Special Called Rob. Co. Board of Ed Meeting

001Good afternoon. We do have a quorum in attendance now. So, we will call to order the May 28th meeting, special called meeting of the Robertson County School Board. At this time, I'll ask you to silence your electronic devices and please join me for a moment of silence. Thank you. All right, could you all stand with us for the pledge of >> allegiance? Attention. Salute. >> Pledge 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. >> All right, Dr. Weeks, we got some special permissions to go over real quickly. >> Yes, board members, we had three special permissions. You'll see those on on page two. Uh these were turned in after our last board meeting and they

002could not wait until the upcoming board session. uh East Robertson High School FCA camp, wrestling camp, and girls basketball camp. We reviewed their agendas and requests and we would recommend approval. >> I make a motion. We approve. >> Motion. Motion by Miss Demetrium White, second by Miss Connie Hogan. All those in favor make it known by saying I. >> I. >> Motion passes 40. >> All right. On to facilities and land. >> Board members, I know that at our last session and our last planning session, there was quite a bit of discussion. uh on what our next steps would be uh in terms of facilities and land and um uh I would report to you on behalf of uh Huelet Spencer. Uh Jamie has looked at an additional property and had a good conversation with

003a land owner uh in the Springfield area. Uh it's just preliminary discussion. The landowner has said they would be willing to talk to us about that property that they've shared. Um, we really don't have anything else to talk about because we don't we have no kind of agreement. It's a large track. We're looking to see if the footprint of the the building that we've looked at and considered would fit on that property and how it would fit. Uh, but then certainly, you know, our next steps would be to to do some due diligence in terms of geotechnical work and land and all that kind of stuff. So, uh, they just met last Friday and the land owner did say they would at least be willing to talk with us about that property. So, again, we'll

004share that, um, as information becomes available on that land piece. >> I got a question about this. Did we in the planning session, did we discuss doing before we do a lot of geotech and everything like that, making sure that we're on the same page preliminarily price-wise and just give us a due diligence period to do all that? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. I was disappointed at the last that we we did that in the opposite direction last time and didn't have that commitment that we thought we had from those land owners. Perfect. Uh in your packet there were several items that that various board members had asked for or provided to us and so I have copied those for you. These are all related to uh historical enrollments uh building core capacity and some

005of you have supplied us with documents related to uh subdivision developments and things like that. So I'll just uh I'll share with you what's in your packet. Page three is a list of uh properties that are under construction uh in the Springfield cluster. And I think this is specific to Springfield city limits. So that's on page three. Uh page four, you had asked us to uh find middle school students from around the county that lived in the Springfield city limits but were uh either zoned or transported out to other areas. And so um by the colors you can see that the green uh students in green uh are being transported to the green bar cluster. So uh the numbers there would indicate how many students are are in are being transferred to those. Uh so

006like right there on highway 49 in the kind of middle of the page you see that seven that means there are seven students in that cluster area. Uh, and we can zoom that in as far as you need to if you need additional information to see exactly what areas and what roads those are on. But I thought that would thought that give you a pretty good perspective of where those guys were going. Uh, you see the counts down at the bottom. We have 55 students in middle grades that are living inside Springfield limits. They're being transported daily to Greenbar Middle School. Again, these are zoned. These are not option students. So these are kids that are actually zoned there. Uh conversely, we have um eight students uh that are in that zone as well who

007are being transported to the Joe Burns cluster. And so those numbers are available for your review there. >> On this I'm not seeing Coopertown, >> right? because that is their current zone school. >> Okay. >> So, I guess these are just students that could potentially be at a Springfield middle school that are currently zoned to other areas. Is that what I'm Is that right? >> That that are currently zoned to other areas. So, that wouldn't include people who are naturally living in a Springfield I want to say Springfield Middle School cluster. These are the ones that we're transporting >> not to Coopertown. So, these are really the exceptions. These are people that are being uh living in Springfield and you'll see a lot of that over uh in the Kroger area, Kroger's, Queen Ans Court,

008uh Legacy, Hillside, those areas. Uh those students being transported to Greenberry because that is their zone. Now, >> will these students do they will they go to Greenber High School or they come back to Springfield? >> Green High School. Say that again. I'm sorry. >> Arizona Greenber High School. >> Okay. >> So, and same with Joe Burns. I'm assuming if they start Joe Burns Middle, they'll they're going to Joe Burns High School. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. And if we had a middle school, theoretically 63 students would be coming back into >> those 63 would be brought back into the Springfield zone along with those that are currently living in Springfield city limits but going to Coopertown as their middle school, >> right? Yeah. >> Yes. >> Uh next document you'd ask for uh the

009number of students who are in Greenbryer uh that are still attending White House clustered school. So, these are the this these would be the students that we reszoned last year. Uh and uh would would normally be zoned to Greenbar, but we grandfathered those families in. Uh and so you'll see there's six 13 27 39. Thank you, Mr. White. uh 39 students that are still in the White House cluster that uh are being grandfathered under the grandfathering rule that you approved last year uh that would be otherwise attending the Greenbrush schools >> and that total resoning last fall that that impacted over 100 students right >> easily. Yes, sir. So 39 we grandfathered in um that if they moved in today they would be going >> right right and these are these are last week's numbers.

010So I I think that number probably even started a little higher because there were a lot of folks that I think tried it for a while and due to transportation and other things I think they maybe gave up on driving to to Greenberry or driving to White House every day because we do not provide bus service to those those students here. >> Oh that's right. The grandfather they had to provide their own transportation. Correct. Yeah. >> They have to maintain good standing and provide their own transportation. Uh page six is someone had asked for this. Where is where is the cut off between White House Heritage and East Robertson was the question. And uh what what would where are the current zones between White House Heritage and East Robertson? So uh you can see uh

011those in blue are going to East Robert I'm sorry, White House Heritage. Those in maroon are going to East Robertson. And you'll see some key roads out there. Cook Road, uh, Jernigan Town Road, Covington Road, Pleasant Grove Cemetery Road, and Cross Plains Road. So, you'll see a lot of those familiar roads, and you'll kind of see where the the zone break is there. I think the next four or five documents all deal with um school enrollment currently and school utilization. Uh so page seven has the current cluster totals uh compared to September of 26. So you see in the Springfield cluster for instance we're showing 3638 students uh cluster total of 3516. So somewhere during the year uh three and 3.3% of our students have left that zone uh from the start of September until

012the end of September. And you can see where those numbers are at each school. the largest number of decreases at Springfield High School lost about 6 and a half%. Uh some of those are early graduates, some of those are transfers, some of those are drops. So for uh any given reason, again, these were September numbers. They were they were not we know September numbers are always a little flexible because uh we haven't had all of our ins and outs overall, but you will see um Bransford, we did have a large pickup in prek. Uh Joe Burns Elementary School had about a 2% increase. Uh would all despite our efforts had about a two and a half percent increase. And then uh the others are district district numbers. So that's a one-year snapshot of where we

013are, where we've been this year. On page eight, you've seen this document before. Um we look at core capacity of our schools. Again, core capacity is how many students can be served by cafeteria, gymnasium, hallways, libraries, other shared spaces, not the number of classrooms. So, uh the far left column has the core capacity of each one of our buildings. Uh we ask our principles uh sometime last year, what do you this is what the architects would say is core capacity. We ask a principal capacity. And so, you know, has the building changed? um you know when when we've modified buildings when we've done different things to buildings and and how different principles have responded to that. So you see what the principal says our capacity is and then um you see what our again our

014our May numbers or our May enrollment was uh as we finished school this year. Uh so if you'll go to the far right um and I just took the principal's numbers uh Coopertown Middle is at 97% capacity. Uh Chrysler put as a one flag being at 85% capacity. East Elementary 99% capacity. East High 94% capacity. Greenber Elementary 85% capacity. Woodall 85% capacity. Heritage Elementary 105% capacity and our innovation academy at 86% capacity. So those are those are the schools that we flagged. Anything at 85% or above and again that's the principal's number. Uh the green and the yellow and the purple numbers just said well what if what if we were at 80% capacity? Where would we be? What if what if we were at 90% of what the core capacity was? So that helps

015you understand that chart. You've seen that. The only thing I've done differently with that is updated that with U May numbers. So that lets us know that one, two, three of our schools are at 95% capacity or better and five of our schools are at 85% capacity or better. Uh the next packet this uh these are reports from the city of white house uh that has the number of uh developments in there. I apologize for these pages not being numbered but this the orange bar bar graphs that you have in your packet. Uh these are the number of housing units and which subdivisions that they are in. These are permits that have been issued in the city of white house and you see that number in there and uh how far complete they are. So

