001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] La. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good afternoon. Tweets County Board of Education meeting is now being called to order. The day is September the 9th, 2025. The time is 6:10. We stand for pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. >> Okay. I'm sorry about that. >> Hello, my name is Camille Bar. I go to Jes and my I am 9 years old. I pledge allegiance 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. Please remain standing for a moment of silence. Thank you. >> Thank you. Sorry about that. Uh I was put in a I was throwing in the brow patch pretty quick. So >>
002let's let's give this awesome JES fourth grader Camille Bond a round of applause. Camille, you are a natural for the pledge of allegiance. >> So, I want to present you with this certificate and it reads, "This certificate is proudly presented to Camille Bond, fourth grader, awarded on September the 9th for being our pledge of allegiance moment of silence student for this month." So, let me give you this one. So, Camille, you're going to go up with the superintendent right there. Take a picture. All right, Dr. Buller, Camille, you all hold tight for just a second. And Mr. Watkins, mom, family, if you would like to come up and get a picture, we would love to have you come up because this day wouldn't be possible. You make it happen for our students to come over
003to say the pledge. So, we appreciate our families. [Applause] Thank you so much parents. Appreciate you. [Applause] Thank you, Miss Bun. I'm very sorry uh for not calling you out, but you did a great job. Proud of you. >> Next on agenda is the approval of tonight's agenda. May I get a motion? I move that motion to approve the agenda for tonight. >> Second. >> Been motion been made by Miss Black Sheer, second by Mr. Butler to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting, September the 9th, 2025. Any questions? It's been a motion that approve of the agenda for tonight meeting by Miss Blackshere and seconded by Mr. Butler. All in favor? I know you by raising your hand. That motion passed unanimous. Next is the approval of the minutes from August the 12th uh BOB
004work session and September 4th, 2025 call meeting. You all had a chance to read over the minutes. Is there any correction? If there's no correction, the minutes stand approved as written. Miss Black the statement, please. >> Thank you. In accordance with regulations set forth by the Georgia Ethics Commission, it is the duty of every board member to avoid both conflict of interest or interest of such conflict. Does any board member have any non-conlict of interest? Seeing none, we will proceed with our agenda. >> Thank you, Miss Basher. Board members, comments or remarks? No, no comments from the board. Superintendent comment and announcement. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair, board members, all of our constituents that are in person and those that are joining us virtually. Uh we do want to thank everyone again for a
005great opening of school. We've had a wonderful opening thus far and you're going to be receiving on tomorrow your first 4 and a half week progress reports. So make sure you ask your your student for that progress report on tomorrow so that you can see how they have begun the school year. We trust that they will have all A's and B's and been present in all of their classes. So parents, guardians, make sure you ask for that 4 and 1/2 week progress report on tomorrow, September the 10th. We also want to announce that our reach gayla is coming up on Thursday, October the 16th at 6:00 p. p.m. You'll hear more about that. This is an annual fundraiser that we have for students who are working towards having academic honors and up to a $10,000
006scholarship if they keep their grades high, great attendance, and great behavior and been selected as a middle school reach scholar. So that annual fundraiser will be coming up on October the 16th at 6 p.m. Our annual Title One meeting is coming up as well on next Thursday, September the 18th. That's going to be the annual Title One meeting. We want all of our parents to come out and learn how we are utilizing the Title One funds from the federal government in order to support your students. that's going to be in the Twigs County Middle High School cafeteria and that will start at 5:00 p.m. So, please come out and learn as much as you possibly can on how we utilize those funds to benefit your students. And finally, those who are available on Friday night,
007join us in traveling to Augusta, Georgia. The Cobras will be competing against Josie Josie High School, the Josie Eagles, and that will be begin at 7:30 p.m. on this Friday, September the 12th. Mr. Vice Chair, that concludes my announcements on tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Bulock. >> I digress. I do have a special announcement uh that I'd like for Miss Densen to come forward and present. Miss Densen, please come forward. She has a special presentation on tonight. And I apologize, Miss Densen, for overlooking your name on the agenda. >> No problem. >> Vice Chair Rouse, board members, Dr. Bullard, Superintendent, it is my pleasure to present to you the FY26 Economic Development Partnership Designation. I'll begin this presentation with our vision and our mission. Our vision is generating excellence one team one goal and our
008mission is to inspire, challenge and prepare all students to compete globally. This presentation and this designation aligns with strategic goal one and two learning and wellness for all excellence ahead academics facilities and opportunities. Just some of our opportunities for this year. We're offering 18 career pathways and 62 dual enrollment students are participating at our campus and and our campus is on make in Mon. We are here tonight to celebrate that Swiss County as a district has earned the FY2526 Economic Development Partnership Designation, [Applause] affectionately called the EDP, is a Georgia DOE program that recognizes school districts excelling in aligning their career technical and agricultural education programs with regional workforce needs. Through strong business and industry partnerships, the district-wide certification process encourages best practices to prepare students for high demand careers, increasing their work-based learning opportunities
