001work session to order. And if we can all rise for a moment of silence. [snorts] Thank you very much. Bill, would you lead us in the pledge? >> Attention. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you all for showing up. Um, I'll be chairing the meeting tonight. Uh, Chairman Cameron is down with the flu and, uh, Coach Bradley is similarly uh, kind of bedridden, I believe. So, uh, with that said, do we have any public input? We no public input. >> No public input. >> We do have recognitions. >> Yes. >> Recognitions. Come on up. We've got Rush Strong here. Ben's going to talk about them
002and bring them up. So, I'll be brief. [laughter] U so [snorts] uh I'm going to introduce our well some of our elementary cross country team. Uh we've had a long history of strong cross country teams at Rush Strong and a few years ago we began fielding an elementary team and this year uh all of the middle school teams combined and so we were worried about what that meant for elementary. We had a parent step up and then it turned into multiple parents step up and kind of take over that program. And I'm going to invite Miss Hannah Martin up here. She took over as coach this year. We had 21 on the team this year. So 21 third, fourth, and fifth graders. of that 21,6 qualified for the state meet and then from the state
003meet five qualified for nationals and went and ran in the national meet in uh Kentucky. So I'm gonna let uh coach Martin introduce our runners and then uh we'll take some pictures. >> Yes. So I'm Hannah. I wasn't really a runner. I'm just a mom. My little boy said, "Mom, please please coach us or I can't go to state again." So I said, "Oh, okay. I'll do it." And I never ever thought in a million years I would take 16 to save. Definitely didn't think I'd take five to nationals. So I have I've got three third graders. Alice, come down here real quick. So I had three third graders. So this is Alice Martin. This is Max Leonard and Miles Taylor. So these were our third graders. And then we had Miss Emily Dus. She's
004a fourth grader. and her big brother went, Eli Das, and he's actually been before, so he was he was kind of seasoned and showed us all the ropes. But I'm super proud of them and thank you all for having us here. They've worked hard. >> [applause] >> Miss Wind's going to snap a picture. >> All right. Congratulations. Thank you all. you all. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. That's that's great. First year state nations. It's hard to be okay. Um we'll move on. Um we we've established there's no no public input, right? So we'll move on to items for information. Uh in your packet you'll see the monthly financial report. Um the monthly district enrollment is not it'll resume on the 26th because of the uh uh Christmas occasion. Monthly policy review will be second
005readings on policies that pass first readings at the next business meeting. Uh monthly threat assessments. Um I do have one question on that. Dr. All right. The Where do we stand as far as the threat assessments this year versus where we were last year? Do you know? >> Not off the top of my head. I can um get that information and send it to you. >> Okay. In a comparison. >> Could we possibly in the future get get that comparison to see how we're doing year to year? >> Do we have that? >> I just have a year total. >> Did they change? Did we We did quarterly last year. We do quarterly this year. This is the first time we do monthly reports to the board, right? >> So, it'll be different. Uh, >>
006but yeah, we can check on that. Um, we can see what we got. We can definitely those quarterly reports. We can give you breakdown of last year and this year. >> Great. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Um, okay. And then I'll turn it over to >> Dr. Arnold on the Talent and Jefferson Elementary School projects updates. >> Yeah. And I just want to remind you on the monthly policy review. So those are policies. There's about I'm guessing 20 of them that's listed. Um that's just policies that in order for us to review all the policies in one current year, we just send a recommendation of it's 2.10 10 0 through 2.900 just for >> I look at them and if there's anything that is up or [snorts] um any issues with them then we
007give a recommendation to policy committee so that we can review them all every year. Um, Talbot Elementary. I was on site there today for a little bit. As you can imagine, since I last sent you some information in, sorry, middle of January, not a lot has changed over the 3-week holiday period. Um, so they are there. um finishing some concrete work this week and um I would imagine in the next by the end of this month we'll have some steel put in and um they are pretty much still on schedule. We've got some floors poured, walls are poured. Um so it's been a good good time for concrete there and that's kind of the stage they're in right now. pouring concrete and then they'll be setting some steel. We've done some mockups of brick work
008there at Talot. Found a good match. Um I don't think they were they're working on the mortar joints trying to get those to match up with that blend of mixture. So [snorts] we're looking at that. And then at Jefferson Elementary School, we were on site today with a mechanical service group and uh they spent somewhere around five hours there at the school going through the uh all the mechanical systems looking at what the options would be of what we replace, where We are able to add things, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, the uh sprinkler system that'll be added. So, we, you know, I've talked to you about that project. and we hope to be able to bid that out as far as um a separate package of abatement um versus the construction so that things [clears throat]
009can be abated in the summer and um based on the timeline that I'm giving you in the in the past of you know a May blanket ship gave us a May completion of the construction documents. So then it has to go to bid. Um then the bid has to be awarded. Then contracts have to be issued. So there's no way that we can start construction um in in the summer. But with a separate bid package, we'll be able to to be able to abate assist an area of eight or nine classrooms, have that ready to go. >> Well, as I understand that, we can't start construction till the payment takes place anyway. >> That is correct. Yes. Yes. So, I know that there's a lot of, you know, even whenever we started that roofing project
010in the fall, there was some people that had called you and um said, you know, why are they not starting on Jefferson Elementary? you know, there's just no way to be able. It's it's such a, you know, even the mechanical people that are there today are scratching their heads trying to figure out exactly um what we're looking at on some of those systems and things. So, so it's a it's very detailed, very systematic, you know, perhaps a few wings at a time. Um we'll have somewhere around 600 people in the building while we're renovating. Um, so there'll have to be stages of abatement, stages of construction. And also, one thing that's different at Jefferson that was not at Pedmont is the amount of plumbing and electrical that has to happen. So, you know, you can't
