001meeting will come to order. You join me for a moment of silence pledge. [Music] Thank you. Blue 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. [Music] Like to welcome everyone here tonight. Appreciate you coming out on a nice sound effects are free. Exactly. I don't see any elected officials. See a lot of important guest here. Glad to have you. Roll call, please. Miss Dole here. Mr. Van Winkle here. Miss Nigel here. Miss Stout here. Miss L here. Here. Mr. Davis. Mr. Matthews. Mr. Gold here. Mr. King here. Let it show Davis and Matthew were not present. Thank you. Just to set a good example, I'm going to turn my phone off. Maybe the lightning won't
002find its way into me. I hope cuz my phone's but it's off. So, okay. Declaration. Per Tennessee code 492-202 board of education members who have relatives per the statute relative means spouse parent-in-law child son-in-law daughter-in-law grandparent grandchild brother sister uncle aunt nephew niece or any person who resides in the same household as you employed by the system are asked to raise your hands to identify yourself. Do you certify that the vote you will make tonight will be in the best interest of the school system regardless of the effect that your vote may have on the employee of your relative or relatives? I do. I do. I do. Let the record show Mr. Cole, Mr. King, and Mr. Van Winkle. Thank you. So, we need to approve the agenda. Is there a motion? I move to
003approve. Second. Those in favor say I. I. So the eyes have it. I'm sorry. Was there any discussion? We're through with that. So community comments, there aren't any tonight. You want to stay? Yes. Our director schools contract first draft. I want you to have a copy in front of them. Mr. King, did anything change since the email came out? Okay. There will be one thing that I will note that we might want to change when we start discussing it though. Our attorney pointed out our attorney is here tonight. Oh, okay. Uh, Mr. Mr. Chairman, I'm make a motion to approve the contract draft one as it's written with the exception of the legal piece the attorney needs to discuss with us. Okay, I'll second that. Motion and second, Mr. Cole. Uh, this is same contract
004that we've looked at for 6 months now or so. Yeah, just a different name on it. I have full faith that Dr. Farley will lead the school district the direction it needs to go for the benefit of our children. Okay. Know how much work's been put into it and I appreciate your time and effort on both negotiations. Mr. Chair, I have some objections. Um I agree with everything that um Mr. Cole just mentioned. Um I believe in looking at the contract in comparison to um other districts, what's being done across the state and looking at Dr. Farley's experience and tenure and education level that it is well in line. Okay. Other comments, questions? Questions. I have some objections about um why we changed it from 2 and 1/2 years to four years and um the
005idea that um we should pay 135,000 right off the bat. I know she has a doctorate and has worked for this system for a long time, but um a term of 125,000 would be more reasonable and then we could work our way up. And uh I have questions about um um the the scented bonus. I'm sorry I've not been able to get here to discuss these things with y'all, but I have been sick and um questions about that and um the $600 a month uh payment for um the um the use of her own car. Couldn't we better uh use that $600 to pay on a new car for anybody in central office to use and do the work that they need to do like we used to have. And um [Music] the idea that
006we're going to pay for two civic organizations, I don't agree with that. Um, I don't think we've ever done that before to my knowledge. Um, talking about the membership. Say again. Membership fees. No, the membership the the the toss in that but to a local organization like Dan or Rotary or something. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. Um, and um, I think that was the only things that I was concerned about. Yeah, I've got those down here to answer for you. Thank you. Are there other questions? I have some, Mr. Chairman. Um, so I have a concern about the period of four years. Um, I feel like that um, and I know the purpose of that is to create stability. First of all, I want to say that I feel like Dr. Farley's done an excellent
007job in the interim and I and I'm in full support of her in this position. Um, just some questions about the contract, but so the four-year term I feel like is uh in there to create stability, but I think what really creates stability is a plan and executing a plan. And just just making a contract for four years does not do that. And we don't have that plan in place right now. And I feel like you need to hold hold this director, no matter who it is, accountable to execute a plan. And and I guess reward that execution of that plan over time. Uh providing a 4-year contract does not does not provide that accountability. And if we don't have a a good plan in place and and execute it, now the board's going to
008be in a situation where they're they're trying to hold somebody accountable uh and saddle the community with a 4-year contract that we're going to have to So that that's a concern of mine and I I'm not I'm not questioning Dr. Farley at all. I'm just questioning the contract and I' I've done that from the beginning. The second thing that I have is uh the automo bill allowance. We we already have a policy in place for all of our school employees. Um I don't think the director's position should be any different than any other school employee. Um we we should just follow that policy for everyone that's employed by the by the school system in my opinion. um that's uh covering expenses uh per the IRS standard. So uh the the third thing that I have
