001Yeah. The April 17th, 2025 meeting of the Henderson County Board of Education is now called to order. I would like to welcome all of you in attendance this evening. We appreciate your interest in the work of the our school board and thank you very much for your hospitality. At this time, I'll ask Mr. Mike Tate to lead us in prayer followed by the pledge of allegiance. Bow your heads, please. Our most kind and gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this beautiful day you've given us. We thank you for the opportunity to come to the school tonight and and do the business for the for the school system of this county. Lord God, we we we thank you for blessing us with such a good system with wonderful teachers and staff and students. Father, we
002just pray that we'll do your will that uh that we'll do the will that you have us do for the students for the best for the future of the students of this county and for the employees of this county. Father, forgive us for our sins and our wrongs. Lead us where we should go. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay board, you have before you the consent and regular agenda as presented. I'll entertain a mo I will entertain a motion to adopt the consent and regular agenda. Make that motion. Second. Okay. Motion carries.
003The agenda is adopted. The next item is the approval of the consent agenda which includes uh the minutes, financial reports, and field trip request. And I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll make that motion. Second. Okay. Motion carries. The consent agenda is approved. Now on to uh new business. Item A is the adoption of science textbooks. And I recognize uh Director Beum for a recommendation. Our textbooks are adopted uh I think it's on a six-year rotation basis in each subject and this year it's the time for the science adoption. Dr. Steve Meyer has overseen this. There's a process by through which it goes. There's a committee that this is uh by law a committee that reports to department of education, the state board of education and they come up
004with an approved list of textbooks of which the local districts must choose. Uh after and actually I prepared a handout for each one of the board members. I apologize for not having that passed out sooner. basically giving you the procedure that took place. I'll let y'all get that in your hands and then we'll go from there. Dr. Mr. Meyer met at the Watson Center with the committee represented by stakeholders, teachers, science teachers throughout the district and from the approved list uh made recommendations of what we should adopt as a district. It has to go through a stringent process quality to control committee, state board of education, department of education down to a local committee. Ultimately, it by law the school board has to adopt uh one of those that is on the approved list. After
005they met with these particular vendors, uh the committee made up of elementary school and high school teachers, science teachers are recommending to the board, excuse me. And therefore, I'm recommending to the board that we adopt science grades uh 3 through eight. Uh Miss Jenny, you may have to tell me how to pronounce this. SA Vas, Savas. Okay. Stas and for the high school, we're going to go with the accelerated learning STEM coats and STEM scopes, excuse me. And by law and by policy, this board is required to uh weigh in on this matter. It is an adoption. It doesn't mean we're going out and spending $700,000 to do to buy all of these textbooks, but we do have to adopt a textbook. So I do recommend that we follow the guidance of the committee that
006was formed to make this presentation and that we go with the SAS and that we go with accelerated learning STEM scopes for our approved adopted science curriculum for the next six years. Okay. I'll now entertain a motion to adopt the adoption of science textbook as recommended. Motion we adopt the science textbooks as recommended. Second it. Okay, I've got a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on this? Okay, vote. Okay, now let's take a vote. Uh, one, yes. Two, three, yes. Four, yes. Five, yes. Six, yes. Seven, yes. Okay. Motion carried. Okay. Next item, uh, item B is the approval of budget amendments for the two 2025 fiscal year. And I recognize director of schools and the finance director for this item. I'm going to turn the floor to Miss Megan Vineyard, our finance
007director, to explain the budget amendment process. Uh so these are some amendments that need to be made within the line items that have already been budgeted. Um the majority of it is not new money. Um it's just moving money within the same budget that's already um existing. It's just cleaning up some of the lines. like there might have been some additions that we didn't realize were going to happen last year when we started the process of the budget um that have changed throughout the year. So that's some of what you'll see. Um you'll also see like adult education that is new money on those u most of those the ones that have the 4,000 number um but that's coming from their grant funds. And then there are also some year-end entries that I have to
