0016:00. Uh we'll stand with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence. Pledge of 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. >> All right. Thank you so much. We're to the approval of the agenda. Is there any additions to the agenda? >> There are none. >> Do I have a motion to Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> I make a motion we approve. >> Second it. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Opposed? All right. Do we have a public any public comments? >> We do not. >> All right. And then the consent agenda, approval of the minutes from the previous board meeting from May 11th,
002um 2026. Do I have a motion to approve those? >> I make a motion we approve them. >> Second that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> And then now we're to new business requiring action by the board. Um A, if we got the approval of Lonoke Special School District certified tax rate. >> Uh first up, and I'm not sure this is in your packet, it just arrived. This is the most current copy that Mr. Tackett signed at the end. Uh due to reappraisal, our current certified tax rate was 29.7 cents. It has dropped to 17 cents. Um board needs to certify that 17. It's actually 17. Uh uh uh Where's the point at? 17.92 cents. And so uh from here, those will get distributed between general purpose as well as debt service. >> It
003was 17.9 six? >> Two. Okay. Do we have any discussion or any questions about that? The only thing I we had talked a little bit about that was the board at some point could look at how we want to spend that certified tax rate to general purpose versus debt service. So, if we want to uh we can make a decision if we were going to do that to to change that. So, I don't think we're quite ready to do that, but that is that's an option for us to take. >> Correct. >> All right. Do I have a I to approve? >> I make a motion we approve budget. >> This is just tax right? >> Yeah, the tax right. >> I second that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay. All right. Um
004now we have approval of budget for 2026 and the proposed salary schedules. >> Uh to the board you have a host of materials within your packet. Just want to run through revenues as we start this process but our estimated collection for Wills County property tax will be 12.6 uh local option sales tax what we expect to collect is 10.6. Um our LSSD tax which we just discussed we're projecting to receive 5.975 million. Um for clarification on the property tax or the LSSD tax general purpose receives 2 million and debt service receives 3.7 currently. Uh within this budget uh there's a host of things and I believe Miss Heather Gallagher wants to wants to brag on several of them but we do want to discuss total salaries and benefits for this go around is 46.6 million.
005Um our other revenue stream from TISA that's our state dollars is 29.8 million. Um some highlights from the budget of course our budget 85% of our budget is people uh and and uh um it is our most important priority but 3% raise across the board is what we are uh putting forth. You also notice that there are several additional items. Secretaries and bookkeepers we've added some days to their work schedule. Um they've actually asked for that. Uh schools are year round business now and we want to make sure we take care of them. We're also looking at an at an attendance incentive. Um it's a smaller amount it's $90,000 but what we've noticed is Fridays um can tend to be a day where we miss so um our HR crew has worked on uh it's
006basically they'll allot each Friday through the first semester if they attend all of them then they'll get a bonus that will get paid out twice through the year. Another big item from the budget, health insurance. It went up 8.75%. The district is again absorbing that increase. >> Yeah. For us to absorb 8.75% is a pretty big deal and then add a 3%. I mean, I think that's something to be said. You know, our beginning teachers start at 54. So, I think those are some pretty significant things that we can that we can say that we've done in this budget. Um taking care of our people and like you said it's one of our important most important things. So, um health insurance costs just keep going up, so we all want we'd all like to say
007we can absorb as much as possible, but we did this year in this budget. We'll see what you know, the next budget's going up. Um I know there was something else I wanted to say that with their retention and longevity bonus >> Mhm. >> Um that went that went up too. So, we we've added that for people for our our people that stay with us. So, we've got that and then I know some of the stipends have kind of changed and then like you said the bookkeeper. So, I think there were some some really good things that we that we did within the >> Yeah, I will you know, first and foremost it's a balanced budget. That legally that's what we have to have to present to the board. And it's a product of a
008growing community. But as always we thank the board. We thank my our folks who dug in. Just a couple other numbers for for you. The the penny for 11 special is what we keep up with. Previously it was $189,000 after reappraisal it's now $332,000. That's the the reason that it dropped down to 17 cents. Do want you to know that our portion of the county tax that we get would be 16.8%. So, that's our ADA. Wilson County would get the the rest of the portion for Wilson County schools. Currently at 706 employees on the books. And uh think this budget takes very good care of them and our students. >> Any questions anybody has? I know I I have questions. Uh Mr. Hider, long time that I've been going through line by line on things.