016that's in white house uh similar reports on the next page and I think that talks about uh the capacity and what that's done to the population of the city of white house. Number of permits approved. Again, family permits, commercial permits, city of White House. Uh it goes back to 2017. This is White House data. And I apologize for the poor quality of that. That's the best we can make that look. But you see a breakdown between Sar County, White House, uh Summer County, and Robertson County sides. 4,000 units approved and same thing just a different form of the progress that they're making uh on each of those units and each of those developments. Those are the next two documents. And then finally the last three slides I think or last two slides you had asked

017for uh a historical enrollment in the White House cluster. So we went back u 2022 and those read from the the dark bottom is White House heritage high the middle is White House heritage elementary the top is Woodall Primary. Uh so in 22 you see the numbers 456 60 604 and 106 and then in 23 you see that trending all the way to fall of 25. So these were enrollment numbers as of fall. Next document shows you the same thing with the number of students per grade. So, I think everything that that you had asked us for we we tried to pull together as best we can. And I know it's not in any certain order, so you may have to refer to different documents and pages and titles to things. If if there are

018questions, we may have to find some answers for you if you need those answers or questions. I'll um say this first and foremost, don't get nervous. I don't think it's in I don't think it's in good faith to make a motion on something this this large with only four of us here. So, I want to leave you guys with some food for thought regarding the the the White House cluster. Just a couple of things. Um, we reszoned over a 100 kids at the beginning of this school year. All but 39 were moved. So, if we call that 60 or 70 kids uh that that were reszoned out, we did a resoning of that scale and it kept us basically flat in White House as far as as far as I can tell. even with a

019resoning uh numbers wise. Um that said uh and really probably reasoning notwithstanding we gain students. Um my main concern Heritage Elementary which will be our high schoolers and and middle schoolers going forward has been uh adding enrollment at a pretty pretty incredible clip. I would consider that school my biggest concern in the in in the county really. It's kind of at a critical mass. I've talked to the principal. They're we're we're in a situation right now where my understanding and y'all can feel free to tell me where I have this wrong that um there's a very very real potential to need another sixth grade teacher that we don't necessarily have a classroom for. Uh which would lead us to potentially large single classroom numbers. Um, and I also understand the need for an additional CDC

020room in that school that we don't necessarily have either. Um, obviously we're not going to do anything by this fall to rectify any of that, but with with the numbers I have in front of me, I think it is upon us to be forward thinking when it comes to stuff like this and uh just looking at where the enrollment is. I think if we opened a a a Heritage Middle School in 24 months or whatever it is, that school's probably going to have close to 500 kids in it. When you take a grade band from from Heritage Elementary and give them the room they need, take seventh and eighth out of the high school to accommodate the growth that they're going to have when these elementary schoolers are getting to that age based on their

021numbers here. Um I just think it's really really hard to ignore. I know I know 1,300 more homes in the city of White House in Robertson County to be built. Every one of those developments I'm familiar with, I've mentioned this before, they're turning dirt in those. Um, single family residences go up a little bit quicker than a big school building. So, I don't want to I don't want to bring anything to to to four members of the board and that's it tonight. But um I think we are really really rapidly approaching the point where we need to talk to the county commission about funding for this. Need to allow funds for the purchase of land. Hopefully this in Springfield works out and and plan long term. I know we've we fight the the fight of

022you know the voucher program and and you know different things, but um the one thing I know to be true or I wouldn't live here is that Robertson County is a great place to live. And I think I think uh that's going to keep people coming here and we need to be ready for them when they when they have their kids start school with us. So I think personally that looks like two schools in the next several years and I hope we can find a way to get that done but I think I think and I'll be quiet after this. I just think that the critical critical need is in White House right now just to have a spot for each of these students to to sit. So, food for thought before the next meeting

023when we have more folks here, but just wanted to put that out there. >> So, I'm just kind of looking here. Um, does your focus is on White House Heritage Elementary School? >> It it's definitely the the most. >> And so, that is grades currently >> three through six. And you got a high school that's at 76%. That currently has six, seven, and eight, which would pull them out, right? >> It has It has 78, >> the the elementary school. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Seven and eight. So, we're going to pull out 300 students based on I mean, it's always give or take. >> Sure. Sure. You're going to pull 300 students out and you're at 76%. I'm not real good at math. That would take it down to probably 50% capacity. >> Close. I

024mean, the classes in that are your current middle and elementary schoolers at Heritage Elementary are larger than this current batch of high 9 through 12s uh as general rule. So, you're probably a little bit higher than that. Um, >> so I mean I I understand but we've lost students in the last three years according to the data from 1,06 to 944. So despite all the building we've lost students. Now when you look at East Robertson which >> is two schools there are literally at 99 and 94%. So, you're going to have to do some lottery res. If we add a 600 student building in the White House cluster, the only way that makes any sense at all is if we are helping East Roberts, which means reszoning. White House cannot support 600 schools, you know,

025a new building at $50 million based on the numbers in my opinion. >> Well, yeah. I mean, you're moving in with probably 500 in the building is because you got you got grade bands. So it's not like >> then you're going to take 500 for some other building. So you're going to you're going to fix one and reduce the other ones. >> Oh, I mean I'm I'm open to discussion about it. I just I I >> I'm not against it. I'm just saying no include Robertson. they're in 99 and 94 and had said a word about a building >> and and I mean I think there's a a serious need there and my only reason that I'm probably not jumping up and down as much about east right now is that the development is not

026as crazy out there for lack of a better word you know >> I hear development but development has not meant more students in our seats the data shows it so if I'm a county commissioner or taxpayer which I I'm taxpayer. I'm thinking to do this I got to help as many of our students as possible which is the East Robson cluster in addition to White House because adding a 600 student building you just simply took two more buildings and put them at half capacity. That's a lot of money to be sitting there half full. >> I understand that and and you know I think that I think the my thought is you know I'm I'm I'm in the community every single day. you know, the numbers at the elementary school for whatever reason are are

027staggering the growth that they've had. I' I' I'd really like to not a get caught in just terribly dire straits when the growth does continue and b, you know, I don't I don't think it's a it's it's smart of us to to build a school that's going to be at 100% capacity on day one because then we're not thinking forward either. And I'm not I'm not saying you build one at 50%, but I mean >> but your trend what bothers me about it is the trend in public education. It ain't good. >> So I I'm all for but I'm not for $50 million and five years from now they're at 50% capacity and there's nothing we can do about it. I mean I >> I understand that. >> I understand. I'm I'm not as I'm,

028you know, personally, and this is, you know, obviously fine, I'm not as I'm not as bearish on public education as as maybe some folks. I think I think if you live in a in a good place, you still you still have enrollment. I could be proven wrong in that in any given year. Um I I believe that that there's parts of our county, if not the county as a whole, that are going to experience growth, and I just want to be ready for it. I want to give every student we have the best shot, especially when we're talking about getting our test scores up. You know, we had a lot of conversations about classroom sizes and we've got a school that is probably going to have classroom sizes that are a little bit larger than

029I think we would be comfortable with as a board. And I'm open to any and all, you know, uh solutions. I just I don't know the only and the only one that I say I wouldn't be open to, you know, we've got 39 kids in the in the White House cluster that held on from Greenbryer. Yeah. >> That number will get lower because new enrollments can't, you know, that that'll that'll kind of satisfy itself, but >> all all the the new students that we'll have are they live in the city limits. There is no reasonzoning option, you know, with with these new developments. So, um I totally understand where you're coming from. I I just I I don't know. >> And historically, I think, unless somebody can correct me, I mean, elementary school enrollments, I

030think it's pretty natural. You'll see elementary school enrollments higher and you'll see some drop offs when you get in the middle school and high school years. I think that's statistically correct, unless I'm wrong. I mean, I think >> if if elementary schools are high, you'll see some drop off because they'll go, you know, other places. Um, but I do think if we can study and look at how can we also li, you know, help the Easter Robertson cluster and look at those numbers to say if we built this school, we could reszone this section to to help these two numbers. Um, I mean, just doing it based on the number of houses being built, the data doesn't show that that impacts our schools. At least it hadn't. I've been on this board since 2016 and

031>> and I'm not I'm not hanging my hat on that fully. I mean, They're all, you know, we're not going to get zero new students from these homes being built. That's just not reasonable to think either. But I what I see is that we've got a school in the cluster, one school specifically, that is in bad bad shape when it comes to having room. So, I'm I'm more than anything, I'm looking for a solution at that school. Um, >> and I think that's reasonable >> and and I and I'll I'll say this, you know, I don't disagree as far as potentially reasoning. Um, I wasn't on the board then. I don't know. I don't know if any of us were um when we built, you know, Heritage High School, Middle and High, whatever it is,

