001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> He's not going to make it tonight. No. Yeah, yeah, it is. Okay. >> Okay. All right, we're live. All right. We'll go ahead and call our Got it. Look at that. You'll have it all to yourself. Like I need it. Okay. Okay, now we can call our regular meeting of the Wayne County Board of Education to order. It is 5:01, and if you'll stand, we'll say the pledge. Does Mark want to call in? No. Okay. Johnny, do you want to lead us? Yes. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let the record [clears throat] show that um Dennis Ashworth, myself, and Johnita, and Mr. Trotter Wine are
002here in person. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Ross is not with us today. Looks like the first thing on our agenda this evening is a personnel hearing. So, we can go ahead and begin that. Did Is this going to be open or closed or Closed. Following his request, closed. Yes. And so we'll need a motion to go into executive session. >> Motion. Motion by Randy. Second. Second by Dennis for executive session for our personnel hearing today. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried 4 to 0. It's 5:02. Okay, and for those that are joining us online, we will resume the regular meeting at the conclusion of the hearing. Okay. >> Mhm. >> Okay, the board has voted to come out of executive session at 5:32 p.m. We'll move back to the agenda. Yeah. All
003right, we'll move on to our next agenda item which is recognitions if we have any. No recognitions, no presentations. Okay. Moves us on to good news. I got good news. Very I'm very happy that the two incumbents won the election last night. Uh cuz I'll be leaving June 30th and I think it kind of makes me and Randy look good because they appreciated what we as a board have done and you know, contrary to what people said, we've been transparent. We've made so many improvements and all night >> [clears throat] >> kind of gives a nod to all of us of the work that we've done and how much we do care for the kids. So, Good points. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU. ALL RIGHT. ANYONE ELSE? >> THANK YOU, JOHN, EDEN. YOU WELCOME. Appreciate
004it. All right, let's move on to our informational items then. Special board meeting on Tuesday, May the 19th beginning at 4:00 at Wayne Elementary. Uh regular board meeting on Wednesday, May 26th beginning at 6:00 here in the conference room. >> That'll be Tuesday, though. You know, the 26th is Tuesday. Yeah. >> Oh, yes. Yeah, it was Yeah, it's Tuesday. I must have typed it wrong in the notice. Yeah. >> Yeah. What did you say? What was that? You want me to read it back to you? Just a typo. All right. You want me to read it for you? Yeah, we're all Oh, okay. I'm glad you caught that. All right, moving on to our next item is our construction project updates. So, um we had the bid opening for the Buffalo K-8 project today. Yes.
005And our low bid came in. Uh our apparent low bidder is Swope Construction. Uh their bid came in at 19,998,000. Which was uh under budget, uh under the projected [clears throat] budget, so uh that was good. Um McKinley has to do a follow-up meeting with them uh to uh vet the uh bid, and they will make a bidding recommendation to us on Monday. Uh for Tuesday night's agenda, we will have uh the approval of the contract listed on the agenda, so we're prepared to take action Tuesday night uh on McKinley's recommendation. And who are we going to have as a Okay. the supervisor Hotman Skanska. We've got the Skanska hired. The 20 >> So, we'll have uh Heath Fane with McKinley, and then we'll have the Skans- Skanska Construction Group as the clerk of the
006works. >> Like I said before, with our current experience, we're going to have to have a real supervisor if they get the bid. Right. I think with this particular [clears throat] group, if I'm not mistaken, they've had a a change of There's been some changes, yeah. >> leadership. Oh, really? Yeah. Because it's still is It's the same way >> have to do what the state tells us to do as far as protecting the Is it still owned by that politician down in Archer County? That was the question we had before and Right. Low bidder. Right. Yeah, there there's been changes. >> Okay. Um there's been changes. >> is that There's been changes in ownership and they have to go through vetting um all of their employees through the SBA process to make sure that everybody's
007>> Well, my concerns are taken care of. I'm okay. All right. I'm not being going to go on with this. Now again, McKinley's got to review the scope with with the with the apparent low bidder to make sure that everything's been taken into consideration before the contracts are executed, but I should have a recommendation for you next Tuesday evening. Okay. Okay. Thanks. And that's a full context Tuesday, correct? Yes. Tuesday for it. All right. Delegations this evening, I think we do have one. We have one. Frankie? Yes. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am here tonight to ask that you the board members take a closer look at the gifted and talented program, which is what is we are currently utilizing for our higher learners as the main outlet for them to use. Um I
008think that we need to be making sure that it is something that is challenging to them and exciting to them. Cuz right now, uh from what I have been seeing, the teacher pulls them out and places them on a computer. They need to be doing more hands-on advanced learning, such as STEM projects. I mean, there's a plether of things that they could be doing with these kids. You can get on Pinterest, you can Google search, and I don't know why we're not utilizing this a little bit more to give these kids more hands-on learning activities. I think also that since every teacher in the county is subjected to walk-throughs, that the gifted teacher should not be an exception to that. I think that someone should be popping in and doing walk-throughs to see exactly what