009and contributing to the local economy. As of 2024, only 18 school districts in the state of Georgia have earned the EDP designation, and Twist County joins the ranks of those districts this year. The EDP program is supported by Georgia Power in partnership with Georgia Power and I am very grateful to say that they have afforded us an opportunity to attend the Georgia Economic Development Association conference which is next week where we'll receive our designation and they have also paid for a year membership for the CTE director in GEDA. What is the EDP designation? It's a district-wide certification and it's not specific to the school. It is specific to the county and the designation shows that we have a great partnership between the local school system, business and industry and our economic development. It focuses on
010partnership and it highlights our commitment to forging partnerships with business and industry and economic development to support the workforce here in Tweets County. The key goals and benefits of the EDP or the process in general is it helps us to be able to contribute effectively to local and regional workforce development efforts. Students gain opportunities through our workbased learning and youth apprentichip partnerships and that we create a time a excuse me we create a talent pipeline between the business and industry that's here in our district and our students that are soon to graduate. and the economic impact is clear. Um, who is involved in the process? The Georgia DOE CTAEE department is involved, the school district, local business and industry. And I do want to take this time to sell a special thank you to Miss
011Judy Sherling, the director of our economic development here in Twist County. She was crucial in the process of us earning the designation and giving us some insight of what we actually need here in Twist County. On Friday, September the 19th at 8:30 a.m., we will receive our award and it's going to be the presentation will be at the Georgia Economic Development Association conference with the theme leveling up. Are there any questions? Thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you, Miss Densen. Now we'll move to our business agenda for request action item. Dr. Bulock. >> Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair. Again, these field trip and fundraiser requests do align with our vision and mission as well. And they're quite a lengthy list on tonight. And that's because we have three, four, excuse me, of our organizations
012who have already planned for the entire school year. So they do want to seek your approval for their annual plan for field trips and or fundraising request. And those programs are the program for exceptional students, the family career and community leaders organization and club, the future farmers of America club, and the JEES Beta Club. And those organizations of course make sure that our except exceptional students are ready for transition into the workforce once they leave our school district. FF FCCLA ensures that our students are prepared for economic careers in areas such as culinary arts, hospitality, human services, social work, psychology. And of our FFA focuses on careers that are science related, business related or technology related to the agricultural industry in Georgia. And of course, our beta club encourages academic excellence, community service, leadership, and
013character. On the 12th of September, our third graders at JEES ask your permission to travel to Mon Museum of Arts and Sciences to study different types of rocks, fossils, and Georgia animals. Mr. Shepherd with the FFA would like your permission to travel with the FFA on the 16th to land judging which is at Camp John Hope in Fort Valley, Georgia on the 24th of September. The they would like to have a Central Georgia Technical College campus visit in Warner Robbins to prepare students to have an opportunity to see Central Georgia Technical College for possible postsecary education. Miss Capise and the science teachers would like your permission to travel to the academic outreach governor's mansion. The fifth graders from JEES on the 25th. Also on the 25th, the FCCLA would like to take a college tour
014and that college tour would be at James P. Broly Drive in Atlanta, Georgia. The FFA would be traveling to an FFA competition and that competition will be in Fort Valley on the same day and the the PEC department would travel to Goodwill which is in Mon Georgia in order to prepare those students for job related skills. We have checked and we do have transportation and drivers for all of those events. We also would like to take students on a college tour to Georgia College and State University and that will be on the 2nd of October. The FCCLA would also like to travel to their fall leadership rally in Perry, Georgia on the 8th of October. And on the 15th and 19th, they'd like to participate in the National Fall Leadership Institute and that will be
015in for Orlando, Florida. Excuse me. The first graders at JEES like your permission to travel to Calhoun Farms and that's to obtain and evaluate and communicate information about the basic needs of plants and animals. Miss Williams would like to take the PEC department to South Georgia Technical College and again that's to visit to explore postsecary opportunities. The Beta Club at JEES would like to travel to Lraange, Georgia to the leadership summit. The JOTC would like to travel to Dublin, Georgia to participate in the military ball and they'd like to participate in the fall festival parade that will be on the 1st of October right here in Jeffersonville. The FCCLA would like to participate in their fall leadership conference in Covington, Georgia. And Mr. Shepherd again would take his FFA group to the to the wildlife
016competition, floraulture competition, vet science competition, lawnmower operation, and maintenance competition. And that will be in Fort Valley, Georgia. Miss Williams would take her PEC students in December on the 11th to the world of CO. And that's also to look at job related skills such as listening comprehension, workplace etiquette. The high school would like to have takes the students the sorry not the high school the JEES would like to take their third, fourth and fifth grade students to Georgia College and that is to witness the Nutcracker Ballet at the Russell Auditorium and that's to support the readers theater and to watch the actual performance that the students will be reading about. Miss Williams would like to take the PEC department in December on 18th for their annual Walmart Christmas shopping and lunch in Mon, Georgia. The
