001Good evening everyone. I'd like to go ahead and call to order the November 11th, 2025 work session. It is now 50:02. We are marginally late, but within reason, I think. Um the members have an agenda before them. Is there a motion to adopt? >> Make a motion to adopt the agenda. >> Excellent. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Hoy, second by Mr. Usherwood. All in favor? Unanimous. All right. If you can please uh stand and join me for the pledge. 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. All right. Before we get going today with our regular program here, I'd just like to take a moment to acknowledge that today is Veterans
002Day. I want to recognize and thank the men and women who have served bravely in our armed forces and who continue to serve today. Their sacrifice, courage, and commitment protects the freedoms that we enjoy every day, which is the opportunity for our students to learn, to grow, and to be safe in a in a free country. We're proud of the many veterans who work in our school district, in our classroom, on our buses, in our cafeterias, and throughout the district. Your service, your service continues through the care you show for our students in our community each and every day. And the board would just like to thank each and every veteran uh not only in our district, but also in our county for their service. Uh really, the entire republic stands on your shoulders. So,
003thank you for for what you've done for all of us. And Mr. Usher would like to share a few words as well. >> Yes. I'd also [clears throat] like to um acknowledge that it is family engagement month. And so with that, November is family engagement month in Georgia. It is a time to recognize the vital role families play in student success. In Foresight County schools, we know learning doesn't just happen in classrooms. It happens through the partnerships between families, teachers, and schools. Parents and guardians are students first and most important teachers. When families stay connected by reading together, attending events, volunteering, or just talking about school each day, students thrive. We're grateful for the countless ways our families support learning and help make Foresight County a safe, connected, and thriving community for all. So tonight,
004I just want to say thank you to all of our parents, grandparents, and caregivers for being our partners in this important work. Thank you, Mr. Asherin. All right, we will get into the uh business portion of the agenda. First up under presentation and discussion items, bond updates with Mr. Steve Aa. Did I say that correctly? Oops. For those wondering, Larry is still under the weather. So, we're hoping he recovers this week and gets back in time for next week's >> Yes. Uh, finance update. >> Larry asked me to stand in. Um, I just wanted to introduce uh Mr. Gabe Aen of Raymond James. He's going to lead you through the uh bond refunding um update. >> Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The board. Just going to give you a quick update. uh in
005advance of next week. This is going to address the dress rehearsal from actual final numbers next week. But uh just to give you a quick update, I've been we've had the pleasure of working with your board over the last with your staff and uh CFO who's not here as well tonight because he's sick, but to help you get in position to possibly refinance two of your bond issues to save uh the school district some money here. Um thi this is just a slide that that gives you the the debt that forcy county school district has outstanding right now. And the the the two issues that I have uh uh squared off here are the ones that we're looking at refinance. They're prepayable which means you could you know pay them off or or or refund
006them with which is the same thing as refinance bonds February 1st. And we're actually going to do a closing for for December 18th is what our plan is. So we can we can actually close this issue, pay those off on December 18, invest that money to the call and and and and have a significant amount of savings by doing that. So So these are the ones that we're looking at. The rates on the larger one, the general obligation bond is is 5% that we're refinancing. And the the smaller one is a revenue bond issued through the Forcy County Public Facilities Authority. And the rate's not quite it's between four and 5% on that one or the coupons on that. So those are the ones we're going to focus on for this issue. And just to
007give a quick before we give the numbers. So, so in the process here, um, uh, actually first thing this morning, we released the two offering documents to the public, uh, is what we share with investors and, you know, the folks on our, uh, uh, underwriting desk will start communicating with the marketplace and do, you know, what we call pre-marketing your bonds to get as many folks interested in buying for Scythe County School District bonds as we can. Of course, the more demand we have, the more pricing power you have when we go to market next uh Tuesday here. So, so with that, we've started um the marketing process here. And I'll I'll have one slide I want to put a little bit of focus on because, you know, for Scythe County School District, I mean,
008it's a pristine credit. There are very few AAA credits in this state. And the only ones, you know, Gwynette and Cobb are the only others I can think of and they're much larger districts which typically, you know, have more diverse tax bases. So, you know, Versythe has the highest ratings of you the the for, you know, AAA rating, which is, you know, you know, highly highly regarded in the marketplace. Okay. So, I'm just going to give you a quick update. Um, so this issue and of course this will change based on, you know, how the the final pricing goes next Tuesday, but right now we're looking at about $5.3 million of savings over the the course of this, about $760,000 per year and a net present value benefit of about $4.7 million here. So that's
009our estimates as of now. And the the deeper we get into this process and and depending on how the order period goes next Tuesday, you know, at that point, we'll have final numbers, it will will, you know, differ some from this, but hopefully pretty close at this point. Um, okay. Th this one is, you know, on the smaller side, but it was really kind of the economies of scale of doing a financing. we're going through a lot of the the process with the rating agencies, you know, your staff time of getting all the disclosure together to go to the marketplace. So, we also saw an opportunity in the public facilities authority bond issue. Uh that did add incremental savings, you know, after so so we're going to do this under a separate it's a separate
