001[Music] n [Music] a [Music] la [Music] sh [Music] good evening and welcome to the TW County Board of Education meeting especially all of our inperson guests and I imagine those are out there in cyberspace uh with Facebook or wherever welcome we welcome you as well uh at this time we want to call the twis County Board of Ed Education meeting to order today is uh Tuesday March 11 2025 and the time is 6:02 uh Cadet uh Finn is here is that right correct is here today to lead us in a pledge we're going to ask you all to stand and and she's going to lead us in the pledge and we're going to pause for a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic
002for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so miss FN on behalf of the superintendent and board members we want to thank you for doing our pledge today and we want to present you with this certificate of appreciation so if you will let me present it to you and if you will go out in the middle followed out the Buller so we can take a quick photo so let's give her another round of applause she's a ninth grader at the twis county middle high school thank you okay I will now entertain a motion to approve the agenda for Tuesday March 11th 20 2025 I move that motion okay thank you um the motion to approve the agenda for Tuesday March 11th 20125 has been properly made by Miss
003Black Shear and second by Miss King uh the questions on a motion to approve the agenda for March Tuesday March 11 2025 all in favor raise your hand okay the motion passes unanimously now you've all had an opportunity to look at the the minutes from um uh the February 11th meeting as well as the uh board retreat on February 18th are there any corrections if there are no Corrections then the minutes uh stand approve as written uh Miss uh Black Shear would you read the ethic statement please yes sir 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 scheduled before us or appeared on our proposed agenda does any board member have
004any conflict of interest seeing none Mr chair we will proceed with our agenda okay thank you Miss Black Shear this time are there any board members that have any comments or remarks I silent tonight no sir well thank everybody for coming it's a it's a crowd here and we appreciate y'all for coming to support us thank you and I have something I'd like to talk about um I've been thinking a lot about some things and this thought has come to my mind it just won't go away uh so I was just thinking what if some concerned citizen got together with a group of kids and started a book club meet with them maybe once or twice a month everybody's reading the same book talk about the book discuss the book and my mind just I
005have a wild imagination but I was just wondering if book clubs popped up all over twig County a book club popping up in Spring Valley a book club popping up in Jeffersonville a book club popping up in Danville a b book club popping up in the nanny hole a book club popping up in Dr Branch a book club popping up on 129 a book club popping up on D Street just imagine what that would look like Twi County and and and and and the more I thought about it I saw this big event where all these book clubs got together and they celebrated all these kids reading 100 books and we had a big celebration downtown I just wonder what that would look like listen if you think you might be that person that wants
006to do that but you're just not quite sure how to do it contact me you can call the board and leave your name and number and I'll reach out to you and we can sit down and we'll plan a strategy but just think about it what if I get excited thinking about it anyway that that's those are my comments so superintendent you have any comments tonight those are some great comments Miss blackshire and Mr car Starin great comments I can Envision that myself Mr chair Vice chair board members all of our constituents who are with us in person on tonight and those who are joining us virtually again I wish you a great evening tonight I want to take a moment to honor and to recognize and celebrate the dedicated individuals who serve on the
007Twigs County Board of Education Mr Thomas car staren Mr Isaiah Rouse Mrs Teresa black year Mrs Ronda King and Mr chzn Butler as we observe Schoolboard appreciation week from March 10th through 14th 2025 we acknowledge the unwavering commitment of our board members who work tirelessly to ensure the success of our students the success of our teachers administrators and staff the school board members are more than just decision makers they are Advocates they are protectors they are champions for every child in our school system they celebrate our successes they challenge us to reach higher and ensure that we have the resources and support necessary for Contin was Improvement in every school and every Department one of the greatest strengths of our board of education is their connection to the people that they serve our board members
008are caring they're down to earth and always willing to listen they're engaged in the work of providing the best education possible for the students of Twigs County their leadership does shape and guide our district ensuring that our schools remain places of learning growth and opportunity this week of appreciation is recognized Statewide and is sponsored by the Georgia school boards Association which emphasizes the Central role of school boards in shaping the future of Education in Georgia as constitutional officers of Georgia our board members make significant decisions that impact the lives of our students and the future of our community so today and throughout this week I ask that we all take a moment to express our gratitude to the Twigs County Board of Education for their service and their dedication whether that be through a kind
009word a note of thanks or simply recognizing their hard work let us show appreciation for their efforts in leading our schools and investing in the future of twig County students to our school board members I want to personally say thank you for your vision thank you for your leadership thank you for your heart for Education your service makes a difference every single day together we will continue to inspire Challenge and prepare all of our students to compete globally Mr chair that completes my comments for tonight thank [Applause] you thank you I guess that's the best thing to say thank you very much um at this time we going to uh start our business agenda and up first we have Dr bullet with the district request yes sir Mr chair the school system does have District
