001If you would join me in a moment of silence, the pledge of allegiance [Music] teaching salute. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all. Want to welcome everyone here tonight. Appreciate you coming. See, we've got one county commissioner here. Turn them off. Glad to have you. First thing we need to do is approve the minutes from our last meeting two days ago. Yes, they're ready. Published a motion. Move to approve the 41 budget. Second minutes. Motion and second to approve the minutes. Any discussion? Those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say nay. The eyes have minutes are approved. Next item is the 2526 budget draft one. Mr. Ste. Yeah. This is the
002draft that Mr. King and I uh recommend to work work from and to talk about discuss. Um, if we'll go to the the PowerPoint, that's number four on our agenda. We'll talk about some big picture stuff that Mr. King and I have been working on for today. First few slides are similar to the previous and third strategic year. the 20 FY26 raises increases or the raises um personnel additions. I'd inadvertently left off that full-time athletic. It's in this this budget also up for discussion by the board. Then next is our projected revenues. [Music] So the expected revenues are $75.8 million and the increase in TISA was a little over $2 million and the total raises was 3.6. Next slide. And any questions please just chime in. Projected expenses. Obviously, our biggest expense is personnel. Oh,
003okay. I can hold off for Mr. Matthews is here. Somebody Yeah, Miss Diane just went out to open the door. [Music] Sorry. You're good. You're good. We just start just getting good stuff. Yep. Just getting to the good stuff. So, this slide is the expected expenditures. And then the next slide with all the maintenance projects and everything it's 83.4 million with the revenues and then there's a budget gap of 17.7.6 million. But our our largest our largest uh bucket is our personnel at 86%. So to stay at current strength, there's a gap. So here's the maintenance that y'all have on a separate sheet. That is little, sorry, but y'all have that on that separate sheet and you have it your hand out. So you should be able to. So this is a rotation. Every year
004different schools get new flooring, painting, whatever bathroom fixtures and that's 1.7 million that's been on rotation for a few years now. And then the next slide are major projects from the discussion at the last meeting. That's why the tennis courts are listed there because they were brought up and discussed. So the total is 5.5 million. But if we don't include the uh tennis courts, then it's 4.3. So what Mr. King and I want to talk about this evening is we would like to make this a one-time alligate allocation request to the uh county commission for just this year to take care of those maintenance projects in the plan and it's up for discussion obviously. So if we do that, the next slide, that brings us down to a budget gap of 3.3 million and then
005discussion topics open to the board to discuss. Now obviously cost increases across the board for the past few years. We did facility study so we can have a comprehensive care of facilities through the updated facilities inspection. Some positions we haven't filled yet. So that saves some money. Uh student toteer ratios are required by the state. So we got to adhere to that. And then also want to look at multi-year planning. So what about next year? What about the following year? We want to talk about that also. And then at one point there might need to be a one-time budget reset or we'll continue to have this problem year to year because of the pay increases and that sort of thing. So those are that's what Mr. King and I prepare for discussion for this evening.
006Um I'm going to start with the request to do a one-time allocation for maintenance. We want to start discussing. Does that include the tennis court? No, this that's without the tennis courts with it. It's 5. Okay. 5 million. Mhm. Yeah. Almost 56. Yeah. Yeah. [Music] So that would bring us current with everything that's on the maintenance budget worksheet rotation for the year. Mhm. And then the major projects and those are I think Mr. Chain call it end of life level four and five projects. Mhm. Out of one being it's new, it's good to go. Five being end of life from the school analysis from the facility analysis. Mhm. Okay. But anything's up for discussion right now. The draft one budget, any parts of that? And this is the big picture of it. What hall are
007the renovations at North with that $550,000? What what's in tail with that? Is Miss King not here to discuss that? Miss Bra Miss Bray is working on that. Well, what we would do, but they're basically similar to what we Oh, I'm sorry. What we do is similar what we did at South. We would have an ADA bathroom, which they do not currently have. There would be flooring, uh, possible maybe even a renovation in the cafeteria is what Miss Hall, we would work with Miss Allen on that. But the ADA Bathroom upgrades are very expensive and they are desperately needed there. Yeah. So, that's where a large portion of this would be spent. cuz we've already done her painting and she has some floor. Well, she did some painting, didn't you, Miss Allen? Out there earlier,
008we did some painting. That was what, a year or so ago? Last year we did our painting. Miss King, Miss Bray, and I walked the building and we did our painting last year. We have a few little things to add to it, but the majority of our building was painted. So, um, and what about the the um trailers outside you've put this um uh the the trailers are being used by the after school program. What it's going to are we going to refurbish those or anything? So, Miss Bray can maybe talk to the two um current portables, the ones that were not acceptable on the property. Cumberland County Schools is in the process of removing and has already removed two and um we anticipate the other will be the same. They've done a really good
009job with that and um the other two are used for our before and after school program. Um and Miss Goss requested those two particular uh buildings for her so she could have a homework space and a game space for the students and we keep those. Well, are those trailers safe? because we've eventually taken all the classrooms out of the trailers, I thought. And then now we put the after school program in there. So, we don't put children where they're not safe. So, as I said, Miss Kingston came out, we've had the fire marshal there. Um, we keep those up to code and make sure that the children are safe there. And there were some renovations done this past summer there that Miss Loretta requested. Our boys spent quite a few days out there just doing
010several things that she wanted in those two. My goal is to have them all gone. Yes. And we had to pay to have them hauled away. But my goal was to see them all gone except those two. And we have put some time and effort into those. Well, I haven't been out there to visit Miss Loretta, but I did know that she was moved out of the building and into the She's got a really good setup now. She's got a lot of new equipment and games and it's a really good environment work separate from the play time. I need to go visit. What's the What's the life expectancy after the renovations and stuff and those things though? They're still 20 years old. Oh, they're probably older than that. Way older than that. Yeah. They were
011there when I was there. Yes, sir. That's why I've gotten rid of three of them. Yeah. Uh hopefully, like I said, with the work that we put into them, they'll be good for, you know, at least another 5 years. But we did substantial things there over the summer, but they were the two best. Well, there's never a good portable, but they were the two best of the ones that were left out there. And that I guess one of the reasons just trying to look ahead, none of none of the projects you've got right now for renovations are slated to be worked on or working on those, right? And I'm the reason I'm asking is, you know, why are we throwing money out? Why expect it's just 5 years? Well, they're used in the morning and
012in the evening. It's not like there's students in there all day, but I I feel like I said the fire officer has been there, walked it twice with him. He's okay with it. The child care people are okay with it. I'm just saying for future since we put the money in it now, at what point we say, "Okay, it's enough. Enough's enough. We don't miss We just have to find a place to put it inside her building." Yeah. And we've got a lot more things now than we once did. This Loretta had a grant the last three years and we have bought a tremendous amount of stuff. Yeah. for the kids and I really we would have to have a dedicated space. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So, with doing the one-time presentation on this, then
013for next year, that's where the budget reset would need to come into play cuz we need to make sure that we keep up a rotation based on the analysis that we had done of the schools, right? Yeah. I mean, a budget reset, I'm not recommending when to do it, but that is something that might have to be done to get the school system back level. [Music] Could you clarify for me what what a reset would in? I was just going to ask the same question. Well, it would just be a partnership between the county commission and school board to discuss necessarily saying where can we level this out, right? instead of falling into this problem here. What can we do as partners to level this out so the school system um is not continually struggle?