009So, um I feel comfortable with it. We have a motion to approve. >> I'll make a motion to approve the budget. >> I have a We have a second. >> I second that. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Good news for us and our and our staff. So, >> say Mr. Hider, thank you. >> Next, we have approval of approval of budget amendments for 2025-2026. >> Um as I've discussed with all of you, this is this is the balancing of of the checkbook, per se. Um this will shift, um but by requirement, we have to have this completed um by the end of June. And so, as you look through, what you'll notice if there are things that are different from what the original budget is, not things that were out of
010that we hadn't planned for. Um we discussed we had some some different scenarios that required additional funds, whether it be maintenance, whether it be operation, whether it be transporting a student to National each day for for instruction. Um but all in all, and then our revenues were obviously healthy, and so that makes up the difference to those two systems. Uh in your amendments, you have the general purpose amendment, you have cafeteria, you have SACC, and then you have debt service in all of those packets. >> This is just moving one bucket to the next bucket, too. >> I hope I didn't get you out of order. Yes, ma'am, that's correct. >> What do I have a motion to approve the budget amendments? >> I'll make a motion we approve the budget amendments. >> I second
011that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay. And next is approval of the bid to replace the Walter J. Baird um gymnasium floor from capital projects fund. I know we've talked about this one before. >> Yeah, and I do I'm just perfect segue. Within the amendments, one of the things that we discussed is our infrastructure fund. We received infrastructure funds from the state of Tennessee. It was $4.2 million. We've used that to do a host of significant projects in the district. HVAC, roofs, buses, windows, doors, locks. We've done a number of things. What we've requested within amendments that you just passed through is that that's going to move into a capital projects fund, which will allow the board at its leisure or whenever it's appropriate to spend those funds. So, the gym floor we've
012discussed. We got approval to put it out to bid. Just the history of that, we put it out to bid. We had seven show up. We had no bids submitted. So, we went back through. We went through the bid board. Prater's provided this current bid. It's $283,000. I think the estimate I gave you previously was 260. What that didn't include was moving the bleachers out and returning them. So, that's the total price. I do not have a timeline. Part of the stipulations that we think held back bids was how quickly we wanted it done. So, this could be a late spring project. We'll just need to get through with current sports. >> What is a volleyball lead? >> It's all the things that go in the ground for the the posts. >> Yeah. >> Prater's
013right here. >> No, well, part of the thing was we had different budgets rolling at different times. So, we got lots of copies. >> So, before we approve this, this is like I asked you the other day, we're not doing this until next summer, correct? >> At the latest. Preferably after basketball season and wrestling season finish, so next spring uh we would like to We're obviously going to receive their schedule, but it could be >> So, it will be done in this in the 2026-2027 budget. >> Yes, sir. Mhm. >> It's a lot for a a floor, but I mean >> It's a lot for a floor, and it's a lot of work. It's 50 years, and it's the current >> 50 years of of work? >> It's the current floor. And it is no
014longer at a place where it can be sanded and stained. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> I'll make a motion to approve the bid for the new gym floor at Walter J. >> Second that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. Two. Um item E, approval of the overnight travel for Walter J. Baird varsity volleyball team to participate in the summer team camp hosted by the middle school uh by the Middle Tennessee State University July 24th and 25th. We have a motion to approve? >> I'd like to motion to approve. >> Second that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay. Um approval of Castle Heights agreement with RJ Young for a new multi-function printer. >> Uh this is continuing a current contract. Uh it's just it includes a new printer because they
015need to upgrade their current current printer. >> Do I have a motion to approve? >> I'd like to motion to approve. >> Second that. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay. All right. Now we're down to G, approval of the tech surplus. That's going to be fun to look through. >> Yeah, tech surplus. Um you'll notice it is a host of Chromecast older items. These are things that needed to be discarded. They'll be recycled where appropriate. Um but they have very little value, but in order for us to move them off our inventory, we need to order approval for that. >> Do I have that? >> I'd like to motion to approve. >> Okay. >> Second that. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay. All right. We have now made it down
016to reports and information. I know um Gerardo, you've got a transportation update. >> We do. >> And a a custodial update. >> Couple updates, transportation. Mr. Ashley's going to come up in a second, give us a rundown on summer, what's happening with buses, driver update. Of course, the bus app, we put that in full full effect this year. Very successful, especially for communicating. And then we'll have ABM. We thought it'd be good to have an annual um just time for them to go over uh the work they're doing throughout. But Mr. Ashley, if you want to make your way this direction. >> Good evening. So, I've been asked to uh just get back to you on a few things. The app usage, we've gone up to 1,818 users. Uh representing what's in our system right
017now for our transportation is uh 4,104 students. Either A and B and or walkers or whatever. Uh so, that's significantly up from 2 years ago when we had about 300. So, we got a lot of users. So, basically when we do our use our app, we're sending out messages if we have a delay or a change in bus number, anything like that, it goes out to all registered users and we do designate LSSD with bus number cuz we were getting feedback that Wilson County sending messages out, we're sending messages out, so we designate we want we want to make sure it's our bus, they know it's our bus. Uh so, once I hit the button, it takes about 7 to 10 seconds and everybody that has the app gets the message. So, it's pretty quick.