010financing because this is a revenue bond issue versus a general obligation bond issue. But we we still think you're going to be able to save, you know, about $330,000 present value over the life of this about 75,000 a year. So So we're actually going to be pricing two bond issues next uh next Tuesday. Okay. This is just I want to share this slide with you. I think you have it in your pack, but you know, last Thursday Moody's and S&P both uh released the the bond ratings on on these two two financings. And as I mentioned, you know, they're both AAA. So, you know, that's the highest uh you know, prime credit that you could possibly get. Um, you know, fun fact, the the the United States government actually doesn't even have a AAA, you
011know, S&P rating now. It's a double A plus. So, it's about as good news as you can get there. And just a few things that Moody cited was just the growing and affluent tax base for Scythe County. Um, you know, I think they they really noticed a trend of balanced budgets over the last year. You know, I know the the previous four were were uh you know, surplus and then about break even this last year. Um while, you know, reducing millage. I know you're passing some savings on to the to the to the taxpayers, which you should, but uh but you did that in a fiscally responsible way. So they really noted that in their reporting and um you know and then of course S&P similar comments just noted the economy and the the thorough
012budgeting and capital planning process and you know just just you know only really positive things to say here. Um you know just did a couple of market update slides but just in in general I know we call these refunding bonds but just to simply know refinance is all it is. It's just like lowering your rate. This is not taking on any more, you know, debt. It's just going to save the taxpayers, you know, about, you know, say hopefully north of $5 million net present value. But we'll have final numbers next Tuesday for consideration. >> But but I do want to point out, it's important to note that it doesn't extend the life of the loan. So it's still going to be paid off in the at the same time. >> That is correct. So we're
013not extending it. It's going to stay fixed rate. Uh we're just going to lower lower your interest rate on on this. So um you know for example the one that uh that had a 5% outstander rate you know we're looking at the all-incclusive cost which includes the cost of doing these you know going to the rating agencies you know our fees legal fees you know sub sub3% so about 2.82 A2 is our estimate right now, but but uh next Tuesday um we'll have a final deal in hand and the board will be considering you know a bond resolution uh to issue the new refunding bonds and um also a bond purchase contract to where we will memorialize the final rates and terms and and you know it'll go from the estimates that we're showing here
014to to to final numbers and it will get us to to the closing. I try not to go into too, but if there's any questions, please let me know. I just intended to give a real brief update here, but any questions or concerns? >> No, but I think it's a good opportunity to explain that we could not use the savings to pay down the debt because you have to pay it throughout the time period that it's there. Correct. So, like this one will pay out in 33. You can't pay it early. >> No. Correct. Now, that that is one thing that No, it is customary when you do a bond, you have a 10-year call lock. So, so that that is something that's industry standard and normal. So, you know, the discussions, you know, with
015with Larry and her finance team and, you know, it's just it's one of those things you there's other capital to do with with Splast and other funds and so so this was >> and it's good to know that because we get a lot of questions of why you keep paying it all the way out to 3030 and it's because you have to by law. >> Yeah. And you know, something else to keep in mind, too, is like these bonds, one reason you're getting an incredibly low rate. You know, the AAA rating helps, but the the investors we sell these to don't pay federal or state income tax. So, you're getting a much lower rate than you would like a traditional taxable borrowing. So if you look at your opportunity costs, you know, you're, you know,
016funds that are invested in Georgia fund one and treasuries just the safest, you know, you're likely earning a much higher rate than the two-ish, you know, that that that we're looking at on this these tax exempt bonds. So it's from a lot of perspectives, it's it's a, you know, financially smart thing for the school district. >> We're we're a safe bet in in other words. I mean, you get the lower rate because we're a we're we're a safe bet. You can't get better than AAA. >> All right, questions. All right, just just for because this is a lot of numbers and a lot of slides. So, just for the benefit of of the public to reduce this down to a simple statement, system is not taking on new debt. The system is fin refinancing 10-year-old
017debt, taking advantage of market conditions, and we think it'll produce a net savings north of $5 million for the taxpayer. >> Correct. That $5 million is not coming back to us or anything like that. It's just lower payments. >> Lower payments on payments taken over but but not extend the debt. You got it. >> Okay. >> Questions? Questions? So, you guys will put this to market and come back to us next week. >> That's right. So, next Tuesday is our plan date, but we we plan to have a final deal for you next next floor meeting on Tuesday. >> Perfect. Thank you very much. >> And we have this presentation now, correct? >> Yes. >> It's in assembly. It's in some way. Okay. Just want to make sure. >> Thank you, Gabe. >> Okay. Thank
018you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, policy DGA C. Purchasing or credit card use was Mr. AA. I got it right that time, right? >> You did. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Uh, yes. uh board policy DJ EAC, purchasing credit card use. Uh uh there's an initiative to change item three in that policy. Uh the credit limit for each card will not exceed 5,000. That's been uh the uh the amount of credit authorized up to this point to change it from 5,000 to 10,000 for elementary school, middle, and high school cabinet or designate cards. The superintendent credit limit will not exceed 15,000. Uh as you can see, the only change would be from 5,000 to 10,000. Um I started working for the Scythe County Schools in 2015. The credit limit for the middle and
019high schools was 5,000 at that point in time and 2500 for the elementary schools. Uh a few years ago, the elementarymentaries were raised 5,000 just to put everybody on an evil plat even platform. Um but um but I get the call from bookkeepers, not infrequently, and they ask me, "Can we raise our credit limit?" And I say, "No, we can't." that's for a power reserve to the board. Uh so it has to be taken up through through that method. Um but that a lot of vendors are not taking uh checks anymore. Um and then with the inflation, the purchasing power of a $5,000 limit, it just doesn't go that far. So constantly having to pay pay down their card to get more credit and they have to do that maybe multiple times a month. Um,
