001Motion by Mrs. Hoy, second by Mr. Usherwood. All in favor? Unanimous. Do I have a motion to approve personnel A1 through 69, B1 through 47, C1 through 45? >> I second. >> Motion by Mr. Usherwood, second by Mrs. Hoy. All in favor? All right. We're going to be having a a unique night tonight. We're going to be co-chairing Mrs. Hoy and I. So, with that, I'm going to hand it off. >> All right. We're going to move to the pledge. Everybody will please stand if you're able. >> 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. >> We'll pause for a moment of silent reflection. Okay. Um, we're going to let's get to
002it. Let's look at recognitions next. I'd like to welcome Amy Bartlett. Okay, good evening, everyone. And our board is going to make its way down for this very special time where we recognize very special accomplishments by our staff and students. My name is Amy Bartlett, and I am honored to serve as the associate superintendent of teaching and learning. It is my pleasure to recognize an outstanding achievement this evening. We are proud to recognize Josh Wineland of East Forsyth High School for his performance at the 4A GHSA State Track and Field Championship. Josh earned the title of state champion in both the 1600 meter and 3200 meter races. An impressive accomplishment that reflects his dedication, perseverance, and athletic excellence. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating Josh. Come on up who is supported by his parents,
003>> [applause] >> his coach, and our principal of Eastside High School. >> [applause] [laughter] [applause] >> For our next recognition, we will turn the attention to one of our own and honor Mr. Todd McLellan on the occasion of his retirement and celebrate his many years of dedicated service and contributions. At this time, I'd like to invite Dr. Mitch Young to come forward and share a few words about Mr. McLellan and his lasting impact on our district. >> [clears throat] >> Well, Todd has probably heard this from me several times and a others have but I hope this is good that we can get it on the record, but Todd McLellan has served this county as an incredible leader and a leader developer. Uh he he learned from one of the best in Terry North. Um
004I think she had an impact both on Todd and on Mrs. McLellan one time or another. Um but but he certainly carried forth those lessons, went on to develop leaders in his own right, and was one of the one of the outstanding principals, frankly, in our system. And how many years ago, Todd? Four? Four years ago? Three years ago? Um Todd, Shirley, and I had a conversation. We kind of hatched an idea and took to Dr. Bearden, who who was my predecessor who got on board with the idea, and we approached Todd about the need for developing leaders, not just in the academic side of the building, but on what we call our classified side. So, when you think about all the great people that makes schools work, you obviously you think about teachers first,
005but there's also bus drivers and secretaries and maintenance crews and and all all different manners of of folks that make our our school system work. Well, one of those key areas is our cafeteria, our food nutrition staff. And that was an area that we felt like um we need somebody who's going to be a leader developer that could go in and really work with cafeteria managers and develop a pipeline of assistant managers to one day take over, and as we talked about those that were great at leadership development, Todd McLellan's name rose to the top of that list, and uh so we approached Todd, and he scratched his head a little bit, I think, and other people scratched their heads a little bit, but uh he has done everything and exceeded beyond what we hoped
006he would do. And so he's he's one of those few people that's going to have a double legacy in our system. He's got a legacy of of the education side of the building, but he's also got a legacy as a great leader developer and uh Todd, we could not be happier for you. We could not be more proud of you. Um in some cases, you've got people that are pretty envious of you. And uh when when come on down here, Todd. When when when are you making the move? We're not giving We're not giving him the mic cuz we're staying on time to now So Yeah. No, we'll we'll give it to you for for for for for a quickie, but uh when when you guys make the move? >> Um house closes on July
0078th, and we will be moving to Bend, Oregon shortly thereafter. Small town, 100,000 people off in the mountains, not not weird Portland, but it's more just kind of like uh uh outdoor mountain town. >> And you're an outdoorsman. >> Yes. >> And normally at these sort of things, we give the um you know, you you give out like everybody does, a little trophy or a little crystal, you know, or something plaque. But we thought because you're the great outdoorsman and you're going to do go do some outdoor adventures, that we would give you a more practical gift. Todd, surely this may not be legal on our campus right now, but uh >> Should I show this to everyone? >> So well, no, let's just keep it in the >> Okay, yeah. >> campus. All right.
