001Uh if you would all rise and we'll have a moment of silence. Thank you very much. And if you'll turn around, face the flag. Commissioner Martin. Attention. Salute. Pledge. I pledge algiance 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. That's all. Well, we want to thank you all for being here. Um, and first thing we'll do is we will start out with recognitions. Dr. Arnold, thank you. Um, tonight we've got several of our PTOs that are going to be recognized, our support groups. We're going to start out with Danrich Elementary. There he is. Mr. Come on up here, Mr. H. I want to know if you want to step in front. Oh, yeah. We've got
002two of our members from the PTO here today. Uh, Miss Britney have and Miss Christy Bloff. Uh, Britney is our de facto leader. I think she kind of got nominated as she went through the process and Christiey's been her right-hand person throughout the year. We appreciate these ladies for all they do. They help us really uh with our culture. They're very instrumental in helping us decorate our school. We trying to decorate it for different seasons and different events. They come in at the beginning of the year and they help landscape, put new mulch down, really just make the school look great. And then they also work with our receptionists and some other community members uh to decorate our front area. If you've ever come by our school, you know how it's it's usually decorated. And
003so we appreciate them for that. That's the first thing that they do. Uh they also uh support our teachers throughout the year with different types of activities. I can't remember everything. They do a Christmas cart where they my favorite they bring Christmas tree cakes around. Um they they brought a an energy tea setup. I'd never seen anything like that before. But uh I think they kind of spun off of one of our local businesses and so they had energy tea for all of our teachers and they loved that so much. I think they repeated it two or three times with throughout the year. Uh they always provide for our teachers uh with during our parent teacher conferences. There's always a lot supper there. We call it a light supper. Uh there's not usually anything wet
004when it's finished, but we appreciate everything they do. Uh they've helped us with ReadAcross America, one of the the most inspiring things that the students, they get so excited about the Dr. Seuss hats. And so these ladies uh give us their time and sell the Dr. Seuss hats. I think one year they sold them at a loss, but I think we're back now, maybe breaking even. And they just do it out of the goodness of their heart. and we just appreciate them and love everything they they do for us and uh help us with our students. And like I said, there's just so many things I can't uh you know, I I don't know. I could be up here forever. Tommy told me two minutes. She's going to get a picture. You want me or
005just them? All right. I'd love to. Did you want to talk? No. Absolutely. [Music] [Applause] Rush strong. the microphone. Yeah, I'm just glad I get to go second since uh Jim said a whole lot and uh Emily wrote a speech. So, I'll introduce our PTO board. Uh this is Haley Qual. She's our president. Uh we got Trayvon Taylor, Crystal Parrot, and Stara Nelson. Y'all stand up. Y'all come on up. You know they're going to make y'all come up here and take a picture. Anyway, come on up here. Um, we got a fantastic PTO at Rush Strong. Um, they they take care of our teachers. They do uh events for just our families and communities. They put stuff on at the school frequently. Uh, the first phone call I make when we need something is one
006of these four ladies. And so, I can't say enough good things about all the things they do. They're fundraising machines. Uh, they want to contribute to any project that we have, capital or otherwise. And so we can't do what we do without them. And so we really appreciate everything they do at Restaurant Store. Yeah. 100%. Come on. Here we go. New market. Mount Hor. I can have Chrissy just erase it again. Okay. About we're very excited. We have a new PTO board with the exception of one member. So, they just got started this semester. So, we I have with us our president, Amber Mullen. Very excited uh to work for the work that she's going to do. And the others that couldn't be here were Lindseay Ellswick, our vice president, Tina Shaw, our treasurer, and
007Susie Wears our secretary. So, very excited about the future. Ready? We're ready. Lead us in a song and dance. So this is our um PTO board. Come on up here ladies and children. Come on up here little children because these kids found out once their parents were elected they were also elected when we decorate the school. They get right in there with us. So we have Holly Pitman, Michelle Coggins, Michelle Montgomery and Sarah Ferris. And I'll just share our proud moment this year. these ladies got together and wrote a grant for um our playground and um a local business called Timkin gave us a $7,000 playground grant. Wow. So these ladies are really laying the groundwork for our future students um you know for the improvements that we're going to make. But I mean they're
008they're at our school doing something all the time. We just couldn't make it without them. And we got McKenzie. She's the uh best decorator with the glue gun you've ever seen. And This right here, this kid right here, if anybody needs mulch moved, you call Dominic Gunnar because they didn't get it done. So, we couldn't do any of this without this lady. Yeah. And all the schools. I know you guys love your principal, but we we're a team. It's all of us. Hey, spin. Just spin around. Thank you all. Randy Rogers, Jeff County High School. Now you got turned up. It's on. Is it on? Yeah, it is. Sorry. I was going to talk real. Um, we got a large group here tonight um from the high school. This was a brainchild of a couple
009people, so I will not take credit for it by no means. Um but I was an active participant but we uh under direction soul Missy Hayes and others uh we decided to reach out to our incoming freshman and current freshmen on scheduling. So all the high school people you see here tonight we have counselors, we have teachers, um admin. We had one-on-one sessions with incoming eighth graders and current freshman about signing up for classes and what they needed to take and how it proceeded from here on out. Um, Emily, would you like to elaborate? I'm gonna make others talk. Okay. So, I'm going to let you guys know who helped with it. Um, so Dr. Alder helped with it. Come up here. Just go up here and say your name because we're take a picture.
010Um, Amy Cogle helped with it. Miss Jessica Eastep helped with it. Miss Valerie Evans. Um, and there are more people who are not here tonight that helped. We had like over 30 people that helped. Um, Lisa Hall helped with it. Amanda Hazel, um, Missy Hayes came and helped with it. So, she worked it. Mr. Roberts worked hours and hours. I think every night he was there from 3:30 until 8 closing it down with me. Um, and then we had Jennifer Hicks helping with it. She brought her minions with her tonight. Um, and then Miss Katie Martin helped with it. Dr. Jamber Sidmore helped with it. Miss Amber Ogle helped with it. Miss Paul Roland, she is our registar. She came and she helped just organize and get people through. Um, Miss Marcela Charles Pasto helped
011with it. So she um also helped check people in as they were coming in. I mean we had over 800 people come through. So it was quite the job to help do that. How many how many fresh incoming fresh did we not meet? Um so we met with 460 that we met with out of 515. Um and then that was true for the next week too, right? We only had 50 eighth graders who were coming to the high school that didn't get to come this night. So that's an extraordinary turnout the first time. Hey, we're gonna have Pat. [Music] bring this. Oh yeah. [Music] Emily Dwan from Mari Middle School. speech. So, I did write speech, but I'm not going to use it now. But, um, you know, I did it so that I didn't
012ramble, but I think I got it all up here. So, these are the lovely ladies of Mari, Jen, Susan, Tracy, Tabitha. They are amazing. They're all brand new to PTO this year for Mari. Um, it is really, really hard. It is really, really hard to maintain a PTO at a middle school level and they do such an amazing job. This year has been so much more engaging, so much more fantastic for the teachers, the students, uh, really the community in general. They have put on all sorts of awesome events. I've never seen the kids so excited about competitions. I've never seen the teachers so excited about competitions. Um, they feed us all the time. They help us anytime the doors are open at school and we just we don't honestly know what we would do
013without them anymore. So now it's now it's pretty permanent. It can't be better. But um yeah, I mean they're just they truly are the backbone of our school community and um I thank you very very much. It's rough. Feel old whenever I remember these people whenever they were a little bitty kid. Just on behalf of the board, I I just really really want to thank all the parents in the PTO and the folks at the high school. I mean, your parent involvement is vital for our school district. and we know you've got other things going on in your life and you're taking this the time that you take to get to the schools and we just really really want to know we appreciate it so much. So on behalf of the board, thank you very
014very much. Okay, check your keys because after this crew come up, you have I know you have stuff. All right. Uh this is our first work session. Just we've changed our policy that we'll have public comment. Uh we'd like to remind you uh this can be on any topic uh that relates to the Jeeps County School District and uh it would be a each uh commenter has three minutes from the time that you begin to speak. So if you come up uh give your name and your address and then tell us what you have to say. The first person, and I'm sorry, is what's that? I can't read it. Yeah. Is it Jen Arger or Ian Arger? Sorry, I thought that was a check in. Don't put your head. She Hey, somebody scratched their name
015out under yours, but they did not scratch yours out. Know who that was. Well, you know. Okay. Uh, next is Michelle Janette. And you have to get real close to that mic. Is that good? That's good. Michelle Janette. I live in Dandridge. Um, I just have a request for the board. It's unusual. We will be celebrating a historic milestone coming up this April 19th. I don't know if anybody knows what that might be. Um, this date will mark 250 years of what we know or the anniversary of what we know as the shot heard around the world at Lexington and Concord in 1775. The first skirmish that was destined to birth a nation. This day should forever be marked in the American mind as the day a handful of Americans stood their ground refusing to
