001Please join us in a moment of silence and pledge allegiance. Thank you. Salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Are there any community comments? Okay, thank you. So, I'll I'll go ahead and move to number four, approval of agenda. Move to approve the work session agenda. Second. >> [laughter] >> Motion and a second to approve the agenda. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed say nay. The eyes have it. All I'll move to number five. That's um the insurance broker presentation. So, uh we have two uh presentations tonight from insurance brokers. One is Don Hinchey and Associates. That's
002who we currently work with and the other is Gallagher. Um and uh you received each one of you received a folder like this and you had a rubric. Uh I ask if you can, please make sure that you hang on to that rubric. Both of these companies have been shared This rubric has been shared with both of them when I gave them the invitation to present. So, we're going to let Ms. Missy Curley with Don Hinch and Associates go first. The Gallagher Group is in a room where they cannot hear the intercom. >> [clears throat] >> Huh? We can hear the radio in here. Not anymore. It's been fixed. >> [clears throat] >> Am I on? Yeah, we're on. Taking just a second to wake back up here. >> [cough and clears throat] >> First
003of all, Dr. Farley, board members, the first thing we want to do is Don Hinch and Associates wants to thank you for giving us the opportunity to come today and review what our agency does for you as your insurance broker. As requested, we're going to doing a brief presentation just to explain just a little bit about what we do and how we do it for you. So, if by any chance this fades out, you can't see it, I went old school and printed you a copy also. Not sure if you're like me, but I like to make notes in the margins and things like that. So, I made you a printed out copy also. Thank you. We are a local, family-owned, legacy business specializing in life, health, dental, disability, accident, and cancer products. Since opening
004our doors in 1964, our agency has remained committed to treating every customer with the same care, respect, and personal attention we would extend to our own family members. Our office is located conven- conveniently located downtown Crossville in the old historical Taylor Hotel building, upstairs suite 209. Our dedication to customer service extends well beyond traditional office hours. We understand that employees may require assistance at times most convenient for them, which is why we are available outside your typical office hours whenever necessary to provide the support that your employees need. We strive to ensure that our customers never feel overwhelmed or uncertain during what can often be a stressful and confusing process. Our goal is to provide reassurance, guidance, and dependable support every step of the way. We are committed to easing the burden on your employees
005by actively working to resolve their concerns and providing them with peace of mind knowing they have a trusted local team advocating for them. Our agency has proudly provided broker support for the Board of Education for the past well, since 1988. I have personally worked with the Board of Education for the last 25 years and Jean Guy who is in our office has worked with the Board of Education for the past 13 years. We are extremely proud of the level of service that we've provided and of the strong relationships that we have built with both your financial staff and your employees over the years. Our agency is appointed with a wide range of insurance carriers and is not limited solely to the providers currently offering coverage to the Board of Education. We maintain partnerships with numerous
006respected carriers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, United Healthcare, Cigna, Humana, Delta Dental, Ameritas, Davis Vision, Community Eye, Delta Vision, Blue Vision, US Able, Principal, and Guardian, to name a few. We carefully evaluate the carrier networks we represent to ensure they provide strong access to qualified local providers within our community. Our priority is to ensure employees can conveniently access health care services and fully utilize their benefits without the burden of extensive travel. We take great pride in the trust your employees place in us when discussing questions or concerns regarding their benefits. Our team is committed to helping employees understand their options and assisting them in finding solutions that best meet their individual needs. [cough] Currently, we, our agency, take care of the following products for the Board of Education. Dental, vision, voluntary products
007such as life, accidental death and dismemberment, cancer, accident, critical care, short-term disability, and long-term disability. The staff of Don Hinson Associates is Melissa Carlie, that's me, managing partner, and as I said before, I have 25 years of experience working with the Board of Education. Tonya Hinch is our consultant partner. Tonya has 20 years of experience working with the Board of Education. Jean Gabb, she is our customer support coordinator, or we would like to say she does it all basically in our office. She has 13 years experience working with the Board of Education. And I'm sure you've saw her around the community and in town, Ms. Brenda Hinch is our community support person. She is a lifelong resident of Crossville and the wife of our founder, Don Hinch, and she continues to serve as a respected
008and valued presence within our agency and our community. >> [snorts] >> We have proudly served as the insurance broker for Cumberland County Board of Education and Cumberland County Government for more than 37 years, as well as the city of Crossville for over 30 years. Currently, the Cumberland County Board of Education is the only school system for which our agency serves as a broker. However, our carrier partners provide coverage and services to multiple school systems throughout our region. As we have done for the past 20-plus years, we lead annual open enrollment meetings for your life, vision, and dental coverage. With a team of professionals from our insurance providers, we visit 13 locations within a 1-week period to meet with employees in person. We meet one-on-one with employees to enroll them in services, to update their coverage,
009update their beneficiaries, and we troubleshoot any claims that they may have had since we saw them last. Our agency has specialized in dental, vision, life, disability, and other volunteer benefits for more than 30 years. Throughout that [clears throat] time, we have remained committed to staying informed on market trends and identifying the best solution for our clients and their employees. We are often frequently approached by sale representatives promoting new products and programs. We carefully evaluate each opportunity to ensure it provides real value. In many cases, we find that certain products lack adequate provider networks in our area, and even in some instances, the carrier is even no longer in the market shortly after the uh implement implementation. For this reason, we place a strong emphasis on building long-term relationships with reputable carrier partners that can deliver
010quality benefits at competitive rates. It is essential that the products we recommend are reliable, sustainable, and supported by local providers who can effectively serve employees. We understand there's nothing more frustrating than an employee believing that they have coverage only to later discover the benefits do not perform as promised. This is why we take the time to thoroughly research, evaluate, and verify the products we offer, ensuring they provide meaningful protection and dependable service for your employees. We are licensed with all appropriate and competitive life, health, vision, [snorts] and dental insurance providers, and are paid directly by the carrier who provides those coverages. Although we provide services beyond your typical broker, we do not receive any additional compensation. We accept no compensation from the Board of Education, Cumberland County Government, or individual employees. The service team that
011has been assigned to the Cumberland County Board of Education are Melissa Curley and Jean Guyb, both from Don Henchen Associates, Rebecca Coker from US US Able Life Insurance, Karen Dinwiddie from Delta Dental, and Raven Westbrook from Davis Vision. We all work together collectively to provide the best service available to the Board of Education. As noted on this slide, you can see some of the roles and responsibilities that uh Jean and I perform within our agency. There's numerous ones here, and we couldn't list everything that we actually do. We're committed to providing the highest level of personalized customer service to your employees and financial staff. As noted before, our office is conveniently located in downtown Crossville in the old historical hotel Taylor building. To better serve your employees, we maintain flexible hours and routinely adjust our
012schedules by arriving early or staying late to accommodate their needs. Sometimes we even come in on the weekends if that's best for them. Rather than utilizing a centralized 800 number, we provide employees with direct access to our staff through personalized cell phone contact information to ensure prompt and efficient service. When your employee contacts our office by phone or email, we typically respond within 30 minutes to gather details regarding their inquiry or their concern. We make every effort to provide a resolution or status update within a 24-hour period. However, sometimes final responses may occasionally depend on carrier response times. Our agency is available to the HR, finance, and payroll departments at all times. Department employees have direct access to our cell phone numbers, office lines, and even our emails. We're committed to providing responsive and efficient
013communication. Calls and emails are not routed through a complex communication process, and all messages are direct are addressed promptly. In most cases, just like with your employees, our goal is to return calls within 30 minutes to gather details and information on any thing inquiries or concerns, and to provide a resolution or status update within a 24-hour period. The carriers we partner with offer technology services that integrate seamlessly with the local government payroll system. Following open enrollment, open enrollment changes for USAble, Davis Vision, and Delta Dental are transmitted directly to the finance department to support accurate payroll processing. In addition, our agency takes an active role in following up with employees who may have not been available during the open enrollment period. We work diligently to ensure all required paperwork documentation is completed accurately and submitted
014promptly to the appropriate carrier, whether that's paper or digital. Our agency takes a proactive approach to invoice reconciliation whenever discrepancies are identified. Jean Gabb, our client support coordinator, works closely with the finance department to promptly research and resolve any billing issues. She's also highly attentive to open enrollment changes, ensuring that initial invoices accurately reflect all updates so the finance department can make timely and accurate payroll deduction adjustments. Prior to joining our agency nearly 13 years ago, Jean spent 18 years working in human resources. Her extensive experience provides valuable insight into the challenges faced by the HR departments, making her an exceptional resource for assisting with a wide range of employee benefits and administrative issues. When ACA-related questions or issues arise, we work closely with our carrier partners to address concerns and provide the necessary guidance
