WCS Board Work Session 2022-03-10

0012022 Williamson County School Board work session like to call this meeting to order and with us tonight is Deputy Randy purcel Deputy purcel thank you so much for being here uh so the first item on the agenda as usual are our consent agenda items Mr Golden uh thank you madam chair uh we have the agenda items from the policy committee for second Reading Plus field trip request and of course the minutes if y'all have any question questions certainly be willing to answer those [Music] I don't see any questions if there are no questions we'll move to our next item which is the superintendent report Mr Gold thank you madam chair we have 45 minutes on on the agenda for this I'm hoping to go a little quicker than that because we do have the budget

002on the agenda and I see yeah so we'll we'll see how that goes but uh I do have first uh some updates on the superintendent's goals I last gave you an update in November and I do have a PowerPoint I want to walk through uh like I said I do intend because this is an update to move fairly quickly through those but I will concentrate some time on goal number one so uh Tim Brian if you don't mind go ahead and pull that up for us uh so superintendent goals update last week was read Across America and so our Communications Department was good enough to include some uh some photos it is very difficult for me to get through doors it is very difficult for me to get through doors with a cat and the

003hat hat on so I'm not the only one wearing that hat by the way that at Winstead Elementary so uh goal number one uh that you all set for for me in our discussions uh months and months ago was to present a fiscally sound pay plan to effectively address recent Market changes includi including classified and uh certified positions so as a reminder last month we did something that we all know was unprecedented in our experience here in Williamson County uh teachers got a 3% raise and actually all salaried folks got a 3% raise in the middle of the budget year the first paycheck was at the end of February that reflected that raise and I had I hit a couple of points uh for you uh related to that um our next upcoming budget that

004we're going to talk about tonight continues that work that we started with our discussions with the mayor just a couple of months ago that landed on the midyear pay increase uh mayor Anderson told County government that based on their increase their standards for the upcoming budget was a 2% pay increase starting in July as an addition so that's where he started uh we have done that in the budget that you'll be looking at today as a baseline we also spent time working on that goal uh and Vicki Hall through her leadership spent a lot lot of time studying our neighbors studying what we could do based on our conversations uh with Rachel farmer and uh in projections on the revenue side of the budget and our proposal for this budget includes ultimately raising our teacher

005salaries with an emphasis on the earliest years of their profession and a secondary emphasis on the later years and those two bullet points on my PowerPoint reflection that um in a year if you approve this budget and if it passes the commission we will have increased starting teacher salary in Williamson County from 4,150 at the start of this school year to 45,000 at the start of next school year um and it's because of market conditions it's because of our need to compete we won't be the highest uh we we we do know that metro schools they're talking about around 50,000 but we're very pleased with what we believe is a still a conservative budget that gives us the capacity to do that um on the other side of that equation our teacher scale has for

006many years topped out at 21 years so if somebody had 21 years experience and they were were were with Williamson County the entire time after they hit 21 years they would get whatever percentage increase that every might have been in the budget that particular year so someone who's been say 30 years with Williamson County one year got a z% increase another year got a 6% increase over and above what's on the chart what we know is that it's been very difficult for us to hire some of those more experienced teachers from elsewhere because they would come in at that 21 line when those who were with us over the course of time after that 21 line would have had the those percentage pay increases over the over the course of their career so we have

007an additional emphasis on the back end of the uh of the pay plan uh at 61753 traditionally you all approve these pay plans when you approve theou with a WCA so they're not actually on your agenda tonight for a vote but I wanted you to get a get a glimpse in my update of of my goals where we are with respect to that likewise classified pay we did a dollar an hour uh dollar per hour increase I gave you the example of a starting special education teachers assistant making $15 an hour a dollar an hour increase is a 6.7% increase they got that again just last week in their paychecks um we've done some work on the classified pay we have some points of emphasis in addition to that 2% Baseline that we talked about

008for for some skilled trades uh some of the maintenance positions um we're actually uh will be proposing when when that comes uh some additional increases over and above that for market conditions likewise some it positions some informational technology positions that are competing with others outside a traditional school system so we do have some uh some some pay increases proposed in that so that's just a quick update on uh on that first goal as I read the pay plan it called on me to make a plan we believe that we can make a plan and funded this year and again it's because we had a substantial increase in sales tax uh this year over over the previous year so we just had some progress points just some some reminders of of where we are there um

009goal two develop a Communications plan to include external WCS stakeholders uh Plus some additional evaluations with with internal uh we will be presenting you a Communications plan um in April but right now our our budget for Communications in includes uh a uh I'm trying to remember the exact title because I don't have it on the PowerPoint a community assistant communications director for Community an assistant communications director for Community engagement that's in the in the the new um proposed budget um because we just need more folks we need more help uh to to catch up with the way our community uh communicates in the way we need to communicate uh we also actually have a meeting scheduled after fall break or spring break rather uh with Williamson Inc uh we had had a meeting uh last

010month if I'm not mistaken with the entire Board of Williams and Inc and they have developed a subgroup to work with us on some of our brainstorming and we are we are going to be meeting with them in uh in in late March with that subgroup to do some brainstorming on some of the best business practices on how we communicate how we recruit teachers retention so we're going to spend some time in deep conversations with our local Business Leaders sharing best practices for recruiting Because they're going through some of the same things we are so we're going to see what we can borrow uh from the business model uh with recruiting so another update goal three uh I'm not going to spend any significant time on this uh this is the uh the learning loss

011goal we have all our items in place for learning loss that we spoke to you about in November uh and we've made some pretty good progress on that RTI and interventions has made a is is making a difference and you may remember that with our Esser funding we put that emphasis on interventionist uh you may recall that last month Vicky Hall presented uh information on our sta staing and there's actually a jump in open teacher positions from September to October and it's because we added those interventionist positions in midy year we've actually done a little bit better on hiring than we were expecting back in November and I'm trying to remember off the top of my head I think we were able to fill maybe all but six of those positions did I have that

012number right uh yeah and so uh so it's already been making a difference for our for our students um summer Services we are have already given you all this information but I included it again uh as a reminder the uh summer school program um our staff has done a ton of work preparing for that it really went well last year we were very pleased one anecdote I love from that is conversations about um a particular student who had never had the opportunity in his classes to be that one who raises his hand and answers the questions but in the summer school program he did and there are lots of stories like that about those young students doing the summer school programs I call it summer school if you hear summer camp from the state it's

013the same thing we're just calling it what it is it it's uh it's summer school um goal four uh action steps related to students uh sense of safety at school going to give you a couple of uh couple of additional pieces that we haven't spoken about in the past uh um but uh I think you also know that we're working on on a a standardized template for Teacher handbooks we've talked about that uh our staff continues to work on that and it's been a combination of Human Resources legal and uh the grade level folks uh making sure that we have that in place for the fall so we'll give you another update on that in a couple of months uh that is an ongoing effort I also want to mention the top bullet there uh

014we are piloting a buling report using a QR code for the fourth quarter we're going to Pilot this at seven schools uh students communicate differently uh and Vicky Hall actually has talked about this with our PTO leaders we uh we spoke with them a couple of days ago uh letting them know that we're going to be piloting this we have an 800 number but Vicki I'm going to quote or come close to quoting you uh really all we get on that 800 numbers prank calls uh just number again yeah that's right it serves a purpose for for prank calls but students communicate differently so uh we we expect that the QR code is going to be a nice more subtle way for students to communicate um uh we are project we're going to experiment with

015it make sure that we uh we we take care of all the you know all those things that you need to look at that you might not anticipate with a with with something new so that's why we're piloting it this quarter at seven schools um also related to that uh you'll find in the budget some significant some significant items related to mental health we're bumping up our counseling staff uh adding 14.5 positions there's actually an emphasis at the elementary school level with those but we're adding a little bit more to middle and high school as well uh and I mentioned in that second bullet specific student needs based uh and and and the state counseling standards um we have a counseling committee that is viewing materials to put more tools in the toolbox for our

016counselors uh to to be more proactive in addressing student needs as they arise as we had discussion related to the students student sense of safety it became very apparent to us in conversations with our counselors that they don't have a lot of materials those materials need vetting uh and we have a committee that's uh that's that's looking at that and uh um and I know that um m is is is helping with that participating in that committee so thank you for that uh related to that we have some uh budget line uh in this coming budget uh to to help that a lot of this is geared towards meeting needs quickly uh before they before they grow uh some some prevention some some Basics to to help students so we'll be coming to you with

017a little bit more information about that in the in the coming months uh the budget also includes an increase in Stars clinical counseling contractors we've had stars for years that's an acronym for students taking the right stand um and that we actually have U licensed clinical social workers uh through that contracted service in our schools um we are adding if I'm not mistaken somewhere around 20 to 25% more uh over what we've what we've currently been doing with that um with uh with with that really good program to give students an outlet now of course we also have our social workers who help families with referrals uh for for mental health needs but these are folks who can really intervene in a moment there's somebody there in the schools and it's been good for us

018and and we know that the demand has grown so we are increasing that Staffing in the coming budget uh and uh that's it for that one goal five this is the uh goal related to operations reports the board's work session what I have in the in these bullet points I think you all already know we have made it the point to have specific operational discussions at our work sessions uh two months ago we spoke about library books last month we spoke about human resources and of resources and of course this this month is budget we're working on a proposed calendar for next year uh we'll be bringing that to you with some operational departments with a caveat that there's always the chance that there's a just in time need uh to make a change um

019over the course of the year so that's that's my hopefully quick update on on my goals I know you all be will be evaluating those in a few months and so over the course of um uh Nancy Garrett and I talking uh early on this year we felt like it was important to keep you updated on that Mr Brown Jason um back to I think it was number three goal number three you had referenced um that standardizing the handbooks and making sure that they had all of the same information ju just go for it okay my apologies um so what would be some of the reasons just historically why the handbooks would have been different why would they have had different information and um freedom for administrators to make disciplined decisions based on what they

020experience in their buildings okay um what we have found over time is everybody knows everybody in the county students know each other and we have come to the conclusion that there need to be some baseline disciplines for particular behaviors across the county because that talk does go on um and part of it is because just historically that we we really haven't had that that deep discussion with uh with administrators about that okay the other question I had is is there any precedent for um either individual businesses comp companies I should say or um or the chamber itself funding either a projects or certain programs within WCS that and the reason I'm asking that is I'm thinking ahead of as budgets continue to be an issue and teacher pay continues to be an issue thinking about

021are there Partnerships we can explore with individual companies there's so many companies moving here yeah um who and a lot of them are moving here because of the schools and yet they're moving here because of us and yet they're draining potentially draining Talent from us so thinking about Partnerships that maybe we could work out with them where they fund C certain things within our budget to help offset some of those drains that they're you know in some ways causing well that that's a that's a good thought we have had some success with that especially in the CCT programs um just a few years ago we entered into a joint agreement with um Service King Collision Repair at Franklin High School uh if you Drive in the back you can actually see their sign um they're

022actually in the process that they they're under new ownership and we're re-evaluating that model with them uh the EIC the entrepreneurship and Innovation Center uh has gotten a lot of corporate sponsorship if you walk into the EIC you can actually see on the right a board of of sponsors um that's been a mix of money and in kind support uh so we have had some foras into that we have not set out to have a structured program or plan for that but the other big piece is when a new business comes into town our pto's and our boosters know they're there and uh and and and you know seek sponsorship money so those are the examples I can think of but but to your point we have not had a particular goal uh for for

023those those corporate Partnerships that may be something that we might want to talk about strategically Mr Gold yes ma'am I was just going to say as I read over the budget again today in preparation for this meeting that's part of that new role is you know developing those Partnerships with school and different businesses in the community and things like that that's right so that is part of what we were thinking about in in in the communications goal to that end what how would you react just got reaction to the notion of a Williamson County School's Foundation we um we have one okay there you go yep so how do we how do we use that or how do we how does that get funded Mr Wily offline okay and um or can now if you

024like I'll talk to you all night about it Mr wimberly's been our primary um a primary engaged board member in the foundation okay we can take it offline if you want okay okay love to all right that's it okay thanks Mr Hall I realize I got in as early as I did you did no I got to get my thoughts together um Jason thanks for the update on the goals too I think that this is good because you know when we get to the evaluation you never want to have a surprise so I think this is a good opportunity for any of us if we think oh that's not quite what I would align or was thinking of with that goal this would be a good time for any of us to speak now and

025to do so on a regular basis with this so with that in mind I really like the attention focused on the bullying reporting and the mental health it's great to have that as a constant uh goal that we'll always need to do more of um with the communications components I know it isn't completely defined and you've got resources and some details to plug in there um but I'd like to see you know what what ultimately is the engagement with with families and parents you know and the the means by which we're doing that cuz I know that's been tweaked a bit and in sort of the superintendent report that's online uh maybe maybe getting some kind of metrics on what the engagement is with that and if if we're hitting the mark on that and

026and if there are other opportunities just to do something similar or in person I think that would be good but I really appreciate these these updates because your goals are our goals and we should all hope that every box is checked by the end of this good suggestion thank you Apria I got in quick too um I was actually going to ask about goal four first also so um I was thinking about that the part where you mentioned you were going to look at the policy handbooks and make sure there's consistency and I wondered if that included cell phone use and social media will that be something that may become come districtwide policy that's some of that is in our in our handbooks so yes okay that is part of what we're talking about all

027right that in in my experience that seems to be something I'm hearing from a lot of parents that's becoming a pretty significant issue even this young as elementary students um especially now that they have more access to technology after having to go online for a year um so I'd appreciate also if we could take a look at the next slide where you talked about counseling committee reviewing available counseling resources if there's a possibility that more could be offered to students to teach them about social media use and safety and bullying and what that looks like and how to address it I know there's like some basic stuff that happens at the elementary level but I think it would be great if we could beef that up a little bit um and then for goal one

028that was was the one about teacher pay Market stuff um has there continued to be discussion about a potential survey to figure out what exactly is the reason either people aren't accepting jobs here or are leaving jobs here so we can see if there are other reasons why besides just pay which I agree we need to increase but um other incentives we can offer to attract more people thank you for that yes we are working on uh getting a survey out we've had some conversations with the WCA leadership and we we we have set some parameters uh one is to ensure that it's completely Anonymous uh two is the timing of it needs to come after teap but before the end of the school year so we're at the point right now of looking for

029potential providers uh for that uh to ensure that we can make it truly Anonymous and then get some questions uh together that's you know you've got to that balance of efficient questions so it's not so long that nobody takes it with getting the information you need so yes we we we do have a we don't have the all the details in place at this point but we do intend to have a Anonymous teacher and staff survey before the end of this school year great thank you that's it Mr Wimberly back to goal one uh excuse me uh Jason it looks look like you kind of made an editorial modification to it did I yes I think so and that is um in addition to presenting a fiscally sound pay plan at least in the response

030that we got from Rachel was to not only uh create a plan but to actually fund it as much as possible you mentioned that was one of the things and you know we can't change the goal Midstream but I wonder if you would consider another editorial change that that basically says that um in addition to a you know a sound pay plan explore other things that we can do to make life for teachers in our school system more effective and and I don't know that easier is the right word but more effective and and um to work on teacher well-being um you know is part of that goal of course that's just me talking I'm just suggesting that a little editorial change on your part without us actually changing the goal that may not be

031fair but that's what I so so I'm going to weigh in on that one Mr Wimberly um I do think that that is an important piece but um legally I would say at this point you have voted on the goals and for several months he has been working on the goals voted on by the board but um I'm confident since superintendent golden is taking not notes that even though we won't officially change the goal he will um work to do exactly work to make changes toward your editorial change how's that Mr Wimberly thank you that's fine anything Miss Cleveland this this is one I wasn't planning on saying but missia brought it up as far as the handbook and I think I brought this up last year the first being consistent um we have a

032um standard that we of student contact conduct and I've always thought it would be good at the first day of school the first hour of school or first half hour that all teachers are consistent and tell the students of that first hour of school what is expected of them what the consequences are so it's all across the board not I know some teachers do it some teachers don't but I would like to see that a requirement so everybody across the board are are consistent on what the expectations of the student conduct is and what those consequences are and I would really love to see that thank you for that um I do know that we have assemblies our administrators have assemblies with the students um it's certainly something that's worth us doing a double check

033on for for consistency purposes but I would like to and I'm trying and I'm I'm speaking to Dr orer and Dr web could you all share any just examples of of how our admin administrators handle that with our [Music] students question can you hear me okay can you hear me now yes it's green perfect yes so generally uh in addition to each School having an individual school student handbook that's shared that's shared digitally very few do a printed copy any longer but do a digital copy of the handbook we have assemblies at the beginning of the year where school expectations are shared um many have uh like a home room session where students will rotate through to share the expectations for the year uh make sure that that information is sent home in case parents

034have any questions about it uh periodically through the year sections of it as appropriate are reviewed uh in some cases at the start of a second semester that it may be uh reviewed in more of a comprehensive manner but typically once the year begins it's just as needed great thank you we also talk a lot about students who are transferring in especially um because we are becoming more transient in nature uh we do have many schools who have a um process in place to ensure that when a student transfers in that they have a similar condensed orientation to what the school expectations are and we are working to ensure that that's more consistent across the district okay thank you and I would just add that it's very much the same thing in elementary except on

035a smaller scale so those Home Room pieces um and many of our elementary schools have and you guys have seen these the kind of the three things or things that they're focusing on be kind be responsible whatever those pieces are and then a lot of those handbook issues that that Dr Webb was speaking about are kind of run through that so we're going to be respectful by doing certain things in the classroom so they're teaching it more on the classroom level than a schoolwide assembly certainly some of that happens when there are some schoolwide behaviors um that may need to be addressed if there's a trend that's happening for example in fifth grade a principal or assistant principal may pull that grade level in with those teachers and have a more broad conversation um but

036it it's very similar just in an age appropriate way for our elementary students okay thank you now that's my original question that I went Miss Hall the career fair how many positions were were needed to be filled and how successful was that okay okay um I I can't really give you an answer for sure on how many positions need to be filled for that because we'll have we've got growth positions that are in the budget but we did offer 60 a little over 60 early contracts and we have gotten most of those back so we think and then in addition to that we have resumés and and um followups that are continuing but we we do have 60 contracts out oh great thank you very much if I may speak to that as well we