032the newest school, uh there was a great deal of reasonzoning when that happened, but nothing changed really at our elementarymentaries, which is so so you know, we we we broadened that zone because we had a brand new high school, but those elementary schools, you know, that and and I feel like that's kind of the boat that we're in. So, while I I don't know how creative we can get if we talk about that, if we have, you know, you attend another elementary school to get to before you get to middle or whatever, if we have a situation like that, but um I can say this, I'm wholeheartedly with you on making the most of the resources that we have existing in the county. I just I I've kind of I've scratched my head a lot

033over Heritage Elementary because I don't really know where we go with them. Well, Scott, I agree. The numbers are kind of shocking. Just it it's elementary and high school. It's everything at East and just looking at these zone lines where we've got them right now. Um I mean, I think this board and would do I mean, as I look at these numbers at, you know, Roberts County, we didn't do the best job years ago. We've got schools, we've got one at 37%, one at 48, one at 54. um 60 62. We got a lot of schools. Each one of them has a principal, SRO officer, a nurse, and other staff. At some point, instead of building more schools, we may need to look at consolidating because it's it's very expensive to have a school with

034the same resources with 200 student. There's one with 119, one with 257, 400. It costs just as much as it does one over with 600 students. I mean, not count the teachers, of course, but I'm saying at some point we got to do something to fix some of those problems. And if I'm a taxpayer, which I am, I would say if you come to me with a plan that says, I'm going I'm going to help these two schools close this one and build this one and combine resources. That's something I think the county commissioner and a taxpayer would say that makes sense. But building buildings when you got multiple buildings less than 50% to me would be a problem. Um I mean the easier button is just to spend $50 million and move on. But

035I don't think we're in a time where that's going to be feasible. Especially in the Springfield cluster because these are we got three schools in Springfield clusters at 50% or less and we don't have a middle school. So with 900 something roofs being built as we talked about White Waterhouse and 6,000 of them approved, Coobertown's full. They can't go there. So I think we got a bigger picture we got to work on other than just saying let's put a middle school at White House. There's got to be some other solutions to help other areas and maybe look at these schools that are less than 50% and what can we do there? I mean that's just kind of me. If I was going to my boss on the private sector and trying to sell this, that

036would be the task I would have to do. And I would expect the same thing for our county commissioner would want the same info. I mean, I'm open to and I know it makes complicated, but I'm just with 500 less students we had eight years ago, we're going to build another 600 capacity building. At some point, somebody's going to say, "Okay, we've got to consolidate, do consolidating, utilize our buildings." uh in long run it would save the taxpayers money versus just adding building after building. Well, I'll ask this devil's advocate. I mean, because I I mean, I want I I want the support of the board on this. I mean, I'm still a believer uh just because of of conversations I've had with administrations and parents and all that stuff uh in a Heritage Middle

037School. So, at what at what point, you know, We've, in my opinion, you know, we've done all the reasoning I'm going to vote for in the White House cluster. I don't mind saying that publicly. I just don't see anywhere else that we can that we can tighten it up. So, >> there's nowhere for them to go. They can't go to Easter. >> Right. Um, what what do enrollment numbers need to look like in White House before that becomes a need? You know, we own the land. um year-over-year, you know, you get a little bit of a blip with the resoning. You know, >> I call it I call it even even for this year over year. So, as we start trending upward at some point, you know, I I can with a lot of certainty

038say at some point I think I think White House is going to it's going to be a need that we can't ignore. I'm not saying that we're ignoring it now. I'm just, you know, we we've seen growth in the community. We had a little bit of a dip with a reasonzoning, but we're trending upward. And I think there I think I know we lost some year, but I think we enrolled 50some new students uh in the cluster. Yeah. >> This past year. So, >> but 22 23 went down, 24 went down, and 25 may have been some of the zoning, but the data just doesn't show that. But I think if if we can zone and show that we can pull two to 300 students from East Robertson cluster to help their numbers, I mean,

039I think it would be more beneficial to the community to help the Robertson side also. And I I mean I wouldn't be against that at all. I I would want to be mindful of our of our elementaryaries in that case primarily would all because you know they're not losing a grade band or anything like that if we and they're they're making it right now capacity wise so I would just want to be mindful of that but I mean I wouldn't be against it by any stretch >> mindful of mindful of what now >> mindful of what all so you know if if we if we build a middle school you know you take a whole grade band off of Heritage Elementary so you you give them room immediately same with the high would all you

040know pre-K through two they're they're going to be they're are where they are. So if we expand the zone I would just want to be mindful of of their space too. Well your middle school doesn't necessarily I mean it you may do a fourth fifth sixth seventh e. It's not ideal but you may have to add a grade and then that would that would help. You could do some shifting because you got 1100 students between those properties. >> Okay. I'm just gonna Is this a band-aid we're looking at or is it a good fix for the future of it? I think that's what's given me. And you know, when you talk about students going to other schools, maybe they're looking at the facilities, maybe maybe if we had something a little more appealing in some

041places, it might draw those in. Um I I don't know. I I know public education is is getting a bad rap right now, but I can't sit here and say that I'm I don't see public education in a bad way. And y'all know I never I'm not saying that's just >> I know it's in my roots, but uh I don't know. I feel like I I would like for students in Robertson County to have a building to be proud of, to go to have the facilities that they need that they deserve. You know, went to those graduations. And I, you know, I say this all the time, y'all. I look at the faces when they get that diploma and I think, man, they're so proud of what they've done. And, you know, I'm a taxpayer,

042too. And I know that there's some things that we can do here probably, but I'd like to give them a place that they can be proud of to go to school. The building, that's just me. That's that's the school teacher in me. That's the mama in me. That's the grandma and you know I understand that. So um I just felt like I needed to say that because I'm done. >> Well, it's worth noting. I mean you said it, Scott. You know I the I don't want to automatically assume, you know, that that that old model of however many kids per household would be coming to your public schools. Maybe that has changed. Um but you know we are in a situation where this all shows a tremendous amount of development coming to the Springfield cluster

043still a lot to come out of the ground in White House. A lot of the stuff that's completed is not sold yet. Um, so as those homes are filled, I feel like there's a real deal scenario where we end up with a a big-time need for maybe both of these middle schools. I'd rather I'd rather not, you know, if we talk about being a taxpayer, I'd rather not subject the taxpayers to a situation where we're backed into a corner and have to build two at once or two in in the course of, you know, or two at once. I mean, yeah, if cards fell that way. So, um, it's no small expense. I think I think anybody on the board would agree that they're a little bit more comfortable with their property tax and wheel

044tax, what it's done with it than their federal income tax. Um, so, you know, I can see I can see the taxes I pay on my place and my vehicles going into positive things in Robertson County. I don't speak for everybody. Nobody likes to pay more taxes than I have to, but I'd much rather I'd much rather see my tax money spent locally than however else it gets spent. I don't know what the um I believe there's a need. I I I do I I don't know that anything will change my mind on that. I understand it's very costly, but you know, I said in the last planning session, and I don't mean this in any way negative whatsoever. It just is what it is. I I still based on conversations I've had can't help

045but feel like if we owned a pad ready site for a middle school in Springfield, we'd have already approved it and it'd be under construction right now. And using the same logic we're using for the White House cluster, the numbers definitely don't support that right now. Uh I do feel like there is a need for a middle school in Springfield, especially being the county seat and all that. I mean, I'm not saying that I don't support that because I do, but uh I want to look at everything through the same lens and through the same but like I said, I'm not going to I'm not making any motion tonight or anything like that just because we only have four of us. But I will ask the four that are here to go back through this,

046consider everything, look at Look at what we've got in front of us. >> Well, remind me even if even if something was approved soon, uh I mean is it even is it was it possible for a school to even be built by 28? >> No longer. No, we would >> we're now talking fall of 29. >> Fall of 29. >> Fall. I think they said if we really knew what we wanted and and all the financing and everything went through, we could possibly get in midyear 2829 school year if we're talking about the White House building, >> right? >> And to me, that's not that's not a terrible scenario. You you're you're taking students from one building and essentially moving them across the street. So, that's that's pretty doable. you know, we're not talking about

047taking uh if we were talking about a Springfield Middle School, we'd be talking about one school, breaking it apart, and pulling people there. I think that'd be a disaster. So, I don't think that'd be anything we'd want to do in the middle of the year. >> Okay. >> Uh in the White House Heritage scenario, I think doing that at winter would be feasible. It's not ideal, but I think it'd be feasible. Uh if we were talking about another school, I'd just prefer to go ahead and wait till the fall, you know, the summer to to move during the summer as opposed to the other. >> A large majority of the of what's being built in White House is what I would consider u with with some of those, not not all of those subdivisions, but

