001June, would you bow your head for the invocation? Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together in service to our students and to our community. We ask that you grant us wisdom, patience, and clarity as we make decisions tonight. Pray that our words and actions will reflect respect, integrity, and care for all of those that you put under our watch. And we pray this in your son's name. Amen. >> Please stand for the pledge. Salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Will you call the role to establish the quum? >> Here we >> all forum has been established. Board members, you have the agenda for this evening's meeting before you somewhere in that
002pile. You have the meeting before you. >> Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? Do I have a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion, a second. All in favor? All right. All right, the agenda is approved. All right, I want to uh take a moment to recognize City Councilman Steve McClinton who is with us tonight. Steve actually has a presentation that he's going to make. So, I'm going to ask him to come to the podium with his guests. Do you need a microphone? >> No, I'm a political microphone. Give it up. Hey y'all. My name is Steve Mcccleinson. I serve City Council. uh also co-chair the education committee which appoints these lovely people to serve for five years. Um this is my friend Tim Rogers. This is Tracy and Taylor Horson.
003And I'm going let Tim tell you why we here today. >> Long story, but I don't think that one's gonna let me go too too long. >> You got three minutes. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. Um so all this started um we had a very dear friend to mania Steve Corson who passed away uh last year and um it was a battle with pulmonary fibrosis. Uh and if you ever been to a country club around town, you may notice that he spent his career in hospitality. Uh he ran Pine Tree Country Club, then he moved over to Inest Country Club, and most recently he ran Hoover Country Club. One thing we could always count on Steve was uh planning parties. Um so he loved to entertain not only at work but at home for friends
004uh and family. One event that he started six years ago was getting his guy friendss while we didn't know women. >> No. >> Um it was his idea. um to come together for a Christmas celebration and we met a lot of different uh friends during that time and it he uh always was a coaster and uh it ended with a dirty game with real dirty Santa. So you had to be dirty if you played in this one. None of that nice stuff. Uh and the guys loved it and it grew uh every year. So this year after his passing, uh Steve and I were talking like we need to keep that going, but let's do something good with that. Um so what we decided is that we could do two things that we love. We
005could honor Steve Porson and we could um do something else and that's to give back to school system. And we decided to use the funds collected that night to give it to the hospitality program or the culinary program at the RC3 system. So, we've collected $1,200 and we're gonna donate it tonight in Steve's honor. Thank you. >> DNA flows like you left each other. Okay, everybody in one, two, three. One, two, three. Cool. Thank you. >> It wouldn't surprise anybody to know that Amy knew all those people. >> Well, and the saddest part, did she leave? Did she already? And this is terrible to say about myself, but I was teaching at Hunter Street Weekday preschool and Caroline um Tracy and Steve's youngest was in my class and we were go walking upstairs and I
006count on my kids and I count on my kids and I counted and I went, "Oh gosh." And I lost I had to I called Trac. I said, "I'VE LOST CAROLINA. I LOST CAROLINA." She was in the bathroom already. >> No, I mean I was like I was freaking out but I called she turned up. She's fine. And right then we became friends. It's been a long time ago. But this is a little honor. >> Thank you all so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. It's time for recognitions. Miss Merrick Wilson. >> Thank you board members and Dr. Maddox. So January is recognized across Alabama as gifted education month. And tonight, we're proud to take a moment to celebrate the impact of gifted education across Hubber City Schools. I'd like to ask three of
007our enrichment teachers that we have with us tonight to come forward. We have Emily Fogleman with Ross Gap and Jessica Edwards and Sydney Taylor with Deer Valley. Now, as they come forward, I'd like to talk a little bit about our school system. So in Hoover City Schools, we serve approximately 800 students identified for enrichment and gifted services. And each of these ser students have unique strengths, talent, and learning needs. Our gifted education plays an important role in providing the rigor, challenge, and opportunities our students need to grow academically and create creatively. Um, we want to thank our gifted and our enrichment teachers, our coordinators, our classroom teachers, our counselors, our school leaders for their dedication and commitment in supporting these students every day. Their work makes such a meaningful impact to all of our students