037have had a great event Saturday morning and I and I know you were there and stopped in and checked on us and Miss Garrett did too uh it it was I think we had maybe 220 or so uh uh teacher candidates had had some great conversations with some who were offered jobs and their spouse was interviewing while they were being offered a job themselves so neat little stories like that uh so the the 60 is a is an encouraging number one of the things we did this year knowing the market it was um um I gave authority to principles to hire based on 100% of their projected numbers we up up until then now we've kept it low um because we know that that uh that that the demand is out there and we're competing

038I got to tell one anecdote as well uh based on a conversation I had with the principal the special education teachers generally said thanks I'll be looking because they know it's a seller's market maret they're they're checking around for for our neighbors before they commit just generally speaking but it's us Mr galberth thank you Jason um I know we're talking about doing a uh working on the Strategic plan uh starting in the in the fall we we mentioned that's right possibly do in the spring but we're not going to do that we're going to we're going to wait till the fall fall right um so just love just before then I guess before we before we finish up this school year if we can can get I know uh if we can get an update

039U I know we get those the little ones and that drip but we if we could try to find over the next couple of months some time to um to update us on where we are before we start that process that'd be helpful thank you for that Miss Garrett and I have actually been talking about that U about doing some bullet points showing progress on our strategic plan over the last five years and uh and we'll make sure that we have that uh and we are thinking about the fall for for the for the next step so so thank you for mentioning that as well and that'll be a it'll be a really good time to do that especially we'll know if the if this new funding formula um we'll know what we know if

040it passes we'll we'll have some idea of the of the revenue maybe we might know the revenue but um so we'll have a um that'll be a robust discussion for sure um prior to and we'll want to make sure we finish that prior to the to the budget next year um and and we we talk a lot about um we've talked a lot about athletic athletic stuff just you and I have um but can we when can we expect the facility um review the athletic facilities you I'm going to turn to uh to Dr web on on that and get her to give you an answer thank you for the question we actually are on the calendar to present to Mr Golden um and some cabinet members uh in April and so our turnaround from

041that will we'll progress after that point but uh we are um at completion of that study uh so we're compiling all the information to get it in a uh consumable format and we'll be presenting that to Cabinet Mr Golden soon and just a little bit related to that as um Darren joins has been working on that of course we continue to change and grow and issues continue to come up there's been some discussion among some of our some of our football booster groups about about the larger sign boards uh and uh Mr joins is actually working on that we're working on the possibility of creating a standard uh a districtwide uh standard because I believe in the next few years those boards are going to be fairly common uh that's that's where the trend lies

042and we want to make sure that that uh we set a set a standard so he's got that on his March plate uh as well okay well I know there's some there is some urgency there um and I've talked with um with the with brunwood and um and Ravenwood boosters and so I I guess I think Jason I think Darren he's going to get together and we've been working on a um on a a booster meeting across the across the build I'm pretty sure he's probably waiting for the facility thing to to go but it it might behoove us to um to jump start that a little bit early if it's if it's possible just because of just because of the timing around around that issue um because I know a couple of people are

043are chomping at the bit and there's not a not a whole lot of time between now and the and the fall so we'll make we'll make sure we talk about that as well thank you I think we may have lost the microphone well and and to Josh's point on on a way that where we can get this public private partnership um there's these these things have have the ability to um to create some an additional Revenue stream um that would um that would definitely I think we're we're kind of at a at a low we've we've hit that 12 10 12 million that were that were raising and so we we could we could use a shot the arm to um especially on the timing is great because we're going to get this we're going

044to get a a view of the facilities um we might have some an opportunity to to do this thing with the with the video boards and a lot of several of the of the high schools have done them in their in their gyms um but if we can if we can turn that into a revenue source for um for athletics cuz we typically just don't um we don't it's harder to find fun I mean we're putting a lot of money into the into the fields um into the football fields for the high schools right now but um but we're going to we're going to get a a wish list of of items where some schools have things and some schools don't um and we might be able to match that with a with an ability

045to to maybe start to pay for some of that stuff with through booster and um outside dollars hopefully that's right and and have a plane to a plan to sustain that you know for for ongoing expenses most of those boards have a uh have a have a licens your annual fee for the for the software so sure thank you Mr Cash thank just a quick question um are the books uh the handbooks in print uh there has been a we we short version is not everywhere uh what we know is that students are looking more at their electronic versions but um I'm I'm looking over I don't think every single school has done them in print if am I right in fact these days very few but there's still a there's still a small handful

046that are in print can we go online and uh read that or yeah every school has that online you can actually go to Every school's website and you can find their student okay good thank you Mr Welch thank you um so I guess a couple things uh Shea sort of joted my mind on two things uh one I I I love the idea you said about sort of setting the the standard for behavior um at the the start of the year and what expectations are and everything else um and then I think kind of along with that um remind of an email that I saw once that Dr Boyd had sent out it was a tweet or something which is ironic because he's up there behind you on the wall uh right now um but

047had shared a document he would give to his students early on when he was an early teacher about here the classroom expectations and everything else and here are the rules and here are the penalties and that and uh but he talked about it how as he's changed he's and and moved on as an educator he's also grown to understand that that those rules are are even you know they're important but they're a lot less important to uh the relationship development um that way and I know that's not where you're going with it as well I just want to add kind of that point I thought that was such a kind of a great Point um and where he even owned up per saying you know this is something that I got wrong yeah early on

048you know come from a a military background of you know this is the way you do it and the rules and time you show up and you it doesn't quite work the same way when you're you're dealing with 14 15 year old kids um that way so as we do that I just think that's another thing to sort of keep in mind as we do it is uh setting expectations but also having kind of a nice relationship building portion of it early on um and and I know a lot of the schools have done that been great about that making a conscious effort to do that I think a formalized process would be great um the other thing that you did that SED out of my mind is the um the college fair uh or

049rather the career fair and it got me thinking about the college fair and it's something that um I've talked about before and like to do it I know something that Mr Cash is also very interested in is we we have a phenomenal college fair I mean it's everyone comes from around it's not just Williams County school as kids everyone shows up for our Fair because it's it's hundreds of kids but we don't have that portion for what are you doing or or not as much what are you doing after school if you're not going to college uh the the different trade schools the military the other opportunities that you have that way and I think that's an area that uh we can do a lot better and I know we expanded that a little bit

050to have some of those in there but um I think putting them together it kind of becomes a you know here's everything and oh yeah here's this off to the side and not having that more established you know here are all the the industry Fields And Trades and other schools and things that you can go on and and that's something that we're I think we're missing for those portion of those children who don't have it we we s of figure it out on your own if you will look like you want to say something Dr we I would love to say something thank you so much for bringing that that up Mr Welch we're actually in the planning phase right now of that very thing our CCT um Department as well as our counseling department

051um are planning um and in discussions about whether or not two separate events or one event together with the uh career fair and college fair together so we're in the planning phase of that and making the determination um if it if the aent can house all of that in one location because it would be nice not not to only um go speak with the university about a particular field but then walk downstairs and have a conversation about someone who's exercis in that field and can speak with me specifically about what degree they obtained when they're working there but also maybe I'm not interested in those colleges at all and I can just walk straight to uh those career fair uh individuals down low and um have conversations about what I could do straight out of

052high school or speak to the military so that planning phase is is well underway uh in fact we'll probably have that finalized in the next couple weeks okay thank you and then the the final thing I'll wrap up here uh um the booster boards that's exciting um do that are are you looking at it as a districtwide initiative or is it a a schoolto school initiative the model we're looking at is uh a booster driven initiative with standards that work for everybody and uh um Mr galberth mentioned uh the ability to fund it in essence with advertising sales and so some boosters might have money where that's a priority for them right now and others might not so what we what we're thinking about is a long-term plan so that we can facilitate that happening

053cities have different ordinances related to signage sure and that's been a that's that's been a a parameter uh that that we've looked at but from a from a funding and planning standpoint given our Capital needs regularly and and uh the the process we go through with the County Commission and in our growth our model is that that would be something that boosters would actually lead and fund I wonder if that might be something that we could do at a district level though it it's we've had a lot of luck um with those public private Partnerships whether it's our uh the soft drinks that that we use the uh who takes the photos for us graduations and such our our Athletic Apparel all of that um and I don't know but is this another opportunity where

054we can do a competitive RFP and we can offer uh a a districtwide opportunity which which obviously is has much more buying power and strength and and reach than sort of being done uh you know ad hoc and each School kind of going off on its own within you know the the larger standards well thank you for that and thank you for triggering my memory um I I can name three just off the top my had you you touched on a couple of them uh the the the contract we have for for drinks the coke contract was it was part of that initiative you were deeply involved in the Athletic Apparel uh contract that we have that we're that we're doing districtwide um and then of course the photos you know we we do a

055districtwide uh contract for for school pictures as well um good suggestion oh we just had a big change to my microphone for those of you who are watching at home uh so that that's a that's a good thought for us to look at we are looking for an RFP structure uh Darren joins and I actually had another conversation just today about that because we do need to have specs for compatibility with our with our computer systems uh so that when I mentioned that's on his plate for March one of the things he told me is that uh he expects to have a a draft RFP put together by the end of the month that covers our specs that covers signage size uh and what we believe can actually pass muster across the county so that

056our so that our boosters do have that format but we'll also look at the idea of a of an RFP that includes a funding model as well yeah I just think instead of having to put it on our boosters to to do that or entirely on our boosters and obviously you know we've got half and half knots in in the county um if we can offer it as a a larger package does it become more enticing to someone else and put out as an RFB BEC much more competitive for that as well thank you [Music] okay because I've got somebody else I know oh it's fine I was just going to finish it's F okay go ahead um just the talk I've talked a lot about this over the last four years with our with

057our boosters and and there is the funny model is essentially if you can if if a couple of people can do it and they're ready to to fund it themselves um if you can if you can get enough if you can work districtwide Leverage The WCS Sports conference and um and get enough um people who are willing to advertise across the across the county um then those they could they could essentially be pre prepaid for before like a page or a Fairview or somebody who who might not have the funds available but they could go ahead and and get it on the on that on that pre-old basis so um that's the way to that's the way to fund the the board so they're not have to come out of pocket and then it's just

058um makes it a lot easier so sure no I'm I'm sure that you know that that's and get the buying power like but I I don't think we should lock ourselves and say that's the way as opposed to a way it's just getting everybody together talking about sure and and a lot of things you don't know what you don't know until you ask so putting that proposal out there and seeing what comes in I think is a great opportunity the concern I would have is if we have a couple that um do go off on on their own and and something else we then lose the ability to sell as a district or as a district to to anyone we're kind of locked in to to that group or fragmented if we want to go

059off so the the time to do it is we do it from the get go before anybody buys one yeah sure okay board members just a process check we a lot had 45 minutes for this and we're we started a little late so we're we're on um we're well on track here with our timing um is there anyone else who hasn't spoken who wants to speak because I do have a request for a second opportunity to speak anybody okay Mr Brown I'll be very quick back to the question about the survey um I don't know I don't want to get into the Weeds on the mechanics of that but I I do would like to recommend that we as a board be able to see the questions before they put out and maybe have have

060a chance to offer some input into those that may have been planned anyway I just wanted to state that thank you thank you okay thank you board members um our next item is um the budget discussion thank you madam chair as a as a last comment related to my goals you all may have noticed that we talked about some items that aren't really related to my goals and I'm good with that because we are required by the by the state law to to set specific goals but our reality is the work that we do is so much more complex there are so many issues that come up over the course of the year that it's certainly appropriate to to to talk um beyond that because uh because just focusing on just a couple of things

061to the exclusion of others is is unwise so let me tell you about the budget uh when when we get to that point in the agenda I'm going to call on uh Rachel farmer to to walk us through that in detail uh just in the interest of uh of some some efficiency in programming I want to let you know that she's going to talk about the revenue side and then the expense side and as a reminder we don't have control over the revenue side but we can project the revenue side and that's going to be a big part of of what she talks about on the front end uh I believe that this is a conservative budget and I hope you see that through her but it's also uh a good budget I cut about

062$2 million or so out of request after initially telling and our staff uh that we need to be conservative and speak to needs one of the reasons why is because I anticipated that given where the state was they are looking at be in its last year this coming year if they have a plan to present a new program and the governor's budget proposal that we have heard um at his press conferences is consistent with that that he talked about a billion dollars this year with 750 million set for supporting the uh the next uh the next iteration of our funding model uh so as you as you as you as you hear from Rachel I want you to know on the front end this budget proposal does not include making a request of the County

063commission for any additional funding Beyond where they are I've already let mayor Anderson know that as well so our tradition if we if we need more is to ask and they have to evaluate the question related to the property tax rate they made it clear where they where they stood for the last few months at many of the County Commission meetings that they did not intend to do that so we've structured a budget that honors that request uh next item I want to mention of course we'll get into the details of that with Rachel so you I know you guys will have questions for that I did want to give you a very short primer on the State Department of Education TSA or Tissa proposal uh um and I'm still struggling with the acronym CU

064it's brand new but it's the uh uh it's uh oh my goodness Rachel I've already forgot itee Tennessee for sure see see you can hear from our staff that none of us have it and in any event it's Tissa ortia we'll we'll cross that bridge so um we received a two and a half pager from the State Department of Education with a projection of what we would receive if this passes at the state level and if it's fully funded and if their projections for us are are are accurate um and you all actually got a copy of this uh by email um and so I've got it scrolling uh but I I really wanted to focus on a couple of spots based on what we have learned from them and uh if you guys will

065scroll down to the very last page there's a there's a box very last page you got one more to go there you go top you passed it uh so the um I had a conversation with the commissioner of Education I want to hit a couple of points that may not be apparent in this document this document at the bottom and it's very difficult to see in this in this font but this document um describes the uh the fiscal year 24 which is the proposed first year of this new funding plan going into effect fiscal year 23 which is this coming year fiscal year is based on on the end of year so June 30th of 23 would be fiscal year 23 so it's the 2022 23 school year which is presumably the last year of

066be and then their change they show on that box a projected change of $22 million to the good for Williamson County Schools if all those things come to fruition if they projections on our students and the the growth projections uh come true um that projection is a total of the required local match and the proposed state funding the projected State funding to really get a uh an estimate of what their projections show for us you actually need an additional number that's not on this document and what you need is what we are currently getting from the state so Rachel took the FY 2024 overall funding number and subtracted out their proposed required Mo local match thank you Tim for that and compared it to what we're currently getting from the state and then our projections

067for next year from the state and she has estimated that this projection sheet actually shows an additional $38 million for Williamson County schools from the state now I got to caveat this is again this again this is based on projections that really date back for three to five years of what they project for our student growth based on an estimate of students in particular funding situations projecting out at an increase so for example if you have 150 students who who uh who might get funding because of let's toss out economically disadvantaged whatever it is they would project out a the percentage increase in that particular subgroup for the next year I do believe that these projections are are probably a little bit more aggressive than our reality but in any event that kind of projection

068of an increase from the state is substantial and you may recall when we met with our state legislators that Saturday morning that that annual meeting we have Jack Johnson our Senator said this plan is for every schools every school to get more uh and if this is fully funded the way it's described and the way it's laid out it seems pretty apparent for us that that's true so I had a couple a couple of particular discussions with the commissioner of education and one of the things I told her was 30 years ago or so everyone was very excited about be about how good it was going to be and ultimately be was never fully funded and we've been fighting over it ever since so fully funding whatever model passes is a critical piece of this

069and so I think that's something for us to keep in mind when we watch what's going on with our state legislator legislature when you have those conversations over these next few weeks as they're processing through that another item I talked to her about was maintenance of effort and you see there in this particular box there's an FY 23 Main of effort line and it's blank for fy4 she has told me that the maintenance of effort standard for 2024 is actually written in in The Proposal as the same as FY 25 but they just did not include a number in that particular box some of you may be scrunching your eyebrows wondering what maintenance of effort is that is the Baseline that County governments must fund leas each year in other words I'm going to really

070shorten this if there's not a decrease in student numbers in a particular school system County governments can't decrease their funding from one year to the next they could keep it flat but they have to maintain that effort so that's another big factor Statewide if that if for that maintenance of effort element to be in there because if the state greatly increases funding and then and then it changes across the state from count County to County and what they're funding that could be substantially different Miss Garrett just a point of clarification so this budget includes and I may have missed this so excuse me if I missed it but this money includes the money that would follow a student if the student would leave the district correct this prop thank you for that this proposal when

071the Tissa proposal is based on a per pupil funding mod model and IT addresses each individual student's particular needs and so they start with a base of $686 per student and then if you would T scroll to the second page scroll up they have a model with all with this detail keep on going I'll just go slowly through that that detail model has the unique learning needs and they address each student's unique learning needs and there's a myriad examples that I'm not comfortable getting into yet that lands on a particular number for a particular student and the proposal as I understand it is they will fund you they fund the school systems every month based on which student is there so if a student leaves yes to your question that n that number will follow

072them the next month if they show up at a different Lea and we will get the proportionate amount of funds in for the months that a student is with us okay sure go ahead is that going to increase the amount of work having to be done by staff to report numbers monthly the idea is that the electronic system that where we enter all these details will integrate and process through that itself I I I'm not comfortable enough to be you know be confident that that that that I I guarantee you we'll have some you know some uh some growing paints um but that's the that's the model I know this will surprise you but this discussion is Raising some questions Mr Cash well we had a little discussion beforehand about it but that base uh

073rate of $ 6860 yes sir that is for every pupil yes sir okay so that's that's uh doubling what we're getting now for V is that not correct from the state Rachel I'm looking at you it's not fair if you all could turn on Rachel's microphone probably should it's not a fair representation to say that because there's so many weighted models that are built within the be funding now and so a student may bring $1 amount and the student next to them bring something else and so you can't exactly say it is more overall on the average I would say it's more but you can't I wouldn't say that it's $3,000 versus $6,000 that it's twice as much there's too many variables that go into it so if you would scroll on back down uh