010requests that we request you the board's approval and they do align with our vision of generating Excellence one team one goal and the mission to inspire Challenge and prepare all of our students to compete globally the Jes program for exceptional children self-contained classroom likes your permission to take a field trip on the 25th to Tubman Museum and that is to learn historical figures in American history the ninth grade Twix County High School AR I'm sorry agricultural students would like your permission on the 28th and the first to take a field trip to greenhand conference Georgia FFA FCCLA Center and this is to learn about plant and animal production and natural resources management TS County high school cosmetology program likes your permission to travel to the Warner Robbins Central Georgia Technical College on the 14th for
011a College and Career Readiness program to see the cosmetology program requirements at Central Georgia Technical College Twix County High School 10th and 11th graders would like your permission on the 21st to travel to Georgia languages contest which is at the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta where they will be participating in a novice mid Prof icy in pronunciation and intonation competition and they'll actually be presenting poems in different languages on the 23rd the Middle High School Marching Cobra band would like your permission to travel to mon Georgia to participate in the Cherry Blossom Festival parade and on the 24th the Jes Beta Club would like your permission to travel to Jackal Island for the Jackal Island Leadership Summit that's going to be conducted for the state the 7th through 11th grade program for exceptional children would
012like your permission to go to mon to the Goodwill on the 27th and there they will be learning about job skills staying on task and working together in small groups on the job and again that same group would like your permission to travel back to Goodwill for the same purpose on the 10th of April fundraising request are the 27th of February through the 27th of March the twicks County High School would like your permission to raise funds for their prom their prom committee the Jes Beta Club would like your permission to have $10 donations given throughout the community to for a chance to win a gas grill from the 5ifth through the of March through the 7th of May and this will be to raise funds for them to travel to their National Conference in
013Florida The Twig count of Middle High School girls and boys track team would like your permission to sell candy to the student body the 14th through of March through the 30th of April and this is to purchase their track uniforms and other track necessities and lastly the Twigs County Middle High School girls basketball team would like your permission to have a fish fry they'll have it on the 7th and the 8th of April and that's to raise funds so that they can travel to their basketball camp this summer board members this concludes the district request fundraisers fundraisers and field trips for this month thank youc excuse me thank you Dr bullet uh at this time can I get a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendations for field trips and fundraisers I move the motion to
014approve the with the request from our superintendent all the district request request I second it okay the motion has properly been made by Miss Black Shear and second by Mr Butler uh the question is on the motion to approve the to approve excuse me the superintendent's uh request uh District request uh all in favor raise your hand okay the motion passes uh unanimously uh at this time uh Mr basley and Miss drummer uh computer upgrades in the computer science class good evening board chair car Sten Vice chair Rouse board members superintendent Dr bullet and stakeholders today we will be talking about the computer science computer purchase um you've had this for two weeks so I'll go through it briefly and this is an action item before I do that we are a district with a
015vision generating Excellence one team one goal with a mission to inspire Challenge and prepare all students to compete globally this does align to all of our strategic goals one through five really briefly we'll talk about the overview of this purchase we'll talk about the purpose the product the funding sources and the program overview that it will support the purchase of the purpose of this purchase is the district is seeking to purchase Dale desktops for the you for the academic use in the computer science department um this program is reaching maturity um they've been using Chromebooks for the last two years in that particular classroom and just with the nature of the program itself we need to upgrade those computers for software comp compatibility issues performance compatibility and St industry standards the product we will be
016using we seeking to purchase is 28 Dale Optiplex Tower plus 7020s you can see the statistics on the board for that partic the specs for that particular computer this computer will have a 24 in monitor which is industry standard for that type of program the funding sources for this uh purchase will be a split between TW Title One funds community and schools and Title Five funds at the time of the quote it was $ 35,3 53636 we did ask the board for a 10% uh contingency buffer just because of that expiration date on that particular quote so the price that we will be asking for is $ 38,8 888 this program will support our partnership through Georgia Tech and the computer science department computer Georgia Tech has been working with rural school districts um since
0172022 and 23 the goals of this program is to increase uh awareness and knowledge in the area of computer science as well as Give Kids the opportunity and um other some other projects for that particular program participating rural high schools in Georgia have access to computer science modules based on unique programs resources at Georgia Tech and developed by their staff some of the path Pathways that our partnership will help us with in our high school are the introduction to software technology computer science principles web design and applications as well as introduction to Hardware technology cyber security intro and advance and artificial technology and machine learning again this purchase will go directly for student use to help promote that particular program are there any questions I have um what would what will happen with the Chromebooks
