001Welcome to the March 24th, 2026 work session for the Rutherford County School Board. We'll be opening this meeting with a brief moment of silence or prayer and a pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. No one is required to participate or be present for any of these and being in this portion of the meeting is completely voluntary. Tonight's prayer and pledge will be led by Ms. Francis Rosales and real quickly before Ms. Rosales before we get started, I would like for us to all think of former County Commissioner Veronica Buchanan. Her father had a tragic farm accident and tractor fell over him. So, if you could say a prayer, he's at Vanderbilt. Yes, definitely for sure. Please bow your head with me. Dear heavenly father, thank you for this beautiful day that you've given
002us today. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be here one more day and God, I just pray that you give us wisdom and discernment as we are getting ready to make decisions that are going to impact so many people, including families, students, teachers, and administration, God. I pray, Lord, and lift up prayer requests of those who are in need of a miracle, God. I pray for Pastor Ben Graham who's in the hospital, God. I believe in the report that you've given us, God, that you are able to you're the miracle worker. I also pray for Veronica Buchanan's father, Lord. I pray that you give him healing and whatever the report may be. I pray that you give the family peace, Lord. And any family that is in need of a prayer today, I ask
003that you will listen I answer it accordingly. Thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for us and continue to do and we thank you for keeping us safe and sound and we pray all this in your son's mighty name in in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance 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. First up, I'll allow everyone to look over the agenda. Any comments or questions there? If not, we'll move to the the consent agenda. Take a look at that and see if there's any comments or questions. Okay. If not, there is no public comment tonight. Um And RCS difference will be on Thursday as well. And then we can human
004resources. Yep, so the first thing in our TV's not on up here. TV's not on up here, either. Down here, sorry. And so, first thing we have is a new job description for bus drivers and this one is the part-time job description. And so, this does start I think James has got that one coming up over there, too. Pull it up on this. One second to pull mine up while we're doing that. And so, you'll see this is a classified position. It is part-time. Reports to director of transportation. The pay grade is R107. Um but we will have recognized verified experience and so, if someone has bus driver experience or experience driving in a similar aspect, then we'll verify that experience. Um it does start off lower than Murfreesboro City, but the all of their
005part-time positions all pay exactly the same to where ours will be comparable and then more with experience. So, we were trying to be in the same ballpark, but also then recognize as experience in different ways. So, I think their starts around 24, ours starts at 21, but ours is much more aggressive on those with experience at the end of the scale. >> Okay. >> Because it goes 20-something steps past. And we worked multiple districts looking at job description. Some of these I mentioned this during our previous board meeting. Some of the job descriptions weren't worded in a way that I felt like it was a very professional wording and so, I thank our team for working on this in a professional way, but happy to answer any questions. Any comments or questions? Yes, Mr. Tidwell.
006>> A question. You said that it starts off at 21 and then they get on the the step raise depending on their experience just like the rest of our salary system. Correct, exactly the same. And give me just a second, I'll pull exactly how far that goes. Yeah, R107 would start at 2278. Sorry, and goes all the way to 3418. And I believe Murfreesboro City is somewhere at 24. The bus is to flat. >> That's flat for part-time, yes. For R107 goes all the way to 3418. Ms. Maxwell. >> Now, that is somebody with 25 years experience. Okay. Ms. Rosales. Thank you. I believe that the bill that um Representative Sparks asked us to support as a resolution that passed. So, there I think it's it's lowering the age to 23 the driving age to
00723. Okay. So, there may be possibly that we get more um interest in in people that are wanting to drive. Okay. >> Cuz I believe it's it's passing through the house. Hm? Thank you. Did not know that. I thought I saw something. Did you say you had something? Okay. >> No, I Okay. Mr. Tidwell. Question and if I remember this right, the big buses require CDL, sped buses do not. Correct? So, there be there could be a difference in pay scale there or experience. Both should to my with the size that we have to my knowledge. They will. With the size that we have cuz we're not using just the vans. They should with the size that we're purchasing, yes. Shouldn't. I'll verify, but they shouldn't. >> And the way the job description is read,
008we can place them on either bus. Okay. >> That way we can utilize them more. Okay. And connected to that, if we get to where we aren't able to fill all of these routes, we do have another job description that we're working on that is a special education EA split plus special education driver that we could combine into one, which would be a lower level, but it is a full-time with benefits. I hope we don't need to get there, but that would probably allow us to be able to have a full-time position, a lower R level, but we're trying this first. Okay. Well, thank you for clarifying that. I was going to ask you about that. Okay. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Next. This is Director of Schools' request and still under human resources,
009but really could be under Director of Schools'. Request to utilize up to a 20-day contract based on applicant and school situation for the hiring of a new principal at multiple locations this summer due to pending retirements. We have a couple retirements that we have talked about as a board. When people retire, they can take vacation days or leave days. Principals don't get vacation days, but they can take personal days. They can take different days and when the principal contract ends this year, it's got about a week and a half overlap between when the principal contract ends and the new principal contract starts. And so, based on when that happens, I'd like to have a little bit of overlap, especially if we have anybody coming from out of district or even some cross training. One thing
010that I do want to point out because we get this question. If you ever have an assistant principal that becomes a principal in the same district, we do make sure that they have to document from one job to the next their hours so that someone's not double dipping. They can't get paid for two of the same job at the same time. So, they have to document their hours. If they are because an AP gets paid 10 days after the school year ends, so they would have to document I'm working 8:00 to 3:00 for my assistant principal job. Now, I'm working from 3:15 until 6:00 and they would only get paid for the actual days that they are working for that. We deal with that a lot with opening new schools. Got you. Any other comments
011or questions? Next, we move to instruction. This is updated job description from federal program administrative assistant to federal programs account analyst. This updated job description more appropriately reflects the essential duties of this role. The position will move from classified hourly to classified salary on the pay scale. Position's fully funded through federal funds and will not impact the general purpose budget. Okay. Any questions? Okay, next. Career and Technical Education Textbook Adoption Section E Committee respectfully recommends approval of the following instructional materials for use and advanced manufacturing and digital technology for the Section E Textbook Adoption Cycle. All recommended instructional materials have been carefully reviewed by a committee of CTE educators and content specialists to ensure rigor, relevance, and alignment with Tennessee Department of Educated Education Standards. And you see those courses um STEM 1, STEM 2,
012STEM 3, Principles of Engineering and Technology, Engineering Design 1, 2, Intro to Industrial Maintenance, Principles of Machining 1, Principles of Machining 2, Robotics and Automated Systems, Welding 1, Welding 2, Computer Science Foundations, Coding 1, and Cybersecurity. And then we move to the next list, which is state-approved um instructional materials list. The instructional materials listed above are included in the State Board of Education's approved textbook list. These resources meet all the state requirements for content standards, accessibility, and instructional quality. Adoption of these materials ensures compliance with state guidelines while approving teachers with vetted high-quality resources to support student learning. And so then you'll see another list that we get to and we'll talk a little bit more so everybody's clear. Then we have a couple more courses and you're going to notice Principles of Manufacturing, Advanced
