001Good afternoon and welcome to the GMSD board budget, excuse me, GMSD board of education budget and work session, April 15, 2025 at approximately 2:04 p.m. Calling this particular meeting to order. Um, this is kind of our our annual first look, touch, talk. uh where we see received the presentation of the um annual budget by department uh on behalf of the district office and everyone that participates in that process through um then the superintendent u Mr. Kathy and and Mr. Jones, we really appreciate everyone's a lot of work goes into this and um been a lot of uh late nights and a lot of um asking people within the district, you know, getting feedback and I think that that's uh being such a significant employer of choice, that's that's very significant, but also understanding the needs
002um in the school buildings and and what what people families and staff and students are all looking for as well. everything that um you'll see here and and hear about today. I think a lot of times you'll hear us talk about the revenue streams and sources. Probably going to really talk about what's coming from where a lot more. Um, and I'm so thankful a couple years ago, uh, the finance team took our strategic plan and budget and married them in a way that makes it so digestible and user friendly for the community to be able to see what's tied to what as far as uh, anything that's coming in or or expenses, investments that are going out and how those tied to what we do day in and day out kind of philosophically, which is
003what this group of people here at this table do is determine kind of the the planning for um you know the future. And it's one of my favorite days of the year. I think y'all have heard me say that before. But for people that we have in the audience, we want to thank you for coming. And for those that may listen, I'm going to really promote this this discussion after we're complete today out into the community. Um and so I hope that this will help everybody hear the first uh kind of presentation and then maybe prompt some discussion and and questions and conversation in the community. And that's the part of it. This is just the first the first kind of mention of everything. And anyone that has questions, I highly encourage you to reach
004out to uh the the board of education. Mr. Emanuel, number one on the agenda. Here we are. GMSD fiscal year 2526 general fund budget summary highlights. Great. I'll kick us off. And as always, we want this to be a conversation. So, um, I'll tell you if you're premature in something, say, "Hold on. We're about to get to that." Um, but please ask your questions as we go. Uh, we're going to highlight the big changes from last year's budget to this year's budget. And remember, we're talking about our general operating budget. Uh in May, there's a separate budget that we're looking at or several budgets that we're looking at whether we're talking about our insurance. Uh we're talking about our cafeteria, our federal programs. Those are much much smaller budgets for us, but those come at
005a later time because we're waiting on the projections for revenue for those those items. So, let's dig into what are the big changes that we see uh coming. And if you'll follow along and you can see on the screen here, I got some highlights, but these all go along with what we're talking about. in the in the budget documents that you received. So, first let's talk about the what are the big highlights? What are we going to talk to our teachers about? What are we going to talk to our community about? What are the things that we're proud that we have been able to accomplish? Um well, first we are seeing an increase in some revenues u mainly the TISA funding and also we uh are projecting more from outcomes. So, as you know, with
006the TISA funding model, the governor said that we have to by the end of not this coming year, but the year after that, that next fiscal year, the starting teacher salary has to be $50,000. And so, as they were planning for that, the uh Department of Education has been giving more additional funding every single year to reach that goal. And so, that's why over the past several years, we've seen a cola every single year for our teacher staff to increase their pay. Uh so there is about $900,000 additional funding uh from the Department of Education for those teacher salaries. We also see uh and we're projecting about $500,000 in outcomes because our students do perform well on our test. Um we think that's a conservative uh estimate. We do have an individual, Mr. Lagott, who
007tracks that and tracks the different student weights. Uh just so you know, this past year the the outcomes was over $700,000. So we think projecting about 500,000 is a conservative measure for uh that revenue stream. We also see 1.2 million uh reductions in operating costs, a 1.7 million uh increase in teacher salaries, 188,000 in changes in compensation and a couple new positions. And then other staff, we see a 3% cola added and steps. And we'll talk about each of these as we go through each of these categories, but those are the big highlights for these budget. Those are the big changes that you see uh coming for the district. So now we're going to dig in a little bit more into each of those areas. So let's talk about our projected enrollment. As you know
008with the TISA funding formula, it's now based on the number of students that you you have for the state funding and they provide weights depending on the types of students. So uh we have projected uh 5900 students. We think it's going to be over that. We think we may hit 5980 but once again we we try to be conservative as we are uh developing the budget and so we don't want um a change of 30 40 students to dramatically have an impact on our budget. Uh once again with the revenue adjustments with the TISA funding we are projecting an increase of 1.4 four million and we've had our first uh forms coming from the Department of Education saying to to expect that especially around the increase in pay uh for teacher salaries and then we
009have uh reduced expenditures by $1.2 million and we'll talk about where that occurs in this budget. So those are the big changes and how we're going to create the things that we're excited about. So let's talk about the budget reductions first. So, in the board of education budget, there are two main um large reductions that you see. Uh the first, and this is something that's on our work session agenda, in order for us to budget and make ends meet and balance all this, uh I'm requesting that we go ahead and pay off uh Memphis Shelby County Schools the last payment uh for OPED. You know, that was one of the agreements in the settlement agreement that we have 355,000 that we are paying them a year. So, it's my recommendation to go ahead and pay
010that out of our reserve, be done with that so that we can use that to make some of these salary adjustments for our staff. The second one, and this is one, Mr. Curry, that we were talking about with the acttoies that we've been expecting for a long time. We have been fully funding retiree benefits for our our employees. So, just like any good government entity, you plan for those uh promises that you have, those OPED, other post-employment benefits. So, if we tell uh staff that we're going to provide them health insurance and their retirement, we've been fully funding that all along. And that number has been decreasing. We knew that was going to go down. We have been fully funding it. So, we didn't see a balloon payment. So, I think when we first started,
011we were close to $800,000 in our oped payments that we were making. Now, that is down. The actuaries are saying that we're down to about $500,000 for that OPED payment. So, it's it went down by about $200,000. So, that's a huge benefit for us. We're finally reaping those benefits of fully funding our oped um benefits for our staff. Other changes that we see reductions uh in our transportation budget uh we are playing a reduction of $222,000 based on what we have been paying uh Durham and our transportation uh budget. So we we think with the efficiencies and routing and the penalties that we typically get that uh that is once again a conservative estimate of what we're going to spend. And then finally, uh, we have reduced the capital improvement budgets by $465, uh,,000 of
012general fund dollars. This doesn't take into account county funding that we receive when we get our our portion of the county funding or any other funding that we have for capital improvements. So, those are the big reductions when you look at and we're going to dive into each of the revenues. Let's talk about some of the changes in our revenues. So, as you know, um it's difficult financial times. Uh and we typically do with all budgeting, you know, a lot of this is not guessing. It is educated planning on what we think we're going to generate from taxes. But when we're talking about how much are people going to buy and what is our sales tax going to be, we want to be careful that if we think there could be a recession or we
013could be see reductions in spending, that could have an impact on our budget. That's one of the reasons we have to make sure that we maintain a reserve. That's one of the reasons that we have to ma make sure that we're budgeting conservatively because if we see reductions in sales tax that would have an uh impact on our operating budget. So we are planning to see a reduction in sales tax of $24,000 and you'll see that reflected. We are once again expecting an increase in 1.4 four million from the state and we are seeing an increase in other local revenue of $425,000 and that comes from a mix of different taxes. But if y'all had any questions on that, we we gladly answer questions about general fund revenues. Okay, let's move on to our reserve.
014Uh I think there's been a lot of talk recently about our reserve and what we spend our our money on and I think people have need to understand essentially how our budget works and and what we do. Um so the f this budget that we have does plan to use just like last year's budget. Uh we are planning for 2.3 million in reserves uh to cover some of our expenditures in this budget. Um so we have done that like I said over the past couple of years and even planning that we have been able to move uh additional money into our reserve and once again how does that happen when we see extra money for outcomes so we saw some extra outcome money come from the state this year because uh we had more than
015half of our schools were a schools so we got additional funding we don't plan for that so that we can uh deal with contingencies or or deal with capital needs that we have we make sure that we don't budget for those dollars so we have seen an increase uh in those funds in our reserve funds over the past couple years. So, at the end of last fiscal year, I think we were looking at 24 million. We were probably 22 when we were starting um the district. But let's talk about how our reserve works and this was a big discussion at the beginning of the district. If you think about when you pay your property taxes, everyone's paying their property taxes from December to February. That's when the money comes to the school district. 50% of
016our funding is coming from that money. So, we have to have a way to pay our employees, to pay for our people, um to pay all the bills, utility costs that are happening really from the beginning of our fiscal year in July until December when we start seeing those property taxes come in for us. So, at the beginning of the district, we actually had to have an $8 million, they they called it a rand, it was a loan, a revenue anticipatory note to pay our bills until we started seeing some of that funding uh come in. So, for us and as a school district, we will always have to and as our expenditures increase, of course, this amount would increase. But if the expenditure stayed the same for the next 50 years, we are always
017going to have to have $10 million in our reserve uh in order to to manage that cash flow to pay our bills. Now, what do we need also? And this I think the city keeps this same amount of funding. We also need about $4 million and and I think it's just good uh conservative uh spending for emergency needs. So, we're going to talk about today the challenges that our insurance account has faced uh this past year and some of the changes we need to make. But when we see claims higher than what we budgeted, where's the money to pay for because we are self-insured to pay for those insurance claims that comes out of our reserve. That's one of the ways that we we pay for that. We offset those. So, I think any good
018organization not only needs to have their money for their cash flow, but you also need to have money um in case of emergencies. And I think a perfect example, we talked about this today uh during our cabinet meeting was in Typton County when they had the tornado hit their school and they've been operating uh essentially out of a large tent for for two of their schools. How are they paying for that? Because they had trouble trouble getting reimbursements. They had disputes over the insurance claims. It's been a real struggle. They had to really use their reserves to do that. So for us to to keep um $4 million amount for emergencies, I think that's important, especially when you're talking about a $80 million operating budget, that that's not a huge amount of money that you're
019keeping for those needs. Now, what are we planning and what has this board discussed with the other amounts of of reserve? Um we have already talked about 1.2 million that we have approved for the Houston high ceiling tile and grid. And remember that is a phase one project for us. U this summer because it's a lot of the it's the original grid and a lot of the tiles are if you go in there it's a a patchwork of old tiles and where they tried to replace with new tiles. But we are redoing that and the the lighting and the the wiring because um as you know the devices that we have in that school and the infrastructure we need uh needs to be updated. So that is just phase one and as we discussed that
020project uh that was some main areas in the lobby the auditori the main lobby the auditorium lobby and the upstairs area that's going to be completed this summer but we also have um the phase two which we plan for next fiscal year that's projected to be about another $1.2 million to do the downstairs area of ceiling talon grid. Uh so those are already projects that were on our deferred maintenance plan, our five-year deferred maintenance plan and also on the Houston high um plan that we had. So know that those projects are planned uh out of reserve. Uh we are also planning to to use 1 million and that's one of the discussions we're going to have for our health insurance um account. And as we start talking about our health insurance um we were so
021proud and and we really have done an incredible job because we're self-insured with our health insurance. Our rates have stayed the same for teachers for 11 years. They have not gone up. That is an incredible benefit for our teachers who are and staff who are serving our children. But we knew going in to last year, we had to shore up that account. I think we put in $900,000 to make it through the end of last year. We're going to have to do the same this year. Put in money to make it to the end of the year knowing that next year we're going to have to look at changing our rates and also looking at um what the district is putting in. So for us looking at our reserve, that's one of our needs that