015and support. Whenever the HR department has questions regarding the products we service, our team works directly with the respective carriers to obtain accurate information and provide timely response and support. We have found HR Management to be highly knowledgeable, professional, and well-informed on current HR matters. Our carrier partners work closely with us to address questions related to compliance requirements. In your packet, please see the attached USAble email that we actually received last week for an example of this support. COBRA Employees wishing to continue Delta Dental benefits through COBRA are referred directly to our agency when we assist them with completing and processing all required documentation. COBRA coverage is not available under the current voluntary vision program. In addition, our agency provides ongoing support to employees who wish to port eligible USAble coverage products such as cancer
016or insurance. Now, these are two employees that are following separation from the Board of Education or from the government employment and wish to take those coverages with them and make payment directly to USAble. Reconciliation support, as we said before, Jean works closely with the finance department to promptly research and resolve any billing issues that they may have. Open enrollment support, we work closely with our carrier partners USAble, Delta Dental, and Davis Vision to provide the HR department with comprehensive benefit resources including benefit summaries, brochures, enrollment forms, contact information, and even direct links for employee portal access. Listed here are a few of our references and current uh accounts. There's detailed information in your packet also on each of those. In closing, I would like to once again thank you for this opportunity and stress that
017we are proud of the level of service we have provided and the strong relationships that we've built with both your staff employees over the years. After tonight's meeting, as you're reviewing the presentation, you may have additional questions. My contact information is the last slide of that printed presentation that you have. Don't hesitate. Call me, text me, whatever you want to do. Reach out. I'm more than happy to answer anything that you might questions that you might have. I know I talk fast and being up here has made me a little bit more nervous than normal and I'm probably could be an auctioneer right now. >> [laughter] >> But, we're here for you. You know, that's one thing uh we're very proud of the long relationship that we have with you and with the government. You
018know, if 37 years is a long time, but we live here, we work here, and we are absolutely proud to serve your employees and our community. And again, thank you very much. >> [laughter] [laughter] [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> [laughter] [snorts] >> If you don't care, go ahead and put it on the screen. That way everybody in the crowd can see it, too. >> [clears throat] [laughter] >> So, our next presentation is Gallagher and we have seen Mr. Dozer before. He's been here a while back. Thank you. Sure. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, sir. >> [cough] >> Thank you, sir. [clears throat] >> [snorts] [clears throat] [snorts] >> Uh we appreciate y'all giving us the opportunity to be here today. To get us started, what I want to do is just orient us to
019the materials that are here real quick. Uh we put three different things in your packets today. The first one will be just a sheet of paper. Uh this is what was released by the County School School System of the information that you were requesting and that you wanted us to present on today. So, uh you'll notice that we built the PowerPoint presentation, which is the second piece of information that you have. Uh we built the PowerPoint presentation to follow in line with the bullet points of what you wanted us to cover today. So, suggestion and recommendation is to have this down on the side and then just as we get through, follow. Uh the last item that you have is there was also a request for a narrative response to each one of these questions.
020So, that is more of the leave behind. So, oh. You want me to do that? Okay. Um that is much That's more of the leave behind that you can review after we're gone that goes through everything. So, Um my name is Wes Dozer. I know I've been here before. I did a little bit of a health plan analysis. We talked through several items there. Uh there are some updates on that that we can go into at a different meeting, but the state did have their insurance committee meeting today and released the actual increases in in rates. So, we'll be updating the study that we've already done for you. And I'm going to let Marissa introduce herself very quickly. Hi, I'm Marissa Calhoun Smith. Um I started my career practicing law at Lewis Thomason Lewis King
021Lewis Thomason Law Firm and then moved into the insurance world in about 2015. I know a a couple of your faces from TSBA, but um I just wanted to say thank you for having us here today. I'm I'm delighted to join Wes in present to you. Yeah. Um so, we'll get started first here real quick with the firm overview and and market position. Uh Gallagher is a a large company. We were founded back in 1927, but y'all may even remember us from our days as Five Points. So, I think that uh we've been going to TSBA. I think I'm on my 17th or or 18th year at this point. So, our agency was called Five Points. We merged in with Gallagher back in December of 2021. Uh Gallagher, like I said, is coming up on
022their 100-year anniversary. And some of the statistics that you see up there, um yes, we are a large company. Uh we have over 70,000 employees now and operate in many countries. Even though we're big though, uh me and Marissa and our team, we're local. We're right here in the state of Tennessee. We have two offices. We have one in Nashville and we have one in Knoxville. And we have a dedicated team that does nothing but serve public sector with over 20 people on that team. So, uh you know, how we differentiate and and why Gallagher, why now? One of is the item we already talked about. We're already engaged with Cumberland County schools through the the medical and the budgeting analysis tools. We're already very familiar with you and very familiar with working with school
023systems in Tennessee. We really do focus on a proactive approach. Some of the technology, some of the consulting tools, the human resources, the the things that we have brought to the market are things that we realized that public school systems needed assistance with or didn't have. So, we've always taken a proactive approach. And as new things change and the landscape changes, we'll continue to do that. We are proven in the region. You know, two of our most recent clients are Ventress County School System. They just finished their open enrollment a couple of weeks ago. And your neighbor, Roane County School System. They signed on in December of 2025. So, we're on about half a year with them as well. And then also, you have to be flexible working in public sector and I believe that
024we are that. So, of course, The the school system, uh just like Roane County, uh they have a consolidated finance in their school system decided to make um you know, a move, but the county government didn't have to do the same thing. So, they they do two different things. Um however, if at any point the schools and the government wanted to align, of course, we'd we'd be thrilled to work with both of you as well. Continuing to go into section two now uh with public sector and our school system experience. Of course, uh we work with all of the organizations that support uh you. So, uh TSBA, we already talked about being at those conferences, uh speaking at those during breakout sessions, but we also heavily support the Tennessee um TASBO, uh Tennessee Association of
025School Business Officials, as well as uh TOSS, the Superintendents' Organization. Um we do have over 16 clients that are over 750 uh lives in their uh employee count for the school systems. Nationally, we have over 6,300 employees, and just within a 100-mile radius, we have uh over 45 clients uh within a 100-mile [snorts] drive of y'all. Uh at the bottom, uh it's really small, so I I won't read all those names to you, but besides Roane and Fentress that we already uh talked about a minute ago, a few local clients um that we have are Rhea County Schools and Government, White County Schools and Government, Bledsoe County Schools and Government, and Overton County Schools. And then, the ones that are called out specifically in the boxes are there to show you our expertise in working
026with groups that are consolidated finance. So, that's the the Act 81, uh which is Jefferson uh County Schools and Government, Monroe County, and then Robertson County, and Henderson County, just to name a few. >> [snorts] >> So, the purpose of this slide is really to show you in responsiveness to your direct question that we do understand K-12 through our vertical within Gallagher. So, those 6,300 plus K-12 customers that are nationwide in Gallagher, there's a vertical leader who organizes those groups and the folks that work on those teams like Wes and me and our our staff. And so, we then look at benchmarking annually for public Kennedy. We really pay attention to what's happening in the K-12 space because we know that you're facing a lot of headwinds and it's kind of a we we say
027we've said this week to each other about something that it feels like a death by 1,000 cuts in a lot of ways on public ed sometimes. And so, what what we're trying to say and communicate with this is you're going to have a partner in Gallagher if we're fortunate enough to get to work together that understands >> [snorts and clears throat] >> that you have an an uphill climb right now with budget and teacher shortages and practical things like what to do about AI and and how to integrate some of these new tools into all levels of not only learning but organizational health, capacity, how to communicate with people who have a lot of demands on their day and social and economic stresses. So, it's a really complex organization that you run. It's one of
028the most diverse businesses in the in the world really in terms of what all you have to know how to do to run efficiently. So, we're mindful of those things and when we come to you with a solution, we're going to have thought through how how things implicate other things. They're they're all kind of tied together. The purpose of this slide is to directly respond to the question of what is a recent implementation with success. The most recent happens to be your neighbor as we mentioned Roan County Schools. And I think the most critical thing to understand about this relationship is that they are so similar to you and how the impact went. So, what do I mean by that? Um that we didn't change any plans. We did evaluate their dental program critically and
