001Good evening. Welcome to the Red Play Consolidated School District regular school board meeting for August 20th, 2025. We will begin with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Please be seated. Okay, then we go to agenda approval. Is there a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting? >> So moved. Jose Matthews. >> Second. English. >> Thank you, M. Matthew. >> Oh, sorry. Roll call first. >> Maria. >> Miss English >> here. >> Mr. Henson >> here. >> Mr. Matthews >> here. >> Dr. Denise Smith >> here. >> Miss Sander >> here. >> Mr. Tortoise >> here. Mr. Leonard >> here. >> Now let's go
002to the agenda approval. Uh is there a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting August 20th, 2025 as submitted? >> So moved Jose Matthews. >> Thank you Mr. Matthews. >> Second Miss >> AJ. Okay. Uh it has been properly pro moved and seconded to approve the agenda as submitted. Are there any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Next we have public comment. The Red Clay School Board appreciates any member of the community who would like to make a public comment. According to board policy 2006, the Red Clay School Board allocates 30 minutes to public commentary. Each person may have up to three minutes to address the board and this time may not be transferred to or from another speaker. The board generally does not respond directly to a speaker.
003The board meeting is not an appropriate forum to raise complaints or concerns about individual employees. Upon request, the superintendent shall provide the speaker with the procedure for submitting such complaints or concerns. The order of the speakers is listed on the screen. As you see your name, please make your way to the seat near the podium or if you are virtual, unmute when called to res to to respect the time of anyone presenting tonight. When you speak, please state your name and organization if you are speaking on its behalf and the topic of your comment. There's a timer on the screen that will turn on when you have one minute left. It will turn yellow with 30 seconds left and flashing red when your three minutes are over. I will thank you for your comments and
004call on the next speaker. Let's begin with uh >> Paradise. >> James Paradise. Mr. Paradise. Mr. Paradise, are you there in person? Okay. Who we have? >> Was it? >> Okay. >> Lee. >> Kajang and Lee. >> Excuse me. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Moralda. >> Miss Moralda. >> Eld Moralda. Reyes. Lorzo never supposed to be in person. >> Okay. Next speaker, Miss April Okconor on Zoom. Okay. >> Miss Monica Ball. >> Monica Ball, are you here? Okay, I'm here. >> Okay, thank you. >> Okay, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, I just wanted to make some comments about the um concerns about the McCain as an innovation center. Um, and I'm a 1975 graduate of McCain. My daughter is a 2018 graduate of McCain. Uh, we're getting ready to have our
00550th reunion this year. So, about another month from today, actually, we're going to be um having a a fun kind of reunion. And we're getting ready to get a holly tree placed up there, which is a state tree of Delaware at the at the high school. Um my concerns have to do around the career pathways as a graduation requirement. Um I'm a little concerned. I think it's a state requirement. I don't think it's uh the best idea. Um I I would like to see some statistics at some point if this is actually working for the students when they graduate. Um I I think that pigeon holing kids in the nth or tth grade into a particular career pathway is not correct. Um I would like to see a focus more on the comprehensive curriculum more
006in the three schools and maybe reduce CAB and Conrad's enrollment if that has to come about. Uh, I'd like to see more elective classes, you know, um, and possibly take these career pathways into a a smaller set like if that's possible either, you know, like a month-long class or whatever. Um, not, you know, 3 years. My daughter was in this and it it didn't really work out for her. She went a different completely different pathway. But um the support that was there and you know McCain has a really good you know handle on it but that's not the only thing that you want kids you want kids in high school to actually explore different pathways for careers. You don't want them pigeonholed into certain areas. Um we actually have talked about transportation costs. I know
007I got about a minute left. Um that's one of the things that's a a big concern for me. I have lived in this Red Clay district. I've lived here at the same address for almost 70 years. So, um, and I've been, you know, a part of the whole area here in the McCain, uh, environment for for, you know, we're going on 50 years here. So, I'm trying to see maybe the teachers could rotate between the high schools, maybe give them some exposure to different career areas. Um, you know, like I said, maybe and even reestablish the Wilmington City School District at some point. But back to the whole thing with McCain, I would love to see it just stay where it is. Um, there's talk now about a couple people have brought in about maybe
008getting a referendum, a public referendum and a public vote on the next election. That's maybe a good idea. I know it would delay some things, but you know, let's try to think a little bit uh slower here on this and not put McCain in the grave as far as a a high school is concerned. I'm really concerned that um you're jumping the gun here a little bit. this. I can talk more about it later if you need me to. My three minutes are up. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Ball. We now have Mr. Mike Brener on Zoom. Mr. Brener, >> hi. Good evening. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Welcome. >> Good evening. Um, my concern is I I don't know that this has been all that well thought out with McCain. Again,
009I'm a graduate as well. I graduated in Monica's class 75. Um, after looking over the different things that I've read about, I I'm confused as to why they'd even want to consider putting the McCain into a vote and moving all these people around when AI has such a a small has more room that you could put charter school there or you could put Cab Callaway there to help fill that up. And as far as as a a vote, you're not using Lynen Hill or Skyline Middle School. Why not move to make a vote school there? And busing from people from Cab Callaway or Wilmington Charter to AI would seem to be a much easier path to go than moving all these people around. McCain has 96% uh enrollment and that's the reason is we all
010live here. We're we're all doing this and I think that it would be the wrong move to take McCain and and make something different out of it. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Brener. Next, we have Miss H or Hrien Sizzle. Good evening. My name is Hrien Sisle and I'm the parent of a Red Clay student. Um, I would like to address the opportunity funds waiver which is being voted on tonight. Um, Delaware's opportunity funding program provides weighted funding and classroom based support for lowincome students and English learners in Delaware public schools. Mental health and reading supports are targeted for the students who are identified as English learners or lowincome. The opportunity funding program stipulates that at least 98% of the funding must stay at the school which generated it, which
011makes sense and seems only right. The waiver though enables the district to move that funding away from the students who generated it and need it most, which is what seems to have occurred last year when the V board voted in favor of the waiver. Because of last year's waiver, some of the schools with the highest needs in the district, like Johnson and Shortage, actually lost support staff, while more privileged schools like Lynden Hill, CAB Callaway, and Conrad, gained support staff. So these funds, which were intended to support our most vulnerable students, instead seem to have only furthered inequities in the district. To me, that's pretty messed up. So tonight, I urge you to vote against the waiver to ensure that this funding stays with and helps the students it was intended to help. Thank you.
012>> Thank you. Uh now on Zoom, we have Mr. Mike Matthews. Mr. Matthews, >> is Mr. Matthews on? If you can unmute yourself, Mr. Matthews. >> Okay. Good evening, board. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Good evening board, Dr. Green and attendees. I'm Mike Matthews, lifelong Red Clay resident and special educator at CAB Callaway. I'm speaking tonight as a taxpaying resident. First, let me say districts across the county missed a huge opportunity after last week's HB242 vote. I said then to launch a major campaign, educate residents, show transparency around what it would mean. Aside from a few prefuncter social media posts from all districts, there was relative silence. I logged into Board Docs earlier today. No documentation. Logged back in an hour ago. Suddenly, there it is. How is that fair notice to give
013the public time to comment? It isn't. That said, I do want to thank Red Clay for doing this hard work and at least trying to relieve residential taxpayers. But let's be real, you're not doing you're not going far enough. Last night, Brandy Wine reset its rates so residents shoulder 67% of the burden. Red Clay's plan tonight leaves us with 74% of the burden. Why can't we match Brandy Wine? Let's make it real. My family's taxes in Ellir originally shot up almost $900. Under tonight's plan, we get back about $250. Meanwhile, Amazon, the richest company in the world, sees its bill go up $400,000. Sounds good, right? Except that still means Amazon is paying 2 million less than what they paid last year. Read that again. The world's biggest corporation sitting on billions in profit is
014now paying millions less while residents and small businesses carry the load. What is going on? This is one of the largest transfers of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich in Delaware's history. And for small businesses, many of you have already been crushed by Amazon over the years. And now you get the honor of subsidizing their tax break. That is obscene. To you 13 county council members, do your job. Audit Tyler Technologies and get the answers to the questions residents have. And to Governor Matt Meyer, it would be nice to know what you knew and when you knew it about how this would all go down, considering this was delayed a year during the height of your gubanatorial primary last year. To the legislature, don't tell us to wait until January. You
015acted quickly to give districts tools to lower residential rates. Good. But small businesses deserve your urgency, too. Call another special session. Fix this now. Every day you wait is another day mom and pop shops are forced to bankroll corporate welfare for Amazon. Enough is enough. Thank you. And I do wish everyone a strong start to the 202526 school year. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. We now have Miss Jenny Howard. >> Good evening. My name is Jenny Howard and I'm here to address two urgent issues. The opportunity opportunity funds and the high school restructuring plan. First, let's be clear. This is not about flexibility. It's about equity. Opportunity funds exist because of a lawsuit to correct historic inequities. These dollars were intended for schools with the highest concentrations of lowincome students and English language learners. When
016waiverss allow funds to spread across every school, we don't lift all boats. We widen the very achievement gap this law was designed to close. Second, the restructuring plan. This decision impacts every student in our district. Yet, it was approved without meaningful community input. Families, teachers, and students had little chance to review, ask questions, or provide feedback before the vote. Rushing a decision of this magnitude undermines trust and risk creating inequities that will last for years. We deserve better, and our kids deserve better. Equity can't exist without transparency, and trust can't exist without inclusion. Here's what we're asking for. Publicly post opportunity fund allocations and staffing changes in plain language. Pause the secondary school's plan until families and educators have a real voice in shaping it, not just reacting after the fact. True engagement isn't telling
017us what's already happening. True equity means planning with the community, not around it. And I just want to say to Mike Matthew Mike Matthews last point about board docs, it is really hard for the public to see what's going on and to be able to publicly comment on it prior to votes when board docs is not opened up until hours before the meetings. So, if there's anything that the board can do or the district can do to open up board docks sooner, that would be great because yes, we can see the general agenda a week in advance, but we can't see and I understand not all presentations might be ready, but if they are ready, it would be nice for the public to be able to see these things and that way they have adequate
018time to digest it and then give meaningful comment at the board meetings. I think you would see a lot more engagement that way and I really hope that this year we can work all together and make it the best year yet. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Howard. We now have uh Jenny Corman. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Jenny Corman. My children attend red clay schools. Um I don't have much prepared but I would like to talk about the opportunity funds. I think they should stay in the schools they are allocated with. I'm advocating for that. We hear all the time that teachers don't are not well paid and also teachers in all the schools not just the low-inccome schools are always investing their own money into supplies and stuff needed in their
019classrooms. So I would like to advocate for for those schools to keep the money and and just see the needs there. There is a reason why some schools have more lower income students. I'm not just talking about English learners. Um I will also like to talk about the taxes. The company that was hired, I don't think that was in in red clay um decision to hire the Taylor company that did the assessments. It was ridiculous. um they didn't even study the market and they just um put numbers on houses. The price numbers are are just over the top. And um the last thing I would like to talk about is the um highest schools. I I do think needs something needs to be done, but I don't think closing one high school is the solution.
