Anderson County Board Meeting 1/19/26

001do the pledge. Miss Britney will lead us in pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you all very much. Uh >> we're going to do the pledge of allegiance or the national anthem, excuse me. >> [clears throat] [singing] >> Say can you see by the dawn early so proud we [singing] held at the twilight lasting brush stripes. >> [singing] >> and bright stars through the perilous [singing] [singing] we were so >> [music] >> streaming and the rockets [singing] red [music] [singing] flag [singing] of the free and the [singing] home of the brave. >> [applause] >> Very good. Thank you, middle school choir. [clears throat] >> Once again,

002call this meeting to order. Uh, is there any additions to the Ninja agenda? No sir, but I would like to request to move the draft budget as well as the financial report to the end of the meeting. If we could move the draft budget and the financial report as the last item on the agenda, please have that. U entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael. We have a motion to approve. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Have a motion to approve and second. All those in favor? >> I oppose. Motion so carries. [clears throat] >> I guess we skipped the orders of treasure as well, right? >> Oh, no. You can go ahead. The orders is fine. >> Huh? >> Orders is fine. >> Uh, orders of treasure. Anybody have any comments

003on orders of treasure? >> Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael. >> Second is sign with a motion. Second. Uh, we'll do a roll call vote if we have to do that. >> Yes, sir. Um, Scott Brown, >> yes. >> Steve Carmichael, Sunonny Fentrez, James Sergeant. >> Also, let the attendance report show we are one short. Everybody keep Jason in your prayers. Next superintendent report. Miss Mitchell. Hello. I'd like to welcome everyone um to our January 19th board meeting and welcome everyone that is online listening um to our board meeting. We'd like to thank you all for being here and thank you for listening online um and for all the support that you bring our children and our faculty and staff and school district. I'd like to thank the Mustangs from ACMS who opened our meeting and

004performed the special music. Um, I know the board members always think it's such a special treat to have our students come and perform and they did an amazing job. As always, uh, thank you, Principal Rose, as well as, um, the choir teacher, um, Mrs. Brittney Deval for organizing. Tonight, I have several recognitions and I'm going to start with Robert B. Turner recognition. Um, they fell within the top 9% and received a second best school US News and World Report best school award. So tonight, I'd like to congratulate and recognize our Turner Titans. So if you're a Turner Titan, please stand up. Let's give them a round of applause. Tonight, I want to publicly recognize excellence. Y'all keep standing, please. Turner has established a strong tradition of high performance and culture that nurtures student growth, but

005also emotional, behavioral, and academic as well. Their continued focus on excellence has established a shared leadership environment that has created a community of school leaders who daily nurture a culture of academic excellence that continues to result in high performance but also in individual student success stories. Their KSA top nine ranking blue accountability status and second or third I always forget. Is it second or third? US News and World Report. Second, second US News and World Report best schools award are just a few of the accolades that set Turner apart from most. The hard work instilled in their students, the parent, guardian, and community collaboration and support and the collective teacher efficacy of their exceptional staff makes Robert B. Turner a special place to grow and learn. Turner Titans are always ready and willing to do

006whatever it takes to be great and do great things. They do it because it's the right thing to do. It's the right way to teach. It's the right way to lead. It leads our children, growing them into future leaders and soontobe successful community citizens. It takes strong leadership to nurture and grow such a special environment. Mr. Alexander, while humble, never wants the credit, leads by example with his heart and his love for his students and his staff. His shared leadership model continues to bring out the best in students and staff. Together, they focus their sights on always being the best Titans, always role modeling for and leading each other. Titans, you continue to make us all proud. Thank you for all that you do every day for our students and families. Congratulations on another exceptional

007year, a year of peak performance, performing among the state's best overall schools across the Commonwealth and also the nation. And congratulations very importantly on teaching your students that they can achieve at high levels even when it's hard. Thank you for loving all of them and caring about each of them every single day. Titans, come up and receive your award. While they're doing that, let's give them a great big round of applause. [applause] Let's give them one more great big round of applause. >> [applause] >> As I said, it takes everyone, every position to make a school great. Every position is important. And what makes Turner so special is that every everyone is part of a family. It's always hard to see those who have poured into the students and staff move on even when it

008is so welld deserved in the right time. There is one special per position that is so special that will leave some big big big extra big shoes to fill. A special person, SRO BJ Crane is retiring. Officer Crane, will you please come forward? [sighs] >> Principal Alexander, if you'll please come forward as well. >> Don't make me cry to you. >> [laughter] >> SRO BJ Crane was sworn in December of and quickly became a Turner Titan. Besides being a role model to students, parents, and staff alike, he's a kind soul who always has a kind word, a smile, a smile for everyone. His love for children is noticed and his impact leaves his fingerprints in the hearts and homes of many and definitely across Robert B. Turner. It will definitely be a change, a hard

009replace to find an SRO who cares about students and staff as much as Officer Crane does. Many will miss his encouragement, those smiles, that positivity. So tonight we honor his service and thank him for his ability to make everyone feel special. Srro Crane is one of a kind who will be sorely missed. We love you. We miss you already. >> Missing you. >> And we humbly thank you for You can always come back. See, you knew I had to say it. I'm going to say it every time. >> I didn't know that. [laughter] Missing Israel. >> We humbly I know it is. We humbly thank you for your service, protecting and loving our children and our staff. We wish you a very happy or short, however you want to look at it. You can always

010come back retirement full of God's blessings. We have something for you tonight. And I know Mr. Alexander is going to want to say a few words as well. Please join me in congratulating the service of Officer Crane. [applause] >> [applause] >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Well, I will do my best to get through this. I've been stressed about it for a while because this guy is [sighs] he's the goat. [snorts] He is. and uh he's been with me my whole my whole tenure. So, um we're going to miss you, buddy. >> We're going to miss you guys, too, Chief. >> I think what I may miss some the most is and you guys, the Titans out here can relate. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Right. Or I may miss Mr. Alexander to Deputy

