001Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call the February 10th, 2026 work session to order. It is 5:00 p.m. Members, we have an agenda before us. Is there a motion to adopt or amend? >> Make a motion to adopt. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Hoy, second by Mr. Grimes. All in favor? Unanimous. Welcome everybody. There's a lot of people here which nobody ever comes to our work sessions cuz they're extremely boring. So, thank you guys for coming. Um, we're going to start with the pledge. So, if you're able, please join us. >> 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. All right, welcome everyone.
002Since I know for a fact you are not here to see a presentation on our contracting process, um I'm going to go ahead and welcome up Miss Laura Adams. All right. >> Work. Can you hear me? All right. Perfect. All right. Well, um, good evening to chairman, board members, Superintendent Young, district leaders, family, and friends. This is such a joy to see such a packed room this evening. Thank you for the opportunity to come together. We are so excited to celebrate this amazing group of teachers in our foresight teacher academy GTAP program. Tonight we're proud to um recognize this is the absolute largest cohort to date in the academy with 41 completers. Let's give them a hand. So these individuals, they are very special to Miss Jennifer Elwood and myself and to all of the
003candidate support team members that have supported them in this journey. You know, these individuals, they stepped up and they answered the call to serve students. They're committed to continuous learning and they truly have persevered through an 18-month program that is both rigorous and rewarding. Um, we wanted to let the board know we have a 95% retention rate in this cohort. So, we are so very proud of that. Um, this cohort reflects Foresight County's commitment to growing and retaining highquality educators. We want you to know a little bit about our academy. We have a former deputy sheriff and detective teaching our criminal justice pathway at Alliance Academy for Innovation. We have an Emmy award-winning television producer. We have a lawyer. We have a physical therapist. We have a chemist. And we have a nurse practitioner teaching
004our healthc care science pathway at Lambert High School, just to name a few of our amazing candidates. We are also committing to committed to growing our own candidates in Foresight County schools. Did you know 19 of our 41 candidates are previous pair of professionals in the district? With that said, we have applied for a grant from the state for these individuals. They will be receiving a full reimbursement of tuition to the tune of $95,000 from the state of Georgia. So, at this time, can I please have all GTP graduates please stand? We do have and and the board, you can tell me. We have all of their names listed here. Um I was going to go through and just let you know um the different fields that our candidates are graduating in. We have two
005candidates completing in Esau. We have three completers in middle and secondary science. >> Laura, could you have when you go back to the name of that and have them wave to us when it's done? Those are the two. >> Let's do that. So our Esau candidates, will you wave? We have a couple people that couldn't come tonight, but Esau next we have science. Our science candidates. Perfect. Spanish, we have four completers. They do call themselves the Latina ladies, by the way. Our uh CTAE, we have 12 completers. CTAE, please give the board a wave. And special education, 20 completers in special education. That includes 11 for general special ed and nine for adaptive special education. We also wanted to give you a few numbers on our different levels. We have 11 elementary completers that are
006teaching in our elementary schools. We have 12 middle school completers and we have 18 high school completers. So again, let's give this amazing group a very big hand. All right, graduates. You can take a seat for us. To our graduates, you have demonstrated incredible resilience over our 18-month program. You balanced lesson planning. I heard a grunt. Who was that? You have balanced coursework, assessments, observations, and the daily realities of teaching while still showing up for your students and might I add, your families. If you're a family member of one of our graduates, will you please raise your hand so we can honor your support? To Superintendent Young and the Foresight County Schools Board of Education, thank you for your continued support of our program of the Foresight Teacher Academy. Your investment ensures that we are
007developing educators who understand our community. They uphold our district's standards of excellence and are committed to staying and growing in Foresight County schools. Congratulations to each of our graduates. We are so proud of you. We hope you have a very long and rewarding career in Foresight County schools and you all did it. So, congrats again. Um, we invite everyone after this meeting. We have a reception that is waiting for all of our guests at the focal center in the rehearsal room. So, we'll look forward to celebrating. board members, if you're able to attend, we would love to have you. All right. Thank you so much. I just want to say uh welcome to the family. Uh it really is a family here and it's a it's a win-win for everyone. And you know who benefits
008the most are the students. And uh there's one in your group here that I remember he was like a young little lad. Mr. Chetum can barely even walk and screaming and crying. and you guys have brought him up to be a great young man and a teacher. So, the the program is amazing. So, uh thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you everyone. Congratulations and um go get them. Appreciate it. So, if you guys um wanted to go about your uh your activities, this would be a good time to do that. So, we'll we'll go ahead and take a couple of minute recess to let you guys have a chance to uh to go. No. All right, we will go ahead and continue with our program. Next up is presentation and discussion items. First up
009is Mr. Brad Richardson with a presentation on the contracting process as requested by Mr. Grimes. >> Thank you, Mr. Grimes. I'm actually appreciative of the opportunity. Um, when it was when it was mentioned, I kind of tried to look at it from an approach of if if I were board member, what would I want to know when I was looking at a consent agenda of how the contract got brought to to this stage. So, I kind of hope to kind of go through that and certainly we'll there's a lot more verbiage in the slides. I don't intend on reading it all to you, but it's there if we want to discuss any of it. But I do want to kind of hit the overviews and certainly be open to answer any questions. For purposes of
010our discussion tonight, just going to use contract the definition of contracting is just the means about that we that we use to get goods and services for the for the school system as a broad a broad topic. Specifically tonight, a discussion on competitive solicitations, how we do our bids, RFPs, quotes, whether we use state contracts or other cooperatives. These are terms that you'll probably see on the agenda items at times. Sometimes we negotiate contracts sole source. Uh I do think it's important to note that our department is not directly involved in construction, although sometimes we we assist in in those. Tom Winnie, Matt work do a good job there and we certainly uh sit in on those uh solicitations from time to time as well. Competitive solicitations by by board policy is any solicitation that's
