001all right I'm going to call the meeting to order where's my clerk oh is where clerk please call the role Miss Allen here miss bomy here Mr Diggs present Mr English here miss Derry present Miss ven here Dr Young Mr chair you have qu thank you Miss Hall would you please call our role yes Madam chair Dr Chase here miss e here miss guy here miss holstead here miss hey here miss Irish Miss Randall here miss Sigman here and Dr Warner here mam you do have a quorum thank you all right um real quick um going to need approval for uh supervisor bony to to attend virtually a motion to Second all right um all those in favor say I I any opposed hi hi all right and I need another motion for supervisor ven
002second all in favor say I hi any oppos hi all right that passes thank you well first first I wanted to say good evening and thank you to um all of you for being here today and um for taking the opportunity to have this discussion with us um we're going to try to make this a team effort and of course we'll take any questions or clarifications as we go on I have a quick question sorry am I missing something do we have like any agenda that's printed out or is it just the paperwork n the only agenda item is our budget thank you yeah can I before yall start I want to just say before yall start oh sure um Mr Diggs and then miss guy all right um we are excited to be here
003and to get to work um on these very important issues um I want to let you know that supervisor bomy is out uh because of a medical emergency Dr Young is um at work um so both of them wanted me to let you all know that and that they wanted to be here um again I'm excited about this conversation tonight and glad to have you here thank you we could go to the next slide all right thank you guys for having us here yall Rock in case you couldn't read it um I just want to begin by thanking Mr Ashton for pledging to support his support of the Drew Middle School and Hartwood Elementary rebuilds as well as the renovation of the North Stafford High School fine art Wing which obviously comes from um the
004Board of Supervisors helping us fund that we also have the construction of high school 6 Elementary 18 and Elementary 19 and these are helping us meet the needs of our dedicated staff and our students and recognizing that our buildings are a critical need for a school system to be able to thrive um we also appreciate you guys quickly providing the emergency appropriation that was required to repair Rodney Thompson after the water break that happened last year the school board as well as superintendent Dr Smith are committed to a continued partnership with our County government we need you guys to thrive we need you guys to partner with us and we absolutely appreciate the level of dedication that we're seeing from you guys this year it's it's incredibly appreciated live oh thank you and serving to
005make a difference in the lives of our students by working collaborative collaboratively with us you've shown integrity and respect a community spirit and an opportunity for shared Excellence it is clear that both of our boards recognize the infinite possibilities that come from working together to support all of Stafford citizens we share common values and a commitment to our community as you can see our strategic goals are aligned and work together to create a stronger future for students and citizens alike by ensuring meaningful post-secondary outcomes and supporting High academic expectations for our students we contribute to the County's goals of economic diversification and Workforce Readiness our commitment to a safe and welcoming environment mirrors the County's focus on public safety and Vibrant Community spaces investing in staff aligns with the County's dedication to transformational leadership and
006governance excellence in additionally our shared Focus On Wellness opportunities and Community Partnerships enhance Student Success and overall Community well-being by working on the same page we are fostering a county where education infrastructure safety and opportunity come together to support growth and sustainability with our joint values and at the expectations shared in our strategic plans in mind we have built our budget that ensures our investments align with the needs of our students staff and broader Stafford Community the funding request we are presenting today reflects our shared belief in an inspiring and in inspiring and empowering every student upholding integrity and excellence and fostering a sense of community and opportunity for all we created created this budget to build on our strategic plan with the understanding that we are one Stafford our more than 5400 employees are
007not just Educators and staff they are members of this community that they serve 71% approximately of our Workforce lives in Stafford County contributing to the local economy and reinforcing the Deep connection between our schools in the broader Community as you know our 32,000 students make up one in five people living in our County this is one of the highest student population averages in the region sorry our students are doing amazing things and we've created Pathways for academic EXC achievement Career Development and um Community engagement last year 1,37 students successfully completed one 996 dual enrollment courses across our JROTC programs nearly 700 students consider military opportunities we saw 5,252 industry certifications awarded in 2024 equipping students with Real World skills as our newest firefighters and EMTs there are 1,93 students participating in work-based learning opportunities here
008in the County government we have students assigned to the animal shelter the department of social servic Services the IT department and next year we will expanding this to include um utilities and uh the fire and rescue headquarters we are doing real work and these achievements stress the foundational importance of working together to support student achievement our students and staff play a vital role in adding to a Vibrant Community contributing their talents services and dedication in meaningful ways each year our students bands and coral groups perform for the annual Tree Lighting Event they visit seniors assist living communities for cards and carols and cookies our high schools offer a variety of theater and musical performances that are open to the public through the sen senior citizen gold pass we invite our residents to experience the incredible
009performances concerts and plays put on by our students at absolutely no cost our commitment to Community engagement extends to the health and wealthness wellness Fair band together for hung hunger and more than 15,000 community members have attended the Annual Arts Festival which showcases 6,000 pieces illustrating the creativity and passion of our young artists our development of the specialty centers aligns with local Eda and opportunities and the leap Center leadership education and public service works with our local sheriff's office the champ center community health and medical professions provides valuable Hands-On learning experiences for our EMT students and for those pursuing Medical Careers while strengthening essential Community Partnerships programs such as the firefighting program internships in the Buddy program not only prepare students for future careers but also encourage mentorship leadership and service our epic program engineering
010professions in industries of construction has constructed 20 eight homes in Stafford over the last two decades the Stafford County and teaches students everything from design to construction Plumbing masonary electrical and H and now HVAC a new program that will start this year the Academy of we will not only do we have next year we will also add our business and information technology at Colonial Forge High School A Fine Arts Center will be offered at high school 6 and we'll add Aviation at North Stafford High School the academy for Innovation and for technology and Innovation is a Regional High School program focused on computer and data science as applied across content area next year we will bring the business so next year in our business program we will expand our um opportunities for entrepreneurship cyber security
011data analytics and business administration I wasn't gonna don't know who's doing that I think that this might be wrong in shoot the integral role our students in the the integral role of our students in the community's foundation makes it clear the future of of our county is being shaped in our classrooms we respect and understand that our shared growth is an inherited issue while housing units agreed decades ago before many of us were on our respective boards we know the growth is untenable but it is not ignorable over the next decade we anticipate an additional 6,200 students in our schools a 20% increase that underscores the importance of building a solid foundation now this year alone kindergarten enrollment exceeded the County's birth rate from 5 years ago by 12% a testament to the growing numbers
012of the growing number of families choosing Stafford these numbers are more than projections they reflect a CommunityWide commitment to our students and a call to action for proactive learning or proactive planning to continue supporting our students critical needs and the role their role in Stafford's Vitality we must invest in the facilities staff and resources necessary to meet their needs and ensure their future success the integral role of our students in in the community's foundation makes it clear the future of our County this is a duplicate I'm sorry I recopied my notes um okay I apologize it's been a long day this funding request is focused on building our foundation and laying the groundwork needed to meet the needs of our students staff and community today as well as preparing for the future we've done a
013great deal of pruning and creative thinking but the fact remains that we cannot do this alone we need the support of our County and our community with a rapidly growing student population evolving needs and an ever expanding Workforce we must work together to ensure that every student has the resources and support necessary to thrive as we discussed the specifics of the FY 26 funding request it's important to recognize the financial stewardship that has guided our work over the past 5 years we have made strategic Cuts totaling more than $5 million to our base budget including $890,000 this year alone our commitment to efficiency is further demonstrated by the 20 million in cost savings for capital projects like high school 6 and the new elementary schools these efforts show that as we build a foundation for
014the future we remain responsible stewards for the resource you entrust to us we've cut back everywhere we could and we are presenting you with a funding request that includes only the essentials I want to take another moment to thank U Mr Ashton for his support of our needs given the information as it was presented in our proposal we will share with th you how those funds will be allocated and share with some of the share with you some of the unmet needs that still exist if the transfer into the school's operating fund is not increased we appreciate your support of our needs however we need to point out that of the amount presented only 5 million of that goes directly towards our operating expenses we do plan to use the carryover funds to support the
015cyclical replacement of the essential learning of essential learning tools like Chromebooks um we are grateful that the Board of Supervisors helped provide the schools these uh five years ago uh as we moved to onetoone technology uh during the pandemic so our kids could keep learning uh from home from FY 24 this also includes the replacement for classroom equipment and supplies and we're also using carryover funds to purchase buses um something I think both of our boards could appreciate so what does our proposed budget look like and how can the county best support our shared Learning Community to fund FY 26 needs understanding that we have already cut and we will have unmet needs moving forward tonight we are asking you that you fund at least the 23.3 million needed to provide for our basic needs
016this includes fully funding the phase four teacher scale and phases and phase three of the service scale like your public service staff scale which was corrected in just one year we must correct our staff scales you asked us to prepare a 5-year plan for correcting the scales and we've done that and we are now asking you to um help us UNH uphold this plan as we get into our revenue forecast I'd like to address our federal funding just under 33 3.3 million of our budget comes from federal funding these support These funds support our Title One programs our littlest Learners and head start school breakfast and lunch programs it's important to know that we are monitoring the potential of any reduction in federal funding we could have in our current operations our anticipated Revenue increase
017for FY 26 include consists of 18.9 million from the governor's proposed budget and 5 million from the count administrator's proposed budget while this increase would bring our budget to 4848 million it is still leaving significant means needs unmet we would like to emphasize the importance of additional Investments to support staff students and infrastructure which we will share with you later in the presentation before we get there though I will share the difficult decisions we've made in peeling back our budget to Simply meeting our mandatory commitments and investing in our dedicated staff our greatest asset is our people staff compensation and benefits make up 85.62 per of our total expenditures this demonstrates our commitment to attracting retaining and supporting highquality Educators and staff investing in quality staff is essential to meeting the needs of our students
018in the following slides we'll share with you just how far we stretch the remaining 14.38% of the funding request to Simply meet our mandat requirements this budget represents a scrutiny of each and every dollar while respecting the work Dr Smith and his team put into creating this his funding request our staff are deeply important to us to honor their commitment and dedication um we've added just 2 and a half% to Dr Smith's budget to fully Implement phase two and three of um well Implement phase three of our service scale and phase four of our license scale and increase the base salary for new teachers but that's where additions end from there everything else in our budget addresses mandatory commitments and Building Safety the Virginia standards of quality mandated by the code of Virginia and supported
