001back in the open session. Uh Danny, can you start us with the pledge of allegiance? >> Yes, sir. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. >> Okay. On to certification close session. Close session items. >> Um roll. M madame clerk, would we certify for the first session and then we haven't adopted our agenda yet. So we're at certification. Do you want to certify for our first close session >> now or do >> uh No, we're going to defer those till the second. So do we certify? >> Okay. So we're going to skip that one because we're not quite done with our time yet. And so >> I guess Dr. Gret, you
002want to? >> No. >> So I I don't have actions because we'll have to wait until next time. So I'll defer those until you come out of closed the second time. Okay. >> And then I'll make those recommendations on >> to adoption of the agenda. >> Great. Uh Mr. Chair, I'd like to make the motion we adopt the agenda, but with some fine-tuning here. So clearly we just skipped over certification and close session actions. Um and therefore that is because we're going to need um another round of close session after we deal with our public business. So to that end, let me go in order through the agenda and tell you what I'd like to modify. First, obviously we're not going to act on four for certification or clo close section close session actions. I'd
003like to strip 6C of the consent agenda uh for now and uh uh deal with that later in the meeting. I'd like to add a number 16 a second close session. Number 17 would that be certification of close session and within that 17A would be approval of personal recommendations effectively replacing 6C. 17B will be approval of student cases effectively replacing four B and then adjournment would be 18. That's your motion. It is. I'll second. >> All right. Thank you for that second, Danny. Uh, is there any further discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Vice chair votes I. Going to the consent agenda. I guess at this point board, we need to decide um our next meeting next month. You need to start at 3:00 and with the U. >> Sorry,
004that's 3 p.m. >> I mean, I'm sorry. Yes. 3 p.m. >> 3 3 p.m. for next month >> for closed and in regular session at 6:30. >> Does that need to be voted on or acted upon? >> Yes. >> Is that part of the consent agenda or is that something we need to add? >> I think that's something. >> Okay. Um, real quick, since we're on the consent agenda, we have A, B, and D. Uh, remind me, was anybody absent from the last meeting that would need to pull the minutes? >> I was I I wasn't involved in the regular part of the meeting because I couldn't get in on the iPad Zoom meeting. >> Okay, let's do >> I'm gonna make a motion one by one here. Okay. >> So, first up, I want
005to approve the minutes of the prior school board meeting allowing any members that were absent to abstain. >> That's a motion. >> All right. Do I have a second? I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Abstain. >> With Charles abstain. Okay. Next motion. I'd like to move that we approve the monthly claims. So that's approval of consent agenda 6B. Second. >> I got a second for 6B. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Vice chair votes I. >> All right. Um, I'm gonna approve I would like to make a motion to approve consent agenda 60, an overnight field trip for the FMS drone competition. >> I'll second. >> I have a second. U, are is there any further discussion? >> I'll throw a quick
006shout out for them. If anybody's looking to donate to help sponsor them, I know they're looking for sponsors and this team is awesome. So, there's my little >> And is there any additional information we need before we vote on this or you're good? You You recommend that we approve this? Y. >> All right. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Share. I. >> Any oppose? >> All right. Consent. >> All right. And then because I wasn't aware I need to add this and that's my bad. I'm going to move that we amend the agenda to add us here. Six. Why don't we just do it under action items? Why don't we add I'm going to move that we amend the agenda to add action item 12B, which will be um approval of an
007close session starting at 300 p.m. um on our next meeting, which would be April the 9th, it looks like. And so you'd be voting now just for it to appear under action items and we will then dispatch with that vote when we do other action items just to make it tidy. >> All right. Do I have a motion? >> Yeah, that was a motion. I'll second. >> All right. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. >> I. I. Vice chair votes I. Any opposed? And so, Madame Clark, 12B will be an action item to amend our close time for next month. >> I think that's all of consent agenda and what's the public comments 7A. We come to time in our meeting for public comments. I remind everyone that policy our members
008community meaning residents of Sound and Stanford County Public School address the board unless unless you are legal council represent the group interest of night proceedings. We welcome all community members who here to give information and opinions. We ask you to come to the podium, tell us your name, address, and limit your comments to three minutes. We'll start with the names on the signup sheet, but you're welcome your input if you didn't sign up. Going to public comments. The board will not interact you, but we will listen. Do we have anyone signed up? Coach Pace. Hello. Thank you. Mitchell Pace, 3818 Branch Road, Cunningham District. Um, most of you guys uh know me as the head football coach. That's right. Most of the county knows me, but I come before you today to talk about a
009sport that's not as well publicized, and that is fluo swim and dive. Um, we uh just finished states up last week, and I just wanted to kind of call attention to in general what the team did uh and some of the standout um individual performances and team performances. We had a young lady, Kayleie Herren, who got third in dive. Cash Johnson got fourth in dive. James Johnson got sixth in dive. We had our girls um 200 free relay get fifth place. our girls 400 free relay, get fifth place, and break the school record. So, just some amazing performances. Really proud of these guys. They don't get a whole lot of recognition, but really what I what I came for to talk about was one young lady in particular who thought might show up tonight, but
010she's not here. This is not the formal recognition, but uh this young lady deserves as much recognition as county king. Um just go ahead and say it out front. U Alex Fuller is probably the best all-around athlete I've ever coached, and I've been coaching here for 20 years. Um, I just wanted to be known what it is that she did and how kind of extraordinary it was. Um, she is, um, such a committed young lady, such a kind young lady, such a wonderful person, but on top of it, she's an amazing swimmer. So, I had to type it up because I just could not keep it in my head all the stuff that she's accomplished just as a part of our swim program here. So, um, I go ahead and kind of rattle it off.
011If you guys can keep up, please ask questions if you've got them about some of the stuff I'm going to say. um she is is so outstanding at at swimming that she made the um individual state cut qualifying times uh in basically every event that that we offer with the exception of one and that's only because we didn't swim in it, right? Like that's how extraordinary she is. Uh she got four all-American times um in her high school career, which means that she was one of the top 100 fastest in that event for that year. She did that four times. Um, she won five regional championships while she swam forana. Uh, this year she was the regional swimmer of the year. She actually holds, I believe it's five individual county high school records on her
012own. So, she'll be on the board down the hall from the wait room. Um, on top of that, she is also an amazing um, student. She holds a 4.2 plus GPA. Uh, is in I'm lucky enough to teach her in AP government as well. And uh she got a full ride D1 scholarship to swim for Nor Eastern in Boston next year. Um also, oh yeah, by the way, she also has won three state championships, right? That's kind of the highlight of this major list here is she won two last Tuesday. Um and to kind of put this in perspective, guys, is um like I said, I've coached here for 20 years. I reached out to other people that have coached for 30, 40 years, like my father, stuff like that, to see how kind of
013how often this has happened and how often it hasn't happened. um hasn't happened but three total times in the history of Fan County that one individual has won multiple championships in one day and Alex has three. She won two last Tuesday and one last year. So just truly an exceptional exceptional young lady and all those other athletes that have done it, the three that have done it before, they're all young men. So just want to call attention to a little known sport swim and dive and a young woman in athletics that is just doing amazing things that I'm so proud um to be a part of. So, I just want to call attention to Alex Fuller and if you guys can give her some recognition whenever it's seen or not. >> And and before you
014go, just board members, just so you're aware, we we were hopeful to do something during the delegations, but it was too late to amend the agenda, so we thought we'd do it this way. While you're here, would you introduce some other students you got with you? >> Absolutely. So, you guys will know my AP government students are required to attend local government meetings, school board, and board of supervisors. It's important to see what local government looks like. So, we have two here today. We have Miss Katie Bond and Miss Mr. Logan Schaefer. Uh I know others have been coming and you know hopefully they'll keep trickling. They only got what really about one more month before their project is due on this. So a couple here as well. >> Thank you. Thank you very much.