013Industrial Maintenance, Digital Electronics, Mechatronics 1, Mechatronics 2, Coding 2, Cybersecurity 2, Computer Systems Networking, and then Cabling and Interworking Internet Working. Those courses mentioned above did not include any state-approved instructional materials. Therefore, the committee had to proceed with recommendations for local adoption. The selected instructional titles have thoroughly reviewed and recommended by the CTE Textbook Adoption Section E Committee. Committee again based its recommendations on the material's strong alignment with course standards, their relevance in the industry, and their instructional value. These resources are well recognized in their respective fields and equip students with practical up-to-date knowledge and skills essential for success in advanced manufacturing and digital technology. Dr. Chastain, anything you want to add to that other than it's extremely hard to get textbooks for these Career and Technical Education courses that stay up-to-date? And oftentimes publishers
014don't submit their materials to the state to be approved, so that's why we have this gap of courses and specific classes that don't have an approved book for us to choose from. So, that's where you get that secondary list and we will we will go through the process of making sure we submit those to the state as well and we provide crosswalks so that we make sure they're attached to our standards, but they were thoroughly vetted. Okay. Next. Next, I'm actually going to request that we remove this from the agenda. Dr. Chastain and I talked about 10 minutes before the meeting. This is just so everyone is aware. The State Department moved 2 years ago from a I believe it's been 2 years. It's been 3 years, 2 years, all the years run together at
015this point. They moved from a 6-year adoption cycle to an 8-year adoption cycle. And so textbooks now are adopted on an 8-year cycle, so we have a couple gap years. And so yes, we have several gap years. So, we have elementary right now, but it doesn't make any sense just to approve elementary when we know you're going to need to approve middle and high school to continue as well. So, we're going to I'm going to request that we pull this and wait till we have middle and high school. It's the current textbooks we have been using and been successful with, but I'm just going to request that we remove this from the agenda and wait till we have middle and high school. Get them. Yeah. And really that's just the platform they use EL as
016the curriculum that we've been using. Good. Any questions or comments? Okay, next we have legal. The first is a transfer student under discipline one. The board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline. The student was remanded to alternative school for possession of THC product. According to policy 6.318, the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion. Director of Schools' recommendation is to is to deny. We are full at our at our alternative schools. They're well over 100 right now and that is typical for when we are in March. March is a tough month along with October, but March is tough. And I'll leave it at that. We're ready for spring break. Parents,
017students, teachers, everybody is ready. I understand. Number two. Second, the board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline. The student was expelled for possession of a THC product or products, sorry. According to policy 6.318, the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under suspension or expulsion. Again, the Director of Schools' recommendation is to deny and again it's because we are overcrowded. Okay. Number three. The board has been requested to admit a transfer student from another school system under discipline. The student was expelled for repeated violations of type three behaviors. According to policy 6.318, the board may deny admissions of any student except those in state custody when a student transfers from another school system under
018suspension or expulsion. Again, Director of Schools' recommendation is to deny in this case. And the board of course has all of those folders. They I don't know if Miss Ridley emailed that to everybody last week. Okay. Number 10. Board matters. I think Mr. Reed, this is you. >> Yes. Thank you. This is on the McFadden properties. The Board of Education entered into contracts for the purchase of five parcels adjacent to McFadden School of Excellence to provide additional land for a new school building. McFadden, as you know, is the oldest school building in the system and requires extensive of ongoing maintenance. There's been a discussion of the need to replace the old building with a new one or do a major renovation. The five properties will provide additional land for a new school building. The purchase
019contracts on the five parcels were subject to inspection periods. Appraisals Appraisals have come in on those five properties. A chart showing the contract purchase prices, the current tax appraisals, and the appraisal amounts from the appraisals are attached in your materials. The houses on the property will be torn down, so the value of the property for the Board of Education is more for the land and not really for the houses. The board needs to determine whether it wishes to move forward with the purchase of some or all of the properties. If the board determines to purchase any of the properties, we do need to give a notice to proceed to the sellers. So, I don't know if can we pull up that chart where these properties are located? So, um this is from the I'm sorry,
020go back to the last map. The just to refresh everyone's memories, I know a lot of people looked gone by and looked at these properties. These are kind of the corners of the property and what these properties do if you acquire them squares up the entire block so that the Board of Education would then have the entire block of that um parcel property, which gives you a pretty good space in the back end of the property to build new schools or do a renovation to it. So, the properties there you see is the 401 and 403 um they're on King's Highway and then the 208, 204, and 202. Um they're on Bluff Avenue. So, those are the five properties we're talking about. Um we have all most of these are rental properties. There may be
021a resident I think living in 202 and 204 um across from the um water tower there. But um the um the the appraisals the purchase prices for these properties are higher than what the appraisal amounts came in to be. So, the board needs to and I have called the sellers to see if there's any movement on their part as far as purchase prices go. There's really not I did not get any kind of reception of being willing to negotiate a purchase price with with the sellers on these deals. Um I guess the board needs to decide what it wants to do with these properties. Um but one thing I'll ask the board to keep in mind is really what you're acquiring in this case is not really the houses cuz they're all going to be
022torn down. The the what you're acquiring are the lots. And you're acquiring the land necessary to square up this parcel so you have a a perfectly rectangular parcel at that point that gives you the ability to do something on that back portion behind the school while you're maybe hopefully keeping the front port front portion open so you're not displacing kids during the construction process. Um um as you know, kind of the circulation with traffic has an issue around McFadden, too. So, it is important to get kind of rear access to Bluff Avenue, so that gives you a a more a better ingress and egress from the school grounds and gives better circulation and way to be out there along King's Highway so you don't have your traffic stacking up in front of the school as
023it is now. Um so, it um our inspection periods are coming up for for expiration. So, if we do want to move forward with this, we didn't need to probably know Thursday if we want to move forward then or not. The way our contracts read, if we don't like if we don't decide to move forward with these, the contracts just terminate. So, so that will be something for the board to consider what you want to do about these um five properties Thursday night. Any questions? Comments? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Reed. All right, next we do not have anything here. Uh just so that everyone is aware that is watching, we did have a at our special called meeting a request to purchase a used bus from Central States. Before we could actually purchase
024that bus, it was purchased by another entity, company, somebody purchased it. And so, that bus is no longer available. Our purchasing agent is trying to find an additional ones. We have a couple options. Um so, we are working with our special education team to see if any of those meet what our needs are right now to either get in line for possible delivery of a new bus by August or if an additional used bus is out there that meets what we need. We We really liked that idea of having the larger special education bus to be able to get more wheelchair accessible buses there or more wheelchair accessible seats. And that was the bus that was sold. And so, that was the one we were trying to. Ms. Maxwell. >> Questions. Yes, Mr. Zos. >>
025Thank you. Um Dr. Sullivan, the bus that was um picked up by the another entity, was that That was a new 42-passenger bus? It was I believe it was the Central States used bus, wasn't it? It was the >> What was that What was that one? But it was brand new, correct? That was the new one? It was used. >> It was used. Okay, never mind then. So, it was just the one of the used sped buses then? Yeah, it was the big one. >> it was a bigger one. Yeah. >> 42-passenger >> the 42-passenger and it was I think it was 115,000 roughly. I think that sounds right. Yes. But was that the new one or the It was >> used. No. >> It didn't have many miles to it, but it was used.
