001good afternoon everyone i like to call to order the regular monthly meeting of the house accounting board of education for june 8 2021. i would ask that everyone silence our cell phones to that's not to disturb our meeting we will have a moment of silence then we will all stand and have the pledge of allegiance which will be led by dr unruh a moment of silence please thank you please stand the united states thank you like ms hughes to give us a motion on the agenda yes thank you chairman wilson i move that we adopt our agenda as presented it has promotion and second that we adopt the agenda as presented all in favor of the motion please show right here thank you a minute from our previous meeting i also moved that we approve
002our minutes from our previous meeting one second it has been motion and second that we approved the minutes from our previous meeting all in say with the motion please show right hand thank you the board member comments right your board members have comments i'd like to make a couple of comments first of all i want to thank dr scott and his leadership and his team for putting together the graduation ceremony and everything that went the graduations for all of our high schools went very well and that thanks is to be given to all the principals all the principals uh and their staff for having a smooth orderly graduation i'm very proud of our students very proud of everyone who participated and certainly we want to thank the students themselves who carry themselves well obviously the
003parents and these schools and teachers and everyone involved have done a great job of teaching them and training them so again thank you to everyone who participated in our graduation ceremonies our superintendent report dr scott yes sir i'd like to take a moment today to acknowledge that the former superintendent tony kennett passed away on may the 16th and tony was 76 years old and he had served as principal of one robbins high school from 1982 to 1992 and then on november 3rd of 1992 he became superintendent of schools and tony uniquely was the superintendent who was an elected superintendent who then became the first appointed superintendent when the law in georgia changed to no longer require superintendents to be elected and so the superintendent and it retired on july the 1st of 1998 and has
004been a big part of this school district and certainly keep his family in your thoughts and prayers going forward also we'd like to recognize some awards this month the houston county high school baseball team won the 6a state championship on may the 26th at truist park only took two games go out to dr riser and head coach matt hopkins and the entire hoco team at hope coast school and i know they had a lot of supporters out there they were appreciative of being in atlanta traffic was brutal that day going to atlanta so a lot of people endured some heavy traffic to get there four students were recently named the 2021 middle georgia regional positive athletes in addition coach jessica deletrot from houston county high was honored among regional coaches and perry high school was
005named the most positive school so congratulations to all of those winners the houston county association of education office professionals gave a thousand dollar scholarship so this is something they've been doing for many years uh to 20 seniors from our five high schools so congratulations to those seniors who received those scholarships and more importantly thank you to our office professionals for the commitment they make to our students on a yearly basis also winner robin's middle school teacher wimberley tyler received flint energy's bright ideas grant to fund a little free library at her school and i think that was also posted in one of our reports department reports so very excited about that and then two students from houston county high one student from perry high won awards with congressman austin scott's 2021 congressional art competition carson
006county high student placed in the 2021 all-state art symposium and a perry high school school student received honorable mention as mr wilson mentioned earlier graduation is our ultimate goal an event we look forward to every school year and this year it was held on may the 28th and 29th at the georgia national fairground in reed's arena approximately 1900 students graduated district-wide we're very proud of our graduates but we also would like to give a special thanks to chris brown cheryl thomas student school operations and all of our high school principals and administrators and teachers and their hard work and organizing the ceremonies as mr wilson's also said it was a great day to celebrate those graduates also on may the 24th we had the opportunity for a ribbon cutting for the field gentry school farm
007and as we honor dr gentry's many years of dedication to agriculture education in houston county he as you know started the first school farm in houston county and we're very proud to dedicate that farm on his behalf i would like to just give a little bit of an update on our school meals for the summer our district will continue off the meals free of charge this summer all children ages 18 and under children do not need to be enrolled in the district to receive the meals a meal packs will be offered to either pick up and designated schools or mobile routes from pacific neighborhoods every wednesday until july the 28th pick up locations include fagan mill middle school huntington middle matt arthur elementary north side high very high in thompson middle all in all it's