016surrender their god-given rights in the face of British tyranny. Now students may learn about the ride of Paul Rivere through the poem on the night before but to quote the great Paul Harvey not Paul Hardy um do you know the rest of the story? Do you do do the students learn that Paul Rivere was actually captured and almost killed that that night but was released? Do we know that many of the militia men that morning were from a church pastored by Reverend Jonas Clark and that this militia was under the Continental Congress and that the Reverend Clark had preached that only lawful way to resist tyranny was to do so under duly constituted authority and that the orders given to the militia that day were to stand your ground. don't fire unless fired upon, but
017if they need to have war, let it begin here. There are so many other aspects to learn about that day. But I just wanted to ask the board if there's any way the students can celebrate this historic milestone next month during that week of April 19th. I remember there was a huge celebration for the bsentennial when I was in elementary school and it made a huge impact on me. Our students should be learning that we live in a very unique and exceptional nation. We have the longest lived constitution in history where the average constitution is around 17 years. We are coming up on ours lasting 240 years. That is an amazing accomplishment. But it cannot be sustained without students in school learning about the great history of this republic. So I just ask that you
018consider having some maybe kind of hand out or email pass to the teachers about the significance of April 19th leading into the establishment of this great nation and I would be happy to email some information on that if you wanted to do that but thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, that ends our uh public comment section. Uh you will see that we're a little lean tonight on the school board. We have uh our chairman Josh Cameron is at an FFA. He is an active teacher and he is an active teacher and he's at an FFA convention. Uh wouldn't wasn't able to make it and uh Commissioner Jarnan and Commissioner Bradley are out sick. So uh we will carry on. Uh I'd like to remind all the board members just for the purpose of the
019YouTube video that we record, please speak directly into the mic when you're speaking. Okay. Items for information. Is there are there any questions or comments on the items for information that you received? That would be the financial report, district enrollment report, and monthly policy review. Hearing none, we'll move on. Okay. Uh item number seven, director's input on items for information and upcoming business session agenda items. Uh take it away, Dr. Arnold. All right. Um, I'm going to give our recognitions a time. Any of you who came tonight to be recognized and leave, you're welcome to leave. Any of you that want to stay, I'm probably going to talk for the next 45 minutes. So, I know I know I just want to give you all that opportunity. So, I know. I want to give him
020a heads up. All right. Um, first is Tissa outcomes money. So, we have recognized those funds. This is similar to last year. I just wanted to bring to your attention just about the outcomes money and um the intent for that money to be used for early grade instructional assistance for our tutoring positions to run our tutoring program. Much of that is statemandated for students who are performing below grade level who or who have been retained and to fund uh students industry certifications in the uh career technical education program. So that's just I would just that money has been recognized by the board and is going into next year's budget. I was just wanting to bring to your attention the plan on the use of that fund and and that'll be on your uh just to
021formally recognize that uh plan at next um say next month it is next month's board meeting uh to recognize those funds or to recognize this plan to use those funds and and that's for the visa outcomes funding. Are there any questions on that? I have uh one. Um is the cost of the of the programs that these are funding pretty much the same this year as they were last year? Yes. With the exception of um yearly salary increases. They're the same. And does the do these TIS of funds pretty much break us even with that underfunded or overfunded? We hope it's always just a tad bit overfunded. Okay. So we we don't want to ever be under budget. Um so we try to budget um we budget insurance purposes. Uh we always budget the higher
022end for insurance. Not everybody takes that higher end. So there's a little bit of savings there. U there's going to be time whenever someone uh resigns or leaves for whatever reason, we have to hire somebody else. So there'll be a few days of nobody being in a position. Um so um all of that happens and uh and keeps us right at or under budget. Thank you. I actually do have a question. Um, with that voucher system in going into place, we've been told that it will not affect our TISA funding. Correct. It definitely will not. It will not affect this year's funding because it's based on our next year's funding is based on the previous year's students, right? So, we've already earned that money. Now, I don't know what's going to happen down the road.
023Um, I mean, you know, three, five, seven years from now. I don't know. And that voucher is supposed to be in place for the next two or three, I think three years, right? But once that Yes. Once that ends, they could change it to it doesn't apply as far as based on our goal. Correct. um hold harmless I think is what you're talking about. Um so within part of the um voucher bill there is a a significant um hold harmless um statute that if our enrollment drops we will not get less money than we get the year before. So each year though our base will in well next year our base is going to increase probably um probably somewhere around $2.2 million. So that does not if we lost Oh gosh have to do math.
024I mean, if we lost 200 students, you're still talking about under $2.2 million probably. So, um, that that's not a per pupil expenditure. That's a I mean, obviously, if we lost 200 students, we're probably losing positions also. Um, but, you know, we have limited unless the voucher system ended up going to um include parents could get funds for homeschooling their child or get dropped into categories to receive state funding. Um such as right now the funding has to go to private schools that employ teachers that are licensed teachers. um they have to be a category a high or category I believe it's three four or five it's on the top end they can't be a category one or two school and get these vouchers so unless it went to homeschool parents could get voucher money
025or uh or small um church type private schools church oriented schools could get this voucher money you you know, I don't see it affecting us at this time in the next three years. Is this the same kind of the same each year or this this comes out this TISA outcomes money comes from um how we um score on the TCAP assessment ACT um how students leave one category such as below expectations and move up another category. So if we grow students or students achieve at a high level then there is funding given to the state or given to the district for that performance. So this is strictly on outcomes of students performance on TCAP testing and um ACT testing. Okay. Any other questions on that? The next um is something that I would ask that
026you take action on at at next month's board meeting and it is um the resolution 25-139 requesting permission to participate in section 4 of the Education Freedom Act of 2025. Um within this resolution you will see that um this is a part of the um acts. The board has to um bring this resolution and pass this resolution which has to be sent to the state. And within this, you see that it reads, "Jerry County Board of Education is responsible with governing the public school system and ensuring the well-being of all students under its educational directives. And whereas the Jefferson County Board has consistently expressed opposition to school voucher programs and the redirection of taxpayer dollars intended for public education of private institutions." Um, it goes on to just explain the bill, the amount of money,
027and and I just wanted to highlight that it within this resolution expresses that that the board has been against vouchers and the use of public dollars for private institutions. Um, but I also want to draw to your attention the um, last whereas section four of the education freedom act of 2025 stipulates that a local board of education must formally affirm its intention to participate in order to receive the funds allocated for these teacher payments. Um, these teacher payments means a certain thing. Um teachers in this act must be licensed, evaluated and perform the majority of their duties daily in instructing students. So uh within the $2,000 bonus given by the state, there's a a lot of categories of people basically um your principles, your assistant principles, your supervisors that are in this room today. uh
028school counselors that about twothirds of that high school group that was here uh they would not be um they would not receive a $2,000 state bonus. nor would uh teachers such as school psychologists um some special ed coordinators um guidance counselors guidance counselors would would there's I've not I've heard two things uh from two different board you know whenever you talk to a attorney if you talk to two of them you're going to hear two different things so guidance counselors are up in the there. Um instructional coaches are up in the air, but for certain um there we have somewhere around 75 teachers that would not receive this state race, but um this is the first step to receive the somewhere around $1.2 $2 million that would come from the state to um to give
029a bonus to what they deem as teachers. This would be the first step to doing that is a resolution has to be passed by the board. Any questions? Okay. The the next page and a U handout that you have with you sitting there that's highlighted just um kind of goes into some detail about what I talked about as far as an employee raise. At the bottom, you see where it talks about cost of bonus for certified staff not covered by Tennessee Department of Education. So, the first thing I want to do for each of you as board members is to give you the opportunity to not have to choose who you give a bonus to. Um, I have three kids. Every year I get them all three Christmas gifts. I would hate to have to
030choose who gets a gift which Christmas. So I don't want to put you in that position. If you so choose to put yourself in that position, um that would be up to the board. But here is a plan for highlighted in front of you. Um that would give the 75 which we feel like that's a max. We don't feel like it's it's under that. It could be 60 but um we don't know until the state pulls us and sends us a check. So this gives the certified staff not covered by Tennessee Department of Ed that gives those staff a bonus. That cost is $170,475. Dr. Could I stop right there? Is that are those the teachers that you mentioned before in your prior statements when we were talking about the resolution? Yes, that is correct.
