001I'd like to call the uh committee meeting for to order at this time. And at this time uh we ask for the invocation from Mr. Trey Brit. I'm looking too. Dr. Wson. Dr. Williams. Which one? I forgot. I had done that. Hit his name. Hit that one right here. That one there. Click on his name and hit icon. Okay. Let us pray. Dearly father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this time that we get to spend dedicated to the public schools of Robinson County, dear heavenly father. Thank you for all the board members that's here representative. Thank you for our superintendent, dear heavenly father, and the cabinet as well for all the hard work and dedication. Pray your hands be upon them in this meeting and in the next meeting after this one.
002In your name I pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. At this time um before we go through it, members of this committee, Mr. Britz here uh Bradley Phillips and Miss Christy Fields and then uh Dr. Emanuel and Mr. John Simmons are also present and uh we'll go through the information on this and then again we'll be having our regular board meeting later today at six o'clock. So at this time u topics phase out of CNAs Dr. Freddy Williamson and Erica Mr. chair members and I know later on we would join in and send congratulations to Dr. Terry Lachley who did graduate um Saturday UNCW. So we honor him and recognize him and and we'll say that to him in in the board meeting. Let me ask Erica if she will come and talk about CNAs. If you
003remember, uh, CNAs came about because of COVID and the need for data collection and that's how we took care of that need. So, Erica, tell us where we are. Good evening, Chairman Lowry, Superintendent Dr. Williamson, and board members. So, I placed at everyone's desk um some financial information and a little background about um the CNA positions. The CNA positions were originally created during the 2122 school year with a DHHS grant that we received um as a direct response to COVID. Originally, there were 52 positions and contract tracing was a vital part at that time. As we all can remember, anytime there was an exposure to COVID, you had to go down the tree of who they were next to, who they were with, and our nurses just could not keep up with that information for
004all of our employees. So, that grant covered the CNAs through the 2223 school year, and we used SSR3 funding to pick up that cost through September the 30th of 2024. Currently and presently, we have 34 of those positions remaining. I have listed on the sheet for you what those salaries are, the 2% supplement, the FICA and retirement match that the district has to pay, as well as the hospitalization cost. Um, so those 34 positions um cost the district $1.484 million. Currently 24 of those positions are paid from state lowwealth and 10 are paid from federal title 4 PRC 108. Any any questions on that? So I had to mall to talk with our attorney in terms of if this would be considered a rift because if that would be the case then they would be
005entitled to some extended benefits and all will you address the board on on that please? Good evening board members. Um just once again, this will not be considered a RID part of our part of our um policy and procedures. Those positions were tied to a direct funding and since that fund is no longer present or available um we'll a were able to release those employees. So this is not considered a rift. And there's three specific um protocols for rifts and this um situation does not involve those three um practices. Yeah, I have a couple of questions. Um, so these folks now are still working, right? That is correct. And they would their employment would end at the end of this school year. June 13th. June 13th. Okay. Going back, we were hiring people and saying,
006"Okay, this is when your job's going to end." Were these the CNAs put in that same category where they were aware? We made them aware because we had some situations that earlier, but then we were making people aware that the job can end June 30th, 2024. Yes. So, these individuals signed a yearly contract, Mr. Craig. Um, and they all signed a contract this year that also let them know that um their positions could end at the end of the school year. Okay. And just to reiterate what y'all said, uh, with COVID going on and our nurses and staff we had just couldn't keep up with all the contacts that was made, child comes in sick and if they went next to another child, you had to go back and trace all that. And that's where
007these folks were brought in to help because the people we had on site at the time and here just couldn't keep up with it. So again, you know, just making sure like y'all said, everything's been everybody's been notified. They know that this could be a cut off date and we're clear with that. That would be the only concern I have. Yeah. Data collection at that time there were so many requirements that we had to submit either through the Department of Health and Human Services direct to the state or to the federal government um as a direct COVID response and none of those are no they're no longer requirements at this time. Okay. Any questions Bradley? Hey Jamal. So, um, if we don't have these positions anymore, what what does that leave us with as far
008as school nurses, um, you that's going to be retained? So, all our school nurses will be retained and, um, prior to our CNAs, they all had a schedule to be at schools and so, um, those schedules will remain and so we're updating those those schedules will be updated as, uh, needed. But like so prior to um RCNAS, every school was covered by a school nurse. Um some had multiple sites um and then they would do sometimes they would do a half a day at one site than the other half of another site as well. Where do you where do you see the most need for either a school nurse or if we were able to keep a CNA? where do you find it more needed in the elementary age or I'll be honest I'm not
009sure if either myself or Mr. Jamal can answer that question. That might be better suited by someone like Miss Jan or someone in that area. Each location would have their own um reasons to need a school nurse if a school has um higher population of students with long-term care things like diabetes or ongoing medications. And I know that would vary from school to school. You may have um playground injuries at a elementary that you might not see at a high school, but then you may have PE injuries. So it would we definitely have to get Yeah. And so just also just bring up another point, each school has a for first responders team that are designated for some emergencies such as um this Erica mentioned diabetes is one of those um areas. Um and so
010whenever as a school nurse is not directly present, you do have um personnel on site that are trained each year that are identified as first responders that can attend to certain things until a school nurses can get there or until other uh emergency personnel can arrive on campus. Okay, awesome. Thank you. Uh, one final question with do you know with these CNAs not having them like next Thursday, how many schools would not have a nurse on campus? What's currently 24 nurses? We got 24 nurses. Okay. Right. Thank you. Let me get you over there. Maybe I missed it. Have these 34 people been notified? No, we're having that conversation tonight. But they have been signed a document every year indicating that at the end of the year pending funding their jobs um may not be
011retained for the next year. But as of to say for next school year they have not received that notification. If this is the route we're going I just think we need to let them know ASAP if you know what I mean. We we will and also as what's been our practice is they get a first priority. So, we'll send that list to schools and they get a priority. And Dr. Williamson, to that point, uh, Mr. Trey, that's also included in their, um, contract they signed. So, if those positions are not brought back, they it says that in the contract that they can get first priority, they can be picked up in other areas. Okay. Any more questions? Okay. Um, Dr. Williamson, I I'll let you do what you did before and then we'll do it
012in the regular meeting, too. Absolutely. We want to say congratulations to Dr. Terry Lock who successfully. Okay. Soul source requests, Miss Erica. So, while the CNA information was not included in your packet that went out Friday, the soul source information was, and we just wanted to take this time to go in more detail. um and give everybody an opportunity to ask any questions. So the first uh soul source submitted was inm excuse me for go book and that's a service to provide um IEP creation and implementation guidance for our exceptional children staff. Um and Dr. Carr is here if you have any direct questions about that. But I know um we have used ESSER to support that in the past and it just helps our EC teachers and other staff um stay on track with