022we're going to have um for our budget. Uh once again, to balance this budget, we're looking at going ahead and and paying off Memphis Shelby County Schools for that last payment of 355,000. We've also talked about Farmington Elementary School. Uh we have two schools that still have modular classrooms. Um those are portables that we have set up and we've talked about going to brickandmortar solutions. And so, um, we have planned approximately 5.5 million for that project. Uh, 500,000 we planned for Riverdale renovations there. Uh, and so you can see those are things we've already discussed. We've also discussed Dogwood's portable replacement and these are just estimates of what we would spend out of the reserve of three million. Once again, I talked about phase two of Houston High School Ceiling Grid. Um, health insurance cost
023of 1.2 million. We're going to talk about that. Uh and then three million suggested for and I think we need to talk about the struggles that we are having uh on our campus since we have been a school district. Um TWSAA has added additional sports. We have added uh middle school sports. We think those are incredible benefits to our community and our families. But the fact that we have one track and one turf uh field at the high school. Um and I think all of our board members can talk about the emails that they've received from parents concerned. Um I think Mr. Bur, you talked about one of our track teams may have gotten four practices on the track uh during their season. Um that's not the way it's supposed to be. Um, and we
024have so many teams because we have high school boys lacrosse, high school girls lacrosse, middle school's boys lacrosse, uh, middle school girls lacrosse, uh, we have boys soccer going on, high school boys soccer, we have, um, middle school soccer, we have elementary track teams, we have middle school track teams, we have high school track teams, all trying to use the same space. Uh, and it just doesn't work for us. So we know and part of that Houston master plan was to provide additional uh turf fields for our teams because the when you have the inclement weather and you have the rain it you can't get out there and play on them or else your field may be ruined for the rest of the season. So as a board we have been talking about how do
025we respond to this need for the community. So, um it's also recommended that we go ahead and spend that and also too we talked about we received additional money um for benefits, use that to turf uh some of our fields and also look at uh adding an additional track. So, I think that's something that this board needs to discuss and and talk to our our programs and teams about uh who we're turfing, what we're turfing, what we're putting, but we know that we're going to have to invest capital funding um that's in our reserve uh for those capital needs. So, know that that's something that I think we have have yet to discuss in detail. We we've been having the conversations with stakeholders, but we know this is a desperate need. So once again looking
026at the reserve we have uh used our reserve responsible we have built this because we haven't been spending our general fund uh year-over-year and we've seen also some benefit from uh the co uh er funding that we when it would pay for some things uh that we didn't have to pay for but we are sitting at like I said around 247 is our projected at the end of the the fiscal year but once again that doesn't take into account that we have already spent and encumbered a lot of funds, especially when you're talking about the ones in in pink uh that were on that previous slide. Um so know that those those things we've already discussed, we've already done budget transfers. That projection doesn't include those taken out. It also doesn't include, you know, some
027additional large purchases that we see coming. Um so for example, it's a science textbook purchasing year. We're going to that should be about a million dollars that we're expecting to pay out of this fiscal year that will come out of that. Uh and you know that's something we always budget for so that we can order the books now and have them uh ready in the schools by the time uh school starts. So once again over the past 10 years we've spent an average of $2.4 million of reserve each year even even while we are uh growing um that reserve amount. That's how we've stayed consistent with the amount of money that we have. So those are keys. So let's talk about some of the positive things that we see coming uh this year and we
028can't we hope that the board approves this uh and that we can go celebrate it with our teachers. I think that we talk about the ABCs of HR that we are moving to. This would be a huge celebration for our staff. So what are the things that we are recommending uh for our staff? So, first uh adjustments to the steps and the starting salary for teachers. Uh we had the inherited um step schedule and salary schedule from Shelby County Schools, legacy Shelby County Schools, and it didn't make complete sense. uh as you moved up in years on average it was about a 2% but you may see one year that was a 2.3% increase and as you got in the higher steps it may be a point 4% increase going from year 18 in your
029career to year 19 in in your career. So one of the things we did in this process and Mr. Kathy and Miss Stratton uh they worked hard through this was making it a consistent matrix so that if you go from year two to year three it's a 2% increase. If you go from year 16 to 17, it's a 2% increase as you're moving up in your career. So that's one of the things that you see uh in this matrix. Um we also have a 3% cola and steps for all other staff in the district. So whether you're a pair professional or whether you're a front desk receptionist, there's a 3% cost of living adjustment. And if for those people who are moving in their steps, going ahead and let them move up in those steps.
030One of the things that I'm I'm proud of and I think that rewards our families and is something special. The fact that we have a holiday bonus that this board budgets for every year that we provide a $1,000 bonus for full-time staff and 500 for part-time staff that we provide them at Christmas time. Uh I think that's a special part of our compensation package. And then um another thing that you'll see in this budget, we know that we are going to make changes in our insurance plan and it's going to have to come on the employee side of things. It's going to have to come within the plan itself. So, we've been talking to uh our consultants about what changes to make as far as drug coverages and max co-pays. We we're going through that
031process right now. We are going to make those adjustments and that'll be coming in May to the board when we talk about those other funds. you'll see all those changes, but also too, we know that the district side of things, we have to make additional investments. So, in this budget, you see an increase of $800,000 that the district is putting in to the insurance account. Um, so those are the big changes. So, I'm going to dig into each of those specifically. Uh, and Mr. You may want to go ahead and come on up. Um, you may help me do some of these. So, let's talk about where we are. So, um, once again, we have moved conservatively and we've been providing cost of living adjustments to our staff. Um, but the other municipal districts around
032us, um, competitively, they were moving quicker than us, uh, with pay. So, I took the lowest, we pay for advanced degrees, so I took the lowest bachelor's degree that we have and also took the highest degree that we have, just so you can see an idea of what we were talking about. Um, so in comparing this year's salaries, Arlington was at 52,000, Bartlett was 50,820, Cerville was 50,000, we were at 486, uh, and Lakeland was 50,000. So you can see that we were behind um, our other mi municipals and Mr. can tell you when we were going out and recruiting to young teachers, sometimes it's hard to explain, but oh, look at the benefits package and look at all this where you have these additional savings. A lot of times they were really just looking
033at that first salary amount. So it's hard to to convince them. Um you can see if we look at where we were for the the doctorate in education, Arlington was at uh and we were at 595. Uh and you can see at the highest steps when they hit year 19 or step 19, year 20 um we were at 86 uh Lakeland was at 86 and you can see everybody else was ahead of us. There's also a ranking that TEA does around salaries. So they take all the salaries matrices of the 147 districts across the state and they rank your average salary. I don't think this is as helpful a metric. It's it gives you an idea um because it it could be skewed based on if you have younger teachers that are lower in the
034salary matrix, your average salary is going to be lower. I rather look at hey what's their potential for earning as they're working through the district. I think that's that's a more helpful metric. But uh using all the rankings and things out there that we can you can see where we ranked. We were 26 out of the 147 districts, but we were behind all the other municipal uh districts when we look at at salaries. So once again, where were we? 26 out of 147 districts. But what are we proposing is going to have a significant um change. Our recommendation and what you see built into this budget is to go ahead and move our salary starting salary for teachers to $51,000 a year from the 486 amount. So here's a comparison of where we are. If
035you go to the next one, uh our two matrices. So you can see once again it m moves every single step and also makes it a standard 2% increase between those. um that is going to have a significant impact on the lives of teachers uh who aren't paid enough anyway. Uh so I I thought it would be helpful for Miss Stratton to just give us a little perspective. What does that mean for some examples of where teachers are in their journey education journey for us? So take us through some of these examples. Okay. Well, I'm excited to share with you a few examples of how the new GMSD teacher salary schedule will increase the compensation for our educators for the 2526 school year. So, our first example highlights a brand new teacher working for GMSD.
036For this school year, the teacher earned a salary of $48,628. Under GMSD's new teacher salary schedule, this teacher will move up one step and earn $52,20 for the 2526 school year. That's a difference of over $3,300 in increased compensation, which the educator will begin receiving in August. Our second example illustrates one of our highly experienced educators with a master's plus30 distinction on step 16. For the 2425 school year, this teacher was earning $78,92. Next year they will be making $83,17. That's an increase of $4,25 for our seasoned educator who's continued to grow professionally throughout the years. And finally, our third example demonstrates one of our veteran teachers on our highest salary step, which is step 19. This year, our educator earned a contracted salary amount of $69,717. Next year, this educator will earn $74,296, which
037is an increase of $4,500. Our GMS educators who have made the commitment to making teaching their lifelong career can expect to see some of the highest increases along their salary step and lane. And I do want to take a moment to say something especially important. While other school districts made salary adjustments last year, our educators chose to stick with us, having faith in our leadership that their compensation would be a priority in this year's budget. And their their loyalty did not go unnoticed. Department leaders took a thoughtful look at their budgets, making intentional strategic adjustments so that we could prior prioritize our people. And this new salary is in part a way of saying thank you for sticking with us and thank you for giving your very best efforts to our students. So, combined with
038our competitive benefits package, that hundred thousand or that $1,000 holiday bonus, this new salary schedule, it does position GMSD not only to attract the best educators, but to keep them as well. And in talking to other superintendents, um they're all looking at providing cost of living adjustments. This is not going to move us up to number two, number three. We still may be at the same ranking, but we're going to be closer where we are uh based on if they give 2% to 3% raises. But if you look at our total compensation package for a teacher that there's only a $100 difference, uh that's dramatically different between this district and another. And you can really see how there is a much bigger difference when you look at the other benefits that we provide to because
039we do think we have a really strong compensation package for our staff. Um so know that we that was based on previous information in comparison to their districts and we know that they're going to make adjustments also. So let's talk about um what we're looking at. So step increases once again have been adjusted to make sure there's a constant 2% increase. Um so for our teachers and you saw a range of of increases in their salaries, but it's going to be a significant change whether you're a teacher in year one or you're a teacher in year 30, there's going to be significant changes and and what they're being compensated for. Also too, for our other staff, whether you're talking once again about our pair professionals or you're talking about our regular teacher assistants or front
040desk receptions or medical records clerk, they're all going to see a cost of living adjustment of 3% and those that are eligible for steps um will receive those. And then once again, we have continued uh to budget for that holiday bonus that our our staff receive. So, uh, when we talk about recruiting staff or whether we're moving to our new, uh, terminology of attracting our staff and building them up and developing them professionally and retaining them, we have a lot of things that I think that, um, this board and this district has moved strategically to provide. Uh, we honor years of service up to 20 years. Uh, we have a holiday bonus that we provide staff. Um, we have been fully funding our OPED and and providing for those insurance benefits for our staff who
041receive those. We have a health and wellness center where staff can go for free and receive free uh prescriptions when they go there for the staff and you can get in and out quickly. Um, all those huge benefits uh for our staff uh make sure that we have a strong compensation package. So, I'm proud of what we are doing around uh our staff benefits. So if you have any questions, we be glad to answer those or we can answer them at at the end and we can talk specifically about areas where you see these. Okay, let's go on to um other changes that you see reflected in the budget. So um as you know we have a compensation committee. So when we have principles or when we have heads of departments that want new positions