018Uh the second thing was how do we transition from end of the year through summer into the new school year. So, basically in April and May, we start organizing and assigning all of our summer school routes. Uh we get all that information as to who is attending, who has requested buses and then we start finalizing all our routes. We get that out right before at least a week or two before summer school starts and everything is on the app and uploaded for every all parents to see and know when they are what the where the bus stop is, what time they'll be picked up, what time they'll be dropped off. It'll all be released before summer school starts. In late May through July, we start our summer school route maintenance. We have a lot of
019kids that decide they're going to be car riders, so we have to readjust the routes, especially during the first 2 weeks. And that's ongoing usually we're usually done by now, last 3 days we don't have to make any more adjustments. So, now we are transitioning over to finalizing for our starting the process for next year. Uh so, basically how that works, it's a seven-step process. Step one, we print all the routes at the end of the year from last year, so we have a roster of every student that was on each bus. And then, step two, we scratch out all the eighth graders cuz they're no longer with us. And then, we highlight our fifth graders because they're now going to be sixth graders, and we got to know where to send them. Step three,
020we start to create a new term in our routing software uh labeled 2026-2027 school years so we know what we're working with. Step four, we grade promote all students. Anybody that was a kindergartner through a seventh grader in last year's system, we'll bump up a grade. And we can make adjustments as needed if anybody does get held back. And then, after that, uh we start evaluating our needs. Look at how many kids we got, how many elementary kids we got on a route, how many middle school kids we have on a route to determine is this bus going to be full if we do this whole section? Can we pull this? We just a lot of manipulating the data there. Step five, we just pick one of our elementary school zones, we start routing, start
021creating our routes. Uh step six, once everybody that we had from last year has been assigned a bus, then uh we're basically ready to re-evaluate and see if we need to make adjustments to prepare for new kids coming in. And of course, step seven is once we start getting enrollment from our open enrollment in July, we start adding everybody in at that point. We get a nightly update. That's set up, it comes to my email, and I start processing it as soon as I get it in the mornings, and it's creating our lists, and we start working on it. So, that's how we process to get ready for the school year. Uh we already got a few kindergartners cuz we did that in May. They already got a list of that going. And we've had
022three have they come through already? We've already got three come through, and we've already assigned them for routes for each year. So, they're already in. Uh we're holding off on the kindergartners till we get all of our everything else ready to roll. Uh the last thing I was asked to talk about is what the routes look like for next year. So, as of today, first all the numbers, got everything laid out, we have uh 1,973 morning riders planned already right now, and 2,187 afternoon riders. That's before our kindergarteners are added or any new students are added. And that leaves us right now with 104 total routes, 51 in the morning, one midday, 52 in the afternoon. >> What's the midday, I'm sorry? >> Ma'am? >> Just what's the midday? >> The midday route is where
023we take our early intervention kids home, go pick them up, take them to their afternoon class. >> Okay. Okay. Sorry. >> So, where are we with routing and drivers? Right now, I have three open routes. And but good news is this, I have one possible driver moving back to town in July, and I have six prospects training right now. So, we could be in great shape when we start the school year. And I'm still I'm currently seeking out four new monitors, people who have either retired or decided to do a different thing. Right now, it's looking good. >> So, it looks like in the morning, 46% of our kids are ride a ride a bus. Um or in afternoon, excuse me, 46%. Is that about average of what we're running? >> Last year, we ended
024with 54%. >> And then so, you think are we still going to do the early route, the late route? And what does that look like? >> Uh, we're hoping to get everybody the first if you have two routes, if the driver has two routes, the first route will be starting to drop off at 6:45. Uh, 6:30, 6:45, we're hoping 6:45, that's what we're shooting for. Of course, that does adjust as kids move. >> Pick up as early as >> I'd say the earliest pick up is probably about 16. >> And how many of those routes are double? >> Uh we have 27 drivers and six spare routes, so 33, so 33 plus up to 51. So, we're about 18 extra in the morning and 18 in the afternoon. >> So, we literally have route drivers
025doing 18 routes in the night. 18 routes 18 of those are being done twice, so you have nine drivers and eight drivers eight and a half drivers for the afternoon, right? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. So, I'm just trying to make sure cuz this is one of the things that that I'll get calls about. Masking >> And it'll change as the year goes on. >> So, but we you said you only have three open driver positions, but we really need more. >> Well, we do. I just have three routes I don't have a driver assigned to you right now. >> Okay. I mean, I I know it's a painful This is a pain across the state. It's not just us, but I'm just you know um you know. So, I'm just I've been reading a
