001meeting is called to order. If you join me in the moment of the song and pledge I aliance 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] I see three of our commissioners here tonight. Col, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Thri, glad to have you here with us. Glad to have everyone here. First item is to approve the agenda for tonight. Motion. I move to approve. Mr. Chair, I'll second it. [Music] Those in favor say I. I. Those opposed. Eyes have. Madam Secretary, would you call the role? Miss Stole, Mr. Van Winkle, here. Miss Nichols here. Miss Hail, Mr. Davis, Mr. Matthews here, Mr. Cole here, Miss Stout, Mr. King here. The record shows Stole, Stout, Hell,
002and Davis are not in attendance. We still have a quorum though, so we're good. So, the budget committee minutes from last time. Is there a motion to approve? I move to approve. I'll second. I thought we covered that in their last meeting. They just came out today. Okay. Okay. So many minutes. There was like four or five last second. Motion. Is there any discussion on the minutes? No discussion. Those in favor say I. I. And thank you Dan. Those opposed say no. You guys have it. The minutes are approved. So number five, budget revision discussion. Okay. So um you have either electronically or you have a copy of a draft. This is technically budget draft number two and it was as of uh May the 20th. So, uh, one thing that I can say for
003each page, um, additional fluff, and I don't know that we had a whole lot, but it has been removed. Um, this is probably one of the closest to actuals, um, that budgets that we have had um, in a while. Um, the first thing I would like to draw your attention to would be page five. At this point the revenues um have not changed. So page five. So um we still have the 360 teaching positions. The last document that I gave you uh based on each individual school in the air a lotment meetings it was showing that we had 360.5 positions that we needed. So um these positions are not filled each individual teacher by teacher. Um it is done on an average and we use M's uh and 10 years experience to get that. The
004pay that we use as you can see up there in the red is $55,193. That's masters plus five. Okay. I have another number here that I can't see. Sorry. Um and then uh we do have two additional teachers built in and that is if the elementary schools go over their averages, their cluster averages. Uh that's what that is built in for. Um we removed summer school. What's been removed from this line? We've removed summer school. Uh the only funding that we have at this time is the funding that the state gives us for summer school. Uh we still have the high school summer school money in there, but it's only for staff. Okay. Uh also on this line, um if you look at 471 software line, um we removed Mastery Connect and we also removed
005Lexia and that is uh $135,000 that was removed. Can I ask a question on the master connect thing? Yes, I thought that was a lot of the teachers were starting to come around on Mastery Connect as far as liking it and wanting um seeing it as a tool. Um maybe not necessarily as heavy a tool as what we started out with this last year. Um but but seeing it as a as a a good tool, is that something that we really want to take out? So the what you're referring to is the survey that was sent out to teachers. Um and at that point we had 66.6% because I remembered that for a reason uh either agreed or st strongly agreed that they felt it was uh taking it was going in a positive direction.
006Since then we have received and I can't share a whole lot of information because they're embargoed from the state. Uh since then we have received our third grade TCAP scores and it tells a vastly different story. So it's not in in that aspect it's not as far as for the lower grades anyway. It's not not helping much. Correct. We were very disappointed in what we saw compared to what was projected with Mastery Connect. Did we see any improvements with it in the upper grade? Uh all that's been released right now is raw scores. Uh we had to have a little bit more information for third grade because of the third grade retake. So we were able to get a little bit more but based on what we saw for third grade wasn't good. No sir.
007I just the reason I was asking cuz I hate to remove something just because of one the money side of it. if it's helping. If it's not, then it's farewell. But and it might be a positive to kind of get a reset on it. Uh there was lots of uh negativity that surrounded that. Mhm. So it might be a positive to to remove it. Right. Um also on this page from the 429 line, which is one line up above, we have cut all fluff from this line. This is where teachers get their $200. It used to be what you called BEP money for uh supplies. That is still there. And it's also uh money for um art. Um on the 499 line, that is band, choir, music, and library. And the amounts that they get
008are based on the number of teachers and students at each school. We wish that we cut this No, we cut any fluff. I mean, it's figured to the penny. So, the $12,990 on 429, that's Is that what you're And that's about how much difference it is about 12 almost $13,000. Yeah. Okay. Oh, it's allowed for some student number change. Okay. But they haven't gone up recently. Gotcha. So, is there any questions on page five? So, page five, you've you've uh reduced it $2.7 million. That's what I've got. That's a difference on the overall page five. I do not I mean the the copy that I have is from 520. So, I don't have how much. I can just tell you what we have reduced. I don't have the total, but that sounds about right. Okay.
009The previous I I guess the previous uh recommendation was 34,000 or 34,452 and this is 31,742. So 2.7 million. Yeah. Okay. So before we go on with um further um pages in the budget, um if you were here at the last meeting, we talked about trying to go to a balanced pay scale. And but before we could do that, we needed to meet and go back to uh the union and meet with them. We were able to do that today. And uh you all have a copy and Miss Diane, I'm sorry I'm going from agenda to something different. But you do have a copy of a semibalanced pay scale at this time. So going to this scale that would affect our proposed budget for 2526 and have a few additional cuts in there. Um Miss
010Brayer, Mr. Banwinkle, do you remember the amount that we said? I don't know that we had an amount based on further discussion about systemwide. We haven't calculated that I don't think unless Miss Bray's done it. But no, I was too busy recopying everything for sure. Okay. So, but this is a semibalance scale and it would have a savings for us this year. But where you would probably see more savings is a few years out. And as you know, and this has been said several times, we're not in the shape that we're in based on one year. It's taken us several years to get there. So, it's going to take us several years to dig out. So, that's kind of where we are with this. Um, the union was good for us to um to share
011this and to go forward with it. So, Dr. Fley, the original was 300,000 this year and 700,000 next year, but I don't I haven't done these particular numbers yet, but that was the original was a million over the next two years in savings. Yes. And that's just on on this pay scale. So that's this pay scale would be the 300,000 for this year. Okay. It would have to be it would have to be looked at again next year to do this potentially. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But a million over two years is a pretty good amount. So, any questions on the pay scale? But I guess my only question is the union or whoever was they were comfortable with moving forward this way. They liked as far as most everybody was in agreement with that
012it's this is the way to go move forward to help. Yes, they did have some suggestions uh which we can work on to get those and come up with um uh what they suggested. Uh but until I have definite I would rather not share that publicly. Yeah. So no other questions or comments about the pay scale? Okay. So, the next big thing that I wanted to talk to you all about was page nine. Okay. So line 189 which is other salaries and wages. So this amount is an estimate based on this year and 3%. So out of this line um comes the high school athletic directors all supplements and that's current approximately 254 and that's for sports and extracurricular clubs. That was revised in 2020. And you have it you have your coaching longevity schedule
013based on 22 23 pay for and then you have pay for ball game duties and the 3% was added for the coaching supplements and those have all been paid. So that's pretty close to actual unless we miss one. So that's an increase of over 15,000. Yes, sir. That's an increase of 15,000. When you stop and think of it, you have 254 supplements and that's not counting uh the ball game duty pay, but the original proposal was actually more than that. So this proposal is less than the original even with that number. So it's it's $91,000 savings on that line item from from the original budget we we submitted previously draft one. Yes. Which was the budgeted amount? Yes. So this is an actual amount. So they were all paid out on 515 payroll. I just
014wanted everybody to know that that saved 91,000 on the last budget that we proposed. So, any questions on this? Okay. The next page I would like to draw your attention to is page 13. If you would look at line 105, so there was a mathematical error figured in here. Um, this line was originally uh the proposed was 4 20 something,000. I do believe there was an error there that was found. Um and uh we have taken the 912 supervisor from a doctorate with 36 years experience and 20 plus years admin to a 20-year educator with an EDS and 10 years admin. So that's that's an average there for that salary. So that line came down significantly as well. [Music] Okay. So, it's 54,000 less than 420,000. Okay. Any other questions or comments? So the next