018so we'll just repurpose them in another particular lab so we'll we'll continue to use those we'll probably put them in like a Spanish class or something like that just repurpose them without throughout the schools and for the new ones we will have insurance some we have insurance on these just that price covers the that price covers a threeyear warranty on those particular machines and that's industry standard are there any other questions okay at this time I'll entertain a motion to uh approve the purchase of the um comp the up the computer upgrades in the computer science uh class I move to um approve the computer upgrade in the computer science division okay a second okay the motion is probably been made by Miss King and second by Mr Butler to approve the computer upgrade um
019the question is on the motion to approve the computer upgrades in the computer science department all in favor raise your hand okay the motion passes unanimously thank you Mr basley thank you m Denson uh cyber security Esports artificial intelligence the whole pain go ahead laboratory greetings Dr M Bullard board chair Ken Vice chair Ral board members stakeholders in person and virtually tonight I would like to present to you the board the board for approval the cyber security e Sports artificial intelligence laboratory proposal before I begin we are addition with a vision of generating Excellence one team one goal and a mission to inspire Challenge and prepare all students to compete globally this presentation and proposal aligned with District strategic goals one and two learning and wellness for all and Excellence ahead academics facilities and opportunities
020the purpose of the the purpose of the cyber security Esports artificial intelligence lab is to inspire students to pursue careers in cyber security and information systems there is a growing need for individuals who possess skills in cyber security the US Bureau of Labor projects a 33% increase in job outlook with salaries ranging from 95,000 to 135,000 in between the mon and Savannah area students from Twix County High School have expressed interest in pursuing certifications in cyber security we have four students currently in the pathway enrolled at Hutchins College and Career Academy to create the lab in our district we applied for and we were awarded three grants the workforce for Georgia Grant in the amount of $50,000 the computer science teacher equipment and Community Grant in the amount of $10,000 and the computer science teacher
021credential Grant in the amount of $155,000 for a grand total of $75,000 so we are going to use these funds to create a 15 unit lab that will support our cyber security our um pathway our Esports teams and artificial intelligence it's going to be in room 302 at the twist County High School campus um the cost for the lab is $58,900 and we're going to use the funds that we've already secured to pay for those um expenses and also to train our teachers and how to implement those programs so at the high school we emphasize a 4E initiative we want our students to graduate being employed enlisted enrolled or entrepreneurs and creating a cyber security pathway will help us in increasing student access and participation currently in order to participate in cyber security students have
022to travel to Hutchins College and Career Academy in the afternoon what that means is they have to have space in their schedule schedu to leave us three periods that would accommodate them to complete the program in a year but it also takes away the time of them traveling back and forth to Hutchins by housing that program in our building it increases access for all of our students so right now it limits to the students that have the space in their schedule to do it but now a 10th grade student who may have six other oh excuse me five other periods will have access to that program because it's actually in our building and the travel time won't be a barrier also it's going to give us a stronger stem culture in our building we'll be
023able to connect our core content classes with what we're doing in ctae under the ctae pathways and we talk about Pathways a lot and what we're trying to do is build a pipeline for our students we're starting in sixth and seventh grade introducing them to careers in technology Miss drummer currently teaches our computer science pathway and so that program starts with our middle school students so by 6 seventh and eighth grade they get the introductory courses ninth grade they take computer science which is moving in Georgia to be a graduation requirement once they take the computer science class it gives them an opportunity to about six different Pathways um those Pathways include web design programming game design web development cloud computing and a pathway called internet of things they'll do that as ninth graders and
024between their 10th and 12th grade year they'll participate in dual enrollment courses the cyber security pathway is a dual enrollment course the pathway is taught for Central Georgia Technical College and students earn a technical certificate of credit once they're done with that pathway that will give them room in their 11th and 12th grade year to participate in apprenticeships and to do internships so they can leave High School from the classroom to a credential and moving into a career um we currently have had students that have participated in internships at Roberts Air Force Base that have completed the engineering pathway through our partnership with Hutchins so the goal ultimately is to create opportunities for our students in the building and removing those barriers are there any questions I have a question for you yes okay when
025you said you're going to train the teachers um how many teachers are you planning on training in um in order to improve that so the program initially through cyber security is going to be taught by a instructor from Central Georgia Tech um that instructor will will virtually come into our building we're going to train a teacher to facilitate that classroom um to engage and assist until we are at a point where we can vet our own instructor to do that um we're also going to in increase the professional development for our computer science teachers and also we want to pull in some of our content teachers as well particularly our science teachers um bringing in the stem truck steam truck that we've been implementing already and trying to create those collaborations so I would say