013IEPs and the implementation guidelines for those. And we are using PRC 131 textbooks and digital resources for that cost. the next one. Okay, I'm sorry. I got you. Hey, Miss Fields. So, my concern would be we're facing uncertainty of our funding. Should we should we be extending more when we don't we're not sure what our funding is going to be since we used ESR funds for this? Well, one of the things that we looked at, we of course we looked at that and to say, you know, EC is an area where you can very easily get into legal issues if you don't have the IEPs and follow them properly. So, we kind of weighed which is better to have. Is it better to have this in place and help with the teachers rather than to
014avoid lawsuits if we don't have this in place? And this is something from a previous lawsuit that was suggested um to help clean up some of the exceptions. We've had other issues and exceptions over the years um multiple years with our exceptional children program and that was one of the areas that came up in those audits maybe six years ago. So that was one of the things we weighed to see if this is a cost that can help keep other costs down. That is why we're bringing that forward. And so how how will we offset this? What what will we use to offset it? So we have um over $2 million in the textbook and digital resources. So we don't have to have an offset for that one. Sure. And textbooks I'm sorry. No, go
015ahead. Textbooks and digital resources have a unique focus. There's no flexibility there. It is what it says. So you couldn't use textbooks and resources to pay for CNAs or to pay for people. So you have to stay in that focus which is why we're using those funds and it is very limited um to what you can use those funds and you cannot transfer funds from that area into other state funds. Um there's no flexibility option for that. So so Dr. Car given our numbers of EC teachers who are please talk about the success of of of this for those folks writing IEPs very quickly please. This resource has allowed us with our brand new EC teachers and a lot of them are lateral entry or not lateral entry but they are coming in residential pathways
016that need support in writing those goals. This helps us write effective goals for IEPs to prevent us from writing goals that are not aligned to the standard. So, we've been able to utilize this tool to help them and continuously provide training and support to help teachers write those goals and also to have assessments to assess how students are performing on those goals. Any other questions? Is this the uh main thing used now for writing the IEPs? Is this the main what we use? Yes, this is the actual resource to help them write their actual goals. ECATs is the state platform that we have to use to enter the actual IEPs, but goal book is the tool that we use for assessments and for writing the IEP goals and resources and strategies. Okay. I just to
017comment if it's something that helps with IEPs um that we can afford and can do, we we need to stick with it. Anyone else? [Music] Dr. Ller. Thank you, Mr. Craig. I appreciate it. Um, Dr. Core, do you know how approximately how many students are participating in Apex Learning Apex learning courses? Um, I have to look at a spreadsheet to give me a couple minutes, but I can pull what we're using because it's being used all across district 612. It is used for all credit recovery courses for the entire district. It is used for all PSRC online which PSRC online has between 200 to 600 kids per semester depending on which semester. Um and then in the middle schools it's used for tutorials and all of those pieces and on average um it's between four
018and 600 kids per month that are using that for that as far as the tutorials but the main and it's also used for ACT review. It is also used for um now work keys assessment. So there's multiple pieces that we are using with that tool to help support the needs based on the data that we've seen. Is this um in structure uh canvas is that for a year? Yes, that's a one-year contract for our entire Canvas system. Yes. That that's a big difference in in Canvas and Apex. What apex canvas only is the LMS that's it. There's no core no content is only the platform. Apex has all the content built in. Everything's already there. So they're pre-developed. So it's a content management system and a learning management system only. Yeah. Canvas is only learning
019management for us. So okay, but they can't put content on Apex if that makes sense. So we're using C we're using Apex for the content and Canvas for the LMS. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. And the apex is for three years. Yeah. Yes. Three years versus one. And this is one year for canvas, right? Um this may be I guess Miss or Winnie Dorsy Carr on this paper that we have with the apex learning. It's got quantity of 300 as you just already stated 400 to 600 are using it. is it's teacher licenses. That is teacher license. Yes, that's not that's not student licenses. That's teacher licenses. Thank you. Mhm. Anyone else? Okay, Mr. Erica, let's No, I think Miss um Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Fields. Miss you. I apologize. So, for our folks that are
020listening, can you tell me what LMS stands for? Learning Management System. Okay. Anyone else? Okay, Miss Erica. Uh, I think next is the 2025 2026 planning budget. Yes, sir. So, I also included another copy at your desk of the um 2526 planning document. And we always start off with the current year budget summary that you've already received. Um, just to show where we are now and how we're moving forward. I always like to recap what the state did in the current year we're in and then have conversations about what we know and what we don't know for the next school year. So, in the school year we're currently in, the state implemented a 3% increase for classified employees. The retirement match for the first time in the 25 years I've been here went down slightly
021from 25.2% to 24.04 and we don't anticipate that happening again. The hospitalization increase from 7,557 per person to 8,95 per person and we expect that trend to continue. Um, we also experienced ADM decrease of 127 students in this school year from the prior school year and teachers received an average raise of 1.55% to 7.05 depending on the step they were on the scale. If you go over to page two, you'll see what our planning allotments we've received from the state. These allotments can change at any time based on whatever the final budget is from the general assembly, but you will see the comparison between our 2425 initial allotments and what we are experiencing planning for next year. They are using 20,389 for our ADM for 2526, which is an additional decrease of 152 students from
022the current year we're in. And there you'll see the various increases decreases based on uh that planning allocation. For the first time in 2425 the state used our ADM on based on what our final ADM was at the end of the year. In previous years they had done a projection of the best one of two or what they thought it would be in the in the new year and 2425 was the first time they used end of year and that is continuing. Some of the biggest differences you'll see, um, we're showing an increase in low wealth of $3.6 million. There's a low wealth formula that's about four pages long. A lot of different factors go into that formula. The wealth of the county, the ability of the county to raise revenue, property taxes, um, on
023and on and on. There's a lot of different things that factor into that formula. and I can share that formula um with everyone um at the next meeting. But you'll see the differences pluses or minus based on how every state funding formula is different. Some of them set a base and then based on ADM number of students we have in certain grade areas. They all have different funding uh formulas. So, we will look forward to getting our budget for the year and then I'll submit the detailed document with those state budgets once all of these dollars have been finalized. Any questions about the planning a lotments? Mr. Chair, if I may, Dr. Williamson, Eric, take a look at 06 um school health personnel and dollars. No reduction in personnel, but a reduction of Thank you.