020but and Steve, the reality is, I mean, we we call these credit cards because they are, but but our bookkeepers and our principles pay those off every month. >> So, they're not accumulating any any credit fees or interest fees. They're they're just the method that this the principles have if they need to purchase online or quite quite frequently at the high school level. If if you've got a bunch of kids taking a trip um particularly career tech between the principal of the school and Delo's department, somebody's got to pay for all those all those flights or the bus or whatever it is and they won't take a check. >> Yeah, that that's a good point. Uh as a matter of fact, our cards are designed to be paid off automatically at the end of each
021month. So, it's not possible for them to get behind anymore under the way under the terms of our credit card agreement. >> All right. Any questions on this on this change? So, this will sit public for 30 days and then it'll come back to the board for approval. So, appreciate it, Mr. Ra. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next up, food and nutrition services update with Mr. Todd Mlelen. >> Can I jump in there for just a second as Todd comes up? >> Absolutely. Uh, I would like to take a moment tonight to recognize Todd McClullen and our amazing school nutrition team. They were recently honored with the Georgia FarmtoSchool award, which is no small deal. That's that's a pretty big deal. This award comes from the Georgia Department of Education, Georgia Department of Agriculture,
022U.J. Extension, and the Georgia Department of Public Health. Um, just to share a little bit about this award. Our schools are serving locally grown items in our meals, supporting Georgia farmers and giving students fresh, highquality food. They're promoting healthy eating for students and staff. Some of our schools have edible gardens where students get to see and taste what they grow. Todd and his team do incredible work every single day feeding our students, taking care of them, making sure they have what they need so that they can learn. Uh, and this award just puts a spotlight on what we already know. We have one of the best food and school nutrition teams in the state. And with that, Todd Mlen, >> thank you very much. I appreciate that. Um, I was planning to circle back that
023at the end of the slide, but thank you for the setup. All right. So, uh, uh, welcome, uh, and thank you to the board members and Dr. Young and the public for allowing me the opportunity to share about the progress in our department. Uh, we're going to talk about our goals. We're going to talk about our strengths, our weaknesses, our opportunities, and our threats. And we'll kind of summarize there at the end because as I was going through the presentation, I think we should never end on threats. So, uh anyway, in this presentation, um we're going to talk about um our goals and our goals are aligned to the strategic plan. Um each of these goals I'll go into more detail, but the umbrella goal there that we always think about is the school system
024strategic plan. All right. In our goal, in our department, one of the things that a lot of people maybe there's a misperception is is that we get money from the general fund and the only way we make money is we sell food. We are our own separate entity just like uh when Larry shares the financials, there's always a section on the food nutrition department in separation from the general fund. So, one of the things that we need to do in our department is increase participation. In order to pay all our bills, we have to sell food. Um, one of the things that we've done, we've greatly increased our participation in the free and reduced program. In 2019 2020, pre-COVID, we had about 6.3% of our students on free and reduced. Um, as of last Friday,
025which is the official day that will set the free and reduce rate for the rest of the school year. Um, we ended up at 20.36% free and reduced and that's been holding consistent for about 2 or 3 years, right around 21 20, you know, 21 20% somewhere in there. Um, we've [clears throat] also one of our goals is to create and sustain a plan for alternate meals and student charges. So, in in short, what happens when a kid walks up to the register and they do not have a meal? They they have no way to eat. In short, we're going to feed them and but we also have to make sure that we're fiscally responsible. There are a lot of school systems around the country that have incurred a lot of debt feeding kids that
026don't have a plan for their food. So, we're coming up with a plan that's sustainable and that we can feed kids, but it also doesn't put our department in debt. We've also are proud of our summer feeding. This is something we started dipping our toe in a couple years ago. Um, there are some parameters from the Georgia Department of Education and the USDA that says we can't feed everybody for free during the summer, but we can in certain zones where our attendance or excuse me, our free and reduces above 50%. So, we started that uh last summer. We served over 8,200 meals to families during the summer to students over the summer and we've partnered with a couple of nonprofits that do some great work for our families in this community and we're able to
027at a at a zero cost to them or a zero cost to our program. We're able to provide meals for those students in those summer programs as well. Um [clears throat] and then finally in order to improve this is a was a big undertaking this year. We're really working on menu development. We're trying to get out of uh you know where we were 20 years ago with our kids. Now don't get me wrong, we're still going to sell nachos. We make a lot of money off nachos. Chicken tenders. Kids love those. But we're also trying to get into some more uh different kinds of foods because food tastes have changed with our kids. A lot of kids in First Life County have access to a lot of fast casual type foods. Um they still have
028some old favorites, but we're trying to devel develop some new favorites as well. Our second goal is program solveny. We don't want to come to the board and say, "Can we have money?" And we need to be run our department like a business. We need to make sure that we have money to pay for things. Some of the things we've done to we've done to increase our program's efficiency is we created a new staffing formula. It was more in line with national standards. Previously, our staffing formula was outdated. it was uh structured in a way that when raw chicken was coming through the doors or raw ground beef because we don't get that anymore. But we're actually trying to we updated that to be more in line with national current national standards. We also are
029looking at ways to decrease waste. I think everybody's been frustrated when you open the refrigerator and you bought that thing at the grocery store and you had to throw it away, but think about a program that sells 5 million meals a year and think how that cost can add up. And we also looking at ways to control inventory. So again, if you had five packs of chicken in the refrigerator, you don't need to probably buy three more. So we're trying to control our inventory costs in that way. Um this has been a big one and we've experienced a lot of success in this, but um we wanted to increase the number of uh assistant managers in our program. A couple years ago, we ran into a situation where my first year we had a position