026upwards of four teachers and we're going to try to do it across curriculum content okay so what would be the with you having um bringing in C Georgia Tech what would be the price to the district so we have a partnership with Hutchins College and Career Academy and that gives us access to every pathway that they offer um and so it's built into our budget through ctae so it wouldn't be any additional cost to the district for that um ideally the program will run some simultaneously so while she has a class on their campus at ens excuse me our students are receiving the same instruction and we'll have a teacher here going through that um endorsement program so that they're able to vet and we can have them as a Central Georgia Tech campus instructor
027that we I don't want to say own but we employ in the district and you're looking at starting this this coming fall yes ma'am um hopefully if approval is granted today we'll have that lab um fitted before before the school year ends and so as we're doing advisement with our 10th 11th and 12th graders we're pulling them into those Pathways sounds yes thank you you're welcome I just want to say I think you did a really good presentation and um that's really exciting to hear about especially with the ways of what jobs are going I think that's really good that we are able to offer that to our students here in twz County yes sir you're about to convince me to come out of retirement come on we trying we [Music] trying um thank you
028very much M ton um uh at this time uh can I get a motion to approve the it's a lot of stuff to to to uh impr approve uh the ctae program in computer science uh to equip the lab for just all those wonderful things you've uh expressed uh can I get a motion for [Music] approval so move second okay the motion has been properly made by Miss Black Shear and second by Mr Butler uh to I mean excuse me was Mr Rouse yes sir oh okay yall sound so much no all right it's been properly made by Miss Black here second by Mr Rouse um to approve the uh the Cyber it's a lot of words here cyber security Esports artificial intelligence laboratory proposal did I get that right yes sir uh all in
029favor uh show by raising your hand okay the motion passes unanimously thank you very much M Jon and I'm going have to visit those classes uh pretty soon yeah I certainly will thank you for the grants keep them going uh at this time we want to hear from Mr Billy mlan he has some he wants to uh share with us some information on LifeWise Academy good evening first of all I'd like to express sincere gratitude to our board our administrators for your service to our students here in twiz County uh I had the priv privilege of uh meeting your chair about a year ago uh and the first time that we met it was absolutely obvious that he had a heart for kids um and it's been a PR privilege to be able to get
030to know him of this last year and and a privilege to be able to call him a brother and a friend uh so appreciate your time here this evening I'll try to be brief and to the point uh my name is Billy mlan student pastor at Stone Creek Baptist Church I've been accused of talking like an Auctioneer so what I'm going to try to do is cram 45 minutes of information in about three minutes um but we got a a a PowerPoint we want to start off with so if you guys want to start that up a couple short videos the school day my son is in the second grade at our local public school and somehow he gets to attend a Bible class during the school day the Supreme Court has spoken public school
031students can receive Bible education during school hours I know it sounds crazy but it's real almost everyone has heard of the separation of church and state but almost no one knows that in 1952 the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can be released from school in the middle of the school day to receive Bible education as long as the program is off school property privately funded and they have parental permission LifeWise Academy believes this is the single greatest missed opportunity of the American Church to reach the next Generation LifeWise Academy exists to provide all all the plug-and-play tools to communities like yours to launch a local program not only is the concept possible but it's spreading rapidly and students lives are being changed we are seeing some of our programs have a participation rate
032of more than 95% of their local public school students most of these students are completely unfamiliar with the basic B stories I was in one class recently where the teacher asked if anyone knew the names of Jesus parents and in a class of 20 public school students not a single one knew that Joseph and Mary were the names of Jesus parents but all of those students are now being taught the Bible so we got the flyer in the mail and I'd never heard of like a bible-based program and I just felt like it cannot hurt Christian was brand new to even the word bible he had it a dice cuz he had somebody haded to die for our sins to think if I hadn't signed him up I don't even know what our lives would
033look like and like our story it might not just be you know 20 minutes in a classroom it might lead somebody to a church and change a whole household I have seen my own children testify they've seen their classmates changed kids need to be affirmed they need sports but more than anything they need to hear the gospel there are people in our backyard who have never heard the name of Jesus I don't know about any other organizations that are doing anything like this we wouldn't be able to discuss these things with them if not for doing it right in the middle of the school day the law allows us to do it so why not do it what could be more important than the Next Generation learning the word of God and why not have
034a Bible education program for your public school students anyone in any Community can get the ball rolling voice your support for a Bible education program for your local school at LifeWise academy.org hey thanks for watching this video check out this poem I just memorized roses are red share this video with everyone you know it only takes 50 signatures let's go yes I a foster parent so at a young age probably between the age of 12 and 16 I knew that I would be doing something with children reached out to my neighbors and told them get on the site I said sign up we need 50 signatures that's it 50 we can do this and I said until we get to that 50 I'm not leaving people alone and so I was tracking people down running