048with some is what I consider first-time home buyer >> types. It makes sense that even though we're not seeing that as much that the elementary school is subject to expand more what what is in and so we we've got sever so if that happens and uh how hard would it be and I was just trying to look at the numbers and uh this 160 students I guess this is based on this school year Was that even a been a thought to move those that sixth grade over to >> I mean would that relieve >> over to the hospital? >> Uhhuh. >> We've not looked at that at all. >> I mean that might be a disaster in itself. I don't know how it's I'm just like I mean >> well that would be I mean

049it would >> so that's going to put that move,00 students into the high school um at a capacity of 1,200. I mean >> say that again >> if we put another 160 if we put the sixth grade down in the high school there's already 950 there. So another 160 would put them 1,100. I mean, I was just looking at the capacity of the elementary school right now, and I mean, it's it's overcrowded at 105%. >> And we know we have one portable there. We're talking about probably needing to put another portable at White House Heritage Elementary this year. We've not had conversation with Heritage High administration about moving sixth grade there, but we can certainly have that conversation and see what >> I mean I I don't know what that would entail. I think that's

050what we're looking at. And then, >> you know, how far would we have to move the line towards East Robertson zone >> to pick up a couple hundred extra students? You know, just if we did build, you know, is the majority of the students on the south side of East Robertson zone? Are they in the north side? So, if we I just want to make sure it's reasonable to move the line. How far how many students can we pick up by moving it a mile or two? Whatever. Whatever is reasonable from a transportation standpoint. So to draw more kids to White House if we were to build. Okay. >> Yeah. And then because I guess to to Josh's point, you'd want to know, of course, you can't tell the future, but you'd want to know

051are those middle school kids currently and high school kids because if they're all elementary school kids, you got to know you don't you got a problem, >> right? >> Um like how many potential middle school from fifth graders up, I guess. And it's hard for me to tell from that map. >> Yeah, I I I was looking at that while y'all were having discussion. Um this dividing line, the West Cook Road that's over here just south of uh Chapel. >> Mhm. >> So that road is 2.9 miles from White House Heritage. It's three and a half miles to East Robertson. And we could go and look at how many students are actually >> we can actually pull numbers of students in that cluster. Uh Owens Chapel Road is just north of here. So I mean

052Kenny, I'm not trying to do your job. Uh but if we were to if we were to run a bus route through Owens Chapel and go north and Owens Chapel South, come back to White House, we could easily count those numbers. >> Yeah. Just to see. I mean >> just to see. Yeah. Now, I'm really going to cloud the waters. This is just this is not even what we're nothing on the agenda, but um it when East Robertson High School property was purchased, is there room anywhere on that property if it ever needed to expand? I know there's a lot you you've got everything's built around, but is there any ground that's on there if the day ever came? I think we just put a barn on our last available property up there as best

053I remember. >> Paulfield's barns and everything. Yeah, that's so that's that campus will be full as far as I can tell. >> Gotcha. >> Even even for like a a wing or anything off the main. Is that what you were talking about? >> Yeah. Or either that or even anywhere on the grounds. I don't think we have sewage system to support anything there. So, we'd have to be looking at a total self-sufficient sewage system. And, you know, I I never going to say never, but I I don't know how that'd be possible right now at all. >> Yeah. >> Just curious. I didn't I didn't couldn't figure out any way with the elementary schools. was just wondering if there was any a spot that was that was part of their property. >> The the elementary

054school, you do have a little space around both sides. You've got the old football field area back behind. I'm not sure how far that goes out back, but there is at least some space there. So, I know on the Springfield side, just kind of the whole overall theme, you know, we we've got a land issue. Um, but you know, we've got some campuses. Um, you know, Westside's at 78%. That is that including the the new addition we've done. Is that updated numbers? >> I'm going to say not. Just be my guess. I guess when I'm, you know, kind of, so I think on the White House side, we we've kind of, let's look at some East Robertson numbers and see the possibility of another grade moving um and see what that does. And then on

055Springfield cluster for a Springfield middle. You know, there may be a c couple possibilities that Westside could be utilized more. Um, which means we could have a site um that we can use that's currently a school, but it may not be a middle school with some renovations and additions. I don't know. I just think there ought to be a way we ought to look to see because we got three schools at 50% or less in the Springfield cluster and white and west side that we just spent money on. I think with these updated numbers, you're probably going to be at around that 50% mark and we have a whole another side that could be redone. That is a nice piece of property on the Springfield side that I guess from the Springfield cluster, we got

056to look at can we do some shifting? Can we utilize something we currently have from a middle school standpoint? First started from ground zero. I probably made that more complicated than it needs to be. I think potentially you're going to have four schools when we have the other end of the White House that's either 50% or less and one of these sites could potentially be a middle school site. You not drive by Gulletville, that middle school. It's not on 30 acres. So, it could be done. And we're talking about purchasing land and doing development site. That's millions of dollars when we may be able to do some I mean, it's it's never fun moving schools, but got four buildings here. It's going to be at 50% less probably or close to it in the in

057the city of Springfield. and one site that I drove by yesterday and I was looking at thinking it could possibly work for a middle school. Now, you couldn't have three three or four ball fields or anything like that, but you got ball fields three blocks down the road. So maybe that's some things we can look at just to see if it's even feasible at all from our have our architects and Jam and him look at two or three current sites and what would it take to turn that into a middle school. I don't know how good did it on that can't be more than five acres. >> They just went up, didn't they? >> They went up instead of out. >> That's the one on Dickerson Road right there. I drove by the other day

058was just looking going how in the world when they just went up and they still have I think one or two ball fields back by there. I just want us to explore every option before we go ask for money. That's seven and a half acres down there. >> It is. >> Yeah, that's >> Yeah. >> I don't know how many I don't know if it's six through eight. I don't know their I don't know what their grade levels are at that school, but The days will have 30 or 40 acres for a school are beginning to be difficult. >> Looks like the new Goodville Elementary is going to be about 12 acres. Just for reference, it's right up the road there. Well, are we ready to talk budget? We >> Oh, we have we have

059we I think we're a little bit past, aren't we? >> I have a question. these data folks have on your website on the website. >> Typically, we don't post these. I'll be glad to share these with you, make these available for copy, but typically we don't put supplementary materials. We put agendas on the website. >> So, if somebody wanted a copy, they just see you to get a copy of everything. >> Miss Trice's office provides those. >> Yes, sir. Anything that's public documents? Yes, sir. All right. Um, moving on to budget items. Is that a separate handout, Dr. Week? >> Yes, sir. members, I'd like to start with the revenue page. And again, uh, as we look at the revenues and expenses for the upcoming year, we're we're projecting, uh, only a half% increase in

060revenues. And again, I think that's as conservative as we can possibly budget. Um, as we know, our our two large items on the local level, uh, it's on the front page there, 401, which is property tax. Um, so you see what our actual was in 242519.2 2 million. Uh this year we're estimating 19.9 million and our increase on there is 20.06 uh million. And uh how we arrive at that number is we take our last five years of collections average those last five years. So I think our lowest collection was 18,000 or sorry 18 million uh right after COVID. So we average all those five years and then we average that with the lowest again. So we come up with estimate of 20.06 million in terms of I'm sorry I talk about sales tax, aren't

061I? That would be 40210 where we come up with the 19.5 million. Current property tax uh was given us uh county commission's budget committee and finance committee met last week and so uh they've given us the value of a penny. That's where you see property tax at 20.06 million. Going back to my conversation on sales tax line 40210 about a third of the way down the page 19 a.5 million. And uh that's where we come up with that estimate by taking our our average of the last five years as well as our lowest one again averaging. Uh, I think that's where we usually um receive approval and confirmation from the budget committee. Um, I think a lot of times we look at that 22 million and see, well, that's what we collected this year. Why

062aren't we budgeting that again next year? And so we have been very successful in using that formula to budget sales tax revenue. Uh, so sales tax revenue at 19 and a half is our estimate for the budget there. The last big number is the next to the last one down at the bottom of your page and that is our teasa estimate or the number that uh comes from the state of Tennessee and you see that estimate at $88.3 million. So those are our three big uh pieces of revenue that come to us. Property taxes, sales taxes, and state teas. Uh the rest of everything uh in comparison to those numbers is rather small. Uh but you see our total revenue or estimate of revenue down at the very bottom of that page 140 994455 140,994,455.