015page I would like to draw your attention to is page 20. And at this time the uh comproller was removed from line 105 and that was 96,000. CFO CFO it's listed as controller and uh CFO somewhere it's listed in all the finance person questions comments we're removing that position what you're Yes. At this time, this position has been opened uh open for over two and a half years. Yep. I think my opinion on that is is vastly different probably than a lot of people but I don't understand how we can deal with a budget of like we deal with and not have a COO and a CFO um because those are adversarial positions. They're two separate positions alto together and to not have one or the other. You're not you're not doing we're not doing
016our job. We're not doing our due diligence in in maintaining the plant and making sure that we're making the right financial decisions. In any corporation that I've ever worked on, you've had a CFO that or a COO that always wants to spend money. They want to make sure that our maintenance is is being done. Our our our buildings are being taken care of. The COO is supposed to be responsible for the entire project more or less. And a CFO is there to say, "Well, back we can't spend this money. We've got to hold back." So those two equal positions are very adversarial position. How we can not how we can have one and not the other blows my mind for dealing with dollars and cents of this size of this magnitude. And I think that's
017one of the reasons it's probably one has has been let go a little bit more than the other or something because maybe that's why some of our our facilities are in the shape that they're in and so far behind. So I'm not comfortable with relinquishing that position. I just think we need to put more emphasis on getting the right job description out there to make sure that that position is being fulfilled to the best of its ability. I mean I I that's that's my opinion and I know everybody else got one just in the same. So I don't that's what I mean. So somebody else, how many years has it been open now? Over two. Yeah. So we've not we've not had it and we've survived this far. We're looking Are we surviving? That's the
018problem. Are we just surviving? Yeah, we're surviving. Uh I don't think we're surviving efficiently, though. And that's what cost us money. So, it's my understanding that anybody that would want that job is not going to take the job based on the job description that this job offers. Somebody that's got the credentials for the job are not going to want to come here and play by the rules that are required to play here under the setup that we've got between us and the county finance department. Well, it's not even the county finance department as much as it is. Are those jobs being is that description being written correctly. I mean, are we giving them the full authority that they should be having in in doing that job? Do they understand what their job entails and entitled
019and is entitled to? Because, like I said, you've got a CFO and a COO. Those are equal positions, but at the same time, they're very adversarial positions. So, how can you have one person doing both jobs? Or we could just leave money sitting on the table for a job for a person that don't exist. That's what I say as we and this is for the new director coming in. They need to understand what those positions are and be able to fulfill those positions or else we're not going to be able to run as efficiently as we should. And that's what's costing us building maintenance money and this that and the other money is and functioning money all the what the jobs are and how they're filled is not our problem. That's not that's operations. That's
020a director's job. And I agree 100%. And we have to have a director that understands what that what those positions mean. And we haven't had that for a couple years. We would not know that. Okay. Where were we? So, um, if you all wouldn't mind, what I would like to do is go ahead and finish some major points that have changed and then we can come back and have discussions on what still needs to be added and what needs to be deleted. Is everybody good with that? Mhm. So next is on page 23. I have here line 502 and I don't see a 502 but our insurance um is um an estimate. Uh the insurance company has given us no direction. Miss Brave, what line is that? I It's on two It's on two different
021pages. It's our building contents insurance and our workers compensation insurance. And I'm merely estimating. Okay. But I have had no I've asked a couple of times. They have no idea at this point what the increase will be. It was 12% last year. Your estimate this year? What's the estimate that you 12 again over actuals? Okay. What was the year before last? Are you seeing a trend where it's a higher increase every year. Well, we had a double hit last year. They increased and then they re-evaluated all of our buildings for the first time in about five years. So, the values of properties went up. And then if you look at line 471, the software line, you see a a substantial increase there. huge increase. I get that. Um, if you remember, there was two gentlemen
022that came and did a presentation and they had gone into Pleasant Hill and they looked at every aspect of Pleasant Hill School, the maintenance piece. They let you know when they thought the elevator would need work or go out. They let you know about the electrical. They let you know about the plumbing, the toilets, everything. So, this is a huge increase here to get them to come and do all of the schools, do an assessment of all of our buildings, and this is a one-time cost. They did pictures and everything. Yeah, they did picture. If you remember, they did pictures and everything. I mean, it was very, very thorough. Very thorough. And I my opinion would be if you you if you do this this one time, then that would help you to get closer
023aligned with your maintenance needs and your maintenance budget there. I agree. I know that as detailed as they got, it got all the way down to the utensils in the cafeteria. I mean, it was it was thorough. It was very thorough. But I just wanted to draw your attention because I I understand that is a significant increase in that line. But I wanted to explain that is that and maybe it's could we move and this is a question I'm asking for I I guess the whole month. we move that increase to something we're asking we're going to ask in addition to the to the commission because I mean we're helping facilitate their building more or less as far as county property and pull that money out of out of our budget. So, it's a savings
024on our side, but then asking the commission, hey, this is something that helps you guys, us, everybody across the board. So, I have one more page. So, can we bring that back when we bring your finance person back up? Yep. Can I ask a question on Absolutely. on that topic? Uhhuh. I I thought that at some point we had come to terms with maybe I misunderstood that Pleasant Hill was essentially the pilot for how that program were to operate for us to take said process uh and then duplicate that process internally. So essentially we're going to pay them to run the pilot. We're going to take those bullet points and all of those and then we're going to multiply that times 11. And then we're going to do we're going to do that on our
025own as a maintenance organization for those other projects as as opposed to deploy them to do that same work 11 other times. No. Is that not No, that wasn't it. I don't think we have the capabilities of doing what they did. We're not doing it because you don't think we do or you're not capabilities for what they did or the manpower with the maintenance men with their current schedule. So, how are we going to maintain that after we have the software and all the all the information? We still have to maintain it. It's a one-time thing. I mean, it's just a onetime expense and we own the tool and all we have to do is maintain the tool. We have to send them our updates. Like, if we replace an HVAC unit, all we have
026to do is send them the description. Close that. You close that out in the software, right? So I think I think that's where Nick's going is if we have the software, if we buy the software, why can we not go put all the numbers in? We don't have that. I mean, I it took him probably he was there probably 3 days solid. I don't have the capability right now with manpower to do what he did plus the costing side of it as well to give us an estimated cost, the life, all of that that goes along. The tool itself is very extensive. Yeah. So, but just putting the putting the model number and the serial number in the software tells you that the software and they age it as well. I mean, it gives you
027an age. I can look and see in 5 years, this is the units that they predict will go out based on their age. It will give me a really good tool to nail this down of how much I need to budget for HVAC. So, how much I need to budget for plumbing. They were even they were even like aging the tiles and the floor and things like that as well. things that you know it's just beyond our expertise as far as unless you do that every day, you know. So that means we can pull that maintenance program out for $75,000 of school every year if we know when that tile is going to wear out. Is that that fair to say? Yes. Yeah. We will only be budgeting things that the system would tell us
028to budget for. Yes. So cost of program initial cost and then cost 284 284 and then and then the expected ongoing recurring none. We own the tool. So once we own the tool they will help us maintain the tool but there won't be any additional cost. So the software is unlike every other software out there. It will never need updated. It's just it's a little bit different. And it's just a tool that they provide to us. It was web- based. So it gets automatic updates every year if it's web- based, right? Does there is there a company that supports that web- based software? No, it's just basically one. It's their product. It's a proprietary thing. And it's just basically it's I don't it's more than an Excel spreadsheet, but that they showed examples of it.