026And that's what we're trying to get another replacement, but it is a one that is a struggle to get in the rotation to build. >> So, we didn't get the bigger sped buses. We So, we got the We're getting the the five the four The 24-passenger >> Yeah, 24-passenger one. >> Yes. Ms. Maxwell. >> Yes, Mr. Tidwell. If one of our If we had a contractor that wanted to sell the bus, could we buy it from the contractor? What does that look like? It would I would have to talk to our purchasing agent and we would have to uh get with our finance department at the county to make sure it's within Kelly Blue Book, all those different types of things. It's easier when it's an actual If they have an LLC, it's probably easier
027um because then it's a company that you're working with. Uh that's why the two Central States and Mid-South are easier cuz they're companies, but they're definitely options. Okay. Since that was on the table. >> Yes. Any other comments? Yes, Ms. Sharp. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I was in Alabama last week and there's a bus company down there.com that had about 10 or 15 buses, brand new buses sitting in their lot. I don't know. Maybe it's something that y'all can look at. Were you in Birmingham or Huntsville? No, I was coming up 65. I will look Yeah, the bus company.com, believe is what the name of it was. And they had about 10 brand new shiny buses. So. Okay. I know everybody's trying to get close to here and everything so we can get them
028quicker, but that may be an option. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Next. Yeah, financial update just so that everyone knows we of course had our budget retreat about a week ago, week and a half ago. So, we are Mr. Runyon and I spend just about every day in the conference room going through department requests. We're working through that process. Dr. Martin and um Mr. Runyon and I are at Health and Ed. We don't have any amendments tonight, so it's just a general update. Should hopefully knock on wood be a fairly quick meeting for them at Health and Ed. And we're just continuing to work on our update. I'm going to ask Mr. Lee here in just a minute to kind of go over 177 and I'll go over the funding aspect for that unless
029there's any questions about financial update. Okay. Director's >> Okay. All right, director's update. I'll do the big portion of it on Thursday, but we are going to go over fund 177. So, just for everyone watching, it is a review. Fund 141 is our general purpose school budget. That's the the large budget that we operate with. Fund 143 is our general our centralized cafeteria fund. And then fund 177 is our capital projects and um deferred maintenance budget that we use. That is one that is unique to us and just a couple other counties. Has several pennies uh that are allocated. And then the other portion of the funding that goes to that is the adequate facilities tax. And so, you will see that we are going off of last year's numbers. And so, we are going
030off of about 19 million, I believe, on this document, which is very similar to what we got last year. Just so that everyone knows. Uh so, we're going off 19 million roughly. So that everyone is aware we do not set revenue. The county sets [clears throat] revenue. And so, we have not had any conversations with the county about the movement of pennies. There was a rumor um and I got an email from the city about a week and a half ago that they were already aware that there may be a movement of pennies. I've I have not had that email sent to me about the movement of pennies from the county finance department. And so, that hasn't been told to me. So, 177 as far as I know will stay very similar to the way
031it is right now. It has been going up just a little bit. And so, that would be great. This is where the last couple years we have started hitting the LED projects, which are helping uh Mr. Lee has done a fabulous job. We got another check today. Uh so, we're getting rebate checks back that go back against our electricity bill. And then of course, it's saving electricity after several years as well. As we are very well aware, the numbers keep going up for capital projects because as we continue to our buildings [clears throat] get older, we are nowhere We are nowhere near where [laughter] we need to be. And this is with every >> They always go up. They always go up. This is not unique to any government. So, every government falls into this.
032Your buildings get older. We have made a lot of progress. This was How How big was this account just a couple years ago? 5 6 million? And it wasn't very large. And so, 5 years ago we put five or six pennies into it with the addition of TISA. So, we have made quite a bit of of improvement. Unfortunately, HVAC has gone up just as quickly as we put money into it. And that's what our our big need still is. You The way this is outlined, you see major You'll see the major categories to the left. Our big categories are major HVAC, bleachers and seats, and then Can you go ahead and pull this up, Brad, so everybody can see? You'll see paving, seal coating, striping, major roofing, major plumbing, renovation, um life safety security, restroom
033restoration, track resurfacing, playgrounds, and then LED lighting. Beside it, you will then see 5 years. And you'll have if money were no object, how could we accomplish all of these projects? If money were no object, we would like to have $492 million >> [laughter] >> right now. For year one, we would like to have 151 million to take care of all of our HVAC projects. We know that's not going to happen. Instead, we're going to look at 19.4 million, which again we are grateful for because most systems in the state of Tennessee do not get anything for this. So, we would much rather have more, but most systems do not get anything for deferred maintenance. So, thank the board for always allocating for this cuz it or advocating cuz this is always a fight to
034make sure that we keep this because the county commission does not have to give us this. So, as long as we always stay aligned, this is something we always want to keep. The things that are highlighted yellow are the ones that Excuse me, we are prioritizing to And any of these, of course, can be moved, chosen. It's just kind of what our team has decided that have prioritized that we need to fund. You'll see the project is highlighted in yellow. And then out to the right is how much we actually can or planning to fund this year. So, the first example is and then I'll let Drake kind of take over is Blackman High. This is a major HVAC. It really needs $6 million in year one. We would like to do 1.5, but we're
035really going to allocate a million. So, that kind of gives you an idea of how we're looking at these projects. Drake, you can take over. Thank you. And I'm glad you brought up Blackman High right off the jump. On your board agenda tonight is a Blackman High chiller piping bid. It's number one. It's 2.1 million. We had a budget two year We We have in my tenure in this position, we have struggled with the piping that goes from the building to the chiller. We've dug this piping up three times in the last 8 years. The piping is failing. So, we are we bid out a complete replacement of the piping that goes from the building to the chiller. We had a budget of about a million and a half is what we were told last
036year based off a couple of contractors that do that sort of work. So, to hedge a bet, I had placed a half a million dollars in this year's budget, 25 26, to get us started. I was anticipating doing the other million million and a half to come out of the following year. And I do We've done that a lot the last three or four years because it it's difficult to take a big swing at an HVAC project that takes six or eight million dollars out of our budget. So, we're trying to balance and do as many things as we can, but get things started in one year and carry it over to the next. I was not anticipating 2.1 million. We have that on the agenda for you all to approve. It's on the consent
037agenda, but there's a real possibility we may back up and put it back out for bid. I don't think it's going to come down a whole lot, but what I'm trying to say is these projects, the price is going up exponentially by putting them off a year or two years or another year, and unfortunately, we don't have the money to do it all. So, we do the best we can analyzing everything, and if you'll if you look at your HVAC next to the dollar figures in the chart, you can see some small numbers. And I just quit going after number 12. I It doesn't help us to prioritize past number 12, cuz I know I'm not going to get there, and we're going to have to re-look at the need next year. So, those are