008make. Um on the very last or on the last page, but on page three um the Tissa on behalf um those are entries that were required by state law to make um and they just told us within the last year and it was after the budget was originally adopted. Um but that won't have to be done till July, but go ahead and get it um budgeted now. And then also the cafeteria, additional funds are needed there. Uh the costs have been more than expected, so we're having to take that from reserves. Um transportation is moving funds within the same lines. Um a little extra for um the trustees commissions. That's that first line uh was needed to be pulled from reserves. And then there's the ISM grant um that is budgeting the entire amount. We're
009not projected to spend this entire amount this year. Uh but that's the entire amount that's been budgeted through the grant and e- plan. Um so we're needing to budget it in our line items. And then the next one is the state special education preschool grant. Um also known as freak. Um and that is budgeting it as well. And I don't know that we will spend that entire amount either, but uh the majority of it should be spent. Okay. I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2025 fiscal year budget amendments as presented. So move. Okay. Uh is there any discussion on this one? Does this require a vote? Require a vote. Okay. All right. You you talking about C stuff. Is that is that like for equipment or is that So, I think that's a a
010good one to talk about. Uh Tyler appreciates you bringing up that is a large amount coming from reserves that's going into our cafeteria. Um, and Miss Megan, you may want to touch on this a little bit, but this is not something that's doable year after year. It was not a good year for the cafeteria. Uh, and I'm not talking about quality of food. Maybe that was pretty good. But I'm talking about in terms of our expenditures versus revenues. We've met multiple times. Miss Valley, Mr. Blair, Miss Vineyard, myself, the cafeteria manager, uh we know that there are things that need to be done. We don't have another $600,000 next year to move from reserves to cover uh expenditures. We do have a plan in place. There are some tapped some untapped potential revenues that through
011USDA that we can tap into. Megan, I invite you to have something to say about this if you'd like to. I know this is an area that Megan, prior to becoming finance director, worked in and knows much better than I do that we need to do something here. I um I'm highly concerned about the cafeteria fund. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Um it's been a very stressful year making sure it is we're trying to lower um expenditures and trying to see what other revenue sources there might be. Um yes the 300 there's 330,000 being transferred from reserves to equipment. [Music] Um, that is some equipment that was originally bid the prior fiscal year and it did not come in and be invoiced until this fiscal year. Um, so that had to be moved. That
012wasn't accounted for. We originally thought it was going to be accounted for in last fiscal year. Um, so we that's fixing that. Um, but also it's going to help cover food cost. um personnel cost. Um I think there's probably going to have to be some additional amendments before the end of the fiscal year on cafeteria. Um but right now this was this was the easiest to start with was the ones we knew positively. Um I'm going to keep an eye on it over the next two month and a half of school and see which lines may need additional. Thank you. I don't want to get too deep into the weeds on it, but it is important because the board, one of your primary responsibilities is budget, judiciary, accountability. Uh the commodities are something that we
013buy into as a collective that is much less expensive than buying directly from vendors. Got away from that somewhat. We also went to full free food across the board which left untapped a lot of times the the alle cart uh other items that we didn't tap into. So I want I want the board to be aware that this is an issue that's been a top priority. Uh the team that's been working on that is here tonight. Our finance director, Mr. Brier Miss Valley and really appreciate the many hours along with Miss Jessica Horny. Some others have helped out as well. So, we're on top of it. We realize it's a problem and uh we have a plan to address it. But there was a good question, Mr. Tyler, about the large amount. Was that equipment
014some as Miss Megan said that it was also uh over overspending not bringing enough money in? Households can understand. Is there any more discussion on this? Okay, we'll do roll call. One. Yes. Two. Yeah. Three. Yeah. Four. Yes. Five. Yes. Six. Yes. Seven. Yes. Okay, motion carry. Budget amendment for the 2025 fiscal year. All right, item C is the approval of the fiscal year 2026 board of education budget. I invite the director of schools to provide a summary there. I will do that then turn it to our finance directors put a large a lot of work into our budget. We met about might be three weeks ago. I think it was March 27th when we met with a a budget workshop. Of course, we we talked out loud about priorities and what we need to
015do. Took an overview of revenue. Our revenue is flat at best uh with through our Tissa and through the local sales tax option. Uh it's not in the past local sales tax option has well outpaced expectation not so much this year TISA monies are flatlining a little bit too enrollment's down just a little bit is the reason for that primarily and also Miss Valley federal programs we have gotten our allocations yet preliminary preliminary and it's pretty flat not increases there either So, with that in mind, uh we've been intentional about monies this year as well, prioritizing our people. Uh this budget contains a 3% increase uh for all personnel. Uh there's a close to $500,000 increase in technology, instructional software, those sort of things. Our virtual school is completely run by Edenum which is a
