Regular Board Meeting - June 4, 2025

001Uh, let's wait for my mic to be on. Are we on? Okay, here we go. Uh, good afternoon. Welcome to the Wednesday, June 4th, uh, 2025, uh, regular meeting of the board of public education. Uh, if you all would, um, I first have to confirm that notice has been sent out regarding this meeting. I've been assured it has. If we would all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I will now accept a motion to approve the agenda. Yes, sir. Mr. President, I would like to move that the agenda as printed or modified be approved with the following revisions. Deletion of item

0026.02 policy board policy FGC bids and quotations 4-year review and item 6.04 04 board policy DC annual operating budget 4-year review and addition of item 8.13 purchases and sale agreement property Cynthia Street and item 8.14 FY25 budget transfer vacancies to 308 fund 600,000 I'm sorry 600K for approves. Okay, thank you. Uh, it's been moved and second. All in favor? I All right. Thank you. Announcements. All right. First of all, uh, we have a, uh, Schuman closure public hearing this afternoon at 5:30 here at Whitney. Uh, we'll have that's our first hearing. The second hearing will be um next Wednesday, June 11th at 5 o'clock. And um then Tuesday, June 17th, uh is uh mil uh board millage rate public hearing number one, pending vote. uh June 17th at 2:00 p.m. at the capital improvement committee

003meeting. Then uh board mill rate hearing number two pending vote is uh June 7 June 17th at 6 pm. Uh board millich rate public hearing number three pending vote is June 25th at 6 pm and a special board meeting with recommended mill rate and final adoption Wednesday June 25th at 6:30 p.m. Uh, we have an audit committee meeting on June 26. Yes. Okay, that is questionable. Stay tuned. Um, we have a Reed United Buddies volunteer appreciation Thursday, June 26 at 5:30 p.m. at United Way of Coastal of the Coastal Empire. The district summer schedule, the district continues to seek methods for maximizing building efficiency and fiscal responsibility. In support of this effort, uh, SECPSS will implement a 4day work schedule starting Monday, June 2nd through Friday, July 11th. All district locations will operate on a

004four uh 4-day work week. July 4th holiday week, the district will be closed July 1st through July 4th. And uh our July board meeting is July 9th at 11:00 a.m. And I missed one. The our Junth holiday, all district facilities are closed uh is June 19th. And now we'll have a report from our esteemed superintendent. So good afternoon. It's exciting to see everyone here and I am excited also to bring you some good news and some calls for applause. I'll start with the good news report which is featuring our May student of the month. The superintendent student of the month for the month of May is a third grader at Windsor Forest Elementary School. This student arrived from Cameroon and she hit the ground running. According to her nominator, she has excelled in the classroom

005and all who meet her, teachers, staff, and friends, speak very highly of her character and her intelligence. This young scholar is a stellar student, says Margarita Macdonald, who nominated her. She sets a high bar for herself in and out of the classroom. She has earned a place on the honor role and scored in the 95th percentile for I already reading. She strives to do her best and she never settles for just completing a task. She always attempts to face any challenges given to her with an open mind and great effort. She is described as a leader and as someone who models good behavior by being attentive and working well with others. Outside of school, our student is active in American Heritage Girls and she wants to be a paleontologist. She loves reading non-fiction books about

006dinosaurs. I don't even think I knew what a paleontologist was when I was that age. When asked what motivates her to strive for academic success, our student of the month said, "My motivation for academic success is my parents. They encourage me to read by taking me to the library every Saturday. They also help me study for at least one hour after school each day. Please, please help me in congratulating Mrs. Peace Tangle, the superintendent stu student of the month. Well done. Peace will be taking home several gifts from our sponsors, including Members First Credit Union, Advertising Specialties, Georgia Southern University, Gulfream, and a $100 check from Savannah Schools Federal Credit Union. In addition, Peace um and her English language arts class will receive copies of her favorite book donated by our sponsor E Shaver book

007seller. Again, let's congratulate Peace, but let's also take the time to acknowledge her family. So, if anyone from her family is here, please stand. Thank you so much for all you have contributed to her. And let's also take an opportunity to recognize the Windsor Forest Elementary family. Her nominator and her principal, uh, Miss Margarita McDonald is Awesome. We'll keep the applause coming with several other positive news stories from our district. Uh, let's take a moment and congratulate the class of 2025. We proudly marched and I shook the hands of over 2100 students across the stage at InMarket Arena last month. It was both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. We appreciate the teamwork and the effort that went into making each graduation ceremony special for our students, staff, and family. And hats off to

008the National Merit Scholarship Winner, William Mayer from Savannah Arts Academy. You may recognize his name as William was the star student for Savannah Arts this year as well. Way to go, William. The Savannah Arts Academy girls soccer team has a lot to celebrate um as they finished the GHSA class doubleA runners up um after falling to Pike County in a six to5 thriller, but still a lot to be proud of um in making it to that state championship game. It was the first ever state title appearance for the Savannah Arts Academy girls soccer team. The Panthers fought the entire way. In the second half, they found themselves down five to three and they scored two straight goals to tie it back at five. But Pike County went on to score and took home the title.

009It was a thriller to the end and we are very proud of our Lady Panthers. Students, families, and educators also gathered last month to celebrate the next generation of uh individuals committing to careers in the classroom as educators during our first ever future educator celebration and signing day. Savannah Cadam students signed letters of intent to become teachers. The event was part of the Georgia Department of Education's Teach in the Peach campaign and is building partnerships with local colleges to help build a pipeline of future educators. Once again, Woodville Tompkins High School is flexing that financial achievement muscle. They placed first in the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association annual Capitol Hill challenge. The Capitol Hill Challenge is a nationwide 16-week finance education program where teams from each congressional district invest a hypothetical $100,000 to learn

010the value of the capital markets as they work together to maximize the return on those portfolios. This is a major accomplishment as thousands of teams competed in all 50 states uh in Washington DC. The top 10 teams will well the top 10 teams will actually visit Washington DC next week and will be honored at a reception in recognition of their achievement. Please join me in congratulating Lady Laura Beheima Diaz from Woodville Tommpkins Business Education. She's an instructor and the instructor John Cook for this achievement. The student is not here. Oh, the student is here. Excellent. So, we would love for her to come up and be congratulated and acknowledged. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Our economic future in this country is in good hands. [Applause] John Cook, the instructor, is not here, but um our student

011was joined by her principal, Mr. Maguire. Congratulations to the graduates of the Junior Police Academy. Over 60 middle school students completed the program during the school year, and they were recognized recently at a ceremony followed by dinner at Woodville Tomkins High School. Sheriff Richard Coleman delivered a stirring keynote. Thank you to all the board of education police department for leading this program. A big round of applause also goes to our human resources team. They have recently brought home the hardware from the Georgia Association of School Personnel Administrators. SECPSS has been honored with multiple best-in-class awards from GS GASPA, a silver award in employee handbooks, a gold award in retention practices, and a gold award in technology advancements. These recognitions are a testament to the dedication and collaborative collaboration of our team. An additional award goes

012to our uh district office and schools communications team. Once again, the team took top honors in the NSP national school communication awards. The two the 2025 honors for our communications team includes the following. An award of excellence for our newly launched public website. an award of merit for videos uh specifically the Beach High School medical clinic video, our East Bloss video series, our mediation center positive peer influence program was also awarded the merit this merit award. Um, an additional award of merit went to our magazine in case you missed it, which is a monthly digital magazine. And we received an honorable mention award for video chinchillin, which featured islands high school's vet program and social me and our social media campaign that focused on attendance. Miss school, miss out. Way to go, communications team. You

013make us very proud in this work to tell our story. And finally, we would like to announce two individuals who are being recognized in the inaugural maintenance and operations professionals of the year. Elizabeth Edy has been selected for the operations team heavy hitter of the year award for school year 2425. In her capacity as a head custodian, she is instrumental in ensuring that district facilities are maintained while providing support to multiple facilities across the district in times of need. Congratulations, Miss Edy, who I believe is here. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you for all you do. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much for your And our next honore uh as a heavy hitter for the year from our maintenance department is Mr. John Masterson. Uh John, come on down. Mr. Thanks. [Applause]

014Thank you. Good job, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. Appreciate it. And just a little bit more about John's contribution to our district. He is characterized as an exceptional employee, a force multiplier, and a master craftsman. His attention to detail is unmatched and is a testament to his hard work, his dedication, and passion for carpentry. Congratulations, Mr. Masterson, on a job well done. And I we have already invited those individuals, but I'd like for them just to stand collectively one more time. They they are joined today by their division leader, Mr. John May, his team, as well as many of their peers. And this this entire group of people are an unseleelebrated often unseleelebrated employee group within our district, but they get

015the job done behind the scenes and we could not run our school district without them. So thanks to all of you and we have concluded professional senate. So this month I uh will not be passing on uh the mic to a report but we will continue with our agenda with our board matters. Y'all don't have to leave. Y'all don't have to. Thank you for all y'all do. Thank you, Madam Superintendent, Mr. Board President, board officers, members of the board. As we continue on your agenda and move into your board matters section, we have a few policies for review. These are first reads for the board of education. Your first one leading off is item 6.01. This is board policy BBD, which is board school superintendent relations. You'll see that one line has been added in

016this policy section. This comes on the recommendation of the board attorney to ensure that we are u more in line with statutory requirements under the fundamental roles of boards in governance. First read Brown. Thank you. Um I asked the superintendent about the intent of this addition. Um there are so many conversations that could be considered a personnel matter. Is it possible to have the statute put inside the policy? Oh yeah. For high-f flyers who may want to read the statute so that they know what not to do. Yes ma'am. Thank you for that. Uh there is a general statutory code uh that does list the additional components that uh have certain governance uh impacts. One area that is very important in there and I think that we could consider if it's to the board's purview,

017uh it does not limit the board from forwarding on matters of personnel concerns to the superintendent. Uh and that is stipulated as much in the the statutory code section. So, um feedback received and we will make sure that we update that on second read. Thanks, Mr. Smith. Uh thank you uh for this uh for this addition. I just had some questions about the the document in in general. Uh to for me it gave some uh gray areas. Um and I was trying to see if there's a way we can possibly add uh more clarity. Uh for example, uh one stanza says in order to keep the board informed, the superintendent will notify board members as promptly as possible uh of the happenings that's taking place. And I'm my question is, is there a rule of

018thumb as to what method we could take to disseminate that information? If that was put in this document, maybe it'll add a bit more clarity. There's another uh line that says members of the board from time to time may request information about various aspects of school district operations. Uh and then it says to not be excessive. Uh, I believe that to add clarity, we should find out what excessive is and what that looks like so that the lines would not be crossed and boundaries could be set across the board. So, I'm I was just trying to submit or suggest that we find a way to clarify those items a bit more. Yeah. Again, if I could ask or uh submit for the board's uh continued um uh review in this particular area that much of

019what you're talking about is memorialized in the communication protocol uh that the board and superintendent have. So that's that's almost like a a secondary administrative type document. Uh it's a governance document that is between the board and the superintendent and how these things are managed. um will say that one thing we do want to be careful of as we do as we uh review the recommendation for any further revisions is is not to write a policy so specific that you get into a ministerial duty type thing. So if you say in this policy that we're going to say that the superintendent will use a text method only or a text method uh to notify the board and she's not available to get to a text and you receive it another way but if it's written

020that way in policy then it becomes a violation. So having certain levels of flexibility uh is helpful here. But um I will say that that also is further described in further detail and the way the board writes and agrees with the superintendent through the communication protocol. I'll send the communication protocol out to everyone. You may continue. Okay, that was first read again. We'll bring it back in July for second read adoption. The next item on the board's agenda today is policy FEB. This is item 603. FEB, you'll note a few changes in this particular one. The spirit of this one came through after recent statutory changes that required when uh boards of education, school districts are going through changes in their construction, for example, of new construction of schools that during the design phase that

021they shall consult with emergency preparedness agencies or law enforcement agencies uh during the design of a school and that's obviously to support the work that we do from a safety perspective. Uh so that has been added. We also did cite the state board of education rule that defined that further and that is a primary reason for bringing these revisions. First read um Mr. Cashbar then um Mr. Kowski um is there GSBA guidance on what consult means? And where I'm going is we should start that conversation now with Chattam County and the city and all the municipalities about what that should look like. We have a lot of things going on. Um I don't know when the effective date is, but we have things that are in, you know, 90% design and I'd hate for somebody

022in a small municipality somewhere to say, "No, I want you to turn it this way and get rid of this wall and etc." So, let's just be proactive about this, please. Yeah. Yeah. And I will say that we are in regular constant or not constant but regular communication with the folks at the Georgia Department of Education. Um Mickey Schuber is a very great resource for us. We talk to him and his team and the Georgia Department of Education facilities division often and we'll continue to get guidelines and feedback from from them. Miss Grabowski. So, I actually looked at the state code on this one to better understand the context around it um and understand that we're doing what we have to do. Um but just as we've had many discussions recently about um our layered

023security that it's not only physical barriers that are other methods of our security protocol um and that we also want to obviously have very secure facilities but also maintain the strong civic presence of our schools that they are places that are welcoming and centers of the community so there is a balance so I don't know that it's if it belongs belongs in the policy or not. I just don't want it to be portrayed that because it's so specific in this policy and there's really no other criteria given in the educational specifications other than security that it gets weighted so heavily that other considerations are inadvertently minimized. Um because in looking at the state law I mean in the state statute there's a lot of criteria that are in there. Um, so I just would put

