001and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next, who had the next length of saying? Thank you all very much. Great job. >> Next uh is adopt an agenda. Is there any modifications to the agenda? No, sir. No additions to the agenda this evening. With no additions, I would like a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Second, Tony Contreras. With the motion second, all in favor? I. Opposed? Motion so carries. Roll the 10 support show. All members are present except for Jason. Uh he has a flu, he's home. I know he hates to miss today. Next, approval of the minutes through the March 9th. Are there any Are there any questions regarding the minutes? Motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Second,
002Tony Contreras. With the motion second, all in favor? I. Opposed? Motion so carries. Next, financial report. Good evening. Overall revenues increased 16.7% for the year. Uh this is due to a larger beginning balance and an increase in receipts of approximately 12%. As stated previously, that skewed a little bit because that Inflation Reduction Act rebate being included there. Uh property tax revenue is up approximately 10%, motor vehicle's up about 1%, and utility tax revenue is up approximately 8 and 1/2 percent. SEEK revenue for the year shows an increase of 4.38%. Expenditures for salary and benefits are up 7.2%. That is reasonable based on the staff and 4 and 1/2% raise approved. Non-salary expenditures are up 7%. Several of those areas that I track for non-salary expenditures are showing year-to-year decreases, but as I've noted previously, we
003have cost increases for insurance, software, and one additional bus that we purchased this year over the previous year that is increasing the total overall. Looking forward, I anticipate the official SEEK forecast to be coming out fairly soon. Hopefully, we'll have that for the tentative budget next month. However, based on legislation that was passed this session, SEEK funding is set to increase $40 per pupil, which is far less than 1%. Transportation funding is frozen at the current level. That's right around 80% of what we Safe Schools, ESS, Career Tech, GT, and several other state grants are frozen at the current level, as well. So, given our predicted AADA, our assessment values, and some other inputs that go into that SEEK formula, I think we will likely see a net decrease in our SEEK total for next
004year, thus continuing that shift of responsibility from the state level to the local level. That is all I have this evening. No. I'll move to approve SEEK by Michael. Second by Patrick. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Are there any questions regarding the orders? No questions? >> Motion to approve second by Michael. Second by Stephanie Erath. With the motion second, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion still carried. I'd like to welcome everyone to our April the 20th meeting. Thank you for being here and thank you to those of you who are listening online. We appreciate your support. Um we are nearing the end of the school year with 22 days of school left with the last day of school scheduled for Thursday, May the 21st. ACHS graduation is scheduled
005for Friday, May the 22nd at 6:30 p.m. at Anderson County High School and ACL A graduation is scheduled for Thursday, May the 21st at 11:00 a.m. at First Christian Church. Um thank you to the staff at the high school and ACL A who are planning both of these very important ceremonies for our students and their families. There are many end of the year activities um taking place at the school. So, parents and students, please make sure you're checking your Parent Square and keeping up with all of those um Parent Square um notifications that come to you so that we don't miss any of those events. Um a big event coming soon at Anderson County High School is prom scheduled for The Green on Saturday, May the 9th. I'd like to thank the high school staff
006who work super hard and all of our partners across the community that help us make that such a beautiful night for our students and our families. We have several celebrations also coming. Um so again, please make sure that you're checking those Parent Square notifications. Uh very importantly, we have um our Employee of the Year dinner and ceremony scheduled for Thursday, May the 7th at Anderson County Middle School at 6:00 p.m. We appreciate all of our students at the middle school and across the district that will be helping us celebrate and um have a wonderful evening for our staff. We're excited to recognize our amazing staff, but we're also excited to recognize some of our retired teachers. Um, and we're going to pin our future teachers at Anderson County High School as well. So, we're excited
007for that evening, um, as well. Um, Anderson County High School Act Cats had a wonderful spring program, the musical, um, entitled Mamma Mia. I hope you got to see it. If you didn't, you really missed it. It was such a an exceptional performance. Um, they do such amazing work. So, thank you to all the students who were who participated in that, um, who made it such a special performance, but also a thank you to the parents in the community who came and attended. Um, special thank you to our staff, um, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Keller, Mrs. Hipschman, as well as, um, Mr. Bright, Mr. Soan, and Mrs. Smith, um, Sue Lou Smith, um, who also helped make, um, that performance, um, an amazing experience for our students as well. Hope everyone had a beautiful Easter. And
008I hope everyone had a restful spring break. We had a wonderful first week back last week, and we're excited to be starting, um, again, a new week. Tonight, we have a very special recognition. Are we ready? Are we going to hold? Are we ready? Okay. Um, tonight, I'm very excited, um, to recognize a very special group of Anderson County High School students. And, um, their leadership and hard work really is just second to none. So, if you're part of the Anderson County High School Key Club, would you please stand and come forward, um, to be recognized. Let's give them a round of applause while they're coming forward. Their club sponsor is Mrs. Frazier. Would you also please come forward, and let's give her her own special round of applause, as well. Principal Glass and I
009are very proud to recognize them tonight. This is a special group of exceptional students who just do an amazing job doing so many amazing things around the community with just complete integrity and grace. So I have several things I want to speak to them about tonight and recognize them. Ladies, I'm also going to give you an opportunity to say anything if you would like to as well. And if you don't want to, it's okay. I'm just going to give you that opportunity to shine as well if you'd like to say a few things. The Anderson County High School Key Club has grown from 40 members last school year to 62 members this school year. Key Club is a servant leadership club designed to be student-led to perform service projects for the school, community, and the
010world. The Key Club advisor is the guide is to guide the students in their ideas, help them develop leadership skills, and build character in the next generation of our leaders. The Key Club members run for office and elect office officers to lead the group each year. Full club meetings are held every week while officers every other week while officers meet in their off weeks to organize and plan. Many club members and officers also attend monthly Kiwanis meetings to update our sponsoring club on our activities. Our club is privileged to have an an excellent sponsoring Kiwanis Club. They support us and we work alongside Kiwanis members to assist them at the annual Kiwanis Roast and other community events such as serving a meal at the Anderson County Public Library during the community potluck. Chuck Fletcher and