016software product that's pretty expensive. We Megan has found a way in here for us to purchase three buses as we've talked about in our meetings. This is something we've got to do over the next few years to be positioned uh for the future. and four maintenance trucks. We'd hope for five. Uh but we we've not bought new maintenance vehicles in a long time. And again today, I know I mentioned it at the workshop, but our maintenance director pulls up out back driving a personal vehicle. Uh it's hard to be a maintenance supervisor working out of your trunk, but he's doing the best he can with that. We will have a $500 Christmas bonus for all full-time employees and $250 in this budget for our part-time employees. And I know they really appreciate that that it
017comes at a good time. And Miss Megan, that comes out typically in November, I believe, in time before is it Black Friday? Typically, and also from capital outlays. Uh this is where we're going to spend from reserves and we thankfully we have it to work on roofing. The bargain roof is next up at around $250,000 is our quote. Parking lots as we walked around the pinnoke parking lot. Pen penoke parking lot needs an upgrade. Grounds and building improvement safety enhancements. Those things that enhance our properties and our facilities will come from the capital outlay fund. And I think that that is around a million and a half dollars. I'll turn the floor now to our finance director. I've went through every line item calculated these items that had been discussed. Uh you'll see changes. Some
018items didn't necessarily if there was a 3% increase, it didn't necessarily increase as much. you'll see on some of them uh because there might have been additional still in that line that we're not using this year. Um so that varies. Uh but yes, there is a three enough for a 3% pay increase across the board. Um technology, we did increase it quite a bit. Um that has been split into some different lines than we've used in the past. Um the department of education has given different guidance on which lines they want um software coming out of. So that has been changed. Um so you'll see a difference in your 7-Eleven. There'll be instructional software. So that's if it's used in the classroom. Um and then you'll also see some in the non-instructional um 72130 um
019for non-instructional software. So that's things not necessarily uh that's for the teacher or something in that regard, not for the classroom or for the student. Um that has been updated also. Uh what else was updated? Guess is there any specific questions that you may have had if you've looked at the budget? Um I can go over those. So you're saying though that the pay increases are coming from reserves since the state money is flatlined. So we're not going to have any money to come from there. So we are not using this year. We did not use the entire amount of the budget. Um there's extra that has been built in in some of the payroll over the time because of different if you have a shortfall come August needing an additional teacher if there's a
020split classroom you need that money available. Um so that is there for that purpose. Uh but because of that there was money in the budget that we were able to shift to payroll this year. So, no, it's not coming out of reserves. That's one of the things that's kind of complicated about this. We talk about the cafeteria and we talk about pulling a bunch from reserves, it is a separate fund totally entirely of itself. Mr. probably what uh Megan was saying there about uh not spending payroll from reserves. We budgeted quite a bit more than we spent and that is a historical standard in our district. Uh that's probably wise. So therefore 83% of our budget typically roughly 82 and a half 83% is for payroll. So we budget above what is needed and therefore
021trying to be frugal uh mindful. Miss Miss Megan said that there are times you need to go and hire a new person that's and you can embed that in the budget. But uh that's a really good question when we talk about the revenue flatlining and we're talking about reserves to meet the debt and then all of a sudden we're saying hey how about all these raises and stuff. Fund 141 which is general purpose does have surplus. Correct. Yeah. So, okay. Is there a motion to approve the I've got one other question. Let's let's talk about buses for a second. You said there's we're looking at three for this coming school year, correct? Are those uh used buses or new buses? Mr. Mr. Blair, you want to touch on? Yeah. So, our transportation directors have both
022been looking at the age limits on our buses, mileage, that for we can purchase used buses for less than half of what a new bus cost and still get many, many years worth of service out of those buses. So, we're looking at buying lower mileage buses, but used just because of the amount of money that we can save and this still get a lot of service years out of those buses. So right now the money that they've got budgeted or proposed budget would be to purchase three used buses. Um those would be the that's the most um financially responsible way for us to go and buy buses at this time. A new bus is going to be 150 to 160,000. A used bus we can buy for 60 to 70,000. So we can we can