011just cut electricity, cut plumbing um while while you're having school. So um that phasing really is taking a lot of time and communication between the architect, between the mechanical group that Blankenship has brought in, between Curtis Scansa really pushing that separate package of abatement versus construction. So just like at Pedmont, it was all included. um in the package the um the same contractor did the abatement work also. So this this would I don't know how it will materialize but in order to be on schedule abatement will have to happen during the summer and construction will have to begin later. Any uh any questions? Are we basically still on the on uh a scheduled timeline like we were previous on? Are we falling behind >> for Jefferson? >> Yes. >> Um last last blank ship gave
012us was a May completion of documents which means somewhere around in May we will bid it out where once he completes the documents then we have to advertise the bid on a something like that. I usually like to advertise at a minimum of three weeks, maybe four, um, to be able to, uh, people have to crunch a lot of numbers to be able to produce a bid. So, you're looking at a four-week bid process. U, there'll be a lot of contractors want to walk through that building, maybe multiple times. So um there'll be a mandatory walk through and then once the bid happens then we will have to look at those bids make sure they're all in place through central office through finance make sure all ducks are in the row and then once we
013award that bid then there's contract negotiations with the construction structure company. If you remember the last I'm trying to think those I have to go through the schoolboard attorney who represent you and then through the county attorney um through county commission statute they require that also. So, um, it has to go through a lot of levels to get approved. So, it takes time. >> Any other questions? Oops. Any other questions? >> Okay. Uh, then we'll go ahead and we'll move on to uh, director of schools contract. [snorts] >> So, was able to place that in there. Um, I was able to meet with some of you. It's not too late. um have some availability this week too if if somebody wasn't able to meet wants to meet um [snorts] whether that's in person by phone
014whatever if you um have anything that you want to go over. So basically, I was able to communicate with with Josh some and then with the board attorney and um able to give you the contract as um approved by the board attorney and um give you that kind of timeline of how it happened. on the the [clears throat] changes between the current contract and the proposed contract and um that just helps you to understand those changes that that occurred. Other than that, I don't I know there was one question. So, um, right now my contract runs through 2028 and what this would do is replace that current contract and extend it four years to 2030. So, it would begin July 1, 2026 and run through June 30th, 2030. Any uh comments or questions, [snorts] >>
015Mr. Hart? >> So, I know that there's a uh it's a 3% inflation adjustment per year in the five-year plan. Do we do that with teachers as well? >> That cover all the employees or just teachers? >> I believe it covers pretty much all the employees, all full-time employees. So currently in the five-year plan, it talks about hourly employees at 3%. Um because teachers were sorry, teachers were were on the uh plan to um the governor's [snorts] initiative to get beginning pay to $50,000 by um this upcoming school year 2026 27. So teacher raises were above 3%. U so that wasn't an issue whenever that's right whenever we uh went over the um board's 5-year plan. But in our last meeting, we discussed adding teachers to that 3% um since that runs out this year
016for the governor's initiative. And then we don't know there'll be a new governor coming in. Um and we don't know what that plan may be. So the board's uh the board's plan is to strive for a three-year I mean a 3% raise for all employees every year. You know um back in I guess that was 2009 101 we had recessions. You know it couldn't happen. and there wasn't money available. So there was other things that occurred and we delivered that message then. But um going forward as long as as there is as money available and we can fit it within the budget that's the board's initiative >> and I think that will be reinforced. I I looked at theou that we're you know is in the packet. I don't know that we're going to discuss
017that tonight, but that's reinforced by a 3% uh provision in the MO Pekka MU. >> Okay. Thank you. [snorts] >> Any other comments, questions? >> Do you have any issue or concern or changes in the contract? >> I do not. Um, you know, I talked to um several board members. Uh Josh was along the email chain with um Mr. Bennett and we were able to work through any issues. So I don't have anything concern. >> Yes. >> Any other comments? Uh I would like to say I had a pretty in-depth meeting with Dr. Arnold about some questions I had and after those after that meeting I'm convinced that this is a fair equitable contract that it puts us it on par and makes us competitive although not overly competitive but competitive with other school districts
018and that uh the one and that the one thing that I has to be put in there because I see this as kind of a template going forward that we're going to be using with some kind of a uh provision in there that if uh any future schoolboard director decides to retire that they give us at least you know 7 months advanced notice so we're not caught flatfooted we can find somebody uh that is in in here [snorts] the way it reads is fine with me so just for my point of view. I have no problem with this contract. [snorts] Any other comments? >> Okay, moving forward. >> Uh, moving forward the JC schools website. >> I know you talked a little bit about that. Brought that up at a meeting. Uh we discussed this
019at the uh we did have our yearly uh 5-year comprehensive plan meeting to review where we are as if which goals we're meeting and which ones we're not meeting and where we're want to go and um I think the website issue will be addressed in when we talk about the communications coordinator. So if if if nobody has any other questions about the website, I think we can move on. Are there any other questions? Okay, we'll just go ahead and move on. Um the pack uh is in your packet. Uh I think we need to have pretty much all of our board here uh when this is uh discussed and described. Uh so uh you have it. I would suggest that you read it before our next voting meeting and uh that we'll discuss it more
020at that point. Are there any problems with that or any questions or comments? [snorts] >> Are there any changes? Excuse me. Are there any changes from the previous? >> That's probably something we should ask when we discuss it at the business meeting. I don't really know because I was not on the second committee [clears throat] and uh and coach who was is not here. So to speak to that I really don't know unless somebody else who is on the committee. >> Yeah. No no no board members were on the committee. Um >> not not this year. >> Not this year. No board members were on there. Um so there there are some slight changes. I know that um Christy Walke and Troy work together. you know, if you wanted any input there, they're they're welcome.
