have it. The agenda is approved. All right. We are going to go ahead and observe a moment of silence and then I will go ahead and do the board invocation. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of
002summer, a time of rest, reflection, and renewal. As our students, staff, and families enjoy the season, we ask for your protection over them. keep them safe, healthy, and refreshed. Guide us as a board to lead with wisdom and unity. Help us to make thoughtful decisions that serve our schools well now and in the year ahead. Bless our community and remind us of the purpose you've placed on our hearts to uplift and care for the next generation. In your name we pray. Amen. All right. Next on the agenda is public comments. Mr. Wyoff, I think we got one one for public comments. uh while she comes on up in the podium said let me just go ahead and read this uh real quick. Said persons who speak in the order in which they have signed up
003to speak each speaker during the public comment section of the board meetings shall have a maximum of three minutes for his or her comments um at which the point the speaker will will politely be asked to bring comments to a close followed by thank you. Schoolboard policy, state law and federal law have abolished separate and and distinct procedures and forms for the resolution of employee grievances, employee complaints against individuals, employees uh pupil suspensions and appeals and political campaigns. To avoid circumvention of these separate proceedings and ensure fairness to all parties concerned, no person shall speak regarding one a filed grievance, two pending employee complaint filed with the school district or an outside agency, three complaint against the individual employees, four employee disciplinary action, suspension or termination, or five pupil suspension or appeal which may ultimately
004reach the board of education. Additionally, prior to the elections, no person who has publicly announced or filed as a candidate for public office may speak during the public comments concerning his or her candidacy. The board chair or designate may terminate any presentation that is not in coordinance with this criteria except as limited by the previous provisions. Public comments will be allowed during a public comments period of on any subject that is within a jurisdiction of the board. And uh we have Miss Odum. Thank you members of the board. Good afternoon. I just wanted to thank you today for your love and sacrifice and all the hard work you've done for the children and the community you serve. I've been listening and observing in all the schoolboard meetings this year and it is obvious you have
005dedicated and caring hearts. You have exhibited a deep desire for the education well-being of our children and a concern for all educators and all those who serve in the Burke County school system. I thank God most of all for what he has done in placing all of you on this school board. God answers prayer and I thank Dr. Swan and all the department heads and each person who has shown me kindness as a visitor in these meetings. I commend you for all your dedication to excellence and your regard for our children's physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Love goes a long way. also wanted to applaud you for your development and passing of the resolution to return to pen and paper and textbook learning. The Bible says in Jeremiah 6:16, "Thus sayaeth the Lord, stand ye
006in the ways and see and ask for the old paths. Where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls?" But they said, "We will not walk therein." While some do not choose God's way, the good way, you are striving to do so. I commend you and pray God bless you for it as you continue the work you're doing. And while God has placed each of you in your current positions of availability to God and others that you will prayerfully consider adopting a resolution to place the Bible back in our classrooms as instructional material for our children. There is no other book in the world greater for teaching our children morals and good character traits. It establishes a foundation for godly living and productive citizens in society. And most
007of all, it lets them know there is a God in heaven who loves them and gave his only begotten son to die for their sins that they might live forever. This life is just a vapor. It will end for all of us someday. And all things in this life will pass away except what we have done for Christ. And God's word will never return void. it will accomplish what is set forth to accomplish. Act now while you have time and opportunity to do something that will have an eternal benefit for our children. Please choose the old paths, the good way for the sake of our children and their future. Thank you again and I pray God guides your hearts in all he would have you to do. God has brought each of you to such
008a time as this to make a difference in the lives of our children and our country forever. As God told Joshua, "Be strong and of a good courage." God bless you all and thank you. Please public comments. Thank you. All right, moving on down the agenda. Next we have year end resolution 2425 with Mr. Lawson. Afternoon board. Good afternoon. As is uh every year at this time I get the pleasure of presenting the fiscal year end closeout before the end of the year. Something unique to school business but it is what it is. uh the very first item in your slide and I apologize that you this was not in your board packet earlier but this is hot off the press and as is always uh we're right up to the uh time to present
009before we actually get everything closed out. So for comparison purposes in the very first column you have the budget that is not budget revisions or amendments uh that you all have approved from throughout the year but this is the beginning uh budget that we adopted back early in the fiscal year. Next we have the previous year's results and then uh our final or this year's uh results. Uh as you can see uh this is listed uh this is high level summary it's listed by funding source state funds of course being the line share of our funds uh local the county commissioners would be next u and then uh federal and our fund aid or our special revenue fund. Um the esser era is over u thank goodness for many reasons. Uh but uh I would