024Thank you, sir, for pointing that out. I and I have sent that in as an inquiry because I was confused as to how we're not losing any positions, but yet the dollar amount is reduced by 458,000. That didn't really make sense to me. But we only have to ensure that we don't overspend on the position. So the dollar amount is irrelevant. As long as we don't pay more than 48 people out of that allocation, the dollar amount we pay them will be covered by the state. So that dollar amount is is not um relevant. Will you also clarify 027 that that is a dollar allocation that is a dollar transfer that cannot be transferred. That is correct. Uh 027 can only be used to pay for teacher assistance. You cannot as since July one of
0252018 they uh changed the flexibility there. You can no longer transfer funds from teacher assistance into other allotments. Miss uh two things. Uh you mentioned a while ago the textbooks and down at the bottom at 131 that's textbook money. Correct. That can't be used for nothing else. Correct. Digital resources for textbooks and or physical textbooks. Correct. And now one thing I'm sorry. Oh, go ahead. One thing that is different about the textbook allocation is the majority of our state funds if we don't spend them by June 30th, they revert back to the state. 069 uh carries over till the end of August. um 015 carries over to December. Everything else reverts except for textbooks. Textbooks carry over indefinitely. So while we had esser funding, we were using esser um and allowing our textbook dollars to
026accumulate because we knew at some point we would be in a situation where we would need those funds after the end of esser. So those funds stay in that textbook account um and they do not revert back to the state at any point. So this amount here is what we have. It will it's projected that's the new amount that is not what the current balance of. So we've got some maybe left over. Yes, that's correct. Okay. And also back on the low wealth um I can't remember that going up and that's what you were saying going up like the low wealth is going up. Not by that much. Typically, we only get an increase in low wealth based on whatever the state raises are projected to be enough to cover the state um increases and
027benefit increases. That is a a lot very large increase for um our district. Some districts experience the same thing but in decreases. We have one district that lost $7 million in low wealth. Um so it is the formula is recalculated yeartoear. It's based on factors outside of our control like again I mentioned property uh values um and as long funding formula has a lot to do with county data and um some systems are experiencing an increase in wealth in their county. So that means a decrease in low wealth because low wealth is for um your underfunded counties. Any other questions? Dr. Man, you have a Yes. I I just want to know for are we going to be able to maintain the resource officers at the same level that we have this year so far?
028Yes. What does that mean so far? If these if these a lotments hold, yes. Okay. Because like I was saying, if if anything changes in the general assembly and they make any changes to our budget, then we'd have to reassess. But as long as these funding formulas hold constant, yes. Okay. Thank you, Miss Erica. Since Dr. Emanuel opened that door. Um, maintaining what we have. How many do you know how many schools we have now that is not covered or is covered each day? Information, Mr. Bobby. So to give you uh I can tell you which ones are covered every single day. All of our high schools have multiple resource officers every single day. We have Pinrook Middle, Lumberton Jr. St. Paul's Middle, Red Springs Middle, all have officers assigned to them full-time. Everyone else
029shares officers either part, you know, um daily or split half days. Okay. So, it's roughly going to be at least 13 to 14 schools that do not have a full-time person in the building every single day. Dr. Manuel, with all that deductions are our K8 do our K8 schools have a fulltime one? No. What? No, our K8 schools do not have four times. They those folks are shared. Wow. Okay. Thank you. And now just and just to add to sharing, remember we realigned all of our resource officers about two years ago to put them in proximity to one another. So Magnolia would share with Piney Grove, partner would share with Rex, Prospect shares with Union and my other K8. Okay, I think this out. Just a moment. Mr. Phillips. So, um, Mr. Bobby, what what
030plan would we have to put in place to you? Not, let's just say the number is 13. Yeah. Obviously, we can't fill those all 13 next school year. What What plan can we put in place um to have those schools covered? Oh yeah. permanently. Yeah. Would someone in the building additional fun? Yes. So it would be twofold and it would be additional funding and also if uh depending upon the location of those additional sites whether the law enforcement agency could produce those additional resource officers because when we first increased the number of officers, it probably took three to six months before the sheriff's department was able to fill all of those vacancies or additional requests that we had. Do you know roughly um per body a figure? You know what? Just to give a ballpark,
031that's going to vary between the municipalities, but we spend uh very close to $2.2 million for SRO's. I know our bill for County of Robinson varies between 160,000 to 162,000 a month. Um but then we use County of Robinson, City of Lumberton, Town of Red Springs, um and Town of St. calls the town of Pinbrook we do not currently have any officers from but it would vary but we pay all the costs for that officer or reimburse so we reimburse for the salary and all the matching benefits just like we would have for an employee. Thank you Mr. Chair if I may. Bobby historically you could pay for resource officers out of safe school money that changed. That is correct. uh if we we can no longer we can apply but it's very limited once
032we apply for school resource officers that are safe schools. It tires our hands in the ability to apply for equipment out of that money and our safe school allocation was only 180 some 181 I think thousand. So that I mean that would only pay for a month of and some change for the officers and I'm sorry and then it's you're not guaranteed it year to year. It is a grant so you have to reapply. So if you hired because you got the money one year and then you didn't get the funds the next year you're deal you're dealing with how do you cover that cost? Yeah. So, so bottom line is in order to let's just say if the magic number is 13 that Bradley's saying, in order to fulfill those 13s, our local funds
033would need to be increased. Is that what you're saying? Yes. So, thank you, ma'am. Well said. Well said, Mr. Britt. Then I'm going to say something else. Uh I've been on this board almost nine years and during that time myself and other people have asked every year to increase SRO's and I'm saying it on some people's listening if this is the town municipalities is if this is the commissioners uh and I think we're taking all the money we can take from various areas the horror SRO's at the schools but folks I don't care how close that school is to a police station that officer might can't get there fast enough and we've been fortunate and I don't know how long that fortunate is going to last but uh we need an SRO in every school
