001Okay, guys, let's begin bringing it together. Okay, I call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. Miss Donna, >> Miss Miller, >> Miss Williams, Miss Chzn, >> Miss Karns, >> Miss Lanning, >> Mr. Moore, >> Mr. Richmond. >> Okay. Is there a motion for the approval of the agenda? >> Is there a second? Miss Miller, >> Miss Williams, Miss Chzn, Miss Karns, Miss Lanning, Mr. Moore, >> Mr. Richmond. >> Okay, all approved. Is anybody needing a recap of information? You'd better not say yes. We good. Okay, let's discuss. Um, who wants to go first? Um, you, Mr. Moore. Okay. Uh, yeah. So, I guess just maybe kind of a couple comments on where we're at. Is that kind of what we're doing? Okay. Well, listen. Um, you know, I know we take a lot of
002criticism for, uh, waffling and wavering. Um, but, you know, every time we've done that, u I'm glad we looked a little deeper and dug dug into the detail, right? Um because there's nothing we've looked at that turned out to be just absolutely out of the question and crazy. Um with regard to a two high school plan, you know, here's the deal, guys. We the core reasons um to contract some schools has everything to do with St. Joseph shrinking enrollment and staffing challenges. And um that hasn't changed. And here's my deal with uh with the Benton and Central detail that we learned tonight. Um you know, financially it's a lot closer than I might have expected. Um maybe a half a point or so less um than the Lafayette plan. But [clears throat] for me, there's
003some there's some real concerns with overcrowding. And so, we've been pretty good certainly all through this process of staying below the maximum amount. And so, now we've got a plan that goes over that. And while it's hard to get your arms around exactly what capacity means, um it scares me to crowd both of those schools. um central would be right at max capacity and uh Benton about 71 over and so it scares me to overcrowd those. I think we had a little bit of overcrowding at Ruby uh maybe even Ellison a little bit in this in this plan for and um so having said all that uh my stance remains consistent. I support the Lafayette and Central route. Okay, Mr. Moore, thank you. Um, who wants to go next? Okay. Um, okay. So I guess
004and I I have comments to make about you know as as usual but I guess to me the first question that I would like to know is whether or not we have seven people ready to vote because what what concerns me is that um we're going to spend all this time talking talking and then we're going to pass the mic around and and we're going to have some abstensions and then that will all be for not. Um, so I guess that would be my my question to the group. Um, if you're not prepared to answer that then I suppose that's fine. I guess I'm just looking for are are we prepared to to vote to take a vote of one of these two plans? >> Yes. Okay. It is a discussion, you know, but we're
005going to choose a direction to be able to bring one plan on Monday. It's what we agreed upon at the meeting Monday. Maybe you'd already left. I don't know. But it's what we had already agreed upon on Monday. [clears throat] >> I the pro so I can't hear what Kim's saying. >> I did not agree to >> saying right now. I'd like to hear what she says. >> I can't hear what you're saying. Can you get a microphone? >> You said there was an agreement that we made that we were going to decide tonight and then be prepared for. I did not >> and I was still there. I didn't leave till the end. So, I do not remember making that agreement for this. >> That's because you were at the Herszog event. No, I
006was at our meeting. >> So, so, so I I take that as so you are not prepared to make a decision tonight. >> That was not the plan, >> guys. That was the plan. >> That was your plan, but not everyone's plan. >> Okay. >> Can I see this? >> Okay. My question is, did everybody else understand that we were going to choose a direction tonight in order to bring it to a vote on Monday. Did everybody else understand it like that? >> The thought was bring one plan to Monday night's decision meeting. >> Okay, >> that's what I understood. >> Is that what you guys understood? >> Yeah, sure can. >> Thank you very much. Easy. >> Okay. Sorry, I was in a game. My understanding was we were going to come back tonight
007and look at the Benton in central option with the modifications that the um administration made to the plan. Um, I am prepared to vote on either plan 4BR or plan two, whatever the letters on Monday night. I am more than prepared to make a decision. I absolutely do not want this to continue past Monday night. And Monday night is a regular board meeting when we actually get to place a vote. Um, I usually don't at at a meeting prior to the like if we have a a work session, we don't usually say what our vote is going to be before we get to the meeting. And I want to treat this in that same manner. So, that's my position on it. But I will be prepared to vote. I don't plan to abstain. I don't
008plan to ask for another plan. I plan to make a vote on Monday night. That's my plan. >> Okay. My question is, okay, so Monday night, what are we voting on? We're going to make a decision whether we're going to vote on plan 4BR or we're going to vote to move forward with plan 2R is my understanding and my wish. I'm only one person on the board though. >> Did your admin team also understand it like that? >> Well, we were confused a little bit as well. So Mark had a different thinking than I did, which is why I texted you yesterday and asked, "What is this for tonight?" >> Okay. So, nobody knew what we were coming for tonight except for us. >> As usual, nobody knows because nobody wants to move anything forward.