011$50,000 or more in an aggregate. They're typically the large contracts that we would put in place on an annual basis or just a a significant contract. A couple examples I have here like a bus AC retrofit that we did several years ago would be a one-time purchase. The purchase of bus tires that that ends up in an annual renewal contract is something we put in place to hopefully with the intent to renew. These types of solicitations have a formal set of documents. We post them publicly on our on our web page on the state web page as well. Most most often these types of solicitations are generated by one of our user departments or what we consider our customers whether it's transportation, technology, facilities, someone that that that we serve. They're they certainly have the
012autonomy to decide what they need, how they want it, the specifications. We facilitate the process and and help them guide that process. and then if it exceeds $100,000 per board uh policy, we bring it to you for your final approval. The two main methods of formal solicitations are the invitation to bid. We use an invitation to bid when it's the product or the service is very definable. It's known. For example, we're going to buy a widget. They're going to be green. We want them 3 in. and and we can we can look at just the tab sheet and know what's the lowest price. So you when when you see those tab sheets, they'll be very very clean. It'll just be the the cost only and not some of the the non-cost evaluations that you might
013see on an RFP. And the award in those instances goes to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder that meets the terms and conditions. Responsible and responsive, you'll see that on the consent agenda. Responsibility is the determination that that the committee makes to see is this company able to do the work that we want them to do. Can they deliver it? Responsiveness is have they given us the documents that we want, the immigration documents, the insurance, have they responded in a way? So those are the two terms you may see from time to time. The second solicitation and one that's a little bit more complex is the RFP and that's request for proposal and that's when we go out and cost certainly matters. We're also looking at non-cost elements. We'll look at things such as their
014qualifications a little bit deeper dive into the references. We may try to in this in those instances you're grading subjective criteria and and having to put an objective score score to it. So we'll look at their uh training modules, their warranties, their their scope of work. It's a lot more in depth and and for an RFP there'll typically be a committee that's formed that that will grade and mostly and the committee members are made up of the the the department that has the need and we facilitate that that process for them. In the instance of an RFP instead of seeing the lowest cost on the consent item which you might see is the highest scoring responsible and responsive bidder because cost is not always the primary element. It's one of the elements. From time to
015time, you'll see us bring contracts that have been negotiated under either state contract or or cooperative contract. Cooperative contracts are those contracts that are that are that are a means, but that we can use that are have been solicited by either other government entities or organizations that meet our requirements or the board requirements for competition. State contracts are obviously contracts that the state of Georgia put in place for us to use if they make sense for us. We often use a hybrid, which is a when we use a hybrid type contract, what we would do is we would go look at maybe multiple vendors that have state contracts, not just take the lowest one, but like compare them against each other as a as a deeper means of of making sure that we're finding the
016right product. You'll see sometimes there's a sole source. Soul source is when there's only one source that we can get it from. There are some exceptions to these rules. There may be superseding rules from federal funds, grants, USDA that that add other elements to the to the consideration as well. How how to decide um we consider all of these as tools in the tool bag. For example, whether it's a bid or an RFP or a government contract. I we feel that it's wise administration doesn't just always use the same tool but that we get with the end user and determine what would be the best way to bring about the desired result for them. So rather than just having a one-izefits-all we try to look at on a case by case basis. A hammer is
017great at driving nails but may not be the best tool to use to repair a window. So we try to look at the right tool for the right situation. Currently we manage about 90 annual contracts. Those are the renewable type contracts that have been formally solicited through our department. On any given year, another 15 or 20 that we solicit that lead to contracts. Probably do over 200 informal quotes a year either through our department or on behalf of schools and other departments. And we assist every department in the school system in in some in some form or fashion in their in their contracting efforts. Another question that comes up from time to time is when do we renew and when do we resolicit that? Again, that's on a case- by case basis. So, when the
018contract comes up, we'll get with the end user. We'll meet with them before before the contract is up and just have a conversation about is it working? There's something that, you know, do you want to go back out to the market from time to time, there's reasons why, and then we'll get with the vendor, discuss cost and and and their satisfaction. So sometimes you'll see us bring items to you that may be on year two or year three or year four of a renewal cycle. State law allows us to renew a contract up to 5 years. Wanted to make a comment on the current trends in national and global markets. Things have gotten better since the the co years as far as supply chain. We're still seeing an increase across the board in in cost
019in in every segment. The inflation that that resulted in the CO era kind basically just moved the baseline up. The inflation is slowed. I would say the curve is slowing in in our experience, but I I believe every department that we work with would tell you that things have gotten more expensive. And I I don't know even if we can even if that line holds flat, I don't think we're going to get anywhere near back to where we were buying goods and services several years ago based on that's based on our experience and based on conversations that we have with all the different market vendors. I thought it might help just this is an example of an agenda item that that we would submit to you guys and maybe just kind of walk through the