010I would like to thank our team which consists of course of leadership folks here in this room for another successful year. Uh also the finance team Amy, Dana, Megan and Colton who have managed uh payroll which has been a mighty task during the COVID era with all the special payrolls that uh have been uh put upon that department. Mark, Brooke, and Penny. Uh that that is our accounts payable department. Again, due to the volume of uh invoices during COVID, they've done a great job managing that. And then Ashley and Angela over in the purchasing department for their uh handling of the increased volume of POS. And then Dr. Alton, Michelle, and Kim, they've managed, met, plan, coordinated, and budgeted all of our federal grants and CO monies. Uh, of the $153.5 million this year, excluding
011capital, 88.6% of our entire budget is payroll and employer benefits costs. So obviously we're a very labor intensive operation. As you can see, variance to budget, and I'll cover this in more detail by fund in the following slides, but you can see that the overall budget was 800 or overall results were 847,000 over the original adopted budget or 6% or 610 of 1% over our originally adopted budget. Next uh we have fund two and the way we spend money in priority in the school system is we spend state funds first then we expend federal special revenue funds and local is last. So the overall indicator of our financial health shows itself in fund two in how much fund balance we either contribute or use. This year we use $656,610 in fund balance. The original adopted
012budget was $488 of fund balance usage. And as you all know, we've undertaken cost savings initiatives to address this shortfall in next year's budget as well as our reduced funding for next year. Um what does 21 million get us? uh 48 maintenance staff, 18 teachers, three JOTC equivalent teachers, one prekta leap director, half of the athletic director. We pay 11 APs two months from local funds and two nurses are paid from local funds. It encompasses things like local supplements, extracurricular supplements, uh, charter schools in Avery County, they they get $1.1 million of our local budget. So, of the 20 million250 allocated by the commissioners, 1.1 million goes to charter schools in Avery County. The reason Avery County, we have 37 kids in Jonas Ridge that due to the geography and and the harsh winters up
013there, we pay our local portion to Avery County for those kids to attend their school. pays for maintenance of facilities, utilities, insurance, instructional supplies, office supplies, library books, our copers and printers in all the schools, our external audit, legal fees, board of education stipens and membership, and our SRO matching funds. Next, we have fund 8, which is our special revenue funds. You can see it was almost dead on budget. $7,767 below budget. Actually, what do we buy with the $8.7 million? 16 preK teachers, 22 prek TAs, 15 various grant-f funed positions, two family mentors, four gear up positions, six central office, one assistant superintendent, and 25% of their superintendent. Fund 8 consists of prek programs, EC contracted speech and psychology services, various athletic projects, agricultural grant, North Carolina farm-toschool produce grant, our backpack program, a
014science fair, tuition reimbursement program where we reimburse uh teachers to further their education. Uh FEMA and insurance reimburseable projects. So, this is one that we're front funding Dr. Acre uh the damage done to our various campuses uh from Helen and eventually we'll reim be reimbursed from FEMA. So, we're fronting that uh until reimbursements arrive which could I mean the liquidation period uh for all reimbursements from FEMA is uh June 30 of 2030. So, I hope it doesn't take that long. Of course, it's a lot of money because we've already spent about 700,000 just out of fund 8 alone uh in order to facilitate repairs with a lot more on its way right at Freedom. Can I ask a question really quickly about that? Um, so we're front funding all that. Is that does that mean
015the numbers we're looking at? Sorry, I'm trying to look and talk. Does that mean the numbers we're looking at will change or are you keeping that frontfunded amount out of these numbers? No, that is in these numbers. Now, I do keep track of that individually though by the program report codes that I use. So, I can't isolate and identify exactly how much we've spent on FEMA recover or on Helen recovery and how much we're reimbursed from our insurance or FEMA. So, so if when we're reimbursed this number, this will look better. Absolutely. Yes. Okay. Yes, ma'am. That that was my point. Thank you. You are correct. Next, we have fund one, which is our state funds. The line share of our funds, $97 million. Uh we were 611 beyond our uh originally adopted budget. We
016do uh purchase some educational software and instructional supplies, textbooks, and our transportation uh yellow bus uh operations. Uh other than that, it's almost exclusively payroll. We uh pay for 610 substitutes, 689 teachers, 140 bus drivers, bus monitors, uh 133 TAS, 83 custodians, 26 custodians, temporary, 61, school building office staff, 77 support specialist, 62 driver's ed specialist, 76 psych psychologist, speech language, OT, PT, LEP, CTE, IC and ITFs. Uh, I can u do I need to expand on on right. Okay. uh 18 technology engineer specialist, 23 assistant principles, 26 principles, 16 nurses, and 17 county and private SRO's. Next, we have our federal funds. This uh was considerably under budget. And what happened is last year towards the end of the fiscal year we expended more of our er funds than I had originally projected. So
017we had less to spend in this fiscal year. So that's the reason for the uh significant decrease in federal funding. Otherwise we're back to historical levels of spending uh precoid for 10.6 million. We get 65 EC and title one teachers, five title six EC support positions, 29 EC 101 ons, three interpreters, and two parent involvement coordinators. Next, we have fund four, our capital funds. That's over budget significantly from what was originally adopted. The primary reason for that are uh two things that were budget requests later in the year and that's the purchase of the central office uh building and also uh almost threequarters of a million dollars of completion of ESSER projects that the ESSER money was depleted but the projects were not finished again that's one-time cost not recurring so we're we're okay u