014Yeah. Having budget issues cuz that $7 million gap is basically what the pay raises have been two years. So that could be a consideration for this year though with the commission, right? Could be presented well conversation, sitting down, talking. Mhm. Once you get an unfunded mandate and get behind, you can't ever catch up. Yeah. And that's what's happened. We just keep spinning our wheels. Yeah. Kicking the can. Kicking the can. It's a good statement. I'm open up to any other ideas, too. This is what Mr. King talking about trying to figure out how to make it work this year with the keep our current strength. Mhm. Are all of these plann rotations just budgetary quotes or estimates based on previous work estimates? Correct. Are they I mean like detailed estimates where they went in and
015measured and I mean they they seem pretty generic. They're all 75,000. That's how it was set up originally. Okay. Cuz they tried to guesstimate what would cover it, but cost change now. So renovations, the amount of money for a renovation doesn't cover as much renovations now. But they, my understanding, well, Kim was here when they created this plan. Why not can you explain? Basically, what they said was this number like flooring I think is 50. So it's now raised to 75. And we basically go to the principal and say, "You got 75,000 to spend on flooring. Where can we agree that we think that money could be best spent and they usually have a really good idea where that needs to be because all of these buildings you can walk in and you can see
016where their flooring needs to be replaced. I could go right off the top of my head and tell you." And that's basically we're saying you've got now the environmental cleanings. I've got a pretty good idea how much we just have one of those done when that's going to run at a school. But I like to get those done periodically because it gives the environment and the school clean. The bathroom petitions, that's pretty good price on those because they're on state contract. But there again, we say you got 25,000 to replace the petitions that you feel you would like to replace in your school. This is lot of principal discretion. We give you a lump sum of money and you make the choice where you would like to spend it in your building and they make
017good decisions. They're not going to do anything. Yes. You can predict the flooring, the front lobby, the bathroom, stuff like that that after 30 years is need to be replaced. Have we looked at any alternative flooring options? We have. Yeah. And I've already done some. Okay. We've gone away from the tile in the cafeteria itself. We went with a fourth floor that I think is going to hold up. We're getting away from the what I call the white spool tile to the luxury vinyl plank. It's quieter. It's less maintenance. We spent already this year $50,000 on stripper and wax. Wow. That doesn't even count buffers, pads, labor. So, I'm really pushing to get away from that. Okay. That's what So, this could eventually go away if we can get a a longer lasting correct. And
018that's what a lot of your schools are going to is the luxury bomb plant as opposed to the tile. When you guys looked at that, did they give you an estimated lifespan? I mean, it looks great. I know it looks awesome itself, but did did they estimate is it going to last a percentage more than what we've got on the tile? I didn't ask that question. I was more they said it was comparable and the maintenance part it's it's almost it's not maintenancefree but it's much easier. Yeah. Well, I'd say it depends on wear and tear too. Yeah. It' be a hard thing to gauge how many kids that Yeah. Sometimes you can come up with a burn rate or not. But I know there are a lot of schools if you look in some
019of those formats that are going to this away from that because of the maintenance of it. When did we start doing this um rotation? Cuz we always have go back about 10 years. Now I don't know beyond that. Yeah, 10 years. Okay. It could have been beyond that. I don't know. But that's what I've got reference of. Yeah. The point was this is preventative so we don't end up in a everything need everything. And I guess one of my questions is backing up a little bit. I'm thinking future years too. But that Mcken Street estimate that that they came up with, you know, they how how much would that be able to affect this personal opinion? Do you think you can narrow it down? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They can narrow it real quick for
020me. And I've even asked them to add flooring to that. Yeah. But that would be a budgetary breeze because I would know based on lifespan what HBAC is going to go. I could really narrow it down what I need to put in those lines because they they've got a life, they've got a cost. Yeah. And they've got a budgeting tool. Yeah. So, the benefit Oh, yeah. And like I said, I know that's a future thing we're going to discuss, but but just know they could round every piece of equipment in a building. I would have a record of I would know how old it is, when it's put there, the serial number, estimated life. Yeah. Mr. Stepp, the um projected expenses, the transportation piece on that, did that include the new buses that we needed
021as well? Yes. Yes, this includes all five buses. Okay. Which they have a lifespan, too. So once we hit certain mileage or years, we we have to retire them. And I think from the first budget work session that we had, Miss Brace, we had four coming out this next year. Coming out. Yeah. Miss Martin asked for the 90 passenger because we got one this year and it's working out really well as far as overcrowding and double routes and so forth. Yeah, already running double routes with the drivers. We wouldn't be able to route add additional routes for the buses if we were short buses, right? A triple route. That would work. Yeah, that would work. [Music] Okay. U Mr. Steph, one of the things that y'all had talked about was the requirements for the SMHS
022track. Um, it looked like that was still something you were waiting on. Yeah, still waiting on that. So, if we were to do refurbishment or repair out there, we're still waiting what the specifics are. Yeah, they have specific specs. I emailed I just haven't heard back. Okay. So what we use was depending on whether we use it for just normal running or competitions. If we replace it, what material do we have to replace it with? So that's the that's what I'm that was my question. What are your TWSA requirements? Mhm. So that might modify the track expense depending on what we need to do there. It'll be the most expensive. Well, I'm pretty sure when we got that quote, it they know what the requirement is and that quote should be pretty accurate. Okay. So