026lot about it, so that's why I'm asking the questions. And And are they going to update the app over the summer? Did they update >> I haven't been told they're updating it. >> Okay. Well, if you update it, that's how you know if people are coming and going. You have to close it out and update it. They were they >> No, the family needs to do that too. >> Yes. >> Well, Mary Lake will work on >> Okay. >> communication and >> Yeah. >> time to close it. >> I get a lot of that sometimes cuz I'm Yeah. >> I don't have a computer system, so >> Well, and I didn't I didn't tell you this one time, but you have to update it and it might be just a a really good communication piece
027that you know, maybe they will avoid >> I think that'd probably better going out over our social media cuz if they >> Yeah, absolutely. I know they won't get it from me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> Well, Mary Lake's got a host of upcoming things that she's going to be pushing out and that's one of the ones that we'll do. >> Yeah, you're set from a mom who needed updated hours. So, that's why I say that. Thank you, Mr. Ratliff. >> I'd like to say you're doing a fantastic job because I haven't had any complaints about buses. But, and and I know you're juggling a whole lot of stuff. >> Thank you. >> But, you're doing an excellent job. >> Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. All right. ABM?
028>> This is this one. >> All right. >> Good evening. >> So, I'm kind of I was here last spring whenever the RFP was put out. I got my team here, you know, Jay and Taylor and Carol down. Now, they're you know, their faces are well known in the in this district. They've been a long time, especially Carol. Um Carol is our She is team. Like, she she she does a lot of work for us and we're very fortunate to have her part of the team. Uh we met with Mr. Curtis, Mr. Hutto in the spring going over our quarterly review. Um we talked about coming in in the summertime just to kind of give a yearly review. Uh first off, JJ and Mr. Curtis meet weekly sometimes, bi-weekly, but they meet a lot. And
029they just cuz they they meet in in person uh you know, twice a twice a month. They don't have a phone talking, email, text message. So, their communication has been good. And it was one of our focuses last year was just making having a little more communication and more meetings with you know, Mr. Curtis and that's been we have seen that a lot. Uh so, that's one reason that we've done a lot better this year. Um I just wanted to highlight some things that we've done, you know, and how we track our service um throughout the district. So, if you see on the page, we have monthly surveys. So, we send this out monthly um just to the to the principals and they can give us some some feedback of how they feel about their
030building cleanliness and operation that we have there. I'm using my phone here, but you can see we also show each month there's only two months we didn't do it. February we did we just didn't do it. Um but in May, you know, end of the school year, everybody getting ready, so we didn't put that on the pressure to do that. Um but we did meet with them in terms of planning our summer clean summer cleaning this year. So, we still have communication with them even though we didn't send that out for them. And you'll see overall, we we got a 92.17 uh average overall. And you know, our our threshold we don't want to fall below is 85. You can see nobody even went to 85 at all. You know, we did have uh two
031locations that that dropped under 90 right at, you know, 89. So, but we did, you know, address those issues, get the feedback, and pick those back up to get us back over 90. That's where we want to be there. For sure we don't want to slip to 85. We want to be at, you know, 90s and mid-90s in relation. We know it's not going to be 100. We know no school is perfect. Uh but we also want to to give the confidence to our our principals that if we do have an issue, we can address it quickly. Uh these two have a lot of experience in the industry, so I'm very confident anything comes to their attention, it don't even hit my inbox. They take care of it pretty quickly. Um overall, I mean, we
032see we had a 66% participation. Uh there was only we had a couple locations that didn't didn't participate a lot. However, I know if they were unhappy, they would be, I think. So, I think that kind of tells that they're happy with uh the services or they would have reached out to Mr. Kurtzer Mr. Huddle and, you know, complain about the things we were or were not doing. Uh the next sheet there shows our staffing. Um you know, overall, you know, we should have 28 bodies that are that are working. This includes our floaters. Uh overall, we're down just one person right now. And you'll see that some of the some of the locations have higher than 100%. Um sweet we we do have some teachers working for us, so we keep them in our
033buildings. We're we're flexible with the hours. Some work part-time hours, some work full-time hours. It fluctuates depending on the need of the building. Or also the schools that we are down maybe one or one and a half people, we will utilize the resources from other buildings to to go fill those. So, we don't we don't not fill those positions because we're understaffed here. Uh so, we and we do have a lot of traction coming through, you know, we we've increased our our starting wages uh as we need to, you know, in competition with we also run obviously I know we run uh Wilson County Schools. So, we have to battle with ourselves a little bit, but you know, we we absorb some some impact on the finances financials to attract some more more employees uh