009is the incentive bonus. So we've we've um we've discussed that we don't have a good evaluation for the director of schools in in place right now. We we've talked I mean I've even requested that we have a committee to to work on that and we haven't done that to this point and we still don't have anything other than a survey that's based on feelings and not facts and I feel like that we need that in place um before we start to uh incentivize and provide bonuses for scoring. Um, so that definitely will be something that will be in place before the annual meeting that needs to be done in the next few months because yes, Dr. Farley needs to know question about what the expectations are that are being laid down for annual review um
010and for us to hold those accountabilities and have the proper discussions with her over the course of the year so there's no surprises. So, um, I think this piece in here is from a lot of discussions that that we've had, and again, I wasn't part of the negotiations, but just from my point of view, this piece in here is from a lot of the discussions we've had for putting incentives in for making the proper progress with the and we do need to have in order to do this a good review in place. I think we're close to being there. We just need to find get it finalized, make some adjustments, and get it finalized. I think some of my concerns there that I don't know I don't know how this is going to go but
011I don't think it needs to be in the contract because I think it it needs to be external from the contract. We're not we're not looking at the school level, which we should be looking at the school level. And you know, if we want to incentivize meeting a certain uh score requirement for third grade reading and outcomes or things of that nature, that's not in the evaluation at this point, then I you know, I feel like we could incentivize. So another another question I have about this is we have teachers that are level five teachers sometimes every year and they don't they don't get a bonus for that. We expect that from our teachers. So wouldn't we expect a level five from our director without a bonus as well. So that that's my issue with
012the incentive bonus. Um but those are the three things that I have. Are there other questions or concerns comments? So, being one who just received the company car, um I can absolutely um support the idea that we do something. I realize we don't have the money to buy a vehicle right now. Um because again, none of us in this room made this mess that we are in. And we are slowly getting a plan together, right, to get ourselves out of this. So, I think that the $600 is nothing to put towards a car that you're putting wear and tear on every day because I know I drove mine 220,000 miles into the dirt. So, that is one thing. The other thing is the four-year. I think we have to be brave enough to step out
013and say that we're going to give this four years as an incentive for people to work hard. I mean, you're going to work harder at four years than you are 2 years. You're going to make more of that commitment to follow through. I don't doubt Dr. Farley at Although I wouldn't have voted for her. But at the same time, I think that four years gets us started. We have to start somewhere with a good plan. And I think doing a contract for 4 years gets us a solid director. We don't have a very good reputation, people. Every two years, we're getting somebody new. So, let's get strong with somebody and stand in there. And she's here to work. What'd she tell us? Nobody's going to outwork me. So, I really think that the four years
014is is a good idea. And as far as the rest of that stuff, we're going to get that stuff together, Scott. We are. We're going to do that. This board is going to do that. I I know that we are. We're going to start working as a team and start to get this stuff put on paper. I have a question, I guess, for um Mr. King. Maybe you can answer this. you know, um, Elbert, her her husband works for the school system. How is that going to affect There's a layer of supervision between them. Say again. There's a layer of supervision between them. Okay. So, I think that takes care of the problem of concerns with nepotism. I think that's correct. So there's another supervisor level that rates and supervises that employee. Can I make
015a couple more comments or do you want to address before I rest? Okay. Um, in regards to the, uh, contract term, um, I'm I think that the two and a half years that we originally had in there was being pushed by some of the board members that were concerned. We hadn't settled on that, but that is what had been discussed um, because of the direction that we or lack thereof that we were going in the district. So, um, now that we have a unanimously voted upon director and someone who does have the experience and the commitment, I do not have a problem going as long as 4 years, um, we do have the termination for cause that's in here. So, if it's not being met, then, you know, we can always terminate early. um being
016that the average is 3 and 1/2 years in the state, four years, 3 to four years is in that range there. Um and I agree with Sherry that it would be nice to have a commitment from our end of stability. Yeah. And putting the onus back on the employee to fulfill their needs and requirements in order to meet that contract for the four years and possibly longer, but we're committing to that upfront. um the compensation with the 130 that we're coming in at with or without the bonus is still below the average so statewide for 2425 school year and again we're not looking at 2526 but that's what we're hiring her for. Uh the average salary base statewide is 154749. Middle Tennessee, which we're kind of on the border of these are for districts with