021You know, Troy can rattle off those changes for you quickly if you want to. It's up to you. >> Yes. Would you like to speak? >> Why don't you come on up to the uh mic and push the button and get a green light on there? >> Sure. [clears throat] >> Introduce yourself. All right. My name is Troy Bloom and I'm a social studies teacher at the high school. I also serve on the packet team uh representing teachers and um I came prepared tonight to kind of answer any questions you might have but also give you some background and I do have some prepared stuff here that kind of gets into what's different, what's new about it if you >> Well, I mean would like to hear. >> Okay, no objections. Go right ahead. >>
022Thank you. Um, so really I'm I'm coming here tonight really encouraging you to adopt it. Um, and you've all been presented with it there and hope you get time here soon to really dive into it and look at what's in there, but also compared to the one the board approved that is current or present that expires the end of next month. So we would kind of like to move these along so there's no lapse between the two. March 1 would be that deadline. Uh but anyway, uh this is written through an interest based collaborative process between what the law calls professional employees and management. And the management team is board appointed. Um the educator team is chosen by educators. And so we started back in March on these revisions of this current proposed Um and
023just concluded last month in December and um so what the law states on this is the PEKA process is a three-year committee. Um that committee can do a lot of other things than run. Basically the law says it can meet to quote confer, consult, discuss and exchange information, opinions and proposals in a nonadversarial manner and that's what the law requires and the committee can also write understanding present to you all and when you vote for it it goes into effect like our current um so that itself has a separate threeear time which the G was expiring next month. So, um we began this conferencing process by pulling educators to see what was on their minds to see what things we should aim at. And the law does restrain us to certain very specific categories. So,
024salary, wages, insurance, working conditions, fringe benefits, uh leave, and I think I pretty much covered it [snorts] there. Those are areas you see in this proposed looks very much like the last one. We cleaned up some things. Uh we smoothed out some things to make it work better. [snorts] Um so for instance um it clarifies and simplifies items ac which thanks to you all as well. Some of the things we have in here you all have actually our conferring have taken in the last year and changed in public policy as well. So you'll see a lot of alignment the sick leave exit option for instance leave some of these things came from our conferring but also came you all those things already in your own policy and uh teacher discipline procedures where you had support
025plans that got more identified more defined more clearly laid out. There's language on the working day and planning times with clarity on expectations between the administration and teachers and based in the law and also board policy. And it also institutes an initiative on teacher appreciation recognition which takes work already underway and kind of spells that out and makes a commitment to that in the amount going forward for the next three years. And um the main goal, the mission statement, the main purpose you'll find at the very beginning of the document is we seek to attract and retain teachers. [snorts] And when we first began, I guess it was 21 coming out of the pandemic, [clears throat] there was so much staffing problems and that was the main goal is still the main goal of this.
026proposal and we know that when you can keep teachers in the classrooms with students every day, every year, you're going to see great gains from that. Uh you're going to see a great working environment. Um it's [snorts] what is best for students. And we did have a set of standards for how we were going to collaborate. We had a list of standards and that list was is this thing we are talking about putting Is it going to be in the best interest of students? Also, is it legal? Is it feasible? Is it affordable? Can it be done? In other words, and we looked at that with every single item that you find. And between the two sides, we discussed whether these things could be done and we decided these five standards were met. So, I
027also want to include that there. Of course, if you can attract and retain teachers, give them incentives as well [snorts] through benefits through like the six leave exit option. It's kind of attendance incentive in many ways. You are making a better place for students to learn, but also a better place for teachers to work. [clears throat] main points I really want to say. Um I know we can't compete on pay with some of our neighboring districts. They just they're much better funded than we are. But we do I think in this county pretty well on certain benefits that you can make up for some that are very attractive like insurance. And this board has for 30 maybe 40 years maintained a very good retention policy with health insurance and I thank you all for that
028as well and continue to maintain that. We are one of the few districts that can offer that and does offer that. So, thank you for that. It's a highly attractive thing for a teacher to look at, but also there's other benefits too. That's a very powerful one. Um, it lets them know that you're really trying to do what you do. I when we finished we had a facilitator working with us came in from outside you might know Dr. Rodney Russell at Carson he's a professor and a dean he's also a provost there he's done a lot of these facilitations and he and I'll quote you what he wrote to us in an email when we were done he said I've not seen a better or better working relationship between the board, the superintendent, the managers,
029and the professional educators. He said Jefferson County should be proud and thankful. Um, I couldn't agree more. It was a fairly collegial and smooth process getting this done. And I just wanted to share his take on that as someone who's a third party outside who's done many of these processes and uh he thought it was the best he had seen. So again, I highly recommend to you all to vote on this Thursday suggestion, but [snorts] certainly before March and otherwise um any questions? >> Yeah, any questions, comments, answer. >> Thank you. You you will be here for the business meeting uh because as I said, a couple board members are missing and I'd like them to hear kind of what you have to say or be able to ask whatever questions come up. >> Yes,
030sir. >> Great. >> Thank you for the opportunity. >> Appreciate it. >> Okay. Um the next on our agenda is the efficiency study audit. Um if I could [snorts] kind of take the floor on this one. uh as you um I you know I come from the private business uh sector and [clears throat] at at the private business sector virtually every corporation I've ever worked for all right every at least every seven years has an independent firm come in and review uh pretty much review the operation from u it's kind of about getting a second opinion, you know, uh if you have a health issue. Uh that from what I in in my conversations with Dr. Arnold after we discussed the uh his contract, I asked if that had ever been done here and he
031said not to his knowledge. Is that is that >> not that I'm aware of? Not not to that extent. >> All right. So, what I would like to do is kind of introduce something that we may or may not want to go with. Um, first of all, I don't like calling this an audit. Audits have that connotation that, you know, someone's looking into something because something's something's kind of shady or or not being done right or whatever else. That is not what this is. You know this is just you know somebody coming in look at our systems operations the way we do things and and giving us from a nonbiased point of view an outside point of view an idea [snorts] of suggestions if we could be doing things better to streamline things to help
032things run more efficiently. Uh and all they are is recommendations. There's nothing mandatory. You know if we like some things we can adopt those. If we don't we can reject those. Um but I I am of the firm belief that a occasional look by a third party cannot do any harm. Also what I am proposing this is not a financial audit. All right. As you know I kind of go over budgets and numbers and spreadsheets and things like that pretty meticulously. We also have a independent third party yearly look at our finances um [snorts] a firm called Mitchell Ever and Hill. So we do have an independent firm looking at our finances and I am firmly convinced based upon my background and looking at our budgets, our balance sheets that it it's in excellent shape.
