02 12 2025 Regular School Board Meeting

001We should be live at this time. Mr. Poland, >> you're live. Strip. >> We are live. >> Are we still waiting on Mr. Writtenhouse? >> Yes, I'm on the phone with him now. I'm getting him on. I guess we're we're still waiting on Mr. Written House. That That's my understanding. >> He is going to call in. He couldn't get on his computer. Do you happen to know his number? >> Yes, I can text it to you. >> And I just want to make sure that we're admitting all that come in. >> No, don't admit all. The one at the bottom needs to go back >> to the waiting room. >> Yes, sir. >> Wonderful. And actually, is he going to use his cell? Cuz I've got his cell. >> Um, he possibly is. >> I

002don't know how well it works at his house. Mr. Bower, I'm going to put you in the waiting room as well. >> Do as you feel is appropriate, sir. As soon as he gets on, we'll we'll need to rock and roll because we got to get to the 6:30 budget presentation. Sorry. So, Don, you're waiting to see Charles's phone number come through as a and um hold on him. Is that what's up? >> Yes, sir. Is anybody opposed to us moving forward? Um, Mr. Writtenhouse is having some trouble getting connected and at least getting a couple things accomplished before the 6:30 budget presentation. Is anybody opposed to that? >> No. >> Well, see ahead. >> All right. I have 6:19 p.m. Let's reconvene in open session. And um Miss Cryer, can we have a certification

003of close session? >> Certification of close session. Dr. Kelly? >> Yes. >> Mr. Key? >> Yes. >> Mr. Poland? >> Yes. >> Mr. Reid? >> Yes. >> Mr. Writtenhouse? >> Uh Mr. Chair, can you ask the clerk to um re-implement this for Mr. Renhouse when he arrives? >> Yeah, absolutely. Miss Kryer, do you understand that? Did you hear? >> Yes, I did. >> All right. Um any actions coming out of close session? >> You're on mute, Dr. Gretz. Sorry. I recommend that the board approve as presented student discipline cases 225 A1, A2, and A3. >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve student cases 225 A1, A2, and A3 is presented? So moved. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. All right, we have a motion and a second to approve student

004cases 225 A1, A2, and A3 as presented. There is no discussion. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. All right, we are on to the adoption of tonight's agenda. May I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda? >> I move that we approve tonight's agenda as presented. >> Is there a second? I'll second. >> I have a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda as presented. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? Chair votes I. We've approved tonight's agenda as presented. All right. On to the consent agenda. Is anyone wishing to pull anything um separately from the consent agenda, whether it be the minutes of prior meetings, monthly claims, or personnel recommendations? I >> think

005we're all here for the last one, right? >> Yes. >> Then I move that we approve consent agenda items 6A, 6B, and 6 C in bank. >> All right. I have a motion to approve consent agendas items 6A, 6B, and 6 C. Is there a second? I'll second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion. >> All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. Consent agenda is approved. And we are moving on to Mr. Gretz. Do you want to do you want to start the budget presentation at 6:22 or open up to could technically open up to public comment but by the time we got done it would we would have to stop in the middle? >>

006Yeah, I I could start it. I think uh I think it was advertised to begin at 6:30. I'm not sure how much it matters the few minutes, but I'm happy to start it. Or if you wanted to move through the agenda to another item that that might just take a few minutes, we can do that. >> Well, I we're going to have to um if we start public comment by the time we start it, you'll have to stop it. So, I just I say let's move forward with the with the um the budget hearing continuation from our pre previous meeting. >> Okay, >> that's fine. Uh just a quick point. Uh Madame Clerk, Miss Croitzer, I sent you a direct message over Zoom related to somebody in a waiting room or something. So to the

007extent that you can look at your comments, that would be useful. You guys don't need to hold on me. That was a It was just a comment for her. So, to the extent that you want to start uh going through the budget presentation. >> Yeah, I'm I'm happy to do that, Mr. Polland, if we want to just go ahead and get started. >> All right. Go ahead. >> Okay. Uh well, board members, first of all, thank you very much for all the flexibility tonight. And I say that to everybody who's participating um online. Just for everyone's benefit, I do want people to know why it was very important for us to hold this meeting tonight. And I appreciate the board ging the meeting in in order to um open the presentation and the hearing on

008Wednesday. I I don't mind saying I was just very sick. I wasn't able to to participate in it and rather than cancel it because you were able to keep the timeline the way it is, then we don't have to readvertise. And what we're trying to do is cooperate with the county in order to make a presentation with them next Wednesday on the 19th that will enable them to have enough time to process our request along with Mr. Dah's budget that he presents that same night on the 19th and then the county a week later will set its maximum tax rate. And so it it really is important for us to to get uh this done tonight if we can or at least prior to the 19th. So I appreciate the flexibility. I want everybody to

009know why we're working so hard to do that. It's because we're trying to back our way into um the the timeline with the county. So, I am going to Dr. Stribbling, I'm going to share my screen and I don't know what has to happen for that if I can just do that or >> So, I'm going to stop sharing and then that'll allow you to share how you want to share. So, I'm stopping. Okay. Uh, does everybody see the slide budget presentation? Okay, great. So, what I'd like to do with you board members, we have a worksheet that we're going to work through together at some point tonight. all of these materials because we're working online and board docs um had a little bit of a cut off, but we'll make sure that all the

010materials, anything we reference tonight. Most of the things are in the agenda item from last week, but everything will be part of the packet will be available to the public. Um including the worksheet that we work through. Uh what I'd like to do is just present some information for you related to the three primary buckets of items that we've been talking about, staffing and positions, compensation, and health insurance. Uh to kind of set up what you will have in the in the budget that I'm bringing to you tonight. And then that budget will be reflected in in the worksheet. So just to begin with staffing, I'm just going to this is just a reiteration. Won't spend a lot of time on this, but prior to 2011, this is what our organization looked like. And through

011some uh eliminations, uh resignations, retirements, some of these jobs were eliminated and this continued to evolve over time. Happened again in 2017. This is what the organization looked like then. And you'll notice there was a director of student services, director of technology, director of operations, as well as an assistant superintendent. Uh, and so again, eliminations and mergers happened. And so the organization changed quite a bit. I'm flying through this because back in the October meeting, I took you through a pretty extensive slideshow with this, but I just wanted to demonstrate that over that time period, there was a reduction. The green represents reductions some support positions, many of which are reflected in the budget that I'm bringing you tonight that have been brought back uh enabled to be brought back with federal funds and then

012extended with the all-in money that the governor provided uh that we would like to to maintain in our budget. But this is just simply making the point that these positions were there at one time. Uh and then with regards to leadership and instruction, there was a reduction there as well. also on the left what the organization looked like on the right the way we're structured now same thing in operations uh diminished level of support and you can just look at the title executive director of human resources operations and student services and just kind of see where things kind of found their way there I'm saying all that simply because you're going to see uh reflected in the worksheet this restructuring so the executive Ive d I'm just going to walk through this. The executive director

013of instruction and finance position which is being vacated through Mrs. Grasser's retirement is that that job is technically being eliminated. The director of instruction and federal programs position is technically being eliminated. And instead what we would replace that with is an executive director of instruction, a director of finance, and those first four lines are really a wash finance financially. Uh we're adding a coordinator of instruction that can work alongside. So, we are losing the uh director of instruction position and federal programs, but we're we're recouping the director level leadership in Mrs. Grasser's position, adding a coordinator level position. Hopefully, somebody that can bring the secondary that Mrs. Grasser had secondary um level leadership can take on some of what we have talked about in our meetings uh that is somewhat lacking now in our structure

014with regards to CTE and some of those other things and then adding a director of human resources. And I'm happy to stop and to go into more detail. I'm I'm also sensitive to the fact that we've talked a lot about this and I' I've brought things that I thought would just be helpful in terms of context where the way other divisions are structured and I don't need to belabor that here but I'm happy to. So I'll rely on the board to just let me know how you want to let this conversation flow. But it does add a director of human resources, a coordinator of alternative ed and student services. So removing some of what has been added over time to the executive director of operations position. And then we've talked about the need for a

015communications officer. What I'm including is a 10-month teaching position. Candidly, I would be happy to have any iteration of that 10-month contract, even if it was just, you know, sometimes we we pay teachers for an extra section that they teach. Um, I I think we could I think we could make great improvements even with that. But what's included, what you're going to see in there is the communications officer at a 10-month contract position. And then we've talked a lot about the outcry from the schools and the need for us to provide boots on the ground support, behavioral support, mental wellness support. And so the addition of a second behavioral specialist is reflected in here. And you'll see that um sorry in the document there in the worksheets >> Mr. Superintendent, Dr. Superintendent, I'm not sure.

016>> Yes. >> Uh it is now 6:32 and would be appropriate to open your public hearing. >> That that sounds great, >> Mr. Chair. Yeah, I think Andrew had to step away for a minute. >> Okay. Do you want to pivot into our public hearing? >> Yeah, we can uh go into public hearing. We come to that time of meeting and public comments. I remind everyone that by policy only members of the community, meaning residents of Fana and staff County Public Schools may address the board unless you are legal counsel representing a group interest in tonight's proceedings. We welcome all community members who are here to give information or opinions. We will ask you to come to Well, I guess we will unmute you so you can speak. Tell us your name, address, and limit

017your comments to three minutes. We'll start with the names that they were emailed to us and we welcome your input um during this public comment section. The board will not interact with you but we will listen to your comments. Thank you. >> So I think Mr. Stribbling you have or Miss Chrysler has the list? >> Yes, I have the list but our public hearing starts at 700 p.m. The budget presentation's at 6:30. So, do you want to >> apologize? I've led you astray. I heard >> that. So, that's on me. So, resume and then L just just keep going. I'm sorry. I apologize. >> No, my my fault. I should have recognized that. >> I misheard the logistics end, please. >> Okay. So, we were on this screen essentially just showing you giving you a

018preview of what to expect and why this is there in the in the worksheet that you'll see. Stop me anytime, board members. So, what's not included um are these positions and these are positions that have come through the request. Some of these have been requested ever since I've gotten here. And I'm you know we we've talked together and you board members have expressed just uh some of the consideration around how to iterate needs that may or may not make the may find their way into the actual ultimate request the official request but how to make them known. Uh and so I want to be very clear and just make it clear in this meeting. These are requests that we have vetted and I believe that they're valid requests. They're not in the document at this

019time. Similarly, um, at our request, Miss Suarez did a presentation that kind of led it was a comparative mo comparison of Fluana to the the other four districts that we continue to use um, primarily for consistency sake for these specialist positions. and we showed kind of what what the the lay of the land was with our neighbors, what kind of positions we had, and what would be the ideal, the board asked her, what would be the ideal that we could have. Um, and so those positions that she presented that would be part of the ideal structure if we could have it are not included. But these are them, so they're not included in there either. Um, I want to walk through very quickly just for context. um instructional positions. So the there's a a public

020report, the annual school report that's done every year by every division. It's available on the Department of Education website and table 17 is where this data is taken from. I'm just letting people know. But this what this displays is over the last five years where that same subset of divisions are with regards to the numbers of instructional positions uh per 10,00 students. And you can see Fluana has had the least number of instructional positions. And where we start to creep into the middle is when we used some of the esser money uh to hire class size reduction teachers and to bring back some of those positions that I demonstrated earlier had been lost through eliminations. This is another look at those instructional position. I just think this is very telling and it's worth noting over

021time that in 2009 we had 381 instructional positions and as you move through that roughly 15-year window more than that you'll see that over that same period of time in 2024 which is that's the data we have available through that table we don't have any more instructional positions than we had in 2009 when the recession hit there was a tremendous dip and then when esser funding was available we started to bring some of those back. Now as it's been noted our enrollment has declined slowly over that time as you can see and so the question has been asked if enrollment has gone down why has your staffing not reflected that? I I would say that over time, the fact that our instructional staffing has stayed the same is noteworthy. But I want to walk you

022through some of the changes that have happened over that time despite the fact that enrollment has gone down during that period of time. Look at the programs that we've added. These are new courses, new programs that were not available that have been added to our school division. I won't read all these to you. You can refer to these slides later. There's over 30 positions in 30 different uh excuse me, programs that have been added availability to our students. These are the support positions that have been added. So, these are these are academic instructional programs I just noted, but these are support positions. We have four best labs. Those needed to be staffed with four people. We've added nurses and counselors. Our portion of the security officers and the resource officers. And I think it's noteworthy

023to say that while enrollment has dropped slightly, we've added over 30 new academic programs, but our instructional staffing has stayed exactly the same as it was in 2009. And in addition to that, we've had a tremendous increase in sorry my slide is not cooperating here. Increase in special ed population over that time. Just in the last 5 years, over 100 students that have been added. Our English language learner population, English as a second language population has doubled just in the time that I've been here. It's gone from the uh the 80s into I think 124. So, I think it's important to note that and these are some of the extracurricular activities that have been added. There's been a decrease in support, as I've shown, a decrease in support positions, intervention positions, leadership positions, a pretty

024dramatic increase in programmatic offerings, an increase in special populations, instructional staffing has remained level, and during that time, as we showed with our uh compensation study, our pay dropped to the lowest among our competitors. And I think it's really noteworthy that our our staff has been able to to get such great results under those um within that scenario. And I don't say any of that to paint a bleak picture, but just to simply say this is what the numbers show us. And this is why in this budget we've tackled, just in my time with you, we've tackled salary because we identified that it was low and it was a problem. We've done some tremendous things with salary uh both with just raising the scales themselves and the pay bands doing away with the scale A

025and B disparity that we had that seemed at one time like it would never be able to be solved. And so now we're tackling bringing back some of those positions that are so necessary to our support and that we once had. I do want to note that over that same time period there's there's been a tremendous increase in instructional assistance. And that's not un that's not surprising to me that as that those support positions have diminished and programs have been added, special populations have been added. It's not surprising to me that there's been an increase in instructional assistance. And if we were to not have had that increase, we would actually have fewer instructional positions today than we did in 2009 despite all of that increase in offerings. These are some of the things that

026were eliminated and I think it's worth just spending a moment here for a couple of reasons. Uh because we do we do pay attention to the way the population changes and certainly with regards to enrollment as we have just in my time here. Uh there's not a oneto-one relationship with enrollment going up or down and staff going up and down because you can't add 31 programs and not reflect those in staff. And depending on where those students are that withdraw or don't show up, you can't necessarily close down those programs, but we have eliminated some positions. Just last year, we eliminated positions at the high school due to enrollment. I think it's noteworthy to I I wasn't aware of this. The international baloria program is a rigorous um program of study that's pretty elite and