029thought through it with them, but ultimately recommended that they keep it like it was because we benchmarked them, showed them other um plans and rates and showed them that the savings from a move would not really be worth a move at this moment on that plan. But then besides that, it was a USAble Life enrollment with need any enrollment just like your employees have and all those same plans and we have a fantastic relationship with USAble. A great many of our clients have USAble. So, we were simply able to begin that relationship with what's called an agent of record letter. Meaning that the employees didn't feel a change. It was me merely the way the the administrative side got lift. And then as we approach the fall, we will be doing some group education meetings
030that will help with their understanding of state health plan changes and rate changes for the state as well as voluntary benefits. But that that hasn't occurred yet because we got the group in in December. So, I just wanted to kind of show you what an analogous implementation would be. >> [clears throat] >> With this one, you all asked for us to show ancillary benefits experience and expertise and so we created it kind of like a chart and I think of it as the left side being basic broker services like anybody who does your business no matter whether they're a public sector expert or K-12 expert or not, they should be doing these things on the left. That's baseline. Um what we really feel though that we differentiate and bring a value-added proposition that's a package
031is with what comes with the right side. The green side. Um so, everything on the left plus, you know, And have that national footprint and public entity carrier relationships that are quite unique. What that means is [clears throat] when we need to solve a problem or have a legislative change with the way the the plan needs to work because it needs to comply with some change on the state level, we're able to call a carrier and say, "Hey, we have to revise how this is working to match what now they have to do under board policy." Great example of that is when the PPO was passed. The first thing I did cuz I have a long law background besides call Chris with my hair on fire. >> [laughter] >> His was too, but It stayed
032on fire and left. >> [laughter] >> Um was [clears throat] was to say like, "Okay, well, how's that benefit going to coordinate on the disability policy? Are we you know, what are we going to do?" Cuz they're going to get paid for being out on their PPL, what are they going to do on that? So, that's an example of what I mean by bringing in that expertise. I'm not going to read to you everything we do, um but you suffice it to say we're adding a lot of value I think to the relationship and and we do that for every customer. Meaning even a tiny school district is going to get the benefit of these services, not just one of your size. We think that's important and I want to point it out because it's
033our commitment to the space. You know, if we work with you, we know one phone call and you can tell all your neighbors how terrible we did you if we did something that was really not the standard that you deserve. And so, we're bringing that level of commitment all the time. I was I don't want to play from now. No, I sorry, I was just going to say what one of the bullets that I promised we wouldn't read a PowerPoint to you, but the um clinic. Uh I know that was something that we had talked about in our previous meeting. That is one of the things that I do believe also makes us very unique in the fact that we have experience um evaluating that. Not that it's hey, it's absolutely is the recommendation, but
034we have walked through that a lot of with a lot of our clients. So, that's one of the things that differentiates us. Yeah, the closest one to you that has a clinic that we put in in this shared site model that that Wes is talking about it was Warren County schools and government. They share a clinic that we put in and it's really solved a problem with having care and returning to work quickly and then they do their some drug screens and things like that at the clinic as well. Can I add one thing? One of their bullets there said something about the My Benefits Channel. We are a part of that. Yep, and we do have a side where we'll talk about that in a little bit more depth as well and how that
035we have a partnership with My Benefits Channel that comes along with our service package. What you're seeing on the slide right here, this is one of the things that I have loved about Gallagher since day one that we came. I think in the insurance community, you know, there's uh you know, people never talk about compensation or commissions and that is absolutely not Gallagher's philosophy. If we're going to come in and we're going to you know, work with a school system, we want people to know how we're compensated. So, every single year if there's insurance commissions like the USAble products or the dental vision, which there are commissions there, we disclose those commission percentages, the lines that we manage as a part of our annual process. We're fully transparent with with that. I think the other
036thing to point out here is that we don't require long-term contracts. There are some vendors in the market that do ask for that, but ours is a one-year agreement. Um So, once an agent of record letter is signed appointing us as your agent, then we do propose typically a written contract with the school district just for 1 year. Most of the Most times, you know, you're not going to know how you really feel for a year anyway or close to it, right? So, it's it's a fair thing for both sides typically. If that's a problem, we're happy to to revise that. I do want to say though that your board attorney has already reviewed that contract, and when we propose something to a school district that we know is Chris's client, we we propose the
037redline version that he marked up already so that we know what you're going to need to mark because we have so many overlapping clients. We We actually got that done, you know, ahead of presenting it to those clients. So, what is this complete partnership? You know, one of the questions is what's in scope and what's an extra cost, and we want to be very transparent always about those things. State health plan support that you've already had kind of testing the waters with us, but really as a service because we committed at TSBA that if any group needed it, we would do it. Was this state health plan support that you already received? That's always no cost. The My Benefits Channel technology, it's technically not free, but it's $99 a year for the premium package, not
038per person. So, that's one time a year that the school district would pay $99 for access to the premium apps. There are some buy-up apps. So, what I don't want you to hear is I don't want you leaving with the misunderstanding that there won't be additional costs beyond $99. That's up to y'all, but the ones that relate to benefits that are part of this package we've put together all come to you for $99. It's our understanding you've already purchased a few of those things through potentially through direct contract with My Benefits Channel and or some things maybe through local government. I do believe that you would enjoy some cost savings or have the ability to apply some of that money to additional services that you might want through my benefits channel, but we did not
039tease that out for today because that that's really between HR finance and the and those parties more than it is us. Um compliance and legal, you know, we have a lot of resources there, but I I do personally a lot of education and support around FMLA, PPO, ADA, Fair Labor Standard Act, and really, you know, tee up questions a lot of times for you to efficiently present to your board attorney. We never act as board counsel. Um we're really careful about that actually, but we will help to get your board counsel in a position to understand, for example, something that is nuanced that's happening within a state health plan so that they can give you the best advice [cough and clears throat] based on the MOU the state required, what your maybe your MOU with
040the teachers says, you know, all the different components so that they are giving complete advice because they're not benefits people. Um so we do a lot of that. Public bid and procurement, we have a lot of experience with public bids. I think that's critical to your understanding because what the law has done recently um has been to push out a change where broker services don't get bid. Um how they get evaluated, kind of like what you're doing, but the plans where you contribute to the cost have to be publicly bid, and there have been audit findings getting issued from um the comptroller's office for not properly doing that. So anytime you're contributing to the cost of a plan, we're going to want to publicly bid that at the next rate increase. Um but we know
041how to do that. Um aside from that, dedicated local Tennessee team we've talked about. And so you would have a representative who is your you know, day-to-day service person with also a relationship consultant on top of that. They're actually two. One is in Knoxville, and then Sandra Lindsey, a key component of our team, will be checking on you regularly as well. And then your day-to-day contact is the person who would be handling all like adds, deletes, and changes to plans and and communicating open enrollment renewals and things like that with with you all. So, with that So, y'all have already experienced a little bit of this. This is the health plan analysis on the left-hand side where we help you take a look at your your budget. Yeah, when the state plan, which you're on,
042they come out with the increase, of course, budgets are always tight. So, we always like to come alongside groups and offer as much or as little help as they want to help them figure out, you know, what that new cost employee employer split is is going to look like. The part that you've not experienced yet is the part on the right. That's just a a quick example there of the employee education. So, ultimately, once a school system decides what the employee and the employer rates are going to be, then part of the education that we would love to be able to do is to take that and then basically, we run through scenarios in our group meetings where we say, "Here are the four plans and here's an example of somebody who just, you know,
043has a prescription, goes to the doctor a couple times a year, and then we compare the cost of the care plus the cost of the premiums and just help people get a good idea of what was the best plan for them." Uh having a baby, having knee surgery, somebody who's managing diabetes, those are all examples that we that we do at the end of the process there and we would love to be able to do that for y'all in the fall. We found that's extremely impactful for um especially for the non-teacher staff that you have. Um you know, if you're serving the district in a bus driver capacity, maintenance capacity, some of that that hand-holding really matters. I think you will experience a lot of positive feedback from that. We have in the past where
044they say, "Oh my goodness, I finally understand how this is working." Because they just don't put in their brains, it's it's small, but it's on the right side it's this idea that it's not just the premium I pay out of every check, it's what it costs me every time I go to the doctor or every time I fill a prescription. And they don't think of all of that. And when we teach them correctly, then what happens is they go, "Oh, well, I might want to I might want to use my flexible savings account a little more to help me cash flow the co-pays. Or maybe I want to use that instead of a vision plan because I don't need contacts all the time, but I do need an eye check once a year." You know