038our top 12 uh issue uh systems that are in need of replacement. What we're looking at this year is uh Las Casas um elementary. Uh it's 9 and 1/2 million we've allocated for, which means next year we would allocate the other 5 and 1/2. Is that the original system? Yes, sir, it is. >> '96, '97? Yes, sir. Wow. Okay. So, most of our systems are original. That does not mean that some components here and there have been replaced, but by and large, it's the still the original system that was there. Um we have a consultant which we utilizing CMTA again this year. They are going to be going to all 12 of these to um re-help us re-budget, re-price, get things in line for things going forward, and to begin to look at what our
039options are for replacement systems. Um our intent uh if you think about Smyrna Elementary, which we did completed this past year, uh because we did have property, we utilized a geothermal system like we do on our new schools. So, we actually spent a little bit more than we would have with just a conventional four-pipe system, but by having the property that available to us, we could spend that money to put geothermal in. We're getting some tax credits back. We're getting credits back from TVA, plus our utility bill will be cut in half. So, so over a 10-year period, we're going to get our money back with knowing that our HVAC systems are going to be in place for years and years and years. So, once we get past that 10-year mark, we're actually saving significant
040dollars going forward. We can't do that at all of our locations. I wish we could, cuz I'd put geothermal in everywhere, but we just can't. We just We don't It's We could put geothermal underneath a parking lot, but if we tore our parking lot up, it takes such a long time to get the wells in, we wouldn't have any place to park. It just becomes difficult. So, each system is looked at on its own merit and what's there and what we can do best to maximize our and we work with TVA uh we uh with the energy buyback credits. Uh it's a lot of paperwork, but it's worth the money uh for us. We even did it on the uh sports lighting. They brought the program back. We already had a number of our sports
041fields completed before they bought brought the program back, but because they did bring it back midstream, Middle Tennessee Electric is a huge partner for us. Middle Tennessee Electric leveraged their uh TVA um uh partnership so that we they they would let us back in at midstream. Typically, they don't let you Once a project is started, they don't let you get back in, but they did allow us. So, we were able to get about six of our schools enrolled for the sports lighting, and we got significant dollars back there. So, we we're looking at all the avenues that we have. So, basically, I'm going to run down a few things. It's nothing that you haven't seen Mr. Ball. What's the chances putting geothermal at Central Magnet? It's good. >> [sighs] >> Cuz nothing's ever worked up
042there. It's possible. The problem with Central Magnet is they don't have the space internally for the pumps and all the equipment that we would need. So, we would have to They call it a pre-packaged boiler house. Be like an addition outside the building. Um I'm going to be very [laughter] um careful with with Central Magnet. We are the the infrastructure for the water piping and the electrical systems are still fairly original. And that's been back to what, 1935, something like that? >> Yes, sir. And And we go if we we've reached our load potential to change the gear out to increase the load capacity for the electric system that would be required would be very, very, very, very expensive. Because what's there, our engineers and myself, we're we're a little leery of tinkering with it
043very much more. How do we stand? I mean, is that you know, they were suing each other, the the contractor and architect. Everybody's suing everybody about the They say units, aren't they? They got anything settled yet? Yeah, I wouldn't discuss that. Yeah, I wouldn't discuss that. I'm going to leave that one alone for Mr. Reed at another time. Yeah, okay. But it that that is still moving forward. Okay. That's still moving forward. As long as it's moving, that's my main thing. Yes, sir. Um we each year we go we have uh when we go to bleachers and seats, we're required by state law. We have a vendor that goes to every school twice a year to inspect our bleachers and seats. So, they inspect them. We make sure everything is up to code. They also
044come back with us with repairs that need to be made. They also provide budgets. So, we have outside consultants that help us. And there again, we're trying to piecemeal Blackman High, we did one half We did the home side bleachers, and then the next year we did the visitor side. We did the same thing at Siegel High. We did that at Smyrna. We've done it at LaVergne. We're We're I hate to use the term piecemealing, but we're trying to stretch our dollars as far as they can, because we do have a lot of needs. Our needs are getting better because we did a facilities analysis. I hate to I guess it's been 6 years now that I've been in this position. That was the first thing that we did was did a complete facilities analysis
045to see where we were, and each year we revisit that and add to it with our new with our additional schools. We have a gym floor maintenance program. Um that's there. We look at all of our um special projects. Then we have paving and seal coating. If you'll notice a lot of our schools, the pavement has lost its asphalt. It's getting very dry. So, by sealing and restriping, we buy some more time before we have to uh repave or recoat. So, we've got a lot of that this year. We've got a lot of schools that we've kind of bypassed, but we've got to get these things sealed and restriped. We have major roofing. Uh this year is our bi-annual year that we will uh have an outside firm every other year that we uh goes
046and looks at each and all of our roofs, gives us an idea on preventative maintenance, things that we can do, and also allows us to to there again, kind of like our HVAC units, a typical roof running 20 to around 20 years is kind of the end of it, but because of our maintenance programs and the way we've taken care of things, we're getting longer lives out of our roofs. So, we're going to continue with that practice. One thing I do uh want to bring up to you, you'll notice under major plumbing components, there's three new items. I've got them kind of in a light orange. There's no dollar figure over there yet, but they're coming. Las Casas, Wilson, and Kittrell are the three schools where we have our own sewer system. Those sewer systems
047were designed uh in conjunction They're managed by CUD. We own them, but CUD manages manages and operates them. That's a TDEC requirement. You have to hire someone to manage them. So, C in partnership with CUD, they manage ours for us. The baffles, and I'm not going to get into the uh engineering of these things, but there's baffles inside that separates the solids that allows them to degrade and then go into a drip system and and they go into the ground. Those baffles are prematurely deteriorating and fading and going away. And it's not just us, it's all the local residential areas that have built these in the last 20 years that are of this same time period are having the same problem. CED really does not know what caused it. They are in the process of
048telling us what would be a good product to rebuild is what we will have to do. The budgets this year were around a million dollars each. Um we are going to have to start in the next couple of years taking those one at a time and taking them down and rebuilding them. Um we're our plan is to do it over the summer when school is out. Um but so I've added them to the list. I highlighted them just so that you would be aware of them that it is something new and it's something major that we're going to have to address. So, that is a new uh item. Another new item uh is the under renovation repurpose and I struggled with exactly where to put it, but it's in a brighter orange and that's a
049budget number. I'm working now with some outside consultants. We began to notice some premature I'm going to call it premature concrete spalling on some of the beams at LaVergne and Smyrna's uh football bleachers. Um they are precast concrete is what those structures are. It's precast columns with precast beams with precast planks. We've got some issues with some of the beams. We knew probably 5 or 6 years ago we had an issue at LaVergne. If you've ever been down there, there's a couple of steel columns in place. I'm thinking we're probably going to have to do something similar to LaVergne again to buy us a little more time, but we're going to have to hire an engineer and a consultant that's going to have to put together a package. I believe what's going to have to