034247 every day and that's I'll leave it at that. Anything else? Okay, thank you. Um feedback from county commissioners. Uh oh no, I'm I'm sorry. We still got a lot to go through the Keep going over the budget. I apologize. I know that takes a while. Yeah. That Yeah, that was just the state planning a lot. Then we we'll go to the local planning budget. Um and I just wanted to highlight some of those areas. You'll see there's a reduction in the IAA grants. Um that may not be a final number. What happens with the Indian Ed grant is everybody applies, some people are approved, some are denied. If there um are additional funds, they will reallocate those to the ones that are approved. So that number could change. Um and in just about every
035year in the last five years, we've gotten additional IEA funding. Um there the ROTC was adjusted because we are going to have some um newer ROTC instructors that have lower salaries. So that's that's just the match from the ROTC that we get. Um the score grant, this will be this was the last year of the score grant. So you'll see that's been removed. indirect cost is reduced because we got a larger percentage of indirect cost from ESSER. We got almost 10% um in indirect cost. Um and all of our other funds are only uh less than 1%. I think it's [Music] 0.95. Um and then you'll just see various uh adjustments based on where we currently are in this year's budget. The biggest number there to see is appropriated fund balance. Um, we need $3
036million in order to balance this budget. And that is keeping everything status quo. This is a continuation budget. This is not an expansion budget. We're not asking for any additional funds to do anything different than what we did in this school year because we just wouldn't be able to afford it. The numbers that I used in planning, um, we used a 3% increase for salaries. We're not sure what that is going to be. I know the Senate version of the budget proposed a little one one and a half 1.25% um and we budgeted um an increase for the retirement and hospital but we won't know what those numbers are. This would may have to be reevaluated once we get a final budget document which we have to in every year. Any questions on that revenue
037portion? So, of course, this uh revenue funds everything that is in our local budget. And we'll start with um the first area. I didn't plan on going line by line, but if you have anything that you you just want to ask questions about, let me know. I'm just going to kind of go through briefly every um area and touch on what it is exactly. So, PRC1 in the local planning pays all of our coaching and band supplements. Um, we cannot use any state or federal aotments to pay for athletics. Um, even though the state pays for us to have PE teachers, they do not pay for athletics in any way, shape, or form. Um, you'll also see the supplies and athletic insurance. We pay have catastrophic policies in place for all of our athletes. um
038if something was to happen, this is a second policy that can be used um once their primary insurance uh is paid out. We also send the schools athletic a lotments every year to help them offset some of the costs for security uh officials and so forth. And then the athletic software is the huddle that is used for all the teams to put together tape that they are required to share um and that their athletes use for various purposes. If you look all around this page and the next page, PRC O2 is central office administration and that is funds required um not to pay salaries or anything. That's where a lot of the board expenses come from. We pay a small amount um for bus garage uniforms. This is where we would pay our general liability
039insurance, our auto insurance, which both are going to increase. I put a slight increase here, but we're hearing it might be closer to a 10% increase. Everything is going up this year. Um this is where we have um the attorney fees, the tool allocation. We pay our uh mechanics at the bus garage a small amount every year to replace tools. Our audit services are here, postage and all the things that we need to keep the central office running. The next one is PRC3. In here you'll find um I'm sorry question the central office administration that 2.2 2 million. What does that cover? Because I think you said it didn't cover salaries, correct? It's It does not. It covers um there's a field trip that the kids go on every year for the hockey team. There's
040sometimes we have invoices come in from and it's all spelled out here. Everything under there, everything up under here is all covered in PRCO2, Special Olympics, Special Arts. Um sometimes like our June invoices for our county SRO's come in after the fact. So we have to use local funds to pay them. That comes out of their prior year SR in there's a small um director supervisor amount in here that might be somebody's half salary. I think that might be one of our um shining stars like half of that salary comes out. Um I just the bulk of it is not salaries is what I was saying. And the travel allowance for 84,000. What is that for? Which page? That's 182. Line 182 on page 410. I'm sorry. On the 2024, it's under the central office
041administration. It's line item 54005182. Objective 182. Oh, that's in PRC5, school building administration. That's another program area. That's not for central office. That's a travel allowance for our principles for attending. So since I've been here 25 years, principles have received a travel allowance. They get it in December and at June for covering their travel to come to meetings here um different things at their schools. They are all paid an amount based on their location from the central office to their school. Um and they get that through the payroll. They don't have to submit monthly. um travel sheets, they get that as a travel allowance and that has to come out of local. So that's for our principles. Mr. T, you still have something. So I know the um the Indian grant comes from the federal
042government. Yes. Then it flows through the state, but it's included in our local. It doesn't flow through the state. It's a direct grant. Okay. That's right. It goes It's a reimbursement. We have to pay the cost up front and then we get reimbursed through the G5. um we have to go in and request reimbursement, but it's not included in our federal. No, sir. They're very specific that because it's not a flowth through at DPI, we don't include it. We include it as a local federal. Gotcha. And not a federal because it does not come through department of um public instruction. That's right. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anyone else? Erica, continue. Okay. Um so be central office administration. Then there's the classified um supplements. So for all of our office staff, we pay a PSP. So
043if our office staff has a certain degree and they attend so many classes every year, um we supplement them with a stipen at the end of the year. Um that's been going on for as long as I've been here as well to support that program. Um O5 we started with the travel. Um then we have um uh principles like we have some retirees that are serving as principles now. that's part of where that salary would come from. Um the AP salary adjustments, we still have um I don't know if you remember, uh when they updated all the pay scales, if a person had national board and became an assistant principal, they would make less money. So, we still have to supplement some of our APS who would have made more as a national board teacher.