020it will be more h effective to make the the three highest schools in in the red clay more equitable or comparable to the magnet and charter schools. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Corman. >> All right. Now we'll have approval of minutes from July 9th, 2025 executive session and July 9th, 2025 regular session. There's a motion to approve the minutes from the executive session held on July 9th, 2025. >> So move to English. >> Second, Jose Matthews. >> Okay. So thank you, Miss Sanders and Mr. Matthews. Uh it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes from the executive session held on July 9th, 2025. Any discussion? All in favor? Opposed? The minutes are approved. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from the July 9th, 2025 organizational meeting and
021regular session held on July 9th? >> So moved, Jose Matthews. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. >> Second, Susan Sander. >> Thank you, Miss Sanders. It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the minutes from the July 9th, 2025 organizational meeting regular session held on July 9th. Mr. Lennon, if I could and Miss Stevens, can we make sure we follow up with the board with regards to committee appointments to ensure that they have the list of the various committees that each of the board members signed up for? >> Thank you. All right, we now move to the superintendent report. Uh, Dr. Green, is that correct? Sure. >> Did you vote on the last for the minutes? You need to vote on the approval for the organizational >> I'm sorry. No session. >> All in favor?
022>> I >> opposed. So moved. >> All right. >> Okay. Superintendent report. Dr. Green. >> Thank you. Good evening. No, you're fine. >> It's Mr. Leonard's um second month as as board president. So orchestrating a meeting is a process in and of itself. So we we be patient. We're here with you. >> Thank you. >> Yes, sir. Um again, welcome everyone. Um good evening. Thank you to those who are joining us in here in the CAB theater as well as those who are online. Um welcome to the 2025 2026 school year. Um we're we're excited. I don't know where the summer has gone. Um I think because we had a late spring break and got back to all of the end of the year festivities and then summer school started and before you know it,
023now we're back to a new school year. and so welcome to the 2025 2026 school year. Um my cover page for this month is a back to school event uh for incoming kindergarters that was hosted at Lynen Hill. Um so we are just as excited as the incoming kindergarteners are to get this school year off to a good start. We want to welcome back all of our Red Clay educators and staff. Uh we've hired over 116 new staff members. Um we had new teacher new staff orientation that kicked off last week and we officially welcomed all of our returning staff members back um this week and so hopefully again as we engage and get acclimated to new systems, new frameworks um our ultimate goal is really to connect the dots which was the theme of
024our um administrator um summer work and that's what's pictured here. Um so again we want to welcome everyone back both returning staff members as well as the new staff members that have selected Red Clay. Um so to all of our educators and staff um your dedication is what drives our mission remarkable and each year we come up with a theme and this year's theme is mission remarkable. Um year after year and thank you to our staff who worked hard over the summer as I initially indicated and you'll see later on the large variety of summer events that we had going on for students and families across the district. Your commitment ensures that our students receive enriching experiences and that our facilities are wellmaintained and ready for the new school year. And so for those that
025don't know, our facilities and maintenance department oversees over 2.7 million square feet of facility space and that's a a lot of wax on floors, a lot of moving of furniture, um, and a lot of preparation between capital, minor capital projects and things. So again, thank you to all of our staff custodial facilities um staff as they again not just put shines on floors but do a lot of the hard work behind the scenes that often time gets overlooked. So, we're very appreciative of everyone's hard work and then also our educators who participated in summer professional development and again pictured here is just some highlights of our summer PD and working with our administrators um doing everything from, you know, we actually had Lego serious play uh which we know our board also participated in during
026our board retreat to really understand how we can work together collectively to solve a lot of the complex issues that our communities face on a daily basis. Um everything from what we heard during public comment about restructuring schools, um reassessment, um a lot of the things that again impact our community really takes a lot of thought, input, and collaborative work to to solve these um major issues that we know face our communities on a daily basis. Our special services department, again, just some of the highlights in terms of um our autism services um entitlement summer program. Uh we served about 113 students over the summer at Alexis Eye Dupont High School. Brandon Wine Springs served over 146 additional students and Richardson Park had 150 students um going through the autism program of the over the
027summer. Our early years uh program which is preschool program had 120 students serviced uh this summer at the early learning center. Uh Richard Bridges Park had 60 students, Warner had 60. And then our itinerate um SLI which is speech language itinerate teachers um which work with students in the community, service over 50 students in the community. And then for those who don't know, we have a school located in Wilmington Hospital. Um it's the first state school and those are for students who have acute medical needs who can't get their education in a traditional school setting that require round the care clock care um from nurses, doctors and such. And so we had um additional 18 students who received their summer programming um there. So our special services extended school year program we had three sites
028over the summer which were Heritage, Warner, and AI. 400 students total were in those programs. 157 at Heritage, another additional 140 or so at at Warner, and then 100 or excuse me, 94. Our Metalwood program um located at Forest Stoke also supported an additional 120 students ages 5 to 22, which is our transition program. So again, a lot of robust programming that took place. Um so in addition to supporting students educational needs we were able to provide many enriching activities um through our autism services and entitlement summer programs and this summer again over 400 students participated in ESY which is the extended school year program and so those are students who have diagnosed disabilities um that work on their IEP maintain their IP goals and prevent that summer learning loss. Um, and I did share
029briefly with the board prior to uh the school year, concluding all of the other summer enrichment programs that we had, everything from Freedom School and all the other enrichment programs, the CAB um summer program that we have here. Um, and so partnership with Fame. So again, thousands of students participated in summer activities throughout Red Clay. And uh we just want to thank all the staff members, leaders um and support staff members for their diligence in ensuring that we minimize any summer learning loss and regression in learning for students um who need it most uh across red clay. Leading with excellence. Um we just wanted to highlight just state assessment information came out and one of the bright spots um when we looked at SAT across our high schools CAB and Conrad um each had a
03010% higher proficiency rate um than the state average Charter School of Wilmington had 25% higher proficiency rate and we have Mr. Bartnick here this evening, president for charter. So, you know, we want to welcome him in his new role as he transitions in. Um Conrad and CAB through math and science had 10% higher proficiency rate, again, 24% higher at CSW. And then the district, um high schools across CAB had at least 10% higher proficiency rates. Um and then schools showed significant um gains in proficiency based on the 2023 2025 um including again a lot of those schools that were highlighted as well as McCain saw six percentage points increase and that's where we have a lot of our workbased learning um opportunities. We've also increased um the AP potential um really looking at courses like
031AP Seminar and others and we've also saw moderate growth across the lower grade levels where reclay is above state averages in the areas of ELA and math but more to come as we unpack the data and again a lot of that data briefly shared with uh the board during the retreat. We will continue to have workshops um so that we can dig a little deeper in that achievement data as we enter the 2025 2026 school year. As I briefly gave a shout out to our maintenance and facility department. Um in terms of summer projects, summer projects included AI high school creating a brand new allied health lab. Um last year was the first year for the new allied health career pathway. Um but that lab was extended to give them real world experience in various
032fields within health care. Um just not a CNA certified nursing assistance pathway but all of the various other opportunities that Alli Health can provide to our students. HB Deupont Middle uh removed outdated uh cabinets to give classrooms more usable space. Uh McCain High School converted unused hallway areas into offices and conference rooms as well as a new parking lot. I had to share that driving up for those that have uh previously if you went to McCain High School parking spaces were diagonal. Um so now they're both vertical and horizontal which gave them about additional 20 to 25 new parking spaces. Um similar to Mo Elementary um major roof projects at Northstar roof replacement and Warner artillium also had a roof replacement. Um, in additional projects, we partnered with nutrition services to install new kitchen in
033the earlier years program, renovated playgrounds, excuse me, at Heritage, Richardson Park, and Moat. And districtwide improvements included uh new LED lighting, and all secondary school gyms, abatement, and replace four tiles in multiple schools, including Richardson Park, Richie, and Johnson cafeterias, upgraded kitchen floors at McCain, Joseph. Johnson and Richie fully painted Lynen Hill uh and CAB and Charter here and then renovated parking lots at Shortage Moat McCain high schools and provided ADS ADA access to all high school athletic facilities again and that's the American with Disabilities Act which requires ADA compliance and so all of the high school athletic facilities received um those much needed upgrades and more than threearters of schools hosted summer camps and programs through July 24th. again. So, all of our maintenance and facility staff um did a lot of this work
034while working around and ensuring that we continue to provide um students with opportunities. And here's just a timeline um that's in my report um for the secondary attendance zone um updates. And again, um won't go into detail about it, but u we find ourselves right here going into the fall of 20 uh 25 um communicating the plan and then working with various stakeholder groups to ensure um that again we continue to engage. Um so that timeline is within my report. It is public knowledge and public information. Um also excited to announce that Red Clay um through community eligibility provision program um all students in the district are now eligible to receive free lunch and free breakfast throughout the district. Um so I know that that's been a champion but that is based on community need.