011Crane Crane Chair Hall. Go ahead, Chief. [laughter] But no, what I'm going to miss the most is just um just being able to hang out with you every day and just your friendship. H >> man, I love you, buddy. >> I love you guys, too, Chief. >> I appreciate you, man. >> I'm going to miss you guys, too. And and I haven't done anything spectacular. I've just I'm an oldfashioned policeman, and I've always tried to treat others like I'd want to be treated myself. And it's got me through 38 years. I'm still [snorts] standing and walking. But I had uh every day I had three goals when I come into the school. Number one was to keep you guys safe. >> And number two was to make you feel safe while I was there. And

012then number three was to try to put a smile on everybody's. And >> I'm going to miss you. I'm gonna miss you dearly. >> Well, you got an awesome staff. >> I know it, brother. >> Kids. >> Well, listen. You hit those goals. I'm going to tell you every day, man, cuz you [laughter] you kept us safe and you made everybody feel special. And I've told you this and others have told you, but those first couple weeks, he wouldn't be with us because they have just kind of that a different schedule. And buddy, when you came in, it instantly changed our culture, our front office. It changed the whole school. Everybody felt it. Um, and I'm going to miss that more than anything. But man, I'm super proud of you. >> I still got grandbabies.

013I hear you >> book fair and eating lunch with you. Just remember me when you're out with your dad on the fishing boat or when you drive through the line to pick Raiden up and you got your boat behind you. So, but listen, man. I just I want to tell you how much I appreciate you. I've looked up to you when you were my dear officer when I was in seventh grade and [snorts] I still do. >> Love you, man. >> Proud of you. [applause] >> Thank you. Yes, sir. >> Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah, it would be great. [laughter] >> So, we got a little video for you. >> You can you can you can you don't have to stand up if you don't want to, but uh I

014think you'll uh you'll appreciate this. [snorts] >> This might be somebody extra special for you. >> Yeah. I got used to it. Remember? Your Congratulations, Officer Crane, on your retirement. >> Next, we have our assistant principal from Anderson County Middle School, Jonathan Wilkins. He's going to present an award. >> Ma'am, uh, chairman of the board, board members, Miss Mitchell, community at large. I appreciate the opportunity to present. Um, as a service member, I'm able through it's called employment of support of guard of guard and reserve members to nominate my employer through an office there in the department of war uh for exceptional support for a service member while deployed. And of course, I was able to do that. It was a process to get reviewed. And I finally got notification that both Miss Mitchell, the

015superintendent schools and principal Rose of Anderson County Middle School have both exceeded expectations. And so it's my privilege tonight on behalf of the Department of War to to give these certificates to both of you. So I don't know. All right. Uh the first one here is to Miss Rose. Oh, yes ma'am. Glad to do it. Absolutely. So, [applause] the next one is to Miss Mitchell. Oh, yes, ma'am. Absolutely. [applause] And it also comes with these stunning lapel pins. So, you can have those to have. And then also I just want to say this on behalf one of the things they did not only did they give me a tremendous sendoff that was extraordinary um with what they did and then the reception here. Uh also while I was overseas the middle school became a location

016a repository to sort of glean things from the community to help support our Joe's. And so I had an opportunity to push out some of the wonderful things you guys collected for us. uh slim gyms, coffee, toothpaste, all those luxury items that we were missing at times. And um so the battalion commander allowed me at our tactical operations center to fly a flag of the our com our beloved Commonwealth over that area and dedicated it to Anderson County Middle School. And I want to present that to you tonight and on behalf of our command team and the battalion commander and the command sergeant major. and it was flown on September 11th for you guys. [applause] We greatly appreciate your service. Um, it's the least that we can do. Oh, she wants a picture, Miss Rose.

017>> It's the absolute least we can do to support you and all that you do. So, thank you to you and all of the cadets of which you served alongside of >> as I said earlier um school board appreciation month is January. January is a very special month and um it's always [clears throat] really bittersweet for me to stand up here and say thank you to the board because they do so much for so many and most people don't even realize it. So across the state this month, local schoolboard members, including ours right here in Anderson County, schools will be saluted and appreciated by their administrators, faculty, staff, students, and community during Kucky's observation of school board recognition month. Jason Collins, who unfortunately isn't here tonight, please say a prayer for Jason. He is recovering

018from surgery. Um, who is our board chair, Scott Brown, who is our vice chair, Mr. Mr. James Sergeant, Mr. Steve Carmichael, and Mr. Sunny Fentrez are among 850 plus school board members in the state's 171 local school districts who will be praised for their service in doing a job that has become increasingly complex and a job that most people absolutely do not understand. academic standards, achievement gaps, college and career, transition readiness, school safety, athletics, and extracurriculars. I could go on and on and on. Policies of all kinds and challenged in creating a budget that supports it all. These are just some of the areas local schoolboard members must understand because of their responsibilities. It's obvious from those examples that the job can't be confined to the hours of which they give at the monthly meeting.

019Local schoolboard members spend a lot of time studying and talking um before casting their vote as well as talking to the con their constituents whether they're on the job or whether they're at home taking time away sometimes from their family. In addition, our schoolboard members must keep up with the chart with the changes. As you all know of education laws, they're constantly changing. As you all know also, the general assembly is in session and they're actively working to make some of those changes. But they keep up with those changes and those regulations and they devote time a lot of times their own personal time for annual professional development and training. I hope community community members will take the time this month to also say thank you to each of you board members elected to represent

020them. We are very blessed that our board members are true partners with administrators, teachers, and staff and making sure that kids come first in Anderson County Schools. School board members, I personally want to say thank you for your support and for being a very strong decision-making team. Some schools, some school districts aren't as lucky as we are here in Anderson County. And we know that among you is years of knowledge, experience leading and serving on the school board, serving in a role that gives you specific knowledge about public education, insight into student needs and the importance of highquality staff, and knowledge that truly understands community partnerships and leadership. While you are one of the most experienced boards across the Commonwealth, you are also number one in putting students and staff as your main priority. And

021I am humbled to serve [snorts] alongside of you. And I'm grateful that you unify together for our children and our staff, always making the tough decisions, supporting them, and keeping them your number one. As a small token of appreciation and on behalf of the students and staff of Anderson County Schools, please accept these amazing small tokens gifts of appreciation. They were prepared for you with a lot of love, a lot of care, and a lot of thanks to show gratitude for your service and your dedication to the students, staff, and our school district. Thank you for your important service. Tonight we celebrate you. Thank you for all that you do for Anderson County students and staff. Please, let's give them a great big round of applause. [applause] >> As always, >> thank you, Miss Mitchell.