015>> Have anybody else with public comments? My name is Cameron Binerstein live in 197 Trail in Palmyra. Good evening. Our schools face an impending crisis. The administration in Washington has made it clear they intend to make heavy cuts to the Department of Education. I hope I don't have to remind this board how much we depend on federal funding to meet our budgetary needs. It's very likely that many difficult decisions await this board. I do not envy any of you this task. I simply wish to remind you all that public education available and free to all attempting to meet the needs of all students is one of the greatest goods the society has ever produced. A society that works to turn children from blank slates into thinking adults is a society that builds its own future.
016I hope this board will fight in any way it can to keep free access and quality education first and foremost in their priorities in the face of an impending budget disaster. Thank you for your time. Have anyone else see no one else coming? We'll close this one public comments. >> So eight delegations. There's none, right, Dr. Chris? >> That's right. Uh, Miss Tinsley was set to be here. She just got a message in in between the break there that she had just gotten out of track practice and was not going to be able to come. She regrets that. And because of snow and ice, we weren't able to see her last month, but we're very hopeful that she'll be with us because she is an exceptional kid. Be with us next time. >> Okay. Dr.
017Gretz reports from superintendent. >> Thank you, board members. So, we we got a lot of information for you and I'll I'll tell you maybe just at the start and any feedback that you have for me, I I'll take it. We try not to amend the agenda once it's put out a week in advance. We we try not to amend it. There's a lot of developing information and so I always kind of war with whether to put it in because it's great material for us to have. Don't want to wait a month but yet don't want to make a lot of changes. I'm saying that just because we we've been interacting with uh the county as you're aware as they've gone through their uh work sessions. We've gotten some questions from them. There's some questions that
018came up during the work session. I've gotten some individual questions and as I respond to those and we do our research related to responding to those, there's information that comes up that's just I think would be useful. And so we put some of that in the packet. I've chosen to put some of it in this report. Um there's a as always a lot of information in the report. I I won't go through it all, but certainly call your attention to the opportunities that we've got coming up with the advisory committees, the different events in the schools. They're all listed in there. You can see what's happening from an operations standpoint. A lot of great things to celebrate on behalf of extracurriculars. This past weekend at our high school, we had a lot going on. It
019was wonderful to see uh just a a packed house. We had softball, baseball, um, lacrosse and, um, soccer and band. And the band, wind ensemble received the highest superior rating that you can get in their uh, assessment, regional assessment. So, wonderful news from them. They're doing an amazing job. State track is coming up. Uh well, I guess it just happened this weekend at Liberty and you heard about swim and dive. Uh you you can see what's going the speech team continues its uh reign of dominance. It it has uh won the regional championship and it'll go on to the states which it's won the last six years in a row. I think I'm right about that. Uh so related to what I said earlier and Mr. Gford maybe I'll just pull this up at the
020end of the if you click on the report link and go to the bottom of that. So there was a discussion in the meeting about assistant principles. Why do we have a certain number of assistant principles? And I just wanted to share this with you. I I put this together simply to respond to the question which I will do in writing to all of the board members including you. I'll do that with all of the questions I receive. Um, and I didn't know what I'd find necessarily. The reason we have the number of any staff that we have is first and foremost because the standards of quality set a minimum required number and then from there if it's teachers the master schedule how many kids need what subjects but if you if you click on
021the AP numbers link I just did an analysis of how many assistant principles are in each of the high schools regionally. these same schools that we continue to compare us to. I went ahead and threw some others that are neighboring just in because it was easy data to get. So, I put Nelson and Buckingham and Cumberland and you know common thread. I didn't know that I was going to find this, but you can see if you just scroll down one cell Josh the other way. Sorry. And I got this data off of the school quality profile reports that's available to everybody. uh numbers of APS, the student enrollment, you can see the ratio. We've got the highest ratio of anybody, meaning we have fewer staff in our high school with regards to assistant principles than
022anybody. I just wanted to point that out. We have fewer than Gland. They also have a dean of students, which is not included in that number. You can see what would be and I'm not begrudging Gutland that dean by any means. I'm just sharing the information. Um, I'll note that this is the kind of response that I want and I I don't mean to say expect in a in a way that's like medicine, but like expect from a leader. This is exactly the level of transparency that we need to give that board of supervisors when they ask these questions. And I really appreciate you putting it together. I don't know where I would have started, but this is awesome to answer the questions. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Uh, and then Mr. Ger, if you go back
023to the document, I think we're going to go over this during the budget item, correct? >> Okay, I know we can do it now. >> Let me just show it to you and then when we get to the discussion of fiscal 2526. Um, there's been a lot of conversations about health insurance and it came up again in the work session. Can you open that spreadsheet? >> Not without permission. >> Oh, I see. >> Let me see. >> Well, you know what? We'll get to it and she'll give you permission. I'll just tell you what uh Miss Grasser has done is exceptional as always, but she's put together an extensive comparison of the plans that are in place again using the same five divisions to be consistent. You can see exactly what the participates are at
024each level. She's highlighted where um the best rates are, where the worst rates are, and included in addition to the school divisions, included the county. So you can see all of that. We'll get to that later in the agenda. Do you have any questions for me that I anything you'd like me to highlight from the report? I'll just let it stand. >> I don't think so. But I do appreciate the partnership. Dr. Gretz has been at just about every board of supervisor meeting I've been at and is ready to take questions and go back and do homework. And you know, in even in the most generous of budget seasons, that's our responsibility, but it it requires even more so in in years like this. And so I appreciate uh seeing you there and and seeing
025the work that you do for us. >> Thank you. The the only other thing I'll call your attention to, and we don't even have to necessarily open it, Mr. Gford, but the you're revising the calendar kind of retroactively. I had some communication with all of you just one-on-one making sure that you would support our turning the 14th forthcoming what was going to be a a workday into a instructional day because of all the time we lost. And so you'll see this as an action item where you're going to actually approve. The only change is that we're we've changed where the grade uh the grading periods fall because of the missed days, but the the change is that the 14th was going to be a staff day and it's now an instructional day. You have any
026questions for me? >> Okay. Glad to see the weather change. Makes me a little less nervous about it. Maybe I should find some wood to knock on or something >> you're done. >> Yes sir. Uh okay. Sorz is going to join us here. And if you remember in the last meeting the request there was a lot of discussion at the end of the the discussion. The request was for us to bring a draft revision of uh ALB, which is the public complaint about learning resources, incorporating some of the feedback that came from the committee that Miss Sores led, the uh board appointed committee that worked on this process. And so she's done a wonderful job of putting together kind of coalesing all of our thoughts around this. um she's redlined what's new and you can
027see what's stricken and with that Mr. Sores thank you so much for your work on this we'll turn it over to you. >> Sure. So we started with the original KB policy and then um again the revisions in red or um things that are struck through are feedback from uh both staff and the learning resources uh committee. Uh the revisions of the policy um kind of to sum it up um really kind of work to better clarify who can file a complaint. Um as well as um avenues for school supports for uh parent students outside of this policy if they have concerns with classroom or instructional uh library materials. U and then as well as to work to better kind of define the process for submitting a complaint uh the review process and and a
028little bit to the appeal process. Uh really the most uh I guess notable change from the previous current policy or or the current policy um is that the um committee membership no longer includes the boardappointed learning resource committee. It reverts back to uh the previous school um level committee and that uh we also include the complaintant um again as the original policy did to be part of that process. I'm happy to answer any questions or >> I have two quick questions for you. Um, looking under number one under the procedure for filing a complaint, is there any conversation or feedback around the person filing the complaint having a student enrolled in the school they are filing like where the book is found. So like essentially if you have a elementary schooler, you couldn't file a