035Um so we can take the aggregate of need across Red Clay. Um and I know we we've all heard the adage that you can't judge a book by its cover. Um, routinely when I see the food bank line, um, in Ellir, um, which is adjacent to our district office or close to our district office, you really can't judge the need in the community by the car. And so really looking at the community eligibility uh, provision and looking at the numbers across Red Clay, um, there's such a need throughout our district that every school now qualifies um, for free lunch and free breakfast. And just for the community to be aware, 19 schools qualified for that last year and that need has expanded to now every school in the district now qualifies um for free meals
036for all red clay students. It's a federal program under the USDA which governs um school and child nutrition program. So this isn't um local tax dollars going to that. Um this is you know again under the US um drug administration which interesting enough oversees school nutrition programs is is again why and where we qualify for that. I want to give a huge thank you to our technology department um again many of who are here helping us with tonight's board meeting but again for all of their work and hard work in making the transition to a new um student information system platform which we know is is still has some kinks and some bugs that get worked out. Um so we want all of our families to be aware that our staff members are working diligently
037um to um work on transportation mapping. Um there there's a whole host of things when you the state and this was a state requirement transitioning to a new student information system. Um so key dates Monday activation emails were sent out. um the parent portal opened and so if you do have challenges, you're not receiving information, we please ask that you call or contact your child's school to make sure that you are receiving that information. Again, this is a statewide migration. Several districts went through it last year in terms of being wave 1 schools and all of the larger school districts are um wave two schools. And typically by this time you should have received, you know, your your bus routes, uh, bus stop notices. And again, if you haven't received that information, again, a lot
038of that is we're working through and with the state and various, um, technology vendors to troubleshoot it. But we wouldn't be where we are again if our um, technology department haven't been instrumental in working with the various vendors in the state to to troubleshoot a lot of those issues that we've had to contend with. So again, special thank you to all of our parents who have been working diligently to navigate the new system. Your patience, persistence, and partnership are truly appreciated. But again, if you feel like you're not getting information with school starting on Monday, please reach out to your child's school. Uh we are honored to be featured in the College Board success spotlight for transforming access to AP courses across all of our district um high schools. Red Clay increased participation by 79%
039and boosted success rates across the board. And so by making AP seminar a standard English 10 course for all students um in the district, Red Clay increased AP participation by 79% um and boosted success rates across again the board for um not only AP access but students taking the AP exam and seeing scores increase for those um passing scores. Just a couple board retreat highlights and it is an information items in terms of the board priorities for 2025 2026 which is monitoring student learning and progress and opportunity gaps. Strengthening board governance through ongoing training and development and enhancing family and community and student engagement. Again, that is an information item for the board and we'll come back before the board next month for a formal vote. Spring sports has officially kicked off. um excuse me,
040ball sports um has officially kicked off and so we're excited to see all of our athletes return um to the fields and various courts to play this school year. Students interested in joining fall sports, it's not too late and we know a lot of our teams will continue to uh increase numbers and participation with student athletes. Um once students um have uh school starts again, so please reach out to school athletic directors. It's a fantastic opportunity to stay active. And again, we did see a large percentage increase in student engagement and students participating in extracurricular co-curricular activities last year across all of our middle and secondary schools. Uh we also sent out information regarding physicals and the opportunity for students to get physicals. Please contact school wellness center if your child or student athlete needs
041to get a physical to participate in fall sports. some back to school dates. Monday, August 25th is the first day of school for grades 1 through six and grade nine. So, we do a staggered um opening and that's a lot of time to give those students in those transition grades the opportunity to have the building to themselves so that the ninth graders aren't getting stuffed in lockers by the seniors, which that doesn't happen. Um but again giving them the opportunity to navigate um hallways get acclimated to the buildings and similarly for our sixth graders who were in elementary school last year to have that opportunity to get to know the staff and to ease in um and then similarly on Tuesday grades 7 to 8 10 to 12 will be their first day. And we
042also want to note that kindergarten um has a staggered um opening and we do that by alphabet. So, kindergarteners last names A through L attend on the 25th and 26th and kindergarteners last name M to Z attend um on the 27th and 28th. And again, this is an opportunity to allow the teachers to to get students acclimated and help all the crying moms and dads um you know, overcome their anxiety as they introduce um you know, the children to their first, you know, official big school experience. um understanding that a good part of our families um do have u preschools that our kindergarteners are transitioning from. And then we continue to hire um happy to report um we we are currently in the single digits of um openings across the district. Again, being the largest
043school district in the state, I want to thank Dr. Dr. Kanan Dorsey and members within our HR department as well as our school staff for their diligence in going through the hiring process. As I previously indicated, we had 116 new staff members. A lot of that was due to attrition. We had a large number of retirees last year. So, backfilling, you know, key retiree positions. But again, if you are interested, know someone who's interested, please um go to uh HRECplay.k12 um.de de us. Again, if you know someone who's interested in having a remarkable career in joining Red Clay, please do not hesitate to reach out. Just some WLC information. September 3rd is the next Wilmington Learning Collaborative meeting. Um we will be hosting it at Red Clay um at 1502 Spruce Avenue, which is where
044our district office is located, and also the board conference room. Everybody, please mark the date, Saturday, September 6 from 10:00 a.m. to 1 pm for the back to school block party. Uh, this is a district-wide event. There is a change in location. Uh, it will be at the John Dickson School this year on Miltown Road and not at Stanton Middle School located on Limestone Road. So, please um again mark your calendars and make note of the change in the location. And we want to thank the Red Clay Education Foundation um for their continued generosity and support um in hosting and helping us host um through their generous generosity of funding to support the block party as well as our title one um federal programs department and the Red Clay parent advisory council um as well
045as the community partners and others who um support this endeavor. It's a wonderful opportunity to showcase the community as a whole um as we look to enter individual schools. Again, this is the collective rec and a wonderful opportunity to get access to information, resources, and just have a wonderful opportunity getting everyone easing back into the school year. And that's the conclusion of my report. Um, a little lengthy, but please just take a minute to also see this uh Mission Remarkable teaser. So, if you're following us on social media, um you'll get the opportunity to see again Mission Remarkable and and the wonderful work that we're doing and excited about the 2025 2026 school year. [Music] And there is no content, but you will be pleasantly surprised to see what comes of the official video which
046will be released this Sunday if I'm not mistaken. And the time I believe, and I don't know if Mr. night is still in here, but um there's some cameos by some students and other individuals throughout the district. So again, Mission Remarkable 2025, 2026. We're looking forward to connecting the dots and demonstrating impact with each and every one of you who again who's diligently waiting for probably the vote around reassessment. Um but working to engage our community to ensure that we're providing the best opportunity for every student, every family, every community and neighborhood that we serve here in the Reclay Consolidated School District. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Green. We now have a presentation from our Red Clay COO, Dr. Ted Ammon on tax rate assessment. Dr. Ammon, >> good evening. Dr. Green
047mentioned he wasn't sure where the summer went. Um I think we have some taxpayers who know that they spent much of the summer trying to understand what was going on with reassessment and tax rates and so forth. Um and hopefully tonight we can answer uh some additional questions and bring some some clarity if if there's still some confusion. As far as tonight, I'm going to briefly touch on how we how we got here. some of the enabling uh legislation that was enacted uh about a week ago at at the special session that was held. Uh then I'll I'll talk through the process we went through to split our rates. That's become the the term you've seen in social media, splitting rates, and then I'll get to what some people may be wanting me to start
048with, which is what our new uh rates will be. But I'm going to make you wait till the end so that you understand how we how we got to those rates. As as far as um background, we we all know now that as a result of reassessment, many of our residents and and some of our businesses also, but many of our residents saw a very significant increase in their tax burden as a result of their new assessed value. And and certainly the main reason for that is that Newcastle County had not done a reassessment since the early 80s. Um and certainly properties have increased in value in many cases. Um some more so than others. And that's that's what led to this um situation where different people um it's hard to tell everybody what their
049impact is because it is a parcel by parcel basis and we have about 55 um,000 parcels in red clay. So every one of those parcels had a a slightly different situation. Part of the increase that people saw was that because there was a a rather significant shift in tax burden between residential and non-residential properties. Um, one of our public commenters mentioned that there's certainly some commercial properties that based on the way they were uh, reassessed, their value went down in proportion to the overall um, average. So that that caused a shift and whereas um, in previous years residential properties in Red Clay paid one amount, one percentage of our bill, this shift caused uh, residential parcels to to pay more. I mentioned that enabling legislation. there was a uh a flurry I guess of activity
050at the special session. Uh Dr. Green and I were down there till I think it went well into the evening um on Tuesday. I'm mentioning four here that really are applicable to the the issues we're talking about uh tonight and and we do have some legislators in the room tonight and I would like to thank them for coming and and supporting us in this process and and their roles in these these various uh bills that were passed. >> And if we could just Dr. And I we do have Representative Kim Williams in the audience as well as Senator Spiro Masinos who were diligent in their efforts during special session and beyond um to advocate for the legislation that's before you this evening. So, thank you for joining us this evening as well as all the
051other legislators in Red Clay um who actively engaged with us to to one gain an understanding of the impact that reassessment had on Red Clay residents, but then more importantly try to figure out a way um during that special session to give um residential taxpayers um a relief. So, thank you. the the the first bill I'll mention here is HB240. And what that bill did did is it requires Newcastle County to offer a refund to any taxpayers um who have overpaid. And when I say overpaid, either because the tax rate gets lowered this evening or because they go through an appeal process and they find that their their new assessed value um decreases their tax bill. Previously in Newcastle County, if you were found to have overpaid your taxes, you did not get a refund.
