001Well, good evening everyone. Thank you all for being here. Um, this is our regular board meeting for the month of August. As hard as that is to believe, school uh starts tomorrow. So, uh, board members, you have on your uh, desks the uh, proposed agenda for this meeting. And so, the floor would be open for a motion that we approve this agenda or make any additions or changes you'd like to see. Move to approve the agenda for the August 4th portion. >> All right. Thank you. Got a motion. >> Second. >> And a second. All in favor say I. >> Anyone oppose say no. >> All right. Thank you. Let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
002which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> So, board members, in our um email from Miss Williams on the 30th of July were the uh draft minutes from the July 7th board meeting. And again, we floor is open for a motion to approve those minutes or make any changes that you see are necessary. >> Move to approve the July 7th board meeting minutes. >> Okay. Got a motion, >> second >> and a second. All in favor say I. Anyone oppose say no. Thank you. Uh we also have uh in today's email uh the dispersements for the month. You want to you haven't had a chance you can take a moment and look through any of those We don't have Miss Williams here, but I bet
003Mr. Jones would take a crack at any answering any questions you might have. >> I'm pretty familiar with most of them, so that's right. >> And anything I don't know, I'll ask her and get back with you. That's right. I'll make a motion that we approve the dispersements for the month. I just remembered I can do that, too. >> I second. >> Okay. And I have a second. Any any comments or questions? Okay. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone oppose say no. >> Thank you. Uh for our principal reports. Good evening. Are you ready? >> We're ready. I'll bet. I'll bet. >> So, I have a report for each school. So, I'll start with Asins. >> So, we had our successful open house this last Thursday. We had lots of our
004parents and students come out to see us and we are enjoying the new updated entrance and a lot of them were talking about how nice it was. So, I wanted y'all to know that a lot of people had compliments about the new entrance when they came last Thursday. Um, starting tomorrow, this week, we have phasein days for our prek and kindergarten students. So, that means different groups of kids will come each day and they only stay till 11:30. So, next week though, it'll be full day with all the kids for prek and kindergarten, but we just give them a little bit of time to phase in. But, we're excited. We're welcoming a bunch of returning students starting starting tomorrow. And then we have a lot of new kiddos. We'll have new faces that we'll greet
005tomorrow. We're excited about that. For the middle school, they had a very successful open house as well. They had 117 students attend the comeand go event. They have plans in place this year to implement a green team project where each grade level will be responsible for their section of a garden. They're also excited to offer morning tutoring for ELA and math as well as implementing some clubs. They were going to implement book club, arts and crafts club, and a gaming club after school this year. For the high school, they had a great week of professional development. Everyone at all the schools, I will say, enjoyed learning from Ron Clark and Brian Menler when they came and spoke with us this past week. And the high school and all schools plan to implement strategies that we've
006learned from both speakers. High schools also had many new students come and register and they'll have we'll all have better counts actually on um our enrollment numbers next month. >> Fall sports will be getting underway soon. So check the school website for the calendar. All of our games are on the calendar and if there are any rain outs, they will put that on the FHS Facebook for any updates on that. Um the FHS staff is ready for the students to come back and they're waiting for them in the morning with a smile on their faces. So, we're just all excited and ready for tomorrow. >> I think we're all just super excited to get the kids back in. It's been a good summer. Uh the building leadership has done a phenomenal job. In particular, at
007Ralph Baskin, the summer program this year, in my opinion, was the best we've ever had. a lot of people. I I would name names, but I'm afraid I'll leave somebody out because a lot of people were involved in that. It was really, really good. Uh considering the fact that we had a million-dollar project going on for construction in the front, uh all the logistics involved, I'm I'm very proud of everybody's efforts and it's been a good summer. So for the with respect with regard to the comment you made about phasing in and whatnot, you know, we like to invite ourselves over and welcome families and students at the start of the year. >> It we we had sort of thrown out uh this Wednesday morning as a possibility. Is there a better morning that would