027it's not in many schools in Virginia and it's certainly not in many elementary schools in Virginia, but apparently at one time it was in Fluana and it was cut in order to save money. uh not only did we have the international baloria program but we had it at the elementary level which is very forwardthinking at the same time we had Spanish at the elementary level which is uh again it's pretty rare to see that unless you're in a a really large well-resourced school division. So shifting to compensation, what you see in uh the worksheet is the 3% raise that has been proposed by the governor. It's also supported in the House and Senate versions and our portion of that is uh the state share of that is just a little under a million dollars. um

028in order to give in in order to leverage the state share of that um raise we would need to give the 3%. But as you know the 3% goes through first the filter of the local composite index. So really what happens is the state gives us uh a portion of that and it only goes to support the SOQ positions even with the 3% raise and we've spent a lot of time talking uh over the last couple of months about where our compensation is. We began three years ago. We found that we were low. We did some adjustments. Um we never did close the gap as we've mentioned. And so as our neighbors have applied their own raises in response to ours, we've started to find ourselves towards the end again uh last in some of

029these areas. And so I think it's important to note that while the 3% um the 3% would not necessarily help us close those gaps and we can assume that the the other subset um school divisions that we compare ourselves to will also be giving the 3%. So, I just want to put that in there. The worksheet will have um you can see the cost of a 4% and a 6%. You can see where the teacher scales are, what it would take for them to be average. And then I included just if it's helpful, sorry, the administrative assistant position. So, in order for this one to be average, the starting would need to to get a 14% raise. For it to just be third, not fourth, it'd need to be a 7.6% raise. So, this is

030all just for context. What I'm bringing you includes the 3%. Now, when we get to the portion of our meeting where we're talking about fiscal 25, um I'll just mention now, and if you want to talk more about this, we can. We do have there are revisions that have been made to the governor's budget by the House and Senate. And while we have larger amounts of of what those include for schools, until we get a template, we won't know exactly what that means for Fluana. I think it's important for everybody to know that both the House and the Senate agree on a one a bonus, a one-time bonus for SOQ positions of $1,000. Uh, one of those versions has that to be paid in this current fiscal year, which is interesting. And one of those

031has that to be paid in the next fiscal year, no later than September. that's not reflected in any of this because again there's a lot of work to be done at the general assembly and don't know exactly what that would look like for us but I do want you to know it's there and there's more information in the budget update regard uh in that part of our our meeting when we get there I just wanted to mention it. Uh talking quickly then about health insurance. We've talked a lot about health insurance. uh the board has chosen to absorb any increases that have happened in health insurance and not pass those costs off to our employees. So, we've done a lot of work to increase salaries and the board has done a lot of work to

032not increase health premiums. Uh definitely during the four my four years here, we've not done that. We've not passed off those costs. So, we're modeling a 10% increase. And what you have in the budget that I'm bringing you tonight is the cost of absorbing that 10% increase. Uh, and for context, I wanted to just provide for you. This is the cost of the 10% increase, the 600,000. And this I hope this isn't too difficult to see. Let me know if it is and I'll try to blow it up a little bit. What you have on the left are the the five tiers of each of our three plans. So we have employee only, employee plus child, employee plus children, employee plus spouse, and family. And uh as a side note, we do have a program

033where dual employees, so husbands and wives who both work for the school division are able to participate at a discounted rate. Um, and we do have a spousal exclusion that I think was implemented the year before I got here. So, if an employes spouse is able to be insured elsewhere, they must be insured elsewhere. You can see under the census that most of our employees are in the um the first tier of the plan. You can see the total premium, what the employer, the school division pays, and what the employee pays. So, what you have, and the red arrow shows you, and this was based on the school board's feedback last time. Now, again, I've brought you the $600,000 cost of what it would what it would mean to absorb the 10% increase and not

034pass any off. The first scenario you have is what it would look like if you were to pass off 150,000 of that 600 to employees. So the school board would absorb 450 and you would pass off 150 to employees. And what you can see is what the new employee premium would be for each of those tiers. And then to the right, what that monthly increase is for each of those individuals. So again, the cost of having that impact on employees is 450,000. You're passing off 150 of that increase to employees. Is everybody with me on that? >> I'm with you. for point of clarification for when we kind of get in the weeds here and have our sleeves rolled up. Does that theoretically mean that if we were to if somebody proposed a number different

035than 150 as an offset that we could functionally use the that difference to scale? So like if somebody was like let's let's pass on just half, could we theoretically just sum those last two columns and that's what the price sheet would be theoretically? I no I would not be comfortable with doing that. I think you could maybe do that just for rough >> placeholders in your mind. I would want our uh you know our benefits consultant to do the rate sheet for whatever it is that you want to do. I've got I have three more scenarios for you to look at. Oh, >> okay. You have them in your pocket already. >> I do. Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that all this was clear before we move on. So, um, so family 500,

036just to put skin on this, family 500 right now. So, $500 deductible and a family plan, which should come from anyone in our administration from you, Dr. Gretz, down to a custodian who who needs health care for their family. It's currently 877 a month. If we pass nothing on, it'll stay at 877. And if we um ultimately decide to take a quarter of the increase and pass that to employees, that rate would go up my I have a huge screen and it's still hard. But $120 some odd dollars and 20 Don't move it for me. It's fine. Uh and it'll go it'll go up to uh just over $1,000 a month. >> That's right. Yeah. >> Yeah, that's right. Okay. So, this is if the board wanted to pass half of the cost on. So,

037the board absorbs 300,000, pass off 300,000. You can see the impact on rates there. I won't read those to you. And unfortunately, I can't see what you're seeing. I can only see my screen. Is this is is it Can you read it? Yeah, it looks great to me, but I'm on an ultra one. >> Yeah. Yeah, I can see it. >> Okay. >> I don't know if this helps, but that's good. So, this is 450, kind of the reverse of the first model. The board absorbs 150 and you pass off the 450. And then finally, if you were to just pass all of it off on to the employee, that's what it would look like. Do you have any questions for me about this now? I know there's time to talk about it later, but

038really just wanted to provide it. No, this is useful. I mean, I thought that third red arrow was horrifying and it just gets worse from there, >> but we plan for what we've been told should be a worst case scenario. So, there there is always hope that the 10% decreases, which would change all of this as well. So, I wanted to to take just a moment to shift gears a little bit and talk about food services. Um, we've implemented quite a few interventions and changes to try to redirect a trend that we're seeing, which is diminishing participation and loss of revenue there. And we have seen that it is helping. I I don't think we've had enough time to really make generalizations, but what I'm including in this budget that we have not included in

039the past, every year that I've been here, we have had to absorb the cost of unpaid uh meals. Uh last year, we had to absorb I want to say it was in the 70,000 or so, and that was that was with two schools being on free on the uh C program. So, that was just absorbing the cost of unpaid lunch at two schools. Um, each year we've done that. We've typically done it with year-end funds. Um, but it hasn't been budgeted for. And so because we've seen this trend that we have this year with a loss of revenue, I'm confident that we can redirect it significantly. But I'm also confident that I think it would be wise for us to plan on whether we're part of the C or not, about $100,000 in uh responsibility

040there, either in unpaid meal debt or helping to support the implementation of the C. And so I've I've just included that in the budget. Again, it's not something we've budgeted. It's something we've had to do every year, but I think it's important to budget it. And so I did want to mention that these things are in place and they are having an impact. We have seen um even just with this month a decrease in in in the debt that we were incurring there. >> Dr. Gratz, I have a quick question for you. >> Yes, sir. How are we evaluating uh it's right in the middle of the screen. Re-evaluated food cost and switch to cheapest vendor if no impact on quality. Um >> who determines the quality and what qualifications are we putting around the

041word quality? Well, largely that's spelled out by the, you know, regulations that are part of the the food service program and the regulations we have to adhere to. I I probably can't give you a detailed answer without either doing a little research or having Miss Jones here. But >> yeah, and I guess where that question comes from is I mean, it's it's probably not a surprise. There was a lot of talk on a question that I just teed up to the community around, hey, do your kids eat lunch at school, breakfast at school? If they don't, why not? And I think that we have addressed some of the things in here to help with the speed of getting kids students in and out of the lines quicker so they have more time to eat. Um,

042>> I I don't really know if it's a conversation tonight just because again it's it's there's a lot of factors here, but I think it would be very smart for as we're saying quality if we're evaluating a $2 slice of pizza versus a $1.50 slice of pizza. I think we also need to go to our students who are our customers to make sure that by going to a cheaper vendor so we can be fiscally responsible. It doesn't turn students away from eating because they don't like the cheaper option. Um because those were the two things of feedback that I heard most. We don't have enough time to eat by going through the lines and the food has changed from last year to this year. And I'm not placing blame on anybody with that. I'm just

043saying just reading over a hundred comments of people from their students and thank you to the community for not adding fluff to that and just answering the question so we could track a little bit there. That would just be my concern is that the quality aspect of it, you know, a donut's a donut even if it's made with, you know, better stuff. But from a quality standpoint, are we driving away potential customers as our students by going the cheaper route or would we actually see more participation in this program if we spent a little bit more and we were providing something that the students wanted? So, just I'm kind of throwing that out there just food for thought as we move forwards because that was the two most common things that I saw from parents

044responding to whether or not their students ate and if not why they would choose not to. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. So, I think what I'm going to do now is um is switch gears here. And is there any of the material that we've looked at over the past few months that the board would like to to bring back up? I've kind of highlighted some of it here, but do you want to look at the salary study information? Do you want to look at any of the historical trends that we've seen? There's a lot of information in last week's item that I didn't pull it over for tonight because we're just continuing there. But if not, I'm going to ask Miss Sorz to share her screen and she can just pull up the the budget

045work the worksheet and we can start to work through that and I'll just kind of take you through line by line what's in there. Yeah, now is actually a great time for a pause given my false positive earlier. It is 6:59 and so maybe public comments and the hearing before we proceed. >> Great. Yes, sir. >> And I'm back too, by the way. >> Y sorry I had a little power failure. >> I I gave a false alarm. I thought we were at 6:30 for public. So, but it seems like you can take it from here. All right, Mr. Gretz, what was the conversation? You you wanted to pause and do public comment or or move forward. >> I'm sorry. Yes, sir. We We're public public hearing starts at 7 and we have a natural

046break right now. So, >> got it. Perfect. All right. Can we can we move to the public hearing then? >> Yes. >> All right. Mr. Stribblin, just let me know when you got it. >> Absolutely. Got it. >> Ready? M Crocker. >> And while he's doing that, I just want to remind everybody the rules for the public hearing are the same as the rules for public comment. Any Fannon County citizen or employee of the school system is welcome to speak. You got you must address the board, not individual members. Provide your name and voting district. Do not exceed three minutes. Mr. Schubin's going to share that screen with three minutes on it. And and please be respectful. And of course, we cannot interact with you during public comment. >> Miss Crocker, can you hear me?

047>> I can. >> All right. Wonderful. If you want to start, you can go ahead. >> Great. Thank you. Uh my name is Ashley Crocker and I live in the Fork Union District. Um the Fluana County schools are in crisis. We are facing a $3,196,19 shortfall this year and the consequences of inaction will be devastating. This funding isn't for extras. It is the bare minimum required to keep nine critical academic support and mental health positions, cover health insurance increases for school employees, and invest in essential school administration positions. For 15 years, the board of supervisors has systematically underfunded our schools, and the damage is clear. Fluana students have fewer programs, fewer reading and math intervention supports, and fewer mental and behavioral health resources than students in neighboring counties. Our teachers and school staff are underpaid

048and have fewer benefits than their counterparts in Louisa, Gland, Charlottesville, and Albero. By almost every measure, Fluana schools rank dead last. This is unacceptable. If we do not start to fix this now, we will continue losing talented teachers. Our students will fall further behind and our community will suffer. It's not the school board's responsibility to figure out where the money comes from. That is the job of the board of supervisors. The school board's responsibility is to pass a budget that accurately reflects what our students, teachers, and staff need. If the school if the board of supervisors refuses to fund it, then they must answer to this community. There's nothing left to cut. Our school buildings, many built in the 1950s, are falling apart. Our staff already are already underpaid compared to those in neighboring districts.

049And last year, we lost funding for PSATs, SATs, and recess aids. Asking our teachers to accept less take-home pay in order to pay for health insurance increases while telling them they're getting a raise is a slap in the face. This year, further cuts will mean losing essential teaching positions, instructional aid to provide reading and math intervention, and mental health professionals who will help students in crisis. This is an emergency. We wantanna schools to be a place where families want to live, where students can succeed, and where teachers are valued. The school board must stand firm and pass a budget that fully meets the needs of our schools, and the board of supervisors must be held accountable for funding it. Thank you. All right, we're going to go with um I believe that Miss Walding is

050here, not for budget. Uh so it looks like that's the only one for budget, but I want to make sure that is the only one for the budget presentation that I'm aware of. >> Yes, sir. That's correct. All right. Do you want to get back into um the presentation or would you prefer to do public comment now while we have a little bit of a break? >> I think that's that's totally up to you, Mr. Poland. If you want to keep keep rolling with public comment, that's fine. >> I'm looking at the I'm looking at the agenda here and technically public comment comes after the um your presentation. So I would say that we keep going with the presentation that you started just before 6:30. >> That's great. So what we'll transition then and bring

051up uh bring up the budget worksheet that shows the specifics of what's in there and I'll ask uh Mrs. Sorz will share her screen and she'll be able to manipulate that spreadsheet. Excuse me. >> Can you see my screen? Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. Looks great. Thank you. So beginning at the top we have uh our our baseline figure and what you have in yellow are the required expenses associated with the governor's school and project return are projections for um a reduction in federal funds reflected there. the 3% compensation increase that we mentioned there and you can see the state's share of that which is just under a million dollars. The 600,000 is the full cost of implementing um no increase in health insurance for employees and we walked through what that would look like if

052that 600 turned into 450, 300, 150. Okay, the next two um the Centix wearable alert badge. You remember there is a yearly subscription with that. There's a upfront cost which we received in turnback funds from the board of supervisors and that's being implemented as we speak and then for the next four years if we choose to renew each year there is a $32,800 cost associated with that. I mentioned that we would put a wedge of $100,000 or that I did in this proposal to you. $100,000 uh for supporting the cafeteria either implementation of the C or resolving unpaid meal debt. The additional staffing needs were reflected in the presentation I did earlier. I I'm happy to talk about those, but this is exactly what was reflected there. You can see that the restructuring is kind

053of a wash. And again, the communications officer position is a 10-month teacher contract. These do include benefits. And we always model a a step 10 just hypothetical employee on step 10 with a family plan. So those figures could be less than that depending on how they Okay. uh the cost of officials is going up. We talked about this at the last meeting. Officials are uh the VHSL enters into an agreement with an organization to provide officials. That's not something we have any flexibility offer over. So those fees go up. U the deputies fees are going up. We've been notified by the sheriff. Again, we don't have any flexibility with that. So, what we're asking is to increase what we currently provide um for the funding of activities support there at the high school and at