009is going on with our gifted kids. Cuz these are our higher learning students. Most of you know my son and how truly exceptional he is when it comes to his academics. What you do [clears throat] not know is that he was tested for the gifted program but did not qualify when he was in elementary school. This is a child who has on standardized testing scored been one of the highest scores, always scoring usually in the top 1% in the nation, not in the state, not in the county, in the nation. And he did not qualify for this program. Which leads me to I think that we need to revamp and re-look at how we qualify our students. I think that the person who is giving the qualifying pre-screener should not be the gifted teacher. I
010think it needs to be an independent person who doesn't have an invest, you know, the outcome doesn't hinder them or affect them in any way >> [clears throat] >> because, you know, if I'm the pre-screener and I'm like I got 10 kids, I don't really don't feel like I want to take 11, should I really be doing being a pre-screener? I'm not saying that that's what's happening, I'm just saying >> [laughter] >> it should be someone independent. And also, the teacher input and data. Cuz the teachers have to put in input and data as to why they are recommending these students. And it seems like that as long as they the pre-screener says that they shouldn't advance on to more screening, they don't. So, we should should be looking at the whole process. We should
011be making sure that when any of these screening tests are being done, that they are being [clears throat] done in a quiet, distraction-free setting. I've seen firsthand that that doesn't always happen. So, I mean, if you're if you have a child who's taking a test and there are children coming in and out, there are intervention classes around them going on, [clears throat] you it's going to be distracting for them. They may not be testing their best. Um >> [clears throat and cough] >> I think also that the gifted teacher should be at any meeting that if I'm going to say your child qualifies or your child doesn't qualify, he needs the gifted teacher needs to be there so they can answer the questions of the parents. You know, or any screener because >> [clears throat
012and cough] >> any of it like there's several times that they're not available. The person who's running the meeting, they don't know why they didn't. You know what I mean? Like so, they're sitting there not really having all the information to pass on to the parents. >> [clears throat] >> So, I think we need to do a better job of that. Um I think another idea is why not ask teachers in the county like ideas that hey, do you have anything that maybe the gifted teacher might could use to help your students that are pulled out? We have amazing teachers in this county and aids. You know, like I had my kindergarten class. I did a water purification STEM activity. That is something that they were in awe like we really [clears throat and cough]
013put dirty water. I went through all the processes and we were like and I even asked them beforehand. I'm like, do you think this is going to be a Pinterest win or a Pinterest fail? And so, they they judged it, we did it and then the kids would they you know, ask a few questions, but it was intriguing. It was inviting. This is the kind of things that we should be doing with our gifted program. Um since the gifted program is a part of the special programs. Is there a set amount that is allocated just for the gifted program department? [clears throat] You know, I don't know how all the budgeting works in special programs, but I'm just wondering it and that's something you guys should ask. Is there a set amount that's set aside
014for the gifted kids? To for projects, you know, field trips, any of these things that would be more advanced for our higher learning and engaging for them. Okay, Frankie. Sorry. Anyways I just [laughter] hope that you guys look at it. Try to make it more inviting. Make the kids excited to be gifted. Instead of aw. Yeah. Dragging off to the computer. We'll uh Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. We'll have Mr. Alexander get back with you on that, okay? He's taking notes. All right. All right. No other delegations this evening, so we can move on to our superintendent reports. Uh first up, school safety mapping. You remember several months ago you approved a contract for school safety mapping. That is scheduled to begin here um towards the end of the month. So uh it
015should be completed before the next year begins, so um I'll keep you updated as that progresses. Uh we had the advertisement out for receiving proposals for a the Westmoreland property, a certain piece of that property. Uh the piece remaining that that we still have ownership of and so we've received one offer on that uh piece of property and that's that's from Playmates. And so I'll have that on Tuesday's agenda as well and I will send you that offer for you to look over before that meeting. Have you had it appraised? No, we did not have it appraised. Um one one section of the building. Um we've had it surveyed but not appraised. Um the third item um >> [clears throat] >> Frankie did come see me about the gifted program. And so we had a
016we had a discussion and it was already on our radar. Um you know, something that we think that we can really take advantage of and and make some unique opportunities available for students and uh to make it a a real attractive program for the district. So um she shared a number of ideas and and uh there were a number of other ideas that we've discussed. So it's that's on the radar for next year. >> Good. So will you get back to us on that? Sure, absolutely. That's all I have. All right. I'm going to go over directives or board reports this evening, so we can go on to our unfinished business. And that is the policies work that we've been doing. Now all of these policies have been out for 10-day comment, correct? >> Yes,