009>> I don't want to make this decision. >> Miss Karns, what did you think we were doing tonight? Um, I'm going to tell you what I think. So, both of these plans that that's been tweaked, you know, the 2BR and the 4BR, there are things I do like about them. There's still questions I do have. Um, here's the thing. We received this plan, uh, this new Bitten Central plan, it looks like, Tuesday night at 5:35. All the rest of it was loaded and assembly today. Am I correct? Right. Okay. I do work full-time in 8 to 5 jobs. I don't have time to look at during the day. Um so I do I still have questions. I do want to know um I would like Cara to tell me about the specials how it will
010work in these. Um I'd like to know I have my list here. Sorry guys. Uh, I do want to know about the maybe you can answer this now about the parking since it's just going to be bitten now. How will the parking work with that? Um, what else here? And then I think you were going to address the fine arts with me as well. So, I think there's questions that I still have with it, but yes, I am prepared to vote as of Monday. we will move forward. >> Okay. My question is my question is though. Okay. So at the meeting Monday night, >> we knew that we would get the information early afternoon prior to the meeting. And my issue is if we knew the information was going to be created and gi given
011out kind of late and we wouldn't get the time you know to look at it. So why did we even have a meeting here tonight >> which we which we discussed which we discussed we discussed that do you guys remember do you guys remember every meeting we have talked about let's push one plan forward let's push one plan forward for the interest of progress I believe I said how about instead of Wednesday we have it on Thursday but there was a jamboree so we all said no let's have it on Wednesday and we all talked about how about we move it forward to have this meeting and then we move one plan forward to Monday and we all agreed if we were not ready to do that then we would stop that we would stop
012and I understand the deal half of you wanted to go to one plan and the others did not so let's just get to what we need to get to for tonight so that we can move on >> with one with what with one plan with one I I would like for us >> it sounds like Not everybody wants one plan. [clears throat] >> No. No. The problem is No, that is exactly what we agreed on. >> Okay. So, I'm looking at it like this. It's looking as if a majority of the board is needing more time. >> Well, maybe can each say what they want. >> Mr. Tom, are you ready to choose a direction tonight? Yeah. Yeah, I'm ready. So, >> we have four people ready to move forward. >> Okay. So, four people
013are ready to choose a direction tonight. >> Is it the Is it the same direction? >> So, and I'll do the first one. Can I have that? So, so I I do not have a problem um saying what I'm thinking. Obviously, uh I I prefer plan two. The reason why I prefer plan two, I have said multiple times, um I wish we were talking about a new school right now. Um I advocated for that. I gave a thousand dollars of my own money for that. Um I agree with the speakers that said we need to talk about education first. Uh I believe that that the plans that we are moving forward are for that purpose. Um I'm making a decision based on what I believe are the facts only as another speaker mentioned. Um and
014so I prefer the long the number two. I prefer that because we spent three years. We started that process in 2022. Really? This has been going on for 20 years. We started that in 2022. It took three years. We told the community that's what we were going to do. Um it retires our oldest building in Hyde. It um doesn't waste the $127,000 that we just put into HVAC at Field. Um and so I would like to vote for plan two. However, I will not allow perfection to be the enemy of progress. And so if we don't have four people willing to put forward two, I will vote for seven because we cannot continue to sit here and do nothing. And I'm not willing to do that. But if everyone else is, then there's nothing I
015can do about that. I have a couple questions really quick. First, um, Hedgequorth, you're the numbers guy. Is there any way to make plan E work? >> so 75% of our expenses are salarying benefits. And so you can get anything to work, but how thin you spread that staff across your buildings is something that would cut deep. And so in other words, if you have 25 buildings and you have a certain number of staffing and then you reduce those amount of buildings to 23 or 22, you are able to naturally reduce the FTE you have in your district. And so you can keep a higher number of buildings. However, to get the same amount of savings to cut down that FTE, it's going to run deep into those buildings. So, um, you know, I to
016give you an answer right now, you would have to line out all of your staffing and see how deep you wanted to make those cuts in those buildings. Um, if you keep all of them, um, but you are going to have to raise classroom sizes. you're going to have to cut out things that are um support staff that were added during the 202021 school year like your um your campus supervisors, all those support staff that you've added in the last 5 years, you are deeply going to have to cut those to make the numbers work. And so it's a decision on would you rather naturally reduce that square footage that we would want to reduce anyway with enrollment size or keep that larger number of square footage and sacrifice people instead. And so the closing
017of the buildings naturally reduces the number of FTE that you have in your district. And so when you do that that helps initiate that savings from souring benefits. Thank you, Dr. Hedgehorn. Um, and I would agree with Whitney and Mike over the reasons you've given. Mr. Tom, >> I'm sorry. I I couldn't hear what you were saying. >> I said I would agree with Mike and Whitney. >> Okay. I >> The reasons already given Let let me say this. Um, this has been a very challenging um very challenging time for the community and and for the board. I guess I I want you to know that um the board feels that challenge as well. And I um and I don't put myself in your shoes. Just so you know that. I'm not I'm not saying