008work? >> I mean Wednesday's good just for prek and kindergarten. That would be girls only that day. Um but boys and girls come Thursday. They just only come for half of the day. So, >> Right. Right. >> Wednesday. Wednesday is good because the the other grades are all in full. >> Right. Right. Right. >> Okay. Well, we'll probably divide and conquer that job on Wednesday. Then, if that if that's the will of the board when we >> Sounds good. >> Talk we'll talk. We usually pick schools and rotate around and try to get to see the schools. Uh, and I know it it means a lot to us. I hope it means as much to the families and students as it does to us, but it sure is fun >> to see them. Super. >>
009Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, my understanding is we had no member of the public asks for a chance to speak. >> That's correct. >> So, we'll move on to supervisors reports. And I guess Miss Dodson is our designated spokesperson for the supervisor. >> I am. So again, to kind of reiterate what uh Britney said, of course, we always want to know we really utilized our stronger connections grant to be able to have the powerhouse presenters that we had this year. Of course, if you got to see Dr. Mabru, we were talking about he was fantastic at the community event on that night. He's a fabulous speaker. Um also, we didn't JD Hughes who was our PE presenter. I appreciated um coach camp had read he's published several books. He
010is the Ron Clark of PE and we of course invited our Giles County friends to come over as well but he's all about integrating academic strategies into PE. So we were very excited to have him and I want to brag on our own people. Um, you know, we really built the capacity of our own people this year by having the curriculum meetings for English, math, social studies, and science. We got a lot of positive feedback about that as well because we wanted to make the best first step into the new year that we possibly could because, you know, for the rest of the world, New Year's resolutions are January 1. for school people. It's the beginning of the school year with a brand new shiny school year. Um, so we feel good about that. We
011feel like we've empowered our people. A lot of positive energy. Hope you guys are feeling that positive energy as well. We feel really good about we've hired some really good new people and we got some new people who are some of our former people and uh you know success is about getting people in the right seats in the right places and we feel like we've done that. We're feeling strong and good about that. Also participated in an activity. I know Shante was there. I want to brag on the new football coaches. I think heels to helmet was a fantastic activity. Um, we had nine people that were either administrators in the schools or at the central office and we had a fabulous time. Now, I had a couple people get salty with me because they
012were like, I thought we were just sticking stickers on helmets, but we actually like Yeah, we were sitting there and I'm sure you figured out all the stuff on the board. Some of the rest of us didn't, but you know, they were what was it Carla said today? She she found out she knew FS was free safety. So that was her deal. But the want to really brag on the coaches for putting forth the effort to do that. We felt very welcome. Everybody do you not think everybody had a great time. The kids enjoyed it and I think it's going to be an annual event that they're going to do that was just fabulous. So next year we're going to make sure you guys come as well. So we we will get you there. Um,
013but everything else I feel like is rolling along. School improvement plans, those type things for us. Tomorrow kind of takes the pressure off of us and puts it on everybody else. But, um, I think it's going to be a fantastic year. Great weather, great new awnings and facilities, and great people working in the buildings. What more could you have? Do you guys have any questions? Anything specifically I appreciate? Also, we talked about thank you for being supportive and coming to the professional development events and some of the nights. Sometimes if you're the spouse of someone, you also maybe you worked that night. So, you guys were very visible. You were you were everywhere all the time and that did not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. So, hopefully you felt the positive energy as well. Do you
014guys have any questions? any >> appreciate I I'll just say and you've said this many times >> uh we really appreciate the rock for uh absolutely hosting our professional development and kickoff breakfast and whatnot that is a it was turned out to be a great facility for us and first time we've had it there but we really appreciate the hospitality they were they were super super uh hospitable and open to us and we really appreciate that >> and I'm sure Mr. Jones can tell you, Pastor Matt immediately said, "Hey, let's book you for next year." >> Yeah, he was they were exceedingly kind to us and we're looking forward to having a a continued good relationship to be able to to help one another and be good neighbors. So, we appreciate him immensely. >> Yeah.