023buy several more um for the same money. And speaking of that, what's your best projection of the next time we'll need to buy more buses? Two buses, three buses, five buses. How how many years are we out on that? Do we have an idea? We're looking at three a year. About a year. We're looking at three a year. Okay. All right. That's good to know. So, we can be going into the next few years thinking about, okay, we're going to have to do this because I knew that we had some issues here. If we can purchase three a year for the next 3 to four years, that would get our fleet very well under the the min or the average age of the fleet itself. Um we've got some buses that are getting older, you
024know, and um it's just it's time for us to start re replenishing those assets. I will say something else, Mr. Tate, about busing as well from a totally separate fund. um like a special we call them special ed buses. I it's used for that purpose and it comes from the special ed fund and Megan work with our special ed director and Miss Valley. We found a way to purchase a special ed budget bus that's not coming out of this general purpose from carryover money that we need to spend. The federal government doesn't like you stockpiling monies they give you. So you sometimes you have to spend some of that. So, we're able to buy a bus from our special ed bus budget as well. So, that would actually be four buses. Okay. All right. But
025it should hopefully be done this fiscal year, actually. Okay. Yeah. Yes, that's right. Out of this fiscal year. Okay. Gotcha. But I'm not positive that three buses is sustainable every year for the next Right. And that would have to be looked at year to year. Exactly. That's the reason I want to bring it up now so we can be thinking about it. Okay. We need to be thinking ahead. Yeah. you know, because we don't want to get in a bind where we have we're short three, four or five buses, you know. Okay. All right. Good deal. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the fiscal year 2026 budget? So move. Second. Okay. Now, uh before that carries, are is there any more discussion on this? Okay. We'll go to roll call. Uh, one, yes. Two,
026yes. Three, yes. Four, yes. Five, yes. Six, yes. Seven, yes. Okay. Motion carried for fiscal year 2026 budget. Okay. Next on the uh agenda is the uh the next board meeting. The next regular scheduled board meeting of the Henderson County Board of Education will be held on May the 13th at the Henderson County Board Office. This meeting will likely have an item on the agenda that requires the board to meet in an executive session. So, uh, next is u I recognize Mr. Dr. Danny Beichum, director of schools for updates and comments. As we've been doing when we travel from school to school uh over the course of this year, we've been taking a tour of the building and tonight the hospitality of the Pinnoke staff was amazing. Thank you for the barbecue. Thank you for
027having dinner with us. We enjoyed walking the halls, the grounds. Smith and the two young ladies. I think one from Beta, one from Youth Voice, Youth Voices, uh, outstanding representatives of Pinnoke School, the Pinnoke E Eagles. Our very own Tyler Wadley is a Pinnoke graduate and, uh, Miss Donna Tate said you were not not a bad student. It's a good thing. Tyler, I'm going to recognize Mr. Chris Smith in just a moment. He's going to come and probably brag on K just a little bit. I do want to give go ahead and give my updates first just briefly. TCAP ELC testing is underway throughout the district and I'm hearing I'm hearing positive things about that. We're in that season where there's proms. In fact, High School is having their prom here in just a short
028while. Awards ceremony, graduations, all of that is going on across the district at this time. And I encourage you to get on rooms, thrillshare, social media, the website, and go and celebrate with these uh students of ours when you can. Their graduations, award nights, and different things. Uh Mr. Chris, thank you for your hospitality. Miss Whitney Crider, thank you for your role here. We appreciate you very much. And the staff of Penoke that are here tonight, thank you as well. And also we have a former principal of Penoke with us tonight, Miss Stacy Valley. Uh, how many years were you here, Miss Stacy? Yes. At Penoke, am I? 10 years. 10 years. Kind of like coming home then. Can I comment about Oh, you had him as well. Mr. Chris Smith, thank you for having
029us tonight. I'd like for you to come and uh take the microphone and talk about your school a little bit. Thank you, sir, for your hospitality. Uh I want to say thank you all for the administr I speak for all administrators probably saying thank you for coming to our schools. I know that we all brag on our schools and we all have a great fond place for our schools due to our teachers and staff and faculty and students. Uh a few things I want to celebrate for our school is uh some key additions that we've had to our school this year. One of them being Whitney Crider as an assistant principal. She's done an amazing job. She's brought a new like fresh breath of of activities to our school to promote a positive uh atmosphere.