050happen is we're going to have to take them down. And we're looking at significant dollars. I think the visitor side are probably going to be okay for a period of time. It's the home side that's the problem and LaVergne is actually in worse condition than Smyrna. But they were built at the same time. The same company provided the materials for both of them. And what we saw 5 or 6 years ago at LaVergne, we're beginning to see it Smyrna as well. So, we're going to have to address those. So, I've put some money's in this year's budget. Just so everybody knows we hire a a separate consultant to review these every year uh after what happened a couple of years ago in one of our neighboring uh counties, uh we took it we were already
051inspecting ours uh every couple of years and I just upped it to every year. Uh I just felt like we needed to be on the safe side for our bleachers. So, that wanted to call that out to you. The only other thing that's I don't want to say new down at the bottom at the very bottom, there's a yellow underneath that says trustee fees. Last year was the first year that we had to pay trustee's fees and Dr. Sullivan said it when he discussed 141. We get our money, we got to give them some back. It was a little over 350,000 last year. So, I've got that number sitting there at trustee fees. It comes out of what we get and we have to pay it back. So, I've listed it separate outside so that
052it doesn't get confused with a project that's ours. It's something we have to I have to allocate for. Once we know once the budget is set by the county each year, my number is around it's a little bit more than what we got the year before. Last year we were about 18.1 and some change. It's like everything else throughout the year as things do better, our investments do better, uh the tax dollars come in better, we actually if we get a penny, we get the full penny. So, we get a little bit over that. So, as that comes in each year, it gives us a little bit more. It's usually a couple hundred thousand dollars that we get and if we don't use it, it goes into the fund balance. And if we have a
053catastrophic event, which we've utilized a few times over the last couple of years, that money stays there and we get we can get it to use it that way. So, what happens is once I know what our final dollar figure is, I have to balance with them at the end at right before everything's approved by the County Commission. So, once they tell me what that penny looks like, let's say it's 19 million $100 100,000. I will go up through there and I'll have to play Solomon again, cutting the baby. I'll have to figure out where to cut $340,000 and we'll do it as best we can. Um but we do have uh Mr. Salas said just for you brought up the LED, it's there again. Uh so, we're going to continue on with that program.
054It's very it's worth our while. Um we are going to be able to see the first couple that we've already started on our first two schools. So, hopefully in about another 4 or 5 weeks I'll have a couple of schools that have been completed and y'all we can go see them uh to show you the difference in the lighting. But that program is up and running and I you know, as long as we have the money, we're going to continue to roll on. And if y'all have any questions between now and Thursday, just let me know and I'll be glad to answer them for you. It's well worth the money to do LED lighting. It it I think the students will notice it more once we get things completed. Yes, Mr. Sharp. Madam Chair, uh
055Mr. Lee, on the keying, am I reading this correctly? We've got 2 years left to finish the keying project. >> Just about. We're we're and I will be the happiest person in the county when we have completed and when we complete that, we will have re-keyed every school in the county, got them on a Primus master system where they cannot be copied at the local Lowe's or Ace Hardware anymore. And we have every school on a single master now for like their classrooms and all of their exterior doors. The money's that we lack now, we left off like mechanical rooms and things like that that weren't necessarily safety features so that we could get all the schools to where our classrooms and our exterior doors and the teachers work with the places where students were
056all were on that key so that the principals were in much better shape and they went from five or six and those extra keys were mechanical rooms and electrical rooms and things that did not involve students and that's what we're finishing up. And I will be tickled to death. >> I know you will be. It's been a long project. Thank you for that. >> Yes, ma'am. Yes, go ahead, Mr. And I that is a good project. Uh being a principal in a previous county, when Trey and I was tell the story, when Trey and I opened Rocky Fork, I was a principal in Bedford County and we didn't have a Primus key system. So, if somebody wanted a master key, I went to Lowe's and I made a master key. And I opened Rocky Fork
057and I went to Lowe's to make keys and I couldn't make keys. And so, I called Trey and I was like, "How come I can't make keys?" He's like, "You you can't make those keys." And I didn't ever got any keys. So, >> [laughter] >> Trey wins. Uh the one thing I want to bring out is just so that this board realizes how much we have put into capital projects. I just pulled up the um how many pennies have gone into it over the last couple years. In 2020, there were 4.7 pennies that went into education capital projects. In 2023, there were 7.5. We eventually got to 11. Um was the highest that we got to. Over the last couple years, the County Commission once on the floor took some pennies away. And so, we're
058around 10-ish now. So, 10.6. The new appraisal rate's closer to 11, but we have of our own funding moved quite a bit when TISA came around back into capital projects. So, the previous board this board has put a lot of funding into capital projects. Just the HVAC components have gone through the roof the last 5 years at the same at the same time. So, that that's been the big increase. Ms. Maxwell. Yes, Mr. Salas. I have several questions, Trey, so bear with me. Um one has to do with HVAC. Um you say it's the the prices are going up. What is your take on why the pricing is going up? I know one I know I know couple years ago, it could have been due to shipping cuz there was issues with shipping, parts coming
059from overseas. So, those issues are not happening today. So, what's your take on why the prices are going up in HVAC? General inflation and there's so much work still out there that manufacturing cannot keep up. So, the demand is what's causing is what's driving >> It's causing a large portion of it, but gas is going up. >> That's true. So, I mean it's a combination of things. Um but it's not it's not going to go back down. >> Right. Okay. That is true. Um the other one I have a question on is the playgrounds. Um I was in a conversation It's been You were in the conversation as well with the the playground. Forget what school it was. Anyway, um but how do we determine how do we keep up with the playgrounds in the
060need of repair cuz you see there's some schools, but I So, I'm just wondering, how do we keep up with the maintenance of the playground when they get to this list? On this list, it's replacement. It's not maintenance. We maintain them most of them. We've just about completed every elementary in the district. >> And they have new playgrounds. Once this list is done with, then all of our all of our maintenance >> all over. We'll start over. We'll start over. >> all over again? Oh my It's time for the new cycle. Oh my goodness. So, how long are the playgrounds good for? >> I'm sorry? It never goes away. Never ever. >> But how how how good how long is a playground good for? When you say replacing cuz elementary schools have multiple playgrounds. So,
061>> Replace it all. You replace it all? So, how all at one time? Most of the time, yes. Sometimes we'll do one and then the other the next year, but yes, within a close proximity, we replace them all within a year. Now, the here here's the thing about playgrounds. Depending upon where that school is, um some schools get more usage than others. The and I'm going to pick on La Vergne Cass La Vergne Cass is elementary. That playground is out there in the La Vergne Cass area and the gates are left open and if they get most of the time the gate at the front is locked. So, they don't get as much use on the weekends than at nights from the public. You take a Smyrna Elementary, a Smyrna Primary, Roy Waldron, La Vergne