017FFA would like to participate in the agricultural sales competition in Fort Valley, Georgia. That will be in January. The PEC department will tra travel in January to the Tubman Museum to see the Martin Luther King Jr. exhibit that will be in Mon on that day and that will be on the 23rd of January. On the 11th of February, the FFA will travel to Fort Valley for the agricultural ed competition and poultry competition and that will be on the 11th of February as well. They would travel to back to Fort Valley for the forestry competition and the parliamentary procedure competition on the 12th. And Jes's fourth graders would travel to the making Mayhem school day game in Mon on the 26th of February. The PEC department in February would travel to Atlanta to the Atlanta airport
018to see the Delta Flight Museum. and they were planning their annual trip, which will be an out ofstate trip with all of their planning for the year and fundraising to travel to Washington DC. They'd like to visit the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Smithsonian Museum. And that will be in March, March the 9th, and on March the 10th. The PEC department also will travel to Lane's Peaches in Fort Valley in April. and the fundraisers that are in place to attend to to to begin to raise monies for some of these events. The the high school would like to have a sponsorship ads sold for homecoming the 22nd through the 15th of September. that also all schools would like to participate in the United Way contributions for it's a district-wide initiative and last year
019we raised $7,000. The goal this year is $7,500 to give to United Way to support Twigs County. The varsity boys basketball team would like to raise funds for their summer camps and for bus drivers. They'd like to do that. Also, the cheerleaders would like to sell have a cake raffle and a gain and tied basket raffle and that will be led by Miss Mia Hunt. The PEC department would also like to put together and sell a cookbook. They're going to actually test out the recipes uh here at the high school and they'll put together a cookbook that they can sell and share with family, friends, and the community. and that will be September through February of 2026. The pep squad at JEES would like to have PI a teacher fundraiser and that would help to
020raise funds to pay for their equipment, their potential field trips and uniforms. The Beta Club would like to sell Kona Ice in September. In April, they'd like to sell cupcakes as well. And again, that is to raise funds for their summit, their state, and their national competitions. Miss Owens would like to raise funds for the National Honor Society by having a nacho and cheese sale. And the JOTC would like to have a chocolate bar fundraiser in order to raise funds for JOTC equipment. The Beta Club also in November and in February and March would like to have a fall goodie bags sale, a crispy cream doughut certificate sale, and a Beta Fest student and faculty basketball game. And again, all of those funds will be used for the state and the national competitions. And finally,
021the boys basketball team would like your permission to have a Cobra season tipoff game against the players and the coaches. And that would be used to raise funds for the basketball camps and for transportation. That concludes our field trip request and fundraisers. And again, most of those are for the entire year for four of our clubs and organizations. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Bulock. May I get a motion to accept the field request from uh superintendent? >> I move that motion. >> Second. >> The motion have been properly made by Miss Blackshere and seconded by Mr. Butler to approve the field trips and the fundraisers uh district request presented by uh Superintendent Dr. Bulock. Any questions? Again, motion made by Miss Blackshere and second by Mr. Butler to approve the district request presented by Dr. Bulock.
022All in favor, I know you're by I. I'm raving your hand. >> That motion carried unanimous. >> Thank you, sir. >> Now that the chairman has come to relieve me, I'm proud of you. Thank you. It's in your hand, brother Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Rouse. And I apologize for being late. I had some business I need to take care of that was a bit urgent. Uh but anyway, uh this time we'll hear from Miss uh D the Secus which substitute teacher update. >> Good evening board chair Carstarfin, Vice Chair Ralph, board members, Dr. Bullard superintendent and good evening to all of you who have joined us this evening in person and those that have joined us virtually. I'm going to share with you some information and an update on our substitute list that we have
023this year. But before I do that, um we are a district with a vision and a mission. And that vision is generating excellence. One team, one goal. and our mission is to inspire, challenge and prepare all students to compete globally. This presentation aligns with our strategic goals number four and five which are growing and sustaining our village and we are premier people first organization. in the school year 25. This past year, we did um engage in a substitute process change. Um previously, we worked with an outside organization uh that provided our substitutes to us. This past year, we brought that back in house and uh we wanted to be able to monitor to see how the how leave was going, how our substitutes were working. So, our assistant principles started the process of monitoring our
024leave. And one of the main things we had teachers do this year um was to make direct contact with the assistant principles or an administrator. Prior to that they would enter the uh information into a computer system. This year they actually spoke this past year they actually spoke with an administrator when they were going to be out. Um, we had a list of substitutes that human resources managed and we kept that list of substitutes updated. We provided all of that information to both of our schools uh through a Google document and we made sure we kept all the information available to them. We did begin using a different training mechanism with our substitutes. We implemented the online training platform called steady. Um, and this platform provides 10 hours of training to our new substitutes, which