022[clears throat] Thank you. >> Thank you. And I need to back up. I forgot to do approval of minutes on the financial report when we talked about it. So, uh, re recommendation to approve the December 8th regular business meeting or regular board meeting. Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael. [clears throat] >> Second. Sympto. With a motion and a second, I'll take a roll call vote. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown, >> yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. Yes. >> Mr. Fentre. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Next comment. >> Yes, sir. >> Before we move on, I would like to say something. Today, you know, we recognize today was Martin Luther King Day. Some of us was awkward, some not. And I was thinking about a teacher uh in my past. Some of y'all may know her.

023She was my fifth grade teacher. She tells pe me not to tell people that I was one of her students, but her name is Jane Scott Bentley. She was my fifth grade teacher at Second Street. And uh after my family came through, she left and came to Anderson County and taught at Sapp Street. But anyway, uh there's one thing, you know, being in South Frankfurt in in the middle of downtown growing up, poor neighborhood. Most of every I think everybody in my class was poor at Second Street. I remember she uh used to tell us in the classroom quote motivate us try to keep us out of the street doing things that we shouldn't become good citizens of the community. One of the quotes she always told us was one that I've always taken to

024heart of her and it was one that Martin Luther King Jr. said, and it's if you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. You can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, or whatever you have to, you have to keep moving forward. That was one of the things she always told us with the fifth grade students, children, you've got to keep moving forward. You can't moving backwards out in the streets doing things you shouldn't is taking you backwards. You got to move forward. Go ahead and make something successful. She used to read. Thank you, James. Very true. Next audit for 202425. Miss Denise King, you have the floor. Is this already on or can you hear me? >> Do you see a green button? Yes, it's on. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >>

025Well, finally we have an audit report. Normally, this will be much earlier in the year than what it is now, but um federal government didn't get their compliance supplement out until November the 28th, even though it's required to be out by May 1st. [clears throat] Um, so we were a little delay in getting some of the information we needed in order to get you the information you needed. We'll start with our opinion letter which is on page four. It is an unmodified opinion and that means that your financial statements present fairly in all material respects. And we use that terminology because we test transactions. We can't look at every transaction that goes on during the year. U but as we go along, you'll see that you're in in very good financial position and a lot

026of that is because of you as a board monitoring and budgeting and u making good decisions. Uh, and so I certainly appreciate your work because I know how hard you work. Uh, and I see the the results of it as I'm auditing. Uh, pages 7 through 13 is your management discussion analysis. I'm not going to go over that, but it's a good place for you to sort of get a reminder of all the things that occurred during [clears throat] the year. And you did have a lot of success, not only financially, but academically. So do take time to review that if you will. On page 14 is the first numbers we'll sort of look at. It is your statement of net position. Uh this is where we record all your assets and all your liabilities.

027So it's going to include your buildings, your buses. It's going to include your bond debt. It's also going to include that pension and OPEC liability that we've been recording. now for 10 plus years. The good thing about that is when the state decided to approve the gaming law, they decided that all the profits from that would go toward paying down that pension liability. And we actually have seen that liability go down over the past couple of years. So, that's really positive. On page 16, we'll look at the numbers that you look at on a regular basis, and that's your fund account. That's all the different funds that you have in your district. And if you'll look at the unassigned fund balance under general fund, third line from the bottom in the first column, you'll see

028$3.6 million. Now, for a lot of people, that may look like a lot of money. Um, but that really isn't when you think about the total cost that you incur on a daily basis and the fact that costs continue to rise and unfortunately most of your revenues do not. So, you really are very fortunate that you have that reserve. Um, but you want to continue to maintain it as well as you can. If we look on page 18, we'll notice that we did have an increase this year of our fund balance. Uh part of that was because we did have a large transfer in from another fund. Uh so overall we had a very minor negative fund balance when you combine all your funds, but the general fund did have a positive fund balance. Let's

029look just briefly about food service which starts on page 20. You also have a daycare fund which is an enterprise fund which basically maintains itself. But your food service um which is one of the funds that really statewide has been struggling some uh because the cost of food as you know has been increasing tremendously. Um and so the rate since COVID money disappeared uh or stopped um has gone back down. So it's really been hard to keep up with our food service costs. Um, so it's something that as we go on for the next couple years, we'll need to sort of keep an eye on to make sure that we're doing okay. Uh, starting on page 23, we have our notes to our financial statement. Won't go over all those because those go on for

030quite some time. Uh, but we're next going to look at our budget comparison on page 61. turn my page there. This is your general fund budget comparison and basically you want to see positive variances on this. We do have a few negative variances but that is primarily because we budget on behalf payments from the state. uh those on behalf payments are primarily for um teacher retirement, health benefits, those kinds of things. It's really hard to budget those items because we don't really know what they're going to be until the end of the year we get those final numbers. So the negatives really are a result of that on behalf that when we're budgeting, we don't always know how to budget. Uh on page 63 is our first page in regards to pension and I apologize

031for the size. We're required to do 10 years of information here. But what I do want to point out is when you look at the CS liability, it went down from 11 million to 9.5. And again, that's because the state has consciously decided to put the profits from the gaming into that liability. Then let's go all the way over to page 77, which is our federal funds. Our federal funds this year are down 1.3 million. That's primarily because of the COVID money that ran out um during the year. So, um one of the things again I think we need to be conscious of is that some of the federal funding is being cut. Um I'm not sure which ones, if any, will affect Anderson County, but it's something to sort of keep an eye on.