008But uh >> Thank you. >> Anyway, we we thought you would get more use out of this and remember us better when you pull that out of your pocket. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right, we appreciate you, man. Great job. >> It's been an honor. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> ARE WE CALLING YOU UP TONIGHT BY THE WAY? >> [laughter] >> WELL, WHILE WE FETCH Trisha's Trisha's glasses, I know I didn't have lines in the Todd retirement part, but I do want to share a 20-second story. When I first got on the board it's almost 4 years ago. I was visiting every school and it was my day to visit North Middle. And I walked into a room full of teachers and they were undergoing and Todd and they were undergoing like this data-driven
009research project with the sole purpose of identifying every child in that building that didn't have a connection to an adult that they trusted. And I was blown away by that. It was like such a unique 43 schools didn't experience anything else like it. And I was just so impressed by you and your team and when they told us you were going to go to food service I was like, "But he's such a good principal." But by by all accounts you've done fantastic there. So we're really going to miss you, man. We wish you the best. Stay away from the hippies in Portland, please. >> [laughter] >> If If Jer were here tonight, he'd probably give that warning. >> Yes. >> Okay. We'll now move to general information and updates. Do the members have anything? >>
010No, but I do. I just as we get ready to go into the to the budget part uh later this evening, but I think it's good for the the whole group to hear. Um is it looks like we've got a a a pretty clear-cut view now of what the digest is is going to look like. Um I think notifications are going to go out within the next couple weeks from the county commissioners. Um so, I think hopefully we uh going to be able to have things all done and time for the July board meeting. So, we're very excited about that. >> Oh, excellent. Okay. Now for the business portion of our meeting, that brings us to public participation on agenda items. Ms. Mayo, do we have anyone? Oh, we do not. Okay. Next will be
011the consent agenda. Have the members received all the documents in question? Any questions, comments? Okay. Hearing none, I'll seek a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Hey, it's been 2 years I don't make a motion. >> Okay, motion by Mike Mr. Valdez, second by Mr. Underwood. All in favor? >> Underwood. It's hard, I told you. >> [laughter] >> It's better than Underwood. >> Trish is undergoing on-the-job training because I'm not going to be chair next year. So, for the remainder of of the year, all the members are going to take their turn at being chair one time. So, tonight's Trish's night, guys. >> Unanimous. Okay. Next up is presentation and discussion items. First up is policy G A R H employee leaves and absences. Mr.
012Derek Hershey. >> Long time no see. So, we are revising policy GRH, which uh actually has been revised recently. So, this is not one uh as part of the revisions. I'm going to pull it up. But, we are >> Can I interrupt Derek for just a second? And I know it wasn't on there, but do you think it's possible, uh Mrs. Hoysted, we could set the people free that don't want to be here for the business portion? >> Uh that's why I the break. Yeah. Before we dive in, let's take just like 2-minute break. If you want to head out before all the boring stuff starts, feel free. >> [laughter] >> No offense, Mr. Hershey. >> Mr. Martin, happy 50th birthday. >> Yeah. Woo! >> You don't look a day past 49, Casey. >> [laughter]
013>> Oh. We'll continue. Let's continue. >> Thank you. The exciting part. >> Back to the exciting part. Policy GRH. Uh so, this policy is being brought back up because uh one of the provisions under new House Bill 1118 uh has incorporated maternal birth leave. And so, under the law, eligible employees are entitled up to 3 weeks, 120 hours of paid maternal birth leave, uh which must be taken immediately following the birth of a child starting on May 5th, 2026. And so, we have added that portion to the policy. Um also, during the review process, uh we found a few formatting inconsistencies, and so we identified those and corrected them while we were adding uh the maternal birth leave. And this policy was reviewed by legal counsel as well. Um and with these updates, I recommend
014Dr. Young make a recommendation to allow the proposed changes to set for 30 days for feedback. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. We'll set this on the table for a 30-day public input period, and we'll see you in a month. >> Thank you. >> Next is the policy JR, student records. >> The name the person >> I don't have her name. >> Ooh. I'll take mine. >> I have Sorry, I didn't have the name. Um >> It's okay. Hi, everybody. I'm Kathy Coffman, director of student information. Early in the 25-26 school year, several staff members raised questions regarding the items outlined in board policy JR, specifically related to FERPA and Forsyth County Schools designated directory information. As a reminder, under FERPA, directory information includes certain student data elements that a district may release without prior consent,
015provided that we one, give annual notice to parents, and two, provide parents the opportunity to opt out within 10 days of enrolling or the first day of school. After consulting with legal counsel and collaborating with multiple departments, we recognize that our current directory information designation designations had not been reviewed in several years. In response, we convened a cross-functional committee that included representatives from each Board of Education Department, as well as principals from the elementary, middle, and high school levels. This group carefully reviewed each designation designated data element and discussing its purpose, relevance, and whether the revisions were needed. The recommended updates reflect reflected in policy JR are a result of that work. Our goal was to strengthen the protection of student and family information while still allowing the appropriate shared information across schools and communities.