011Tom Swartz are rockstars for our club. Would you please stand up? Let's give them also a round of applause. Service projects the Key Club the Anderson County High School Key Club has completed this year include helping our Overcomer baseball buddies, volunteering at Love Big, placing wreaths at Vets Charitable Corporation to honor our hometown heroes, holding a shoe drive, and raking leaves for those in our community. Key Club also serves our school system at the Anderson County Excellence Banquet and volunteering for fall, winter, and spring evening activities at ECC, Emma B. Ward, Robert B. Turner, and Safel Street Elementary. Our biggest service project is always collecting can tabs to exchange for money to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. Last school year, they collected 29 lb of tabs. That's a lot. That is a lot. The
012Key Club students also take part in their fellowship activities such as the District Fall Rally at Dollywood to meet up with the Key Club groups in our Kentucky-Tennessee District. We held a club Friendsgiving event to share a meal and play fun games together. Along with serving, leading, and fellowship and fellowship, club members also have the opportunity to compete. This year, 10 members attended the convention and competed. Those who attended the convention this year are Alaina Williams. Would you wave at them? Not here. Alaina is not here. Uh club treasurer, Ava Pickett. Would you wave at Ava? Avery Young, club president. Emily Gerard. Did I say it right? Thank you. Making sure. Sophomore representative, Lakeland Russell. Lilly Malone, junior rep. Olivia Manning, webmaster. Reese Perry, Riley Manning, and Scarlett McChesney, club bulletin editor. Let's give them
013a great big round of applause. The club certificates we received at convention were 10-year anniversary and dues paid on time. All of the club's events and activities are documented in a year-in-review scrapbook created by members Emily Gerard, Olivia Manning, Scarlett McChesney, and Reese Perry. They entered their scrapbook into the district competition and won second place this year. Let's give them another round of applause for that. Alaina Williams competed in the essay contest and won first place in district. We also placed first among clubs in the can tab collection competition collecting 70 lb of tabs. We were blessed to have many local citizens as well as Anderson County High School collect tabs. If you'd like to start collecting tabs at home to donate to them to us, they and we would greatly appreciate it. Everything we
014do so far everything we do is for others. This weekend the club organized and hosted a daddy-daughter sweetheart dance at Anderson County High School. And if you're on Facebook, I hope you saw some of the beautiful pictures of daddies and their daughters at the dance. They were beautiful. It was a huge success and all the smiles on every little girl's face made the hard work worth it. We are we are even planning many more events like this one and one for our community. Thank you to Mr. Glass and Mrs. Mitchell for the support of the Key Club. It truly is a life-changing club for the students. How about these ladies? Let's give them a great big round of applause. Is there anything any of you all would like to say? If not, it's okay. If
015you'd like to yes. No? All right. Mrs. Frazier and Mr. Fletcher, would you please come forward as well? Mrs. Frazier, would you like to say a few words? Yes. Okay. Um I became the advisor 3 years ago and that first year I had 20 kids and we doubled the next year and now we just keep like adding 20 more kids every year and it's because they invite kids. Um it is all about doing Kiwanis especially is all about doing things for kids and Key Club is the high school version of Kiwanis. And everything that we do like Miss Mitchell said is for others and I just tell the kids all the time that in a world where you can be anything just be kind. Thank you very much Miss Mitchell uh Central Michigan School Board
016uh first of all I'm going to be short uh as you know some of you know I was uh former trustee to Kiwanis International and uh one thing I was appointed to by Kiwanis International president was the Key Club International Board. And then I was able to work with Key Clubbers across the world. Uh let me just say this uh Key Club organization is the largest service organization in the world. Uh the we are in 48 countries and when they go to uh uh international convention they get to see young people from all over the world and they able to work together and learn from each other. So I'm I'm really admired of these young people because you all do have an excellent excellent uh group of young people in your school district that are
017willing to give service in your community. Uh analysis shows us that if we do service in the communities and people involved more than likely your young people will stay in your community. So that's why we support Kiwanis and other organizations as well. I'll close with this Miss Mitchell uh one thing that we try to do as a Kiwanis organization Central Kentucky is make sure that every young person has an opportunity to attend convention who who's able. So, we provide transportation for those students where they can be able to go without worrying about paying back paying transportation, but we as clubs and as Kiwanis clubs pays that transportation for them to attend the Kentucky and Tennessee District. I am proud of these young people and I know that you will be proud even days ahead and
018years ahead on what they going to do in your community. So, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your family, but thank you all for being part of the Kiwanis family. Thank you. Yes. So, yeah, so ladies are really the scrapbook with the board so that we can review it and let's again just congratulate them on all of their service projects, being kind. As Mrs. Frazier said, there is nothing more important than being kind. So, ladies, thank you all. We appreciate all that you do. We appreciate you leading among your peers and within the community that you serve. Thank you all again. Let's give them another great big round of applause. Thank you all very much. Any comments from the board anybody? Okay. And I would like to also say thank you
019to ServePro and Chief Dyer who provided the meal for our board members and administrators this evening. We're really grateful for that and we look so forward to hearing from our students in Anderson County High School during their fire science presentation this evening. Chairman, that is all I have this evening. Thank you, Ms. Mitchell. You have comments, Chief? Next comment from visitors, we have two. First is uh Joseph Robinson. Okay. Next, Dr. Anissa Davis. Good evening. My name is Dr. Anissa Pin Davis. I am president of the Anderson County Education Association. And you know it's that time of year where we talk money. And last year, you all were very, very generous with us. Um you gave the district a 4 and 1/2% which was wonderful. Um over the years, we have worked together and we've
020never done the big jumps. We've We're like like what I said last year, we're the tortoise. You know, we we do itsy bits because we don't want to do the big jump and then put the budget in jeopardy. Um we don't want to be like some other school districts. So, this year with what Josh has said about uh seek issues and things like that, um I think 4 and 1/2 again might be a little unrealistic. Um but 4% I think is a doable number um with everything that's going on with um the with what the um the property taxes, auto just you know, what I know from my personal experience, um I think 4% is doable and when we get to number 10 on the agenda and you hear with what uh Josh has to
021say, I would just like you to keep in mind that it is very important to keep good, qualified teachers in this district. Okay. I know for years you always say, "Oh, we're not competing um with the bigger districts." And you are. And it's not just Fayette County that you compete with. We've had a number of teachers leave Anderson County to go teach in Just- in Jefferson County. So, you are competing with some of the bigger districts. But again, remember we're the turtle. We're slow and steady. You know, we're moving up and I think 4% is not an unreasonable request. Thank you. End of step. Next Star Academy contract. We're requesting approval for Star Academy. That is funded through the competitive grant provided by KDE. It established Academy for students to learn through project base base