032And then finally is our management points. If we look over on page 88 and 89 and we only have eight. Eight is actually very good. Uh on the average my management points run from 15 to 30 depending on the district and how things are going. um your system is very interested in making sure that we correct any points that we had in the prior year. Um one of the reasons that we continue to have points is because we try to test different things on different years. So something we test this year may not have been something that we tested last year. So none of these are overly concerning. They're all at the school level on your school activity counts. So, we'll continue to work on those. If there's something I haven't covered that you want

033me to cover, I'll be glad to do that. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer those as well. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> Would you explain what you mean when it says out? >> Okay. So just just like your own personal checking account, when you get your bank statement at the end of the month, you may have some checks that have not yet cleared, checks that you wrote, but they have not cashed and gone through the bank. The red book which is over the school activity accounts actually and it's actually part of the state regulation says that no school should carry outstanding checks for more than 12 months. And so that was what that comment is for. It's for checks that were written but have not actually been cashed

034and not cleared the bank. >> and they never did cash. >> Well, it probably does occasionally, but probably not as often as it does at the school. Yeah. Any other questions? Well, I do want to thank your staff. I'm sorry Josh isn't here. Uh, as I told you last year, I've been very impressed uh with his ability to come in and take on a very difficult job. Uh, finance officer position in a school district is very demanding. It's very changing because they're changing all the time the things that they require you to do. And he's done an excellent job for you. So, u I want you to to to recognize that. And I do want to thank you because board members, I would tell you I wouldn't have your job. Uh you work long hours.

035You're not often appreciated. And so I just want you to know I do appreciate the work that the boards across this state do for our school. >> Thank you for all you do. >> You're very welcome. [clears throat] Next, Robert [clears throat] B. Turner improvement plan. Jason Alexander B. Turner principal will provide overview of 202425 KSA accountability score and improvement plan. No action to be taken. >> [clears throat] >> Sorry, I don't uh use PowerPoint very often, so I'm going to need a little help. Maybe you're on >> the right path. >> That's not what I want, though. Alison, can I phone a friend here, please? Uh, I was already having a little bit of anxiety because this happened last time. Okay. What did I do wrong here? Is that right? Different from me. I

036got you. Okay, I had it. Sorry. All right. Thank you, Miss Allison. I appreciate your help. Thank you guys for allowing me to be here uh this evening. So, it's always an honor to be able to talk about our [clears throat] team and it's it's a it's a wonderful opportunity. I love to brag on the folks as often as I can. And so, Miss Mitchell, thank you again for for your wonderful words. I thought I should just insert that into my presentation because very well said and I'm very grateful for for our team. Uh, so this year our theme is be different, be a Titan. And I want to talk to you just a little bit real quick about what that means. So, this is our our staff for the year. Um, if you notice

037our shirts, we have be different, be a Titan. And these folks are the folks that make it happen day in and day out. Um, I'm very proud of each one of them. They bring uh their agame each and every day. Um, and they do great things. And so when you do those little things day in and day out, over and over, and you're consistent in that, then big things happen. And uh we're blessed with an amazing uh group of teachers and staff as well as uh our students are are incredible as well. So our mission statement is respect our students, believe in our students, teacher to prepare our students for the future. Also we talk a lot about what it means to be a Titan. So this is our anchor. Uh take responsibility, I am

038respectful, think positive, act safely, and never give up. And Miss Riley, our counselor, she's made it here tonight. We're grateful. Thank you for being here, Miss Riley. She does this with our kiddos every morning, right? They recite this on our Google announcements every morning. I am a Titan. And they go through these with hand signals. So, it's just another way that uh that we just kind of brand what it truly means to be a Titan. And so this year when we talk about be different, be be a Titan, we know that we're doing a lot of great things and a lot of good things and strong things and we're all about teamwork and all of those those aspects. But what we wanted to do is we're like, what can we do? Um, how can we

039plus what we're already doing to make it a little bit better? And then is there anything that we can do that's maybe a little bit different that can make us that much better? So that's kind of our our goal for the year. Uh four in each grade level, K through four. Uh fifth at this moment has uh only three teachers. Um but we've got 42 certified staff, 24 classified staff. Within those certified staff, we've got a principal, counselor, instructional coach, and a math coach through the MAF grant. And I say that because we need all those people, right? They make it happen. And again, I'm super grateful uh to have them. [clears throat] Just some other demographics real quick. Uh we're down just a little bit. Uh this year, um in past years, we're at

040572 students, pretty equal, male to female, 32 to 270. Our minority population uh is increasing. Um, and when I first started, uh, eight years ago, we were below that 8%. So, we are growing in in that regard. So, that is awesome. We want to keep that, uh, 572 to trickle on up to get closer to 600. We love having all the kids that we can. Our biggest uh, classes uh, this year is third grade at 103 students, fourth grade at 108. So, there's just some other uh, demographics there. Um, [groaning] this slide, I think I changed it up a little bit, but I'll sh I'll share um kind of what I had for who we are. So, this slide, I don't have it in, but it uh on mine, one of the things I wanted

041to show you is I took a screenshot of our opening day. So, we did a one thing to be different, be a Titan. We did, if you ever been to Disneyland, Disney World, they always do a rope drop, right? And so it's that buildup, the excitement of, hey, the the park's getting ready to open up. We're going to countdown. We're going to have a rope drop. So we thought, why not do that at at Turner? We're going to have a rope drop before open house night before they get to go see their teachers in their classroom for the first time. So we had a couple confetti canyons and we counted down. Um, and I thought it was pretty cool. I think the kids and the families liked it. We had a good a lot of

042people there for that. So that was one of the ways that we um kind of plused some of the things that that we were doing. So the next thing you'll see before we get into our goals is more than academics. So, one of the things that I think makes us really special at Turner, and I know other schools do this as well, so I'm not sharing anything that other folks aren't doing, but if you go to a basketball game, a cheerleading event, um, cross country, you name it, I can almost guarantee you that there's going to be a Titan staff member at that game, right? It's just what they do. And I think it really adds a lot to our culture and kind of what what we're doing as a school. And so I wanted