019by the Virginia Department of Education require schools to like staff specialized Educators to support the varying needs of students including English Learners those needing reading support support and gifted students among many other positions these are mandatory commitments we are projected to fall Below in the state minimum Staffing required by the standards of quality um and then these three areas English language Learners reading Specialists and gifted as you can see the specific minimum Staffing ratios um and then we will need to increase uh 36 and a half English language learner teachers seven reading specialists and one gifted teacher uh that's just to meet the state minimums every item in our mandatory commitment was evaluated through the lens of our current strategic plan our primary goal is to ensure meaningful postsecondary outcomes for all students and our
020programs are achieving this this year nearly 1,600 students submitted over 3,500 applications for secondary programs next year we open our business and information technology Specialty Center at Colonial Forge High School aligning with the job demands in Stafford County and the growing local economy as grant funding for champ um at brookpoint expires we uh do need to have these targeted Investments moving forward to meet the high academic expectations and expand opportunities for our growing Community we must align our resources accordingly this includes funding for positions such as teachers counselors special ed and special all critical for maintaining manageable class sizes um funds are also needed for academic supplies for both new and existing students and these Investments are essential to supporting both students academic growth and the overall success of our schools as part of our
021strategic plan we want every person who enters our facilities to enter a safe engaging and welcoming environment we appreciate Mr Ashton recognizing the importance of maintaining safe facilities with his proposed investment in three R funding and in Capital Improvements to do this we must provide the maintenance res and resources to ensure each of our SPAC spaces is operationally sound this includes maintaining and repairing existing facilities ensuring our bus buildings meet safety standards and creating environments where learning can flourish by investing in the physical spaces that house our students and staff we are laying the groundwork for lasting success we can go to the next slide our strategic plan focuses on a goal on investing and in supporting in all staff like the count like the county we are also experiencing the needs of addressing employee
022health insurance costs in line with our goal and in um we are requesting an increase in funding for health insurance to address Rising costs and maintain competitive benefits for our employees together these requests demonstrated made our commitment to building a strong Foundation by investing in the people who are integral in the success of our schools as we look at building that Foundation we must consider all aspects of compensation um I'm losing my spot again year this year we've seen health insurance claims increase by more than 15% and they are projected to exceed 20% by year end which has a direct impact on our budget we are now paying approximately 1,500 more per FTE compared to last year to continue investing in our employees and their well-being we'd like the county to we would we like
023the county anticipate our premiums to rise to better understand these Trends and plan accordingly we continue to work with our health insurance provider to reduce costs and align our health benefits and premiums with the overall strategic goals of building a solid foundation for Stafford school's growth and success for the years ahead much like our Public Service scale we have an instructional scale without providing 2 and a half% we would re see a negative impact on the stability of our scale we are required to provide at least 1 and a half% average increase this year to receive the state share of the bayum budget if we do not provide this amount of compensation we will not receive the over 5 million in state funding a significant amount of work has been been has gone into correcting
024our scale these Corrections focus on a step scale of three and a half of 3% between steps if we do not provide at least an average increase of 2 and a half% then our prog progress will move in the wrong direction our staff are the Bedrock of our foundation we must pay them properly and we cannot value our service and license staff differently our commitment to compensating our staff fairly was demonstrated as we said earlier by fully implementing phase three of our service scale and four of our licensed we get it here we see and we share your struggle we're in this together working towards providing adequate pay on both sides as you can see in developing our budget providing a 3% barely covers the cost of inflation it means less as we it means
025less as we too are seeing our health insurance premiums increase there are also other funding factors to consider to include money we would be losing if we do not fund our salary scales we are not going to make anyone independently wealthy with our salary investment this side details the smallest potential impact for both teachers and service considering the smallest raise an employee would receive and it assumes they have chosen the most expensive health insurance plan in this scenario you can see that a Service employee may only see a $20 increase in their paycheck next year before taxes that is a take-home of $240 $ over the entire year we are already falling behind our peers and neighboring communities without adequate funding this issue only gets worse you will see our here you see our teacher
026scale compared with other school divisions we have highlighted the proposed salaries for our new teachers those at midpoint and those at the top of the scale it's concerning that our new teacher salary has fallen behind our neighbors to the south at the midpoint of the scale we do surpass those divisions however we are not competitive to the school divisions north of us we recognize uh thanks and thank Dr Ashen for doing the homework we try to look at the same counties that you presented in your funding request so we just wanted to recognize that though you compared Stafford to Alam Marl Hanover James City and faul here they do have substantially smaller School divisions than we do and Chesterfield and hrio are substantially larger it was also worth noting that our main competitors here are
027at Spotsylvania um and those counties to the north for those trying to avoid the commute and our staff like yours deserve better and our C students certainly deserve better we are often asked about our per pupil expenditure unfortunately the most recent data that can be provided by the state is from FY 23 and while we've made some progress so have other comparable divisions we're happy to update and share FY 24 information when we receive it we're failing our students despite being one of the the fastest growing School divisions our per people expenditure is significantly below the state average at 13678 per student we Trail the state median by nearly $2,000 and neighboring neighboring districts like Spotsylvania and faul here by tens of millions in funding each dollar matters small per pupil increases translate to meaningful
028improvements in classrooms and schools enabling us to provide the high quality education our students deserve closing this Gap is a essential to laying a strong foundation for the future what we are asking is not extravagant or exorbitant in increas and increases of 5.7% to 11 uh 1% between fy22 and 25 have allowed us to meet critical needs the 99.2% increase we are asking of the county simply maintains the bare minimum quality of Education we are providing while providing fun to cover our mandatory commitments Miss holstad that's the last page okay we want to leave you with a sampling of the critical needs that remain unfunded these include the potential impact of the pending service scale and compensation uh and classification survey replacement cycles for buses and Chromebooks textbook adoptions Safety and Security building enhancements unmet
029maintenance needs and differentiated Staffing and compensation to meet the unique demands of our schools this slide is just a sampling of our unmet needs included in your packet is the full list of needs we've cut this year alone these unmet needs are a reminder of the challenges we face in building a comprehensive Foundation we are asking that you work with us to ensure Stafford schools can provide the Excellence our students and our community deserve okay so we will wrap this up thank you for your attention during this time um I if you've heard me speak at all over the last three years and you will note that consistently I've stated that the most important entity in any county is their school system exception being of course our Public Safety resources so let's look at some
030common sense reality things themes surrounding that statement each child in our system is a future doctor farmer autome mechanic plumber lawyer police officer or fireman but more significantly for some of us a taxpayer I remember having a conversation with my now 21-year-old when he was looking at colleges he asked why do they have instate tuition rates different from out of state the simplest answer is they don't want you to leave and find another state that you like better they'd like you to stay and remember how much you love where you grew up and lived be a returning taxpayer to that state it's an incentive to have you stay where loving to having you stay and love with knowing that you will always have a home in that Community this is how communities are built that's
031how Stafford will th Drive in the future when today's Learners leave our buildings grow up start their careers and are finally ready to make decisions about where they want to raise their families we you want them to say Stafford County because sorry you want them to return because they remember how amazing their childhood here was you want them to return because this was the place they called home they felt the safest they felt the most important they want to raise their children here and they want their children to be a part of Stafford County public schools because it was the greatest time of their lives we don't look at the investment in these children as a snapshot in this moment in time but rather as the totality of who they will become and how they
032will affect this world long after we have moved on that's our Legacy here that's how people will remember what you do in this moment in time every dollar we have asked for in this budget goes directly to the future of a child in this system in particular the ones we've asked to help make our building safe for our kids but especially the ones we've asked to support our bus drivers teachers support staff and administration you cannot see this budget as independent part moving Parts they are not every aspect of this budget is finally tuned to another part of it and it attaches itself to the face of a child in the care of this system a child that we all took an oath to advocate for and to build a better future for when we
033accepted the up when we I'm sorry when the people in our district elected us to the seats that we now hold I guarantee you many of you campaigned and will again campaign this year on helping to fix the schools it's a natural promise I get it especially when you are knocking on the door when most of the doors that you are knocking on in this County are the homes of parents raising children here who attend our school system so let's be clear we have an opportunity fulfill this promise to all of our constituents right here today this during this budget season so before you campaign and before you get out there remember how you thought about this budget and what that means to the people that you represent now I'll recap our funding request our
034request focuses on addressing growth supporting staff and meeting state standards of quality it opens a new business and information technology specialty at Colonial Forge High School and provides initial Staffing for elementary school 18 19 and high school 6 in order to develop this budget each area of our base budget was scrutinized and over $800,000 was cut compensation key highlights include strategic adjustments to the service scale and instructional scales to include implementation of phase four on the instructional scale and phases two and three of the service scale overall these funding requests will allow us to maintain essential Services despite significant financial challenges we are grateful to Mr Ashton Ashton and the county staff who have been working tirelessly with the schools to ensure that so much of the County's budget is earmarked to support education in
035a way that everyone can be proud of please know that we see how hard you are working to help us get this all right however tonight we are asking you to find an additional 18.3 million just 4% above Mr Ashton's proposed budget to balance the FY 26 funding needs for our school we appreciate your time and your consideration so you all remember that we'll pass out the quiz now kidding but questions comments anything anybody would like to add that we didn't get to not everybody wants people in the room uh supervisor Monica Gary it's all forgive me that's okay I was right um I the one thing I was wondering um what is the and it may be in here somewhere but it's a lot of information to take in really quickly so the one
036question I had was what is the the dollar amount to get from the uh 1.5 that maintains the 5.5 in state funding we're talking the pay scales um correct to get to the 2.5 that's being requested 2.5% what was the the Del to there financially is that in the the spreadsheet but um if not we can certainly get it to you we can come back to that okay good just write it down right now supervisor English I got a couple questions the first one is is uh I guess it's going to go to you Chris um what are your uh your vacancy savings so far this year as for what what does that look like up up to so at our at our midyear financial report we had um I believe it was about $2.5
037million and compensation and benefit savings um however our health insurance that was excluding health insurance with our health insurance we're actually having to reallocate some of those benefit savings into our health insurance fund to cover our increases in health insurance um we're moving $1 million from our operating fund but we're also getting another $2 million from our uped trust fund and then we're using our fund Reserve balance and our health benefits so right now our health benefits are over by about $6.5 million just this year and um I again I guess another question is the contracts you I think you going to you're Contracting your custodial Services out is that what you're doing yes sir is that a savings or what why are we doing that and if you're doing that so you don't have