025is approximately double what the state of Georgia requires. um prior to getting a certificate, each substitute has to complete an assessment um before they can get the substitute and send that information to me. And because it is available to them online 247, they're able to complete that program on their own time. Additionally, after they complete the training, they have um a year that they can access all of that information as well as they are given access to a social media page where they can share ideas with other substitutes. Now, we did have some substitutes this year that were uh certified teachers. Whenever we have certified teachers, they do not have to go through the additional training because they already hold a certificate. Now, throughout 2425, we did have six individuals that completed the steady training
026that we added to our list. Just to give you an idea of our substitute numbers over the past few years, in the year 2324, we had a total of 29 subs. Year 24 and 25, we had a total of 29 subs. Now, of course, the number while it looks the same, some of some of the names changed and we had some that left and some that joined us. We do keep an active job link on our website for anyone that is interested in becoming a sub. And when someone applies, we send them a detailed email with the instructions uh that they need to complete the training. Once they complete the training, they get in touch with human resources and we go through the background check and then provide them with any other orientation information that
027they need to look at the fill rate over the past few years. In FY2324, when we looked at how many positions were actually filled throughout the year, we had a 85% fill rate. For 2425, we had a 92% fill rate. And then we actually were able to hire one of our substitutes um as a teacher this year for FY26. And then finally, uh, the best part in, uh, 2324, we spent $240,78 on, um, our substitutes. In 2425, that number reduced to $21,481, which gave us a savings of $39,227. Any questions for me? >> Any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you. Mr. H. >> Good evening, board checkin, >> vice chair Ralph, board members, guest virtually and in person. Today we'll be talking about related services here at Twe County Schools. But before we
028talk about that, we talk about who we are. We are system with a vision, generate excellence. One team, one goal. And our mission is to inspire, challenge, and prepare all students to compete globally, which aligns with our strategic strategic goals, excellence ahead, academics, facilities, and opportunities, and doing things at TW's way. So we'll talk about FY26 related contract services. The three services that we will to discuss today we talk physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy. The first thing we'll address is physical therapy. The physical therapist promotes motive development and student participation in everyday routines and activities that are part of the students programs. Our students are being served right now with physical therapy through a middle Georgia. Miss Christy Healer serves about 10 students in person and is a total of $24,720. Occupational
029therapist is um the therapy addresses the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial and social components of performance including but not limited to fine motor skills, gross motor skills, handwriting and spacing. And that's um that's um done by Miss Cynthia Reese of Hannes Therapy. She serves about 15 students at $520 per week and annual cost of $18,720. Our last native services um is speech therap speech language therapist. The speech language pathologist works with students with communication disorders included but not limit to articulation production of sounds, language expression and receptive. This year we have two uh two part-time um therapists. The first one is Dr. Terry Dixon of Speech Speech Therapy Unlimited. She serves our students at JEES and the Head Start students that um need additional support. She serves about 34 students at $1,000 per week. It cost
030$36,000. Um Dr. Tiffany Scandrid, she does our communication for communication dynamics. She serves our access students at JEES Twizz County Middle High School, Twizz Academy. She serves a total of 25 students at $1,000 per week at a cost of $31,000 um for 36 weeks. Any questions? Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you. Mr. Re, good evening. Board Chair Car Sarfin, Vice Chair Rouse, board members, Superintendent Dr. Matt Bullard and our constituents in person and virtual. Tonight, my first presentation is going to be on the 2025 milestone data. I'll start with our vision generating excellence, one team, one goal, and our mission to inspire, challenge, and prepare all students to compete globally. This addresses our strategic goals. One, learning and wellness for all and two, excellence ahead, academics, facilities, and opportunities. These
031scores were released publicly and have been published on many platforms including the convocation where you the board members were in attendance. What you will see today takes those same scores that you saw and includes the retakes. Students who scored in the beginning categories had the opportunity to retake the test after a period of remediation. These scores represented in this presentation take the original scores and replaces them with the retake scores for the students who retested and then recalculated. So they look may look a little different than what you saw during convocation and what has been published publicly. We're going to start with the elementary 2524 comparison so you can see the difference between the two years. We see that this year our third graders scored 51% of our third graders scored developing, proficient or distinguished