024that forward for thought and consideration and happy to talk more offline, but yeah. Um, stop for that as as comment and we certainly don't want to give the impression that nothing else matters when it comes to the construction or design of a school specifically as this is written sounding like safety is the one and only thing. You'll note that there are language references in the policy that do talk about the instructional needs of students. So we could bolster that more. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, continue. Continuing on the board's agenda today, we do have uh additional policy reviews. We have item 6.05. This is board policy GB, professional personnel time. A number of revisions here, a robust review of this particular policy area. This will come back to the board for a second

025read. will say that the primary driver for the work that we did in this policy area was really to address and provide an opportunity uh for the superintendent to expand on the work that we're doing in providing remote work guidelines. We learned quite a bit about remote work through the co years. Uh we've gotten better at it, but we do need to create stronger administrative guidelines and this policy basically says that the board would authorize the superintendent to provide remote work guidelines and we need to do uh better work on that for for clarity in the what we're doing day in and day out in the daily operational fabric of our school district. So the remote work was a component. Uh you'll also see that there was language in here that was added and tweaked

026and changed a little bit with the primary driver being how we address our clock in and clock out procedures and particularly in the area of how we are providing clarity on how we treat exempt staff in the area of clocking in and clocking out. And you'll note that the key language isn't in there uh is putting that more as a management component and salaried individuals to be treated as salaried personnel, professional personnel and that the work for clocking in and clocking out is really for anformational tracking purposes. So again, remote work and clock in and clock out procedures are the primary drivers in this policy revision. This is a first read. We'll come back on the July 9th for second read adoption. Miss Kowalsski, personally, I am very happy to see the revisions in this

027for our salaried employees. When I first joined the board, I was actually quite surprised at the fact that we had our professionals, many of whom have doctorates and masters and are responsible for entire school campuses, but are still having to clock in and clock out. And I know that has been a a point of you know it we want our teachers and administrators to be treated or to be recognized as professionals and I think this is one simple step that we can take to also treat them as professionals. Um so I am very happy and very supportive of seeing this modification. Thank you Dr. Howard Hall. Yes. I'm just going to read number two so I can just get good understanding. Um says classified employees. That was added because it used to just say employees,

028right? Classified employees who are unable to get to work or who arrive late to work may use personal leave, vacation days, or have his or her pay reduced for the time missed. That's classified. So, in other words, on the flip side, for certified staff who are unable to get to work or who arrive late do not have to use personal leave, they do not have to use vacation time and their pay will not be um reduced for the time missed. So, I guess my question is if they leave early, sometimes employees have things to do, they leave early. So, we're saying that they don't have to complete any type of leave form if they have to leave early other than if they're sick. So, if they leave early and they're ill, would they have to

029document that to properly document their sick time? Yes, absolutely. They need to document that time by filling out an uh it by filling out a leave form. The intent of this was not was to not penalize people who need to leave a few minutes early or a few minutes late. The intent is not to say you can come and go as you please and you don't ever have to do a leave form. So if that is not interpreted, we might need to tighten up the language there. We'll we'll take a closer look and I know Mr. Ray is is u got a response as well. But for clarification, I do see that you're you're speaking of the number two under the delayed opening section. Is that right? Yeah. Yes. Because it says what the classified

030are allowed to do, but it doesn't say anything about certified, but if you're reading it, you know, it's just the opposite. So, for clarity, you might want to include Yeah, we'll certified staff. We'll look at it. Yes. Thank you. Moving along in your agenda, the next item for the board's review is board policy JBA. This is compulsory attendance ages. This is a 4-year review and you'll note that this is really driven by how we manage attendance with students and this will be coming back for the board's second uh review in July. I will say that much of the components that you see in here is our work to be stronger and more intentional in how we manage attendance on the site level for students. Ensuring the importance and the value of being present at school,

031but also having procedures in place that account for options for students who may have issues uh for various reasons. uh to have credit recoveries or recover uh attendance components or to be stronger and more clear in how we manage an attendance waiver. So you will note that in your existing policy uh there were already references to attendance waiver committees. Uh we've gone through this and very intentionally looked at how we can streamline that and be more clear on how that committees function and how that data is utilized in making decisions. So that's the driver behind this policy area. Uh we'll also add that behind this uh our team has a administrative document as well that they are using uh to provide administrators and personnel uh more guidance in how to properly apply the components of

032this policy. So this comes to you as a first read. Uh we'll hear feedback and bring back any subsequent revisions or final uh policy adoption in July. Dr. Howard Hall, the fiveday remote learning piece, my concern is for teachers putting additional work on them when they're having to um host a virtual classroom as well as an online classroom simultaneously. So, that's my concern with the workload that we're adding to teachers by including this five-day remote learning policy. Yeah. Just so for clarification, the remote participation option, the work uh expected of the teacher uh is uh asynchronous. So there will not be any live instruction provided during that time while while students are participating away from the building. What role will the teacher play when they going to on that platform? When they log in on

033the platform to complete assignments, the teacher still has to make sure that their work is done. So will they be notified email or something? Yep. So so essentially the student is working independently uh during that time away from the building uh and the teacher will utilize the learning management system uh to provide the work for students to complete. Will they be provided training for that or are they already familiar with doing that? Yes ma'am. That learning management system currently exists and teachers are are are familiar with how to use that. Okay, Mr. Kowski. Um, I just want to again thank the team for their presentation during informal last month. It was so helpful to have that context well in advance of the revision of this policy to really be able to more fully understand and

034have the time to really think about it before seeing the policy. and then also for the additional changes that were made since the packets originally went out, including the changes to the rubric, which I think um to me address some of the initial concerns that I had. Um so I just really appreciate the work that's gone into this. I hope that our students and families will see this as a way for us to be able to continue um the journey of academic excellence, recognizing there are sometimes situations that come up that we do need to be have flexibility, but uh hope that this is not something that is abused or misused by any students and if we see that it is something that is not being utilized with Fidelity that uh we will be um

035quick to bring it back for revisions to the policy or to the regulation. So, um look forward to seeing how this all will shake out and continued work um on some of our other remote learning and things that we have been um having discussions about. So, thank you. Okay. So, uh Miss Campbell, Dr. Ringman, Mr. Smith, um I also want to echo Miss Gowski appreciate the the presentation. I think this is one of the most wellthoughtout things I have seen since being on the board. I mean, it is so comprehensive, even down to having a rubric um to go off of to decide if they receive a waiver or not. I mean, it's it's awesome what you did here. Um, one tiny thing uh where is it? There's a uh number two, the student parent

036notification of attendance policy. number two there, guardians is misspelled, FYI. Um, and then uh let's see, I also had a question on uh number eight under the same uh topic. It says tardiness is a chronic problem in the last bullet. any way we can maybe define chronic here? Because that was one issue that I sort of struggled with a little bit is when do we consider tardiness, excessive tardiness and unexcused absence, right? Because mainly just because they're missing classwork and socialization time with their peers. So any way we could maybe define that a little better, maybe quantify it maybe. Thank you. Next. Yes, I'm in the same area. The student parent notification of attendance policy. It it is a nice flow, but we have a lot of shoulds in here. Um I mean, I can

037should a lot and never do anything, you know. Number three, the home room teacher will call and or make the home room teacher should maintain documentation of the call. Number four, the early warning letter should be sent on school letter ahead. doesn't even need to be sent if it's a should after a week with no response. The five-day letter should be sent on school letter head. Um if the parent guardian does not return the five, this is number six letter acknowledgement. It should be signed upon completion of the home visit. So we do all those shoulds and then when it gets to the school social worker in number seven, we're like they must. Yep. But they must after giving proper documentation, but all the documentation was shoulds optional. So uh got it. Yep. Well taken.

038Uh I will say that Mr. Butler and I had a conversation as recent as yesterday evening as we continue to mle over this and we've even talked about what is central offic's role. Is there an appeal process? If a parent disagrees with a decision, should it then escalate so that we can monitor whether some of these things are actually in place before? So this continues to be iterative. your questions and your push have helped us make it better. Literally, I had two phone calls yesterday um with two board members and immediately, you know, we were back at it trying to tighten up some things. So, I appreciate that. I mean, the the thing is if it's not a must, you're going to have some schools that it will be a must because you've got an

039administrator that's holding everybody account. This holds everybody accountable by the policy. that if a school is not doing it, then that administrator has the ability to hold whoever is supposed to be in the process to it. And then if that school-based administrator is not holding people accountable, then that school-based administrator could be held. Yeah. Got it. Love it. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Thank you so much for this presentation. I just wanted to go backwards for a little while and talk about definitions. Uh the def I like it. This is just the definition of trit. Did we come up with that definition or state? That was a state definition, correct? Yes. Okay. So, originally it was uh 10 days or more. That's us. Yes. So, the uh definition of 10 days was a local provision that

040we had been working through previously which was on recommendation uh from the juvenile courts. And you'll also you're also aware that there are statutory requirements that the juvenile courts and other agencies work together on a school truency and climate protocol document that we are deeply involved with and we have been for years and that's typically where that that driver on the 10 days came from. However, uh there the statutory law that actually refers to the definition of truent flows through state board of education rule where that five days is referenced and that was an area that we've had a lot of discussion on that topic. Um I'll say I appreciate the the support from our our in-house council attorney Dennis on this one. The great work of the um under um Judge Kramer with the

041uh truency council protocol team. Uh the great work of Dr. Quentina Miller Fields and her team involved with this as well. Uh and we we really we must be in alignment obviously with the state board rule and where that is stated. So we fixed that. Now there is also the reality in what what we know which is the law then goes further to say that it gets into the point where the truency is a metric that says you meet the definition of truent. Well, then an action item has to be taken. That's one of the reasons you see all of those requirements on the notices that are written in there. Uh that will go to must as opposed to should and because they are a requirement. In fact, those those components are also mentioned in

042the truency protocol guidance document that we work with through the juvenile court system. Ultimately though it thought falls to the courts on how they will pro be able to prosecute and handle a case load of truent students. You'll see the way it's written. Our work is to try to avoid that. Gotcha. In any scenario. So but in the the the short answer is we're now in line with how the actual state board of education rule defines truency is five days. Gotcha. So in in this definition again for clarity this is not consecutively five days. This is if you're if you're absent 5 days throughout the year, you will be classified as truent. Unexcused. Unexcused. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, Dr. Brown. Thank you. Um I believe that even if we change everything that should in the

043student parent notification error area, there's still going to be a time when it doesn't happen. um just because just because humans are human and those things happen. Um so and and so I don't feel strongly about it being changed from must to should because the likelihood of implementation is probably not going to be very different. People are going to do it when they can and when the when the documentation is available and when things are not on fire. What I have a greater concern but if you make it must that's fine. Um, what I'm concerned about is the request and notification of a waiver that the deadline for that is the end of the term. Um, and I think that treats the waiver as like a terminal process. If the waiver is declined, then there's

044no opportunity to revisit any attendance recovery because you've notified them on the last day of the term. That's the deadline that the committee is given. And so if everything happens that you don't find out about attendance because everything that was must still didn't happen in the notification and you're not finding out until March 30th or or April 2nd and the on-site committee has until the last day of the term to let you know of their decision. you don't have any recourse except summer school and and I think that's just because the the policy is built too close to the deadline. So my suggestion is that the deadline for approval of a waiver should come earlier whether it's April 30th every year or whether it's 30 days or 21 days before the end of the term

045sometime that gives a buffer for what our staff do anyway. And we know that our staff work with students who need to make up work, who are making up attendance, and they are working like one armed paper hangers trying to get all that done in May to avoid the ultimate consequence for some young people, which is repeating a grade or going to summer school. So, we already know they're doing some of that work. Let's alleviate some of that burden by not setting that deadline so close. noted and I and I think it's important uh as well to note and you addressed this that students will have an opportunity if they are uh eligible for an attendance waiver to participate in the attendance recovery options. Uh, one of the things that will be important for us

046to do is to provide guidance uh to administrators and the attendance teams who will do a lot of the monitoring of this along the way so that we're not just up against the end of the semester uh so that uh students and families are aware of what needs to be done before that final decision. Um, and so I know that Dr. Watts and I had some conversations as well regarding the what could be an appeal process and I think it's also if we take a look at the promotion retention policy uh there is language there that uh currently provides families an opportunity uh to appeal uh the promotion uh which this is the piece that would trigger uh that in the um uh in the promotion retention policy. So we'll take a look at that.