044That's part of what that is. PRC7 instructional support, we get a grant from the county. It's $250,000. As you can see, it cost us $332,000. So, we um offset that with the 250, but the whole amount that part we still have to reflect in local. Everything else where it shows is covered benefits that have to come out for employees that are local paid if they retire or their longevity. And we have to pay out annual leave. That's what PRC9 non-contributo employee benefits is. Um local driver's education. So if any of our students uh take driver's education, they have to pay a fee at the school. Those funds are sent here and that is used to most of the time buy any vehicles that um as those age out and any other expenses that come in
045after June 30th that we can't use state driver's ed funds to pay. Um 026. Uh Miss Chenita Lee has gotten donations in the past and we may get some in the future, but right now I don't know what that would be, so I didn't include McKenna Vento donations there. But she's used those to provide clothing, hygiene kits, different things for the um homeless students in our district. The next one, staff development is for um maintenance and other employees um to use to go on any kind of workshop that's required for their job, transportation, and so forth. PRCO36 is our charter school allocation, and as you can see, that's that's nearing a million dollars. Um and that's the money that we have to take from our county appropriations and pay directly to our charter schools. Uh
046PRC50 is uh more at four. That's the NC prek that we get for our um NC prek slots. We use federal 050 to pay the salary for those teachers. And then we use the NC prek funds to cover any of the other costs. um mostly like field trips and um supplies that they may need or the contracted service of because the playgrounds have to be cut separately and they use a vendor for that. The next page is PRC 056. That's transportation. And again, there'll be times we'll have to use local funds to cover anything prior year, medical reimbursements, vehicle repair parts, and this amount may increase depending on how much local we'll have to use to cover because transportation every year will be overspent. We never get enough of our state allocation to cover all
047the transportation costs. PRC 301 is our RTC um match. We have to pay a certain portion out of our local fund and we get matched half of that from the federal government to cover those positions. PRC 305 is Medicaid admin outreach and PRC 306 direct fee for service. Those are used to pay minimal EC costs that may come up during the year. Sometimes we have to pay parents to transport their kids for testing um and so forth. And then you'll see all the way down onto the next page is PRC 310 Indian education. These line items may change pending how Dr. Conniey's budget, as I mentioned, if she gets additional funding, we'll bring back all those changes and sync those up with um whatever changes she has to make. And then you'll see uh PRC
048373, the score grant. All of those are showing zeros. That's the grant I mentioned that this is the last year we'll have that in place. PRC uh 501 is our education. Um we uh use the local funds to pay for different people to come in um and do different art programs for that particular department. Um PRC502's project graduation that's kind of speaks for itself. That's the funds that will cover our project graduation event that will be coming up on June the 13th. 574 Burrs welcomes grant is I'm sorry. Have a question. Miss Grizzly. So it looks like you've um this line item has been slashed over half for project graduation. We always cover crop project graduation. What happened last year? there was an invoice that came in for all of the um things that they
049give out to the kids at the schools. It came in after the fact. So, we had to it got paid in this year along with this year. So, it was like it was double paid um because it crossed over years. So, this year we're going to get that invoice in prior to June 30th. So, we only have one invoice to pay. But that's what that is why that is such a difference. So, it's a double invoice. Yes. We had to pay for the prior year and the current year in the same year. That's why you're seeing that larger amount there. But we won't have that issue this year. But we cover what there is no slashing project graduation. Whatever that cost is, it's the cost. Anyone else? Okay. [Music] Um the PRC 641 is donations
050um that we get donations in for the Christmas um social and the hams that are given out every year um to the staff. Uh PRC 704 is like a flowthrough account the communities and schools when people rent our facilities we use this fund to pay the custodian um uh that has to be at those events. And then um PRC 802 is a maintenance cost. So that's going to include all of our utilities. It's going to include the salaries for our maintenance employees, telephone services, water, garbage, sewer, lawn care services, waste removal, our fire theft insurance is in here, and they've already told us to expect 11% increase there. So I've included that in this document. Um P then we have we go to the planetarium PRC 8880 which covers any of the costs for the
051planetarium of course and then PRC 895 covers technology and our NCYP school department and then finally the print shop is PRC 896 and that covers a salary for um print shop employee and any supplies and equipment that he would need to run those facilities. ities. And that rounds out what our planning budget for local for next year is. Any questions? Okay, Mr. Ller. Mr. Schwarz, I'm not sure if you um if you saw my email um from from a few weeks ago. I just requested some information regarding um local fund allocations and the only thing I'm asking for is um every dollar that's associated with a salary that comes from local funds and I'm not asking for a person's name or anything just like a unique identifier and I I'm just asking for what percentage
052of salary and that includes fringe benefits comes from local you know all the funding sources associated with that individual and and a total amount Is that um an inappropriate thing for a board member to ask for? No. And the reason I'm asking is because I'm having a hard time um obtaining that information. Um so I appreciate you um making that clarif clarification for us. Anything else? I'm sorry. Okay. So, I wish I had federal planning aotments to share, but they have not released federal planning aotments to us. Um, NCDPI has sent us in a newsletter for us to check weekly, and as soon as they have any information on those federal planning, they will share it with us. So then we'll move to page 11 which shows the capital outlay revenue and the biggest difference
053there is as we're progressing and moving forward with uh our uh career and technical education center that will continue to increase until all the expenses are finalized with that building. Any questions about the So, we have our main sources of revenue for capital outlay include sales tax from our county. We have a IA building grant that we've discussed um that I think it's the preservation society is has given 700 a little over $700,000 to help make improvements to the IAA building. Um we have bus purchases here. Even though the district does not um actually have to spend those funds, we have to reflect it in our budget. The state pays for our new buses, but we have to show it in our capital outlay budget. The needsbased lottery is the grant that we received. Um
054projected revenue from the state lottery. That's what I call regular lottery. So we get an allocation of about $1.5 million there every year and those funds can accumulate as well. We have the new renovations and repair lottery. That is a separate line item. Um then then we have fund balance any insurance settlements that may came in in miscellaneous which would include if we have any fixed asset sales. Uh Mr. Brett, so that needs based lottery is increasing by 16 million. Right. We've already got all that money. That's the 72 million. It's just in I have to show it in the budget in the year we're spending it. We didn't get additional money. We're just I'm showing it in the year as it's being spent. Okay. But the total is 72,600,000. Anyone else? Yes, sir. Okay.