016Specifically, the committee affirmed that recognition of student participations in clubs and athletics was meaningful to our community. Honors, awards, career pathway completion, and diploma completion were also identified as important to acknowledge. To support these recognitions, student name and grade level were determined to be essential data elements. Additionally, the committee recommend recommended maintaining a limited directory information set for approved vendors, such as yearbook, photography, and graduation services, as well as the Forsyth County Public Library. This allows families to receive important communications directly from these partners. Based on this review and the collaborative input, it is my recommendation to Dr. Young that these proposed updates to board policy JR move to the review period. >> Yep, I recommend that they be set out for 30 days. >> Okay. Thank you. It's on the table for 30 days
017and see you then. In a month. Okay. Now, we have the local school council in your report with Dr. Josh Lowe. >> Good evening. Um just taking a moment to discuss our local school councils for this past school year. These three um reports um have been uploaded into assembly for you to actually review if um review each uh elementary, middle, and high um regarding what the local school councils gave as feedback. I will say that this year was a good year. We started in the fall with a face-to-face um training that I I led uh with parents and um community members from each local school council throughout our district. Um this year all of our local school councils did meet a minimum of the required four times. Some met more than that, um but everybody
018met the um requirements as as they um had to do. I will say that um vertical teams this year, you know, several years ago we started having the um the vertical team LSC meetings, and those kind of taken off, and I know some of you have visited some of those meetings as well, and um had a chance to share with community members. So, those grew this year. We had um essentially but most every um vertical team did that this year, and I anticipate that's going to continue based off our lead discussions with principals. I think that they really I think principals enjoy doing that as well, and I think the feedback's been positive. Um variety of things are discussed on um on these three different sheets for you guys to to check out. Um across
019all levels, many were discussed on aligning work to the school improvement plans um with the strategic plan, including priorities such as facilities, infrastructure improvements, behavior, school climate, safety and security, academic and student achievement, teacher and staff retention, communication and family engagement, as well as enrollment, future planning, student support, technology and innovation, and a variety of other things, but those things seem to be the things that were repetitive on this this year's reports. I will say that the schools that submitted these this year, and this goes out for every school to have an opportunity to give feedback to the LSC. This is my third year doing this. This was the least amount of LSC feedback we got requesting changes, and I really think that that's a positive reflection of the work that has gone on in
020past years of our board, you guys and even previous boards partnering with schools and with our district team to get things accomplished around school to meet the needs that have been shared. A lot of SPLOST project work. I think that a lot of the work that's going on as we wrap up our previous SPLOST project, and many of the things that are planned with the upcoming SPLOST, were in last year and in the previous year's reports. So, I think that our community is seeing that you are doing those things, so there's less requests. That's why I was just sitting by a principal in the last session, and I said, "Your school had none?" And he said, "No, they were good this year. They felt like that everything that they really needed done at the school
021would had been addressed." So, I think that's a a positive and a reflection of the support that you all have provided. Many of this year's recommendations, the handful that are on there, are not necessarily repeaters from past years. So, it's up for us to take a look at, and as we do that, we our our district team stands ready to partner with you to provide feedback to principals and LSC chairs as we get back in the fall. So, I'm happy to take any questions, and if not, that's kind of where we are at this time with them with our local school council report. >> Doctor, [clears throat] I I would just point out as a great example of what you said the little mill bullet point. Um, that's not asking for construction or stuff. That
022that's opportunities to to learn more about the school system. I think that I think that's a a great example of leadership that's going on there right now. >> I would agree and and one more time like I I know several several board members and district leaders have gone to the vertical meetings. I think that those are um have been enjoyed and that's why they're asking for more more opportunities to visit with um you guys. >> Over the past 3 years while you've been doing this, Dr. Lowe, >> Yes, sir. >> what would you say the percentage of recommendations are that surround facilities, the physical learning environment? >> I think a just just off the cuff a large number of them facilities related which is why I think that the uh feedback through our splash efforts
023have really addressed many of the problems this year. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> observed that six out of our eight high schools did not have any comments which I don't know that that's ever happened. >> No. >> So I I think that's just a testament to how much the staff, the cabinet are involved at the school level, how much all of us make it a point to be involved at the at the school level. >> Yeah, when I got the initial feedback I actually went and work with Ms. Baldwin because this had been sent out to leaders actually a couple times and then sent a follow up and she's like, this is what they sent back this time. And so I was pleasantly surprised. >> And it really