038any custodians in the schools we have a few custodians that are grandfathered in from prior to moving to a contractor I want to say it's single digits um I think it's less than 15 now yeah so so what is that what is that contract what do that cost we can get that to you as well okay and the other question I have is also to note that custodial contract is a 5-year contract and it won't go out on the streets until 28 I just wonder what you paying okay the other thing is is there I guess this is going to go back to you I guess Chris um what if the president plans to if he plans don't think he is but if he does the dissolves of federal responsibility for schools what's going to
039happen what would what would be what what's what's the what's the plan what's the emergenc plan other than coming back that say we need more money that's a really great question and it's a you know something we're monitoring and I and some of those Services have been moved to other departments to right so like Head Start and um so you're not relying on federal funds for those then if that if you're moving to another yes we are we do use that 33.3 million I think but um some of the programs will likely be picked up by other departments so Head Start may be fall under a different department um we receive Medicaid and reimbursement for special ed students that may be picked up by another department my best guess is Title One funds which is
040about 10 million and um the nutrition program which is about another 12 million those may be very difficult almost impossible for us to replace those would be impossible for us to replace I believe the nutrition comes from the uh Department of um agriculture so it's not the nutrition would not be affected by any impacts on the Department of Education correct not to say it couldn't be impacted by something else but that's that's about almost half of our federal funding I think I this if you can pull that slide up yeah 16 or 14 14 million out of the 33 is um so that probably would that prob fre red lunches wouldn't probably wouldn't be affected that wouldn't be affected by any changes in the Department of Education so they Head Start and title funding that's
041head would Head Start wouldn't eing for nutrition from USA from us the over100 million that effect nutrition and they've already cut of the ability for local school districts to purchase food locally so that has already been eliminated but we have not yet determin what the impact is to us should you have a should you have a plan just in case yes it's not like we're not working on it no I'm I'm not I'm not saying that yeah but I'm just saying if it if it happens tomorrow the way things are going as fast as things are going it could happen next week we are having these conversations but we're we don't have the plan fully fleshed out that we can present it to you but I would be I would I would hold tight to
042Common Sense we are underfunded as it is and if we lose any more money what's our plan pray like seriously I mean of course they're working on it the their number crunchers they're working on their things but I'm just speaking as a mom and a woman who believes in logic what's our plan seriously that's that's a community question and the community meaning all of you and all of our constituents are going to have to answer that what is our plan the other thing is is the effects would not be immediate because we are already well into this fiscal year so we would likely have time over the summer to start trying to figure out what we do got you so you're you're good for the rest of the year is what you're telling me yeah
043June well for Head Start we we have a grant for Head Start do we not Mr Fulmer is that that's for the that's for the the remainder of this year we're we're funded through all right uh Dr SMI has something to say I'm sorry I was just going to add we have an internal work group that's looking at this we're trying to build out as many scenarios as we can it's really hard to predict what might happen um we're we're looking at a lot of different scenarios and continuing to monitor it each and every day um about what may happen but it's like you said it's really unpredictable at this point in terms of what's going to take place so I watched the news today and it sounds like they're trying to do away with
044the Department of Education is where it looks like it's going so if they do that is that a benefit for us if they did a way because it sounds like the money's going to come back to the States so is that well it's got to come back to the States it's got to come back to the States so if if if that happen if say tomorrow he adops he takes the Department of Education boom it's gone how much money do you think we would get from the federal government to say okay take do you have do you have any kind of I think that would potentially be decided by the state so the money go to state so the state okay and then Richmond could decide that who's getting what right and they could decide
045gosh Stafford's a really wealthy County but you know what Floyd is not so wealthy palaski is not so wealthy so we have no idea at this point what the state would do okay and we have to recognize that regardless of whether the Department of Education sends us funds for special education we are required by law to provide a free and appropriate public education to every student so that Our obligation it's it's it is a legal requirement so we're going to have to provide that whether or not we get the federal funding the the challenges as Dr Chase you know was alluding to if the money goes to the state it's going to be the state's discretion on how to distribute it plus I can't imagine anything would be done quickly so that that would put
046us in a very precarious situation hopefully that those responsibilities for administering the the legally required programs will be assigned to another department okay and and then second hopefully we will require continue to get the money that has been allocated we've always said that the federal funding we get is is is fairly um low it doesn't meet the requirements of the mandates that we have but it's still you know significant amount of money that comes in we run essentially I guess in a household we'd call it paycheck to paycheck if if there is a short we will have to make game time decisions on what you know what gets skipped what gets delayed what gets what we ask for an extension on um and what we can no longer buy just like we would in our
047household um so right now we have a plan getting through the end of the fiscal year I would imagine I don't even know that the feds would get something in in place for FY 26 it might be more of an FY 27 conversation um because it's all I mean it's a big ship right it's hard to change directions not very Nimble um but it is definitely something that we are watching and anticipating for but it but that also makes it harder for plan for all of us to plan uh from our households to local government um and everything in between state government everything in between so we can only move forward with the best information we have have and um prepare to Pivot and be nimble I I just want to say too I think
048that what's important to remember is that the information is changing on a dime for a lot of folks and and what was said yesterday was maybe not the truth or it's coming out or somebody said something so to Dr Smith's point I mean until we have the absolutes the only thing we have is the absolute ability to create a group that stays where we needed to be which is focused on what happens if those changes are made not you know continuing to speculate what would happen if it comes back down to the state of I mean the state certainly has an obligation I do want to point out I don't think anybody at the government level Maybe I'm Wrong maybe I'm still naive is looking to mess around with our kids in that regard and
049to to not feed them and to not whatever that's at the state level I think there's a lot of growing pains that are happening right now and it behooves us to recognize what our local responsibility is to our communities and how we treat them and how we provide for them because that's where our that's where our full investment is is right directly in our neighborhoods in our in our communities and with our people so to not cause undue Panic out in the public over rumors and speculations and could bees or or nots I mean we can certainly form more working groups if we need to but I mean we're definitely aware that we need to follow what's happening and stay on top of it um and I and I think that it's important for us
050to to have the discussion but I think that we also really need to look get locally together how we're supporting each other particularly what what our request is tonight does that make sense and I just want to say to supervisor English we our desire to not State a plan isn't because we're trying to to be vague or not be transparent or be honest but I I think um you guys can appreciate if we say oh if we lose X Y and Z we'll do a b and c but that but other factors may change as well and we can't do ab andc so to come and say this is what we will do and then we have to Pivot or change that um I'm just going to say it we're constantly getting attacked and like
051people aren't going to believe you know well this is the best thing well you said it was that so it is not prudent for us to say this is what we are going to do especially when it is so um it's just really hard cutting is is hard and and we don't know what's happening from day to day um and I would I just like to share um you know I was talking with one of my constituents yesterday and he was very upset to think that our students had such poor outcomes given that we spend $40,000 a year educating our students and I then had to explain to him that no that I don't know where where in the news you heard $40,000 a student but here in Stafford it's about 13,000 a student and
052so I think it is important for the community to understand that that we're getting a pretty good bargain here in Stafford and if you lose 33. million 7% of your budget we're pretty tight to lose 7% of our budget so we do not spend 40,000 per student we spend just over 13,000 per student I would also like to point out that everything is currently in flux and we can't plan for every possible contingency because we don't really know EX exactly what's coming down the pike Vice chair Alan um I was going to ask um this is from Mr Fulmer are there any one-time spending requests that the state was is able to help um to offset some of this cost no can you say that one more time I'm sorry are there any one time
053spending requests that the state is help is that oh the for from the um to offer the state during the process when they asked because I know they were asking for one time spending um and they were looking to gear towards education um I have not seen that yet I know there's onetime money in the state budget uh for um employee bonuses but that's the only onetime money I've seen on top of the um the actually adopted budget I think that originally during session there was going to there was going to try to be something to get localities money to help support Chromebook replacement since the state require us to use technology to test our students so even if we decided that we as a community did not want Chromebooks in the classrooms we would
054still have to ma maintain a a collection of them because the state requires us to test that way um to my knowledge that did not get very far it's certainly not in the budget and it's not in the plan to provide any additional funding for those type of cyclical Replacements but we hope in future it might be okay um and these next two questions is more so because we're getting there's a lot of misinformation going on we've already encountered at some of our meetings in the budget process that even before it started so I just wanted you guys to set the record straight and kind of explain to the community while we're both here um one was about you know um the maintenance contract for our um janitors and I remember the process I don't
055know what the final number was but to my understanding the contract that went out was the lowest bid one was that correct uh no it would not be the lowest bid but one of the yeah so we went through an evaluation process and so there were minimum requirements for that bid including minimum pay for the custodians and so that was evaluated as part of the review of all the solicitations that we received okay and so and but you don't have the number yet you said on on on what that contract was I don't have the specifics no okay um if you can if you can pass that on to our sta that'd be great cuz one of the questions we got was why are we giving contracts out well why are the schools giving contracts
056out and not having it be as low as possible or some other type of wording it was worded as um then the second one was Dr Chase Alan I I think what you were saying was I remember that um the specific thing was there was a local company that could have provided services within the county and was 50,000 cheaper than the current uh contract that you have so that was the that was what was brought before us so whether that's true or not true um I think what constituents are saying is they prefer to keep the money in the county and you know I know there's a process for everything and and then yeah and are we being fisc F fiscally responsible with our cont with with our contracts that was one um and so
057obious says as you said you'll get that back to us um and then the other questions Dr Chase kind of started to answer that question is this this idea of well obviously one the number was off with with how much per pupil was um it was way more than the 13 but people are saying that why are we spending so much money and our um s sols and our metrics um don't correlate but this is obviously with the assumption that we were spending 40,000 on students versus 13 but and and the national average is 18,000 so we're 5,000 below the national average and our student students if if you if you watched Dr Smith's presentation last night um our students are actually doing pretty well on Theos we have come back pretty much to pre-co
058levels okay so the idea that we are no these are the questions that we get so we want to make we want to make sure that we're letting people know because they're telling us why should you raise our taxes what uh to pay for students when their scores are not going up and I'm better off homeschooling them um and so uh and then the last question has to do with with um go ahead Dr I can share a little bit of that if you'd like in terms of some of the things that I shared and so I did I had heard about this from some folks from some community members saying that our schools are declining or our schools are failing and really wanted to go back and take a look at that um I