017our student size ranging from 25,000 to 999,000 students. So we're on the higher end of that scale. Middle Tennessee data is uh for the average base salary. And in East Tennessee it's 16058. Yeah. So, we're still on the There's a a clause in there that says that's an average of 6 and 12 years experience, too. Yep. As as a director, an average of 6 years of experience. It's not a clause. It's just saying average years of experience as superintendent overall is 6 years. Average years of experience as superintendent in current district is 5.6 years. And average length of the current contract is 3.6 years. So, um yes. So there may be a little more. So coming in at 130s on the low end and certainly counterbalances 135 135. Um certainly counterbalances that experience that you
018just brought up Scott. Um I don't know how many of them doesn't talk about how many of them have their doctoral or even experience in the educational field like Dr. Farley has. So I think we're well within that even on the low end a little bit. I would really like to see some kind of uh bonus for performance in here. If we don't feel that we have it dialed in well enough um with the the 4.5 the way that we've got it worded in there, that might be something that we come back and revisit. I I think tying some kind of bonus in to either reading, math, both. You know, a couple of the pinnacle areas that we really want to see improvement on our district would be a great way to set an example.
019I think I've mentioned in meetings before that I'd love to see something like that for our teachers as well. Um something to set apart the ones that are really going after it and doing a great job. um rewarding them for it. Yes. Rather than everybody just getting the same thing regardless of the kind of work that they do or the effort that they put in. Um so I think that starts with the director if we're if we're going to look at doing something like that for our district. And there's a lot of examples across the state where districts have done that. Um, regards to the car, I I could go either way on whether we purchase the car for the district and it's for her use and possibly um other employees on a limited basis,
020central employees on a limited basis or a car allowance. But I do think for somebody who's going to be using their car regularly for school duties, um there should be something afforded to the director of the district beyond just mileage that we would give to other employees in the district. as part of the compensation package. And I'm not sure on this um the contract all the way through, we've had two local uh groups or associations that we've had in the contract that we said we were going to pay for. So that's not something that changed with Dr. Farley's. That's been in the contract the entire time. So I'm not sure um if that was I would need to go back to Mr. Steppp's original, but I think that's something that we've it seems like we've
021always had it in there. the two professional ones we've had, but not the two local ones. It's been in every contact contract draft up to this one. So, that's not something new for Dr. Farley. That was in the previous ones that we had hashed out. I don't have um an issue with the term of the contract um or the incentive bonus separately, but to combine them right now, given the fact that we do not have that plan in place, um I'm a little hesitant on. Um I'm not saying that they're not good numbers. um that it's not a good incentive bonus. um just that not having that plan it what is the exact you know would we and goal that we're trying to hit uh is is this something that in your experience and I'm
022trying to remember for some of the TSBA training can we come back and do that bonus as a separate as a separate piece versus putting it in the contract right now and then once we get the valuation dialed in the way that it needs to to be. Um, and then kind of come back with Dr. Farley and figure out what would be good bonus levels. Something I've seen done in other districts is I think we've had this discussion before is every December bring up the evaluation, bring up the performance and and give a a raise, not not a bonus, but a raise on the salary for the upcoming contract year rather than rather than add it as a bonus. So it would be it would be a salary increase instead of a bonus. Mhm. Or
023we could offer a bonus each year. Yeah. Increase or both or neither. Yeah. You you can do either one. Absolutely. But I I don't know what we're going to be grading on right now because the evaluation Yeah. is is not in place. And I can see the point of, you know, we don't want to put something in the contract for the what she needs to meet in order to get that bonus if that's not really where we need to land in order to drive the results. Well, then also if we don't have it already in place, then she doesn't know what she's trying to work towards. And then when we do go ahead and get that in place, well, maybe she's not agreeing to, you know, the goals that were set. So just not having
024that piece, you know, nailed down yet, I think, um, it would be good for us to go ahead and be able to, um, revisit that on, you know, once we get it done, and then in December, you know, if we can get that done by September, which is what we're we need to do, what our policy says we need to do, um, then maybe we can come up with some kind of bonus structure from that because we'll be working with her on all of that to come to an agreement. Okay. So, as far as the term of the contract, the reason that I believe we need to go with a 4-year contract is we're not drawing somebody from out of the world that we don't know. Dr. Farley has got a proven track record in