017yes, and this is the unfinished business. So these are with the policies that were on our I think our LSC meeting and we just decided to wait on them. Right. You didn't get any comments? No. No public comment on any of our policies. That's a good good question. Okay, so none of these had any comments. >> No. We can approve them all together. No, we'll have to go through them separately, but it shouldn't take too long. Okay. All right, so first one is consider for approval of the adoption of policies um placed on for 10-day comment. And this one is 52 23. There was no public comment on this particular policy, so Motion to approve. Motion by Johnny Doe. Second. Dennis. Any other questions or concerns? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4
018to 0. Can we group any of those? We can't. Okay. Number two, consider for approval the adoption of policy 5600. There was no public comment again, so motion. Motion. Randy. Randy second. Second. Johnny Doe. Any other questions or concerns? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Three is the policy 5200. No public comment was heard, so motion. To approve. Johnny Doe. Second. I'll do it. Dennis. Questions or concerns? All in favor? I. Any opposed? >> [snorts] >> Motion carries 4 to 0. Next policy is 0100. No public comment was left on this policy either, so motion. Randy second. Second. Johnny Doe. Questions, concerns? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Next policy we have 3 5500, 5530, and 5610. No public comment was left on these policies,
019so Motion to approve. Motion by Johnny Doe. Second. >> Second by Dennis. Questions or concerns? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number six, the next policy is 2271. No public comment on this one either, so motion. >> Motion. Dennis. Second. Randy. Questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. The next policy is uh 5511. Uh no public comment left, so Randy has the motion. Second, Johnnita. Any questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number eight is policy 5460. No public comment on that one either, so motion. Motion. Second. Johnnita, second by Dennis. Questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number nine, several policies here, 0142, 0142.3, 0147, 2411, 2451, 5113, and 5722. No public comment or
020was left on any of these policies. >> Motion to approve. Motion by Johnnita. Second, Randy. Second. Questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number 10, the old policy 2413 and policy 7440.05. Uh no public comment on this one either, so motion. Motion. Dennis. Second. Second. Randy. Any questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number 11 is policy 8330. No public comment. Motion to approve. So, Johnnita makes the motion. Second. Second. Randy makes the second. >> [clears throat] >> Any questions? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number 12, policy 2350, no public comment. Motion? Motion. Juanita, second. >> Second. Randy. Questions? All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Number 13, policy number 2605, policy 5780.01, policy 5840, 5895, policy
0217421, policy 8350, and policy 8800. Motion. Motion by Randy. Second. >> Second. Juanita, there's no public comment on these, either. Any other questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Last one. Number 14, policy 2275, policy 4139.01, policy 7530.02. No public comment on these policies, so motion. Motion. Juanita, second. Second. >> Yes. Any questions? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Now we can move on to our new business. Consent action items, the superintendent recommends approval of the following action items. Additional items received prior to the time of the meeting may be added. Discussion and or separate action of the items may be requested by the members of the board and or the superintendent. Items are subject to change. Any blanks would be filled in prior to the meeting, and in
022the event a nominee withdraws, we reserve the right to put the next candidate in that position. Motion to approve. Number one, matters as personnel matters 1 through 2. You've got You've got the motion, Juanita. >> Yes. I'll second. [clears throat] Second, Dennis. Any questions or concerns on that? I want to pull the abolish position on the bus run, bus 1434. Okay, hold on. Okay, pull that. Yeah. They're looking to see if they can combine that run, but uh they haven't reached a definitive decision yet. So, we need to hold off on any action on that. Okay. And then um Leslie on the non-renewal of the probationary contract, do we need to read the name? Uh you do not. Okay. So, we have the non-renewal of the probationary contract, which was related to the hearing this
023evening. That's it. Everything else is straight forward. Okay, and I see it. So, I'm going to thank you. We don't have to put that in there this time. So, these are personnel matters as revised. Mhm. Any other questions or concerns on those? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number two, consider for approval the minutes of the Wayne County Board of Education. This is number 37 on April 28th, pages 3 through 18. Motion. Motion. Juanita. Second. Second. Randy. Any questions or concerns on those minutes? None. All in favor then? Aye. Any opposed? [clears throat] Motion carries 4 to 0. Number three, consider for approval the purchase requisition order and quotes in excess of $5,000, pages 19 through 21. Motion. Motion. Motion by Randy, second. Second. Juanita. Questions or concerns on those?