063That's the easy part. Questions on revenue? So our actual for this year was 142. Let's see that >> our revenue was we budgeted 1401 140413 and we have estimated that we'll receive 149 million and so that 149 uh that comes with grants that comes with federal flowthroughs and everything that comes to us. Uh but in terms of numbers that we count on uh again we budgeted 140 million to start the year uh the other numbers pretty much are all tied to some sort of grant or some sort of bonus that came to us from the state. Uh there's no I don't foresee I mean you never know if you're going to get a grant and make application for them. Uh but the things that we have counted on from the state like the ISM money

064that has come in for the last four or five years that will not be returning. We know that for a fact. Uh so uh I think we very conservatively have budgeted 140 might as well say 141 million in terms of revenues. So I guess we're pretty much at the end of the school fiscal year technically speaking for the state. So what do we think will contribute to our fund balance? >> Half million dollars. >> Pretty close. >> Yeah. >> And so we'll remind the board we we did as we approached this year because of things just like we talked about in terms of uh not truly budgeting what we received in terms of revenues. We budgeted again what upon the advice of county finance and how we've done that. Uh we budgeted showing a potential

065dip in our fund balance about 8 and a.5 million and budget that we have for you today is going to do about the same thing. Uh last year current year we budgeted that we would projected to use $ 8.8 million of our fund balance knowing that that was not going to happen. As I said we came out $500,000 to the good. So uh roughly uh we have conservatively either received the income or not spent expenditures of about $9.5 million. So that's that's usually part of the plan. And so uh we the revenues and expenditures will look very similar this year. And so let me send that document around with you to you. So, our fund balance as of today, we didn't use the eight and a half that we thought we might. >> We did

066not. >> Our fund balance is sitting roughly at >> 20. Well, I used to know that number. >> Um, we're projecting conservatively about 28. And just for always have to remember this the state or there's some percentage of our budget that we kind of have to have in a fund balance. Is it 3%? >> State says 3%. Dr. Wigs prefers 14%. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> I I would >> I would I would not want to come to work if we had a 3% fund balance. That would make life very difficult. >> So, we're sitting at about a 20% >> somewhere there. >> Okay. I can't do math anymore. I have to do my calculator. >> Uh, former members, I'll be glad to go through this as however you choose to do. I'll be glad

067to do it line item by line item. We'll be glad to do it. Uh, bullet points that we've added. I think those are some of the things that we've talked about is is where the bullet points are, the big changes, and maybe that's what interests you the very most. Let me share this document that would have have those items in terms of what this budget does, what this budget has or considerations that uh you might ask about the budget. Uh we have two teaching positions on hold. So, those will be two new positions because again, as we've talked a lot about enrollment, you never know who's going to show up, where they're going to show up, and they don't come in nice, neat little packages. Uh so, in order to uh hold or reduce pupil

068teacher ratios, we've placed two hold positions in there on in the budget. Uh we have two special education teaching positions. We we're continuing to see an influx of students that have uh special education needs and our teachers, our class loads and behavior classes. All of those things are uh have demands. So, we're looking at two special education teaching positions and five teacher assistants. Uh we knew we were going to have to add to the budget the ISM grant teachers to middle school. So, that's money the state has given us for the last four years and we've known that that was coming. So that's uh been in there. Uh we have a district behavior therapist rather than having to contract that out. We have someone who can work with our most severe severely behaved students. Uh

069the board had asked that we look at a district athletic coordinator. We have talked to you about uh desire to restructure some buildings and grounds positions. And then um -ate it is one of those things that the federal government gives us some money in order to manage our internet services. Uh we have to meet that match and so that match is in there. Uh they have they've requested that we increase that by six times or 600% there. Uh at current, we just used $188 per certified position as a uh placeholder for raises, not knowing what you wanted to do with that. Uh we've been told by the state retirement is going up 9% on every employee. See those line items impacted greatly. Uh medical insurance, they've not given us the final number, but they've told

070us to expect uh a double-digit number and they've suggested 12%. The 188 is that in addition to their normal >> step increases. Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, that's an additional Okay. >> Yes. Uh we always have contractual issues and regular things that go up every year. So, several of our contracts u uh mowing, landscaping, all of those type things, they have natural building increases. And I also wanted to tell you what's not in the budget that we know we're going to have to do this year. So technology, uh, we are going to have to use computers to test all of our elementary and middle school students this year. Uh, so we're going to need laptop computers for those students and that's not in the budget. We'll um at an appropriate time we'll try to take

071that money from our fund balance in order to use that. Uh we have not budgeted for school buses in the budget itself but again we typically take that from fund balance anyway and uh depending on where HVAC projects are and where we need to do some HVAC work uh we've we've limited some of that number we we still have some repair dollars in our budget but if we need large HVAC projects and I think we've talked about a couple that may need some major overhauls or complete replacements we know we'd have to do Um, we know we'd have to use fund balance for those. But again, those are what your fund balance is for is those those special projects that you need that. Uh, so across the bottom of that document, you'll see the numbers

072that we talked about. Uh, budgeting 141 million, our expenditures of 149 million, and so our budget uh, right now showing $ 8.5 million. Uh so we're to the good 2.9% on that assuming it revenues and assuming we can continue to manage budgets the way we have. Again, if you'd like to go through line items by line items, be glad to do that. If you uh see or have other projects or other pieces of information that you'd like us to add to the budget, uh we can do that. Um, we will get one more estimate from the state on what our TISA dollars are, but our last TESA estimates have been very consistent with the number you saw on your revenue document at at 88 million. So, I do not that may change 100,000 that may

073change 125,000, but it's not going to fluctuate any more than that. I don't think sales tax and property tax will not change. Again, I think county commission has not set a property tax rate, but I think we know what the value of a penny is. So, we know that number is pretty steady. Um, anything else on there in terms of marriage licenses, mixed drink tax, all those, you know, those are we're only talking thousands of dollars there instead of hundreds of thousands. Anything that's going to make a major impact on your budget. Um, I've attended every meeting of the county commission's budget committee so far and we know that it's going to be a tight budget year all across the county. Uh, I've not heard a specific amount that county employees are getting in terms

074of raise yet. I'd heard I heard at one time uh elected officials had to be given raises. I've not heard any numbers for uh county employees. So, we try to be consistent with what county employees do. And uh the budget meetings I've been through, I've not seen any dollars added to county employee budgets either for for raises and increases there. Uh so we uh we bring this budget to you and again it's uh it's not my budget, it is a school systems budget and so we're we're proud to present that um relatively as flat as we possibly can. So increasing revenues only a half percent decreasing expenditures by 14%. So uh what we have here is a decrease of 14% in our overall expenditures. Again, a lot of that is attributed to the law, I'd

075say the loss of grants, the the lack of recurring grants from the state that they have they're not sending to us. And uh the um if you'll recall last year, the state sent us a large amount, I think it was $1.4 million roughly for uh as a part of a governor's initiative to raise teacher salaries to 50,000. Well, we were already there, so we do not get that money again. So, that was one time money that came into our revenue pot that's not there again. But, uh, again, board members will be glad to go through. Um, anything that you see, anything that you might have questions about. Uh, there is nothing fancy in the budget. It's it's basically the same budget we have operated on. As I said earlier uh with with the exception of

076these things that you see on your uh your budget highlight page u on page three and page number two in the right hand column very bottom um I tried to point out major things that that have changed. Uh if you look at our textbook budget uh it's really down. This is a it's not a major year for adopting textbooks. So, uh, health, music, a few CTE textbooks and things like that. So, it's not a a normal science, English, math, core, curriculum type textbook year. So, uh, textbooks are down quite a bit. Um, when you look at the CTE budget, it will appear as it's down. Um, on page eight, you see that number and it looked scared me a little bit to see we were down 25% in that CTE budget. Again, that's not that's

077not that we're cutting CTE programming in any way. Those numbers are where we had to add and compensate for the ISM grant that is no longer available. So, those numbers appear in a regular teacher item on page one and two. So those teachers are absorbed absorbed in those categories. Everything else you see um probably a plus one% on somewhere and a minus one or 2% somewhere else. Uh but I think everything else that you look at is somewhere in the four or 5% range. Uh the one number that still bothers me a little bit is in our transportation department over on page 25. Um if anybody knows what diesel prices will be next year, that would help me budget a whole lot. Um we are we are okay right now. Uh you'll see uh we

078had budgeted $600,000 for diesel. Uh we have spent year to date 58,000. Uh so we're kind of hitting about $100,000 over last year. Uh we we budgeted 550 for for the 2627 year and I hope hope I'm wrong to the good, but I don't know where diesel fuel's going. That's the one line item in the entire budget that I I don't know that anybody can predict where that one's going to go. If you look over on page 30, our capital outlay budget. Um, we've carried some money in there for architects. We've carried some money in there for land. We've carried some number for or some numbers uh and 799 for large projects. I mentioned air conditioning projects and things like that. Again, those are numbers that would come back in here. If we go ask