029complaint of a book in the high school. >> Uh there was a lot of um feedback conversations both from staff and and throughout the duration of the learning committee uh process this year. We kind of tried to address it in that very first uh paragraph and we really just aligned it with um because I think there was some sentiment about you know um really wanting to to hear from parents and students. Uh but um really I think in terms of who could legally be allowed to you know I I don't think that we could exclude residents or taxpayers um from that. >> Okay. And then my next question is under number two part F. Can you So I think I understand what it means because I think we actually had this or I I don't
030know there's a lot of conversation around where the books could end up modifying the scope of use of the material based on material's educational suitability, relevance, accuracy, appropriateness. >> Sure. Um >> just modifying the scope of use detail >> and that was the addition and it was more just to allow for the flexibility. Um in fact one of the books that uh this last uh review committee did that was the decision was um to um while it it was found that perhaps you know age appropriateness for high school library in terms of student independent reading but in terms of um modifying it as a school counseling resource with parent permission like under that context the committee felt that that book then would be suitable under. So um so that's where the addition of modify comes
031in um just to allow that flexibility that if there's a a different avenue um for the material that um I guess another example could be um maybe not and a lot of our conversations has been about library but this policy right is all-encompassing for instructional materials too. So it could be maybe a situation where it was a classroom in in instructional resource that maybe you know given standards of learning and educational goals might not fit within the context of a school day but maybe the modification is an afterchool club or something like that it could be appropriate. >> Okay. And now is it like if on like parental consent and things like that is that something that needs to go in here like I guess where does that and I don't I don't necessarily disagree
032with that. I'm just curious if we're saying the book goes from >> place A to place B. >> Yeah. >> Is there anywhere in here that we need to add something like that to clarify if it's removed from somewhere but it's available somewhere else that there's a opt in essentially from a parent. I guess I don't know if I'm >> it could or it could also kind of operate under the opice of wherever it modified too. So um often times well usually like for example school counselors and and groups and resources that they use we do seek parent consent usually if it's an after school kind of or or book clubs and things like that we we do have um that. Um, but I'm happy to we we knew this would be a first review
033and that there might be questions or, you know, a desire. So, I'm happy to take that back into >> I mean, that was the only thing that I had is that and I I I don't disagree with that being in there by any means. If we're if we're just clarifying it, saying that and I I don't even really know how I mean I think you could be a different you could probably say at the at the very end after we talk about um you know age appropriate or appropriateness to age and grade level you probably follow that sentence with saying um uh and or parent uh notification permission as appropriate or something like that. I I would I'd be perfectly fine with that because I think if that's the whole point of the review and
034hopefully we don't even ever have to use this to be honest with you, but if if it does go through, I think the whole point of it would be to make sure that it's relevant to the age and appropriateness of the students and if we're saying this is kind of borderline, but it could see serve a purpose here. I I personally would not have any issue at all with having parents notified that everybody's on the same page between student, school, and home. Miss Source. Um, who came up with the idea of making all these changes in red? >> Um, so I worked with, um, staff, our admin, primary librarians, Dr. Gretz, um, and then the both staff and boardappointed um, learning resource committee. Um they um >> so it's just a conglomerate to come up
035with uh getting away doing away with the each person from each uh district. Uh well that was more as a result of uh the request at last board meeting to come back with the original policy and so we we stuck with the original policy but >> yeah four of us asked for them to edit this document and provide guidance for us >> because the the pre the previous red line revision was actually the existing the current policy that did keep in place the the board appointed and then we were asked at last board meeting to come back with what would it look like if if we did this way. >> Thank you. >> And and a lot of the specific feedback if you remember the the committee members that you all appointed gave feedback in
036writing to the board and a lot of that has been incorporated in here. The other thing I sorry Jim I just I I failed to say at the beginning the board asked us to bring this back as asked us to bring it as a draft that you could add as something that you approve under first reading if you so choose. Because of that it's not on the agenda as an action item. You'd have to add it. and and there still is that other draft with the revisions of the current policy that does include uh the board appointed uh that is is very similar to this. So >> yeah, any other questions? >> Thank you. So I guess I'll take that feedback and then any other directions whether um the desire is for next month or
037uh to come with revisions to this one to maybe have the other one again side by side. Uh I wasn't sure timeline of like uh were we looking to if there was an urgency and timeline to uh adopt uh something with revisions in April. >> Say how to act action April. I'd love to have it that way we could move on >> as it is here. >> Any changes? >> Yeah. And I would love if I mean if that's fine, I would love to add that parental notification in there and I mean if that's if everybody >> good I mean tonight or next month. I mean I I'm ready to move on and put this behind us. >> Yeah. James and Charles books. >> No, certainly their parents ought to be notified especially for age
038appropriateness uh for any of these books or learning resource whatever you want to call them. >> I'm happy to see a slightly modified version under uh for adoption next. Thank you. >> Thank you. N C >> Jen in here. >> Oh yes, >> Mrs. Valentine I come to you with every year at this time number slightly different. Our plan remains exactly the same in terms of for 611 we are trying to use the money for 10 teaching positions. Um sometimes that varies based on budgets and salaries. Um and then for 619 which is the ECSC it really only pays a partial salary. So that's all of the money that it covers. So, our um $597,155 um I'm not giving you any pennies. They're there. Um and that was for actual salary. And then the employee
039benefits we're estimating we do at 7525 because sometimes that's accurate, but like it might be different if someone has different benefits, but that's kind of an estimate when we change it if we have to. Um so and then you add in the proportionate set aside which is our homebased and uh private school funds that we get and so tie that into a total of 48,000. So the total that we're getting for 611 is $844,499. Sorry I'm on the wrong page or you're one of us is on the wrong page. I'm sure it's me. Um, and then the next page, of course, and these are really the last two pages that you're looking at with this. Um, it's $22,286. And again, that's that half. It's really only covering, um, and we've gone back and forth. We
040did a teaching position, then we tried to do an a position, and we went back to the teaching position, and it just covers, and we have to sign off that that's what this went to. Um so those are the little numbers. The big number of course is on the front page or on towards the front in terms of the total budget. But again this is most about us questions. I always feel like I should be giving you all more. Um we've done the slideshow in the past where I take those numbers and put it into a little chart. I can do that for you next year if you'd like me to. I've got it ready. Um, thank you for everything you do to support our programs. I will tell you I got to go to
041the, you know, we have Medford basketball that, and again, it's not all about activities, it's about instruction, but we went to the state championship for basketball and it's we won, but that's not what it's about. What it's about is we had what did my email say? I think like 30 parents and family members that went to support these kids in Richmond. And if you could have seen the fluco spirit, I mean, we have job shooting three-pointers and the crowd just jumping up and cheering and I really, it really hit me that day. I don't know why. I've had the advantage of getting to watch my children do so many things and there was never a participation. We might not have made a team, but there was never a participation question. And for these children, and
042I do sometimes like can't believe I have to take practice again. These parents are getting 10 events a year and so happy that they're getting those experiences. So above and beyond salaries, above and beyond that, thank you for what you do for us and I promise we try and use the money wisely. >> Thank you. >> Anything? Can we schedule the Medford League students to come and be recognized publicly? >> Absolutely. >> We can ask some of them don't like to come out after their bed. It's too close to bedtimes, but we can >> we could do it very early in the meeting to accommodate. Yeah, we certainly don't need to be here after our second round of public commentary or second close as the case may be tonight. >> Looks like we got a