045what I'm saying? So, you we coach them up on how they can best use what you're offering them. That's part of our service model. The wheel on the right is really just to show you that every case has a rhythm, meaning every group has a rhythm. They have, you know, what's happening year-round and how the flow works because renewals on your plans, kind of like what you're in right now with budget season finishing up and then having the state's amounts, we're we're seeing that as a as a cycle within the year. But, that will always have a quarterback. That's a dedicated account manager. We like to pick pick that person based on fit and proximity. So, we you'll we didn't bring a person today because the buck still stops with Wes and me. We're still
046going to have accountability to you. You will see us. We are engaged people, but we don't we're not the person who's going to answer every little, right? So, that balance is happening by that person whose personality fits the team and who's working with that person really well and really closely. And we have more than one. And so, we can talk through who is the better fit. The urgent issues are the same business day, routine is one business day, um and then the direct mobile contact information for me, Wes, Sandra that I mentioned earlier is the relationship person, and the account manager will be available to the admin team at all times. So, for payroll and technology, um my benefits channel is integrated with local government, which is your payroll. That integration through what we do
047on the Ben Admin side with Ben Admin is is a fancy way of saying the system that keeps track of who has what coverage. So, the state has one for your medical plan, but we have one that applies to the rest of the plans, and we keep track of who's on those coverages, and then keep those systems in sync through a couple of things. One of those tools is bill reconciliation services. Now, you all may not need that or want that, but if if the district wants that, we do that service either on a quarterly or monthly basis at no cost. Frequently, groups will use us as a quarterly reconciliation, and then they'll do their monthly on the state health plan and just kind of within [clears throat] that look back period to get a
048credit, use it as a belt and suspenders, you know? Um we still do the needed enrollment the same and all of that, but the technology is allowing you to do new hire communications, existing employee communications. For a small buy up fee, you can do teacher contracts through it. We We don't give that It's part of the package because it's it's a little more um outside the scope of that that offering, but a significant discount applies to doing that through the relationship with us, and then in addition, it'll do total comp statements. You know, you're always fighting that fight of losing a group or losing an employee to Putnam County or losing one to, you know, Rowan or somewhere else, right? But if you show them the total comp, you show them everything you're doing, that
049helps with that communication and understanding. So, because the devil's in the details and we always want to be transparent, we have provided for you a chart of what's included in premium and what's a buy up to premium plus. The far right column is premium plus. You all have some of those things right now, I believe, on your contract, but you will experience savings on what's on the premium package, which is that $99 package. Um if they're in both columns, that means you're not paying for them on the on the second buy up side. Okay? There's also captive AI that is um being offered that's beyond the scope of today, but that is a limited opportunity to be in the first cohort as an organization that your superintendent will be evaluating. And then um mobile app
050for POR requisitions, um as well as a general mobile app for this program. So, with that, we will help automate HR needs. So, think of it like this. I'm not I'm not going to read you every little detailed example, but a new hire comes in the district, they get a welcome email. The welcome email has, you know, "We're so pleased you've chosen to work for Cumberland County Schools. Click the link below, and it's going to take you to your onboarding portal." They click it, it goes into the onboarding, and then as part of that onboarding, we first get a warm body in a building with basic how do we work for a district, you know, your I-9, your W-4, your things like that. And then we layer in a second step for benefits eligible where
051they get another link that says, "Welcome to your benefits enrollment." It has a different deadline because we want them at work before they pick their medical plan, right? We don't want them waiting on everything. That's a It's too long. Um we need them. And so, we get them on into the to the job and then send that that benefits part. And then the benefits part walks them through with a video link. It tell It links out to TCRS's video for those that are eligible for that. Then it walks through, you know, "Here's the voluntary plans. Here's when your dental and vision, you know, will enroll. This is how you're going to get your voluntary through USAble. They're going to come around and do knee-to-knee. Oh, group life happens this way. It's going to walk them
052through that so that they have an understanding of what they have. And it's up to them to do their personal business by the deadline, right? So, that's what types of things this portal does and that is part of the $99 package. That also includes clearance to work like so that people aren't working people in buildings before they the central office knows about it, things like that. >> [clears throat] >> So, um compliance and advisory support we've talked a lot about about this, but because it's responsive to a section, we put a specific slide addressing the section number. We're not going to belabor it other than to say ACA, Cobra, HIPAA, qualifying events, all of those things we got them covered. Um I think you all have even experienced how we'll look at plans and make
053sure contribution strategies are aligned with requirements and things like that. We're we're very particular about all of those items. Yeah, um one of the things that we uh looked at and talked about in the evaluation of your medical plan, uh y'all have a phenomenal uh medical plan. And one of the things that we have done have been very successful at is just coming alongside groups with some of these additional tools and continuing to help support in the education and the communication um side of that right there. So, um you know, we have Rowan County on here again because it was part of the number eight um submission. Um the main point there is it just to talk about uh in the transition if you guys were to select us as your uh your broker, uh
054really there there is no change to your benefit plans. We've been talking about a lot of things that we do, you know, from the onboarding, we have a lot of those tools, but we also want you to know that that all happens at your pace and that's really administratively um focused, but as far as the employees, uh those benefits would remain the same, you know, with USA Bowl, with Delta Dental, with Davis, unless you ever asked us to look at those in the future, but to be able to engage in a relationship, we would propose that those just stay like they are. We have a couple of reference letters. I know that those are small, but you'll also see these in the narrative response there, too. But White County government and Monroe County government and
055schools. Gail is the finance director for for both, and and so is Chad from White County. So, those [clears throat] are two local reference letters that you can take a look at later. And then on the following two pages in response to um Do what? Oh, it's the proven track record. Houston County Schools is one of our most recent groups that we have have taken over. That's a a reference letter from them, and we went ahead and we also included the reference letter from Rome County Schools just cuz we felt like that was relevant, being very similar in the way that they're made up, what their benefits plans, but also because that's your neighbor. And they acknowledge in the letter that it's a young relationship, but that in in the first 6 months they're very
056pleased. I think that the my favorite line that they wrote was they go the extra mile, and that is what I would leave you with. You know, it's [clears throat] our privilege to even be here. We have pursued business with Cumberland County Schools for a long time. This is the first opportunity we've had to present to the board, so I just want to say thank you for that. And you know, however it turns out, we're very grateful for the opportunity. Every every ball you don't throw, you know, you never win the ones you don't swing at, right? To my use my poor baseball analogy that started as a pitch and ended with a swing. But [laughter] yeah, right. Shows you where I'm at, I guess, but um thank y'all for letting us do it, and
057we're happy to take your questions. And we did it in 30 minutes. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> The The written submission contains a lot of repetition because of the way the formatting of the requirements was, but we wanted to be thorough on both. So. Does anybody have any questions for them? Very comprehensive. Thank you. Thank you. Our pleasure. Thank you. >> [clears throat] [laughter] [cough] [laughter] >> Thank you. Okay, that brings us to the next agenda item, evaluations. Stahli, do you have this packet that they all have? Did we upload that? Okay. So, I gave everyone a folder at the beginning, and what this is is this is evidence and things that I have done um for each item that was in my evaluation. Um appendix A I think has 19 different indicators. And then appendix
058B that just has four. Then we go into community relations, that has four. Staff and personnel relationships, that has four. You can see where I'm going with this. Management and operations, student achievements. Performance objectives number two. So this evaluation is a combination of the document that was created. Um with me and Ms. Stou and TSBA. It also is a combination of some of the goals and items from the strategic plan. So you have a pack that looks like this. And that's specific things that I have done. And then you have this and it's it says it's a comprehensive evaluation summary. So that's kind of a summary of all of these individual pages. And to save just a few trees I have all of that and that is more specific information like if I say that
059I email then there's going to be email proof in here. So you all can um >> [snorts] >> check that out, do whatever you need um for that notebook. But I really didn't see a need in making eight. No. I mean you know I might save one tree. So um I think you all probably have received a survey I guess from TSBA. I don't know. I know some of the admin has because they have told me. Um I haven't seen, don't have a clue what any of it looks like. But know that it has been sent out. We've received it with the request that it done no later than the 29th of this month. >> Okay, so then um um maybe instead of anybody taking this home, that you can come here and we'll give