008that we serve. And we're so thankful to have three of our teachers with us tonight. And I'm going to give each of you your certificate and then hear a little bit from this. Thank you Dr. Maddox and for recognizing this month. and they made contributions that our gifted student. So, thank you. >> Thank you. If we could get a quick picture of you guys and board members, smile. You will make the photo as well. >> Thank you. Let's give them a round of applause. And next I would like to ask Miss Emily Gunley to please come forward. Brock Gap Elementary, I'm sorry. >> She has the toughest job in the school. >> We are excited to honor Miss tonight. She has been named the Alabama Association of Elementary School Administrators. um uh Alabama assistant principal
009of the year nominee. So, we are so excited to celebrate her and all that, uh she accomplishes not just at Broad Gap, but to help our students and our family. Um we know all the amazing things that our assistant principles do each and every day, all of the amazing things that Miss does, but it is always great to hear from our students. And so, we have uh three precious students who told us a little bit about Miss like to read them to you. One of the thing, one of the things that I love the most is that she is so kind and caring and when she asks you to do something, she's very polite about it. Another student said, "I love how Miss Lady makes sure to include everyone no matter what. She's also very
010understanding with our feelings and makes sure to see people's point of view." And then our other student said, "She cares about our thoughts and our feelings and asks if we feel safe and understood." And so our students always say the sweetest things about our administrators, but it is because of people like Miss Dunley. These awards are great, but it is truly the students that you make such an impact on. And so we love hearing their sweet words of what they had to say. And we are so proud of you. And congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> All right. Now, I would like to ask um our Hoover High School esports team to please come forward. >> All right. And as they make their way up here, um, these are our Super Smash Brothers bait champions. So,
011we have our, this is our second state championship in sports at Cooper High School. So, we are so excited. They are led by coach Curtis and I was talking to him earlier. This team right here swept the best of five competitions against over Arab uh to win the state championship this year. And we were talking a little bit about what this process takes. Um, and he was telling me that UAB now has classes in esport. And so, not only is this coach Curtis, but this is Professor Curtis right here because he will be teaching one of those classes at UAB, but we are so proud of our state champions and and coach, can you tell us a little bit about what what this entails to be a state championship? >> Absolutely. First off, thank you
012Dr. M and the board for recognition. Um, esports is a program that is competitive video gaming. Um, we're taking a habit that some family members and parents they see as a detriment and taking it and making academic and making and allowing an opportunity and platform for students who may not compete in other sports to be able to represent their high school in a way that is instructive and leading into college. And so Hoover was one of the first esports programs to actually be enacted I think back in 2018 if I'm correct. And so that's happen. It's wonderful to be able to bring us state championship in Smash Bros. This is the second that this team has been able to earn. Uh we will compete again in the spring once again. But thank you again. >>
013This is the perfect segue for me to say we didn't have esports when I was in high school. Frogger Donkey Kong. >> I'm telling you I think I could have done some damage but it's never too late. I have an idea. Okay, everybody look at me. Ready? One, two, three, two, three. Cool. Thank you. Thank you. >> And last but certainly not least, we want to say a big thank you to our board members. Of course, January is board recognition month, but really we should celebrate our board members each month. Every month you guys sit here and we recognize extraordinary teachers, administrators, students for what they do and go above and beyond. But that would not be possible if it wasn't for your leadership. And so we want to thank each of you this whole
014month and celebrate you for what you do. what you have on your tables is just a few of the tokens that our schools are so sweet to to make and the creativity from our students, from our faculty, our staff, and our administrators. And then also, we wanted to invite our community. Every Friday, you may have seen this last Friday, but every Friday this month, we are highlighting our board members um for not only what they do for our school system and their leadership, but to also hear from them firsthand on what they think is special about City Schools. So, we've already seen Mr. And we are very excited about this Friday to hear from more of our board members. So we want to give you a round of applause and thank you for all that
015you do for STUDENT for your generosity. It's a lot. So very very very grateful for that. All right. So Dr. Smith, I proposed to triple the board members salaries. I know you were a former math teacher. So what would that actually be? >> That's too we >> triple triple zero with zero >> zero. >> Still zero last. Very good. Well, all right. Thank you all for being here. Students and staff, families, you can stay if you want, but if you want to leave now after the recognition define us, well, we won't judge you >> too much. We'll wait till you're out the door to talk about it. All right, board members, you have before you uh the minutes for the December 9th, 2025 board meeting and the December 17th, 2025 special call meeting. Do I