052you got um a credit on your bill to cover uh future years. And one of the things that we brought up um very early on in this process with Newcastle County was that um many of our residents pay their taxes through the escrow process, escrow process with their mortgage. And there was a concern that if their property had been incorrectly assessed and they went through the appeal process and it was lowered, a mortgage company is not going to know that. So, not only have they paid this year, but the mortgage company's going to adjust their mortgage rate for next year to account for that. So, we felt it was very important and certainly our legislators heard that concern and and addressed it. So, if a taxpayer finds that they have overpaid for any reason um
053through this process, the county will refund that money. If the um if a taxpayer paid by check, they would get a check back. If it was paid by the uh mortgage companies, it will be sent back to the escrow company, but the escrow company's required by law to then refund that to the taxpayer. So, um that that's an important piece of this. That one does not require the board to take any action. That was um a requirement in Newcastle County. So, they are implementing that, but it is, I think, important to to share with our taxpayers. Um HB241 is another one that you all have no control over tonight, but it's certainly a positive thing that I wanted to share. And that bill says that if someone's um tax burden went up by $300 or
054more this year um as a result of reassessment, they are required or the Newcastle County is required to offer them a payment plan. you've heard some talk about Newcastle County doing that on the Newcastle County side of taxes um that they didn't have the authority to do it on the side uh on the school tax side. So HB241 requires that they offer a payment plan if someone's bill went um over $300 more than it was last year. It also decreases the interest rate. There um has been for many years uh a penalty if you do not pay your taxes on time. there is a a penalty and so this decreases that interest rate to 1% if someone does not go on a payment plan and they are uh late in paying their taxes that that
055interest rate is now limited to 1% which is consistent with Kent and Sussex County. HB242 is the one that you do need to take action on tonight if you want to um take advantage of what it allows us to do and that's the bill that allows school districts to split their tax rates between classes of property and extends the deadline for payment. So, the first piece of that is that um you've heard in the in social media and in the press that Newcastle County as well as the city of Wilmington, the city of Newark, and I believe Delaware City, and some other um taxing authorities decided to split their rates in order to address some of this increase that was a result of this shift from commercial property to residential property. Um school districts did
056not based on a number of different attorneys interpretation of state code, um school districts did not have the ability to do that. So HB242 um now specifically gives school districts the ability to do that. So um we all have 10 days from when the governor signed that bill to to take advantage of that opportunity. Um fortunately for you all, our meeting was scheduled within that 10-day period. Uh some districts are scheduling special sessions in order to contemplate that that concept. The other thing it does for a variety of reasons is it extends the deadline for payment. The deadline for taxes in Newcastle County is September 30th. And this this bill changes that deadline to November 30th. That gives residents more time to pay. It gives residents more time to work with Newcastle County to set
057up a payment plan. And quite frankly, it gives Newcastle County more time to make sure that they get all the billing systems updated and any corrections or updates to the bill based on these split rates out to our our taxpayers. And then SB 202 requires Newcastle County to provide some reporting to the state. Um reporting involving a number of things. One is a number of payment plans. Also the reassessment appeals and how they progress so that people can look at, you know, how many properties appeal, how many properties find out through that appeal process that they had been assessed incorrectly and what the corrections are. And I I think there's also a requirement for some market data. Um, this reassessment was supposed to set all of our properties based on market value. And so the
058the only way to really confirm that in the end is to look at properties that sell at what they call an armslength uh transaction and see is that market value what's reflected in the in the reassessment process. So SB 202 is not an immediate um issue, but it is something that will help all of our policy makers to look at what happened with reassessment statewide and and make um changes or recommendations for the future. So, those are the the four different um bills. And as I mentioned, HB240,241 and SP 202 do not require um school boards to do anything, but HB242 is one that that we'll be talking about tonight, and you will hopefully be voting on our recommendation. Um, and again, HP242 talks about splitting our our rates and it has a limit and
059it says that we can um set the rate to have a higher rate for non-residential rates. We cannot raise any more revenue than we were raising in July. So, in other words, we can't take this opportunity to raise commercial rates, hold residential rates flat, and end up with more money at the end of the day. We have to uh make sure that we're we're bringing in the same amount of revenue. and it limits the increase to two times, meaning the commercial rate or the non-residential rate can't be more than two times the residential rate. Um, we are not recommending to you tonight that you take that maximum um two times rate and I'll get into why we're we're making that recommendation as are I believe all of the other school districts in Newcastle County. People
060have asked what what is residential and you've heard me say residential and commercial. Um it's not residential and commercial. It's residential versus non-residential. In in Delaware, um all all property, real estate property is classified as one of these six categories. Either an apartment, a commercial property, a farm, an industrial property, a residential, or utility uh parcel. When we talk about residential, we're using the same definition that Newcastle County used, which is a um residential parcel or a farm parcel. Um people have said, "Does Red Clay have any farms?" We do have some parcels. We have 70 parcels in red clay that are um considered agricultural or farm parcels and then we have 52,000 parcels that are are residential. So those are the the parcels that will be charged assuming you vote for this recommendation. They
061would be charged this residential rate and then the other ones whether it's commercial, industrial or utility will be charged the the non-residential rate. So, the shift, you've heard us all talk about the shift, and every district in Newcastle County experienced the shift, but each district had slightly different numbers because obviously the the the collection of property in different districts is is um you know, it's different within the districts. Colonial School District and Christina School District have quite a bit more commercial property than than we do. Brandy Wine and Red Clay are are are similar in the ter in terms of how much commercial property versus residential property. And then Apoquin certainly has far more residential property um than than commercial. But what you can see up here is if you break out we I I
062broke out the various parcels. Residential prior to reassessment residential and and agricultural farm parcels covered 73.9 we'll call it 74. I think one of the public commenters rounded to 74. So residential uh parcels covered 74 74% of the bill for red clay prior to reassessment. After reassessment, residential properties would have and and our rates in July accounted for them paying 82.6. So if we ran that to 83% of the Red Clay School District tax bill. So that's that shift that we're talking about. Residents were paying a larger proportion of our bill. Commercial entities were paying a lower uh percentage of our bill. And so that HB242 allows us to address that shift and um change it back to to preserve that that proportion that it was before. So, as we do that, and if we
063could go back uh slide, Tony, um the the residential that 73.9% 74%. What that means is based on the recommendation tonight, if you were are to pass it, it means that our new revenue this year will be covered 74% of it by commercial and agricultural parcels. the other um 26.1% will be covered by the the commercial industrial and utility and apartment complex uh parcels that I referenced earlier. So, it's preserving that. The amount is new because the the total amount is different due to the referendum, but it's preserving that ratio that we had before. So, some other things that we're doing in the recommendation tonight before we even get to um splitting that rate. The first thing we did, if you remember in July, um certainly I'm I'm sure you remember it was it was
064a month ago and it's been a hot topic. Um we removed that 1%. If you recall, I I shared with you last month that the state law during reassessment allows school districts to increase revenue by 10%. Um there's a lot of reasons to do that and we can talk about that at at another time in terms of workshops. I know the general assembly is looking at at that issue, but we had included 1% in additional revenue as a result of the fact that we had had um federal funds that were being held and so we were looking to um you know using that term revenue neutral we were looking to bring some of that revenue back in so that we could more carefully plan for those cuts. Since July um the federal government has uh
065very abruptly um done an about face and released those funds. So we have those funds. we did not lose the funds that we were being told that we would lose. So, we have um removed that 1%. The the only reason we were asking for that 1% was due to that loss in revenue. That loss isn't here. So, we're putting that 1% back. So, we are not asking for that 1%. So, that that was removed from the the tax rate calculations. The other thing we changed is I mentioned last last month that we had made an assumption of 97% in terms of delinquent um delinquencies. every year there are people that for whatever reason commercial um parcels as well as res residential parcels that don't pay their taxes. So we have to account for that and
066we had um after some discussion with the the CFRC based on all the the unknowns and the concern over rates and so forth we had made an assumption that we would only receive 97% of our tax receipts rather than 98%. Um what has changed since then is the general assembly has made these these changes that I mentioned earlier. So we we now know that that there are lower penalties so that people can try and get their their their bills paid. We're splitting the rate. We believe that will help. And most importantly, we now have a month of collections. Every August um is our first big uh payment of of funds from Newcastle County. And we received funds. We actually received far more this August than we did last year. And all all Newcastle County districts
067did. Um we're not quite sure exactly why. Um, I I think part of it might be quite frankly there was so much publicity over tax rates. There were people who immediately logged on to the website to see their tax bill and then whether they were happy or not about the bill, they they paid it and maybe paid it sooner than they they had in other cases. We don't know for sure, but we certainly have seen that at this point we are receiving tax receipts at a a good rate. So, we aren't as concerned. So, that's why we're changing that 98 to 97. And that does have a slight impact in terms of lowering lowering the rates both for residential and and the non-residential rate. The other thing it does is it assigns as I mentioned
068before it assigns 73.97% of the tax rate to residential and agricultural parcels. That's below the rate that we could based on that law. And the the reason for that is very deliberate. All I believe I'll speak Brandy Wine's uh school district had their board meeting last night. They did the same process as I'm presenting to you. I believe other districts will do the same thing. And this is not about trying to put as much tax burden on the commercial sector as possible. One of our public commenters mentioned there are small businesses that are feeling pain through reassessment just as there are residential. So we we need to be cognizant of the fact that if we try and shift more of that burden to that group of parcels commercial, industrial and and utility, it is shifting
069some of that to the same small businesses that we've heard about that are struggling based on their their reassessment. So instead of taking that approach, we we let the math do it for us and we are restoring the exact split that we had before reassessment. So that's why um as districts go through this process, it might result in slightly different decreases to residential rates and that's because each district has a different set of numbers that that are driving these these calculations. So the new new tax rates, I think the slide people were were really looking forward to. So we finally got to it by splitting that. You'll see that the on the left hand column residential and farm some people refer to as agricultural, but those types of parcels. Um and then below it is
070the apartment commercial, industrial and utility. And our previous rate, the rate you voted on um in July was 6719 cents per $100 of assessed value. And by splitting it on the residential side, preserving that that shift on the residential side, it goes down to 0.5918. And on the commercial side, excuse me, apartment, commercial, industrial, and utility, it goes up to.99237. That's a lot of digits to to numbers. We usually, you know, we're used to seeing two two decimal points when we're talking about money. Um, so the percentage, that last column shows you that that translates to a 12% decrease to residential rates from what they were. And on the the non-residential side, it's a 48% increase from where they were in July. So th those are the new rates. Another piece of this that people
071have called um my assistant Steve has has received at last count about 350 phone calls. I know Dr. Green has taken quite a few. So, I've taken quite a few. I know board members have have received phone calls and emails um as we talk through this process with people because I think as as a community, county, state, school districts, we hadn't perhaps talked as much about reassessment and some of the details of what what happens in a reassessment. So, as we talk through this with people, one of the things they all ask about is revenue neutral because they say, "I I heard you have to be revenue neutral. If you're revenue neutral, why did my taxes go up so much?" And so what I want to try and try and explain here is that in
072in in terms of Delaware and reassessment, revenue neutral means that as a school district, we will be bringing in the same amount of revenue this year as we did last year. That does not mean that all of us are paying the same amount as last year. The whole point of a reassessment is that it accounts for the the shift in property values. Um, so just because we're receiving the same amount of money as we did last year does not mean that a taxpayer um would be paying the same amount. Some are paying more and and some are paying less. So the only difference to truly revenue neutral with what we did last month is we had that 1% of additional revenue that we've now backed out and we have the um increase that was a
073result of the referendum board action that that was over that. So that's in terms of revenue neutral. We have not added anything extra into this math to bring in any more revenue than last year other than what we would have been predicting to receive even if there was not a reassessment. So so we are um in a in revenue neutral in terms of of how we would define that. Uh Brandy Wine School District did the same thing um not last night, Monday night. They also removed the increase and and so they also are revenue neutral with the exception of the referendum increase that that their taxpayers had and and again people ask was it because of reassessment or was it because of the referendum that their taxes went up and if you look at the
074the total increase would be about 10%. So what that means is if it was not for reassessment people's taxes would have gone up 10% from last year. if their taxes went up more than 10% that difference. If you know someone called uh just yesterday and it was in the 35% range, 10% of that would be a result of this revenue neutral calculation and taking the same amount of revenue as last year plus the referendum and dividing that out by the the property values. Anything over that 10% is a result of the the property increasing in value more than the average of of all the properties. and Ted just as a anecdote and I think the board may recall receiving an email from a constituent who >> basically saw the value of the the the parcel