025Cumberland County Schools and has had great successes here. So, we're not really rolling the dice on our director. We know who she is. Secondly, the community wants some continuity, wants some stability. I want stability for the director that is driving the school system that's educating my children. I think anything less than four years puts that in jeopardy. As far as compensation goes, I also don't want the director that's leading the school district that is educating my children to be the best deal on the shelf. Very rarely have I ever found in life that you don't get what you pay for. Um, like any employee, they need to be appreciated both in in support and financially because a happy employee will stay with you and stay loyal. As far as the vehicle goes, I can go
026either way with that. Uh I've been for the district-owned vehicle, which obviously there's some um benefits for for others at central office. You know, if it could be used under Dr. Farley's direction appropriately, I think that would be an ideal situation and I've voiced that. But for whatever reason, that's not what was negotiated between the chairman and Dr. Farley. So if the preference is to not have the department owned vehicle, then I'm okay with that, too. We don't want to buy something that's not going to be used. But so that's that's my two cents on it. Well, let me go through some of these things here on the term four years. I agree with what you've said. I think if there's a reason not to go four years, it would be for cause dismissal that
027we would go to. We don't need to be thinking about buying anybody out. There's a reason or there's not. And I think to say less than 4 years, we're saying up front, we're not planning to keep you 4 years. [Music] We've got an awful long list of people that we didn't keep at two years or two and a half or whatever. And I think to show the community that we're serious, you need to go with four-year contract. That's my part. 135. Last week when I asked you what your parameters were, where the number 135 came out, I believe it's on the front page of the Chronicle. Yep. Yeah, we know that it is. and that's the minimum, but she's not she's saying 135 is good with her. I don't know if she'll agree to that
028with these other things taken out. We'll have to see. I think we'll take a vote in a minute. See, take a recess and ask her. We can come back. But far as the auto allowance or automobile, I think she can go either way on that. Sh. Can you explain closer? his mic closer. I've got the idea that pretty much she won't be in favor of the vehicle itself. She we we'd buy it, but I don't think she'd use it. So, I don't know why we'd do that. She likes her car, right? She's got a She's got a four-wheel drive and she likes it. Yeah. Think she'd prefer to stay in it. civic organizations that's local ones like Rotary or Civotan or whatever. I don't think that's a deal breaker either, but I think that addresses
029most things y'all said. You've talked about them. So, I'll go back to the motion maker. You willing to make any amendments to your motion? I would amend my motion to exclude the incentive piece. Okay. So we can do that separately once we've had time to get that plan in place for such. So you're set on the term that you said 4 years 135 the auto you can go either way. Yes sir. Okay. Right now it's written in as 600 months. Is it stopped? You want to leave that? Yes. Okay. Then the two civic organizations was questioned by we'll leave those or take them. Leave them. I feel it's important that our director of schools is involved in community organizations and I also know that most of those have very minimal fees. Yeah. Very minimal impact
030on that but allowing her to interface with the community community. And there's a lot of people represented in those organizations in our community, a lot of stakeholders. Now, before we vote, let's go through this page by page real quick. We've highlighted the things in blue that are changes or additions to fill in, and we've said that number five, the incentive bonus. You want to hold off on on your motion? Yes, sir. Okay. Then uh on the third page and see anything that was different fourth page get to the fifth page. I believe it is item 19x tenure and transfer. [Music] If you take and look at the second sentence in that starts with as consideration for the waiver of tenure rights strike all of that to the bottom that's something that we had advice on
031from the attorney after this was published so I think that's part of this deal is that okay with you motion maker yes sir one other thing I might add if you go back a page page four this is pointed out by the school. Just to be clear on everything, if you look at the performance evaluation section, it talks about annually pursuant to board policy no later than the June board meeting beginning in June 2025. Uh in each calendar year, thereafter the terms of the contract, the board shall evaluate the director's performance. Y'all have already had the June 2025 full board meeting. So, do we need to make that July or August? I was to make it July if you were having a July board meeting. So that way that would set the precedent that in
032June of 2026 would be the evaluation for Dr. Barley. Okay. So I changed those two June dates to July. Change the second June date to July. The first one can stay okay. June 2026 on the first one. I say or you can say June 2026. Yes. E either we're July 2025 or June 2026 because either would interpret that it will happen June of next year. Mhm. So are we going to use the current evaluation tool for the J for the 2025? No. I I there there's not a need to do one in 25. Right. With her being a brand new employee, we were planning on this new contract. So, I would say whenever starting July 1st, y'all get your metric together, you come back with that and you evaluate. I misunderstood. I thought you were