035people down putting it out on my Facebook page just sending it to people sharing it to people just to make sure that LifeWise gets launched one two three cuz it's important for in my community it's very important I want it all over but near and dear to me in my environment it's going to get launched like to see it actually happening for me it was sweatless I mean we went over to the school we the students were waiting for us excited they were lined up we got them on the van they were excited about you know driving over to the church like leaving school you know kids always want to leave school they were excited about leaving school and coming into the building we welcome them we clap them in and they were just so
036amazed at the love that they felt from us for them being there and so we were so excited to just have those seven students because we heard about other areas having way more but we just did not care like if we just had one that's all that matters now serent Ser very good I know that students need God in public schools and they're not getting that and because of that they're struggling so any way to be able to help our students develop a relationship with God I'm going to sacrifice whatever I have to my name is Cynthia lampkins and I help start a LifeWise at miffin Middle School [Music] if you want to begin teaching the Bible to your public school students during school hours go to LifeWise dorg and click find your school enter
037your information to sign your community interest list and share it with everyone you know it only takes 50 signatures to get started all right public schools and LifeWise public educators are heroes they're the ones on the front line now more than ever schools must address character and mental health on top of providing academic construction LifeWise Academy comes alongside administrators and teachers as a supportive Ally in the fight for better character development mental health and academic achievement the benefits from LifeWise character development and LifeWise spends a lot of time focusing on uh developing good character uh we believe this we believe without structure without standard without boundaries um we have complete disorder teaching weekly character qualities and how they can be applied at school and at the home mental health um and challenge you guys to
038go out and and check out the statistics on this the studies on this uh providing the means for religious activity which study show positively affect students mental health academic performance reinforcing and supplementing the skills and achievements that students must gain in order to succeed in school and in life LifeWise aims to positively impact students academically and otherwise by enhancing character and behavior through bible-based lessons leading to improve attendance and reduce suspension ultimately resulting and improve academic performance this is the big plus family and Community involvement attracting and retaining families who may otherwise opt out of public schools due to the lack of religious instruction uh open it up now for a time of questions if you guys have any questions um feel free to ask them I may not have all the answers I can
039promise you this if I don't have the answer I'll get you an answer what other the school district are you uh lightwise in what El life LifeWise is is right now Nationwide um they're in over they're in over uh 400 schools 400 plus schools uh right now I think the closest one to us right now is Carterville um now they have a religious instructional release time program in Blakeley County but it's done it's not done through LifeWise uh they've been successfully doing it for about I think about 7 years now uh they have they have like six to 700 students attended that uh that program so they operate the same way that you guys are the yes ma'am well with life LifeWise LifeWise is uh LifeWise kind of takes all the guest work out of
040it as far as uh you know the the the insurance uh the liability LifeWise has this down to an absolute art uh the reason that we we decided to to go with LifeWise is because it's a proven method uh like I say they they they're Nationwide they're just in a they're in about just about every state in the United States right now thank you any other questions uh yes sir I think it's really good for for this is Twigs I think that's really good definitely with developing character and all those different attributes that you talked about especially with having that faith base what would it look like for us in Twigs if we did that like how many what day how how many times we're talking about starting out the first year starting out small
041starting out with a pilot program uh fifth grade uh the first year year and I'm going to and kind of share my heart and my my my my goals and and my dreams for for LifeWise here in t County I'm praying this thing gets so big we got to go buy a piece of real estate we got to put up a building we've got to buy a fleet of buses to get students involved uh enrolled and the reason the reason I have so much passion for this I've been in student Ministry for over two decades now uh 35 years ago I was a kid running these Halls a kid without hope and I know this and I can say this with absolute certainty being a kid without hope in a desperate situation uh it opens
042up the door for all kind of bad decisions it led for me it led to addiction many years of addiction uh it led to a pretty it led to a life that was spiraling out of control so my desire is to reach every I'm a student pastor at Stone Creek but God has given me the privilege to reach and impact every student that I can come in contact with and I think LifeWise has the potential of doing something absolutely huge in twiz County thank you thank you sir any other questions I notic they said you needed 50 signatures yes sir how many you have you got over 70 and just tell me exactly what do you want from us well what we're asking from our board is that you guys approve uh religious uh instructional