042or they want salary adjustments, they make recommendations to the compensation committee and they thoroughly go through what are going to be the job responsibilities and benefits, what's comparable pay for those positions. Um they're constantly looking at those. So based on um that committee's work, we have um some three major changes, but there are smaller adjustments that you see reflected in the budget. Um but the biggest one is an additional uh administrator at Houston Middle School. Uh we also see some salary uh schedule adjustments for our academic behavior interventionists and I'll talk about all these and then also some training for our uh pair professionals. They are hourly and so one of the challenges that we have faced with those staff is how do we provide them mandatory training that we need to do uh for
043them uh with students or whether we're talking about active shooter drills. How do we provide those when we don't have it built into their pay schedule? So, this allows us to provide in flex days. So, flex days so that we can either meet at the beginning of the school year or quarterly, however the department decides to to use this, but it provides that time that we can train up those staff. So, let's talk about how um why Houston Middle School. So, why were we thinking about adding an additional administrator to Houston Middle School? So, one of the things we look at is the number of administrators um in each building based on the number of students and we're also talking about responsibilities. Uh we have had added a myriad of events uh and opportunities at
044Houston Middle School. Uh whether we're talking about lacrosse and track and soccer, all of these activities and events that uh we are now sponsoring as a district, we're providing stipens for, there has to be an administrator attending those events. So their evenings have become very full. When we also look at the number of IEPs and 504 meetings that those uh staff are um having to to lead uh in the school, it has become a challenge. So you can see when you look at Houston Middle School's ratio of administrators, and this includes principles and assistant principles in the school, you can see that they were a ratio of 1 to 325 students. and they had been requesting this over several years saying, "Hey, we're really struggling to to make ends meet and how we're balancing the
045afternoons and responsibilities because they are there everywhere covering uh numerous events and during the school day, too." Um, and looking at that, the compensation committee said, "Yes, this is uh one that we need to have." And I think it brings it to a ratio of, I think, 1 to 24 uh for them at the middle school when you add a fourth uh administrator for them. So, that's one of the things that's included in this budget. And they're not paid 130,000. I just want to be clear when we say that. That's all encompassing. That includes all their benefits, their retirement, that's everything that we have to provide to have a new position for that individual. So, um that is that position. When we talk about salary adjustments for the behavior interventionists, one of the and this
046is a small specific, but one of the things that we found was at the end of the steps for these individuals, these interventionists, uh it was upside down. Uh they would have made more money staying in the classroom versus becoming an interventionist. And we want to make sure that our pay schedules move once again up as you're increasing in responsibility that you should be increasing in your pay, too. So, we don't want anyone to say, well, I should have stayed in the classroom and instead of moving into this position. So that's why you see those changes for that position and the compensation committee had looked at that and made that recommendation. Then once again I talked about the training for our pair of professionals. Okay. Other highlights uh that we have um this request actually
047came from um the high school itself and and they came up with a way to do it in a budget neutral uh manner utilizing current staff that that they have. One of the challenges that they face is in a way Houston uh high school act operates like a private school. Uh you're constantly trying to recruit students and not only students from outside the district but our own students. How are we trying to uh make sure that we are showing all the great things that are happening in our district? How are we working with our middle schools, our elementary schools to make sure that uh you want to be a Mustang uh when you grow up? You want to come to Houston High School and here are all the opportunities that you have. So, um, one
048of their requests was to add a position that's, uh, focuses on themies and student recruitment and enrollment at the high school. They're going to be working with Miss Crowder, too, I think, to do PR and promotion around how we're, uh, drawing students to the high school. So, that falls under studio student readiness, but it's budget neutral, but it did go through compensation committee, but we think it's going to be something that you're going to see benefits uh, from at at the school. Uh we also had some requests from our coaches and our teams and once again they found budget neutral ways to do this. Uh once again because of the dramatic increases in the number of activities we have across the district and once again we have girls flag football that is coming online and
049in in the fall uh the coverage of events has become a challenge once again and also scheduling all the fields. So they they had requested an assistant athletic director and once again they find a way uh to do this in a budget neutral way. Um, one of the challenges we face too is we've uh expanded our uh youth lacrosse programs. And so we're going to need this person's responsibilities is also going to be everything around the elementary school lacrosse programs as far as scheduling and fields and uniforms. Um, but we've also talked about the need. This is something we heard and are hearing now during our strategic plan process. There are students who may not be the most competitive at a sport, but they're they enjoy athletics. They enjoy that opportunity. Um, but because uh
050we have a this a school of 1,900 students, they may not be able to make a team that only has five starting players on it. Maybe they want to play basketball. Maybe they want to play baseball. Uh, and are there other opportunities? So, we've talked about expanding that and opening up an inter mural program for students because even if you're not on the TWA most competitive team, it's something special to be part of a school team and be competitive and have those friends and have that opportunity after school hours. So, uh, this person is going to help us develop that inter mural program at the school. Once again, they found a way to do it budget neutral through those, uh, fees for those activities. And then another one that they have also that they've also,
051uh, requested is a strength and conditioning coach. All of our teams are using the fields house and different weight uh, training opportunities, but we want someone really skilled to do that for those teams. So, um, providing that in a budget neutral manner, they they have come up with a solution for that. So you see you'll see a strength and conditioning coach added to this budget. Those are uh the highlights and I know I was talking for a long time but uh we have our cabinet members here that we can answer questions and talk about everything from reserve to our different things in our budget or plans that we have moving forward for capital. At this time we open the floor so you are glad to answer questions. Thank you, Superintendent. Um, question for the reserves.
052What type of account are the reserves located in? They're in numerous accounts. So, so it's it's funny when you actually see the real work. Uh, when you look at it, there really is just a bank account where money is actually sitting in the bank. And I know that Mr. Jones, you have a couple different as far as this the LGIP and the savings to make some investments, but as far as our accounting system, um, it's not recognized. It's the reserve is it through all accounts. Um so for the money that's rolling over from the previous year is it the LGIP that you still have it. So it's in an LG IP account and it's how they're investing it and and raising those funds. But if you look at where the money is coming from like
053how does it go in there like and when we look at current reserves it's throughout the budget like you may have 7,000 that's rolling up from this of unspent money for in the academics account or you may have 4,000 in this account. So anything that is unspent at the end of that fiscal year rolls into that big savings account. So right now what is our current uh rate of return on those on the account? I would have to defer to Mr. Jones and you can come up Mr. Jones if you want to. I believe it's around four and a half% So, a little bit under a million dollars on 24 million. Yes. Right. And what are we currently doing? What where is that going to? Is that just going back to make the reserve amount
054higher or are we doing anything with that interest? Uh we use uh interest income in part to balance our budget. You when you look at the revenue side, it's it's one of the line items on the revenue side of things. So that's an So that is one of the things that this board does have to discuss is as if we spent down or you wouldn't see the same rate of return. You would not see the same interest income that you have. Thank you. I mean you I'm not really commenting. I was shedding a little more light on on the minimum reserve. You touched on it kind of high level, but I That's something that not only do we want to do because we're fiscally conservative people or you know mindful people um as an organization
055but we are mandated by law to keep a certain minimum operating budget intact at all times. I think the superintendent did a great job kind of explaining how the timing of the funding when it arrives. You don't just call MLG&W and say hey we're not going to pay our bill for a few months because the money's not here yet. So, it's a big part of that operating budget. And when you're trying to explain that to someone that just sees the balance and they're like, "You're sitting on a stick." No. Um, not exactly. So, I appreciate you pointing that out, but I want to make sure that people understand maybe that do listen that it while it is also because of great practices, it it is um certain part of that is absolutely required to actually
056sit there I know we're going to talk more about it later on when we get to the budget amendment, but the 800,000 that we're looking to add, it looks like we're pretty much just frontloading what we're about to have to later on this evening. So, we're we're just conceding that we're going to have to put more in. So, year over year, it's not going to be much extra because we're putting actually might even be a little bit less. Uh I just want to make sure I'm clear on Yes. So it's two full. So you're talking about the health care benefits. Yeah. 800,000 and additional uh that we're put in. Yes. So um once again, we have a a consulting company that helps manage this and and looks at our claims uh and and helps us
057create our our benefits package for our staff. Um but it's it I would say that we're looking at about $2 million that we have been off and know that it has been increasing. We've seen that year. It's really in the past two years that we've had to offset our insurance account. Prior to that, we had been building that health insurance account reserve, which is a separate account. So, in the previous um insurance account, I think we had budgeted it was 1.3 million that we had left over last year in that health insurance account. We spent all that and we had to come in and fill it up. So, that's what I'm saying. We're when we get ready to look at that, um, we need to look at we are planning 800,000 that we made reductions
058and we're having to invest out of our general operating account. We need to make sure that we're filling back up uh that reserve amount that's insur inside the insurance account and that'll be money from our other reserve, our regular reserve. But we're also going to have to make uh changes to our insurance plan to uh changing the amount of coverage, changing the co-pay for staff. We're going to have to look at everything to readjust that insurance account. It will still be uh and just on early swipes at it. It's still going to be a very rich plan in comparison to our our neighbors uh and other programs. That's something that we can be proud of, but it is going to move us in the right direction. So, in talking to and we can just talk
059about early swipes at it. In talking to our consultants, what they typically see when we're talking about increas rates, we're probably talking about a 5% increase um for staff and what we're investing. And that's something you may have to take over multiple years, but know that we're going to have to make changes once again also with the types of coverage and drugs. We're going to have to look at all those things, but that'll be next month where we talk about those. Okay. Yeah, I appreciate the explanation. I just I noticed the the extra 800 on that. Um I I know we're gonna get into it. I'll go ahead and thank everyone in advance because obviously there's a lot of work that goes into this. I appreciate the summary. Um I think we've been lucky over
060the last few years um where the state funding has increased a lot. I do worry that we're going to get to a point where the state funding is going to plateau. And so I think I don't know how far we are from it, but I think I went I did a presentation for the East Shelby Republican Club a couple weeks ago and we went and I had gone back using our budget documents and looking back at the state funding and I'm wanting to say we were about six million more over the period in state funding. But I do wonder if we're we're going to start, you know, flatlining on that. and and if we do obviously then you know then this this becomes a lot more difficult of a process. Um but I'm glad we're
061still in a position where we are receiving increased funds from the state. Um I think the voucher legislation I think we're going to have to see how it impacts us. I think there will be some from that but we don't know yet. And we also there's a floor for the state funding but we don't know if the county funding is going to be impacted. I think I think there's some I I think it is important to talk about the county funding and I mentioned this at the FAC. We have not received and and this is early in the budgeting process. It's very difficult to build a budget when you don't have all your revenue projections yet. So, as you know, um the county commission budgets a an amount of money for schools. And I'm going
062to throw out a number. It's not the exact number, but let's say it's 429 million. I think it's around around that. 429 million for all education in Shelby County. Based upon the number and type of students that we have, uh we get a percentage of that pot of money for our operating accounts. So what we saw last year, for example, was in the previous fiscal year, we we equated to 4.36% of the students in Shelby County. That year we had the same number of students, but the number of students in other municipals and in Shelby County uh increased. We went to 4.22% of that pot of money and that was about a negative $300,000 swing for us. So know that we always talk about we we're building this, but until we get those real revenue