033One of the things I told Dr. Arnold when I was doing our evaluation I hope you won't mind me sharing this is that if I could give him a 5.5 rather than just a five on that segment of the orientation I would he's doing a excellent job this elder and him work together very very well and uh so I have no concerns that way personally this would pretty much come in and look at they would interview our administrators find out how we do things here. All right. Uh make observations on what they think could maybe be done better. What could [snorts] be uh maybe some administrators are overloaded while others have sometimes they could put just kind of even things out or not. Give you an example. I work prior coming to Florida for a
034bank. That bank was considered, it was a small regional bank. It was commercial bank was considered to be the you know the uh best customer service, best operating bank in our region and we walked around with our chest outs you know we had people coming in asking whatever. However, I believe that was because every 5 years we had an independent company come in and look at our operations. [snorts] Uh what we found was even though we thought we were doing things good and the best they could possibly get each year we saw when we adopted some of these suggestions we found a 15 to 20% improvement customer service and efficiency where we thought we were we couldn't do it any better. So I have no idea how much this is going to cost. I have
035no long idea how long this would take, but I do think it's something that we would consider. We have a kind of a ace in the hole in that we have a lady in our district here who has some experience with this. Miss Kathy Billers, I'd like you to come up if you would. >> Sure. >> She's had experience with this. I'd ask her to introduce herself, give her, give you some of her qualifications, and then um we can go forward with this discussion. So, Miss >> Thanks very much. Am I live? >> Great. Thank you and good evening to you all. Very nice to meet you. My name is Kathy Dillers and I live at 2202 Arrowhead Drive, not too far from Doug. And so, Jefferson County resident now going on about 16 years.
036As [snorts] far as my background, um Doug and I had spoken earlier and I said if you needed any help some insights on what I'll call operational reviews, process improvement, I've sort of lived that throughout my life. uh my background and I've got an accounting degree, finance degree, but also an MBA and some of my work experience included um working at AT&T where I headed up the area that not only did audits but also operational reviews and we would find instances of improvement of a few% all the way up to significant percentages often times gaining insights from the people that work there. You know, this is taking me a long time. It's an effort. It's um something tough to do. And really by looking at processes, you can often save snippets of time for repetitive
037tasks that add up to hours, days, even months of saving of time efficiency. I also worked at Northwestern Mutual. Similar area, I worked as a director there of projects and often times with a project coming in, it meant stepping back and saying what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses, how could we improve this, not just, you know, replace the same old with the same. And so that really worked well. And then my third area or career where I worked was in consulting where I helped companies both private and [clears throat] public work with process improvement. I can think back um just a quick example. We were looking at a company that had a very inefficient way of answering the telephone well-known uh sausage company Johnsonville up in the Midwest. And they found by looking
038at the process, by improving with a little bit of automation, they could literally save days of time, not only for employees, but for customers calling in, which meant more sales, more orders, everything such as that. So, it was to the tune of about a million dollars a year that they found that they could save. And Johnsonville is not a huge company, but it was a big big amount of money that they could save and is it essentially funded the new technology in a year, paid for itself. So that that was an example. Um, as far as education, I've also had the opportunity to work in education. And please please know I started I've got over 40 years in education. I think I started when I was five. That way the numbers look a little better,
039right? Um for their age. But anyway, with 40 years in education back up in the Midwest, I worked as an adjunct for the University of Wisconsin. So I've gotten to understand education, teaching, some of the processes that go in there. And then I'm also proud to say once we moved down here, I'm beginning my 16th year at Carson Newman as a part-time professor for them. So I bring to you also understanding education um great respect for teachers the administration everything that goes into teaching. So when it comes to operational reviews kind of to cut to the chase I'm a huge supporter of taking a look at processes periodically because it can just shed a new light on how things are being done. And it's not um not to say to anyone, "Oh, you're doing a
040bad job." It's more so to point out examples to people how a job could perhaps be done um better. There there's a couple of examples of process improvement. And one of the ones that's often commonly used, we've all, I'm sure, when we're in a hurry, had a sandwich instead of a big sit down meal. And so for a sandwich company, they were looking at how do [clears throat] we make our sandwiches? And it was of all things, where did they have the pickles placed? Okay. And the pickles were actually across the kitchen. So every time someone wanted a sandwich that had a pickle, someone had to walk across, give a few seconds, walk back and got the pickles and put them on the sandwich. Well, you might say, "Big deal. That only saved five or
041six seconds of time." But when you look at a thousand sandwiches made a week, that saved 6,000 seconds. And when you start to look at how many minutes, that was 100 minutes a week or an hour and 2/3. And when you start to add that up for the month, that was almost a day of time just by where the pickles were placed. So, it's a it's a example that I like to use because everyone's had a sandwich. Some of you might like pickles, some not, but um just illustrates. So again, I am more than happy to help the school board. No charge. If I can help point out what might be some of the wording, the things that would be looked at. And again, I'd echo Doug's comments. It's not an audit, not a financial