043lot of kids. We need a lot of statements. >> We do. We do. I I actually got a letter just the other day from a grandparent about that event. I was going to read it, find it, but >> yeah. Great. >> Thank you. I'll be back next week to hopefully get your approved or next month to hopefully get your approved. >> Thank you. Okay, members of the board, lots of information here. Um, my recommendation is we've kind of lumped them together. What we start with, uh, the current fiscal year and we can pull up the very first. Yes, thank you. >> We're, you know, this is just our monthly report. We're continuing to monitor um expenditures at this time of year. There's lots of conversation about um big expenses we have left. I can tell
044you that um it's not in this number, but we've entered the requisitions for the um computer replacements and Chromebook replacements. And so you're going to see those as incumbrances or expenditures next month. And that's a a pretty hefty expense there. Um at this point, I'm seeing that we're we're on track. Um, and kind of related to all of that is in the general assembly's budget, they um, of course went back and made a change to fiscal year 25 with the addition of a $1,000 bonus. And they've allotted some money for that bonus, but it's not going to cover the entire amount. Um, that's sent the other day. Um >> while while she's looking for that because this came up in the supervisor's meeting also in a follow-up question just as a reminder the when the
045state gives the the money the reason it doesn't cover all of it is it's only the state only gives its share for the standards of quality mandated positions which for most school divisions is about half. For some it's 54%, some it's 43%, but it's usually right about half of your of your staff. And it also is filtered through the local composite index. So just rounding numbers be we're up 39 something. So if you just say point4 out of one, for every $1 that the state gives us to give that $1,000 or the 3% raise or whatever it is, for every dollar the state gives for those half of our employees, it only gives 40 cents 60 cents of the dollar, excuse me, because we're a point4. We have to come up with 40 cents of
046the dollar. They give 60 cents of the dollar. So when the state gives the state gives a 3% raise to teachers, which is what you're going to see in the Richmond Times Dispatch, or 5% raise, the real headline is not meant to be disparaging. The truth is the state is giving 60 cents of every dollar that it takes to give a 3% raise to half of Fluana's employees. And that's exactly what's being applied with this thousand dollar bonus. Sorry for the rabbit drift. >> That's okay. I can't find my chest. So, our portion of that bonus is going to be somewhere around um $200 to $300,000. Um we're getting a little over $300,000 from the um from the state to fund that. Um it's a it's the language is such that you don't have to
047give it. You can decide how you want to distribute it. There's no local match required for this. For a lot of the things like the when they typically do a 3% raise, there's a local match requirement. There's not a local match requirement for the thousand bonus. So, you could decide you just want to give it to a certain group of people. I do not recommend that. Um I'll just go right out there and say that. you can decide that you want it to be less than um you know just take the money that you're getting from the state and divide it up and use that to do that bonus. Um I I'm looking at the expenditures if it's in that $200 to $300,000 range. I think we may be able to do that just off
048of positions that we've had this year that we've not refilled um where people left in the middle of the year, things like that. Um, but I would like to have another month or so to take a look at that before I told you that definitively. Um, continuing to look at the expenditures and things that we have in place right now. >> Sorry, I think I missed for a second and and I was reading the doc from board docs and I missed it. But are you saying that there is is there a local match component requirement? >> There's not a local match requirement for this. And so because we do somewhere between 40 and we're responsible for between 40 and 60%. Theoretically instead of doing a so assume for a moment that we're not going to
049dip into our budget which did not include a bonus do we know what the shares would be of for part-time and full-time if we just took the state money and then implemented it? >> I have not calculated that but I can do that. >> Yeah. Do we have a world in which 500 for full and 250 for not full-time um employees might expend the state's um contribution without ransacking our end of year budget? >> We can calculate it. There >> perhaps >> there will be divisions that do that because they won't be able to come up with their share of it in the middle fiscal year. It's just >> my my problem with all my problem with this and you know I'm sure some supervisors are listening is that I don't like to go back
050from a budget that we communicated need in. It's our responsibility to be fiscally conservative and good stewards and we try to bring forth at the end of the year. The uh everything we possibly can to them that we don't absolutely need whatever whatever is left. going back and then bonusing out of that really doesn't it like crosses the communication a little bit. Is the is the county doing something similar? I believe that there was a bonus of 1% for for other employees. >> They they don't have the SOQ implication >> to to contend with, >> but they get they have the same kind of template like they'll fund the state will fund so many deputies but not all of the deputies. And >> so there there are different funding formulas for them. Yes. And I'm
051not sure of the timeline for their 1% bonus. >> Yeah. Could we work with the county and get guidance as to where they're headed? I hate when we're not doing the same thing at the same time. We're all public employees in this county and um it drives me nuts when when our raises aren't similar size. I hate the fact that we're on different healthcare and our staff is our staff is paying more than their staff. All of that. But I think if we could figure out kind of where the county's headed, we can try to land this in a similar way. I don't know if other board members are thinking the same kind of thing. >> I mean, I agree with not overspending, but I was thinking the same thing you were on what does
052it look like if we just spend the state's version of it without ours, but I'm not quite as concerned with ours being different. And I say this with a lot of respect because I don't know if they have been super focused on making sure the schools are similar to the county either. So >> yeah, it's just hard to advocate when if if we don't set the tone and open communicate, then it gets harder to advocate for what we need if they think that we're burning them on the back end and it's kind of >> Yeah, I agree with that part. Like if it's if we're getting money from the state and we just use that. >> Yeah, I mean I I don't see any issue with that because that's a very transparent way of where
053the money goes. >> Um are other board members inclined to ask one? So I'd like to know two numbers if you guys are down. One would be what are the shares if we do a a full share if you will for full-time and a um a half share for part-time just dividing the state's money evenly according to like shares if you will and then two how much would we need to spend if we just made it 250 and 500? My guess is the N numbers on the first one will be a little bit lower than 250 and 500 and maybe there's a compromise in between so that the bonuses feel like in the spirit of substance. >> I'm okay with it. >> We don't have to act on it. It's just info and I don't
054want to ask without >> Yeah. And then of course what would it be if we whatever the intent was $1,000. So what is it if we do everything that's intended if we just do 500 250 and then what do we do if we zero out our contribution? >> So we we can absolutely do that. I mean, the the choice could be to try to find a way to come up with the difference and give the full intended bonus to all staff, could distribute what's there, you know, as best as it goes, and we could certainly entertain a conversation with the county about helping us with the difference as well. >> The state's not listening. I will say, I don't know, a light-hearted thank you for thinking of our staff and trying to make their compensation
055better. Bonuses are stupid. They don't hit VRS. It doesn't help them in the long run. Put your money where your mouth is and actually fun education. That'll fall into ears, but I got to say it because I'm tired of pulling punches. Well, and this is kind of that whole thing that we've talked about before where they have this they have a very large revenue surplus, but they're reluctant to spend it on recurring costs because they feel like the economy is going to tank and then they'll need that money for rainy days. And so they are very inclined to do these one-time oneoffs like um school construction or something like that where they're just allocating this money one time and then they're done with it. Um so I know that that's the spirit behind this. Um
056but certainly bonuses are not my favorite thing and if you ask my payroll people they would totally agree with me. It's awesome how they can backs stop themselves, but when they cut um the um support staff cap as a one-time stop gap, it's in there in perpetuity. >> I won't disagree. >> Okay, >> Mr. Grass, I'm going to ask you a question before we move on. Uh you mentioned Chromebook replacements. Um, I've been on this board before and they've replaced Chromebooks one year, 5,000 Chromebooks. Well, we didn't have but 3,400 students. So, how many are we getting this time? >> I can't answer that, but Mr. Gford may be able to answer that. >> 16. Everybody's getting one. Except for that one year. [Music] >> Thank you. >> We try to do it on a