063projections from the county commission and that's certified in May that we typically receive that document, we're still kind of just estimating what we think we're going to do. we have budgeted the same amount of money for the local funding that we have assuming that we would be at the same percentage. Um, but that's always something that we have to adjust. I share your concerns with what's going to happen with state funding. There's no guarantee there's going to increase. I do know that we will receive one more year of increase uh from the governor because once again uh they have been moving to increase that teacher salary up to 50,000. So we're a year ahead of that. So we should see an increase for that. Uh, one of the things that we all try to always
064try to take into account, um, and this is something that I I wish I'd answered different at the FAC. They asked me, "How do you think the other municipals are um doing this with their salaries? Why have you been behind? Where where's the spending different?" And I said, "I don't build their budget, so I don't know. But I do know one difference. When we didn't get the 3G schools, we had to, and it's an incredible school. We had to build Forest Hill Elementary School. We had to build onto Houston Middle School. We had to build additions onto Houston Middle School. We have modulars at our classrooms. Uh we've invested a s significant amount of money as a district from our g general operating account, close to $40 million that we have invested over the past
06511 years there. Um that's something that that we have done that other districts have not done. Typically, they're just taking the county funding or they're taking their funding from their local municipality to provide for those capital improvements. But we have been doing that. We've been going in partners uh to fund all of those things. Um if we see decreases in um funding, there are lots of things that we can change, but one of those would be and and we've already cut it deep on this one, but Mr. Kathy always talks about we would be cutting those capital improvement projects that we have out of the general fund budget. uh we would we can change our device uh procurement. So know that we are on threeyear and depending on the type of device threeyear fouryear plans
066that we have to buy new devices to make sure that they're always fresh for the students. We could stretch those and we also have teacher devices. We can stretch those programs longer. So for us we all we have internal levers. Uh we talk about the amount that we are investing into our oped account. We don't have to fully fund that account. Um we have plenty in our reserve to fund as you go. we wouldn't be meeting our arc. But no, those are things that we can adjust internally if we do did see those changes. So, I feel comfortable. There are some some things that we can do to to mitigate those challenges, but there isn't a guarantee that we're going to continue to receive uh revenue year after year after year. Yeah. And like I
067said, I I I support especially investment in our teachers. I think that's I think that's great. Um I'm very happy to do that. I just by my personal nature, I like to look two or three steps down the road. It's almost like a chessboard. I want to see the moves coming and and the moves that I see coming from the state is I think our are eventually our revenue from them is going to plateau and so it's going to, you know, mean it's it's going to be a lot more challenging. Uh but I think for this year and it sounds like for next year we feel like we're in good shape and we're able to continue the investment. But I think at some point we just need to as a board to be aware that
068you know, I I don't think the times are going to be just great and sales tax. So, it looks like y'all y'all just made a pretty good educated guess on sales tax. Hopefully, it doesn't go down, but if it and it could go down more. And so, I guess that's why one reason we keep a healthy reserve in order to be able to project just in case, who knows what's going to happen with the economy and tariffs and all that. So, I think there's a lot of uncertainty and and I know that's something they're considering at the city level as well. I think it's top of mind for everyone. But um from what I've from what I've seen in presentation, from my reading of the document, I I commend the staff. I think I think
069we've got some really good things here and obviously I'm looking forward to hearing from the departments. I'm really glad you mentioned um kind of the uniqueness of our district. We spent a lot of time, especially as we're talking about the Houston High master plan, um, talking about what other people in other communities in our area have been able to do and, uh, to point out the the differences and how we have funded a lot of our own capital improvements, whereas on the flip side, a lot of those communities have gone just through those uh, local and county revenue sources to do those projects. We've kind of bitten off a lot of those oursel and um you know just a couple years ago I I want I really I love the matrix just because that's the
070way my brain works. It's really helpful for me to see exactly what the steps look like and and um it makes it super simple in my opinion. I mean it's one of those things sliding scale if that was brought up and and I know with retention and recruitment it's always going to be one of the first things point of reference of comparison and I do look at the whole package. Um, but you know, everybody sees that differently. I do think it's really important to say like just a couple years ago we were here and and whoever was here and and it's a lot of this. It's it's a lot of the movement of that and with the state's um requirement for the minimum threshold, you know, we all had different plans as to how we
071were going to get there and that timeline. At the end of the day, guess what? we're all going to be there when we're required to be there and it wasn't haphazard on our part. Um, quite frankly, I think we went in heavy on some other uh investments in the past two to three years specific to benefit our staff. I think of the the the clinic for instance um you know and those were all things that were dedicated to support employees. Um, it's not a matter of it shouldn't be a race and and it really when we look at the the ranking, I appreciate you pointing out kind of how that could be dependent upon the makeup of your your um teacher uh kind of demographic with experience and and um age range for instance. And
072so all those things are little nuances that go into that. It's not just black and white like these guys paid this these guys paid that and you know like who who's moving the needle this year versus you know and it's not a race to point five more or whatever. I think it's really important to look at it holistically. Um but I do appreciate the uh as people in the community and um you know staff and are all kind of anticipating this time of year because they do see the and I really appreciate about kind of that, hey, we stuck around. We stayed with it because we we had faith in in the planning for the future. Um I feel like this is getting us there. This is accomplishing that and um this is a great
073story to tell. Um you know, it is a wild time. You know, um as as McCur was just saying, anticipating funds that we don't know what they're going to look like just due to the econ economic climate. I mean, sales tax revenue has been really fantastic the past few years. Well, guess what? I don't anticipate it being that way, you know, um maybe in the next couple of years. And and I'm not and we're we're nobody's alone in that, but we're we're mindful and and thinking ahead. And I just thought it would would be really prudent to point out that um this isn't like a catchup, I feel like, as much as it is like just very strategic, very thoughtful. Um, just another thing that we're doing to shore up, you know, what we feel
074is right for the people who, like you said, yourself. I mean, it's like, my goodness, we we want everybody to make a million dollars a year. In my opinion, that's what they're worth. But, um, based on based on where we can be, where we should be. I think it's important to say that we're not doing this because we have to, because it's the requirement. We had a plan all along that we've, um, worked towards and and so I appreciate that. That's that does go back to the kind of patience and I'm grateful for that from our staff who has uh who who has understood that part of the process and I hope that um dependent on how this shakes out um with approvals and and such that people will be able to recognize that and
075um so thank you to not only the HR department the compensation committee I think it's really important but it didn't just happen like that this is this has been intental for some time. Okay. Are there additional questions? Go ahead. Um the assistant principal at Houston Middle School, when you throw up the ratios, that is a no-brainer. And it's something that when we added an additional assistant at Houston High School um just a couple years ago, it it transformed the balance of that admin staff. We saw it and we felt it and and the staff felt it, the students felt it, the the families felt it. And um this is something that um families at that particular school we hear from a lot on that front. And and I think it's important to say that, you
076know, it's different than when you work there. that school's doing on a lot of different programs, um, additional programs that that didn't previously exist. And, um, as we talked about at the high school when we went through this exercise, uh, recently, the amount of 504s and IEP participation and planning and um, meetings that that occur, just to be able to offer something um, that is truly supportive of uh, the needs of students. I mean, the most well intentioned people can can do what they can spread over. But if if the intent is to really make sure that that support is um is one not stressing the people that are having to do it, but also giving the most to the people who um they're working on behalf of, you know, and the student population. That
077right there speaks for itself to me. Um and I think that uh it would really help streamline and about some things that are recently been been added. I don't just mean the sports or the athletics. I I mean there's just so many things that have been added. The theater programs been been re reinvigorated and you know um our special populations at that school. there's been a lot of focus on um just expanding programs and so to have um good leadership from the admin standpoint better balanced across the school um I'm excited to see that that that's part of the the suggestion ask request and and then based on this the recommendation I do have a question about this assistant athletic director being kind I appreciate how you explained it. I can tell you that the
078folks in the world of sports probably see this as a big benefit. I know that the parents when they hear about this, um I I've told anybody, I don't know if someone could invent something that just manages our facility usage, we I I' I'd ask for a budget amendment to try to consider that. Um but it's it's just big, you know, you can have um And I wanted to make sure I understood. Do you see this being someone that's already there that's going to take on additional responsibilities or bringing someone on that would just do this function? It's a new it's a new position. Okay. And then um you know we the unknown are these fees and from a standpoint of funding to make it budget neutral. Um but I guess based on what we
079know now we anticipate roughly due to the participation that'll get us about where we need to be. That's right. strength and conditioning coach I know has been an ask um by a variety of programs not just at the high school to have someone official in that capacity. Uh we've had a lot of great people that have helped um maybe either stipen for a specific um team over the years and in this case would this be the kind of thing that a particular program would help bring in or would we post this and someone would apply kind of like how the coaches have been doing? Um do you think in in our projection we're probably talking about outsourcing this so uh hiring someone and paying someone that this is what they do. they would not be
080full-time for us, but they're going to come in the afternoons and train our different uh groups of students um and help them them lift. So, it it probably be outsourced. Okay. Very good. And and you know, um talking about just safety of students and student athletes and and so this would be someone that all teams would have access to all programs. Um correct. Very good. Um okay, I'll wait to get to the other couple of things here because I'm excited about those as well. Thank you. One question on the uh assistant ad with that being revenue neutral. We anticipate any increase in fees. Um when we're talking about adding new programs for we we don't predict an increase in in those fees or costs for those individuals. Um but like I said, we're talking about
081adding and part of their job responsibility would be developing this whole but not an increase for any existing students. That's correct. So I do have one more question about the uh student recruitment um yes I guess position. Uh well two questions on that. Number one um why HHS instead of HMS? Um well typically because of this the space. Um at Houston Middle School um we typically don't have space to have large numbers of transfer students coming in. uh it's limited and when we're talking about the high school that school was really built for 2,000 students and so that's always been a challenge for us when we look at the numbers of students at that school the programs that we offer the teachers that we have the AP courses dual enrollment that's all dependent upon that
0822,000 students so we've typically through themies brought in uh it depends on the year it's dramatically changed when I started we were 5050 we were half of our students were carville half of our students were Germantown and over the year we've been reducing that amount And I think we're sitting at about 350 transfer students at at Houston High School that are coming in through thosemies. Um, but this is more important than that too than just hitting those numbers. This is about selling the message of Houston High School and the programs that we have to offer. But really, it's about space um at Houston High School. Uh, it's about, hey, here's what we have. If you look at our STEM program, if you look at our CTE programs, if you look at our fine arts programs,
083we have something for everyone. Uh and as you all know, once you find out about all the incredible things they're doing there and see them, uh we can meet any students need. So, uh it's about sharing that message to the community. So, keeping our own people first, uh would would be our first goal. Okay. So, that was that was going to be my next question. Yes. Is it going to be focused more so on the transfers or uh keeping Germantown students in Germantown? So first first is we wouldn't have any transfer students except for employees uh if we didn't have those those space needs that we have and program needs uh at our schools. That's not our objective. Our objective is we are Germantown schools for Germantown families. We want to provide uh for them.