032which developing is the beginning stages of proficiency. Then we have our proficient students and we have our distinguished students. Fourth grade we had 58% this year compared to 54% last year. And fifth grade we had 76% this year and 76% last year. And you will see that this is comparing two different sets of students. With that in mind, this next set of data is taking the same students. Our third graders, this is the first time they test, so we have nothing to compare them to. But our fourth graders, we compare them to where they were in third grade. As third graders, they had 53% scoring developing proficiency proficient and distinguished and this year's 58% score developing proficient or distinguished which is an increase. We see that our third graders, our fifth graders last year when
033they were third graders scored 56%. When they were fourth graders, 54% and then last year as fifth graders, 76% of our students scored as developing, proficient, and distinguished. That's great news to see our scores and how much they've increased. And sadly tonight I don't have time to celebrate as much as I would like the celebrations that we have within this. Um but tonight I want to point out the areas where we still have room to grow and celebrate but we won't get to celebrate a lot because of time. Next you see JES mathematics comparing third grade the previous year to third grade last year we had 87% compared to 70%. Then fourth grade 76 to 80 83% to 76% and then 71% to 72%. I want you to see the third grade 2024 compared to
034the third grade to fourth grade 2025. That's the same group of students. So you see that they grew from 70% to 76%. On this next slide, you're going to see how our fifth graders progressed from third grade at 85 to 83 in fourth grade to 61 in fifth grade. And you see that's clearly was an area of need on what are we going to do as those students metriculate to sixth grade this year? How are we going to get them back up to where they started in third grade at 85%. We'll talk about the next three groups of students on this slide later when we talk about middle school. Next, we have the end of grade science. We're going to focus on JEES on the left hand side. This is the first time that they
035take the science uh milestone and they do not take social studies milestones in fifth grade. You'll see that in fifth grade 2024, 68% of our students were developing or above. And in 2025, we add 52%. We've um done the research to find where our area of need is, and we're working on that with our fifth grade currently. And then we also know that going into sixth grade. Now, we're going to look at our middle school. Again, we're going to start with comparing apples to oranges, two different groups of students. So we see that in sixth grade, the sixth graders in 2024 had 63% and that grew to 71%. We had in 2024 our seventh graders were 44% prof developing and above and now they're at 77% developing and above. That's a great gain, but remember
036that's two different groups of students. And then the same thing, 8th grade we had 75 compared to 73. Again, two different groups of students. When we look at the next slide, we're looking at the same group of students. So, we see our sixth graders last year, how they grew from fourth grade through to sixth grade. So, they went from 71 to 70 61 to 76 to 71%. We see our seventh graders went from 77 to 63 and back to 77%. And then we see our eighth graders started in sixth grade as 49%. They went to 44% in seventh grade and they grew to 73% at the end of 8th grade. That's a significant improvement. Then we move on to middle school math. We're looking at 2024. We have 55% compared to 77%. Then we seventh
037grade we started at 37 and went to 70%. And then we have eighth grade from 59 to 69%. When we look at the same group of students, this is the last half of this graph that we saw earlier. The fourth graders moving to sixth grade, they went from 82 to 71 and back up to 77. Our seventh graders started at 67, went to 55 and moved back up to 70. Then our eighth grade went from 41 to 37 to 59. And that's an area that we have as need for improvement. Then our eighth grade science and social studies. Again, they don't revisit science until 8th grade after fifth grade. So the next time they take it is in eighth grade. They went from 35% to 34%. It's an area of need. Our eighth grade social
038studies, the first time that they take this test is in 8th grade, and they went from 59% to 41%. And then we look at our high school. Finally, our high school milestones. This is the end of course test. US history, we went from 39 to 32 to 59%. So some significant gains there. Biology, we went with from 36 to 26 28 and then to 56% of our students developing proficient and above. Significant gains again. Our American lit went from 65 to 28% and then we went all the way up to 68% this past year. And then our algebra scores went from 25 to 35 and now they're at 72%. That's again a significant gain. So we've had quite a few areas of success with a few pockets of need for improvement. And um some way
039here's a public service announcement. Way that the public can help your students at home is reading aloud to your children. Not only does it benefit your child, but it benefits you too as an adult. Are there any questions about our milestone scores? Are there any questions? Thank you, Miss Ria, [Applause] >> for the good news. >> It's me again. >> Oh, yeah. Okay. We've this this presentation is on federal programs. Uh the federal program budget update. We've already established protocol. Okay. >> This is focusing again on strategic goals one and two. Like in other years, the process for receiving our federal funds begins with the clip. Um, I provided you with the clip, the consolidated LEA improvement plan, a ver a digital copy of that. I already presented that to you. Again, that document is
04088 pages long, so it's a lot of reading involved. But in order to help you out with that tonight, we're going to focus on what the main goals are and where you can go to focus in that document because it is a lot. Um, in the consolidated ALEA improvement plan, the clip inside of that plan is our needs assessment for the district and the data analysis and our plans for improvement. The actual district improvement plan begins on page 48 of the document that you were provided. And I'm just going to give a quick overview of the goals. The first goal is to improve our milestone scores and our second goal overall is to improve attendance. Then tonight I also or this past week I provided you with the school improvement plan for Jeffersonville Elementary School.