057cycle where we're doing just some each year versus trying to have one big expense in one year and then the next year you don't have it and then next thing you know it's due again. And so we're try to do a planned replacement cycle. So it's a little bit at a time. >> I appreciate that about what you all do is that you know instead of having to saddle up to a CIP and ask for some odd thousand dollars above the the threshold in order to get our technology replaced. >> Staggering it makes a whole lot of sense when you can stagger. Things like servers are a little harder if things if hardware and software are updated. But doing this on a four-year cycle really makes it more bite-size. >> And then the second page
058of this is the supplemental appropriations. And you've seen those before. We have one um the security grant one that went down last week, but I think they've tabled that into the their next meeting. Um that security grant is for the cameras at K'sbrook and the middle school. Um, it's replacing some cameras and then putting in new cameras in areas that we've identified that aren't covered right now. Um, I think at the middle school, a lot of that concern is in the rear of the building in that track area. Um, just trying to make sure we have all of that covered. Um, these security grants are really kind of tricky. Um, we get every year the application comes out, we apply for every one of our schools to get one. We put down things that we
059know we need to replace or or upgrade or add to. And then honestly, I can't tell you the rhyme or reason for how the state decides which school is going to get funded from one year to the next. And they don't typically they don't fully fund what you ask for. You just get a portion of the funds and there is a 25% match required with all of those particular grants. This year we had three different pots of money for school security. So, we had that one. We had a federal security grant and then we had another state one that was like a supplemental grant that they issued. So, those have been just they're very confusing. Um it because we didn't want to have to come up with that um match for that $128,000. We used
060the for our um local match, we used the door locks that the county had already paid for in their CIP as the local match. So, we didn't have to ask for supplemental appropriation for that particular grant. And so, I know that's a little confusing and that was some of the questions that the county had. So, I just wanted to clarify that for everybody. And then the grant at the bottom is a new one that the state um came up with and and Caitlyn Harley Burner is organizing that for us. Um just trying it. It's really designed to do community outreach and have parents be more involved in school. I know Dr. Gretz's parent advisory is working with her with those grants as well. >> Yeah, it it's it's a wonderful thing. She applied for $5,000
061and they were so impressed with her application they gave her 10. and it's it's basically money that we can use to support families, engage families. So, there's a lot of ideas on the table for how to use that to enhance Flucco Fest. Uh back to um I'm drawing a blank now. The bash we're looking >> back to school. >> Yes, the back to school bashing. Sorry. So yeah, wonderful work and and not not to be redundant, but that question did come up in in the work session. I want to make sure that's very clear. I think the question was because we were applying the money that we were spending on the door locks as a match and that money came from the county through carryover funds. There was a question as to whether or not
062we were asking the county for money for door locks and then asking the state for money for door locks. And that wasn't the case. The the expenditure on on door locks was for something totally different. >> But the punchline of that is that that didn't happen yet. So >> yeah. >> So the last three are in their packet. Hopefully they'll approve those next month. And um I mean if they don't, we'll just not get the money. Um so I I'm hoping that they will do that. >> And the top the two security grants expire at the end of June. So we have a pretty tight timeline on those particular grants. And one thing I want to point out because it comes up from time to time is every time we do a supplemental appropriation, I
063include the category that's impacted by that. And then when you look at the budget at the top, you see a um original allocation and then um a revised budget. And that's where those numbers come from or is that chart there at the bottom. So that's where those um your um categorical appropriations come from. Any questions about 25? >> So the other items that we have in here, we don't need to go through them all. I just want to make sure you're clear on what's here and then we we will look at a couple of them. Um we've included the budget presentation. That's the third one. You don't have to click on it, Mr. Gford, but just so it's part of the record. That's the presentation that we did to the county of your budget, school
064board's budget. Um and then you have the the budget document, the supplemental appropriation request. It's what we just went through. That's the micro grant. >> Did you update this out? >> It's the last. >> Okay. >> No, it's not the last one. I'm sorry. It's the the second to the last one. >> This is information that was new and that we added after the fact. So what I did was I went now we're hearing what other school divisions are recommending in terms of their raises for next year. And you know we've talked about this not only did teachers because this definitely takes a a lot of time to put together but we've had this discussion and it's come to fruition where you know when we did the original look at it we were behind in
065some areas but not all of them. And now we're in essence falling further behind the the Aqua Blue cells. I don't have their actual scales for next year. So when they say they're going to do a 3% raise, I can do that off of their steps, but I don't really know what they're going to be what their start and pay is going to be. So that's just I just kind of rounded up what they had a start and pay for this year. And then um but Louisa is saying they're going to do a 3% plus step and then 4% for classified. And Gland's at 5%, Charlottesville's at 5.5% and Alvin's at 3%. >> The step is usually anywhere from a percent to 1.2 something like that. So Li Louisa is effectively a 4%. >> Yeah.
066And that the the number for Favana that is our proposed scale for next year. So that is with our 3%. And then if you look over to the um right hand side of this you can see what in addition to the three you would have to do in order to be the average or three out of five on this particular scale. >> So just yeah it's just information. Do you have questions about it? It it's just so we all >> so to clarify essentially zero to 20 year long teachers in fluana we are dead last even with a raise and we are weakest in our middle tenur teachers for pay. >> Yes. >> Yeah. And that's that's if they apply what in their board meetings they've approved. Nobody knows what it's all going to look
067at. >> It's important. >> I'm sure we're gonna get three. I mean, they're meeting down the hill now and it it doesn't look positive. >> Well, >> that 3% we have in there is not a guaranteed thing, >> right? And the issue with that is if we don't do the 3%, we won't get the funding. >> Oh, I know. >> Not saying it's deterministic. came to saying that absolutely based on where they're at in their budget discussion literally presently >> they may not be able to give us enough for it. >> So the the one up from that Mr. Good for the health insurance rate comparison. This will make your head hurt a little bit. I apologize. It'll be easier to look at online. >> Great, great data, though. It's really is great data. >>
068So, what I did was I took the school divisions we compare ourselves to and then also the county. And where you see the little pink um highlights, that indicates that that's the highest rate. and you will see that we have the highest rate in quite a number of areas in terms of our health insurance. Um, and then I did try to highlight in yellow if the school division had a different kind of rate structure. So, Albamarl only has an 800 and a,000 and a high deductible. And so, that's why that 800 is is highlighted in yellow. and and their rates are, you know, pretty pretty high for that eight that um that $800 deductible. Charlottesville has a zero deductible, which I have literally never heard of in this modern time. Um >> before you pass
069on there, at the bottom also, >> oh yeah, >> she's included what they've indicated in their board meetings is going to happen next year. And so you can see Albamarl is looking at a 24% increase next year also. >> Yeah. What they told me was they were anticipating a 24 for this year and a 20 for next year. >> Um and they are self-insured. The um >> so Charlottville, sorry. >> So Charlottesville has the zero deductible, a th00and deductible and then a high deductible plan. Um Gland has a 250 and a 500 and a high deductible. And that's why that one's kind of a little weird because I looked at their 500, but they're not in the same column as the other 500s. >> Our our richest plan is their tier 2 plan. Yeah. >>
070So, you could almost put those rates up in the top to really compare ours to theirs. They're still lower >> and they're anticipating a 5% increase. and Louisa has Louisa's out to bid, so they don't have a a rate yet. And I did see where they they made a request of their county for funding for next year and then said plus whatever the increase is for health insurance. Um, and then the last area is the county budget and they're um they're anticipating a 6 point 6.4% 4% increase and you see where their rates are. >> So I know historically the answer has been because our claims are high. Is there any impact on who the provider is knowing that others use different providers with these rates? I mean I know everybody's it sounds like it's
071going up but I'm just curious. I can't imagine that's the only factor is we just have more claims. And if it is, then I would say how do we look into maybe helping our employees have less claims? I mean, it's a great question. >> The other thing I wondered when I looked at this, and I I don't know this, it was a question I had um that I think I'll go back and ask our consultant, >> Gland is actually closer to the Richmond area. And so I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the hospitals that you're using or the providers that you're using versus this area. And I don't know the answer to that, but it it struck me when I was looking at this. How are they affording to do this? Um