055And then I just show the breakdown um by the categories. That's how we have to show our uh capital outlay budget with our auditors is category one, two, and three. Um and you'll see there there's not much difference. You'll see some changes maybe to some athletic projects again to career and technical high school. Um the pass through with the buses because in the prior year we also received a a separate grant for the two um buses that we received. So, I reduced that because we don't anticipate receiving that again for this year. Um, not much changes in category two or three. And you'll see, like I say, the biggest difference there is that as we're moving forward with the career and technical high school. I did want to mention too, you know, the the board
056approved for us to use fund balance to make current on Mquare. The ESSER project of course has caused us to change how we pay some things. So we're running into some issues there with capital. We're still waiting to hear from the money that we spent by the esser deadline the March 28th. Um so right now we're doing a lot of Robin Peter to pay Paul. I wish I had a better analogy but so we go through this cycle of and we don't get the lottery funds directly. They everything flows through the county. So, we do a request to the county, the county writes us a check, and then we pay the bills. So, that there might be a lapse in in that timing, and we're going to meet with them to try to see what
057we can do to speed that up. But coordinating all of that right now has presented some issues. So, we're working through that, and we just wanted to make the board aware if you're hearing of any issues on site or anybody saying, "I haven't got paid." We're working through those processes and going to have those one-on-one meetings to to see what can we do differently. Um, we also have to do intermediate requests direct from the state of North Carolina. I just sent a request to Dennis Hilton to draw down another 25 million of the NESB lottery because all of that is as I'm at DPI. When we draw it down, it goes to the county. Then we have to have a process with the county in physically getting those funds. They are not paid directly to
058us. So, we're working through some of those. Um, we just wanted to make the board aware of that as we move forward. But the ESER projects obviously have created an issue. That 125,000 for arts education equipment, band uniforms, and instruments, is that going to high schools? That's going to high schools. Yes, sir. And it's a rotating basis. I'm not sure which school is up this year, but it rotates. So, they get 125,000 for new uniforms and instruments. It's not just uniforms, it's instruments as well. Mr. Chair, if I'm excuse me, if I may, Eric and Bobby, so again, the ESM money is creating problems for us. Uh, we're beginning to hear from vendors uh that they need to get paid. Um, how far behind are we? I think we have one company, we're probably three
059invoices behind. Talk about that. Okay. Yes, sir. So Snyder um has three invoices and you know as we mentioned before at the end of December then there was the period of us when we submitted the request for extension we had to wait and see what happened with that. So when we were notified of that um February the 21st we didn't have the process in place yet with DPI. Okay, how are we going to get reimbursed for that? because it moved from us being able to request the money and write the checks to it being a reimburseable grant, which we mentioned. So, we were going to have to write the checks and then wait to get reimbursed. Then everything happened with the approval we received and then it was taken back. So, that threw all of
060that into a tail spin. So, now we have money that we have spent and that met the March 28 deadline, but we still haven't received those funds either. And then of course as Mr. Schwarz is going to tell us later that he shared um we did get denied with that SR3 extension. I'm not sure what we're calling the last thing we submitted. I'm sure he'll go into detail about that. But so Snyder is three invoices. What was approved for Mquare was the 1,70,000. Um this two invoices, one for each sites. Um and then we'll have a small amount for Lclear and LLJ. Um but that that is where we are. And then with Metcom with the needs base, we're at the point where we're waiting on the county to write that check because obviously we
061don't have the funds in hand to to build a school or we wouldn't have qualified for need-based. So we've been following that process and as long as we got a check once a month, you know, it was kind of we can manage that with our existing funds while we waited on reimbursement. But now we're gonna, like I mentioned, we're gonna have to have a different conversation to see if it works better for them to pay it. We just got to come up with something that's a little faster because the the timeline is speeding up and we're getting invoices every other week now instead of once a month and the cash flow is not coming in um consistently. Miss Eric, how much are we how much money are we talking right now? I mean, as far
062as Snyder and what you're saying there, you can use numbers that way. Snider, I have to get the third invoice, but the first two, one's 536 and the second one's 1.1. So, we're talking about 1.6. Um, and I'll have to get the third one. Are they charging us interest on this? No, sir. Not as of yet. We and we used two and part of three prior to all of this happening to pay for the equipment. So, I mean, we're we're invested in that project and they recognize that and they're a very large company. So, at this stage, they're still moving forward, but like everybody else, I mean, they're going to have to get paid. And that is part of what, you know, we've had the conversation with Mr. Schwarz and what kind of situation it
063put us all in when you're in the middle of contracts and in the middle of of these projects. And and if I can add to that, our contractors or folks we've been working with have been very generous and understand the situation we're in and they've been able to keep I hate to say term boots on the ground project still moving forward. But uh we are going to be at a point if we're not able to make some payments where some of those boots on the grounds are going some of those boots on the ground are going to eventually be poured back. So it could end up being a delay in our projects or some of the projects may come to a complete halt. So So that is the worst case scenario. Again, we've already paid
064for all the equipment. Those all that's covered. So now it's installation and worst case they may pull that folks away and send them to another project. Miss, let me make sure. M square. That's who we voted and we paid them. Am I correct? We we haven't paid them yet. Okay. For a couple of reasons because um we've been paying Metcon and waiting for that's why I say Rob and Peter to pay Paul and we're waiting to get reimbured. That check got deposited today 3.4 million. Um so once by the end of this week Mquare will be paid minus the amount that we have to withhold for the finalization um there. and we're looking at possibly one of the Snyder bills. That's what why we're saying that now. That's something we're going to have to work