029It's a but I thought it was I thought it was web- based. I just read Well, it is. You're right. We based correct, Mr. Step. at Pleasant Hill School at Thanksgiving and he explained exactly what I just said to you guys. That's why I asked the question like did I miss something that in conversation that we were going to do something different than that? And it sounds like we are 650. Don't forget the 650, please. Yeah, I'll I'll tra I'd trade the 650 for the 284. So, the last thing that I want to draw your attention to is on page 26 and line 535. So uh that has doubled. The amount there has doubled. And this is the reason for that is because this year uh an organization called we are one provided lots of
030shoes at the beginning of the school year for kids. So that took care of a high need. So we didn't have as many needs this year from this line as we normally do. And we have had lots of other items donated. And as you know, you never know from year to year what those donations are going to look like. But I think um this is a little bit more closely aligned with how we have operated in the past. Any questions? So just just for the record, the grand total difference between this revision and revision one is $4.18 million. And like I said, I don't have that. Miss Brady, do you have that? Well, the majority of it is where we narrowed down where we were this year and then I went back and recalculated based
031on actuals. So yes, the fluff as you call it and it was especially in the teacher line there because I mean when you reduce this like I'm using masters in five years versus masters in 10. We took out the summer school money. We took out another 100,000 for a high school. I mean there a lot of it is on that page but a lot of it is using actual numbers versus the budgeted numbers which is what has always been done here in the past. This is the first year to my knowledge that we've ever used actuals. Mhm. But it's actuals plus any increases for this year. Yeah. Gotcha. Any other questions? Did we quantify I'm going to go back to the maintenance thing. Do we quantify what we can save by spending $284,000 year-over-year? Like
032what other than it being operationally more effective from a management standpoint, just mentally fiscally, what will it do for us? I don't know that that I can give you I can quantify it like that. But I know having that information, having it aged and me being able to look. Were you here for the presentation? I don't remember. I'll give you a book. It's really cool. It will tell you how many bar units are going to go out, the age of the elevator. They've already told me the first the most and they they prioritize it. Which is hot, kind of like hot, warm, cold. The elevator is a hot thing right now at Pleasant Hill. It's the oldest thing in the building. Costly, probably going to need to be replaced. And that is information that I
033would have never had. Plus, they give me an estimated cost based on national cost. what that what I'm looking at as far as to replace that elevator should I have to do so right and it would be able I could budget school by school and say okay even if I had like so much I could say I could do these projects these projects these projects by school instead of to Mr. Vanical's point saying, "Let's do $75,000 in floor." Yeah. Yeah. So, there's some estimation that that should give us a lot better ability to uh create real numbers in projecting what our recoccurring spence expenses should be. Totally. Right now, totally get that. I hate to use this term, but we're kind of taking a shotgun approach. I can go in every school right now and
034find flooring that needs replaced. Sure. I mean, I could take you to the floor in the spot right now where it needs to be replaced at every school. Everybody needs bathroom petitions because over time they get destroyed. I mean, but we really don't know who has the highest need. I can't prioritize this school over this school. This is going to tell me that. And it's not like it's Kim Bray coming in saying, "Well, I like this person better than that." Or whatever. Yeah. It's data. It's quantified. Yeah. And and that's you know anytime there's a program it has the you know any program you operate it's got to have features benefits and and those selling points or those differentiators between feature benefit usually has a dollar bill bill bill attached to it like hey people
035that go through this program realize 5% cost savings year-over-year or 10% or reduced inventory or less manh hours. Like that's what I'm just trying to understand. We know what it costs. So, we know that in theory it's going to make our jobs as operations easier. Understood. But that sounds like a want without having a number to tie the the the need to the idea. I don't I don't hear it's a need. Like I'm no doubt know that it'll make things easier, but like mathematically what do we get from that? less man-hour from you working on that project, more focus, less fluff in the budget, less reoccurring, more accurate spend. Like if they really looked at our plants, that would be a night they should be able to project a cost savings. Well, they've only actually
036looked at one facility and that's Pleasant Hill. And so based on that, okay, and then based on all they've really done is gone around and looked at the square footage and just that sort of thing to give us an estimate of price estimate to go in and do this. I think that's where we get a lot of the savings from too is being able to instead of having to, you know, shoot from the hip and and repair this or that or wait till it breaks down, we're able to project when it's going what this the detail that it went the program went through is we were we would be able to project not only when it's going to break down, but the cost estimate behind having to repaint, how many gallons of paint. I mean,
037it got it got into such detail that being able to plan those jobs and, you know, knowing that you have the money afforded right there for that job and not having to waste man hours going and getting supplies and things like that. That's where like for Mary's team it it would be the biggest savings for us is just being it could be it could be it could tell you that you need to go have $4 million with inventory on hand to be to be ready for all this stuff. Like I've seen software is as good as the data you put into it and it's as good as the people that put the data into it and it's as tailored to the job that you ask it to be. So you can make it whatever you
038want and I have no doubt that it could do a lot of amazing things. I just don't know any numbers to say that $284,000 is relevant at this time. Yeah. Because we've been if we're going to have the same methodology, hey, we get by we've been doing it this way. It works for so long, but then we're going to oh, we got we want to look at a brand new way of doing things. Like we can't say that in different conversations with the same thing. It's a theme of improvement and be like, nope, we got to open mind in this category, but we got to close mine in this category. Yeah. So either we're going to get the checkbook out and and prioritize we're going to spend it all at the same time, but cutting