031Okay. Principal, assistant principles, whoever is not included by the state, that's what that number includes. And then um none of our classified employees that is employees who um are on an hourly rate rate. Um so bus drivers, cafeteria workers, school custodians, uh receptionists, bookkeepers, attendance clerks, um on down the list of instructional assistants. none of those people would be included in any type of race from this. So, um, this highlighted sheet gives you a cost of giving full-time classified employees somewhere around $495 of them a um $500 bonus and that would be just shy of quarter of a million dollars. and part-time classified employees, $250 would be just shy of $50,000 for a total cost of $335,267 and some change after you take in employer cost. Um, so this is nothing that you know um
032that you have to you know I just want to give you this information to consider uh in voting on soon so that we could look at a use I would recommend a use of fund balance for this. uh fund balance is is terrible use for reoccurring cost. But um you know if you feel like you have enough fund balance and you use it for a one-time cost then then that's a good use of fund balance. Um you don't want to use fund balance to cover your budget for the year because you know you're going to have to do it again next year. But, um, for a one-time bonus payment, it's it's a good use of funds if if you feel like you have it available. Um, we currently [Music] have, if everything goes through, um,
033that means your Jefferson was that 8.5 million was Jefferson Elementary. Um then 150,000 for the cost of of Talbot land. There was another cost in there, wasn't there, Joy? That goes Those are the only two that are pending. Those are the only two pending. So if all those pass county commission, that would bring your available fund balance to just shy of $2.35 million. Um, and this plan would then take that fund balance down to 1.8 to end the year. And um, you know, come October, we'll either have a reserve or I guess I'll be fired if I have to come back and say, you know, we're over budget. Missed it by two millions. So, we may all be looking for a job if that happens when we join. But um you know there's no no
034reason to sit here and guess what that may be. It may be $70,000. It may be $700,000. I I have no clue right now. Couldn't even get close. Um if you gave me three days. So, um, you know, this is a plan to use half a million dollars that would, uh, allow all employees to receive a bonus and it would allow us to by you in April voting for this or sometime allow us to use fund balance which could be put in the budget. for um use next year. So these funds would not be dispersed at the earliest until it's probably October, maybe September, but we we do it's it's in the governor's budget for next year. So those funds would be dispersed from the state department at the earliest we would receive those would
035probably be sometime in August. Um and then um it takes us a little bit of remember come August we're also hiring 40 50 people um finances finalizing budgets. We're getting things out. It's a busy time. So u we couldn't turn this around in two weeks. It would take more like you know six to eight weeks to once we receive those to turn this bonus around. That's right. Can we put this on the agenda for next meeting? It is on there. I've got it on there. So, yeah, it is on there. Um, there there is a plan there. I mean, I I would, if I was you as a board to give you a recommendation, I would look at this plan that talks about a 500,250 raise for classified and the 75 positions. So, just note
036if you approve this plan and you approve [Music] 505,74250 and then we get in the weeds 3 months from now and we spend $440,000 on the bonus, the additional money would just go back into your fund balance. what we didn't use or for a bonus for finance department. Sure. Danny, do you have any other questions? So, is this based on just who we have currently employed? Right. I mean, if we were to hire somebody or say 10 more positions, teachers or whoever uh between now and the end of the year, would they fall under this, too, or is it just currently employed once we get the resolution? Yeah, these are current positions that would be in the budget next year. So, this anticipates what's in the budget going into next year. Um, are you kind
037of asking kind of what would the drop dead date be that people would get this that anybody hired after a certain date would not receive this or? Yeah, I'm trying to find out like uh you know just just say you were to you were to hire 50 more people, would they also automatically even though they just started working for us would they would this number have to go up then? Yeah. So, um, in the in the past whenever the board, it was a while back, um, we did set a date that you had to be employed by, um, in order to get the bonus. So, within the, um, let me see if I can get this straight. within the freedom act of 2025 the state it has to be it is given to this year's
038employees um so that's within the um so if we hire somebody August 1 they don't get the money from the state um so we If you approve the bonus, then we'll deal with all the red tape of um the state and and how the bonus is is distributed to be equal. Um you know we have in the past we did if anybody was hired by whenever we gave the bonus before there was employees who were hired seven days prior who got the bonus and there was employees who were hired five days after that didn't get the bonus. Um, so I don't remember when that was. That was back in maybe 2021 or two with some federal money. Um, so there was some guidelines set forth that was just equal to everybody that administered those funds.
039But the teachers is set within the act, right? It states in there who gets it and who doesn't. M mayor, did you have any questions? Um, so we could so in so as as far as I I hear the the bonuses from the uh the uh state is set who gets the money when. However, we can determine for example if we said that an employee in these categories the part-time classified full uh full-time classified and cost of for certified staff not covered. We could say anybody who is employed as of the end of the school year is eligible. Anybody who is hired after that is not eligible. That's pretty much up to our program per we can set those parameters. You can um you you can you could as a board or you could just
040um leave that up to us to set either way. But it does say within the the bonus that um appropriated funds to provide one-time bonuses of $2,000 to each teacher employed in a K through 12 school in the 2425 school year. School year. Yes. Not calendar year. Right. this school year school year is who gets the bonus from the state I would think we do the same thing just follow that but that's that's just any other questions okay thank you very much next I have some um budget notes that I have um typed up and shared with you. That includes um just things that are in the budget that you will see. Um teacher salary is currently $44,500 for a full-time teacher beginning with a bachelor's degree. Um we must move that salary next year
041to 47,000. That's a state minimum. And within the budget, we are moving the beginning teacher pay to 475. So that gets us in a midway period of next year having to move it to $50,000. So it's a little bit more than 47,000, but next year it must be 50. So, um, we had the money to make it within the budget. Uh, we thought that that was a good a good place to land at and and that's where we're at currently. Um, currently in the budget, we also have a pay raise for our classified hourly employees of 3.5%. We look to increase um $10 for certified subs to 140. That is an increase. And uh we look to to move driver pay to $110 a day and to move starting hourly rate to $13 an hour.