042audit. It is more operational review looking at how best to do things. And Doug did mention some of these that would include um second that would include workflow [clears throat] making sure there wasn't redundancy. So lack of redundancy would be better. Um what are the better ways of perhaps doing things? Maybe balancing workloads. Some people might be busier than others. looking at areas of strength, weakness, even looking at perhaps how can we most efficiently make decisions. So, those would be some of the things. And again, not suggesting here how much it would cost or whatever, but that's what an RFP can help figure it out, look and see how much things would cost and hopefully getting the right type of company or firm in to look at that and to work with the individuals and
043um come out with a a win-win. >> Any questions or comments? So this isn't really an efficiency audit and and I'm like I don't want to refer as an audit but it's not a true efficiency audit though it's more of a I mean it's more of a operational type audit to kind of see where we could do better correct including the financial things. >> Well, it's not including the financial side or budget, but if if [snorts] there would be a situation, let's say that um five people are doing the same task. What it might observe is, hey, we could centralize something and have one person be the primary. Um it it might as an example even be your communications with the public. And so it could look at efficiency, how people do the job, but
044not how much are they being paid? Do we have a good budget? That's been taken care of through the financial audit. >> So would it be um and yeah, I'm looking at you know could it be and I'm not saying that we are this way but Um maybe we have money that we are using one way that maybe would be better spent another way um in programs or something like that or it may just show that we're doing things just you know really efficient that way. I mean would it show stuff like that? I'm not actually looking at like is there money spent being spent wrong just officially interjecting we can make this into anything we want. All right. There is nothing set in stone. Um I think what we need to do is to
045uh authorize and I will be posting this at the upcoming meeting Dr. Arnold to uh come up with a [clears throat] scope of work that will [snorts] be brought back to us. we can then look at it, add to it, subtract to it, give us something to go forward if it's the decision of this board that you want to and you know only at that point do I think we'll know what we want the bill. >> I I can't say h let somebody outside come in to tell to tell Dr. Arnold what he needs to do if we don't have enough confidence in him as a school director and then we go out here and we hire somebody come in here I think this is out of order, Doug, that you had invited this lady
046before we ever discussed it. Uh I don't see somebody coming. You go to a school and you see a principal that's got an issue. What are you going to do about it? He say Dr. Arnold make the decision. I don't think we need an outsider telling our school director what to do and who to who to and how to save money. I mean, I don't see it anyway. I mean it's just a it's just a issue that I I don't see any use for >> Yeah. I think this looks at um kind of like whenever we did a needs assessment for our county and we brought a firm in to look at you know we knew things that needed to be done. But the um this led us to a roofing plan that we ended
047up seeing a a that we're still doing six years later. Um and then it also has led us to um Petemont Elementary, Tabat Elementary, and soon uh the start of Jefferson Elementary. So along with a five-year plan, it's given the board a pathway. You know, I can name you six things today that we can do better. But one problem is we're we're not Walmart. We're a government entity that we have to follow a lot of red tape. Um you know for instance whenever somebody wants to buy something they have to complete a requisition. It has to be signed by a supervisor. Then it has to be signed by me. Then it has to be signed by Jesse. Then Jesse's office creates a PO that she signs and then it comes back to me and I
048have to sign the PO. and then that PO goes back to finance and issued to the person that wants to buy. We can't change that process. That process is set in stone. Um so we have to follow that. So I think it just kind of gives a um just like whenever a principal goes into a teacher's classroom and evaluates that teacher and gives them recommendations. I think that's kind of what it is. Um you know I I don't feel threatened. I mean, I guarantee you there's not anybody in this agency that wants to come that's going to do this audit that wants to sit at that receptionist desk at a school and handle the things that they handle on a daily basis. From the kid vomiting to the mama that's complaining to the phone that's
049ringing to the teach that needs this to the employee that didn't show up, you know, there you take Ronda over there that manages central office. Um, I mean, you know, it's a huge role. um they wear 20 hats a day within a school building. So, there's a lot of things that that go into play with with a government agency in a school system. You know, it's just like my dad said, I never missed a day of work for being sick. I said, "Well, you didn't have to go to work and sit around 25 kids either. There's a big there's a big difference between having a headache and being in your office alone and having a headache around 25 kids." Uh so it is a difference um of school versus private entity that so we you
050know if if this is something we pursue we'd have to look for a firm that did have some experience within government entities also >> but once the decision is made who makes the final decision >> goes right >> backard management >> regardless what she said has to be done it has to come back to Yeah. So why why go do another >> that's the same thing whenever that principal talks to that teacher um gives them ideas recommendation I mean ultimately that falls upon that teacher to implement those changes [clears throat] so um we have to weigh through those that happens all the time you know we deal with the state department the state department comes in and gives us ideas and suggestions and recommendations and um you know sometimes we do not follow what the
051state department recommends. Um, so it's not best for our district. Any other comments? >> I [clears throat] I actually think this is a good thing. Um, a big corporation, a lot of employees. I'd like to think that I think anybody [clears throat] in charge would like to think they're running things as efficient as possible. You get a new set of eyes on something and say, you know, I think you could run it more efficient this way. You thought about doing it this way or something like that. Um maybe you're responsible for the board to at least um look into this further and um see where we can maybe fine-tune it, make it run more efficient, smoother. Um you know, I I don't think that this is something that's pointing the finger. It's something I think