060you a room and you can flip through it or do whatever you need to. Does that sound fair to everybody? >> [clears throat] >> Okay. And with that with that request for these items were included in that request for the survey, right? From from TSBA. >> Um no. Well, >> Some of it was. Yeah, not a summary. >> items that you Yes, the summary. The items that you all have given, they have been sent to Macy as well at TSBA. Yeah, so we got them electronically, which I had asked Ms. Diane to print off for me, so I'd have it in paper form, but then you did the same thing as well. So, we maybe killed one extra branch. >> Okay, at least it wasn't a whole [laughter] tree. At least it wasn't [clears throat]
061a whole tree. Yep, so it's in there. Okay. And we'll need to make sure everybody gets that done by their requested time frame. And we will leave this in Ms. Diane's office, so if you need it, just let us know. >> [clears throat] >> Do you Have you received any feedback from them on how many board members have I haven't, but I haven't reached out to them. Um I can reach out to Macy and ask her. Okay. Maybe maybe a reminder if if we don't have many I don't I don't know if anybody else has responded. I have, but I have, yeah. Yeah. Just trying to get a feel for if everybody's responded or working on a response. They've in the past when we've had them [clears throat] handle the surveys for us, we haven't
062had them handle the evaluation, but the surveys, they'll let us know you're coming up on the date and we still have so many remaining, please submit them. Next on that same agenda item is the board evaluation and and we've not received that yet at this point. So uh I had asked Mr. VanWinkle before the meeting started if you all had received anything because they haven't said anything to me. So what I will do tomorrow is I will reach out to TSBA and ask them about what we need to do and how I need to proceed or and what to get your all's evaluation started as well because uh that is a May item I do believe in the annual planning calendar. Which has a big fat red box right now which does mean saying. >>
063[snorts] >> So that then So that is uh hopefully coming up in the next week or so. We'll see that. >> I will do is what I find out tomorrow will be in your Monday email. Okay, thank you. Mhm. I know they have that prepared. They just have to send it out, right? It it was prepared the last time we took it. >> assume yes. Mhm. Okay. All right and I know we added uh the budget as the next item. Mhm. Maybe just an update. I know everybody's probably aware of what's going on with the budget, so So um we presented the budget on May 12th. Uh they have tentatively approved our budget as it was presented. Um and we will be working uh Miss Delcom myself will be working closely with Miss Turner, the
064county finance director, to make sure that we have um our amounts uh from this year when we get our final uh allotted to see exactly how much we're going to need for next year. We'll need to make sure that our TEEZA amount uh that we got this year is on there. I don't think it is. I think we've just been putting projections. So that's going to be a little bit more, so that gap won't be as large as what we thought. And then, uh we did get some insurance numbers today. I think between 7 and 1/2 and 8% increase. Uh Huh? 8.7. So, um that was a little bit better than what we had anticipated, which is always great news as well. So, we will be making some updates, and I think we'll close that
065gap. Um but, uh very excited and very appreciative that um it was approved on the first reading. So, once those numbers are finalized and input, then it goes back before the budget committee again before going before the full commission. Is that right, or are we going to go To my knowledge, no. I was thinking it would go to full commission, then when Ms. Turner [clears throat] said what she said at the end of the budget meeting, I thought it sounded like we might have to come back in front of >> No, we will not have to. We'll just work with her, and then we will work with her to present our final numbers to the full commission. Fabulous. >> the budget committee will see what the where we had question marks next to some of
066those. Mhm. As we clear those up, that will probably go to budget committee, but that shouldn't be where anybody has to go redo anything. I cuz they've already approved it, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. Just as a just as a FYI bit. And they did approve it 9 to 0. Everybody voted for it. Unanimous. Fabulous. Anything else [clears throat] on the budget, anyone? >> I don't have anything. All right. So, that brings us to the the middle school projected plan. I think just one thing on that. I think um looking at some of the six sigma things that we've that we've seen over the past several months. The next [clears throat] the next item on those lists, which is what we do where I work as well, is voice of customer, and that's what Dr. Farley's
067prepared for us here, so. So, um the committee has kind of um accomplished what their goal was, which was to give us options by the end of the school year. So, they have done that. So, um that would be two new schools, and um if you were at the budget meeting, you heard Ms. Small tell the whole or tell the budget committee, uh "Hey, this is coming down the pike. Let's get ready. Let's try to uh get a plan together." Um I don't know that they found humor in my um my joke about uh Mr. Chamberlain said that he could build us a school for 50 million instead of 60. So, I told them that would be a savings of 20 million. I don't know that they appreciated that humor. But anyway, so [clears throat]
068uh the choices that we uh gained from the cause and effect matrix was to build two new schools. So, obviously some questions is there, "Okay, where are you going to build two new schools?" Just a reminder, we do have the land at the Baker's Crossroads. Obviously, uh huge concern for building two new schools is going to be cost. Uh another um option there is one new school and one retrofit. Again, where are you going to do that? Where are you going to build a new school? Uh to retrofit two existing schools. Obviously, then you're going to have to decide where which ones I mean. >> [snorts] >> Uh and then one high school and one middle school uh was an option as well. So, as he said, we want to get customer feedback. So, I
069think how we do that is we open up the schools. Um and I've given us three options here. Number one, we could visit every school in the county. Go to every community school. Or we could visit schools in groups. Um and I've kind of tried to if you take back roads, try to uh pair them somewhere close together and make uh one location and you can see the options that are there. Um and then or just visit the two high schools and let people come to them. Um and then the timeline for this, you know, um the beginning of the year is a great time. I know it's a little bit hectic, but it's a great time because everybody's still excited and has enthusiasm for different things. So, let's go out in August and get
070these community comments and then we would compile the comments and feedbacks, you know, kind of categorize them. Do that by September. Um and then uh determine and we would have October and the November work session to talk it out and then uh determine which option we would choose. Let's do that by our December the 4th board usually December 4th 5th board meeting and then by January go and present to the county commission. This is what we've chosen and this is why and we would have all of the information to back that up. And then obviously we would want cost for that option. We would want the effect each would have. So, what's this going to look like for our school buses? What's this going to look like for uh nutrition? Uh how many kids, if
071we retrofit, how many kids are going to be displaced? Um and then just the estimated cost of each one and each aspect it's going to affect uh and then that should be uh number of students displaced, not disciplined. Sorry about that. So, uh but those are kind of the committee did their job and I felt it was my responsibility next to try to come up with a plan to lead us to our next step. Um this is not set in stone. I am open to suggestions, criticisms, trash it, let's start over, whatever you all want to do. >> [clears throat] >> It looks good. It was great that the committee came back with the suggestions and we've talked a little bit about how we might want to communicate it to get the stakeholders involved going
072forward. So, I mean all of this seems like it's in line. The timeline seems What? Okay. Well, reasonable and you know, one that can be met. Mhm. Is there I guess is there a plan on on how to uh solicit the voice of the customer on advertising this and Okay, so obviously it would be on our Facebook page, it would be on our website. If we start this in August, then we would be back in school. So, we could have the schools uh share that out with Parent Square as well. They could put it on their Facebook page. Um I can do a Parent Square call myself. Um The newspaper. Oh, I well, hopefully hopefully the newspaper could help us out. We might know somebody. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> And then I I think probably
073the cost of each option should be something that that maybe should be provided to those customers too. Before. a rough estimate at least. Okay. And um I have spoken to uh Dylan uh with McKinstry um and they would be willing to help us with that as well. Okay. I think that would be that would help with the with the feedback from from everyone in the community as to know how this is going to affect our taxpayers, how it's going to affect our students. Okay. Those those those middle school additional information bullets there would be helpful and and >> During the meetings. Yes, during the meetings. Yes, during the presentation and meetings. So, I will have June and July that I can get that ready and I hopefully will have it by the July meeting so
074I can share it with you guys. I know that's going to be hard to get all of that detailed. So, high level at least maybe. Just Mhm. Yeah. And then we'll have a bus schedule that we'll be able to sort of I know that'll be a big question Yeah. how long will they have to be on bus that change and I know you can't go out and get firm quotes on you. This is what I'm getting at. >> Yeah, correct. Um no. No, it would be estimates. Just ball park >> [clears throat] >> They know what we're dealing with when we're looking at all of this. Yeah. >> [snorts] >> Any other questions, comments? I was encouraged by calling him up at the meeting though. Oh, yes. Yes, me too. How we can be involved
075with them. Mhm. She said that. Mhm, that was nice. Yep. I would ask you guys to be thinking how you want to do this. That's why I gave you all the three options. You know, do do we want to visit every school in the community? Do we want to group them together? Do we want to do three high schools? You don't have to tell me an answer obviously to not, but just something to be thinking about. I like the grouping idea. Mhm. Me too. I'd say that. Okay, is there anything else on any of this? There a contract company that does this like Wayne Brogdon King Street? Do they do these kind of things. Pervasive. Um I I I think, if I remember correctly, um >> I was thinking that there was >> Lean Frog