020highlights of it. you know I we ask for the recommendation and I've tried to provide a detail for example under details what I'm trying to communicate to you is that in in this case we did an RFP when it was released what it was you know what the intent was how many vendors we contacted where we we that we posted it publicly when it was opened how it was reviewed and then the second paragraph a lot of times we we will try to detail just uh generally what what the intent of the contract was. We'll attach the supporting documents which in more times than not is the tab sheet and then we will put the the user department that we were serving as well to try to wrap it up and be as concise as
021possible but certainly want to be available to answer any questions. The the biggest conversation that I would have would be what we try to find is value. The goal of the contract is to find the optimal solution that the department needs, the stakeholders need, the students, the staff need. One thing that I've learned is that the true cost is not the lowest price that you can buy something at. The the true cost, which is the actual cost, is the lowest price that you can buy something at that actually meets the needs. And so with that being said, there's there are times where cost is not the the lowest cost is not the the recommendation that would bring to you, but it would be that we had determined that the value point is right by by
022looking at the combination of cost and and criteria. of course always and ever present of the importance of not abandoning the principles of good stewardship as as guarders of the the public funds. I know I kind of went through that pretty quickly. I know you had a large agenda. So I hope that addressed generally what what the board was looking for and certainly open to any questions. >> I think that was just a great overview just explain the whole process. captured right on video and it'll be out there. So, as folks want to review that and get into the details, they better do that. But Brad, that was a great overview. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you, Brad. >> All right. Next up is Mr. Todd Shirley with Student Support and Safety Department updates. Susie
023>> well safety and student support that's giveaway. >> Um before I start I would like to say one thing about the gentleman that was just standing here at the podium. I've known Brad Richardson for a lot of years and one thing that I can honestly say is that any purchase that I ever make out of our department, uh, the first words that come out of my mouth are, "Let's call Brad." Uh, his level of professionalism, uh, mixed with amazing common sense makes any purchase that we ever do, uh, absolutely outstanding. He is invaluable to this district. Um, so just just wanted you to know that. Um, before we start, I do want to acknowledge that we have a number of members of student support and school safety out in the audience. If they wouldn't mind
024standing, please. I am always always uh I always feel like the luckiest person in the world coming to school every day because the folks behind you, as I've told you many times, are outnumbered every day. um but they charge forward and do an amazing job. I want to thank the board and the superintendent uh for the opportunity to um come to work every day and to lead a department that uh is there to ensure the safety uh physical and social and emotional well-being of our students. I think we do an absolutely outstanding job and the two ladies beside me are going to illustrate that tonight. For those of you that don't know them, this is our newest member of school safety, Miss Kim Drees, the assistant director, and Miss Kristen Keith, the assistant director of
025student support. And with that, I'm going to turn the presentation over to them. Okay. All right. Good evening. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to do this. Um the purpose of our presentation really this evening is to highlight how our department works as a unified system of support by bringing together nurses, social workers, student advocacy specialists, school resource officers, and counselors. We provide real support for students and their families. Um in our department, collaboration is not a buzzword. It's something that we actually do every day. Um this work is only effective because it is collaborative. Um, our students are best served when we work together and not in silos. >> Our collaborative staff and programming are geared toward three main objectives that we will talk about today in our presentation. Prevention systems
026and training that equip and empower our department members to effectively address core family and student needs and supports and resources that are utilized to benefit all of our school communities. As you can see on the screen, that programming includes school counseling, health services, social work, mental health facilitation, our student advocacy specialists, PBIS and sources of strength, and close collaboration with our school resource officers. Throughout our presentation, you're going to see some um data points highlighted per program, but the sheet in front of you has some more trend data. So, as you can see, we'll highlight certain ones on the screen, but if you want to look at some trends throughout the years, those are available on your data sheet. Our prevention programming is designed to enhance school climate and culture, foster student connection and sense
027of belonging, and identify student concerns before they escalate into crisis. to establish a strong foundation, sources of strength and PBIS known as the positive behavior interventions and supports. Our proactive frameworks that schools implement to support relationship building and student well-being. Additionally, our growing mentorship program ensures that every student has access to a trusted adult at the classroom level. Our BA classroom behavior solutions training equips staff with core management strategies that promote a consistent and supportive learning environment. Our counseling lessons are delivered regularly to help students build essential skill sets as they navigate academic and social emotional challenges. To further strengthen early identification efforts, the signs of suicide screener implemented in seventh and tth grades helps capture students who may be in need of additional mental health support. Beginning in our elementary schools this year, we
028have also adopted the ch child safety matters program, which is an evidence-based program to educate students on recognizing the signs of child abuse. Also, our hearing and vision screenings are vital in making our nurses deliver those screenings and it is vital for us to identify students that might be experiencing physical barriers to academic achievement. And last but not least, this year we were able to add a school safety and anti-gang endorsement, which some of our social workers and student advocacy specialists have taken a part in to build that knowledge and that skill set and share it with the rest of our department. We also have developed many systems and trainings and we really are focusing on the behavioral threat assessment uh management which is otherwise known as BTAM this year in the safety department. We