039and spending with no savings in mind is dangerous. And that's and that's where that's where I kind of got to the point of getting the county to invest. I mean, because these are their buildings, their facilities. Yeah. You know, as much as they are the schools, they are also their responsibilities as well. So getting them on board to invest in this um would be a huge savings to us as well, you know. So Gotcha. All right, I'll leave that one alone. I just wanted to understand it better. I apologize. Thank you. No need to apologize. That's what we're here for, to answer questions. Make sure everybody's clear. Any other questions? Okay. So, [Music] um the first thing we started talking about was the teacher um the teacher sex scales that we have updated. Um we
040can go back in on that on page five to that line and change that. That would be obviously that's going to have a change. I don't know how much. We don't know for sure how much. Um, it should be about 300,000. You think so? Yeah. Should be less taxes. Even with Well, that's those are different lines. So, right. She's just talking about the teacher line. Even with the discussion about systemwide. Yes. Yeah. Even with the systemwide discussion. Yeah. So, that that would I mean the systemwide discussion included that. If we didn't do the systemwide, it wouldn't have been that much. It would have been about 200. So, I don't know if this is something that you all will need to vote on in the special called meeting um next to approve this scale. Is it
041ready for that, Miss Bray, to approve that exact scale? You need Does it need more time looked over or is it ready to approve? I've checked it, but I mean, as you said, that's that's a lot. It's a lot of numbers. Um, I think I'm good with it. Okay. Board members, what do you do? Do you want to go with what this says or do you want to put this over to the side and let us work on it more? So, Mr. Davis and Miss Stout. So you all weren't here when we had the discussion. So on page five, if you look at the budget, so if you look at our teacher line, we have verified and that is line 116. So we have verified we need those positions. So in the past when we
042have um computed those salaries we have figured that at a master's uh and 10 we have cut that to a mast's and five. So that has you know reflected a little bit of savings there. Um we have built in for two teachers at the elementary level if if they earn them in the cluster. We have removed all summer school money at the elementary level just um what the state will give us next year and we hope that they will give us money um and then we only have summer school money for the high school just for the the teachers and that's it. So next summer yes this would be next summer we have so we have to put that in there. So Mr. Van Winkle I'm sorry I didn't write it down. What did you
043say that that was? Um, we had cut that to 325,800 is what I've got. Yeah. You're talking about with the salary scale and stuff. It's about Yeah. 325800 in savings. Yes. In savings. Just on that line. Remember that cascades down to the taxes and the TCS kind of in a nutshell. That's that's where we are. Okay. Thank you. Uhhuh. which would bring the total savings on that from the previous budget to about $3 million. Okay. On that overall page five. Okay. I caught a 4.1 when I came in. Some discussion about 4.1. So I didn't know if that was the total for the whole budget. Yeah. Two points. I put it right here. So, board members, do you want to um vote on this in the special call? Do you want us to do more
044work? Um, think we can vote on it. Yeah, I think if y'all cleaned it up and Miss Bray thinks it's in a it's in a position that's going to give us this semibalanced for us to start working towards the balance. And just so you know, this was discussed too. We did meet with the union today and they are good with this as well. Okay, that's Mr. Davis, are you good with are you good if we vote on this? Mr. Matthews, are you good? Mr. Cole, are you good? Miss Nichols, are you good? Yes. Mr. Bwick, you good? Okay. So then that would be one item for the special called. Okay. Um so I guess the next one item we need to discuss is um the financial person. So, do you all want It is currently
045removed. Uh that is approximately $96,000 in is that salary? It's not 75 plus benefit. So, yeah. So, um that is currently removed. That was on page tw uh page 20 line 105. The only thing that you see there is uh chief operating officer. So that was something that I actually jotted down to ask about tonight. Um before Mr. Stepp departed, he had mentioned that there were a couple of folks that were interested in that position or that had looked into that position and that might be interviewing. What what kind of headway have we made with that? We interviewed both. Uhhuh. And county finance director came we decided to move on. Okay. More candidates. Okay. So, we don't have anybody right now that's Well, as you know, you've heard several people come in and talk about
046Well, you heard Miss Hammy. I don't some of you may not have heard Miss Hammy say, but so we have a new HR software and it it collects resumes and and things and um we're getting really good applicants. I don't know I can't tell you how many we've had for this uh finance person. The job is still posted and it's been posted probably for two years and I've been turned down twice, Miss and we've been turned down twice. Turned down because of wouldn't say just decided not to. at this point before we have a a full-time director in place. I hate to take a position away from them and then then we just have to come back and ask for it back. You know what I mean? So, that's that's my opinion of it. Um
047I'm not I'm not ready to remove that position. Well, if we haven't been able to fill it two years and we're trying to save money in this budget and we can always add it back in later if somebody applies and wants the job, we won't post it anymore if we remove it from the budget. So, it won't be available. Okay. So, but how else do we get people if we've advertised this and looked for this and no one's coming forward for it and we just leave the money there? That doesn't make sense to me. That's why I say we need a director that understands that position better. And that's why we haven't had that position filled. So it's not just the director though. It's county finance and Miss Bray and other people in the office
048who have also interviewed with these people and they've turned it down and not accepted the job. Multiple people have not done that because there's such a focus on developing a budget plan for us for the next few years and working with the commission. Um, I would hate to remove that position because I think that's going to be an important position in that process. Uh, it's unfortunate that Miss Bray has had to cover two positions all this time. Um, I don't know if with the new software we have if that is going to be helpful or if we need to make some changes in criteria or if we need to talk with the county about how they have their finance operations and how that interfaces with us if that's a handicap in us bringing somebody in.