074to the bottom y'all um so my my my caveat to you all here is this is not for this year we still have to pass a budget this year um but it is I it is we are watching this closely there are a lot of questions out there there's some FAQs on the State website and I believe those FAQs are a living document will have to be filled in uh the the Department of Education is not just having conversations with education folks they're talking to County leaders uh and uh I'm I am very closely watching this it I'm very curious to see what happens when this reaches the the the the legislative debate cycle uh and where this hits for for funding um there are all kinds of of of discussions out there but um

075I'm cautiously optimistic uh about where we are um with this um for us I don't know that the model makes it is my microphone on thank you I don't know that the model is as important as ultimately what we what we receive from the state um but the model right now is going to churn a lot of discussion that will lead to that ultimate question that we have uh Mr galberth thank you um Rachel from at the at the bottom of that direct at the bottom of that page the direct help me understand what these numbers represent um I can't tell if they're like for CTE students is it 5,000 students at $948 a piece or K3 literature is it 11,000 students at $500 a piece I can't really I know they're multiplied together I

076just can't figure out what those what those are Mr gal can I ask where are you looking the the the next page okay at the bottom of the yeah there we go that bottom section the under direct funding um number one Rachel I believe this is actually a typo uh you see the dollar signs next to the students yeah I think that's a typ well they're all but but then I can't tell if are they flipped because like for K3 literacy is the is the thought we have 11,200 students Mia actually was on one of the subcommittees so she or may been studying $500 for K through three literacy is 500 per student in grades K through three okay that makes I was just trying to figure out how we have 11 so yeah CTE

077is I think CTE is based on the number of programs you have off offering to the students that one's not student-based um fourth grade tutoring is per fourth grade student um post-secondary assessments based on providing that test I think it's all direct funding to districts that have those scenarios and the dollar sign under students is a typographical I figured that those are the projected number of students and you can see there's fractional students right now and that's again based on their mathematical projections right but I couldn't I figured that was just a rounding but but for CTE I was trying to figure out cuz did we have 5,000 students using CT is that a is that an estimate or is that just a probably 9486 students at $5,000 that's their projection based on the the

078growth that we've had in those students in in in years past well I I think the formula is really is really important cuz it cuz we know if we if we do add CTE programs we know there will be additional funding to uh to support it and not just have to we get after but um is there a is there any kind of breakdown genin probably um between what these needs 1 through 10 are because that's a bulk of our funding like we get a 100 times more than that than we are getting from disadvantaged and poverty even though that's relatively so the uni unique learning needs 1 through 10 are listed in the be formula currently but I don't know exactly what corresponds with which number but I know for sure you need learning

079need nine is for special ed students receiving services and number 10 is for homebound Services um the other ones might include things like dyslexia students who have dyslexia or characteristics of Dyslexia um there's one for gifted students so that's but that's all is that all special special education it is special needs yeah um yeah I believe all of those would be some because even giftedness is considered a disability so yeah we'll make sure that we get you that because it is on a different document if I'm not mistaken as an aside dyslexia and gifted are combined into one of the unique I think they're separated they've separated them okay it's characteristics of Dyslexia is one and giftedness is another one all right but when when we review i' I'd love to I'd love to understand

080what what a couple other districts look like like Metro and I mean it it's I'm sure it's completely flip-flopped as far as where the where their funding comes from on the on the formula and and kind of where their what their projected increases well and and to that point they they still have in the model a uh um a a fiscal capacity what we call ability to pay a Robinhood effect um their model is the state funds 70% of their total projected needs withow locals funding 30% but the locals um and that's the aggregate 30% but the locals 30% is actually broken out school system by school system based on an application of uh of the fiscal capacity they've actually simplified that current model they're averaging two models right now if you ever had hear

081Tasser and seber uh the proposal is just seber but is is that ability to pay it is that reflect in this in our projection from what our local matches our understanding from them is that is reflected in our in the projections generally speaking I have heard and I don't know enough about the model that the CRA model in in it is in its formula tends to um reduce the demand on larger school systems compared to smaller school systems with that with that fiscal capacity and and where is I know you've got the note on growth down below but where is where is the growth piece of the formula in this 334 million uh scroll down a little it's not actually in that number so scroll down a little bit you passed it Tim scroll up

082right there so it's not in that number it's it's not in the formula well that scares me like that's that's where that's the problem that's how we got here in the first place is that is that the growth was not actually and like well it's an add-on right um over and above the formula so when you think about maybe that helps us out as long as it's as long as it's as long as it's included in the in the law but well it should help on the front end what we've learned with with SE well that's that's right we haven't seen the law um what we have learned with be is it takes an annual budget decision by the legislature and we have had different amounts of funding for growth from year to year over

083the years uh sometimes they'll they'll earmark blank amount for growth and then they'll say anyone who had growth over 2% gets to gets a proportionate share of what we've been able to fund this year those kinds of things so we need to so we really need to Advocate that that that growth is a is tied to that total number and it's a it's a formula that can't be that can't be because they would never go in and and and Fiddle with any of the other formulas inside the formula so we need to make sure that the growth is actually a part of of the of the formula and not an outside thing that makes it easier to strip out that the that the approved formula under the law encompasses all that right right so if

084you if you've got an amount that's going to going to be allocated to growth um and it might be it might be depend upon what that growth is but somehow it's a formula that's tied to the total be total tssa um funding amount and not a separate amount that can be tweaked and and played with if it is we know that it will be Tweed played with yeah it's in the bill so if it passes as it is it'll just come as a stipend but it'll be a part of the law well it's a part of it's a part of the law but if it take if it's a if it's a separate amount that has to be approved versus versus it's a percentage of that um then it's a whole lot easier to manipulate

085and and to reduce it if um cuz you did they mention in your subcommittee if it was like a certain amount a stipended or it's like a percentage of the total no they did not mention that in the subcommittee the subcommittees actually broke up before any numbers got applied to to the subcommittee work that's right understanding from a from the Department of Education description this entire sheet represents the formula uh so you have the unique learning needs plus economically disadvantaged up above plus growth um plus they actually have um uh uh an outcomes element which we haven't talked about yet my understanding is there are two outcomes uh and I always struggle with uh proficient is there three thank you you you may add one proficient and advanced at third grade literacy reading uh they

086the The Proposal is in essence to give a 20% of the base the subsequent year of the of the of of the of the State Testing for every student who scored proficient or Advanced so it'd be a little over if under this model be a little over $1,300 per student who scored proficient or Advanced funded the next year after those test scores another element is uh U Juniors scoring 21 or more in the ACT which ironically is a goal that you have had in our in our strategic plan uh again at 20% they have some some of their modeling includes an additional percentage for students who are economically disadvantaged who score those the third one is about CCT thank you I forgot about this the CCT for for for um outcomes in CCT uh C

087certifications uh and other other indicators of um CCT CCT completion we have one more question right now we've had a lot of good orientation to this new funding formula to kind of set the expectations um we'll take this question from Mr Brown and then I think we'll be ready to hear from Miss farmer yeah thank you uh Jason you you mentioned this a second ago about the the current formula is assumes assumes a 7030 um state county split right not the current Formula but the Thea proposal yeah the proposal I'm sorry yes so and right now we're at more like a 55 45 the other way that's right do do we have a sense yet of where this would leave us in terms of that ratio if maintenance of effort stays if if if these

088projections are as they are Rachel I'm doing my mathematical ballparking you know how I am when we have these discussions um I am I would guess just off the top of my head that the that that it might change as much as 10% or so with a flip because if I my understanding is correct our County would M have that maintenance of effort and currently it's at 253 million MH uh and but we would get that additional what 38 million or so uh from the state and that would be the flip so it would it would make it 5545 there about to the good it's just a ballpark guess yeah roughly okay thank you Rachel yeah I'm coming up with about a 42 4258 4258 she she she yeah so she she moved in another

089three percentage points final comment if I may oh I'm sorry if there's another question no there's not final comment if I may this is my belief I believe I believe that the plan and the design is to find a way for Tennessee to compete with other states in a way that we never have before um that's because they there has been some discussion of of funding at other states they've compared how much they're funding in the base compared to other states uh and you know on paper we're we're going to have to compete with other states because the number of teachers coming out of education programs across the country is dropping okay uh board members thank you for all those questions um and and also board members um as as you know we've been trying

090to get everyone's paperwork out uh prior to the weekend before this meeting so that you have ample time to review um thanks for everybody who sent their budget questions in so that we could all learn from those in preparation for this conversation um and assistant superintendent farmer I just want to make sure that you're clear that if questions come up here that um you need more time to answer or you need to look into just please let us know so with that uh we'll turn the floor over to you I'm going to start out sitting down and then I may move around a little bit um and I'm also going to pull a Mr Golden and tell one quick story I had someone tell me or say you know I don't know what the big

091deal about the budget is you just kind of take a percentage add it to last year and move on right and I thought wow if we had known that we could have saved months of work and so I thought just because of everybody's um experience coming into the audit that I want to take just a couple of minutes to talk about the process itself and how we got here and what we're presenting to you and so we actually start uh in the fall October November where principles are talking to directors and directors are talking to assistant superintendents and making request of here's our needs here where we see Improvement where we can improve here's things that didn't work last year but we think we can pivot and do something different next year we had input

092from you all through the goals that you gave to Mr Golden about what you felt like were important needs we had input from wcea um lean and Laura here tonight who came to us with some questions and said you know have have you thought about this and we were able to make that adjustments and so as we go through the process everyone enters in their information everybody's really excited and passionate about what they have before them and then we get to meet and actually talk about it and assistant superintendent and directors met with Mr Golden HR and finance and we went through talked about each item and sometimes we found where we had overlapped some requests and sometimes we found where um someone had already determined something didn't work and and needed to adjust and

093So within those talks we actually did cut about a little over a million dollars just in the first discussions they had already cut before we ever even got to that point to try to present tonight a budget of true requests these are where we feel like the needs are these are where we need to focus the places we need to focus I'm saying that because I don't want anyone to think that this budget has fluff in it because it does not we made some concessions in areas where we took money to be able to put towards these pay raises that we so desperately feel like our staff needs and so keep that in mind we went through projected out Revenue talked it through again and then went back and cut about little over 2.2 million

094again and so what we're presenting to you tonight we truly do feel like and I keep saying we because everybody sitting on these tables has put ours into um what we're looking at and I can't thank you can't thank everyone enough and next to me I just want you to know she's going to kill me later this is Vicky Robbins and she's the assistant superintendent of Finance Vicky is our payroll Guru she's been with the county for 20 years um and is just a true asset and I'm also going to say the partnership between HR and finance to make this work um has also been great and Andrea Wilkerson is the assistant superintendent for HR and as we talk through you'll see where some of our um our work does collaborate and where we do

095meet to have to come up with um the budget I say have to come up with it it was actually an enjoyable process and yes I'm saying that so thank you to all of you and I'm going to say we and I'm answering for a lot of things tonight or I'm presenting a lot of things tonight but I know everyone here has the answers for their particular areas and we'll gladly um pitch in and and fill in those gaps and so I went round and round about how to do this because it is a pretty bulky um document to have to look at and I don't want to do a presentation I want to do a conversation and in order to be able to do that um I'm I'm going to go ahead if you

096don't mind and we'll start with the memo which listed out some of our key points that we kind of hit every year as we go through the budget and added these are generally speaking going to be your big budget items where the money where most of it has been spent and I'm going to ask you if it's okay for me to be able to go through the first few points think of your questions as you have them I'm going to do a break about halfway through the the first page and we'll answer questions then go through those pick back up and we're going to do this in a little bit of sections um again I want it to be a conversation not just me reading off a memo to all of you so Mr Golden

097mentioned it the county did tell us that they would in their budget recommendations countywide was an additional 2% raise that's been built in they also said we understand there's growth but you know don't want to do anything too crazy we're saying our our pay increases are not too crazy they're essential that that is part of our growth and so that was the plan that they gave and that's what we feel like we're going to be presenting to them the first um item that is on our memo is related to health insurance and we went back to pull past years of what the insurance costs have been eight six no 1617 it was $99,500 it changed to $10,100 in 1718 and there was not another change until last year um last year we had a $600

098increase and then this year they asked for us to increase it in another $750 that brings the total for medic medical insurance not Medicare but medical insurance to $1,450 what that means is every person that is a full-time person for us we pay that for them to the county county is a self-insured Insurance Fund meaning premiums go in we pay in but then claims come out of that pocket and so in order to fund it we have to put we put the money in the school board funds about 66 2/3 of the fund and so what this cost us this year I just put it in there so you understand a three $3.8 million expenditure came as a result of the insurance why is insurance going up it didn't increase if you notice I said

099that the the rate had not changed until the last 2 years it is a direct result of Co and talking with benefits they feel like that the claims for Co um have definitely pulled a lot out as well as there were people that didn't go to the doctor as regularly or put things off because of covid and then major medical issues have had to be treated and so in January when we first talk were talking with the county they were paying out $2 million a week in claims that's a lot of money so for us it is a lot of money but I felt like it was important enough to say it's a 4 million almost a $4 million expense but it is a benefit that we are providing to our employees in addition to

100that just for your personal information here we pay $500 for dental and we also pay 52 for life so anytime we when we are discussing adding positions and we talk about salary at a minimum we're adding 12 not adding but it costs us an additional $2,212 $12,000 and2 and then in addition to that we also have the portion of pension that we are required to pay in as well so it adds up that's that's my only point in saying that in total if you look at our insurance for medical and dental this year and it's listed on the memo we're at $1,697 1850 um which is 133% of the total budget just to put it in put it put that into perspective the next item is our enrollment and we talk about growth a lot

101the estimate for our end of first month that's e eofm you'll hear people say that um is 42,1 182 those are based on projections from Allison nunley's office and where where she's seeing growth where the estimated growth is going to be and where we are now and what it looks like is going to come on board and housing wise between now and then and so the increase is 932 students over last year's which is a 2.26% is percentage increase we generally do not because the county the county numbers for EC um are not included and the pre- programs when they are looking at our funding for be P so that's why we have it broken out a little bit different um on the memo we have pulled those numbers out separately but they're there for

102you to be able to see what they are the third bullet is the minimum 3% fund balance that we're required to have as of July 1st is 3% of what we are asking for in expenditures and so for this next year that's $14 milli1 5,061 um and so we will have that when we get over and start talking about GP that number will come back up because we do have to reserve that amount we can't spend that has to be left in fund balance having said that those three do we have questions on any of those first items Mr Brown Rachel I feel weird talking to you with my back I know that's why I said I'm gonna have to walk around I feel weird about it too so I apologize for that but do

103you have a sense of or roughly a comparison of say five years ago what that that 13% of total budget is now what it was then as a percentage I have not that number okay yeah I'd just be curious to know that because just to see where how much that growth has really started to eat into the budget yeah anybody else that's all the questions we have so far fantastic everybody did their homework what a rolling Okay so the next section is really going to be where I think a lot of conversation may happen and that's related this whole next section is related to payroll and the the increases that we are we are requesting it's broken down into several categories and the first of that being the role on the pay chart and so

104we did have the question come up within discussions with you all of what does that mean if you look at our pay charts they are based on years of experience if classified are in sections fiveyear sections teachers it's on a yearly basis and so the role is when we take as we're preparing the budget we pick a day we do a projection of if we had the payroll today and rolled it Forward on the chart by experience level what would that cost so the cost for the role for this year was 2.5 million so regardless of any pay raise that would be voted on or not there will be an additional 2.5 related to that role again the county asked for a 2% raise and so we also are able to project that out doing

105the same method we take our current payroll um and we push it forward with a 2% and also to put another wrinkle into that I say wrinkle but it was an extra level we had chart changes this year so as we go through that process and I will tell yall the the midyear 3% raise midyear put a whole another level and it was fantastic for the employees it was not fantastic for payroll because it was mid year and you the teachers we pay them through the summer so they had we hold out money so that we can divvy up the pay and make it Equitable through the whole year and so they had pay at one rate and then we're looking at pay at a different rate and it was a pretty complex uh Endeavor

106and payroll rocked that one for us and so trying to prod these projections was a little bit harder this year but we did it and the chart changes and and the 2% roll that's the part I can't break out for you because to do the 2% they were together total it's 9.2 million um for that particular part and I know I skipped I did Skip above we did the 3% raise for this year but that was for five months we had to then account for it for a whole year and that amount is listed up there too um for salar it was 6.6 million and then for the hourly it was 2.5 so that was an additional 9 million in this year's budget all of those items total up to our to what we're trying

107to to be able to do to have a really sound pay plan that's going to make us and help us be competitive the Total Staffing pay increase ended up being about 8.42% over an increase from from so it was an 8.42% increase so 8.94 increase overall 8.4 over last yeah over total for last year's payroll so if you took the total amount what we're looking at in total payroll this year is an 8.42% increase for all of it combined so for clarities purposes from the beginning of the year to the beginning of the next year it would be that 8 point so that includes the midyear raise plus our proposals here correct and one of the the question has come up and I want to point this out too it's in the second to last

108bullet when we do these projections and this is the way we've done it um I actually asked Vicki and she said since she started this is the way it's been done and it actually is a pretty common practice you get one or the other you get the 2% raise at a minimum or you get your role in the change in chart whichever is greater you're the the least amount you're going to get is 2% but you could get any number higher depending if you're in a in a position for your role to increase you more more than that or if there were changes made within the chart Mr galberth thank you so um can you help me with the I think all the all the difference between the prior budget the the current budget and

109the revised budget was it all payroll the the I think there's like $14 million in there was it was it all payroll we had the buses that came out for 2 million some special education Staffing I know the special education Staffing and the Rays was the biggest piece but the buses I guess is a different it's fine if just I'm big Ro no I had prepared this for you all and did not print it out so I'm going to send it to you in an email um so you'll have it to show you what those big changes items are and it starts with what with the beginning original budget and then goes through so we had some grant money that came in uh within the budget safe schools United Way there was some a transfer

110that we had made for to Federal for instance that we will get back but it was for cash flow for them we did purchase the buses there were School res off resource officer grants and then stem grants ARP Ida there's a lot of stuff a lot of grants that came in and if you remember every time we come and we do amendments and resolutions those are the things that are are changing the budget uh if it is money that is coming in and going right back out as far as the grants go those come to y'all as amendments if it's something that is truly affecting the budget where we're going to have to affect fund balance those are resolutions that are then going before the County Commission so when we did the raise last year