016have a motion to approve these minutes? >> I do. I have a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All right, the minutes are approved. Now we move on to the consent agenda. Dr. Maddox. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to recommend approval of our consent agenda, which includes personnel actions, contracts, and educational and athletic field trips. >> All right, I have a motion to approve to approve the consent agenda as recommended by the superintendent. So, do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right, I have a motion, a second. All in favor? >> All right, the consent agenda is approved. Thank you, Mr. President. Thanks, board. Very good. We'll move on to our business items now and uh I'll ask our CSFO Melinda Buck uh to come vote and provide an
017overview. >> Thank you for Thank you, Dr. Maddox. Included in your packet are the summary and general purpose financial statements for the month ending November 30th, 2025. For fiscal year 2026, 12.9% of the budgeted revenue has been received as of November 30, 2025. Property tax collections from October were recognized in November, aligning with our revenue reporting timeline. Revenue is projected to trend upward through March as absolum tax collection cycle continues. Operating results for the general fund currently reflect two months of activity. While we would expect the spending trend of budgeted reoccurring expenditures to be at 17%, the dispersement of funds was slightly below this benchmark at 15.9% of the budget. The general fund reserved for two months of activity currently stands at 7.75. We anticipate this position will strengthen as tax collections are finalized in
018coming in the coming months. Our special revenue fund expenditures total 4.7 million through November which accounts for 20.4% of the annual budget. This spending this spending level aligns with our expectations for federal programs. Since these costs are primarily tied to the school year and operate on a one-mon reimbursement cycle, this delay reflects the standard physical pattern and reflect the healthy budget trend. Our cost total uh cash dispersements for for November were $6,431,13816 and the December payroll was $14,739 or 7 14 million. Let me try this again. 14,739,367.37. Do you have any questions? >> Any questions for it? All right. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Miss Buck. All right. Since there's no question, do I have a motion to approve the business action items? >> So, do I have a second? Second. Got
019a motion. Second. All in favor? >> All right. Business action items are approved. This time, um, we do have a contract correction to make. Uh, and to help explain that, I'm going to ask our board attorney, Mark Borman, to uh, come to the podium. Please, board members, this is a correction to the superintendent contract negotiated by class. It's done to ensure that it aligns with ALSD and RSA guidelines. It's completely uh, neutral, cost neutral, has no effect on budget or anything else. And I recommend that we do this compliance based uh, correction with contract Anybody have any questions at this time? >> All right. Do I have a motion to approve the corrections on Dr. Maddox's contract as recommended by our attorney, Mark Borman? >> Do I have a second? >> All right. I got
020a motion and a second. Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> All right. None opposed. The contract correction is approved. >> Now it's time for superintendent report. Hope hope that wasn't a correction means I'm fired from 36 months to 36 months. >> All right. Well, um first of all, board members would like to say great start to second semester. It's hard for me to even fathom that we're in second semester, but um our school administrators and teachers and staff members uh have hit the ground running and they're already busy doing their thing. Um, and the dust is flying in the schools right now. So, really appreciate those of you that are are in the room today and all the work that you do each and every day. It takes it takes all of us to
021make this this a welloiled machine and uh greatly appreciated for the work that that you do each and every day. Um, I'd like to thank board members for what you do. Um, as I've said in previous meetings, um, first of all, you do it for free. you do it because you love the community and because you love the school district and um you you devote your time and energy and efforts and responding to emails and talking to me and talking to one another and um you all have other responsibilities to take care of and it means a lot to to me and to our district that you volunteer for this assignment and you guys have been um fantastic this year. you've supported our efforts to uh enhance and improve our programs and our supports to
022students and and I appreciate the fact that sometimes you've gone along with some of my crazy ideas and and thank thank goodness most of them have panned out so far. Uh we're going to continue pushing the envelope. We have some we have some big items upcoming over the next year and I look look forward to uh working with you as as we move in a continual positive direction. So, thank you for that. Um, lastly, I'd just like to wish everyone a happy 2026. You know, it takes a few times writing it. I kept wanting to write five. Um, it's 2026. It's hard to believe uh that we're here, but um the clock is ticking. Dr. Robbins, we're meeting early this week and we're already planning for the next year for the work in the summer.