023expensive. Was it it was originally built to those specs as well, right? Yes. They changed. I don't think so, but materials change. So that's why I want to get a direct line from TWSA. Maybe new something new come out. That's how old is that? You know, 2006. Okay. That's a lot of our projects that are listed. They're originals. So, we're having to Yeah. Yep. lifespan. I wouldn't be surprised if it has changed, but the material changes and injuries and so forth. Mhm. I feel like the gentleman for competition, he does that for a living. He's going to be very Yeah. So all of the major project pricing is one one quote from one company, correct? Because these will have to go out to bid and I just like to get a ballpark idea. But normally
024what we do is we like we either talk to Mr. Chandler's group or someone here locally and they can give you pretty good idea that are familiar with our buildings. Like there's one particular electrical contractor I'm sure you know here in town that's very familiar and he can give me a ballpark but they're going to have to go out to be at any but this gives us the ballpark and they're usually not too far off if we don't wait too long to do it because they just expensive. Yes. And I have had come in that we couldn't afford and we had to you know had to reject them. We always have the right to do that but now with these we've consulted with them. We have different companies that send in bids. Oh, absolutely. We
025have a list. You have to advertise it. So, if somebody's making bid, too. Put that on the paper. So, presenting it that way to the commission breaks it up clean so they see what the expenses involved with our maintenance and projects. maintenance projects, regular maintenance versus the rest of the budget which is majority right of the compensation. Mhm. I think it's a clean way to start discussions. I agree. So do we want to discuss item number five now chair? It's the uh discussion regarding multi-year budgeting framework context. Yeah. Yes. Let's discuss it. The concept is we can fix things this year maybe. What about next year and the next and the next? We have a long-term plan we do with the rotation some of the maintenance things but what about the rest of the budget?
026How do we plan for next year and the next? Of course, we can't see if there's a new requirement for a minimum salary that could be mandated. We can't plan for that. We're trying to meet the minimum now, which we got to do by next year. We fixed that into this year and next year's plan. But beyond that, there's other things that we may or may not have considered for this year that need to be considered for next year and the next and the next. How does the budget move? How does inflation affect it? How does the price of fuel affect it? You know, all the things that go into a budget. Is there a way to project for each year ahead a good structure for framework going forward? So, were there suggestions that you
027all had for that? Well, yes, but mostly I'd like to know what y'all thoughts were. Well, who's doing a who's doing an exceptional job of that? And is there any kind of programs that we can utilize in that arena? I can definitely check in to see who does that really well. There's several counties that have those five and 10 year projections that they create. That might be um the way to move forward is to kind of see what their model is and then we look at it. What's it look like with us? I think looking at a multi-year plan is great, but once again, that bottom line discussion, we'll have to I think we're going to try and need to figure out just how how can we reset so that we can budget plan forward.
028One of the things that have been talked about for the last couple of years that got squaltched um was looking at the pay scales. I think there had been some recommendations for I don't know what the term was levelizing. What was the term that you Yeah. Just making balancing. Yeah. Making it an even percentage from year to year for their step raise. Is that correct, Miss Bray? What we've been talking about? We we looked at it the past two years, but we just didn't do it. Board didn't approve it. Um doing that with a pay raise makes it easier. But it still makes that pay raise a little more expensive because you're trying to different people have to move up and others will move very little. So, um it will be a little more expensive
029than just a pay raise, but uh I recommend looking into that. Leanrog recommended looking into that, which I can get that Leanrog study for the new members so you can see what it was. cuz that was my first year here. So y'all can look at what their recommendations are. So maybe going back to some of that. Yeah, I can I can get that out to y'all this evening. And we might want to look at um like um the non-certified, you know, how we're paying them at the bottom starting out $11 if they don't have any experience in just coming into the school. That's what our pay scale say. 11 is almost $12. Something like that. With the raise, it'll be 1158. Again, with the raise, it'll be $158 is the first lowest one. Yeah. Our
030goal would be to get to $15 an hour, but if we move $1 for all classified staff, it's approximately $550,000 to move them up $1 at a time. But those people are important. I'm not saying they're not important. I'm just on the data on what it would call. Are we going to discuss that before the special called or we going to wait till the special call to discuss that? We can discuss it right now if you like. Okay. I I don't know if this is the time or not. So just just looking at that and and I want to first say that I'm I don't want to offend anybody in anything that I say here cuz you know there's there's different pay rates. I would like to understand why we have um different pay rates
031for administrative assistant that's a department secretary with a primary duty of bookkeeping versus a school secretary because both both have I guess responsibilities for bookkeeping type word tracking time sheets things of that nature. So why do we have that difference there? Now when product came in four years ago, they evaluated and they placed these people in these categories and they did a lot of extensive research as far as comparable duties. Okay? And this was their recommendation. Some people were moved to a different category like attendance clerks used to be in a different category. They moved in with the bookkeepers. There was some movement in this, but they basically agreed with the way that we had people placed based on their duties, based on their job descriptions, based on talking with them. So, did they do
032time studies on what everybody's doing or how did they go? They did not go in and do a time study, but they did, like I said, they evaluated some of the job description, visited with some folks that actually did the job, compared it to other school systems and to the community here, like type of work, secretary, custodian, nurse, that sort of thing. So, we have supervisors and manager type roles already in our school system, do they not? They they have more experience with those positions than some outside consultant. Have have we talked about supervisors and manager type roles to discuss what what the duties are that that we're talking about? No. Okay. Not that I know. So I'm just I'm just wondering why a school secretary is not on the same pay scale as And