024Uh the first one in the list is a uh purchases for the library out of Eastland. That's through uh uh title supplies fund. That is assigned to Eastland. And then um the second PO is food for the summer feeding programs that we discussed before that we're going to be running. Perfect. All right. Any other questions or concerns on those requisitions? None heard. All in favor then? All right. Any opposed? Motion carries. 4 to 0. New business, separate action items. Number one, consider for approval the out-of-state field trip request Richard Elementary fifth graders to go to King's Island on June the 4th, funded by their PTO. Motion by Randy. Second. Second by Juanita. Questions or concerns [clears throat] on that field trip? It looks like they've got 17 students, five employees as chaperones plus parents. And
025it's planning. I think I'm going to try more chaperones. >> [cough] >> It looks like they're driving themselves, so that's good. Okay. Any other questions? All right. All in favor? All right. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number two, consider for approval the out-of-state travel request for an employee travel to the SREB Making School Work Conference in Nashville July 13th through the 17th, and that's funded by grant funds from the school. Motion to approve. Motion by Juanita. Second. Second. Randy. Questions, concerns? None heard. None heard. All in favor? All right. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Now, number three is consider for approval the adoption of the policies. These also have been out for 10-day comment, correct? Yes. >> No comments. No comments on any of these policies? >> No. Again, we can't
026group them together. Yeah, you can on that. Yeah, this is Yeah, they're all in one line, so we're good on that one. So, you think Dr. Hill Yeah, the same concern I did. Worried about having to go through those again, huh? All right, so we don't have to um group these together. They're already grouped, so. Motion for Motion policies. Yeah, we're going to read them out. Second. I probably should read the numbers, shouldn't I? Just the numbers. Okay. Uh these are policies 7540.02, policy 2412, 5340, 1662, 3362, 4362, 3160.01, 4160.01, 5310, 5320, 5321, 7540.03, 7540.04, [clears throat] 8450, 8453, 3242.05, 5335, 1422, 1623, 2260, 2260.01, 3122, 3122.02, 3123, 4122, 4122.02, 4123, 5410, and that is it. Motion to approve. Motion by Johnny Eda. Second. Second. Dennis. Any questions or concerns on any of those policies?
027Could you read them again? No. >> [laughter] >> All right, all in I. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. Number four, consider for approval of revisions to existing policy for further administrative review, further board review, or 10-day public comment. I'm going to give you a handout here. So, yeah, this this policy is to be considered for revision and possibly going to 10-day public comment depending on the board's preference. This is the policy on coaching and and we wrangled around with these things at different times over the years. Um in the first in the first grouping, it says compensated coaching positions, and then the next bold heading is volunteer non-compensated coaching positions. But, the language is similar in both, whether it's a compensated job or a non-compensated job. It says, "All principals and full-time athletic
028directors which we don't have right now. Um while performing as such in permanent positions are prohibited from also serving or acting as compensated coaches or assistant coaches within the Wayne County Board of Education or any other school system. Um in assistant principals employed by the Wayne County Board of Education may participate as compensated coaches within the Wayne County school system subject to the following limitations. Any such coaching position must be at the school where the assistant principal is assigned. The duties, responsibilities, and the schedule of the coach coaching position do not unduly interfere with the assistant principal's duties and responsibilities. And so, um the this used to read this policy used to include um all administrative positions, including central office directors, and we had a discussion at the time about, you know, there there was
029no need to exclude central office people from serving in these positions. It was actually a benefit Right. to have them involved in the programs, and um, finding quality coaches, um, we have solid quality coaches within the district, but finding uh, quality coaches for all positions that we have is difficult, and this, uh, this, uh, particular policy eliminates, uh, principals, even elementary principals, from serving as coaches. So, what I would like you to consider is some tweaks in language. So, if you go to the third page, it's just some notes that I've put down that we could consider. Saying that all administrators may be considered for compensated coaching positions, provided that the duties, responsibilities, and schedule of the coaching position do not unduly interfere with the performance of their administrative duties and responsibilities. Such assignment shall