041The schools also all have a needs assessment followed by a school improvement plan. You have all three of these as well. The Jeffersonville Elementary School improvement plan in the document that you have actually begins on page 42. In this they have three main goals to improve instruction through professional learning to improve the milestone scores and improve attendance. The Twigs County Middle School school improvement plan and the document that you have actually begins on page 41. It also includes the needs assessment uh the data analysis and the plans for improvement. The three main goals are improving milestone scores, improving climate and culture, and improving attendance. And the high school as well, you have that document. It begins on page 42 in the document you have. And the three main goals are improving milestone scores, improving climate
042and culture, and improving attendance. These four documents are what drives um how we can spend our federal funds. As you remember back this past summer, there was a lot of debate, a lot of things in the news about receiving federal funds, what we were going to receive, if we were going to receive, when we were going to receive. To begin with, they were giving us the title one, and the state was going to give us title five, but title two and title four, the federal government was holding that money back. So, as we planned for the beginning of this school year, we were focusing on how do we take the money that we have, meaning title one and title five, and how do we get all the things done that we did with the four
043title programs into those two title programs. And then once we finished getting all those plans together, then they released the funds for title two and title four. So, we went back to the drawing board and how can we best utilize those funds across the four grants? And that's what we're going to cover today. So these funding sources support the goals and the action steps which if you look at those district and school improvement plans, it further defines the goals and the action steps which that's where the work happens is in the action steps and it supports the action steps of the improvement plans. So title one is uh for improving student achievement. It is $532,510. It's an increase of 12,643 over last year. In this, we have a set aside for 2526. In the set
044aside, it's the money that we take off the top and allocated into certain areas. The required set aside for family engagement, if you receive over $500,000, you are required to set aside a minimum of 1% for family engagement. That number is $5,326. We set aside that plus a significant additional amount to um support family engagement. We also in the set aside pay for grant management, the audit of the grant and indirect costs. It also pays for our district-wide coach and master teacher, our district-wide data retreat at the end of the sum uh end of the school year, beginning of the summer, and instructional improvement planning that occurs over the summer. It includes professional learning that occurs throughout the school year. It supports our um ESOL students, our um English language learners. It supports our homeless
045students through McKenna Vento through our Cobra Care Center. And then it goes the money that's after the um set aides are taken out. Then we have our school allocations. That school allocation money is $134,696. It becomes a per pupil allocation of $226 that is divided up among the schools by the number of poverty children within each school at Jeff. So therefore, Jefferson Elementary will receive $64,184 because their student population has a poverty percentage of 87.12%. The middle school will be receiving $31,640. Their poverty percentage is 100% of their students. The high school will be receiving 38,872, which their poverty percentage is 74% 74.78%. Overall, Twigs County Public Schools has a poverty enrollment of 85.63%. Our total enrollment is 696 students K through 12. And of those students, 596 of them are considered to be students
046of poverty. Then we have the Title 2 grant. This is one of the ones that was held back from the federal government and then they released it to us. It is $66,984. It is a reduction of $1,434 over last year. Title two can be used for improving teacher quality. It is covering our induction program, our professional learning, our gifted endorsement, and our program management audit and indirect costs. Title five is $61,19. It's a reduction of $3,931 over last year. It is made up of two grants, our title four and our title five. You see there what the title four and title five money is and how the reduction came to be. 39 uh 3,931. It supports our PBIS program management and software. It supports our afterchool and summer school bus drivers. And as a reminder
047from what Dr. Bullard had originally said, our annual title one parent meeting goes into more depth on how this money is being spent, what it covers and why, and our school goals and how the budget supports those goals. And we will also talk about the mission of communities and schools. There will be a meal provided for the first 60 attendees and it will be provided to our students and families only. Are there any questions? That was a lot. Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Miss Rita. >> You're welcome. Dr. Griff Stewart. >> Good afternoon, Chair Karfin, Vice Chair Rouse, board members, Superintendent Dr. M Bullard, all of our stakeholders listening virtually and in person. Um, this evening, I will be presenting information about the Twe County High School Honor graduates expectations for the 2526
048school year. But before I can share this information with you, we are a district with a vision and a mission. Our vision is generating excellence, one team, one goal. And our mission is to inspire, challenge, and prepare all students to compete globally. The strategic goals aligned to this presentation is number one, learning and wellness for all and excellence ahead, academics, facilities, and opportunities. Our honor's guidance. How can a student become an undergraduate this year? A student with a cumulative average of 90.0000 or above will be classified as an undergraduate. Each cumulative average is carried out three decimal places and is not rounded off to the next higher number. The validictorian and the saludiatoran. The graduating senior with the highest cumulative average enrolled at Tweets County High School will be named validictorian and the student with
049the second highest cumulative average will be named saludiatoran to be included in the ranking for validictorian or saludiatoran. A student must be enrolled in the Tweets County High School on a continuous enrollment period of no less than two years prior to their anticipated date of graduation. Special note, the validictorian and the saludiatoran rankings are based on the class rankings effective at the end of the second nine weeks grading period. Honor graduates, the validictorian saludiatoran and undergraduates will be named at the end of the second nine weeks grading period. When is the second nine weeks grading period? According to our 202526 grading calendar, the cycle ends on December 19th, 2025. Teachers post grades on January 6, 2026, and report cards will be issued January 7th, 2026. Please note that the class rankings are subject to change