076Lean Frog what he said in that presentation that night, I think he does do something kind of like that. Um I think he also said um if they did the C&E matrix, which we've already done here ourselves, or if they did a demographic study, um I think he said either one of those would be Was it 15 or 30? I think it was 15. >> 15 apiece and 30 for both. If you do one The other is what it would be Yeah. Yeah, and they would they'll actually do the voice of customer and everything, so it it would probably be in the format of a survey, though. It wouldn't be uh which, you know, we might have to do that, too. I don't know. We may not. >> thinking they said something about going to
077the communities and doing it. They They did say that, but They said they could. They also said that sometimes there was nobody at the meeting, I think, too, so we may >> that wasn't the most effective way to do it. Mhm. And we may see that, too. Um and maybe I'm looking at this wrong. Um but I want to be a part of this. I want to be a face. Right, wrong, good, bad, somebody for them to throw their rotten tomatoes at. I want to be a face for the people to see. After we do our thing like this, if we [clears throat] see we want to do the other, we could. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This might not be very short, probably. That's what Yeah, >> [clears throat] >> but then it might
078be a lot. Our hope is it'll be packed. I'm thinking it will in some places, anyway. It It will. Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Anything else on middle schools? Okay. Just wanted to say I get a lot of questions about it for the last year and a half. Don't have all the answers. We're working on it. We're looking at it. If you have questions, come to me, to ask her. Contact one of us. Some of them do. I think once we put this out there, there'll be more feedback. I get stopped in the grocery store and things like that. I'm sure you do, too. Um A lot of questions. Maybe we can answer most of Miss Diane, can you download the capital projects first? Thanks. So, this is the sheet that you've been getting along
079the way in um in your Monday emails. Uh we have finally updated it and the last column that it's updated is in purple. Um I think it's been a pretty productive year. We've been able to get several things done. Um Martin Electrical, I do meet tomorrow um with um Mr. Eberhart and I meet with Mr. Chamberlain uh to get more specifics about exactly uh what that's going to look like. Um instead of closing for the entire summer, looking at 1 month, can we have sections opened and um all of those things. So, again, that'll be more information that you'll receive Monday in your email. [clears throat] Homestead Electrical, as you know, that's on our capital um items for next year. So, that's been moved. Uh North Renovations, uh Miss Bray and um met with uh
080Miss Allen and she's picked out her colors and we will be moving their um child care program to Stone Elementary for the summer so they can be doing their remodel and that is on schedule to start as quick as school gets out. Same thing for South gym floor, that's going to take place because the entire floor, it's not, you know, just where they're taking up the floor to lay down new wooden pieces. The whole floor and the ground will be exposed. I mean, completely gut job there. Uh working on Martin's drainage. You all should have seen in your email this past week uh the McKinstry update and they were able to camera the the lines there as well. Um the track, that's on schedule to start. I don't know exactly if I can't see that
081date, but I think we're getting ready to start. And uh we uh Ms. Bray has been doing some work with um the fire alarms as well. >> [clears throat] >> I thought it looked like CCHS fire alarm was going to be signed off on the 13th or 14th of this month. Is Is that Did we get it? Is it done? >> Close? Okay. Okay, close. And then the Excel and the brown roof, those are items that's been completed for a long time now. Uh Martin pickup align is complete and the tennis courts uh it has to be above 68° for so many days before they can do the work there. Any questions on the um capital outlay? >> [snorts] >> So next is number 10 and that's the naming of facilities. Um This will come
082before One of these will come before you next week to be approved, and that is the CCHS softball field. They're wanting to name that for Miss Hyder. Uh they have completed all of the paperwork, um and we do have that. Uh they're wanting to name it for her because she was a softball coach there for many, many years. So, um um Player who? Yes. [clears throat] So, uh that will be something we will be asking you to vote on next week. Uh I do want to let you know uh the Martin Library, uh we have also um been given that. Um Mr. Van Winkle and I have executive approved that. They too have turned in all of their paperwork. Um they're wanting to name it after Kathy Kathy. She was a librarian that was at
083Martin for many, many years. Um and they're wanting to go ahead and do this before the end of the school year. Um Miss Kathy is sick, and we're wanting her to be able to be there and be a part of that. She was at the original librarian at Martin, and was there 42 years. Wow. Amazing. She stayed with the building, did Yes, she did. >> [laughter] >> Literally. Mhm. So, next is Attendance on Demand. Um I think that some of you have been getting some um some calls and uh some complaints about Attendance on Demand. Um this is our HR uh payroll system that we've been using. Uh we went to it um we started here at Central um at the beginning of the school year. And, um, the food service department was using it
084and us, and then, uh, in January, uh, Phoenix, Stone Memorial South, and Pleasant Hill, we added them on board. And then, in May, the rest of the schools came on. Um, we have some schools that are in validation period, and that's Martin, Cumberland County High School, and Transportation. Um, so, uh, as with anything, there's growing pains. When they chose this payroll system, um, we had three options. This was chosen September of '24. There was three options that we could use. Um, we had to be mindful that we had to pick something that would work with local gov. And of our three options, we have Attendance on Demand, which is what we have now. We have >> [clears throat] >> we had one program that did not work with local gov. So, that was scratched. And
085then, we had, um, one that worked with local gov, but it didn't work with schools. So, obviously, um, that left us one. Um, and it's a work in progress. Uh, when you first start, it's really, really rough. And we've had, uh, a couple of schools that have just finished a cycle of this with payroll, and I think that they've had some struggles. Um, we have some training videos. Uh, if folks have been in need of help, uh, they've called HR, and they've answered questions, answered emails. Um, I have double-checked. Um, their concerns have been answered, uh, within 24 hours. Um, so, that's kind of the spiel I have. Uh, County Finance really likes it. We have been meeting, um, since September of last school year, weekly. Uh, our folks have as well as the county
086finance folks have been coming over and we meet with our AOD folks online. If we find an issue or a problem, uh, one week maybe we can tell them they will work on it to kind of tailor make it and get it what we need and where we need. Uh, one issue that I have and I have addressed this is the number of days for teachers. Uh, the number of hours, I'm sorry, for a teacher. Uh, 7 and 1/2 is not an option and that's what most of our teachers work. And uh, 3.75 is not an option if a teacher takes a half day. And I've I reached out 2 weeks ago to Ms. Neely, uh, Jolly, our HR person and said that that needed to be fixed. And I don't know where they are
087on getting that fixed, but I will be happy to try to answer any questions that you all have. Uh, Ms. Turner did write a letter endorsing the program, the finance director, um, and she kind of explained the process along the way. So, I've had several questions directed to me about this this system. Um, [clears throat and cough] it seems like a almost like a retrofit for for our system versus something that was designed for our system. So, are we just building it as we go? Is that how it's happening? Kind of. Like when we're finding issues, like I said, we reach out to them in those weekly meetings and they work to get it fixed. How how is everyone being included in that and and I think some something that I've I've talked to some
088people that have been using it for a while >> Mhm. that are kind of accepting of the challenges that it has, but they're used to dealing with it at this point, but it's still not still not perfect, right? >> Correct. And and that they have they have some learnings that they feel like they could share with some of the new onboarding that's going on. Um has anything been done to to bring those people together and maybe do cross train? We haven't at this point and um so as I said, South was one of the first schools. Mhm. And um Miss Elmore at South, uh she's one that came up with some cheat sheets and when she came up with them, she would just automatically share them with the other folks that she knew. Uh but
089no, um and with us adding the last ones on here at the end and as crazy as as it's been, we haven't been able to do that. We would be happy to bring everybody together once it we get finished with the school year and and we're still working on those days maybe that those ladies have. Um but you know, some schools use um the receptionist. Uh some schools use the bookkeeper uh to do it. So and they work different schedules, but we would be happy to get everybody together and let them share what they've learned and Best practices maybe or something. Yeah, so I I I feel like, you know, some of the concerns are legitimate like over the summer those employees that are managing this now are not going to be working. You you
090still have 260 day employees that are going to be clocking in and clocking out, taking sick leave. How is that going to be managed? Uh just some legitimate concerns that I feel like maybe bring everybody together and and see if there's ways to fix that. I know uh with my work I approve hourly time as as well as have worked with salaried personnel, too. Mhm. Um >> [snorts] >> I have to I have to manage that whether I'm at work or whether I'm not at work sometimes. Uh or I have to delegate it to somebody else that can. Um right now there's there's employees that feel like they don't have that option at this point. So Yeah, that was that was one of the one of my concerns in in talking with some of the
091ladies that that are been dealing with the system. Some of them that have been dealing with it since January, they're in love with it now. Um but at the same time, it's only them and maybe the principal that even know how to how to work it or approve and and all of that stuff. My concern was that um they are if if they're the only one that can take care of this on a day-to-day basis then we need we're not paying forever money for them to be on call forever for them every time >> to be the only person, you know, every hour of the day or whatever, the only one that they can't take a day off with without having to go in at some point and approve time or whatever else, you know.