049Um, obviously what we're doing is not working. So, there's going to have to be some changes made to that. But I don't I don't see that we don't have a need for that position. I just see that Miss Bray's been able to stop the gap for now. Yeah. So, I'm kind of that same thought. I have a hard time pulling that position off because I just think it's real important. Yeah, it is important. Just how do we fill it when we don't have applicants? So, if I'm hearing you all correctly and seeing the head nods, I think you want the financial person added back on. It's just money. Okay. So, then that would So, do you do we need to vote on it or do you all just want me to add it back? We
050didn't vote on it to take it off, right? So, just add it back. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's wise right now. The new director, whoever that is, and look at the or chart, decide what they need. Mhm. Back to us. So I think the next thing that we need to talk about and discuss uh discuss is the uh software the maintenance software and that was on page um 23 23. And y'all have it in here right now or you do not? It is in here. It is. And you can tell when you look at the line. Yeah. So, we had discussion on that, but did we? We did. Yeah, we we vote on it. Vote on it. No, I don't think so. We're just trying to discuss whether it needs to be in the budget
051or not, I think. And then we would vote. Correct. And and if we do take it to a vote, we can make a motion to not include that or whatever. Okay. So, um, and then I I don't think I dreamed this up. So, uh, it was mentioned adding it to, um, the capital projects as well. So, you know, your options are you can totally remove it or your options are you can add it to the capital projects that we are asking for. I really don't see how it falls under a capital project, but no, it's a one-time expense. So, it would it would fall under a capital, especially since the of the amount. Yeah. So, it could be considered capital, depreciable. Yeah, we we don't did we did we send that to to bid or
052we just find one piece of software like what's the competitor's prices? They were on um one of the state contracts, their own tips contract. So it did not have to go out to bid, right? But do we know can we confirm that it is the best for the I had looked at some other projects that were pretty similar to this and this is by far the most economical, the easiest to execute that I saw. We looked at two other things, but they are on a TIDS contract. Are they able to um I know y'all are having a lot of discussion about this when I arrived and I don't want you to have to rehash it, but are they able to take the um data that we have now from Mr. Chamberlain and utilize that as
053well? Cuz we had a pretty good outlay for that when we create their own. They go in and do everything. Do you remember those two young men that came and did the presentation? I'm here for the meeting, but I have the booklets and I've looked through them and I watched the meeting. So that that to that depth is what they do when they go in and analyze a school. My questions were were this missed out was we understand in theory how it's going to make the job easier, right? But we don't understand the cost savings and and the fiscal initiative that it's going to what's the long-term success of this like what is the reasoning moving forward? What's it going to do for us differently than what the data that we have from the review
054that was done for each building and then taking it by like we took the fours and fives first, right? We worked on those this year. We've got those worked into well their capital projects for next year, right? So, we're checking them off the list for what they've told us we need to do. Now, I know that doesn't have a cost associated with it like it sounds like this program does. Well, this is far more detailed. Mr. Chamberlain did what I call a more like a 10,000 ft view. The big stuff, the roof. This goes down to like individual HVAC units, how many you have, which kind they are, how old they are. I mean, there are hundreds of HVAC units in all of our buildings. to know which ones are going to go out in
055the next 5 years. It's a predictive maintenance software is what it is and allows us to budget to know year-over-year how much we're looking at for maintenance. Correct. projects. That's what I had asked is like what the people that utilize this service, what do those participants typically realize in annual or whatever metric you want to look at what what savings time frame you normally see by by deploying these services, right? Cuz that's how you sell it, right? We're going to save you a,000 man hours a year chasing your tail or you're going to reduce your inventory by $100,000 quarter over quarter for the next four years. reduce downtime. You're not going to have any issues. Yeah. So, what what what is it? That's a hefty output. That's for sure. And then and that maybe that's
056something we just need to research with other districts that have used this. And I can do that. There's several not districts, but like cities that have utilized this. Yeah. And see what their savings have been and things like that. Just get us I mean because a salesman's always going to and that that's probably what they did me. They wowed and wooed me, you know, whenever they went all the way down to the utensils. It was it was amazing at the depth that they went. Um, but at the same time, does the does the county utilize a tool similar to this to maintain their my knowledge inventory of No. Is there do we think that their uh amount of property is more expensive than what we currently maintain? I can't answer that. I mean, yeah, I'm
057just look trying to be like, are we are we smaller or bigger with what we have to manage than than the entire county? Just Yeah. If you're looking at police department, fire department, sheriff's department, sheriff's department, cuz and what do they how do they how do they survive with it or without it? Like if they have it, awesome. But they don't. So I think what our whole county does right now is what I would call reactive maintenance. When it goes down, we fix it. Yeah. So we we experience downtime, you know, like the courthouse for instance, which not been usable, but it went to the point we couldn't use it anymore. So that's the way we gone on a rotation with some things sort of like what we were doing maintenance and and and you
058do that not big capital. Yeah. this this is going to be very much more predictive so that we know exactly what's wrong. But now it helps you build in right for your 5year plan like okay we're going to put this in into effect and then we're going to start seeing the results by year 2 3 4 5 whatever that may be and you can estimate what your savings could be through use of the tool. But I'm still with you on on knowing a little more about it first. You know what? If we what if we put a a number in here not specific to Mckinstry and we do some more research. I don't I don't know if that's the right answer or not either, but right now right now we've got questions about the software.
059Does it does it last forever? Obviously, like Nick said, it we know software doesn't last forever. So, what's the upkeep on that? And then what's it going to give us down the road game? Yeah. To me, it's worth the money for the simple fact of I'm sitting there looking at maintenance plans for this upcoming year that we're having to look at budget and major projects. This tool would give us undisputable data to make those decisions if we're having to make cuts on those next year other than just saying, "Yeah, it's been 10 years since we've done it. Let's go with it." Yeah. So to me the the value is more in the data that it provides rather than something that we can oh yeah we can quantify quantitate whatever we won't have those nice round
060numbers anymore right it'll be to the penny now to to the penny and and we can okay let's look at all right right here north renovation 550,000 okay well maybe we don't need to do that this year maybe that's next year and I'm just using as an example but To me, it's a it's a no-brainer just to give us a more educated decision opportunity. Dr. Farley, what do you and your staff think about this tool? I mean, what's your opinion? Well, I saw the same presentation that you all did. Um, you know, um, looking at it from a building level principle, that would be great. you know, you would know what your hot spots are. I mean, specifically, other than, you know, uh, hey, when a kid comes and says, there's brown water running down
061the hallway, you know, uh, and and then you realize you have a plumbing problem. You know what I'm saying? So, hopefully you would have a little bit like they're saying, be more proactive to things. So, I think I'm I'm liking where you're going, Scott, with the let's keep it in there, but maybe we don't know for sure, right, if we're going this exact route. So, I don't know if we need this exact dollar amount in there. Um, she did say that this was from the tips contract and this was the lowest of all services looked at and that being on the TIPS contract, that's a guaranteed lowest price for this particular service. Okay. And you missed the the piece before uh Mr. Davis. Was it 284650? That's what I wrote down. What it's on here