033saying we had to do one in 20. No, no, no, no, no. Sorry about that. There wouldn't be much to evaluate. Exactly. That's what I does. She get a smiley face. Yeah, exactly. That was not from everyone. So, do I need to amend the motion then for this to reflect June 2026 in that part? Yeah. If so, that then that's my motion to amend. Okay. So, you're choosing June 2026. June 2026. We'll develop the metric now so she'll know what she's doing, know what to watch for, but it'll be administered in June just like the board evaluation. So, they'll be at the same time. So, going on through the rest of the document, I don't see any other changes. So with the changes made, there's a motion on the floor to vote for or against
034the contract that it's written except for those changes. The strikeout of the incentive bonus and the strike out of the second sentence. Page five. And then item 19, he adds consideration with waiver tenure rights to take that part out. It stays the same. Yes. It's because she's not waving her tenure rights. She's retaining it. So that's why we need to take that out. Okay. Mr. Motion maker, that good that you're saying. Anybody have any questions what we're voting on? I'll amend my second to match. I have one more question. So, is it and and this is probably for the attorney. Is it okay to vote on this without it have being attached to the agenda for the public to see what we're what we're discussing today? It is attached. Is it is attached? We've just
035made revisions to the contract. Um I think we can vote on it, but if you guys want to, you know, pause and and take, you know, and get with Dr. Parley again to make sure we are agreed to the amendment amended one. We can always have yet another special call meeting to approve this final. Did we provide appropriate notice? Yes. Okay. If if it helps, she has me here and we've already discussed possible changes that may have came about and I can tell you what what she can agree to and what you know what she and I sort of gone through because it wasn't Please go ahead. Yeah. So, um I'll just go to what you amended here, which I think she is fine with all of those. And as far as the bonus structure
036goes, I I have a suggestion maybe here is that we just change the language where we're not binding you to a bonus, but what we do is put in the contract um a trigger that when you do get your evaluation process established that we um then implement that and we can keep that term in the contract. That's one suggestion, but certainly we're not married to that. But I do think that u she is absolutely fine with all the other terms that are being presented here now. Uh including the change to the tenure. So I think we're fine to go forward there. But on the bonus itself, um my suggestion would be that you approve the contract and put that term in there subject to the approval of your evaluation process. That's good. Okay. Yeah, that's
037good. Should we word it as I mean do you want it to be subject to the approval of the evaluation process or do you want it to be at the board's discretion the director shall be entitled to because that way it you know it triggers it without triggering yeah I I just don't want them obviously either side to be married to this process that isn't defined yet that that's perfectly plausible thing but we all agree I think here that there is going to be a process that will be defined. There will be an evaluation next year and what I think we could do is just leave the term in place, but it it doesn't come into being until we actually have a process that both sides have agreed to. So, we basically agree to to
038modify the term at a later date. So, for tonight, we'd say incentive bonus director shall be entitled to a bonus performance according to results or what what should we say? Well, I think you could keep it as the annual evaluation. You said beginning in June 2026. Mhm. Cuz that's when was when her first evaluation was occur. Yeah. And and I think changing the dates and and that sort of thing cuz if you don't have a full body of work, even your test scores, it makes it extremely difficult. I had this issue came up um with a different county where we we tried to do an evaluation, but we didn't have test scores yet. So, it made it very difficult to do it. So, changing it from June to July and certainly moving it to next
039year because you just don't have body work right now. And I think that's why other districts do it in December is because we have test scores back. [Music] Certainly June has been an issue in the past. Mhm. Okay. But if we go to June and evaluate it, then the next December we have this, right? Right. Mhm. Which is being the blind is this year because we don't know this year. So we would strike out the composite score outlining that piece and just keep in there the director shall be entitled to a bonus for performance according the results of an annual evaluation. Take all the rest of that out. Slum [Music] director a bonus and the level five teachers don't get anything. They got $2,000 this year. Say again. They got $2,000 this year. That's from
040the state. That's not They didn't get $2,000. No, sir. How much did they get? 650. And that was before taxes, so they got 400. They have the coming from the state still. He's talking. He's referencing the bonus from the state. And we haven't gotten that yet. Yeah, that's coming forth. It was August, I think. Is that right, Mor fact that we're teachers, right? That's that's for every teacher, every every employee that actually works with students. Without going too far off the road on this, I think what we're talking about, Anita, is we're not just going to give it based on a level five, we're talking about outlining some specifics that the director would have to meet in order to achieve the bonus. And hopefully we can do that for our teachers as well going forward.