059will say I went back to since 2021 uh to 2024 um our our reading Pass rates have gone up 4% and we're just 1% off the state average our um our mathematics Pass rates in 2021 we were at 50% in 2024 we're at 68% an 18% increase since 2021 um and we're just off the state average there science we went up 10 percentage points from 58 to 68 um and we are right even with the state average the state average is 68 as well we're actually a couple tenth ahead of them but um we we'll call that even um and then social studies history and social studies uh we went up by 9 percentage points and we're 1 percentage point off the State and so uh we have seen improvements across the board when you
060look at that um I also highlighted uh how we have recovered to pre-pandemic levels in terms of early literacy specifically with our students with with disabilities and our English language Learners and we've also seen some tremendous increases in the opportunities we give kids to achieve college credit through dual enrollment AP courses we are now past prepandemic levels and Achieve higher in some of those areas um kids not only taking those courses but actually getting college credits for some of those so there's probably a little more into that that I shared last night with our board and the community um and happy to share that with you as well and and I think this I think the Board of Supervisors get some credit for that the last four years you guys have really stepped up in
061terms of your funding of our school system that so I guess that goes towards answering some one of the questions our constituent was one the schools aren't doing less with more and when we did increase funding as you can see over the last couple of years yes they're doing more with less excuse me thank you supervisor Gary they are doing more with less as as as some of the constituents have said why the schools doing more with less they have and when we have increased the funding there there's there's data to show now that the students are returned to pre pandemic levels and the trajectory is heading in the way we both wanted to do so I just wanted to make sure for redundancy and for clarity that the public was the questions that are
062being asked in in our sessions that we're able accident you guys can give it word MTH so that there's no um misalignment and I would like to respond um in regards to the contract I don't remember all the details and I don't fully understand everything with procurement but I do remember this when we had our maintenance workers coming out to your meetings and ours talking about the treatment that they were receiving um you guys were disgusted the constituents were disgusted we were disgusted so when we asked as for contracts to do this we asked for a respectable pay we're we weren't asking for $99 an hour you know we don't you know we're we're the school system right we're not a bunch of Rich folks we not we were asking for respectable pay and to
063have our maintenance workers be able to have paid vacation time or or holidays it was things like that that made certain contracts not get awarded so um we were being I think we were still being fiscally responsible and conservative but we are also ethical and as we have said a thousand times the individuals who are propping up our students deserve Fair Equitable pay and we need to do that and we will make sacrifices to do that and if that's a sacrifice of having a little bit of a higher um fee for our maintenance workers then that is a sacrifice we are proud to bear so I also want to just jump in on we talk about the system is failing our kids or whatever and just say there's there's another side of that coin which
064is actually our building infrastructure that's failing our kids because on any given day in this County when it's hot out we could lose air conditioning and kids can't sit in those stuffy classrooms or it's cold and they have to wear their jackets those that's the way we're also failing our kids we can't keep up with the amount of damage that these buildings have acquired over the course of time because we're constantly coming up with some kind of MacGyver situation to duct tape with a pencil and whatever to save a dollar it is Pennywise pound foolish to continue to think that we can we can maintain any semblance of fiscal responsibility by continuing to approach the projects the way we do if you watch the school board meeting last night then you heard Mr to explain
065that we just gave money over to Rock Hill which we had taken away from it to begin with years ago right to handle other projects now we're going to go back with the little bit that we have to try and fix some of the issues but because it's still not enough to fix fix that project we have to take out old sinks put in new stuff put the old sinks back in to save money to do it I can't even begin like for me it's not only fiscally irresponsible it's I I don't even know how to explain it morally reprehensible because at this point in the game there should be no there should be no way that we should have to peace meal every single solitary project that we go on today we're going to
066work on pipe a in 3 years when the cost is $10,000 more $100,000 more we're going to work on pipe B that is the way the school system has functioned over the years with the money that's been allotted to it to account for the Aging infrastructure in these buildings those are the ways that when you start to look at failing our students those are the ways we're failing them as well so it's not just one side of that coin there are two sides to that coin and I recognize the fact that we see some of what folks are complaining about in terms of um the kids in the scores or whatever but please remember solidly that 90% of the mandates are not ours 9 1,000% of the so mandates are not ours we don't come
067up with those rules kids are allowed the the data and the infrastructure behind all of that stuff I suppose was designed to help support and build up school systems it's just not consistent enough for us to get a variable out to you that actually can make sense on a regular basis particularly to people who aren't part of the system we we also lost a lot of teachers in covid a lot who just left the industry so when we talk about Staffing shortages and teachers and lure and trying to bring our kids back up that costs money it costs money to bring the qualified people here to bring the people to ourmes they're going to uplift our kids and give them hope for the future right I I want professionals out of their industry coming here
068to support building these emies and helping our kids that's money yeah supervisor new next so I'd like to just add on a couple things to what Miss hallad said one of the things that we talked about the Rock Hill project that we had to pull and then put it back on but not to the entire amount we piec meal money from other savings savings so we are working for that savings off of other projects to include 52 .79 that we saved off a project and moved to help the Rock Hill project I mean those are the kinds of coins we are pulling out of the couch cushions to try to do the right things for our schools the other thing I would also like to say is yesterday we had a student meeting with all
069of the uh leaders in all of the five high schools um LED with Dr Smith and one of the things that I will say that was said really well by the students there um when they were asked what was done well for them in in their time with Stafford to them was the opportunities our specialty centers CGS IB ATI that as they gr into high school they could see the wealth of opportunities that was there for them whether they choose College choose career or even choose military we have that those programs and opportunities as well so I think if you again and speaking like what Dr Chase was saying that when you look at um what has gone well with the students and then the funding uh increases that we've received from you all in
070the last few years that's been helping us to give students I mean they're well aware of the opportunities that they're getting from us in this County but that was because we had a partnership with you to increase opportunities for our kids so that is a thank you all right uh supervisor vuch thank you so much chairman Diggs um first of all guys sorry I can't be there in person uh to meet with you today I had a last minute work emergency that I had to attend to so it prohibited me from coming into the meeting but thanks to Andrew for making sure that our virtual settings were were set up um I have one question and two comments um the first is if you guys could provide us I know you talked about the test
071scores and I know supervisor Allen was asking um some questions regarding that and we get those questions all the time could you guys provide us I know you just provided the ones from 2021 till present if you could do the ones preco to present that you also I think Dr Chase maybe maybe spoke to that or Dr Warner um spoke to that that would be super f for us and then the other um inquiry that I had is I remember at one point you guys um would pass out it might be a state law it might be a federal law I'm not sure out forms for parents to sign up if their parents are for children to sign up if their parents are federal workers do that still exist yes yes it does yes do
072you guys by chance have a number of that because supervisor young and I know she wasn't able to join today either for work but he had asked our board to try to do some research regarding some of the federal impacts that Stafford County might be having just based on what's going on within the government right now and some of the job transitions if you are able to give us like a total number of that I think that would be really really helpful on our end is that proprietary or are you able to share that no that's our impact aid form and we um can certainly give you those counts so okay awesome and then my can I can I ask a question Mr Fulmer isn't that impact Aid only for federal employees on certain bases
073or you have to military bases yes if you're military connected or if you're working on a federally connected property so it's only certain properties that they're that the so we have that information but we would not have information on the total um federal employees uh parents or Guardians in our um we can certainly give you what we have right yeah yeah no no I totally understand that that would be really helpful at least so we could understand a small magnitude of that of how how many we have um in effort of that and then we can kind of do the math on the rest and then the last question that I had is I know supervisor English brought up um some of the impacts within regarding the Department of Education and some potential Federal funding
074challenges in the future um we have yet to kind of understand any of that but a lot of the um conversation around the whole closure of the Department of Education is as he mentioned bringing things back to the state but it's also regarding a school choice um would you guys be open to a meeting maybe over the summertime to better understand what that could mean to our budget long term as those plans start to to develop over the next several months sorry I thought I hit my button sure we're always happy to meet and I think that is a changing landscape we can probably understand better awesome thank you guys that's those all my questions um can I just before I just want to talk about uh supervisor Vin's first request as far as the
075test scores um for a longer period of time I just wanted to um ask you to please include the point in the test score timeline where they changed how they scored SOS um as a parent I remembered that they changed essentially the the metric by which they considered pass and fail um and so it might be a little bit apples and oranges or at least oranges in like nectarines or something um but that way we can just Mark that point in time so that everybody knows thank you sure I just also want to caution that even any discussions that are surrounding school choice the the VAR Ables that will go into any of those calculations are literally just going to be shots in the dark right like we like we can't and to miss gu
076point from earlier like we seem to every year get pigeon hold into because we said something God forbid anything changes there's no flexibility for us to be like well we were trying to get you a solu an answer there has to be wiggle room to understand that a things change B we're telling you what we know at the time that we're telling it to you if it changed is the next day that is absolutely possible so I'm H I am happy to come to any meeting that we hold I clearly do all the time so I will will always uh welcome the opportunity to discuss it but we need to be really careful moving forward what we start to to speculate on and what's reality and what's changing and what this school board is going
077to be held accountable for that we don't have the answers to okay whenever those on online are finished we'll come back and I think I shut supervisor English down early so he's mad at me so we got to go back to him too uh but supervisor bony yes thank you so much um I apologize um as chairman dig said that I cannot be there in person um but I'm happy that I'm here online I have two questions um the first one I I believe that the uh Chromebooks are still used only in the elementary schools if somebody could just state that that is correct and um and life of the we use them in every at every level and they are about a 5year lifespan if I recall so we're coming up on that big
078birthday we have reduced not all students take them home anymore some schools just keep them Elementary School in particular they do keep them in the schools and the students pull them out to use them as appropriate for whatever they're working on middle schools have a little more usage time with them a lot of middle schoolers do not take them home um it's our high schoolers that have essentially Chromebook access 24/7 and are allowed to take them with them oh okay thank you I appreciate that I wasn't aware of that um and then um I have a question for Chris Falmer as it relates to salary lap so I believe this year we had you know and typically it seems like the schools have about $6 million left over at the end of every year and