042Um Paul asked a little bit about TISA increases. This year's increase in TISA funding is roughly 2.45 million. Um the certified employee pay increase alone is around 2.1 million. Um, remember that anytime the governor gives a raise, like he's saying, we're going to move teacher pay and this includes raises, we don't get a 100% of that money. So, we're roughly a 7030 county. Um, so we get 70% of that and then the county has to pay 30%. So, if we run a a $50 million budget that we get state funds on, then we have to come up with about um what is that around 20% or around 20 million from the county to to go with that 50 million. So, that's your maintenance of effort that the county has to give to match that. Uh
043so, that's why These raises have great for teachers. I'm happy for them, but it's been a challenge to to these are higher raises than we've ever given. Um and and that's just something that that has been um tightened our budget up, you know, from the first year whenever we got Tissa money. Um we we had a lot of money right there off the bat, but you've seen that shrink and get tighter. And this is the main reason why you know somewhere between 83 to 85% of our total budget or our state TISA and county is salaries. So those salaries greatly impact our budget. Um, one note there at the bottom of the first page, it talks about 171-163. These are teacher assistants mainly. You're going to see a large increase in that line. It's because
044we transferred positions from a 189 position to a 163 line item. Um, that's just financial and clerical, but if you see that, whenever you get a look at your budget, you're going to see a line called variances. And that variance is going to show pluses or minuses. And that's one area you're going to see a significant increase. But if you look at that 189 line, you're going to see a a decrease um in the 189 line. also within the innovative school model grant. Uh last year we got 75% of funds. Um and then that reduced down to 50%. So we're having to pay more on top of that grant to cover the cost of it. That's where we have brought our CTE programs into our middle schools. um been a very popular thing for our
045students and uh something that that has sparked their interest. It helps them to prepare as they come to high school to kind of know what what's offered and what's out there. um talked a little bit there. There is a position we're looking at for right now. We have an athletic director who is a teacher, who is a bus driver. Um and I don't know if you've been, we have a lot of athletics that that's at the high school, a lot of people involved. There's a lot that goes to this. Um, I remember a uh, you know, they have to make sure that students are eligible. We also have a law that's being looked at as far as a one-time transfer rule. That's going to just be a headache for somebody if that goes through. um
046you know, somebody's going to have to do paperwork on all these transfers that that go in or come out, you know, that come out of our school or come into our school. So, um if you have violations of these, uh there's penalties. Um we've had some violations. We've had some penalties. There's monetary penalties where people are fined. Uh coaches lose some they're suspended. Uh but coaches training, parent meetings, increased number of athletes. Um also coaches have to go [Music] through concussion training, safety trainings, and then also we've had a couple of incidences where um fans misbehave and get ejected and we have to handle those. Also, um parent complaints are handled through the athletic department with a it's a it's a busy job. Um so, we're looking at adding a position there. And uh also
047it talks about an additional $45,000 to go with already budgeted $60,000 to provide um Knoxville Orthopedic Center, is that the right word? Yeah. Uh funds to provide athletic training coverage to middle schools. Um, you know, it it sounds like a simple thing until uh one of our principles or you know, you know, Katie's back there as an SRO, but whenever uh somebody in the stands goes into cardiac arrest or I mean, you know, we're not the greatest people in the world in this room as educators to save people's lives. My brother's a police officer. I remember one time he was like 0 for 12 whenever he first started out on CPR trying to bring revive people. you know, it it's usually you don't get there in time and uh and you know, these people um
048to uh address these kids and and determine if they have concussions or, you know, if they have the ability to play or or you know, if they need to seek help. I know a lot of times whenever a kid gets injured, um, they try to get a doctor's appointment on their own and next thing you know, it's 7 to 8 days to to get a doctor's appointment. Uh, with this connection, they're seen the next morning between 7 and 10 a.m. So, it's just immediate. Um, it's it's a good thing for us to have and and for us to uh provide for our students. um to have somebody there to be able to lay eyes on them and help them to get um help and support. There's also in there about a assistant maintenance supervisor. I
049know that that was brought up about um use of fund balance to start that position. So we we have closed that application. Um we have uh kind of started rough interviews as far as going through applications and on the phone and uh I believe next week they are um doing some inperson stuff and hopefully by end of this month 1 of April have somebody named to go into that that position. 72210172. Um I believe that's instructional coaches. U but that has that's a decrease in federal funds. So used to they were 100% paid out of out of uh federal funds. Um you've heard me talk about economically disadvantaged numbers changing. Um, and whenever that decreases, we get less federal funding. And um, so it's not that this county is getting richer and more affluent people
050are are coming to our schools. It's just that the federal government's changing the category. Yeah. And uh, and serving them in a different way and and we receive less federal funding. So that's that's part of that why you will see an increase in that line item for instructional coaches 76110600-7 capital outlay funds. Um so you see $400,000 that we will bring a plan to the board to approve for capital projects. I also want to remind you that 179,798 of capital funds is being used to pay down the um EESI loan for energy project. Um remember that we we have money and somebody asked me why do you why do you all why did you get this loan whenever you have cash on hand? So, our cash on hand earns a percentage rate and we got
051this loan for half a percent. So, our money's making more than this money's costing us. Therefore, you know, it's an easy thing to do. If you're if you're sitting there making three and a half% on money, there's no sense in bringing it out and using it. you they're going to this is just a state um remember I don't remember what our energy plan cost but you know if it was 9 million total we got um roughly 2.2 million in the energy EESI loan and and this pays for that over years using our operating funds. Um couple things on buses. buses for whenever I started this job back in 2019, I believe it was. I could go get a bus for I could get a good used bus for $85,000 easy all day long. Um, now
052I can't even hardly get a used bus. Um, and a new bus is over $160,000. Um, so that's probably at least a 40% increase that we have seen in in the last four years. And and we're looking to buy two new buses next year. A uh 90 passenger bus. I think we we either have that or it's coming. Um, but we will need another 90 passenger bus next year. So, um, we're looking at adding those. And then also in the bus line, whenever you get to transportation cost, you're going to see those 12 bus monitor positions added to the budget at a cost of $135,000. So, that's added in there this year. [Music] Um, got a couple of recommended cuts up there that we've looked at just uh um some some items that we use
053and there's some other cuts that have been made, but those were just some that we listed. We also are looking at a uh 120day position for teacher retention, recruitment, development. One of within the board's five-year plan. It talks about um teacher retention and recruitment and and that was an initiative you came up with as a board and something that I want to support also. So we have a lot of teachers that are coming to us through different avenues. Um, one day they're um an electrician, the next day they're doing industrial maintenance in CTE. Uh, one day they're an accountant, the next day they're teaching math at the high school. Um, one day they're uh business and the next day they're they're in our business department. So these teachers don't go through the um there's also
054things that are permitting uh teachers and what's the other word Carol permits and way uh job embedded job embedded. So um this is where they they do not have student teaching. I put it Carol and I were talking the other day and I said, you know, what would it be like to go have surgery and have a job embedded surgeon? Yeah. You know, they they were they were a butcher the day before, but now they're going to be a surgeon, but their job embedded, so it's going to take maybe two or three years for them to really get the hang of it. But these are what we're doing with our teachers. They don't have student teaching. um they they don't have a lot of the uh training that a what I would call a natural
055teacher had three or four years ago to go through a four-year degree education department uh go through their um practicums their student teaching and and come out with with a full educational degree. So we really have to provide a lot of support systems for these uh people who are entering the educational field and um we we really got to help to bring them up to um speed and one of the biggest problems they have is is classroom management. you know, I mean, it's it's hard to deal with a class of 20 or 25 students uh whenever you're not used to to having that. So, um this is just a position that is in the budget. I wanted to bring to your attention that um that we are looking at adding. So, it is in the
056budget. Um the budget is getting close to balance. It's real close. We've done some things here a little bit um just to uh bring some attention to our employees who um it was brought to my attention. I saw something on a sheet of paper. Um, so we talked about raising new t or beginning s beginning hourly rate to $13 an hour. Um, whenever I went through the budget, kind of go through it on a big scale. Um, and then we get down to looking at certain things. And um I had an employee who has worked for us for 34 years and she makes 1438 an hour and to me that was just unacceptable. Um also we have a lot of hourly rate employees who are in year five and year 21 and they make the
057same hourly rate. Um, now they get longevity pay, but even at the max longevity pay, you're looking at 70 something cents an hour that longevity pay has on. And Joy, who she looks happy at me, she's really not. U, she she had to do a lot of work the past few days. Carol's done a lot of work to try to add a little bit of to employees hourly rates that are in categories of like 5 to 10 years, 10 to 15, 15 to 20. Um, and and just adjust their rate so that a five-year employee is making different than a 15-year employee who's making different than a 25 year employee. And uh it's not a lot. I mean, it's 50 cents on an hour. It's $2 on the hour max. But it's something that that