041Yeah, like to see that. Uhhuh. I know you're representing Dr. Parley. I didn't catch your name. Kevin Rice. I apologize. We kind of jumped in the middle of the discussion about and you know she she only has me here because she's, you know, gonna be your director. She has been your director. She's worked in the system for a long time and she doesn't really want to be in the middle of of this discussion that we're having right now. It just it's better to to let let me come representative. Sure. It just she wants to maintain the positive relationship that she feels like she has before. Yeah. So, we strike out from uh composite score, strike that out and leave the first sentence in. Is that what we're saying? Yeah. Is that And then do we
042put a date after the the word evaluation? No, I don't think you have to. Don't you? Okay. That gives us a flexibility to either do it in June or December depending on what numbers we're putting in there that would drive that bonus. Okay. You guys that Okay. And then that still gives us a full year to get that progress or process figured out for what we want. So with that being the case, I I will once again amend my motion to get the amended amended motion. It's a moving motion. Yeah. He's writing it down there. Jason sentence two of section five. Okay. Let me ask one more question about item seven, automobile allowance. We've got a stopping in here 600. There's a concern there. Well, I don't have any concerns. I think it's fine. Uh,
043you know, what I'm about to say is kind of taken the the boards into this and I've had it I've seen it done a couple of different ways. But if you own the car and it's your car and it's being used, then you know, obviously that changes your liability situation a little bit, right? where if you're paying her money and it's her car and her auto insurance, that's a little bit of a different scenario for you. And so paying someone the money also, um you know, if she's driving her car and she's doing official business and then she does some some personal business, that's absolutely fine, right? But if you're driving your car, I mean I say your car, I mean the Cumberland County Board's car and you're somewhere and you do the board's business
044and then you stop and do your personal business, then people are going to be upset about that. So I just I've always felt like this stopping situation is a much cleaner way to do it for the board and the the professional. But again, that that's something that she and I discussed and you know, whatever your discretion is, I think she So my my concern on that initially was still the same concern. We have a policy in place for this that we pay per the IRS standard that covers expenses, maintenance, all of those items. Why would we want to do anything different for the director than we do for our other employees? So, I know I know Bo goes and checks roads in the morning whenever we have snow and and we're not giving him a
045vehicle stop. And we have other employees that go from school to school teaching classes. We're not giving them an a vehicle stopping, right? So, I I don't know why we would change what we're doing per board policy for one employee. And I I want to know how we came up with $600. I did check on that last year and and we were I think uh county county clerk said that we were or I'm sorry, Jennifer said we were paying around $500 a month. $500 to $600 a month. So that wouldn't be much difference. And mileage. Yeah. Mileage. And mileage. Mhm. Yep. So we're we're we always give for mileage, don't we? This would be in lie of So this is in lie of paying for the mileage. She just gets that flat amount every month
046whether she drives more or she drives less. And that's for her taking on the liability, the wear and tear on her car driving around. You do not get paid that. I mean, you know what is it? 72 cents a mile now. Yeah. Which is nothing when your car dies. Well, I mean it actually per the standard across the United States that covers maintenance, tires, vehicle, that's a federal fuel. Yeah, that's a federal standard. So, technically we would be offering 141,000 salary. That would be nice. It would be nice if we could do more someday. [Music] To me, it makes better sense to give the flat rate stipen versus having her track every mile that she drives on a daily basis. Not to mention the paperwork that's going to have to be done here at central
047and then the county finance department to process that. They already have plenty on their workload. I think this is this would going with the 600 a month would alleviate a lot of wasted time there. Paperwork reduction allow for one person though cuz we're still doing that paperwork for every other employee that travels. Yeah. I I I don't know if they would need to be on the road as frequently as she is. Um some of them who teach at different schools maybe. Um, but being that that is requirement and she is the director, I mean, she needs to be everywhere in the district, not just go between two schools, um, and she does go out and drive the roads. So, she's in a lot of different places. And to Travis's point, yeah, I'd rather have her