022learning and technology. English language arts and social studies are com- are computer based with E ELA being the intervention program and students getting the core uh instructions through regular core uh classes. Science, math taught through combination of projects and computer programming. All standards are aligned through Kentucky state standards. Writing incorporated and the district provides staffing in the rooms. The grant provides equipment, supplies, training. This is a three-year contract for one Academy Anderson County Middle School. I motion to approve this contract. Are there any questions regarding We're very excited about this opportunity. Um we uh were approached um a year or so ago about um the Star Academy. We were very blessed to have our representatives come in and speak with us. Um this grant is funded through um Kentucky Department of Education. Um it is
023a competitive grant. Um it is a three-year grant that is about a million dollars over the course of the three years. Um we are working with Anderson County Middle School to look at um which grade level will be appropriate. We're considering eighth grade. Um so the teachers at the school would be the the staff for the Star Academy. Um the equipment would come through um the grant. We would work with our Star Academy partners to come in and fit the classrooms for the grant. Project-based learning is um the most important piece of this with um math and science. Um with as um um Mr. Brown said um intervention with ELA. They'll still get their core, but also be taught social studies. So all four courses will be taught, but then students will also have the
024opportunity to participate alongside their all of their peers um throughout the course of the day and um throughout the course of the year. It is competitive. Students will apply. Parents will um agree that this is a good learning experience for their students if they so choose to apply. And Mrs. Rose will work with our staff in order to um select the teachers, the staff, um as well as the students for the academy. Any questions? Is this young man going to speak or is he just going to be the best dressed? I'm an account executive for Star Academy. Push the button. Uh my name is Miles Francis. I'm an account executive for Star Academy and I just want to come here and say how excited I am to work with y'all. Uh you've been working with
025Jack Mayberry, our district consultant, and he's told me so much about Anderson County and I'm just really excited to see all the growth and development just hearing from the choir and hearing from all the Key Club members. It sounds like it's a really great opportunity for some great growth and expansion and growth within Anderson County here and really building the community from the grass grassroots up here. No, never. No, I have I have a flight to Nevada tomorrow morning to meet with the Lieutenant Lieutenant Governor and then going back next week to meet with the Governor. So, this is my bread and butter. I appreciate that though. I really appreciate it. Thank you. I'm excited for the middle school for all of our kids. I'll I'll second the motion. I have a motion and a
026second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is carried. Sorry, didn't have the mic on. Thank you all. Thank you. And you don't look nervous to me. Early graduation request. Consideration to approve It says 1 and 11. I guess 11 early graduation request. You got a pass on that? I'm sorry. I went ahead next page. Audit contract recommendation to approve contract for Denise Keen for 2025-26 financial audit with the amount of $21,000. Mr. White. About the same. I think she does an excellent job. I motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Have a motion. Second, Sandy Fender Graff. And a second on the floor. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is so I'll vote no, but as I stated, I don't you know, I don't like to see some other people come forward in the
027next year or two because it doesn't hurt to get different set of eyes on >> I would agree with there's 170 school districts and there's five, I think five or six orders all there is. Uh we have a first uh motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion so carried. I think we've done that but I wanted to double check. Capital fund request. Chief financial officer Josh White requesting approval for the capital capital fund request in the amount of $1,248,327 to be used for insurance, bus purchase, uh KISTA principal and interest, computers and Chromebooks. Are there any questions regarding this request? Didn't go very far. Motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Second, Sonny Findley asked. With a motion and a second, all in favor? I. Opposed? Motion so carried. MOA contract for 2026-2027. Uh Ms.
028Sawyer is requesting approval for the extension of the memorandum agreement with her position with KDE as a comprehensive literacy uh grant program administrator for the 2026-2027 school year. As you know, Ms. Sawyer um was an amazing instructional assistant and teacher instructional coach and teacher for several years within our district. It's a blessing to work with her. She was a blessing for students and her colleagues. Um she was offered a position with KDE and they are offering her to nobody's um surprise an additional uh extension of that contract. Um, are there any questions? Motion to approve. Second, Steve Carmichael. With the motion second, all those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion so carried. Next, fire science presentation. Good evening. Chief Larry Anderson, County Fire Department. Appreciate you having us tonight. My part's going to be short. Um,
029I know I come to you all, uh, probably 8 9 months ago. And, uh, I know it was very hard at that time because I understand you were increasing, uh, tax taxes on that. And I know other things were cut very tight. And, uh, I gave you my word we would make this work. And, uh, I'm I'm here tonight because the the gentleman's going to come up here and speak, uh, is the tremendous reason, as well as instructor Robinson, of why this program is such successful as it has been throughout this year. Um, I know you took a chance on us. I know there was other things that you could invest that money in, but, uh, as I told you before, we don't make widgets. Uh, we we deliver on customer service and turning out
030good public, uh, servants. And I I think you'll be very pleased with that. We could be here for a couple of hours tonight, and it wouldn't do justice for the things that, uh, that these instructors have done with this program and these kids have done. Uh, it'd be just a very short presentation for that. Um, I knew I I had picked Major Brown for this, and I and I knew he would do a good job. I had no idea how great he would fall into this role. Uh, we talk about that on a regular basis, and he talks about how much this program means to me. And I see that when I see these two, uh, instructing at your school and the product that they're turning out, I see them turning into mentors and I
031see the relationships that they have with these students. But, I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart um for for taking a chance on us and investing in us. All right. I'll turn One of them didn't follow the rules there. Your son didn't wear his uniform. Uh what about that, JJ? Good evening, everyone. Members of the board. My name's Adam Brown. I'm the major/fire marshal/ teacher at for Anderson County Fire Department. Um If you told me a few years ago that I'd be standing here as a teacher, I would have laughed and said there's no way. I would not believe that to be one bit true. Um but I would tell you leading this fire science class at Anderson County High School has renewed my love for the fire service.