072I mean, we've gone out to bid and looked at other providers and the rates were virtually the same. So I I believe it really has to do with our claims >> and it's it's not the numbers of them so much as the types, >> right? You know, well, I guess that goes without saying. The the other thing that's interesting though, Brenda, do you mind sharing which of these are joint programs with their counties? >> I know um Louisa is, is I'm not sure about Charlesville and I think Alam is as well. >> Okay. So we're looking at >> Do you know about or they >> Much is for >> with theirs. Okay. So >> So we're looking at nearly all of these are joint with their county and nearly all of these are cheaper than
073what we're paying. So we're not only dead last and way behind in salary, but we're also behind in insurance. >> We're highest in the lowest salary, highest in cost. >> It costs most to work here and you're getting paid less. And we're also one of the only, if not the only one that's not tied in with the county. You know, the the thing to look at if you Josh, if you want to scroll back to to us, the royal blue, you know, the the the first column is what our employees are paying. You have to look at the total as well because if you look in each of these divisions, you really have to sit with this data for a while. You can't do a lot with it just right off the bat. You'll have
074to look at it in your spare time and process it. But the the total premium and how much each division is paying towards that is is very different and the types of plans are different. We're looking at you know Gland's well Charlottesville I I've never seen that either zero deductible plan. I mean, an employee is paying 150 a month for that, whereas ours are paying 96, but they don't have a deductible. >> Must be nice. >> I mean, that's pretty incredible. >> Is a 250, which is about as low. I don't think there many of those around any. >> No, >> that's very Is there a way >> 250 up till a couple years ago? Is there a way to figure out what our cost would be to bring those exact programs here? I mean,
075I know when we put it out to bid, we're getting a lot of that information, but >> Well, I I haven't done it recently. I will do it again, but when I applied a couple of years ago, when I applied the county rates to our our census, it was going to cost another million dollars. That's dental and vision. That's not >> our dental and vision is not included, but most people included dental and vision. So to do the comparison, I added dental and vision to ours. >> So once you add dental, vision, life insurance, and all other stuff, that's still additional cost that's really not there yet. >> Well, I put the dental and vision in here. >> Um, that's why if you look at a rate sheet later and you look at this and
076go, "Well, she's wrong. She wrote down 96." That's cuz I added and I assumed comprehensive dental and vision and most of you know some of them have it included some of them don't and so I just tried to put it all together so we were comparing apples to apples. >> Do we know how long these other districts have been with their county on insurance? >> I can speak to just because I was there and that was probably 2013. They've been a long >> when they merged. So you're going on a long time. Um, I'll just ask it and I know for whatever reason this county doesn't like this question being asked overall, not schools just in general. Um, is this just because this is how it's always been done here? >> Is that why we
077don't not we is that is that why we just don't really look at this stuff to really push hard is that the answer is like this is how >> I find that be the answer with a lot of stuff in fluana. So, I'm just curious because I've never asked that question that directly as it relates to insurance. >> 15 years ago, I want to say we were on the same self insurance plan. We all we went to Gateway. We all did it together and it it was a horrible mess. I mean, the entire thing was a mess and it only lasted for a year or so. And we had a lot of both of us and the county had a lot of um runout claims. I mean big bills. And so since that time, I
078think after that we both went to other things. And then I know it was probably about four years ago we thought that we would do a bid together and there was a plan to do a common bid and then we started trying to get vendors and people wouldn't bid on it if it was together. And so we were getting feedback, it's just going to cost too much. We can't even give you a price. >> And we have not tried that since that time. Yeah. Um >> I would love for us to try it again, but I'm kind of confused why when you look I mean Louisa's really no more or less rural than what we are, >> right? I I don't I don't know how to >> We're We're in the process now of evaluating
079it because remember when we were at the joint work session, it kind of came up and we were Eric and I were tasked with doing it. We haven't gone very far. >> Yeah. >> We we're in the process of doing it. What it typically involves, in my experience, what it typically involves is when the county comes on, they have to take on either a higher portion or a higher premium. When any anytime the schools are coming on with the county anywhere, there's always a disparity that means they either have to give more money to bring the rates in line with the counties or the counties have got to take on a higher premium. I mean, my concern by reading the data, and I've lived this, being on school insurance since 2011, the time where your
080employees get to having families is also the time that we are paid the worst out of all of these surrounding counties. And that's also the time that you're switching to a family plan with your insurance. I'm so thankful we have these people here, but it only takes one job application to open for them to be like, I can go get paid thousands of dollars more. Plus, it's a bonus because my insurance goes down and I'm only going to drive an extra 13 minutes. Like, I don't know what's going on down that hill right now to potentially impact this, but at some point, we have to fix this. >> Well, sometimes staff will say to me, "Don't even show me this." >> I know. And that's horrible because then >> because it makes me feel bad
081like I don't want to see it. >> I mean it's kudos to the people we have here. But >> yeah, >> if this were not a school system and this was a corporatrun business, your people would be leaving in mass exodus because of pay and insurance benefits. I'll leave it at that. Don't leave teachers and staff, please. But corporate America, this would be a lot different of a scenario. Well, and that's why I feel so strongly about advocating because I feel like we have people that are very loyal and stay here for many, many years and sometimes we punish them for being loyal and then we have you know people come and go. >> Yeah. If you I mean there like I said there's you know she just did this today so we we haven't
082had an opportunity and she did a phenomenal job with new search in the presentation of it but there's a lot to process. I'm just doing some simple math and when you look at the percentage of the total premium that the employer is paying in all these scenarios. I think that's going to be very telling. Not only that, but like I mean you just look at the total premium for for each of these things. I mean there are moments where our employee family $500 deductible is 30% higher from a surrounding division. Like is there ground truth that Flu Vana staff are 30% less healthy than the surrounding divisions? I find it remarkably hard to believe. Like what else is driving this? That's what I'm so concerned about is like what other factor is making our stuff
083so much more expensive. >> Like honestly I I don't know why our staff stay here. I am thrilled that they do. I we we can't operate without them. Like to get the lowest pay and then the highest insurance is just absolutely ridiculous and is unsustainable and is gerine and relevant to the conversation going on down the hill right now because we cannot operate this division and keep our talented staff and recruit great new staff for um honestly less than what's what we've asked for. And um it's looking worse and worse by by the hour here. And luckily we have a couple more weeks until they pass it. But without a robust support for our school division, I'm I'm not sure where we're headed. >> I will say you are self-insured, which means you set the
084rates based on anticipated claims, but if your claims are lower than what was anticipated, that money stays in your claim fund to fund future claims. And my first year here, you were actually able to do that from the the pre or maybe was my second year, but you were able to eat the cost using that savings, which is a benefit that people that are self-insured can never do. >> That is a positive thing. >> We do have a disproportionate amount of cancer claims and large claims. Yes. >> More so than the surrounding divisions. >> I wouldn't know that. >> Yeah, I know. >> I know. I look at they give me data based on um the the health insurance trends and the trend data that they're looking at. >> Yeah. I mean this >> to
085be clear we don't see people with >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. >> Sure. >> Like there should be an objective. I mean shoot everybody using extra tables for everything but like what is the what is the average per capita expense of an average employee in a school division or something? like there is clearly a dissonance or difference between what the average per capita is and what we're getting or what we're seeing there. Like I I just don't understand how we can be such an outlier. And so I guess I'm trying to understand. >> We can have Sam come and and talk with the board. I'm sure you mean you do that. >> Yeah. If you need a preface for what we're going to ask, you can ask him why why our health insurance