033I realize and I've done quite a bit of math here, but some of those are 7 hours, some of them are 8 hours, some of them are 260, some of them are 182. So, but if you look for instance at a let me just let me just go to a school secretary that makes starting out at 1407 and we're we're going to give them a raise this year to 1435 starting out. Is that right? I think it would be a 1407 this year. 1407 this year. Yes, sir. Okay. With the 2%. Okay. So, if we gave them a 2% next year, they would be at 1435. That would be a salary of uh $20,480. That is 180 days. It's 182 days. Yeah. So, they have five sick, five personal days, correct? no vacation, right? So,
034if you go over here to um the same type ro that's uh 1765 an hour this what we're proposing, right? 1765. Well, that's also a department, but they're also permaning very different than what I think a school secretary. So, they actually pay bills for the department, right? They do much more bookkeeping than secretaries. So the secretaries at the school are turning in time sheets and doing book every two weeks. Some do and some do not. But that's just one. They don't actually pay bills do bookkeeping because there's a bookkeeper in the school. Okay. I I I liken this role to school bookkeeper more closely aligned to that. Well, I can I can go back and do it for a school bookkeeper, too. My point is so and these people also it's not to cut you
035off but they are managing a much larger budget like for example for CTE the dollars are much greater than what you see in a school to be managed not that they're not important I'm not saying that but the volume of work so that salary at a starting rate of 1765 is 36,700 $115 versus a $20,000 salary. But they work for 260. They also get 20 vacation days, 12 sick days, and 10 holidays. So they have effectively they're working 218 days. If they take all of their sick, take all of their sick, but they do take holidays and vacation. Well, they don't all automatically get 20 days. It's an acred amount based on how long. You don't start with 20, right? Okay. But you do acrew once a day on it. So when do you get
036to 20 days? What is it? 10 years. Okay. So at 10 years, I can go back and do the same thing across the board. But the point I'm trying to get to eventually is that over time, the gap only gets larger when we do 2% across the board. Right? So even even going forward, it's going to do that. But what we've done in the past has done that as well. It's created a larger gap. And I would like to propose that we do something for all the employees that are classified above the 2% that work for 100 less than 260 days as a catchup. That's totally up to you, folks. You just have to make sure that everybody's in the proper category as far as days and everything. I mean, that that's doable. I would
037like to see what and and I think I asked this the last meeting was to see all the percentage increases that we if we went 3 4 5 six. I said 2. Well, after after having the sheet unlocked and being able to do the math, I'd like to see a 10% for those employees. Why 10%. Just to catch up. So, and if you look at the total cost, that's not going to be an incredible amount as well. Yeah. Um, if we were to cuz what you're saying aligns with what we were talking about with the pay scales, right, which you've been wanting to do the last couple years that we didn't come around to doing where we align things differently where it's not that flat, we don't have the different variances. So, if we're going
038to look at doing something like that, should we not just look at doing it across the pay scales and just let's get them aligned the way we think we need to get them aligned rather than pulling a certain group out? I think we're so far off on this group that it needs to be done now. And the the rest needs to be looked at, but I think this is this is something that really needs to be looked at now. And that's all the classified people that are below 260. Below 260. So that would include nurses, bus drivers. Yeah. I don't think we should wait. I mean, for couple of years now, I've asked this board to do something about the percentage weight. It um keeps going up and up and up for people with the
039higher degrees. And the people like the certified, the non-certified or whatever you call them, the bus drivers and the and the uh custodians and the cafeteria workers, they're just kind of left by the byway, you know, and and 2% raise on like $7,000 or whatever they make is nothing compared to a percentage of 2% on 40,000. Well, again, changing the salary scales when we talked about that the last couple years. We talked about that for years. Yeah. but the board didn't approve it. So, here we are still in the same situation. So, I I am I want to attract and keep talent. That's one of our main goals. So, I want to make sure that we're doing that. We're talking about pulling I mean, I'd like to do it as a whole and make sure
040that across the board we've got good scales going for everybody rather than just pulling one subsection out and doing it. We may determine that that redesigning the scale that subsection is going to have to go up more because of that. So I'm only talking about classified right now. I'm not talking about certified. This is only classified. Yeah. But we have the same issue across we don't certified is I disagree. Certified has when I agree with what the state requires. Right. We've got the state making sure that we get to where we need to go there. We have the bottom level. Right. Yes. But we're doing it across the board all the way up to the top level. We are. So there's a a variance there too. So there is an issue there. But I just
041wanted to talk about classified first. Yeah. So if we were to look at doing 10% that's adding more to what has been proposed from the budget, right? So where are we going to counterbalance that? So one proposal I thought of asking about was what would if we did everybody else in classified as 1% instead of 2%. or look at 1% for the salary classified and 2% for everybody other than less than 260. Can we can we look at offsetting some of that difference that has been created by doing these percentage raises over time? Can we start offsetting that now this year? I don't know the best way to do it. That's we can crank the number look at it. that you want 10% for anybody less than 260. That that was a starting point that