032I was kind of down and out. All my sons are got their jobs, they're paid firefighters, so I kind of feel like I done my job, so they're all paid somewhere. In fact, all three of my sons work part-time for me here at Anderson County, so it's a it's a blessing as far as that goes. But, they've they renew my love and uh it's given me an opportunity to make a real difference in some of these students' lives. Um The sign on the door says fire science, we're teaching way much more than that. We teach life We teach life lessons. Our core mission is service before self. We focus on these young men and women, how they can better themselves by serving others with hard work and respect. This isn't elective, it's commitment to excellence.
033Since August 1st of last year, our 21 students have logged 3,900 training hours. That's not just at the high school, that's that's extra. But that's at the high school, they're average about 185 hours so far per student right now. That kind of dedication is rare and it speaks to the character of the youth in our county. Our students aren't just sitting in desks. 19 of our 21 students have joined the junior fire program at the fire department. They're already out serving our community. They go above and beyond. They don't stop when the bell rings. Many have attended specialized fire schools on their own time. Looking ahead next week we're starting CPR and first aid. Thanks to the support from Anderson County EMS. They're coming in and helping teach next week for that part of it.
034Our students are the faces of Anderson County High School in this community. Whether it's participating in homecoming parade, career days at elementary schools, these kids are leaders. The feedback we get from the public has been I'll just say one word we get from everybody, it's amazing. They talk about how professional and mature these young men and women are every time they see them out. They represent the school district with utmost pride. They've recently made history at the capital. We're the first fire science program in the state of Kentucky to ever attend legislation days at the state capital. Bruce Roberts from the Kentucky Fire Commission said it best while the capital's usually filled with the blue jackets FFA, seeing our students in red polos showed everyone that the future is bright in the fire service. The
035future starts here with these kids. They aren't just students learning a trade, they're building careers, strengthening the fabric of Anderson County. This is what the future of Anderson County fire and this fire service in Kentucky looks like. They're dedicated, professional, and hard working. I want to thank you all for your support for this program and how much it's meant. >> It's about these kids. They are excellent excellent group. And I'm beyond proud and I'm beyond proud that you all, like Chief Garrett said, took a chance and with this program and we're out trying to grow and make it as best as we can. You kids want to say anything? I'll I'll put you on the spot. Which one do I put on the spot? Oh, JJ, you didn't dress up. Come on, JJ. Here you
036go. You got to use this one. Well, Major Brown has told us, you know, many things about being leaders. You know, showing us how to unroll hose to going in the gym and putting on masks and finding and searching for people. It's just amazing program and that's all I have to say. I'm going to give this mic to a kid that wouldn't say one word in the beginning of the school year. There's a couple of them over there. They wouldn't talk. They made them do speeches at the beginning of the year and they wouldn't say anything. And now they can get up and they like to talk. Sometimes a little too much, but they they enjoy talking. Uh there's a couple of them. Isaiah. Let's do Come on up. Tell us I'm going to put
037you on the spot about the fire program for you, Isaiah. Well, uh the fire program has really impacted me in some sort of way. I didn't know what I was planning on doing, you know, with a career or anything like that, but this you know, is something that I would like doing and I'm glad I'm in this program. Another thing is, you know, it shows us how to work together as a team. And if one of us fails, we all fail. And it's good to have that mindset cuz you know how to work together as a team. And I feel like that's very important. I have one of my firefighting females over there. Come on over, Onyx. We have several females in our class and I'll tell you they are tough. They they work just
038as hard as everyone of those boys in class. They they really put the effort in. And several of them had events to go tonight. They're all they're active in other things, but we got we got one of them here to show that we do have some girls I take this. We actually have a part-timer right there. Bree, you know, we So we teach them that the You know, you tell us what you're facing. You know, we teach you the same, don't we? Right? Yeah, he teaches us the same way as all the kids in the class. Uh Um Well, a few years back I I had started watching a show and I had a dream to become a fireman. And then one day in my eighth grade class we were talking about classes and then
039this one came up as a slight chance. So I signed up for it and then it happened. I'll get one more. It's my only senior that's here tonight. I We get three or four seniors in last. Yeah, I just want to say thank you for who's given us a chance at this wonderful opportunity. Uh it's impacted me because I didn't really know what I wanted to do at the beginning of the school year. And now I want to become a firefighter and do and serve the community. Again, thank you all so much. I I really appreciate what you've done for us and continue to grow this and uh see these kids out, say hello to them cuz I always tell them when they have that on, who do you represent? You have that polo on,
040who do you represent? Me, right? So, they represent me and I and I truly think the world of these kids and thank you all again. Very proud of them, hard work that they're doing. Let's give them a round of applause for their hard work. I just want to say thank you um to Major Brown and uh Chief Dyer as well as the parents who support this program so that we can train our students. Um this has just been a great program, super successful and uh it takes all of us to make sure um that we provide all these opportunities for our children. So, thank you specifically to you all as well. Thank you again. Next, 2026, 2027. Service schedule. That's why. You have the floor. While you were doing that, can we back up just
041for a second cuz I want to thank you all for the great job that you did. Public speaking is not easy. It's one of the most challenging things that anyone can do. I was the kid in the back of the class who somehow the Lord brought to the front of the class and then made him a school administrator. I don't know what the plan was there. But you all did a great job speaking and we're really proud of the job that you're doing. I love this quote, the service before self. All of us can benefit from that. You know, and I would say this board feels the same way, service before self. And we had the Key Club, we had a neat opportunity tonight to talk about service. There are people who are givers and
042there are people who are takers. We don't need too many takers. What we need are people who are givers and young people like you are givers. Young people like those in the Key Club, those are givers. We need more folks like that and we all have a responsibility for teaching young people how that works cuz you get a whole lot more when you give than when you take. So, all of us in the community are very proud of the job that you're doing and those folks who are leading as well. So, thank you for what you're doing and I know you have a bright future. Thank you all very much. You're welcome. Good evening again. Four um I only have four slides about the salary schedule. Uh the number one here is just kind of