111what hit their what what hit the revised budget is is it was it just a partial year that hit the revised budget so not the full year okay so it was five months so there's and so in this year's budget the full amounts there but when I did the allocation of what our differences is I did it for seven months because we're picking up in an extra seven months so when you look at the when you look at the the 2% raise that's actually 9.2 million but then so when I'm it's the raise and the chart es combined and the chart changes right but not but that that doesn't reflect the the portion of of the rise from this year that that's that's included when you're when you're comparing this year this year to last

112year right because we've amended the budget for this year to include that 3% in this year so yes but but not but not the full amount so not the full amount just the 5 months and then we've got then a full year so when we look at a at a 38 million increase over the revised budget um and I apologize like I was I just I I wasn't on it being able to to get my questions to you and I and I'm not asking you to do math on the on the fly but one of my questions that I want to document before we before we vote is just to is just to break out the the $52 million over the over the prior budget just big you know we've got the 3.9 million for

113for insurance parents we've got 9. $9.2 million raise the role the new teacher positions and you know just new new staff positions potentially but um but one more so one more thing on the um on the cost of the 2% raise so the on on the the bullet that breaks out this year's raise the 3% plus the 1 hour um and you've got 6.6 million for salary and 2 5 million for hourly so that's a 3.3% increase in an at a dollar raise dollar an hour raise the 9.2 million so help me out that that's the that's 2% plus the chart changes plus a well 2% across the board it's also equal to $9.2 million so help me out with that's that a good amount of chart changes then that makes up that it was

114that's what made it it not kind kind of but a lot complicated when we were projecting so this particular 3% this the the amounts are similar yes but the time frame um let me back up too with the 3% and the dollar it's going to be a little bit different because then the second 2% it's not 2% in a dollar it's a 2% on everyone where before it was a difference in the way the two were calculated keep that in mind as well and I think your I want go back and kind of answer the 3% raise in what we've included actually in the to account for the change in the budget from year to year the 3% is 5,396 531 for this year the budget that we're looking at that's 71 12ths of what

115the total budget or the total expenditure would have been for the 3% raise and so what's listed here that is the cost the annual cost for it but when we changed the budget we only put in the seven months worth because we've already accounted for the five okay well I yeah I wasn't I wasn't thinking that it was the same number yeah you were I know you trying to get there and I'll tell you too the N the in the 9214 688 in the second to last that's made up of the classified chart that's made up of the professional chart and there was also chart changes to the psychologist chart and so those three items are still sitting in one line item and if you look through the budget you kind of see that number

116sitting out there it's because we're holding them for you to tell us you want to approve it because then we have to spread it between all of these categories and are the are the chart changes in in here I mean I know we they're not actually in the budget um we'll make sure we get those to you uh we we still have to finish up with the WCA but I we'll get those to you okay thank you that'd be helpful appreciate it please continue just the bottom to wrap up so when we talk about budget people we will discuss Revenue but most of the time when you hear budget we really look we'll hear the expense number and so it's $467 m82462 ever it's doable and we're going to get there the the other thing

117I want to point out is that when we start going through the actual budget document the PCR uh you'll see 178 position increase this year and so again in all of what you have listed above these These are changes that were made to existing positions and then we also have had have pulled in new positions as well as we've added them along so when you start really looking looking at the document you're going to see inconsistent numbers or it'll look inconsistent as an increase in this particular line for salaries maybe 8% and then the next category it could be a 12% increase it's taking into account the raises but it's also taking into account new positions or growth positions just wanted to point that out any questions before we move on to the next section

118Rachel just a heads up that I'm going to ask us to take a break at 8 at our regular 2 hour mark so we going to hit revenue and we and that'll be the perfect um I think it'll be perfect time to to do that so we've already talked about be there's three main ways that we get our funding be being one and that's what's coming from the state the second for us is sales tax and the third is property tax and so going back to be Mr Golden walked you through kind of what we're looking at but for this year we're going with a traditional model what we've always used for the last ever how many years and and have projected what that be number is going to look like also one question that

119is asked a lot the County Commission always asked as well is how many positions are not funded by the be formula as it is and it goes back to the the question um I believe Mr Cash asked about well how much are we getting for students the way the be formula works now is your student population on set dates and it they say ADM which is the average daily membership in the second period third period sixth period and seventh period is what's used to average out to figure out how many students are considered in our enrollment and it's weighted the first period is 12 and a half is given a 12 and a half percent for I said first it's the second period the third period is given a 17 and a half percentage weight

120and then the sixth and the 7eventh are at 35 so when you start trying to talk about what's the formula and the base we're really looking at Staffing it takes those numbers it takes also the numbers for CTE for us and for special ed for us and calculates based on our numbers how many teachers the state how many teachers not just teachers all of the different educator positions from Librarians counselors nurses and then gives you the number that they're going to fund and and they they extrapolate out from that number a dollar amount we take our PCR the position control report for those same positions and compare the two and that's where we come up with what the difference is and so for this year it's 747 we are not going to get growth funding

121this year we have gotten it for several you know many years we get it and the reason why we're not getting it is because we were held harmless uh in for last year and so even though we have enrollment numbers and I think you know you guys asked for some of that information the state also uses that same 2 third sixth and seventh period that they use for be with the weights and they come up with what they have determined is our average daily membership and so that number traditionally is a little bit little bit smaller than what we actually may say you know today our enrollment is X number and that should be it and so for us according to the state um we only we didn't grow you have to grow 2% and

122we grew about one from year to year and we our enrollment did drop um so I'm going to add a little bit to that we dropped when Co hit we we covered that plus somewhere as we sit today plus about 700 even as we sit to to today 700 is a little bit less than 2% of our of our total so they so in essence they went back for that prior year that's correct and so we know we've already been told that they've done the calculations and we will not get that funding for this year but as you saw on the funding for next year even though it's it's really for 24 part of when we talked to the state they said that they felt like that there would be growth money involved for 23

123we don't know what that's going to look like we don't know how much that's going to be but the potential is there if you went off of the traditional base at that point in time of a 2% increase we would qualify we'll see we'll see how that goes anybody got any questions on be can I add one thing I think there maybe one one or two questions the state usually gives us actuals sometime in late April that is always too late for any Lea to actually plug in those actuals because they have to get their budgets to their commissions early um and it's based on the state process of getting their budget approved so every year we have to Project based on what the governor announces and what their proposals are so this is this

124is normal like guess is what I'm telling you Mr Mitchell you had a question yeah thank you so our our growth projections if if it's if the baseline or if the threshold is 2% that we have to reach and we're have we been kind of basically decreasing at a percentage based upon the size of our overall enrollment that has increased year over year over year for the past 25 years in other words the raw number of students I think I saw was around 900 or not am I missing that what was our increase this year of total students um let's see for well for this year versus next so so uh if you look at our enrollment sheet uh we are we are projecting not counting Early Child 747 I see on yeah and 9:32

125932 is our projection for for this coming year so 932 thank you and but our so what is our historical increase from a raw number of students and going back typically about a th and going back over the last few years going back to 177 18 that was a jump for us it was 2 point two say 2 point 2,141 and then from 18 to 1819 it increased by 1,00 and then to 1920 it was a th000 and then 2021 it was 388 we're using our number so we know that's where the drop came again it those numbers don't have weights in them they're the end of the first period but yes it's been like I said 2,000 but then a th000 and 1100 and a th000 so that's that's pretty much so we actually

126have that document if you go to our strategic planning web page so uh I'll give you the most recent numbers and this year and the previous year were anomalies because of covid so 4.75% this year over the previous year but the state based it on two years prior for for growth money we went down minus 3.35% in 2020 21 the year before that we grew at 2.38 the year before that 2.86 2.74 3.83 3.99 2.88 3.27 um the lowest growth rate uh in the past 20 years since 2000 was 2.02 in 20101 but our threat I guess where I was at was our threshold to meet that 2% is increasing every year you're correct because of the because of the size of the the overall size of the district that's correct so as a as

127a quick comparison Rutherford County actually has grown in in more raw numbers than us but at a slower rate yeah okay do do we expect that 2% threshold to stay the same I guess in the ne in the new funding formula has that been discussed that has not been discussed it hasn't the the little bit of discussion that's been on that has occurred or that at least I've heard about it is not necessarily tied to 2% it looked like they're taking into account a couple of things and if you go back to the be page that we looked at one of them was student fast growing student growth but also the capital need for it and so if you've got places where they're saying hey you're building You're Building because of your student growth they

128give you a component of it that we've never gotten before if that sticks I don't know if it will or not but that is one of the proposals part of the the proposal for it thank you [Music] go ahead okay so next we're going to move on down to um sales tax and this is the part I get really excited about and I know you're going to too because it is it is this is the challenge and so I'm going to give you more information than you wanted but I feel like you need to know it to see where to kind of see where we were and where we're going sales tax in has got really three things things that happened all at one time one of them being in in 2018 April of 2018

129that's when it was voted to increase the sales tax by 0.5% and we agreed for 3 years to turn that money back over to the county to be used as Debt Service payments so in 20 we then April of 20 started getting that money back in we had accounted for it we knew it was going to be about a million dollars a month is what we thought and that's that money then has increased our sales tax number that's one factor um another factor with the sales taxes we've talked about in here before was in October of 20 when law changed and said hey you're going to have to pay sales tax on these online purchases and so I want to go back and address that a little bit because I didn't have a a good

130answer for you at that point and have talked a good bit with County and kind of have a better handle on it so with the sales tax and any of the online sales it comes in and and we did discuss the fact that it goes to the municipality so if you are in a city Franklin Brentwood Fairview if you're in those cities they get credit for it if it's outside of a city limits an unincorporated area the county gets it for us it really doesn't matter because we get 50% of all local option sales tax at the school level so we know there was an increase in online sales we don't know what that increase truly was because the state now when they get send the funding down to the county it is not broken

131out evidently in past in the past the county could go in and kind kind of see what vendors were paying in where the bigger pots were coming from and that information is no longer there so they cannot delineate what is online and what's just an increase in our sales numbers so we've had had an increase because of online but we don't know what that amount is we have an increase because of the additional 0.5% in sales tax and we have an estimate of what that is the third thing that happened is co and again if we look at our sales tax history again I'm going to tell you too much too sales tax comes in two months and a rear and so anything that was spent by a consumer in December that sales tax is

132turned over to the state in January and then in February the state turns it back over to the municipalities if you look at the trends for sales tax there was a drop in May of 2020 those would have been March's numbers it dropped pretty significantly in May in June and July again two months in rear as soon as August hit and summer was back on sales tax pumped back up and then continued on an upward track and didn't stop and so if you look at Economist if we talk to people at the state a number of things could play into that one people were not traveling as much they were staying here they're spending more money people were tired of being at home so they were willing to go eat out maybe more so just

133to do something different we don't know what's exactly driving all of it so we've seen this tremendous increase and when I say tremendous we've talked talked about it a little bit in here before and you guys asked as as the year has gone along I can tell you November is our highest month that we rece we would have received those funds in January it was up 50% from the year before the state when they gave out their guide guidance for what they were doing for the budget there they indicated that's not sustainable and the Market's going to self correct so when we started looking at sales tax for us and how we were going to project we we' got a whole bunch of unknown things that have happened to us and then trying to determine

134what's going to be a physically sound reasonable way to project it we did it and this is how we did this we've come up with what we think is the best way um if you go back to 1920 that was the year I'm sorry yes 1920 where 2019 20 I'm sorry 2019 what oh not 1920 2000 now that was a base year I know and we had 2021 2021 was the year where we got the 3 months of additional tax in the April May June time frame so what we did was we took 2021 numbers 2122 I just can't imagine that they're those are not sustainable numbers so we went back a year we did to 2021 and we took the amount that we took in and added $9 million to it for those n

135months that we did not receive that additional 05% of sales tax to come up with a rough Base number and then we projected an increase of 10% on top of that that is what our sales tax projections are on based on for this particular budget if you go back and look at the history of the sales tax increases back to 1516 the 10% any we have increased as high as 12% and as low as about seven and so 10 is in the ballpark of we felt like that was a very conservative even we could have gone higher based on what has been happening in the market but felt like we needed to be conservative because we just don't know what's going to happen so in other words if things go as they're currently going we

136will actually end up with an increased fund balance under the this existing budget correct but we did not project that because we anticipate it will settle I will tell you for December sales they were down to about a 32% increase so for the rest of the year we projected a 177% increase over the prior year we're going to have the increase because we know we have the additional 0.5 uh coming in off of that increased percentage of sales tax so we know we're going to have it we used 177% which was an average of Prior years that's where that number came from and so we're projecting out that again for the rest of the year if it's higher as Mr Golden said in that regard for the rest of the year that's going to help

137fund balance Mr galberth has a question okay so so the state just doesn't report or they don't know where the money is coming from I don't know the answer to that and I don't think that our um County knows the answer to that they've asked and said can you give us a little bit further detail as to what this is coming from but they're pretty looked at them there standard reports that just show sales tax numbers and it's got it broken down by the municipality but there is no detail so it would be it would be helpful for us to understand the trends if like if if a ton we we need to we need to go back and understand historic how much has been online that wasn't paid and then we hit October 2020

138and our our online sales taxes start to grow as compliance increases it did start to grow and I would say October November December was a little bit lower and then in January it really kind it seemed to go up but that would be in line with online shopping particularly for the holidays but it's it's a it's a combination of of just increased online activ and increased compliance on the number of people who are permitting sales taxes correct correct and again we don't have any control over any of that well we don't but we can we have the control over okay do we think that do we think compliance is at a sustainable level or do we think do we think that more and more people are we only halfway there and we're only like cuz

139the question is what what's our missingness on what's our incomplete how much how much of that online sales is just not being Ed yet because they're not in compliance and we we don't we don't have any way to know but whenever whenever and and throw into the fact that we're you know we've got you know near double digit inflation and so sales taxes on all that is going to be just inflated even even more correct so we need to we need to be able to put I mean we got to get our our leaders to get us that information so I can I know I've talked had multiple Sation with our trustees office they've tried you know and so it's not there they've shared everything they have they're in the same boat they're doing their

140budget and you know sales tax everybodys to know I mean it's it's not as it's not as big of a problem as if we were having a shortfall and everybody needs to know if is this sustainable or not but you know 25 30% increases is not it's not going to happen forever correct that's right and we knew that and so again that's why we decided that 10% for us seem to be more of a reasonable request or a reasonable projection lastly if you've got no other questions on that is property tax and we again in this regard really don't have a whole lot of control over we don't drive property tax the county determines what our rate is the only thing that could will have some effect is the Ada SP which is the average

141daily attendance that we have with fssd number of students uh total is split between the two groups because we're all in the county and that number is used to determine a percentage of property tax that's allocated to each group and so we normally get last year we got the letter on March 14th I haven't received it yet soon as we get it we know we've grown we're not so sure that fssd is grown so if that's the case then our percentage of that split may be a little bit higher and that may increase property taxes but there's no way that it will go down from where we've projected and a reminder to you all too is that when we do budget for property tax we budget 92% of what is buil generally speaking we receive

142about 99.9% of those funds in but we can only only budget for eight for 92% and so that 8% is always going to our fund balance at the end of the year and that's how we traditionally will fund growth positions and that's a standard County government is set for us so do we have any questions on any of the revenue items that we hadn't talked about then Miss Garrett I think it's break time okay everybody be back in 10 minutes please e e e all right we're back um and Rachel I believe we had finished all the revenue we have finished the revenue the other little things I want to point out at the bottom of that page of the memo is that we're also tonight we're talking about general purpose but we're talking about

143about the central cafeteria fund extended school program fund and then also Capital the central cafeteria and the extended school program are both self-funded meaning they're not they generate enough Revenue to cover their expenditures and so one thing I do want to point out within the memo it says the central cafeteria is not changing any of their prices they don't know yet USDA is paying them currently for all meals and there's no indication at this point if that's going to change or not so the pricing that uh Mr redti has put in is what was existing before Co and that we'll leave it at that rate if students have to begin paying that that again if the FDA USDA not FDA USDA no longer pays extended school program has a note on there that says it

144incl it includes a tuition increase there is not a tuition increase that was an error on my part I got the form in and it said here's the change and I immediately assumed a tuition change and it's not the the only change on their particular rates is related to Summer emergency summer drop-ins they're not going to do those because of staffing issues because of having to coordinate to make sure that they do have enough staff available any given day they're cutting that out where people can just drop in during the summer uh without notice so Rachel for clarity purposes the bottom line of page four says which includes tuition increases and it should say which includes no Tu no tuition increase that's correct thank you okay good note of that so I want to go

145and then again Capital will be the last budget that we look at as far as memo goes I think we've covered that and now I want to pick up the pace a little bit we'll go through the the packet is the in sections the first being enrollment again Allison Nunley and her office we goes through and does the projections for us and so on this page down at the bottom you'll see a red circle around 42,1 182 that's the number in all of our estimates that we're using as the estimated student enrollment at the end of the first month any questions on that I don't see any questions then moving to the next section this is going to deal with personnel and the first part the first few pages are related to the Staffing standards

146for those not knowing what that is the state has required Staffing standards within the county we've maybe added some additional what we feel are appropriate class sizes or student population sizes for different positions the main changes you're going to see this year are related to Elementary counselors and it's highlighted in red where the changes are and then the other bigger chunk would be related to Librarians and that's on the second page the question came up I believe regarding the counselors if this puts us in line with national standards and the answer to that is no but it is getting us closer the national Rat Say 250 to one and we're not there yet but we are this was a concerted effort to try to get a step there it's going to have to be done

147in stages yes ma'am a question or comment uh Dr web M Mr Golden um one thing that I consistently hear from parents is um that they have concerns about the student to counselor ratio in the high schools particularly as it has to do with actual counseling or career vocational uh or College counseling uh I hear a lot from parents that you know the counselors are so um working working you know on data and and and graduation requirements and things like that that there's not enough time for those things that you traditionally think a guidance counselor would do um so I just I just wanted to know your thoughts about that particularly since we are so so far above the national ratio of one counselor to 250 students well I'll address that and then let Dr