062is a higher number. Yeah. 293 is what's on the budget. Well, there's other in there. Her little software is in there. Okay. Yeah. It's not just that, I promise. Okay. Her Brightly software that she uses every day for maintenance tickets is in there. Okay. That's all software. I got it. So, some of the current that we use. Okay. See, it says right there, maintenance work order system plus this piece. Was there a Was there a a vote to have this trial? I don't Okay, that was Yes. Do you know I don't remember when it was done. Do you know when it was done, Miss Bri? I don't, but I knew that that they put it to a vote before I asked cuz I requested that. It was sometime in budget last year. So, you know
063what they how much was it was it for them to do the initial 30,000? Right at 30. Okay. Yeah, it's been a while since we voted on that. It was last budget year, I believe. Okay. Cuz it was listed on my my budget requirements for last year. Okay. So, was that before some of you came up on the board? Okay. I thought so. Just wanted to make sure. But see, this would impact not just that one line, but like I look at HVAC equipment. I budget HVAC equipment based on prior years and what I've spent this year. I never know when a large unit at a high school is going to go out like you did, I don't know, 3 weeks ago, and that's $55,000. Boom. But people don't like to be hot and they
064don't like to be cold, right? I do know that. Yes. And that would that's one of the lines that I mean that can go crazy real quick. And that's something that I never it's really hard for me to know how old all these units are and when to anticipate that. That's the detail that you didn't get with that maintenance report and they they didn't know that that unit was 35 years old or whatever. So, right. Exactly. Okay. So, do you all want to leave this in or do you want to take it out? I say at least keep it for now. Yeah, we can vote on it. So, okay. Or it's still a item that we'll have to vote on to move forward with. It is, but at least to have the ability to do
065so. We've got it in there and maybe we do or maybe we don't. So, the only and I'm great with that. The only thing is when I go to present this, I don't want there to be hardly any fluff. I want this to be the bare whatever that we need. So, just I just want to go on record as saying that. So, at this point, the intent is for us to use this. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, everybody's good with us keeping it in there. I wouldn't say that, but I was just some of us good with keeping it in. I was just getting ready to start on this end this time instead of that end. So, Mr. Van Winkle, do you vote to keep it in or do we need to vote on this later
066in the special call? You can't vote right now until it's a special called. So, but am I in favor? This really wasn't an official vote because it was just me asking me asking. Do you want her to take it out or leave it in? Straw. Yes, a straw poll. But we can just wait and that can be something we vote on with the I can discuss it some more if you want to, but I I think we've beat it to death. Just thought my thoughts. [Music] Okay. Um, so, uh, another thing that I wanted to talk to you all about was the capital projects. Um, this two was updated on [Music] 520. Uh, there are 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 items that are on there. The only thing that has changed is the
067north renovation was added to it. Just wanted to make you aware all of that was moved to uh 91 the last page 91300 the one that the comproller asked us to create that is uh 91300 on page 28 and then what was the premise behind changing that line? The auditor asked us to do that. Okay. because those are considered capital items instead of operational and that would help us in our quest to have our two months of operational expenses cuz those are truly not operational. Right. Okay. And that's where they said it needed to be. Yeah. There used to be a line for that and I thought with the B I thought we actually got funding for that through the BEP but now we don't. Right. Yeah. Everything else. Okay. Okay. So that that hasn't
068changed from the budget on May the 20th. Just moved just changed lines. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Um so the only other thing that I wanted to discuss with you was on Thursday when we had the meeting um you all voted to table um approving the consolidated funding application for federal programs. Um we have discussed some various things uh regarding that in the meetings. Um I had reached out to principles. We had discussed class size reduction teacher Mr. Van Winkle. I had reached out to principles. I did it yesterday and they the principles have done an amazing job of getting me what I wanted. Uh by today it just wasn't as specific as I wanted to have it to share with you all. But I was compiling data for grades 2, four, and six, current, second, fourth,
069and sixth graders. And I guess sometimes when I I sit in this seat now, and I make some decisions, I take it that you all have faith in me and put me here to to make some of those decisions. So my opinion would be if you're going to look at class size reduction teachers, you would do that for grades 3, five, and seven because those typically tend to be your more strenuous academic years. So that's why I got data for second, fourth, and sixth grade. So I wanted to look and try to figure out where our highest needs would be for a class size reduction teacher. Um, and I will have that data. Hopefully I can share that with you all no later than Thursday of this week. Um but what I have asked for
070is uh it's by school. It has the number of students that are enrolled. It has their attendance. It has their discipline. And this is just overall for every grade level. It has the number of kids that are receiving RTI in each tier. Tier 1, tier 2, tier three for reading language arts and for math. And then for our second graders, it has their reading and math score for their Ames web universal screener. And then we have the same thing for fourth grade except we looked at their last Mastery Connect benchmarks. And we looked at reading and math. So hopefully I will have those and can get those in a rank of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. And you can look at 7 8 and nine and see. But in doing that,
071I did reach out today to the assistant commissioner that's in charge of federal programs with TDOE, and she and I were talking about class size reduction teachers. So, she stated that if you choose to do a class size reduction teacher, she said currently there's 15 to 18 districts in the state that have those um you have to prove that the teacher in um that you're putting in there is highly effective. You have to provide data, which that would be no problem. You know, we live in data world here. So, but that would be a school decision if we chose to do that. and it would have to come out of the school's title one budget. That's not a district set aside and that would have to be reflected in um the school's um title one
072needs assessment. And since we haven't had those in a few years, there hasn't been a person that has put that in there. Now, they can adjust their needs assessment should they want to do that. currently you have a lot of our um elementary schools that are paying for assistance um out of that um title one budget. So, you know, they would lose some assistance in doing that if they chose to go with a teacher. But I wanted to share this with you as well. um Miss um Thompson is her name and she offered to come and explain to you all uh federal funding and how it works and how the spendown goes to the individual schools and how allocations are set up and all of that information. Um, I mentioned to her June 12th, which
073is our next work session and I would be happy to reach out if you all want her to come and do that. Um, I just thought I would throw that out there. So, I've got some questions on that, but I I wasn't necessarily prepared to discuss this today. Okay. But I know that school allocations have dropped tremendously in the last two years. Mhm. from over a million to down around 8 880,000 I think is where we're at right now. So why are the district set aides going up and if the principles are doing such a good job with that money why are we taking it away from the principal's discretion? Okay. So, she told me today that our uh funding is based on poverty factors, which obviously we knew that, but a lot of that
074information, she said, come and I'm looking down at my papers because I don't want to mess this up. A lot of it comes from census data and data that the uh US Department of Ed provides. And then you go back to your direct search numbers, which is foster care and things like that. So, our student enrollment, we do know, is decreasing as well. We've talked about that, you know, um down to 68 6,700 students. So, we're seeing that. So, that's one thing. Um and then Cumberland County, shockingly enough, appears to be getting richer based on census and US Department of data there. So, that that's another piece. Now, for this year in our title one budget, we do have an additional $200,000 that's been set aside at this time. Now, in that set aides, you