048spend the time focusing on her job than keeping track of mileage and submitting that every week. I know that there's some teachers that have positions that um travel to uh three or four different schools every week, every day. Okay. So before we vote, let's try to restate it again one more time. So hope you remember the motion if I understand it is to take contract as written with the exception of taking out the incentive bonus except the first sentence and then on performance evaluation the June dates change to June board meeting 2026 and 10ear transfer Continue transfer item 19 sentence. So did I get everything there motion? Yes, that is my motion. I will amend my second to match that. Okay. So we're prepared to vote. Second call roll. Miss Stole, yes. Mr. Van Wiggle,
049no. Miss Nicholls, yes. Miss Hail, no. Mr. Cole, yes. Miss Stout, yes. Mr. King, yes. Five yeses. Okay, so the yeses have Mr. attorney. Yes. You need to talk with Dr. Farley before she comes back in. I will talk to her and have her come back in. Yes, I will. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Question from the Just a quick question. When we looked earlier today, the contract was not attached to the agenda. I assure you it's there. It's there. What time? Okay. As soon as we got it printed and ready to go, it was Was it the same time it was emailed to us? I think so. Yeah. But I mean, it's supposed to be 24 hours. Is that correct or no? It's contract we've been looking at for months. So, nothing
050new. But just bringing it up. There's there's not a time stipulation that we need to have it available for special on a new on a new contract like this as an attachment. I do not there's nothing in the statute regarding that. You don't have to have attachments to the agenda. Not for a director's contract is the 15 days when you're renewing it. You have to have notice of that. But I think in theory, you know, it's always best practice to have attachments to think there's a requirement by statute for us to do this without having to attach. An agenda for a special call is supposed to be 24 hours. Is that correct? Yes. The agenda was there. So, the agenda was there, but do attachments count? That's what I was asking earlier. Same question. Let
051me check that. I would have liked to have had it two weeks ago, but we didn't decide to do this till a week ago. Yeah. Well, the special call meeting wasn't set till last board meeting on Thursday. So, and it's been very fluid back and forth as you can see from our motion what goes on. Mhm. So, amen. That's part of the reason. I'll wait till he returns before we vote. I guess I have to. No, we voted. We've already voted. We voted. Yeah, it's already We just have to hear her. Yay or nay? She has to vote now. She has to vote. Yeah, she might say no. Yes, exactly. And we got to go back to work. Go back to the drawing board. stopped raining. Looks like while we're waiting, how's the weather? Looks
052pretty good out here. It's just sprinkling. Yep. That was crazy. I don't know how wide spread the stom was. little popups. It look like I think Mr. Matthew said he hit 20 on the ground. Oh god. Well, it didn't hit Brown or Ray Road. I called my mom. It wasn't out there at all. So, the agenda must only reasonably describe what is being voted on. Okay. Okay. So, no mention of attachments. No mention of attachments. Check the compilers page. [Music] You good? Mhm. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Probably picture worthy after this meeting. Yes, definitely need to do that. So, we have finished with item eight given the budget discussion. Item nine. Take over that. I'll be honest. So, in the follow through email that I sent you guys on Monday, uh my suggestions
053about the budget was to um add a column to the current budget draft 2 and put the difference or the balance that's going to be in all of our budget lines as of June 30th. Hoping we will have those by July 7th. So hoping to do that. Um I'm going to make a few changes and get it approved by you all about the fund balance changes. You know, county commission stated that they had given us additional tax revenues at times. So uh we will remove uh our 1.2 1.5 to 2 million that we're going to try to add and we'll use whatever they give us left over. But those would be my suggestions and taking it back on July 7th. Then the only other thing that you and I had talked about was if it's
054easily attachable or a copy is and I checked on that. Um Miss Stout had talked to me today about the uh report that Uplands had done on the facilities and they had ranked everything one to five or whatever on needs. All of the items uh that are on our um capital projects are fours or fives, but that's not easily identified on one sheet. Okay. All right. So, I guess just reminding them that they have a copy of that engineering report that's available for them to review if they want to look a little deeper at what why we're saying we need to do those things. Yes. And let me explain what we've done with the budgets. They have asked for 25 copies. We have made them their 25 copies and this is on me. My assumption