058I think sets it apart. I think it's just something that that has to happen to to retain. I think that was one of one of the board's um intentions is retaining employees. So, um, as you've asked for, u retention of employees, I think that that's something that that I've listened to and tried to help in the budget. And then, um, also recruitment and development of our employees is something that that is that you have expressed interest in. And, and then I won't go over it, but that's just the board's considerations. based budget considerations based on the board's five-year strategic plan and and that just goes into based on your strategic plan. This is what I've looked at in the budget that helps with that plan. Any questions? Sorry. Um back classified employees raise the teacher
059assistance, they're hourly, right? Yes. And they work about six hours a day. Is that what they basically do? 6 and a half. It's not a full 8 hour day though, right? It's not a full 8 hour day. So it's it's 8 to 2 30 8 to 2. 7. 6 and a half and 7. 6 and 12 and 7. Um, if we have a substitute, a non-certified substitute makes $15, right? That is correct. And that could be just a parent that says, "I'll substitute. If you need me, let me know. I'll come in and kind of watch the kids." I mean, they're not really teaching, right? I hope so. So, uh, we go through suck training. We talk to subs. We prepare them. I mean, obviously, if a teacher wakes up sick tomorrow morning and they
060had something planned that they're lecturing on, that substitute does not know their, you know, yeah, they they may not know the, you know, candy assassination or whatever they were lecturing on or they may not know pre-calculus, but there a lot of teachers have subplans in place things for people to come in and do. So, um we try to make the most out of a sub, you know, day. Of course, um no, it's not it's not necessarily the same. Of course, some some this is based on a 7 and 12 hour day for the substitute. Okay. So, a teacher assistant though if there's no substitutes available, teacher assistant to become a subbody. Yeah. Somebody's going to fill that classroom. U whether that's a teacher assistant or a but they won't get a substitute pay though. They'll
061actually make less money doing that. Well, there's also uh you know, one thing to consider is all of our uh instructional assistants that are 6 and 12 hours a day or fulltime. So, um they get those full benefits, employment, they get health, they get retirement. So that's not figured into the hourly rate, but that's definitely Yeah, I mean that's correct. A substitute is not a you know you may work out of 180 days a uh instructional assistant guaranteed to work those 180 days. We have them hired uh their own substitute. They may work a 100 days. They may work. I don't know. Yeah, they may. I mean, yeah. I just I I Yeah. Brand new. I'm just instructional system. So that they're kind of get the short end somewhere that I know that I personally
062know that they through experience with of my son how important they are, a vital role in the classroom. I just feel like they're not really I don't know. I just I feel like they need to be either getting the pay of a substitute to increase their day if they're going to be there as a substitute or or I mean I personally I'd rather be a substitute uncertified than be a teacher assistant all day. Yeah, I would too until till I had to go to the doctor and and I had to pay, you know, $600 for doctor's visit, lab test, and and and whatever. Whereas an instructional assistant goes to the doctor with our health insurance and pays $25 co-pay. Well, I understand that. But a teacher assistant in in their 180 days is only making
063what I can figure here about $17,000 a year as a teacher assistant. That's not going to be able to get them a second job or try to do anything, right? So, a substitute could only work a maximum. So, one thing to think about too is we have 180 student days. We have three professional development days. We use 10 snow days this year. That's 13 days a substitute did not get paid for. That instructional assistant got paid for those 13 days. U also a instructional assistant works. They get uh Carol they get so many vacation days. Instructional assistant. Yeah. I mean they get so many uh extra days. How many days do they work outside? 88 paid days. 188 paid days. So, um, I know we're trying to Yeah, we're trying to balance the budget and
064everything. I, you know, taking care of everybody, but I just feel like they're An instructional assistant is not on the, you know, we talked about beginning teach or beginning hourly rate is $13 an hour. An instructional assistant is um 1375 is their starting rate. So they do not an instructional assistant doesn't start out at $13 an hour. That they have a higher starting rate. 1350 I believe it's 1375. next year. Is there a brand new instructional assistant would be their starting rate? And then uh we already again okay the other question I think you already answered the long longevity difference in time versus the pay. The longer they worked here their pay will reflect that accordingly. I think you already said something around that. Yeah, there is a board policy um they they get a
065based on so many days work. Um, so it may take a remember how remember how that longevity works. Ter they have to be work for three years. They get $100 a year but they have to be be there be here for three years before they start getting it 300. That's for a full if they work 260 days. So then it's prorated based on the number of days they're actually paid for. So the prorated they have to prorrate that the number of days versus 260 days to get a prorated amount for those who are paid for less than 260 days. We try to make it as easy as we can. I'm trying to follow it. Yeah, I will reiterate that's a board policy. Okay. Well, I was just trying, you know, you get a teacher assistant
066that maybe has been here 15 years versus one that's been here five years. What's that? What's that pay structure difference in that? Is it a dollar? Huh? It's the same. Yeah, it it's not. I can tell you right now it's not that's what that's what I was working to separate a little bit and try to um there's a bunch I don't know really what happened but car Carol can explain it but um but people got bunched together um how long ago was this so do you want to you want to talk we started ra I don't really get up Now you're fine. So for several years that the hourly rates were so low when I first started working here the custodians were making minimum wage 725. And for years they only got an increase when
067minimum wage had gone up. Well minimum wage is still 725 but at a certain point back when Dr. Edmonds was here, the director of schools, um Sherry Bench and we started like we got to get these hourly rates up to the lowest pay. So they started doing that in increments each year of bringing that hourly rate up. Well, not just for new employees, but current employees had to go up to that, too. And so what happened was they all started getting closer together. And the because they were raising the minimum wage, there wasn't enough money to equate that for the same kind of increase for a current employee to get that same amount of money increase. So they might have gone up some to get to that same level that a brand new employees. And
068that happened for several years until we started trying to differentiate. We're new employees coming in. We got our hourly rates higher for starting employees. So we started not making that hourly rate for starting employees as high. So there would be more of a difference between a current employee, but there's still when you look at it, there's still a lot that are bunched together that are making about the same amount, but they've been here. Some have been here longer than that. So it's it's complicated and it all boils down to not enough money to try to fix it, right? So we are I mean the easiest thing for me to do would just be to move on and overlook it but I promise you it's I could not um so it is u I think it
069is fixable but it will take this year and more years down the road with a plan to incentivize people with so much of a year's experience. So, it's not about giving 3.5% always, but to differentiate between a 10year employee and a one-year employee and a 10ear employee and a 20-year employee and um and not just let uh longevity take care of that. So, I didn't mean to put you on the spotlight. I love to be on the spot. I just, you know, stuff like that kind of concerns me and I want, you know, I don't want our It does mean to. So, just know that instructional assistants are recognized um not in the lowest, they don't enter into on the base level. So, they enter in at a at a little bit higher level than
070$13 an hour next year. Um, and we're going to work to increase some instructional assistance. I will tell you this, um, uh, there's a boy that's at the high school. He's a junior this year. Um and he worked last year at wilderness and he made u 1550 an hour at the wilderness working and this year he got bumped up and he's got a person under him. He's 18 years old. um a person under him this year and he's starting out at 19 something an hour um at the wilderness doing maintenance. So, you know, it is what it is as far as we have things that we can offer that the wilderness or several other agencies can't. But a lot of our younger employees look at that hourly rate. They do not look at um retirement
071and insurance and other benefits that we offer. And it's hard to get them to see that and the importance of it. Um you know, if Austin Bridgewwater was in this room right now, he would let you know that, you know, he wished he could have had this job 10 years ago and known what he knows now about retirement benefits. Okay. It is what it is. Anything more? No. Thank you. Anybody else? I have one question. Uh I'm looking at the five-year plan. I'm looking here at the uh you mentioned it the uh teacher retention recruitment development. Is that does that re and there's no cost next to that. Looking at the 5-year plan under your goal to district personnel. Um is that 43,700? That's a max. That's a max. Okay. So what are we what
072would we be talking here this 120day position for teacher retention recruitment development or am I comparing apple smoke to oranges? Yeah, you would be looking at this. Um, so, um, this is, you know, we'd be looking at someone like we have in place now, uh, some somebody on a 120day, probably somebody who's in retirement, so we don't pay, they don't cost us any benefits. Um, Bill Walker is with Julie Allen uh at Pedmont and uh Bill's a retired principal. So, he's like the assistant principal down there. Um, Gary Jet is a retired in the county. He does a lot of different things with truency and some things. Uh and uh so that is a you know Scott Walker um he's an employee that does a lot of stuff for or principles, new teachers, uh teachers,
073some things with new administrators that's helped us out. So, you know, you're looking at basically we pull an employee off the uh comes out of retirement, they're they're definitely, you know, if they put in 20 years or 25 years or 30 years, they're at a higher pay rate than a brand new teacher. So, we kind of look at their daily rate that they're leaving us on and and figure that. So, we've had some that have flew in at 36 or 37, but that would be a highend. Okay. Last question is, so as I understand these notes, everything in here is going to be in the new budget with the exception of under the buses. It says 260,980. We'll have to request reserve funds to purchase these two buses sometime next year. Is that right? That's