075have certain monies that you have to allocate for like for homeless, for our ESL population. Um, and I can't remember any of the others because I didn't write that down. My apologies, but we have some set aside money. But what Dr. Whittenberger did and this was discussed today is he set aside that 200,000 because we are so unsure right now. So what we would rather do is go ahead and set this aside in a reservation pool pond whatever you want to call it and then wait and see where we shake out. schools will probably get a little bit more of this money, but we want to make sure that we have enough to pay for the people that they are wanting to bring back currently within reason because I know some schools have had to
076lose several. But that's what we're trying to do is make sure that you don't get somebody in October and say, "Oh, I'm sorry. We're out of money. We can't pay for you. You're going to have to go home." We would never want to do that. So that's why we have this additional 200,000 set aside. But when we get our final allocations, because we still don't have those, um, that money would be spiraled down to the school level. He did send out an email today, and I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to read it. I haven't had a chance to read hardly any of my emails today, but he did set aside in Tennessee is getting an additional 44 million, I do believe. And that will will probably in Cumberland County get a chunk of
077that as well for federal money, but we don't know the piece yet we would get. So hopefully we will still be getting some additional but that does that kind of answer your questions about the set aside. So I understand so I understand what you're doing with the set aides but there's also other spending going on besides the set aides that are not at the school. That's what I was asking about the other day. So that's what I wanted to understand. I think you've explained some of that to me. Uh some of it I still am not clear on but just let me know and I'll be happy to Yeah. to get what I need to get for you. Okay. So, our next work session, I do believe, is June 12th. So, would you all like
078for me to reach out to Miss Thompson? I think it would hurt to get a little more information on that, gain a little more understanding. Yeah. So, she is the assistant commissioner of education in charge of federal programs. So, did did she suggest still doing free and reduced forms? She suggested not doing it at all. Yes. Okay. And did she give a reason for that? You get that here's what she said and and you can ask her when she comes, but basically you're getting the same information from your direct certifications, but we're not. And I'm not quite sure based on some additional information that we've received that if we continue to do the universal feeding that we can even send out and ask parents to complete free and reduced lunch. So why is that on
079the state's website then? now that I can't answer. And again, I I saw this kind of in a subject line and I haven't got to fully read the email, but that's kind of the just I got. So, I I probably shouldn't even have mentioned that, but that was something that kind of came to light today. So, I can get you more information when I have it. And and that's what our discussion was the last time was that there was three different ways to to determine which way would best serve the purpose. And we don't necessarily vet that every year. And that was my question I think was how do we determine if and when it would be advantageous to take the other or opposite approach. Um so I I don't maybe she can answer that.
080Right. Absolutely. Um uh a discussion was had today. Um, I know we've had some questions regarding the direct certification uh using that or the direct certification times 1.6. So, what that does is that determines your students that qualify. So, if you use that direct certification times 1.6 for this year, all 12 schools are going to have to be served. Currently, we serve 10. So it's not per not each school doesn't you don't do it you have to do all the entire district everyone that qualifies everyone that qualifies and if you use the direct search in the 1.6 multiplier this year every school will be above 75% poverty. So you would have to serve the two big high schools which they currently do not receive title one funds. So instead of taking our little pool of
081money and dividing it by 10, we would then have to take our little pool of money and divide it by 12. But that was something that was mentioned today. She did share that with us today. But that little pool of money wouldn't increase any over that. No, no, it doesn't. It stays the same because it's based on the direct searchs. The 1.6 is just how you allocate it to the schools. So So, um I will get her I will talk to her then. It sounds like that everybody would be in favor of her coming on June 12th. Yes. So, I will reach out to her tomorrow to do that. Um so, with that being said, um you all tabled the consolidated funding application. When might you all want to look back at that and figure
082out if you all are going to agree to that or not? So, did you find out if we've actually lost any teachers assistants that were serving serving students through that through those grants through title one? Yeah. Title one, title two. So when I got back um Friday and sat down to look and see what I needed to do, I had feedback on title and I'm like, well that's really not beneficial. So no, I did not and that's on me. But so assistance lost and teachers and what programs are lost, too? Because I know there's some principles that have said that they've had to use they've had to give up some programs and pick and choose the ones they want to keep. And right now, and I don't care to look and see what their uh
083projected loss items are, but keep in mind, we don't have our final allocation. So, we may be getting more. Okay? And at this point, what we have advised and ask is that you just focus on your personnel at this time and trying to make sure that we have enough money to get them through the school year rather than on programs. So that that's kind of the advice that was given and that went out probably in March when we got our preliminary allocation. So do we need to budget more in the teacher line and more in the assistant line to keep serving the students the way that they've been served in order to meet what we've been doing cuz we don't want to go backwards. Correct. We're our reading scores are not we want them to
084go up, not down. Absolutely. and and people like you said, uh people over programs, right? So, absolutely. So, we have in this budget um we have built in uh eight 120day interventionist and we have 180day interventionist. Um and those people were put in that budget to provide interventions for our third and fourth grade. Those have not been taken out. So, that that's still in there. Um, now I So what the reason I'm asking is because were there do we loose supports in that intervention program through federal funding that we need to keep in place through local funding? I'm I can check because right off the top of my head I don't know. But something to keep in mind and I know this may be a cheesy explanation but this is how federal funding has always
085been explained to me and it goes back to you all have heard some talk about supplement not supplant. So federal federal funding and Mr. 3 you've probably heard this too back in your day when you were here. So federal funding is the icing on the cake. Okay. So, you know, based on different factors, uh, sometimes you might have more icing than you do other years, you know. Um, another thing that we're dealing with, uh, talking about some of the loss of federal funding that was mentioned today was, um, during COVID times, they would give you waivers and you could use numbers and numbers from the years before and all of that to affect funding as well. So, those are all gone now. So, what we're dealing with is our numbers. But to answer your question,
086yes, we probably have. Could I tell you exactly how many? No. Um, and whether or not you all want to add people. Um, I don't know of many schools that can afford um that could afford out of their title money a full-time teacher. Uh so they might have used that teacher uh 50% out of title and 50% out of something else. Um I know we have uh schools that do use interventionist uh and I think most of them have been able to keep them but don't know for sure but I can get that data for you by Thursday probably. And that that kind of goes to one of my questions about the um class size reduction teacher. Um instead of using title money and and the expense that goes along with that by verifying the
087you know having to justify that teacher there's there's expense and money that that is involved in and what year teacher we put in that place and things like that. Um, would we benefit more from supporting that class size reduction on a local scale than from out of title money? You know what I mean? Would would there be savings there to hire one locally that we don't have to justify as rigorously as we do to use the title title money? that would be strictly up to you all if you wanted to do that. Um, you know, uh, you could use those same guidelines. Um, I I'm always a fan because I've been in the buildings and I know, uh, I'm always a fan of trying when we can to be fair and I know fair and