029rolled that out over the summer um and trained all counselors, admin and uh social workers. Um and it is all about providing um assessment protocols and making things more efficient, streamlined and calibrated in the process. Um we conducted so far this year uh 646 BAMs 96% of those were unfounded or low only 22 medium and zero high just to give you an idea of the work that our department is doing. Um, student support is also working on a similar model for suicidal ideiation um to be infused in infinite campus as well so that we can have both of those housed to make it a much more streamlined process. Um, each school I'll have you look at those, but I'm going to skip over to the new topic which is the MERT certification. Um, every school
030is uh has trained staff on medical emergency response. So they have teams of staff members that can respond to those medical emergencies. They are required to do drills. And this year 289 staff members serve as Mert team members. Um and the 6,456 staff members, those are those are staff that are also trained in CPR, first aid, AED, but but not MERT certification. Um the other thing that we provide in school safety and student support is a wide variety of uh training for safety. Every year there is an assortment of different um trainings that are available to administrators, crisis responders. We have social workers, um SRO's, counselors, lots of student support staff will attend our trainings. Um, and I will go right back here because I forgot to highlight the number. Actually, 853 attendees of our
031trainings this year so far, which is pretty impressive. Um, and we are actually adding in in addition to the um the the trainings that are on here. Um, they range from forensic interview protocols all the way to like reunification if we have to evacuate a school and many other types of trainings. We are adding a couple more next year. one is about um drug awareness um and drug trends with teens and another one is a GIMA training on crisis response. We feel like that that will be well attended and has very good content for our staff. >> At the heart of our support and response efforts is the incredible personnel um within our department. We really do firmly believe that the relationships that our support staff build are the true foundation of our work at
032you. As you can see at the top, addressing the growing complexity of student needs, our nurses play a vital and irreplaceable role in supporting increasing medical and mental health demands as well within their exceptionally busy clinics. As you can see, this is the year-to-ate clinic visits across our district. It's a a staggering number if you ask me. Um, our student advocacy specialists partner closely with other department staff and provide that 24-hour accessibility for students with high levels of need. Expanding our proactive supports, we also piloted a compass lesson platform alongside disciplinary infractions in 19 schools this year to intentionally educate students on appropriate behavior. Through strong community partnerships, our mental health collaborations with outside providers have resulted in 776 therapeutic sessions year-to- date with students in need. On a daily basis, our counselors continue to
033individualize support for students through academic advisement, crisis intervention, and social emotional guidance. And last, but certainly not least, our social workers serve as an essential connectors, building bridges between the home, schooling community by fostering deep trust with families. And as you can see, those home visits are very important to building that trust. In unfortunate times of loss, we also wanted to share um in our district, our support team members do come together to work through a very thorough and detailed crisis response plan. Our robust system that's been developed um through a experience in a multiple unique situations throughout the past couple of years helps schools navigate crisis and support their school communities even in the days and months after. Foresight actually serves as a model for other districts as they develop a more streamlined process
034of crisis response and have reached out to us for some of our resources to help them set that up. Besides just the support of students, it also extends very deeply into the family support. Um counselors, they focus on guidance on academics and mental health support for students as well as families. Our social workers connect families with the resources they need. Our nurses ensure the health and safety of students in their care. and student advocacy specialists always available 24/7 for students and their families provide support and guidance. So, we wanted to provide you with a real life example of how we work together in student support and school safety to support students and families. Um, a few months back, there was a mother that reached out to her daughter's SAS asking for help. She needed to
035check herself into a hospital and she didn't have anyone to take care of her daughter. That was in the evening time. The SAS contacted school administration as well as me. The assistant principal called the SRO who then made a home visit to do a welfare check with another officer and found a relative to take care of the daughter. At the same time, I called the lead social worker who completed a defax report that night and communicated with the counselor as well as the assistant principal who was involved in all of this the entire time. Um, and the next day they came together, all of them, SAS, social worker, counselor, administration to talk through a plan to support not only that child but also the rest of the family. As we talked about, some situations arise
036outside of the school building, but a lot of times, most often, the need for family and student support begins within the four walls of a school building. There have been many times, the situation that you see on your screen is very typical where students find themselves in the clinic with clear physical manifestations of anxiety and depression or depression. And our school nurses are well equipped to recognize these warning signs and create a warm handoff to our counseling departments. The trust and connection with counselors can sometimes elicit disclosures that warrant immediate attention for student safety. Our school resource officers help to involve law enforcement when necessary. And our social workers jump in to support the appropriate measures to connect to agencies like defects or other community organizations that can best support the family. And our student
037advocacy specialists add to that collaborative monitoring to ensure a journey of healing and deep relationship building. As you see the stepladder effect, it is important to note that during this whole process, the communication among all of these support team members is continual. So even if it's though it's a handoff, that connection and that conversation is occurring throughout the entire process. We also alongside all of these supports as a department always want to be looking for proactive programming and innovative measures to expand on the things that we're doing to support our families. Um, we talked a little bit about the Compass curriculum that has layered education with discipline. We also currently have 11 schools engaging in a wraparound cohort that teaches a process of building intentional and relevant services to further support their school communities and