043the overall picture of what you'd be looking at. And keep in mind that the green box off on the right, the estimated contingency, that is an estimate. We don't have all the information yet for next year, but uh just using what I do know. So, currently we're spending about 22.8 million dollars on salary from the general fund. If you just went with a step increase, nothing else, the cost would be about $342,000 for a step increase. You can see as you go down the chart, 1% uh with the step would be about $570,000, 3% with a step little over a million, 3 and 1/2 with a step about a million 1.2, somewhere in that neighborhood, and 4% with a step is about a million three. To get to these values, I took what where where
044we're at with um the 22.8 million and if you look at the certified step increases across all ranks and experience levels, it averages about 1.4% is what the step is. And then if you look at the classified step increases, those are varying levels from about 0.6% to 1.6%. So, you can see at the bottom I said uh to do my calculations, I used 1 and 1/2% as my average step. Just to kind of get it get a number, get a threshold there. So, those are your dollar figures. Now, go to the right in the estimated contingency, anywhere from about 8% if we did absolutely nothing to about 4 and 1/2 if you go with the 4% with the step. Again, that's an estimate, uh but I feel like they're conservative estimates and and realistic estimates
045uh based on where I think we're going to end the year. That's the first piece of information. Second piece, if you take and look at just some variations of currently where we are with salary and where we would be, I pulled just six examples off the salary schedule. So, the first one, top left, rank three, step three, currently that person uh certified teacher makes $45,332. With a step increase and a 3.5% raise, that would be about a $23,240 change. Overall percentage would be about a 5.2% increase. If you went with 4%, that'd be about a $2,600 change and 5.71% overall with the step and the additional percentage. Rank two, step 10, we'll go to a rank two, step 11. So, they would go from about 56,000 to about 59,000. About a $2,800 increase or 5.1%
046overall. If you went with a 4%, you'd be going to about 59.3, about a $3,100 increase or 5.61% and you can see the examples as they go along there. Basically, if you approve a 3.5% raise, real money for the employee is approximately 5% with the step. And if you approve a 4% raise, you're looking at about 5.5%, somewhere in that neighborhood and you can see it kind of gets lower, not quite to that threshold uh as you get further down the scale cuz those dollar figure changes are a little lower percentage. Go to the classified salary schedule. Again, looking at 3.5 or 4%, uh that would be my recommendation there as well. Continue those periodic reviews. Last year I talked through looking at specific grades, uh trying to bring up a few grades every year.
047Um and you can see that this year those grades will be 27, 31, 43, 51, 53 for whatever the percentage amount is, plus additional 50% on the hour. For grade 34, whatever percentage you all chose, plus an additional 55 cents on the hour. And then 35 and 38, um percent plus whatever the additional 60 cents on the hour would be. And then continue with that process moving forward. Uh so the 28, 29 down there at the bottom, that's what we did last year, 25, 26. So I'll just rotate through. And I divided those grades by roughly a third of our uh classified staff each year would receive a little additional over the step. The next recommendation I would make, and this is I've I've worked with uh Director Morgan Cook on this one for special
048ed. We have a lot of trouble filling our special ed paraeducator positions. So she's asked that we increase or create additional uh grades, or one additional grade, not multiple grades, one additional grade for our special ed instructional assistants, and offer them another dollar 25 on the hour above uh just a general education classroom assistant. So that would be a grade 16, and that would tie directly to grade 15 just plus 125. That would potentially help us fill those those really tough positions that are we experience a lot of turnover in as well. Um and as you can imagine to retrain, work with the kids again, we're basically seeing that expense over and over again because we're having to go to the the same position and put a different person in there multiple times throughout the
049year. So we're hoping to to eliminate some of that by giving them a little additional incentive for working with some of our toughest students. And the fifth thing I would like to do uh for our instructional assistants is those that are in the grade 15 positions that are currently there, um create an instructional paraeducator academy, instructional assistant academy for an opportunity for a $400 stipend. That would be an additional amount for them if they chose to take play take part in that academy and it gives our folks some additional training that they can utilize with our students. And the last slide I have of recommendations. The first one there is to add the physical therapist title to the occupy occupational therapist schedule. This is just a a word choice that I need for retirement purposes.
050We actually had a physical therapist who retired a couple years ago and the word physical therapist is not on our salary schedule. They gave me some some grief about that so I just cleaned that up. It's the same schedule that the occupational therapist uses in the same scale we've used for years and years but just putting that title on there. Continue to review the stipend list. So you heard me say this last year. I'm trying to get everything written down so there's no question about what somebody gets paid for doing XYZ, whatever it is. Many things have been approved throughout the years and just haven't made it on the paper. I'm trying to get all that cleaned up as I go along. If I see something, I try and figure out when it was approved
051and get that down on the schedule. Number three for athletics. Athletic director Sarah and I, we've talked through this a little bit. Right now the concession manager gets paid per game. You can imagine that's a lot of tracking and records and papers and just lots of stuff to keep up with and then for payroll purposes, we have to put that on multiple multiple multiple multiple payrolls and keep up with lots of time sheets. So we'd like to go to a flat stipend for that position as a concession manager. It's already there. It's already being paid. It's just putting it at a dollar amount that's for the year so that person goes into that spot gets paid for the year from middle and high. And the other thing the KHSAA is adding in a shot clock
052next year for basketball. I don't think it's required next year. Is that correct? Not required. But uh you'll you'll see that coming out. So, trying to get a scorekeeper clock worker spot just to have a dollar figure to pay somebody who's doing that work because I think down the road we're going to need that anyway. Um so, that would be an addition on the athletics as well. And that would be paid from athletics funding. Number four, a a little bit of a clean up for subs and for payroll purposes. Again, we have right now 0 to 3, 4 to 9, and 10 plus in terms of sub pay. That's more tracking, more paperwork for us on our end. If we could just clean that up into one set of sub pay for folks to the
0534 to 9 years. If you're not a retired teacher, this is what you get paid to substitute based on your rank. Uh just simplifying things a little bit. And then increase the TRS retired teachers. That was an addition I think 2 years ago. Increase that pay by $2 per day for each rank. And then number six, changing from $35 an hour to $36 an hour for the additional duty ESS PD rate. Number seven, continuing along with what we've done in years past, leaving those sub rates at 98% of year zero to the grade they match with. And then number eight, continuing with the bus driver sliding scale for substitutes. I know that was a lot of information. What questions do you have for me? I don't have a question, but I got um Yes, sir.