050according to the performance of the student during their senior year. Undergraduates must be hope eligible. All candidates for the distinction of validictorian, saludiatoran, or undergraduate must be deemed hope scholarship eligible as defined by the Georgia Student Finance Commission. All honors and scholarships are subject to review and transfer with the final calculations of the cumulative grade point average at the conclusion of the second nine weeks grading period. As you can see, board members, we had our first senior meeting on August the 12th and um seniors had an opportunity, you see the visuals there of multiple um senior advisors and senior teachers as well as our principles and leaders and Dr. Bullard for the first senior meeting of the year. Students reviewed their transcripts, other expectations, but they also reviewed the honor graduate expectations. And so if
051you look on the next slide, we've had 39 seniors to sign our undergraduate statement here that I have just covered in our previous slides. What's next for our undergrad next steps? We will conduct our parent meeting, our senior parent meeting in October. Um, Principal Jenkins will provide that date. Um, the school will communicate with our senior parents about that parent meeting. We will send information home via Remind. Um, Principal Jenkins will have a live a live news broadcast and parent meetings. We just want to take this time to encourage our seniors to do their best from the very beginning of the year until the end of the year. Don't stop working until the end until we're finished. We want to encourage our parents to continue to work with us, especially with our seniors, to make
052sure they keep pushing those seniors, all seniors, and our honor graduates to the end of the year. Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Griffin Stewart. Uh you still up? >> Okay. So um this next presentation is the Tweets County Public Schools guidance grading document for guidance. The vision mission as well as strategic goals have already been set. So what is the purpose of grading? The purpose of grading and reporting is to communicate to parents, guardians, and students the Georgia standards of excellence that students are expected to meet. Grades will be assigned to show mastery of standards or progress towards the mastery of standards. Our standard grading scale for our first through 12th graders include ELA, math, science, social studies, our elective courses, and our CTA courses. 90 to 100 A, 80 to 89 equals
053a B, 70 to 79 C, and below 70 equals F. Our kindergarten students have a different report card system. The indicators below will be used to report student progress on essential skills in the content areas and social studies development on the report card. These reflect the Georgia K kindergarten inventory of developing skills known as GIS. So when parents when you receive your academic report card you will see exec that means that that student may be exceeding in that skill. DEM demonstrating, deev developing, em emerging, and ND not demonstrated. So um kindergarten students start and they will move through various levels during the year as they master those skills. Our first through eighth grade students, the following will serve as the basis for grading progress in all subjects. It will be two areas. Standardsbased instructional tasks
054will equal 60% of a student's grade. So what does that include? It includes classwork grades. That's those daily assignments, homework grades, our formative assessments like those quick checks in class, quizzes, labs, tests, uh, and rubrics and anything else that the teacher deem as a standardsbased instructional task. Formative grades includes anything that teachers assign during the course of a unit that informs the teacher on a student's progress towards meeting the standard. That's assessment for learning. The other 40% will be their standardsbased assessment. That is their end of chapter test constructed response. This is them demonstrating the mastery of the standard. 9th through 12th grade will be divided a little differently. It will be the same concept but it'll be standardsbased instructional task will be 40% with some of the same examples I shared for the elementary
055and middle school. Then their standardsbased assessment task will also be 40% of their grade. But the last will be the final exam or end of course test will be 20%. At the beginning of each course teachers should provide their students with a syllabus. And so all students in high school have been provided a syllabus. If um parents would like a copy of the syllabus, they can see principal Jenkins and the syllabus will be provided upon request. All teachers are expected to have two grades in their grade book per week via Infinite Campus. Our um handbook is digital this year and is already um on our website. So refer to the school level handbook regarding makeup assignments, makeup work after absences, and extra credit assignments. The JEES and TW County middle school cycle for grading will
056be on a nine weeks grading period, but it will also follow the cumulative cycle. We try to make sure that parents can see what each nineweek grade is and it also helps us honor our students during the honors days. Um, our Twigs County Middle School will pretty much follow that as well, but it will be a cumulative ongoing schedule. Also attached here you will see our Twe County Public Schools 2025 2026 grading calendar. So right now Dr. Bullet stated that in the opening that progress reports will go home tomorrow but the first nine weeks final report cycle the cycle will end October 3rd 2025 post due is 10:13 we will verify the grades on 10:14 by 12 noon and the first report card for the first nine weeks will go home on October 15th. Are
057there any questions? Are there any questions? >> Thank you, Dr. W. >> All right. Thank you, board members. >> Mr. Austin. Good evening, board chair Kustafen, Vice Chair Rouse, board members, superintendent of schools, Dr. Bulock, constituents in person and virtually. I'm presenting our FY27 budget calendar and it does support our vision of generate excellence, one team, one goal, and our mission to inspire, challenge, and prepare all students to compete globally. It is a budget document, so it does support all five of our strategic plan goals. So we typically bring the budget calendar in January but I wanted to illustrate to the community to the board what we do from September through December and if there is any feedback and questions upon that this is to show guidance on this process in its entirety. So in