062it's now Simon Springs. You take some of these, we are not allowed to lock those playgrounds at night. We have to leave them open. So, they are utilized 7 days a week and on the weekends. So, they get a lot of use and sometimes abuse. Um so, I'm going to call it they sometimes they prematurely wear out um based on the amount of usage that they get. We also had a few years back and I'll get the date wrong. So, don't quote me on this. This has been 10 or 15 years ago. We went around and concreted a lot of our playgrounds. There was some federal dollars that came about and we concreted them and put a turf product on top of them. It's it was a spongy um fall protection place. Great thing. We
063got a lot of money out of them. The problem was there was nowhere for the water go. The plastic held the held the water. The movement of the playground wore the paint off at the concrete line. The water went down in it and we had premature uh failure with the structural components. Now, we've had to go back and take all of them up when we put the new playgrounds in. So, we lost a number of playgrounds prematurely doing that. But we we've our goal was to get everybody replaced. It's kind of like King. We got to get that and there again, there were those that thought we weren't going to get to them. You know, they they they wanted but there again, we send our consultant around. They tell us what's what's most in need
064and that was the number one priority and we looked at them every year, but now that we're just about finished, we will be starting back around again. Whatever our consultants tell us, we do. So, the So, the playground is determined by the consultants. Yes, ma'am. >> So, if this consultant goes to the school and looks at everything and they provide the recommendation, that's what we'll put here. How long is the playground typically supposed without premature wear and tear, how long is it supposed to be? They should last about 15 to 20 years. >> 10 years. So, when you say premature, they're lasting like around 10 years? Mhm. Wow. So, we're going back to mulch instead of the >> We're we're doing rubber pads and grass. It's called a grass mat. Meets it meets ADA and
065fall protection. There's some schools that they have they get beat down. We're also looking at and we've tried it in a couple of places a synthetic product. Um at it just around the equipment areas. It's it adds about $150,000, but we're piloting it at four or five schools before I get before I sign off on putting it everywhere, I want to give it three or four or five years just to kind of see what kind of wear I'm getting on it before I do it. So, we are piloting some other things. There's some products out there. We're trying them. I'm not doing them wholesale till I'm sold that they work. Right. That's Is that what you put at Poplar Hill or is that something Do we use do something >> at Poplar Hill now. What
066schools are those that you're piloting them at? >> we did courtyard at Barfield recently where the pre-K area is. It's an enclosed area that doesn't get a lot of sun. So, grass it's hard for grass to grow. Um got it at Rockvale Elementary. We got it three or four places that we're piloting it see how it works. Okay. That's good. And my last question, which is not pertaining to the capital projects, but I'm I think we have I think we asked this before where we were wanting to get an inventory of the portables and see where they've been how many portables do we have now versus what we had then. I thought we did that I thought we got that before. I can do that. >> Yeah, that'd be great cuz I'm curious to see
067now if we removed all of the portables out of Blackman. I thought we did. I think we did out of Blackman Elementary School. They're gone. >> They're gone. Blackman Elementary School. >> Stewarts Creek. Well, Stewarts Creek never had Yeah, Stewarts Creek had portables. >> They still They still do. >> They still do. >> Yep. How many So, we never reduced the number of portables at Stewarts Creek or they still remain the same? >> it by two doubles. Two doubles. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we can send a new inventory. Yeah, that'd be great. If we can get inventory of what the portables I'll send I'll email y'all the new list. That Yeah, and include elementary middle since we're getting a new middle school. It It >> Uh that'd be great to see how much >> All schools.
068Yep. Okay. That's perfect. Can we have before and after? Well, I can send you two. I can send you the before and where we are now. >> That'd be great. Thank you. The only thing I'll add is sometimes some schools may have additional playgrounds because of PTOs. Those are harder for us to replace cuz we want to be equitable to all schools. So, we may not go and replace all of them because we're going to be fair to all schools to make sure they get all the ones replaced. >> Yeah. That's understandable. I had a parent real quick and I'll get to the y'all. I had a parent reach out to me. There are adaptable swings that can handle a wheelchair. Do we have some kind of adaptable apparatus at all of our elementary schools
069for our sped population? The vast majority, yes. We started about five or six years ago with we worked with our sped department and they gave us some ideas on things to utilize that are adaptable and meet that and we are we do include that now as part of our new playgrounds. And but there are some that we've gone back and we've utilized some of their capital projects money and we've just added one piece or two pieces or things like that. But yes, we are at it is part of our package now and has been for the last four or five years, but we've actually gone back to other schools and actually added pieces. That's wonderful. Wonderful. Any other questions? Yes, Dr. Tidwell. Dr. Sullivan, you're talking about the pennies in different years. What is a
070penny usually come out to? Is that like 1.2 million, 1.5 or a lot of variance? If you'll give me you just a minute, we'll go on somebody else. I'll pull up what it's bringing in. >> That's all right. Yeah. Um and then Trey it out. So, I had it up and I closed it out. >> That's all right. Um and Trey, we're looking at about 19.4 19 million 440,000. That's kind of what you got listed for your wish list here. Yes, sir. Great. I appreciate this information. Any other questions while he pulls that up? Ooh, I'm on the clock. >> [laughter] >> None. I guess while while he's looking that up, I'll ask another question real quick. So, you said playgrounds about 10 to 15 years. Uh HVAC vary greatly uh because here La Vergne
071Cass is I think you said that's the original on La Vergne Cass is and that would be in that in the '90s for sure. Yes, sir. And And with it being original, there's been there's a lot of maintenance work that goes on with it to keep it running. Sure. Uh some of those units we can no longer get components for. So, like in the summertime, we spend a lot of money just putting refrigerant in them to keep to keep them gassed. The problem is we get R-14 is getting in short supply and when you when you can buy it, it was, you know, $50 a pound, then it was $100 a pound, then it was $150 a pound, now it's, you know, it's like $500 a pound and that's the only thing keeping these units
072some of these units running. And And a question I get a lot is, "Well, why don't you use the new R-117 or whatever the new gas is?" Well, the new gas operates at a higher pressure and those units weren't designed The piping for those systems can't handle the higher pressure that that gas exhibits. So, it's not like you can just use a different type of gas. It And we've got a lot of a number of schools that we're keeping alive by just replacing the refrigerant every summer. But eventually, that's going to bite us. Yeah, we're just kind of toting along as we can. >> Well, I mean it seems to doesn't be working at least cuz there's so many of them on the list. Um two other questions, your track resurfacing, how do we do
073that? Is that Well, we didn't used to do that and that's something we've I've learned or we've learned. There wasn't a lot of maintenance done on our tracks. We spent couple million dollars putting these tracks in and then we just kind of left them alone. Um we have just completed this past year replacing all of our track surfaces in the county. To extend their life, every two to three years you have to recoat them. It's like a rubbery sealant that goes on it and it extends the life of the track surface. So, if we do this, we're supposed to get an extra 5 to 10 years out of the tracks. I'm hoping in my tenure I'm not replacing any more tracks. So, that is sort of new the the the recoating of the tracks. Every