034in the Lebanon Special School District. And it's Wilson County Schools, so we're down one person. Uh we do you know, offer extended hours to those in those buildings, some of them work the day porters. You know, if we have an opening in the evening, if somebody calls out sick, or if we're just down that person, they'll stay over and get they will get paid overtime to to fill that. So, we also do compensate them for that. Uh so, you see right now we're 96 96% staffed. I think that's really good, especially for the summertime, cuz you know, sometime in the over summertime we deal with childcare. Um you know, a lot of uh employees want to work during the daytime cuz the kids are in school. You know, in the summertime they may not have
035that luxury, so they'll a lot of them might take off. Well, fortunately, we've been able to keep most of them working, if not all of them working, so that helps us when we come back to school, you know, when we're about to backfill those some vacancies that we have here in September. Uh one thing that we did implement this year was a QR code activity. This is a the operation that we posted throughout the school. So, you know, for teacher to give teachers a voice, you know, we talked about it last last year. And if they have any concerns about their room being clean, trash being pulled, um restroom needing to be stocked, whatever the case may be, there's only that that uh the QR code that they can access. They can report that to
036us. And what that does, it goes directly to management. So, JJ and Carol get that as soon as they as soon as they get it. Um so, they can address it right there. Most of the time it's usually a a night cleaning, so if they get in the morning, obviously, they don't call the night cleaner and say, "You got to come here and clean it." You know, if something needs to be immediate attention, the day porter can go ahead and take care of it. Or if they're at the school, they'll, you know, take care of it right then, too. Usually, it gets addressed to the night person, uh whoever is assigned to that area, or the supervisor that supports that person. If it's something that we see that needs additional training, you know, we'll provide
037that to the district and the supervisors of the building. But, it's been really good for us. I mean, you see here over the whole year there were 344, if you want to call them tickets, kind of that were communicated us from the district staff about just anything. Some of Some of them may even be positive, but I know the more negative in terms of if something wasn't done or if they asked their their their classroom to be mopped again or if there was a spill, that kind of thing. A lot of them use it for that immediate response the the dispenser needs to be filled during the daytime, they'll send it here. We can see it directly cuz you obviously reality is she can't check every dispenser all day long when her her her custodians
038aren't sitting around waiting for something to spill or something uh that a dispenser needs to be filled. So, it's been a good communication tool for us. I think they've got a lot of good feedback from principals uh using it. You see that I mean, right now Sam Houston, they really use it. You know, that's the highest one they used at 131. So, they definitely use that communication tool and it was, you know, it's fine. We don't We don't We won't look at anything negative. Look at it as us working together cuz we want to be part of this job for a long time. It's a way for us to, you know, if something comes about that we need to be aware of, you know, we can we can have that firsthand. The next Well, the
039rest of the presentation pretty much is each school individually and it kind of breaks it down, gives you a better look instead of overall. Uh we also show some pictures of the summer clean work we're doing today. You know, that's right now the toughest one of the toughest time for us to pull the furniture out, do a top-down cleaning, uh you know, top-down top-down disinfecting of the surfaces, walls, and just, you know, make the floors look shiny cuz you know, everybody wants to come back to a shiny floor at August 1st. So, this is some pictures of us just right now, some open spaces that we've been able to do. Uh right now we're really good in terms of progress. Uh the only school we're not doing anything right now is Sam Houston because of
040summer school. That's right. Our Cast Light, sorry. Uh but, Miss Carol is is pushing her team well to as soon as summer school's over, she'll be able to put a lot of them over in that building and get it done quicker. Cuz we know the teachers as soon as July 4th hits, they're going to be ready to come back and get into the school. So, we want to give them as much time as they can to get everything done before the start of the school year. And she's doing a great job leading them and I mean you can see it here. I know pictures don't really do it justice. You know, we try to get the light shining on the good, but they're doing a really good job and it's I mean it's very very
041clean. Um if you want to look through these, it tells you the staff greets building and also gives you where the summer cleaning percentage is. So, we we calculate it uh with a with a formula that we use internally and so it tells you right here if you know, for example, Byron Adams, we are currently about 80% complete with that building, which is really good. We were, you know, we're I know we're in the last week of the month, so we're in good shape. We try to push to get as many buildings done before the 4th if we can because of the traffic that we expect coming after July 4th. Uh so, I was really happy to see when we met with the guys about where our progress is in those buildings. Most importantly, we
042want to give them quality and I think the quality we had a really good summer cleaning last year. I think this year is even better and it's we're following in the plan. It's all about planning. We planned really well. Uh and it's all about the experience over the years. They've just done a good job and I'm very proud to say that I think right now we're a company in a really good situation. Uh and if no school gives us any concerns, I said all of them except for high school because of summer school, that's something we can't really do anything about. But other otherwise that, all the schools are doing pretty good. Um so, I don't want to take up any more time, but if y'all want to look at it individually, you'll have that