079for so if we need a half million dollars for school buses, we go get that out of fund balance and then that transfers in here. So that's why you see uh those numbers are not in the budget per se. Those would be coming from fund balance if we need those. So those will be drawn into this category. Uh same thing if we if we come to an agreement and we decide that that land is needed, we take that either from the fund balance or from the bond issuance that we talked about last time and then that would that would fund this line item or a 177 category which is major capital outlay projects. When will we know what the county is doing? Um if if anything on those increases for certified position. >> Uh next

080meeting is Tuesday afternoon. Um I think I mentioned this in the planning session. You know, we we it's been four years since we did a really really good increase to get to that number. U 50,000 starting. You know, we the increase has been minimal since then. Understand that, you know, especially coming off of a really really good increase across the board. Medical insurance going up potentially to this degree even with STEP. I mean, I hate to think that we could have a certified staff member that takes a take-home pay cut going into the new school year. Um, I know we want to we do everything we can to retain talent. I I just, you know, that's that's that's not something that's going to come even close to even a first year or a second year

081teacher, you know, that increase plus a step raise. I mean, you're not even, you know, you're probably less than 1% as far as increase goes, plus an increase in the medical. That's >> I know that's the largest part of this budget, but just something to consider. I Yes, sir. I think it's pretty typical that salaries and benefits are usually heard anywhere from 80 to 86% of our budgets. And I think that would hold true for us as well. Um, >> how do we compare to the counties around us? I know we kind of got out in front of making that increase. >> Sure. I have to assume our surrounding counties have caught up if not surpassed us. >> State law has required them to catch up. So yes, every everyone's starting salary and I think

082someone had asked for this. So I'll go ahead and share this. This was uh this was this year's salary scale. And so this year a starting teacher with a bachelor's degree in Robertson Kane would make 5161251,612. Um that is um slightly higher than Sun County. Uh definitely higher than Chetum County. U similar to Clarks and McGomery County and not anywhere near metro usually. Um our our attraction for the last several years has always been our benefits package. We have uh for a long time when when negotiations acts were in process you know we year after year the negotiation teams managed and worked out a nice insurance benefit package. I think a family insurance premium nowadays is somewhere over $20,000. So, when we hear that's going up 12%, I mean, that's that's $2,500. And so, um,

083you know, I know you can't spend insurance money at the grocery store. And so, that does impact where we are. Um, you ask in terms of other districts, I think in terms of our starting salary down through through the first 10 or 12 steps or so, I think we're very competitive with with people, uh, your Wilson counties, your Sumar counties, your Tetums for sure, Dixon for sure, Humphre is anywhere west in that direction. uh we're going to be very competitive down through about years 15 or so. Sar County has uh somewhere I'd say around the 20 year probably Sun County salary numbers are going to exceed ours and so they're going to do that. Um, but again, that's I think that's usually at the place that a lot of people realize how much they do

084need insurance or the potential of having uh good health insurance package is. So, >> so yeah, I mean I guess that was my So, we're still firmly firmly competitive outside of Davidson and Williamson County >> and maybe Clarksville, but again, and our insurance package is better than Clarksville's. that a lot of people, you know, will look at this number rather than what what does my paycheck actually bring to me and what benefits does my paycheck bring to me? >> Because I think at one time I know we're in the top four of every category on benefits. We pay 90%. Whether you're family, couple, single, and I think last time we saw a few years at Open State, we were one, two, or three or four. >> Yeah. in every category of what we do for

085our benefit. That's a big deal. >> It is. >> That's a big deal. More than just a salary that benefits. >> Yeah. >> You know, believe pay mine and it's not fun. >> Dr. weeks. Can you go back and explain again um why the 26 27 year on the grant money why that's zeroed out and just curious >> any particular grant particular like the ISM grant >> and are there other grants that we're missing out on just like some kind of construction grants and we're talking about is is there some do we have a dedicated grant writer or how does that work? Uh we do not uh those are those are things that um we have people on staff who do that regularly and uh a lot of those come from our federal programs department

086and they they constantly seek grants that are presented to us. Um, I know last in the last two weeks we we earned a grant that's not shown here. That's uh by by pointing one of our staff members to a state committee, state commission. Uh we received a $50,000 grant for that. You know, that's again that's minimal dollars, but those are just some of the examples of, you know, they send an email, would you like to do this? Would you like to participate? and here's the grant that offsets some of that cost to us. Uh so that happens. Um but in terms of the ISM grant has been largest grant that and again that was Governor Lee's initiative to enhance CTE programming right throughout the state. So uh that's >> that's probably a $7 million loss.

087Each high school received a million dollars. Each middle school received a half million dollars. Right. >> So, we knew that was a four-year program and we've enjoyed it and it's done a lot of nice things to our county. Uh, but those dollars are going away not just from us but from every other school district in the state. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, so I know we use some of that, you know, those those funds and correct me that that was a basically use your grant money to implement this program after this time's out. you were carrying the load for whatever additional expense that is. >> Yeah. If our green houses break down next year, there is no ISM money to fix those green houses. We're we're gonna have to correct those issues. Now, >>

088is there a rough estimate, which I mean, I think it's still obviously worth taking advantage of. I don't I don't doubt that. Is there a number now that now that we're I know you said that a lot of those that those funds were absorbed in other parts of the budget. Is there a way to know exactly roughly what that like for next year what the expenses directly related to those ISM grant programs are just out of curiosity. I mean salaries. Yes. Um some operational expenses. Uh I think that one of the last ones that that we're really excited about we we're implementing the aviation program. Uh it's going to be run at the airport. We'll have a licensed flight instructor teaching that program. Um ISM money has bought the equipment is helping put the building

089there that we're going to be able to use and help set that building up. Uh ISM is going to take care of all the software that we've used and the computers that'll be needed to to run the program. We're going to have ongoing costs that right now are unknown. salary for the instructor, uh, electricity, internet services there, those computers will wear out one day and we'll have to decide we want to replace those. So, some of those ongoing costs are are going to be embedded in other places in our budget. So, >> that makes Yes and no. >> Yeah, makes sense. Thank you. >> Uh, you did see the salary scale and I think someone had asked for a salary and experience matrix. Uh so if you've never seen one of these uh on the

090back of this page and again this is current year data uh this tells us how many of our staff are at what position on the salary scale. So reading across we had 48 teachers who have a bachelor's degree and no experience. So those are 48 new teachers starting last year. Uh read that document as you need to. So the experience, how much experience they have down the left side column and then the degrees that they are paid upon in the other columns. So out of our 10,024 employees, you see where they all fall. Again, this is current year data. So our retirees will roll off there and we'll begin to to repopulate this document as we hire new folks. One thing that we've noticed is, you know, again, the 485 teachers with a bachelor's degree,

091446 with a mast's. And so, you know, roughly 90% of our teachers have a bachelor's or a masters. That helps us in budgeting. We use that document to, you know, if we add add other increases to this. We use this to help help uh prepare those budget numbers. And you know, the difficult part with our budget, of course, is you know, if we said we want to add $100, $100 is fine, but now we also, as I mentioned earlier, 9% goes to retirement. So, we have to add $109 and then the other payroll taxes that go along with that. So, uh, it increases every line item that's associated with an employee benefit. Uh, for everything that we we do add, I think Miss Kleinard reminded me, think every 1% that we do is right under

092a million dollars. So, if we said we wanted to give a 1% raise, which again we typically have not given percentage raise, we've given dollar amount raises. But if we were to give a a 1% raise, that's 940,000 just on the the salary part, not the benefits part to go along with that. So, if there's a desire to add dollar amounts to the budget, um, just know that that's what those impacts look like on the budget. I think this came up, I believe, last year. I don't remember the and I'm going use the wrong term probably the stipens that we do for hard to fill positions and one time I thought that this board made if you receive a stipen for a certain position you got that stipen every year I thought this board did

093that several years ago but if I remember hearing correctly that's not happening if you get a stipen for exposition because it's difficult. It's gone back to one a one time deal. Is that am I accurate on that? >> Yes, sir. That I think y'all heard had some discussion about that last year as we were doing budgets again. I think that that was done before I got here. So, that wasn't included in our budget and it's not included in this budget. And and also what's a what's a hard to fill position this year might not be the same next year. Well, I would think I would always move. I mean, I would I mean, I I'm sure if you looked at the last 15, there's probably some position that's always on there. Um, and there's probably