079then you come back with projects and anything that's a one-time uh expense and ask for reallocation over like the last five years um what would be the average the salary lap that you have built into the budget and what are you projecting in fiscal year 26 sure and so and and just speaking of the carryover that we have each year overall um and that takes into account um revenue and our expenditures obviously and so in at the end of FY 24 we had about um $6 million left which is actually the highest amount we've had probably in um 8 to 10 years every year prior to that it's been in the two to three sometimes 1.5 um which um is less than like 1% or close to half a percent of our budget so that
080is budgeting very very tightly um and then um addressing the salary laps number uh going back a few years we were budgeting about $3 million a year and we were exceeding that and that's where we would have some of our savings um however a few years ago we've started to see that Trend change and we actually had to reduce our budgeted salary laps two years ago um and I believe it's 1.75 million that we currently have that we adjusted for it then and we've had it there for the last few years we've actually seen um for our third year in a row now that our um average year of experience of our employee and our teacher specifically has increased um so we're attracting more experienced teachers which has mean means that our salary lapse number
081is going down and um this current year in 25 uh this current school year had one of our lowest um vacancy rates to start the year in several years as well so we're not quite getting the same salary lapse number that we were historically and then now we've seen our health insurance costs increase as well okay thank you Chris and that um leads into my next question regarding health insurance you know I think it's really interesting when when all of us are dealing with uh increases in health insurance have you all identified are there different categories of um of health issues with employees where you know we can try to help address some of those issues or do you not really know what you're challenges are as it relates to health insurance so so first
082I'll say I don't think it's and this goes for the county and the schools it's not just a Stafford County issue it's a nationwide um issue that we see increase in health insurance costs whether that's just doing inflation and then just generally speaking health insurance costs increasing so um we're they're seeing that Nationwide the county and the schools both I think were fortunate for a few years that we were able to be below that national average uh in the schools specifically I can speak to we were well below that and uh more in the four to 5% range per year instead of the 18 to 20% range increase each year uh and then this is our the kind of the first year we've seen a major upt in that uh no um very clear explanations
083for that we are working with um our insurance provider to continue to analyze interesting yeah that's a those are grueling increases grueling so okay thank you very much I appreciate it thank you all right uh supervisor Gary thank you I'm going to jump around a little bit because I've just been trying to take notes so that whenever it was my turn with all these wonderful people that I would not miss anything um thank you for the explanations on the contract with the maintenance um my understanding is that the strongest contract was went with not the cheapest and those are not the same thing and I think it's very very important to talk about that with the public and that you can get bids and you can get bids that are low that doesn't mean it's
084the best bid right as spoken to by Miss guy and others so thank you all for that explanation um and we would deal with that all the time you know all levels of government um I I do want to say that I'm I'm really concerned and and I know that you all as school board members have to you know come here and give your best pitch for you know what you're trying to do and we know that you care about the children that's why you have your roles um but from my position I just want to say I think that that's really unfortunate that our Schoolboard members have to come here and and argue for the validity of caring for and educating our children um as though there're some sort of asset that unless we
085get something back out of them as Workforce or what have you um and that they're just simply some sort of financial investment um so again I'm not I'm not talking at you about this I think it's unfortunate that we have to hear it that way um and that I think that the public thinks differently but those of us who think differently and and would support educating our children no matter what because we believe in the value of human life and the children that we say we care about those people those of us we need to talk louder we need to write the public to you to write our Board of Supervisors who is going through this budget process and talk about that and I know that it is over half of the constituents in this
086County regardless of District regardless of if you have a children in the schools or not because I've run that and I have the data um so please if you're listening and that's you please reach out to us and and make those um requests known we do have the responsibility to take care of our children no matter what I have concerns about going down the rabbit hole about the school choice discussion um there are so many unknowns and what that's going to look like for people with children who have disabilities um people who don't have the means to cover the Delta of whatever that voucher or whatever it is might be to actually providing an education whether that be private school or homeschool homeschool can be very expensive I homeschooled my children during covid and just
087buying a program I could even use for every one of them all four of the girls that I homeschooled it it can be pricey and then you have activities and things on top of it so um I am hesitant to have that meeting obviously I I don't think anyone wants to say no we don't want to have a meeting to talk about something but I feel like it's very early to be doing that and it could create some panic and confusion particularly for those families who are dealing like I said with limited re very limited resources I mean look at our Title One funding what is that 10.5 million those are the families that are going to be impacted right if that happens so I I really would like to just stick to this now
088figure out our budget um as usual I want to do as best as possible for you all thank you for bringing this um but at the same time and this isn't to to throw shade at anybody you know in this room or the public or anything but let's not pretend like we didn't know this was going to happen when we voted last November let's not pretend it was all spelled out so now we're stuck to deal with it and we have to work with each other and I appreciate that because sometimes you need a common problem to to come together I think we're going to figure it out um I'm I'm not Doom and Gloom about it but I do have very real concerns and I just thank you all for the work you continue
089to do thank you Miss Gary I would just like to respond to a couple things number one I do agree with you it's too premature we don't really know what the end results going to be and education still is a state purview it's the job of the state so the state will make decisions about school choice and vouchers and all those other things we have no idea where that might go so it's it would be impossible for us to make any predictions the second thing I want to point out is when we talk about excellent outcomes for our students for secondary postsecondary school what we're also talking about is making curriculum relevant students learn better when they feel connected to what they're doing and that was the impetus for the pathway programs and the specialty
090programs it's to make sure that we're getting all students where they need to be and as someone who used to teach chemistry to high school students I can tell you that there's a lot of students who don't really want to learn stuff that they don't think is relevant to their lives so that's part of the reason we implemented some of these programs all right um supervisor English back to miss Gary's point I think it's everybody's got to come here and see where we're at and see where we're talking so I think that was probably not shouldn't be said because it's not that anyone not to come I was telling them to reach out to us I understand that but I think that was well I think we owe it to our constituents anyway I agree
091the um I didn't hear anything about the updating on um shared services and are yall still uh looking to further combined the services today to save money I didn't hear anything about the shared services how's that going are we save are we talking about like Fleet I'm talking about all shared service do we have how many shared services do we have any updates on that I think it's only thing I know we have shared services on insurance health insurance and that's it right Fleet Services and what else is it anything else that we could be looking at to save money that we could think of I don't I mean so you're you're talking about where the overlap exists between our entities right where we can use more shared services I mean it's limited just because
092of the purview of the education system itself so the fleet services and the health insurance piece are probably our top two because we can cross poony those those divisions but that's really hard once you get to the building level the school level where you have teachers I think the I think the custodial one would be a good unless you want to I think codal then we're that's I'm just knowing that's one of the ones that would probably be a good one to look at but I need something that we need to take a look at the other thing is do you have an opat program for the probably do you have an opat program for your employees if they don't take the insurance do they get stien so if they don't take so if husband
093takes it y'all don't okay y'all don't do that the other thing is do you think they're going to be we can't afford it huh we can't afford it okay I'm asking it the other question I had is um I I'm noticing gas prices are dropping so do you think we're going to have some savings on the gases I just it's starting to go down and hopefully it's going to keep continually go down so is there going to be any savings on that we actually already in this budget reduced um the prices that we have in for fuel so we uh reduced that gas budget in this budget so there'll be some savings there right hopefully yeah it keeps going down Yeah in our FY 26 budget that the school board just approved already we already
094oh in fy2 I'm sorry of yeah in my midyear report I actually showed that we are projecting $4 to $500,000 in Savings in this current year good that's what I like to you all right that's it Vice chair Allan yeah this is just more so a comment um and this is so this is more so for the community to understand the situation we're in um we've had an unfunded mandate from the state that basically it's 11 million plus that our administrator just presented to us in the budget and the schools are asking us for 13 million so if you do the math if we didn't have to absorb so much of an unfunded mandate then obviously there would be more more money earmarked towards the school and less of a tax burden that the community
095would have to bear but unfortunately the state has failed to do their due diligence in moving along EXP iously and they're going to spend the next 10 years Jin the beesa out of that to figure out what the solutions are but in the meantime in the next 10 years we're going to be approaching I won't even want to think about it but I won't be surprised almost $50 million potentially upcoming year we're we're going to hit 28 million so that type of of tax relief that even if we've gotten even a half of that that half would been would have been able to fully reinvest into our community and so just as much as I want the community to come out and share their concerns about what's happening in Stafford County they also need to
096be equally as active advocating to their state reps so that we don't undertake mandates that put us in a difficult situation where we're forced to make difficult decisions and whether it's not fully funding the schools or having to raise taxes um and that's not a fair dichotomy that we should continuously be putting our constituents in and so so I want to make sure that everyone that comes out to speak to us are also doing their civic duty in reaching out to the state to strongly Advocate because as I said the amount of Burden that those veterans deserve the state should be absorbing that cost so that we can invest in our future and right now we're not doing that I fully fully agree um you know we talk about I guess I just want to
097say that we talk about difficult decisions and for a lot of this the school division does not have a difficult decision we have to educate every student that lives in our community that wants to enroll in our schools whether we get the money or not we have to provide the right teachers at the right ratios for the right class size for the right needs whether we get the funding or not so it is a difficult decision in Richmond and in Stafford but at the end of the day we still have to deliver what we've outlined in here we're trying to do that with the teachers we have and the other ones we can attract CED um and we don't have an option um we do not have an option to raise our own money we
098do not have an option to decline to um enroll we do not have an option to decline to hire people because the state says we have to hire them so and you know I know I'm preaching to the choir right like I know that you guys understand that but I need you to really remember that as you're making decisions like we don't get a choice and I know I'll just stop there all right I'd like to piggy back on that comment U and talk about the cost of competing adjustment which is something that um comes from the state and we get 25% of the amount that the northern Virginia um counties get starting with Prince William and there was a proposal by several of our state representatives this year to increase that amount it didn't
099make it out of committee by one vote as I understand it and one of our Representatives who represents call it Al who was it it it was it was Miss Miss King delegate King who represents a significant portion of Prince William and a very small portion of Stafford voted against it or didn't vote I'm not sure which but if we had had that one more vote it could have come out of committee and at least it would have had a chance to be considered by the legislature and that's something that could have brought in a significant amount of money to Stafford County that would not have cost the local government money but it would have given us more resources to be able to fund some of these mandates that we have that are currently unfunded