065on and figure out how to juggle. Any questions? Okay. Anything else on that, Miss? I don't think so. I did include the enterprise planning. Um, again, once we have more detailed information, I'll submit the entire budget, but those are our self-sufficient areas, child nutrition, shining stars, and CIS. I did include a decrease for all of them based on where we are now. We've mentioned with uh child nutrition, we really got to drive home the participation of our students in our meal program. Um, and Shining Stars Daycare has a lot of different funding sources that will be included. And of course our CIS prime time is our parent before and after school care. Okay, no questions. Next item here was feedback from county commissioners. Do you have any? I don't think that's I have not received
066any feedback from any county commissioners. Um the last information that I know I have already shared um we asked for $3 million for the 2425 school year. We received an additional 1.3 and we have not heard anything about the difference at this point and we will be submitting an additional request for the budget planning by May 15th as we're required to do so. And I believe Dr. Williamson wanted to have that conversation here to see the direction um for that request. Williamson, you have anything? No. Okay. Uh I'll just say um if if you met, we know we need more money. Forget all of this. If I mean, we've asked for more to SRO's um local funding. Um, the school system needs more money and uh, I would just make that comment here tonight that
067uh, and I'm sure we probably conveyed that to commissioners if we met with them. Uh, the needs for money to just continue what we got. We're talking about status quo. We're talking about we're not it's a continuation budget, not an expansion budget. There no new items. We we need funding to be able to support where we are now. the one comment and I know there are municipalities we don't compare to them but when you look on the news and this school system asked for $30 million increase or 25 million I mean there's some outrageous I don't say outrageous but just some very high figures that systems are asking for an increase from the commissioners and again we're just needing this money to keep going the projects we have to keep going there's a a very
068good article that came out with Rutherford County schools and they have partnered with the group the local finance that does a local finance study and doing um more local discussions in their county. I thought it was interesting. They had some really great points they were making. Um but one of the things I noticed, they have 7,000 kids in Rutherford County. Their county appropriations are $17 million and they're asking for 5.4 for a total of over 22. We have 20,000 and our local appropriations are 14 uh 4860 14860. So I mean we're not the only ones in this situation. It is across the state. But if you look up Rotherford County Schools and see their their platform they're using. Um but what stuck out to me was the amount per child that they are receiving. But
069still they are requesting additional funding. Okay. the PRC 251. So last school year, Oxundine Elementary received this funding, PRC 251. The long name of it is economically disadvantaged public school support funds. Um, and what it the way a school qualifies for these funds is that they um meet both of the following. They have a student population that's comprised of at least 80% of students identified by NCDPI as economically disadvantaged and the school exceeded expected growth in the prior school year. So we have a school um Union Elementary that has qualified for these funds this year based on last year's test data. So we have received $118,963 um for Union. And what we did at Oxin is we provided the staff there, the whole school uh um bonus. So that is what we plan to do
070with um these funds. It'll be paid out in the end of June. I don't have any information on what the dollar amount is going to be yet, but I will bring that back once I have worked with the principal on making sure we have all the staff included. Um with the amount for Oxundine, it ended up being slightly over $2,000 per employee. And I'm not saying that's what this is going to be, but it should be similar. And we just wanted to bring that forward um as and I included that as well as a list of all the schools in the state that met the same criteria. I guess they haven't been notified yet until after Miss Katrina has been notified. Katrina has been notified. Okay. Yes. Good. All right. Yes, Miss Fields. Yes, ma'am.
071Miss Fields. So this says that funds shall be used for curriculum t is necessary to support students in instructional support and bonus and retention program. So that's what that's what was chosen is the bonus and retention program. It's not all it's e any you can pick. Okay, I got you. Okay. a yes or three funds extension. Um, thank you. That's Mr. Forson and he stepped out. Mr. Cole, Mr. Co, how much time did you say you needed to convert? Okay. Okay. Just going to hold on for Yes, if we can hold on. But I do want to say it to Erica what we say all the time. Thank you for your work helping us to understand the breakdown tonight. It's going to save time for us in our regular board meeting. You do outstanding work
072and and just how you manage and keep us afloat is be be commended. Thank you. Yeah. Mr. Henry. Um U Mr. Craig, I would like to be added to the agenda as being a participant in this meeting. Um even though I hadn't said anything, I was here when you um started. Okay. And I apologize for not recognizing that you were there. That's okay. But we'll keep that in mind. Mr. Phillips, Dr. Williamson, reverting back to the uh feedback from county commissioners, is there any um talks of another joint commissioners, board members meeting like you guys have done in the past? I wasn't on board when you done it before, so I didn't know if there was a plan to do that again. If that is the request of the board, um we can do that.
073That was part of our mind set when we asked um from board members to touch base with commissioners, but we can ask for that joint meeting. Yes, we jump. I think um I think that's my feelings as well because if we get them in the room and then we can discuss it and have a constructive conversation on what they want to see in order that sort of thing there got to be some give and take but at the same time I think getting everybody in the room it can be for the betterment of public schools or robs and [Music] games. I don't know. Can we have a motion out of the out of committee to do that and need in the main thing? Mr. Schwarz, you're up. You're up. Up to me. Yes, sir. Three.