092back up some Yeah. And you know, and I've said since I took this job last April, July, whenever, one thing that we struggle with is we struggle with making sure we have people cross-trained in lots of things and in this office as well. So, yeah, that would definitely be something we would need to to work on and get fixed. >> Yeah. And I think just the training overall, I mean it one of the things when we roll something out like that and you just I know that they try to do it in the middle of their day or in the middle of everything else that's going on and they're trying to get trained up on this stuff. You know, I feel like and this opens up a whole big door, but um I feel like
093we lack in training a lot of times on programs that we that we roll out or we we pass on. And um >> [snorts] >> you know, if we have to pay overtime and or whatever to make sure that these people can get the proper training to not pull their hair out for a month or two. You know, like Scott was saying, one of the one of the secretaries, she was like in tears over trying to figure this out because she didn't want to mess anybody's time up or make anybody's money. You know, and that's not how we need any of our employees to feel [clears throat] is like they hate their job and want to and just want to, you know, quit because of one program that we put on top of. So. Before
094this was in place, everything was paper. This took the place. This actually put us out of 1980 and put us where we have a database program for timesheets and timesheets, time off, that type of thing. It's human nature to resist change. It's also human nature to hate it until you learn it. Yeah. The new is scary sometimes. But But I think that what their concern was is they didn't get very good training up front for what for the for what all it was. >> [snorts] >> And And so Did they ask questions? Well, and and that's what I mean. That they're one-on-one probably or whatever. They [snorts] They're learning it in the middle of their day trying to figure this stuff out. Is the it this I'm just trying to go back on what I
095was told. They're trying to learn it along with doing the rest of their job. I think anybody's accepting of technology if technology helps. Yeah. So, you know, if you just get technology dumped on you on top of the manual paperwork at the same time, then that feels like, "Hey, I've got a multitude of things to do that I didn't have to do before." >> [clears throat] >> So, when technology is rolled out, there needs to be planning in place when you do it. And that We We go through that with database acquisition, database changes at work all the time. Yeah, it's it's painful to start with. Once you get used to it, everybody loves it. But it's the way it's rolled out Yeah. that that's important. And that's what I took away from the the
096phone calls and things that I was you know if they would have just had time outside of daily work to learn the system it probably would have been a lot easier. There's things that don't fit the system Travis. I think like we're we're using the the time clock system for for um hourly. We're also using a time clock system for salaried employees. So salaried employees don't have to punch in punch out. They have a schedule built in that has to be taken out whenever they're not at work. So now they're turning in a form that they're not going to be there that day and then secretary or bookkeeper whoever's doing this has to go in and manually take that day out and if they don't then somebody doesn't get paid. Substitutes are not built into
097this system either. So they're having to do a work with a substitute system on top of the other two systems at the same time and none of that was rolled out or implemented in a way that made it flow with their day. Yeah. So they're having they're some of them are working at home at night trying to get this done so that people get paid correctly. So And then you kind of got forced into taking that one because it didn't work with anything else. And what we have what we have yeah. That's what I said. I don't think that anybody that's been using it for a while now they're loving it and they and it's just the implementation the roll out of it. I think we could do a better [snorts] job of Uh trying
098to do that. So teachers teachers are supposed to put their time in right? A lot of that falls on us as a board for you know approving overtime or approving training days or whatever we need to do to I mean as far as the board and it we didn't know anything about this software. Well no but now that we do moving forward we need to look at you know how are we budgeting for training for our employees you know. Um especially the the ones that are hourly and this that and the other. It's I don't think it's necessarily any one person's fault. I think it a lot of it falls on it's just one of those things that we expect a lot of our employees already. And this is just one more thing that we
099expected and gave to them. You know what I mean? So >> [snorts] >> And I agree with everything you're saying, but I do want to say too, you know, we didn't just dump this on everybody at once, you know, we we tried to be mindful here. We dealt with it from this office and trust me, I have to go in and approve stuff. I have to go in and approve leave. I have to put mine in. I get it. I understand, you know. Um but you know, we did try to work it out and break it down. Um so we didn't just throw it out to everybody at once. We were trying to get our feet under us and do a few schools at a time. >> Yeah. So, you know, I'm proud of of
100us for that, but you know, as with anything, you always have learning learning curves and problems, though. And sometimes extra time, unfortunately, that ends [clears throat] up being dedicated cuz everybody learns a little differently and some quicker than others and when it's new technology, people who are good with technology can usually pick it up and run and those who struggle with it more, sometimes it takes them a little bit longer. A little extra time gets put in just so they can bring themselves up to speed based on how they learn. Yeah. >> And is it I guess not all schools are implementing it the same way. So you said there were different personnel managing it. >> Because you have like I said, you have a bookkeeper at one place that may be doing it and
101attendance clerk at one and a receptionist, front desk person. So, you know, it just depends on on the the school. >> I would just recommend treating this the way we're doing the middle school. Voice of customer, we get everybody together, what can we do better? How can we collaborate, you know? Just based on the based on the feedback that I've got. That's what I What I can do is I can draft a Google form and send out to those at the schools that are currently using it and see. Yeah, cuz if some are loving it like Jonathan's saying, they may have some good things to share with the ones that are struggling. Well, and you know, I had my classified advisory council and I had two people in there that are in charge of this
102at their school. And to hear them sit and talk about it, it was really neat, you know, and then you had some other folks that their school was just starting. So, you know, they were just intrigued by what they were learning because they didn't know, but they don't work with it every day either. So, but yeah, I can do a Google form about Might be good just to get them in the same room. I mean, you're doing that with third grade teachers for PLCs, right? Well, actually, yes, we are. But actually, we've also done that for every grade level. I'd be good to do that with whoever's managing this, get them all in the room and and get their ideas together. Cuz I I I did hear, you know, some positive things about, "Hey, you
103know, we've got a YouTube video that we're sharing with the teachers." Right. Uh not everybody knows that. So, just getting everybody in the same room might help instead of just saying >> do that on the admin day. Yeah. Uh you know, they might hang me if I called them in the morning and said, "Hey, can everybody come tomorrow afternoon?" I I would I would say plan it just like you would anything else. Yeah. Well, the [snorts] only thing is um I have all day tomorrow. Tuesday's the admin day and Wednesday's the 2-hour day. >> [laughter] >> I didn't say you needed to do it tomorrow. I just said Yeah, I know. And I wouldn't then I mean, you know, I'm just trying to make sure be mindful as Mr. Matthew said of everybody's time and
104and when they're at work. Me, too. That's all I meant. You guys, I'm sorry. I've I've got to [clears throat] get to the Pleasant Hill graduation. Is that the last Excuse me. Thank you, Jonathan. See you. Thanks for coming. >> [snorts] >> All right. Any other questions or concerns on AOD? I had a question. Yes, sir. Do other systems use this? I don't know. I Nobody has given me any information on what other systems use that. Well, if they If some other system's doing it, I've got ideas maybe we could share with those. It sounds like we've got old-fashioned time cards and time clocks integrated in with a system that says we don't recognize 7 and 1/2 hours. Yeah. Mhm. See all kinds of problems there. But somebody if they're using it probably figured this