100so I want to thank the supervisors for your lobbying for us to get that uh cost of compete meeting uh and and you know the staff on our side that works so hard for that we made the uh Point as we do every year to our Representatives uh state representatives at our legislative dinner but um I'm not sure why but miss King was not able to attend I'm hoping that she will be able to attend next year because I don't recall anytime we've had our legislative Summit I think we call it now um can I can I pick it back what you're saying can I pick picky back on what say sure well anyway that was just my point is just to follow up with Miss Allen's we have mandates there's potential resources potential relief
101but it's in the hands of the state and the state has to make that decision and if we don't have our Representatives supporting us on that how can we expect to get the rest of the state to do so I would also like to mention that um senator mcpike had a bill to try to recover some of those monies that have been lost through the unfunded mandate and um especially in highit communities like ours and I don't think that got out of committee either supervisor English I would like us to send a letter from the board and from the school board to miss King and ask her why she didn't vote for that I think she needs to answer why she didn't do that put us in a position she is representing part of our
102constituents and what respectfully I don't think that that is a move that my school board should take I think that we should make that have a discussion and and make that decision not the time I did that's my opinion is I don't think we should take that role I think we should try to engage ask questions meaningful questions be willing to listen to her reason and move forward from there well it's obvious she's not coming if she's missed things factually speaking she is not the only delegate that did not vote in our favor we're not sending letters to everyone there have been that but for that one but there have been other delegates and other Senators that have voted against things that we wanted in Stafford and if we have sent letters to them then
103I would say yes but I wouldn't say I don't think it's fair to send letters to one member of the delegates or the Senators when all of them have voted in a way that at some point we all wish they hadn't that's what I'm saying I I don't think that is a smart political move because we do need their votes and so let's Curry some favor by just talking well I think what's upsetting in that statement though is that um we do need their votes that It's upsetting to me that we would think that by standing up for and advocating for our people that they would vote against us that's what we're here for that's not what if I may I I don't want to cut you off but I feel like I have something
104I can kind of give to this that will be helpful may I okay but I finish okay I'll be really fast thank you I actually spoke with delegate King when I went down for a local government day with Veo with Dr Young and supervisor bom key we sat in her office sorry I didn't speak with her I spoke with her later but I spoke with her Aid um they're actually very supportive of Education funding I think it would make sense for us to reach out individually whoever can you we can just call her office and find out what were the reasons like Miss guy was okay so she has right and we can as well I believe I understand we can always reach out and do those things and and I think getting in a
105back and forth here um we we have to work together the politics is very toxic right now I think if we in this room can figure it out then that would be beneficial for Stafford County and I think we can figure it out we could start mudslinging you know I'm I don't want to do that but to be fair we asked we had a bipartisan Bill last year that went through about um School construction just to give the choice to the voters and it was vetoed at the governor's desk so so I think that right now we can maybe pull back from that obviously you have some things to say but maybe we can pull back from that a little a little bit and just focus on how how are we going to solve this
106here now instead of starting to throw some stuff around I I want to get to your point but I now I have a question right so do you two know why she didn't vote because you did you both talk with her am I am I I I spoke with her so I spoke with her and I am not going to publicly say it right now because I don't know how to frame it nicely and and politically correct not it's nothing bad I just don't want to say it and then someone take it and run with it I spoken with the superintendent about it I spoken with the chair about it I do believe moving forward that this won't happen again and I think we can um I can have them write it and make it
107nice and then you can send it they'll send it to you and then they can send it to everybody I just don't want to have someone take my words y'all know how I I put my foot in my mouth all the time I don't want to do that with with with our delegate do you understand what I'm saying and I would say for me well no you speak you speak well well for me we we sat in here we did this big fancy dinner and we all did the the summit the summit whatever you want to call it and I would remember sitting there feeling like this is a waste of time I'm sorry that's how I felt that's just the truth because we're sitting here we're eating this nice food we're doing all this
108talking and then for her to go down there or any delegate that represents this community to go down there and to vote against what we sat here and spent our time talking about it's just really hard to understand so I look forward to that but I get very frustrated if we're going to come together and we're going to meet then we need to be productive and I thought we did a really good job even having our um lobbyists or whatever you want to call them here explaining the pressures that we're feeling here in Stafford and so I'm just hoping that um because I I sent a message out right here that like I I want answers it doesn't make sense to me that we come together time away from our families and our other commitments
109to talk about our issues and then they go down to Richmond any of them and vote against our our interests so and I fully agree with you and just want to make my point clear because I think you misunderstood me and I just want to make it clear I'm not saying that we shouldn't do something like that in the future or that that that's not a good look all the time what I'm saying is she is not the only delegate that voted against something that would have benefited us and so all I'm saying is the energy that we have right now for delegate King where is that energy for the other delegates that represent Stafford and the other Senators because I've not seen it she is not the only one that has voted down something
110that Stafford schools asked and I think it is disingenuous of us not I'm not talking about supervisor English because he doesn't he's not in our mix but it is disingenuous and not smart for the school board to sign off on that when we don't have that energy for the other people who were elected to serve us and they didn't okay so I think that goes to a few things but to miss Allen's Point advocacy at the county level is important but no one pays ATT attention to what's happening at the state level or during the general assembly sessions and I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to actually understand the impact of seat government L decisions I was recently at a meeting and they did a whole rundown of the bills that
111were pulled that were partisan based because we weren't going to let those pass could be both sides of the fence I don't know I didn't dig that deep into it but at the end of the day decisions are being made that affect our lives in ways that we are paying for and then we're mad and we're angry and we come here and we don't do the work that it takes to make sure that it doesn't happen to the point of the Coco that we're speaking about now that was a hard slap in the face because for three years we have been asking and we hold the legislative Summit as well and we beg for the Coca we beg for the support cap we beg for ways to get our teachers the recognition and our support
112St have the money that they deserve and Miss King was the only one that hasn't shown up in three years and she does represent Stafford County and and whereas delegate Cole Sent His Chief of Staff guide to us um Abigail spanberger she spent sent her um I think it was the chief of staff or whatever she was too correct this the surrogate to represent her there to be there to hear us to bring that information back so it could have been just as easy as that so to be angry that she hasn't actually represented the needs that we put out there I think is legitimate and fair because there's also been no explanation back to anyone including her constituents that reside here in D Stafford is so why that decision was made and I do
113think I get that mostly it's Prince William County maybe that voted for her I don't know but you do have an obligation to represent Stafford County as well and we're struggling and that was a big hit to us that being said that being said it it definitely can't be overstated people need to start paying attention start looking and demanding from all of your representatives I don't care what side of the aisle they sit on these decisions are impacting your life and not only that they're they're impacting the future of this world you and I are going to be around here for 50 years maybe 50 years more I don't know whatever so yeah you'll be here forever don't worry but but we have to remember that we leave behind we can leave our kids behind
114a mess that they have to pick up or we can take the mess that we've got now and fix it and find a way through it and that's communities local state whatever but to miss alen's point like we've got to start getting more attention down at the state level and people really advocating down there and going down there and letting people know what's important and I I'll just share this one final thing and I'm just doing it out of respect and transparency and Clarity for everyone I did um with my meeting with delegate King I did bring up you know you've missed three at least since I've been here right that's all I could talk about and I will say she said I am making Staffing um changes to be able to address that um
115the truth or her truth was and I and I believe it I have no reason not to she had something else that was on the calendars before we put those things there but with her Staffing um changes she will be able to have someone that can come so all I can say to that is we'll wait and see in October when we or whenever we have it in the fall but and that just reiterates the point of showing up when something's been on your calendar for months about to have that conversation quick thing I just wanted to say if you guys and this goes back to Daryl's idea on shared services if you bring us in for like the first like few minutes of your uh when you set your lobbying agenda with your lobbyist
116I really appreciate that so many of your top priorities our school connected um if we could kind of join together for that and have the conversation as you know a double Board of 14 people and be in on that advocacy plan to support that part of the County's um agenda because it is pretty much ours as well and then of course we have our you know our little things and you guys have your little things that don't overlap but for those core things that are the top for both of us maybe we should all sit down and talk about it together I agree um so real quick I there's well two things I want to say first um I am going to say that I would still like to send the letter um I know
117that you all have to talk about it we need to talk about it as a board as well we have three members that aren't here even though two are participating virtually um but um to me it's unacceptable and as we're going going into this budget season um and looking at all of the issues um I just feel like that is something that we need to do so I'd like to get you know we'll talk about it you all talk about it um but I'd like to get that out as soon as possible if both boards agree um the other thing do you want to ask if second round questions uh yeah we're going to do a final pass through with everybody um the other thing that I would like to do and I don't want
118to step in your territory but uh student representative Irish um do you have anything that you'd like to say cuz you've just been quiet the whole time so um yeah I'm sorry I put you on the spot I just wanted to make sure that I didn't yeah I think the funing request is really important um a couple of the things that were on there the new Chromebooks there are some that are dying I took an S so like 2 days ago and I opened the Chromebook and it's like the Metal's peeling off the thing the hinges are inspired these are the things that really need replaced and a lot of the things that aren't getting funded are important and we all want good teachers I'm in the governor school and I have some pretty amazing
119teachers and it makes a lot of difference versus my siblings who have less they're great teachers still experence they're all great teachers they're less experienced our AP scores when we have better educated teach teachers are higher we save money in college it's just it's a lot better for us when we have these teachers and that's what a lot of the money is going towards the pay scale for teachers and getting the funding and then there's all the other stuff and how to make the money come but yeah right chair thank you thank you yeah great job um I always like it when the students come and speak at the board meetings or when you all share your perspective because it's really important and you're not tainted by all the stuff that we are so you
120get to speak a little bit more freely and we we like that um you want to do a final pass through with everybody uh we'll start with those that are virtual um yeah uh supervisor vuch and then supervisor bumpy if you have any final thoughts um the only final thought I had is in hearing you guys talk about some of these State mandates um maybe you could send us a list of the ones that are incredibly troubling and burdensome from a financial perspective and we can build those into our legislative priorities list you have to decide now but it might be it might be helpful as we you know look at elections next year in the general assembly and and trying to to reach out to these folks to change some of these State mandate