038to use data to do that. And lastly, our collaboration with other departments is a necessary step in the integrated Georgia MTSS model that blends academics, behavior, and well-being together to effectively support the whole child. And that cross-dep departmental collaboration is solid and consistent. And we value the relationships with those leaders of the departments to make sure that alignment and clarity is present. As you can see, we partner with them to ensure safety and well-being of our students and our families. It truly takes a village and a connected district to implement effective programming that supports through aligned processes and procedures. So, we have a few quotes to share. As you read these, um, please understand the impact that these staff members have on the many different stakeholders in our community. Just give you a a minute
039and then I'll we'll finish up. We have shared many data points that reflect the work that we do, but the true impact of our work cannot always be quantified. How do you measure the lives not lost, the calls never made to 911, the tears shed in an office instead of an emergency room, and the students who have found hope because someone noticed and cared. I think I speak for everyone in our department when I say this is the real work we do. It is the work that truly matters and it is the reason why we show up every single day. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to share with you comments. Well, I just like to say thank you guys. I know that that's like the most basic thing we can say
040is thank you, but I I sincerely mean it. Um maybe you feel like your work is unseen by us, but we think about you guys often. We pray for you guys often and you guys are truly out there saving lives every single day and that's not lost on us. So, thank you. And we're here for you guys, too, if you need us. So, >> thank you for all you do. >> Thank you. Next on the agenda, Mr. Matt War, local facilities plan. >> This is why everyone's here wants to talk about building this, right? >> Okay. All right. Michelle told me to make sure it's a full screen. So, that's what I'm going to do. How do I make it a full screen? Come on, Michelle. >> Come on. I need help. >> Michelle, can
041you help me? >> Paging Dr. Dugan. Come on. You can sit back down. I mean, I had this a long time ago, but I think someone messed it up. >> No, that's exactly what Actually, this is >> Well, there you go. >> You can do it that way if you like. >> Well, it's not full screen. I don't want to get in trouble. >> No, I'll allow it. >> All right. Hello, everybody. We'll talk about buildings. Um, we're I am actually very excited to come and talk to you today about our local facilities plan. the state's kind of telling us not to say five-year facility plan, even though that's exactly what it is. But before I get started, I do want to thank Brad Richardson as well. Um, his work for our department is unparalleled
042about how much he helps us and how many contracts I am probably the largest thorn in his side, about as many contracts and services we use. Um, yes, he would agree to. Um, but again, thank you to him and his team. They're always able to answer the phone and help us get through our contracts. So, uh, without further ado, we'll get into for Scythe County Schools local facilities plan. >> There we go. All right. What is a local facilities plan? This is required by the Georgia DOE. Comes around every four years. It takes a year to plan. Um, this is directly connected to the governor's capital outlay budget that he puts in for every year. So, please know when we talk about needs assessments, and this is just an overview of what it is before
043I get into the actual plan. I know we have some newer board members, first time seeing this. Um, it's very overwhelming sometimes even to me. Uh, but again, it's very important to talk about this is connected to the governor's capital outlay. So, we're only talking about needs that qualify for capital outlay reimbursements. Okay? This is not the wants and things that we want around our schools like a new playground or things of that nature. These are only things in the physical buildings of schools that house students with FTE. So, it's important to know 11 buildings that we have do not qualify for any type of reimbursement. So, that's important as well. So ACE is a program that building earns no capital outlay funding. This building, technology, hill center, things of that nature. So when we
044talk about needs, those buildings still have needs, but they don't qualify under this capital reimbursement. So that's important. This comes around every 5 years. Um, we're excited because this timeline is great for us because it lines up every time with our squast. And that is absolutely critical that we line our projects and our needs up with our SPLOS referendum. So that's very important as well. You will notice there are some comments in this plan. They ask us about some transportation questions and some safety and security. They're very generic questions, but they did uh give us a lot of credit for some of those. So the next thing I want to talk about is what is capital outlay funding? Well, first things that are eligible. What is eligible? Again, it's the physical building. Um, mainly it
045comes down to, especially for Scythe County Schools, the number of instructional units. What's an instructional unit? Classrooms. So, the state looks at elementary, middle, and high. And they just count the total number of classrooms we have. And they say based on your enrollment, your FTE, you earn more classrooms. or you have too many classrooms and you don't earn anymore, doesn't mean they're going to take it away. What it means is it does not earn capital outlay to help us build an addition or a new school, things of that nature. So, they don't look at our north end, our south end, this pocket. They look at one big number. So, that's very important to keep in mind as I go through this. Also things that are eligible uh again anything in that building a roof um
046some type of painting and flooring not very much HVAC which is very important why we're asking for reimbursements on those things those are all things that earn good capital outlay dollars and anything we apply for has a percentage there's a reason why we use a lot of our capital outlay dollars for new schools or additions you get a larger your percentage for that. For example, if I wanted to go paint a building, the how much we would get back to paint a building would probably paint three or four classrooms of an entire school because it's just a lower percentage. If we wanted to do an addition or a school, those units in structural units, you get a larger percentage. Now, I will tell you that capital outlay is only $80 a square foot based on
047that. Our building costs are near $400 a square foot. So, but we were extremely happy to get anything we can get. The next is the application. How's the application done? You'll notice that you can only do an application for reimbursement between July 1st and August 15th. So, we've been asked, why do we always start our buildings or our construction August, September, October? Well, if we're doing an application, that's the only time the state takes it. So, we're kind of stuck in that window. And then lastly, um, all state reimbursements are a year lagging. So if we do an application, we have to pretty much do the entire project locally funded and then at the end we can ask for our money back for it. So that's why SPLS is very handy to where we have