047Thank you. I I think that's really helpful and I'm confident that that you all can address it. Well, I think there's going to be some families that there's going to be absences and they're just just going to be at the mercy of the policy. And then there are going to be some other folks that there might be some extraordinary experience, maybe some travel abroad experience or some other special space camp or internship or training or something that the parents will assume should meet the waiver and then doesn't. and then you have all kinds of issues. So, I'm I just I appreciate that thought, Miss Campbell. Then, Miss Miss Kowski. Um I believe uh Dr. Hoskins Brown actually brought this up in our mail and it was addressed, but I I I guess I wanted to

048sort of ask the question a little differently about the grades 1 through 12 having a 70 or higher in the class for which they're seeking an attendance waiver, 70 being the cutoff. And I I understand the rationale being if that's our baseline for pass fail that makes sense that we have you know it's congruent. Um but I think I bringing it back to our audit committee with the attendance audit and some of the shocking sort of revelations I think was that one issue that we thought might arise is that when kids are doing well in school they should still be rewarded if they are not there all the time. Right? So, not as much a student waiver like they had, you know, crazy things happening in their life andor great experiences to enjoy and miss

049school, but maybe, you know, they did well at home or whatnot online. I don't know. Um, but if 70 is the cuto off, that's really not exceptional. That's and and plus they've missed out on the socialization with their peers that I think is so key to education. not just the books and the learning but the peer socialization. Um so I would love it if we would just maybe think a little bit more about 70. 70 seems so low to me. Um the other thing that someone brought up um Dr. Miller Fields and it reminded me the um first page one, two, third paragraph down. Students assigned by the local board for the um alternative school um regardless of suspension or expulsion shall be required to attend school as prescribed. Okay. So, does this mean that

050even though transportation isn't necessarily offered because it's not available that we are going to hold them to a standard for attendance going forward? Currently, we currently do if a student is opting into a choice school, they know that they they're taking that option, right, without transportation. So, they are held to the same bar as it relates to attendance. Um, but what about if they are it mentioned suspension or expulsion, so I'm thinking alternative school, like maybe they have to go and then return back maybe to their neighborhood school at some point. Are we going to make sure that they have the same attendance requirements at the alternative school? Yes. Yes. But we don't provide transportation to students for building bridges. We we do not. But there are um some existing uh structures in place uh

051to support students who may not be able to uh participate uh in the in-person uh learning environment. So that uh that support is already available. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um so I shared some of Miss Campbell's concerns uh with the team and I do think I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the attachment with a revised rubric. it does help a lot in making that differentiation because the same comment. Um, I do think I would like to see it kind of under the attendance waiver. It does if you don't have the rubric, which the general community will not. It appears it could appear through this that 7D is enough to ask for a waiver and I again understand. So, I think maybe we could tweak the language, and I know you

052have, but I think maybe a few more tweaks that say the minimum bar is a 70, but there are other requirements as well to be able to receive a waiver. Um, and then to Dr. Crosskins Brown's point about the timing. Um I agree and think maybe if we if the language was modified that the um and now I've lost where that is that the application waiver request must be submitted um no later than two weeks prior to the end and encourage people to submit them as early as they know they may need it. And then also on the flip side of that that the school would be required to provide a response within two weeks so that if they know they're traveling abroad or whatever else then the family knows whether or not they've received

053that attendance waiver in advance and maybe that will address some of those concerns. That that is the guidance that we are developing for administrators uh to provide them more specifics around that window of time and what that response time would Yeah. Thank you Dr. Howard Hall. Yes, when I think about the 70% I think about the connection between attendance and a promotion policy. So that is why that 70% is more likely in there because 70% is passing and passing is a part of the promotion policy. And since there's a direct correlation between attendance and promotion, that is why it should be in there as 70%. But the attendance waiver is supposed to be something that is it's not a guarantee. It is something that you earn the right to receive because you are proficient which

054is more than just meeting the bare minimum is my is my argument. Proficient is is not just meeting the minimum standard. Proficient is proficient above. No, no, no. I actually looked it up in the dictionary. Right. Well, no. If if proficient if a child is proficient 70, in other words, a C is average. and and and it might be um it might sound as below average to some people, but some people work hard to get that 70%. You don't know what what they may have learned disability or other things situation that's going on within the home or the community and they worked hard and earned that 70%. Not saying that we're content with it, but for that individ individual child, it is important that we don't negate the fact that a 70% is more than

055average for some students because we all say continuously one size doesn't fit all. Everybody's not going to make it 100 or have a 90 or 80 and they're going to be your 70 percentile students and they shouldn't be punished and don't have the opportunity to benefit from that waiver because of a 70%. And I think in the educational setting proficiency may have a different connotation than in when proficient is used in general terms. I literally looked it up in the in Miriam Webster's dictionary which it defines it as above average. So I think there may be a different context in the way in which the educational community might use proficiency and the way that the general term of proficient is interpreted by many and if there's that much consternation about what the word means then

056maybe we need to use a different word and I think just for consistency of language in our uh policy our promotion and retention the 70 to 79 does say needs improvement and so while it is passing we acknowledge and we've already defined what those grade bands are in our policy. So, it does allow us to be more consistent with that. So, proficiency on the rubric is in reference to their a students performance on a standardized test, not their grade. Okay. So, it's out of the rubric. It's not out of the policy or the regulation. Got it. We spent so much time on Yeah. So, that's I'm just saying let's make sure that those changes are reflected in the policy and the regulation. I was thinking that this had been updated as well on board doc.

057So, um, okay, Miss Campbell, then Miss Hall, super quick. I think part of the reason why I was I'm I'm with Miss Kowski here with the proficiency versus with the 70 and um, and I totally understand what Dr. Howard Hall is saying as well. Um, but I think when you go to when you see kindergarten right above it, which it's kindergarten, so I'm not going to make a thing about kindergarten, okay? I do think that when it says having developing or higher in class, I think of immediately science of reading and how we're testing whether kids can read at now again not kindergarten but where they can read at grade level to move on and progress and how what the you know the damage that can be done if they keep progressing without knowing how

058to read at grade level. So developing then and then seeing 70 or higher beneath it made me think, you know, is 70 really what we're aiming for here at least if it's a benefit to you that you're getting a waiver because you miss so much school. So we're going to have to address this within our larger work around attendant uh around promotion, retention, and grading. But for the purposes of getting this out the door, we try to align ourselves with current policy. But we have we have bigger work to do and then we may have to circle back to this. I'm interested in something Mr. Butler said about the building bridges um that I don't think I really thought about before. Mr. Mr. Butler is saying that if I'm at Building Bridges Middle and I

059cannot um transport myself to school that I can do online learning at home during the entire time that I'm um at Building Bridges. Is that correct? We have built in that flexibility to accommodate uh those students and families that have transportation challenges. So, it's up to us to decide if something poses a credible uh challenge. I'm I'm just thinking I I'm thinking the whole reason for us having these alternative programs is to build the social moral fabric of the child who has been taken from his home school. So that if I can stay at home and do my online learning and there's no socialization or interaction with my peers. I'm just wondering if we're not kind of fooling ourselves as to what the benefit of the whole situation is. If in fact I can do

060this as a homeschooler. Uh just something that you are naming the obvious. However, this is the last chance for many kids, okay? And we can't provide them transportation currently. Let me just say currently, we do not and we can't because of our decisions that we can't. That's what you're saying. Our decision was that we can't, right? We cannot as of today. So if we don't provide them with the opportunity for remote learning then we are in essence uh putting a child in a very yeah we're we're expelling them at that point expelling them. That's so I think we understand everything you're saying that it does not really achieve what it could achieve if they were having some inerson time but we're trying to also keep those students engaged and get them back into the regular

061school setting. Well, like you said, we have a lot of work to do. Okay. Thank you. I just want to make sure because I don't want anybody to take what Miss Hall said the wrong way. We have not decided not to bust these children. It's inabilities. It is the inability for us to find the workforce at this time. We We want to. So, I just didn't want you to be misqued that we've decided not to bust these kids. I don't think anybody on the board voted to say, "Hey, we're not going to try to bus. We just don't have bus." We got buses. We got gas. We just don't have enough bus drivers. So, I think all of us Yeah. It's an inability right now to bust and I continue to think that there are

062ways that we can do it. I do push there. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Okay. Thank you for that dialogue. We will take all of it in consideration and bring you back a revision in July. Moving on. Your agenda item 6.07 is an action item for the board of education. We do have a modification to the board's previously approved schedule of regular meetings for 2025 and this also includes some meetings that included the budget process. So we have certain schedule conflicts that have come up that require modifications to the adopted calendar of meetings and this includes a change in the September 2025 regular meeting. Uh these revisions are posted to board docs and have been provided to the board in advance. In summary, it moves the September 3rd meeting to September the 2nd. Remains an

063evening meeting. Moves July 11th mill rate hearings 1 and 2 to June 17th at the same times. Moves the June 17th mill rate hearing number 3 6 p.m. and special called meeting to adopt the bullet budget and military at 6:30 p.m. to June 25th. Thus, be it resolved that the board does now approve the revised 2025 board of education annual calendar of meetings. Um, I have a motion. I mean, I'm just I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing on September 3rd. Why we're moving from Wednesday to Tuesday? We couldn't have a quorum that day. Okay. All right. So, um, I'll accept a motion to approve. Seconded. Any more discussion? Yes. Okay. There being no more discussion. Okay. Okay. Okay. All in favor with their grimaces. All right. Thank you. Next item on the board's

064agenda is item 6.08. This is a recommendation for professional services consulting contract requested to be pulled from consent and it is now placed into the board of education matters under item 6.08. This is an action item of the board that is requesting the approval of a professional services contract and also a subsequent transfer of monies. Thus be it resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent that the board does approve contract to the firm of Alvarez and Marcel Public Sector Services LLC to provide professional financial financial assessment consulting services at a total cost of $285,000 and be it further resolved that the board also will approve upon recommendation of the superintendent a budget transfer to support this action. Okay. I'll accept a motion to approve. Move. Move and seconded. Uh discussion. Uh Dr. Hkins Brown. Yes. I

065uh asked that this be pulled from the consent agenda because of the size of the contract and no uh indication that there had been competition for this award. Um, so I would like some public discussion on whether or not this is kind of a sole source is not the right word, but whether or not the the availability of individuals who does who do this kind of work is so narrow such that we didn't advertise this and have some competition in getting this work done. So the the approach on this particular one was under the purview of uh what is stipulated in our policy under procurement that provides various mechanisms for uh soliciting uh contracts and one of them is a provision of this was determined as a professional service which provides the recommendation of award

066under a a particular contract. Uh Mr. Jackson, I believe, can can share a little bit more on the the basis of that contract. I'm not sure if it's statewide. Uh we can uh verify and uh that for you if if um applicable, but uh the provision allows for under the procurement of the superintendent to make the determination to um move forward with a recommendation of a contract of an identified professional service and that's what this particular area is. is I do know that in this process and looking at this particular vendor uh that we did vet that uh extensively with the board counsel and attorneys to verify that the services that they do provide do fall under that uh component of definition of a defined professional service. So it was upon again the recommendation of

067the superintendent to move forward with this company. As I understand they are um ready to go basically and that they're poised well to do this work for us. So the termin termination was made under that um provision under our procurement policy. Thank you. That's understood. But even in the materials from the company, they have all of these individuals that they say may work on the project and may change. So we don't even know who the principles are. So again, I'm asking on what basis was this company such the best choice that we did not consider any others or send it out for competition? I understand we can do things without competition, but it's $250,000. There are lots of companies that would love for us to call them and say, "Hey, we want you to do

068this for $250,000 and there'll be no RFP." I just want to know what the thinking was. Is it that there's just not that many people who do this work and this was the right company to do it? There was review of other organizations but in order to meet the scope that I was interested in and I believe we need organizationally this met the bar uh this organization met the bar. So there was internal vetting but not a formal RFP process. Okay. So it this is a uniquely positioned company based on um what the desire of what we want to have to be looked at and what they bring to the table. I would say yes. Paul, what I wanted was to hear from you if there were had you had previous um dealings with this

069firm and and so your recommendation is based on your pleasure with their past performances or um but you're saying that you did a vetting an internal vetting of of this. I I do have uh experience with this firm from another organization, but the work that we're doing here is very different than how we how that organization was leveraged in another location. I would just first like to thank Dr. Hudson Brown for pulling this so we'd have this conversation. And we've been having some, I think, very fruitful conversations on our processes on awarding contracts and we've discussed about how more transparency can be built into these pieces of paper in certain ways like when we name out all the different people. Um, and maybe this is, you know, another one of those growth experiences to help

070us because sometimes I look through this and before Dr. Hos Brown called me, I was like, "Oh, yeah." Whoop. I just, you know, you get blind to numbers when you start adding two commas. Um, and this is just one comma, but if we had because you're saying we're using a policy that allows us to select because it's under a certain clause. If there were a portion, you know, utilizing policy, whatever clause, I know it gets tedious, but I think once it's set up, we're gonna have a lot of rinse and repeats. I I feel like somebody has a lot of this where it's like plug in, plug in, plug in. I hope um and it's not all just blank sheets of paper that you're starting when you write these up about the need to have

071templates. Yeah. But that you would have a template that if this is the the way that this was procured here it is so that first of all it leads us back to that policy that all of you are in every day so that when we have questions amongst each other we can be like oh they're using this policy let me go back. Do I still agree with that policy or not? Should we have a bigger conversation? Um, but then also if anybody from the outside looks into it, there's stuff there already that I would hope would lead them also to answer some questions. Um, and furthermore, if we're looking back, you know, nobody's going to take the time to to watch this meeting again to have this conversation, but if you were to look back

072on this six months from now, we'd all be able to remember what that process was to get to the point of awarding this, right? um contract. Yeah, I'll also add timing was an element in making this decision. If we go through an RFP process, we likely wouldn't be launching this for several more months. So, it's going to delay our ability to get started. So, um, if it's the board's, you know, pleasure, we can go through an RFP process, but it will just delay the work that I feel is necessary to position us so that during next year's budget cycle, we are coming to the table with even more clarity and transparency around our internal capacity and um, how our finance work. Miss Hall, this whole situation with um this Alvarez company, I really thought about

073it and because usually I am one to always want as much competitiveness as we can possibly get when we're um dealing with our our uh contracts. But then I thought, well, we're we're saying to Dr. watts. We want a consulting service to come in and help uh do a do a a toz look at our financial structure. So, we're the legislator this year. We want that and we're saying that we're leaving the operations up to you. So, I'm kind of, you know, Dr. Levette always used to say, "All right, you're asking me to clean the house, but I get to decide whether it's Fabuloso or AJ." You know, I've heard that. So, I've heard that. So, in this situation, um that's why I asked had you um had some excellent work with this company so