008been a challenging but very successful school year even in the midst of a pandemic everyone continued to work toward our mission and our vision we have a lot to be proud of because of the hard work and devotion from our faculty and staff across the district as well as our outstanding students and supportive grant parents i extended heart felt thanks to everyone for a great school year and we're looking forward to seeing our students back in august and i know the board also looks forward to having visitors back at our board meetings and recognizing our students it's always kind of a lonely couple of months over the summer and last summer kind of extended over over the whole school year so we'll be excited to get back to some sense of emergency but before i
009close today i also want to recognize two board members who have june birthdays first of all on june 17th lori johnson has a birthday happy birthday and then fred wilson on june 22nd has a birthday so happy birthday so i'm sorry 17th and the 22nd so they were backwards thank you sir thank you all right next item on the agenda the department of reports uh we had a chance that our work session yesterday evening to review those and discuss those any comments before our department reports now we'll go into new business our first item on our agenda onto new business will be our fiscal year 2022 budget hearing uh mr gerald ladies and gentlemen before the board united budget coming fiscal year required to have public hearings so at this time to receive public input
010is there anyone here that would speak against the proposed budget uh yes sir i would like to speak in favor and just give a brief recap of what is included in our fiscal year 2022 budget it is a great year financially for us and also for the citizens of the county uh our requested millage rate remains at 13.297 mills as i told you last night that ranks us 166 out of 180 systems so there are 165 systems with a higher millage rate than what the houston county school system has also included in the budget is a 4 increase for all certified employees on the houston county revised state salary scale and a four percent cost of living increase for all classified employees we also then had adjustments to take the seven and a half hour
011employees to eight hours the total cost of all those increases was 13.7 million in addition for the 11th straight year the houston county school system will have a full 180 day school year and the staff continues to have no furloughs or work calendar adjustments the final budget consists of general fund at 313 and a half million six and a half million for debt service and 54.2 million for the capital projects fund the ending fund balance projected for the general fund is over 54 million which is an increase of 15 and a half million over the 2020 initial budget general fund fund balance is equal to 17.42 percent of our budgeted expenditures which is approximately two percent expenditures local revenues make up 32 and state revenues make up 67 of our general fund uh austerity reductions
012were enacted uh in fiscal year 21 and we originally had 17.6 men in austerity that was reduced to 7.1 million in march by the legislature and then again next fiscal year we continue to have austerity reductions of 7.2 million so when you add that into what we have from 2003 to 2018 the total reduction of our state funding is 172.7 million through the budget does include seven and a half new positions consisting of system and distance learning positions custodians and clerical we've added additional expenditures of 000 for textbook replacement equipment and vehicle replacement direct instruction makes up 66 of the total general expenditures and as always our salaries and benefits of our overall general fund budget so the majority of your budget is the capital projects fund budget includes 31 total projects under the 2017
013e-sports program the 2022 esports program and then our locally funded school and safety projects the total cost of those of that capital is projected to be 54 million with 79 million of receipts and proceeds from the general obligation by itself expected to be done in december and january of this year the total budget will be over 457 million and with the addition of over 83 million restricted grants and programs such as the elementary school marco funds the title one school nutrition title ii pre-k and school activity accounts if that's it it's our recommendation then um in the amount of 457 million 483 857 a summary of that is included on page seven of the package that was uh underneath the next agenda is there anyone else to speak in favor of thank you sir the
014next item on the agenda will be the fiscal year 2022 final budget approval mr chairman i will make a motion that we approve the budget for fiscal year 2022 as presented it has been motioned in second that we approve the fiscal year 2022 budget uh in the amount that was presented all in favor of the motion please show the right hand thank you alternative millage rate for calendar year 2021 uh ms hughes tentative yes of setting the calendar year 2021 for the fiscal year 2022 millage rate at a rate of 13.297 mills this is the same rate as last year's rate either had the same rate or a degree it has been motioned in second that we approved the tentative military for calendar year 2021 fiscal year 2022 in the amount of 13.297 the comments
015of course all in favor of the approval of the change of military please your writing thank you fiscal year 2021 budget amendment number year one budget amendment on these changes second it has been motioned second that we approved the fiscal year 2021 budget amendment number one in the amount as stated uh any comments that question all in favor of the motion thank you the financial report for the month of april uh brian yes sir mr would like to make a motion to approve the april 2021 financial reports at specific investment motion in a second that we approve the financial report for the month of april of 2021. all in favor mostly please thank you a purchasing report yes i move that we approve the june 2021 purchasing report as presented um it has been motioned