048to have that cash on the front end in order to do the projects and then we get them back. We also cannot ask for all of our capital outlay funding until the contract is 100% closed. So, if we have a contractor that's been kind of having some issues and we still got warranty things, we haven't closed out our contract, I can't ask for my reimbursement. So, we stay on those contractors a lot about getting things done. Very next page is just a very quick overview of these are the deadlines for the state. As you can see, the third line, fiveyear, our five-year plan will now run from July if you approve it next week. Uh July 1st, 2026 through June 30th of 2030. Here's what Force County Schools has done in fall of 25. As
049you notice, we've been working on this a while. Um we go through and look at our capital outlay planning system. It's the cops platform is what we call it. And what we do is in there is the state that manages all of our items and our schools. And then what it does is if something qualifies, some people say, "Well, how does it qualify?" It's all done by age of the building. A roof does not start earning money until it's 20 years old. So, we have to wait 20 years in order to get money back from the state. HVAC units 10 to 15 years based on the unit. So, it's a long lag of how that money builds. In November, we submitted uh our plan. We reached out to our DOE consultant. They always give us
050feedback. We don't want to officially start diving into our plan until we know kind of some catches that we get into. At that time, we um got feedback from the DOE consultant and we felt comfortable by moving forward in the official process. That's when Dr. Young submitted just our preliminary plan. And then in January here, just about two weeks ago, the state sends a DOE consultant as well as multiple people from other counties to do an evaluation of our system. They look at all of our needs in that uh capital planning system and they want to make sure what are our projects and again we show them our splash list and they make sure that it's all aligned. Okay. So that team came in and we're extremely proud of that team because they bring people
051from our region, people from large districts, small districts, from other part of the state and they always do make a comment. This is where I'll put a plug in for my team. They always want for Scythe County to go first. And the reason is is because they actually bring people that are not evaluating ours, but they see how well our plan is done, how well we present our plan, how thorough it is, and how well we plan out our projects that they sit in and learn before they have to go through it in theirs. So, we take a lot of pride in that. Um, so we're we're happy to do that every January. So, I am here now in February that next week I'll ask for Dr. Young's recommendation to approve our plan and then
052in the spring it will go on the board agenda for the state DOE to approve it. Planning vision real quickly. This is just our priorities of looking at our SPLS. As you all know, this is our SPLS list. These are the needs that were shown um through our our needs assessment. The one I really want to talk about because I think it's very important. Because of our change in our enrollments, our elementary schools, we do not earn any more instructional units from capital outlay. So, if we build a new elementary school that we have in ours, it will be 100% locally funded. We still are over capacities more at our middle and high. So, we do have capital outlay ready for that if we choose to do those facilities. But as you can see, everything
053is aligned with our SPLO 7. So let's look at the actual team report real quick. This is just as you can see the date on the left side will be next uh week's board meeting if you choose to uh approve the plan. This is an overview of the individuals that came. We had someone from Hall County, Gwynette, Barrow, Banks, and Putnham. And then our DOE consultant as well. The review of the official facilities plan was just when Dr. Young sent it. They always uh attach that page. The important one where I want to spend a little bit of time is the one on the right. The checklist 1 through nine is what they're looking at and how they grade our district. And it's pretty much an audit of making sure that we're on track with
054all of our facility planning, instructional spaces, improvement needs. What's important is that middle or bottom middle section. It's better to start from the bottom. If you look at number three, it says the total physical improvement need. They say when they go through all of our needs, they show and it's an architect design that says, "Hey, here's all their needs and let's put a dollar value on it." They look at our needs and they estimate all of our needs are $474 million. Okay. Now, this line two, let's move up. Facility improvements that are not eligible. They're ineligible, which means you earn no money for it. is $373 million. So there you go. We already lost that much money to try to complete our needs. And then the final line on the top is what's eligible. So
055of that $474 million, we can go ask the state for $101 million to reimburse us. The issue with this is you will not get the $101 million. The capital outlay for the state is spread out over 180 districts. we get about 10% of that. So out of the $474 million of need, we can actually apply and get about 10. Okay. So what happens with the rest of it? That's why SPLS is absolutely critical that we use those dollars to help fill our need. Also local dollars, things that we do from our board that you guys have been very uh gracious with to help complete those needs. But again, this goes back to the capital outlay, which is again, I'm not saying anything negative at all. It's amazing to have these funds from the state. It's
056just when it's spread out over 180 districts, it gets pretty thin. >> Hey, real quick on the on the aotment. Um I thought they did the average over the um overcrowding over a 4-year period, not just in one year. >> They look at our FTE from the previous year. >> Okay. They they monitor it completely from the FTE from the October count from the previous >> look at it over a fouryear period. They look at it over a two >> every year. That's why your entitlement will change up and down every year. >> Are you are I do you are you talking about I thought the schools have to be over capacity for four years. No, >> talking about on the five-year plan >> on the five-year plan all they look at is they look
057at your total number of classrooms at that time. So, and again, our capital outlay number is based on the FTE from the previous year. >> I I think and we could chime to chime in on this later, but I I think what you're talking about is they they're looking at multiple years when you're looking at the QBE formula >> as you go forward, which is a little bit different than that. >> Yeah, QBE is very different. This is just >> I thought it was funding for schools. Like they wouldn't approve us to build a new school until we showed that we were overcrowded consistently for four years. not by our understanding is they they look at your yearly base of how your FTE from the previous year and then they put that into your total