054the middle school by $30,000. I've removed the $50,000 cyber security support uh line that was in the initial in in talking with Mr. Gford. It's not that I don't think that's important. uh everything frankly on the next page is important, but given the priorities that are at work here and the fact that he has been able to pursue some federal grants, we don't really have a lot of particulars on that. They're they're not really specific on how much they would award or um what the timeline would be there, but we felt like it was safe for us to at least move into next year knowing that the state is probably going to have to ramp up its support for divisions and there could be uh support through these federal grants that Mr. Gford is uh

055pursuing. We've moved to a new website. we absorbed the cost of that um of the transition this year in the technology budget. And so I'm I'm trying to alleviate what the technology budget had to absorb this year for next year. That's the cost of that. These are the potential offsets that we have. These are offsets that are built into what I'm bringing you. So, we do have uh an increase in state funds based on the House and Senate proposal. Remember, this is based on our best modeling at this point. We don't have a template there, but it looks like there would be an increase and we're safe anytime the House and Senate agree. We do believe that that's probably what we're going to see. Historically, that's what we've seen. Now, the positions that we've talked

056about, uh, the support positions that were funded through ESSER, extended through all-in um, we we've talked a lot about those in our board meetings over the past couple of months. There is carryover money through the Virginia All-In initiative that was u distributed by the governor last year or this year. um that can be carried over into next year to offset the cost of retaining those positions. So it's roughly just under $700,000 for all of those position. Those roughly nine positions and this 368 which has to be spent according to the application and this so one of you I was talking with you earlier and I'm realizing right now as I'm talking that um I think I might be answering your question right now and I apologize I wasn't able to answer it earlier. I I

057don't mean to be cryptic, but I I I'll let that board member speak if if he wants to speak about it, but I had conversations with some of you today, and I think the question was asked, does that 368 does this resolve the matter of those positions? And the issue is if they're baked into next year's budget, but the overall increase is offset by this carryover money, that carryover money is not going to be available the following fiscal year. So, the budget would need to increase by this carryover funding amount that following fiscal year if all things stayed the same. I hope I'm explaining that well. So, functionally by backing out $300 and some odd thousand out of the $700,000 we need to do this. We're basically increasing our baseline by half that amount now

058and would need to increase it again by functionally about the same amount next year in order to continue to cover this. >> That's right. >> So it helps but it doesn't communicate necessarily or provide forecasting that we'll need to increase by another 400 next year if we leave them. >> That's right. >> Um I'll note that Sorry, just to clarify in for public consumption, we had a number last time that was like 32 and I believe this number is I'm looking at 2.1 right now. Is that a pro in addition to other changes you made? Is that largely a product of you double counting those job functions and they were above the line but now they're below the line? >> Yes. So I that when I got to that I was going to explain there

059it's those positions because they're already included in their budget. They really were being double counted when we when we came to a bottom line before they they either needed to be backed out and brought in as additions or included in the number. And so when we back those out that way, that that greatly reduced that bottom line number. So Raptor is the visitor management system that we currently use. And if you remember when we transition to Centix for the alert badges as part of that move, we're able to use their visitor management system for free. It's not a lot of money, but it does save a few thousand dollars. Uh and the same thing with school messenger when we move to aptagy for our uh for our web platform website platform we we don't have

060to continue to use school messenger because we have thrillshare through um Aptigy. So that saves us u about $10,000. Forecast 5 is a service that we started using a couple years ago and it's one that really Mrs. Grasser has used predominantly for uh modeling enrollment in the future because we've been able to partner with this organization um to do the longitudinal study, the 10-year lookout, we don't feel that we need to continue to do that. And so we're trying to find as many offsets as we can so we can eliminate that subscription to forecast 5. I'll stop there and as you said this this brings the number to 2.1. >> So Dr. Gretz just a quick question. >> Yes sir. >> When we're referencing the carryover funds the carryover all-in funds that does not end

061the conversation of those nine positions. And I hate to refer to it this way, but yes, >> been referred to over the past few months being on the chopping block. It basically punts it for a year and then we basically need to find funding again for them one year from now. It's covered for the next year. So, we get to retain them, but we just punt the conversation a year from now to say now we need to go find funding for FY27 to make sure they're back. >> That's accurate. Yeah, that's true. We are but we are paying for half of it this year. Correct. >> Yes, that's right. And and just keep in mind the all-in money was provided for this purpose and it has to be spent on that. We we don't have

062a cho we don't really have flexibility on what to do with that all-in money for next year. >> Right. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make sure that that way from a level playing field, >> we knew we would be discussing these positions in some capacity and at some dollar figure for next year >> because it's it it's it's a better band-aid, so to speak, going into FY26. >> Yes, that's right. And and I I'm pretty confident I was not really clear about that earlier when we were speaking. I apologize for that. >> Yeah. No, that's that's great. I'm I'm good to go with it now. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. I mean, I'll take one time >> Go ahead. >> I was going to say I'll take the one time 400 grand offset. Like

063that money is money. It has to be spent that way. It definitely doesn't absolve us of figuring out long-term solutions, but it definitely lessens the the blow this year in terms of our ask. So there's really I I can go through all the items on the next page. We've talked about them quite a bit. There's nothing really new there. Um, you know, again, we we've we've talked about the extent to which how do we communicate needs that we have that don't maybe end up in the final um the official ask and we've tried to do that in our presentation to the board in the past and I'm certainly open to any feedback that you have, but there's several things that have been asked for that continue to be asked for that are not part of

064this increase. You can see the cost of a 6% salary increase, which is what we we just forecasted if we really wanted to try to get back into not being last that we thought it would take about 6%. I can't base that on any science until I see what other neighbors are doing. I'm I'm assuming that most of them are going to do the three. I think Charlottesville is probably going to do a little more than that uh as a result of the collective bargaining, but until we see that um what what information can I provide for you or what would you like to go a little deeper into at this time? Would you like me to go through all of these items that are not included there? again. I'm happy to do it. Uh

065the the one additional thing on here I think that we maybe one of you I had talked with you about is the ability for us to to do a spring musical and I know that there was at least one of you was interested in looking at that. >> Yeah. I mean I'll I'll own this. Um, I received emails from and from students and I've heard from staff and students about wanting to do uh a musical and that functionally it's just a lot of staff time that is just uncompensated for the $3,000 here. Doesn't sound like a lot, but obviously it's in contention andor consideration with the like broader suite of needs that we have as a division. I um I am in favor of and would advocate for bringing that up in that our students

066haven't gotten the opportunity to to do um to do something like a musical whereas surrounding divisions do and we're really kind of bottlenecked here by just not not paying staff for their time. Um I was going to ask you Dr. Gretz um which is why I kind of reached for my unmute button. What else that is below the line pains you to see it below the line? What it what down there is going to keep you up at night? >> I you know that's a fair question, but I >> I mean all these things are things that I believe they wouldn't be on this page if they there's several things that were vetted and they're not here that have been requested. Um, I think the instructional support is important. We have, you know, our speech,

067our speech pathologists have higher case loads than anyone else around us and their salaries are dragging behind when, as you've seen this year, we have a hard time filling them. Um, uh, the the nurse at Central is, I mean, that place is continually bursting at the seams. And we have the head nurse that basically camps out there and functions as a second nurse there. It it's it's hard for me to delineate one over another. Got it. And I'll ask the question the opposite way too since I want to make sure I understand what above the line and below the line means. Is there anything above the line, meaning that is currently being proposed by you in your voice in in this sheet that you would consider superfluous, unnecessary, or um or you feel like should

068be below the line? >> No. >> And does health insurance Okay. to to follow up on that question. Does that mean that you you are advocating to to include the 600k in in our budget and not pass it on to staff? And if so, can you just lead us through a little bit about why that's the case? >> Well, we've demonstrated that our salaries have continued to lag behind. I think I've demonstrated that we've subtracted support over the years for our staff. We're trying to bring some of that back. Uh this second behavioral specialist position I think will will do a great deal there. Uh but the cost of health insurance is exorbitant for our staff. I I'm advocating that we not pass it on. Do you have any concern that by us and I

069know you've mentioned that we haven't passed it on during your tenure here. Does that keep you from getting anything else on this list just being super transparent and I know insurance is going to be probably discussed now andor later. That's the biggest number that we have on this spreadsheet. And >> I, you know, there's a lot of needs on this sheet. I think it's something that I don't want to speak for any other board member, but I do think that we could at least rationalize that doing all of this in a year might be tough. >> Sure. >> Does 600k and insurance keep you from getting anything that you would like? Well, >> if we're having to prioritize that over building out, you know, we see we see the org template that you say this

070is ideal for flu county public schools. >> Yes. >> And I'm not asking you to pick current staff over unstaffed positions that help run the run the division. >> Yeah. But it's kind of the same conversation we've had for at least my tenure on this board, but also in years prior to compensation and insurance typically drive the new money requests that we have each year and a lot of the other stuff lags behind. >> Yeah. >> I'm not making a case for it right now. I'm just kind of just saying here's feedback that we've seen over the years. Those two dominate the conversation of the new ask. And typically a lot of the additional staffing needs and the stuff that's even below the line sometimes never gets discussed because sometimes we can't get there because

071of a number. >> Absolutely. I if if your question if if what you're asking me is if I had to start prioritizing if either today or in the future if we had to come back to this and get to a different number than 2.1 there there are there are things under the staffing that I personally would recommend prioritizing even over the full um absorption of the health insurance. And I would say that um is easy for me to say because Mr. Gford's not in the room, but you know, for us to absorb that $17,000 again. Um that that would probably be one as well that I would work hard to sacrifice before sacrificing some of the others. I think the additional behavioral specialist is a direct response to staff. Um I I think that's critical

072and I think if we're going to trade I I hate to say trade that that's not the right term, but if I'm going to eliminate a current director of instruction position in order to make space for a director of human resources, I think it's critical that we have the coordinator of instruction that at least comes in. and supports um the executive director of instruction. So I would probably prioritize those two over any of the others for that reason in terms of staffing and I would prioritize at least that one. So top priority would be behavior specialist. A close second would be coordinator of instruction followed by director of human resources if we're looking at that lines 15 to 21 section. >> Uhuh. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's >> and it's I I mean I I'll

073say it because I know it's a tough conversation when we're talking about take-home pay and insurance, but I think I made this comment last year as well. When we look at where Fuana County Public Schools as a district is next year, three years, four years down the road, I don't see insurance and compensation conversations going away. And if we really can't start building out, and I'm not going the route of like saying here's a number that I want to see. I'm just saying we're going to have trouble building out staffing needs to get this school district staffed to an optimal position if we continue to eat big-time dollars every single year, especially in insurance. And we can clearly see that front office structure is lacking, you know, based on what you've presented a few times

074now. >> Yes, sir. But also also we need to keep in mind that if if we pass on the health insurance any portion our low lowest paid uh employees that 3% raise won't be a raise. >> It won't but to also some degree depending on what this total dollar figure does to the county. the only way the county pays for it is increase in taxes and then if it's a double whammy of insurance is up if taxes are up something's going up in in the grand scheme of things with this conversation regardless because like the the county really only has a few levers to pull with taxes and so that's just my concern is if we continue to shelter especially at a high level I get it and I'm I I can very honestly say

075because I pay for our insurance I've paid for's insurance. Ever since we moved here, our insurance is not cheap. But when we look at the the sheet of employees that are enrolled in the the insurance program, we do have a very strong majority of employees who are not in that. And I I I would fall into this structure. So again, that's why I'm saying I I I feel what I'm about to say. we have a much fewer number of employees paying that very high rate than what we do paying less than $100 a month. So, it doesn't make it okay for either one at the end of the day, but it's also a really high number when we're factoring in a small percentage of staff who are in that boat of, you know, a potential

076thousand plus month, you know, insurance premium. And so, there's no good way to slice it. I I my thought process behind this is I don't know how fast and how well we build out the school system based on what we've lost since 2011 roughly. If if the strong majority of our money goes to pay and insurance each year, it doesn't mean that's not important. And I I love our staff and I'm not trying to say, you know, tough luck, deal with it. we're bringing in one position, but I don't know how well we build out the district if we continue to put, you know, right now we're looking at it. That'd be $1.6 million just with those two lines. So, just food for thought for now as we go into future conversation on this, I

077guess. >> Yeah, absolutely. That's very >> well said, Danny. I mean, it's a real it's a real tussle. There's there's no good situation there because it's either you lag behind essentially in optimally structuring a school system or you go with a very staff focused and there's nothing wrong with what I'm about to say here in my own opinion. You go with a very staff focused approach that also doesn't really let you address the needs that might impact the students as well. you know, if we're looking at never being able to bring in a behavior specialist, and I appreciate the transparency with how some have communicated this to me, and they're like, Danny, please get us a behavior specialist. We really can't do both if we keep on looking at the dollar figures. And so, it's

078not staff, please know this is not a fun position to be in as we look at these numbers, I guess, is what I'm trying to communicate because there's really no good way of doing it. Yeah, there's a it's a lot of demands, a lot of mouths to feed shortterm and long term. So, are there other things that I can share with you or things that you'd like to to look at? We we have a ton of data obviously some we've looked at some we've just talked about but if if not that that's the presentation and then we when we get to the meeting there will be a time for you to potentially act on this. So I guess my question is and this can be for our board chair, it can be for whomever in

079the room. Do are there is this the appropriate time in this moment for people to play with numbers and or bring things up or below the line? I >> I feel like it is because then you are you have a better it it helps you better prepare for your motion. I would I would think if you're if if that's what you intend to do um or or not just you but any of the board members. >> Right. So I guess my question for others then with your um your permission here is just we're right now we're staring at a number Dr. regrets. That is 2.1. And I I'm always the first to tip my hand and I'll I'll tell you exactly where I'm at. And then the question is how functionally do we find um

080a consensus or a majority. I will tell you that based on what I heard from Dr. regrets, which was an articulation that this is what he says our division needs. There are certainly things below the line and above the line. There's $3,000 that I'd like to move up. It's not the thing that I'm going to like withhold my vote for. It's a small dollar amount. I wish we could do that for our kids. Maybe there's appetite, but certainly I am prepared to make a motion and vote for um this budget as it stands with Dr. regrets his um endorsement on it and to advocate fight but in a collaborative way with the county and allow them to go through their process of figuring out tax rates etc which is um it is not exogenous but