074two to three years we're going to go be going back around to recoat. Okay. That 1.2 that I can tell. I'm trying to find the difference between the shared penny and the non-shared penny. So, between 1.2 and 1.4 depending on what the shared versus non-shared, but I'll have the exact dollar amount by Thursday. >> No, it's fine. I was just getting a rough idea. I appreciate that. Thank you, Trey. Anybody else have any comments or questions? Okay, we'll move to legislative update. Do you have anything, Mr. Vault? Okay, then. And next we move to general discussion. Does anybody have anything for that? Yes, Mr. Vault. Yep. For a bill there somebody may think we're in such a way I just want to thank you by the way. Well, Christian was on this committee. So, I
075have to get all of Christian. Let me take Let me take a poll. All right. Some of us uh that's pretty good. I just wanted I didn't know uh I pretty came up somewhere. So, um what Mr. Vault's doing in there's two things on the legislature that two things that are on the legislature I think that really concern me and I think those people up there on the hill are drinking some water that's been piped in from Short Mountain. And I think the results of this is they're trying to bring back, the way I understand it, elected superintendents. And one of you the ones over there that are so young, you don't understand, but man, you talking about a political uh firestone. That's all the superintendents were doing was politic. So, boy, they anything anybody
076has anything to do with that, that's a that needs to be something that goes by the wayside. Another thing that's coming up uh and I think a Senate bill was that there'd be no tip no TCAP testing for the voucher students. Now, to me, why would you want to do that? Why would you not want to compare everybody? Why would you separate the vouchers? I mean, I probably will know why, but I can't can't say that, but that's a that's a no-brainer bill, too, I hope goes away and so Anyone else? Yes, Mr. I've got one just because I think it's going to apply to us. We talked about it in leadership. It is a bill and I'll have the number for you on Thursday. I think we all agree that less testing would be
077good. Um I am concerned though the the bill, the way it is written, um because it will probably impact funding. One, we've talked about TCAPS. I haven't gotten an answer back, so that tells me how far I got with TCAPS. And so, I will forward you all my response again, so if you want to push with any other connections you have because that's going to impact us with our $4 million about the TCAPS change with us going from 34 to 12 school. I feel like I've given ample time a couple weeks for a response from the department. The other one and I we like being parts of pilots. I don't like being a part of a pilot that I feel like it hurt our students. And so, there's going there's a bill that um authorizes
078the department to select, so it it doesn't seem like it's an opt-in for 10 districts, believe it's 10 districts, to be a part of a pilot to have less testing again, which I I love fundamentally. You would have TCAP, universal screener, and benchmark, which is all the testing we give anyways. What I don't like is that it disallows you from giving a science benchmark. And so, we give benchmarks in English language arts, math, science, and social studies. It removes our ability to give a science or a social studies benchmark. Our [clears throat] kids are held accountable for science and social studies. And if we are forced, because that's the way it looks, the way that the districts are going to be chosen, we're high performing, we're a large district, we I don't see a way
079that we're not going to be selected as one of the 10 districts. I don't feel like that's fair for our students, for our teachers not to be able to have an idea of where they are because we're not one of the districts that at least I don't feel like that is over-testing. What we've we try to do a very fine line. The benchmark's what we So, if we're going to allow it for ELA, we're going to allow it for math. Our third through eighth graders all have to take science as well. And so, that's that's my only portion and I'm going to reach out to the bill sponsor and say, "This would be fine. Just can we include science and social studies in here?" And with then we'd be perfectly fine. That's the only concern
080I have with it right now. So, it kind of caught me off guard. I I noticed it Friday. It was wasn't on my radar at all. Okay. Mr. Tipple, do you have your hand up? I I will, but I did not before. >> Okay, I'm sorry. I thought it was. Sorry, that must have been in front of me. >> just going to ask for clarification on this science benchmark. So, it's not going to allow it for the third graders? >> for anybody. For anybody? >> at that level. Yep. So, so they're trying to figure out what not what So, okay, so they're trying to figure out >> Because federal law doesn't require you to give a science test until twice, once in elementary, once in middle school, and once in high. So, that's the basis,
081but if our kids are going to be held accountable to the rest of the state, I don't want our students not to have that same chance to prepare like everyone else has. That's that's my concern. Like fundamentally, I agree with it. I think there's just some parts we may not have thought through of how that could impact some people. I'm trying to pull it up real quick. >> great. Um do you know where it's at in the process? If not already already all the way through cuz I again, it wasn't on my radar to >> education committee is closing? Yes. >> I think this is No, the Senate it's Senate education committee. This was their last week. And so, if it already So, it there's a possibility it passed through the Senate committee. And probably
082won't have a fiscal note. Maybe, I don't know. If it does have a fiscal note, then it'll go to budget. I So, that'd be great if you can tell us what the bill is so we can see where it's at in the process. Okay. Can I Mr. Tipple first and then I'll get to you, I promise. Um I was actually going to ask about Daniel McKee. I know we've talked about this and we looked at having a third alternative school to kind of as you mentioned again, once again, we're full. We haven't touched these schools in what is it, 20 plus years now? Our population has skyrocketed. Um we've talked about the issues that we have not having space at all our alternative schools, how the program cannot fully the kids can't students can't go
083through the program fully. They get sent back early. It's >> [clears throat] >> Miss Brown uh Dr. Brown, when she was here, she she had mentioned that was an issue that they were having. They it doesn't allow the students to get the full benefit of it. So, with that said, I know Stan had brought up at one time about potentially looking at what it costs to rebuild a new school on Daniel McKee property. I would still like to follow up with that and see where we're at. And I understand there's a lot of things going on and there's a lot of needs and the county has their needs and school system has our needs, but that is really something that we tried to get into. It didn't work out with this building. Um I want
084to revisit that as soon as possible. I agree. Um that's something that's that we need to do. We we've had multiple conversations with the administration out there and we've even stopped with a couple a church that would like to partner with us in some capacity for that. So, yes, we're stressed as a county. Everybody knows we've got to build a jail and we but we need a high school, but I I can't we can't McFadden, but I can't forget Daniel McKee is either. So, um it needs to stay on our radar. Does anybody else have anything? Mr. Vault? Yeah, if out there in the lobby, they've got uh Murfreesboro magazine. If you hadn't seen it, uh Mr. Vault, along with his son, Chandler, have a very nice picture spread, full page, uh that's really really
085nice. And also later in the back, he's got a picture of Mr. Vault and his beautiful wife. They didn't get a full page. She didn't, but Chandler did, so. Grab you one when you go out there. It's pretty nice. Yes. Miss Sharp. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I know we all received an email from Is he doctor now, Lucky D? Yes. >> Okay, cuz I want to make sure um about changing the parent-teachers meeting with the block schedule. Yeah. Did you Were you on that one as well? >> Yes, Dr. Martin and I had a chance to kind of briefly discuss. I've not followed up with him. The The issue that he's specifically addressing to me would be more of a a reason to have two first for teachers that have semester quarter courses like