030come open and we had one applicant for the position and that was a pretty scary thing cuz that luckily for us that person was a quality person. They were sitting assistant manager but we started thinking about it. How do we build for the future? Okay, how do we build that bench strength that we really need? So that's something we've been working on. I'll get more to that near the tail end of the presentation. We also have uh outside ways. We worked with our human resources department to find people from outside of the school system that have can come in and be assistant managers that have food service experience and leadership experience too. And working in our department has been very beneficial and very attractive to some of these people because in food service a lot
031of times you're working till midnight. You're working on holidays. You're working on weekends. You're missing your kids soccer games. then you can come into our department and you can work more of a schedule that fits that for a family. So that's been a big a big win for us. We have some of those employees who started as assistant managers and now they're actually sitting managers now already in our [clears throat] in our school system. All right, some of our strengths. Um we're fully staffed right now. I mean, if you remember back to CO, there was a really hard time getting people to work. We have approximately 325 employees in our department. Um there's always that little what I call frictional unemployment where somebody leaves and we have to bring somebody on. We have about four
032positions that we're looking to fill right now, but we have plenty of applicants for those positions. That kind of tells me that our wages are fair and that we have people who aren't leaving in mass. So I feel that that's a good strength for us right now. We are fully staffed. Uh we have bench strength right now. Um I feel like we've built some solid leadership in our county office, but going back to the assistant managers, we feel that we've built a lot of uh strength there. Uh for example, last go around when we were hiring managers, we were able to put what we felt were three quality candidates in front of principles to make that decision and who would lead the cafeteria. Uh the free and reduce process, we've greatly improved that. There has
033been uh the the process basically we're kind of meeting families where they are at now with communication. We're using the communications department. We're we're sharing uh information about our program with the SAS's, with social workers, with counselors, people who are in the know with families that all of a sudden might have experienced a change in employment for maybe one of the parents or something that hits the family that all of a sudden they're making far less money. So been spent a lot of time talking to um those people who are really close to families that might know about something that has changed for that family for the negative and also just general awareness of the program. Like I talked about we spend a lot of time speaking annually with counselors, social workers, SAS's, special education
034teachers, etc. All right. Some of our weaknesses right now, we know that we don't do a very good job telling our own story. Um, you know, so that's sometimes we're left to, uh, other people making their minds up about our department. You know, we need to tell the story of some of the new things that we have. Uh, we I'll get to some of those in a second. There's also food perception. We have a lot of people who think that, well, you guys serve Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. That's not great for kids. It is. It is. But I will tell you that it is not the same Cinnamon Toast Crunch that's sold in grocery stores. It's actually a different There's different standards for it. Um it's the child nutrition version and it's sold in
035schools all across the country. It just, you know, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, you're right, it is delicious. Um uh but our our standards are they have to meet USDA standards for calories, sodium, trans fat, all of that stuff. And so there's a perception also that we just heat everything up. We've trying to make the transition and we have for a lot of foods for what we call speed scratch. So, we're not getting raw chicken, but we might get in cooked chicken, but we're making it into quesadillas. We're actually cooking the quesadillas. We're just not heating up quesadillas. So, we're doing a lot of that with our new foods. Uh the financial perception is that, you know, the we're just a part of the general fund and as everyone on the board knows, we're not a part
036of the general fund. So, we are doing [clears throat] a very good job recently of running it like a business. We also that this is one of the next step in our menu development is outreach to students. We've got to communicate with students to find out what they think is good and what they would bring them into do business with with us. I also think there's some opportunity there for parents because you know the especially in elementary school the parents are going to be very keenly aware of what's what the child is eating. All right. So I'm going to just blend in our weaknesses. I'm going to just blend those into opportunities. Um, in terms of marketing, I would love to reach out to some high school marketing uh, programs and say, "How can you
037work with us and how can you, you know, help us out with social media?" Um, don't worry, we're not going to let them start running social media. Michelle, >> you're not. >> We're not. Yeah. So, um, we're going to continue menu development. Right now, we're in the process where our managers, we have to find out if our menus, if our managers can work those menus, like if we have several hard entre together. We've had the first round of that. We've made some adjustments at the high school. We're in the process of looking at that process for elementary school. The next step is to outreach with students to find out how we can how we can actually get them to try our foods. And we we do want to work with with the superintendence group. We
038talked about that with Mike Evans last time who kind of heads the student advisory. Um and we want them to have an out say in what's going on. Threats to our department, the increasing cost of benefits. Um state health benefit plan which you know the board has no controller control over. I know Larry makes a a point of it, but in the last 3 years, our department has picked up annually a $3.66 million cost per year in state health benefit plans. So, we got a new we got a new bill to pay and it's $3.66 million. The increasing cost of food. I know that everybody up here has been to the grocery store and walked out with a bag of groceries and you couldn't believe you just spent $50 on a small bag of groceries.