105out ahead of us. Maybe we can find out what they're doing. Maybe they could come do a training session for And I mean, you know, like I said, this is a learning curve and like one day we we meet weekly with these folks and one day we had Sarah and the next day Sarah was gone. I don't know what happened to Sarah and now we have Bruce. But Bruce has been with the company 20 years and everybody really likes him. So, I guess that's all that matters. >> [cough] >> There's nothing [snorts] else. Anybody else got anything on AOD? Nope. Okay, I will um just put that on the agenda for next week to give you an update as to where we are. Is everybody okay with that? Okay. So, um number 12 regular meeting
106items. These are just going to be the things. We're going to have some minutes that we need approved. Our K9 agreement where the drug dogs come in, that's going to be on there. The North and Strawbridge agreement is there pictures. Uh the SPED shredding services agreement. Our Stellar therapy nursing services, your personnel report, your nutrition report, and then your substitute list. And then we have all of these financials. Um because uh we've been in touch with uh Ms. Turner and Ms. Scarborough and they're telling us these are items that uh we need to make sure that we have cleaned up and this is the last month that we can do that uh in this year. And get everything done by the June deadline for the commission. >> [snorts] >> I had a quick question for
107you um Dr. Farley and this was under the regular meeting items. I'm sorry. >> Um I saw we had a new bus driver that was hired on the employee Okay. >> hiree. So that's good, right? I didn't see one was leaving and I saw one was hired, so I was hoping that was an addition. >> That's a plus one. >> Okay. Okay. So that's good. Um and then we had a lot of resignations and uh retirees that were on the list as well. Are are we going to need to be replacing all those folks? Are some of those Okay. Um and then are we doing at one point we had asked about exit interviews? Are we still doing like exit interviews? >> We always do exit interviews. That's how we get our uh equipment that
108these individuals have, their keys back, their technology back. Yes. >> seeing any kind of a trend or reason for 17 resignations? Is that more than usual? Less than usual? Right on par? Um about the same. About same. Mhm. Number wise it's kind of low. What did you say? Number wise that's kind of low. You know we don't have a lot of turnover [clears throat] People retire, go to other jobs, get promotions, different things. Mhm. It's good to have an idea since we're working on the retention part if there's something district wise that we need to make adjustments with or work on that might help with retention. Any um other questions about regular meetings? And I'm sorry uh Miss Dad, that I jumped ahead and you had a question. >> Anything else from the regular meeting
109items? And again, you'll see those next week uh and then the financials. Is the shredding services that a requirement? So, what's happening is uh our SPED department is going digital. So, they're having to take those files and shred them. So, that that's what that is and everything's having to be scanned one piece of paper at a time. And it's taking like 4 hours to scan in one file. We have to keep those files longer than pretty much everything else because of the age of the child they go to 22 then I can get into statute limitations and everything else but not knowing about shredding but just those files have become not just for y'all but for everybody a real bear. What is What is the What is the retainment policy? So, you have to It's
110kind of all over the map. The state itself, state board of education and TDOE put out a retainment policy but if you look at it it's almost for SPED um almost open-ended at times. I mean because we have to keep the main records kind of indefinitely. Um and then a lot of those what I'd call the related records at least till they're 22 and really years after that for such limitations purposes as well. So, it's We have kids starting at three with pre-K with SPED and then they go to 22. It's there's a lot of records. So, it's that way. So, Dr. Farley's correct. So, also you're going to see some crowdfunding applica- or crowdfunding fundraisers on here. Um and then just uh the normal stuff that you see. You'll have your retirement inventory. Um
111any questions on any of that? Okay. Um our first reading policies, um congratulations to us. We have finished all of our updating policy updated policies this year. Uh the ones that we see on here for first reading, those are policies that have um been given recommendations from TSBA. So, we're cleaning those up and taking care of those. And then our second reading policies, obviously, are the ones from first reading from last month. There was nothing wrong [clears throat] with the way that it was written specifically, but just a little like typo that I saw on 5.403. Um on line 16, it should read tests versus test, if I'm reading it correctly. Um let me scroll down to 16 here. Yeah, tests. Yeah, she's right. Plural. Yeah. So, an employee who tests positive on a reasonable
112suspicion test, Okay. then probably come after that will be in violation of this policy and subject to termination. Ms. Diane, do you have those? Do you have that? Okay. Okay. Any questions about anything thing else or any other The 5.800 Okay. Um This is director schools the only employee directly employed by the board. All others I think we need to add in there the board attorney. Cuz when you go to policy 1.302, it says the board may employ an attorney to represent the board, etc. etc. So, on that, although I'd love to be a W-2, I'm technically a 1099. I'm technically not a vendor. So, I think that that language for employees comes from 49-2-203 and I would actually call that employees word they are an outdated outdated term that we're still using but the
113statute itself has not been updated. So, I I'm I have no problem if you all want to update that but I'm I don't I don't it's technically not correct that I'm an employee. So, we should go back to 1.302 and change the word employee to contract. >> Contracts with, yes sir. That's correct. 1.302 Contract, got you. >> There's a reason they do it that way and I'm that's why I'm not criticizing it's an outdated statutory term. So, please know we will get that We'll get that changed and then that'll be on there for first reading. >> Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah, I appreciate it. >> [laughter] >> I'm just trying to make sure those two are consistent with you. inconsistency I hadn't caught that to me to be honest. Yes, sir. Anything else? Um I was
114going to ask on a 6.403 Okay. There's a mark through that referenced line number three and line number three is not there. I didn't know what that was previously referencing. It's a if the student is confirmed to have a long-term communicable disease, the principal shall refer the student to special education services and it references number three. Was that was that a statute that has been taken out or I would have to research that because right off the top of my head, I don't know. So, I I didn't know what it was referencing to ask but there there's no number three at the bottom so We had this to come up. We had this to come up last time and what this is why that we had so many changes is we've updated our procedure manual
115as well and a lot of these children that that we run into with communicable diseases it they go on homebound. So, that's why a lot of that has changed. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. But, I can definitely look at that. Yeah, I can ask Miss Holton. I was just I was just worried about it it references the TCA and that That same line. Okay. And see, like I said, the reason that it says special education services is if you're on homebound, it's through the special education department. Okay. And then And I had one other question in May on our on our planning calendar, and I missed this when we were making the agenda, but it it has two policies to review there approve. One's tuition fees 6.204 and the other is travel compensation rates at
1162.804. And those weren't on the those weren't on the policy review, and I didn't know if We may have We may have already done them. We may have already done them. Okay. Okay, so they're a complete on the cap planning calendar now. Okay, thank you. That's That's the only >> we got to update that. What day? >> [clears throat] >> So, all of those that were in there were were already reviewed basically. Okay, thank you. That's all other questions I have. Anything else? Nothing for me. Anybody anything else? Okay, then we're ready to adjourn. Okay. I need to Yes, me. I need to borrow you all for a quick legal update in closed session. Okay. It shouldn't be too long at all and we'll just go into closed session for that in whatever room you
117tell me to go. My office, please. That will work. But I will not keep you all long. It's We will need to come back and adjourn after that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We need to adjourn after that. We can adjourn now. You can adjourn now. The public The public works session is over. Okay. Okay. All right. Adjourn. Meeting adjourned. Okay.