075and property that they own go up $110,000%. Cuz last year's assessed value was $100 and this new assessed value was $111,000. And so as we went through and worked with folks in the community really understanding again 40 years of not reassessing has been reflective in school tax but to Dr. Ammon's point we're only collecting what we said we were collecting and then the inflation really is above and beyond that is really based on the ship and change in property value and not everyone saw an increase throughout the district. Right. we we only heard from those who um saw the increase and and and those who within the community may have seen a decrease aren't likely to come out and and and tear that. So when we have 52,000 parcels plus um again not everyone in
076those 52,000 parcels saw that but a result of splitting the rate and reducing the rate everyone will see a decrease or should see a decrease in their tax. >> Yes. All all residential and and farm parcels will see a 12% decrease in their rate. Um, as far as the impact, um, I mentioned all of our residential and farm parcels will see that that approximately 12% um, decrease. It moves about $16 million from that residential bucket into that non-residential bucket. So, that's that shift back. That $16 million is going to be paid for um, by by our our nonresidential parcels. approximately 17,000 of our residents will be paying less than they would have last year even with the fact that you know we would expect to see a 10% increase based on the referendum right there
077are 17,000 parcels that will be paying less than that meaning their taxes are going up less than 10% from last year and that's I think important because what we hear a lot about is people who've who've seen these very large increases and there certainly have been many parcels that had very large increases There are also many parcels that saw decreases. Um, those people aren't necessarily concerned. They aren't necessarily calling and asking why it went down. In fact, some people have said the reason we got more receipts in August was those people that saw a lower bill quickly wrote out a check and sent it in before they um were told that it was it was a mistake or something. So, you know, who knows why that's the case, but that that's what reassessment does. Typically,
078reassessment doesn't show these very large swings. Typically in states around the country, you do a reassessment every year, every three years, every five years. Certainly not every 40 years or 50 years. So, so that's really what made it so difficult for so many parcels is that that it was such a a long period of time. And again, approximately 35,000,000 residents will see more than a 10% increase from last year's bill. And that's even with these new rates. This this splitting of the rate does not eliminate the fact that some parcels increased in value more than others. It only looks at that shift between the two parcels. That that seemed to be the fairest way to do it and not get into issues with treating uh one class of properties unfairly compared to others. We we
079limited it to just that that shift. Um non-residential rate, their rates will be increasing about 48% from July rates. There will certainly be uh businesses that are still paying less than last year, but there will be businesses that are paying more than last year. um some significantly more than last year. Approximately 1,950 of the parcels will see an increase over 10% and 1300 parcels will see a 10% or less increase over last year. Next steps from that, the the new warrants are due to Newcastle County 10 days from um August 12th. So, assuming you vote to split the rates tonight, then uh this evening we will be sending that over to Newcastle County and they will be um issuing supplemental bills. Um as I understand it from talking to them, they will not be issuing
080a replacement bill. They will be issuing a bill that shows the difference. So, a residential property will get a letter that says your initial bill was this much. You can now subtract that 12% from that bill. it would not be a complete replacement, but they're still working with their software to figure out how best to do that. That's not something that typically gets done once a rate is set is set for the year. And and again, the new deadline for paying those property taxes or for calling Newcastle County to arrange for a payment plan is November 30th, 2025. Any questions? >> I have a few. Um, so I just had some clarifying questions just so I can understand some of these figures correctly. On slide six, um, I just want to make sure that uh,
081and in some of your clarification presentation, it almost sounded like these parcel numbers were solely red clay. Is that correct? >> Apologize. I don't >> There's a subtitle there. It says Newcastle County properties is categorized as follows. But you mentioned there were 70 parcels of farmland that were in red clay. So, are these red clay numbers? >> Yes, these are red clay numbers. >> Okay. I just want to make because the subtitle here didn't make that clear. I just want to make >> Yeah, I I wanted to be clear. Um throughout this process, Newcastle County has pro provided us quite a few files. Okay. >> Um you know, it's a a >> that's where the source of information. So, it's really they are red clay numbers. >> They are red clay parcels. On slide nine,
082um those tax rates from the residential and farm versus the the apartment commercial industrial utility, are those our rates or are they the county's rates? >> I think they're the counties, correct? >> Those are our rates. >> They are our rates that where it says new tax rates. >> Yep. Okay. I just >> Those are our the 6719. Yep. >> Um is what you voted on in July. It's a number I will never forget. Um we've we've gone through that number so many times. Um, and then the new rate, the next column is the new rate, meaning if if the board does choose to split the rates and move that, you know, shift that value back. >> Yeah. And I >> Yeah, thank you. So, I just want to make sure just because I know
083there's, you know, we have rates, they have rates, they have numbers, we have numbers. I think in in these slides, you have to be very specific about who's whose is what. Then the last piece of it on slide 12, that 35,000 residents figure, I just want to be clear, is that um 35,000 residents will see more than a 10% increase from last year's bill. Is that before or after the split tax rate bill? >> That is all based on tonight's action. >> Okay. So even after 35,000 residents will still see >> Yes. This does not eliminate the tax increase if >> the three I just needed to clarify a few things. So, so >> they will see a reduction in what they initially saw, but it'll still be an increase. So, I think that that's
084the challenge in like saying that, right? Because it's based on reassessment. >> It's not based on So, us setting the rate will reduce it based on what you voted on in July, >> but based on the reassessment and the value of what the property was reassessed at, which again, the board, the district has no control over that process. So, are you going to go over the other documents that are in action items now or are you going to go over them when we get there? It doesn't matter in May. I just want to >> um The other things are really just this information, different format. There's a tax warrant that assuming you vote on these rates the board president and Dr. Green need to sign so that we can submit them. >> I just don't
085think the board really understands just based on the presentation you just gave us on what those rate changes are going to be. Unless I'm wrong. I do. It's in there. >> Yeah, I know. I just want to make sure that from the additional documents. >> Tony, can we go back to the slide that says new tax rates? >> I don't want anyone to vote on anything without fully understanding what it is that they're voting on exactly. >> Right. So, that third column there is what you would be voting on. And that is splitting the rate. And our residential and farm parcels would be paying that new rate of 0.59180 per $100 of assessed value. And that is a a 12% decrease from what we had presented and what you voted on as a single rate.
086And then the second part of that rate is for the apartment, commercial, industrial, and utility parcels. It'll be going up to.99237, which is a 48% increase. And again, that is based purely on the math of the actual uh assessed value and the and the split before um you know, before reassessment and after. a comment, question, clarification. >> Um, so I'm just I tried to follow you and try to put it in keep it simpler. Uh, and I don't and if I have it wrong, then that would be to your point. Um, so the state's plan to reassess properties was proposing around 2020, I believe, uh, when HB62 was signed. um by August 2023 to have property assessments uh to require every 5 years. Um in 2020 uh the current the the current the previous assessment
087was ruled unconstitutional by the chancery court. Um and so today oh the last time that it was assessed was 1983. So I can only imagine how devastating it can be to a taxpayer to have been living in a house maybe for a long time and get and paying taxes at the rate set in 1983. I was a little one I think uh and then in 2025 it can be extraordinary. But this is all has been the plan for over 5 years and I'm not sure that um it's turned out the way people anticipated and that's why there's all these processes and the legislators are coming together. So, our goal tonight uh is to take away some of the burden on residential taxpayers >> by switching it and instead of residential taxpayers paying more than non-residential
088taxpayers, we're making we're trying to levy the burden a little bit and that's what we're voting on. So these rates would give a little bit of relief to some residential taxpayers. And then to your point of our raising taxes, we're taking away the 1% that we had voted on to also help rectify some of the burden on the taxpayer. Is that accurate? >> That that's very close to accurate. The only thing I'd like to add is that I think you said it would be a relief for some residential. It will be for all res every residential parcel will see this decrease. We cannot pick and choose. Um there are certainly people who saw decreases >> and they're going to get more of a decrease which you know is certainly a hard >> but it's still
089an increase for most. >> Yes. >> Since last year. So we can't do anything about that. So all we can do is try to help out by lowering the residential tax rate. And that's why it's so important that we vote because it has to be in by August 22nd. So, are we I guess we're not at the voting part. This is presentation, but we could call the question later. >> I have one last final question. Um, I need to see a slide where we compare the residential versus non-residential contributions. I'm not seeing that. I mean, I see that on slide seven, but after the split rate, what I mean, what are we shifting it to? >> We're shift, if we can go back to that slide, Tony, it's the we're we're shifting it back exactly
090how it would was before. Um, there we go. In July, let me go, if I can go back before July, last year, we can go back in time, a year ago, residential parcels were covering 74% of Red Clay's total tax bill. In July, what we found is that the shift in, you know, I called it the Amazon effect at a CFRC meeting one night. Certainly, there's been a change in in commercial properties. There's certainly been strip malls that are not as active as they once were. As a result of that, many commercial properties were assessed at a lower rate in percent in proportion. They they still went up, but they didn't go as much go up as much as residential rates. So, In July, residential parcels were covering 82.6% of our total bill. So if
091if and I'll I'll use round numbers. If if our total bill is $und00 million before last year, our residents were paying 74% of that $und00 million. In July, they would be paying 82% or 82.6 almost 83% of that $und00 million or whatever it was in July. What we're doing tonight, what you would be doing if you split the rate is you'd be shifting that back so that >> in current dollars in 2025, residents will be paying the same 74% of the total amount that they would have paid previous to the reassessment >> instead of the 826. >> Exactly. Does that Jose does that answer question? >> Yeah, I I I wish it was a little bit more clearly stated on the slide, but it does answer. Thank you. Okay. So instead of it's I mean
092I see it it's between seven and 8 instead of having what the the reassessments would have done prior to HB242 if it's not if it's passed was 82% 82.6. So we're we're decreasing it >> to 73.9%. And I and I also think like this is a stop gap >> solution again because of the shift and the burden that's been placed on residential. Like there's obviously still work to be done to really look at what we've heard from the community just in terms of how the reassess process actually work because there are still similar properties that have different values. But again, that's not within the board's purview. Like the board is actually, you know, able to set a a rate initially prior to uh HP House Bill 242. you can only set one rate that applied
093to both residential and non-residential and to minimize that shift because the reduction and and again we got to be mindful that we can't parse out large commercial >> versus >> smaller like there there is no authority for that board for for our board to do so. And so this is really to again based on prior to the initial rate is to to affectionately put it back to where it was proportionate to in terms of residential non-residential to give our residential taxpayers some immediate relief while we continue to stay engaged um throughout this process. And and I do want to go on record to just thank you know Dr. ammon um our business office and and others who you know literally we've been fielding calls emails walking you know individuals through and unfortunately our communication um
094doesn't go out so much to the broader community but from December 2023 um if if you are a red clay family and you are connected to our communication information around reassessment um went out and I can specifically remember a conversation that Dr. Aaron and I had um last November when the ominous Tyler technology notice came in my mail and I thought it was spam but happened to open it and saw this piece of mail that said we assessed or reassessed your property um and the average parcel in Newcastle County was likely to increase 511%. and it was very vague in its communication and we immediately started communicating things to reclay families. One to be aware of that process. We put things on our website. We created avenues to try to educate rec families. But what
095we've noticed throughout this process that many specifically our senior and retired fixed income community members who saw the increase either didn't see it, it wasn't clear, or it was overlooked. And so we had over 300 plus inquiries um that that we fielded alone and again our our business office and Dr. Amy's office his admin team you know feel to try to help individuals just even understand that the reassessment process was something that was based on a lawsuit that Newcastle and Sussex chose to delay for a year. that they appealed and actually had it delayed for a year. Sussex followed the Kent model because Kent is two years ahead of Newcastle and Sussex. And each county did something a little different. And we find ourselves where we are right now. as a district and as a
096board when we think and want to educate children that process has gone well beyond that because we're talking about the livelihood for individuals within our community who no longer have children in our school. So reducing and splitting this rate this evening is our attempt to continue to work through this process to provide relief and create balance where it was prior to um the reassessment process being finalized with the initial rate that you voted on last month. So that that's what's before the board to see. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? And there is and there's no formal presentation um with regards to opportunity fund but the expenditure for that is um before the board and obviously the board has had a different information on that as well and there's questions or discussions when you
097get to that point of action item Dr. Ammon is available to answer any questions you may have. >> Okay. Thank you Dr. Ammon. We now go to our action items and Superintendent Green will present them. Yes. So, action item A, we'll start with administrative assignments. It is a recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve Mr. Brett Humphre as assistant assistant principal at Stanton Middle School effective tomorrow, August 21st, 2025. The salary is commiserate with the approved administrative salary schedule. >> Is there a motion to approve the recommendation? >> So moved, Jose Matthews. >> Second, Susan Sander. >> Thank you, Miss Sanders. There is a second. It has been properly moved and seconded. Is there are there any discussions? >> Congratulations. Ditto. >> Okay. >> Get some sleep tonight. >> Miss Stevens, please call
098the vote. >> Miss English. >> Yes. >> Mr. Henson, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. Nith, >> yes. >> Miss Sander, >> yes. >> M. Tortoise. >> Yes. >> Mr. Leonard. >> Yes. unanimous. Motion carries. >> Congratulations. >> You're officially a falcon. >> Uh action item B. It is a recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve Mr. Lucio Constantini as assistant principal at the Brandy Wine Spring School effective August 21st, 2025. The salary is commiserate with the approved administrative salary schedule. >> Is there a motion to approve the recommendation? So Smith >> second English. >> Thank you Miss English. Is properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Congratulations. Yes. >> Okay. We'll go for voice. >> Any uh all in favor? >> I >> opposed. It passes. Congratulations. >> Congratulations.