043release time for our students here into County but this is what I want to emphasize more so than you know what we're what we're asking from our school system here in twizz county is this is what we're what we're asking for our school system here in twizz County um I believe that LifeWise will have an impact on not not only the students once again our our desire is to build a firm foundation on our students they can build the rest of their life on and once again when you when you're raising up a generation of young people who have no purpose and and they have absolutely no hope then we're fighting a losing battle and you know for me I don't want to I don't want to sit on the sideline and say it's somebody
044else's battle I want to impact students I want to reach as far as we can and this has the potential of doing that uh getting this this solid foundation upon these students they can build the rest of their lives on I don't want to stand before the good Lord one day and had to come up with excuses why I sat on the sideline and did absolutely nothing um so my encouragement to the board is this allow us to come partner with you guys and allow us to fight this good fight with you guys allow us to fight for the for the souls the hearts and the minds of our kids and I can promise you this it's a it's a fight worth fighting and a fight that I'm absolutely worth uh investing everything that I
045am into I have a question for you yes ma'am okay when you said you want to start something so what is exactly are you saying as far as when when I when I think of that I'm asking as far as like are you talking about St St in like I guess to your plan what's your plan like what's your lesson plans as far as teaching about the Bible when it comes to you just doing one hour are you talking about in the morning time afternoon but can you give me some ideas to what your what your plan is is for yes ma'am what our initial plan plan is and what we'll have to do once we get and and once we get uh School approval we'll have to hire a director we'll have to get
046all the stuff in place but what we're looking at right now is one day a week one hour a week and that counts transporting kids uh from off the facility in order for us to be uh in compliance with the law uh three things has to happen it has to be personally funded the school can't put up a penny for it it has to be off of school grounds and we have to have parental consent so the the the first year what we're we're talking about starting out with one day a week one hour a week and the curriculum is is set by LifeWise and once again what LifeWise does is they focus they focus a lot of their their time and energy on character building building character uh building morality ethics and and building
047students up from that that's that's the starting point for LifeWise one other question yes ma'am do you inform the board as to what you do I guess to give us feedback I guess on the monthly basis or have you do that something that we have to come up with I say yes yes ma'am as as far as transparency we'll have absolute 100% transparency with the school board we want the school board we want the administrators we want the parents uh we want everybody who's ATT attach to LifeWise to know exactly what's going on nothing nothing takes place behind the scenes we want to work in partner with the board with administrator uh Traders and the teachers we want to partner with you guys and not be a separate identity that's off doing their own thing
048thank you for the answer yes ma'am any other questions I have one more question for you passor uh where what where would the location be that actually students be housed that that would be doing the program sir Danville Baptist Church okay and brother Dan's here if you have any questions in that regard he may better Jacksonville Baptist ex I got caught up in a moment Danville that's a nice city well we gotta be I just I just left from Bieber traing in Danville today so I got Dam stuck in my take that longor yes sir thank you well thank you very much Mr mlan and we'll be getting in touch with you all right thank you thank you [Applause] thank you yeah I get it good evening board chair Karin Vice cheral board members superintendent
049Dr Bullard and all stakeholders in person and watch him virtually I'm here to present about our gifted education program which aligns with our vision of generating Excellence one team one goal and will help us reach our mission to inspire Challenge and prepare all students to compete globally Ed Alin with strategic goals one learning and wellness for all and two Excellence ahead academics facilities and opportunities well right now we currently have four gifted identified students at Jeffersonville Elementary School we're in the process of testing 42 other students we have two gifted endorsed teachers we have two currently in the gifted endorsement program and we have two willing to take the gifted endorsement program next year so we're trying to at least get one gifted um endorsed teacher in every grade level in elementary school in order
050for the students to be gifted identified they have to be tested in four domains achievement mental ability creativity and motivation right now for servicing they are working with me doing their ilt time which is their individual learning time where I can provide event enrichment with Project based learning opportunities and others and as well as their content area gift the teachers next steps we're going to finish the evaluation process with our students collect referrals from teachers which I've already begun doing do for our next group of students that will be tested in the fall and create a plan to collaborate with the middle school because right now we do have several fifth grade students that are gifted identified who will be transitioning into the middle school next year and recommendation funding yay but right now we're
051um seeking a budget of $10,000 which will be be split between special education cuz gift education falls under that umbrella as well as general funds and it will cover all of our needs which is testing material software conferences supplies field trips professional learning Printing and other needs any questions yeah I have one I've been uh I've been out of the classroom for some time uh but I remember I had a problem uh with the gifted education because it seemed as if to be gifted it seemed like you had to be gifted in everything and nobody is gifted in everything uh I say that because I've had students that I had to that that were quote gifted from elementary school and uh when it got to me and I was teaching uh gifted math not every