042I after looking at these numbers and I've got a calculator built if you want me to send it to you. But somebody making starting out as a teachers assistant at 1214 after this year is going to make $15,466 a year. If we do another 2% it's 1238 an hour and they're going to make 15,775 and by the time we get to 2728 they're going to be making $16,413. Mhm. So over the next 5 years at 2% or the next four years over at 2% um they're they're basically going to get about $300 a year in raises. Mhm. That's That's And that was with the larger raise that was provided a couple years ago focused on that. Mhm. But it was 6% across the board. Right. Right. Correct. If you do the if you do the
043same thing for um an admin assistant, the gap on the hourly rate continues to grow. Mhm. So the first year is going to be a 365 $33 $3.65 gap. The next year is going to be 372. The next year is going to be 380. So those those higher paid Mhm. start to earn a higher rate. Yeah. So we're creating a larger gap. Yeah. The flat raises and percentages are an issue. So I I say there's no time like the present. Let's start doing something now for this. I agree. We keep putting it off and putting it off and putting it off. Miss Bray, I want to ask you, do the non-certified, do they get any um you know, I know the teachers get the insurance packages and people with I mean, what kind of insurance
044package do these They get their insurance their single coverage insurance is paid just singles and it's paid by the board. Correct. That doesn't come out of their pockets. Okay. But not the family plan. any in family, children, spouse, you're going to pay 100% of that. And we can change all that, too. And we wonder why we can't keep uh employees. So if we were to look at that with the classified it's below the 260 as a corrective measure at this point and then we need to come back to the whole pay scale. So what you're saying is not address the whole pay scale this time around. Start here with this and then come back to addressing the pay scales immediately after this budget season in anticipation for next year. See, that's why I was actually
045actually asking to do this back in November. I think everybody remembers, but this needs a lot of work. The pay scales are more than just budget season work for Yes, they are. Yeah. Yeah. If we don't start on this now, it's only going to get worse. As I said, we I've asked every for three years now, I've asked us to work on it and always comes up at budget time and not all year long. Um, so that would be something that would go under our discussion items. And as far as our multi-year budgeting framework that with this year, whatever we decide to do, we're doing that as a step forward this year. And next year, we're working on the rest of it or we may have to chunk a part off of it then. I
046mean, but with each year, the flat raises are just gonna I just don't think we can tackle all of it with the amount of money we have to work with this year. Amen. Yeah. But but I think if we don't do something on this, it's only going to get worse. Right. And that was part of the reason it wasn't tackled. Not all of it, but part of the reason it hasn't been tackled last two years because it was brought forward so we could resolve this exact issue we're talking about, but it was squaltched by majority that point. Yep. But so we're back at the table with it now. Yeah. I think I think this is the worst discrepancy that we have though from what I've looked at. I know there's some others, some things that
047need to be fixed, but this is the worst one. There is another one that as I was looking through and going over over some of this that like a starting teacher zero um zero years with a with a master's degree and that's what you'd have to have to be like an assistant principal or principal or whatever and the same as so the zero years teacher and a zero years principal which I know that's probably not going to happen but that but just saying there's a $5,000 it would cost you $5,000 to go from a teacher to an assistant principal according to this pay scale on the base base pay rate on the base pay rate I can answer that okay because there's been increases that have been given on the teacher scale at 1% and
048then a different increase a lesser on that principal scale that's how it's gotten Yep. But that's like you were saying that's another issue that we we need to address to I mean why would anybody take less money to go to go to a harder job and you know Mhm. to me it don't make sense. Has been an issue and it has been been discussed previously. Mhm. Yep. For many years. Yep. Yeah. No attention many years. Yeah. There's got to be incentive for moving forward onward and upward. Moving up. Uhhuh. Yeah. It's not just moving up, but you know, trying to help our school with more and and I mean because that's a harder job. That's more days. That's that's you know and to go I mean I don't know why we have an assistant principal
049at all at this point. You know what I mean? How to take the job. [Music] There have been many discussions. Mhm. And Yep. Some years there's been zero rates for the post people for the principles and assistant principles and stuff. Yeah. Mhm. And I mean like Scott was kind of alluding to is if we just do 2% across the board, there we are. We're doing it to them again more or less. You know, just continuing the bad habit. Yeah. The solution has been offered before to put all the certified people on the same scale instead of two different scales. And last year it seemed like it was, you know, there was a lot of talks during this process last year and I sat and watched hoping that it would go to one scale and now
050here we are with money shortages and it wasn't wasn't quite as bad last year. would have been a good time to fix it, but it, you know, now we're in a spot where we don't have the extra money to to do something a big move like that to to make the right Well, and then even on the supplement side of it, you've got a secondary assistant principal and elementary assistant principal, and there's a big discrepancy there with just the percentage of what they get as their um step raises, you know, four to 10 or seven years or what however many years however many years they have um there's a big discrepancy just between the different levels of assistant principles and I don't know you you guys are the educators there's I mean assistant principal whether
051you're at a high school or elementary school you're still having to deal with the parents you're still having to deal with the the hard things that happen in the Oh, discipline the discipline and and all of that stuff. So, um it just seems what was there a reason that we did because it had to be hand figured or something? Is that No. Well, we've been years where they've done payraises and they wouldn't do as much for the admin side, right? So now the daily rate for administrators is less than a teacher. Is that correct, Miss Bray? Yeah. It's been done like that three times in my two different payes, rates, percentages given for admin versus what was put on the teacher selling. Now even in certain columns, there were different prices. Mhm. Within that scale.