081it is not it is not how I anchor my decision- making for the schools so I am fully prepared to vote for to advocate for to passionately uh a fight with the board of supervisors to fund to the extent possible this dollar amount as it comes from Dr. Gretz um other board members if you want to I have no issue with having that discussion now so that you all can better prepare yourselves um if you can find consensus um obviously Charles has not been able Mr. Mr. Written House hasn't been able to connect yet, so it's four of us right now. Um, >> and I hope he's able to join us, obviously. >> I know he's still trying. He's having some technical difficulties, but um, either way, I I have I I would rather have

082the discussion now than wait for a motion and then have the discussion then and rush it. So, I guess my question is then is there are there other members who are willing to to go down that road with me? It doesn't mean that that's what they're going to give us. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have to make hard decisions later if they don't advocate for it. But my framework is if this is what our superintendent says we need for the to fund our schools and I believe him and and his capacity and um experience, then that's what I'm willing to to to mount up for. Are there are there others who are willing to go down that road with me? Yeah, I'm in I'm in agreement with I mean Dr. Gretz is

083superintendent. He's prepared you know what the school division needs. There are tons of other things that I would like to be included in the budget but Dr. Gretz has prepared what you know he thinks that he knows the division needs and I'm prepared to to vote on this budget. I would not be able to support it at 2.1. Um, and here's why. I don't think, and I know some people just from a fundamental level disagree with the the rationale that I'm about to share. I I think we can communicate our needs while also doing it relevant to Fluana County. And I say that only because speaking over the past, you know, month and trying to get a good grasp of where the county is at the feedback I have received is that's not at $2.1

084million. And again, I know that there's different schools of thought on how to approach this. my my school of thought and this is just how I've been in my entire professional career. What we're doing here is we're selling a budget to the board of supervisors essentially. We're going to give them a number. We basically need to defend that number. I don't sell and again there's different schools of thought on how you sell stuff. I don't sell stuff and basically say this is the max that I'm selling. Then let's go back to the drawing board. And there are things in here that I think can make this number better fit what the county is able to do while also not necessarily hurting the right now version of Fluana County Public Schools because this is a this

085is not going to be a let's just fix it all in a year kind of structure. Um, and I think this is something that, you know, I it's going to require the board of supervisors input and and, you know, work with them together. But this is where I fall back on that multi-year plan that I brought up a couple of weeks ago or I can't remember when it is because all these weeks seem to run together nowadays. But bringing up that plan of attack that says I would love to know, hey, this is where we're working with for FY26, but this is what we need in order to optimally structure these schools. It's a huge bite to do in one year. So, we need to make sure we have these in future years and help

086us grow this thing together. That way, it also aligns with where our county is at. And I can tell you right now, right off the bat, the as much as I have asked for and championed a communications officer, that's a quick 88 I think,000 wherever it was, $89,000 that I would take out of this thing just to one to start this exercise, but two say I don't think that's mission critical for FY26, but I think it is definitely part of a multi-year plan that we need to have. So, in short, I could not support it at 2.1. Um, I think that there's a combination of addressing insurance and maybe some of these additional staffing needs, especially now that the specialist positions are taken care of for this year, that just makes this exercise relevant to

087where we're at for the county, because I do think that helps the county. A good working relationship between our board and the board of supervisors is healthy for the county. And instead of just throwing a dart to them and saying this is what we need, I I just personally think the relationship piece with these boards is better off with a little bit lower number and we still communicate. Just because we're not asking for it does not mean this is not important to the long-term plan of Vana County Public Schools. >> May I step in real quick, guys? I'm um it's probably no secret that I'm I'm I'm not able to support the the um overall two I think it was 2.1 million and some change. Um I'm looking more 2.135 almost 2.136. I don't know

088where where Danny is at on his number um exactly, but I'm I'm done some quick math and um I'm probably more at the $600,000 mark and I doubt that I have anybody else there. So, what I'm what I'm trying to suggest is that we work on this um to see if if the board can get three. Um obviously, Charles is is not still here. So, what I don't want to do is leave here with a two- two vote. Not saying it couldn't happen, but it um I'm not asking you to to sacrifice your convictions or your you know, your beliefs, but if we leave here with a 22 vote or or unable to support a budget, then um then obviously that complicates things and and doing this virtually and making the accommodations that we have

089from last meeting would be all for nothing, you know. So, I I really want to, you know, work the best we can together right now, even though it's virtually, to come to a number that at least three people can agree to, and it doesn't have to be me. >> The the number that I and I'll just throw it out there just because I know it we're going to have to. The number that I have been looking at, and again, I base this on listening to what Dr. Gretz has said and and fully championing the fact that I love him being proactive and saying, "This is what we don't have. this is what we need. Quite frankly, this is what's going to make our schools run optimally. So, I'm f just so everybody knows my thought

090process. I'm factoring that into this conversation. I'm factoring in what the staff and the community have shared and I'm also factoring in conversations with, you know, folks that help dictate what the county does. And the number that I have would I if we can get there, the number that I think would be a relevant number to the county that addresses a lot of these needs, but also, you know, yeah, we leave some meat on the bone by not asking for it is if we can get to like a 1516 number, roughly 500k less than where we're at. >> Oh my gosh. >> I personally think that is a number that is relevant to the county that we can really address what we need to do. Um, and that's where I would love to hear the

091feedback as to what is more important. And I I I don't want to dequalify the importance of either of these, but this is where the insurance piece comes into play for me big time is I just don't think our county has $2.1 million. And I think we need to make it relevant. and insurance and coordinator of alternative education, student services, the communications officer. Th those are some big dollar figures that we can play with here. >> I think Mr. Kelly, >> I I think I'm just stuck on working backwards from like speculation and doing the the supers jobs for them. I don't know why we want to start with the list of items and say are these needs or are these not needs as opposed to like pulling a number I don't care if it's

092600 grand or whatever you just said out of thin air and saying like this is the number the county can afford like we don't know what the county can afford the supers their job is to set that tax rate and decide how much money to distribute where it's our job to communicate need so I don't know why we're like backwards to a theoretical number as opposed to to evaluating the items for whether or not they're like discreet needs. The like setting a number and then working backwards don't make any sense to me. >> I mean, I think that's what we do from the get-go is we have a big number and we leave a lot of needs off of that number as well. So, I think that's kind of the exercise that happens every year

093with this is we start with a number and then we say, "Hey, how close are we to having three votes to that number?" And then we have to back off the number or ask for it. I mean, we did it like that last year, too. Um, >> that's where I'm at. I mean, I I can champion the fact that our schools need this, but I can also very much so understand when I'm communicating with folks in the county saying x amount of dollars leads to increased taxes. And if we shelter employees from insurance, but yet they pay increased taxes, it's a wash at the end of the day. like there there's and that's not our job to figure out the tax implications and what that is, but that is how we contribute to what the

094tax implication is for the county. And so if we say let's just pass on all 600 that I I can't say that that employee is not going to pay more anyway. And again, this is coming from somebody who pays insurance to the schools. Yeah, I just want to make sure that we're advocating for what the school needs. You know, I know taxes are important. I pay tax. Everybody pay taxes. But my role on the school board is make sure this county public schools gets what they need within reason. I mean, >> right. And that's the within reason is where I'm at. I think I start with the within reason instead of throwing a dart and saying board of supervisors, what do you think? And then we work backwards with it because and everybody approaches it

095differently. But I mean for the past month I've been trying to figure out what that within reason is and I might still be way high of that at 1.5 1.6. But I think at least that's a much more comfortable number to take to the board. And yeah, it's half a million dollars. Some people might be like, "Why in the world are we not asking for half a million dollars?" But I've also heard in this conversation and in past conversations that we can make do without a communications officer for another year. And if that allows us to take that off, I don't know if we necessarily need that this year. It would help, but I don't know if we need it. And that's that's where we are fiscally responsible and play a role with this county

096as well. We do have to advocate for the needs of the schools and I feel like that is something that I do but I don't I can't say that that is a desperate need to where if we asked for 2.1 and they came back and said hey get it to this number I'm going right back to that hey let's cut that position right away and I also think for something like that there's some creative ways that we can handle that we have a marketing class which this would be phenomenal hands-on experience for kids to help with. We have staff that Dr. regret said, and I'm not trying to place more work on staff, but that's some real world experience that we could have our kids doing, certain students doing that are in that class that

097that would help them if that's what they want to go into. So, like there's some creative ways that we can get around that for another year in my opinion. >> Dr. Gretz, are you driving? >> No, actually, uh, Mrs. Sorz is. Hi, >> Miss Sorus. um for the sake of um conversation and collaboration and not communicating that I endorse andor will support um uh this but for the moment could you move that 88,000 can you move the communications director below the line so functionally cut and then uh cut and then paste it uh somewhere below the like net total maybe above additional requests for the moment so we know what we've moved. Yep. And then delete it. Delete that row from the array there. Uh line 17 gets uh right click deleted. Thank you, Miss

098Horus, for driving. Um, if you scroll down, we should see about 88 grand come off that to Okay, Miss Mr. Reid, what were the other things that you were indicating that you thought were not needs and should be adjusted? >> They are beneficial, but I would not call them a need. I just want to make sure that as we go through this, there's no words put into my mouth that anybody else could think that I said that I didn't. These would all benefit our schools. I don't know if they are a true need for FY26. Um, especially when Dr. Gretz lists off behavior specialist, instruction coordinator, and director of HR as his top three in here. If it's me, just for exercise standpoint, I would take off the alternative education student services and move that

099below the line. >> Dr. regrets, can you voice over again the the um value ad on the director of um alternative ed and in student services? >> Yeah. Well, essentially it the student services position which once was a standalone director position and alternative ed have both have all been kind of sheltered under the executive director of oppos operations position. And so what this would do as we have an increasing number of kids that um need support is it would designate somebody that would have an arm in the mental health department, somebody that would be involved in student discipline, somebody that would be able to monitor uh alternative ed. And I guess the bigger picture there with alternative ed is I'm forecasting that our school division is going to need to be able to continue to

100pivot and be somewhat flexible with entertaining some new models of delivery as we move forward. I think that's happened ever since the pandemic. um potentially I don't want to get a you know above my skis here but the potentially looking in the future at maybe doing for our students what many of them with those that are withdrawing and homeschooling on virtual programs maybe we could offer our own virtual academy inhouse and retain the enrollment and retain a connection to the students and to be able to do that I don't want to go too far down the rabbit trail but That's my vision for somebody who could be really singularly focused on that. >> Thanks. That's useful. >> I guess the Dr. Gret the the cafeteria debt. Is that any way we can lower that to

10175,000 or that wouldn't be wise? >> Well, zero it out. >> Yeah, I' I'd love to zero it out. I think >> um I mean I we're we're going to try to get it as low as possible. My thought with the 100,000 is that we would easily be at in my opinion with you know 70ome thousand with just two schools with four schools we'd easily be at 100 either way. It's it's just it's hard for me to say Mr. Key and I'm sorry to waffle here. It it not seeing the result of some of the things we put into play and you know Mr. Reid's point is well taken. You can it there's an investment up front that sometimes in the long game the investment up front improves participation increases revenue and you know that

102the short term might be you know where can we cut in order to save revenue. The long game would be how do we invest? But if that's the what we're doing, then we're going to continue to incur debt there. So I would I'd be nervous to go below that understanding that honestly we haven't budgeted a thing for that >> the last three years and we have we have done it in year-end funds every year. My thought in budgeting for it was just to not we we certainly weren't trying to be u not transparent before but just if we know we're going to have this why don't we just plan it up front budget for it and let it be uh you know a very clear process. >> Mr. Gre. >> Yes sir. is are we

103remind me are we on on a contract for the um that that federal funding for the lunch program? >> No, we're it's there's an eligibility that once you're found eligible, you're eligible for four years, but it's it's not a contractual agreement that we have. And then and I has have anybody or has anybody run models on um the cost efficiency of contracting it out to a third party? >> Um no honestly we haven't. I mean we've just started to look at maybe the potential of investigating what that would look like financially and you know just want to be careful about that but we we've not done it yet. >> Okay. I I I won't this will be my last my last budget. Um but I do obviously I wasn't um I wasn't thrilled with this

104program to begin with. We're kind of right back to where we were. Um I know it's it's a different approach, but we're still talking about cafeteria debt. Yeah. >> Um, and I I if if I was here another another term, I would I would want to go down go down that road of of looking into a third party. Um, I know other other places do that and I think it say has saved them money. >> Yeah, understood. >> So, confidently there's no way to change that cafeteria line. Well, I we can change it. I I think just I'm confident that we're going to have some debt. >> Yeah, >> we we have every year. And if we take it out of there, I I don't think that means that we aren't going to have it.