043to share that because it just goes above and beyond um the normal the normal uh duties or expectations. Um I think it really builds a strong relationship with the families. It uh builds a strong relationship with the kids and they love seeing that their teachers there uh to support them. um because we recognize and celebrate our kids. And so then that creates this culture of I want to be there. I want to be there day in and day out and um then when they go and gets tough and things get hard or whatever, we ask them to do an assignment that's challenging or difficult, they're going to push for us because we've built that relationship. The other thing is is is we're a family. We talk about that a lot, but we are. Quickly, I

044want to talk a little bit about our counselor. Uh some highlights there. Um, so one of the things that Miss Riley is doing is we do uh a coffee with a counselor. So it's a roundt discussion of emotional regulation skills for parents following her guidance lessons uh with students. So basically we open that up for our our families or she does and they come in and they just have coffee with the counselor. they have an opportunity to discuss with one another, share ideas, share maybe even struggles and uh it's been it's been something different uh that's made a big impact. Something else that we're working on is our behavior academy. So, this is brand new for this year. Um I'm actually able to be uh to to lead one of thesemies, but it just we've

045got several, one on focus, motivation, emotional regulation, uh hands-on, and a social skills academy. and these coincide with our MTSS uh systems of support. Um, and we've also kind of turned that into a digital format. So, that's just other things that I think we're doing uh this year that's making a big difference. We also do, as I mentioned, the live Google announcements each and every day. But something that Mr. Riley did a little bit different this year is we have students that lead those um and so it's been really fun. It gives them leadership opportunities. Uh, and they're proud of that. Um, and it's just been a big win for us. So, I'll just roll through some pictures here. This is, uh, our Turner November citizens of the month. Also, we've got our POPS award

046winners or Titan award winners. So, those are kiddos that are being recognized. One of the things that uh, we've got going too that Miss Riley heads up is our kindness club. And so they work together as a team to plan several exciting activities for the year. Um their next project coming up is a sock drive uh for for individuals experiencing homelessness. Um and that's coming up in February because it's kindness month. But those are things that aren't necessarily directly related to academics, but it builds student leaders which all will turn into successful high achieving kiddos. Um, one of the things that that we also do that I think is really great is we have a traveling trophy. Um, and it's it's it's for high attendance. So, we push and we try to encourage kids to

047be there. Um, again, the reason that the kids are there is because our staff create super high engaging atmospheres where kids want to be a part of. They don't want to miss. Um, and I wanted to turn to my page cuz I took some notes. Um, I like to to to see where we are all the time and where we've been and where we're going. But, um, in 2324 from the start of school till now to to around this time where our attendance was 93.35%. Last year we bumped that up to 94 same time frame 94.34%. This year we're at 94.96%. So I'm really excited about that and I want everybody to to hear that. I want my folks to hear that that what they're doing is making a big difference. And when we know

048when the kids come come to school when they get there, then we can do uh our job and we can uh we can do the rest. So there's a class there that was a high attendance class winner. And then here's some other highlights that uh that we're that we've got going on. Um during the month of November, December, Miss Riley led the entire school in learning about emotional regulation and they worked on some ways that they could do that. Um again, the kindness club is is working on ways that they can spread joy beyond the walls of Turner and out into our community. So, real quickly, here are some things that we're focusing on. Uh we've really spent a good amount of time this year working on literacy talks. Uh we've been doing math talks

049for several years through our math coach. She led that. Mr. Spy, instructional coach here. Took the same concept and the same idea and just tweaked it with some of our teacher leaders. And now we've got literacy talks as well, which is then turned into history talks. If you're interested about that, I don't want I know I'm always speaking the night of the college football playoffs, so I don't want to get in the way of that, but if you're interested in that, ask us. We'd be happy to share. I know Mr. Spy would share, too. It's pretty awesome. We've also done a great job, I think, of our MTSS and RTI focus. One of the things that we're focusing on this year, spending a great amount of time on is formatively assessing versus formative assessments. Um,

050and so that's something that we continue to to work on. We're doing we're doing well with that, but we just we just keep on uh tweaking and getting a little bit better. But then we've got the the high engagement, Titan Pride. Um here's some uh something we started last year with staff. This is just a for for staff Titan tokens. So each every every staff gets about three tokens per month. We can get you [clears throat] can have more. And then the goal is to try to add value to somebody and share a Titan token with them. Uh it's really not the token that's important, it's what you say that's important that you that you want to try to praise them and lift them up. But then we try to have like a monthly uh

051reward incentive for for for teams uh that uh that hit that goal. All right. And now I'm going to move into uh just some traditions that we have. So we've got literacy math nights. I think all the schools have these types of activities, but it's something that we've had for for a while and I know it's it's it's big for our culture. But we've got pumpkin carving, music programs, uh Veterans Day parade, which is a big thing. Uh that's that's been awesome. We also this year had Veterans Day speakers that Mr. Spivey organized. And then one of my favorite days of all time is our Thanksgiving Day lunch. Uh so we served over 1,138 meals and our uh cafeteria crew just did a phenomenal job. I get to actually help uh it's one of the

052things I love to do. I get to help serve uh meals that day and it just rem I try to stay out of the way to be honest because they work so hard. If you have never had an opportunity to get back on that serving line, I'm gonna tell you, I can't always stand up when we're over because I'm not used to to bending bending down, but we have a lot of fun back there. And uh I just want to thank them because they have a big job and an important job that that makes our school super special. So, here's just some pictures of our most recent uh pumpkin carving. Uh this is our Titan Thanksgiving. These are fifth grade students. Miss Wallace, our fifth grade social studies teacher, she organizes this part of it.