094some that come on and go off. But I'm just I thought this board made I thought we voted on that to where if you received this part, you going to get it every year. It made no sense to me give it one year and then have that teacher leave in two years. You got to start all over again. But I thought we did that as a board. I don't know how it would have fallen off. That's why I just I don't know. I don't know how that happened. Uh unless I'm remembering that correct. Maybe Jeff. >> And I guess it's kind of like a signing bonus. You know, there there's sometimes a lot of districts will use a signing bonus to attract somebody to come in the door. You know, we give you $500. If

095you sign today, we'll give you $1,000. You know, that that is an acceptable use of what the state calls differentiating. I know we have a schedule. >> Yes. >> Of that pay, >> but for some reason I thought if they got it one it was going to be an ongoing >> but >> that's way >> was some of that stipen money because of a grant >> or no? I think the discussion was if hard to fill position, why would you give a first year teacher that stipen and then not do it the following years when they can leave and you got to start all over again. >> From a financial standpoint, I'm thinking if it's a hard fill position and that teacher wants to stay in there and be tenure in that position, they should

096receive the extra five. If not, they can take a less position that's that doesn't have that, you know, that differentiated pay. I just I don't know how that happened, how we did it, and then it kind of just disappeared. >> And I don't know if that was during the transition of administration. >> It wasn't a whole lot of I think if I remember it was Oh, man. It's always a lot of money, but it was a couple hundred thousand. Um it wasn't like it was in the millions. But if I'm in that position, I I would think that would be to retain that employee in that position. It would be a valuable tool. And that's why we did it. >> That was a couple of years before you came back. Yeah. Okay. >> I mean,

097it was serious that time. >> Doesn't doesn't it stand a reason that those like certain it seems like, you know, some of the foreign languages and maths and special education, you know, they may not be hard to fill this year because we have a person in them like you said, but replacing them may prove difficult. I think it'd be a good retention tool, right? I mean, yeah. I just I'm I'm pretty sure we did it and I remember the documenting was a couple hundred,000 and then somehow it just disappears out of our budget. Um I don't I don't know how that happened other than to use Mr. heard terms and fairy dust or something happened and I don't but I think we need to look at that because in the grand scheme of thing it's

098not a big deal in our overall budget but I think that that person in that position um I'd much rather have a person in a hard field position that's been there 10 or 15 years than hiring that position every two or three years >> can I and I think sometimes that's that's a perception too and when you when you look at teacher morale, too. You know, if I've been teaching math for 25 years and I've been faithful and teaching every day and done a good job every day and you pay somebody $5,000 to come in next door to me, >> you know, that's that's another >> It's always the issue I've had with education. >> Yeah. >> Um you want that hard and fill position, apply for it. >> Yeah. >> You know, the real

099world doesn't work that way. the real world is he's paid differently than I am. She you know it's it's >> but we all have to be in the same basket that that's that's a difficult thing for me to accept. So I think >> I think it's something we ought to look at. Can you can you all provide us just an updated copy of what those supplements or stipens look like for those currently so we can maybe I mean I guess because I guess the only way to fix it would be to take action on it and have it in the meeting in the minutes and Right. I mean I don't think we did that. >> Well, well, I guess I mean that's we did it. Do we go back and review old minutes to make

100sure that we did it and then just leave it there? Do we or can we I don't I don't know what the best way to because I agree. >> I would say you need to do >> I'd say I've got I mean I keep all my emails. I could probably find but every need to make it correct maybe an updated sheet of our differentiated pay. So the board knows what's involved in that. So I'm assuming you guys are a lot, you know, we you know look at that every year to say this needs to come on, this needs to go off. >> Um so maybe maybe like Jeff said, we need to simply start kind of from scratch on that and see if that something this board as a group wants to say we need

101to look at that again and make that a permanent. >> Could that be something we could have by the June meeting to look at? uh the differentiated pay plan. >> Yes, sir. >> And that's enough time to get it if we take action to get it in. >> Uh yes, sir. We we can I I think I think what this board needs to give me direction. I have to go to county commission on June the 9th and present our final budget on June the 9th. So um if there are items that you know right now you know we need to make some changes it it it take a while to make the changes. So we need to know what any of those items may be so that you know if you say let's add a

102percent you know let's just say a percent is $500. If you tell me to add $500 to every employee, we need to know that now so that get all this taken care of and get it back in its final form to you guys by next, not this coming to you, but final the following Tuesday. So, um, you know, whatever that looks like. So if there are changes, we need to we need to be able to do those before the the meeting of the second. >> Okay. What else? Or do we have do we want to discuss this further? And yeah, what I'm hearing and correct me if I'm wrong is that we would need to take action to direct you to do this >> is what I'm hearing. I I have I have done all

103that I feel comfortable doing with the budget, bringing us in showing that uh I know at our last meeting. Uh we even discussed, you know, are we going to continue budgeting $8 million to potentially use fund balance? Well, that's that's where we are right now. So, anything that anything this board says, well, I mean, I'll be glad to, if y'all tell me to add $10 million, I'll be glad to add $10 million to it. Just knowing that's going to put us $18 million out of balance and we have to go present this budget. June the 9th, I think, is our date. >> Sounds right. I like to go I like to go present budgets that I feel very comfortable with. And again, I you know, I want you to be comfortable. It is your budget.

104It's not my budget. But if there are things that you want added or taken out of the budget, uh we need to be able to know that because it's it it is quite the process to it's not just a matter of typing over a line here. It has to go through several calculations to especially if you're talking salaries and benefits. So, if there's direction that needs changing, >> now's the time. >> Now would be a great time to do that. >> So, we made June 8th. >> That's right. So the time on the budget we have to resent, but the county commission takes it up. What's their time? What's with their schedule? We meet on June 8th and that's according to their schedule. That's when our final school budget should be approved, if not sooner.

105Uh, we present our budget on the 9th. They meet again. >> The budget committee. I don't budget. I'm sorry. I didn't. >> Yes, ma'am. To the budget committee. Uh, they meet again on the 16th. And then they they're scheduled to meet as late as July 21st as needed. There's a public hearing scheduled for the final budget. That would be county budget on August the 11th. So basically we've got a,024 teachers. >> Yes ma'am. So typically if teachers get raised, staff would as well. >> Typically in a budget we would do that. I mean that's there's no nothing written no guarantees but I mean we we can add subtract to do anything this board would like. So the budget is submitted and we turn out if we revisit the differentiated pay and it's a couple hundred,000

106200 250 whatever it is what options do we have once the budget submitted? I mean I it's a lot of money but with $149 million budget it's >> um we could approach it two different ways. We could could go down with an amended budget and see how that goes through the budget committee or we could um we could go at a later time and do a budget amendment to to do anything ask for approval to do that. Um I think we did that our first year here we did that. Then um we provided a bonus midyear bonus and we went and asked for uh a budget amendment to take money from fund balance to just pay a bonus to all employees. So that's another way to get to get more money passed down if that's

107the desire. Or we can put it for budget. So that could be an option. Um if we don't have time for to look at that for the budget meeting, >> right? We could we could always designate money and again whether that's Christmas bonuses for employees, whether that's one-time expenditures for employees. U you know that way uh if if we were looking at a bonus structure that you know that can be given to whatever employees this board wish to give those to for whatever reason and it does not become a part of your ongoing budget. So it's not it's not in the budget. So you're not depending upon that for the following year. Things like that might be beneficial if if for instance revenues are not coming in as you project them to and sales tax

108were down or property tax collections were down. uh you know it's it's relatively easy to uh request bonus checks for again I keep using Christmas bonuses but you can get bonuses anytime you chose to Well, maybe maybe we email that sheet, just email us the the data. Um, and then we need to make an amendment to the budget. I guess we could do that on our next meeting and just deal with it at that point. I don't know how rest you guys feel about that or not worry about it at all. So when you say the data, the data related to >> differentiate pay just to say this is what we spend per year and if we made that a permanent then we would know the way it's written now it's only a one time

109deal. So if all that became a yeartoear thing or permanent it would it's a dollar figure tied to it. That makes sense. Nobody make that. >> So, if I were to sign on as a math teacher and that were deemed a hard to fill position and I got a $500 bonus for that year doing that, that that would carry with me throughout my career. >> Yeah. Okay. while ago something was mentioned about the county raises but we didn't know what that looked like. I mean >> um >> so do you expect to hear anything on that soon? get a feeling we will. If somebody knows what that is, maybe they could share that. I don't mind calling Miss uh Miss Stewart in the morning and asking her if she has any idea what that's projected

110to be. I mean, I would love to see our teachers and staff. >> That kind of keeps morale. >> Yeah. >> So, does this board, again, I'm just asking questions for for us to be able to put the budget together. If we find out the countyy's given a 2% raise, is this board asking me to match that dollar-wise for our employees? If they give a 5% raise, do we want to match that for our employees? >> I think personally I think if we Yeah, we already give step raises that are automatic across the board based on experience. Um, I think a >> I don't know how hard it would be to say it was a 2% increase. >> Um, >> to be able to to be able to get a what that average increase is