052referred to with like, hey, you're doing this wrong. I think this is something that, you know, why would you not want to better something? Why would you not want to run something to the best optimal capabilities that it has? And and I do think we run a pretty good, you know, I say we as a board, but you know, the director runs a pretty tight ship and a really pretty smooth, but I'd love to see where we could maybe improve things and take it to the next level. I don't think I don't this is a hit against the director or anybody in central or teachers. Um, you know, and I was only referring to the financial side. It wasn't the, you know, say where we're, you know, where we missing money. That that stuff gets
053done already. This is, you know, you know, hey, we're we're [snorts] spending money over here. Maybe we'd be more efficient if we were to move some over here or do something different. I mean, I'm I'm open to ideas. I think that uh I don't want to be narrow-minded about this at all. I want to be, you know, I'd rather have somebody come in and say, "Man, you guys are the best district in the world. Nothing I would change." And I know we we don't need to make any changes. And I think that, you know, I would just all they would do is just um suggest things. Now, whether we pursue that, that's up to us. But I don't think that's something that u that we should just better away weigh because we feel like it's
054going to be hit against us, you know. So, I'd be for this. >> Any other comments? >> If I could just clarify also, please um on the operational review, I would actually not be the person doing the review. So, I was um just sharing with Doug and would be happy to share with the members of the board what might be some ideas that could be put in an RFP to the appropriate type of firm and what kinds of things could be looked at and and I look at it almost as lifetime learning and I respect um senior management that really does say yes let's do something like this because Surely it can be continuous learning. One other short story, I always used to think I was a pretty good gardener up in Wisconsin. Could grow
055a really nice vegetable crop. I came down here to Tennessee. I had a few things to learn. [snorts] I did not know what time of year to plant. What would be the best vegetables to plant? How can I naturally prevent some pests coming in and eating up my zucchini? Okay. And how did I learn? By asking others and getting input and ideas from those who really had um a better knowhow. And I thank them. We had pretty good tomato crop last year, pretty good zucchini, cucumber crop. Again, an analogy in layman's terms, but by learning, we all can improve at times our situation. And I thank the board for letting me come in and to share a few of my, you know, ideas of my background and I'm happy to answer answer any questions. >>
056Does anybody else have any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Miss Ellis. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> And we will move on. Uh the communications coordinator. Again, let me uh kick this off. Uh, if you remember, one of the things that I mentioned in our last business meeting was that I was having constant complaints about our website and how difficult it was to navigate it and find things on it. Um, and I brought that up at the five meeting, our last 5ear meeting, by the way, that we're going to have a report on our meeting. When is it next? In March or in February? on the fiveyear >> on the five on the meeting we had with the five-year plan and report our findings >> in February. >> February. Okay. So that will be
057forthcoming in February. And one of the things we have uh in the five-year plan is we have two um goals that this communications coordinator would I think help us meet [clears throat] that we're not meeting at this point. and goal number three which is um student support and goal number five which is community partnerships. And what what we found out we spent more time talking about this than I thought we [clears throat] would. We found out that there are and please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. Um there is nobody in our school board who has whose full-time job is to maintain the website or uh monitor communications, internal communications, external communications, all of it is done by people as a secondary responsibility kind of when they have time to do it,
058they get around to it. And if they don't get around to it, well, they don't get around to it. Um, and again, it's not to criticize people, but people's main responsibility is their main responsibility, and that's their job, and that's what they're going to uh spend their time doing. That's what they should spend their time doing. So I think the time has come when we need to have a dedicated person just like we have a dedicated human resource person, a dedicated primary care, primary [clears throat] education person to gather, disseminate and organize communications both internally and externally. Um [snorts] I just feel that it's it's something that we need. Um, I got the idea that the members of the committee felt the same way. Um, Dr. Arnold said we could fund it, but we would
059not have to take any money out of fund balance. We could use monies already in our budget uh, and switch them from positions that either we are not going to be filling to this. So there would not be any additional expense uh to the uh to the board or to the district. We wouldn't be adding really any administrative book because we would be taking away from other I just think it's a good idea and I let you turn it over to Dr. Martin if you kind of explain what we talked about. >> Yeah. So, um, whenever it was discussed, I reached out to [clears throat] some areas that had positions and and came up um, sent some information to Carol and she kind of developed a job posting um, for you to have so that
060you'd have the information. Um but they're they're just looking at um you know within our our local schools, we have a web master at each school. That's it's kind of like the teacher that coaches basketball. Um so that teacher or person is the web master. So they make the school website. Um you know, we pay them a few hundred dollars a year to do that. And then we have um a person at the district level that that manages those web masters and those types of things, but that's not her full-time job. So, it's it's kind of like having a school nurse who's also the classroom teacher. Um basically is what it is. You know, that nurse is not always available. Whenever you scratch your knee, you're just going to have to wait. Um so, that's