074not covered in the actual budget. There's some money there. I I'd have to I don't have that budget. You'll have it Friday. Yeah. I don't there that was done. There is some money there. It's not that total amount. Could you have that by the board meeting in April? What we what you would actually have to request next year based upon what we have in that maybe in that account. It's possible I could. Okay. Um I may have to talk to Bats. Um so it's a it's a process. So you know these buses only go so long, right? And then we have to retire or we have to extend them. Um so I have to talk with Eric. Okay. And then I have to get Eric's recommendation on, you know, is this bus worth extending or
075is it costing us a lot of money and mechanical u so to extend a bus cost us money because we have to get it inspected much more regularly and that inspection cost us. So um the decision to extend a bus's use depends on how that bus is treating us. It's kind of like your car. Sure. You know, if you're going to keep a car 10 years, that's your kind of going rate, then at the end of 10 years, that car is giving you trouble. You might keep it a little longer. But if it's been a lemon, you might want to get rid of it at eight. So, I guess my I guess my question is everything that everything that we've been going through for about the last half hour, that is in fact in the
076budget with the exception of the buses and yes, whatever that number is, you don't quite know yet. I'm not sure, but I I can I can get you close. Okay. I can get you close. I can tell you um if I need 260 or I need a 100 or I'll get you close. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay, moving on. Um prek and is that next? Yes. Um so this is something that you might be seeing stuff on. I saw on the news this morning they had a daycare in Blunt County being advertised on the news uh that there is currently um as many children in Blunt County that are in daycare, there's that many more that are wanting daycare. Um and whenever we look at our employees, um some of the things in
077there are employee incentives, uh employee recruitment, retainment, um and I'm looking at also we have situations where employees request another year of leave to um be with their child for whatever reason. They can't have daycare, they don't want it. Um I I know right here at the end, I remember my wife actually took a extra time off during this period um whenever two of our children were about to start school. But this gives employees of um foury olds an opportunity to enroll them into our prek program that um would allow us to educate their child. Um and for this to be geared around employees children um we currently have a prek program but that program is first you must meet um income requirements. None of our employees meet those requirements. Um so very few of
078them get the opportunity to to participate. Um none of our teachers would meet these requirements. So um we might have a few employees um that that might be able to meet prek requirements for enrollment. So you know this is something that we've come up with. we we have funding for and we feel like Christy Walke sent out a kind of a quick survey to see if we would have we would not have any problem filling this. Not at all. Um so that's not a problem at all. Um so the need is there. We feel like that we can provide a high quality education to our to children of our employees. We feel like this would strengthen our employee retention. Um bring them back to work quicker. Um you know, whenever they can can have their
079child taken care of in the school setting. Um, and like I said, we had a high level of interest from our employees. Any questions? One question. Is there any reason that you could think that we wouldn't do this? You say we have funding, we have an existing program. I think in a side conversation, you you mentioned we have a location. You were thinking at at Dandridge Elementary to do it. Is there any reason we wouldn't do this? Well, let me let me ask you. Is there any reason we haven't done this up till this point? No. Yeah. Uh so in let's go back five years ago. Five years ago, we we had prek numbers. So, we have 160 seats that the state all lots us. We we could fill most of those seats. Um, so
080now we're not really able to fill 160 preK seats in the county with four year olds that are um that are four years and meet the economic standards to get in. Then they drop down to three year olds. Um, we have a prek teacher here. I'm sure she can talk about the difference between a fouryear-old and a three-year-old in a classroom. It's a huge difference. Uh to me, there is no difference. I I don't like either one of them to take care of. I I there's I didn't teach prek kindergarten for a reason. I did a six-w week interim for kindergarten was my first placement. I mean, that movie Kindergarten Cop whenever he goes home and just crashes, that was me. It's exhausting. Um, but there's a huge difference between a four-year-old and a three-year-old
081in the classroom. And, uh, so I want to move away from from having three year olds um within our prek classroom. And um I it is because of those numbers that I think we are now available to offer this program um to our employees. I would love to in in the grand scheme of things I would love to have a uh a one at the high school. I know Randy Rogers about to die back there, but a prek program at the high school that then incorporates students into the uh uh our beginning teachers. We have our our classes that that they can offer supports and helps within the classroom, too. So, um I know that Hamlin County has done this for several years. Um and they have it at at several locations. They're, you know,
082a a larger county. Um a little more industry, but we are in a good place right now to be able to offer this to fund this. Um I know that you know right now whenever you offer incentives in my opinion whenever I offer incentives and uh charge it's no longer an incentive. this is something I would like to provide to our employees. Um and um you know if later down the road it came to hey we've got a charge or we've got a cut um I think if we have a proven program it's no it's a no-brainer. They have to pay for child care somewhere or give us a little bit to fund this program. And um you know the thing is too, we're not out here uh going to a I didn't just choose
083a school or a teacher just out of the blue to run this program. Um you know, it's one of our best and and somebody that that I trust and confide in to to run the best program for our boys. Any other questions? Okay, let's move on. All night she's been itching to get in front of you. Um Christy Waly is going to talk to you about um recommendations from a committee from the adoption committee for science degree. So I do want to recognize Candace H that one of the great prek teachers we were just talking about. So, let her wait for Could you get a little closer to the mic? Yes. You can actually hold it if you want to. All right, I'll try that. And then I also want to recognize Haley Gentry is
084here. So, Haley is um a leader at the high school. She teaches biology and she has been instrumental in our adoption process. And so, if you have questions after I speak, Haley can help us answer those hopefully. Um I am going to be really short. In your packet you have the information I'm going to go over just um the letter there at the front is a list of what our committee recommends per gradeband. So in elementary the teacher committee plus the parents parent committee um chose McGraill. In middle school, Sabas. In high school, biology, the vendor is Kendall Hunt. In high school, chemistry one, chemistry 2, Earth and space and physics, they selected McGraill. And within the packet, you have the names of the teachers that were on the committee and the names of the
085parents that were on the committee. um you have a full list of the parents and then you have a sign-in sheet for the ones that came to one of the meetings. Um but some of the parents communicated through email um and did not you know maybe attend all the meetings in person. Um also like to thank Commissioner Mayor. Thank you for coming to um she came over to the bus garage and looked at the materials. It's spent a couple hours over there. Um and then also came to our recommendation or our decision m meeting we had here in the library where all these groups of teachers and parents got together and discussed the different vendors and the benefits and um positives and negatives for each one and came up with this um this recommendation. So,
086what we'll do is we'll put this before you in the business session that comes up next and hopefully you will choose to adopt this curriculum. So, if you have any questions for me, Mr. Mayor, since you were there, would you have any comments on on the selections or based upon what you saw? I I actually was thrilled to see this list actually. I broke with I'll help myself. So, um overall I was impressed by the parent and the teacher involvement with going through all of this. They were very thorough. Um it was a great experience actually and then being able to take a look through all of the materials myself as well and I really appreciate the opportunity to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you very much,
087Dr. Any any other uh comments on anything? No, I'm done. All right. That brings us to school commissioner items for discussion. Anybody have any items they'd like to bring up? Yes, ma'am. It's on the back. It's on the back. You got to switch it. You don't push it. I don't know. That one may push. There you go. You can even hold it. Um, in in regards to what Michelle Janette had brought up, uh, what what are the is that something that our school can go ahead and do to celebrate the US by centennial and spend a week just the week of it? April 19th. Yeah. April the 19th. That's Easter week going into Easter. be off riding also. I believe that enters into teac um so I'm sure that won't happen first thing in the
088morning. Um of course you have u just I mean there's things in the afternoon maybe that we could look at. I don't know about a whole week. Uh, but there's definitely things that we could send out or incorporate into, but I can definitely look at that. I I don't know the TCAP schedule. I know Fridays are off, Mondays off. We have makeups, some things going on. So, um definitely a busy time as we start TECAP testing that week, but um we can definitely look at that going into some recognitions and things that we might be able to send out. A lot of times we get some stuff, but we can send out we can do some research and look at it. See what we have. Can I put a suggestion up there? I mean, just
089what Miss Janette did. I mean, could we even do an announcement at the end of announcements just, you know, at each school just doing the story of of actually that time that it happened? I mean, it doesn't have to take long. spent less than three minutes either beginning of the day, I don't know when they do them. I think high school does them in a six second period or something, but or at the end of the day. Just another suggestion. Sure. I think just having that story read over. Yeah. A little bit of the story each day during the week. I mean, yeah. Put it in front of the kids so they know. I like the sound of it. Any other comments? I just uh one question. Where are we on breaking ground at Talbert?