024I think speaks to the principals' willingness to allow that teamwork and that collaboration with all of us. So I'm I'm >> Mhm. >> It's awesome. >> It's something great. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you guys. If you all have any questions, please let me know. >> Thank you. And um next step, our favorite. Mr. Hamel. Wait. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. >> So tonight we're going to discuss the May 2026 financial statements. And as always we keep uh board goal five in mind. So we started the month off with about $219 million. We ended the month with about 190. Uh this time of the year last year we had about a 211. Part of that's because of the spend down on our fund balance and the activity for this time of the year
025is normal. So you can see as the cash balance and our fund balance position has slightly gone down again and that's part of the reason the cash balance and fund balance are low and again it has to do a lot with uh the some of the payments we've made on Mashburn as well as safety and security that we had reserved out. We only have one reserve amount left on all the reserves that we had set out and that's the debt service reserve amount. Uh that believe is like 21 23 million dollars left and I think I showed that later on. Um when we look at the revenue collections we're at 94.12%. This time last year we're at 94.99 so we're slightly behind. We did catch up on the um this month ad valorem you'll see
026we brought $2.3 million in. So we're only about $3 million out. So we still have the month of June and July to collect funds and hopefully that will go down even further. You can see based on the uh comparison table we have been slightly behind all year long. The biggest notification of how bad we were was back in November when we still hadn't collected the majority of the money yet. We caught up in December. And overall we collected about $35 million um and the KB at this time makes up the majority of that money collected this time of the month. When we look at budget actuals you can see how close our budget is with a 90 94% um projected out um versus the actual budget, we're almost on par where we should be this
027time of the year. When we look at the expenses, we're at 91.76% collection. Excuse me. uh spending rate. This time last year, we're at 91.19. So, that goes back to where we're slightly behind collecting on the revenue and slightly ahead on expenditures, and that's why we're predicting about a $3 million deficit outside of the normal money we're going to spend beyond uh fund balance for the reserve amounts. Um when we look at year-to-date, you'll notice that we've been spending slightly ahead of last year in terms of our percentage each month. Um right now, we're at uh $62.9 million for this month for expenditures. Majority of that's instruction. As you can see, we're dead on projections where we should be. Um with a 91.76 versus 91.19, it's really hard to break down on these kind of
028graphs that that small significant difference between the two months from previous years. Now, we look at the actual budget actual with no reserve spend, you can see that we would be below projections at this point going forward. Let's look at that service cash analysis. This time last year, we had about $6.4 million in there. Um debt service, we've been able to build the cash balance back up. We have a little bit over 11 million 11.8 million dollars. This time last year, we only had about 810. But, we are spending splash six down pretty significantly fast. This time last year, we're about 5 5. We're down to 2 million. When we look at special revenue funds, the activity for this time of the year and what we spent and collected is normal for this time of
029the year. There's no significant changes. When we look at capital projects school food services, we have about 13 million in capital projects, 17 million in school food. Last year we were about 24.9 for capital projects and 21.5. We did have a built-in deficit with school food services. So that's reflected in the fund balance being lower. And again, we spent the majority of our capital projects fund pretty fast. That's why that balance is collapsed or excuse me, gone down. When we look at investment summary, as you can see we're putting about 26 million dollars a month of our LGIP fund for general fund to cover collections we're not receiving right now because of we were spending down our property tax funds that we've built up in the previous fall. This time last year we had about
030134.7 million dollars versus 104.8. School nutrition had about same amount of money as it did last year 16.1 and SPLOST 6 was about 5.5 versus the 2 million now. In total we have 123.7 million dollars invested versus about 156 million dollars last year. A lot of this has to do with the spend down of fund reserves for general fund reserve funds as well as capital 6 projects being paid out. Good news is we were projecting in order to make sure we close out SPLOST 6 the way we wanted to that we would start roughly collecting in April going forward for the rest of the year next 10 months at about a 5.4 million dollar clip. As you can see we collected almost 5.6 in April and we're at 5.5. So we're keep maintaining that level
031right now. With that level continuing the rest of year we should be fine with closing out SPLOST 6 the way it is. For the elementary schools, the activity both for the receipts and disbursements are normal for this time of the year. Um and also for the middle and high schools as well. It's normal for this time of the year. When we look at the balance within the year for uh the schools, remember that June pretty much there's no activity at the school level. So, whatever closes in May is pretty much what you have for the rest of the year for them. Going before you open schools, we had about 13. We have 13.4 million this year. We had about 13.6 last year. The balances have changed a little bit between the different uh levels, but
032not not by much. And that's the financial for May 2026. Any questions? Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Hamilton. How you doing, Emerson? >> With that, we're going to move on to action items. First up is action item A, C2603, synthetic turf fields with Mr. Matt Work and Mr. Brad Richardson. The guys who spend all the money. In a good way, in a good way. It's green like the turf and the money. >> [laughter] >> To present this action item to you tonight. This is something that Matt and I've been talking about conceptually for multiple years because of the advantages that we felt it would bring for our schools and our students specifically. That concept became a reality with generous support of community with the small referendum this spring and and so we immediately began