043that document there for each school. It kind of breaks down breaks down their percentage there. >> I I my thing didn't print apparently, right? It's all kind of blank. Can you email that to me? >> Yeah, just Can you just after after you got the email? >> Okay. Cuz mine don't go the whole year and stuff so. >> Yeah, yeah. Got you. >> Yeah. Hey, so I got I do I have a few questions. Y'all Y'all were expecting them, I'm sure. Um the what's what are they asking for the most on the QR code? I mean, like what is that? Is it like trash? Is it >> It varies. It'll vary. >> Um >> It can be a lot of stalking. Like if there's a dispenser like a soap or hand towel or whatever, we
044get that one probably a majority of the time during the day. Uh we will get maintenance like if a toilet's clogged up or overflowing or any issues like that, we'll get those. We'll get the morning ones we'll get sometimes or the room wasn't swept well or it wasn't mopped or small things here and there. Um and it just most of them is stocking. That's your That's your general question most of the time is the stocking. >> And then Castle Heights didn't participate at all. >> On the survey? >> Yeah. >> I noticed that. >> And so >> So at some point, I think I need to get her some new ones. >> Okay, cuz >> I think that hers they were standard ones and they wasn't coming through. >> She would take them. >> She
045Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Well >> She told her to dispense them and stuff like that, but she did mention about >> Cuz it skews the numbers a little bit. >> or so that we get some new ones. Maybe that would help. >> Got you. >> Um we had the same issue with ours down there at one point. The numbers over there talking with Mr. Johnson and he said that the new teachers couldn't get it to work. >> Yeah. >> So we worked. So I went and tried them myself in a couple of different areas and I it worked for me. >> Okay. >> So I don't I don't know if it seemed to work and I think they were fine with it afterwards. >> I just was like, you know, if this it skews your
046numbers if you don't have them. >> Right. >> All right. Hey, I have another question. So I know you said you meet with uh Mr. Kurtz. Do you Do you meet with Did I mean that's district level. Do you meet with building level? >> Yeah, so her and I walk buildings. >> Okay. Cuz I as much as I want him involved, I mean he's not going to see everything either. >> Yeah, we try to on a bi-weekly basis because he's got a lot more on him. >> Yeah. >> So and we talked as needed throughout the weeks or months or whatever Whatever we need to discuss, we discuss it. Carol's in the buildings every day and then I will go and see buildings with her. He'll go over any issues or anything that come up
047with that. >> I just want to give you credit for you both. Talking to more than just Mr. Carter, but also >> Oh, they are. And and and I had I was with my dad one day and they needed something and I called JJ to go see Ms. Bobby. He did go and she was appreciative of that. >> All right. That's all the questions I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we're down to our revenue and expenditure summary. >> I have one item I just want to highlight local option sales tax for we received we received $1,034,000. That was up. You know, we had a slight dip in our local option sales tax last collection. We were a little nervous of that. It jumped back up. Once again, our our local options have been
048strong. Um, all the other numbers we discussed about last week when we went through all of the other pieces. >> And we'll sing. Um, learning update summer learning update. And Ms. Pam, is that you? >> Yes. Summer school's been going well. Um, we had our last Monday today. Uh, so we have three more days um, the students will be in summer school. Um, we've had a great time this year with the summer learning. They had a theme this year. It was a story book um, a story book summer. And so everything they've done is kind of revolved around literacy and reading with the different genres of stories. The library we opened up this year so that they could go to the library. Children are reading books in the library. So they've really had a good
049focus, great communication, um, and Dalton Teal has been the principal of the summer school and Rachel Lemon has been our director. So she helps set up all of the scheduling with us here at central office. And then Dalton has been there um, to lead and to share with the teachers. And one thing he's done has been to share an update every day. We get emails of updates coming in from highlights that they are doing each day in summer school with pictures and being able just to see the children having fun. If you look on that very first one that you see the STEM kits that are there. This is a resource from our family resource center and we've always shared those with schools, but this year we had them at summer school so teachers could
050check them out and they go along with the stories. They have fairy tales, they have folk tales and different things the children can do STEM activities associated with the reading. You also see children there. They would give appreciation and praise to teachers for things that they are taking the extra time to do and then they also have an update of what they can look forward to that day. This is what's happening today. This is what we have and updates and then also some appreciation for different people that help. One thing that's really stood out this year has been the community involvement and you'll see as you look through those pictures and the different things a lot of different churches, businesses, communities have been in to provide treats for our students, to provide meals for our