030require the recommendation of the superintendent and the approval of the Wayne County Board of Education. In all cases, priority shall remain on the effective performance of the individual's primary employment responsibilities. So, for example, in the in the example I was giving, if you're an elementary administrator, I think you can work in coaching duties because you, you know, you don't have those super supervision requirements for athletics that are going on, um, at your school. And so, uh, down under the next section, volunteer or non-compensated coaching positions. It reads the same. So, you know, administrators would be uh permitted to do that if after a review it was determined that they can do it without a uh affecting the performance of their primary employment uh responsibilities. And they have to have the same conduct and all that
031to as apply like Yes. for non-compensated, too. Yes. Okay. Under under oversight and approval, um it says all coaching assignments involving administrators would be reviewed reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Approval is contingent upon demonstration that coaching duties will not interfere with the administrative responsibilities, recommendation by the superintendent, approval by the Wayne County Board of Education. Um and again, there's nothing in this policy shall be construed to permit coaching duties to take precedence over the assigned administrative role or to compromise the effective operation of the school system. Uh superintendent shall evaluate each request based on the operational impact. Just something to consider. Um you know, it's getting more and more difficult to get people to do these positions. Right. And um we do have folks that are interested in in doing those where I do believe
032they could do it without impacting their jobs. Now, you know, if you're a middle school or high school principal, that's probably not the case. So, you could say, "Well, you know, we've got to do it across the board." But um we could look at it and give discretion. Um you know, >> Kind of goes along with with something we've been accused of, nepotism. But in Wayne County, you can't throw a rock without hitting a relative, number one. Number two, you've only got so many qualified people and there's families involved and stuff like that. Same thing here. You got a limited pool pool of people that are qualified or interested. >> and you have to go with them. Right. Yeah. So. I just wonder if like if you're at a school down at one end of
033the county and you bid on a school at another end, that's going to interfere with your bidding. So, would that not that person not be approved to do it then? Correct. Okay, cuz you know >> What about working for another uh like out of the system? Good point, Keith. That's what you were saying. No. What do you mean? Coaching out of the system. What do you mean out of the No, I was saying from what the whole like county going like from micro schools. If you work at Tallulah and you wanted to be a coach at Spring Valley and you were an administrator, would you have to leave that school early to get to practice? No, you wouldn't be able to cuz that would affect your meeting. So, then you're going to change your practice
034for [clears throat] whatever or or not do it. or not do it. That's what I meant. It'd be Yeah, you had to make sure. It would have to be approved by the superintendent and the Yeah, board of education. Right. Pretty much all of them. And the existing policy to Dennis's point prohibits prohibits principals and full-time athletic directors from serving or acting as compensated coaches or assistant coaches within the Wayne County Board of Education or any other school system. Um As a middle school principal, can I say something? Sure. Uh middle school is a very hard place to coach in a position. Uh high school's easy. Everyone wants to be a high school coach. Middle school jobs get posted, nobody bids on them. This will be a future for us. Um I know that there are
035principals elementary school principals that have been former athletes that would have coached in the past and never had the opportunity to. So, I think this is a good thing. I can see where high school middle school principals couldn't do it because of the evening duties. Uh but anytime you can add to the pool of applicants for middle school jobs is huge because we don't have a lot of people knocking down the doors for middle school jobs. And it's hard to fill these coaching positions with good quality people. Um so, I would ask that you consider it just for middle school alone. Well, I but middle school coach, now it's a difficult thing. >> It's hard to find good middle school coaches. It really is. Yeah. So, we can Can we just um It you know,
036it requires some discretion if we make that change, but um it you know, we can do one of two things. You can, you know, table it to our next meeting. Um if you want me to put it out on 10-day comment, I can include the language as defined here. Um we could say that the these uh that the coaching positions are allowed or just in the Wayne County school district. Right. And uh I can go ahead and put it out on public comment with the changes that I have in in front of you. That That's up to you. I think it's a good idea putting it out on 10-day comment. >> Well, we have And that way people have a chance to have a say. Well, we have to And everybody understands it, you know.