018so that's 6.7 million of of spending this year compared to the original budget of 3.5. Next, we have our school nutrition operation. As you can see, we were two $26,000 under the original adopted budget. See that revenues generated, we were short 330,565 from breaking even. But I will mention the reason for that. The program itself really uh is not a loss net of equipment capital investments uh of about 412,000. So if not for those investments uh there there would have been a profit in the school nutrition program and Mr. Wall and I we've had discussions about that and except for I think a few dish machines next year our uh capital investments in the program won't be uh as significant. So, with that said, I know I went through that very quickly and that's still
019very high level, but I'm certainly happy to entertain or answer any questions that you may have. Any questions? All right. If we have no questions, do we have a motion? Motion by Mr. Beck. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Rocket. Uh, before we go to vote, I just want to say thank you, Dr. Lawson for all your work on this budget. Thank you district admin for all of the work you guys have did in your departments. And a special thank you to let's see if I get it right. Dana, Amy, Megan, Colton, Mark, Brooke, Penny, Ashley, Angela, Dr. Odden, Michelle, and Kim. Got it right. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. So, special thank you to all of you guys. That's a huge lift. I understand that. But, um, you guys
020do it amazingly and and astonishingly each time. And if there are no further comments or questions, all those in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. I. All those opposed? Nay. Eyes have it. It passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next is the BOE revised meeting schedule for 2526. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. Um, as we had presented the original meeting date calendar, uh, we put on there June 15th of 2026, um, as the this meeting for next school year, uh, after consulting with our finance department, uh, it was realized that that was put putting a little too much pressure on them uh, to close out the school year. So, we adapted that to June 22nd from the 15th. Um, so that was my recommendation to the board. Give the
021financial team a little more um proper time to work on the budget closing of the year. And that was June 22nd, right? Correct. All right. The new the new meeting date is June 22nd, 2026. Questions. Um I want to make a motion to amend the meeting dates and cancel the July 28th meeting. July 2025. Yes. So next Yeah, no worries. The motion was to cancel the July 28th meeting, 2025. Um, essentially next month's meeting. Are we in the session for that? Yeah, the motion was just made. It's period to to make comment on it. Am I clear? No, you're clear. Okay. Um, I'm going to say that I I disagree with cancing the July 28th meeting, the regular work session and the August 4th. Um, those two, we've got to have those so that we
022can uh have things prepared before the start of the school year. Um, it at one time we did not have those meetings and we're approving things after the school year started. I feel like we owe to our educators and our central office staff to be um you know be there, be present and get things taken care of that we need on our part prior to the school year starting. So that's why I support July 28th and August 4th meeting uh 2025. Now I'm not asking to cancel the August 4th meeting. Um, I'm speaking just on July, speaking with Dr. Swan and and Keith. Basically, it seems to me like the only thing that we have to look at is the personnel reports, which we would not even be voting on until the August meeting anyway.
023Yes. Can you hear Leslie? Can you repeat that into your mic a little bit louder? After speaking with some people, um, from my understanding, the only thing that we have really to vote on is the personnel reports and so I asked if that was going to be a big issue if we canled the July meeting and we wouldn't be voting on them until August 4th anyway. Um, talk to Dr. Swan and Tiana, if something comes up, we can always call a meeting if there's something that we need to meet for. But if we don't I'm not against meeting. I'll come here. But if we don't have to drag everybody here for something that we're going to be able to get done on the 4th anyway, then then my thought is just let's not just meet
024to meet just to So the proposal would be additionally to change the fourth meeting to it would be to a double meeting. So we would do the work session and the it would essentially Miss Rocket a special call meeting that that's what I was similar to what we did last meeting similar to what we did last Monday where it's it's it'll be an actual voting meeting uh as well as anformational meeting as well as we discussed um earlier um the personnel as you guys put trust in me I'm not going to put a personnel name on the board um packet for review unless there's if there's an issue I'm going to know about it prior to that vote and you guys will know about it as well. So, so essentially making the August 4th meeting
025a work session slash regular meeting all in one. Yes. A special call. Yeah. Yes, Leslie. I just want to make sure I heard everything. It's kind of hard to hear with the other mic. I guess the microphone there's more air and I can't pick up every word. Um, so the motion on the table is to cancel the 28 meeting, July 28th, 2025, and have the Monday, August 4th meeting as a special call meeting so that we could have everything in that one. Is that what I'm understanding? Correct. All right. I'll second that motion. All right. We do have a second on that motion by Mr. Johnson. Is there any further questions, comments, concerns? Dr. Swan, anything you want to be heard on? No. No, ma'am. All right. Well, hearing none. All those in favor indicate
026by saying I. I. I. I. Those opposed? Nay. Eyes have it. passes unanimously with the July 28th, 2025 meeting being cancelled, the August 4th meeting being made into a special called meeting and the last meeting of the academic year for 2526 being moved to June 22nd, 2026. All right, there we go. We have Do we have any need for close session? Awesome. Well, hearing nothing else from anyone. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn by Mr. Beck. Second. Second by Mr. Johnson. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. I. Those oppos Leslie. Leslie. I. All right. Those opposed? Nay. Eyes have it. The meeting is adjourned. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Thank you.