052kid in that classroom could handle the math at that level even though they were gifted in some area it just wasn't math so my my question is do you all understand now after all these years that when a person is gifted it doesn't mean they're gifted in every single subject I am so glad you brought that up Sir because what a lot of people fail to realize is gifted education falls under special education because it's a spectrum there are those most people when they think of gifted they think of high achieving High academics i ace everything I don't sweat but that's why they're being tested in multiple domains including creativity a lot of our gifted students they are creative thinkers their mind works in a different way they can problem solve so the point of
053gifted education is to say okay I'm strong in creativity how can I use my strength to strengthen the areas where I'm weak and that is the purpose of gifted education and that's why in a lovely state of Georgia they can qualify in multiple ways there are those students that are gifted that are the high achieve in I get AIDS on everything and my mind works like a um supercomputer they can pass in one pathway and then there's another pathway for the students that I want to learn so bad I love school I just need the proper tools to help me get it there if you let me draw a picture I can get there if you let me build something with my hands I can get there I might just not be good with paper
054and pencil or on the software they have have a pathway for them it is a multicriteria process so all students are tested in all four domains exactly for that reason thank you very much you're welcome I yeah I had a hard time talking to parents uh who kids were together as a group all the way through elementary and middle and then they ran into me but anyway thank you very much okay thank you very much yes sir uh Mr Austin all right good evening board chair Karen Vice chair Rouse board memb superintendent Dr Bullard constituents in person and virtually well I guess I'm standing between us and executive session and going home so make this impactful if I can so budget overview number one according to our our budget calendar it is time for us
055to discuss the first priorities or the first couple priorities of our budget it does align with our vision of generate Excellence one team one goal our mission to generate our mission to Aspire challenge per all students to compete globally since it is a budgetary item it does support all five of our strategic plan goals learning and wellness for all Excellence ahead doing things to Twig's way growing to sustaining our village and a premier people first organization to look at our budget calendar at a glance we have completed task in January from presenting the budget calendar in February to approving Personnel recommendations and we're looking here in our current month in March so we'll continue to look at our salary schedule from administrative lens revenue and expenditure projections any other HR Personnel recommendations and budget overviews
056which we're doing on tonight in April we'll look to approve our salary schedules for all staff including athletic supplements and begin to present the FY 26 budget um in in more in its entirety so our topics and priorities we will talk about the benefits update that we received from State Health and TRS our military history instruction facilities operation and Technology safety and board feedback and next steps on last year we talked about potential increases in our State Health Benefit benefits well we reive notice that those increases are happening in FY 26 and fy2 our current year this is for annual amount our certified staff teachers administrators and Etc $2,120 is what the district is responsible for paying for our fiscal year 26 premiums our uing year it is going to 22620 which is a 7.1%
057increase the certified premiums are funded by the state so we will see increase in our state funding allocation quality based education so it's not money or additional dollars it's only funding it's funding the benefits so it's not something that we have access to from discretionary spending on our noncertified 8,9 60 is our current rate uh for the year noncertified again is our custodians bus drivers support staff anyone that is locally funded and it is rising to $22,600 which is a 19.3% increase to put this in a dollar perspective that's roughly $219,600 if all 60 or so classified employees were to enroll in state health benefits TRS this is again funded through the state 20.78% is our current rate it is moving to 2.91% which is a 5.4% increase again this is in our state allocation
058so when we see increases in out State allocation these two benefit items do make up that increase so just the history of the mill rate we know in 2020 16.6 to our current year of 17.9 to we do not have any plans to increase the millage rate for FY 26 this is just to show the history of where we currently are and like we always have in the past when we receive information in the summer and fall I'll come back and present the milit rate and all of the findings from the tax office so instructional priorities we'll look at this in four buckets and this list will continue to develop as we continue to meet but we do have a starting point so our sustain our core instructional resources we thank you board for the
059Investments you've made in programs like I ready map Beacon and Etc it has provided us the opportunity to uh really create sustainability and practices and for us to oversee that with Fidelity so we will continue to sustain those resources our targeted professional development want to strengthen Math Science and reading pedagogia with our teachers and want to continue to equip them with effective strategies to engage and challenge all Learners expert Le coaching and support continue to bring in Specialists to enhance teacher instructional capacity and align training with research-based methods to maximize student learning and lastly data driven decision making we want to ensure that what we're teaching from our from the state curriculum to our standards to the things that we're doing in the classroom all that is based on data that suggest what we need