052So whack need to do a reset. Do a reset and hit the button. I know a little history about that, but what happened is is the principles and assistant principles got grouped with supervisors. There were board members that didn't want supervisors to receive raises. So, they grouped the principles and assistant principles in with that. Mhm. Even though all of those employees are certified teachers. So, at one point they were all on a certified pay scale. Yeah. Yep. Uh some of the some of the supplements is what made the salaries higher. And so that I guess skewed some opinions that they shouldn't get a raise because they have those supplements, but they have those supplements for a different reason. Yeah. Well, and even the APS and principles work more days, do they not? They work more
053days. It didn't seem like that was factored into the discussion last year at all. No, they get paid for those they get paid for those extra days. So that that puts a Yeah, but you can't compare the teacher calendar to I vacation and all that too. It's different. Yeah. It's not like they're getting those days off. It's they're working. Yeah. They're working days regardless. Okay. So, what we do if if you're suggesting offsetting that, you know, if we were to go for a higher amount for the less than 260 with the percentage for the over 2160. I know you're talking about looking at the classified, but do we need to be kind of looking at certified, too? I mean, should we be trying to balance that a little bit more this year? So, we're taking
054a step in the corrective direction without a big step. We're looking at a flat raise and the 1713 for everybody across the board, not just the bottom entry level. I don't know. We're brainstorming things out there. So there's got to be some pl some place in the budget to offset some of this, right? So where do we go? We do the maintenance if we ask we talked nice to county commission. The maintenance is that I don't think maintenance is is a good idea just simply because if we're especially we've got places that's having to catch rain water in buckets, you know. Well, that's what I'm saying. Take it away. Yeah. Really not. Yeah. Ask them to help us with that so that we can focus on that. That's a one time. Yes. To help us
055do a reset. Yes. But I think if we're going to go to the commission and talk with them about that, we need to be able to talk with them about, well, what are we doing on the reset? What's our piece of this? Um, so I don't I don't think there's anything we can do with current salaries as far as we can't reduce current salaries. That's against state law. Correct. No, it's definitely more. So, so where where do we go? Do we have to create a new salary scale that is from this day forward and have our current salary scale the same? And we we presented something similar to that um before, but it wasn't approved. Yeah. Lean Frog showed us how to do it. Uh there was discrepancies, and y'all correct me if I'm wrong.
056There was discrepancies on who was getting what amount. When you level it like that, people get different amounts, either raises or the same or just a little bit. So, there was some discrepancies there or misunderstanding maybe. So, it didn't get approved. I think what Mr. Van Winkle said about um working on um the non-certified this time would help a lot and you know not deal with the certified at this point in time. I think it's definitely the starting point because that's the weakest point I guess for lack of a better term. That's that's where the most room for improvement is. Right. And the most need is and most need in salaries is and and that's I think I think what you've sent out we we've lost several employees in that area. It's hard it's hard
057to retain employees in that area. We've heard several people come and speak at board meetings about about that same issue. I just think that's the best place to start. Can I ask what does it cost to hire one person into the system? Depends on the position. Like I said, I think the other night, a bus driver by time and train, you've got a lot of time and money invested in them. Yeah. Some of our other positions like the custodial position, you know, you can let someone shadow somebody else probably, I'm going to say, for at least a month and then they're probably good the way that the work is broken out. a teacher assistant. The expectations are more there. There's more that they have to be. I mean, it just depends. There's no what position
058position. I can't really put a dollar amount. I know the bus drivers because the cost associated with the license and everything that we pay for the two weeks paid training and things like that. There's a dollar amount associated with that. It's really difficult for the others. It's just very different for any particular position. I I know. And the reason I asked that is I know that in in budgeting on job sites and things like that um and of course I worked in a totally different area than this but by the time you go through um and hire one person and it and they have to go through all the things all the checks balances and especially if there's security background checks and all of that stuff. By the time you do all that and the
059manh hours that it takes just to hire one person for in in my field of work, it cost us about $5,000. And and I know that that's a little bit different, but by the time you count time loss for training, like you said, if you've got a a teacher assistant that you're having to train all over again, that training time costs something. You know, it costs manh hours from someone else. Um it costs manh hours for the whole gamut of things that they have to go through. Um and so I mean it just to me being able to retain all of the people that we can is nothing but savings for us. And if we can save more by you know upping the salary and getting people more willing to work for that money then
060that's savings on down the road. I don't disagree. Yeah. And and just think about um cafeteria workers. You have to try cooking. They cook. They clean. They serve the children. I mean, I look at their miss see Miss Hammy and she has to deal with people, you know, hiring and making her budget work. And uh nurse, you know, the nurses, uh Miss Pollson has to get the nurses. And these people go to college to be a nurse. Oh, I I really I really hope they're very trained when we get them. I don't think I don't think any point, you know, we really need to work on the non-certified. I don't think anybody's in disagreement on that, but we just have to figure out where's the money coming from. So, that's what we got. That's our
061job. We got to figure out where where's where we going to get the money from to do that. It's got to come from somewhere else. So, is it from classified the 1%? Is it from certified by making some adjustments? Is it I mean, we've been told the biggest bucket is the compensation bucket, right? So what do what do we move around in that in order to be competitive and retain and attract? Would you like for me to do the calculations and to get back or have you already done it? I'll send you what I have. I haven't done every every category. I just spot checked. So I I haven't dedicated all night long to this every night since you sent that to me. No, really. Just a couple. We're disappointed. I think this does it
062in her sleep. I'm sure two less than 26%. How do you like me? Well, I mean, obviously you already have the 2%. So, if we're trying to offset it, where can we find ways to offset it? Is what Miss Sty is asking for. Why don't we see a number? Yeah, that's fine. Is that okay? Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Cuz I mean I don't know how many employees see I tried to do that but with with what I have I don't know what employees fit into that category. So I don't know how many or what what year they are either. So I'll have to [Music] Okay. Yeah. I had another question about um so safe schools counselors why are they on a different pay scale than than the teacher scale? Well, we've got two different classifications of