099You're officially about that. Action item C. It is the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approved Dena Smith Blum as assistant principal at the John Dickinson School effective August 21st, 2025. The salary is permitted with the approved administrative salary schedule. >> Is there a motion to approve the recommendation? >> So moved. Susan Sander. >> Second. Jose Matthews. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Has been properly moved and seconded. Are there is there any discussion? >> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Yes. Okay, we'll do a voice vote. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. The motion passes. Congratulations. >> And I I I do want to just again go on public record to to thank each of the the approved candidates this evening for their desire to lead in rec. each of them served in a
100student advisory role at our various schools and so they definitely earned the positions that you approved this evening and we look forward to supporting you as you transition into your official post as APs in the various schools. So congratulations again. Don't celebrate too hard tonight because you got to start early tomorrow morning. >> You are dismissed if you want to go. Got to get up early. >> Action item D, FY26 tax rates. It is a recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the updated split tax rates as presented. >> Is there a motion to approve the recommendation? >> So move Susan Sander. >> Thank you, Miss Sanders. >> Second, English. >> Thank you, Miss English. Has been properly moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? I I I have a discussion >> and
101I have a comment after >> because I I want to clarify what we're being asked to do is reduce the amount of the residential taxpayer, right? The amount that we collect based on the assessed value, but we're going to split it and recover some of what we would have had last year by charging commercial properties non-residential. >> We're just splitting the rate. So what you voted on last month was one rate for both residential and non-residential because by law the board didn't have the ability to split the rate the way that the county had previously and the city has previously split the rate. >> So they were combined. >> So it was combined. Now this is >> lowering the residential tax rate from the 6719 to the >> 91 whatever >> right to create the
102shift. And prior to that the split was 74 residential. So we're reducing it back to what the proportionate rate was for residential. So yes, we're reducing affectionately reducing the rate for non-residential and then increasing the rate on the the non-residential. >> So in essence, we're giving the residents relief. >> Okay. All right. Okay. >> Any other discussion? >> Yeah, I just had a comment before my vote. Um so first and foremost, I want to thank our team, uh Dr. Green, uh Dr. Ammon for really leading a lot of this work on getting us to where we are with the information presented tonight. Um and thank you both for going down to uh do last Tuesday. It was a it was a long day. Um uh fellow Vice President Sanders was there um also representing Red
103Clay. Uh really listening to a lot of solutions um or potential solutions on the table. Um where we are is where we are. Um I I don't love um the solution that or at least the temporary solution that we have on the table um for lack of a better phrase. Uh it's kind of you know a moment for me where it's you know it is what it is at this point in terms of where the legislation landed. Um there were three split tax rate bills. Um ours is temporary. It's just for this year. Um, thank you to Representative Williams, uh, who's also filed, um, another bill to split the rate in perpetuity. That bill has not been yet heard yet. Um, will be placed, um, and will be heard this upcoming legislative session. But, um,
104nonetheless, I I I would be remissed if if I did not vote without saying, shame on Tyler Technologies for the for the position in which we find ourselves in today. period. >> And um you know, I'm not looking for any acknowledgement or anything like that. I know that a lot of it's been said, but unfortunately, we are where we are today in a very unfortunate situation because of the broken trust um that you know, Newcastle County um council and the executive and from the prior administrations have done um and their oversight of them. Um, it is very clear to me that commercial properties, very large corporations within our our community aren't paying their fair share of taxes and that is why we find ourselves in the position we are in today. Um, this is some
105sort of relief. I know that we aren't going to the full extent. The bill does allow us to fully double um the commercial rate for residents. So, we aren't going the full double. Um but the fact that there isn't a separate um tax rate for small businesses I think is very very unfortunate. Um because this vote um again which I I will be supporting in the interest of of our residents. I want them to feel you know some form of of of of relief particularly for the for the third that raised which are poor people. I mean, that is that is a blatant fact. The the the third that went up were the middle class and poor people, generally speaking. Um, and I want them to feel the little bit of relief that we're going
106to be offering them tonight, which is why I will be supporting it. Uh, but small businesses will definitely be feeling this as well. Um, so that's where I stand on this. And, um, I have no other comments. Thank you. >> Just have one brief comment. Um, just to kind of piggy back, um, like I said before, u, my heart goes out to everyone who's, uh, been affected, I think it's important and it's a a lesson for all of us, uh, regular people go to work every day or who are retired to pay attention to what's going on with legislation and get connected with your legislators so that you are aware. uh the school district tries to do whatever we can to communicate to the community, but we we're not going to reach everybody. So, I
107call upon and some of them have been doing their work. Uh but the legislators to make sure that your constituents are aware of the bills that are passed that would greatly affect them. And I appreciate the work from uh Representative Williams and others to uh bring this small resolution to the issue. So, I'm ready for the question. >> Yes. Any other discussion? Okay. Stevens, please call the vote. >> Miss English, >> yes. >> Mr. Henson, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. Nesmith, >> yes. >> Miss Sander, >> yes. >> Miss Tartis, >> yes. >> Mr. Leonard, >> yes. >> Unanimous. Motion carries. All right. Action item E. Uh, it is the recommendation that the Redcllay Board of Education approve the FY26 preliminary budget as submitted. >> So move Jose Matthews. >> Second
108English. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> I have a question. Uh, and this might be for Dr. Ammon. So, I looked through all of the line items and I saw that there were a few funds that have to be expended by the end of September. One being homeless transportation. How how are we going to make sure that we're not are do we recover any of that if it's not spent? >> It depends on the funds. And the one you mentioned, the homeless transportation, we can only spend what we spend on that exercise. Um they they do that appropriation. They call it a um 16th month 16-month appropriation instead of a 12-month appropriation. Most state funds expire June 30th. Some of them expire September 30th. And the reason for that is to get us through uh
109summer, you know, some of our students are required to be given opportunities for summer programs and transportation for those summer programs. So that allows us to spend that money over the summer. And if in in that case, if we don't actually spend all that money, it does go back to the state. >> That's a lot of money. I don't know if they're allocating properly, but I just that was a big number that I saw. So that thank you for clarifying. >> But if keep in mind that that number would have been as of June 30th. So we would have done quite a bit of transportation of students for summer programs. and we would even use it up through September, which would mean that we wouldn't be using next year's funds. We'd still be using those
110funds. So, um Stephanie Guy in my office does um a big part of her job is making sure that we use every possible state dollar that we can and federal dollar before any local dollars. And so, she she um watches that very closely. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? Miss Stevens, please call the vote. >> Miss English, >> yes. >> Mr. Henson, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. N Smith, >> yes. >> Miss Sander, >> yes. >> Miss Tuardis, >> yes. >> Mr. Leonard, >> yes. >> Unanimous. Motion carries. >> Action item F. It is a recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the opportunity fund waiver as submitted. >> Is there a motion to approve the recommendation? >> So move Susan Sander. >> Thank you, Miss Sander. A
111second. We have no second. >> I can second it. Right. >> Do we have a second on that motion? >> I will second the motion for discussion. >> Okay, we have a second. any discussion? >> I have a question. So, simply put, we this is asking for us to allow our school system to reallocate some of the opportunity funds to other students or other schools, >> other schools to support students should the need arise because you have fractional units. So sometimes a school has an aotment and let's say we've staffed that particular school or we use braided funding to provide other opportunities and in this case um schools that may have needed additional mental health supports you can use that percentage of money from other buildings as the waiver allows you. Otherwise, that money is
112allocated per that school and while they may have let's say say the sports that that budget item then stays at that school and you can't transfer funding between to be able to use it. >> And so do the schools who have the populations to receive this this funding have actionable plans on how they're spending it before they get it? uh how are we tracking the success and of the use of the funds >> and again this is in various forms. So our MLL supports and services are funded through this um reading supports and services are funded through it and again mental health and so again depending on what the needs are and what our schools identify as a need you know you use opportunity funds to be able to do it and you track it
113based on MLL student performance through access. So there's a whole host of ways that we actually look at how we measure or track that particular funding. >> So, I think >> I'm sorry I keep talking, but I one last thing. Go ahead. Um I think the public who um have questions about it, I think they want to see how the funds and where they're going specifically and who is benefiting from them and how they're actually being used. So, money is money, but if you don't I could, you know, I could buy a bunch of crayons and that's not really going to help. I'm not saying that's what we're doing. >> Might not be ethical, >> but just wait like I could buy that. I don't know that it's going it's a evidence-based practice for the
114students. So, I think that um you know with whatever funding like this that we could be more transparent and and explicit about how it's being spent because of the number of people who have come to express concern. So, when the public comes to express concern, we just want to be able to address that. Um I certainly think that um it's not that simple just to give money to a by allocation to because I make x amount of money because there's a lot of different needs that students need that have. And so I I I think it's a tricky thing to do, but I just wanted to to >> to put that out there. And if you look um again the FY fund expenditures are there and where we see schools that based on expenditures allocation
115and what's spent you'll also see schools that have a need that receive it that actually are above 100%. And so there is a a balance when you look at the the total number. And I think sometimes we focus on the outlier and think that schools that based on zip code may not have a need. um students still have needs and we have to maximize and use those resources in an effective way to ensure that we are meeting those student needs. Um so again, if you look at the the the expenditure and there's a lot of state oversight as it relates to the opportunity fund in terms of plans and things and approval um that goes into it as well. >> Um so I guess so I had a question just for a point of clarification
116but also I guess a comment. Um so to Dr. N Smith's point about equity, we imagine that like based on the document that you've provided where where funds will be transferred to that they're being reallocated because a need has already been predetermined. >> So again, I just to point out school if you look at Northstar, right, and you're going to look at a percentage that says 232%. and you look at what actually the the flex allocation and then what's required to provide and again we we had a situation where additional mental health supports were definitely needed and that board and previous boards heard where that need was and so when you look at fractional funding that gives us an opportunity to shift funding while still meeting the needs of the categorical funding to be able