016in second that we approved the purchasing report in the amount of 14 million 800 700 92.33 three cent comments questions all in favor of the motion please your right hand thank you declaration of surplus vehicles lori yes i'd like to make a motion to approve as presented the declaration of surplus vehicles it has been motioned in second that we approve the declaration of surplus vehicles and the amount is to be determined by the bits themselves all in favor of the motion please show right here thank you amended houston county uh right away an easement for state road 127 crime yes sir mr chairman i'd like to make a motion to improve as presented the amended house and county right-of-way easement for state route second it has been motioned in second that we approve the amended
017house encounter right away in easement for state road 127. any comments or questions all in favor of the motion please your right hand thank you design professional agreement with altman and barrett architect for capital outlay projects great yes sir i move that we approve the design professional agreement with altman and barrett architects for capital outlay projects second it has been motioned and second that we approved the designed professional agreement with auckland and barrett architect for capital outlay projects in the amount of 752 898 for this design fee all in favor of the motion thank you our personnel report uh lori for june 2021 yes thank you i'd like to make a motion that we approve the personnel reports as presented so it has been motioned and second that we approve the personnel report for june
0182021 all in favor of the motion please show right here thank you we have an individual uh personnel item that we need to take action on brian would you give us a motion please yes sir mr chairman i'd like to make a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation for mr matthew simon for it has been motioned in second that we approve the superintendent's recommendation to appoint mr matthew simon for the position of athletic director at thompson middle school any comments or questions all in favor with the motion please your right hand thank you new job description for senior network manager rick i move that we approve the new job description for senior network management it has been motioned in second that we approved the new job description for senior network manager all in faith emotion
019please show right here new job prescription for chief financial officer i'd like to make a motion that we approve the recommendation for the new job description of chief financial officer as president it has been motioned in second that we approve the new job prescription for chief financial officer as presented all in favor please show right here thank you job description revision director of community community and school affairs hope this service chairman i'd like to make a recommendation that you approve the job description vision of the director of the community it has been motioned in second that we approve the job description revision for director of community and school affairs all in favor of the motion please sure thank you job description and revision for school nutrition assistant manager helen thank you i also move that
020we approve the job description provision for school nutrition assistance it has been motioned in second that we approve the job description revision for school nutrition assistant manager all in favor of the motion please show right here thank you job description revision for school nutrition food assistant brian yes sir mr chairman would like to make a motion to approve this presented jobs job description revision for school it has been motioned in second that we approve the job prescription revision for school nutrition food assistance all in favor of the motion please you're right thank you policy g b i revision rick chairman i make motion that we approve the policy gbi revision this policy adds teacher evaluation appeals process which meets the requirements of the new legislative bill it has been motioned in second that we approve
021policy gpi revision as indicated all in favor of the motion please your right hand thank you learning resource adoption for social studies k through 12. hope mr the mr resources adoption for social studies financial impact is 2 million 196 663.67 it has been motioned in second that we approve the learning resources adoption for social studies k-12 in the amount as noted all in favor of the motion please show right here thank you learning resource adoption for world language nine through twelve uh helen yes i also believe that we approve the learning resources adoption for world languages 9 through 12 with a financial impact of 81 700 and 60 cents it has been motioned in second that we approve the learning resource adoption for world language 9 through 12 in the amount as noted all in
022favor of the motion please your right hand thank you without adoption for science k through glory i'd like to make a motion to approve the learning resources adoption for science grades k through 12. as presented the financial impact is 2 million two hundred twenty six thousand one hundred nine dollars and ninety eight cents it has been motioned in second that we approve the learning resource adoption for science k-12 in the amount as noted all in favor of the motion please show right here thank you the 2022 2023 uh system calendar uh brian yes sir mr truman like to make a motion to approve his present up for the 2022-23 system calendar it has been motioned in second that that we approved the 2022-2023 system calendar as noted all in favor of the motion please show