053they serve um our families and do it uh in an exceptional exceptional way. Now, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I I have heard that sometimes folks will give these kiddos tips. Um just saying, but that's that's the kind of job that they do. So, and then Miss Jury does a phenomenal job with our music programs. These are some pictures there. Um this is what we put out for our our families to see. Um, but we are really proud of this. Um, so to be ranked 66th out of 717 schools in the state of Kentucky to be placed in the top 9% of the state was um just awesome. It's I don't know. I was kind of speechless. I was so proud of our families. I was so proud of our

054our district and our kids and our teachers because they show up every day and do the little things and they're consistent in the hard things um and the challenging things and this is the the result. Um and so I hope all anybody listening, the kids, the teachers and staff, they realize how proud we are of them uh for this accomplishment. So this slide here and then I'm I'm I'm almost I'm almost finished up, but I got to brag on our folks, but so 2122 we were uh uh our indicator rating was a green and we were super proud of that. Um that's a big accomplishment. It's high performing. The very next year 2223, we we hit the mark of being a blue a blue performing school and 83 is the cutoff for the indicator rating

055and we hit that at 86.9. So we are very proud of that. The very next year uh we did really well and we were a green performing school at 82.7. So super proud of that progress. We only missed it by 3/10en of a point. And then this this uh past year um our goal was to be back uh at blue and um amazingly enough we went from we beat our our prior score in 2223 at 88.3. So, um, very proud of everybody for that and I wanted you guys to to to to see that. And here's just a screenshot of that. Here's 2324. We were green with reading and math and blue in uh, social studies, science, combined writing, as well as our safety survey. So, we're really proud that we were able to bump

056that up to be blue in all categories, reading and math. We grew there uh, quite a bit. [clears throat] And then to do that in the other two categories uh is something to be proud of. So um I wanted to share that. This is some metrics that you've probably seen uh from other schools. Uh but we look at this because we know that uh top performing schools we try to shoot for that uh 70% is kind of our goal and then to try to increase proficiency with our students with uh IEPs and accommodations as well as keep that uh novice and apprentice uh reduction as low as possible. All right, so into our goals. Um our long-term goal, I'm just going to read these. Over the past 7 years, we've focused on 10% or less

057novice in reading and math. And we've achieved that goal in math. Uh and have hit the goal in some areas of reading, but it's still a focus area. It's one of the things we want to continue to keep our our our mind around. Um but our overall goal is to increase proficiency in reading and math to 70% or higher. Um so our reading goal is is what we want to try to do for this upcoming year 2526 is hit that 68% or higher mark in reading. Um we were about 66 last year 3 fourth fifth. So if we can bump up 2% that'll be awesome. In math we were at uh around I think exact third fourth and fifth was right at almost 73 which was just incredible. Um, and so we would like to

058maintain that score of 70% uh or higher uh for this year. Um, and I won't go through all these numbers. I took some notes, but if you ever get a chance to get on the school report card, you can get some pretty pretty cool data off there. Um, but we um we excelled um um beating the state by several percentage points and and I say that with full humbleness. I'm not trying to to to to to brag, but I am trying to to to to share how proud I am of the work that the folks put in and the students put in because when they come and show up every day, day in and day out, great things happen. And that's exactly what uh what took place. So, we want to keep doing that. We

059want to keep taking care of kids and doing all the little things that we know make a big difference. our uh separate academic indicator for science, social studies and writing. Uh what we like to do is our goal would be to hit 65% or higher as a combined all three subject areas. So uh if [clears throat] we can do that by increasing our proficiency in science to uh 54% or higher, social studies to 60% or higher and maintain our writing proficiency to 70% or higher, then we know we'll be in great shape. writing by the way too was about 73%. So super proud of of the folks for that. Um can't say enough for the hard work there. And then lastly, uh we want to uh one of the things that that we want to

060work on and continue to try to to close the gap is to to support and help our kiddos, our special ed students. Um so our goal there is for third, fourth and fifth uh to reduce our students scoring novice and apprentice from either on MAP or KSA from 46 to 35% or less and then those same uh grade levels and group of students for proficiency to 45% uh up to 55%. And then also with our quality um of school and climate safety survey, our goal is to just just to maintain uh we did really well the prior year and our goal then was to just kind of maintain that we want to be safe. We want to you know do all the things that that's that that make kids feel confident and safe and comfortable

061and uh we improved. So I was really impressed that we were able to improve being being high. So that's that's a good thing. Speaks well to our our folks. So I won't read all of these, but uh really um how we how we do this and how we maintain and stay there is just to continue uh one of the the last the bullet item. I talk about this a lot and it's really so that I can remember it for myself and others but consistency over intensity. Right? I really believe in life that no matter I found in this role and in education and and all things in between that if you show up and you're consistent in the little things, big things happen, you know, and so regardless of of the accountability system, we know

062it's going to be be changing. It will continue to change. Um if we show up and do the things that we know to do day in and day out, we'll be fine. And um I truly believe that it's the people that make it happen. And I'm uh just super blessed and grateful to be able to lead and be a part of uh Turner and be a Titan. I I humbly say that I love it. Um it's all I've ever known. Um and I'm just grateful that I get the opportunity to do it. So, thank you for allowing me to to be to be the principal. Um but anyway, we build teacher leaders. We try accountability, all of those things, coaching and supporting people. And I truly believe, [clears throat] excuse me, that God called me

063to serve and help other people. That's that's the bottom line. So, I hope that I can do that. And um I'm grateful that I get to at Turner. So, does anybody have any questions? >> I don't have any questions, but comment. >> Okay. First of all, I have a belief that I need I have to educ I should I have a belief that I should educate the people in my district about how their money's been spent. So just two weeks ago I'm coming through by from Taylorville coming through Anderson County and when I go by your school I see that there ain't a parking place in the lot and so I call Mitchell we need to do some improvements out there. One of the things that I just was talking to some folks in my