121but that's that's all I had thank you supervisor bony yes thank you very much um as it relates to the um the additional 25% I think we would all in light of the fact that this entire meeting is about dollars we could all use that money right now had at least candy King voted for to be moved out of committee because we didn't have that vote we didn't have that opportunity so I believe and I appreciate where everybody is but it is incumbent upon us to make sure that we send a letter have a meeting with her whether it's the chair of the school board um and the vice chair of the you know the chair and vice chair of both boards sit down and meet with her after we send a letter because that
122letter will resonate with other people as well well um because we need to hold these people accountable if we went to our constituents right now and ask them about this they would not be too happy and not as it just as it relates to the additional 25% that we've been trying to get for years but also the fact that we are um our our budget is being decreased by 8% due to the veterans exemption and we need every penny that we can find and I believe I know Dr Smith has a copy um of a I I'll call it a white paper that um when he got here and we met I asked um Anthony toigo to send a copy of the white paper on the veteran exemption and just the entire um Constitution amendment
123when it was on the ballot when the generalist you know the entire anela and it might I don't know if the school board members have that or not if you don't I think it would be very helpful for you especially because it shows that Stafford County is at the top of the list um and then we have to make a huge push with the state we C we as far as conern we are the Titanic right now we cannot it's like Transportation when we're at Fano meetings and we say you know V Dot says you cannot build enough roads to support Transportation there we can't build the pavement fast enough it's the same thing as it relates to uh the veterans exemption you know when Scott meowski our Commissioner of Revenue says he gets 10
124more applications a day this is not sustainable this is something that we need to attack and I mean attack in a different way than we ever have I don't know how we do it I don't know if we get I'm not sure but I think it needs to be almost the single most important thing that we do this year together thank you all right um as we go around and do the final call or I I'd like to start with um Staff first because I know you all been sitting here quiet um if you have any final thoughts and we'll start with the school board then move over to uh County staff and I just want to say that I appreciate Dr Smith and Mr Ashton and how well you all been working together um
125that is what we wanted and you know you all starting this new relationship and the partnership is phenomenal and so I appreciate that you both are are leading the way on that so so yeah I just I'll just say a share a couple things first um I just appreciate your your invite tonight um your willingness to listen to understand our needs um and your partnership um it I know it's tough sometimes I know you have a lot of different things going on and and our goal is just to share with you our needs here's really our true needs in our buildings here's what we face every day to do that important job of educating each and every one of our kids and uh so I do just appreciate that opportunity I also uh appreciate the
126relationship that we that I've developed with Mr Ashton and County staff you know just today we were talking about legislative priorities and understanding the timeline in which county puts together the legislative priorities when we put ours together and how we can partner together and and advocate for those same things when we go down to Richmond and we speak with our delegation and how we can really make that a priority and so excited that it came up here uh tonight and that we can continue to work on that along with many other things together and so um you know happy to get back with you in terms of the questions that you had uh today and happy to follow up on anything else in the future so thank you thank you uh thank you Mr chair
127um I completely agree with Dr Smith I mean the relationships that we're establishing right now are are uh strong and I believe it's going to lay a groundwork for future collaboration I really enjoyed the spirited conversation there's nothing wrong with the spirited conversation done in a professional way to where we can just work on problems together and that's what what truly stood out to me in this conversation this evening and I really want to thank both boards for uh really working together on these very difficult problems I mean that the funding problems that you are having the revenue problems we're having based on the unfunded mandates are real they are significant I was just talking talking to the commissioner in the parking lot uh earlier today and we we really hit the realization that you
128know we ask our our residents to pay 89 cents on a real estate tax but they're probably getting 79 cents worth of value out of that because of the unfunded mandates I mean they're not getting our folks are not getting the value for their dollar because of the unfunded mandate but knowing that this these these things are real on our side and understanding what is real on your side I think is a a good first step are we all going to be happy at the end of the day no I don't think so but I do I do really feel we have an opportunity uh moving forward and I again want to thank uh School staff who've been very uh collegial and easy to work with and I appreciate that thank you we'll start with
129Dr Chason just move on around yeah just uh I will Echo what uh Mr Ash Ashton said that it really is lovely to have an opportunity to just have a discussion um about about our needs and um you know I think it's going to be uh a little bit crazy sailing over the next couple of months so thank you thank you all for everything you do thank you staff thank you for the working relationship between um our County Administrator and superintendent I think that's very help helpful for us um I do just want to say one final point on the issue of a letter um I'm not going to be okay with it unless we're also sending a letter to the White House saying don't take $33.3 million I'm not going to be okay with
130that unless we're also sending a letter down to the governor's office saying we want answers for whyu vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have helped our school construction while we have schools that are spilling out 165 degree water in a cafeteria that could have killed children so I support that I'm just saying if if we want to do it that way okay let's have the conversation entirely and let's hold everyone accountable for these things thank you it's funny you should say that because um chairman Sigman and myself we have been talking about this and um one of the things we were you know I said keep the same energy for everyone not just for one and you know her response was well then let's just look at everything and write a letter for everything so um
131and that's and I'm fine with that right I just would like to be fair I just believe in fairness when we can be fair and so I I support whatever I'm used to being on the end of a losing vote like I'm fine whatever my board decides I will go with and still be happy and still get along but you know I like I said I think we should maintain fairness when we can um I think it's great that we are having this discussion supervisor Diggs I really am enjoying your leadership and being um just a person not on this board but watching how the your board is is being organized and is being led it feels um very much like your focus is is people and so um I'm very happy uh how you
132invited us to your retreat how you engage with me and others I really do appreciate it and so I just wanted to publicly thank you while I had the opportunity um and I just want to thank everyone else who came here and who's giving us great ideas I think the legislative thing is awesome so um I'm available as I always say to your board if anyone ever wants to reach out and ask me questions and get my you know quirky ideas on how we could do things better um my telephone is always available for anybody thank you um I'll just make one comment I already spoke my piece about people basically I guess my theme will be during budget session is keep the same energy but if if you're going to show up to Lobby
133us about um your taxes that as you rightfully should um and and your concerns about our fiscal responsibility to the community then I need you to also show up for the state and the federal government that's that's nonnegotiable um as a relate to delegate um king um I I'm not in favor for that letter because if we're going to be in favor for that then we need to send delegate mil letter for voting against School construction and teacher pay raise that just passed that would that that would have saved us millions of dollars towards helping with their salary scill so if we're going to do that to delegate King then we got to keep the same energy for for supervisor mildy um and the worst part is he was here so he knew what our
134priorities were um and so my thing is is that instead of us necessarily creating more animosity and in in the leadership that we need in the state um let's try different Avenues of of of Engagement um one of the things that that um chairman Diggs um and and I talked about was you know as as new leadership on the board was we were going to do things a little different a little bit unconventional um and not try to do things the the status quo way and so you know maybe giving us an opportunity to have a conversation with with with all of our delegates and and express the importance of all the issues um between ourselves and then possibly with our school board as it aligns with with their Vision um for our priorities is
135probably the best route in relationship building um and people building instead of sending sending letters which may come off and have the wrong intending consequences and I'm not saying that any delegate would vote like that but I'm just saying if you're trying to build relationships and have people a because part of the process to enrichment if if we're not aware is not just their vote even if it came out of committee they also have to Lobby other delegates from different areas of Virginia that are fighting for the same small crumbs that they're fighting for and so to me it's more important and more prudent to us to work on relationship building for all of our representatives and not single anyone person out because then because we're going to need them to carry our water I
136would like to thank chairman Diggs I do appreciate that you have created opportunities for us to have an open dialogue and I think it's very helpful um it's a little bit easier for the school board because we're focused on the schools and we want all of our County Schools to be good and to have all the opportunities for students but there are realities just like you have unfunded mandates we have unfunded mandates there are things that we have to do so I think that more that we can explain to you what our needs are and help you understand and that the more we can reach some sort of understanding of how we can pay for all this because I realize you have a ho to fill and it's interesting that the whole you have to
137fill was 22 million which I think was the 4 million that Mr Ashton took out of his budget and the 18 million that we need in ours so that is how that hole affects our community um but I also appreciate that you're doing things a little unconventional it's it's been a real pleasure to to to work with you I'm chuckling supervisor R you're between us two you probably would chuckle oh is it my turn yes you said super oh I'm sorry supervisor r i promoted you to my spot you didn't know it yet say you're I'm chuckling I'm chuckling okay um I would like to also thank you for this evening and um I've enjoyed this conversation that we've been able to have I also want to just you know we talk about we're talking
138about our legislative things but what we're here to do is um Advocate more for our schools and you talk about um and you I'm talking about um chairman Diggs talk about being a people person and we are if you look at our budget it's a people budget and one of the things that you know we say that we have over 70% of our staff living and working and paying taxes here in the county and the reality is so do you all I mean with with all of your different layers in government I'm sure you have probably that as well we're the largest business entity in Stafford County with over 5,000 employees and over 32,000 students um but we are still as we've put in our presentation We Are One Stafford when you take care of
139your fire and rescue and police and social workers and government employees we want you to remember that as you work to provide for them we are trying to do the same on our side we're doing it we you know we're doing it the best we can you have limited resources we're at the mercy of for everyone's resources um to do that job so if we want to find ways that we can move legislatively forward together we asked this years ago we're told no so if we can ask again and it's a partially a yes or a work part of it yes that would be awesome again speaking from what um supervisor English said um you know it's another shared service idea that we can work together on um but I think uh you know on
140our board we've worked really hard for all the different Corners that we are in to come together and unanimously approve a budget and you know we took the superintendent's working budget and we have sent over our working budget um and we hope that as you work through our working budget that you will help us take care of our people the 32,000 little ones and the 5,000 big ones thank you sorry I guess I guess I hit a nerve with the candy King thing but it's hit hit my nerve too with they because the fact of the matter that we've been asking for this for the last three years and and we and no offense to anything I I appreciate your perspective and I uh appreciate yours Monica and your perspective but again I at what
141point in our at what point in this in this do we hold our uh delegates or whoever our state people accountable for what we do and that's where I was going so again it's it's put us in a it would been nice to get it just like Meg said it would have been super nice to get it and we we just got a tight budget this year so appreciate y all coming and didn't take anything hard fence me just up upset me that she voted against that and she represents part of Stafford so that's it thank you so I think I might be looking at the letter in a different way than everyone else is because I do think it's well within our rights to question everything that comes out so I believe that if