058September this particular month um is our baseline and strategic direction. Uh we're presenting the budget calendar on tonight. We have preliminary discussions as senior cabinet the leaders in the school district about long-term goals and staffing master schedule review from all schools. We do review salary benefits, vacancies and data trends of current staff determine any high level budget priorities and review cash flow u burn rate and make projections. uh cash flow burn rate here just means that we're monitoring uh the dollars that we have available until we receive our taxes um in October November period. In October is a data heavy month. We have CPI FTE student class which drives our funding from our state allocation grants positioning equitable service and allocation for our title programs and IDA which Miss Ren has u done her presentation
059on tonight and forthcoming Mr. How will present his information as well. In November we will talk more about open enrollment numbers for state health benefit. We have talked over the past two, three years about the increase in state health benefits. So monitoring how many people are enrolled is important because it helps us project any local costs that we'll have to pay um that the certified staff of course they're funding through the state. We'll look at staff and administrative needs for the upcoming year um including the succession planning, attrition and resation. Uh we'll review our organizational charts, review of work and payroll calendars as well. In December, it's the capital planning and splice review. We'll look at our capital needs for the upcoming year. Um it is best practice for us to plan capital expenditures um
060a year or two in advance. So we try to stay ahead of that and then instructional resources review ensuring that all the things that we have in place instructionally, we are planning for that for the upcoming year. In January of 2026, um we'll look at what we theme as the salary schedule plus HR and budget framework. We review all of our salary schedules, review our staffing plans and allocation, and adjust fiscal year 2026 budget at midyear point. Preliminary financial projections will take place in February. Uh the projections for fiscal year 27, 28, and 29. We'll establish our cash flow calendar and cash burn ratios. again projecting out um needs as we go into the last quarter here. And then we'll look at also approval of personnel recommendations. In March, we'll build operating budgets. This is
061nonsary budgets. We will build those. We'll work with our um board members as as well provide any feedback that you all will have for us as well through the superintendent office and department heads. will determine if the proposed budget frameworks are resilient to unexpected changes political, economic, social, technology, environment, and legal. Um we have faced several um of these in our upcoming budget um specifically with our federal programs as Mor written has mentioned. So we want to be conscious of the change in environment and then approval of personnel recommendations if any more and then budget overview number one would take place. So, April, what is in the budget? So, we'll look at um budget overview number two. We'll highlight budget recommendations, limitations, forecast, revenue, and expenditures, and we'll ensure the district has addressed the question,
062are we reducing costs by becoming more efficient? In May, we'll present budget overview number three and present the tenative fiscal year 2027 budget. In June of 2026, we'll look for budget approval. In August, we'll have the 2026 tax digest um approved. And of course, we have an advertisement if there's any changes far as a tax increase, percent increase as they call it. Not a mill rate increase, but a tax increase. Um this could alter the approval timeline, but we'll wait for guidance from the tax office. Any questions, comments, concerns at this time about the 2026 2027 budget calendar? >> I just would like to say something, Mr. Chair, >> with the grants. I know you said positioning grants or positioning um with the budget of course. Um how are we doing with the healthc care
063center? I know we got a grant for that. So do you know or you can bring many information back to the board if you don't have it? >> I'll speak generally and then bring specifics. Uh it is well attended. Participation is great. Um they as in the state provided an additional pot of money to continue to support the wellness center. So the state has done that for I think it's an additional year and after their period of time for as all the grants have expired. Uh we do believe it'll be self- sustaining. They have um plans to continue operations depending on their revenue stream. So they still have some money to draw down for salaries and we're still in involved in that. Uh we just uh reimbursed them from the state allocation believe maybe two
064weeks ago. So they're still drawing down on the state money that they received. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are there any other questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Olson. Well, this time we're going to uh move into our executive session to discuss personnel matters, future acquisitions of property pending or potential litigation, school safety, or cyber security. Can I get a motion to move into executive session? >> Second. Okay, a motion has been properly made by Miss Blackshere and second by Mr. Butler. Are there any questions? Okay, the motion is to move into executive session. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Thank you. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music]
065Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay. Can I get a motion to return from executive session? >> So move Second. >> The motion to return from executive session has been properly made by Miss King and second by Mr. Rouse. Uh, is there any question? Okay. Again, the motion is to return from executive session. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes unanimously. Excuse me. At this time, uh, can I get a motion to accept the super superintendent's res, uh, recommendation for one resignation, EID number 3411. >> So move second. >> Okay. A motion has been made
066by Miss Black Shear and second by Miss King to accept the superintendent's recommendation. Uh, is there any question? Okay, the motion again is to uh accept the superintendent's recommendation for resignation of EID 3411. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Dr. Bullet, do you have any other business? >> We have concluded all our business for tonight. >> Okay, thank you. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. Second. >> Okay. The motion to adjurnn has been properly made by Miss King, second by Mr. Butler. Uh, any question? Okay. Then again, the motion is to adjourn. All All in favor, raise your hand. This meeting is adjourned.