084So once again it's about keeping them and making sure that we we are a choice for our families. And a lot of times we find that um sometimes people don't know what's happening or a lot of times people don't know what's happening uh at the high school. So we've done a lot of programs and initiatives to do that and make sure that we're getting our younger students into our schools. So for example, the seventh grade day that we have where we bring all the students to the school, the eighth grade days that we have, bringing all of our eighth graders to the high school so they can tour the CTE programs or tour the elective programs or just get to meet the teachers and staff, making them feel at home. Once again, making them know
085that uh they can be a Mustang and there's something for everyone at Houston. That's the message we want to share. We want to tell people that we know that people choose private schools for different reasons. Uh and those can be valid reasons, but we hope that you choose it for those reasons, not because you just don't know about what we have to offer. I think that there's a tremendous opportunity uh in Germantown for this to be very effective. The next question is, do you anticipate the number of transfers decreasing if this student recruitment role is effective as hopefully it is? Yes, that's always the objective. Like I said, we always have has set we set an optimal capacity for each of our schools. Uh and we balance that number based on those those numbers of
086uh resident students that we have. So yes, it really could if they're doing doing their job the right way, but there is a limited number of students. you know, we have a demographer that looks at the birth rates uh of of students in Germantown to help us with our project projections. So, great. Thank you. Yeah, and I think it's just kind of I guess bringing that up. I think and I'm not from here orig High Houston, neither one of them at any point were 100% Germantown residents. Not even close. like Germantown High was probably 40 to 50% at the most Germantown residents. Houston was 40 to 50 at the most Germantown residents. I think there's a misconception in the community that, you know, our high schools have always been 100% Germantown students and that has
087never been the case. Uh Germantown high zones back in the day because I I had a friend in college um and he lived up by Colonial Country Club. Yeah, we went all the way to Countrywood. I remember when the bus routes went all the way to Countrywood. So anyway, but he lived in over by Colonial Country Club and that he went to Germantown High and so it's just so I so I think I think when we hear about that I just I think it's just a good opportunity to kind of point out for the community. I think there's been a bit of revisionist history that okay, you know, Germantown High was always 100% Germantown and Houston High was always 100% Houston. Never has been the case. Matter of fact, I would say at this point,
088there's never been a time where we've had more Germantown residents in our high school than, you know, and so, you know, I just think it's important because I think there's some narratives that get out in the community and I think it's just, you know, since you brought it up, I think it's a good time to kind of make sure, you know, everyone's level set on that. Well, if y'all need volunteer hours, I'm happy to come and work with this person and spread the good news. And um I do appreciate I know it's been part of our strategic plan for some time and adding and over the past five years, we've we've really dedicated a lot of resources to this very thing. And so further investing in that, I think, is is important. And and I
089do think, you know, we've seen shift since adding the seventh grade. You know, it was great because we were doing the eighth grade day and I was like, "Hey, we're inviting eighth graders to come after the private school deadline to say you're coming there has already passed." Well, that's not going to work. You know, we have to show them the good news sooner. Plant the seed earlier. And then it was this grow your own from the elementary school. And when we got the, you know, we got the eight shirts out and then now I have second graders that are like counting down to be a mustang from Forest Hill, Farmington, Riverdale, Dogwood. and and that was all intentional. Um so we've continued to see that and and it's the thing is is there's a lot
090of there are so many options so we have to keep it up. We have to ramp it up. We have to you know um so I appreciate, you know, that we don't just say, "Hey, we tried some things. Yay." No, it's it's a constant. We're we're I want everybody that lives here to go here, you know. I understand why some don't and I respect that. Um but like we It's as much about um information and and making people aware and I think the better we do at that. I appreciate this being identified as as continuing to do that. Um I do have a question. I don't know that we did we hit on this. The lead counselor stipent. Have we gotten to that yet? I don't think so. Um it it it's a smaller amount
091of money so we weren't going to specifically highlight that. I think it's important because it's a lead counselor. Um we're looking an additional stipen to to one of our counselors to help with the overall process. One of the things that we've talked about um as a board is making sure that we have incredible programs for our parents and I want to see that continue to grow and be strengthened. Um and so we've had events but I don't think we have done enough to promote those. So, uh, and and we've had incredible events like whether it's anti- vaping or we talking about social media, uh, those programs, those things that are we talk about anxiety. Uh, and I think about some of the events that Miss Hubman's rolling out for parents right now. How are we
092responding to those needs and and what resources can we provide those parents? U, that's part of the objective for this lead counselor position, but also just the paperwork submission that our counselors have to submit to the state. So, that person who's collecting all that information. Well, I'm glad I asked because those are things that the the parents in our community currently continue to ask for and I'm like, "Oh, we had that thing and I'm even it's even me. Oh, there was an ESC email came out and I said, "Oh, I missed the second quarter so and so I should that should have been the one I I listened to like most and I just missed it in my Yahoo." Um where things go to sit for a long time. Um and so again, both things
093that we were just talking are just all about the PR part of what already is there. Um, and so again, I appreciate the investment and that promotion of these things. Um, I was going to ask about the librarian. Sorry. Part-time library assistant. Yes. So, when that's another one that when we when our compensation committee looked at all the schools, they have part-time uh library assistants and and they need that position. For still did not have that. Um, And so they were making do with the general education assistant that they're pushing into that space. Um but they were short on staff compared to the other and the other schools. Uh and so we make sure that we provide an even balance. They already had those positions. But when Forest Hill started, they had a lower number
094of students that we were projecting. So that's how they were making that that need or meeting that need. And then our librarian over there is also our lead lead librarian for so she does a little extra anyway. Yes. So this make making that hopefully kind of catch up on just some balancing of okay and they have and and part of the need is because they are so successful and and have a strong library there when so when you think about the number of students that are coming in the mornings uh and checking out books and coming during free times it is a a machine happening in there where they're returning the books and they're checking out new books and scanning and inventory uh and then also helping the students find the selection. They're not always
095that skilled at finding those. And we're still going to need parent support in that location, too. But this makes sure that we are providing the same amount of resources to all of our elementary schools with that part-time position. Makes great sense. Um the admissions retention registar. That's the position that we were just talking about at Houston High School. Yes, we we're we're toying with the name. I like that. makes we don't know if registar was ex exact name because we do have a registar that does all the clerical and financial work for it so we're still working on the name of it but as long as it's not the ber's office and I'm like but yeah that that is the same position um lastly the esse assistant flex day so I was okay I'm curious
096because I was wondering if that was more to give them the flexibility or more to add That's to add required paid days for them so that we can provide training whether it's on that's what you were talking about on that. Okay. Classroom management behavior supports or whether we're talking about active shooter drills uh whether we're talking about suicide training just how are we fitting in all those required trainings. Um I don't know if I've missed other things but uh it's how we provide those but these they would be required and they would be u paid for them to complete uh x amount of hours um for for trainings and that would provide their payment for that because they are hourly staff. That's what you were saying earlier and I was not associating it specifically to
097the ESC department. Okay, understand. Thank you so much. Do we want to talk really quickly about the OPED uh payment? Um so based on the budget and based on the recommendation I don't take that lightly. It's been a long time coming and um bas so far fiscally it seems like a real sound move to me for what it's worth. Yes. everybody. Um, and so I really appreciate that and I I think that you touched on it a little high level, but it's also one of those things like if you can take something off your list of things you have to pay and you can, let's get that bill off the books. Yes. So, um, as you're aware, one of the Miss Beman, you could probably speak to this better than I could because you were
098at the table when all this went happened with, uh, legacy Shelby County Schools. Um, but one of the uh settlements and how we created our new school systems was they had staff in uh Shelby County Schools that they had to u pay retirey benefits for. And so in order for them to give us the facilities, although it wasn't a direct uh payment for facilities, um we settled with them and the municipalities and the original school board settled uh with Shelby County Schools to provide I think it was a 12-year payment. Uh and our payment was $355,000 a year and the purpose was to pay for uh those OPED benefits for those staff. Um that's something that comes um originally it was paid for by the city of Germantown for us. Uh but when COVID hit,
099they said there was uncertainty and I think you were on the board at that time, Miss Griffith. Uh there was uncertainty in what was going to happen with our tax base. And so the city said that they were passing that payment over to us. And so we took over the $355,000. I think it was 2016. I think we took over that um payment. May have been after that. No, 19, excuse me. 2019. Um that we took over that payment uh from the city and have been paying that. So this would be our last payment. We've already made our payment for this year because this is our 11th year. But once again, my recommendation and the budget amendment that we have tonight for us to balance the budget. Let us go ahead and pay that off
100out of reserve so that we can use that money to provide benefits for our staff. Once again, I think it is due for a great celebration that we are finally ending that payment to Shelby County Schools. Did you get a tear in your eye, Mr. Curry, or you just wiping? I didn't know if that was emotional or allergies. I could little bit of both. No, it's uh and I saw Cerville did the same thing. I saw the superintendent, I think, recently proposed something similar. So, the logic is sound and it makes sense. And during the pandemic, we were uh in some strange times, but we did see some record sales tax uh revenue in our community. If there are no further uh questions on the budget, we can go ahead and move into other items
101that we need to talk about and have on our business meeting in March besides this. Um we can go ahead and transition if you are okay to number two and and budget. Oh, okay. Never mind. I did have another Okay, I thought we were That's fine. Um so I think last year we knew that science adoption was coming right so we if I went back and looked I think we allocated 800,000 it was we we allocated some last year to prepare right so we're not taking the full hit on the textbook this year I just want to make sure I read the budget right and trying to jog my memory and I'll start from messy so actually it isn't we we are budgeting a year in advance knowing what's coming because our goal is to
102go ahead and purchase those textbooks now because in order for them to be delivered by the time school starts, we have to go ahead and have that in this fiscal year. So Missy, I think you said this morning we have a million dollars that purchase that is coming. It's just under a million um that is coming. It will come it will come before the board next board meeting that y'all will be approving that purchase. But that is that amount of money. So what you see for budget in the next year is for the next if I'm not mistaken is for the next uh textbook cycle. Isn't that correct? That is correct. And it is a much smaller textbook cycle because it's only PE wellness and two programs of study within CTE. So the budget is
103cut for textbooks for FY26. Yeah. So if you look at it, we what we are doing is we are budgeting to buy the books in this fiscal year for next school year. So they're already ordered and and they're already coming. So the amount of money that you see in textbooks for next year is not for the science textbooks. It's for PE and for the next adoption. So the 800 because I remember I was trying to remember our discussion last year. So we it was a higher amount. It was 804 last year but that was in anticipation of the purchase that we were going to make this year. Yes. So the 460 is for and then when we know when ELA is coming up I guess that's going to be the next one. Then that's going
104to be we're going to have next year this time we're going to be talking about a a big amount to prepare for that. Exactly. Okay. Yes. Um, I have a couple of other questions kind of throughout. Um, great. Adding the stipens, um, the coaching stipens, has that kind of gone how we thought from a budgetary standpoint, like what we anticipated versus kind of what ended up happening this this year? Yes. I I I think we we've been successful know that we we've moved from the traditional coaches stipen to a percentage based on their pay their base pay. Um so it's a very detailed you know process of how they calculate that. There are also major and minor sports historically that they pay more uh for those sports. So it has I think it's been a
105beneficial um adjustment for our coaches. We do have three coaching stipens that aren't included in this. We'll do it in the second reading of the budget that we'll have to add. So, um, for example, we, uh, were talking about, uh, flag football. We do not have those, but these are smaller budget amounts that you'll see, uh, that we'll adjust next time once we know the revenue. Uh, also too, we were talking about there is a wrestling program. Um, and we're talking about adding that to the middle school level, having a middle school wrestling program, so they can go compete in TMSAA's middle school program because we do have middle school wrestling even though they practice at the high school. But there will be three um stipens that are added to this in between the two
106readings. So those stipens was actually I'm glad you said that about the shift that we took for employee stipens, coach stipens I would call them. Yes. As opposed to um those that are just individual, you know, folks from the community that apply and get to go through that process. So yes. So the way that works and Mr. Stratton, you can come up and talk about this too. um we calculate a a base salary for them. If you're a non-faculty coach, we say, "Hey, because you don't have that payment for us, we do have non-faculty coaches, but they're calculated the same way. We just have to pick a a target number for them." Um so, Mr. I think you could help. What is it based on the So, for our non-faculty coaches, it's based on their
107outside coaching, prior coaching years of experience. We use our bachelor's salary schedule and once we confirm their prior years of coaching experience, we place them on a particular salary step um for the bachelors and then it's a percentage of that salary based upon what sport they coach whole formula for any like assistance and that that just put in through uh the district the set or parent whatever it is that's that's a little different I guess. Um, but those are all staying the same and when and we still feel good as I'm really asking because we've added so many additional programs, sports athletic programs that everything this first year is kind of going as we saw from a budget standpoint. Yes. And and know too that Mr. Kathy and I think they've there's also an increase
108in those coaching amounts because since it is based on your base pay when we provide colas and when we adjust the teacher salary schedule that also adjusts their stipens too. So know that uh it it should keep up with infl well we not that we keep up with inflation but yes but as the world changes uh that amount should be increasing also it's not a stagnant flat flat rate and I I think you'll see that in the maybe the regular instruction it's in it's in Missy's budget um she and and Mr. Kathy have already allotted for the increase in the teacher salary schedule as it impacts the coaches for next year. Great. Thank you for that. um was curious on the where is it the safety grant um yes okay so so um we used
109to receive different pockets of grants from the department of education uh and when they created the new TISA funding formula they took away those grants so the safety grant went away and so the joke amongst school districts and superintendents was oh it's in the base um so whenever we would ask say, "Hey, you you you cut our safety grant." The answer was, "Oh, it's it's it's in the TISA base." U so that's why that one you see that grant disappear and we no longer receive that grant because they increased TISA funding. And so um any other hold on sorry I just had it there. Um, is there any other spot or place where state specific funds are for kind of school safety? And I know that there was a shift in uh in the state
110last year for instance that started um offsetting some of the funds for for instance like SRO's. A lot of those go through school districts. We're fortunate in our community that it goes through our city. They fund those those employees, if you will, of theirs. Yeah. So, the so the state and the governor did this the um they actually provide direct funding to the city of Germantown um for school resource officers and that um we think at this point covers fully all but one or two of our Yes. Yes, I believe so. Okay. Thank you for that. But I I'll have to check on the exact amounts that they're receiving. But they are receiving funding for school resource officers at each of our schools. And while the SRO program has been ongoing, the um funding to
111offset it is new. Yes. This past year. So when we started as a district, um we're very thankful to the city of Germantown for providing those SRO's at our schools and even our elementary schools. Um but once again, we're also thankful to the Department of Education now in the state for picking up that expense. and now funding our city directly. Exactly. Um, okay. I'm sorry. Now I see the account and line item here under the regular instruction. Thank you. Um, for the coaching and other supplements. Um, yes. So, if if you were looking at um direct and indirect funding for the school district, um school resource officers, for example, would be one that the the city um is providing, but they're receiving funding for. PEG funding would be another example of that that the city,
112it's essentially a pass through for the city. They're receiving funding for from cable bills for staff and that goes to provide services for our staff. So, there are several examples of where um indirect funding that the city does receive revenue for. I'm trying to hash that out and just to make sure I I know which is direct and which is indirect. I work on that every year, but it it does change some and and the example of the SRO's again, one of the greatest partnerships that that we have in our district is with the Germantown Police Department on behalf of the support of the city of Germantown. There are other examples of indirect funding that we have also. Um, so for example, we're still paying for the Riverdale expansion. When we uh got rid of
113the modulars at Riverdale, I think the city paid 5 million and the or excuse me, the city paid 7 million and the district paid 5 million. Um, so we are paying that debt um for the city. So that would be included as an indirect cost to the district even though we're the ones that are paying that debt every single year. Uh you would see the same thing for central office. Um this was a $4 million addition and so the city is paying that debt for us but we are the ones providing that revenue stream uh for the city when we started as a district. Computer devices, furniture, there were lots of things that because we can't take on debt that uh they took that on for us and we paid the city for those things.