090Uh Austin and I met with Mr. Blankenship Friday. Um so we are so Austin, myself, Mr. Blankenship, Jessica Elder met. Um, so we are looking to finish construction documents within 10 days of Friday. So sometime the end of this month, 1 of April. Um, so then then there is a review process. So, for instance, Austin will flip through a B book 3 in thick and look at what they recommended for roof, what they recommended for HVAC, what they recommended for floor fixtures. Um, and then we'll make any suggestions that need to be made, um, any changes that need to be made. And then uh once that we felt comfortable with all that, it's finalized, then those construction documents will be put out to bid. Um I believe they recommended about a six week process for
091uh those documents to be bid um reviewed and then awarded. So um once that bid is awarded to a contractor then that's where u the school system the architect the contractor gets together and and sets up time frame. So you know it may be that that contractor wins the bid. Of course, there'll be something in there as far as starting within a time period, but um you know, some of them may be able to start in two weeks, some of them in five weeks. So, it just depends on when they can break ground with of course once the contractor wins that, then they have to line up their subs. Um so, so you're thinking late spring, maybe to mid mid summertime. Yeah, definitely thinking of June 1st as far as as digging in the ground,
092right? That's what I Yeah. Okay. Yeah, definitely probably early June as far as somebody there, you know, you might see initial staging or those type things in in late May. Uh, but as far as somebody digging in the ground, I'd say you're probably looking at June. And last question also has to do with Talbert. Uh what's our progress on purchasing that piece of land behind Talbert? Yeah, Austin um has sent some feelers out to the um owner of the property and uh he told her that so he's he's taking a vacation this week. Um so he told her just to you know consider and then whenever he gets back um next week that that he'll give her a call and discuss that property. But um you know you're looking at that's the 1 of April.
093Um feel no hurry on that as far as knowing that we're not coming in there till June with heavy equipment and and that's that's about right. Um, well, I'll start with the easy one. Uh, we have a maintenance committee on April 1st at 7 p.m. at Patriot Academy. Anybody's welcome to come. I want to get out of the way, but I got something. This may that we need to look at or I don't know if it needs to go through policy or just something that we need to look at and see if Dr. Arnold uh can recommend something here. So this is uh specifically for T2 feeding for children fed and this is a see the first page there physician order. where they will actually it's all filled out with the physician signature and at
094the bottom is the parent uh signature and this is for I guess turned into the nurse or whoever the medical person in the school is. Now, we we've broken these down into two pages for you. What they get is the front and then on the back it has reviewed by, but then there's a whole lot of rules and management of students, the G2 buttons, and it's got a whole list of responsibilities, which is on page two. That's actually actually on the back of the page. Um, couple things on this kind of concerns me. If you go down to the school's responsibility, it says the first notation there, it says, "Be knowledgeable and follow applicable federal laws, including ADA, IDA, section 504 confer." Um, I want to go on a field trip and may need assistance
095at a restroom. And we've seen this happen. You have the boy's room, the girl's room, and so you have a mom with a boy that needs to use the bathroom, needs assistance. There's no family restroom. What is this child going to do? I mean, is the mom go into the bathroom of the boy? Is there, you know, this another kid needs to go? I I don't know and I don't have the answer for that, but I think that we need to really seriously look at that because I know there are multiple I get calls weekly from special need parents pertaining to situations associated with stuff like this. Um you know, one one was, you know, uh came to a football game and didn't know where to take their child. You can't just with mom and
096want to go in, you know, the kid needed to go to the bathroom. What does the child do? I mean, is this something we can address or, you know, I don't want to say that wherever they go, they have to make sure there's a, you know, a family restroom because if you go up to, I don't know, the smokies, they're going to have a poison room. Is there something that we can address or is there something that whoever's responsible for that field trip can say, "Hey, we need to bathroom died temporarily. Well, this, you know, without making a big commotion, it could be a little embarrassing for a child. I don't So, are are you asking for an answer now or you want to just just be I think that that just and there's another
097spot here I'm going to hit too, but that's something I think we need to either, you know, give Dr. Arnold a chance to kind of think about what we can do. Maybe he has an answer. I don't know if he does one spot now. or something. I don't know. I I just this is a problem that I know that's kind of reoccurred multiple parents on field trips. And I mean, you know, the thing is we don't control public spaces, right? I mean, we go places. I mean, we can't ask, you know, u somewhere that has a boys and a girl's restroom. I mean, we don't control those restroom. We don't control someone's space. Um, for the one parent, I don't mean to interrupt you. I know the one parent had a concern of a girl
098going in the boy's room or the mom taking the boy into the lady's room. That, you know, nowadays I can get kind of a little little hairy with the way things are now. I just I I just wanted to bring that up to you. I just don't know what the answer is. Right. Uh, of course, if a mom has a student in a public place, you know, we we're not in control of that parent, if they so choose to take their child somewhere, you know, that's between them and and and that their child. I I don't I mean, there's a lot that probably needs to be looked into just that situation. I'm sure. Um I mean I guess I I guess you're talking about special needs students. So yes um you know most of the
099time we send um attendance um with children who need assistance with daily routines. So but the problem is if you get I mean most of our attendants would not want to go into the restroom with other boys or girls coming in there. So, um I don't know if they shut that down, but you mentioned parents taking their child into a restroom. You know, that's not anything. We don't control those parents. So, I don't think it's a common occurrence, but I think that there's the mom said that their child had actually received a little bit of some I don't want to call it bullying but just you know just some ribbon and you know from from the kids the next day about having to take you to the bathroom and you know I can see where
100that could create problems for that kid in the future. That that's all I that's just a little concerning to me. So, um, and if you go down to where it says responsibility with regard to field trips, one, two, three, the fourth point down there, provide invitation to parent guardian of a student in G2 to accompany their child on field trips in addition to being a chaperon. However, the students attendance must not be conditioned in the presence of a parent or guardian. parent must comply with the school policy. At least one if not two school faculty staff should be present on a field trip to provide care to student and parent is not available student. So on the first point so this actually happened to my wife this was five years ago um they went on
101a field trip and he's had a lot of was going on, not have a nurse. Uh, so they go on there and she because she was on there, they made her a shaper room, six other students as well as my own son. It's kind of hard to keep up. I know a lot of special needs parents have a hard time keeping up with their own kid, let alone five or six other kids, while they're on a field trip. Is there something we can do or put in a policy dealing that I mean there's a special needs parent go specifically for that purpose I don't think that that parent should be responsible for being a shaper even sure I have definitely um you know I can't tell you exactly what's happened I've talked to principles in
102the room about the role of a chaperon is to be with a group and help that teacher take care of that group. Not to divide up five kids to give to a chaperon and tell them to return back at 2:30. So I'm not sure what happened five years ago, but that's not something that we we tend to do today. So u we discourage giving we discourage putting anyone in the care of anybody but a school employee. Um so if we go on field trips it should be you know somewhere like third grade takes a group to the zoo and and you've got a teacher and an assistant with that class. You might have three other parents alone, but no parents in charge of any student on that trip. Okay. Um, so that last point right