088equitable are two different things. Um, so I I you know I would struggle with that and and you know you when you sit here you have to make decisions and you have to be good stewards of taxpayers money. You you know you you you want to make everybody happy. Uh obviously you want to make the teachers happy without a doubt. You want to do what's best for kids always. I don't know that that's always what's best for kids. I know sometimes when you look at lower ratios you think that's the the winning answer, but that's not always necessarily the case. Well, and I guess the reason I asked that is because of the third grade retention law thing. If we get if if we just focus in in that area, maybe second and third grade
089or whatever to to make sure that that that class size is makes it advantageous for us to do that, you know, makes that we really are getting everything out of the kids that we can to not have and I say that because, you know, I've had some parents that have contacted me and or hey, what is going on with this third grade retention? This is ridiculous. You know, my kids blah blah blah. And I mean, we're missing I don't know. And I know that the third grade retention law is just aggravating. It's going to be anyway. Um I don't think it's so much what we do in third grade. I think it's what we do leading up to third grade that's so important. And that's why I say maybe the second and third grade. I
090think this was shared with you all briefly at at a meeting. Um, so this year, one thing that we did was we looked at our first graders. So we worked with our first grade teachers and RTI coordinators and we came up with some some guidelines and some um assessments that we would use. So, um, we have retained some first graders because here's my opinion as a professional educator. If a kid's not reading proficient in third grade, you're going to have a really, really hard time getting them caught up. So, we looked, we moved back to first grade and we have retained several first graders. Right off the top of my head, I can't tell you. I do have it broken down and we'll be happy to share that with you as well. Uh but we
091worked with the principles and teachers and came up with that. And here's, you know, here's the thing, too. Um hopefully this next year in first grade, we can really focus on that and then get those first graders proficient. But for some reason, if they're not, then they will not be allowed to be retained in third grade because you can only be retained once. And I I don't I'm not trying to get into your classroom and your operations of things like of that nature of where you put teachers or anything like that, but if there's an opportunity for us to budget more to help, that's what we're here for. you know, it's not necessarily how you do that, how you operate, or where you place people, but if there's opportunity that we need to be putting
092it building into this budget or into any budget coming moving forward, um just data would data would help that if you get I think that's what you're asking for, Jonathan, is the data and I have what's working, what's not, and it's just not completely ready to go. or yeah, where can we help with the fund piece on that? Because you're being very gracious in saying that it's our decision, but you know, in my opinion, we're not experts. It's the teachers, it's the principles, it's administration, it's you all. And so, I look to you all for what is the best for the students and how we're operating and then what do we need to do, you know, as a board to help support that. Yeah. And if you bring us data, then that supports our decision
093with our funding our funding body here. The business case. Mhm. So, we should have some data coming from all the since we've got our test results. Yes. But what those are right now are just scale scores and they're embargoed. So, we really can't share that specifically because I would really like to share with you the third grade um data, but I can't. Um, but you can share benchmarking though, right? Correct. And like I said, I have uh specific things that I ask for for second, fourth, and sixth. And I will have all of this information to you all by Thursday. Good. Okay. Okay. So, do we need to add six more teachers to the budget line to the teacher line right now? Not unless you want me to fall over right now with a heart
094attack. No. We've budgeted sufficiently for what the principles and the administration at this time. Yes. Okay. We're good. Yes. I mean based on the amount of money they think they have. Yeah. Based on our a lotment meetings and meeting the class size requirements set for by the state. Yes, we are good. Okay. So, I did ask a question and no one's answered it. Or the the title one. Yes. The consolidated funding application. Um, well, I don't I don't have any more additional questions, but I think some board members might, but you've got a time frame that you have to have it approved for. So, I think we said the drop dead date on that would be our board meeting this month. So, she I questioned her about it today. At this point, it has been
095approved. They they have approved it because as it was submitted, it met all of the requirements that the state requires us to have. So why do we vote on it then? Because that is a requirement. We have there's a form that uh will be signed off on and it has to be uploaded in e- plan saying that the board has voted on. So really we have we have we're just a token vote then. We don't really it doesn't really matter. We're standing behind what's been submitted and what's been approved. Yeah. So, we're a token vote probably. Yes. No. However, so however, hopefully next year when this process starts, um, you know, I've tried to be as transparent as I can. Um, let's see. Um, I think I'm on getting close to day 30. So, uh,
096I've tried to be as transparent with you all and everybody that sits out here in this crowd as I can. Uh, so with that being said, going forward, you know, when we start the process, getting input uh from you all, that that would be my thoughts and suggestions for next year. Vote to refuse. I would not suggest voting to refuse money ever. I'm not doing that. For the record, I'm not voting to refuse money. Thank you. Well, I would like to see us get as much as we possibly can and use it for the best interest of all the kids is what I'm doing. So, Mr. Davis, did you have a comment? No. Yeah. I think the vote right uh token, however, whatever you want to call it, there's checks and balances. Whether or not
097we are experts on the inner workings of of how u an administration works at the school level isn't necessarily the point so much as is if if there are options for us to help tailor our budget to the intent of the community to spend the money then that's essentially I would imagine what that vote is there for. Yeah. Right. So, we do have we're not just saying, "Hey, congratulations." You know, we don't have a director for that, but somebody's doing a good job. At least we have some knowledge as to how we're going to attack that. So, I I for one would like to know about it. Yeah. As best as we can, cuz there there's more than one way to do it. And uh Well, we're voting to agree to it. So, we do
098need to know about it because that's how we're agreeing to move forward in that way. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Another option here for you. So, we could um I mean we could go ahead let her come on June 12th and and do what we talked about waiting until the LA to the next uh board meeting and putting it on there for you to approve then. That's what was the deadline on it? No, 31st. Well, end of the fiscal year. So, um, we could also do a special call meeting at the end of the work session if we need to do it earlier, right? And we could get the presentation, then we could vote on it and just cuz that won't take but a few minutes to and speaking of work sessions. So, um, our special called
099meeting. So when we go in on our board connect and you all see the um the special called meeting, we cannot say on our board connect special called meeting to follow the board meeting. We have to set a time. So that's why we set a time this time for 5:30, you know, because it requires us to do that. And I really didn't want to freak everybody out by saying, "Okay, we'll have one at 7:00, you know." So that's why I said 5:30. I would rather freak you out in a good way than a bad Thank you. I know, but I wasn't going to go down that street, but I just want everybody, especially the press, to know why we have a special called meeting and it and the time. Got it. Thank you. Thank. Okay.
100So, does that answer your question then? Yes. Wait until June 14 or June 12th at least. And then do we want to do a just set up a special call for the work session? Everybody think we can vote after that? Yep. Okay. I will reach out to her tomorrow. Thank you. So, I I you all have addressed all of my questions and everything that I had. Anything that I'm missing? Nope. I don't think so. Pretty thorough. Yeah. Mhm. Yes. So, do So, if there's anything else there's not, we'll take a recess. Short recess. Short recess. This me.