033to think about how we would bring it uh to to the to the board. That began in with two things. The first thing we did is we started a process where we got a committee of coaches, athletic directors, principals, stakeholders that would be utilizing the fields, and we we talked we listened to them. We visited fields. We we talked to to schools and coaches who had these these products and really started doing our research. And then it concurrently Matt and I began to to come up with a process by which we would we would solicit um and bring this to I wanted to talk about the processes a little bit uh this evening. I know you've got a lot of on your plate, so I'm going to try to be as brief as possible because
034in a minute I'm going to turn it over to Matt, and he may or may not be as brief as possible. So, we'll try to get through the process, and then we'll let him talk and then we'll let him talk about uh some more of the the details. The way we we've solicited this is we we created a set of proposal documents based on the information that we found through our research. We engaged in a competitive negotiation process with the three largest um most reputable turf manufacturers that that we could find in the in the region and invited them to to participate in our process of competitive negotiation by bringing their best competitive contract to us, whether it be a cooperative or state contract, and we we we analyzed those against one another in a
035proposal format. We did We looked at references. We talked to vendors. We looked at the product the product in. Of course, we looked at at cost and benefits analysis. And with that being said uh Shaw Sports Turf was the highest scoring um vendor that that that we um looked at. That would be our recommendation tonight. But before I bring that as a formal recommendation, I just like to turn it over to Matt and let him talk a little bit about the turf specifically. >> Thank you. It's always nice to have our procurement department kind of help lead this to make sure that we follow all procurement rules, things of that nature, make sure that we have a competitive process uh to do things because this will be a very exciting thing for our community. This
036drove our SPLOST um as as as many other items, but going back to what Mr. Usherwood said, I think that's helping is that people are saying that Splash 7 is coming very quickly. Um so, we're excited to say that, but I will say none of this work will start until 2027. Um some ask why we're going this early. One, um really to lock in an amazing price that we received going through this process. Just like you saw last year when we did the design for the new elementary, Lambert and Liberty, it takes time to do magnitudes of jobs of this magnitude. So, we want to go ahead and get keep this contractor under contract with us and let them get started. Um if you look at it and think about it, we're going to be
037doing 18 and we're going to take two alternate fields. So, we're going to have This is a 20-field contract, which is massive and it takes a lot of time to design and go through, do soil samples, laser grading, all these type of things, as well as work around active schools, active campuses, as well as active sports. Baseballs and softballs are running their seasons and we don't want to disrupt that. But to go back, um inside your packet I gave you two things, uh generic rendering of what they will look like uh when they're finished. With softball and baseball, like Brad said, there was a lot of feedback in this from principals. We had an assistant principal, so there was an admin feedback. We had at all athletic directors were able to provide feedback. All we
038selected one baseball coach and one softball coach, but they talked to all coaches, so every coach in the district from softball and baseball were allowed to give feedback about the different three companies that we brought in to discuss. We visited more fields that you could possibly count of all three vendors um to see and honestly I told the sales people to go away because I wanted to talk to the people using it. And we learned a lot being on those fields, talking to coaches, talking to We went to universities, we went to high schools, we went to park and rec, anywhere you could find these fields and talk to them, how does it play? What's the safety standard? What are these things that you're seeing? And this is a huge wave this moving forward with
039baseball and softball. If you're watching the College World Series, all the regionals, majority of those fields were turf. Um so this is definitely something we're looking at. We've done that research. In your packet there is a Shaw Turf book that talks a lot about this. This will be provided to every school as well as an insert safety depart flyer. We will get Shaw to do even more research on to provide that to us, but they are a leading company when it comes to safety research and their turf. So we know we will get questions on that moving from a natural surface to an artificial surface, but this has definitely come a long ways and they provide a ton of research that we'll be able to provide our families and we're going to give that to
040every school. Uh real quick to talk specifics, how this will work is over the next if this is approved tonight, the group will move forward on the design portion of this that will take us through the rest of the year. Then starting around January, February of 2027, we will get started in actually renovating fields. We will start and do all seven softball fields so that we make sure they all get done roughly at the same time. We will have them done contract wise by no later than June 30th and then we'll move right into baseball. And then baseball we'll do all seven fields at the same time and we have four practice fields that we will sprinkle in based on where those needs are. So needless to say, all schools will only play one more
041season on their current field, which is exciting because we don't string this along for five years and they get theirs and we don't get ours. Everyone's on the even playing field, which is very exciting. Um the other piece is um that why we chose Shaw, to be honest, Shaw has our four our football stadiums, they've had for the last 8 years now. When we brought them in to meet with them, I will tell you it is a family group. Um we've never felt more supported by the group that sat there. Um the installers are sitting back here, so they're very anxious to see. Um Jim Watts and Andrew Barksdale have they put in our football fields many years ago. Uh Shaw Turf with Will McLaurin, they brought Chuck McCluer, who is the president of Shaw