114But you could include that amount in indirect funding if you were creating a list for the district. Jason, do you have a rough total on what that number is? 56 million. that we're repaying. No. No. Not all repaying. Yes. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. The amount that we're funding that we're paying for for the city but goes onto their bonds. That's correct. Correct. Yeah. So, I would say 5 million for Riverdale expand. Mr. Kathy, you can expand on that. 5 million for Riverdale. It's in uh it's in the budget and I'm going to find it for you and give you the exact number, but off the top of my head, it's around 527,000 that we send the city each year. What's the total in millions of that goes against our bonding authority that that we're Okay. Uh,
115so for the the answer is we paid five million on Riverdale and that goes against their bonding capacity. Four million for this building and I believe as far as what goes against our their bonding capacity. That's it from a school debt. Now they carry Forest Hill and they're actually paying for that when we don't provide any revenue. That goes against their debt to the tune of million which is being paid down. Correct. That's correct. Yes. Thank you for that clarification. Departmentally, is there anything else that anyone wanted to highlight or say that weren't in the kind of summary of Um, no. I I think this is a I think y'all are used to seeing a lot of changes in each of the departments. Um this year the the main thing was the the increase for
116teachers and the steps in col for staff that accounted for 95% of most of the adjustments in the budgets that we see. Uh other than that it's the reductions that you see in in capital outlay that we have to make ends meet. The reductions that you see in the board budget as far as we're not having to pay as much for our ARC for OPED anymore and if we go ahead and pay off the Shelby County um payment to them uh we can use that money for our budget next year. Those are our big changes that we see, but there aren't substantial changes in all the other areas. Out of curiosity, do we have any update on um Shelby County funding kind of where we stand with um what our allocation of the piece from
117the new high school? Um well, so we have the Fraser High School, then we have what was to be the new high school in Cordova that now no more due to the site um being I guess I'm going to say unapproved. The site selection happened after the fact. I just still don't understand that y'all. Um but but where we stand on how those funds for those projects in Shelby County are planning to be funded and what that impact for us would be. I know there's just been some uncertainty about that funding source for those schools and how it would benefit or impact or not benefit uh the municipal districts and that's been some gray area as we've entered into this season. Um so we are not going to see an increase based on the Frasier
118High School. Uh last time Mr. Kathy and I had went and met with uh representatives from the county commission uh fiscal department. uh they were going to pay for the PRA Frasier High School uh using general fund dollars over a period of three years, three fiscal years. Uh and so for us, unless they go to bond, we don't necessarily get our ADA our split of that. Um so what they projected for us was that we were going to see uh the same amount of funding that we have seen over the past years, two to$ two and a half million dollars from county commission as what they projected for us over the next uh few years. uh we don't go ahead and budget for that money as as you know we wait until we receive that
119and then we recognize that money as it comes in to budget for it. So there shouldn't be an increase as of right now. uh the Germantown Germantown High School, the new Cordova High School. Um know that there uh I know that Mayor Harris had worked really hard to put together different funding streams to make that happen. And I think they had 40 million definite in allocations from county commission or from also funding from the city of Germantown um for that for that school. But know that um that project has not um they have not determined how they're going to pay that yet, whether they're going to go to bond. So the key is if they go to bond for that project, we'll get our WFD ADA split of that, which is 4.2 to 4.36% whatever
120our share is of that funding, but we don't know how they're going to fund that. Now they're back to the drawing board on where they're even going to be able to put it. Yes. So um something that was really on the horizon soon is now not. Um, and I know we don't plan for that and which is the best route to take. You know, you don't spend money you don't have and you don't even make a lot of plans based on the probability of it. But, um, I think that that's something that we all anticipated was coming closer. I think it's important to say that that's now further out. And so, anything that we would have, uh, received as a as it pertains to that that project um, we can't even be thinking about in
121in short-term expenses or investments. Yeah. So, so know that we we tentatively look out, but we don't make plans for that funding until um we receive it. So, that's why we I think it's always important to highlight for our community that we have that five year um deferred maintenance list of projects that we have for the district. That is a plan of a tentative order that we want to accomplish those things. It is not a funding formula for how we're going to receive money for those things. So, it's a really nice list to have. Uh, it's like making a list of all the things that are wrong around your house. That doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to be able to fix them all. It's kind of like a a priority list of the order
122that you would fix them in. But yes, as we receive that funding and as we know about that based upon our meetings with Shelby County government, that's when we make those decisions and make recommendations. Well, that's that's important to explain as we go through this process. I know we say it every year, but it's not a funding list. Um, sometimes things get get pushed further back, sometimes things get brought sooner. Um, and sometimes it's all about the revenue for that particular project and how we see those streams, you know, how we realize those. Um, and we've seen a lot of examples of that over the years. And, you know, that's going to be part of what people in the community ask, "Well, what about this? Well, what about this?" Well, that's not even on the
123list. Well, that doesn't mean that we can't talk about it. Um, and looking at one of the highlights that you brought up, um, I think that there's, you know, we talk about, um, additional track, additional practice space. Right now, that's the hot topic, dour in the community. We have more programs than ever before, and we are competing for practice space. I'm not even talking about just getting out there to to actually compete and and in matches, games, whatever they may be, but that practice space and looking at um how we can get creative uh you know, and taking existing spaces and maybe making them um you know, something that could be used by multiple teams or or um I guess organizations and also the fact that we have an agreement with the city after 2020
124for park usage of parks that belong to us, but you know, they were going to use them and and um how well guess what? Things have changed and we may need those sooner than later. So going back to the drawing board uh with our partners at the city to say, "Hey, Houston High Park um that's that's back there now by our new uh softball complex. You know, maybe those that acreage is something that we have to talk about. We need that today. I mean, when I say today, I mean we need that sooner than, you know, 2015 or whatever." Um I mean, I'm sorry. 2000 Hello, where what year are we? Um yes, the 10 years after the 220, so the 2030. Thank you. Um yeah, that and if you remember, that was one of
125our our biggest challenges that we faced is as we were trying to provide the footprint for Houston High School and the facilities that we had. Uh the district already owned the baseball field and the tennis courts. Uh that was already part of the district property. Um, but we knew that our girls softball team didn't have a facility and we really were talking about title n uh equality uh for our our female athletes and if we had a baseball facility and and turf room and and field for them, it wasn't the right thing to have our softball girls playing at Grace Ean and we were thankful for that partnership, but that wasn't the right thing. So we worked with the city uh for a land uh swap agreement and we gave up the property behind for
126steel behind this facility here and it was actually wound up being um productive for the city because there was a three-way swap uh where uh we had a developer that actually gave away or traded land that was next to the railroad tracks here for the city's water tower that they they built there. We gave up this property um behind us here at uh Forest Hill uh for Parkland to the city and then uh we received those softball fields so that we could provide that or meet that need for a girls softball team. But as part of that uh we did have to enter into an agreement and provide them time to provide for their softball program on the two lower fields. Um, but that's become a challenge and I don't know if the city has
127taken any steps to to meet that softball need yet, but know that we receive full uh usage of those. But we have a real problem now with our facilities. And we talked about this, Mr. Stra, before you got here, and I think you personally have experienced it. Our track teams can't get on the track. um because they have we have elementary, we have middle school, we have lacrosse, we have soccer, and whenever it rains, other people are needing to use that turf field. It's a big challenge for everybody trying to use that same facility. And so for us, I think that's one of our pressing needs. And I know that you're hearing from all the teams and the programs about the fact that we're not able to meet that that need right now. And so
128we need to look at um a combination of turfing our fields or tur building a new field that is turf to to meet that need with a potential track around it. But we need to come up with a way to to solve that problem and we can't do it with our current facilities. This isn't a gotcha. Like this is something that I uh I mentioned to city leadership um as we were talking recently about the Houston High Plan. Um like as we get creative, one of the things that seems to me to be low hanging fruit is the existing property um that we have and how can we um you know work with them to work with whether it be parks and wreck or or how they they had try to find you know creative
129ways to to use their other facilities so that we can get into those sooner. I just have already planted that seed and I want to say publicly that again if we're not able to as part of the master plan anytime soon. And based on some of the CIP budget presentations that we've just been through on behalf of that plan, I think that one of the things that immediately came to me that could impact our families and our programs pretty quickly was the utilization of that that space. So, I uh I look forward to getting to meet with our partners uh at the city um to try to come up with plan sooner than later because we have to do something. Um, we're trying to do all the things and we are doing them, but we
130are literally with our friends here in South Germantown, Germantown High School um to to have access for track and field to to be able to have a place to go. And, you know, it's beautiful that we continue to talk about lacrosse getting off the ground. the high school where it is sanctioned by by the state, but we're growing our own here. Let me tell you something. If you're going to be in the action and these teams at that level, we're doing a tremendous job just adding that elementary and middle school access to to truly get people engaged um well before that that ninth grade and continuing to be able to do that. We have to have a place for these programs to participate um and practice. So, Again, it's an evolution. It's something that's new.