061where we're at. So if it's the board's directive that that things are, you know, disseminated and and and covered um kind of like a newspaper does on a regular basis, regular articles and and those type things of information sent out. Um you kind of have to put a person available full time to do those duties. So you know, we just came up in there with job descriptions. um talked about um um that they would assist with um the website and calendars and talking to schools and and getting the information together to to put it all out there on a regular basis with with that information. You know, I don't know if that person's available. Um, I don't know, you know, if [clears throat] you approve that position, what we would find, you know, I I
062don't know. Um, I know that there's different areas of the state that have positions like this and they've been filled by um, veteran teachers. Some of them have been filled by former news anchors, journalists. I mean, all kinds of of things have been in place. Um, you know, we always strive to do better. U just like with our um central office update that we put out and how that's growing and and sharing that information. Um, we've sent two of our employees to um, public information officer training to give them experience in u various things that happen. You know, there's all kinds of people there from um Eastman and Kingsport and police and fire and EMS and and ha hazmat and train people and u they're being able to manage these situations and learn how to
063get that information out to the public and what to say, when to say, how to say it is is always important. And um it's just um something that if the board chooses and wants that position um then it is something that we can fund. Um you know we only have roughly 90 days of school left starting today. Obviously, we're not going to hire that position for minimum 30 days if approved and and then um who knows when they could start if they were hired. So, um it may be that it's July one before we even hire somebody if approved. So, it's totally up to to the board to consider that position. >> Dr. Do you feel that this is a needed position? >> I think it's up to the board. I [clears throat] mean you
064have expressed uh you have heard that that people want information. We can only give them so much information with with the amount of time that that we have to um work with. So you know it's the same thing. I'd like to have u meat and three vegetables every night at home for dinner but my wife works a full-time job also so that doesn't happen. um you know she she can't do that um with three kids. So, uh, nor can or employee that has a a responsibility of management of a U program and over $4 million also be able to manage u, and like you talked about website, but there's so many other things with um, social media um, getting out. The thing is, you know, I read the newspaper. I also realize that there's not
065many people my age and younger that read the newspaper. Anything that's over 30 seconds, my boy, if it's over [laughter] 15 seconds, he's not reading it. Um, so that's just a fact of life of of young people and going forward. Um, it's a challenge. So, um, they want that information in a manner that they can see it or read it quickly or a video of it, those type things. >> Did you have a a salary range or a a beginning range in mind? Could you explain how you came to that? >> Yeah, we looked at $65,000. Um, that would be a beginning teacher salary July 1st for 200 days of $50,000. And then this would be um at 260 days. So that's 200 that's $65,000 um based on a beginning teacher salary of $50,000 for
066200 days is kind of how we came up with that salary. Thank you. Any questions, comments? [snorts] Okay. [clears throat] Thank you very much. Uh that pretty much takes care of items for information. Uh we're into director's input. Do we have any other director's input? >> I think I've shared everything. Um you know just under new business there will be some um items for second reading under the policy committee meeting. And then we have some surplus. But other than that, we discussed everything that's going to be on the the new business. >> So, [snorts] we'll move on to school commissioners items for discussion. Anybody have any items for discussion? >> Do we how do we stay on the act building? >> Yes. So, um that contract has been signed um and we are looking to
067proceed. that happened after Thanksgiving. So, Mc Madden, who won the bid, asked us to if they could have some time to um regroup and we send them a notice to proceed around this time. So, um I have a call in to expand. They'll call me back probably tomorrow and get a date for a notice to proceed. But um they wanted to get on the project and move it straight through so that there's no um start and stop. So they needed it to be the first of the year and it's slated to be finished by the start of school next year by August. >> The road at Talbert. >> Yes, the road at Talbert. Um you approved that. Um we have sent that to the architect to design. Um so they'll have to talk about elevations
068various things and um then once that architect designs it the scansa will give us a price on it and if it's within budget we'll move forward on it. So it's been approved by the board. As long as it's within budget, we're we're give the okay to move that forward. >> Any other questions? >> Has there been update on the uh car rider drop off canopy at restaurant? >> Um that was that um we had the one at White Pine, the one at Rush Strong that went over $50,000. We're bidding it out. >> Yeah, we are bidding it out. I They've been on site. Um I want to I want to say Austin told me that he is stupid because he scheduled the bid for a day off over Christmas break. [laughter] So he had to
069I'm pretty sure that's correct. He had to go down there for on a day off on a holiday for Christmas break. So I'm I think they had the walk through. Okay. >> Um so whenever we place a bid, a lot of times we place a mandatory walk through. So anybody that's going to bid on it has to come to the site, sign in, get documents, those sorts of things. So um that did hold us up a little bit on on moving that project forward, having to bid it out. We didn't anticipate that. Um, I just I didn't realize that uh White Pine's PTO was doing something. I knew they had sent it through, been approved, but I didn't know the two projects were going to hit simultaneously and and then the same company was doing
070both projects. >> The ball's starting to roll. >> Oh, yeah. I'd say so if that happens next week. >> Yeah. Bid opens two [cough and clears throat] weeks from that date. So it should be um t when do you have Tuesday or Thursday? Do y'all do them? >> I think it depends on Austin schedule. >> So it's it'll be middle end of next week Thursday. [snorts] >> Go ahead. >> I do have two questions. Uh kind of fall back to the efficiency study. [snorts] >> Um when was or has there ever been an [clears throat] efficiency study done? Anything like that? you know, >> not what they're talking, not what this has been discussed, not to my knowledge, not in any recent time. Um, there was a needs assessment done that looked at facilities. Um,