105We're going to work on not having any, but um I think it just becomes another discussion of what to do with year-end funds. >> And and this is a push. This is back to where we were before in terms of like the division contributing andor writing a check annually related to cafeteria stuff. Like before was 100,000 and we were retroactively paying cafeteria debt, lunch debt. In this situation, all students are eligible to go pick up a free meal. So theoretically, if a kid is hungry, they are eating. The cost is the same as it was before we went CB. >> Is that right? >> Well, that's my intention with that number is for it to be the same. Is there, and again, I know this is early on in what you're saying with some of

106these changes, I mean, is there a way to I think the number was I could get this wrong, ballpark 60% participation in this C program somewhere around there. Um, and I I like the I like the idea of the program, but is there a way to forecast if we do things, you know, and I I know everybody all the time is like, well, Louisa does it this way. Is there a way where if we're structuring that program differently and we get revenue per meal served that we can confidently forecast we go from 60 to 70 by and I know that there's other logistics involved with this that may actually increase cost you know if it's staff time or something else but where you know I remember watching that video you shared they greet the students

107almost every student that comes through the door every day with breakfast and it's not They go to the cafeteria to go get your breakfast. It's literally one by one as they come in the door, here's your breakfast meal, and then they go to their classrooms to eat as far as like how their model is. Is there anything that we could do similar to that where it takes a little bit less from the students saying, "I'm going to go get breakfast this morning." >> Yeah. to where that number and again I don't this number could be wrong where that number goes from 100 to 60 because we saw participation in this program rise because we were meeting the students as opposed to making the students meet us I guess is a good way to phrase that

108that's a that's a great question yes we we are we're doing that now we're going to continue to do that graband go models and >> yeah but I mean like physically at the door you know like I And I understand we do that in certain locations, but being at drop off at every single school so far this year, I was not at the right door to see that. I I I did not see that happen. >> I don't think we have done it. We're we're going to start doing it or I think we have started, but Right. >> It's something we're going to do. I I I mean, candidly, my forecasting $100,000 takes into consideration the impact of those programs, >> right? Can we can we get it down to 60? >> I mean, I'm

109I I want to say yes. >> Yeah. I was just curious if >> we want to model that number differently or lower or continue to handle it out of fund balance. I my my mission with that number doesn't change. >> Yeah. I'm going to try to get it down as low as possible with things exactly like what you're saying, being, you know, creative and proactive and uh studentfriendly and, you know, treat the student as the consumer and get as much feedback as possible. Make it as logistically easy for students to access meals and to get in and out of the lunch line, all those things. So, with that being a number that is just hard to change right now, hopefully programs go well and that number does change. Um, and I'll just put this out

110there knowing that the director of HR and coordinator of instruction are kind of a two-step, not two necessarily two-phase, but a two-step process of, if I understood you correctly, Dr. regrets. You would prefer to have a coordinator of instruction prior to a director of HR when you were looking at kind of like your top three from the additional staffing needs. Uh >> I just want to make sure I understood you correctly. I'm not trying to put words in your mouth by saying that. >> No, no, I understand there. You know, some of this depends on the restructuring is why I'm just thinking that through. I just want to be careful. I would say that if we retained our current structure as it is, understanding that we're not going to have an executive director of finance

111and instruction, but we would have a director of f of instruction, I'd probably um I'd probably say the HR. So the HR would go to two. So if we just to keep going through this exercise, if we removed the coordinator of instruction and save that for the road map, not I'm not even saying save it for just another year down the road. Save that for this road map that says whatever budget gets passed, great. Now we're talking in, you know, it's February. Now we're talking in April of 2025. And I'll just put it out there with a month-to-month meeting with members of the board of supervisors where we know where they're forecasting, where they know where we're forecasting, and hopefully our two worlds collide sooner than later by knowing where we're headed. If we just

112from my perspective, if we bump that position down to a future year for a budget, and I know this is going to sting, but my n my eyes were a little bit opened earlier today from the insurance side of things. Knowing that the majority of our staff is on a employeeonly highdeductible plan, I have a hard time passing on or eating $600,000 with insurance. And I get the ramifications of that. But my thought is keep the director of HR and play with that insurance number. And now we're getting it from again just from my perspective and I this is I'm not driving this thing. I think we are getting closer to something that fits Fluana County. Yeah. Thank you. Is is there a do you want to throw out a proposal for insurance? I mean,

113I would love to see what we're at with that number at 300 or 150. And I mean, I know that's aggressive, but I I've heard for years like we need other stuff. And I think this is a way that we help invest in other areas is eventually the the staff is going to have to, and I hate to put it this way, and again, I am in this number. I just want to make sure everybody clearly knows that I'm not just throwing money out of somebody else's bank account. It's coming out of my bank account, too. If we keep investing at a very high level with insurance every single year, it's going to limit our ability to do other investments. So, am I hearing model that at 300? >> Model that at 300, please. >>

114It It would be hard for me to vote for passing with 300. 150. That will be tough, but that'll be a good starting point for me >> because at at least at 300, we meet the the staff halfway and there's no good way to talk about it. You're you're talking about take-home pay at the end of the day. And from start to finish, I think our insurance is too high. But >> so I heard I heard Andre say 150. Um and I heard Danny say 300. Um do you just want to model them both real quick and see what it looks like? Is that is that amendable? >> And Mr. Key, I just want to make sure I'm clear. You're talking about passing off 150 to employees and the board. So this number would actually

115be 450 on >> I was thinking 450. >> Yeah. >> No, no, no. passing off 150. >> Yeah. So that that means the we're taking the 450 on in the budget. >> Okay. Okay. >> So that's what that looks like with it at 450. Do you want to see the rates or you I mean do you still have that? >> Yeah, it went up I remember 20 like 20 more dollars I think or something. >> And all this will be in the packet for those that are watching that this spreadsheet. All of this will be in the packet for you. Danny, did you see that number under with 450? >> Yeah, it took it down to like 1.6. >> Yeah. >> And like I again I and I don't know if there's votes at this

116number or not. Sorry, I'm messing with my tablet because it just fell down because that way I can zoom in for my non-glasses eyes to see some of these numbers. Um, and again, two schools of thought with budgeting. Ask for it all or not. I as we get down to this 1516 number, it might still be too high for what the board of supervisors may want. And I agree with y'all when it's said like we don't know what that number is going in. I just feel like this number is much more relevant, especially coming off a year where we didn't even get close to that with our ask. >> And is this Gemma, I'm sorry. Is this the 15 now? Is that with the 450 or the 300? That's a >> That's a 300. Okay.

117Does anybody else have any input on that that number? >> I'm uh hard no on this. Um, so I think that I think inevitably, sure, right? Like the health insurance is a place we're gonna we're gonna have to play with eventually. And so I'm not going to lose sleep over passing on some of it as long as we do our best to like not really kind of move people backwards in terms of their income. And so like I'm not going to lose sleep over the 450 versus 600. Maybe I could live with that and vote for it. Um, you know, I think that we're running into some real problems as it relates to our leadership structure. Uh, when we talk about the alternative education position and the HR director, I mean, man, the number of

118hats that Don Stribbling wears, and I know he's in the room somewhere, and I'm not trying to running an HR department is is frequently its own VP level job. and to have Don doing that and the rest of it and in the same year lose Miss Grasser and then it's there's just a lot of hats to be worn that we're really just not we are not prepared for. Um I think you know HR leaves us probably legally vulnerable vulnerable in general in terms of uh meeting our needs. The director of alternative services was was problematic when Dr. Gretz was talking about that and he was discussing how that role is functionally to help kind of shape the way we see alternative ed, the way we deal with our increased student difficulties, the fact that it

119is another sort of member andor tether of the mental health team. I was shocked to to see that as a proposal below the line because it's functionally meeting our students where they are. And I I think based on what you were saying, Dr. Gretz, sort of a reimagining this role would be critical in the reimagining of what alternative ed services we provide and and what we do at in Arams. Is that right? >> Yes, sir. I I think that's going to have to happen regardless. We're looking at, >> you know, how to how to do something like Abrams for younger children. Um, and like I said, just expanding our reach and and being non-traditional, and there's more of that everywhere. Uh, we're seeing that in other divisions, you know, school within a school model. >>

120So, what went below the line? What went from the top down to the bottom? So, we moved from 600 to 450. And then we moved alternative ed, a coordinator of instruction, and a communications director. Like, I'm not going to a communications director, even though it is articulated as needed from the superintendent. That's not a hell I'm dying on. That's not I don't even think I'll lose sleep over. I think it's something we'll have to get scrappy about. Alternative ed. And then coordinator of instruction. Like this is one of those like how many hats does you know Brenda Gillum Grasser need need to wear and how do we find somebody who's got that many heads to wear that many hats. Um I am concerned that we don't have enough senior leadership as it relates to instruction.

121I think those two positions belong above the line and if they did I believe that is something with a decrease in or increase in pass through on insurance that I would have a reasonable shot at voting for. So it would be 53 and 54 above the line. Assuming I think that's everything and assuming the 450 stays. I would vote for that. You don't have to move it, Miss Wares. Not yet or at all potentially. But I am indicating that I am not there as it reads now because I don't think it actually articulates our need. I think it articulates our need and then backs out things that are convenient and or expedient. And I think that if they go above the line, then it's something that I can communicate and look people in the eye

122and discuss as as true need >> with with those changes. Danny, what does that bring the um >> it's plus 220. So if Miss Suarez goes down, it's going to what it nine >> one nine. Yeah. >> What if we looked at 300 on the insurance line but moved up the coordinator of instruction and then that puts Dr. Gretz's top three in the staffing needs >> and not the other position? Not the alternative. >> I'm still I mean, the least we can do if we're going to take money out of our staff's pocket is to meet our kids where they're at. >> And that's why I'm saying this this is kind of a look at both approach. >> Yeah, it's hard. So those two are up and it's at 300 which is half of >>

123which is >> I I was saying if we took out the alternative education student services and I see that model um I see I see the rationale behind it miss >> but >> you can move it down when it does I'm not voting for Yeah, I mean I'm I'm just saying I I think this is a very realistic number to look at with the county. And I also don't know just because truthfully this is the first time we've really had any conversation around that position in more detail while we're also keeping the support that some of the mental health staff has said helps them a lot with attendance and things like that. I mean this this is something right here. I think what we're at what we were at 1.6 63 or something like that.

124>> You've got um Miss Suarez has the director of alternative ed in her clipboard. So it's neither above the line nor below the line in the minute. It's kind of Schroinger's >> Yeah. >> So she's pasted it back in that I don't know why it didn't go up more than that. Did we break it? >> It's No, it's not back in there. It's not in the staffing needs column. I'm sorry. I took the uh I took the alternative ed out. Do you want me to put it back in? >> I mean, I personally do. I If it doesn't have support, then then it this is the difficulty in um being responsible for the Excel file today is >> there's probably two people that want you to do the exact opposite >> at any given moment.

125And it's not >> and it's it's back to 17. And and that is though with the change to the health insurance uh back down to 300. >> Andre, >> yes. >> Where you at on insurance, man? >> It's it's hard for me to to pass on half of it with um just with, you know, our increases only being 3%. So that's with passing on 150 and those two rules. That's that's one nine. Just for me that I'm not saying the number is irrelevant. The number it is is relevant in a number of ways. It's not it's not the thing I'm most focused on in this moment. Um, >> all right. Let me ask you all this. Hypothetically speaking, because every board of supervisor that has I have been in touch with over the past month

126has all had a little bit of sticker shock, a lot of sticker shock, especially when it was at the 3-2. If we come back at a number lower than what this 1.89 eight nine figure is where are we cutting because we're having this conversation now and I I'm just foreshadowing that I really think that if we asked for 1.89 we're right back to the drawing board with this conversation we're at right now. I I think there's a really good chance that's where we're at. Um what are we cutting? Because if we can't cut insurance anymore, but we also can't cut positions, I just want to know where y'all are at with that because what are we prioritizing? Building out the school district or building out a fifth plus year in a row of sheltering employees

127from a health insurance race. Yeah, I think it's a fabulous question and I think it's meaningful for the board of supervisors to know kind of like what what then I think that there are tons of options. Um, so obviously the things that we've been playing with moving up and down below above and below the line or moving from 600 to 450 are clearly the ones that like we as people who have contributed like Charles isn't here and so like I I'm not speaking for him. Uh, Mr. Poland's done a great job of um positioning us to have a very really constructive conversation, but those seem to be the things that that are stressors, right, that we're moving back and forth on. And the answer is fundamentally it's probably coming out of those things because those

128are the things that that our needs have been communicated by our superintendent that our needs, but we're going to have to retrofit to a number one day regardless of what it is. I think that this is a good articulation of need and is worthy of of fighting for. But I agree with you that like regardless of what number they give us. They're never >> supervisors I don't think in history have given us every single dollar we've ever you know what I'm going to I'm going to retreat from that com. It's possible they give us at some point exact number, but it it's been many more years we've had we receive a little bit less or a lot less than we asked for and we have to go back and retrofit and yeah, it sucks to

129have that two-stage process. Um but it is but yeah, those are the things that we're going to we're going to grapple with and find some kind of compromise um between a majority of the board. The one thing that the county can't do is give us any more money than um we've asked for and uh not everything from the state is is is done. We don't you know I would like to choose optimism. I suspect that well if the state goes up if the state numbers go up and things get better from the state perspective we can't go back to the supers and say whoops we didn't expect to get another 300 grand my bad can we have a redo like they just can't give us more money than we asked for when we make this

130vote and so I think that this number like it doesn't make me happy there are things below that line that I think are needs and should come up and and to be honest, if more of those go down the line, I I think we're looking at a nice two two circular wheel for a little while. Um, but this is something that I would go down the hill and advocate and fight for and then get back to the table and in good interest and good faith to figure out what we do to retrofit as necessary. It doesn't mean that our conversation's not going to be contentious or difficult in in March or whenever it is that we have to do the retrofitting, but I think that um this is a solid description less a good number

131of items um that what our leadership is telling us that that we need as a division. >> And I'll ask this question just because I truly have no idea what the answer is. What happens if we're at a two two vote tonight? I so I've I've been uh I've been working on that. So you all decide how um you know internally decide you know what number you're comfortable with and um I've in the back of my mind I have a I have a plan to make sure that we leave here with a budget whe obviously I've already expressed to you all that the number I'm at is $512,13. So I'm way off. So, I'm gonna that's why I'm kind of removing myself from the conversation. And um I got a message from Charles earlier. Um

132I don't know that he has a number, but he's not going to support this number according to his message. He's he's he's listening. He's just not participating on Zoom. Um, so between you you three, I'm just trying to um I'm just trying to facilitate that conversation and that debate so that either you all can come to a consensus on that number or um or I have a I have a mechanism that I can use to make sure that we still move on from the night with with something because we have four people here. You only need a majority. Um, so without going too far into it, we have a we have a mechanism for moving forward and not holding this process up. >> Miss Sorz, can you scroll up just a smidge? Because I think

133it's on the line right above it. Yeah. Is there support if we left insurance where it's at at the 450 and took out the alternative education? We got three votes. If we do that and we lower the number by another 110, I personally think just based on every conversation and again I've said the word relevant a lot tonight. I said it a lot last year when we went through this exercise. that number is getting closer to what I think a relevant number from feedback I have received that would at least be considered for conversation and I very strongly agree with the fact that we need to communicate where we're at with the schools and where we move going forwards and I I personally think this is I don't I don't like it necessarily from what

134it's going to look like again next year because we're going to have the same conversation about pay and insurance. And you know, I I somewhat jokingly said earlier today, like before long, we're going to be looking at potential insurance premiums each month at $2,000. Like that's not in the notsodistant future. And I like that's a wild number to think about. So this to me right here touches on student focused, staff focused, and a superintendent focused vision of a budget where we are helping Dr. Gretz get some of what we know is going to be and we all said it. If we didn't say it, I can kind of confidently think that we may have been thinking it. Man, this is going to be a lot to do in one year. This helps Dr. regrets as

135a superintendent, which I think it's our job to support him as well to get some of what he's looking for to build out the schools. We retain the specialist positions because even if it's a somewhat of a one-year punt and we kind of figure it out, that's a staff and student focused, you know, action item that fortunately we were able to use and help lower the money there. And we also don't go too too far. I mean, I I think I would be comfortable seeing a lower number in that insurance line, but this is also having that staff focused approach as well where we softened the blow, but there's still there's still an increase. There's no way we can continue to do this on the insurance side. It's just not economically feasible to continue doing

136numbers that high on the insurance side. And I would just make note if this is a three vote budget that we're looking at right here to pass on and we had to come back and cut something to get even I think well I think the number is a little bit higher if we kept it at 450 for insurance. If we pass a 1786 budget for them to chew on, insurance, just so everybody knows, insurance is probably where I'm starting if we have to take something away because I I don't know how we can keep looking at that big of a number because it does prevent us from building out the school. So, is this model right here a little bit higher than what I had in mind coming in? Yes. But I also think it's