030I think that's something that we really do a good job here is is being positive with our our teachers, faculty, staff, and students. We try to keep that morale up because I know if they're we come into this school, they're going to try to do their best because I know our teachers put forth their best. Uh some of the things that we do to celebrate. Last year before Dr. Cauin uh took a new position, she and I were flip-flopping schools and we were talking about the the upcoming schedule for this year. And as in the midst of uh switch flip-flopping schools, uh the the schedule was set. And one of the things that she added to this uh that fit the schedule was an extra 30-minute activity period. And what we incorporated with that 30-minute
031activity period is an AR period. We used it for our AR, which 30 minutes, 3 days a week, these kids will be able to get AR. It's a great addition. We've we've added to that with the first nine weeks. These students were AR testing three days a week. After the first case test, we had our teachers go back and look at case scores. Then they were able to small group these students. And then we were able to get extra services for these kids. Some kids may be AR testing one day. Some kids may be pulled into small groups say we're going to work on some skills that we can get some better uh instruction on. Some kids, things that they struggle with. that's been a g key addition to us and I'm anxious to see
032how far that goes if we're able to work that into our schedule next year. I think that we can we can rebound off that and carry it a little further. Um, another thing we do is uh we have rise rallies every nine weeks and students can fit many different criteras to go to this. Miss Crider brought this in. We had sore days, but she took it to a whole another level. And what we do, that was like the the first time we they can come for we did a pancake breakfast from McDonald's, served all these kids. And the way these kids could uh get to this would be perfect attendance, no rides, and then that opened the door for a lot of people to get avenues to get there and and then we springboarded off
033of that. And I'll just give you a couple of uh scenarios of that. Um referrals, perfect attendance. Uh we've celebrated perfect attendance for students by having uh ice cream socials, slush parties, and popsicle parties. We've also celebrated academic uh achievements by uh recognizing students for scoring proficient or advanced all case test. Uh our first annual truck or treat was scheduled this year and if you didn't have a chance to come by, we had this whole parking lot filled with with people who registered to trick or treat and we ran every kid through this school out there. They loved had a it was a great day. We started out with our parade here and then we paraded them out through there and it it was a big big day. We did a TCAP kickoff rally and
034tied it in with our PTO uh our PTO president, Mr. Richard Mulling. We did a fundraiser this past year. Uh the first that I can remember since being here that we raised $26,000 off piece of card sales. Now, we got a portion of that which half was we raised like a little over 125 is what we got to upgrade some playground and and some uh other things. uh we tied that with our tecap where M trainer myself were duct taped to the walls and uh that's you know several of those were posted on the website along with some uh teacher races and so on. We've also incorporated our smile squad for our teachers. Some of the things our smile squad does to celebrate our teachers throughout the year is uh we've had a donuts and
035a coffee bar, a drink cart to start their day with either Cokes or Alanis, uh themed potluck meals, loaded teas, snacks, Valentine Day pals, uh testing day treats, and that I think it's about the September October somewhere like that, we had a paper rock contest for our teachers. And I think our teachers enjoyed that as much as any kids in this building. They were running up and down the halls. Everybody had a feed and then they had to find another teacher and they got the paper rock scissors and sweeping over the crib. And the second second time that they didn't have a lead, they were out and ultimately the one the teacher with the most beads uh was able to celebrate a leave at 2:00. So we we put them we put a pair of
036pro in there. Uh those are just a few things that we've celebrated. We have a uh again I can't brag enough about our students and staff and faculty. They go above beyond uh to do whatever needs to be done to help these kids here. Uh again, if you don't know me, I'm a very positive person. I'll try to find a positive in everything I can do. Uh and I think these teachers replicate that. And again, I appreciate you all for coming and you're welcome with this school anytime. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, we'll now move to the public comment portion. Uh, each speaker will have three minutes to speak to address the board per board policy. Comments are to relate to items on the actionable agenda. Please state your name and uh topic before speaking. And
037reminder, public comment should be directed to the board as a whole and should not include discussion of individual personnel or students. I'll now entertain public comments. Okay. Make a motion. Okay. Have a motion to be adjourned and a second. All right, motion carries. Thank you. Oh, all in favor say I. I dismissed. We're dismissed. Thank you. Yeah, we got to sign it. Sign the budget and the budget amendments. Thank you. You have a call. Here's seven.