042Turf, sat in our room, and they assured us, because this is a very large project and we can't be left on an island, to have those individuals in the room, these groups are all in and we feel extremely confident um that they gave us an unbelievable number, you will see in your tab sheets, it's quite considerably lower uh than the other contract that we received, and these individuals are ready to go and they will make sure that we do not fail. And I'm glad they're sitting here to hear me say that. Um so again, with that, I'll take any questions that you may have um or for me or Brad and then Brad will come back on and ask Dr. Young for a recommendation. >> Questions? >> Just a a quick question. Um I was
043reading over the safety document and it talks about, you know, players, coaches, spectators. With the large number of service animals that we have in our district, is that something that has been studied, the impact on because they're lower to the ground more consistently? Just a question. >> Service animals? >> Yes. >> I have no how they would participate. >> It's the dogs. >> The dogs? They don't play they don't play baseball. >> But they will be on the field. They're going to be on the fields and then the environment of the schools, right? >> They're not on our fields, I can tell you. >> They're not allowed on the fields? >> They're not supposed to be. >> gone to any ball games where they've been on the field, please let Nathan Turner know and Josh
044Low know and um >> We do not want those type of contaminations on our fields. >> [snorts] [laughter] >> I was wondering cuz they're in >> No, it's I mean it's actually a good question because of the numbers of service animals we see out there. I I [clears throat] I get what you're asking. >> throughout the schools, I mean. >> Yeah. >> I will tell you, we are only turfing the playing surface. >> Okay. Okay. Good point. >> That's good to know. >> Yeah. >> But it's it's I'm chuckling because the first time we ever had turf fields in this county, West Forsyth High School is hosting Gainesville High and they came out with like flaming spears for their halftime show. Um And that that was a dear disaster, but they Yeah, you got to
045think about all these things. Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> Yes, sir. >> Um The service dogs are important, obviously. We do. We'd like to get to the bottom of that, but um this price that we're that we're considering today, this includes the playgrounds as well? >> No, sir. So, this is uh only for high school athletic turf. So, this will include seven baseball fields, seven softball fields, turf practice fields at the four high schools that do not have one currently, as well as we're taking the alternates of uh re-turfing the intergovernmental agreement fields at Denmark and Lambert, um and some other alternates for different types of bullpen work. The elementary, what's exciting about this that was part of my uh conversation, because we're getting such an amazing number for this type of all this
046this contract, this will free up funds for us to do the elementary turf as well uh during the same time. It's not this company, it's not this contract, but it will allow us that flexibility to go ahead and move forward with the elementary turf as well starting in January. >> And what's the reason for that? Why is it Why is it not in the same contract? >> Because these guys are totally athletic and playground turf is a different system. It's a different underlayment. It's not the same as this contract. >> are different. >> Very different based on playing surfaces. >> So what's What's the plan for the elementaries cuz >> The The elementaries, remember during SPLOST is we were we're going to allocate $100,000 of SPLOST funds to every elementary. Uh but we're going to
047let the elementaries drive that because we want them the autonomy of where they're going to put it and a lot of them have dollars waiting to put additional turf with it. So what we're planning to do is provide those $100,000 worth of funds to all 23 elementary schools. >> But in in um in implementation operationally, are they going to all get their turf at the same time or are we going to have 20 different procurement processes? >> It all No, we're not going to go through the procurement process for their turf because that is the school-initiated project. They do not have to follow the same procurement rules that I have to do. And plus every school is a little bit different based on their needs or some schools already have turf. They want to put
048it in a different spot. So we will not go through a whole another procurement process for that. >> So we had a certain allocation in SPLOST for the turf. >> Correct. >> This is considerably beneath that. >> Correct. >> What What is left out there to spend for turf besides this purchase? >> Uh we don't have any other turf projects. So that dollars, since we're significantly below our original budget, that Those dollars can be used for any other projects on the SPLOST list. >> the school-initiated projects. We're contributing to that, right? So >> Correct. And that's included. That's That is That is part of the SPLOST 7. It's not part of this contract, but it's part of the SPLOST 7. >> That's what I mean. So let me Let me say it differently. We're spending
04912. whatever it million it is on on this. What is left to spend to to satisfy our commitments under SQS? >> did this come? >> We are significantly under. I would say I I believe it's Our original budget was 20 million, 21 million. And as your contracted amount with the alternates is 13.2. So, we're under budget by more than 7 million dollars. >> That I get, but what is left to spend? Because we still have to do the elementaries. There's other >> That's 2.3 million dollars. >> That's it? Okay. >> Yes, because it's 100,000 for every elementary, which is 23 elementary schools, so 2.3 million dollars. So, 13.2 for athletic turf plus 2.3 for the elementaries, right? So, that is 15.5. Our original budget was 21. We're We're still well under budget. >> we're done.