060to do to best improve student outcomes so we always will lead first with data our instruction return on investment it is we're hopeful for sustained student growth teacher Effectiveness our consultant support to continue to be present improve learning outcomes and long-term academic Gams facilities and operations uh Fleet and Equipment upgrades so replacing outdated work vehicles and Equipment um I will say that um Mr bacon and operation department has really extended overextended the life of our equipment our trucks and um so we've got great use out of them so we're looking at opportunities to upgrade um because at some point they do become a risk of Hazard if we do not um replace them anytime soon so we're hoping that we can bring some information regarding that for next budget year space and time optimization one
061of the great things we did as an example of what this really means this current room that we standing in it's multi-purpose we're having our board meeting tonight we have professional development in here as well we have events in this room as well that allows us to use our space for multiple things to to Really maximize space and to reserve resources so when it's time to break down for an event that does not happen that same day we have time to do that which gives our maintenance team and castonia staff time to finish their day-to-day task so that's an example of what we mean by maximizing our space and opportunity infrastructure and electrical upgrades these are the existing buildings that are on these grounds uh technology has became more modern more efficient and with that
062the electrical infrastructure needs to be updated to match what we put in our building so we do have times to where we have to um invest more dollars into electricians to come in to fix things so we looking to improve that so we continue to stay in the 21st century as far as our technology and other resources preventive maintenance and automation automation saves us time saves US money saves us effort and saves us Manpower with an agent work force the more things we can automate we work smarter save US dollars in the long run and again looking at our R we will definitely focus on those four key things with Fleet equipment upgrade space in time infrastructure and electrical improvements and preventive maintenance our cyber security posture uh four buckets here one network security and
063infrastructure looking to continue to upgrade our firewalls and intrusion detection data compliance and protection ensure that we're meeting all things with fra as we currently are continue to improve with best practices assets controls and other authentification factors user awareness training Mr Bas does a great job here at sending us things um to ensure that we stay on our toes um with fishing and social attacks and we'll continue to do that and lastly incident response and Recovery to ensure that we have 247 threat monitoring detection incident response and the right Partnerships so that we can continue to protect our data this will provide a stronger Network better data protection cyber awareness instant Readiness and protection for all our digital assets safy has always been a top of mind for our school district and is top of
064mind for in the general assembly as well we'll continue to look at safe enhancements from a structural standpoint surveillance and emergency preparedness with that the outcomes of this will be more physical security it's harder for someone to come in your building when when there's a a door a vestibule or something or barrier that's keeping them mind out uh prevention and response reduce liability and risk enhancing our learning environment we do a lot of training in our district so we'll continue to do that and overall this increase confidence that when you walk into our building on our grounds that you'll be safe our next steps we'll continue to talk through teaching and learning HR and finance will continue to meet uh continue to develop allotments and look at things that we can improve there are a
065lot of updates from the legisl committee that's coming forth so once we get closer to that for today we'll provide any relevant updates that have any impact on our budget we want your feedback and I know that Dr bullet will provide us that in send your cabinet if there's anything that we need to hear from from you all for because of course you're approving this budget so your feedback is definitely important and then we'll prepare for our next budget overview are any questions comments or concerns at this time questions that's kind of information overload but anyway we'll look at it and come up with some more questions later thank you very much Mr all right this uh concludes our business portion of the meeting uh this time we will be want to thank each one
066of you for being out tonight and this time we're going to go into executive session where we discuss security Personnel matters and other things like that so uh again thank you all for being here you certainly welcome to stay uh but at this time can I get a motion to move into to Executive session so moved okay the motion has been properly made to by Miss Rouse and and second by excuse me by Miss King and second by Mr Rouse um to go into executive session all in favor raise your hand okay the motion passes unanimously thank you all again [Music] n [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] m [Music] okay at this time uh can I get a motion to return from executive session so okay the motion has been properly
067made by Miss Black she and second by Mr Ral uh all right Mr Butler y'all messing with me now you messing it up all right uh all in favor raise your hand all right the motion passes n uh at this time um I need to get a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation on uh renewals and uh resignations and some retirements uh so um I need to get a motion on Eid 3450 Eid 3429 Eid 2986 Eid 712 EI D 3457 and Eid 345 59 can I get a motion I move to accept the superintendent's recommendation for resignations renewals and retirements second that was Mr but all right the motion has been properly made by Miss King and second by Mr Butler to accept the superintendent recommendations uh all in favor raise your hand okay
068the motion passes unanimously Mr chair that concludes our business for tonight all right well can I get a motion to adjourn second wow how about it so it's one of [Laughter] them the mo the motion to adjourn has been properly made by Mr Butler and second by Mr Rouse all in favor raise your hand motion passes in answer this meeting is a jour [Music]