074that because $285,000 is a lot of money. Yes. and you're saying yes, you believe that they can do what we need doing different work. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you again because this is good conversation. I think I think little I hope we get to templates on these things so that we don't have ones that are written differently. Yeah. And like if it was like click this contract was awarded this way by this by this and then if it is this type where it's a we want to get this done there's a blurb that besides just and be it resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent it actually has like a a precursor that says the superintendent wants to do X Y and Z with a little bit of that backstory I think would also

075just boom and I've taken note of ones that you all have said we've done well. So, we need to go back and study those to figure out how we can make this a little bit more consistent so that every time we're not starting from scratch. So, I 100% agree. How about Brown? So, um I support this work being done. Um I'm in a workplace where this kind of large assessment has needed to be done. Um, we we have done it a different way using another professional approach. Smaller organization, so not the same price tag as this one. Um, so I support the work. I look forward to the outcomes. I'm going to be voting no because I didn't like the process, but I'm going to be really excited when you get it done and I'm

076going to read it. Um, but I I just I just think it's um important um that we Yeah, I just I wish we would have done it differently, but I do think that this is what we need and from what they describe, they seem able to do it and you're familiar with their work. Understood. More discussion. There being none. All in favor? All opposed. Thank you. That concludes the board of education matters for this board meeting. Turning over the agenda to the board president. Onto your consent agenda. Okay. I will accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. Mr. Moss, I would like to move that the agenda as printed or modified be approved with the following revisions. Deletion of 7.17 RFP 24-21 band uniforms. Oh, okay. Yes. Seconded. Any discussion? Okay. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

077All in favor? All opposed? All abstaining. Thank you. All right. Um, I'll accept. Oh, no. That's the consent agenda. All right. Here we go. Financials. Good afternoon everyone. Hi The financials that were in your packet this month cover our year-to-ate um numbers through April 30th this year and that's 83% of our year for our fund 100 general fund revenues. Our local property taxes are currently at 71.7% of budget, which is lower than we were this time last year at 73.1%. The total general fund actual revenues are at 76% of our current budget, which is lower than 76.1% last year. Our general fund expenditures, our actual expenditures for teachers are at 68.8% 8% of our current modified budget. That's lower than the expected 83% of budget for at this point of the year and other support

078salaries are at 75.4% which is also lower than the expected range between 80 to 83%. Our total fund general fund actual expenditures are at 69.26% 26% of our budget as compared to 73.9% last year. Um there are nothing um additional that we have to discuss on any of our other funds. And if we have any questions at this time, I'd entertain them. Yes, Miss Campbell. I just have a clarifying question. Um, for transportation line 40 here, it says we're at 6.7%. What is that? Yeah, that's a a small budget that's in the general fund just for transportation. That's not the transportation for like the transportation department in operations. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. Oops. Okay. Good afternoon. The um first section of our report has the program schedule and I'm not going to necessarily

079go through this in detail. We've talked about this quite a lot, but again, just to reinforce that we do have a plan that we work through. This is our road map and it has all of the projects, the remaining E3, E4, E5 projects in it. And as we start initiating them, then we can put more detail into them. Some of those are, you know, just kind of sketchy in the back, but not necessarily carved in stone. But um a plan for us to proceed. The next section is the budget and again you've seen this report a number of times as cash flow report. Uh the most important uh number that you're looking at is down there in the bottom in the right hand corner indicating that our expenditures are all covered by our proceeds and

080we're not spending any more money than what we are expecting and have brought in in uh E3. E4. Similar situation as we work now to the conclusion of at least the proceed part of E4. And so we know that in another month, we're expecting E4 proceeds uh to end. We would go into E5. We saw this coming for quite some time. We consequently have carefully planned the projects that we will be able to complete in E4. That plan has been laid out. Proceeds have been laid out and uh they also now equal zero. So this E3 and E4 is on budget. took uh the activities that we need to do within the next two months and all of the things the new buildings that we have to get ready, renovations, moves, etc. Again, we've been

081keying up to this point for quite some time. We're geared up. We're ready. And all of these activities are well underway. And we see nothing right now that will uh not be able to be accomplished in what we are planning to do this summer. quickly through the projects because we've talked about these uh quite frequently and gotten into more detail with them. But the Windsor Forest High School of course is uh is gearing up to open up in August. Uh and furniture is being delivered this week in that building. Bloomingdale, same situation. Uh contractor is completing his work, his punch list work. You see just recently the asphalt paving has been put down. If you drive by there now, you'll see a lot more of the landscaping, the the green grass starting to come in

082play and uh finishing up the exterior interior. All the furniture and the classrooms have been delivered. They're all set up. Those classrooms are all ready to go. So this project also is uh well in uh line for being ready for August at DEH. The completion of that complex uh finishing up the athletic complex. Uh the track is the next larger uh project that needs to get done in there. The asphalt has been poured. Uh this picture doesn't show that that that recently has been laid. So waiting to cure that out so they can put the track in uh in early July. We anticipate to have a co on that facility and be ready for the first uh football game. Inside the building, the black box has been converted into CTA labs and that work is

083pretty much completed too and we're waiting for furniture and equipment to be delivered for that. Henderson for me uh construction's been done for some time now. Uh they have also finished up putting all of their furniture in and soon we'll be moving the uh teachers boxes and their uh materials back into the building, but this one is all ready to go in August. JG Smith. The uh classes obviously have ended. Teachers have packed everything up. They're ready to get moved over to Montgomery. Uh this project is ready to get started. JJ Smith in construction uh demoing the uh the old cafeteria because that's one of the major parts of the new project is new cafeteria, new front entry area. Montgomery, same situation. Lots of finishes going on in there. Getting the site ready uh for

084the bus and the parent drop off. And of course, I'll be receiving all of the JG Smith uh and so have that school ready for them to move in in August. Islands High School, we last just last week bid this expansion work. We had excellent results uh and got a very good bid. We came in under budget with this one and so this will be awarded at your next board meeting. Work is going to be going on throughout the coming year. 100% complete for football in 2026. Um however they do need to build the team rooms and uh the new restrooms. uh much larger home grandstand area. All of that can be done and still maintain uh either football, soccer, track, whatever else is going to be scheduled for that complex at Georgetown. Same situation

085as JG Smith. Teachers have backed up. They're ready to uh move over and occupy Largo Tibet uh in August. Largo is has some just some minor renovations going on. Uh that's finishing up well and Georgetown is ready to start their major construction project, a new gymnasium, uh a complete re- roof. And in fact, later on in the agenda, you will be looking at uh awarding the first part of this project which will consist of uh long lead items and the demolition work uh so that that work can get started and we are expecting to have the GMP ready in uh August for that board approval. Hubert is a project that you're going to be hearing about a lot for the next uh year plus. Design is just completing. We're expecting to have this project out

086for bid in July and hopefully we'll have an award for September. Then we can get started with the uh renovations work uh for Hubert. Same thing with the alternative ed center. This has been in design for quite some time now. They're pulling the rest of that together and we're going to be looking for the bid documents to be out in October and uh targeting for a November board award and then the work in this uh school can get started and have that ready for late 26 at Garden City. Another one that we'll be talking about a lot as in the next years we go through just awarded the design on this to SSOE. That contract's being finalized and we'll put this project in design uh anticipating that we'll have bid documents early in 26 and

087that this project would be able to get started with construction also in about a year from now. And then just a number of other things that that uh we're doing. Obviously the E5 just going to get started with West Chadam High School. In fact, the RFP for the design professional services is going to be advertised on Sunday. And this is going to be a pretty extensive process that we're going to expect to go through in order to select the right design professional for it. We'll be getting proposals. We'll be shortlisting and then from the short list we'll go into interviews and from there they will be the evaluations and the uh the final uh selection that will not be until maybe like September. So um Bull Street again that project is going to follow right

088behind in West Chadam. Uh we do have an abatement survey completed and so we want to get obviously it has to be emptied out before we do that and then get all of the historic and programmatic uh input that is going to get started here shortly. HVAC projects continue with those roofing projects. Johnson will be bid uh later this summer. And high school fields, Savannah High School, we do put we are putting that project into design for the artificial turf for the baseball field. And so we're going to really push that one along here into the summer and the fall. Number other projects. Of course, we've gone through these in the past before, just to mention that New Hamstead, that epoxy floor is proceeding right now through the summertime. And at the uh the gymnasium

089renovations for Savannah Arts, we are really happy that Repurpose is going to be involved in that project. Johnson Locks, our general contractor, is going to put them on as a subcontractor and they're going to get started with that work, I think, next week, too. And they do not expect that's going to extend the schedule at all. So, we're really happy that that is going to be able to uh occur. Yes. First of all, uh Dr. Howard Hall, Mr. Cashmar has been very outspoken about athletic complexes from the time I got on the board and he's mentioned about all the high schools and I see every high school with the complex except Woodville Tomkins. Now last year we discussed having a track and field there. Woodville Tomkins had a state championship track team and I don't

090see any progress of what's going on with Woodville Tommpkins as it pertains to an athletic complex like all the other high schools. I know they don't have a football team and that's pro that's based on programming, you know, due to the principle or whatever they decide to do. But what are the plans for Wooddale Tomkins as far as an athletic complex? Because currently we only have a gym out there. Yeah. And that project is uh one of the premier projects that we have going for E5. And there's a number of things in Upper Campus and lower campus that need to be looked at. But back in when we were doing artificial surfaces on those practice fields, uh we held Woodville Tommpkins back uh on that plan because that area where we were going to put

091it was a wetland and we just didn't feel it was good to be putting an artificial surface and possibly a track on a wet land. And so when we start looking at that project, we have to have that consideration also as to you know where the flood planes are. It was it was in a flood plane actually. And so um but there is a lot of work and a lot of planning that has to go in Woodville Tommpkins. So you're saying that there will be an athletic complex but there's a lot of work to consider or what are you saying? I I I don't know what the full scope of the project will be. I don't know when is the start. I haven't I need to look at the timeline, but we haven't even started

092a discussion on that. No site yet. No, that one if you look back it is it is it got pushed back due to the I didn't know anything about I'm thinking that they were going to have a track field because of they they have a track team and so I understand that we're now you know going to use those funds for four but I just would like for us to to really um begin to think about it and let us know what's going on regarding the design that would happen because it's the only high school that doesn't have the amenities as other schools. Yeah. With the exception of Savannah Arts. And I know that's a different um sports program there, but they have state track records. And they have Yes, they have a state championship

093too with cross country there at um Savannah Arts as well. And as far as um the the DEH athletic complex, I'm very excited about that. I think the ribbon cutting will be in August. Um just I had did have a question regarding it. just give us some examples of details of the items including the baseball and softball punch list. I say you said there's a punch list here. What type of things are that's involved with that that entails a punch list for the baseball and softball fields? They look at the uh press boxes that were built and there's uh you know masonry that may have to get pointed up or so. You look at the field, there's weeds that are growing in it right now. Quite frankly, that's a punch list item. Let's get that

094thing cleaned up. Dr. Bringman. Yeah. Um, and forgive me because I missed the last CIC, but I'll probably say a bunch of this next week, too. I'll just keep being the squeaky wheel. Um, on some things. Um, on the athletic complex, I think we as y'all probably have definitions. We need to be better at our definitions because we only, I believe, only have four athletic complexes. That would be Islands, New Hamstead, Savannah High, and then Groves. All of the other high schools that have fields have practice facilities. So like Jenkins, what is at Windsor, um Johnson, those are not athletic complexes because they can't play football at them because they are not to a size. So just knowing when we use words. Um I know that last slide had fencing. I hope that we've gone

095back and discussed with board members and everybody on what that fencing looks like before we keep moving forward with that RFP. I don't know, I might have missed that in the last CIC. Um and then um timing. Thank you. I'll bring that up. Um I would love for us because if we go back and look at most of our ESLs, the first two years we're doing a bunch of planning and a lot of collection. Um, and then we have a lot of money and then it takes us years to spend it. So that pushes everything out. Um, and I know some of that's the capacity of our workforce and I think we have a great team working, but you can't do it all at once, even if we might have the funds. So I would

096really, and I'm I'm going to keep saying it until somebody tells me we've looked at it and it's a stupid idea. um that we look at spending some money upfront to bring other people in outside to start projects earlier so that they get done. And I would assume that that would get us a year or two earlier on cost going up because I really don't see construction getting cheaper. And when we look at what we hard bid the multiacampus for versus what we built Windsor for, it's a really close amount for a lot less building. And that was a fiveyearish difference. So I would really on a money side, timing side like to see how we might be able to have more projects going earlier because typically we have the money if we look back

097historically at our e at our our splass collections. Um, also from a district standpoint, um, the timing of Windsor Elementary being a new build being pushed off and us building something for staff before students bothers me at my core. Um, because we're we're putting 208 earlier and I know we need to do that to get rid of what I didn't want to pay for anyhow, rent. So, there's a there's a rub there, but I'm gonna have a whole Windsor is going to have a whole entire cohort of students complete school at Windsor Elementary after EPLOSS 5 has been passed before a new school will set foot on that property. So, you'll have students that they're coming in, E5 already passed, they will leave and go to middle school and that building won't be built. And

098that really irks me slightly on on the timing of that school. Um, and then I don't know if we've gotten back, I know I've brought it up with um the building uh the architects a little bit for the Georgetown school, but I would really like to look at the parking lot on the right side and see if if it isn't cost prohibitive to move some of those spaces so we don't lose both green spaces on that site. I know I've brought that up before, but um I will bring it up more um because I haven't seen any redrawn plans when I've talked to um some staff on sidebars and um some architects on sidebars. So, thank you. I'll just say um and I'm looking at Miss Davidson, we have had ongoing conversations about the internal