148web fill in some detail I've heard a similar um description from students uh and the students I speak with some of the some of the Juniors and seniors who we who we bounce ideas off of of the superintendent engagement group have actually shared that in their experience matriculating up from middle school to high school the middle school counselors tend tend to spend more time in counseling uh the high school counselors tend to spend more time working on course schedules um you know helping helping them plan for the next level what we think of as Traditional High School counseling work if you think back to your time so there's some truth to that uh we do have some additional um help in in with clinical Counseling in the schools with stars so we do have some

149some some some Services uh that fill in that but there is a it there is I believe a noticeable transition in the kind of work from middle school to to uh to high school largely because of the detail of high schools and where they're going from here and Dr web anything to add to that yes thank you for sharing that parental concern we hear the the same thing not only from parents but we also hear that concern from our school counselors so we're continuing to take steps to um alleviate some of those additional burdens that counselors feel so that they can spend that additional time that's needed one-on-one with students some of those things you'll see in the budget uh tonight and one is an example of additional 504 um coordinators in the buildings we

150have 10 of those that will be implemented into secondary schools this Academic Year um many people know but not everyone knows that our school counselors also carry the responsibility in many of our campuses to um support the needs of 504 students and carry those case loads and coordinate those plans and oversee the implementation of those plans so by having these 10 positions we will be uh resourcing them to the campuses that have more than a hundred students who are being served under a 504 to help alleviate some of that burden from counselors in addition you'll see the stars budget increased each of our high schools and each of our um middle schools have service from either part-time or full-time from a Stars counselor in addition to a Stars therapist so those individuals will carry some

151of the crisis response um which are some of our school counselors also do the crisis response but by them having those primary roles uh to respond to those crisis needs and small group needs it does begin to alleviate some of those additional burdens our school counselors face but we recognize that we're certainly not at the not at an ideal point but we're continuing to take small strides as uh Miss farmer has indicated towards that National Standard thank you oh Mr Mitchell thank you madam chair um so Dr Webb and I guess Dr oror do we feel like 10 is is enough of the of to help on the issue it's a first step so what we'll do with those 10 counselor those 10 coordinating positions is that we'll integrate them into the counseling staff um

152the the split of how the the load is is carried by the those individual teams and those are those are campuses that have three or four counselors already who are sharing that load of the 504 staff it's a first step uh it gives us a year to see how um the ratios are carried um pilot some of the responsibility shifts and see how these small incremental changes affect the court the the the case loads and the burdens of the counselors are facing I fully anticipate we'll come back to you next year with an increased uh request to this line so the but and correct me if I'm wrong but 504 is both a middle and I mean this elementary middle and high school challenge do you anticipate those 10 positions to be predominantly in the

153middle and high school or is there yes so for this upcoming year those 10 positions um will be allocated to secondary schools we have plans for eight of them to be at the high school level and two of them to be at the middle school level and again we're allocating those on the campuses where we have 100 or more 504 um uh files for the student service so if you were to if you and again my first question is was is that enough and so what I what I'm hearing from you is that it's kind of a pilot and you're going to see what if you if you truly thought that do you feel like that is just a first nibble at it or do you I mean where do you feel like the true

154number is on on that then we're we're estimating that appropriate ratio to to to truly serve the needs of those students will be somewhere between 100 to 120 students per 504 coordinator but again that we're it is just a first bite you know it's we're we're eating this elephant one bite at a time I don't feel like that it's U fully where we need to be but it's a first step where we're headed and so sorry go ahead well I was going to add add a little bit to that uh the the plan for these 54 coordinators are not are that they are not licensed teachers or licensed counselors we have seen a growth in five 4 is in two main categories one is uh um 504 that includes an accommodation for test taking and

155that takes a lot of meeting time and coordinating that another is we have seen an increase in in mental health related 504 plans and and that that gets into a lot more substance a lot more um additional services so would you would you turn away additional 504 coordinator positions if if we decided to increase that we would not turn away any of those positions or any of those dollars no sir again it was it was a a reasonable first request was was uh our estimation with this U but we feel like that we'll be coming back to you next year with an additional request and I will say part of our discussion was um get get some get some staff members in there there's going to have to be transition time where the counselors explain

156the work to those folks and get them up and running and so you can't flood uh flood a number of people all at once and we're going to learn a lot about whether this model Works uh and and again we're doing it without a licensed person because we believe it's going to be largely clerical work yeah yeah it is my understanding as well so um if if this works well uh we may be efficient enough but we we expect that it's going to continue to grow thank you thank you Mr galberth has a question thank you with regards to with regards to Librarians I know um I know a couple of um schools in my district are really excited about this but can you it looks like four and a half Librarians being added and

157did are we going from from one one and a half to two in those in those 1500 and above we have not actually been following the state RS on Librarians for the largest high schools uh and so that 1,500 plus is actually a state regag we owe our largest schools an additional librarian so it's so it was it was just one there was not a there was there wasn't a one and a half on that is that just a new line item the 1500 plus for two is what didn't exist before okay so just one for all the so all the all the big high schol has just had one that's right okay well that's um that's great I think we'll uh they won't they there's plenty of stuff for them to do and we've

158been I know I know a couple of our principles have been have been asking for a while so I appreciate that go ahead there's no further questions on our staffing standards we'll now look at the PCR which is the position control report just a reminder of what this document does for us it allows us to track the number of positions we should have related to our staffing standards as well as budget items that we've added throughout the years so we don't want a school to overhire we don't want well we don't want any Department to overhire and this is just a way for us to be able to feel like we can indicate to any school this is how many positions you're going to have for next year so that they can figure out scheduling

159they can do um again hiring all of those pieces column on the left is what was 2122 the middle that's highlighted is the projections for 22 23 and then the right column will tell you you're over under out beside there there are indicators for why or what positions may be related to those increases and decreases a couple of things I want to say um and just questions that you already had related to unassigned unassigned is has been a pool of positions that are not hired they're existing we've budgeted for them and then as Anita rose that we were able to quickly hire and put in and had the funding there the decision was made this year again that we need to focus on the people we already have hired let's look at pay those positions

160take up money within the budget and so HR looked at the plans they've looked at all the schools looked at growth and felt like that we could reduce areas in the unassigned reducing that pool and then if we grow we'll come back to you and say we've had more growth and we need to add and we'll pull from fund balance at that point in time so that question had come up of kind of what is unassigned and how is it used in addition to that there was a question about the bus drivers and I just want to clarify that one as well we're not cutting positions within bus driving Vicki looked back and probably for at least 10 years we've had a significant amount of unfilled positions for bus drivers and so we've carried that

161number in the budget and allocated those funds by taking these positions out we're freeing up that money but we're there's still going to be 25 35 unfilled positions those positions if we fill them would it do a lot of great things and help with the double routes yes are we gonna fill 25 to 35 probably not and so we feel like taking the 15 is not really it's not pulling anything away from transportation again if we came and we had all those position filled and we still needed more we would come back to you for growth and if I may add a couple of things one to that specific point about bus drivers Mark can you tell us right now it's I'm just dropping this bomb on you could you tell us right now how

162many bus drivers we have on staff yes sir we've got um 22 uh 212 so we still have 267 budget and we're cutting it by 15 because that money just hasn't been spent um if yall may remember also uh when Vicki presented last month our bus driver pay is one of the few PID lanes that is higher than all our neighbors including metro schools and everybody is struggling uh and so so just as if if if for some reason we're able to get 60 additional bus drivers in one year we'll come to you but we just felt like it was important it it was appropriate to cut that next quick item I wanted to mention is a reminder 85% of our budget is represented in these sheets so these this this PCR I mean we're

163in the we're in the people business these three sheets represents 85% of our total budget and I would say too you may see increases and decreases and a lot of times we get concerned that someone is losing a job we don't that doesn't really happen a people get assigned if I think maybe it was um well there were some questions if the numbers going down what does that what does that do for that teacher they're going to be reassigned there's the need for teachers so we are not cutting anyone's jobs out it's more of a funding and changing get from one place to the other we have a lot of growth obviously we increase by 178 positions and a lot of that is just related to our growth Mr Brown has a question thank you

164at the risk of pushing the envelope on the bus driver question um if 212 is what we have now and we're we're budgeting for 267 if I read it correctly is there is there more room to go to squeeze that given what's realistic in terms of need and availability and potential potential savings there is we we could we could go down um when we when we went through our budgeting process uh came up with an appropriate plan that did not require us to go down any further um but yes we could and uh now but the net result absent are deciding to add an additional expense into the budget will be that those funds end up in our fund balance because again we we don't PL we're not making an additional request from the county

165for any for any more funding okay so if we if there is something specific that we needed to fund that that would give us some flexibility with that being said um we do use that line item for overtime and uh in in additional bus driver related issues like that but we're not going to use that much over time got it okay Mr galberth has a question is it looks like the I'm looking at the line item under regular instruction for district level support is this where the is this where the Super Subs fall Rachel you might know that off top of your head I'm going to have to search for the super tell me which page you're on I'm on the PCR at the top of the page of of the first page of the

166PCR I don't know I'm on page 32 of my packet but it's all it's the but oh so it's just on the PCR under regular instruction is that is that where super is that where the Super Subs lie oh no those are not Super Subs are not there those are we do have in addition to Super Subs we have some permanent Subs that the district can move so where where do the Super Subs Super Subs are actually paid out of the substitute line are they not they are and they're not on the PCR because they act they don't get benefits and this is this document tends to be positions that are going to qualify so this so this five this 5,60 uh or 523 5,239 FTE that's not all of our full-time employees then Super

167Subs are not considered full-time eight yeah for what the Super Subs are 08 they do not receive benefits so they don't receive benefits so they are not included in that number no interesting um so I guess we'll talk about them later because they're a line item in the budget we can that's right I'll okay I'll address that later thanks I don't see any other questions at this time okay let's go ahead and flip to the general purpose School fund and this is the page that I think most of us have looked we look at and look at and keep coming back to because within it our revenues that are projected are listed as well as expenditures and so over on the right side the bottom line is you what's our Gap we talked about last

168year what's the Gap how are we closing the Gap our Gap and what we're presenting to you is $6.8 Million last year I don't know if you'll remember or not but we were about $8 million and so how do we close that Gap we have a few things and the reason why we felt like that this is a good and sound budget and and and feel like that it's doable one is related to Governor Lee indicated he was going to put 12 million into next year's be and it's related to teacher pay and it's related the way it's been presented it's based on number of teaching units that you have compared to the state and so couldn't get exact numbers but ballparked and that looks to be for us it could be around $3 million

169that we'll get through it next year we feel confident we are going to have growth again it's it's been it runs normally about $4 million in the past we don't know what it's going to be but that's kind of where it's been so we feel like that's a possibility sales tax we projected 177% for the rest of the year every percentage that comes in higher it's about another $800,000 is what that's about worth and so if we have more sales tax if it's higher we'll close it that way property tax again with the Ada once we get that split between us and fssd potential more money closes the Gap traditionally at the end of the year even though I will say our departments do an excellent job of of requesting what they need we end

170up having a little bit money left over and that number closes the Gap and so what we are presenting to you we do feel like that's why we don't think that we would need any other funding from this the county and that we can close the gap ourselves any questions on that in total okay then what I would say is the rest of this section has I'll point out that in revenues it still holds true that the state funds us at about 35% and local match is about 65% uh with with our estimates we're right in line we are not aware of any additional Federal funding coming through for next year but who knows eser we've had eser one we've had eser 2 we've had eser three so we don't generally fund we don't generally

171budget for any grant money because it's not guaranteed when you're going through these columns sometimes you'll see and I wanted to point that out where you have an original budget and then you have the revised budget but there was nothing for us budgeted in that superintendent column that's because most of the time that's going to be some kind of grant money that's coming in that we're not going to budget for until we actually receive it and when we receive it we come back to you with those amendments and resolutions as needed so again when you're looking at the percentages out to the right you have to keep a few things in mind when you see an increase of an account went from 500 to $1,000 it's going to show that it's 100% increase but that's

172not a big item necessarily and so I did try to go through and make notes out to the side to give an indicator on on a lot of these things Sal are going to look weird this year because we've had 3% 2% change in chart all of that's kind of falling in there but if you have any questions on any of these items we are open for discussion so Rachel just to make sure you're talking about pages 39 and 40 of the budget 30 yeah 39 through 56 so a couple of comments um 39 and 40 are the revenue pages with a with the detail breakdown of the revenue 41 and on are each line item one of the features we've added in the budget this year is the far right column the occasional commentary

173uh with some explanation maybe not full explanation but some explanation of those L those line items that have a significant percentage change from one year to the next I also want to point out that one thing that been talking with wcea and we realized was a need teachers when they work outside the contract we have paid them $25 an hour for that extra work for many years and and decided like everything else we've got to do better and so we're raising that rate to $30 an hour and I think I noted that in a couple places but you may see some increases in lines going up a little bit more because of that increase um the question also came up about with attendance secretaries and bookkeepers their 12month employees they earn in the past have

174earned comp time what we found out with them is they earn the comp time they're the only person in that building that does the job they take off they come back all the work's still there so they work overtime to catch up and have comp time and they're never really getting the benefit of having had having the overtime why do they have the overtime when School the beginning of school year a bookkeeper and attendance secretary is hitting it hard they've got a lot of a lot of information a lot of paperwork a lot of orders being made and so we felt it was appropriate at this time to go ahead and pay them for overtime so you're going to see increases in those lines because we've elected to do that versus the comp time again

175with 12-month employees they get the vacation days holidays and so the need for the comp time or the the value that comp time once had for them is not as great so Mr galber to your question just a few minutes ago related to substitutes that's actually on page 41 the increase in this in the substitute line and I'd want to make one comment about that too so last year when we did the budget who knew Co was going to continue and so we had Super Subs in place and felt like okay the Super Subs we're putting funding into them and that's really going to reduce the need for subline the money that was in the sublines we're coming back and adding some some more back to that because as this year has occurred we need

176the subs the Super Subs were we couldn't have done it without them but we still had a need for additional funding so you will see that increase that's not additional increase for Super Subs but it is an additional increase for just regular subs Jay do you have a question okay so on that i' I'd like to just talk a little bit about about how how the sub short how do how do we fill the gap on the sub shortage and so it seems like we've employed a couple of couple of things the Super Sub seems to be seems to be received well um what would it what would it cost and how much would it help to to increase those numbers because we're um it seems like we're our fill rate was really low and

177so then I want to understand um how how that rate how those how that fill rate is filled when we don't have a teacher yeah and and I've heard some discrepancies between the high schools and the elementary schools on on how those supplements are paid to those to those teachers and if there's a way to or how if you're if you're addressing this in the budget and a change in policy our procedure really um on specifically when when ta's I heard I heard a number of times from um from Tas that were filling in for classes as substitute teachers um you know some of them if they've been here for a while they they might make more than a than a substitute teacher if they haven't they might make less but they're still doing more

178and so we're we're avoiding paying a substitute so does it make sense to to pay those people a a supplement um for those for those time if they're just F Well I heard consistently if they're if they're just filling for a class it's not a it's not a big deal like they're getting paid it's just part of their job and they're going to do whatever it takes it's when they were filling in for a day or multiple days it's like you know you're I'm saving you money and I'm doing extra work and I'm lesson you know just lesson planning and doing all these things um so just wondering how I want to make sure that we can that we're getting that in the budget that we can have that flexibility to um to make those

179make those things right I I would imagine you know we're we're we're doing this a little bit backwards because I wish I wish we had the benefit of the of the survey of the staff before having to um produce this budget because it would sure be nice and let's think about how if we have additional funds um how they how they might be be allocated to address our um to address a couple of these things that might improve some satisfaction of Staff thank you for the questions and I'll I'll walk through them with the with a warning that if I miss something um catch me and I'm going to give some information then I might call on on some of the staff to to to fill in some additional details so the fill rate uh

180our fill rate has returned back to preco ratios um in the last few weeks uh so we had been in the 75 to 80% fill rate range um and at you know two years ago that wasn't good uh and we had lots of discussions Vicky Hall did some research on some private private providers we looked at the numbers of of substitutes that we had on you know in our on our books versus the number of substitutes who who came and actually would would uh would would respond yes when they got the you know when they got the message uh and that triggered Super Subs uh we have heard just about every principal in our data meetings say whatever you do don't eliminate those Super Subs those have been Lifesavers those are grow great so now

181we have that overlay of Super Subs Two Two Super Subs on average per school and we've actually we've actually sent some concentration uh of of additional help to particular schools that have a tougher time filling so we were down during some of the covid weeks with a fill rate of 30 40% that was real bad that was the worst so I'm trying to give you the worst right some of some of our worst days maybe on average 50 so we're back up around 7580 we actually get daily reports I'm getting those daily reports because this really does matter uh and so so in these last few weeks as the sun has come out the sun has come out figuratively and and literally I suppose in that in that sense um with with those additional Super

182Subs now that are permanent um when you talk about what do administrators do in those gaps where they don't have a substitute and that 20 25% of the of the absences teachers assistance sometimes do that at the high school and middle school level uh well and really across the board we say that if a principal ask and a teacher chooses to give up their planning period we do pay them based on our a $25 an hour extra work rate that we established with the WCA through our mou uh and so if it's a fraction of an hour it's going to be a fraction of that $25 an hour teachers can do that realistically at the elementary school level that is relatively rare because of the elementary schedules because students especially at the youngest grades are

183with their teacher through through the through the day except for related arts classes physical education lunch and so it's rare that a teacher will come in and fill because the student students aren't moving from one class to another for a teacher on their planning period to fill generally speaking an elementary school core teachers planning period is while their children are at a related arts class or physical education so that doesn't work real well at the elementary level so it's offered but realistically it almost never happens and I may be overstating this slightly you all just using my vernacular um so Tas uh sometimes administrators if it in those in those times when it got really rough uh and uh and then teachers filling in at the elementary level one one tool that they have used