086is so damn expensive. I mean, I think that'll about summarize my questions. >> I'll word it just like that. >> You know, I've met Sam a couple times. I don't think he'd mind it. >> No, he doesn't. >> Okay. Uh, and so the last document is the uh personnel per thousand, right? >> Yes. So, one of the questions we got was um was why we had the number of staff we had related to our enrollment. So, this um chart actually um is an average from fiscal year 18 to fiscal year 23. 23 is the last data that the states put out. We'll get 24 next month. Um, but it shows you it kind of allows it to if look at the enrollment and then how many teachers per 10,00 students you have. So it kind
087of makes everything a baseline. And you'll see that over that course of time we actually have the lowest number of teachers per students. >> Also means the highest case loads on top of the lowest paid highest insurance to qualify it. >> That would be correct. >> Yeah. Danny, stop hard selling our division, man. What are you trying to do? Get us >> We have great people here. Come work with us. >> Absolutely we do. And and you know the purpose for the data is just to tell the story to show the story. I mean there's a reason why we're asking I'm not speaking for the board but there's a reason why the budget looks like it does. I mean the the requests aren't made in a vacuum. And when you actually pull down the data
088behind some of the anecdotal work that happens, you see this and we we didn't know what this was going to look like. I think it's very important moving forwards. I love this data and I appreciate y'all pulling it, but this is why this data needs to be shared with the five of us and the five of them multiple times in person all throughout budget season. Actually, before I leave today, there were about three or four new pieces of data that we don't have for the board of supers. And I got five stacks there so that I can make sure that we have all of our data available to the supers every week from here on out. I'd love to shove five copies of each of those in there and make sure we have them on
089hand for the next budget session. >> Well, they got that. >> I know they don't always have it at this. >> Okay. >> On hand. >> I see. Yeah. No, we some of this was kind of sparked by some of the questions we were getting and we were like, you know, maybe we can put some information together that tells a better story than just a just responding to the question doesn't always get to the meat of it. >> And I'll take it a step further. Just giving them the piece of paper doesn't qualify it like we just did. >> Yeah. >> Highest teacher to student ratio means the biggest case load for the cheapest pay and the highest insurance. If that can't be said in person, and I have advocated for this for a long,
090we we have now missed two consecutive years worth of budget sessions because we didn't know if it was a formal meeting or not. And I'll leave it at that like that. We have to be able to sit five on five and not rely on asking crowd members, I love that you're there. This is not a knock on you at all. We cannot rely on asking crowd members, what does this qualify? What does this mean? We need a five on five board-to-board conversation because we're the only other elected board in the county. You can ask the sheriff. I'm venting a little bit, but I think it's worth it. You can ask the sheriff when he's there. He's that's not an elected board. You can ask all of the other nonprofits. They're not an elected board. We
091don't work for the county. We were elected to go do the same type of job that they do, just with a different different focus. that deserves a five on five face-to-face meeting multiple times throughout budget season, especially when we're half the county's budget. >> I will note that I can't >> set the meetings, but if I'm not in this boardroom, I'm down the hill basically for half the year >> and doing my best to advocate, >> which I love, but it needs to the extension of both of us working together as boards has to be there. It just has to be there. And it's right now for the last two to three years, it has not been there. which makes this piece of paper look like oh man like and I'm not this is I'm
092not knocking this might look good to somebody who doesn't know what that piece of paper means because we're the lowest like we have to be able to sit around a table and qualify this stuff whether we get the funding or not we at least need to be able to put our best foot forward in asking for it and I don't think we can do that right now whether we ask for a dollar or a million dollars because we're not able to have this back and forth discussion I'll step off my soap Well, um, so one of the things that I, you know, try to do in budget season to make sure that we're not overlap with the supers. Tonight is an example where I can't remember how we left it the last time, but because
093we're over booked with them. They're talking about the budget now and moving numbers around and we're sitting up here talking about really important things, but >> have we been tableto table with them over the last three months? very few um >> zero outside of the one I think in December maybe >> I think that your your summary is apt I don't want to restate it for you I can watch it back on the video but the I I think if I were to re recquote it again you said it was the lowest >> it's the highest the highest case load for the lowest pay with the highest insurance >> putting it out there for anybody watching at home who wants a nice poll quote for the interwebs >> for sure. >> And I'm just going
094to kind of slide this in there. He doesn't know how to say this. Probably don't know. >> We one of the questions we were asked in the last couple of days was how many teachers live in Savannah County? And that seems like a relatively simple question, but we don't have someone who's in charge of HR. And so we have to go back and pull data out of one of our payroll systems or something to determine who is who lives in Fana and look at zip codes and we're spending hours doing that kind of work because somebody asked that question and in theory we should already have that somewhere. That'd be easy to have but we don't. We have people that are trying to do these things in addition to doing their other job responsibilities and
095it's a challenge. >> We've got the the bigger picture with all of this. Just to bring it back to this point, um we've gotten a lot of questions, some in the meeting, some after the meeting. I'm trying to answer them all. And this is just some of the data that has that has come along the way. and and a lot a lot of the information is gerane to that. I mean not you know questions about exit data, exit interview data, things like that. But we are pulling it all and getting all this together and I'm I'm eager to share it with you and hopefully do it like this so everybody can see it. Well, and every time we get a question, I offer to meet individually to go over things, go over templates and funding
096formulas and any of that stuff, and I'm happy to do that anytime. >> How many employees does the county have? >> I don't know. >> I know schools we have a lot. >> It's at least a 2 to1 ratio. That's like the best I can give. We're in the >> low 500s. >> High 500. Five. >> Like five. >> Yeah, they about 100 employees, I think. >> Okay. So, pretty substantial. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> yeah. >> Okay. >> Kind of kind of sucks to be here when they're making some pretty big moves down the hill right now. I I'll put that out there to a point. >> I haven't set a tax rate yet. >> Well, that's the good thing. We have a maximum and the maximum doesn't get the schools to one nine
097by any stretch of the imagination unless every other department is tanked and uh yeah >> we done >> the Perkins plan is in there for um first review. I don't think Christiey's here tonight. Um, but she put this information together and we had a CT advisory meeting last night. Um, and I think it's pretty much the same. Um, there's not any substantial changes to the plan at this point. Um, I will say that with all of the federal funding, we're keeping an eye on it. Um, we had originally been told that if even if the Department of Education was eliminated that the funding would go to other departments. Um, and then we heard that may or may not be the case. And so just kind of keeping an eye on that because as Miss Valentine
098stated earlier, we have a number of positions that are funded with federal funds particularly in the area of special education. I also don't know with some of those decisions what that might mean in terms of a lot of the requirements we have for special education are federal. And so if those were if that department was to go away, how would the state go about handling it? How would they um make up for that difference in the federal funds? I I don't know what that might look like. So they haven't said anything about the federal funds routing through the state like even if VDOE has changes to it money routing from so like we would receive the same money it would just route through the state. They haven't talked about that at all. >> They have
099not talked about that but that's pretty much what happens now. >> Yeah. >> And so we write a grant and it goes to our state and then the state decides how the funds are dispersed amongst the different counties. They they do their funding formulas and distribute the funds. So that part for us would be the same if they just send the money to the department of eds. >> Yeah. >> Um that's a possibility. >> Things will get way slower, I'm sure, at a 50% staff reduction right now at the federal level. Well, and I will tell you the local the state department of ed here is seems to have a lot of turnover and um just staff that don't have as much experience as previous staff that we've worked with and so it's a little
100bit of a roller coaster for us sometimes as well. frequently makes me wonder if some of that isn't on purpose. >> Any other questions? >> All right. On the 10 A, unfinished business. There any unfinished business? On 11 A, any new business? Okay. On 12, action items. 12 A I entertain a motion for approval of updated 202425 academic count. >> Move to approve the 2024 2025 academic calendar as presented. >> Thanks Danny. Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Thanks written house. We have any discussion? All those in favor? All those in favor say I. I post I. Any oppose? On to 12B. Approval of the next board meeting for 9:25. >> Did we set a time for that? >> You asked for 3:00 >> three. Okay. >> So, uh, Mr. Chair, I'll