064neighborhood this week and I said, "Y'all know I'm very conservative when it comes to everything up there. We've got to spend some money and we've got to do some improvement on entrance and parking out there." And even as conservative as I have some friends and neighbors are very conservative, even they said, "Sergeant, I don't disagree with you on that because I came there the other day and the road the traffic was backed up parking lot was over. Don't think I give up here. >> Oh, I keep preaching. >> All right. Well, we'll Hey, where's Deputy Crane? Is he here now? We'll take we'll take any renovations or a new parking lot if if that's what we need to do. I mean, I I'm conservative and I don't believe in wasteful tax dollars, but [snorts] sometimes

065when things need to be done, you just got >> Absolutely. And we've been blessed. We've grown. I think uh you know, I I wasn't there in 2002 when the school was built, but I believe that that that we've grown. Um and I I anticipate next year we'll we'll have a few more kids than we have this year. Hope so. Anyway, >> thank you very much. >> Thank you guys. Appreciate your time. >> Next, Nikki, uh, Miss Nikki, Sapp Street, school principal, going to give an improvement plan. [clears throat] You're very patient. Thank you. Hello. Um, first I want to introduce myself. I am Nikki Lucas, um, the new principal at Satell Street. I've met some of you all, but I just wanted to formally introduce myself. Um, I am diving straight into the improvement plan

066on academics. Um, but just to speak to our culture, coming in new to Anderson County and as a new principal, um, the first thing I felt like I really needed to focus on and get to know was the culture of Anderson County and the culture of Sappel Street. And coming in that was not anything that I needed to improve on. Saffl Street has a great culture. The teachers love their kids. Um, you know, we [clears throat] have a really good thing going with our house system where every student feels like they belong somewhere. So, I felt like that was a really strong thing coming into Sappul Street. Um, safety, that was something that I really wanted to focus on and I got help with getting the um, windows covered and everything to make our students

067and staff feel safer. So, next was how can we improve academically. So, that's what I'm going to focus on today. In January, I felt like that was a really good time to make a shift academically and make some changes. So, the first thing that we did was we made a change to our PLC schedule. At the beginning of the year, I was having one PLC, that's professional learning, um, one a week with teachers. I shifted that to two. And what that looks like is we have one PLC where we're focusing on planning with the teachers and then we have a second PLC where we're focusing on data. When teachers come to that planning PLC, myself, my math coach, as well as my instructional coach, we are all there individually coaching a teacher. So I am

068there for every bit of the planning process and the coaching. Teachers are expected to come with their lesson plans already done, a rough draft, and I've seen them. So then we can coach them in that moment on how we can make them better and make sure they are congruent. The second PLC is about data. So teachers come with a data analysis. They've already looked at their data. They're coming with that data analysis and we're looking at plans to see what we need to change based on student needs. [snorts] January 5th was a reset um on all of these expectations and we had to have some agreements. So for those agreements, we're starting on time, we're ending on time. We're staying focused during these PLC's. It's not a time for all of us teachers to get

069together and principal and instructional coaches and just vent about how our day is going. We're staying focused and teachers are coming prepared, knowing their data. I know their data and we're ready to plan and make a change for our students. This is what our schedule looks like. So the master schedule that is something I really focused on at the beginning of the year was having a really tight master schedule. So that is something I did at the beginning of the year. Um that's not changed without approval first. So if I'm looking at the master schedule and it says class should start at this time, class should start and end at that time. Um this is our weekly schedule. You can see the white boxes are when we're having those meetings with teachers. You can see

070a planning PLC as well as a data PLC. And again, I'm there, my math coach is there, and my instructional coach is there. The yellow boxes are where we are doing weekly walkthroughs. So, I have a schedule for every week, as well as my math coach and my instructional coach. We all have schedules where we're following this. Teachers know to be prepared for planning as well as with their data. Um, we have a tier 2 intervention schedule really focused on we're not pulling kids out of the classroom, but we are pushing into the classroom. That's our goal, keep them in there. And then for our tier three, we have a really tight schedule for that as well. But I am working with I'm just going to throw her out there, Miss Rose on um how

071we can even implement a plan to keep that in the classroom as well. So our goal is to make sure that students are staying in the classroom and getting that support. [snorts] So we also made some planning agreements and really that is to make sure that when they're teaching, I'm not saying that saf teachers were never teaching. they were teaching. It's just are we teaching to the level of the standard that is expected from the state. So they're coming knowing what that expectation is as well as looking at the pacing that's made from the district. And then I'm going to speak on Dada in just a little bit so you know what I'm referring to there. Um again, we're focused. We're coming prepared. teachers are coming with their lesson plans already done and then we're

072just co coaching them on making sure that we're congruent to this standard. If they need any resources, we are there in the trenches with them figuring out how we can find those resources and make sure that it is the best plan for all students individually and being solutionoriented has been really big. So this is um a lesson plan kind of breakdown of dates. We have a template and I can open if you want me to. Um but basically all teachers are using the same lesson plan template and that is really to make consistency across the board as well as make my life easier because everybody's looks the same. Everything's really tight on that. they're dropping their lesson plans in a folder, so we're monitoring those. And here you can see a lesson plan schedule. So,

073for example, this week, um, which is the week of the 23rd, they're already looking at their plans ahead of time, um, for the week of the February 2nd through the 6th. So, in order for us to effectively coach them before they're teaching the lesson plan, we have to have them ahead of time so that we can go through them, make sure they're congruent, coach them on those changes. Along with the shift in planning and coaching, we changed the structure of all of our classrooms at Saful. And what I mean by that is if you walk in any classroom now at Saful, you're going to see station teaching. That means that you're going to see three different groups of students. You're going to see that the class starts with a flashback or a spiral of something

074that they've already learned, whole group. And then you're going to see them in three stations. One station, you are going to see the teacher leading the core instruction. That's the standard for the day. You're going to also see a station where students are practicing this standard independently. And if they need support there, it's probably going to come from like a video that the teacher made or a resource that they found to help support them through that. You're also going to see a third station. That station is very much based on student needs. It could be an underpinning like something that they might need to see from the previous grade. It could be a retach of something that when we looked at our data analysis, they need some more practice with it. That's where that data

075is going to come in so we can make those changes. It might be an extension. If we've got high students, we don't want to hold them back. We need to push them. So that station right there, you're really going to see differentiation with that. If there is a co-teer who is pushing into the classroom or an interventionist, that's where you're going to see them so that they can change their lesson plans based on the students that they have within that station. So you can see based on the rotations that we've grouped the students based on ability and that so that when they go to those stations, it can be differentiated based on those needs. At the end of that class, um, I said that they would start whole group with a spiral, like a flashback.