037>> Right. Right. Right. Prior approval before they start coaching. Yes. You know, before they actually cuz that's me. I just you know. Think about it. If they're going to leave and go somewhere else, are they not going to be doing the after school duties? You know, that's just my thoughts. I don't think I I agree with the fact that we just need a bigger pool of individuals. So, I don't really have a problem with it as long as it's approved prior to Right. doing it. We can do that. >> Yeah, cuz the administration if there is interference or starts impending on their their duties, then that it's correct. Right. Yeah. I think so. So we can tweak the language and go ahead and put it on for 10-day comment. Is everyone agreeable on that? Okay,
038so we'll need a Just exactly what's in the writing in front of you. The only The only different The only difference I will make is I'll make it make it clear to keep that language about within the Wayne County School District. I'm good with that. Okay. All right, so And then it's got to come back to you for approval. Right. So this is policy 2431.02 and we are going to revise it with modified language to allow principals to participate in the coaching abilities. And we'll put that out for 10-day comment. Yes. >> kind of says here, you know, such assignment shall require the recommendation of the superintendent and the approval of my board of education. Right. So So that's covered. That's covered. Okay. I'll make a motion for it to go out on 10-day public
039comment if we're through comment. Second. Need to make some motion. Dennis made the second. 10-day comment. >> Any other questions or concerns on that particular policy for 10-day comment? None. Heard all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries 4 to 0. Yeah. Thanks, Bob. Now, we have number five is consider for approval the Wayne County preschool calendar on page 23 for the school year 26 and 27. All right, our separate attachments said it was Is it the same calendar cuz our separate attachment says it's on page four. Same thing. That's what I was I think one's a calendar Yeah, I think But it's the same thing. Calendar? Okay. Like the calendar. It don't It don't count with God cuz he's colorblind. Preschool, they start after us and end earlier. >> Yeah, their calendar is
040always based off of our approved regular calendar. So, once ours is approved by the state, then they'll adjust theirs. But yeah, there's a later starting time. So, we just need to put this >> So, they're starting on that looks like what? The 24th? Yes, Thursday. Yeah. Make a motion to approve. Motion by Randy. Second. Second by Johnny now. Any other questions or concerns? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Potential items for future agenda. >> Yes. So, I mentioned the Buffalo con- the Buffalo contract and the Westmoreland property. Yeah. Um those are coming up. We've got a disciplinary hearing likely coming up at the next regular meeting. Um that's the only things we have pending right now. And of course, we're getting ready to have a budget workshop. We'll also have the budget
041approval, Jeb. That's at the next regular meeting. Two weeks from now or two weeks from yesterday. So, what happened? All right. Moving on to our budget workshop, then. Okay. I've got a handout for you. Pass that down to Randy. Do y'all need it? Got it. Thank you, sir. Uh >> [cough and clears throat] >> Jeb, let me give you a copy of this. So, we are looking at the uh the gross the gross budget for the year. Starting off with the total budget in FY26, it was um approximately 80 million. FY27, that budget is now 76 million. So, a change in a about 4 million, about uh 5% overall. >> [clears throat] >> And then at the last board meeting, Jeb went over our revenue changes with us. Uh these revenues do include the the
042benefits, the on behalf uh revenue that comes in from the state that basically comes in the door and then right back out the door. It's it's already uh spoken for. >> [cough and clears throat] >> And so, um at the last meeting, we talked about how the local levies are up about 500 almost $600,000. Basic state aid is down $287,000. [clears throat] Now, remember, if we were doing an apples-for-apples comparison, it's down closer to 1.3 million. But, with the raise that was given to employees, that generated extra funding coming in. So, it it shows overall just a just a 287,000 decrease. Um PEIA is down 432,000 in revenue. The retirement is down 1.68 million in revenue. OPEB is up 295,000. And so, um and then the last item is what's listed as the fund balance.