184and and I and I'm probably going to refer to Dr oyer is teachers helping out with their peers classes if you can't have a sub we have been talking to the wcea about that because currently there is not a a provision to to determine you know if you've got three four more students for some window of time you know how do you pay that we don't have we don't have any any method to address that so we have been talking about that um let's see uh also you mentioned ta pay versus uh substitute teachers teachers assistance and and Vicki I may ask you to speak to rates of pay our teachers assistants do get benefits those full-time and substitute teachers don't so there is that inherent difference in their work and they are working those

185hours whether they're working you know with with one class or or or doing different you know different work and those are gen general education teachers assistance the special education teachers assistants are you know generally have their commitments uh to to what they're doing I think that what what I what I heard was that I think would be well-received is just a um is a supplement to their pay if they were if they were being called upon to be a a full-time substitute teacher for for a day um so it it would be a fraction of it would be a fraction of a substitute teacher you are losing the it's not ideal um I mean none of these none of these Solutions are ideal because you're losing that ta for whatever whatever that person's duties were

186um but um but it's just just little things that we could that we could do that that are covered in the budget it's still it still makes sense in the budget to to use a TA at the end of the day you'd rather not because you'd rather fill it with the sub yeah so I'm going to add one more um fact and then I'm going to turn it over to Miss Hall to fill in any any gaps based on your questions and then to Dr oyer and if and if Dr Webb has anything to add after that um we've been talking to the WCA about increasing that hourly rate to $30 an hour so I anticipate that is a possibility and Dr Webb is actually leading the um our side of the pcker process I'd

187like you to me to reference that if if I've if I've accurately described that because I don't have a full-blown proposal yet I've just been you know listening in on on on some of the discussions so Miss Hall if you would speak to the substitute um element first so I'm not sure exactly what specific spefically you would need to know from me so feel free to ask if I'm not answering the right question or if is it about a a supplement for let me let me articulate it my way you tell me if if I'm accurate what kind of brainstorming might there be to fill in that gap between our fill rate and 100% yes and specifically there's I mean the going from $25 to $30 an hour at the at the middle and high

188school level might be well received like at the elementary level they're saying we fill in all the time and we don't get yeah anything and so yeah and I think that's a that's a doct question might be they might be making changes I don't know um if you are but that's that's just the that's the feedback that I received and I said well well gosh if we're if we're saving a sub like I don't like let's let's figure out a like that gives us some resources that we have and let's make this let's make this right we we've heard that too and the WCA leadership brought that to us as well well so whichever you wants to speak to that well that has been part of our our conversations with them and Dr orer I

189don't know if you want to add but we are we are talking about that there's I mean there's obviously some logistical issues with it that we're trying to work through but it it's something that we are discussing I wouldn't add anything to it I think you've you've addressed two issues that as it's been said have been discussed we hear it too um as superintendent golden mentioned it's more common in elementary these days for classes to be split um and so having conversations about how we compensate in those situations um we've talked about it for a couple of years I think we we are feeling it way more than we used to mainly because not just because of covid but because of the length of the absences of Co right which I guess is related to

190co but you know what I mean it used to just be one day I'm out or a couple of day somebody's out with with the flu or something in this case teams are being impacted because teachers are out for five sometimes those 10 days so the conversations are continuing and trying to be creative but I I do want to stress that Elementary Educators have the same opportunity to access the money that that was discussed it's not just middle and high if an elementary teacher gives up their planning period they have access to those funds as well it's just a different structure as Mr Golden mentioned um and happens a little bit less but it is available to them and when schools have have been in a position it's my understanding that they've accessed that okay

191that's great I'm just doing a double check have we have we answered the those questions I I think so I guess on the on the super I mean would do you have enough money in the budget to um to add Super Subs if that would if that would help because we what we saw I mean I know we had more absences then we hopefully ever will again but we saw this we've got this huge substitute pool yeah um but but there's when when we have a lot of absences we you realize that 34s of the substitutes never actually say yes to a substitute job they're just approved on the list so do we is do we need to go to back to a system um to I'm just looking for for money in the budget

192to allow you some flexibility to add things like the you know we we did that bonus for um for substitutes that I'm not sure we did I'm not sure it actually went over terribly well a couple of years ago because they had to they had to work so many days before they before they got a budget and they you know I'm not sure how how many of those ever got paid out but something to that effect to to get subs to actually volunteer um and and take jobs rather than just stay on the um just an incentive to to take those positions to get that well you you've touched on on it pretty well on the Staffing side we do have a relatively large I'm trying to remember 900 or so do I have that

193number right that's that's roughly right yeah we have we have about 900 substitutes on our list I'm estimating maybe we get regular yeses from 20 to 25% of those um maybe I'm not as clear on that we' had eight actually we've had over 800 that have worked this year good who have worked at least a day this year so there was a time a couple of years ago where um some of our staff was taking you know taking um subs off the list and my thought was don't do that if they say yes once it's worth them being there we already went through the work of putting them on the list so so they're so they're all staying on the list absent them telling us I take me off the list um to to your

194question about Su adding Super Subs out of that line item there is the capacity to add some what we have found is that with our administrators when they find somebody who's expressed some interest they come to us and we've made some adjustments uh and I can think of one one one uh School in particular that we were we had three Super Subs attending a particular schol School regularly um because because we found somebody and um and and they there was the need so within that line we do have some flexibility might there be an issue Rachel's raising her finger already because I think I just made her nervous um but um but is there a possibility late in a fiscal year we might come need to come back with to you with an additional request

195out of that particular line that's a possibility Rachel I actually was just going to add too that within the subs if they work 20 days it's one rate and then from 21 days to 49 days it's an additional $10 a day and then anything over 50 days it's an additional $10 a day so there are incentives built in a little bit in order to um have recurrence for there to be recurrence uh another item you didn't mention um but I I I've inferred it is the substitute pay rate um we have we have raised that from time to time um it I think there's some value in in that to in essence thank those who are coming um we haven't found the increasing the rate increases the yeses if that makes sense great thank you

196Mr Brown thank you um Jason you you've made reference a few different times tonight to the um negotiations or conversations with WCA on different items the $25 to $30 increase um things like that I think you had share with me numbers at one point that the and my calculations were roughly that 40% give or take of the teachers are not members of WCA we really don't know for sure um but what we do have is the information related to every 3 years there's a in essence a vote it's not technically a vote on Pekka and if I'm not mistaken I think like about 57 58% of uh of um of the total teacher numbers chose uh chose um WCA now many of that number many did not express an interest did not vote um so

197the the of the ratio of uh of those who did respond it was I'm trying to remember it was in the high 90s or mid mid90s of those who chose wcea so that's what we know uh that about 57% 58% in that range of the total teachers chose WCA and of the and of the respondents it was in the 90s per who chose WCA okay so I guess where I was going with that is just to understand from a process or contractual standpoint with with a teacher it's all the same for any teacher regardless of whether they've chosen that or not that's correct so none of that changes anything correct compensation or under the law uh um if we if you cross the threshold of of the of of Pekka and you do have that

198obligation to meet we are required to talk to the teacher Representatives about all pay issues so when I mentioned the 25 to 30 that we have that obligation and and the essence of of the peka requirements and it's a little deeper than this is pay benefit in working conditions uh must be discussed okay thank you please continue any other questions related to GP to General purp the general purpose School fund any of those items if not we're going to move on to the cafeteria again pointing out reminding that this is a special Revenue fund so they are self-funding districts have two options with going back to a question I believe that Mr Elliott had asked in a previous meeting Mr Elliott Mr Mitchell we we we Mr ellot we've all done it um we have

199two options related to how we fund cafet the special Revenue fund type of of departments one is to just bring them in as a department of oh yeah I don't need to look we're strobing a little bit in here um you might want to close your eyes we can bring them in as a department we're going to turn that off or the other option is to treat them as a special Revenue fund if you bring them in as a department then they it's just like one of our departments the special Revenue fund means that they have to be self-sustained if they cannot end in a negative fund balance it's as as being one of our special Revenue funds and at that time if that were to happen we would loan them money you can do

200it for a short period of time or for a long period of time if it's needed but ideally well we don't have to do that because they've generated enough Revenue so the question of I talked to the actual controller's office to see what their take on could we maybe pay some of expenditures out of GP for cafeteria for a special Revenue fund and the answer to that was no uh if that were to to happen and continue to happen then they would dictate that we would have to bring them in as just a department and so I just wanted to throw that back out as a question that had been asked earlier so in looking at the cafeteria for this year you'll see their projected revenue and expenditures based on their fund balance that they

201have on hand now there is no gap for them and so uh please look at again there's no increase on the pricing because we're assuming at this point that the USDA is going to continue to pay but if not we'll go back to what pricing was before um but if you have any questions now on the cafeteria please feel free to ask I believe Mr Welch thank thank you R so you may if I you blatantly said it name I said I apologize but the we are are not the or not the the cfer fund is or is not self-funded it is selfed it is okay and if we traditionally is correct and it's that is the two options and that's the way we've done it for as long as anybody can remember and so

202just wanted to point that out that if we were to then begin making purchases on behalf of the cafeteria or on behalf of extended school program then we would have to then pull them in as just a department and they would not be what they would not be self yeah I know I just know we were robbing Peter to pay Paul a little bit during the inusual time and we ended up if you recall we ended up not we voted that we would make loans if needed for both and we ended up not having to do either by the end of the year they had enough funding to do that so so that request that we made of you um anticipating it uh the Food Service re Revenue actually went up and so we never

203had to do it never but we did spend the sr1 funds to pay the cafeteria staff just as a reminder back it's really been two years ago [Music] now oh Mr [Music] Alber so if if the USDA continues to reimburse us um I mean we've got a $3.5 million estimate of our increase in food from our budget and I know that's not I know we probably our budget is probably low if assuming that we sold as many meals as we as we expected to um so I guess I'm I'm not comfortable leaving prices as is if our food costs are going up by 60% so how do we how do we adjust that the if that were to happen at that point in time we can bring it back to you as a board and

204say that we need to increase prices at this point we don't have enough information before us to know if that's going to be well I mean so um let me give you my best answer to that because we we have talked about that and Mark may choose to do so as well if we if we if and when we go back to the US SDA no longer reimbursing everyone every meal but only reimbursing for free and reduced it's going to take a number of action steps for us one is a push to our families about applying for free and reduced lunches because it's been two years since anybody's had any incentive to apply so we don't have really good numbers on how many those are second it's going to take an analysis from James MIT

205staff about where the market is right then for food and and uh and and and compare that now they'll have a lot of that data already so I don't think that's going to take a whole lot of time but they'll have to do the math on that um where we landed right now is we have no projection on how long this is going to be and for us to establish a price right now for something that we're not actually going to charge is is just is just guesswork now what we could do is is get an estimate based on prior experience of what it's going to look like based on current food prices um and I'll talk to Mark about our our ability to do that to give you guys some idea of of what

206of what the prices might look like now if we were charging but if and when we go back to that that's that's when that needs to happen now we do still charge for allart uh in in in those items and he's done an analysis based on those prices and Mark correct me if I'm wrong based on those all cart items it's the pricing is still appropriate Mark we're selling all a cart so we have we have the throughput there the other thing that we're just not sure of how many people are going to want to buy a meal from us now if we go back to the pricing so for for two school years it's been this is this is no cost to you and the lines have coming in pretty good we we did

207over 30,000 um meals average daily meals in February a short month it's the most we've done in the last couple years so it's not clear what the precip the participation is going to be given prepandemic situation so it's another thing that goes into um you know what can we expect and therefore what is our reimbursement or our our cost need to be to cover that and Mr galberth you're right cost of food is something that uh and the availability of food still continues to be a a a big challenge well so so I presume that we've had an increase in cost of food this year so how what is our formula excuse me what is our formula for being reimbursed by the USD is it is it on our are they reimbursing us our per

208meal charge or are they reimbursing us based on a function of our costs per meal it's it's per meal and Mark I I don't I don't know enough about whether how they're addressing the the multiplier or the increase in cost uh it it's whatever they decide okay uh they have increased the reimbursement rate once or twice in the last two years U they come up with that they've been the feds um and we we don't we don't have any control nor we have a lot of insight into the formula they use because it's it goes out nationally and Mr gal I will say my understanding is that that the USDA does look at the food cost and that is why they've adjusted the rate of reimbursement because they're trying to help cover right well I

209mean so do we have have they given any indication is when they free lunch is gonna I've heard there's no such thing as a free lunch but like well somebody pays for it right we've heard rumors both ways and actually we've heard rumors both ways for the last year year and a half so well and I do think last year they finally gave a final answer in June for the entire year for the year well so I guess I'm I if we if we approve this I'm I'm just not I'm not there yet because I want to know I want to know when we're going to bring it back because I'm not disagreeing with you Mr Samuels that if I mean if if food costs are $9.2 million compared with three well 3.8 million is

210not fair CU that's that was a an odd year but compare with our budget of 5.6 if food costs double and this is a self- sustaining fund um we can't double our rate and expect the same number of people to um to buy meals and so like I don't think there's a self-sustaining model there because we've got to we've got to have a some amount of staff to unless unless Nancy's full-time volunteering in the in the cafeteria right I mean because there we're just not going to there's no way we can um there's no way we can staff these student these cafeterias if we're selling 15,000 meals instead of 38,000 yeah there are a lot of variables right now it's like there's X Y and Z in a formula and we don't have any of

211those variables nailed down um the Z to that is how many will choose to continue to get their lunch versus go back to bringing their lunch uh so you're you're right that that there's a lot of variables I anticipate that there will be a transition window if and when there's a change uh and it's going to it's going to take a lot of triangulation and projection and there'll be probably a little bit of trial and error during those first few weeks you know a lot of habits changed in covid is this one of them I don't know but what we do know is we're around 30,000 meals uh a day for a 42,000 student School District which is a basically a percentage flip you know we talked about that percentage flip in in uh in

212your question U Josh earlier earlier in the in the day it's about a we were about 3070 before if I'm not mistaken Mark somewhere close to that it was much on the lower side and yes Mr galbert the ex strategy here is very complicated and I think that's something the feds are trying to deal with how do we how do we bring people back to this given what the pricing structure is still at yeah and for for for for for folks who need the variables to actually have numbers it's not there more it's it's a tough one right now well today I mean if everything goes if everything goes as plan I mean the I'm presuming if if food costs are what of or what we're projecting then our Revenue has to be it ends

213up it's got to end up being more than I mean we can't budget that the USDA is going to give us more or we're going to raise prices but I that's right I mean we've got to we've got to aim for our for our total cost to cover our total revenue I I don't I don't think it's sustainable to let our um our fund balance go from go from six to 6 to 3.8 again if I mean if that happens it's only because it's it's happening while we're trying to have a plan to fix it but we can't we can't let this go because it's it's a I mean as soon as we start down that road there's no sustainable path until we're back where we were two years ago and we're and we're having

214to bail this this fund out I I see what you're saying and uh you know we made a choice two years ago to make sure that that staff was still paid even when they weren't working and Esser made it work right um another an another peculiarity of this is usda's regulations have a cap on fund balance not a floor on fund balance and if I'm trying to remember is it four months three three months that they that at the end of the year they can have no more than a three-month fund balance and actually have to spend that um and and so it's a it's the the the regulation in this in this bud budget is very odd compared to our normal experience and you're right the fund balance makes you nervous right because you

215have to pay your staff Rachel I wanted to add one thing it's the same thing when we're talking about GP and any of these the expenses are locked in this is what we're presenting to you revenue is going to not Revenue I'm sorry that fund balance number is going to change with revenue and so even right now we've got that where the fund balance is listed that's as of March the 2nd as as long as the USDA is continuing to pay that fund balance is going to continue to grow and so I just want to keep in mind too that yeah we have a 3.8 million overage but that could also end up being much higher and what Mr Golden said they have that that Gap I mean they have a cap and so they're

216going to have to pull it back down somewhere sure I just I just ask that as soon as that USDA makes a decision if they're if they're going to I'd say as long as they're paying then then and their and their payments are adjusting for the for the inflation on food then we're probably fine as soon as they make a decision otherwise then we need to reconvene and and talk about how we're going to how we're going to deal with it it does sound like that you clearly have this in mind and you're aware that this is going to be an that it is an issue that we'll need to look at I I know that hope or optimism is not a strategy but based on my research in the cafeteria I I do wonder

217if this is something that has changed the the convenience the number of kids who like the food and request seconds or uh you know it's just it's just very convenient um for parents and also there are still people that are consistently bringing their lunch every day so it will be interesting to see how much how much the numbers change so I forgot one question I know yall are excited about that um how what's our what's our ility for for parents who have who have placed money on cuz that was a big big number last time we come down a good bit we're right we're under 800,000 at this point if you remember we were over a million and so that number has come down as well and partially due to students knowing that they have

218the money there and going all and they're not buying lunches and said that number is we sold a lot of cookies yeah $300,000 worth of cookies any other questions on the cafeteria if not we'll move on to the extended school care program and in this case revenues are listed and expenditures are listed um 5.6 5,692 for revenues and then 5,841 th000 for expenditures again existing fund balance there is no Gap any sack budget related questions no questions Miss farmer the last section is our Capital outlay requests this first page is just is a summary so you could see it by by the accounts and then broken down reminder of what general and Rural General and rural mean general or for High Schools rule are related to our elementary and middle schools we have the column

219for the prior year what we're requesting and then the breakdown between those two groups behind that is the detail on each one of these lines and the items that are being requested it's a it's a 2 .3 million $ 2.26 million increase largely there's two two areas where we um see that increase one of them being over in networking if you have any questions on any of these if if I may Madam chair I want to give you give a couple of reminders um the structure we have right now with the County Commission is uh we we we bring Capital request in in two different buckets one is on our five-year Capital plan and that tends to be major roof Replacements major asphalt Replacements Etc this particular budget is routine maintenance and so you'll see

220a lot of those those examples uh in this budget and that includes technology safety and our and our maintenance department um uh I did want to point out one interesting fact that I think it's becoming more and more relevant a couple of the items reference um shs uh Summit High School uh AT&T's network am Mark correct correct me on some terminology AT&T's network uh service to Williamson County is served by two different hubs Spring Hill is served by a a southern Hub and the the the bulk of the county is served by a northern Hub our technology department has added a backup system at Summit High School so that if one hub goes down we still have service from the other Hub so for us to completely lose technology would require both hubs to go