039We serve over 5 million meals a year. So, think about that in the terms of cost of food for our department. It's it's it's quite a bit. Um, regulations, we're always at the the the whim of the regulations, federal, state, and local regulations, and the regulations change. Like, for example, one of the things that's happened recently is the USDA, and this has been going on, not just not the current administration, but this has been going on in the past administration, where more focus on buy American. So, we're buying produce from American farmers. We're not we we can only have 10% of our product now, right now, uh be non-domemestic. So, those think things like olives and right now cauliflower from Mexico. Um and then that kind of bleeds into supply lines because there's only about
040seven companies in the United States that actually produce food for food and nutrition programs. Okay? A couple of those companies are actually thinking of getting out of the the business, okay, because of those regulations. Um, and then also in talking to our suppliers, it's far more lucrative for them to sell to restaurants than it is to food and nutrition programs. So, that whole supply line thing, we had some supply line issues earlier this year with our with our groceries. Uh, I was at the Georgia uh food and nutrition director's conference and I was talking to several directors two weeks ago and they're all experiencing similar supply line issues of just not getting all the food that they've ordered. We're in we're in better shape than we were previously, but there's there's still things every week
041that we don't get and we have to kind of scramble. Kind of like the you know the duck going across the pond, padding like crazy underneath but smooth on top. That's how we feel. So those are some of the threats [clears throat] currently facing our department. Um but the thing is is that you know our our mission is that we we serve we serve quality food with exceptional service. And I do want to give a shout out to the people in our cafeterias in our school because they make this thing work. They're the people who interact with the kids. If they're rude and disrespectful to the kids and don't care for them like all of our other staff members in in all of our school systems, the kids aren't going to walk into those cafeterias.
042Okay. Uh the quality foods, fresh Georgia grown produce that help supports farmers, but also it's it's much fresher if it comes from Georgia. Um, and that kind of that the people plus the food have led to a couple re uh awards here recently. The Georgia Farm to School Award, which is our second year in a row winning that. Okay. And then the first time that we've ever won this award is the Georgia tray of the week. This comes from Sonni Elementary School and it is a orange chicken bowl with a spring roll, fresh broccoli, carrots, and a nectarine as long as a along with a 100% juice strawberry frozen sidekick, which kids love. And they're pretty darn good, too. if you want to try them yourself. So anyway, um that's that's it for my presentation.
043That's it for the update. Um at this time, are there any questions uh from the board? >> Questions? >> I was just going to say I ate at a school a couple of months ago and had one of the frozen sidekicks. >> Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] >> Okay. Well, all right. Well, another thing, if you're interested, we are having a uh Thanksgiving uh dinner at one of our at all of our schools. So, I have a flyer that I can give to you and if you I would just ask you what the principal know that you might be coming to the school because I would want to know back when I was a principal. I'd want to know if a board member was coming to the school. So, I will I will get those to you.