111across the board for county employees because they're going to be on a scale, too. And then >> that at least gives us a number to work off of. >> Um, I don't I don't know what the county did the year that we did our large increase here. Probably wasn't to that degree. So we I wouldn't necessarily would say that we would need to match it, but I would just like to have a number to compare personally. Is there anything we can do? Do you want us to revise the budget to match that if they let's just say they gave a 3% raise and I think if if we're talking 3% we'd be talking 3% on our base which is 51,000. So that's roughly uh >> $1,500. So uh I mean we can we can add

1121500 times that. So in that scenario, you're probably talking a budget impact of three million roughly based on the numbers that you >> I would love to see that. You're talking about every employee receiving that. I'm going say 3.5 to be close. >> I think it's hard to direct you exactly what to do without seeing what the county comes in. I don't I don't want to be difficult, but >> yeah. And it and I I mean we're glad to work on anything and I we can do it as many times as possible as I wish it were just a matter of typing in one number and saying add 3% to this. It's quite quite more complicated than that. >> But if if if I get some indication in the morning from talking to Miss Stewart

113what our what our potential might be. Let's just say we're 3%. We are we asking me to go ahead and say, "Okay, that's $1,500 per employee." >> At least like to see it, you know, >> see what it looks like. >> Yep. >> See how close I am to 3.3 million. >> Did you say you was going to give us both the set raise and then the percentage? Is that what you were saying? >> I can if that's what you'd like, sir. >> I'd like See, I mean, the accordion effect just keeps getting bigger if you keep giving percentages. >> Well, and I I don't believe in giving percentages, but again, if you know, so that would what that would do, that'd be $1,500 at each step. So, on our pay scale, we'd go from

11451612. $1,500 on that would put us at 53112. And usually the only adjustment is making sure those numbers are divisible by 12 so it comes out evenly on payroll. >> So you'd arrive at a dollar amount based off the percentage. That would be it. >> Right. >> So it would true percentage raise. >> It would just be a dollar amount raised based on a percentage. Yeah. >> And so if that if that number if I'm even close on 3.3 million. So that's going to put us uh 11.9 out of balance. Yes. No. >> So, you don't know? >> I mean, I'm not I'm not saying that that's what we do by any stretch. I I mean, if that's the number, and again, you know, I I'll stress this. I I we almost certainly without knowing

115we almost certainly outpaced the county four years ago by a good margin with the raise that we gave. So to say that now we have to match what the county does even if they do a I don't I don't know that that's necessarily equitable uh between us and the county employees. But um personally I fall somewhere in the middle. I think you give somebody a hundred bucks plus their step raise. you're not every little bit helps, but you're not you're not keeping pace with the cost of living by any stretch. Um, so I'll probably fall somewhere in the middle of those two numbers when it comes time to So would you like me to add $1,000 to each line item? I do. I mean, we we can do anything again that you'd like. 3% it's

116roughly $1,500 for employee 2% it's roughly $1,000 but you know but our you know with the major our existing folks are getting a step raise of $300 something dollars probably anyway >> you're getting a step >> yeah yeah I mean I don't know the number that you know that I feel like is a reasonable number and we can we can always adjust once we see the county numbers. I mean, what if we took like $750 plus your step raise and just see what that looks like? >> Again, I'm I want to be conservative budget wise, but also want to take care of our folks. >> Need a motion for that? >> Some sort of consensus or some sort of direction. >> I'd always like to see what that impact is. I mean, it's a safe

117three and a half and we do >> $750. You're at >> three and a half or 15 or 1.7 million roughly if you did if you did a $750 across the board. Roughly >> I I would think roughly 1.674240 >> roughly. >> That's my guess. And so that puts us at a fund balance of around of taking close to 10, a little over 10, >> a little over 10 million. But again, we've we have I I have budgeted that way for the last 15 years and never once during those 15 years used fund balance. I know it'd be helpful to our payroll department to to go ahead and do that now because trying to If the board passes some sort of budget on the 9th and or on the 8th and then I have to

118go on the 9th to get it in a form that we can present it and everything >> or if there's if there's something on here that needs cutting out, if there's something needs deleting, if there's something need Yeah, we'll be glad to put in whatever. >> Again, it's your budget. >> I'll say I think my conservative number is maybe $750 across the board. That that with the step raise, it's going to give everybody about $1,000 a year increase. I think that's at least appre, you know, appreciable. Um, I'm one of five, six, depending on how you look at it. >> I like that, >> Miss Tony. No, I'm just thinking the way this meeting's gone, do y'all think we're really going to be able to meet on what day is it we're supposed to and

119approve it the next time? >> We're just tired the next day. I mean, I don't know. >> And and if y'all think we can, that's great. I will just next week. >> Well, let's see. I mean, I just hate to see us get here and need to approve something that night so that you have it the next day >> and then >> and we end up like this. I I don't I don't know. >> I was hoping we'd be there today. >> Well, we're not. >> But if we're not So on the budget, the only thing that's really in question is the step raise discussion. I mean, not the step raise, but the >> differentiated pay and the raise in addition to the step of the two. Did I miss anything? >> That that's what

120I was just about to ask. Is there anything else? Because I think we've got a good avenue for the different differentiated thing. I think there's options there that won't be Don't you agree? >> Yes. Um so now it's just a matter of for him is the the rate and the budget, you know, the ninth meeting. Well, do we have any other want to be mindful of our time and I mean I know we can discuss anything but since we're So any motion we got to have are we >> I mean I think at this point this isn't official motion. I think Dr. Weeks asked for a consensus. You know uh I mentioned the $750 increase. Looked at those numbers. I think Demetra said she'd like to see those. Is that the pleasure of the rest

121of the board to direct them that way? Not an official motion unless we need one >> because in the budget it was $188. Is that what I remember? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. In addition to the steps and now we're we're adding 56 >> 562 on top of that or no. >> Yeah. >> It's dangerous to be doing math in my head on camera >> as a banker. Yeah, it's even worse. I'm at a loss. I don't know where to go from here. I mean, if there's >> Well, if we needed a motion, I would make a motion. >> I would second it. Um I mean, if fair enough, we'll put it to a vote. We can do that. that way. There's no no question. It's just directing you to do that. I don't think

122there's any reason we can't make a motion. So, we got a motion on the floor for uh by Mr. Demetra White to uh direct uh the director's office to look at an increase of $750 for certified staff >> in addition to their step raises uh and report back to us with uh the impact to the proposed budget. >> I seconded that motion. Do we have any discussion? >> Is this only for certified? >> Yeah, you mentioned the word certified. That's what you just used. >> Well, that Well, that's what was that what what is how it's written in the budget. I don't I mean, I would love to do it for everybody, but I mean I just Is that look at right now? If you're directing, we need to decide is it going to be

123for not all 1,00 something people or just a select few? >> Well, I was I was mirroring the the how it reads on this. >> I understand how it reads. I'm just asking the question of who does that go to, Mr. Weeks? >> Right now, we've budgeted 188 for certified, but if you'd love me to put 750 for everybody, I'll be more than happy to put 750 for everybody. >> Those everybody's needed just like >> what did we mean that's I know >> gas is expensive, too, would it? >> I I would I mean, I would be in favor of that as well. >> I would as well. How many more individuals is that? So what does that change that number? >> I'm afraid to guess that >> less than the 3.3 billion we were

124at. Maybe 2.2. >> We're just directing them to bring it back for it. So let's first >> I just wanted to make sure everybody was included in some kind of way. >> Well, thank you. Thank you. I don't know. So we'll >> 750 for everybody. >> Yes. >> The motion's been amended. I still second it. >> All those Any more discussion? Thank you, Jeff. >> Any other discussion? All those in favor make a note by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed? Motion passes 5-0. >> Took us a long time to get there. Any other items on the budget to discuss? I don't have any other to say there's no need not the line item for computers every year we buy every year right >> so let's just go ahead and make the line it's

125there we don't have to worry about looking for that I'm assuming there's some new legislation that takes effect relatively soon. I'm assuming those will be in our June 9th. >> Yes, sir. You're going to get several several board policies. I think we have those scheduled to go out overnight or first thing in the morning. There are some there's several pieces of legislation that go effect July 1st. So, we're waiting on TSBA to draft some additional policies and procedures for us. Yes, sir. Any other business? >> In the interest of time, we'll do comments by board members if you'd like. Everybody's >> hearing none. We'll adjourn. not talking enough.