117to provide opportunities for students to get supports based on equity. Right? because equity is meeting students in schools where the need is. And so to Dr. Nmith's point, categorical, we could have said, "No, we're not going to reallocate that money in school A where we may have pulled or araided additional resources. Let's just buy stuff >> with the leftover funding." That's not a good use of resources in a lot of regard where we know people in particular when we talk about support for multilingual learners, supports for reading for low-income students and then mental health that requires staff in a lot of those regards. So again, the flexibility gives us the opportunity to meet the need where the needs are and this cycles year over year based on a percentage within each of our buildings. A
118lot of times you look at sustainability and that's one of the challenges when you look at grant funding is when you put people in it you have to sustain those resources because then schools get used to having that said support in that building. Now if their funding gets decreased year-over-year because that's what happens because it's a year annual allocation then you're looking at how do you then maybe pull local funds to support it or versus look at again maximizing that opportunity fund to look at sustainability. Oh, one last comment. So, I can see both sides, but if I'm thinking about those who are historically marginalized and we look at the schools where the the reading and math rates are much lower and thinking about they also have support with the WLC funding. Uh I just
119think that we could coordinate we all of school systems could coordinate a little bit better to make sure that those schools and students in schools who are not achieving at the rates as their as other peers uh to do some things that are going to boost it really quickly. And so this is um a tricky a tricky situation cuz I understand why we would not want to waste money >> if we don't have a strategic approach. But I think that we need to we the board it can support a better approach something outside of the box to move the needle with the trend across the country of students who don't have as much or have experienced other issues to be able to achieve at the same levels of their peers that are more wealthy. So,
120um, it's it's a difficult decision. >> I'd just like to say a few words about it. I I don't think anyone has a an issue with the waiver process itself. I think the, uh, the issue is, uh, transparency, uh, where we're going to redirect these funds, and I, as a board member, like to see that before we vote on it. I know this year was difficult because of the tax stuff going on, but uh I'd like to see uh from last year where those funds go. And I know there's a time factor uh Dr. Hammond described, but again, every year we vote on this and it it's without knowing where those uh funds from the waiver went. >> Can you I think that was a question. So >> that is a question. Yes. Thank I
121wanted to make sure um ju this is the first year we've done the waiver. This past year is the first year that Red Clay has um >> the board voted on on a waiver. In state law, the requirement to do the reports that you're you're talking about is January 1st, 2026 is when we have to have them posted on our website and on DOE's website. And it it's sort of connected to Dr. Nisma's question earlier about some funds go past June 30th and they do that for a reason. That's because we're still spending that money throughout the summer. So, what I provided you was a very draft example of not an example, it's a draft of where we are right now, but we are still monitoring those things and figuring out um you know when
122teachers didn't come back or if they left and who goes into those spots. So, that's why we we're looking to have that flexibility. The other thing I'd like to add is that we we um one of you mentioned the word strategic. We are very strategic in opportunity funds in that we don't look at them in and of themselves. We look at most of it is staffing and there there's good reason for why we do most of this funding for staffing, but we look at the entire staffing picture. So if you see a school that might appear to be lower because they did not get what the formula would have said and another school's getting more, it could very well be because that school's has other resources. For instance, additional teachers. So, we might have a
123school that received I'm going to throw out $100,000 less than the formula would have given them, but they might have a million dollars worth of additional staff that we've allocated to that school. So, we don't look at it in a in a um with blinders and just say here's your opportunity funding. We look at and it's really not just me. It's a whole group of people. It's Dr. Cison, it's Dr. Bond, um Carolyn Beck from the ML program. We look at staffing it and what the school needs are. And then our job is to figure out how to fund those teachers and those par professionals or those contractors. Um sometimes people say, "Well, you you dropped a staff member at a school." It could be that we couldn't find a staff member, so instead we
124contracted with a company that could provide those services in the absence of an employee that we could hire. So we I I would say we're very strategic in that we look at that. You don't have that final report because it's not required until January. And there's a reason for that. Um, I gave you that information I gave you because we are asking you to vote on this waiver because we have a a significant number of teachers and par professionals that are placed in buildings that wouldn't be placed there if we don't have that flexibility. which means our staffing group would be getting together and letting principles know that the staff that they're counting on may be moved to another school in order to comply with the opportunity fund um formula without looking at that holistic
125picture of saying you have additional staff from um academic excellence units for example are funds that a school that we apply to a school that has special needs that may not be reflected in the opportunity funds. So I don't know if that that's helpful or not. I I I recognize the timing is difficult. The report is due January 1st. The state put that report in there for a reason. We're going to comply with that report. We've given you a draft number. Um it may change some. It's not going to change significantly, but you will see there that every one of our schools, as as Dr. said, has students that have needs and the staffing committee with principles goal is to figure out how to best fit those needs with all of the different resources that
126we have. Whether it's someone mentioned WLC funds, uh, federal funds, we don't withhold opportunity funds because they have federal funds, but we also have academic excellence units that we apply. We have some schools that may have 10 or 15 more staff members that they don't earn based on the formula because they have the exact needs you're talking about. So, we might be attempting to meet those needs and to address those performance issues with a different funding source than opportunity funds. And so, that's what that that waiver allows us to do. Okay, if I can get it clarified. So, uh those funds uh can still be spent till January or we're just down the report of January. >> You will have the report by January 1st. Those funds will all be expended any day now because
127it covers summer payroll. >> Are we still spending that from that first >> in some in in the case of payroll? Most of that has been spent. In the case of vendors, um we are still spending that money. that money is encumbered. Um the way it work with with uh employees, they get paid every two weeks through the you know the state payroll process. If we have a mental health a social worker or a um an RBT, a registered behavior technician, I believe I have that acronym right. It's it's Dr. Salison's uh Baywick. If we have one of those um resources that is covered through Nimman Associates, for instance, which is one of our contractors, we have a a PO with them. we have money encumbered and as those um people work their company bills
128us. So they they will continue if there's a PO on file that has not been expended they will continue to use that money throughout this year. >> I have another question. So when the state determines how how much where the opportunity funds should go, what what is that based on the September 30th count or something the year before? >> There there's an initial um allocation they give us in I believe it's March or April usually and it's based on last September 30th and then in the fall they give us an updated number based on this year's September 30. though. For example, if I'm a principal of a school and all of a sudden there was an influx of students who came from El Salvador and now because I've I've had this as a teacher uh
129there and and my school wasn't getting those funds, but my kids need that support. >> We're looking at it more as our where the kids are that fit within those categories that who would have received if they were in another building. MLL, special education, those low income, >> those co low income, those cohorts of students, or are we just moving funds based on need in general? >> I would say it's a combination of things. Um, as recently as within the last couple days, one of our schools recognized they had a need, a behavior need. They wanted to really work on that as part of their school plan, and they are going to be using opportunity funds to address that because it was a need that they had. Can can I I just want to make
130a note now. I'm I'm not going to vote for for the waiver. I'm making that clear, but it says in the legislation funding received under this section is supplemental to and may not supplant any state, local or federal funds. I don't know with the formula that you've created how you could avoid supplantation. So, I would say that I'm not going to be complicit in supplanting funds when the state clearly gave us a directive that we should not do that. Any other discussion, comments? I'd just like to say again that it's not the waiver process, but the uh transparency that we need, you know, where where it's going and we haven't gotten that since we've only had one vote on that last year. So, uh that's where I stand on the waiver process is there. We
131just need to know how we determine where those funds go from the waiver. >> Okay. So, >> I have a question, >> another comment. And I mean, maybe this could be something that could be kind of offline, but is is there and I know we're probably all repeating pretty much different sentiments is the same thing, but I just want to know if there is a way like based because we received this draft report already and I just want to know based off of this report if there is a way for us to get like some type of breakdown of what the need is per building or is is that possible like based on how these allocations are here or is that not something is that >> it's absolutely possible our um CFRC committee has on
132their September agenda uh this topic to review how this first year with the waiver has gone where we've allocated the funds what it provides I mean what you've seen is some numbers you don't know behind that that there are four teachers at AI high that wouldn't have been there otherwise or that there's and and I'm just making that number up at the top of the list um AI high and then AI middle So that's what our September topic is about. The CFRC does not meet in August typically. They did this this year only because of the reassessment. They had a a special meeting that came in yesterday. So that is our our um on our agenda for September. And I certainly recognize it's it's after um this meeting where we're presenting that waiver, but that
133is on the agenda for September. >> Do you have the amount that each school would have received if we did not flex it? >> It's on that chart that you have. The first column shows the amount interest incumbrances. >> The the first column is the number the amount that we have spent or encumbered. The second column is the amount that we would have received by formula for opportunity funds flexible funds. The next column is opportunity funds mental health funds. And then the last column is the percentage. So if you see a number over 100%, so at the top alphabetically AI high is over 100%. What that means is that based on our staffing that it's driven by the school needs, we have used those um opportunity funds to help provide additional staffing over what AI
134High would have earned. And that gets into that supplanting issue. It is not supplanting because we aren't taking units back from AI. It's AI has earned a certain amount of units. They have initial additional needs whether it's teachers or contractors that help in that building. Those funds went there. So when you see a school that's over 100% they received more than the formula would have provided and if you see a school that's less they're receiving less than the formula would have provided and you know certainly if if a school is over it means another school has to be under that that's just the way the math works out for that. Um but I would also caution you that we look at it as a an approach all of the different funding uh recognizing uh Mr.