221down at the same time did I describe that well yes sir and actually the uh Network outages that we've had we've had three in the last last two weeks and one more next week was to do the software um installations on at those locations the software that would do the handoff if there was a shutdown or failure at one to automatically switch our bandwidth uh capability over to the other Center and we've tested it and it works in a matter of Nan seconds almost um and so right now we have a very balanced bandwidth on our Network just in time for 10 ready exams to stress it here in a few weeks so I don't see any other questions that is the proposed budget as a whole with each general purpose cafeteria extended school programs

222and then Capital if you have any questions email call um we're available to answer anything that we can for you yes sir Mr Wimberly I just want to say Rachel you got a fine job presenting this tonight and I would also like to thank Vicki and the rest of the staff for your inputs and for uh your diligence in getting this information to us on a timely basis so that we had ample opportunity to to review it so thank you all it it yes it is light okay Madam Sher if I may add just real quick um I had two action steps that I jotted down related to this discussion one was uh the pay charts Vicki has sent those to you uh two was a a large um number item related to the $52

223million total increase and so we'll make sure we get that to you got it Mr oh sorry just just oh I'm sorry yeah next Mr H just wanted to extend CAD Mr wly for asking the questions on Sunday and having those all doing a lot of work for us and thank you for the responses it's very helpful I want to say something about that the questions I love because I was really excited about your questions cuz I had all the answers except for one that I had to go research but everything else already had so it's like yes I'm thinking like they're thinking what you may want to know but the questions only help everybody and so I appreciate them all um and thank you sure Mr Cash yeah I'd just like to ask is

224there any special special fund uh to cover like the inflation rate and the fuel this being burned I mean is there is there some thought about that short answer is no uh the best example like oh Rachel's wiggling her fingers we did adjust um we went ahead and increased in in fuel lines knowing that it looked like it was going up is it going to be enough I can't say that but we did take same thing with um any kind of our operational expenses everything's going up paper was up um you name it and so we did try to account for that we've increased our expenses related to that the best answer I have to your question is sales tax you know if if if price of something goes up your sales tax percentage goes

225up so we are we are seeing an increase in sales tax I we think that's a big part of it spending has increased but when prices go up you get a little bit more sales tax revenue yeah okay thank you our next item is a quick discussion of the state to a proposal well um thank you madam chair um I actually that was in my superintendent report so you took care of so I hope I've taken care of that in detail okay all right well um it looks like I I've been here for a while and it looks like I hopped up and need to 6B go back down thank you um so uh board policies for first and final reading Miss OS Brooks thank you we have two board policies for first and final

226reading both of them are editorial changes the first one is uh board member legal status as y'all know um previously in the policy we had it was a nonpartisan um election based on recent law change now it can be a partisan election so that is the editorial change on that policy um and then did add a clarification um under the qualifications and if you could go to the next policy is also an editorial change and I'm going to give you a little bit of a caveat um the editorial changes are for compliance reasons I have had a request from a board member to place this um policy on the April uh policy meeting not for this change um we're going to move forward hopefully to vote this change in do want to have some discussion

227about the textbook selection and adoption process um and it doesn't have anything to do with the changes that we have at the um in this policy so you will we will have a robust discussion uh just like we did Monday night uh on 4.43 and it'll be 4.41 um in April so both of these staff recommends approval on a first and final reading any questions board members I don't see any questions thank you Miss OS Brooks board members we did miss a couple of items so let me let me jump back up to the operations report Mr Samuels I know I tricked you well I squeezed in part of what I wanted to say um I I wanted to do a shout out to Phil Fulmer and Christina Kish in Our IT department cuz the

228network outages that we've just done recently have taken significant months to manage and put together and they've gone flawlessly and I can't speak too much on how this has put us into a position to actually have the fall back in two directions that we haven't had before one of the capital projects though was also to add one more bit of protection and that's an emergency generator at at the backup site which we don't have as well so that was a significant thing I gave you the construction report last night uh I won't say anything more about the Cox Road uh projects other than uh Eric Gardner and his folks now have two big projects to get ready for and and and get going I will be at the County Commission meeting Monday night when they

229for their vote on the $15 million um um intent to fund which will for the Cox Road property which will then allow us to actually award the contract we'll have to go back later for more money for the road improvements they've talked about and and um when TC actually approves the wastewater treatment plant the sewer plant we'll we'll see how that costs going to come out there was some question about Portables within your questions for Budget Brentwood Middle School will get eight Portables as part of their construction recapitalization project they'll go in this summer paig High School we're we're looking at at at putting six in there for part of that construction the construction prrams will pay for that but then as you saw in your budget there are some others we need to put

230at College Grove um Thompson Station and and some others at Long View now for capacity issues when those two elementary schools that we just open bids on finish up in August of next year then those Portables hopefully will have relief at those schools and those Portables can go away um I already mentioned 30,000 over 30,000 u u average daily meals were served in February and James folks continued to knock it out the park the only other thing I'll mention is the open Zone request are still open as of this afternoon we had 221 requests there's only four schools that have double digigit request no schools are to the point yet where we may have to do a lottery um but there's a bit over 30 days to go based on the new um um deadline

231that you voted on last last month which was the 15th of April so and those those double digits are Centennial Franklin um Spring Station and grassland middle grassland middle thank you thank you Mr Samuels um on to the board chair report uh Miss Cleveland do you want to say anything about the legislature oh okay I just have a couple things I mean there's so many bills and so it's kind of hard to pick and choose right now because they're still in session um the one with the educational savings account also known as the voucher that has really slowed down there hasn't been really any activity since um January and so I'm not sure if it's going to have any more legs on it um then the one for reestablishing the office of elected school superintendent

232um that one also has pretty much had no action and it already failed the education Administration on 223 but there is also a bill um Senate Bill 1954 that enacts local school district empowerment act which is it's called The Local School District empowerment act which creates a pilot program for the establishment of the office elected superintendent of schools but again that one it's it failed the um House subcommittee of education on March 1st and so now it's at the Senate but that again looks like it slowed down uh let's see [Music] um the one that we really need to look at is Senate Bill 2250 this bill is um requires the leas to allow non-resident students who apply pursuant to the present law procedures to enroll in a school with the laa if space is

233available with exceptions and the exceptions are lack of space or teaching staff um the pupil doesn't meet the established eligibility criteria um the student expelled from school so that is one we need to really watch because that pretty much opens up more of the Open Enrollment uh let's see and then there was one we were looking at is there is one that Senate Bill 1887 um the present Law requires laes to provide 180 days of classroom instruction in each School term but what I like about this it authorizes the laas to meet up to 10 days of classroom instruction requirement via remote so from my understanding of this means we do not have to ask permission for remote learning we've got up to 10 days so that's good and it has to be though obviously

234under extreme and dangerous conditions like Co or weather and then the other bill that we were watching that does cause concern is Senate Bill 2168 and again this is the one regarding uh under utilizing vacant properties that they can come you know Charter Schools can come and spend a buck and go into our buildings and um and it also is the one that Al if there's at least one Public Charter School authorized that's in our in our district the commission has EV it's been operation for at least one full school year um for the purpose of this bill means the creation of one or more subsequent Charter Schools can utilize and come in and without our permission so that's the one we've really got to watch out to that's it thank you Miss Cleveland Mr

235Hall do you want to give a brief report from the policy meeting so one of the things that we talked about in good length was um policy 4.43 which is the reconsideration policy and uh we had a lot of discussion about that and we're not talking about it tonight but um I did want to kind of recap some of the conversation so that we could be prepared for when this gets brought up some of the areas that we're looking at um are number there are several so I'll list them off here separate policies for evaluation of library books versus textbooks General consensus in the discussion was to separate the policies uh composition of the Comm committee membership for the re reconsideration committee um how many members the criteria roles appointed by whom um and then

236the possibility of creating a standing committee uh one of the things that came up was a discussion about the origin of complaints uh should those start at the school level as they currently do or would it be more advised to have that start at the central office and be a district level complaint um there there was discussion about setting a a proposed timeline for the reconsideration committee work uh to possibly have a defined time but perhaps with flexibility and discretion given given uh the circumstances and scope of the complaints uh discussion about the appeal process one of the questions was should the board hear directly from the appellants and if if we could provide a formal template for them to use there is a request to have age appropriate considerations referenced in the policy uh

237one of the concerns is The Binding duration of the reconsideration committee's findings and if approved by the board how long would those be in effect for uh possible discuss possible budgeting for reconsideration process uh to include stiens for participation in the reconsideration committee uh also the concerns for backfill of resources there was discussion about optout processes and while that may or may not be in part of the policy it is something that needs to be addressed and we'll have more discussion about that then uh another scope of of concern is the board acceptance of the reconsideration committee's work should the board vote on acceptance prior to appeal currently the board is involved upon appeal of the reconsideration committee's work the the question is whether the board should should accept that currently the policy triggers triggers

238the board's involvement upon appeal uh discussion about the superintendent's authority to suspend or pull material upon challenges and then uh we want to define the complaintants can can a request for reconsideration come from Williamson County residents School employees uh the advice that we've received in in the the meeting is that we should not limit it just to WCS parents and families and then finally uh the discussion uh arrived at Consulting with tsba on potential changes uh just to make sure that we're uh on track and that they can assist us with any advice and potential concerns I think that covered it there's anything else anybody want add or any questions was a really productive meeting thank you for leading it so is there a reason is there a reason why we're not talking about that

239tonight I guess we've got to do the work uh to to put together we're skipping our we're skip we're just we're just postponing it so it's not like we're we we don't have a dra we don't have a so that just this just this just doesn't count as one of our we still going to be still going to be two policy it it'll just be more than we'll start we'll start the next policy will be our first of two okay we needed we needed feedback from you all so that we could get a get an idea of where the board wanted us to go on those areas that we could and the ca the I'm sorry the Cadence of these meetings this month are different because we only have very few days between policy and

240so we're not we're not skipping a work session we're just delaying the and we're we're taking an extra policy meaning that's and this this just for kind of level setting yeah this is something that does happen from time to time if there are wholesale changes or if it if it's something that requires a lot of discussion dress code comes to mind it's typically not something that's just handled from policy to work session to to uh board first first reading vote uh so this is one that's going to require quite a bit more and then you know it was helpful to get some real detailed input so that it can go back for staff discussion and Conference to come up with some of those changes which will be significant and you know um there will be

241a lot of discussion too I mean just because we talked about all those things does not mean they'll necessarily be reflected staff may come back and say hey here's the history on this and here's here's a reason we may want to do this and here's a a different way to look at it so there's a bit more that'll be done on this before you the next iteration well that's right and the reality is we'll come up with a recommendation and it's guaranteed to not meet all the requests because some of the requests directly conflicted with each other but we'll come with a recommendation and we'll have that discussion at a first reading Mr Cash yeah I think everybody's on board with uh kind of taking our time going through this um there was a lot

242of good conversation last night a lot of input uh and you know Jason's right not everything's going to be in there or not everything's going to be agreed upon but um we're we're opening up doors and really looking into this and making sure we get this right and uh reduce some of the policy um issues that you know are in this thanks one real one real Qui thing to add to that too is that you know we are also looking at that that initial adoption policy and that's certainly the thing you we want to get right in the first place so that we're not doing reconsideration because ideally the the the curriculum that's adopted is what you stick with and that's why it's such a long adoption period so the goal is hopefully do all

243that work up front and as we all vote on that curriculum to have some of this in mind when this comes up again and then we we have a good thorough reconsideration process but that's certainly Plan B thanks everybody um I had one thing that I that I wanted to mention uh related to last month's board meeting and um there's always the opportunity for improvement or better communication among um us as members of the board so I want to raise one thing as clarification and then ask the board for some input on on another item um in the spirit of of continuous improvements so um I I've received some feedback about um you know the the the guidance that we give to public commenters and how that has has expanded um over over the last

244year and I just want to clarify those aren't Nancy's rules they are they are not my rules I and and no one on this board is is an attorney uh we do have some board expertise in Robert's Rules of Order but I don't know that Elliot would consider himself a subject matter expert in Robert's Rules of Order uh we have policies that that guide our meetings and so what I do is when when there's a question ask our legal staff to to address the issue or to um you know ex explain or write up how to address the issue and so those comments about that we now make prior to public comment are you know are collaboratively developed by our subject matter experts in that area so I just wanted to clarify that Mr Golden

245do you have anything to say um well Robert's rules are in policy as as right as our standard we have over the years been fairly flexible with that and so my thought is if there's a point at which there's conflict we always go back to Robert's Rules and so if if if if at some point you all feel like there's there's a challenge with that I think there's probably some value in US just doing a quick double check on particular rules like the 10-minute example came up well those kinds of that's the second that's the second point of this so um there were some there were some comment and discussion about the amount of time that board members spoke and we had discussed the the 10-minute rule is a newer Roberts Rule and we had

246discussed it about a year ago and we didn't have consensus about it so do we agree that we want to apply that rule if we had appli we we went back and and looked at the meeting and timed the meeting so we would have had to cut three speakers uh we would have had to call time on three different speakers so yes so do we want to do we want to say that you know we want to use that rule from now on I mean I I go ahead I won't I won't tell my personal opinion going to give some context to that 10minute rule so the the 10-minute rule is kind of your first your first remarks so everybody gets in their first punch in would get 10 minutes before they before the next

247person would come on so so that's kind of what the 10-minute rule is it doesn't I don't believe it states that you have a total of 10 minutes of floor time for the whole for all the discussion it's just 10 minutes at one at one take and I'm going to put a little bit more meat on that it says that it is limiting to the debate to two 10 minute speeches so to Mr Mitchell's point the first time that everyone spoke they would have 10 minutes once everyone had the opportunity to speak if there were those who wanted to speak again they would have a second 10 minutes we have never um been that strict uh with Robert's Rules of Order if that is the direction the the board wants to go that rule is

248there um and we can get a timekeeper and enforce um if not that's up to y'all we've had this discussion once previously in a policy meeting and at that point uh board members did not want to um enforce this this rule um but I I wanted to just give a little Clarity on what the what the rule actually is so Mr Welch I would support it okay um yeah I would support it I think it would help us myself included be a little bit more succinct in uh our comments and be a nice reminder to wrap up um you know it's almost 10 o'clock right now and uh but I think we could also have in there a request to the chair for addition speaking time with um the tradition of it being allowed but

249the request needing to be made so it becomes kind of a again a self- policing that you know we've all had our time and now I'm asking for additional time but yeah I would I would support that to close down on lengthy speakers and and I'll just to Mr Welch's point there is a motion to extend that time so it would not be just the chair's discretion it would be the body's discretion if you wanted to extend those two 10minute opportunities um to lengthen the debate and it would take um under Robert's Rules of Order it would take a two3 majority but under Tennessee state law school board members it would take a simple majority so um we try to make it as complicated as possible Mr Wimberly so what would be the authority of

250this I mean we're elected officials and at 10 minutes and we still want to talk our mics would be who I mean h how would the authority be established well the the recommendation would be just as public comment typically another member of the board would act as a timekeeper um Mr Hall obviously has that experience and then um so experience if and again this is probably to your to your point Mr wly why we haven't done this cuz there are some logistical challenges you are policing yourself but um typically when it is used there is a timekeeper and everyone um plays by the rules Mr galber I just I'm not I I don't want KC to be the timekeeper have to have to do that so good with numbers so good with numbers so bad

251um you know I mean or we can or we can just leave it like it is and and try to be better about not droning on for forever sometimes it sometimes 10 minutes is is appropriate it goes and it flies by but you know sometimes 30 plus minutes seems a little long so like there's a there's a there's there's a an answer in there in the middle that I think we can all live with and let's police it a little bit better ourselves and then we see if we actually need to have a a strict policy any other comments Miss Cleveland I'll go along with Jay on that I just think if you just at least respectful of people's time and just you know this maybe now that we're discussing it and and there is

252a Robert's Rule for 10 minutes maybe more be more you know concise maybe get to the point of what you're talking about and be more respectful of other people's time I think that's all you need Mr wel and then Mr Wimberly certainly uh well since this did come up last meeting you know Jay attempted to cut my com comments off uh if if it's a legitimate concern then we should take some action about it I think and if if we don't want to do 10 minutes that's fine might I suggest then um a visible timer in the front at the board chair that goes off so we can actually observe and see we don't have to put the formal things but if we want to be self- policing that way um sometimes I'll agree 10

253minutes does go fast and longer and it's not adequate but it is a nice reminder to sort of see who is talking and how long so if if it's if it's a concern let's put up let's let's uh let's start timing well I still I want to keep this I want to keep this conversation moving in a positive direction um so do I so thank you uh Mr Wimberly well at first I had forgotten what I wanted to say because Eric spoke so long but you know the thing about I mean we can I mean we're we're I mean we're a bunch of fine people I really think that um and we're not at a dis we don't have a disruptive bone in our body as as board but that's us and US won't be

254us in 6 months I mean there will be some no well next year whenever no it's this year us won't be us and so then the question to me becomes okay is this something that this group of people will uh agree to to do better or is this something that becomes a more permanent practice for the board of course practices can be changed so that would be my thought is and I don't know that I have a strong opinion one way or the other um Mr Brown then Mr Mitchell yeah I I'm I'm for putting a 10-minute limit if that's the will of the board I don't feel strongly about it I mean I do think that speaking for myself if I can't say something in 10 minutes then I probably don't need to say

255it um so that's one thought um you know the Robert rules also has I mean if we're talking about enforcing aspects of Robert's rules that we're not currently enforcing you know it also has the provision for calling the question which no one ever does do sometimes well very rarely but this this is well it it is different but it's effectively cutting calling the question is cutting off debate essentially I mean you have to vote on the question but my point is we don't at least in my experience in the four months we I haven't heard anyone specifically called the question you did one time and it was because it was clear that everybody had said what they needed to say um but if it if it got to a point where there were some belief