063safe schools counselor do not have to have a teaching license scale. That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure we have three and three. Okay. So, the ones that are certified on a certified skill just like a teacher. Okay. Gotcha. Are you done with the salary ones, Scott? I I think that's all I have for right now. Okay. Yeah. So, Miss Bray, you're going to get that number back to us and then we'll see where we need to be looking for offsetting possibly if we're going to go that route. Let's get it. Let's get a number. Okay. That's a good starting point. I like that suggestion. Thank you. Um, Mr. Ste, on the discussion items, I had a question for you. There's some positions we have not filled. So, that would be the
064athletic director that No, there's just um it's about eight or nine positions. Is that correct? Probably. I mean, it's comes during the year. like we went I don't know three years that we were down guidance counselors but finally this year we're completely staffed on guidance counselors. So when you have this on here as discussion items are you what are you what we're what we're saying is there's some money there. It's not significant but there's some money there because we haven't been able to fill every position. Okay. So, what I'm trying to show is is where those resources are. Since we're talking about how can we offset stuff? How can we So, um I'm still concerned about we we already have an athletic director. Why do we need a full-time athletic director? Well, and my opinion
065of that is as much money as we are investing into our athletic department al together um especially between two schools um it's a lot I mean that's a not only a lot of money that we're investing but there's a lot of work that needs to be done and as we can tell like with with Stone's football field um maintenance as good a job as they do, there's other little specific things that probably got overlooked because they're trying to get all of their stuff done, too. And so with a a full-time athletic director, I think that it's just too much for um for one person to do part-time of that and part-time of something else. That's my opinion. Um, I I think it's it's almost full hearty to throw that kind of money into a certain
066department and then not have one person dedicated to that department, not have one person that can know every in detail of it. Well, I think Dr. Maddox has done a great job. He has. And and I'm not saying that he hasn't, but it's also it's a lot for him to do that part and the other part, too. So, and I've talked with Dr. Maddox about about that same thing. I have too. And so, I'm not trying to say that he's not done a good job. I'm just saying that's a lot. How much are we spending now on athletic director roles in the county high school and middle school total? total of eight, it's either 12 or 18 I had to go back and take a look at because of we had given them the responsibilities
067the two high school athletic directors we given the responsibilities of all the middle school as well as the high school. So we bumped up their supplement. Uh what we had taken when we had a previous countywide athletic director, he received a supplement. So what I did was just base what he was getting and that's the money I spent. But we've never spent that total by giving them the supplements because last year we had two guys uh Mr. Allen at South and Mr. Davis at North that took care of the elementary sports and also the middle school. And so we broke that down to them. But then when we gave it to the to the other two athletic directors, we just turned around and gave that to them because we were increasing their workload, but we're
068still below. What I'm saying is we're still below what we were paying the previous person countywide. We're not we're not up to spending the money we spent on Have we saved any on coaches since we've went away from the well, since we went to middle school? Are we saved any on coaches? No. No, we spent more because we added the hybrid system. That's what I was Okay. Yeah. And also we we've had to increase the amount of money because we're paying people to work gates. We increased it across the board by by paying all these people to work at gates. We increased the workload on the teachers and the principles when we implemented the hybrid system. Yeah. So, I guess my my why I was asking that question was are you suggesting that there's some
069positions we have not filled that we would not we've determined we don't need to fill and that's going to be a savings that we're going to be able to pull from in next year's budget or are you just saying we have some money falls into the fund balance that's allocated for Okay. So, we've got some leftover money from this year. Not a lot but it's part of Okay. That money always goes back into fund balance or if we maintain that position, it's line item into that personnel position for the year. Okay. And you have to budget those positions for camp. Mhm. So, I just wasn't sure what the intent was of having it on there for discussion. Okay. Thank you. talk about student teachers student to teacher ratio. Yeah. I just want to say we
070do a lotment meetings uh every year with the principles. We compare the number of students in a certain grade to what the state requires and they could earn a teacher in a certain grade if that number goes above what the state minimum is or they could lose a teacher if it goes below. So we try to stay absolutely as close to the state model as we can with nine elementary schools. You know, not every elementary school is going to hit that number exactly. They're going to be lower. So if you look at it as a county, a system, it says we have more teachers than the state minimum. But because we got programming at nine different buildings for elementary, you know, that's where that's where the the actual a lotment goes is by building, not
071by the whole system. That make sense? Yeah. And this is kind of a question I've got about the the middle school side of it. How much savings would there be? Because you have to have certain requirements for elementary schools and certain requirements for middle schools. in our K through eight system, how much of a savings would middle schools be? Well, it would take probably less personnel. And we've had this discussion with supervisors because you're consolidating all those kids. So now, even though you'll have larger grades, we can get a lot closer to the state requirement. And there's a 56 grade band and then there's a 78 grade band, they're both different. So there would be some savings. wouldn't be like huge significant like but right now we're having to we're having to spread that out
072over nine schools or two it would help us out also offers some different curriculum too right than in a middle school setting yeah programming would be more like a feeder school program to a high school so you combined efforts for the band or combined efforts for whatever you might still need could could even add some high school It wouldn't actually cut your teachers in half because you would need some for It wouldn't be significant loss. It' just be some. Yeah. More rearranging. Mhm. Okay. So, I think we talked a little bit about the comprehensive care facilities with that inspection. Yeah, we did that inspection uh with Upland's. They rated everything from a one to a five and we've been focusing on the fours fives and some of the threes right now. So, the electric stuff
073is fives that we're replacing. It's just 30 something like years old or whatever. So, the major projects we put on there are rated as needing to be replaced. Mhm. And that that was fours and fives last year when they did the analysis. So now we're going into the next budget year. So we even waited to do that. So would you say that the m maintenance plan rotation most most the items on there cheeter between a three and a four in order to keep them from getting to a four and five? Yeah, that's the whole goal of that plan. Yeah. Yep. Did we take that study? Yes, we did. I bet you we did. So, we want to use it, right? It's very good. Yeah. That was a good study. We need it. We've been working