055was that county commission was like you all. You have a mailbox here, right? So, we put items in your mailbox. So, we took our copies to the county mayor's office and that's where they stayed, I think, until we got ready for the budget committee meeting. and um someone from finance came and got them and passed them out on the night of the meeting. Yes. And in those budgets were draft one and draft two. Now mind you, draft 2 had 4.7 million in cuts that was not in draft one, right? But some individuals had draft one. Oh my god. So, someone made the comment that supervisors was getting 13 to 15% pay increases, and I couldn't figure out where that was coming from because I knew that wasn't the case, and it was because that individual
056had an old copy. So, can we mail them to their homes? I mean, how do you if they don't have mailboxes and we can't get them to them before a meeting? So, I think the best way to do that is um I have an email for all of them. Okay. I will gladly send out an email. I'll try to have it done 5 days before. I'll send out an email to them and say, "Hey, we've got a copy of the budget here. If you want to come by and look at it, it'll be at our office. Please drop by." Engineering report. Yeah. Yeah. Both. They can come by and look if they want. Yeah. Quick question. Um on the recommendation for fund balance increase, did we did we ever actually vote on that? No, sir.
057Okay. So, all of these things are being recommended to the county commission. Well, I was going to go through and change the one about taking trying to add the 1.2 to 1.5 to 2 million. Uh changing that to the additional taxes and then um that's why I said I would give that back to you all to say is this okay, yay or nay. Okay? Or if you all want to vote on it tonight, I'm perfectly fine with that if you trust me to take out, you know, to change those two things. But I think everything else is reasonable. I'm not in favor of allowing the county to have the Baker's Crossroad property. We've never voted on that. So, okay. Yeah, I can take that out as well. And I, you know, it was my understanding
058and the way that you presented at the meetings, these are you've presented as things we're just talking about, right? Um, and you know, these are things that as we move forward with the commission and start putting our heads together on how we're going to do that cooperatively that these are things that we have already come up. We're going to talk about these were actually things that we're saying we're going to do. Okay. Okay. They didn't ask us to come back with anything different the next time. So the only thing in my opinion is just if we can lay it out a little bit easier for them to understand and read and give them the business case behind those capital projects so everybody's in clear understanding of that. Okay. Yeah. I think that would be a
059good ad from our part just so they feel better about the numbers that are I'm on the same page now. And there let me explain why I put that on there. that had been mentioned to me that they were kind of wanting to use that as a bargaining tool and you know they've said several times we need to figure out how we're going to be proactive in building that fund balance. So if we give that to them and they turn around and sell it then put that in our fund balance. I got you. That was my rationale behind that. Yep. And I think the comment that came up at the last meeting, you were there for the last meeting, where they brought up about we'll have enough after Miss Bray gave the anticipated fund balance
060that we'll have enough in our fund balance to cover those projects. Um, yes, we do. And that's what we planned on doing initially, but with the 17% they're wanting us to work towards, that's why we backed up on that. Productive. Yes. So, you know, with that coming up, I don't know if that's a road that we may end up going down anyway. Yeah. So, all right. I'm good. They're wanting to wait until after June 30th to see our fund balances. If that's the case, not sure why we have to do it by May 1st. But, right. Oh, yeah. Good point. If that's going to be the future, then we should ask to submit it after June 30th. That gives us better information, too. when it comes to federal money and everything. Absolutely. With not having
061this done before July 30th, does this have any impact on um the pay for any of our teachers or staff or anything? No. We keep rolling along. We didn't have a contract last year when we started, did we? But they didn't approve one until after school started last year, didn't they? The commission. Well, typically, it's been my experience. It's never passed by July 1st. school retroactive to pass date whenever it does go for approval. I've seen it be as late as October. Yep. Yeah. Oh, I remember that. Yes, but I think they'll be able to make it sooner this year. We should get a later date. That would make much more sense. Other discussion on the budget proposal? I have nothing else. Does anybody have any questions of me? Oh, okay. Any any questions from
062the media? Anybody in the audience? All right. Being none, this meeting will be adjourned.