137a little bit lower than what you know others had in mind before coming in potentially. Is this a meet in the middle number that moves this thing on tonight? And then if it is, we communicate that we very much so need some of these items in the budget moving forwards. But we're also trying to be good stewards in this, you know, relationship with the board of supervisors to use this as that launchpad of a month-to-month meeting kind of calendar that helps really build out where the schools are as long as the county has money for it. This to me chips away at a lot of stuff while also it's I mean it's a it's a big number for me to chew on. Yes. But this chips away at a handful of different things that I

138think are all important to different stakeholders in this conversation. >> Does Does that provide um Andre and James with a I guess a does it make you feel better about your motion later on tonight? Are you guys comfortable with that? >> It it chips away a little bit, but you know, there's still a lot more needs I wish we can do, but you know, it's a tough decision. That's why we're here to make tough decisions, make the school uh function as best as possible. You know, I it's I probably could live with it. >> It looks like it's easier to make the decision with your background. You got the beach behind you. >> Hey, that's where I'm going to be for spring break. >> And it's Andre, I hear you. And and I agree wholeheartedly

139that there's a lot of stuff that I do think our schools need and would benefit from that I I did not, you know, have above the line. And it's and I just think that that's where I I don't know if it's fair to say this, but I'll at least say for the first time in a long time, I think this is where we take this whatever ends up being ratified, you know, at the end of the day, not not tonight. I mean like at the end of the day once the board of supervisors comes back and and we get this thing done for FY26, this is our template for communicating in a way that we have not done. And I'll just say we even though not all of us were on the board, you know,

140I don't even know if any of us were on the board 12 years ago, but we just start moving forwards in a different way where we communicate as a school board. We communicate better throughout the year with the board of supervisors to make sure they know where we're at. Um, I could get it is higher and I'll just put it out there. I also know that typically I'm the one that either goes up or down in these meetings based on uh, you know, numbers for a vote. It's higher than what I would like to pass on and I don't think that we will get it. But I can at least support this because I do think it shows that we listen to the most important people involved in this conversation by trying our best to

141address things in a in a world where we just don't have unlimited funds. >> All right. Or is everybody ready to move on? Um, man, I'm still on the fence on this. I'll be honest, it's just hard for me to swallow when, you know, I remember you in the campaign season screaming, "Support your superintendent and he proposes what he says we need and the votes aren't there." I'll I'll follow that up with I have heard a need of a maintenance uh staff member for years that our superintendent has also said that we have never had above the line and that's a direct need especially knowing some folks on that team too and so I'm not saying that in an argumentative way but there's a a few hundred,000 in these additional needs that show support for

142our superintendent and also acknowledge the fact that this is a long-term plan regardless of if we asked for $2.1 million or $3.2 million. This is a long-term growth plan and and I applaud Dr. Gretz for coming in. This is not a slight on any superintendent we had prior to him. I didn't really know them, didn't work with them. I applaud him for bringing this exercise to the table to show where we are weak in because we don't have that staff. But that doesn't mean that if a a corporation in the business world says, "I know I need to hire these three positions and and that's going to run me $600,000." They don't have $600,000. They don't hire those positions. And I think that kind of emulates where we're at. This is this is supporting our

143superintendent by acknowledging, you know, there's one above the line that's the most expensive when they're $380,000 nearly of new positions that we're asking to support that vision. Anybody else? All right. Hearing none, let's uh let's move forward. You pull up the agenda here. We are back to public comments. Mr. Sherman, let me know when you're ready. >> Yes, sir. Hold on one second. >> Buddies, potatoy here and today we're >> Excuse me. All right. And while you're doing that, I'll just remind everybody that this is our our first round of actual public comment, not related to the um to the budget. Um, of course, you can speak on the budget if you'd like. But any county citizen or employee of the Fanta County Public School System is welcome to speak. And the expectations are the

144same as before. Address the board, not individual members. Provide your name, voting, district, and do not exceed three minutes. He'll have that posted on the screen again. Um, please be respectful. >> Miss Walden, can you hear me? >> Miss Walden. Okay. Okay. >> Hello. >> What you want to what you want to do is I have you in on the phone. So, there's a phone number. There you go. That'll take back the feedback. Wonderful. >> Hello, my name is Liberty Walding. Thank you for hosting us, for letting us come in to the board meeting. And I'm here to talk about safety and behavior on the bus. Uh I ride bus 86. These are some of the things that happen on bus 86. So three people, they were seventh graders. They were rolling a rock down

145the aisle. Thankfully went under my seat. I caught it and I returned it to the bus driver. They also another boy called me the nword two times. Jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jump jumping up and down the seats banging on the walls of the bus and the bus driver has to pull over. And I think the solution for this problem would be like unblending the buses where fourth and third and fourth graders I think would be fine together. But middle schoolers I'm not sure if that's a great idea. And yellow slips. When people get yellow slips it doesn't do anything. they just come back on the bus and they don't really get any punishment. And I think another solution would be parent volunteers for riding the bus and make

146monitoring the bus. And I really thank those bus drivers who put up with all of this behavior. And I think it is just nonsense. Now, um I would like to I'm I'm concerned for safety for everyone and I thank the bus drivers for putting up with this. And that's it for me. >> Thank you very much. Um, I definitely think that there needs to be some steep and harsher penalties for behaviors, especially for bullying that's happening on the bus, like being called the n-word. Um, there is a lot of foul language and I think that there is a a push or a pull for parents that are concerned for the safety of their children to now drive them to school, which that's not the purpose. the purpose is that the bus is a privilege and

147not a right. And so if people cannot um behave then having steeper penalties like for example having to have to wash the bus or having to clean the bus on the weekends and having a a guardian or a parent uh come up and be a part of that I think would provide different outcomes. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Mr. Shirley, was there anyone else? >> I believe Miss Crocker. >> Yes. Is it my turn? >> It is. >> Wonderful. Um, I signed up to speak because I saw that book banning was on your agenda. But before I do that, I have to say that I'm pretty appalled by the conversation that you just had and that you some uh board members would say that they value their friendships with members of the board of supervisors over

148our staff and our students. It's the coward's way out to not even ask the board of supervisors for what our schools need. It's embarrassing that you're so scared of the folks down the hill that you won't even have a conversation. Every single parent and student and teacher in this community should feel ashamed of you right now. Our students, our staff, and our teachers deserve better than this. Now, moving on. Bookbanning is dangerous, misguided practice that does more harm than good. It's embarrassing that Fana County has joined the ranks of school districts that think censorship is an acceptable response to discomfort. It isn't. Bookbands do not protect children. Instead, they limit their ability to think critically, engage with different perspectives, and prepare for the real world. When we remove books from the library based on the

149objections of one person, we allow the loudest voices, not the most informed, to dictate what all students can access. That's not education, that's control. The truth is, we never needed a book banning committee in the first place. Fluana already had a system in place for handling concerns, a system that worked. If a parent had an issue with a book, they could discuss it with their child's teacher and principal to find a solution that worked for their family without making decisions for everyone else's children. That approach respected parental choice while also upholding students rights to a full uncensored education. This new system with its vague guiding policy is unnecessary and unfair. While I appreciate the work that committee members did over the last year, it was unfortunately completely unnecessary. Having a committee at all takes power

150away from educators and parents who know their students best and gives it to a small unelected group making decisions for an entire district. Worse, it invites bad faith actors who haven't even read the books they're challenging to take books off the shelves. The easiest and most effective solution is to scrap this committee entirely and return to the previous system. Parents should have a say in their own child's reading, not in every other student's education. We don't need censorship. We need trust. trust in teachers, trust in librarians, and trust in students to engage with ideas not to be shielded from them. Hubana has a choice. We can keep marching down this road of censorship, or we can return to a system that one that worked, one that upheld both parental rights and intellectual freedom. I hope

151we choose wisely. Thank you so much. That is all we have for public comment at this time. >> All right, >> Mr. Gretz, can you hear me? >> Yes, sir. I sure can. >> I believe we're ready for the Abrams Academy Project update. >> Fantastic. Dr. Stribbling, anything you wanted to do to introduce that or are we just going to have Mr. Bower begin? >> I'd let Mr. Bower uh in um put it up on the screen and let Mr. Bower move forward. He's become a somewhat of a fixture here over the last three months, three or four months, and appreciate his time uh with regards to our renovation prog. Uh thank you for your patience this evening, Mr. Bower, and uh let's move forward. >> Uh well, thank you, Dr. Strippling. Um thank you

152board for uh um for letting me speak this evening in regards to the Boom Abrams Academy. Uh so the last time we spoke uh we gave you an overall update of where the project stands uh project budget and schedule and that's exactly what I'm going to do this evening. Uh so uh we are w are very close to wrapping up the construction documents and those documents are the documents that we'll be able to give to biders um to be able to uh put place a construction bid in and be able to um if within the budget we'll be able to start the work um as soon as school lets out. Uh so the uh the budget uh just if you look in the bottom right hand corner of of the first slide uh the total

153project cost we have $1,892,230 u and that is again our total project budget that includes the construction cost uh a design fees construction cost or I'm sorry construction inspections um contingency you know all those pieces. So, and and we kind of broke this up into the seven classrooms, uh the five toilet rooms, uh the entrance reception improvements, um and the three offices. Uh so, as we were looking to um make improvements within the budget, uh we're we've broken this up into basically three phases. And we've presented the other two phases in the past. We're not going to go through those this evening. Uh so, again, we feel comfortable that uh what we're showing here is within the project budget. Uh there's three things that that we are going to draw that we're going to put

154in as construction alternates. Um and that would be if the project budget um by the you the bid from the contractor comes in with um in or below the budget um and we have additional funds. Uh those three things are the exterior ramp which Dr. Shriik is showing in a minute of what that what we're proposing to look like. Uh the four small group cross classrooms which are the four orange classrooms on the lefth hand side. Um and then portion of the main quarter uh would be three things that we look at as doing is add alternate bids. Uh so Dr. Stribbling, if you could do me a favor, just zoom all the way out. Um couple things that that are important is that as we're looking to do the improvements, uh we're looking at

155um everything from from finishes to technology uh to HVAC lighting, you know, is all going to be improvement in the spaces that we're showing as color. I said what is um so what is going to be an ad alternate um to the project? again is going to be drawn given to the contractor to get pricing but we don't feel that it's within the current budget are the four orange classrooms on the lefth hand side um a portion of the of the main quarter um I said and then the ramp which is uh which is there along the front um you do have a uh a ramp which meets technical accessibility uh there was a request from the community to replace that um and it said if Dr. shribbling if you could show what that uh

156so this is what we would propose uh that you would have steps going up to the front entry uh then what we would have instead of having that metal um aluminum ramp that is right there this would actually be a a complimentary brick ramp uh that uh that would actually be the primary focus would be to get the accessible ramp to the student entrance um and then have a flat walkway to go from the student entrance to the to the main walkway. Uh so what this part of what this would do was actually improve the accessibility for the students um not just for people that are that are visiting and and we felt that this was significantly more complimentary to the front entrance and the elevation of the building u than the uh aluminum ramp

157that is currently there. A couple things that I also to uh point out is that with the replacement of the majority of the HVAC system is that all of those units that are in the front of the building, uh those those condensing units that we currently see, um with the new system, we're going to be able to move those to the back of the building. So, uh as you're looking at the front elevation, you're not going to see all those units in the in the front that you that we currently have. Um a couple big improvements are is that the uh the classrooms again are going to be um more appropriate sized uh for the class sizes which are five typically 5 to eight students. Uh so uh what this does for them is get

158you appropriate size classrooms uh gets new finishes, better HVAC, better lighting, better technology. Uh the toilet rooms um which are currently a little bit less than awesome. Uh we're providing, you know, as part of this project, we're providing four individual stu uh student toilet rooms and two individual staff toilet rooms. Um and uh and also three offices and a work room. Uh so again, we're as this project um evolved, we're focusing on both improvements for students and for teaching staff um and also for the the remainder of the administrative staff um and say and overall safety for the students. Uh so again, we're really super excited about uh what we're able to do for the budget and um our goal is to wrap up construction documents at the end of this month. Uh put it

159out for bid uh receive bids here before the end of March. Um look, if we are within budget to uh proceed with drafting contracts, um and then our goal is to issue a notice procedure to the contractor and start ordering materials, doors, um uh you know, flooring, HVAC systems, all those pieces. as soon as uh students let out um that the um uh teachers would then move their space you move out of their spaces um and then we would work to do the construction renovation uh roughly between right after Memorial Day uh to the end of July. Uh so the intent is that we would be doing all of the construction over over those two months um and getting ready for school to start. Uh the well um we'd love to have more time over

160the summer. We know that um that is not a reality and and um not only do we feel this project is within the project budget but also is within the ability for a construction calendar to happen for those two months. Uh so are there any questions? I know I just threw a lot at you, but are there any questions as we kind of wrap this up and get ready to put this out for construction bids? Okay, if there's no questions again, we we do appreciate it. What we'll be doing is um my my hope is that next month as we'll be able to share really amazing construction bids uh from contractors showing that we're within the budget um and asking the permission to start to proceed with um generating contracts and moving forward so that

161way we can have all the materials on site uh before uh before the end of the spring semester and we can do the work over the summertime and have a very successful project. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Brower. appreciate your time and your expertise. Thank you >> as always. Thank you guys. Have a great night. >> Thank you. Can you hear me, Mr. Gre? >> We can now, Mr. Poland. >> There it goes. >> Sorry, Mr. Poland. I had to had to step away for just a moment. Oh, >> that's okay. I didn't think my volume was working. >> All right. Do we have the student leaison on tonight? No, we don't. Okay. >> All right. We want to move on to recognitions. >> Absolutely. So, typically, you know, we have um we have

162gifts for the school board members that are kind of put together by each of the schools, and we'll do that next time we get in person. And Miss Kryer does a wonderful job of uh putting that together. But I do I do want to just pause and recognize that this is the month that's set aside each year for us to recognize school board members to appreciate the work that our school board members do dedicating themselves to serving the communities and the schools and the families in this way. Um I don't know Mr. Pulley if you want me to read the the >> no sir >> proclamation but I do want to just say on behalf of the school community how much we do appreciate the work that you do. uh much of it goes um

163not unrecognized, but it's not seen. A lot of the work that you do isn't seen. And I I certainly know u the passion and the care that you bring to the decisions that you make, and they're not easy decisions. Uh some of you, some of you I talk to quite a bit. Uh and I enjoy those conversations, but it's because you're passionate about uh the work that you do and the decisions are difficult. Um, I see you in the schools. I see you in the community. And uh this this is a job that uh none of you take lightly. And so I just I appreciate the work that you do and am happy to be a part of this formal recognition. And when we get together in person next time, we will look forward to

164passing off some uh some of that expression from our schools as well. >> All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. >> All right. Um, I know you've you all have done a lot of uh talking about the budget, but we're moving on to the reports from the superintendent. So, uh, board members and community members, we've had a lot tonight and there's probably a lot to come. There's a lot of information in this month's report and I really encourage you to take a look at it. I'm not going to read it all to you, but there are a lot of exciting things happening in our schools. Lots of work that's being done. Obviously, some projects that are taking place. I will ask uh Dr. Stribbling maybe we just pause right there and I want to recognize that

165seventh grader Lucy Lean for the work that she's done. very exciting um prospects for her and maybe we can even have her come to a board meeting and read her poem. She's been invited to participate in a celebration at University of Virginia where I think she will have the opportunity to u to read her poem and it's going to be published in the writer's eye anthology. So I I just want to pause there and just say she's done a phenomenal job and we're very proud of her and the work she does. She's a great student. those of you that know her. And then I'll just go maybe all the way to the bottom. Um happy to punch in on any of these that you want to. There are a lot of them, but um all

166the way at the end. And I'll just say that Mr. Doll and I have begun putting together some work to assemble a committee and to work on evaluating the prospect of the two entities joining forces with uh healthcare. And that's something that this board and the supervisors during one of the workshops that we had earlier this year asked us to do. And so I do want you to know that's underway and we've got all the data being pulled for both organizations and we'll look forward to reporting something out soon. Is there anything specific that uh that board members would like me to to spend some time on? There really is a lot here. I I feel like I could go down every single bullet and uh you know really as long as we're here now.