099capacity of our team and what we can manage. Um my hope and desire would be is that we get you some information on how we're going to proceed with that as soon as possible. So we we are very much aware and are aligned to what you stated. All right, Miss um Dr. Watts, in terms of that, I kind of don't understand though we're lessening our capital projects team rather than growing it. We're um losing Mr. Slate Helmsley. We're losing uh I forgot the other gentleman's name, but these are two, you know, outstanding uh contributors to our capital projects. So why are we so those f there? We're not listening like there's not a deliberate effort to reduce that department. These Mr. Henley, there's a very specific reason why he can no longer be a project

100manager for us and it's tied to TRS and something very much outside of our control. Okay. Um I'm not sure who the other person is that you're referring to. No. And I don't want to call a name and have the wrong name. Yes. But um it just seems to me like we were losing, but I I see you're saying Mr. Helmsley has a personal um reason that he's leaving. But there's no deliberate effort to reduce that team. Now, do we have an issue hiring people because of what we pay? Yes, we do. Okay. Um, do we need to look at the expertise and the capacity even if we could hire enough people? Like, even if we could hire enough people, there's still some work that needs to be done in the infrastructure of the way

101that works. But here's the bottom line, and this is the part that I think we're going to all have to grapple with. Somebody's got to go last. Yes. Right. Something's got to be last. Everything can't be first. I don't I mean, I could have the most optimal Yeah. infrastructure, all the capacity in the world, and something will still have to not be first. Yeah. It's just a matter of what we're willing to say shouldn't be first or should be last. I mean, I think we've made our best effort to build out a timeline that um honors putting kids first, but at the same time thinking about other situations that we have in the district where our employees are also in very bad working conditions. Um it may not sound good necessarily in a you know

102a public report. The way I see it, it's not it's like so you've got all this stuff on the if we were able to bring if we were able to bring in that other person team to run. Then we're just taking everything and kind of this gap of blankness. We're just folding over and everything slides a little to the left too earlier. That's my thought. It's not I'm not I'm not wanting please don't take it as like I want the district to re right categorize just close some just like I feel and I could be completely wrong this is not my line of work but if we had more operations people can you take a year a year and six months of this dead space in the cal in the timeline program schedule sorry and

103just fold that over so that everything starts earlier potentially. And yes, some of it is the I we all want our stuff done, but then also there's just the earlier we get I don't want to run out of money, right? Of course. And I know that we got the right people to say we got to pump the brakes on that because we've done it before. But nothing's getting cheaper, right? There's a financial implication to make stretching it out. Yeah. Spending a little money save us some money. Okay. As I was saying, our facilities uh report, you know, supposedly gave us a road map. This building is worse than this one, right? This is the order it needs to go. So, um, but I do want to say something very positive. I wrote out to the

104new Bloomingdale school and I had not been out there since I guess the groundbre. I couldn't believe it. It it's it's really fabulous and um I think we're really to be commended for the way we're changing the Chattam County landscape with our structures. It's really magnificent and I feel so wonderful for the children who are going to get to enjoy that at that remote part of our of our county. So I do want to say that. Okay. So, uh Miss Campbell Um, so al along with the sort of piggybacking off of what Dr. Bringman was talking about, um, I was not a a member of the board yet when we voted for Bull Street. Um, but now that we are going ahead with this, I I I keep asking about Savannah High because I do

105worry that I I don't see it on here except for the turf. So, it am I missing something? Are we going to start working on the admin site there? We have to find a place for the early college first. Okay, that's we can't work on it until we there are students right now that are occupying that portion of the building. Um and so we have to find a location for those students which we are understand that and we are working on that and there should be a recommendation that comes to you in December around what that is for implementation because we also just can't do that without community engagement informing those parents that their site is going to change working out an agreement with wherever college these they land like there are multiple steps. So,

106it hasn't been forgotten and I definitely want to leverage that space because I think it's good space and we need to be using it, but we can't do that until we get the kids out that are there. And I I want to commend you. I've done so privately as well. I think the fact that we're being creative with underutilized space is amazing. It's just a new way to look at how we can use a building that we already have to staff, you know, the admin from Bull Street. Um, but I I do worry, especially with us agreeing to the Georgia Tech commercial lease, have we factored that into this arrangement for how long we're going to need that? And are we still planning to be on par with what we've asked the time frame to

107be at least to get Bull Street done and have a place for the rest of admin to move in at Savannah High. Megan, I'll probably have to defer to you on some of these things because I'm not I'm coming. So the company the the factors that we used when uh reviewing the east loss 5 uh timeline were safety systems infrastructure condition instructional impact and capacity current scope of the project and complexity and feasibility past eslaw. So if we had previously promised this project in a past eslos but ran out of funding, um monetary savings, resource and funding availability, future planning, all of those went into a composite score so that it was um as as data driven as possible for the outline. So yes, ma'am, the um Georgia Tech lease did come into the um

108reasoning for the timeline. And I'll say uh most folks will not be coming back to 208 Bull Street. So while that is a factor, it's kind of not a factor. I guess that's why I think I think it's great the plan that you have to put a lot of those folks at Savannah High and Fort Worth. So, I I that's kind of where my thinking is is like are we factoring it all in to make sure we're like hitting the same timeline, end point for all of these staff. I support getting them out of the building obviously, etc. But, um, you know, just how long are we going to be asking for money? Understand. I understand. Um, Mr. Smith, then I'm coming over here, guys. I promise. Okay, sounds good. Uh, thank you so much

109for this presentation thus far. Uh, I believe we're kind of going into, it sounds like we're going into a CIC meeting in some regard. Uh, but feel like we had we cancel, but I do want to uh lean in on this. Dr. Hall uh opened up this uh conversation about buildings and uh making sure that facilities and uh sport complexes and things of those natures are available to our children. Uh I would like to ask or pose this question just for consideration. Are we actually building uh for today and for tomorrow in mind? And I ask that question because uh Savannah is constantly and consistently growing. And when we look at what what took place at Palaski where we built uh an addition but now we have to put modules there uh to to house

110the growth that has taken place. My question or my my concern is maybe uh we are not building with tomorrow in uh in mind. uh when we build campuses that that serve 900 or a thousand students, uh I'm wondering when will we get to the place where we're building uh schools and campuses that serve 15 or or 2,000. That's where we're leaning. So, I wasn't here for how the design phase and for Pilaski and how we arrived at that building, but we have an enrollment study that is guiding us. We also heard in East Bloss and clear from this board around flexible spacing. Uh we have groves as a potential model for how we do that so that we can consolidate move grade levels around uh and do different innovative things to accommodate growth. Um

111so I feel pretty strongly that our team is taking a serious look at the future. While it can't be predicted, right, we don't know what's going to happen. But I think what we do know in general is that there's going to be growth in Savannah. I mean, that's what the next few years. Where that growth happens, though, is a whole different conversation because in some parts of our city and county, there there's hardly anybody there, right? Or, you know, or it's not projected to increase. So, I do feel like we are looking at it more strategically. Will we get it right 100% of the time? Likely not. Um, but that has been a huge topic of conversation and focus. And if I may, Madam Superintendent, I want to um add to that that we have

112a current RFP out for a demographer. So, this is an expert that will help guide us and and review the data in the enrollment study and the housing applications and uh the birth rates and the fluid changes as well as it is not just a operations project, right? It's a district project. So looking at the programming in the spaces and all those pieces. So yes, um hopefully that will come back soon and we can uh utilize those demographer services um early fall. Thank you for remembering our demographer. We also have guideline specifications and when you look into those it's a requirement that we build those projects for future. All those core space areas are oversized so that it will accommodate more growth than what typical GDOE requirements are. Flexible spacing. You can move things as

113needed. Can I make a comment on that? I I hope we follow that policy because it wasn't followed and rooms were deleted from a building. And if we go back and look at a slide in this deck, the FTE on that building changes every single time that slide is put out. And I know y'all know what I'm talking about. And it's wrong and it happened. And I don't know what happened behind closed doors, but it happened. And now we're having to deal with it. So, let's stick to what we're saying that we're doing. I want to make sure I'm clear. That didn't happen with me. It did not happen. It did not happen under this. I feel like I'm getting handed that I don't you do not own that figure out why that number changed

114and and I don't know this today was the first day that it's been back to this number but it has changed somebody put an old slide in this deck and I'm not and I think the first time it came to our attention we all said how did we go from a school that was from this many kids and now it's this many kids and why do we continue to go back and forth on this slide lied with different FTEEs every other time we talk about it. Okay, I don't know why, but it hasn't been this FTE for a couple meetings or a couple months and now it is back to this FTE 1175 and it's been 900 on a plenty other ones. Yeah. So, I wasn't going to try to make it stink, but we

115got there and I appreciate it and I'll I will figure out why that is changing. I I certainly it won't happen again. Well, that ain't okay. So, I'm gonna finish on this side. We're gonna do a halt this. Yes, I promise. I'm coming. Go ahead. No, we good. Wants to follow me. Sorry. No, I had one thing 20 minutes ago. Now I've got eight. Um, I'm going to fuel this discussion some more, unfortunately. So on the Windsor thing, um I remember when that came up and it was a cost. One time it was a typo. One time it was a typo, but then it was formally explained as a cost issue because the FTE was here's what our goal is and then we went out and bid it and priced it and it was okay.

116I mean, that was the explanation. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but what happens is we come up with a plan and say we're going to replace a school and it's going to be an FTE of X, right? And then four years later, we get around to putting it out for bid to an architect who then designs it and then we put that out to bid and then we get a real price and then we're like, okay, we we need to cut 40,000 square feet to fit the budget. That's how it was explained to me. I'm not saying it is accurate or not, but that was a couple years ago now before we even got out into that process, you know, having been here for way too long, it seems like. Um, I mean,

117on the board, not just today. Um, no. Well, I say that because this discussion, it's like deja vu all over again. Like we have we have had this discussion and part of me wishes that we had a time capsule of discussions about every school site because when East Boss when we were talking about East Boss 2 and East Boss 3 and East Boss 4, we had these discussions about fields and athletic space and grass versus artificial turf and stadiums versus not. And there were big discussions about don't you dare move Savannah Arts. They like it there. We know we can't have fields there, but we like the school. Don't move it. Don't We don't want to move beach. So, beach is a finite property. We can't put a stadium there, but we managed to fit

118in No, practice field and baseball and softball field. Um Johnson doesn't have space for a stadium. Um uh and you know, you can go school by school. Woodville Tommpkins. There was discussion back in E2, I think, about fields versus additional labs and instead we built um welding labs in that second building we built in E2 maybe and then E3. So these historical discussions have happened. So when Reverend Smith asked, are we planning for the future? Like a lot of this stuff was discussed and choices were made or um decisions were made. I just wish there was an institutional time capsule of all the discussion points about the sites. The other thing is when we were talking about E2, population trends were different than they were in E4. Um, and so the decisions we made at

119the end of E1 into E2, even towards the end of E2 had to change just because of the demographic. So, um, but it's interesting to think back if we I wish we had a capsule of all the things that we've talked about for each site. Um, and we could see, oh, that was a good idea 12 years ago and it's a really bad idea now. Um, Pilaski, um, we're overenrolled there because we expanded the grade levels there. It wasn't at the same grade level as it was now, but the military came to us and said, "Hey, we want to send more of our age bands to that school." So, that we increase by three grades. That's gonna that's going to add headcount. Um um I just had a comment on the time frame discussion. this

120time frame um has been discussed for months um generally since E5 came out um when we started discussing um whether E5 should be passed and I don't have a problem changing things um if that's what the board wants to do but I I just want to make the point that it it was discussed after review of our facilities condition index after review of cash flow after review of approximate budgets and what we can afford when these projects come up. So, we all want to frontload some things, but to Dr. Watts's uh point earlier, we we can't put everything first and we can't build the $90 million schools all in year one, right? So, if we want to have discussions about changing the timeline, that's fine, but just know there's repercussions upon repercussions about upon repercussions.

121Um, and it's not just I got a comment from a constituent or it occurred to me now, let's do this because there's so many different things we need to think about. That's I just wanted to make that point. Um, we can start projects a lot earlier. Uh, in E4 we voted, I think in year two, to allow the board to float bonds. And if we want to do that and generate additional revenue and pay the interest on it, we could certainly do that. But tied to that is the project management discussion and one um we have a finite a team with finite capacity. Um we've had hiring and retention issues because it's a really competitive market. Um but the other issue is we we outsourced program management for a while and then weren't entirely happy

122with the results because we didn't feel like the owner's wishes were entirely being honored all the time. So we pulled it in house so we could have more ownership and control. So if we outsource program management again or outsource part of it and say okay everything on page 1 three and five you're responsible for and let's move everything six months earlier. We're not going to have the ownership oversight that we're going to that we want. And if in my view is if we do program management again we should learn from our past two lessons or three lessons. It needs to be a hybrid where there's still some ownership, oversight, and control, which means we'll have to reconfigure the entire program schedule so that our current people can manage each project at a higher level while

123farming some of it off to outsource. So again, I I have no problem doing that. Uh we got to pay for it. Um and that's got to be that's kind of come out of East Blast or out of um general fund. I think it was 6 million for E4, which I think what we paid, or E3. Um, yeah. So, we just need to be cognizant of I'm I'm reluctant to outsource something without retaining owner oversight and control, which was a big issue a few years ago. Okay. All right. This whole side, this won't be long at all. Um, Mr. Breamman mentioned earlier about the definitions and he's um athletic complex versus practicing um facilities. Woodfield Tungus has none of the above. Yeah, that's true. None of the above. And what upsets me is that my

124question can't be answered. I emailed it and I asked it a few minutes ago about Excuse me. I'm not big mad, so don't don't think I'm about to to um I just hadn't gotten an answer. Mr. Bringman mentioned about closing the gaps and Miss Hall talked about operations, more employees in operations. Mr. Cashmar just mentioned project management. So, we something needs to be done. I'm not pushing a timeline. That's not the point. I just need to know what's going on. What are the plans? At least we I we as a Wolverine Nation community would like to know what are the plans. Will there be I'm quite sure it won't be a complex because we're landlocked, but what's going on as far as the planning of the athletic practice fields? That's what I like to know.