131It's not something that, you know, we heard about a little bit before, but as you add programs and we're talking about adding, you just said it on the middle school level, but even with the flag football and that's coming, you know, we're anticipating needs and that's just outdoor practice. We talked about the needs as the addition of the the lacrosse programs um boys and girls also being in the same season of the time of year. Um, what does that uh, you know, look like for indoor space as well? That's something we don't have. And I I think we talk about like how can we grow programs? I think people don't realize we receive zero funding from the state for athletics and extra extracurricular opportunities. So, Mr. Drewing and I were talking about the challenges of
132the lacrosse team and we're thankful for that partnership with the city using the Johnson Road Park, but when they have a big event, they can't collect a gate at that facility. And so, how are you offsetting the cost of referees and officials, you know, typically with our other sports, that's why we charge parents and people coming in is to offset those official fees and the cost. Well, if you're at an open park and anybody can walk up from any direction, you can't regulate that type of event. So that's why we think about the future of Houston High School and our programs at that school. Having facilities and and fields there that we can control who comes in and out of the event even from the security side of things, much less the financial side of
133things is important to us. Very much. Thank you for mentioning that as well. Would anyone like to take a break? kind of Oh yeah, we can do Brian's like I'll always sign up for that. No, first of all, I'm sorry I wasn't here able to be here at the beginning. I just didn't know if we were at kind of the ask a question about anything type point or glad y'all want to take a break. Y'all been going the whole time because I just we're still budget. We're about to transition to Yeah. Okay. Um, I just had a couple. I mean, I I'll of course watch the meeting, catch up and everything, but of course after, you know, reviewing it, other than, you know, increases for salaries and things like that, it is a pretty flat
134budget. So, and of course fully support increases for staff and that sort of thing. Uh, I had a just a couple of questions and one, we were talking about athletics and you all may have talked about all this, so I'm sorry if I'm rehashing. I think it's good to say things twice. I know obviously we did bring in a lot of new programs last year and I know that wasn't a huge increase in in in money for coaches and things like that, but I just didn't know if there had been uh and I know we're only one year in and so it's, you know, maybe not even that time, but it it seems like maybe over the next couple years we maybe should kind of step back and analyze and say, "Hey, is this like
135is this working out like we thought it should?" Are there sports that maybe we don't need to, you know, include, maybe it just didn't work out, or are there additional resources maybe we need to put into it just because I know we added a lot of work for probably yes, a lot of people bringing it in. And so I just um I don't I I didn't see a change in here. Would have really expected it for this year on that, but I just that was just kind of one comment I had is maybe going forward just keep a eye on that and see if that's something we need to adjust. Yeah. So there is an increased amount of money uh for coaches stipens um because it is based on their base pay. Anytime that we
136make adjustments to that salary matrix or we provide cost of living adjustments or steps that uh they'll see that reflected also in their stipen their stipens will go up too. So we talked about the fact that not necessarily keeping up with inflation but when we see increased costs we're we're trying to to meet that need for them. So that is included in the academic budget that you'll see an increase. It doesn't change percentages or like I think you're talking about a broader philosophical. Yeah. I just mean kind of, you know, taking a look at it again. This was this was new. It was different. Yes. And you know me, I fully supported it and you and I think it's it's great that we're doing it. But, you know, as we get a couple more years
137into it, maybe look at, you know, how it's going. That's right. And if we need to make any changes, that sort of thing. Um, also I I know again I'm sure you talked about the additional administrator at Houston Middle and I I again I support that. I know again all that our administrators are doing and just with the increase in the number of IEP and 504 meetings and extracurriculars where they're they're there and you know additionally I mean I'm thankful again that we're in a district where you know we don't have a lot of the worst discipline issues but I know we have had increases in disciplines like like everyone yes every district has over the last few years and so that would be just another thought is you Maybe we're fine at all of
138our other schools, but I'm, you know, if it's something we need to look at at other other schools too over the next few years, I think that's something to at least look into. But of course, that's, you know, your yes your place to to analyze. So I I'll leave that to you. But that's something that our compensation committee is always looking at. And the Houston Middle was also driven by a study of current ratio. So we'll share with you the chart. Uh you can go back M Crowder can show. Uh we actually looked at the number of principles in relation to the number of students and as you can see Houston Middle School was skewed. Uh and it if you think about the responsibilities of an assistant principal in middle versus high school and the
139afternoon activities that they have to cover is greater when you get to the middle and high school level. So know too that that's why we think it would be helpful to have that additional uh administrator there. Definitely fully agree. Well, yes, we need to look at all of her school coverage and in relation to their responsibilities. Well, and and again, I only say that just because they are really so busy. I mean, anytime I talk with any of our assistant principles, I mean, it's a, you know, they're just always on the move. Well, any of our principles. And so, it's just again, I think something to take a look at. But I think those were kind of my main two points. I'll catch up on on the rest. But, uh, I appreciate the budget document.
140It's always very thorough and helps me. So, I appreciate it. Okay, it's 3:49. We've made it through the large portion of the budget and work session. If everybody is agreeable, um let's take these 11 minutes to kind of just refresh, recoup, uh get a get a drink, run to the restroom, and meet back here at 4 pm. Okay. Thank you all. Returning to the now what I'm going to call the work session portion of the agenda. Agenda item number two. We have a variety of miscellaneous fiscal year 2324. Is that right? Budget amendments number 26. Thank you. 24 25. That's what I thought of. Um, numbers 26, excuse me, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. I'll take 22 uh and 23 and then I'll defer to the next one. But 22 is what was already
141discussed during the budget work session which is the early and final uh OPED payment. I don't think we need to rehash those explanations. However, I would just like to add that it will be nice to be out from under that and celebrate that. That is a wonderful thing to be finished with. Agree. Thank you, Mr. Kathy. Any questions on budget amendment number 22? All right. Like to move on to 23. Budget amendment number 23 is a request to move $50,000 from the capital improvement budget to the maintenance budget. Um I'll take full uh responsibility for that when we just keep fixing things and um and our maintenance budget is at the point where uh we need to move that $50,000 to cover the remaining three months that we have in this fiscal year uh for
142maintenance. I went back through all of our expenditures and the truth of the matter is things are just costing more there. I wish I could give you there was a big this or a big that like we had last year, but the truth of the matter is uh it's really just increased expenses. And this is not grabbing from reserve. That's just moving money from capital that hasn't been spent over to maintenance. I appreciate that explanation of where it's coming from and that it's nothing because my first thought was to say, "Oh, okay. Was there something we need to be addressing more broadly, but it's just basic orders that come across and things costing a little more. Thank you for that. Gets us to agenda, excuse me, budget amendment number 24. Okay, that's Hello, Miss Hman.
143How are you guys? So, this has been approved um through the state department. This is federal funds with IDA preschool. And so what you'll see is just a movement between 71200 and 722. So needing to buy technology for those preschool students and not curriculum. So that's what the requested move is. And I think um this will be for future discussion but we may need to broach this topic in May. I think one of the challenges especially that we've faced uh this past year and we y you all have started laughing at it when we say oh we've got a change to the federal preschool account we have added 3254 and it's a change in $30 to that account and every time that we're getting these notifications from the department of education approving these um the
144boards can pass a resolution uh so that's something we may need to discuss to approve that on the front end and then uh on on the back end of these small minor adjustments. So there are options we have so we're not having to bring every single time the department is coming with these federal in the federal programs budgets changes. But I think that's a future discussion for us. Procedurally I think that's nice and clean. I think it says a lot about the back and forth and the you know small scope of it a lot of times but from a standpoint of recording it might be helpful to do it that way. So, thank you for considering that. Just to prime the pump, say, "Oh, no, that may be a future discussion for us when we're
145looking at those federal federal accounts that the department is telling us uh giving us notification that you have this increased aotment or you've got to change this percentage." It's a constant change that we're getting from them. Yeah, we'll submit a change, wait a couple weeks, then we wait even longer because then we'd have to bring it in front of you guys. So, um, it does kind of delay if you are trying to make changes on bit. So, thank you for considering that. That helps you and it makes it cleaner. We look forward to you all bringing that to us. Miss Huffman won't spend more of her own time than she's getting out of it. A huge amount of money. Yes. Um, if no further discussion, uh, gets us over to, um, budget amendment number 25.
146This is a request, uh, for the board to move $1 million from our reserve into our coverage of health and medical care claims account. Um, this was discussed during the budget work session as well, but right now we're we have in that account roughly a little over $500,000 remaining to pay claims. We're averaging a little over $500,000 a month and we have about three months left in this fiscal year. Um, so we we got hit pretty hard on claims as the board is aware. We're self-insured. So, anytime one of our employees goes to the doctor, fills prescriptions, we're paying those invoices, those invoices come in. Lucen is our third party provider that uh that uh administrates the plan, but we got hit pretty hard on claims. So, as Mr. Emanuel mentioned during the budget work
147session, we're looking at that additional $800,000 investment in the general fund to cover claims for next year. We'll come with the other funds budget next month that looks at how we're going to strategically approach that. And then we're looking at adjustments to the plan itself as well uh to cover this um increase in in health cost uh coverage and claims. So um as I know Mr. Jones always shares here's our count and and we've been watching that drop and and we knew uh when we said hey we're going 11 years without a rate increase that this was coming. So u we know as we get ready to develop this budget that we're going to look at how we can provide the multiple funds to do this so that next year we're not doing the same
148game of hey let's move to to make it to the end of the year. We want to make sure we're budgeting appropriately. Thank you for the explanation and Uh it's one of those it's a moving target year to year. So there's been years where um the impact hasn't been as much as the budget and then we've been really balanced right on some years and this one we will certainly look at addressing agenda. Excuse me. I keep want to say the agenda the amendment uh number 26. I think I will defer to Miss Abel on this one for the CTE Perkins basic budget amendment. Good afternoon. Welcome. The budget amendment number 26 CTE Perkins Basic to pull funds from various accounts to load those into our vocational instructional equipment account as you can see in the
149description to purchase additional and upgraded equipment for STEM integration through project based learning. So that's been one of the big pushes this year. We've had some training. We realize we need some more drones, tools, machinery, and computers. Happy to answer any questions. Again, this is just a movement. Yes. Okay. More drones. I have one in the drone class right now. Specifically, we're looking for drones that are repairable because they do get damaged quite often. We have found some that are easy to repair inhouse. The things you learn along the way. Thank you. Any questions? Any discussion uh on the budget amendments? Okay. Now, we're going to get to go to Um agenda item number three, approval of science textbook adoption committee recommendations. All right. As we shared earlier when we were talking through the budget,
150um this is our year for science textbook adoption to be implemented in the 2526 school year for eight years. Um and so you have um some documents in front of you. One of which is a chart that has links which I will share this electronically so you can click on the links but the very top link tells the SK they call it the schedule with the Tennessee Department of Education um where they release each cycle for all the content areas and so by looking at that link that's actually your third page which shows you this year we're doing science next year we'll be doing PE wellness along with CTE advanced manufacturing and um IT courses is and you can see the progression all the way through the year 2034. Um so we're focusing on science
151textbook adoption and I just want to give you a little bit of background about the work that's been done. So uh we have uh the committee consisted of 10 teachers. We had five elementary teachers, two middle and three high school and three parents. We had 11 parents who applied to serve on our committee and we narrowed it down using a rubric to our to our three parents who served. We have a big shout out to our extraordinary committee members. They meticulously reviewed all the components of multiple programs, collected, analyzed and synthesized feedback and tirelessly advocated for the future of science education uh for GMSD students and teachers. The adoption committee is recommending the following publishers and titles to the board of education. Today we have for K through five McGraw Hill Tennessee Science and for
152grades six through eight Savas Elevate Science. And I do want to give a little bit of background work about how those two came about and then I'll explain the high school adoption. Um so the committee strongly considered alignment for K through eight. So they were hoping to do the same publisher all the way through K through8. I know some of the feedback that we've received in our listening sess sessions through the town through the um strategic planning sessions is that we want simplicity of platforms for parents and students and teachers. Um and so they were trying to go with one publisher all around but uh looking at it McGraw Hill provides the appropriate Lexile levels for K through five. They provide leveled readers for each module. So we went with McGraill for elementary for the