167Let me just also mention along with schoolboard appreciation week, next week is uh is schoolboard clerk appreciation week. And so I also want to appreciate Mrs. Kryer and all the work that she does to coordinate these meetings and to coordinate all the work that we do with our board. Um, she obviously I have the opportunity to work very closely with her on a daily basis and she's not only efficient and just phenomenal at her job, but she's an absolute delight to work with. So, let let me pause. >> She is. And she uh if not for her, I I wouldn't be nearly as organized sometimes. >> I I will say the same thing. >> Thank you, Brandy. Thank you. >> All right. How about um continue discussion of the learning resource committee plans? >> Absolutely.

168I think Dr. Stribbling for this one. We'll let Miss Sores share her screen. Um, you've got a lot of material in here and she has continued to do an amazing job of facilitating and in in this case getting a lot of the material together in one place that's accessible to all of us. What she's done in particular, I'm sure you've had a chance to look at this, is she's created a crosswalk so that you can see the uh the policy that we had in place before the changes and how those that policy kind of meshes with the changes that have happened. We've got some recommendations that are worked in there. So, you can see original KB, revised KB. Gemma, I don't want to steal your thunder. I' I'd love for you to walk board members

169through some of this, but you've you've done an amazing job, and this is a great way to visualize all of this. >> Yeah. Uh and you're more than welcome to. Um but in the packet, um is the original, um policy that we had, I think, last revised in March of 23. Uh there's also the the policy that we last revised um last December that um had the addition of the schoolboard appointed learning resources committee. And then um there's also the recommendations from the learning resource committee that was provided in November for just considerations for future work. Um and so I thought maybe it would be helpful to just kind of crosswalk those three things. um and just kind of look at um what were some of the changes and um additions, deletions um just in

170some broad categories. Um I'm happy to either go through it or answer questions. Um I I think the biggest feedback that I've had both from the committee and um from school personnel is just um whether it be the original or the original previous policy or uh the new policy or or some iteration of a new policy um I think we all feel it's very important that we have a policy with clear procedures so that we can address complaints um about learning resources. um the American Library Association, they also um have guidelines for for reconsideration of of materials and some committee guidelines that um their recommendation is that you do have a committee um that um is diverse and that um that committee then makes a recommendation to a governing body like a school board. Um

171so I just wanted to to kind of share those two things. So, board members, as you're taking a look at that, thank you, Gemma. Um, I I I've got a recommendation that I'd love to propose to you. I know that there's been some conversation on the board about uh potentially revising what you have now. And I think a as you process all of this, there's some great suggestions that have come from our committee members. And that committee did a stellar job I believe whether whether there's agreement with the outcome or not. They were fully involved and fully present and they uh were thoughtful throughout the process that I don't think we could have asked for people to be more carefully and thoughtfully engaged in the process and to handle their role there um appropriately. I

172think, you know, I I've said this before, but the desire to put a boardappointed committee in place was first born out of a desire to try to shield our staff members who were part of the original committee provided in the original KB from being prominently featured in conversation and and discourse on social media and other places as as the conversation around uh this whole issue became more heated and maybe that's not the right word but just more um more passionate and so I think there was a desire for the board to have representation there was a there was an anticipation that perhaps appeals might be coming to the board anyway and so if the board could have representation from each of the voting districts and maybe shield those people from some of the the potential

173discomfort that might be there that wasn't part of the original process. That that was the design originally. I think I'm comfortable to say that from my perspective, I don't think we're typically going to deal with this kind of submission in terms of, you know, a laundry list of books that that get put in. I'm I'm not a a fortune teller by any means, but I I think that's very rare. It certainly wasn't the way most of them were handled before that. And my recommendation would be for the board to consider reverting back to the original process that we had. That would mean dismand disbanding the committee. It doesn't mean there doesn't exist a committee. There always was a committee. It means going back to the committee of the principal, the librarian, uh the teacher if

174if there is one involved, the parent, the complaintant, student, reverting back to that, disbanding the boardappointed committee and working in what I if you like that idea, what I'd like to propose is that maybe I bring you a revised KB, another revised KB that's much more like the original, but incorporates some of this feedback from the LRC committee members working with Miss Sorz and u and bring you something that you could act on as early as next month or if you wanted to do it. I don't know that there's a big hurry but that that's the commentary I have for you and that would be my suggestion. I think that process worked well. you know, the design of the new committee and the intention of that to to shield folks from being part of public

175discourse. I don't know that that worked or not. I really don't I I'm saying I don't I that's not I'm not making a point with that statement. I really don't know. Um, I know that I think our librarians in in many ways appreciated having the additional hands on deck and uh, Gemma certainly could speak because she worked so closely through this process from start to finish and was part of it. But from my perspective, I think that we could be served with a process that is uh democratic and respectful of the intent of the original policy and respectful of our librarians and our families and parents by going back to the original process but bringing in some of the feedback of the committee members. I'll pause there and unless Miss Sorz if you have anything

176additional or board members want to comment. >> Yeah, I like the idea of u going back to the original KOB with some you know I'll be happy to look at the the recommendations in a written policy form. >> Yep. I'll piggy back off of what uh Andre said. I the the decision to put a public um appointed committee in place was before I got on the board. I I never really liked the idea of that. So going back to the original form where there's still a committee with some modification of how this process works, I it's I at least like the sound of where that's headed. I would happy to defer this until the next meeting and see a proposal from the superintendent. >> Great. >> Okay. All right. Any other comments from the board?

177>> So, I'm sorry, Dr. regrets. Do you think that you could provide an updated KB for our next meeting and would that be first read or for adoption? >> Well, it it's it would be up to the board. Typically, you approve policies in two readings. So, unless you instruct me differently, I my my assumption is that you'll see it on first reading and then approve it the next month. and asking Dr. Gretz to do this is a recognition that there's a majority on this board who don't want to continue through the the previous pathway setup and I'm happy to articulate that I uh I I would like to go down a revised KB route as well. So um >> so do I have I have um Mr. Kelly I think Mr. key. Did Did you

178Did you have the same opinion? >> Yeah, I'd like to go back to the original KOB and and see what the the revisions look like. >> Okay. How about you, Mr. Reed? >> Yep. I agree. >> Okay. And I just it doesn't matter because I'm not on the majority of this, but I I actually um I don't disagree that there needs to be a few revisions, but I actually like having the the um appointed board appointed committee. um the way not necessarily the way that we had it but some some shape or form of it because I think it provides more transparency um and and we were asking I think I've mentioned this before but we were asking for a committee such as this before tech before um library books were were um you know

179front and center we were talking about books that entered the school in general um when we first had this conversation seven seven or eight years ago. So, um obviously it's it's um we we are where we are because things things have changed over the course of time, but um I I I'm still a fan of a of a appointed committee that makes recommendations to us appointed by board members, members of the public, and I think it just provides more transparency. But, um obviously I'm on I'm on the other side of this. So, we will uh we'll move forward and see what we have next month. Okay, thank you. >> Um, we're on to Sorry, I'm shooking my J. It should be the calendar. Continue discussion of the academic school calendar. Yeah. So, we did get

180some additional feedback from staff on those winter um break staff days. And you can kind of see we were fairly evenly split with a little bit more of the majority uh preferring to return the two staff days uh after uh winter break in January and we did have 162 responses. um the calendar committee reconvened to discuss and kind of further look at the data uh from this survey. And we did find that um when we kind of dug a little deeper into responses that elementary um definitely preferred um option two, which was to have the the two days in January were at secondary. Um preferred the option one split. Um so so we were kind of um pretty evenly split there. Again, uh a lot of the discussion from the C calendar committee was just

181going back to uh previously when we only had the one staff day. Uh why there was the addition of the second and the second was to support um secondary schools and their need to flip over a a semester. Uh and then there was also some discussion from the calendar committee just uh you know wonderings about um feedback from this staff survey uh you know really because of the inclement weather that we got in January. We didn't really get to experience this the split staff day as the calendar intended uh we just had that one staff day in December. So there was some discussion you know wonderings about you know the survey feedback that we got um you know was it based on uh what played out versus uh what what the calendar um had in

182it. So the recommendation from the calendar committee um continues to be to recommend the draft that was presented in January with the split staff days um just largely based on that additional second staff day being added to support secondary and and secondary um preferring the split. Then we said definitely next year we would want in our um staff calendar survey a specific question to winter break and then hopefully next year you're by the time this rolls around um we'll have actually gotten to have our December uh staff day and our January staff day and then um can can look at that feedback. >> Awesome. Any questions? All right. >> Thank you, Jeba. >> Sorry, I'm trying to look at the agenda and look at you at the same time. >> All right. We're on to

183the FY25 and 26 budget update. >> Well, we've talked a lot about 26, obviously. Um, I guess what I'd call your attention to trying to get there myself with uh well we we talked about this as well in in the update there's Dr. dribbling. You click on that third. Yeah, this is just a narrative explanation of what you see in the House and Senate with regards to the bonus. I do think the bonus presents potentially a challenge and it does come if you scroll all the way to the bottom, Dr. Stribbling, in either case, it's going to be probably about $250 in unbudgeted expense for us to do that. I think you're probably missing the word thousand there. >> What's that? >> You said $250. You meant 250. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. 250,000. Excuse

184me. >> Uh, one is paid. So, the Senate version, like I said, is paid this fiscal year as of now. There's a little bit of push back there. Uh, the other one is by September 1. Both interestingly include language that's in boldface there. School division shall have discretion to determine the amount of bonuses per employee to maximize the use of these funds to promote retention among instructional support positions. So I that gives us uh it's not flexibility I necessarily would recommend that we leverage but it it does give flexibility to give discriminate amounts to different employees. >> What do you think? Hunger Games or a raffle. [Laughter] >> Uh but yeah, so I don't want to belabor this. I've already already mentioned it. I just want to call your attention to the narrative here. We

185will continue to evaluate the House and Senate versions and hopefully we'll have comparative calc tools here soon. All right, any questions? All right, let's move on to any unfinished business. Is there any unfinished business for the board? Hearing none, we'll move on to new business. Is there any new business for the board? All right, hearing none, we will move on to action items. The first one being the approval of the 2025 2026 academic school calendar. Are we able to we able to put that up there? >> Yeah, we we can put it back up there. There's obviously you've seen some great presentations from Miss Sorz. I mean, we're recommending that you adopt this. We've given staff a lot of good opportunity to engage in the process and we've incorporated feedback. Any questions you have for

186us? Otherwise, we'll just leave it there for you to consider. >> All right. Is Is anyone interested in making a motion regarding the 2526 full calendar? >> We Oh, go ahead, Mr. I was just say I move that we approve the 2526 school year uh calendar as presented. >> I'll offer that second. >> All right, we have a motion in a second to approve the 2526 school calendar as presented. Is there any discussion? >> Only thing I have is just thank you to Miss Sorz for getting the staff feedback because that helps a lot with these things. >> Yeah, absolutely. Any any further discussion? All right. All those in favor of approving the 2526 academic school calendar, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. And the chair votes I. All right. The learning resources committee

187plan. I heard interest in tableabling that to until the next meeting. Um would anybody like to make a motion to do so? >> Mr. Mr. Chair, I move that we defer action on the approval of the learning resource committee until we can um get further information from the superintendent next month. >> Okay. I have a motion to defer any action regarding the learning resources committee until next month. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> All right, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All right, hearing no discussion. All those in favor of deferring action on the learning resources committee until the March meeting, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. We are deferring any action on the learning resources committee until next month. I believe that's

188March 12th, correct? Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. All right. Um, approval of the fiscal year 26 operating budget and cafeteria budget. I would uh ask whoever makes a motion to have the numbers for both prepared for their motion. So, and what I'll offer here, I can put the the spreadsheet I can share with you if you want to take a look at obviously we look historically at the actuals, the proposed, the budgeted our cafeteria budget includes the 3% increase for those staff uh as well as the increase that we've discussed in here. So the overall number for the cafeteria would be 2,571 945 and I'm happy to give that figure again. I just wanted to give it for somebody if 2,571945. >> Got it. Thank you, >> sir. Do you want us to put the

189worksheet back up? What would be helpful to you? Or is someone prepared to just let me know how we can support? I'd like you to pull it back up as it currently exists >> if you would please and thank you. >> Yes, indeed. Miss Sorz, are you able to do that? >> I just want to remind the board that in order to have more discussion now that we're in action items, we would have to have a motion in a second. So, >> and what was the number on the um on the alternative ed? Was it 1 110 8:30? Yeah. >> Yes. Same coordinator uh placeholder. >> All right. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion that we endorse uh approve and advocate for a budget in the amount of Sorry, I have my 24