125So, I'm sorry if we didn't get a response. I thought we responded. We don't have a plan because it's not an immediate project for us. And so, we're focused on those first projects. We have not sat down with the principal. We've not done any community engagement. We've done nothing because it's not one that is on the the first few list. So there would be really nothing for me to send you at this point in time other than and I will ask the team before we leave here today, where is Woodville Tommpkins on the timeline, when will we start the design work so that we can provide Dr. Howard Hall a specific frame of time in which we will be starting the planning. But right now there would be nothing for me to send you because

126we haven't done any I mean we know it's out there but we haven't even started it. All right, Miss Gravelski. Thank you. Um so two comments or comment and a question. Um, and I always appreciate hearing the historic perspective of Mr. Katchmar and those who have been doing this a while. And we've talked about, you know, I think particularly as we go into E5 that maybe this is a good opportunity for us to formalize our decision makingaking process and the documentation that goes along with that, whether that's through Ebuilder or some other mechanism. But just like we talked about when the board receives information about RFPs, we should receive, you know, a two-page project overview specific for each project. This is the square footage. This is the FTE. Like that should I mean that would

127be really helpful. Um, and I would love for I it's my understanding again from Mr. Kashmar that once upon a time that the projects before they went out to bid were at least provided to CIC so that the board could see the actual designed project. And that has not happened as long as I've been on the board. Um and even for you know Jacob G. Smith I didn't see you know the plans until we were at at the meeting. Um, and as a board member, it's really helpful to have that information. And I think that that would be a way to make sure that the board is more engaged and aware and if you know within that project sheet, changes absolutely do happen to be able to set some thresholds of if it's you know

128a more than 10% reduction in the size of the building that there's a formal pro review process. So I just think if we put in some of those processes that go along with it, it can also be helpful for our team because they have a higher level of certainty and expectation of what their requirements are. Um so I you know any that's something I think could be helpful for all of us and having common understanding also of what information we would be receiving. Um so does that make sense? It does. But I want I will want to follow up with you and um maybe a couple of people from the capital projects team. I hear conceptually I understand but I need to get more information to operationalize. All right. Happy to have a sidebar. Um

129and then a very specific question for West Chadam. Um at one time I think there was conversation about the athletic complex potentially being a a partnership or a joint venture kind of thing with Chattam County. Is that still in discussion or under consideration? We have another meeting planned with the city in maybe the next 30 days or so. And when we were in that last meeting, we did talk about partnerships. Yeah. Um but I have not seen enough around their splass planning. I have no insight into what they're planning for the future. So, I think there has to be some more discussion about that before we could commit either way. Okay. Looks like Miss Campbell might have an idea. Yeah. So, and you you said West Chadam and the county. So, I just I know

130that um Mayor Williams is eager to from just Per, city of Pooler speaking um to speak with us extensively on what that would look like where you know we have rec center down the road, but this would be a site that's a little closer than the Y, etc. to to actually use it for that reason when it's not being used by the school there or anywhere nearby that would need it as a school site. Well, I think this is a good, you know, earlier we had the conversation about the shared use of the pools with the city and that led into conversation and I agree 100% with Mr. Katchmar. I would love for us to look at that with all of our athletic facilities. I know I've had a lot of people contact me about

131the use of the track at Jenkins after hours um for, you know, there are track club anyways. So again, being able to look at that on the front end um as you're going into the process versus trying to retrofit it afterwards could be really helpful. And I was also interested if we are um if that athletic complex is also going to be on the same site or if we are looking at different site because I know we had talked about some site constraints on the West Chatam um high school and K8 property. So, it is intended for it to be on the same site, but we are working through the site review uh because of the wetlands, but we do intend for it to be on the same site. We um are working with um

132to see how we can be uh great partners with the city. For example, in Bloomingdale with they would love to have access to the gym, the um Dr. Bland gym. Yes. Um, and so it was, excuse me, designed and so that it could be utilized separately. So it's kind of got its own little entry point. You know, security doesn't allow for them to go into the rest of the school. And so we are keeping that in mind for our designs. We do have an opportunity to expand that review through our tracks and other pieces, but that is something we are actively working. Okay, great. Thank you. Y'all have worn me out. Y'all have like pulled everything out of this report. I don't have a question. I can't I just can't. So, I'm sure I'll email

133at another time, but I I just don't have it. Miss Hall. I give up my time. I didn't anticipate all this today. You never know. We're just gonna keep you on your All right. Can we cancel the CIC meeting? I know. All right. Uh, Mr. Jackson. Okay. Good afternoon everybody. My first item. Not sure what the number is. Textbook purchase. Okay. And a fun transfer. Yes. All right. I don't see the screen. Yeah. Thank you. That's what I was looking for. Uh budget amendment textbook purchase and a fun transfer. On February 7th, 2024, the board approved the award of RFP 23-41 for the K12 reading English language arts textbook adoption annual contract to Halton Mifflin Harkart Publishing Company. The adoption includes the comprehensive purchase of intro reading grades K through five, intro into literature grades

1346 through 8, Waggle grades 6 through 8, writable grades 3 through 12 with a total estimated cost of 20,387,65 over a six-year period. The board also authorized the use of $6,850,730 from fund balance to cover year 1 cost an assigned 13,536 935 of fund balance to cover the estimated cost for years 2 through six at an annual amount of $2.7 million. Following contract negotiation, the following the remaining payments are due on the following schedule for a total of 9.8 million. Staff now recommends a budget transfer and amendment to move these remaining payments to a multi-year special revenue fund. This will support district schools in alignment with strategic priorities and ensure continue continued funding stability across the adoption period. Thus, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the use of

135fund balance and budget amendment to cover the remaining cost of textbook purchases in the amount of 9,88,658 for FY26 through FY30. Moved and seconded. Uh, any discussion, Mr. Catchmler? One question. Um, is this in addition to current purchases or in lie of other textbook purchases? This is related to the the actual contract that was awarded um last year. So, this is a replacement of if that's your question question. Okay. These are not new resources. They're not new resources. Okay, that's what I was asking. Thanks. Okay, there being no more discussion. All in favor? All opposed? Item 8.04. This item is just a budget transfer within the transportation department. um to cover overtime for working employees to cover the overtime account lines. The following budget transfers requested and it's basically transferring funds from vacant positions um

136that were vacant throughout the year to overtime accounts that were used. Thus, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approved the budget transfer in the amount of $3,398,920 as shown above. moved and seconded. Any discussion, Mr. Gmmer? Sorry. Uh, we're spending 3.4 million on overtime. Um, if we raise everybody's pay five bucks an hour, how many more jobs could we fill and not pay overtime? Just asking that question. Um, let me just say this. Overtime occurs, you're right, because of the vacant positions. Part of it is because of the way the drivers work. Some drivers are on a eight hour schedule. It's I mean five hour schedule instead of eight. So when they work above the five hours on our system, it's considered overtime. It's not time and a half,

137but it's cons is calculated as overtime on our system. So part of it is lack of drivers. Part of it is the hours that they actually work um to cover that. But if we could hire more drivers, it wouldn't fix the problem. Didn't we try to move more people to 8 hour every year? Every year we probably have moved for the last three years. We've been moving drivers and we just need to move some move some more. See, now now we opened up a little can of worms here. Yeah, you did. Another can of worms. Um, one I think an ongoing query from the drivers is why we call hours over their allotted schedule. Overtime when it's not really overtime, it's just above schedule. Schedule. Correct. And and people get confused. You know, overtime traditionally

138means time and a half uh hours over 40 in a work week. And the the related issue is payubs showing different hours but not attributing them per week necessarily. So I guess my fundamental question is and I'm going to vote for this just to be clear because we got to do it but let's fix this. Um, it sounds like what we're doing is setting a specific number of positions at a certain number of hours per position. Um, and that's what we're budgeting for. Um, if we had more positions and we just pay them for time actually worked, it would better reflect the reality of what's happening instead of having to pay overtime. um you just pay people for the time they're actually working and we wouldn't have these need this need to amend the budget

139number one and lack of clarity on whether we're paying for overtime or just we didn't plan schedules correctly I'll stop now that is something we're in the process of correcting our new transportation director is is working on that Mr. So for clarification, the overtime is you said it's not time and a half. So is it the same same rate of pay? Most of this the same rate of pay. Now some of it could be truly overtime due to field trips and so on, but the majority of it is just at the same rate of pay. Okay. So the the higher rate would kick in at over once you get pressed. Yes, ma'am. Okay. because I just wanted to make sure there wasn't some like you were five hour but anyways okay thank you can I

140say something um remor human resource just just a clarification I think because of how it's listed in the budget it's listed as overtime but way it's communicated the way it's in the system it's overbased so think about overbase being you know between 15 and 40 and then when you get to 40 it's over time but the the count line shows overtime if that makes sense Yes. Can the count line be changed for the purpose of what the public sees? We can work on that. Yes. Yeah. I think that'd be really helpful to make that clarification. Yes. Miss Hall, I just wondered if there's some disadvantage to us for all of our uh drivers to be on eight hours. Is there some reason that um we can't just say your day is a eight hour day?

141Why do we have that 5 hour? Some don't want a eight hour day. Some don't want to work eight hours because they have other obligations. I see. And then um it is a matter of what who supervises them during that in between time. Now I have pitched and we'll continue to pitch a concept in which they can go work in schools. Yeah. They park the bus, they go inside, they help in the cafeteria, they help do other things um to provide for that A hours. But I haven't followed back up with the team on that. I know it's been a discussion though. Good. Please pursue that because that that seems that that would solve a lot of this and it's certainly done elsewhere. Um Okay. Uh Miss Graowski just said it would give us our

142kids more field trip opportunities. Yeah. Send them on field trips. All right. There being more. Any more discussion? Okay. Um there being none, all in favor. Thank you. Okay. The next item 8.05 is plus 4, Georgetown K8 construction authorization, JE Don Construction. Um staff have reviewed the proposal and recommend board approval for the authorization to expend up to 8,413,223 for construction startup cost to allow for purchasing of long lead delivery materials equipment and to start demolition at early bird package work and the superintendent supports this recommendation. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the expenditure of up to 8,413,223 for construction startup cost to allow for purchasing of long lead delivery materials equipment and startup demol demolition at early bird package work for the Georgetown K8 project. Second

143movement seconded. Any discussion? Wonderful. Uh there being no more discussion. All in favor? Wonderful. Thank you. Item 8.06 is just an extension on contract related to RFP 20-28 education materials and supplies. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of superintendent that the board approve the extension request for RFP 20-28 educational materials and supplies catalog discounts for instructional art media center medical theater PE athletics and science annual contract to the firms listed above at an estimated annual cost of $2.1 million. moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All right. Um, all in favor? Wonderful. Item 8.07 07 is in response to RFP25-21 substitute employee services annual contract. The purchasing department received seven proposals in response to RFP25-31 substitute employee services annual contract. Staff recommends an award to ESS Southeast LLC for an estimated initial one-year period cost

144of $7.1 million. ESSoutheast LLC received the highest score in the evaluation process. The award is for a one-year period with the option to renew the contract for two additional one-year periods. The funding source is general fund. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the award of RFP 25-31 substitute employee services annual contract to ESS Southeast LLC for an initial one-year estimated annual cost of $7,100,000. It's been moved seconded. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Perfect. 8.08 bid 25-34 milk products for school nutrition programs annual contract. The purchasing department only received one bid in response. Staff recommends the contract award to DFA Dairy Brands Fluid LLC during business as pet um dairy at an estimated annual cost of $2 million. Funding source is within the school food service fund. Thus,

145be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the award of bid 25-34 milk products for school nutrition program annual contract to DFA dairy brands fluid LLC doing business as pet dairy for an estimated annual cost of $2 million. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Wonderful. Um, all in favor item [Music] 8.09 Power School system SIS maintenance and support agreements power school group. This is a soul source renewal. The Office of Technology and Business Systems and the Office of Instructional Excellence and Talent and Human Resources desire to renew the annual license and subscription agreements with Power School Group LLC as a sole source for the existing student information systems and administrative software programs. The maintenance and support of the student information system is an ongoing service which is required to

146maintain district operation functions. The staff recommends renewal of contracts powers school group for the ongoing maintenance support licenses and subscriptions for an an additional one year with two additional one-year periods. The total cost of for FY2526 for those combined services is $662,27.31. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the soul source contract renewal to P school group LLC for the one-year period at a total cost of 662,27.31. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Wonderful. All in favor? Okay. Item 8.10, Georgia School Board's Association Risk Management Fund annual contract. The purpose of the Georgia School Board Association Risk Management Fund is to administer prop property and liability coverage, lower administrative cost, and reduce claims through active programs for loss prevention and loss control. The GSBA RMS proposal is