103there, I actually had a parent, it's kind of crazy because I was already going to talk about this stuff, reached out to me on my way up. I actually was in another meeting and spoke to her after it. But um there is a Dollywood trip for middle school Jeff Middle coming up I think uh May. I don't know. Am I right? It's usually okay. And um and the mother cannot go now. He is um you know, he he is a sped student and uh so you know, intellectually when he's dealing with money, he has no, you know, a lot of them don't have an concept of money. They're given a ticket, but she can't go. And now that child shouldn't be I guess it was brought up. I mean, the child still a child should
104still be able to go on these field trips and I don't know if it sounded like it was brought up that there was going to be multil that's possible. Yeah. I I don't know like um I don't know that just sounds I don't know you talking about just let when they go on a field trip that's a field trip I imagine going to Dollywood they just let the kids run through Dollywood right you are correct This doesn't sound. So, so are you asking if if a parent can't go and the child still wants to go that a school employee should accompany the the kids so they can go? I I'm not understanding. Yeah. Well, you know, I guess it was put on this parents that, you know, we we would have to okay somebody else
105if you got somebody else to do it, replace you, but you know, um I just use my you know, it's not my child. I mean, but I wouldn't know who to call and say, you know, hey, would you go with my child? You know, so the child's, you know, suffered. They worked all year to get how many points they get points or whatever. We get I mean, is is there are we only restricted on so many chaperones going? I I don't know. You said it was just out of like teacher teachers and staff that So, has this I know you said his parents spoke to you. Have they talked to the school? Yes. I mean, the the principal is willing to make any accommodations. No child's going to be um I mean, I'll be happy.
106Whatever school you say it's in, I'll be happy to follow up and and and meet with it, but you know, I don't have a principal in this building that would exclude a child from a trip based on their needs. Now there could be a misunderstanding with a parent that their child's going to be excluded or I mean you know u I went to Dollywood in fifth grade and we took eight CDC students with us. Um very capable to do. It's hard. You're going to be tired at the end of the day but it's very rewarding. Um so I mean no child's going now the parent may not want them to go or or you know um so the parent there is uh children are for several years children go to Dollywood and they are in
107groups and We send a lot of people with them, but it's not the child is not with an adult every minute of every day at Dolly. Maybe I it's probably a little unclear. And I'm not talking about the Gen 8 kids. Yeah. I'm talking more of the kids that have are in spent. Sure. And those are the ones that I would be more, you know, the I think that is more the issue of not having chaps designated for them, right? I wouldn't want my child and he's a sped student. I wouldn't want him running around Dollywood with two other kids. whether I knew the kids or not, you know, is there I mean just like at the school days if we have a child that needs accommodations, we make accommodations for that child whether we're
108at school or offsite. So, you know, if we have a child that I mean, we know we're with them for three years, 180 days. Uh, so we we know, you know, I mean, Ben or Emily sitting back there, they know which children they have and their teachers know, hey, he's going on a field trip, he's going to need, and we send blank assistant with them or or you know, we don't allow um, you know, these group of kids to leave our site for whatever reason. Also on the Mari trip or the Dollywood trip or wherever they go, they also have kind of like in school. You get out there and misbehave and show your rear, you're with you're locked down with this person. You've now lost your privilege to Rome. So you're locked down, you're
109with this person. They have, you know, standard checkins and if they don't check in then they find them whatever that takes. But if a child needs an accommodation, no one So a field trip is an extension of the school day. If someone needs an accommodation whether for whatever reason um they are given that accommodation to be able to make that trip. Sometimes we have a parent that chooses not to send them for whatever reason, but we will we will make that accommodation on the trail. Whether it's, you know, child's in a wheelchair, whether they need feeding tube, whether they're intellectually delayed and need an attendant with them uh the whole time of the trip, whatever. But if the parent can't go for whatever reason, they work or you know medically they can't make it, it's
110not going to prevent that child from being able to go then, right? At least one or two if not more faculty or staff should be present on field trip to care to the student if the parent is unavailable to attend not available to attend or accompany the student. So, so if um you know my child's disabled and I call the school and say, "Hey, I'm not going to be able to make this field trip. Can you send an attendant with my child?" You know, the schools want to say, "Yes, an attendant will do. We'll send his regular attendant." Or they'll say, "Um, we don't feel like an attendant can meet their needs. We're going to talk to Miss Trent and she's going to find a sub nurse and send uh you know that's a very
111whenever we have to send sub nurses we only have so many and then you know we leave a whole school without a nurse and and uh but whatever we have to do we we usually try to make it happen if at all possible. Okay. But no child for any reason will be left behind due to an accommodation that they need. Um few years ago I had a student who was deaf and uh later he went to high school and uh Chris played basketball and his carpenter What do you call signer? Not sure the word, but you know, she attended all of his games. So, you know, we pay for that person to to attend that event. Um, so I would hope that we make u every everything that that we possibly can for that child
112to have that day, for that field trip with their peers. Any other questions? But just to clarify though, if if a parent wants to go with their special needs child, they won't be subject to chaper. Yeah, we we definitely need to I've talked to them um as far as principles and they pass that down about about assigning uh You know, we we try not to split. Nowadays, I feel much more comfortable sending three kids off on their own at Dollywood than I do putting three a parent that I don't know in charge of three students. Uh, if I have to choose one over the other, I'm going to choose the three kids by themselves at Dollywood versus three kids when an adult. I don't know. It's not been background checked. It's not one of our
113employees. So I was I was talking more about as far as a spades child. So a spad child I'm not putting so if a spad child needs support on a trip or anywhere they're going to be with one of our trained attendants um whether that's a CDC special ed instructional assistant attendant aid whatever it may be any other questions may uh just real What any idea like uh can you get me? I I couldn't find I I don't and I don't think this is a must comply with school policy. where it's it's on that the second no the first bullet or the first bullet that's highlighted um the last sentence it says parent must comply with the school policy first bullet that's high I'm sorry I'm not the first pink bullet the first bullet that's
114high so so under responsibility with regard to field trips one two three bullet number For the last sentence, parents must provide invitation to parent, guardian, or student with G2 to accompany their child on field trips in addition to being a chaperon. However, the students attendance must not be conditioned on the presence of a parent or guardian. Parent must comply with the school policy. Yeah. So, there must be a policy in there somewhere. I couldn't apply today. I mean, I I'll have to do some research to determine what the school policy is referred to the child's attention. I mean, I I don't want to hold everybody here. I mean, I I'll have to do That's why I didn't want to do either. Yeah. I just wanted clarification. So, I don't know if it means that if
115the parent goes on the field trip, they must comply with school policy. I I don't know. I I'll have to just I don't know. Like if you find out, yeah, we'll get together and talk and figure it out. All right. Anything else? Anybody? Thank you for attending. This meeting is adjourned.