058number of classrooms. So >> and again this is capital outlay nothing to do with QBE. >> So am I going deferred? Did you say we only get 10 million out of that 101 million >> roughly? Yes, sir. >> I was going to ask is that the same for all counties across Georgia? >> No, it's varied. You get a different percentage. If you're a larger district, we get a little bit larger of a percentage. If we have how many schools, how many students, things of that nature. So, uh, metro districts, we get a bigger piece of the pie. Um, but again, it's so it is proportionate based on our enrollments and our needs. >> So, do we get to apply that same percentage to what we send for equalization? >> Yeah. Five mil match. Yeah. The
059120 million that we donate each year. Do we get to just send them 10% of that or no? I can't answer that question, sir. >> Uh, Larry. >> Yeah, you can ask Larry that next week. >> All right, moving. Any other questions on that slide? Moving up. I'm only Final two. Um, this is just the one on the left is where all the team members agreed. Findings, we had zero findings. We're very proud of that out of a large metro district. They had nothing that they said that we needed to change or off, which is a very big deal. And then the final page, these are their comments. Um I do want to go through these. The team was impressed with the organization and presentation of the facilities team and their level of understanding of
060the needs of the district. Um the team did commend that um they do take into account how we're funding things and that they said that is unheard of that a metro district is doing that well with their finances. That they're talking um they enjoy the idea that we're using our SPLOS pay as you go and we're not taking out further debt. Travis, Travis, did you hear that? >> You're making notes. Can we get Travis a copy of this? >> The team commands. >> Uh, but talking about being debtree, they did make a very big point of that that many districts do not do that. Um, the team applauds the system and community involvement with our CTA advisory boards and partner connect. The team commends the system with exemplary relationships with law enforcement. Um they made
061it very clear that it is not very common that every school has an SRO across the state. Um especially at high schools having two and we talked about our partnership with them. Um the team recognized massive undertaking of construction, additions, renovations and modifications in an effort to standardize its schools and reduce the number of modular classrooms. Um the team acknowledged the academic success. We showed off the ACTs and the SATs, AP honors, which in my opinion, it's really great to see this that's brought up in a facilities report because we do matter. Where our kids sit and learn really does matter and it has effect on this. So, we're extremely proud that they found that and connected that to a facilities plan. on the team applauds the facilities team for always looking at ways to
062be more fiscally responsible as noted through self-performing projects efficiency through LED lighting, HVAC, energy recovery units. They were amazed by um I had a lot of people call me afterwards about how do you manage all those projects? How do you not use contractors? You're doing that yourself. That's crazy. Um but they love the way of hey we're saving the district money by not just going and get a contractor and spending that do those dollars. So they were very impressed by that team commends the maintaining and updating facilities and the fleets using SPLOS dollars to do that and then also using alternative fuel options. They were uh very intrigued about using the propane. So we gave Mike Satderfield that credit as well. That's the report. Um what I will do is uh it it'll be for
063you all to review. You can email me or call me with any questions. Um, next week it'll be on the consent agenda for you to officially sign it. Um, and they have a resolution just saying that you've reviewed it, you approve it, and and uh we'll be good for 5 years if you choose to do so. >> All I'll say is whatever you paid for those comments, I submit an expense report to Larry and we're going to go ahead and get you real. Kidding. Kidding. No, good work. That's that's awesome to hear that. and you know just across the board across all the different aspects of of what we do day in and day out to get such good feedback like you said in a in an unlikely place. So good job to you and
064your team and thank you for representing us so well. >> Thank you. I appreciate your time >> chairman. A lot of a lot of things on here that they commended us on. It probably goes without saying but I'll say anyway a lot of these things are funded locally not at the state level. I mean we we heard the little bit we do get back from the state for the you know for the capital outlay but these are the sorts of things that our community has come to expect and demand of us and they are locally funded and I know that goes into a larger conversation about some discussions are being had about you know restructuring uh you know school funding but I I think it's important to note that >> yeah I mean it really
065is and not to get on the soap box here but it really is important with in this climate that we're in where there's all kinds of bills out there about property taxes that some of them are not I think fully thought through. These are the kind of things that are at risk when local local revenue gets strangled and um our community has come to expect a certain level of service and um I just hope everybody else is watching. >> Well, and I think the last thing I want to just add to that, this is simply the brick and mortar of where kids are sitting. Imagine playgrounds, parking lots, just the properties that we maintain and the services it takes to maintain that. That is 100% not in this report locally funded. So there's so much
066more that takes place outside the brick and mortar that is also locally funded. >> Yep. Thanks for your time. Thank you, Mr. War. >> All right. Next up, Mr. Derek Hershey with review of policy JA equal educational opportunities. Good afternoon everybody. So this is uh policy JA and um this falls outside of the scope of our traditional G's that we're rolling through each month. Uh, we decided to move into JAA because it mimics policy GAA 3A. I think I said that right. Um, very much so. And so our attorneys actually advised us when we changed or edited uh GAA, we also want to do JAA with that. And so you'll see very similar um very our attorneys advised us on all of the changes that we've made and the recommendation was that we remove all
067the procedures uh from the actual policy itself and create uh reg uh the procedures as part of the regulations. And so we've we've made all those adjustments. um all of all of the procedural timelines um that are included in the regulations uh they mimic uh GAA procedures uh to the T. So they're very similar in nature. Title two, title six, title N. >> Yes, sir. >> Questions? >> There's not much left of it. >> Yeah. Right. >> It's exhilarating. I know. >> All right. We'll set that out for 30 days of public feedback and then we'll see you in a month. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up is review of policy JBC school admissions with Miss Kathy Carpenter. >> Good evening everybody. Uh let's see. Here we go. Okay. So, this policy has