147all inconclusive of insuring property for the Savannah Chhattam County Public School District for a period of one year July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 for an estimated cost of $4,911 911,77. The cost of the coverage is increasing by 11.15% from the current year. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the contract M26022 with Georgia School Board's Association Risk Management Services for the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 at an estimated annual cost of 4,911,77. It's been moved. Have a second. Okay, great. Uh, any discussion? Yes, Miss Hall. Mr. Jackson, GSBA is asking us for $4 million to provide risk management of what? It's the insurance coverage. Insurance. Okay. Insurance for Yes, ma'am. It's the insurance coverage. That's really all it is. Okay. Insurance for us

148as board members. The district. The district itself. Yes, ma'am. I see. Yeah. They just manage the basically the insurance policy for us. If we were sued um then they would take care of these are these aren't properties I believe. Property. This is properties. Property. Oh, okay. Someone were to fall or something. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Any any other questions? All right. All in favor? Thank you. Okay. Item 8.11, tenative adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget for all funds. In accordance with law and policy, staff presents the tenative fiscal year 2026 budget for all funds. The budget consists of five components. The general fund, general obligation debt budget, special revenue funds budget, capital projects funds budget, and other funds budget. The tenative budget under consideration reflects no millage increase or decrease for a total

149combined millage of 17.481 mills 17.481 mills for maintenance and operation and zero mill for general obligation bond debt. General farm budget the tenative fiscal year 2026 general fund budgeted expenditures and other uses total $659,511,639. This budget will receive $440,176,930 in revenues from from local revenue, $216,90,965 in state revenues at $1.3 million in federal federal revenues and a use of fund balance of 1,943,744. The estimated advalorum tax mill rate for calendar year 2025 is 17.481. 481. The advalorum tax revenues were calculated using it using an estimated adjusted net M digest of 22 billion411,234,631 for calendar year 2025. The general obligation debt budget, the tenative fiscal year 2026 general obligation debt budgeted expenditures total se $270,000. The estimated advalorum tax millage rate for calendar year 2025. The advalorum tax revenues were calculated using an estimated net bond

150digest of 24,455 24 bill455,561,151 for calendar year 2025. Special revenue funds budget the tenative fiscal year 2026 special revenue funds budgeted expenditures and other uses or 118,454,597,000 as listed in the table below for special revenue funds. Other funds budget the tenative fiscal year 2026 other funds budgeted expenditures total 3,952,635. The following budgets are included in the table below. Capital projects funds the tenative fiscal year 2026 capital projects funds budgeted expenditures total 162,123,459. This budget is based upon estimated cost to be incurred between July 1st 2025 and June 30th 2026 for approved projects. Thus, we have resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education tenatively adopt the following budgets. Fiscal year 2026 general fund budget for $659,511,639. Fiscal year 2026 general obligation debt budget $0. Fiscal year 2026 special revenue funds budget

151for18454,597 fiscal year 2026 other funds budget for 3,952,635 fiscal year 2026 capital projects funds budget for 162,123,459. [Music] May I have a motion? So moved. May I have a second? We have a It's been properly moved and seconded. May I have a vote? All in favor, please say I. Discussion. Oh, I'm sorry. Discussion. I don't think there's any more discussion. But if there is there discussion, yeah. So, so this was hand Dr. David Brayman, please. Uh, got this today. It's estimated. We still don't know what our digest is going to be. Um, and while I agree with everything that is in the budget, I still believe, like I stated this morning, that we can do a small roll back and meet all of these needs. So, uh, yeah, and I'm sorry, I did forget to

152mention, uh, we received an email with a digest at 11:32 this morning. Um, basically verified the numbers that were were given to us. um verbally by the taxer assessor's office. Um and based upon our calculations, we're only off and collected revenues by less than $100,000. Okay. Thank you. Any more discussion? Hearing none, may we please vote? All in favor, please say I. All opposers, you have the same. Item 8.12. Yes. Item 8.12. Okay. Oh, wait a minute. I'm I'm sorry. What did we just Okay, we're voting on the bud. We just voted on the budget. Okay. We've not voted on. Okay. All right. Okay. 8.12 calendar year 2025 fiscal year 2026 tenative recommended tax millage levy under Georgia law the board of public education for the city of Savannah and the county of Chhattam is

153a recommending authority that exercises the power to cause the levying authority the Chattam County Commission to levy property taxes to carry out the purpose purpose of the board of education in accordance with the law and policy. It is necessary for the board to adopt the recommended calendar year milit rates for both maintenance and operations and general obligation bond indebtedness and their corresponding levies on taxable property. The calendar year 2025 mill rates used on projection of revenues for the fiscal year 2026 budget or 17.481 481 mills for maintenance and operations and 0 mil for general obligation debt for a combined millage rate of 17.481 481 mills. C. The tenative adoption of FY26 budget for all funds. Item. The proposed millage rate for maintenance and operations is not in compliance with the rollback rate calculated by the

154tax assessor as required by OCGA48-5-32.1 and as such will be required to advertise a tax increase of 3.8 89% above the rollback rate millage rate. Tenative adoption of these millage rates is required at this time to meet statutory timelines for millage adoption. Accordingly, staff proposes these mill rates be tenatively adopted. Thus be be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of public education for the city of Savannah and the county of Chattam as provided by law does hereby tenatively recommend to the Chattam County Commissioners and its official judges thereof that there be lev upon the dollar of all taxable property in Chattam County, Georgia a general tax general fund tax of 17.481 481 mills and general obligation bond debt tax of 0 mil and an aggregate millage rate of 17.481 mills

155for the year of 2025 for the support and maintenance of public education and the staff be directed to advertise such tenative recommended military rates as required by law. Okay. Um do I have a motion to M moved and seconded discussion and I'm sure there there is some uh discussion missski. So for clarification and for the benefit of the public this is our tenative millillage. Yes ma'am. And the final millage rate will be set at our final vote scheduled on the 25th. 5th of June. Correct. 25th of June. Right. At which time I realize you received the information this morning. Yes. And your estimates are close, but it will give you the time to be able to further evaluate the information from the tax. Yes. We will vet the information um and make any additional adjustments

156that um staff or the superintendent see they need to during that time period. Okay. And so with the tenative millage rate, we can go down, but we would not be able to go up after adopting this tenant break. That's correct. Correct. Okay. Without starting the process, without starting the process over. So just want to make sure that's if you remember last year, I believe we did something very similar. tentatively for advertisement purposes, we kept it the same, but by the time we got to the final budget adoption, we did a bit of a roll back, but we have to have something to advertise. Right. Right. Okay. So, um, thank you. I just wanted to Yes. make that clarification. Um, and I understand Dr. Bringman's point from this morning looking at historic projections versus collections. So,

157I think that's good information for us to be able to have as we go into continued deliberations. Um, realizing this is a different vote from the budget, but obviously the two are very closely connected. I'm a little bit surprised at the vote that we just had. Um, having seen the number of nos that were not in support of the budget as presented in all of our many finance meetings and budget discussions, I have not heard from my colleagues about proposals for what they would like to see removed from the budget. Um, so I don't know if we can intermix those conversations, but since the two are linked, would like to better understand what reductions um, my colleagues are looking for from the from the budget. Maybe I've misunderstood. And that's why I hate that these

158are two separate because in the first I fully support everything in the budget. I have supported the the process along the way, but I have kind of said I'd still like to see some form of roll back the entire process as well. In the language of the tenative adoption of the fiscal year budget, you have to say that the estimated mill is going to be a certain amount, which I don't like. And I want the roll back that we I want us to have already figured out that we're going to do a 0.05 or a 0.1 or a 0.15 chunk back um and have that in the tenative budget. So don't take my no as something I don't like what's in the budget. Okay, the process has gone great. But because you have to have

159or at least the way we write this, the estimated tax is in the budget. So it's muddied for me. Right. So I So you're not opposed to the dollar amount of the budget. You're opposed to the millage rate language that's embedded in the budget resolution. Correct. Because I believe we overcolct. Okay. And I'm also not on the side of having to have as much general fund hanging around. Okay. Um I I we have differing views across the the horseshoe. Um so I wanted to be here already with a roll back number and all the data. Yes. And and that's that is that is that is why I've wanted for a really long time also to separate these processes. Mhm. And I don't know if state law says that we have to have the estimated advalorum

160tax millage rate for calendar year 2025 is 17.481 in this like it it Yeah. And that drives me nuts because I think we shouldn't have to have that even in the language. I think we should say this is our tenative budget. We set we set our plan which we have done I think a very transparent job of saying this is what we want to accomplish. They lead to our goals and in years coming it's going to be even more directed towards return on investment and I want to pass that months before we pass taxes. Yeah, I know we're getting there because we adjust our budget all the time. I want to build I hate that they're connected. I hate that they're right behind each other because they shouldn't be. It shouldn't be, oh, we're we're

161bringing in money, so let's spend it or let's build right to that point that we think we're at versus this is what we want to accomplish. This is how much it's going to cost and then we have to decide how to how to bring that money in leverage for them. Yes. Whether it's the millage rate fund balance. Yes. Yes. And those are the options. If you vote on the budget and the mill and the and what we get in our tax digest doesn't come in at what we think it's going to come in at, then we have to make up the difference. We have to we we have to cut something from the budget, but if you vote on the budget, it would be hard to then go back and we cut things from the

162budget all the time. Okay. Don't we? We could we can we can we could cut the budget. Yeah. But we haven't had to do that. And we've always gone to the ninth hour. And this is not just you. This is the se now going on seven years. We've always gone to the ninth hour literally sometimes in the middle of the discussion and somebody's over there changing what the what the reading is going to be like on the millillage. Last year it was I I believe the day before on the telephone to try to to to figure out what that number was going to be and that might still happen this year. Um I just would would like and this isn't This is the process and this year it definitely got fumbled because of state law

163changes. I think we would have had these conversations. We would had more of these conversations this morning probably. Um but I have no problem with the budget. It's that I still think we can absorb some amount not a full that's not me but some amount of a roll back just like we did last year because last year we did it we didn't cut anything right. I did it in the same way though. We advertised it. Yes. As it is and the and the decision to do the roll back happened after that. Correct. And then it was presented to you at the final budget. Yeah. So it is a similar process, but I totally understand what you're saying because I I grapple with it myself like they're tied together, but you can do one before the

164other. Yes. Thank you for the clarification. No, thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Yes, Dr. Howard, I'm just sitting here wondering what impact would the federal budget have. We don't know what's going to happen, you know, with the federal budget. So, if we cut them, if we roll back the millage rate and then something happens at a federal at a national federal and we have to go into fund balance, then we don't know what's going to happen in the future and we may need that fund balance at some other time. So, I I we don't have that slide up, but there it's like you're trying to predict a future that you don't know. And so I'm a little leerary about going too deep into fund balance. I'm just I'm leerary about that because I don't know

165what the future is going to be and we may have to go in fund balance anyway. So um am I on? Yeah. Okay. So, I need to clear something up. Um, the reason and apparently my vote was listed as as uh yes and and I was actually voting no. And for the reason the same reason that David is talking about I didn't like the fact I I'm fine with the budget. I was not fine with the military and I don't for some reason I don't remember it being listed that way last year. It was okay. All right. I I made the change in the millage rate a few days before the final adoption. It was the same process and the board still has the opportunity um where we can reduce the mill rate by the

16625th. But I have to advertise something. Yes. And so this this is the only I mean I understand this is to me the most responsible way to advertise something. Yeah. That I know I have the ability to go back and change later versus advertise it at a lower rate knowing at that point I cannot go higher. Right. So, we would be locked in at the lower rate if I advertise it now at a roll back. Yeah. And you'll be required you'll be required to advertise that on any amount that is higher than the full roll back. See, so we you you last year we didn't really roll back. We just we reduce the millage rate. So, you have to take that into account as well. So right now at this meeting if we were to

167come with a recommendation for a full roll back that that would achieve the elimination of those meetings. So, but again, the tenative component is also a requirement by statutory law that we have a tenative uh budget and this is part of a um of a transparency component as the way the law is written to make sure the public can see what the board intends to do on recommendation by the superintendent. That's the beauty of the tentative. But again, as Miss Grabowski pointed out, very important point, the board still may lower the millage rate by June 25th. So, the vote for the tentative adoption right now does not lock that number in. The only thing the board cannot do is is raise it after the tentative. Miss Hall, Mr. Jackson, do we have any further um

168reports coming from the federal government in terms of federal grants and that kind of thing to us? Is there anything left for us to be waiting for to hear from them? Um we have not heard anything yet. Um most of their they're still waiting on award letters and notifications. Um they haven't received them yet. They normally would have by pretty much by this point. So, so we're all on on standby. And of course, most of the money that we get from them are in terms of those grants and things. That's where the bulk of that comes. So, I think they're for the grants. At this point, it would not be in our best interest to decide to reduce or roll back our millage rate given the uh uncertain. Yeah, that's a nice one. the uncertainty

169of um our situation at the national level. Yes, ma'am. I think that's a message we've tried to convey the last couple of uh finance committee meetings. Okay, Dr. Hoskins Brown, then Miss Campbell. Thank you. Um I think this is an important discussion. However, I think that this is really something that should be addressed when we are developing our legislative priorities because this is about the language of the law. This is not really about our budget process because the thing that we are concerned about we don't have control over. So I would ask that our legislative representative kind of put this in the notebook of things that she writes down all year. Um and that we redress that in a way some of you talk to members of our delegation more frequently than others. This is

170something to bring up over a cup of coffee that they may be able to influence. Um just uh speaking from someone who's working in the federal sector, um the notifications of things that are not being funded is not complete. Um people are finding out people there are agencies that are finding out and organizations that receive federal funding that are still finding out that grants are being defunded. Um I'm hearing that from folks on the academic side and we're seeing that um on our federal commission. So just because things are quiet on the side of notifications for defunding doesn't mean anything except that the process of making those decisions is inefficient um because now that is being communicated by a smaller federal workforce. So that doesn't mean it's gone away. It just means you're finding out

171slower. I don't personally think that this is the right time to be talking about a roll back without having one, without having the information that you had this morning. Two, being only one week in the hurricane season. Three, not having a past federal spending bill. To me, those are unknowns that make me look at our process differently. So, we have the opportunity to offer our vote when we get to the final part. This is the getting ready to get ready part. Um, and by the time we get to the final part, we should have some more information. But those are my reflections on where we are right now. Miss Campbell. So, okay, let me start by saying I have supported and been very clear, I think, since the first retreat, not wanting attendance clerks or

172really supporting having retirement for staff that otherwise would not or benefits that they would otherwise not get if we didn't fund them. I think some things are important, some things I would be willing to cut. But when asked what would you cut and the list is salary for teachers or I mean I I am not an accountant nor do I have access to every line item on our budget. So it is troubling that when given a list of things, okay, well, what do you want to cut that I have to be a a villain and in my opinion not fair to teachers or students with regard to what we want to do because all the things on the budget were things that I openly support. But we have outpaced inflation again. We're at what is

173it 2.3? Tell me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure it's 2.3 over the last 12 months. We're at 3.89. 89 even at baseline that's a problem. I it doesn't mean I don't like the budget that the things that we have offered up on the list that are new but as of just yesterday or the day before we were still getting charts of you know cuts that were being made. So, we heard about the 10 million and we heard those were not um jobs, but they were openings uh vacancies and that was great. And then we got some more back. And so, I was just hopeful, I guess, that we were going to find some places to cut because again, I'm not an accountant. I don't have line items of an entire public school systems budget.