086that as opposed to moving it up earlier. Moving it up earlier would eliminate any kind of contact with the other section of students. Um so, I mean at at a just with a brief conversation with Dr. Martin as we were kind of talking through it, I don't see any reason why we need to make a change the entire district schedule. Um but I think perhaps talking through some ways that they can connect with parents on that quarter section is totally appropriate. So, we'll follow up with him. And he did mention that um since they're now title one, that the parents are more Absolutely. >> more responsive >> would love more opportunity for parents. And they And they can. It's just a matter of where in the district calendar do we have that scheduled? Right. Um
087so, I don't see a reason at this point, could be convinced, but to to change that schedule, but we can certainly create more opportunities for them to connect. Thank you. Thank you so much. I've got one more, Madam Chair. Um I had given Mr. Reed a another school district's policy manual, and I don't have it on my calendar when our next policy meeting. I would like to ask board members to to review that and see if there's some policies in Mr. Lee, see if there's some policies in there that we can use and put in place for the bus for our bussing. It's instead of recreating the wheel, we should look in there. Mr. Mr. Lee has it. Um if he can send that back out to us cuz I sent it to him to
088look over months months and months ago, but I did send it to Mr. Reed for him to look at, and so I had mentioned it before. >> April 14th. That's what I thought. April 14th. April 14th. Okay, that's what I was thinking. Just don't have it on my calendar, but I would like for us to review it and you as well to see if there's any policy in there to put in our policy meeting for review and if we can adopt any of those cuz we don't have to recreate the wheel. Superintendent Yeah, I'm sorry. Are you referring to bus like the having our own bus drivers that policy? >> It's a It's a bus driving. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Sorry. I have one thing before you Mr. Vaught. Go ahead. You go ahead. I just
089have a recap. Okay. Okay. I was going to make a notice and hopefully I will remember to make this notice uh Thursday as well. Uh I'm having tomorrow the first meeting of uh some of you may know that are listening and some may not, but there is a joint venture between myself and Discovery Center. It's called Camp Wonder, and it's for special needs kids, and it's for a week of camp in the summer. We do uh lessons. We have a different theme each year, and it's really wonderful um and uh they have get to play with their peers, and it's just an absolute wonderful time for a week for parents and the kids. And um I need volunteers. I had some wonderful EAs and some uh some uh sped teachers that stepped up to the
090plate and emailed either Andy Ralston or myself, and uh I'm asking an all call for more volunteers. I need about six to 10 really if we want to do over 20 kids. Uh it's next It's this July the 6th to the 10th at Riverdale High School, and it's from 8:30 to 2:00, and um sadly it is unpaid. Uh but uh if you have a heart for children and would like to participate in Camp Wonder, this will be like our sixth year. So, it's going strong, and um just let me know. Um all my information is on the website if you need to get in touch with me. Thank you. That's a great >> ask a follow-up question for that? Yes. Is that an opportunity um for some of our high schoolers for community service hours?
091>> Yes, it is. Uh yes, we would prefer you be older like 17, 18, a senior, that would be better, and I will sign off on hope, promise, whatever you need. Yes. Thank you. Ms. Maxwell >> Yes, Mr. Rosales. So, I would like to say that Camp Wonder is a amazing time. I think I've done it 3 years with you as a volunteer, and and I think my little girl went to it last year and did the last day where we were at um Discovery Center. And so, you get to spend time with the with with the with the with the high schoolers, and you get to learn a lot about them, and they learn about you, and some of them even remember that you were there the year before. So, you build this relationship
092with them, and it's really neat and a great experience, and kudos to you, Ms. Maxwell, uh for starting something so so beautiful. >> do it without the Discovery Center. The Discovery Center has been amazing, and um I will tell you it is I always get this and I mean to make make sure I when I talked about it, it is for ages 14 until 22. If you're eligible to come to our high school and participate in our sped program, you're eligible to come to camp. I always get some parents who call me, "My child's 10." And I'm like, "I'll see you in a couple of years." But so. That's Yeah, that's a lot. It has been a great program. And don't they get like a photo album at the end? Yes, we have We do
093a book. We do a t-shirt. Yes, there's lots of favors they get to take home from that. Now, Mr. Vaught, go right ahead. All right. Now, this is going to be boring to most people, but I do think it our listening audience at home needs to know this. This is And I And I kind of want to I am going to brag on Trey. I'm not going to kind of brag on him. I'm going to really brag on him and his department and also the director for taking this stance about capital projects and maintaining these buildings. And I know some of you get tired of hearing me, but I have I I have to reflect back in the early '80s and '90s or the mid-'80s and the '90s that there was a high level of
094I don't want to say mistrust, but questioning between the county commission and the school board all the time, "Hey, we need money for this." And then they'd go spend it over here for this. And maintenance and upkeep has always been the just I mean, I've learned this You brought And Butch, your words were very kind about Chandler and I and Terry and I. So, my wife and I have learned this over the last 40 years earning real estate. And I'd say every one of us sitting here have learned this. If you have something, if you have a home, you have a car, you have a vehicle, you have to maintain it. You have to keep it up. Buying it is only about half of it. And so, I'm going to pull out just one thing
095here that the our listening audience at at home can understand. The 5-year cap or the HV The major HVAC uh systems that are in this county for roughly 52, 54 buildings, I'm going to guess, including the central office. $325 million. Now, I'm going to bring it down to where most of us can understand. We throw away around big numbers, and I laugh about this. Again, when I was on the county commission, they You could bring something up that cost $10 million, $20 million. We wouldn't spend 10 minutes on it, but you bring up something cost $50,000, we might argue for it. We'd argue on it for 3 hours. But But I'm going to I'm going to bring it down kind of where we can understand this. I'm taking last cases. $9.5 million. That school has
096been there since about '94, I think, when we opened it. Broke ground on it um 2 weeks after I got married. That's one of the reason I remember it. Uh but it's going to cost $9.5 million to replace it. So, if you do your simple depreciation cost, Caleb, over 30 years, that's roughly $300,000 a year. You bring it down to about 600 kids in that I mean, there's more than that could be there, but that capacity, 600 kids, 900 kids, it's costing $527 per kid per year to have heat and air in that building. And so, that's a number all of us can kind of get behind and understand. If you've got a child in the system, you've got a grandchild in the system, that's about what it's costing. And I've also broken down the
097number. Y'all have heard me do this before. It's about $1,000 per kid per year to provide transportation in our system. We deal with big numbers here all the time, and I know y'all some of Excuse me, may think we just haphazardly go at it, but I can guarantee you that the the people on this board that I've worked with so far have I We analyze these numbers a little bit. We grunt just like everybody else. If you had your central heat and air unit go out at home, I know with our rental property, we replace three or four a year, and every time I have to do it, it's a mm dang, I hate that. And we hate it here, but but we owe it to uh everybody in the county to take care of
098these buildings. Building them is not just half of it. Maintaining them is big. So, Mr. Lee, I appreciate everything you've done. I appreciate how you've approached this cuz this way it's not political. Everybody's in line. Everybody's treated about as fair as they can be. So, thank you for that. That was my two cents' worth. >> Thank you. That was a great analysis. If there's nothing else, then we're adjourned. I'll see you on Thursday.