190[Music] 537. I have an errant number there. So, I am making a motion that we pass and advocate and endorse and all those good things a budget for Fanaput County Public Schools that is in total $24,166,367. It is a net additional local funding of $1,896,979 which is what you see on the screen plus the alternative ed position and a cafeteria budget of $2,571,945. Can you repeat 24,166,000 and what was the final three? >> 367. Um, yeah, >> that was local funding. >> That was the That was the total. >> Okay. All right. I have a motion for a one 1,896,979 additional local ask for a total of $24,166,367 with a2,571,945 cafeteria. Did I have that written down correctly? I think those are all the numbers that I intended to provide. >> Okay. >> So, fundamentally

191my motion is for this plus the alternative ederal. >> I understand. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any any discussion? >> I decided to make this motion because uh with these exact amounts and these exact roles because we are fundamentally trying to drive student outcomes. We cannot do so unless we are both measuring, predicting, working at a data level as as we do and developing our youth and meeting them where they are as it relates to as as to alternative education especially in a world in which Abrams has a multiaceted use and a nuanced one at that. I don't know how we continue to drive student outcomes and meet our students where they are without resources in place to do

192so. And I decided to make the motion now for this amount. Uh because to be honest, I'm going to vote no on on the next proposal um that is stripped out. I think that it's our job to to advocate for need, to advocate for our students. I understand sometimes we don't get everything we want. you scroll down on the page, you see there's a laundry list there. But this is something that I um would be proud to uh fight for and to and to call true need. And I don't think we'd be advocating enough for our students um on the second proposal should it come. And so I'll ask that this board um pass this and go down the hill and and fight with me for it. And while I understand wanting to meet supers

193where you think they might be, you know, I I got a nice got a nice fat letter that my house is worth 28% more than it was last year. And I know that doesn't mean I'm going to pay 28% more tax, but it means that the supers have levers to pull and that is the job that they signed up for. And the job that I signed up for is to advocate for this division. and I don't think I'll be doing my job if I vote for the other one. And so, um, be it as it may, >> yeah, the alternative education kind of, it kind of hit home with me when Dr. Gretz talk about alternative kids in Abrams. I've been mentoring kids since 1995, since I was in a college program. I mentor several

194youths in Fluana and I do parent coaching. I I know the importance of alternative ed education for our atrisisk students. >> All right. Any more discussion? >> Yeah, I've got two questions. Um, one, what happens if we're at a two two vote? One, just out of curiosity because we've never been deadlocked on this board since I've been on here. So that's partially asking because I have no idea how you proceed in that area. >> Well, we've been I've been we've been deadlocked on votes a lot over the over my time on the board. Um so couple things can happen. You have to have the majority and it can happen a couple ways. If you have a 22 vote, obviously that motion would fail. Someone could make a subsequent motion. That motion could fail as well.

195We could have multiple um you know failed attempts at at this. Um, someone could abstain creating a 2:1 vote. Um, two to one to one giving the two um the prevailing um the prevailing side of the motion or um we could keep working at it till we got three. Um or it could be in a deadlock and we'd have to come back and meet again. um the you know we could go at it for a while until there's no more motions and and and the PE anyone can even reconsider the previous motion if they wanted. So there's a number of different different mechanisms we can get to a a you know consensus. >> Yeah. Okay. Second question. Um say we ask for 1896 and there's three votes. If we don't get it, I want to

196know what our next step is because I do think confidently we'll be right back to the drawing board. I I signed up for this job regardless of what the community may think to advocate for our schools. And I don't prioritize a friendship. I'll just make this very clear right now. I don't prioritize a friendship over a relationship with somebody who's not my boss. um because we are peer boards in this county that both play an equal role uh managing money in this county. Um so just to put that out there as food for thought for whoever uh you know wants to know where I am at as far as valuing a friendship over doing a job that I was elected to do. Um, but I am genuinely curious if we agree to a 1896 budget

197tonight and we are back to this drawing board. I want to know what comes out of this budget >> because I've heard is that a fair question to ask now. I mean, I don't I don't know if >> we won't know um what the board approves for a while. I mean, we're not even presenting until what the tw um the 19th. um they're gonna they're going to advertise their maximum um advertised tax rate on the 26th and then there'll be more debate back and forth. I mean, we're going to go into the more than likely early spring, >> right, >> before they actually make a determination. I I agree. I think that number will be significantly less and then when when we get to that point that we will meet again and we will have

198to determine um determine you know what what we're going to remove. Now that number could change again Dr. Gretz can you know correct me if I'm wrong but the you know there's a whole lot we still don't know about the stakes budget. So that number is still a moving target. Right. >> And that's why I mean just to put it out there I I am not especially with the last point that >> you just made I I don't I don't think we will get this but I also don't strongly disagree with asking for it um just because our schools do need it. But I just am genuinely curious and I know there's some back and forth and there's some debate and this has been a very healthy conversation tonight which I appreciate and I think

199the county appreciates it as well. I'm just and we don't even need to necessarily have it. I'm just curious where we go if we are saying tonight that these are all of utmost importance and if we have to come back to the drawing board. I'm just curious which direction we go. Yeah, I mean I to the extent that it's not rhetorical and that you want real response. >> Yeah, I I would like it. And this is and it's not a combative question either. >> That's cool. I wanted to make sure before I jumped in that you wanted a genuine answer. >> Oh yeah. I And that's again that's just a hopefully this is like a man we just had a quick conversation that didn't matter. >> Hey hey hey James, can I can I interrupt

200real quick before you before you respond? >> Sure. I just want to say that it whatever the number is, it's always a better conversation to determine what changes we make given an increase given what changes we make given a flatline or a decrease. You know what I'm saying? So, um I think I I you know, excuse me, everybody's passionate about the items that that they want to see in this budget, but at some point we should we have to be thankful for the the fact that we're, you know, there there's a break even number here where we're not losing positions, where we're not, you know what I mean, >> right? >> And to like I I told some of y'all on the phone, my goal was don't lose don't lose positions, you And I thought

201if if we get past that then I'm comfortable. So anyway, I just wanted to put that out there. It doesn't have to be a negative conversation because we're it's still a positive for the school. >> Oh yeah. And I'm I Yeah. And I'll just make sure everybody knows like I'm not asking this in a negative way. I I'm just curious just because it truly is a tough conversation. >> Yeah. >> I just am curious where we're headed and it can be as simple as positions versus insurance and that's the answer. I it's I I know this conversation isn't going to be like super productive because we don't know what we're going to get. I'm just kind of curious where everybody's thoughts are because I do think that and partially this is why I'm asking it

202now. I think we're going to be in the same position again for the FY27 budget. And I don't want to we don't need to talk 27 budgets now obviously, but just kind of curious from a board perspective where we're at because I don't think this is the last time whether this year or future years that we have a conversation around insurance and positions. >> Yeah. And I think you hit the nail on the head, man. like genuinely not as a like in no combative way but like thoughtful and articulate hopefully probably not articulate but at least nuanced discussion right there are things that we have moved up and down on this sheet tonight that we've played with that we've added money to or less or taken money away from those are obviously the things that

203we are divided or debating or wrestling with so functionally I have to imagine that those are the things that we put back into the center and focus on and it'll be ultimately, if I'm rubbing my crystal ball here, you're right, some amount of health insurance versus um leadership positions, whether that's, you know, the ones that that are above the line now or some general thinking about how do we do more with less. So, I have to imagine that those are the things that be that can be manipulated. uh in between I suspect we'll find more certainty from the state. I'm going to choose optimism because the alternative is rather bleak and so we'll get more information on the money that comes from the state. I think that we'll learn more as it relates to the

204cafeteria budget and how effective our interventions are. I'm also choosing optimism there and you know I would love a I would love a solution and and means of intervening on that front that lowers our total cost ensures that more kids are fed and that the quality uh doesn't suffer and can only improve. uh and I think that you know we do this year over year over year where we come back in and we have to rightsize the totality to the component pieces but I think we've had genuine meaningful discussion about each of those and so I have to suspect that that's the starting place that we come from which is with best intent and trying to balance and find kind of the centrid or consensus among us. I think it is a worthy fight for

205for that extra position because I believe it impacts our students meaningfully and helps us focus simultaneously on a bifurcated alternative education space that somehow needs to serve the needs of those with and without disability as well and special needs as well as younger students and all of these things. And to think that that person that or the the staff that runs it does that and our student outcomes and success metrics is is wild. But just another person wearing many hats. So the direct answer is it probably sounds a lot like this except the one thing that we'll have is certainty on the back end on what number we're trying to retrofit to. >> Yeah, this will answer your question, Mr. Reid. I think the positions that we debated the most about the coordinator and and

206the insurance and you know hopefully the cafeteria will make a huge improvement where we can back a lot of that money out. >> Yeah. >> All right. Is there any more discussion about the budget or about the motion? Excuse me. All right. I have a motion for a total local ask of 24,166,367 which is additional funding from the from the locality of 1.81,8996,979 81,8996,979 and a cafeteria budget of $2,571,945. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The chair votes no and the motion passes 3 to one and one absent. Then, Mr. Chair, do you want to entertain a motion for the cafeteria budget figure? >> I'm sorry. I included that in that. >> Oh, you did. I'm sorry. You sure did. Forgive me. >> So, I did a local I

207in in the motion, I included a local ask. The total local ask, the additional local ask. >> You did. >> And the cafeteria budget. I'm sorry. You did. >> No, you're good. I All right, we are on to our second round of public comment. Has last I heard there's no one signed up. Is Has that changed? >> No. >> Okay. No one signed up. All right. Schoolboard member comments. I know it's hard to make schoolboard member comments virtually, but um Mr. Key, I see you up on the screen. Would you like to make any schoolboard member comments? >> Yeah, I'll start out. Just want to thank everybody tonight for participating. This is a little bit different virtual. I want to thank my fellow school board members for a good dialogue, coming up with a very

208tough budget. I know it was difficult, but I think that, you know, we got to where we needed to be. And I just want to thank um the young flucos that I that that came out and helped shovel my driveway today. I want to tell them thank you for that. >> Awesome. All right, Mr. Kelly. >> Yeah, I um I'm thankful to be on this board to represent the people of Palmmyra. whether or not you have kids, whether or not um you're uh an active member of of the Fluco community, we you know, it's the centerpiece of our county. I am thankful for the working relationship we have with the board of supervisors. The amount of money and trust that they place in us and our school system uh and for my colleagues to be

209honest, having Danny on this board in the last couple years, if I can be personal for a second, honestly has brought up the caliber of the conversation. And that's not a that is not a upon replacement. Everybody is very different. I love Perry Johnson. I've said that publicly. I'll say it again. But I feel like we've had really meaningful, tough, difficult, nuanced conversations. And like this budget decision is is just one among many. Um, specifically, I I don't think there's one I don't think there's a single board member here for whom that budget that we just asked the county for is our ideal point. I think there are four people who are unhappy with that vote. Um, and I think that's a sign of compromise. I think it's a sign of true and desperate need.

210I think it's a sign of um of having to grapple with with difficult things. And just because we made the ask today doesn't mean we're going to get it. And so we're going to need to have those same honest, direct conversations next time and uh depending upon what happens. But in the interim, I will do everything I can to to help our county fund our schools uh at the level that we just passed and so that we can put our people in place where we need them and we can um continue to try to drive up their incomes and do our best to minimize um increases. So, not a uh again, I don't think anybody um thinks that's the best budget in the world, but I do think that it is um as close to

211our centroidid as possible. And so, I appreciate the conversation and I know we got a lot more of it coming. >> All right, Mr. Reid. >> Um yeah, Dr. Kelly, I appreciate the uh the kind words and it's and and I agree it um again not looking backwards, but that's one of the reasons why I wanted to get involved is because truthfully, I thought the conversation could get better. And I think that's due to all five of us, and I've said it many a times since I've been on this board. To me, the meetings have flowed better than I think the strong majority of the community thought, especially after a pretty wacky campaign season uh that we all saw a couple of years ago. And so, I appreciate that. Um just from the board's perspective

212of of having conversations like this, I agree that's not the budget that I don't think anybody wants. And one of these days it'd be awesome to have these conversations in 30 minutes, but I don't think that would ever happen uh based on what we have to decide. But um no, it's I I just want to stress again because I think it's important that regardless of where we end up, you know, month or two down the road with a final number and final budget, um I just think it's super important that we continue to communicate where we're at now with the schools, what we get, what we maybe don't get from a budget, whatever the final result is. So that way when we're 12 months down the road for this next budget, the board of supervisors

213better than any other year prior knows exactly where we are coming in and where we're trying to go. Um and I'm happy to play a part in that conversation over the next, you know, year or so. Um just because I see that's a big area of opportunity. Um not necessarily to be friends and go out to dinner after that meeting. Uh if some choose to do so, have at it. but to have a very strong working relationship between the two elected boards in the county. I think that's very important. Um, on a fun note, middle school boys basketball season is a wrap. The pipeline is being built for the high school. So, uh, Andre, I hope we send some good guys your way here over the next few years. But I had a ton of

214fun coaching. I appreciate the opportunity to do that. And, um, I just want to give a shout out to, uh, I think her first name was Liberty, but Miss Walding. that took a lot of courage tonight to come on here. Uh whether we were in person or over a weird computer screen for a meeting for a long time. Um I just want to give you a shout out if you're still listening or mom if you're still listening. That took a lot of courage and uh I've got some notes that I wrote down from when you stepped up there to speak. So thank you very much and um appreciate the community bearing with us tonight as we've been virtual instead of in person. So look forward to being back in the auditorium next month. Um, that's

215all I got. I appreciate everybody's time tonight. >> Awesome. Thank you. And the only thing I'll add is uh I because I didn't I didn't really speak much on on my from my perspective on the budget because um it was evident to me early on that the number that I came up with truly that I that I determined where I where I wanted to be was, you know, 15 20 minutes into the conversation where I really finalized that number. I didn't I didn't um know for sure until I looked at that spreadsheet again and did some math on my own and um felt comfortable with it. But I know um I I breezed over it quickly, but as I said earlier, I was at $512,13. Um I was more comfortable passing on insurance to the

216employee. And um that's just where I was on it. And um for the record, um I don't I don't know where where Mr. Written House would have fallen, but he did res um send messages to myself and Mr. Gretz that he did not support the number. So, he's listening. He just he has he's having issues with Zoom. Um so, anyway, thank you all for making this work. Um, virtual is hard and um, you know, trying to do this to adhere to a a schedule that the board of supervisors has is is and then of course changing our schedule. We're all busy. Um, trying to find a day to to make this happen in the next week was just it was going to be impossible. So, thank you all for making this happen tonight and thank

217you for the staff that put it together and made it happen on such short notice. Um, and that's really all I have. Um, unless anybody has anything else for the good of the cause, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> I'll second. >> All right. A motion and a second to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Chair votes I. We are now adjourned. Thank you all. Thank you. >> Amen. >> Thank you everybody and good night.