050Yes, sir. >> We were excited to come in so far in under budget based on what we had estimated when we planned SQS. >> And I will also say our original budget of 20 21 million dollars was for athletic turf only. So, if you add we budgeted 2.3 million dollars, we're actually looking at to do both of them was 24 million dollars. So, it's not like we're adding the elementary just on a whim. That was on top of athletics. So, athletic budget we budgeted 21 million, elementary was 2.3. So, really it's 24 million is what we were projected to spend. Now that we're only spending 13.2 and now 2.3 for the elementary, we're still well under budget and we're done with all turf that we had in SQS 7. >> Hopefully >> My hope was
051to avoid this in front of the cabinet tonight because now they're all fighting for their SQS projects to get moved to have more money to them. So, >> Matt's going to spend that money before we EVER >> WELL, >> CONTINGENCY. [laughter] >> WELL, HEY, THINGS HAPPEN. We'll see how they go, you know. >> uncharted waters. know I'm going to You know I'm going to pad that and say, "Hey, well, that's up to them if they don't have any unsuitable soils, we'll see what happens." >> Any other questions or comments? >> Exactly. Rather not bring that up, but we did. >> Questions, comments? >> I just appreciate the extent that Matt and Brad go through. Brad with the process, Matt with his relationships in the in the field to really do the deep deep research, and
052to take the time to get feedback and everything, you know, right right down to logos on the field, which sounds silly, but even even that becomes a you know, a challenge, but but Matt Matt Matt has been a very very thorough and patient leader in this realm, and and I appreciate the efforts that both of you guys put forward. >> Thank you. >> With that said, it's my pleasure to ask for contract C-2603 Dr. Young to be approved. >> Yeah, I recommend for approval the contract as spelled out by Brad Richardson and Matt worked tonight. >> All right. >> Is there a motion to approve contract C-26-03 synthetic turf fields? Turf >> Well, we need a first. >> the motion. I'll make the motion to approve the contract. >> Motion by Mr. McCall, second by
053Mr. Underwood. All in favor? >> Thank you, gentlemen. All right. Next up is policy GAG, staff conflict of interest with Mr. Derek Hershey. If you'd kindly wake your make your way to the front, sir. GAG Policy GAG >> Policy GAG was part of our monthly revisions that we have been going through as a board. And so, um Yeah, sorry. So, the uh we have not received any feedback since uh last month. Uh the only question that I wanted to address, I believe Mr. McCall asked um in this portion here as we're talking about the policy and and staff conflicts, uh when related to employees, does that include lay coaches? And the answer to that was yes. And so, if you notice here where it says uh related employees, {comma} including substitutes and lay coaches, I
054added [snorts] both substitutes and lay coaches to make sure that was addressed. So, thank you for that question. Um other than that, there's been no comments or recommended changes that have been received. Uh do you have any questions? >> Questions? Comments? Concerns? Nope. Okay, with that uh clarification made that that I was able to edit, no questions, I recommend that Dr. Young make a motion to approve the updates to policy GAG. >> Yeah, recommend for approval policy GAG as altered by Mr. Hershey. >> Is there a motion to adopt policy GAG staff conflict of interest as presented? >> I make a motion to adopt. >> I second. >> Motion by Mrs. Hoy, seconded by Mr. Usherwood. Any discussion? No. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Hershey. >> My pleasure. Thank you. >> Next up,
055policy IBB charter schools with Dr. Joshlow. If you expeditiously make your way to the front, sir. >> All right. All right. Um last month, I shared policy um IBB charter schools, um which um included some adjustments based off legislative changes with legal guidance. Um, I've not received any questions on that since it was presented. So, unless you guys have any any questions. >> Questions on policy ABB charter schools? >> All right, Dr. Young, I would recommend that we um recommend this for approval. >> Recommend for approval policy ABB as altered and presented by Dr. Joshua Lowe. >> Thank you. >> Is there a motion to adopt policy ABB as presented by Dr. Joshua Lowe? >> I second. >> Oh, good. Thank god. Motion by Mrs. Hoy, second by Mr. McColl. Any discussion? All in favor?