023Um it's hard to really live in today because we're always planning for tomorrow, but that's what great systems do. And um I'm just appreciative again of all the efforts of the folks in our in our school district for what they do each day to to make us better tomorrow than we are today. So with that, Mr. President, I yield back to you. Very good. We don't have any public comments tonight, so we'll move down our agenda to board comments. I'll just my far left if Jeremy has slides comments. >> Sure. >> Thank you. So, um I've been thinking a lot about second semester and was planning on making some comments around that. But I have to be honest, um walking in the door, I became overwhelmed when I saw when I saw what was in
024front of us. And so, I've decided that I can continue to play the new board member card at least through the end of May, right? I have a full year to do that. So, this year has been a year of first for me. Uh but I think this has been one of the most moving uh moments for me in addition to being in the schools and just seeing the teachers and administrators and the students in their environment and seeing how we drive excellence and we excel uh every day. It couldn't make make me more proud uh to be associated with this school system with you all uh the work that you do with our students. And so I know that's a lot of words, but this is overwhelming and it's truly a privilege. It's an
025honor to serve on the board and be associated with you all. So, personally, thank you very much. This is a an incredible gesture and I look forward to reading all of the notes and the cards and just uh taking that in and enjoying those. So, thank you very much. There's no more um there there's no better way, I think, to express gratitude than uh these personal notes. So, I'm looking forward to reading those. I I'll just say 2026 is a new year and let's go forward. And I will also say I joke about you know zero time zero time anything is still zero and we make zero but I don't do this for accolade for money for pictures for anything. do this because I chose this as a ministry and I could have stayed in
026the four walls of my church that I've been in for 30 years and I decided, you know what, I'm going to go and I'm going to go out and I'm going to minister to my community. So, I've been doing this a long, long time. And um I just appreciate all of you that work here. appreciate our teachers, our admin, and I appreciate that y'all let us do this and that you're kind and you're gonna let me go to Starbucks again and let me just thank you so much. >> Yeah, I mean the gratefulness I feel like every year it gets a little more. I don't know if you are trying to outdo yourselves or what, but it does take a while to get through all the notes, you know, just the little handwritten notes are
027great. I love the books that are donated. It's neat to think that there's someone that's going to read a book and go, "Who are these strange people?" It's less about who we are. It's just that it's neat that it's sort of memorialized like that. Um, you know, it's little things you bump into um that we do so well and it's all the little things that add up in stuff really special. So, I'll give a quick example. Um, so this weekend one of my kids got hurt at a a sporting event where they participating on behalf of Spain Park. There was a person on site, assessed him, said, "Hey, okay, you're the merchant." That's great. uh came in Monday, saw the trainer that that works in the school. We did another assessment, said, "Hey, I'm a
028little concerned. Let's get you in front of a doctor." 24 hours later, we're in front of a doctor. And then says, "Hey, we think you need to actually not be at school right now. You need to go to school days. We're going to let the teachers know. We're let the counselor know. We're going to know." So, I say all this not to share too much personal, but those are little things that to parents. I remember I've had plenty of times that's not the kids. Do we take the emergency room? Do we not take the emergency room? What if I get in with this doctor? How do I do that? Who do I call? How does this work out? How to let everyone know? And here I have, it was Tabitha at Spang Bark and she
029calls me and says, "Here's what's going to happen. Here's how it's going to go down. We're going to tell the counselors. She's going to tell the teachers." I mean, you want to talk about just taking a load right off the parent. It was just I mean, the little things like that make us incredibly special. And I know it's the same at Uber High. They got the same capabilities. I know we do that for all of our students, our athletes. Um, it's just I'm sorry to go long, but it just really meant a lot to me that something that small, I mean, it's just it just takes such a load off and we do it so well and we do lots of little things like that, including this. I mean, someone took the time to get
030people to write these up here. This is incredibly appreciated, but I just I'm thrilled to be part of this the school system of y'all because y'all are pretty special. Yeah. >> All right. I have to confess something to my fellow board members. I actually got paid to be on the board. They're all shocked. Well, American do such a good job with these videos and you know, our our theme is is what are you talking momentum? You just see all that positive momentum going out there. Well, I did not know they dropped this video uh last week. Well, over the weekend, my phone just blew up from people that I hadn't talked to in a long time and just expressing their appreciation for all that we do and just absolutely make me feel like a million
031bucks. So, I actually got paid over the weekend, not in a monetary payment, but just in some very nice compliments that I could earn several weeks on with a lot of momentum. Um, last thing I want to say is it is January. We turn the corner. You know, it just seems to speed up for everybody, right? Well, three of us. We have a a child graduating this year, so it's probably going to be extra fast. But, uh, I just say, you know, buckle up and let's all enjoy the ride together. I think it's going to be fun. And I do absolutely appreciate each and every one of you more than you know. More than you know. So, having said that, um, listen closely here. Our next board meeting is February 10th at 3:30. Write that
032down, John. 3:30, uh, at Shades Mountain Elementary School. Not here. 3:30 Shades Mountain Elementary School on February 10th. And if we have no further business, this meeting is a journ.