015And I Ron Clark and then Brent uh what was the other speaker? >> Brian Mler. >> Brian, not Brent. Brian Midler. Yeah. They were high energy, but they were really high energy. I'm glad I got to hear some or all of their uh presentations because they were really good. >> Yeah, honestly um the the team did a great job putting that together. Uh it would be unlikely that anywhere anywhere any system in the country had a a better uh more expertly informed professional development series for the start of their school year than B City Schools did. It was really packed >> and through the grant as well, we were able to purchase Brian copies of Brian Menller's book for everyone in the system. So, the middle school and high school are going to do a
016book study of his book that they're going to do throughout the year. >> Yeah. >> So, any questions you guys have? Um, again, you know, if you've got ideas for next year, please let us know. We're always open to improvement and integrating some progressive strategies. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. I think you nailed it this year for sure. U Miss Williams is not here, but we do have um I think in one of the emails, right? Probably today's email report, financial reports, the monthly reports of revenues and also expenditures. Yes, those were in today's emails. Uh again, if you have any questions, probably the best thing to do is just talk to Mr. Jones or M. Williams offline. Um but those are just for our information. Anyway, >> do we do appreciate
017those. Uh in terms of committee reports, facilities, and transportation, several things are exciting under that category. >> Yeah, I've got a neat report this month. Um obviously the entrance to Ralph Asins is complete. Uh there are a couple of finishing touches. The letters that'll say Ryas on the brick wall that'll be the the new sign are still in transit. So, they'll be installed as soon as they come in. The structure itself is complete. Um it's completely functional. The paving is better than expected and filled out. The uh the painting on that's finished. Um we're we're in good shape. We're ready to rock for tomorrow. I think um it's we're already appreciative of it and it looks like a million dollars, but uh even the landscaping uh they've gone out and all the buried dirt has
018been covered with sod and the landscaping's complete. It's just lovely. It's the I didn't really looking at the mockups and the drawings, I knew it would look pretty, but I thought, well, that'll look pretty and then each side will look like it always did. but it pulls it together and you can't tell that, you know, it just makes it look like a almost new building. It's it's really nice. I'm very pleased with it. Um the walkways from the annex uh to the end of the building. Uh a lot of that work will be completed during our breaks as different material come in and that'll be done when students aren't around for the most part. Uh but we're we're good. I'm pleased with that. Uh that project is essenti it's essentially complete. Then we've got uh
019I know everybody wants to know about the dome project which is our team of grant. Uh been speaking with them consistently. They've approved everything that we need. It's been sent to Atlanta. Um so FEMA has it and it's in process. So all of our paperwork is in the queue uh waiting their approval. Once they approve it, it'll go to Washington. We've already spoken to the staff in Washington who are eagerly awaiting that. It's just a processing delay at this point. It's beyond the 60-day deadline for them, but I think there are a lot of projects that are beyond that deadline because they have a lot of projects to process and I think their their staff is just working as much as they can. So, that's where we're at. Uh once we get news that it's
020um approved there, I'll let you know. And if there were something to happen, it's not approved there, I'll give you an update on what the new strategy will be or what the next step would be at that time. But I have no reason to believe at this point that it would not be approved. So that's where that is. Um all the buses are in good shape and ready to go with the exception of one. Um and we've got a couple of spares, so we're in great shape with buses. Um every all the buildings are in good shape. Um to my knowledge all the air conditioning, heating, water, um all the physical infrastructure we need is pretty much tip top and anything that isn't the parts are on the way to make it that way. So
021we're in good shape. I'm pleased. I think we're ready to get off to a really good start tomorrow and I'm very much looking forward to the students coming back. It's going to be great. You may have announced the acquisition, the final acquisition of the new property uh last month, but I do have an update to get >> we we own uh we own what we refer to as the dean property now. Uh I believe the all the paperwork's done. I think our uh all of the documents proving our ownership were filed and down in the safe downstairs with the city. So, uh, we own that. Uh, as the school year gets started and all the things that need to be attended to in the first couple of weeks, uh, come to fruition, we will slowly
022start the process of making it into the offices that we need it to serve. And it's in good shape. Um, it's great. Uh, I'm grateful to the family. uh they were gracious to us and patient and we were able to get a really good deal on that property and it's going to be valuable for the Fable City Schools in the future. So, it was great. And I also want to this is some an unusual thing. I haven't really done this before, but the the project that Rob asked us with the entry, it was done. We didn't have a lot of bidders and a lot we had a lot of people interested, but the reason that a lot of them said they weren't interested is or in bidding is because of the timeline. They were like,
023we can't do that in that amount of time. And so, there were just very few that were that could. Uh, Boyce Ballard is the company that did that. and I've been involved with a lot of different projects from of various sizes in the system at different levels throughout my career and they were a fantastic group of people to work with. Anytime we do work obviously goes out to bid um first state law and we were fortunate that they received the bid uh as a company they did everything they said they would do. They were honest and straightforward. um they went above and beyond and meet their met their deadline and I'm appreciative of their efforts. So I want to give them some kudos during the meeting as well. >> Well, I know Dr. Dean was