051teachers, to provide a special coffee in the morning, but they really did go over board this year really looking to see what can we do to make this fun and to support our teachers and our students and the community stepped up. We had Rotary there. We've had different organizations help pass out books. The book bus comes every Tuesday and our children get to go to this book bus and get a book and take home with them. It's their book free and we had community members to come and help hand out that book and they look at what the child's favorite type of book was and they even try to look on the bus trying to save them for different ones. So, it's really been a plus pulling in that family resource center along with the
052reading and the literacy. Another big highlight this year, we have had take home meals that we've been able to provide to families and it was a grant that the cafeteria received. So, we've been able to let children take home meals for the three days they're not there. Now, this is in the backpack program with food. This is actually three meals that they can heat up and eat and it's for anyone under 18 that could have that meal. So, I mean it it was a great plus. The children have loved it and you know, it's a way that we can support our community as well, our children. We know they're getting fed when they're not here with us. So, that has been wonderful and they still did the backpack meals. Another highlight this year, we were
053able to take a field trip. So, all of our third graders were able to go to the Fighting Bastille House and if you look, I believe that's on day 617. If you look, you can see pictures of them at the Fighting Bastille. You can see them dressed up. Vicky Hines, one of our school librarians helped to do that with um the group that's coming around and it is the American um That Yes, it's an exhibit of the American Revolution and the kids did a Revolutionary War scavenger hunt through these displays and website displays they had. So, they were learning their social studies standards while going on this field trip. So, it was neat that all of our third grade students were able to do that and we chose them because we have large number of
054third graders and that way it was a little bit of something exciting for them to go and do. So, they were able to go and go through that. We had students rolling Jeff organized the buses for us and we were able to take them over every 30-45 minutes a different group because they could only house about 20-25 at a time. So, that was a great experience first year we've had field trips. So, we really did enjoy that. I do want to highlight Joshua Brown as well. He has been over there every day doing the technical side of all the spreadsheets, the attendance. Today we had to start post test because all students are required to take a post test at the end of summer camp and it's online just like TCAP will be next year.
055So, it was some of the teachers' first experience with that. So, he's been able to guide them through that and kind of help support that role for our students to take that post test. So, they had ELA today, they'll do a math on Wednesday and that will kind of finish up that and they have a reward. They have a water day on the very last day. So, the kids will have fun and get to do some exciting things. Um just walking through, I know I've said this every year but everybody loves summer school. The teachers are excited to be there, the kids are excited to be there. It's a level of learning that you don't get during the year. There's no high stakes. Um it's fun. It's learning and it's a little the groups are
056smaller so, you know, the children are all going through and it's been a great experience but one thing they've really focused on this year too is rewarding students every day. There's somebody from every class being awarded awarded as something, a token or something. Businesses donated free milkshakes. They had meals to Zaxby's, to Chick-fil-A. Different things have been coming in, certificates. And so, the children, if they're caught being good and they've done something, their teacher can recommend them and they'll announce that in the morning on the announcements. The kids come and you'll see some of of there holding a certificate, getting their picture made, but it's another little way to increase that positivity and also to reward good behavior. Um our behavior specialist have been there going around giving prizes and kind of helping support that.
057Our children are coming in with a whole new group of teachers and new students they've not been around before and we have 16 days to melt them all together and help them and and get to know them. So, really they've all worked together and and pulled together and it's been a very successful um 4 weeks. Like I said, 3 more days and we'll have that um complete, but it has been a great process and program and as much work as it is, I love it because I feel like it's needed and our children need it and it helps to slow down that summer slide and close that gap. So, some children are continuing to go and to get to have that education to read a book. Um we purchased some curriculums this year that we've
058not done in the past and so our children are taking a book home every day um with their decodable readers and it's a little consumable paper type book, but they also get to read that all week at school and it has writing pieces that go with it. So, we've been excited this year to be able to add to some of the things we're doing that we'll build on in years to come. >> You know I got a few questions. >> Yeah, go ahead. That's right. >> Um how many third graders do we have this year? >> Um exact number >> know just roughly. >> I don't know, but we have about 461. I bet we have 100 and >> You said it was the biggest group so far this year. >> Third probably about 100.