101move that we amend the close session time for our meeting on April 9th, 2025 for close session to begin at 3:00 p.m. Eastern and for open session to begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. >> I'll second. >> All right, I got a second further discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I vice chairs I on to 13A public comments. We come to come to the time of our meeting for public comments. I remind everyone that policy only members of the community meeting and staff county post school may address the board unless you are legal council representing group interest in tonight proceedings. We welcome all community members who are here to give information or opinions. We'll ask you to come to the podium. Tell your name, address, and limit your comments to three minutes. We'll start
102with the names of the signup sheet. Input who didn't sign up doing public comments. The board will not interact with you. Got anybody signed up or anybody who wants to come forward to speak? >> Hello, my name is Ashley Crocker. I live in the Fork Union District. I didn't think I was going to be here tonight, so I didn't prepare very much because I was at the first grade musical, which was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Shout out to Miss Ravitzky, the new music teacher at Central, for doing a really fantastic job. I did want to come up here and say thank you to Mr. Reid, and thank you to Dr. Kelly for really engaging in this budget conversation, asking good questions, and proposing good ideas. The two boards should meet at
103least quarterly, if not monthly. There's no reason that your budget should be a surprise to the folks down the hill, and that's not a slide on you. If I'm being honest, every time I come to one of these meetings, I leave thinking that I need to move immediately to give my kids a fair shot. I hope that by the end of this budget season, I'll feel better about that. But honestly, I'm not feeling very hopeful. Thank you for the work that you do and the advocacy that you're doing for your kids, and I hope that the board of supervisors will follow your lead. Have anybody else wants want to come to speak? See, anybody else coming? close second round of public comments. All right, on to school board member comments. I'll start to my right
104with Dr. Uh, per usual, I want to start with gratitude and and thank our staff and administration and our leaders here for doing a just a knockout job week over week, providing us with the data that we need, going down the hill and at being open to questions, finding great ways to answer them. Like you all are doing a fabulous job and uh we will be temporarily run our list without without some of us. And so just thank you for continuing to knock it out of the park. Um I'll note that our budget is not full of um superfluous things. There's not a there's nothing in there that's a pie in the sky or a want like this is a true expression of need that came from majority of this board. Um I know that
105things are tough down the hill. I know that setting a tax rate is difficult. That is the job that they are elected for and we are elected to to advocate and tell the board of supervisors what we need. I'll note that we're going to move into close session here and take care of the rest of our business tonight and and get out of here a bit too late. But to the extent that people are interested, there is action down the hill this evening and there will be for the next couple of weeks and to the extent that you want to see us be able to actually give raises to our teachers, which is in genuine jeopardy, genuine jeopardy. If the number that comes from down the hill is too low, there are things in that
106budget that our students need that I will put before staff raises. You can run me out of office ne whatever year it is. I don't really care because I'm going to advocate for our students first. And so to the extent that we want to be able to compensate our staff uh how do I say this in the least generous way possible in the best circumstances given the data I've seen then it requires some advocacy from all of us to let our supervisors know that we need to fund we need to fund our schools and I know that tax rates require business and so on and so forth and I'm not envious of that role. But I'm going to continue to full court press and advocate for our staff and students because ultimately cutting corners and
107not funding education leads to terrible outcomes for our kids. It leads to increased spending later in life. uh when when our students aren't able to find jobs or are in legal trouble or aren't getting don't have the skills they need to be to be fully employed and and active members of our citizenry. And so, um I hope that we can find a way to to to voice those concerns to those who ultimately have uh the authority to do something about it. Uh, lots of amazing things coming up. I want to apologize for I I missed both a band and a choir concert, which is nearly a cardinal sin for me. Uh, I was in meetings for both of those and I'm horrified by it. I know that there's a career and technical education night coming
108up. I think it's next Tuesday. >> Of course, I will be at VSBA bringing some of our students art there. If a member doesn't show up to the VSBA, our students art cannot be included in the competition. So, I won't be able to make the career and technical education night that I really love going to, but I highly encourage everybody else to do it uh to be there. Next Wednesday, we'll have yet another meeting for the Piedmont Regional Education Program. If you guys have questions about that, either board members or the public, hit me up. I'm happy to talk at Nauseium about that. Uh, so a lot of great things going on, a lot of amazing things coming out of our buildings and I am genuinely optimistic that when things calm down after next week
109that I'll see a bunch of our staff and our students in the building shortly. Central, I am headed your way first. >> Thanks, Dr. Joey. >> Yeah, but um just like Mr. Kelly, um, thank Miss Grasser and Mr. Gretz for your presentation. very clear and very forthright. Um does bring a lot of things to light. Um and on another note, um last week I went and read uh at prek class over at central and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Uh it was actually Miss Reed's class and some others came in there and little kids there just absorbing everything you say and they're sitting in front of me asking me questions while I'm trying to read. But it was it was fun. It was really nice. >> Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Reed, >> u Thank you
110all for coming tonight. I I could echo but due to time I don't want to either to uh exactly what my fellow board members have said. Um I I will just put this nugget out there. If I remember correctly, it was prior to me being on this board, one of the biggest reasons why we had that huge I think it has been called historic by many was because we lagged behind in pay for years and we didn't address it. There is no way around it. There will have to be a historic budget passed at some point in time again if we lag behind in pay. And I would just ask anybody listening to please keep that in mind because the compensation war is not going to stop. probably ever or anytime soon. So, if we
111don't want a historical budget, let's at least stay as close to possible staying on par. Um, to piggyback off of Mr. Written House, the question that I was asked after I read last week was, "What do you do for a living?" And it came from a preschooler. So, the fact that we have kids that are roughly four years old asking those kind of questions is awesome. Um, but I also don't want to let some of these conversations in our meetings that are sometimes doom and gloom, uh, overshadow all the good stuff going on in the schools. So, got a lot of great people here and a lot of good stuff going on. >> Thank you, Mr. Re. I just want to kind of piggyback what he just said, kind of my last comments that we
112have kids state champions in track, swim, speech, band. I mean everything that's just says work that our teachers are doing with our students to be fantastic. So that's when it's a shame when we hear the presentation and we're last and everything. We have kids that are doing fantastic work with less. So imagine what our teachers and and students could do with more. That would be amazing. So thank you. So, at this point, we will I'll take a motion to go back into close session. >> Mr. Key, just really quick, I'm sorry I meant to do this at the beginning. I just because we missed it because of uh the weather. >> I just wanted to honor our school board clerk and ask her to come down front here. And we just have a little certificate
113for you. >> One other thing, thank all the schools for giving us all this stuff. Yeah, >> it was um Okay, >> it was school board members recognation. Um >> yeah, >> Mr. Chair, do you want >> Yes, I'll take a picture. >> Yeah, thank you, sir. >> If I knew we were doing this, I'd have worn my suit and a vest. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. We we can't without you, you know. >> Thank you, Miss Brandy. >> They don't want me to start that. They all went. >> All right. Thank you. >> We really do appreciate you, Brandy. You do an amazing job. And uh as you said, each year a school adopts a school board member and so you have different things from them. We weren't able to do this
114last month, but and I will say, Mr. Key, whoever gets that school every year that those are the actual fun uh thumbrints of the kids. >> Oh, that's cool. >> Every the last three years, I've got a picture and I really appreciate it. I have a large piece of canvas at the house, too, that's been painted, which is lovely. >> Um, >> so at this point, we'd have to reconvene back in a close session to finish some um unfinished business. >> Yep. And so that's Mr. Keyy's polite way of um kicking you all out for the evening. That's