074It had to be important. I know. No, it was related to this item. Okay. That was important. So, uh, uh, that call I just got was from, uh, one of the attorneys at DPI, um, dealing with a meeting that we're going to have tomorrow afternoon at 3, um, uh, on the ESRE funding. So, um the um uh the attorneys from the Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Department of Justice um were uh had a meeting uh yesterday and uh there are uh three districts remaining that are that are affected by um the ESR funding appeals and the denials that were in the letter that I sent to you all from the US Department of Education. Um, and we're going to have a meeting tomorrow afternoon um with the attorneys for uh Lenor County,
075Halifax County, um I'm I'm sorry, four four districts, Richmond County Schools are still involved and um PSRC. Um, so tomorrow at 3 o'clock, we're going to have a meeting to discuss strategies based on um some of the changes that were made in the lawsuit in the Southern District of New York that I've been writing to you about. Um so out of that lawsuit in New York um the judge issued a a preliminary injunction um against the department of education and um but as part of that injunction uh he said that the department could invoke a a process where they would give 14 days um to appeal uh any cut off of funds. So, um, the US Department of Education sent letters out to the 16 states in the District of Columbia that are involved in
076that lawsuit giving them until May 24th. I think it's May 24th. um uh yeah believe May 24th um to file different appeals but they've given them a specific appeals process to follow which is different from what they gave us. So one of the things that we might end up doing um and keep in mind that we're subgrantees the grant comes to the state so we've got to go through the state on anything we're doing legally. Um, so one of the things we may end up doing is ask for that appeals process to be applied to us because the logic of whether or not that should be done is consistent with what they're doing with the states that sued. The only difference is we didn't sue. We followed the process that they laid out in their
077letter, which doesn't comport with the requirements they should have afforded us for an appeal. Another concern that we've got is that the standard that they've applied for approving the funds is a different standard than what they applied initially for acceptable uses of the funds when they were first allocated. So, as you all know, when the funds were first allocated, they could be used for a wide range of different things. And one of the big things they could be used for was um HVAC systems and air ventilation and and anything that dealt with um uh proper ventilation including roofs um or anything that would impact um ventilation systems and and air uh flow and safety. And now what they've done what they've done at the US Department of Education is tell us how this project provides
078direct education services to students to mitigate COVID. And that's a different standard. It's a whole different um uh requirement than existed for approval of the funds and approval of the extensions of use of the funds. Um, another concern is we've got, you know, projects where things have been torn out and stuff's getting ready to be put back in and, you know, new piping and and, uh, ventilation systems and everything else and you're in the middle of a project and, um, you know, and now all of a sudden you don't have the funding for it. So, uh, projects that are currently underway is another approach that, uh, uh, we might be taking to, um, try to get an appeals going on this. Um, and then ultimately, you know, there's always the pro prospect of litigating. Um,
079but again, we've got to go through the state on that. So if you notice in the lawsuit that was uh that's active in the southern district of New York now um there are 16 states and the District of Columbia suing not any individual school systems and if you if you look at the letter that came to the state um from the US Department of Education um on dated May 8th um the reason for the denials for every one of these projects is um very very similar. Uh so for example, one of the projects in Leno County is while ensuring that students have a strong and sturdy roof over their heads is important, this construction project does not provide direct services to students, nor is it specific to mitigating the effects of CO 19 on students.
080And so it's similar wording for a lot of those. While creating for Richmond County, while creating an expanded central building to unite all grades of the high school seems worthwhile, this construction project does not provide direct services to students, nor is it specific to mitigating the effects of CO 19 on students. So, um you know, the rules of the game changed after the game had been played essentially um but before it had been paid for. So um uh you know we're in discussion projects for different strategies right now uh for um uh how to deal with that. There was some uh possibility that we were going to have a meeting today virtual meeting today and um that couldn't happen because of schedules of some of the attorneys but we're scheduled for 3:00 tomorrow. May I
081ask you a question? Yeah. So, you and I talked last week, the other states, did they receive the same kind of letter or did some states? Interesting. Um, interesting that you you asked that. The um um during the injunction hearing, see if I can get this one. So, there was [Music] um a document filed on Friday in that New York State case um in the federal case in in New York um uh filed by the uh by the state of New York and they attached a copy of a letter um that was read during the oral argument on May 6th. Um it was a letter dated May 2 that came out from the US Department of Education and it was addressed to the Arizona Department of Education and [Music] um uh they granted some of
082the funds that went to Arizona. Um so um one of the things that you'll uh pick up on is that Arizona is not one of the plaintiffs in this lawsuit. So they did grant a couple of the uh uh requests for uh a liquidation extension date and they denied a whole bunch more. But um uh they give an opportunity to appeal and um um again they're saying in con in connection with any appeal for both us and the other states they're saying you have to provide um uh support your contention that the project provides necessary services that directly mitigate the effects of COVID on students education. So, that's an additional bar that they've raised um that was not in any of the original um funding requirements, funding approval requirements. Anything else? Okay. um finish up
083real quickly if we can. Part of the idea of doing this year, which is it's done every year before we get into the final phases of uh the finance for next year. Um and since we had everyone here, could we get a motion um for the sole source request to uh for that to be approved tonight? Have a motion for that? Have a second. Yeah. Has to be somebody on the committee. Just ask Mr. Bradley, Mr. Cherry, Mr. Trey, uh, Miss Chrissy. No second, Miss Sander. Yes. So, yeah, we got to have it one way or the other. Okay. have a f motion and a second. All those in favor say I. All those opposed? Nay. Okay. Motion passes. Uh could we have a motion uh to approve the 2526 planning budget? Motion. Motion's made
084to approve it. Do I have a second? Motion and a second. Uh, all those in favor of the 202526 planning budget, please say I. All those opposed. Motion passes. And I think the rest of that was mostly information. Okay. So, uh, have a motion to adjourn the finance committee meeting. Motion adjourned by Mr. Brit. Second, second by Mr. Bradley. We adjourn.