068been updated as a result of some legislative changes that occurred in the last session related to HB268 and school records. So, the first part that got updated was the definition of what a school record is. Previously, school systems had a general agreement about what a school record is. you know it was going to be attendance grades um some discipline information and then some programmatic information. So what the legislator did legislature did was they defined okay what is really critical to know about a student in terms of their educational record. So, if you look at in definitions at item number 16, there is the state's definition of what a critical student record is, and it does include transcripts, attendance, grade information, um, and discipline information, but it really expands the breadth of that discipline information. It's
069going to include any chronic behavior plans, um, any charges that are made against a student in their resolutions. It also includes any records that we collect from the courts relating to students being charged with felonies. And so that is information that we hold as a school district and that we will provide to other school districts if a student um transfers inside of our state. The other thing it added to critical records to make sure that we were transferring appropriate records quickly to other schools is IEP plans, psychologicals, program information like Esau, EIP, gifted, etc. Um, wait, let me think. And 504s are the other things that are included in this. So, that is the first part that got amended is the critical record piece. If we scroll down a little bit to the next section
070where it includes other documents required during the enrollment process, we added on an item E in this area. So in addition to defining what is that record that needs to transfer with a student, this the legislature also defined well which students does it need to be transferred for and how long of a student record do they need. So, what the legislature decided is that for students enrolling in grades higher than third grade, we need 24 months of previous school records so that we can make sure we've got a comprehensive set of records when that student transfers from a Georgia school a to our school system. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yeah. >> Be as it is now, some these these records trail, right? The kids are allowed to enroll and then these records
071sometimes come after the fact. No. >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. So now in order for them to enroll, this has to be in hand. >> Yeah, that's a great point cuz um what the legislature did is they said, "Okay, you have to have these critical records at the point of enrollment." And then they gave us the last part of, "Well, what do we do if we don't have these records?" So the final piece that's updated in the policy is the provisional enrollment. And if you scroll to the very bottom of that, we've got an item B under provisional enrollment. And it says once the student enrolls, if we do not have the critical records at that point of enrollment, we give we are allowed to give a 10day provisional enrollment period to obtain the critical
072records. And I will say, you know, for the most part, we really are getting the critical records within 10 days. It does happen. Um, and if if on on by chance that we do not get the critical records, then we have two choices. As a school system, we could notify the parents on day 11 that the student would participate in remote learning until we get the critical records. Or we can do what's called a case management consultation meeting. And during that meeting, it's the principal, the counselor, the social worker, the parents, and the sometimes the students who sit down and meet and discuss, okay, are there any past um historical record information about the student that would would tell us that we do not want that student to go ahead and and sit in face-toface
073classes. And once once one of those two things happen, either the remote learning or the consultation um case management consultation meeting, then we decide which way to go with the student at the point of enrollment. So any questions about that? >> So the provisional enrollment is not an option. It's like it's mandatory. >> Um you have a choice in allowing the student. Some school systems do choose to go ahead and immediately if you don't have the critical records at the point of enrollment, they will choose to do one of the other two options that we have. Um, for our school system, we are allowing the 10 currently allowing the 10 per 10-day provisional enrollment. >> I just I asked because it says that they shall be enrolled on a provisional basis. So, this reads like
074they will be. >> You you can enroll them provisionally. Absolutely. Any other questions? >> Questions? All right. So, we will set this on the table for 30 days and uh we'll see you in a month. >> Okay. Thanks. >> All right. Last item on the agenda is future agenda items. Um do the members have any? >> I think we've got an action item. >> No, I'm sorry. On this portion of the agenda. >> Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. I jumped out. >> Well, the thing is that our agenda switched to like Greek numerals, so I'm a little bit freaking out here. Anybody speak Greek out there? >> Any future agenda items? >> No. All right. Next up on the agenda is action items. We have one. I'd like to welcome back Mr. Derek Hershey. 2026 2027
075employee calendars. >> This one's a little bit more exciting. than uh than the policy updates. >> I thought you were going to say than that. >> No, nothing's more exciting than that. Um was excited that we were able to uh to create this, get this out here. I know all of our employees are anxiously awaiting this to come out because they want to know when they can take uh and plan their vacations for the next year. Um so this is our um employee calendar summary. Um, when we develop this, we communicate to all board, all cabinet members, um, so they're able to provide feedback, make sure training days, um, are set up that to to make sure that it meets all of their needs. Um, for example, uh, maybe food nutrition services, come back on
076a specific day, etc. Um I was excited that um our teachers uh 190 days will end before the calendar gods were upon us today this year and uh we're able to make that work. So they will finish by Memorial Day. Um so that was a plus. So, so at this time, do we need to sit let this sit for a month or can we ask for approval? >> No, this is not a this is not a policy. >> Got it. >> Any questions on the calendar? >> Yes. I recommend for approval the 26 27 employee summary calendar as presented by Derek Hershey. >> All right. Is there a motion to approve the 2026 2027 employee calendar? >> Make a motion to approve the 2026 2027 employee calendar. >> Okay. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr.
077Grimes. Second by Mrs. Ho. Any discussion, questions? All in favor? Unanimous. All right. Do I have a motion to enter executive session for personnel? >> Motion to enter. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Mrs. Hoy, second by Mr. McCall in favor. Thanks, guys. We release you from purgatory.