153literacy component. Can you explain Lexile levels real quick? Lexile levels, yes, indicate um the abil the the reading ability of a student. We typically can associate with grade levels, but it's separate independent of that. Um and so we can assign appropriate text based on a student's current reading ability. and also had multiple pacing options to allow science to you know in K through two when they're trying to embed science um they want to also hit their literacy standards at the same time so McGrawill hit all of those components and then SAS for the middle school um was a little more rigor as far as reading and so the science teachers were very passionate about having those technical reading skills the contentrich text applications a lot of data analysis um it caters more with age appropriate
154simulations, demonstrations, and also not that we look just at this, but the TECAP preparation for grades three through five. McGraill had a better aligned TECAP prep, and then SAS had a better six through eight TECAP prep. So, all made sense when the committee came together to go with those two particular publishers. And then moving into the high school committee, they are still reviewing um and I have a rationale for that as well because um the high school science textbooks are very specific and very technical and they just need more time. Um they want to make a good decision for an eight-year adoption period. So uh we said, "Okay, we can give you a few more days to make your final choices." Um they we also are a month behind with math textbook adoption that we
155did last year because the snow days we had a whole month delay on the caravan where the publishers come and bring the materials. So we were like okay we'll give you a few more days here. Um and there also the the three publishers they narrowed it down to are very very similar. So now it's just a matter of digging through what are the resources that we get with it? What are the other components? So we will have that finalized by Thursday and we'll share it you know uploaded before the board meeting for your review and within that it has the links to the books also the public review links. So this document you'll be able to click on the links and you can see the review sites for those textbooks and you may have noticed
156the term textbooks and HQIM are pretty much used simultaneously. HQIM is our high quality instructional materials. I think textbooks is becoming somewhat outdated because it's just it's not just a book. It's it's instructional materials. So, HQIM is basically how the state will refer to a lot of our textbooks. But they did shift, like I said, from an eight from a six-year cycle to eight-year adoption cycles. And we want to be very intentional about what we're selecting. So, with all of that information, um I would like to bring um to the to the board meeting all um recommendations for the adoption for K through 5 6 through8 9 through 12 along with the quotes for the purchase so that we can move forward with purchasing those as soon as possible so the teachers can get them
157hopefully by early July which they like to get before school starts um so they can have those resources. So, I'm happy to take any questions. I think that this was discussed at another time um just maybe in a strategic plan conversation but since this was a recent what are we calling this um adoption where we made it public to the community did we get good response to that um a lot of participants we had three participants and they they did take time to look through and provide some feedback okay thank I was one of those participants and uh I gotta say it I now granted I have not taken a science class since I was a senior in high school. But uh all the materials looked, you know, from from my quick review, I mean
158really good quality. And I was I was impressed just by kind of how much more engaging they seemed for students, you know, than they were, I guess, when I was a student, which is I mean, just lots of, you know, I don't know, inter Yeah. interactive type uh spaces in the books just, you know, getting students interested in things. So, uh, I really appreciated it. I thought it was great. And and I will share again because I think it's always important to say we're choosing from a menu that the state textbook commission selects for us and then as a district we're able to choose from that list. We're just not going out and finding uh textbooks that we want. This is coming from from their list and their list was very short this year. Um
159and there is like we like I said a lot of alignment between all of them and the big I shared the newsletter that the science committee um worked with and the three in instructional shifts as you were speaking to board member strain that they identify as they are truly acting as scientists. There's a lot of coherence across the grade levels and then of course multi-dimensional approach to science interactive much a lot of hands-on. I had one question. I mean, you know, an eight-year adoption period seems pretty long to me. I mean, I'm assuming that's a that's a change in the states. It is a change in the state, which is why I wanted to include the adoption cycle, that last page that you have. Um because next year we are going to be going to
160what we're calling a gap year for ELA and social studies because when the state went from a sixy year to an eightyear cycle that definitely had a fiscal impact and that we have a two year two-year lull where you know publishers only had to guarantee those prices for six years. Most publishers are extending it for two more years but still we're having to go ahead and pay for that on top of another adoption cycle. So it has some repercussions. Uh do you know what the their reasoning was for extending the adoption period? They also moved the standards revision to eight-year cycles and so they wanted to line up with the academic standards revisions for those courses. Okay. Just a lot of developments and subjects in eight years. Exactly. That's a long period. So you've got
161the note there. And I think for science you probably have more APs than any other discipline. So I know that because I think there's an AP there's definitely an AP for the four and then there's the dual enrollment but there's also the CTE of the A&P. So for like AP biology and AP chemistry, AP physics and and apes, how I know that that's not part of it, but as far as an alignment for the book, especially when you when you have teachers teaching both. Um, so what's the thought process and and how does that work just in general? Because I think we didn't really have this for math. I think for science, it's it's it's more pronounced. We do have more AP and dual enrollment courses in science than we do in math. Yes. And
162the the teachers are also going to look at those. The college board makes a strong recommendation as to the text they should use as far as alignment with like let's say standard physics going into AP physics. It should align well because the college board standards are going to be close to Tennessee state standards for science. But okay. So yeah, but like the publisher, so they'll decide I guess like for AP biology, will you come back at some point with with um a budget? Yes. For the Okay. Yes. So once we have that list finalized, which is just provided from the college board. It's not the state that provides that list. We will come back with those for you to see which books they're going with for dual dual enrollment and AP courses. We have dual
163enrollment and AP in all of those except for physics and human anatomy and physiology. We have dual enrollment um biology, dual enrollment chemistry. We also have AP physics one and AP physics 2 that we offer. So like the dual enrollment though that's more aligned through U of M, right? So they pick the text and the parents would pay for the materials as far but for the AP courses those I guess are going to be from us. We will purchase. Yeah. I just wasn't sure like how that Yeah, because like I said there's there's four distinct ones there. AP biology. So it is possible that we would have um a McGraw Hill biology but maybe not maybe for AP it might be something that's based on the college board. Yes, that's true. Same way with math.
164Are there any other questions or any further discussion or is there any further discussion at this time regarding regarding the presentation of the science textbook adoption committee recommendations? As always, I think uh those that took the time to participate in this I mean especially when you're talking about an investment that the teachers will make in the um learning preparing and you know to have them ser to parents just to really I know it's a small list that we get to choose from, but what makes the most sense, you know, for especially that uh kind of graduation. I appreciate this when we went through this recently with the math understanding, you know, the needs to be with the standards at the elementary level versus the middle school level and why this particular one is, you know,
165maybe a little more aligned than than the other. Um, You know, a lot of time and effort goes into this and it is certainly a significant investment. So, I appreciate everyone that participated. Thank you for recognizing the time and effort. And I do want to give a shout out to Jenny Leford, our math supervis math and science supervisor, and Ethan Constant, our high school science supervisor, for organizing all the committees, doing all the grunt work, getting the materials out. So, an outstanding job by our supervisors and our committee members. I'm sure that's a slog going through all of this, but um if uh the preview links we have here, are those for anyone who wanted to use them? Okay. Yes, there is a it's a public site on the state department page and when this
166is uploaded, you'll be able to just click on those. Okay. So, if any if any parents wanted to, they can. Sounds good. I think they keep them active until the fall of next year. Well, seeing no further discussion on agenda item number three. Thank you so much, Miss Able. Um, agenda item number four is further business at which point in time I think we're going to uh discuss adding something to discuss. How about that? Yes. So, we do have some further business uh that we want to bring before the board for approval. um at our business meeting next week. Uh we have now received a contract uh or proposed contract from A2 uh for their work at Farmington uh elementary school to remove the modulars. Um so we have that contract and we want to
167make sure we want to get provide that to you and and have you all look at that so it can be for your consideration at the next business meeting. So Mr. Kathy, I don't know if you want to describe details or anything about that. It's a it's a design or a proposal for design uh engineering and architecture services for the addition. Um the we're targeting or at least trying to target uh starting construction in the spring of 2026. And in order to do that um we have to go through the fund field tripglet of approval processes. And in order to do that we need to get an architecture and engineering firm under contract to start design. Once we start design, we will have to take a field trip through the design review commission with the
168city, the planning commission, board of zoning and appeals. We'll have to get approval from local and state fire marshall as well as Shelby County code enforcement. And as we go through all those approval processes, once we get them and we get feedback, because sometimes any of those bodies feedback can change the design itself, uh they sometimes require us to put in additional road to get be able to get a fire truck uh within 50 ft of the furthest corner of the building. Um, so once we get all of the feedback and approvals from all those bodies, we go out to bid and then we will be back to this board uh to ask for approval for a construction uh to award award the bid to a construction company, get under contract with them and then
169after that the fun part begins. We get to build it. So this is a first step in and really getting down the road of doing the work to get make this addition a reality. Would we be removing the uh modulars in advance? Like we make sure we had all the approvals first before we Okay. Before those removed. Yes. And that'll be uh that could possibly be a separate bid that has to come before this board for award because there will have we have the bid. We've put it out before, but we'll put it out again. Uh there's actually a decent amount of work to be done to disconnect the modulars, the electrical, plumbing connections, everything that needs the work that needs to be done to get them ready for the modular company to come and
170just get. So we have to have that work done, then the haul off, then the construction begins, and then Farmington will have to find a way to have a temporary plan to make do while that space is not available. So, I guess as part of this process, I know when we went through the budget work session, we've got a rough idea, but if for some reason it comes back, I guess you'll you'll be the I guess you'll be the the first point of contact. So, if you see where it comes back something well beyond what you've originally budgeted for, you're probably going to go back and and say, "Hey, you know, like if they come back and say, "Well, this is going to be 10 million." We know that's not going to work. And then
171you're so you're going to basically you're going to bring before us something pretty close to what we've discussed as far as the budget goes. That's right. So as as we go through these projects, of course, we know general square footage numbers. So you you can do predictions based on what other projects are bidding right now, the price per square foot. So based on the size of the building, you can get a rough estimate of what you're doing. The other thing that we do too when we bid out these projects is we add bid alternates to these programs. Um, so we list all the things that we want done, but we know that if if it does come in high, we can say, "Oh, we're going to cut off this part of the building, or we
172wouldn't add this feature uh to stay within the budget." So, we make sure that we include those alternates as part of our process. And we have the option to we we cost estimate, value engineer throughout to try to bring the board a project that's pretty close within budget. But ultimately on bid day, the bids come in, it it could be off. If that's the case, we have a few options. The board can decide, okay, it's only off by X, and we're okay with that, or we can go back and value engineer it again. We don't have to award a bid when they come in. We can go back and uh value engineer it and go back out to bid and to try to get it within budget. So, we have some options there to try
173to do it. I can tell this board that we have gotten numerous emails from suppliers, contractors about tariffs and how it may impact costs in the future. And so what that looks like uh almost a year from now I think is anyone's guess. Uh but we have we have started and I want to thank this board for approving uh AMB construction to begin the Houston high ceiling tiling grid as it did. If this board recalls you agreed to a special called meeting so we could get that approval underway. Well, we got a call from them literally a week after this board approved it saying, "Hey, we need to get the lighting submitt approved and get these ordered because there's going to be a 35% tariff on those beginning April 1st." And we were able to
174just get that in under the gun before that tariff went into effect. So, I just want this board to be aware that as that environment begins, it may it could have an impact on our construction costs and how we look at future projects. But we'll wait through those waters and do our best to bring the board projects that are within budget or pretty close to it. Based on um the description from Mr. Kathy and the ask of the superintendent, does any board member have issue with adding this for consideration on the agenda for the business? Okay. Well, we will work towards that um as we prepare to publish the agenda for the upcoming meeting, Mr. Thank you. Is there any other further business this evening? Um well then at 4:34 p.m. the GMS board of
175education work session and budget work session is adjourned.