023right here thank you the transfer of .75 acres to the city of perry hope yes sir mr chairman i'd like to make a recommendation that will approve the transfer 0.75 acres of the city of perry this is subject to an intergovernment agreement between scott it has been motioned in second that we approve the transfer of 0.75 acres property to the city of perry all in favor demotion place your life thank you and the purchase of real estate um rick yes make a motion that we approve the purchase of real estate to provide egress and ingress to houston county school district property purchased not to exceed the houston county tax value of thirteen thousand eight dollars so it has been motioned in second that we approve the purchase of real estate as noted not to exceed
02413 800 all in favor of the motion please your right hand thank you the next item on the agenda will be persons who wish to address the board i believe these will first of all do we have miss casey unsworth thank you mr and mrs davidson okay thank you and mr joseph pope okay thank you very much we will go into executive session and you will be able to address the my board we'll address it in open session thank you very much okay uh we you will have three minutes each to address the subject so if you come forward mrs unsworth please thank you thank you all right good okay i would like to open up in prayer um dear heavenly father i pray for eyes and ears to hear and see your truth behind
025these topics you called me to speak about today please give us all the faith and focus we need to keep your will in your way as our first and top priority please help us all make the right decisions moving forward i love you lord and i trust you know best work and move in this place in jesus name amen my name is casey unsworth i have two children which attended hilltop elementary this past school year i spend much of my free time with children as i coach soccer and softball and i'm the director of a children's outreach ministry at a local church i know without a doubt i have been called to speak up for the children teachers and parents who can't speak or are scared to speak out regarding some of the inconsistencies across
026the houston county school district i'm not condemning or shaming anyone for the lack of knowledge last year when much of kovid was unknown however this new school year is different and there are different expectations that we the parents would like addressed considered and we request feedback and answers first is the mask second is the lockers the water fountains and allowing parents back into the schools third is the district's stance on the critical race theory fourth is a removal of any news networks being shown on the school premises i hear children and teachers are no longer forced to wear masks next school year that is wonderful news i have not heard that officially but i urge you to get the word out to parents as soon as possible wait until the last minute in july we
027need answers now we can't wait until july i heard bus driver bus riders and bus drivers are still required to wear a mask and this truly puzzles me can each of you imagine trying to drive a bus make sure children behave all while having a mask on one adult driver compared to 15 20 25 children then you want the adult to cover their mouth which is the only safe way for the bus driver to correct bad behavior this makes no sense some buses don't even have air conditioners and how do you implant on enforcing this is the bus driver supposed to be watching the road or are they supposed to monitoring masks just remove the mass requirement and allow people the option second is the use of lockers and water fountains many children have been
028carrying around 40 to 50 pound book bags all year long and it's hurting their backs please allow children to utilize the lockers that we paid for there are reasons why we bought these and install these throughout our schools let's get back to in using them let's turn on the water fountains to expect to expect a four to five-year-old to remember their water bottle everywhere isn't realistic my kid has been coming home with headaches because he's dehydrated turn the water fountains on and let them use them 30 seconds allow parents back into the school this is where relationships are built parents need access inside of the school for peace of mind and accountability what is the house and county stance on critical race theory this is something very poisonous for our children and should not be
029taught what's your stance in which 15 seconds fourth items to turn off the news media outlets being broadcasted on the school premises it was brought to my attention that cnn network has been played in numerous schools across houston county bonaire fagan mill perry middle and huntington middle they should never be allowed and needs to be handled and we need to know what's thank you with that time lastly i would like to share one more thing really quick offering vaccines that coven 19 in particular at the school is very risky it can be argued if informed consent can be established without the sickness the time is up now still in testing until 2023 and 2024 i've waited 45 minutes i was just finishing one sentence thank you ma'am mr davidson represented you'll have three three minutes
030thank you good afternoon my name is veronica davidson i live at 103 nottingham road i am a wife and a mother to two daughters my eldest is an upcoming senior at warner rams high who last year maintained all a's and b's as an honors ap marching symphonic band student my youngest is an upcoming fourth grader at shirley hills who has also maintained all a's and b's as a gifted student during this coven nonsense she is currently attending the summer enhancement program and i'd like to know why she had to wear a mask and her teachers yesterday didn't have to wear a mask at the summer enhancement program she came home telling me about it uh she was the uh however every child we'll see sorry i messed up my child has not been exposed to