074the city. Their understanding of what we have and what we don't have. Mr. St. This on the tennis courts on the major projects, one grouping of six tennis courts. Is that at most high schools? That's what it would cost at each high school. It's 600 625. I got you. Okay. And that cost only go up. Sure. Like 2 years ago it was 500,000. Two years ago was 500,000. Correct. So in building concerns it only gets harder and more expensive. Mhm. We added it back onto that list because of the discussion from the last meeting. So we was obviously people were interested in discussion. And so that's why I put back on the list as a discussion item, not a four or five item. Well, it is four or five, but as far as safety and
075security, we have alternate locations that they're utilizing now that are safe and secure, right? Yes. And Dr. Maddox is working with the city and the county regarding maybe some kind of combined effort on that potential there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is the track even usable right now or are they not using it? They use parts of it to practice but not the entire track. No, can't do a meat on. Nope. Thought I remembered some of it wasn't usable. Okay. [Music] And what's their alternative right now? They don't hold meats there. Where are they doing it? They all their meats are away at other schools. Okay. And that's a loss of revenue really isn't some that's not really a re revenue producing sport like football would be. But you do have concessions and stuff like that going
076on. Well, and I didn't realize until I my daughter got into track this year. But those stands were pretty full whenever I went we went to Lenor City for their jamboree and then um a couple of others. And yeah, when you combine all those schools, you got eight schools in one one spot there will be a large amount of variance there. CCHS their track is good and they're using that for meats. No, there's part of it we still have to repair. So they're not able to use that for meats either. They're doing all the way. Well, they don't use that lane, I think, is what I understood. Okay. But not not Yeah. Okay. Okay. I think when SMHS and CCHS compete, it's at CCHS. I'm just thinking long term since that's one of the things
077that we've talked about here. Then the general cost increasing due to inflation and insurance and maintenance and aging buildings. We talked a little bit about that already. Mhm. That's how we get into the threes and fours and fives. Yeah. Mhm. But it also affects everything else. Cost of fuel, cost of power, cost of other services. And the insurance goes up a high percentage each year. Anywhere from 5 to 10% just depending on the year. This year we're predicting the seven. Correct. It's been between six and a half instead in the last three years. Mr. Ste, without going back and looking at the reports from Uplands, if we were to take care of these major projects this year, are we done with the fours and fives after this year or are we still looking at more
078fours and fives? I'd have to go back. I'd have to go back at least one more year on the market for electrical if we did three phases. Okay. I know that off the top of my head. Okay. So one more year on Martin was homestead not also in a phase. Yes, it'll be phase two phase two for homestead as well. How about any of the alarm systems? Do you know if any of those? Well, south I've got south here. We're just north, south, CCHS. The top. So, we don't know anymore that. Okay. So, it' be safe to say other than electric without going back and looking cuz we have to do that. That it looks like the four and fives that we know of right now that would roll into next year would be the
079other issues. There's some issues like at Mark where I'm pretty sure there's some pipes collapsed and some things like that that I'd like to address. Okay. [Music] Yeah, like I said, the budget draft one, of course, you board will change it as needed through these discussions. Um, but that's the one Mr. King and I have been working off of that we feel would be the starting point that keeps us at current strength. That's your recommended, Mr. King and I do recommended start on that draft. Okay. [Music] I don't know if anybody has any other questions regarding that draft or not. It's the third meeting around that one. And definitely if anyone is welcome to come in and sit with us to go through it line item by line item if you'd like to um full
080transparency. So, if you just want to come in and sit down, we'll go through all of it. Any questions you have, any suggestions you have, it's worked for me. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Well, me too. Have to ask less questions here. A lot of talent on this board. Different talent. So, suggestions are always welcome. Yeah. So, looking ahead, if we're going to approve salaries, we're not ready tonight. I'm not Don't think we are. Okay. That would be a no if we did. That would be a no right now. So, yeah, she's got to get some numbers and some things. I think I'd rather see it put off if we got a chance to make some improvements anyway. Yeah. Yeah. We had put a special call after this to do that, but I don't think we're going
081to cancel that. Again, you see that another time. Our next meeting is scheduled for the 8th. Think we should cancel that one. Mr. Ste and I have to go to the county commission meeting. So, we won't be here at the same time. Next one will be the 10th then. So, we'll go to the 10th. I do have a pre-existing commitment that day, but I'm going to see if I can change it. I don't know if I'll be able to or not. So, we'll try to get that information out to y'all pretty quickly um so that you can look at it and then call me or call call me and I'll sit with Miss Bray, whatever you come in. We'll go through whatever it is you want to go through. So, any questions you have and
082stuff like that and that way uh we're prepared for the tent to have the information that you need. Okay? So, please please utilize us. And if you all have recommendations for the offset on the number that she comes up with, you know, be looking for that as well. Yeah, we'll be busy meeting. So, whatever you got questions and suggestions, shoot it to get it to Mr. Step. And do y'all still when people bring me questions, y'all still good with me emailing the whole board with the answers? Yeah, we'll do that. Yeah, looks like we've covered everything. Anybody have anything else? Any update from uh TSBA? Yeah. They said that they could come on the 17th to present or do a Zoom meeting here on the 17th. Yeah. I gave them all the Tuesday, Thursday dates
083to see if we could combine it with this, but that was what they had available. Tammy Gri, if we did a Zoom here, would it be on these screens? In order to set that meeting up, I need to know everyone that's going to be in attendance because we've both set that meeting and get everyone's emails. We can do it here. Y'all can screen in principal meeting room and each have a laptop and get with Mr. Parley. We can take care of that, but I need to know everyone that's here on our end to get emails hooked up to that meeting. So, we need to be down there. I'd say down there. Do here on this. Yeah. Yeah. If we're all hooked up here, we can use our laptop. Try our Chromebooks. Oh. Oh, that's good.
084You just have to mute. Unless you're talking. Everybody has to mute or echo. Email a link. Is that what it's just a link to a Zoom? when we talk it echo. If somebody else leaves their mic on you, you have to mute if you're not talking. So I just I need to know everyone in attendance. So I need I'll be here. If everyone can give me a definite yes or no. What what time? 4:00. 4:00. 4:00. It's our regular work session date time. Okay. Yeah. I'm going to be here. I'll be here. I'll be here, too. Yeah. I'll be here. [Music] Anything else? Yes, sir. There's nothing else. We won't have the meeting following this one. It's cancelled. We're not going to vote on anything. There's nothing else. We'll adjourn. questions from Jessica. [Music]