024a big Tiger supporter in life. Uh was on the hill every Friday night I think in the press box helping out and we appreciate that. And then uh it's it's just seems so fitting to us that that >> absolutely uh becomes part of system that he was so supportive of and we do appreciate the family being so supportive. >> And I I would call everyone's attention. It's on the 26 capital outlay cash dispersements page. Um the the amount we were able to get that property for $238,49160. Um there were a couple hundred of other processing and um fees to our attorneys who helped process the paperwork, but uh that is that's remarkably good. And that that now the school system now owns from the that cross street between William D. Jones uh behind the state
025office right off the bypass. We own from that cross street all the way to the cemetery. And that's you said was threeish acres, a >> little over a little over three acres. So, you know, real real estate is precious in every context, but on Tiger Hill that's that's an important three acres for the future. So, thank you sir for all your work on that as well. Appreciate having to do it. And that concludes facility transportation. >> All right. Uh in finance uh board members, we do have uh one line item amendment uh number one that was emailed out. The bulk of the funds in that alignment uh realignment uh has to do with, if you'll recall, as part of the governor's voucher bill, there was the uh provision that the state would provide a $2,000
026per teacher pre-tax bonus. And uh so those funds have been received uh by our system and I assume all the other systems across the state. And so in order to pass those funds on, which we're in the process of doing, uh we need to make this realignment in the budget because obviously at the time we passed our budget, we didn't know that that was going to be uh those were going to be revenues we would have to share with our teachers. So, uh, keeping in mind that is those are $2,000 pre-tax bonuses, but that's the $214,000 that's realigned, uh, to another line. And then there are some also, uh, some smaller dollar amounts there that relate to medical insurance and substitutes. So, um, if I would make the motion, the finance committee reviewed this and
027I would make the motion that we uh approve this uh line item amendment number one to the 26 general purpose budget. >> Second. >> Okay, got a motion and a second. Any questions? Does that make sense to everybody? >> All in favor say I. Anyone oppose say no. All right. Thank you. Um, and we also have a an annual uh requirement. Uh, and and in this we'll I'll just go ahead and state it as a motion that we grant I'd like to make the motion that we grant approval to Mr. Jones to file necessary amendments and fund transfers for federal projects for the 2526 school year. Again, that's an annual requirement that we have. >> Second. Have >> a second. Any questions? All in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed? Thank you. Uh, insurance
028and policies. Anything tonight? Nothing tonight. All right, we will roll on. Uh, superintendent report. Mr. Jones. >> Yes. I'd like to ask the board to approve the disciplinary hearing authority members for the 2526 school year. Uh, the list is included in your files and if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. Do you need a board approval? >> We need board approval of that. for that motion. I assume you saw that in your email. >> I make a motion to approve the DHA um authority recommendation. >> Okay. >> Motion and a second. Any questions? Thank those folks for their willingness to serve. Uh all in favor say I. >> Anyone opposed say no. >> Great. >> Okay. Um I also would like to ask the board to approve the resignation of Andrew Hall.
029He is a tenure teacher, fantastic teacher. Um he's got another opportunity and he has decided to to seek that out and we wish him very well. But I would ask the board to approve his resignation. That's a sad I love him. He's not going to come. He's not going to come tour. We love you. >> But but it is fitting. I I tell you, I think the silence shows what this board feels about Andrew Hall and what he's meant to our students and and this school system over a number of years. We are so grateful. What a what a great teacher and a great man to >> and he knows our door is open. Should he ever reconsider. >> Okay. Anybody want to sadly make that motion? All right. Thank you. We have a motion.
030>> A second. >> And a second. Uh all in favor say I. >> Anyone opposed say no. >> All right. >> And that concludes my report, Mr. Chair. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, so I looked ahead at the calendar for next month and our first board meeting would be Labor Day and something tells me y'all might or might not want to meet on Labor Day. So I am all open to possibilities. >> I am not just looking at my calendar. I'm out uh the starting the 7th. Um in fact, I'm out starting the fifth and I'm really out for a while. Um but you don't have to have me. We just have to have a quorum. >> So So I'm out open to dates. I mean Tuesday would work theoretically. >> Yes. >> Theoretically or we
031can >> we can go to any other time the board sees fit >> the 2nd or the 8th or 9th. Um, whatever the board, what's everybody's calendar look like? >> Tuesday or >> Okay. Okay. The second would that >> Okay. We can always change that if something somebody realizes a major problem. Uh, we'll we'll plan on then announcing that publicly. Uh, that Tuesday, September 2nd, will be our next regular monthly board meeting. All right. >> So, there'll be lots of news and information next board meeting that we'll be excited to hear. >> And I'll I'll go ahead and it it may be a little larger agenda. I'll probably ask all three of the principles to come in person and give an initial kind of start of your report. Uh furthermore, I'm considering um if there
032are no objections that we may have Henry, our service dog, come in uh to meet the boards. So, uh there'll be a few different things added to the agenda. Okay. >> Uh and hopefully it won't be super long, but a little longer than it has, but through the summer. So, >> that'd be great. That'd be great. >> Okay. Any further information anybody wants to pass along or All right. If not, we will stand a journey. Thank you.