044I'll get those to this Mayo and she can pass the flyer out to you at a later date. >> Limit on how many Thanksgiving dinner? >> Yeah, [laughter] Mr. Ashwood leaves out that he ate the limit is how much you can pay. So, if you're if you're paying, we're selling. So, okay. >> I I just want to say about Todd the job he's at. Todd, if you don't know, was a was a longtime school principal uh in our system and AP before that. And um I think when when Todd Shirley at that time was was kind of driving who was going to drive the bus on who was going to be the next food nutrition director uh or chief, um I think people scratched their heads and thought a school principal to come into the
045food nutrition department. Like what in the world are you guys thinking? And um Todd has taken that he's demonstrated leadership agility I think probably better than anybody I've seen. He's taken those those same skills that made him such an effective principal. Um and he's now developing leaders in his department. He's he's got a a kind of like a backwards design, you know, model for for how they how they plan out their work and and um it's just been really really fun to see him. Did you think five years ago you'd be talking in detail by the things you talked about tonight? >> Well, I have a very good team around me. I will tell that you know one thing I I I there I inherited some great people in the department hired some great people
046and I you know a lot of it it's interesting it's just you know trust your people you know someone wise man once said that um but you know trust your people but also you know developing leadership capacity when we collectively problem solve together and we get everybody's take on it and then we come up we're I' been a big believer in the collective IQ we are smarter as a group when we work through problems together and then that that's where it builds capacity in our department. But, you know, it's the again the the engine of our department is the the people in the school that make it so those kids want to walk through it every day. And, you know, that's, you know, again, that's that's the work that we're most proud of is what
047they do. So, Okay. >> Well, a final thought before you go. >> Yes, sir. >> You were good enough to invite me to visit with you at North Middle a few years ago, >> and um I think it was just coincidental that day you were leading an exercise. your whole staff was there or or your leadership was there about a data-driven approach to identifying every single child in that school that wasn't connected to a trusted adult. >> Yes. >> And it was so deliberate and it was so intentional that when it came to us that you were going to be the next uh food and nutrition director, I was like, I can't think of a better leader cuz I mean that was that was one of the I've been to every school in this district
048multiple times and that was one of the most impactful moments. So, I'm not surprised at all that you guys are knocking out of the park and good job. We're proud of you. Yeah, we have a long way to go, but we'll get better. So, >> it starts with caring. So, >> yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. >> All right. Another Todd on the agenda, Mr. Todd Shirley. [clears throat] First up is review of policy JCD AG bullying, which nobody likes. I can tell you guys when I called Todd Mlullen a few years ago about food nutrition, there was a long pause. I think that's the only time Todd has paused that [laughter] I have ever known him. Could not be a better leader in that department uh than that man. Um I
049think the one thing that everybody needs to remember is that when you lead a department um like Todd does, you have to lead it with compassion and there's no question that he does that. He was a wonderful principal and has been outstanding in his role. Okay. What you have before you is policy JCD A-ag on bullying. Uh really the the reason this one's coming to light is it has not been revised since 2015. Dr. Salom and I got together and we formed this one out to our legal team. The essence of the policy has not changed at all. But our legal team took really that long paragraph and shortened it to to capture to capture that um to capture really the policy in in in a much more compact way. Uh I would make the
050recommendation that we uh table this until the December regular board meeting for public view and opinion. >> One thing I'll say about this policy is that just a few days ago, Dr. Young, Mr. McCll and I were were looking through these changes at our agenda planning and we added uh four words here that are not very long but I think it conveys the the will of the board and it's that any report will be taken seriously and thoroughly. There's a lot of often online chatter about bullying and of course, you know, as as a parent, you know, you're always see things the way you see things about about your children. But I think what we wanted to make sure was was put in there that the system and the public knew was that our expectation
051is that every one of these will be thoroughly investigated until every every uh option or every avenue of investigation is exhausted. So, we just wanted to put that out there for the public to understand that we do take this seriously. It's a complex issue, but um we don't dismiss any of it. >> It is a very complex issue and and I do know that our schools work very very hard when they have bullying allegations. It is rare for our schools to deal with those without contacting someone in our office and and getting guidance from us. Uh and a lot of times we do end up in those conversations with those parents. So without without a doubt, we will take it that way as always. Yeah, we just talked about that it >> we needed to
052defined appropriately a little bit more and so the board said let's define it as take it seriously and thoroughly investigate. >> Absolutely. >> That's what it was about. >> Absolutely. >> Questions, comments. >> All right. Next up is our school social worker team update. >> All right, ladies. They're much nicer than I am. [laughter] >> [gasps] >> Um, I just want to say that this um is the first time I think in about 15 years that our social workers have had an opportunity to present to the board and we appreciate this opportunity to talk with you guys. Could not have picked two more wonderful people to be up here. Um, I would also like to acknowledge the rest of the student support department that is here tonight to support them. If you guys don't mind,
053stand up. Everybody, thank [applause] you. We're all together. All together in this. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Shannon and Britney. Thank you for having us tonight. My name is Shannon Crook and I've been a school social worker for 20 years. And we need to start our presentation before I start talking. Thank you. Um, this is my seventh year in Force County. My husband is a graduate of Force County Schools. I have two children in the system and I am proud to lead this team. Hey guys, I'm Britney Berto. This is my second year with Force County Schools, but I am a proud graduate of Forside County Schools. My mom's a teacher here and I've grown up in this community. The role of the school social worker is to eliminate barriers to