054One of my jobs duties at my work I'm part of the bargaining team for our contract. Ernie, mic on, please. I'm part of the bargaining team for our contract for the employees. And one of the things that I've learned is when you go in front of the company, you have to tell them why there's a value and why you deserve more money. Well, I sit here and I look We have one of the top schools Turner in the state. We have one of the best firefighter programs in the state. We have one of the best Key Club uh groups in the state. We don't have fly-by-night employees. We have good employees, some of the best. Our employees deserve to make a living and make a decent living. They work hard. They had If they didn't,
055we wouldn't have the progress that we have. I travel all over the state with my job. I was in Bardstown today. And I've never yet heard anyone put down our school system. And uh I'm proud to live in Anderson County and I'm proud of each person you know, the I'm not ashamed when I go out to Bardstown or if I go to Mount Sterling tomorrow to say I'm from wherever. I'm proud to say I'm from Anderson County and I'm proud of what the jobs the people here do in this community. With that being said, I make a motion for 4% and one step increase. Thank you, sir. >> a couple questions? I agree with everything he just said. I just again, I'm back to this being an old person and being clear in my mind
056here. On on this on the increases, that's Are we talking classified and certified? Everybody's going to Yes, sir. So, the across-the-board will be whatever percentage that you all would like to approve, 3 and 1/2, 4, or you can do something different, whatever you like. And then specific grades of the classified employees, I'm trying to bring some of those up. And so, those specific grades would have an addition in addition to the uh percentage and step. Does this impact substitutes at all? Yes. So, a substitute teacher I saw that, but I just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah. I still believe that's one of the hardest jobs and I've done some of them but I will say substitute teaching and driving a school bus are two of the toughest jobs you can have in education and
057I've subbed a lot. I don't want to do that again. Thank you, Lord. But it's it's a great job, a tough job. I just want to make sure we're covering that and bus drivers there there's a special place in heaven for them. So I just want to make sure that those folks are impacted in the Yes, sir. So on number four number five on the screen here that you can see currently from where we are right now on that zero to three-year scale for a substitute teacher, it would be an increase of between three and $11 depending on their rank. And then number five on the TRS retired teachers, we added that in few years back. I would propose a $2 across the board for them each each level. So yes, it would increase for
058all of those folks as well. My last question is the one I ask every year. On the contingency, how does this impact I know I saw that earlier but I just want to make sure. Two parts of this. What would the what's the contingency again? Just remind me. How does that compare as as far as where we were last year or and for our state wide? How is that contingency that carry forward? How does that that impact it cuz Dr. Davis mentioned this. We have to be financially responsible and we have to give and appreciate the people who work here and there has to be a nice balance to that and she's absolutely right. Tell me again on the contingency just so I can make sure I have this clear in my mind. So if
059can you are you on the same screen I'm on? Thanks, so. If we did absolutely nothing with salaries was over just froze where we are. No step, nothing. Our contingency that I'm estimating would be roughly 8% next year or $3 million give or take. We budgeted this year like 5, 6% somewhere in that neighborhood. If you go down to the three and a half or 4% with a step which is what I would recommend one of those two. We're going to be just shy of the 5% on the contingency. Now I'll tell you the same thing I told Ms. Mitchell in her office the other day. This is a conservative estimate. We could potentially be a little bit more. You know, I'll I'll have another capital funds request. I'll look and see what funds are
060available there to bring into the general fund to cover some maintenance costs to try and pull some of that money in. We do have the million dollar inflation reduction act rebate that's still out there, but it's a one-time money. So, I I hesitate to say spend that moving like I could come in here and say let's spend let's give 10% raises, you know, because we have this extra money. However, that extra money is not coming next year, right? So, the these are my estimates of where I am right this minute of where I think our contingency would be. Raises just one year. That is correct. Right. Yes, right now we have that money. So, we could spend that on raises for next year. That is correct. Yes, sir. I like conservative. And again, I I
061I agree with everything that James said down there and Dr. Davis said earlier. So, unless there are other questions, I'll second that motion. I have a question. How many school districts are in our co-op? We have about 22 in our co-op now. Mr. Murphy's giving me 33 as the number. Is that I don't know the answer to it. >> Okay, 33 Mr. Murphy says. Yes. I don't know that exact. What I have in front of me is the seven counties that surround us. That's the that's what I have in front of us or in front of me right this minute. We're towards the bottom of the pack in the seven that surround us. At various years of experience. So, as you get further down the scale, we move up a little bit. One of our
062neighboring districts froze pay this from last year to this year. We didn't freeze, so we surpassed them. They took a bottom spot and we moved up. I think you're going to see another neighboring district possibly freeze pay from this year into next year, so we could surpass them again. Now, if you go to the full co-op, my my gut reaction is we're probably in the in the middle of the co-op altogether, um, because you're expanding out to some more rural districts. Um, but, you know, as Dr. Davis said, we we hear a lot about the ones we neighbor because 75% of our employees live in Anderson County. Not a ton of us who live here in Anderson County and work in Anderson County are going to make a choice to drive an hour away for
0634, 5, 6, 7 thousand dollars. But, I might make a choice if I'm an employee to go one or two counties over to make 4, 5 thousand dollars extra. I I wouldn't say I've never made a mistake. That that I appreciate that, but Yeah. It was No, sir, I have not. Thank goodness. If I do, I might not be standing here. She's going to work in >> Agreed, sir. We have a motion on the floor and second. No other questions? Entertain a motion to approve. All right. >> Or Sorry, go ahead. Yeah. All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Closed. Motion will carry. I'm getting ahead of myself. Next. Thank you, all. Thank you. I would also I would also like to say thank you um to Mr. White for all of his hard work as
064well as the all the board members um for all of your hard work as well. Next, maintenance update. Suzanne. I kind of refrained from saying update on the crack monitoring, but Yes. Alex, see. Okay. Well, it is great to be with you all again. It's been a few months since I've been here in Anderson County. Um I just wanted to give you a summary of a study that we had done on two facilities in your district over uh quite a long period of time and uh kind of summarize what the results are. I do have I have provided and the complete report with all of the uh observations to Ms. Mitchell so that is available and if you have any further questions, please let me know. Um but this is uh for uh we did