059We have more teachers in third grade than any other grade. >> How many total teachers are doing summer school this year? >> Um probably about Counting EAs or just teachers and everybody? >> Yeah, all together about 48 probably at least. I could get you an exact number if you >> I just I just wonder like you know the group that >> and changed so as we began to add students and then after testing when children could drop out, we did, so we moved some. We had some teachers that had to cancel and then we had to combine some classes, so the numbers did change after we got started, but it's been a we had all we needed, but we did have to recruit a few more this year to have enough teachers because we had
060to add some in our first grade. We had to add classes in kindergarten as well because those numbers were higher than in the past, so we did add teachers from all of that year before. >> But and we're going K through eight. >> Yes, we're going six through eight. >> Right. >> We had some that signed up in the upper, but they didn't like wanted to ninth, but they didn't end up coming. Um, we encourage them to. We asked them to come, but it's not mandated, so in middle school, you tend to see them drop off a little more as the weeks go on. >> So, I know we did pretests and then we'll do posttests. And when will we get those? >> They will come back pretty quickly, like within a week or two,
061we'll know because they are all online this year. We'll be able to see those. >> I'm I am I'm interested to see how quick those come back for us, too, so yeah. I'm a huge summer school fan, y'all know that I am, so um, that's why I just wanted >> You need to come and walk through. If you've not been there, if you just come and see the joy in the children's eyes and reading and learning and they've had in their intervention pieces, puppets, shows, the kids are reading stories and then acting out the stories and really learning and digging down and um, one thing I meant to mention this year, Joshua was able to run a spreadsheet of all the children that were attending and um, Rachel went through with Dalton to look to
062see what are the standards that they were the lowest in throughout the year on their benchmarks as well as TCAP and looking to see that's where we're going first. And so, we were able to hone in on those standards where they had the issues, and then build on that. So, that was a plus this year, too. >> All data-driven, I know. Thank you, Ms. Pam. All right. Year-end reports for SACC, health services, and nutrition. >> Yeah, just within your packet, these are for you to take with you. It's an annual process, SACC of health services and nutrition. Um, take a look through those documents if you already have. Outlier item. Ms. Heather, believe you wanted to mention something with SACC. What do we talk about? Obviously, other than it's a fantastic service. Mel's back there
063somewhere. Where's Mel? Mel's hiding. Um, we we do want to highlight SACC for after school, um, inclement weather care, summer. Uh, she's doing a stellar job, uh, and I discussed with the board they are going to have to go up some on their rates, uh, which was necessary. We want to make sure we pay, uh, those folks that work there adequate wage, and so, we just appreciate that. >> I I have just I've compared our rates to what other rates cost, or what I might personally have been paying for child care in in the summer and camps and stuff, and and I mean, it is a steal. It is an absolute steal. So, um, you know, we're going to have to we are going to have to change them. I think it's I think it
064was as modest we could have we could have changed it a whole lot more. So, um, but that's it's not a very much needed service. Um, and moms will tell you that over the summer. They're like, oh. So, um I think that that's a good I mean it's a good it's a very good deal. So, >> It's a good deal. >> looked at the rates and compared them comparatively for myself, and >> It's a good deal, and they do a great job. Um, another group that does great job in your is your health services report. You see 30,000 total visits. Almost 31,000 visits, um, to our nurses and our clinics within our schools. Um let's see, clinic visits by school. Um primarily, we've got bumps and bruises. I'll tell you, kindergarten, around January, February, you'll
065see a marked increase in students hitting their heads. Uh part of it is they have a growth spurt. And so, the monkey bars they ran through at the beginning of the year, um they now are tall enough that they don't judge it well. So, some of those visits are some of them are humorous. We don't want that for any kindergartner, but a lot of them are what you commonly have smaller children. Last item is cafeteria vendor sheet. We're still with US Foods. See, milk is now 37 cents. Ice cream, bread, those are our vendors for those. Those are your year-end reports from SACC Home Services and Nutrition Department. >> All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Hutto and your team. All right, next board meeting I've got July 27th at 6:00 p.m. at um the
066central office right here. So, 6:00 p.m. Is that correct for everybody? Okay. All right. Is there any other business that has come before the board that we need to address? >> We covered a lot. >> I think we did. All right. I adjourn this meeting. >> No.