043So, that's that's what we're reporting as the beginning balance. Now, remember at the last meeting we talked about the 3.76. In reality, that was 1.9. And so, it's showing a 2.81 million variance. In reality, we're expecting that to be about a million dollar variance. And then we're working on that, trying to shrink it. So, the primary revenue drivers that we discussed were reduced state on behalf of benefit funding. We lost quite a bit of money there. You see what we lost in the retirement. 1.68 million in in retirement revenue. And then the significant reduction in the use of the fund balance. But again, that that reduction is overstated on paper. Okay, going to two, page two. >> [snorts] >> So, we said tonight we would talk about um expenditures. So, Jeb, on page two, I'll
044turn it over to you there for those the major expenditure categories. So, the first [clears throat] line item we have there is regular instruction. That's what that is. It's down 1.96 million. That includes that includes teaching positions. There's a lot of personnel cost in there. >> Right. Pre-K, that is play dates in Southwestern. That contract we expect that to be down 69,000 due to the drop in due to the drop of enrollment. You notice that we have academic coaches down 952,000. That's And you'll see part of the reason for this is just we shifted that equal representation of labor. The The technology positions at the high schools were listed under academic coaches, so they've been they've been shifted over to technology. So, that cost reappears elsewhere. Now, I want to stress that, you know, we've
045switched from revenues to expenditures. So, when we see a drop here, that's a good thing. Um so, we're reducing you know, the regular instruction cost is reducing and again, that's largely personnel that's reducing $2 million. >> [cough] >> Okay, Jeb, back to student support. Instructional improvement is dropped 523,000. That is largely positions here at the central office. Um Uh those positions that were shifted to federal funding and some of the positions that have been reduced, so there's a 520,000 reduction in expenses there. Guidance is down 102,000. And I believe that speech services is up 225,000. [clears throat] And what we did um in looking at the expenditure amounts for this year, we tracked expenditures over the past 3 years. So, we haven't seen a a big increase in positions under speech services. It was consistently
046coming in above the budget that was assigned to it. So, this budget assignment of 963,000 is in line with where the cost have escalated to over the years. Now, are all those speech services are those reimbursable or is it just certain um certain schools? >> if it's billed It's not reimbursable. Okay. So, anything [snorts] outside of of a title school Got you. So, the next category is administration. It's not down 200,000 in administrative costs. >> [snorts] >> Operation and transportation transportation And they grouped together operation and maintenance costs. It's down 400,000. Transportation is [clears throat] not down 500,000. And again, that's looking at the that's looking at the trends and expenses over a 3-year period. So, we've been lucky that those expenses are trending down there. >> [clears throat] >> You know, you don't have
047to be on the lookout for the price of gasoline and oil down. Well, actually we had the opportunity to cut the diesel budget and we didn't touch it because of you know, where things are right now. So, the categorical programs is at 127,000. That is your special ed programs. Okay. Technology is at 253,000. That is offset the active coaches and ship. Got you. Yeah, so I just shipped it over there. It's in It's in the right place. Got you. Contingency / reserves. Down 300,000. So, we don't have contingency. Right. We have basically no So, the key takeaways from for the numbers that he just went over, um we've got a approximately a 4 million total budget reduction, um with the work that's been done so far. Now, again, you will approve the final budget in
048our next meeting in 2 weeks. There will be more work that occurs on these expenditures and over the next 2 weeks, but this is where we stand right now. So, the largest cuts were in instruction, um which is largely um that's direct and support roles. It's largely personnel. Uh transportation, uh contingency and the reserves. And then it says strategic increases in technology, but that was just a shift. And then uh student services that in the speech and the special ed as we've discussed in several prior meetings, you know, those costs continue to uh continue to escalate. Those are the major categories of the budget that you'll see at the end of the month. So, part two here, um instead of just going over the raw numbers of what we're projecting the expenditures to be, you
049we see a percentage breakdown. So, um again, we're looking at approximately a $76 million budget. Um the percentage of budget assigned to instruction and that includes uh benefits associated with the personnel positions is at 43%. Uh student support services is at 6%. Administration at all levels is at 8%. Operations [clears throat] and maintenance is at 13%. Transportation is at 11%. Categorical programs, again, that's the special ed cost, 16%. So, that's our second biggest portion of the budget behind the instruction. Technology is at 1%, CTE programs at 3%, other expenditures, transfers, and the food service, athletics, that type of thing, set at 4%. Going to the next page, I'm going to skip over the important note at the top. We've We've already covered that, but in the middle, where it says personnel cost all categories, so
050total personnel cost is listed at 78.4% of the budget, $59.6 million. Now, this includes all salaries and benefits, and it also includes um some of our cooks, our food service personnel, well, all of our cooks are listed in fund 61. Mhm. And so, uh we do an interfund transfer um to help support those positions, so that doesn't show up in fund 11 as straight personnel cost, but really that's what it is. That's what we're transferring the money for. So, that's included in these numbers. So, right now, um it looks like about 78.4% and usually that number's closer to 85%. >> Right. And so, um this is just looking at fund 11. So, if we once once we get all the funds in, all the projections in, we think it's going to be it's going to