065we monitored some cracks that had appeared at uh the middle school and at Saffle Street Elementary School that were of concern. And so what that means is that we had our special inspector Solid Ground apply uh monitors which are simply just a I'll show you the the what they look like but so the locations at the middle school are shown here. There were quite a few of those and um and then there were three uh locations at Saffle Street. This is what was applied to each of those cracks. It's simply two a two-part plastic piece that has a grid um that can show movement in all directions and then each of these monitors were observed um over quite a few months uh to see what the direction and the quantity of the movement was. They
066were installed in January of 2024 and then there were seven observations made on these following dates. Uh the final summary was submitted uh by Solid Ground in July of 2025 and all reports were submitted to the district to you all in September of 2025. Bottom line is the findings do not indicate a danger to life safety at any of the facilities. So, that's the most important thing. Um I'll talk about the ones at the Saffle Street Elementary School. All three monitors did show movement. Uh none of the locations that had cracks were on load-bearing walls. Some of the causes, possible causes for this settlement, uh because it is it's a very old building, so it is not normal for cracks to appear this late in the life of that. So, what it does indicate is
067there's something happening below the foundations that would cause uh voids or uh differences of the soils beneath those foundations. Um there is, you can see in this photograph, uh there was a an older tree stump that was in that courtyard. There's also a manhole that's circled in blue. So, there is a possibility that the de- decaying of those tree roots, which can be quite extensive, could just now be you know, creating voids in the soil below those areas and causing some of that settlement to occur. Um there also may be some leaking of uh uh any of the the site, the utilities causing voids. So, this report did not determine what caused it. It was just sort of this is there there is settlement. It is not severe. It is not it it's not a
068life safety issue for for the building. It does not mean that there shouldn't be some actions taken at some point in time. So, at Saffle Street, there are some recommendations that we uh have made. Uh this is in conjunction in uh consultation with our structural engineer, with our geotech, which is basically solid ground, um and uh Ross Tarrant. It is to uh again check any gutters or storm sewers or your utilities that uh making sure that any water that can be directed out of that uh courtyard area. Um obviously, if damage is found in any of those pipes, to repair those. Uh the current cracks, we feel can be patched using a flexible caulk and and painting for aesthetics reasons, just so that you know, you don't have to be looking at the cracks. If
069it's a flexible caulk, you have a little bit more uh if there is a little bit of movement, you're not going to you know, have those cracks come up again. Um So, the summary letter from Solid Ground uh does recommend removing the tree that is in the courtyard. However, uh the structural engineer and our in-house landscape architect have a bit of a different take on that. We do not feel that the root system of that tree would be in conflict or be affecting the foundations where the cracks are occurring. Um, also, uh, there is the thought that in removing the tree, then the tear deterioration of the root system that is there could then cause further voids in the soils. So, that's um, we don't recommend that you remove it. Solid Ground said that might
070be a consideration. Uh, the also, uh, the fact that you do have a tree in there does create issues with the gutters, um, and getting, uh, you know, keeping the gutters cleaned out so that actually the the the storm water will go through the storm system and not overflow and and cause, um, problems with the foundations. And Yes. Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Oh, is that right? Okay. Okay. It was moving. Yes. Yes. And which is part of the reason why we had them monitored over the those different seasons to kind of see that uh you know, the movement whether it was drying and wet weather and all those sorts of things. Um there is the possibility if uh you know, water issues are are resolved and if or nothing is found with the water issues that
071um you know, we can we can look into having those foundations underpinned. Uh and uh along that courtyard wall uh would be kind of the final step in in resolving those. And these all are kind of high-level recommendations. We would obviously want to if you wanted to pursue those things, we would come with a more detailed plan on how that could be accomplished. Uh in the at the middle school uh there were uh quite a few more monitors. Uh they there was cracking occurring in three separate areas. Um there was uh only the highlighted monitors showed movement, the other ones did not show any movement. So, in um wing A the uh four monitors uh around classrooms 202, 203, and room likely resulted from a leaking downspout and underground utilities causing erosion of subgrade soils
072that caused those. Um the ones at the gymnasium uh are possibly caused by like a leaking storm line. Again, most all of these are showing settlement that should not be happening at this time. So, you would look towards some other water getting below the the foundations that would cause this type of a settlement. Um it was also recommended that the uh any uh landscaping, bushes, things like that be removed 5 ft away from the building so that everything is kept 5 ft away. And um the one that in this lower area of uh the middle school was uh obviously due to building settlement, but the cause of that one we really couldn't guess at what the reason for the cause of of that one. Uh but all of these we feel can be patched and
073aesthetically improved uh just for public consumption and you know, but So, those are the things that we found. We did not find that it was terribly severe, but you know, we do feel like there are things that can be done to um stabilize all of those things, but it's not a major thing like the cafeteria redo that was of concern. Do you have any questions? So, none of these are safety issues is what you're saying? >> None of these are safety issues. Okay. It's aesthetic. Uh you know, it is good to try to do a little bit more investigation. The report itself did uh it at Saffle Street. Uh there you know, there are some pipes and storm lines in those areas. Um having a we did recommend having like a a pipe eye, which
074is, you know, like a video camera that actually looks through the pipes and kind of looks to see is something cracked? Is there water leaking out of a storm pipe somewhere that's leaching out and and causing um erosion below. You know. So, more investigation probably would be recommended to kind of find if there is a place where water is intruding and causing erosion in those areas. So, do we patch those and then come back and watch and see if they crack again? Is that Is that the plan? I I think you can I wonder what you do. You would get flexible caulk on it. And it don't move too far. That caulk take care of it. It's kind of >> Yes. You I mean, you can patch the cracks using flexible caulk, paint over it.