135Henson's comment about supplanting. It's not a question of supplanting. a question of looking at the school and figuring out what their needs are. When the school said they had um a contractor they had identified that would be a huge help. That's not supplanting to provide additional opportunity funds to that school. It's additional funds than what that school would otherwise be earning. Is is is there a way to point >> that instead of trying to ser because it sounds like right now the approach is to serve the building rather than the student. Is there a way that you could target the student with the money without because I don't think that you're going to be able to break it down as long as you try to target the school and not the kid because the lawsuit
136was about the kid, not the school. Right? And I would say what our principal's job is is to meet the needs of the students in that building. The funding is allocated by building. Even without a waiver, that formula is done by building and the principles know what the goals are of their building and their students and they allocate those >> which also goes back to what you stated about needing not just the student but all the resources that are needed to be able to meet the need right for just to clarify. So if educators are needed based on the need, then it's not just targeting the student. It's it's not just tracking the student, it's all the other resources that are needed around the student too. Correct. >> For that particular need. >> Yeah, that's
137what I'm saying. like that's but that's I think that's his point of why it's based on the building and not necessarily based on the individual student >> because in essence we have classifications or subgroups of students that have needs which then requires a particular staff member rather than saying we're giving an aotment to each student based on >> the fact that that student may be an MLL student so we're going to give that student like it it like you have to staff proportionate to what the needs of the building I I don't know how you could ever quantify that though. And that was the point of the lawsuit. You You understand? Like, and this isn't money that's going to go away. Like, this is this is a part of a lawsuit because we underserved English
138language learners, students with disabilities, and students that are in poverty. There was a lawsuit which brought about the tax assessments. So it seems like everything's being applied liberally when it was one particular population that was underserved and harmed and we're not even really addressing those harms. And there's no way to quantify what we're doing with the dollars that we're getting in or we're writing grants to serve that population. >> We are because the students and schools that receive that funding, we're directing it to those various groups of students. And the also is there there's a mental health component to opportunity funds as well which then extends to schools that may not have a mental health need and then proportionate. So school A we've addressed their needs using opportunity funds but school fe school B has
139the need but without the flexibility we can't shift the additional resources from school A to support the need at school B. So it's it's it's not a >> so write the grant for school B because the the opportunity funds are available for school B too. >> But the flex doesn't mean they may be falling short because of what their aotment is based on a percentage of low low income or ML or because the the the the dollar amount shifts annually based on percentage. So if I'm putting staff or supports in place for school A this year and to Dr. Denise Smith's point, they get an influx of additional number of students, but yet or a slight decrease, but yet they still have that need. Without flexibility >> or just a different school next year, right?
140That without the flexibility, there's no opportunity there. There's no based on equity, there's no way to meet the need. >> There's no there's no flexibility. There's too much restriction. You can't then flex and meet the need. if if if today if today it's school A and tomorrow is next year is school B. So understand that that part about it. I I don't think that I have any I don't think I have any questions otherwise. We were just to uh Mr. Leonard's point. I think that it's just a transparency thing and maybe just questions that we have based on this draft report that are here. And then the you said the RFC meeting >> CFRC meeting that that's coming up that hasn't happened yet. some of the questions will be answered there too. So, it's just
141a timeline thing and and a transparency thing, not a complete uh lack of understanding when it comes to the process itself for me as an individual. >> Question. >> What you said? >> Let me just ask one more thing on a risk benefit model. What is the risk of not having this waiver? >> Um, I I guess the the biggest risk is uncertainty for both students and teachers. um and administrators because we need to go back to our staffing model and we made it. If you look at that list, any school that has more than 100% funding, >> there is a risk that we're going to have to move staff to another building. Obviously, we have contractual obligations. We'd have to work through the the contract. But if AI High has two extra teachers, and
142I'm making that number up, two extra teachers >> funded with opportunity funds, and that is more than AI High would generate based on the formula, we would have to move one of those teachers to another school where there is money. >> And we're talking about 11 schools because there are 11 schools that are over 100%. that that could potentially be at risk without >> and then there there right there are some that are very close to 100% even without a waiver the the allowance is 95% or 98% I believe it I guess I want to clarify though we are writing a grant >> to the state asking them for the money >> yes we submit a grant >> so all of the terms and conditions so if you guys decided to apply it by school
143that's a grant you wrote correct Yes. >> So, all I'm saying is why don't we target the kid because the money still applies, right? And write the grant about the kid more specifically and laser focused on that population. And then so if if if you're talking about a kid, you write a grant for the kid, you don't have to worry about what school he's at. I think that you guys are boxing yourselves in to a corner. So >> by writing a grant like that it sounds like >> well and I can certainly >> each other right >> I'll share the answer >> it's this way right >> what do you mean >> we have a when we have a question for you right >> oh I talked to you all I'm sorry I'm sorry um
144and then I I move to end the debate >> what >> I move to end the debate so we can vote I think we all know how we're going to vote at this point >> okay >> is there a second Second, Bethis. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Uh, Miss Stevens, you call the vote. >> Miss English? >> No. >> Mr. Henson? >> No. >> Mr. Matthews? >> Yes. >> Dr. N Smith? >> Yes. >> Miss Sander? >> Yes. Miss Tardis, >> yes. >> Mr. Leonard, >> yes. >> Five yes. Two no. Motion carries. >> Action item G is the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the bond anticipation note as submitted. >> So, okay. Is there a motion to approve the recommendation? >> So, move English. >> Sorry.
145>> Second letter. >> Thank you. It has been properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? Miss Stevens, please call the vote. >> Miss English, >> yes. >> Mr. Henson, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. Nmith, >> yes. >> Miss Sander, >> yes. >> Miss Tartis, >> yes. >> Mr. Leonard, >> yes. >> Unanimous. Motion carries. >> Action item H. It is the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve the major capital improvement schematic design plans for two schools as um in Red Clay as submitted and those schools are Lewis Dual Language Immersion Elementary School and Anapimo Elementary School. >> There's a motion to approve the recommendation Matthews. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. A second. >> Sanders second. >> Thank you, Mr. Sanders. It's been properly moved and seconded. Is there any
146discussion? Miss Stevens, please call the vote. >> Miss English, >> yes. >> Mr. Henson, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. N Smith, >> yes. >> Miss Sander, >> yes. >> Miss Tuardes, >> yes. >> Mr. Leonard, >> yes. >> Unanimous. Motion carries. >> Final action item, action item I. It is the recommendation that the Red Clay Board of Education approve a donation from the Home Depot um to Stanton Middle School in the amount of $7,99767 for shed and gardening equipment as submitted. >> So moved. >> Is there a motion to approve? >> Second. >> Okay. Thank you. Is it properly moved and seconded? Any discussion? >> Yes. I I just want to say thank you to Home Depot and keep the donations coming. We love donations. Please keep them coming. Yeah, >>
147I second that. >> All right, Miss Stevens, please call a vote. >> M. English. >> Yes. >> Mr. Henson, >> yes. >> Mr. Matthews, >> yes. >> Dr. N Smith, >> yes. >> Miss Sander, >> yes. >> Miss Tartis, >> yes. >> Mr. Leonard, >> yes. >> Unanimous. Motion carries. >> Okay. We now move the consent action items. Does anyone need to be anything need to be removed from the consent items before we move? Then is is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So move Jose Matthews >> Matthews. Thank you Dr. N Smith. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Uh board committee reports, community uh finance review committee. >> I'm the representative. I was not able to go. It was a meeting that wasn't
148originally on the calendar. I think we heard a lot about what he talked about today. So, I'm going to move on. >> Exactly. >> It was a special meeting and uh I did attend Miss Sanders and I just want to I know we had some questions at the end about the opportunity funds. I I thank you uh Dr. Hyman for answering those questions and uh clarifying some things. Uh WLC special meeting. >> Um yes. So I had to chair the meeting in the chair's absence. Uh and so I was not necessarily able to do a report but I was present. Uh we didn't discuss anything new. We further to discuss the priorities um for the new fiscal year and um some recommendations from council uh for the executive director. And aside from that, that is
149pretty much it. And I think we saw on um Dr. Green's report when the next meeting is and it is also on the WLC website. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> I had I had a not necessarily a question but more so of a comment on the subject. >> Yes. >> Um >> I just want to um remind the board that uh our our our contract uh renewal is up. I look back at the agreement and for those in the public, the agreement can be found um in board docs. If you go to the October 19, 2022 uh board meeting in board docs, it is posted um so that you can reference some of the information I'm going to share with you tonight. Um so if you go to section 10, um
150I'm going to quote the agreement right here and then it says the WLC will be accountable to each district for improving student outcomes. That's generally why they were created. I know that this board had a lot of spirited and robust debate about supporting the WLC going into theou knowing that theou was not necessarily perfect um going into it. Uh we've had some revisions to theou more so about the planning year. Um a lot of uh but I I bring this all up to say that a lot of portions of theou aren't really being upheld. We had actually sent a letter to WLC. Um Kathy Thompson had made this a point on various meetings and had put together a letter in writing at the May 10th uh 2023 board meeting um citing concerns that we were
151violating the MOU that the executive director has not met the reporting requirements um outlined in section 10. Um, no less than twice annually, the WLC executive director and or their designate from the WLC team shall give a more detailed update to each school board on the progress um of their respective schools. That hasn't necessarily happened. Um, so, you know, I have a very hard time really justifying some of the work that they're doing. Um, we do have to let them know by December 31st u whether or not we have an intent um to renew. I just want to give the board a heads up that I will be submitting that on the agenda for a formal vote. Um because I I I do want our board to we have a lot of new key players
152as opposed to when it was voted on. Um so I just want to make sure that we're still aligned and that we still are all on board. I know how I feel about where we are with the WLC. Um but I want that vote to be reflected on the record as to whether or not we're going to continue um as outlined in the process um in theou. And that's all I have. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh items about board we have none. Uh and we have information items, good calls, choice termination, vendor contracts, SOPs, and board priorities. Uh may I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. Jose Matthew. >> Second. English. >> Thank you, Miss English. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. >> Meeting adjourned. Thank you all for coming
153and all your comments. >> Have a great start to the school year. >> Goodbye. >> Next meeting is September 17th and I believe it's at CAB here, correct? >> Yes, we back here at CAB. >> Thank you. And it will be publicly noticed.