054student success and everything that we do every single day directly ties into board goal number one in addressing the social and emotional health for students. We have an incredible team of social workers who serve between two and four schools across the county. This includes all of our programs at ACE, the compass program, and our foster care leaison role. We have the privilege to work with students in the school building, but the heart of our work really comes when we connect the home, the school, and the community. Through our work, we partner closely with all members of the student support team, the safety team, administrators, and district office leaders to meet the needs of the children. As we talk through the work with the that we do and the interventions we provide to eliminate barriers, it's
055important that we talk about our work and expanding um beyond the student interventions. Because we're able to work in the home in the community, we can provide support not only for students but for their parents, for their guardians, and to the younger children in the home that birth to preschool age. This is important because we know that these children will soon be our students as well. We believe that healthy families allow for healthy children who are able to come to school ready to learn. Our work with the whole family helps strengthen their routines and it promotes safety through connectedness. Our process the school social work team receives referrals for any student or any family from anyone in the district. When a student is referred to us, our case load, we are required to assign a
056primary referral reason and these are the 10 categories listed here. These categories are actually defined to us by the Georgia Department of Education and we are required to report these numbers on a yearly basis. Our top three primary referral reasons have consistently been mental health services, family services, and attendance and dropout prevention services. Our team then assesses the needs of the family and often determines there are more than one referral reasons needed. An example of this would be if a child could not pay a cafeteria bill, the school's unable to get in contact with the parents, we would then call connect with them and oftent times we find that they need assistance with health care, mental health supports and then we would provide them with those interventions as well. The initial referral for the family
057is truly just an opening for us to connect and then foster that trust so that we can support students in the best way possible and alleviate any barriers they may be facing. After receiving a referral, our team makes contact with parents. Um, this contact can occur in multiple ways. It may be over the phone, in person at school, it might be in their home. We could meet them at their job site during their lunch break. um any way that we can connect somewhere in the community. In the first nine weeks this school year, we have made 3,54 contacts with parents. Some of these contacts have been in their home and we find that meeting the family there allows us to gain a better understanding of their circumstances and see what their strengths are so that
058we can tailor our interventions to make sure it supports their needs. This year so far in the first quarter, our team has made 434 home visits for families in our schools. Some of our referred families also have an economic aid need and we wanted to note that data here in our home category. A lot of times those economic aid needs are related to housing cost, the cost of living in general, um, and also just basic needs. But in addition to that, we also provide economic aid for families who are struggling with paying the cost of health care, paying the cost of mental health care, finding those resources to help with quality child care assistance, extracurricular activities, transportation cost, or anything that comes up when we assess the needs for them. Um, this year we have
059documented over 1,000 economic aid interventions just during quarter 1. We also noted in our charts here and throughout our presentation that you can um if we plan out our interventions um for the end of the school year and projections continue, we will um potentially increase um our parent contacts by 30%, we could increase our home visits by 25%. And our economic aid interventions could potentially increase by 73% by the end of the school year. >> Shannon, I got a question real quick. How many man hours does it take to do a home visit? Just on average, [laughter] >> um, if they answer the door, um, it could take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to 2 hours. It just depends on what you're learning from the family, how many people are there, what they're communicating
060with you, and then what the fallout is from that and the follow-up needs are from that. >> Okay. Thank you. We also collect data on consultations with school staff. This includes staffing student needs and sharing follow-up information that could be phone calls, in-person conversations, or emails. In the first quarter of school, we documented 7,391 consultations with school staff. We also want to note our conferences with students, most of which come face toface in our school buildings or inside of their homes. We have completed 1,551 conferences with students just this year alone. If you compare our contact data from students to parents, you'll see that contacts are higher with parents, which highlights our work we're doing with the whole family to address barriers and their overarching needs. Just like in our previous slide, you can see
061your our year-end projections for these intervention numbers. If our work continues at this pace, we will have a 10% increase in consultations with school staff and a 45% increase with conferences with students by the end of this school year. We'd also like to note that within our role of supporting students, we work very closely with the McKenna Vento liaison. Many of our students, many of our referrals for for MV actually come from Kim Pluhar at the time of registration or at qualification. This year, 20% of our case load is made up of McKini Vento students as well as unaccompanied homeless youth. Not only do we receive those referrals, but we also make those referrals to the McKini Vento liaison when we discover that families are in transition by the home visits and just getting to
062know these families and building that relationship. In addition to serving MV students, our team also serves foster care through the base school social worker or our foster care liaison. Just this year, our team has conducted 27 trauma-informed plans of support meetings in our schools. And the purpose of these meetings are to identify and address academic, social, and emotional barriers and needs that these children in foster care may have. Our third area of focus is community. And we've highlighted here four data points that we want to point out with our work in this area. The first quarter this school year, we have provided 392 mental health referrals for students and their families. This includes the 51 referrals that have required financial grant assistance as all grant supported mental health referrals are facilitated by the school social