075If the cracks continue to appear, I mean, I still recommend that you would look through the storm system to see if something is eroding. I think that's important. If that's the case, then you can you can repair that. And once that's repaired, then you can repair the cracks. The But, the cracks can You can go ahead and repair the cracks and just watch watch them, but it's not a life safety issue. Probably more reassuring to folks to patch them and cover them up versus seeing them every day and wondering, "Did that crack get bigger today?" >> Yeah. Well, that's always the thing is once you see it, it's like very shocking. It's got to got big It's got bigger. Mhm. Well, could you get us a price on fixing the crack and come back fixing
076the cracks and painting them, I guess? We can do that. Yes. I can work with Is that something you want to do? Okay. What about the tree? This is just a curiosity question. If the tree stays, it could be a problem, but if we take it out, the roots could be a problem. So, what do you do? You leave the tree >> and it's cut down, so it's It's cut down? I thought there was one still up. >> What's the other picture of? There There's a There's an older tree that there's a stump, and that is much closer to the building. Those roots most likely did grow underneath the foundations, and we do feel like that that could be contributing to the settlement. And the one that's currently there, it's the leaves in the gutter
077that's the probably the biggest issue for that tree. And that's the other concern. Yes. But you know, the the canopy of that tree that's in there, the drip line does not extend to the walls themselves and most of the time the roots that that that the roots that actually cause damage are within the drip line of the tree. So the ones that are outside of that would be small roots. But just trees next to buildings are always a bit of a concern. Do you have any more questions for her? Thank you. It's always good to see you. Now, back to where I was a page ago. Early graduation request consideration to approve 11 early graduates. Any questions regarding this this request? Thank you. Have a motion on the floor? Second seat. It's on my second.
078All in favor? Opposed? Motion so carried. Field trip request. I'll just go skim through this. Anderson County High School Principal Chris Chris Glass is requesting permission for the JAG teacher and the AP teachers to take the students to King's Island located in Cincinnati May 15th. And JAG students will be doing a job analysis on the theme park. The cost will be paid by students. Transportation is required. Uh next soccer coach Jason Evers uh requests permission to take the girls soccer team on overnight trip to Kentucky Dam uh September the 4th through 6th for a high school invitational soccer tournament. The team will do a fundraising for the trip. Transportation is required there as well. And the soccer coach again requests permission to take the girls on soccer soccer team on overnight trip to Western Kentucky
079for soccer camp. Students will stay in the dorm. Uh the camp is July 10th through 13th of '26. And the team will do a fundraising for the trip as well. Uh and they will not need transportation for that. Coach Hyatt requests permission to plan a trip for the boys basketball team to Gatlinburg on December the 28th through 30th of 2026 to play in a tournament. Those are your field trip requests. Are there any questions that can be answered? Move to approve, Steve Carmichael. I have a motion on the floor. Second, Sonny Finch And a second. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion is so carried. Next, creating a football assistant coach position. Consideration to create a additional assistant football coach to be paid uh $1,500 stipend from the football account. So, the football coach is
080making this request um to add one additional position. Um again, that would be not paid out of board funds and added any additional cost to the athletic funds. Um the request is to be paid at the school level from the funds that are generated um by the football program. Are there any questions? Motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Second, Sunny Fleming Travis. I have a motion and a second on the floor. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion so carried. Next, donations over $1,000. Consideration approved. Donations over $1,000 to M.B. Ward PTO in the amount of $6,288. Purchase TVs and to update technology in the classroom. Are there any questions regarding this? Thank you, PTO. Motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Second, Sunny Fleming Travis. I have a motion and a second on the floor. All those
081in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion so carried. School supplies, 2026-2027. Consideration to approve basic school supplies for students to purchase from Walmart not to exceed $45,000 for 2026-2027 school year. These are usually the basic supplies that they run short on. Sorry. No, you're good. Um thank you for continuing to up to this point approving this and if you continue to do that again, we we are thankful to have the opportunity to be able to give back to something that sounds like a small thing, but first days of schools are big things uh with regards to school and this is a small token to to be able to to get started off and try to reduce those barriers at the beginning of the school year and happy to answer any questions. Uh it's a fantastic opportunity for
082us to to be able to to support the start back of all of our students. How do we distribute those, Travis? So, this last year we actually we actually distributed those from Walmart. Walmart partnered with us. We purchased them and then Walmart actually organized them by grade level. Yeah, in the in the bags and what we did on our side was is that we we had open house events and we also had our community day event that we partnered with uh with the sheriff's department and we handed out vouchers and students would come through the line and their parents and we would validate that they were students in our school district and we gave them a voucher, they took that voucher to Walmart and they retrieved a bag of school supplies for the appropriate grade
083level. So, we continue to adapt and try to make it as efficient as possible, make sure that we're getting in the bag what what is actually beneficial for folks to use and then in addition to that, what we do is is we equip our teachers with additional supplies by classroom at schools by request to meet uh some some other needs such as ceramics uh for art classes, um dry erase markers and some some things along those lines, but um that's that's the typical distribution of that. And we've we've evolved that from where we we got it all shipped here, we sorted and then we passed it out, so we've evolved that a little bit. It's really a blessing to families cuz back to school, as we all know, is an expensive time. It just adds
084to your your budget for that particular month, so it's a great thing to do. Thank you. Second, Steve Carmichael. Motion second on the floor. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion so carried. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. Indirect cost approval for 2026-2027 recommendation approval with indirect cost for 2026-2027 school year at 13.53% for non-restricted indirect cost and 2.84% for restricted indirect cost uh based on the indirect cost calculator uh for 2023-20 2026-2027 school year. The rates are fun for fun one, fun two, and fun 51 food service. As you all know, these indirect costs are annually approved. They are costs that are allowable, such as a cost calculated for administrative fees, lights, different things like that that these programs that are in the schools utilize. Just a small percentage of that that
085goes back into the general fund. Mr. White, is there anything else you'd like to share about that? We typically maximize our grants by not charging indirect cost on the federal grants, but we do to the food service program to offset like what Ms. Mitchell was saying, a lot of the cost to be in the building. And these are increases from last year, but it's it's a KDE calculation. It's nothing that we pull out of a hat or anything crazy. It's literally a report that I run from KDE and then bring you the rates. Any questions? Questions? Indirectly speaking. Motion to approve, Steve Carmichael. Yeah, motion on the floor. Second, Sonny Venable. And a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion is okay. Nick, does anyone want to make a motion to adjourn? Motion to
086adjourn, Steve Carmichael. Second, Sonny Venable. With a motion and a second, all those in favor? Opposed? Motion is okay. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much for your participation. Great meeting. Thank you. Have a good night. Good night. Thank you. Thank you as always.