071but not operational. Um, no. >> Wasn't that needs assistance when we went to all the schools and checked all of them out? >> Yes. And you got that booklet. Uh, I'm going to say that was I wasn't here whenever that happened. So that had to be >> 209. >> Yeah. So just prior to me coming is [clears throat] whenever that was produced. >> That was that was >> Yeah. >> But that was done through the board. Not by that individual outside, wasn't it? >> Well, no. No, it was done. The board approved it. They did a u they I believe it was a RFP was was put out and Lewis Group won the >> the RFP and they did the work and produced the u >> yeah the study and the recommendations and you know
072just like that we we took some of those and ran with it and the other ones were like ah we can't really do that. >> So it just wasted time. I think it gave us a um I look back on that um needs assessment. So we have uh completed Pedmont. We've completed the roofs. Um we have completed a lot of security upgrades with the entrances at White Pine New Market Dandridge restaurant to secure those facilities. And [clears throat] um [snorts] so just as this um is being discussed, we currently do this type of thing with our security um every year. So, we have um the a representative from the sheriff's department, sometimes a representative from the state, we have a representative from homeland security that comes in and does walkthroughs with administrators, school personnel, uh
073Dr. Overton and u they go through those facilities every year do checklist and and look at areas of improvement we can make to to enhance the security of our schools and that's done on a yearly basis and from that there's things that we can do there's things we have we had great intentions of having having ballards placed in um the entrance of Jeff County High School and Patriot academy. Um it just hasn't happened yet because of other issues just like today um due to the death of someone's father, uncle, um the flu. We have five maintenance people out today. So um you know, every day you get behind the work orders keep clicking. [snorts] And and one other thing with that too. Um would this I guess it's really up to the board, but is
074this something that the efficiency [snorts] study would be just overall um like just for the district like in the different departments? Um or you know this look at also like say the maintenance and maybe how we're running things efficient and maybe >> we can make it whatever we want it to be. you know, I mean, there's there's nothing set in stone. I mean, when we get uh as I say, I'm going to propose that we authorize a scope of work. Uh Dr. Arnold, who knows the uh you know, the [snorts] district better than anybody will come up that we can look at and add to it, subtract to it, modify it, agree to it, whatever. It's it's totally fluid at this point. >> It would take a lot more conversation. So basically if the board
075did uh want to pursue this and and passed something, you know, we would need conversation at a work session at our board retreat to get tons more information for me to be able to create an RFP that would match the scope of work that you desired as a board. Um, so there are lots of things that can happen. For instance, if we centrally bought toilet paper and paper towels and had it delivered to one location rather than every school, we can save money on the toilet paper and paper towels. But then [clears throat] I also have to hire somebody to get the paper towels and the toilet paper to the schools. So, you know, sometimes it's a it's a win. >> Yeah. Or sometime Yeah. Sometimes you win a little bit of money saved on
076the product, but then you also >> but how you use that person, you know, you gain another position, but then what can utilize them forward? So, it's really indepth conversation. It it goes deep. I mean, it's not >> Well, I think considering that at least this board's lifetime and Sounds like anybody's remembering that we've never had one. I think that this is something we ought to, you know, continually pursue to look at. I think would be a good thing. >> Any other comments? >> Yeah. Just want to remind you that I mean, you know, we are counting our substitutes. We're over,00 employees. >> 1300 employees counting our substitutes. We're over $80 million budget. Um, you know, this is not a we're we're not running a small scale, you know, >> operation. >> No, I mean,
077you know, 1300 employees, 7,000 students. I mean, [clears throat] you know, this is big time business. Any other comments? I have a couple just reminders. Um the joint uh meeting uh between the county commissioners and school board is going to be held on Tuesday, January 13th at uh the Patriot Academy. So the agenda has been sent out. Uh I believe you sent it out today or yesterday. [clears throat] >> Yeah. So the agenda is there. Uh just remind everybody's welcome to be there. >> 6:30. 6:30. [clears throat] >> Yeah. 6:30. Uh and then the uh next policy committee um will be at um 5:30 before the work session of our uh February meeting. >> January 26. Yes, excuse me. January 26. Uh you need to have any uh policies that you'd like to review, have
078reviewed, [snorts] add, change. You need to have that brand by end of business on the 14th or it will not be considered. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> There's actually a maintenance committee meeting. I believe it's January 20th at 6:00 in Tel and I highly encourage everybody with the the building going on over there come by and public's welcome >> as well as all the >> I got a couple things on one thing is do you want to modify the time consider that because we won't be able to see anything out there second thing is county commission's that day also the 20th um I don't here >> because if you move it till say 4:30 or 5 that just means I have to go to two meetings. >> So >> well they have monthly meetings.
079How about that? >> Oh yeah. [clears throat] >> But we can do I mean >> no just consider that >> you can get back to us. You know we have time to modify it if you want to. So consider that your head. I'll be in touch. >> You need to check with county commission. Make sure they are meeting that night. >> They are. They are. >> Yeah. And it's at 6:30, isn't it? >> For county commission, 5:30 is budget. >> Yeah. We're not maint if if they want to see anything, it'll have to be before 5:30. So, if we had a 5:30 meeting, then they want to get there and see anything prior to it. >> I'll meet up with you. We'll see if there's a better date. Any other comments, questions? >> Well, thank
080you all for coming and this meeting is