051be up between 80 and 85%. But, as we sit here today, the numbers that you're looking at, it's at 78.4%. So, you might ask yourself about those percentages, you know, >> [snorts] >> are those percentages where they should be? So, we've taken these numbers and we've ran those through um uh some research uh apps on AI to look at uh districts across the country and to look at districts in West Virginia to look at those percentages to see what ranges they should be. And that's part three of this report is the assessment of percentages. So, our instruction is at 43%, which is appropriate. The expected range uh including benefits is between 40 and 50%. And it continues to represent our largest investment. Going to page two, administration uh I said was at 8%. That's all
052administration at all levels. Um that's a strong number. The expected range there is between 7 and 10%. So, it's on the lower end of that range. Um it indicates efficient central and and school leadership structure uh to the ratings. Student support is 6%. That's slightly low. Again, that's on the low end of the range, 6 to 10%. So, these are your counseling positions, nursing positions, those those type of positions. Um but this also reflects that reduction that we made in central office support roles. Uh either shifts to federal funding, so that support's still going to be there, it's just not showing in this budget. And then uh some positions that were reduced. Um for example, you know, right now we have not filled the director of elementary, that's included in here. So, um if those
053costs if those costs uh that have been shifted to federal funding were included back in here, that percentage would go up. Our operations budget, number four, 13%. It's considered normal. The expected range there is between 10 and 15%. Transportation is at 11%. That's uh that's right at the top of the range. The expected range is between 8 and 11%. If you would ask me where we would be in that range, I would tell you we would be at the upper end. Because you see what it's driven by. Rural geography, the size of the county, the number of buses being operated. And so, um even though we're at the high end, there's there's explanations there as to why it's at the high end, and it's perfectly understood, so it's not considered a management issue. Categorical would
054be expected to be between 10% and 15%. It's at 16%. And again, that's not a surprise to us based upon our previous discussions. Categorical. Special education. Right. It's driven by special education and required services. It's non-discretionary spending. Yeah. And then last, the personnel expenditures again at 78.4%. That's that's considered typical uh for a school district our size. So, that is a complete We've covered the revenues. This is a a breakdown of what expenditures have been identified. I think right now, Jeb, um we've got the projected budget balanced and um but we still have some things that we have to consider. So, what are we looking at contingency-wise? We have $398,000 in unassigned seats. It's like from reserves. Yeah, 790 thousand from last year. Historically, how much of the reserves do we usually have? They want
055you to have 3% each year. I like the way you put that together because it makes it transparent, which we've been accused of not being, and it makes it easier to understand, you know, instead of all those little numbers. You can see it as a whole, and uh common people like me can understand it. They want you to have free to operate seeing that you I would say it's not it's not correctly operating. I just read this part and I was down there. Right there. We're not at free to operate in that way. >> [clears throat] >> So, that's what we need to make sure is is that we get everything balanced and and pushing back up. Now, there's there's still um expenditure reductions that we're going to need to identify as we move forward
056over the next 2 weeks when we bring the final budget to you. But, you know, we have to be in in position to move forward with uh construction projects that we've received large grants for that type of thing. Um so, we're closer to we're closer to where we need to be, but we still got some work to do over the next couple of weeks, but this is where it stands right now. >> than what they recommend, would that put us out of compliance? Put you on the Put you on a watch list. We are on We are on the watch list. It it may be on the watch list. Me and myself on the watch list. >> [clears throat] >> You feel all those eyes on you? I think you're doing a real good job.
057I mean, we're we're going to have to work through it, but we've only You got so many resources and we keep losing. You know, late night. Yeah, it's >> So it don't get into the point where we start reducing the effectiveness of our teaching. Yeah. So it's putting us in a bad way. I'm about a I told Mr. Alexander I'm I'm about an hour away. That is some of the typical budget book. Okay. Excluding any future changes. So that said we we have obligation to have that budget proposed budget available to the public inspection for 10 days. I found that map out here on the front desk. And the day and tomorrow. I'll have that available on our website. So you can see the what you typically what you see. Any changes that we come
058up with right now next week will be I'll I'll have those available to the public as well. All right. Yeah, I mean as we've discussed it at previous meetings and on multiple occasions, things are extremely tight. And um um it's it's not going to be a pressure that goes away, but you know, you you have had to make some hard decisions this year. Um including the closure of two schools and the reduction of a significant number of personnel were part of that. If that wouldn't have been done we would be in significant trouble trying to balance this budget. I don't I don't think it would be possible. So it it it really was it had to be done. We were at that time that it had to be done. Okay. Keep working on it. Next
059year. And that you said that budget book will be out on the front desk and also on the website when you're ready to share it. >> Once I get [clears throat] it done, like I said, I don't Okay. I can change it. I would get him that website and that's the economy item which is like Perfect. policies. Okay. Perfect. All right. Anything else with our budget workshop? Let me just think. Thinking about it? No, I'm good. >> Are you all good? I think we're all ready to adjourn. Thank you, Jim. I'm going to miss you when you're gone. >> Motion by Johnny to second. Second. Dennis. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to 0. It is 6:33. Thank you all. Someone will come and ask ask her. I wonder why. I mean