056Unanimous. Thank you, Dr. Lowe. >> Thank you. >> You did such a thorough job the first time there was no questions or anything. We've come to expect that from you. Next up, Mr. Todd Shirley and Mr. Feuerbach with the 2026-27 student code of conduct. >> Um, good evening. Uh, I'm going to turn this over to David for uh just a quick update on some of the revisions since the last time that we left this code with you guys, but I do want to just give a uh uh really a shout-out to David. David starts this process very early in the year and it goes back to Josh talking about the LSCs and the feedback that they get. We get the feedback from our LSCs and from our administrative teams. But, David does a great job
057working with the code of conduct all throughout the year. And as you guys know, he runs our tribunals and does an absolute bang-up job. So, very proud of the work that he does. Uh, and want to turn this over and let him uh go through these revisions real quick. >> Thank you, Mr. Shirley. Uh, these are um revisions that were made. I know Mr. Shirley presented to you guys last month. Um, I think it was May 12th. And I know you guys had some suggestions. Um, we went back. I even went to our legal services um and had them um look over the code of conduct to see there's anything that we could change and they did recommend um a few changes. I'm not going to go over all the changes that were made that
058Mr. Shirley made um May 12th. Uh, but I am going to start, if you don't mind, on page uh six. So, this is the bullying definition. You're going to see things crossed out. And then, if you go to page seven, in green, I this is what we've added. So, we took out There's three parts in this code of conduct that had bullying in the past. We've taken out all three and just added into one section. So, you're going to hear me say three different times today the bullying section we've taken out, but we added it to page seven and page eight. So, it's all in one section. So, when parents, teachers, students are looking at this, they're not seeing in three separate sections, they're only seeing it in one section. Uh, page um 11, um
059off-campus behavior. We've taken out the language of misdemeanors and we just kept in the felonies. And I know that was discussed and talked about um I believe last board meeting. I had conversations with our legal and they agreed to take out the misdemeanors and we're just going to keep in um a felony. This was recommended um actually by one of you all. I'm not sure who was not here, but we had use of AI tools for academic dishonesty. We changed um use to misuse. So, misuse of AI tools. So, that's another change we've made. Again, this the the yellow changes were what Mr. Shirley talked about. Here is the second on page 18 and 19. This was the second um portion of bullying. So, again, we've taken that out to have it localized to the
060first section um, on page six and seven of the code of conduct. This was a recommendation um, from our legal team. Um, we have kept in multi-tier system of support prior to suspension or expulsion for certain students, but we've taken out all the language underneath that. And then again here, this is the last portion of um, bullying. Again, as I repeated, we had it in three different sections. We want to make it much easier um, for parents um, and staff. So, we took out all of that and we added it again to the front. And that is all the corrections um, that are sorry, revisions that we made from May. Any questions? >> What's the rationale for striking the MTSS language but but leaving the title? >> So, what they said is just keep the
061the main title in and then everyone else can go look at what that main title is about. Um, and we're trying to condense the code of conduct um, to make it more streamlined. So, that was their recommendation. >> So, it refers you back to something else? >> Let me get to I don't remember what page that was on. Hold on. >> I think it's >> So, that multi-tier that you see that code section 20-2-742, that is what the parents can look up to to see what that multi-tier system of supports prior suspension expulsions for certain students, the definition of that. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Questions? Comments? >> I would just say the MTSS is something that is ever evolving at the state level as well as the local level. Um, it's it's it's kind of
062like grasping water as it changes in the in the state state has one meeting sometimes of MTSS where a school system has another at the end of the day. I think that was part of the the legal rationale for leave it in there as MTSS, but knowing that it that it continuously changes, let's look up and see what the most recent version of that is. >> And I have many comments >> What's that? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. It's going to It's going to link them? >> That if they type in that code it'll take you there. >> Just Just as a consistency point cuz this is kind of what threw me off. It has the section symbol, but it doesn't reference OCGA where everywhere else it does. So, that was a little bit
063That's why it kind of caught my eye. >> It's a formatting thing, but I can I can I can change that. But, when it comes to multi-tiered systems sports, I have conversations with special ed and student services all the time about students who are in MTSS process. So, we are very consistent in what we do. So. All right. Then, at this time I'd like to ask Dr. Young to make a recommendation to the board to accept the changes and adopt the 2026-2027 code of conduct. >> I I recommend for approval the changes with the addition of the law code added there at the bottom MTSS. I recommend that for approval. >> Is there a motion to approve the 2026-2027 code of conduct as presented and discussed during this meeting? Motion by Mr. Usherwood, second by
064Mrs. Hoy, is any questions, comments, discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up is points of information. Have the members received the documents? Any questions, comments, or additions? Suzy, anything you want to add? You look like you had something. No? >> All right. >> Just want to say Trisha did a good job on your code. >> Trisha did a great job. Let's give it up for Patricia, GUYS. COME ON. ALL RIGHT. With that, we get to public participation and non-agenda items. Anything? >> Jared's not here? >> No. >> A moment of silence for Jared not being here, guys. Please. We miss him. >> We may He can't take vacations, man. He's supposed to be here. All right. With that, I'll seek a motion to adjourn. >> I
065make a motion to adjourn. >> Motion by Mrs. Hoy, second by Mr. Sherwood. All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you, everyone. >> Oncore at 7:30. >> We have an oncore at 7:30. If you guys have nothing else to do, we're going to do a budget presentation, so