031covet and has never quarantined from school i must admit that when school started last year i believed it was in the best interest of my children to wear a mask however since more information has been brought to my attention i now know differently the american institute for economic research summarizes an article written in march this year that children do not readily acquire sars cov2 spread it to other children or teachers or endanger parents or others at home this is the settled science in the rare cases where a child contracts coveted it's very unusual for the child to get severely ill or die masking can do positive harm for children whatever arguments there may be for our consenting adults children should not be required to wear masks to prevent the spread of covet i understand that
032there are more people who are worried that with the mass mandates being lifted cases of kobe will spike it's simply not true for example the state of texas lifted their mass mandate in early march there was no spike as a result as a matter of fact newsweek and the new york post reported a month and a half after the lift the cases had actually dropped by 50 percent and daily deaths had dropped by even more meanwhile states with stricter regulations saw spikes in daily new cases my husband served during operation desert storm and was thoroughly trained in chemical biological radiological nuclear warfare specifically he was trained how to protect himself from biological agents like anthrax botulism ebola and viruses much like cobit it would have been considered lunacy to suggest a fabric mask as adequate
033protection from any of these items at the same time it's crazy to expect students and staff of houston county schools to wear level a biological ppe at all times if the virus was as prolific and deadly as purported there should not be a single person in this room who was not infected masked or not i can speak on behalf of my household not one of us have contracted covet this whole time one we now know that covet rarely affects 30 seconds masks are ineffective against transmission three children are not asymptomatic for the state has lifted mass and social distancing requirements in conclusion there is no reason for our children to be subjected to mass torture any longer 15 seconds we are only putting fear in our children by continuing to force them to wear masks
034it's time to end the mass mandates on our children today thank you for listening thank you ma'am thank you very much thank you mr jose joseph hope thank you sir yeah three minutes uh good afternoon ladies and gentlemen thank you for your time today my name is joey pope my wife and i are lifelong houston county residents along with our five children i'm an aircraft mechanic here at robbins air force base and my family attends second baptist church my four youngest children are all girls and all of them still attend houston county school system until 2020 we have always been proud of the work our county school system has done this past year has been chaotic for everyone but it is time for the students to get back to a stable productive school setting a
035little bit about my girls my oldest will be a senior at veterans high school this year she competes on the basketball team and is a former miss veterans high the next two are my 10th grader at veterans and my soon-to-be eighth grader at bonner middle they have both always excelled in school whether that is taking honors classes or being involved in the summer enhancement programs the last of the group of my girls is our soon to be third grader she will be at binary elementary and received numerous awards this past year including tested in the gifted program and setting the school record for jump rope now to the business at hand are these masks and covet 19 protocols helping or harming our children last year i would have said helping but now i realize that
036the children do not need help from the virus because the vast majority of students are never affected by it as a father if i thought the mass benefit my daughters at all or kept them safe then i would be encouraging them to wear them that is not the reality for anyone that is their age and doesn't have major health issues at a time when the virus is basically non-existent why are the children still wearing masks if the board of education is ever going to be willing to change their stance on the mass mandate issue it seems like now would be the time because every parent in this room knows that when fall weather comes around in a few months our children will start getting runny noses or coughs or whatever if we don't change the
037mass mandate now then when the weather starts to change and our bodies react to it like it always does some people are going to use that as an excuse to keep the mask on instead of using common sense and realizing this happens every year for years studies have shown that face coverings have little effect on preventing the transmission of diseases and other countries that use them do so for smog and pollution not because of viruses in closing i ask that the board give the options of mass back to the parents the majority of parents are going to do whatever they have to to protect their children 30 seconds also we have an online petition to end the mass mandate and give parents choice it has 782 signatures and it's growing every day appreciate it y'all
038thank you thank you sir thank you very much we want to thank you all for coming and sharing this information with us and it will certainly be looked at appropriately thank the you item on our agenda will be uh we'll go into executive session for real estate uh need a motion please second it's been motioned in a second that we go into executive session for real estate all in favor motion please your right hand thank you we're not in