018that. I'm just saying it's a challenging decision. I um I feel like the right thing to do is for two schools and um while I've either rightfully or wrongfully investigated all the options and and attempted to support all the options, I I've come back to what I think is the right and best thing for our community and that is um the the Benton Central um bottle. >> [applause] >> Okay. Are there any additional questions? >> Sure. >> No, because no one >> I'm I'm if if if the majority wants to say tonight, then I'll be ready to say. Um I appreciate all the work that the administration has done with every single thing that we've asked them to do because we've asked them to do a lot and I appreciate that. Uh my reasoning for
019saying what I did at the meeting the other night was I knew we had looked at plan E in a certain way. We had looked at plan two in a certain way and I felt like we needed to give um at that time 7B the same um look as we had the other plan. So I appreciate the fact that you've spent these last two days working on that. I appreciate that a lot. And so with that being said, now that we can see with U plan 4BR and 2R that the savings is very similar, it's closing the same amount of buildings. I like the feeder path because on the feeder path um there's a good mix of title schools and non-title schools feeding into the middle schools which in turn will feed into the high
020schools. So I I appreciate that on this. Um and this is probably one of the most difficult decisions in the the worst nights of sleep I've had in my life. that I have to support 4BR because it also moves us into the future better I feel like than if we went with the Lafayette central plan. So that would be the plan that I would support. [applause] Are you guys now ready to speak tonight? Okay. >> No, don't say I was forcing you. I was not forcing you. I mean, I was going to was going to leave you alone, but if you're still great, let's go. >> Yeah, I'm absolutely ready to make a decision. Um, I know we have put everybody through misery, including ourselves, and I apologize for it. And I also want to
021thank everybody who spoke today. Um, I do want to answer just a few questions. They asked us directly. Yes, I do have a child in the district that will be affected. So, just so you know. Um, also as well, um, yes, I was born here. I moved away. My parents were military, but I came here back here for a reason. There's a reason why I came back here and stayed because I love this town. Um, I've poured my hearts out with PTA. I've been to all the schools. Um, but I will tell you, I have not taken this lightly at all. Uh, I've looked at everything and yes, I do still have questions. I hope we can still get answers on that too Monday. But with everything I've had, the way I've looked at it
022and have sleepless nights over it, uh I will too be going with four four the bitten central I too will go for 4BR because [applause] because it gives us it offers long-term flexibility. ility. It gives us a campus possibility with two schools [music] in the north. Uh we'd have to revisit this somewhere down the line and it'd be it's been miserable for us. It would be miserable again for them. Nobody wants to do this. Uh it brings also a geographical balance. The admin has shown consistency. So I appreciate that all the way through. you have stayed firm and given us tons of data that makes it as clear as possible for now and as much as you can give us at this time. So, I appreciate that too. I think um someone mentioned retiring and
023restoring buildings. I think both both plans hit on that because that's that's the intent is to continue the process. It's not all going to happen at once like Webster is not just going to be cut out because there's just uh accommodations that have to be met. So, we can't expect it to just to everything be done at once. I also want to say um admin, I appreciate that you can sit up here and take the hits that you do knowing how much you love this community. It's not something that you're doing lightly. It's not your intent to disrupt the community. It's your intent to uh consolidate so we can better serve the community. So, I'm sorry that happens to you because it's your goal to create better learning environments for academic improvement to make sure
024>> to make sure our staff is suited for the task. So, all of that has to be tough to take all the things that you've taken while we've been through this process. Nobody has slept well. So this is how we do it. So I am for 4BR. >> Okay. So what's the motion going to be Monday night? >> Keep it moving. If we're going to do this, let's do it. What's the motion going to be? >> So this is a special meeting. So do we need to codify this? >> No, she's just asking what's going to happen Monday night. >> So let's try to get all on the same page. So on Monday night, we're going forward. The only plan that will be presented is the 4BR. >> Right. >> Okay. >> That's where I'm
025at. >> And that also means everyone is in agreement. It's not adding any other plans on the agenda. It's not adding >> Ask everyone. >> Any other maps? >> Everybody understands. I I do have a I do have a question. >> Yep. do >> and um boy I I hate to say this even out loud and probably could have done it privately but we're trying to be transparent as we can. Do we need to have an action to resend our vote? >> Yes, of course. And we'll do that >> and and will that happen on Monday as well >> because that is an action item. Yes, it has to happen. >> Okay. Thank you. >> During an open meeting and so everybody is in agreement on the meeting Monday. and everybody understands what's going to
026happen. >> All right. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> I make a motion. >> Is there a second? >> Miss Miller? >> Yes. >> Miss Williams? >> Miss Chzny? >> Yes. >> Miss Karns? >> Miss Lanning? >> Yes. >> Mr. Moore. >> Mr. Richmond. Yes. Meet a journ. Thanks.