142it's I don't care who I mean I don't think we can just start randomly writing a thousand letters nobody has time for that either but I think we have to start with our biggest priority and start questioning your right and holding the elected officials accountable just like they would do to us you voted no to this why you do owe me that explanation I am a taxpayer in this in this County this state this federal government this world so so so I took it as yes we do need to start holding our our elected officials more accountable and if it comes in the way of a letter which say we'd like an explanation as to why you voted I don't know why that has to be threatening in any way shape or form other than
143nobody knows how to read a letter anymore right everybody has because because we're so used to these and putting 100 emojis after everything we say so everybody knows we're in good mood like there are times where you write letters and you express your thoughts in those letters and it doesn't have to be a condemning letter it doesn't have to be a damning letter it can just be a why did you why did you vote this way and I don't think particularly as you representing the county that your districts and this County as a whole that you should be hindered by worrying that send it to everybody I don't care if if it affected our bottomline budget then yes we should absolutely send a letter to our elected officials and say why and they should respond
144to us to whomever it is for whatever cost us the dollars that we don't get particularly because we're in the boat that we're in so I I have a few things that I wanted to say and I think I'm going to hold off on a couple of those in in the spirit of me trying to be a good person um I know look everybody's looking I know don't get shocked so meant because it was six minutes before no no no I can talk forever I don't wor that but I'm going to pull all those thoughts back in and I'm going to re I'm going to end on this like well you can go I'm sorry excuse me one second you can go cuz I I I'm com back I just oh so we just can't
145talk so I thought telling me I could go and I'm like I'm not finished oh oh darl she all she said you can't oh press pause I talking much faster like just like this you can go my turn on the oh she said no she's she's she's the rulemaker okay so so aside from the fact that I'm taking my thoughts and I'm putting them over here what I am going to say is I think we we enter this budget season every year with the same thought process we have competing priorities we all understand that but at the end of the day the priorities that affect the future of this County to me have to be moved into a top slot because at some point the to-do list has to move kids to the one of
146the top three things that are important to this County and for the last three years that I've been on this board we have moved that to-do list down further and further and it's just to the point where it's not fair to the kids that are here they deserve to have them be in the top three priorities and that means providing them with the safest buses the best teachers the admin that's at that sitting at that desk smiling to welcome them to this day so I just implore us all I get your competing priorities but I don't think that our kids should be seen in as anything other than the future of this County and the dollar seen as anything other than an investment in how this County stays viable for the future yeah that's it
147wel first I did not mean to incite any discourse um but my my intention was just to note that there is a source of funding that would not cost this County anything that would greatly benefit our schools and that would in turn benefit the county I agree it it may not have passed if it had gone through my concern and and and I was I was disted stressed when I heard about it is that it didn't even get out of committee and I could understand if it was you know a committee issue that nobody had a relationship to us or maybe they didn't want Stafford to have something you know or they were from other parts of the state but but my con my concern and this is when it happened was that one of
148our Representatives voted against it and didn't even let us get to the Starting Gate in that race and we have been begging for this not just the past three years we have been begging for this as long as I've been on the school board we got 25% many many years ago when um Mr how was the speaker of the house and John chister was the head of the Senate that's why we got our 25% and we haven't gotten a penny more since then but we do have Representatives who are willing to go to bat for us to ask for it and I would hope that next year all of our representatives from Stafford would at least try to get it on the floor that's all I mean it was not an intent to you know
149call out an individual in fact didn't initially name any names but it it is what it is but but I I I think I think it is incumbent on us to Lobby our representatives and as Miss Allen said it's also incumbent on our our our citizenry to Lobby you know our representatives in the state and and we've got we've got two very important issues of Stafford you know one is the the tax relief and the second is is the Coco so that's there um but generally I want to thank you all for having us here this has been um you know so um Pleasant and I can't say that for many of my past experiences on on the budget um but certainly the past 3 years you know you have been very supportive you being
150the supervisors have been extremely supportive of the schools you've given us significant increases in our operational funding you've um given us funding for high school 6 which you know we had asked to be built 10 years ago for elementary school 18 and Elementary School 19 and that to me takes a lot of courage to you know to make that commitment to put that investment in our schools so I thank you very much for that and your funding in in Mr Ashton's budget and it was significant for our 3r projects so we don't have our pipes bursting or you know our chillers and all this equipment I'm not even sure the names of all of it but it come when it comes up it's like in the millions of dollars to to replace it or fix
151it and we do have schools that are aging you know we have a lot of schools that are aging and it's it's only going to get worse so I think you recognize that you're addressing it and and I thank you for what you've done in the past and I think thank you for allowing us to come here and have a dialogue and and just you know speak as um equals and it's it's it's very much much appreciated and I I think you do understand as a board more than many many times in the past you know how important you know our students are and their future and that it is incumbent upon us to retain and attract the staff we need to provide that education I think the investment that you've made in our schools
152over the past you know three years and I'm talking about this particular Board of Supervisors for the past three years the the funding that you've given us has allowed us to bring up the scores because we can provide better services to our kids and you know it's not in here but it's in the other reports that our challenges are significantly increased you know in providing the education and we're able to to do what we're doing because you're funding it so thank you I also am very grateful for this opportunity I love working uh with you supervisor Diggs we I really appreciate the dialogue we're able to have and the conversations were're able to work together on to bring um a lot of these opportunities together and to facilitate conversation um not to bring things back
153we've talked a lot about how to improve our or retain or expand are outside of the county resources and today we're here also to discuss how we can work together with our local resources I do want to remind not just the people around this table but the people in the community that the only money in our budget that are focused on staffer priorities is local dollars the federal government gives us money and they all have strings attached they are all earmarked towards specific titles or S programs we don't not have any discretion on how we spend that money the money that comes from the state is specific we have to hire this kind of teacher we have to fund this type of program we have to do this sort of thing um it does not
154allow us to differentiate how those dollars are spent the only way we can fund Stafford priorities for Stafford children and Stafford citizens is with Stafford dollars um that is the money that while we have earmarked it here as a community the reason we are able to earmark that is because of the local investment we get um and we've said our investment is people um that brings me to our have to and our want toos um have this conversation with my children all the time um there are things we have to do that we have these mandatory commitments we have um because of course the state doesn't pay us 100% for the 36 and a half teachers we have to hire they give the state share we have to pay the local share um so every
155dollar in this budget is meant to invest in our people and to fulfill our commitments we don't get to opt out of our commitments anything that we do not get in our budget that we need means we have to cut somewhere else because the first thing we have to pay for are our half toos um beyond that it's you know we want to do all of our want to-dos but I need to ensure that if we are getting an appropriation and you're like well why did they pay for that and not this we have to pay for what we have to pay for um we will work together to get that done um on the upside we have 33 30 campuses that we would love for you a visit any single we go to our
156schools pretty frequently we would love to have you join us uh whether it's in your District or not you want to come see something we will take you we have a lot of really cool stuff going on you want to read a book you just want to kind of walk through and be a fly on the wall want to help with math or reading you want to come watch a soccer game or a gym class we would love love love to have you in our schools um some of you are there all the time anyway but um if you'd like to see a different one we would just call us and we'll set up a visit um and I think it's really important for you know I do have the you know the privilege of
157seeing the schools you know we've been in Stafford County public schools for eight years um and to Tanisha Allen said 10 years from now I will still have a child in Stafford County Public Schools 10 year from now um and it is is such a privilege to see all the work that's being done um not just by the grown-ups in our room but by the kids in our in our schools and I wish you could all see it I wish we all the whole County I wish you could see what's happening in our schools because it's amazing it's amazing to see the acts of citizenship the acts of academic Excellence the the incredible incredible artistic talent athletic abilities it's it's just amazing what um children can do um as just a point of housekeeping it
158is totally off topic I wanted to let the supervisors know that last night we did present our first three redistricting scenarios for elementary school I for one am getting a lot of feedback on those um um if you guys have not had the opportunity to look at them yet we would happy to send over what that part of our presentation was that does impact every single one of our districts and all of our um all of our residents so we certainly just want to keep you in the loop on what that is very first day um talking about it no decisions have been made but the conversations are starting and we want to keep everyone in the loop I'm going to be brief and quick so you don't pass out over there no um I
159I really love each and every one of you and I know we all have our own personalities and differences in the room um but um it's okay to be passionate it's okay to get a little testy from time to time um because we believe in what we're arguing and and and one respect or the other we're arguing for people right um and so thank you all for being here um I intentionally didn't ask questions tonight because I just wanted to listen to what everyone was saying and I'm going to go back and I'm going to digest because it was a lot of information tonight um but uh you know I want to go back to the letter um and I'd like to get you know both boards fully on and and I like what M
160hallad said in terms of it not necessar necessarily being accusatory um but that we ask questions maybe these are our needs and the piece of legislation that you voted against voted against our priorities or our needs so can you explain to us why um um and I think in that way we're not being accusatory we're not burning any Bridges um and I don't care if it's a republican Democrat anybody can get it right if it if it doesn't meet the needs of Stafford um and then we sit down and have that meeting as well um so you know we can call out different ones from the governor to delegate mil day or whoever else and just ask the question all right this is the legislation that we saw this is our needs and and why
161and so I think us coming together and and figuring that piece out would be really important for our constituents so it's not what you do it's how you do it um other than that let's see it's it's going to be a tough budget year I know that some of you attended our budget meeting with uh with the County Administrator um you know I've been to your budget meetings um and you know the reality of it is there's only so much money to go around and so we're going to work through it this year I appreciate the temperature I think it's calmed down down a little bit um I I do miss seeing the can come up for 3 minute speech you know kicking the can down the road part um but we set expectations for
162our community and I think we all care about we all care about the kids and so we're going to try to do the best that we can and we're going to work on this together um I do have a town hall so I I know Miss R rand's going to be there to speak um and so any of you that want to come out if the if the constituents have questions and you can answer it I don't have a problem with you popping up and answering because we have to break down some of those um falsities or did I say that right falsities yeah that are out there um because when we hear it for the first time we're like oh that don't sound too good and then you find out the facts and you
163realize that it wasn't accurate so it's good to inform and educate our public um that's all that I have I appreciate you this meeting is adjourned thank