174But I can tell you that I I will vote for the millage rate as it is right now because we need to get there where we can hear from the community and it means that we cannot move it up. But as it stands right now, I am not okay without having some semblance of a decrease in what we're asking taxpayers to pay because we just got east passed for over $700 million. And I know that's earmarked and I know that's for specific things, but money doesn't come easy to the community just like it doesn't come easy to us. So that's where I stand just to clarify. So I want to make sure I understand if you feel adamant that we must have a roll back but you a reduction in the mill rate a reduction

175in the millage rate and you're saying you like the budget like what we have decided to do at the retreats etc. So, is that guidance to me for me to use fund balance to to get there? Is that the because that's the that's the lever I have to pull. As long as we're still adhering to GAP, you know, recommendations, I would say yes. If if it's going to cut into that, no. But have we really exhausted every resource for what cuts can be made? for this year. I I wholeheartedly believe that I have done all that I can do without taking risks because if you start pulling the thread, you don't know what all is going to come falling apart. So I I'm doing it conservatively. Last year I pulled a little thread. This year

176I pulled a little bit more thread. I mean I if you tell me I need to go back and find some things to cut, I can do it. But there will be implications for that and I can't always guarantee that that is going to be good. Yes. Um Miss Griki then Dr. Greenwood. So one of the comments that I did not make earlier and I I should have because it's I think it's important to this discussion. Um I think the staff needs to be commended for the cuts that they have brought to us. um they have presented almost $28 million in budget reductions. $28 million. That's money that has lived in our budget for years. It's just been there. And I think that Dr. Watts and her team have done the hard work in finding

177those reductions to be able to really hone in and be more precise in what it is that we truly need. At the same time, we know we have challenges that we have been trying to chronic to chronic challenges we've been trying to face in this community for years. So, we can't put in the same investment and expect higher yields. At the same time, we've got tremendous momentum with our focus on literacy and our letters training and all of these things that cost additional money. Um, we have new things that we are piloting to address our chronically underperforming schools and we're doing so in a very thoughtful and carried measure to understand if it works. We're not, you know, changing everything at one time and to me that is the responsible way to do it for

178our students and also fiscally so that we know that we can have that return on investment. We're putting all this time and energy into understanding the return on investment and that has factored into this budget. So, would it be great to find additional places to cut? Absolutely. But I feel like the staff has done a tremendous job already in finding those places to cut. This morning asked the question about the federal dollars that we do receive. Um, for clarification, it's $118 million that we unfortunately um don't have as high of a level of certainty as we have had in the past about if there will be changes, significant changes in that $118 million that we rely on, particularly to support some of our most vulnerable students. Um, so I think that the budget that's been

179presented to us is fiscally responsible and also moves us forward in the direction that we need to go for our students and for our community. Mr. Campbell, I just want to follow up with this. So the the fact that this money has lived in our budget for years, I think is kind of the point. I obviously spending more has not bettered our outcomes. Do I think that spending significantly less is going to better outcomes? No. I don't think that's rational or logical. But the fact that our enrollment numbers have gone down over 10 years, but we keep asking for more and more above the rate of inflation is troubling. So, while I support all of the priorities in the budget, maybe that's a better way to say it, that have been listed, I don't support

180the amounts. I just at some point we can't say yes to everything. So I would love to, like I said, I'm going to vote for this today so we can advertise it and it can't go above that and we can hear from the community. I think that's wonderful. But I I do want to continue this discussion and just see if there's something else that we can do that potentially, you know, cuts some of this that this money that's like lived in our budget for years that we didn't need. Anyone else? Yeah. Yes. Dr. Breen. Uh, thank you, Mr. Kowski. Fully support and understand everything you're saying. Fully. And again, I think the the finance year in review has been great. I look forward to next year. That sounds so weird. Like, yeah, let's talk about

181I I mean, I do like the return on investment stuff. All that stuff. Everything has been transparent. everything we've asked to prioritize is getting done. We're taking care of our staff. We're moving forward academically. Um I'm not wanting to cut anything. And I and I I need to go back and watch the the meeting from last year when we decided to have the discussion on the tiny 0.15 reduction and we had a lot of the same feelings like ooh we're not cutting anything. We're just going to lower that back and we'll see what happens. and nothing happened because I still and I'll wait and maybe finance from this morning will give me data that proves me wrong and then I will eat that and say okay I was wrong but we I believe keep collecting

182more than we project and the tiny reduction washes out. So I don't want to change anything. I just and that's just me, one person feeling like a tiny reduction, not a full roll back, a tiny reduction will just wash out. So, it's nothing against anybody. Thank you. That that and I that that's where I don't want you to leave today. And I think we almost had the same conversation last year during the budgets. It's like this is nothing against you and the budget that the district has brought forward. This is just nine people that feel differently about how they budget. Now, who knows what happens with federal? Who knows? And if it's that big of a number and it all goes away overnight, no fund balance is going to be able to fix that. And

183we're going to have lots of interesting meetings. And I couldn't even imagine what that would Yeah. So, let's not speak that into existence. But I just again feel like a tiny reduction will wash out because the digest of things that are taxable continues to rise and that's just me. Uh Dr. Howard Hall remember we have a meeting at 5:30. Oh, this won't be long at all. When you look at the general budget, we know that 85% of that budget is in salaries and the 15% material things, software and the list can go on and on. So when we talk about cutting, are we focusing on people or things? We've received some emails regarding some K8 schools that need more things. They feel that they need more support in receiving more materials, more software, more licenses.

184So when you talk about cutting, are we focusing on I guess I'm a little little little confused with your thoughts, Miss Campbell. When you say cuts, are you looking at people or things or you're not really sure? So I'm I'm thinking about this money that's lived in the budget that we've had year over year that, you know, where do we cut? I don't know if if you know 85% which I know is true. I've done the math myself. our people. We're still short on some jobs. Like are all of these people, you know, like that's that's the vacancy factor lever, right? We we've talked about that lever extensively on cabinet and that is a lever we can pull on. We you know we can we can adjust that number. Of course, the risk is if

185we hire everybody, if our HR department hires everybody, then we get to, you know, then that money is is gives us less flexibility. So, I mean, that would probably be once we go back to the table after today's discussion, if I recover from it, um, it's probably going to be one of the first places that we because we've talked about that extensively all week. There's there's a risk associated with that. So, you know, it's just how risky are we willing to go? But I hear everyone and I do think there's some wiggle room. But for the purposes of today, yes, to have something to advertise, we have to have a budget and we have to have a millage rate, but it's not final. There's still more work to happen. So, I guess I was a

186little shocked at what when we put it up to vote. I didn't I don't know. I didn't feel like we were together on that. So, um, Dr. Hoskins Brown, I call the question. I call the question. Second. Uh, um, all in favor of calling the question. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I'm done. Uh, those opposed question. Okay. Wonderful. All right. Would there So, I mean, okay. So, uh, now we're voting regarding adopting the tentative and press, please get this tentative militaryrate and that was a tentative budget. Um, uh, those in favor of accepting the tentative recommended tax mill levy. Okay. Yes. And Let's vote again. All in favor of accepting the tenative tax levy military tenative military. I'm sorry. Yeah. All in favor. That's fine. All opposed. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay, moving on to our

187um resolution approving the purchase and sale agreement between Coastal Empire Monastery Community Organization doing business as Coastal Empire Monastery Charter School, Simpsons, and the board. Um the board and Simpus have been in discussion of for the purchase of the property formerly used as the Coastal Comprehensive Academy on Cynthia Street. Um the recombination plat has not been approved by the city of Savannah yet as it's been presented. Um however, we do anticipate approval no more than 90 days. But the agreement provides for the closing not more than 10 days after recording of the plat approved by both parties. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the board approve the purchase and sale agreement in form as presented and authorizes the officers of the board to execute the agreement and take any further

188actions necessary or desirable to affect the transaction including the execution of the deeds or certificates amendments to the PSA extensions thereto and the final plats as they in their discretion deem necessary. moved. Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Okay. Uh there being none, all in favor and Okay. All right. And the very last item 8.14 is just a budget transfer um pool pool repairs from the operation division. Staff request the following budget transfer and amendment to provide funding to proceed with repairs and upgrades to the pools that are owned by the district. We're going to transfer $600,000 from the general fund to fund 308 for those basically onetime expenditures in the amount of $600,000. Thus, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the budget transfer and budget amendment in

189the amount of $600,000. It's been it's been moved and second and third and fourth and Okay. All right. Any discussion? Yes, Miss Kowalsski. So, two points of clarification that this the work will not proceed until we have reached resolution with the city of Savannah. Correct? Yes. Okay. And um this morning I had um suggested that we potentially hold off on the $150,000 for Schuman. So, can I amend the motion to reduce this amount? um to 450,000 or to Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Um not move go forward with that part of the work because the 600,000 does include Schuman. So yes. Okay. So do I need to if the board agrees that we should hold off on Schuman? Okay. So I would like to amend the motion to revise the budget transfer amount to $450,000. That's been

190moved and second. Okay. and seconded. Any discussion on that? Okay. So, let's vote on that motion. All in favor? It's fine. Okay. All opposed? Abstaining? Okay. Now we have to vote. Now we have to vote on the resolution. This day has been so long. Um, another meeting. Still have another meeting. Uh, Um, all in all in favor of the motion of the transfer of budget amendment in the amount of $450,000. All abstaining. Thank you. All right. We have two people that have signed up to speak before us today. Uh, Robin Sirwi, are you here? She's not here. Okay. And, uh, Raymond Watson. Good evening. Um, today's board meeting actually marks like a year since I've been coming up here speaking. Um, my journey that started out with a simple goal to advocate for better contracts

191and respect for teachers, but also for stronger educational practices for our students of Savannah Chattam County. to say that it's not been an easy path. At times, it's been very frustrating. Frustrating with the slow pace of change, by moments that felt dismissive, and yes, even by actions that felt targeted. But it kept coming, not for myself, but for other teachers that work hard, and for the students of this county and the parents who trust us with their child's future. However, today I'm here to say that I'm proud of some stuff that I feel like uh the discussions in March about protective planning, the time clock thing today, but I also wanted to highlight the opportunities that I've had to engage in meaningful conversations with board members, District 7, Stephanie Campbell, uh District 8, Dr. Tanya

192Hall Howard. I want to say this clearly to everyone, a teacher or community member. Do not let anyone tell you that these two will not listen. It's my experience that they will listen, they want to hear from you, and that they do care. And I'm thankful for the conversations we've had, and I'm hopeful that our line of communication will remain open and honest for the months and years ahead. I also want to take this moment to offer gratitude and thank someone that I have been very critical of and that I may have given a tough time over the year but that's superintendent Dr. Denise Watts. Dr. Watts, yesterday when me and a colleague met with you, we felt very thankful. You were very welcoming. You were interested and you were honest. I felt like we

193had very important and meaningful conversation, but most importantly, you showed us that you also reach for the same thing, which is respect for our teachers and the success for every student in Chattam County. At the end, you've asked that we or I that me and you give each other grace moving forward and I accept that wholeheartedly because grace doesn't mean just being silent. It means listening and working together and it means finding an understanding and I hope that we can keep building towards that to be that Savannah standard. A standard where teachers are heard, students are supported and leadership is a collaboration. So I want to be wholeheartedly and say thank you to teachers and community members. I ask that you keep showing up, speaking out, and pushing for the exceptional education system that Chattam

194County can provide. respect for teachers, staff, and providing excellent education for our students. At a year anniversary, I do believe we have members on this board along with Superintendent Dr. Watts who are willing to listen and open and are open to working together in order to reach the needs and the goals of this district. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. I will accept a motion to adjourn. Second is all in favor.