256among someone on the board that we were going on too long or that we didn't need to we didn't want to hear from someone else call into the question would prevent someone from Talking we don't that's that's a courtesy thing and kind of what we're talking about is professional courtesy right more or less because part of Robert's Rules is also somewhere written in Robert's Rules is the reason you would have a time limit is if someone went on too long as a professional courtesy you the chair could step in and ask them to stop or to to you know cut off debate so I mean there's at the core of this it's about professional courtesy well it's my understanding that the question can be called at in certain times is that correct Miss OS Brooks

257there's not a um I think typically this body has not called the question and they have allowed everyone at least one opportunity to speak and I think that is the courtesy that's being talked about um it is a vote there's not a um mandated time before you can or cannot call the question but realistically if there's debate going on and it is fruitful most members allow that debate to continue it's typically when that debate becomes monotonous and you've already said the same thing over and over that someone may call the question but yeah and Tech so technically I mean what what I was getting at is technically after one speaker someone could call the question and and and if there was a will the will will of the body to cease debate then a majority

258vote says the debate is over and I think my point is you can't call the question during somebody speaking is what what what was I you know what we double checked about our last meeting yeah yeah between speakers someone could be recognized and call the question right right okay we've got Elliot and then Mr Wimberly no okay so so my my thought on on this was not so much to to Dana's point to where you only get two two 10 minutes right was that just the first time around everybody limits their comments to 10 minutes and then when the second second set if we if it warrants additional debate then it then we can we can continue on but but that was and have two three four five comments I don't have a problem with

259it and and to Josh's point at some point we will call the question I we've done it has happened I think we're courteous enough that we don't do it frequently right but but from there's 12 of us and if we all wanted to give 20 minute opening comments then it would be it would take forever for us to get through something so that was my thought on a 10minute on your first round that we kind of allow everybody to have an opportunity to offer their thoughts and inputs yes and we're that's pretty easy to do with the tools that we have in that room uh but in addition to professional courtesy I think we should always be mindful of our code of conduct and our board Norms in all of our discussions and um I

260appreciate your input about this you know I'm always you know open to your input and how we can make our meetings better um I I want to challenge everybody um if you haven't been to a PTO meeting at your school lately if you want to see a well-run respectful meeting go go to one of those PTO meetings uh and be inspired by the work that's being done by that leadership group in our schools and um Mr Cash yeah I've been to two this week and I've been it's been a real positive experience Mr Cash I think I missed you oh I just I I agree with pretty much everybody but I I agree with Rick I I just think you know some people talk longer at at different points depending on the subject matter uh

261some speak people won't speak at all they'll just listen uh I think the second time around is when we call a question I think that works but I think I think when we when when we have a subject that we want to really talk about uh as an elected official you should be able to talk about it but you know Limited you know and just uh you know write it out if you're going to bring something in and write it out and make sure okay so I'd be against this but I yeah I just wanted to I've been to a lot of uh PTO meetings the last one I went to the the president went out crying well what did you say Dan we we don't want anybody to go out of our meetings crying

262either so that's why we're having this great discussion oh she's a very sensitive person all right is anybody else want to say anything here yes Mr Durham I just um I have a question for you guys what I've always been under the impression that this session tonight is where we're supposed to do like the the discussion and that this is a long drawn out late night meeting and um that the work session is where you I mean I'm sorry that the board meeting is where you come to vote and you've already gathered all your facts um if you hear something during public comments that Spurs an additional thought or whatever address that but it's not really a platform and so I guess that's where my training in tsba um and then I think Gary's orientation

263was that you have we have three we have several meetings throughout the month whether it's you know sick Bank policy now the mental health you know all the different things we've got going on there's so many opportunities to talk ask questions give your feedback and it's publicly recorded this one is um and now policy is I think available via audio um why couldn't we just commit as a norm to doing our talking and decision making you know discussions here so that the board voting meeting can be succinct to the point business driven you know that's what it used to be yeah we've gotten away from that yeah I think it I think it has to do with the times you know yes that yeah the the times and um you know we have lots of

264people interested in our meetings and maybe you know that's an opportunity to to say your pce Mr Welch so I think Dan I think you made a great point I agree with you it it's um you as well Angela I think so but you know I think there are times because it is the board meeting that's when we vote when there are special times where something hits you and you do want to speak a little bit more so the difference here I think there's two things we're talking about one is uh speaking for an extended period of time on a specific occasion when something is different versus uh speaking multiple times on the same subject again sort of time in the Aggregate and I think those are two different things and especially what you said

265when you talk about talking more lengthly in the aggregate um it's it's kind of the old saying that this could have been an email uh and a lot of times it should have been an email questions that are being asked of superintendent on basic things that should have just been uh setting off and saying you know what's the answer to this how does this work let me get this information uh Rick had a great example of it uh earlier this week and and having some really detailed questions on the budget that he sent over and getting that information and not going on and on tonight so I'm flexible either way um it's not a hill I want to die on but if this is something that you know we're going to talk about and cut

266off debate then I would say you know it's good for the goose is good for the gander and it's time or let's just have that courtesy okay [Music] thank um Jay then Casey I've talked enough one thing to add on to that to you know in the work session uh you know it's a lot of debate or fact Gathering fact finding but I there is a place definitely in the voting meeting to explain a vote because you may not have arrived at something on Thursday and you want to have the full discussion prior so let's at least make sure that we are considerate of the fact that a a board member may want to explain why they're voting a certain way on on a topic thank you so just just wanted to and we got

267some comments after after the board meeting um I guess the the contrast between some of the instructions that are given to the to the speakers um and people have been have been stopped from making from addressing board members during their their public comment their limited public comment um and then you know Eric and I don't I'm not I'm I'm addressing you because I don't want to just make a general com but um made some um made comments about an individual um and if the roles were revers he would have not been able to do that so I just want to weigh and I want to it's it's a it's an issue and I want to understand so resp yes please well I think I think we need the legal we we discussed that as well

268and I think you need to hear from Dana's perspective as well about that so public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to address you as a board that is that's the purpose behind it um we have as as things have developed this year not only in Williamson County but across the country there have been um changes in how public comment has have been handled particularly at Schoolboard meetings those name I guess standards for lack of a better word right now that we have established because it is a business meeting it is the the purpose to Angela I mean you summed it up perfectly Angela That's the purpose it's a voting business meeting it's not a work session it's not a standing policy committee it is where it is where as board members

269you have an opportunity to vote um so the the rules change a bit um the public has a right to attend the public does not necessarily have a right to speak however because we do have public comment and I wouldn't tell you not to we can establish some rules because again it is a business meeting as elected officials those are not the same rules as the public this isn't a it's not a public hearing like it would be if it was a board of zoning appeals meeting that's a public hearing and anybody can speak for however long that's not what we have we have public comment um and as we and as Nancy says at the beginning of every meeting there are so many ways now to communicate where years ago when public comment was

270created there wasn't you literally stood on the courthouse steps or at town hall because that was the place that you got to spend time talking to elected officials that's not where we are now so I don't I think y'all have had a great discussion about the board Norms the board expectations but I do want to clear that legally board members expectations are very different than public participation during public comment because again y'all are the elected officials it is your business meeting and Dana just to clarify it was any were any rules violated in the in the board discussion given how we have conducted our meetings in the past no because we have not traditionally held strict to Robert's Rules of Order so no I I don't I cannot say that um there was some violation

271of a of a rule the way that we conduct our meetings but I will say that I do think that that that what we were just told you know I I do think it it looks like there's a discrepancy you know it may look like there's a discrepancy to the public and and so I I I see that and and well not necess I I wouldn't go that far I would just say you know we we're being very prescri prescriptive now about our public comment and so you know it I I think the expectation is that we would you know hold ourselves to the same during our during that's my opinion that we would hold ourselves to the same during our discussion as board members I don't think I don't think there's any rule that

272was violated by the way I just think I just wanted to discuss it as a just just a matter of discussion so certainly and I'd like to respond to that since my name was mentioned on that in in that sense so the way that that I look at it is what Dana said the public comments are addressed to the board but it's it's also if a speaker came up and wanted to mention I'm Jen I'm going to use you an example and wanted to address Jenna Pria and thank her for her work that she does for uh special needs children um in that sense or Sheila for her advocacy through Williamson Inc or something along the those even if it was addressed specifically I I have a hard time thinking any of us would go

273hey hang on there buddy you need to address it to everyone what I think that is more addressed towards is personal attacks like we saw against one of our colleagues uh one of our former colleagues recently whose spouse and children were attacked at at public comments and in the gallery so I think that's more of what it is um the question you brought up where an individual's name was mentioned we mention individuals names all the time public figures we talk about we did it tonight when we talked about our legislative meetings and who we worked with you know our Representatives senators and other public figures so in that example I mentioned an individual who was a has made herself a public figure uh who has done several media interviews and TV and radio and newsprint

274and my comments were also fact ual in nature they were not personal attacks complely don't think were ATT okay so I guess what is the concern in that case and you say no rules were broken there were no personal attacks anything because you brought it up no I I completely agree I I just I think it was the issue was raised I think it's appropriate to to talk about it and see where is that line um if they're I think there's a line um I don't know I I wouldn't I mean I guess it's I mean we all have the ability we're all we're all public officials we all have to decide where that line is as long as it doesn't um for for each of us as long as it as long as there's

275not a board Norm that it that it violates I I mean so you're so I I think I I'd say if the if the rules were the same for the for the for the board members as the as the public com public speakers then it would have then it would have violated that rule um because you're you're addressing someone from your from from your position of power um but if that person was there they could not address you in the same manner and so um so I think that's the that's the conflict well and I I won't I hope we can wrap this up we've got two other things to talk about but I do want to say you know think about it if it's your constituent and and you know in this case it

276is my constituent and and I'm not I don't like it so and and Eric and we've had that conversation and we're you know we've had that conversation because we we talked about it with each other you know we had a conversation about it and he knows where I stand on that so well then I'll add this maybe it's a good thing maybe a good thing would be to have discussion on is is board member Behavior and Norms but I would say it's something that we should probably expand Beyond just that whether it's how we handle confidential material uh applying for school positions as a board member negotiating on behalf of the school district just just a lot of different things that we can bring up and maybe it's something that we put on uh policy

277and a work session in the future to to discuss among ourselves we we are in a time where what we do matters every minute every day and it's not just this time that's always true and you know we need we need to treat each other accordingly you know that is that is absolutely true so let's you know let's move on you know um I encourage all of you to to reflect on this conversation and see how it applies in other ways and and uh let's get to our last couple of things here sure just for myit was last thing you said was that hypothetical or were those specific examples that you've seen happen with board members that you're that you're calling out examples that have happened yes so have those been addressed in any other

278manner or were you just kind of they putting that out there theyve been addressed internally okay yes we have but if we want to have these discussions and bring things up let's do it let's have it but let's not use them as personal tax if here's the one thing that I want to bring up and go after an individual about I think I think the difference here for our discussion tonight and why I wanted us to have a productive discussion about this is this this relates to our work as a board and this relates to you know our official monthly meeting and in in the context of continuous Improvement and we have we have accomplished that I think all the things I mentioned do as well so if it's again what we want to do

279let's do it well let's I'm open to suggestions I'm open to everybody's input about how to address um different things that you think we can improve as a board in the context of the board so I I think put that out there on the table and not and kind of just leave it there that's why that's why I wanted to respond to it because it really seemed like that you were bringing up something indirectly that was an actual situation not just a hypothetical and you youve confirmed that so that's that to me is something that you're you obviously have concerns about so as a board we probably ought to deal with that not not right to second but I I would suggest that that's sitting there under the surface clearly so we probably ought to

280deal with it well if we want to sure that's if that's we can bring it up and have it on a you know policy commit work session put yeah I mean if it's if it's enough of a concern that it's an ethical issue which You' said it was then we probably should deal with it we will we will there are no ethical issues there it's just something that he wants to bring up and and it was a passive aggressive way to take a shot at me and so I don't I don't really appreciate it so that's but that's what that was exactly I'd like to move on now so we can let our staff go home um the next item is uh approval of special course applications Mr golden thank you madam chair this is

281an annual agenda item um and uh doesn't happen every single year but this year we are proposing that we take to the state a course that is not actually um a state course yet pre-ap ancient history and it's a course that is a AP structure that goes until the year 1450 if I'm not mistaken so Dr Allen has a memo related to that and we have some documents in there related to AP so we will be asking you for your approval so we can submit it to the state uh for their approval uh Dr Allen I can't remember what schools um are thinking about it Ravenwood Ravenwood so is there an actual AP test that goes with there's this is not a this is a preap course so there is not an actual AP test

282it you you could not get AP credit for it at this stage taught as a AP style class AP style in essence to prepare students number one you get the content you get credit for it but also to prepare students for the for the style of an AP course and I'm I'm sorry Nancy can I continue with the followup question sure so do will the class then be treated from a credit standpoint as an AP class with the additional um I guess you know I can't remember that's a good question I can't remember that off top of my head I'm getting a nod from uh from Dr web it the we do have a policy change that will come through policy next month in regards to the classification of this course it will be listed

283as an honors course so be a half half step okay thank you any other questions I'm still not understanding so it's pre AP that's right how does that differ from a just a regular class if it's not an AP if it's not an honors if it's not a standard class now this is a fourth category and I don't think we've had have we had AE I don't think so I think this is our first one ever the College Board has a has a has this course as a preap structure uh so uh Dr Allen and Dr web share some sh share some detail of it yeah so so the overall rigor of this class will be very similar to an honors course um what's very specific about this preap request is the building had a

284Ravenwood saw a gap in the years that were covered with history and so in their particular curriculum they had an interest from the students um in the the time period as Mr Golden alluded to is Circa 600 BC to Circa uh Circa 1450 ad and so they felt that it fit well in their existing curriculum in terms of the preap nature of the course it's going to be very similar to every honors course that we teach we teach those preap skills in our honors courses so it's not an area that we're really diving into and really getting excited about it just very specifically fits the needs um that Ravenwood had with their students so in our policies then we have uh grading scales for you know standards honors AP where would this fall in that

285the proposal is for it to be a 05 equal to an honors yeah as Dr Webb mentioned you'll see a policy change and it'll fall in line with honors there thank you yeah yes Mr Cash I just wonder uh who's the publisher of that book we're not uh we are not going to have a textbook for this course we're going to follow the College Board curriculum okay um and you have I think in in the attachments you have the the College Board instruction materials that they'll be following thank you yes sir okay and our final item is approval of High School courses Mr golden thank you madam chair in the same Memo from Dr Allen uh we are proposing new courses for WCS um three new courses which are actually part of the state course

286list but have not been WCS courses up to this point it requires your approval as well agricultural business and finance pre-law 2 honors and introduction to entrepreneurship so we will be making the request of you to add those courses those will go all school no they will not go to all the high schools they will go to any high schools where they make uh so as an example paage high school has an agricultural program so it's that particular course is going to be at paage Mr Hall just out of curiosity this is this is one of my favorite topics every year because there's always something cool in here where did these come from Dr Allan Dr web uh could you ask the question again come yeah the suggestions and good question thank you so as

287as Mr Gold mentioned these are state approved cour courses so there's State curriculum uh that we can follow with them new courses come from a variety of different areas there could be a principal um that wants to start a program that through research has found that he or she has found that that there's a student interest it could be um a a a lacking area and maybe a CTE program for a specific type of students um it could be student interest it could be um parent initiatives that get us thinking about courses so they come from a iety of different areas I think one thing that I'm really proud of that we do um and we get really good information there's a thorough vetting process for all any new special course or all of our

288new courses that are proposed the building or the team of teachers they have to present to our to our district office and they go through all of the steps if there's any Financial impact what textbooks they will be using what professional development will be needed how does it fit in their program what students does it impact and they take it very seriously they they do a really good job most of the teams that come over and present to us will present for an hour after probably going through dozens of hours of preparation for that meeting um the preap course the Ravenwood team did an excellent job the CTE courses pre-law rounding out a program right now at Franklin High School um really well thought out really proud of what our buildings are doing and looking

289at the course offerings um to to the question that was asked earlier they do specifically come from Individual schools but once they make it onto the course approved list through your vote any school can offer them at that point we just don't want new courses showing up where they've not gone through a thorough vetting uh process through our through our internal procedures first thank you that's great this Cleveland a real quick question how do we go about are is the staff already determined once what these courses the staffs and then I know we always have um a spatial problem at the schools too you know classrooms so that's already been determined usually usually the staff or the faculty is is part is is determined um I can't think of a time where we haven't had

290that faculty member stay on for the next year U May opportunities in CTE where we start a new program where we'll have to hire an additional staff the the federal funds will help us start that program these are not examples of that um buildings make business decisions if you will about where um the student interest is and what rounds out their curriculum so it takes away from another program um or another course or there there may already be an inbalance that they're trying to accommodate so often often it's a teacher who will teach one section and they've got their classroom uh you're talking about space usually it's a teacher who has has their classroom space and they're teaching one section and so they won't have to move if we're overcrowded somebody might have to vacate

291for their planning period we do we occasionally we do have teachers on cards yes okay thank you Mr GTH thank you the I I might have missed the the description of the entrepreneurship is that is that that's outside the EIC and that's going to be just at our at our buildings and part of and will it be kind of a focus if to the extent that um that the that the students have a focus area of business or some kind of thing will it be part of that um focus area Mr Golden Madam chair is it okay yeah yes so so that specific course is a state level course that will be the introductory course for our entrepreneurship and Innovation Center Program of study it is at the EIC that's correct so what we're doing

292is making sure that we have have the the uh sufficient courses for the graduation Focus right so this is part of the so this is the so have we not had an EIC Focus area we actually have question good question so it's a great question actually so um we were really on the front side of the with the entrepreneurship and Innovation Center and the programming and the curriculum work that we started through our CTE program study State the state approval of this course has come after we started the other programs but the standards align so there's no need for us to have a special course in this particular area we can use the state approved course code and teach the same course okay Mak sense thank you I don't see any other questions Mr Gold

293do you have anything else no ma'am based on the feedback there okay and just a reminder that uh if have questions um you please send those questions to Rachel uh it's great if you copy everybody in so that we can all U get smarter um thank you all and have a good rest of the evening