063work team. We've made 218 contacts with DEFAC, 827 contacts with other local agencies, and have facilitated 105 direct referrals for healthcare related services um for students and families that could include general health um vision and dental, anything that they may need in that area. And just like our previous two slides, all of our projected year-end numbers will increase if we continue at the pace we're at now. In almost all of our cases, there are multiple referrals for support within one family um across school age siblings, their parents, and the younger children in the home. The referrals span homeschool and community. And this requires a lot of work in both um case management, ongoing case management, followup, back and forth communication with the families, with the school staff, with the agencies they're working with. And this
064is a commitment to building and maintaining those relationships with these families so that we can continue to work with them to eliminate barriers beyond our day-to-day work with our families. We also want to highlight some of the activities that our team has led um our social work team has led. Our little middle middle school social worker identified a need for their families to obtain resources before the school year started. things like school supplies, access to community partners, haircuts, and connections to staff. She worked on a proposal to her leaders to help her grow the idea into a back- tochool bash for the entire one east community. Our school social worker serving Brandy Wine recognized a need in her community for parenting support and collaborated with another member of our team to work with the children
065and families while she taught their parents. They partnered with a local church who provided a location and dinner in the evenings for six weeks. Six families completed the resilient parent program with great feedback and success and they plan to offer this again in the spring and have already secured their partners. And then lastly, another social worker on our team noticed the large amount of lost and found items in school buildings being donated after going unclaimed. She worked with local businesses, partnered with her PTO's to get these clothes washed, and worked with kid-to-id to sell these unclaimed clothing items in exchange for gift cards for families in need. This allowed these families um and parents the autonomy to shop for their children and to provide what their children need on their own. As you guys can
066imagine, collaboration is critical in our role. We cannot do our jobs in isolation. And we want to highlight some of these district support staff as well as community organizations to all of us work together to keep our families safe, connected, and thriving. So 40% of our referrals actually come from our school counselors and that's when they see a need that the family might need something outside of the school building. We also work very closely with our nurses, our SAS's, our administrators, our attendance clerks, and other support staff to address any barriers these children might have to learning. The community agencies listed here are critical partners, and we work very hard to build and maintain those relationships with these incredible people so that we can all serve these amazing families here at Forside County Schools. In
067addition to our daily work with the district, we have a school social worker who serves on the board of directors for family promise and also a social worker who serves on the board for for First Force Community Clinic. We also have a social worker trained to teach assist and another for youth mental health first aid and these are both suicide prevention and intervention training programs for for adults who work with young people. Members of our team also serve as school district liaison to all of the community collaboratives that are listed here um as well. When our team started discussing content for this presentation, we knew that data points were clearly important. But to us, the most impactful piece of our work is when we really get to see how families persevere and overcome the barriers
068in their lives. We don't always know the outcome of a family's story, but sometimes they come back and share with us how the work that we have done has influenced them. So, we want to share with you some quotes we've received from parents over the years. Thank you so much for showing your care and love toward my child. She has been through so much her whole life, thinking that people are cold and indifferent. Thank you for your kindness and goodness you show her. I am speechless. from a high school parent. I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart because that program you said I would be a good fit for is amazing. A huge chunk of stress is off of me right now. An elementary school parent. As long as I've been
069in Georgia, especially going through what I went through with the kids, nobody and no other school district has helped me like this. Like really seeing what I'm trying to do and really stepped in to help. I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, a middle school parent. In the weeks following our child's passing, you were so helpful in tirelessly finding resources for us to get the help we needed. I want you to know that your help with that was vital for us to move forward even while paralyzed with grief. You are making a deep and positive difference in many lives. A high school parent, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to us talk about our work. we are able to provide all of these increased numbers and interventions and
070to support more families than we have before due to the support of the school board with the increased staffing that you've given us over the last few years. So, thank you so much and we find it an honor and a privilege to serve the families in our community. >> Thank you guys so much. >> I just want to say that you had one of the slides in here was the extra mile and you had a couple of examples. you guys go the extra mile every single day that you're here. And so, thank you so much for what you do. And it's actually an honor for us to serve you and make sure you have the resources. And you know, the community is so blessed. We are so blessed to have you. So, just know we
071know every day you go the extra mile. >> Thank you guys. >> I just want to say thank you to you guys. as we've over the years we've all visited with with the social workers and the SAS's and the whole team and you guys do difficult work and I know it's personally taxing and I know that uh it's hard to not take it home with you. So, thank you for that and um know that we support you. We're praying for you guys and um we're really proud of you. You you guys are the front line for the most vulnerable and that's uh that's God's work. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you guys. >> ALL RIGHT. YES. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT, LAST ON THE agenda is future agenda items. Um, does anybody have
072something that they'd like to add for future agenda item? I have one acting as proxy for Mr. Grimes who's out of out of town today. Um, Mr. Mr. Grimes has requested at a future meeting that our procurement uh department come in and talk a little bit behind the back end of our procurement policies and consent agendas and and all this so that the public could be aware that there is a robust process behind that. So at uh whenever convenient. All right. If there's nothing else, I'll go ahead and seek a motion to enter executive session for personnel and real estate. >> Make a motion session. >> Excellent. >> I'll second. Oh, good. A motion by Mrs. Hoy, a second by Mr. McCall in favor. Unanimous. Thanks everyone. I appreciate you guys coming out. >> Thanks
073for being here, guys.