076They'll end the class with an exit slip, which is whole group because they do that independently. So, within these stations, um, they're following an ideal lesson plan. And I'm not going to read all of this, but again, you can see that they have a learning target. They have instruction. They're checking for understanding. They're going to give some more instruction and they're going to check for understanding. Um, they're following that gradual release of I do, meaning the teacher is introducing the new content. Um, they're going to lead into we do. Okay, now we're getting the students involved into you do. Now we're checking to see do the students understand it or do they need some more support for that standard. This is the steps to an ideal lesson plan for the practice and underpinning station. It

077looks very very similar. So we're following that in all stations. Just the difference here is um it c it can be flexible meaning that last station could change based on the students needs and they might be doing work independently if there's not somebody pushing in there. They might be getting support from a video or um it could be you know some notes that the teacher left there. So what's important is that we are assessing our students so we know what they need. So each day the students are doing a daily exit slip and that's on audit that's congruent to the standard. Um they are doing a Friday standard check and that is again on doit congruent to the standard. They're doing a 3-w weekek common assessment and then um they're also doing a cumulative assessment.

078That's something I'm really passionate about. Um, so this first cumulative assessment that they will do on audit is an assessment that's from August to the end of January and that's all the standards that they've been taught. And the reason why I'm passionate about that is because that's going to give us the data on what have the students retained versus what do they need retaught. And that'll give us that data. That's where that station for retach can come in on okay we have taught this but at the end of the year when they take KSA we expect that they remember it all but they don't always remember it. So that'll give us that data to know what do we need to hit again. Writing in all classes writing was the weakest score for SAFUL. So we

079knew that we needed to make a change there and implement writing in all classes. Um, so it is required in all grade levels, all classes th every Thursday, one of those stations, they are doing a short answer in a station. Teachers are modeling what a good response would look like as well as live scoring students and letting them make those revisions. On demand is done in fifth grade. They'll be practicing their first on demand at the end of January. that is also going to be live scored so that the students can make those revisions and see in real time the mistakes that they're making but also the corrections that they can make to get a better score. In social studies, they're focusing on document-based questions. Um, so we're really focusing on writing in every single

080content every day in some aspect and short answers every single week, but also modeling them. We can't just give them a short answer and think that they're going to know how to do it. We have to teach them how to do it. So, the resources that we have um some new I'll go over some new ones. So, dotted and I'm going to speak on that a little bit more in depth in just a second. Coach Digital is something new that we've got um and that's been a really really big support for teachers. um having resources that are congruent again to that standard or finding those underpinnings. Reflex to help with fluency as well as I ready. Um that has been really big um to help with differentiation for the individual student working on their my

081path. So SAFUL has implemented um do audit. What this is is it's providing a pacing for teachers. So it's taken the district pacing guide and integrated it into their platform. And I've gave just like a little snip at the top of it'll give you like quarter 3, week three, and it'll pace out the standards for the week. So, if I am that math teacher and I'm looking at that week, I know that I have three standards I have to cover that week to stay on pace. It also provides a sample lesson. Now, it's not going to provide the teacher with you do this, you say this, this is the resource. They still have to do all the planning, which is where we come in to help support them on that. But it does give them

082just a rough outline of what a good ideal lesson plan would look like as well as um it has differentiated levels. So like a DOK1 would be just like the surface level of that standard and then DOK 2 would be a little higher, three and four. So we can hit all of the students needs. The last thing that is going to provide is assessments. So each day they have a three question exit slip. Um it also provides a Friday standard check for our students and then that is where we are also taking our common assessments and cumulative assessment. So all the data is on one platform. We're able to access the data at any time. Miss Mitchell's able to access the data at any time. Um as well as it also offers opportunity for students

083to retake something. So say they did a retach within a station, that teacher can go in and reassign another version for them to take that assessment again. And this will ensure that the questions are congruent to the standard. So they're seeing questions at that grade level like on KSA. So some resources for myself, I have had coaching from CKEC and feedback. Um, Miss Rose has been coaching me on structure and um, implementation. Thank you very much. Um, and then I'm also getting weekly coaching with Miss Mitchell. Thank you. And, um, Mr. Murphy. Um, when we are doing walkthroughs, this is what we are looking for. This is like a really big focus right now is making sure that we have the standard, we have the learning target, as well as we have an exit slip.

084So, this poster is going in all classes. Right now, they're expected to have it in all of their rooms, but it might look just a little bit different. So, just for consistency, if any of you all walked into the classroom, you would know exactly where to look for those things. Why this structure, I'm not going to go through every single reason. We know why um we have to make improvements. Um, and just having that consistency across all grade levels for all students. Um, us coaching the teachers, we're just going to know that everything is congruent to the standard, but also we're doing what the students need because those stations allow that differentiation and it's proven to be successful at the middle school. We've seen their results. So, why reinvent the wheel? Let's just go with

085what we know works. This is our progress from August to December. So, I really focused on a tighter master schedule. I focused on intervention and then positive behavior supports in place and improving engagement. So, you can see red. I mean, we can see a lot of good things, but we can also see some red. If we look at since we've put the structures in place just since January, I mean, we're talking January 6th to the 19th. Um you can see the big improvements that we've already made just by making sure things are congruent. Um the stations are helping with the engagement. You know, we're giving feedback to the teachers. We're hearing them give it to students. So you can see the improvements. We can still see the improvements we need to make, but we see

086a shift. So that that's really exciting to see the things that we have focused on having that learning target posted making sure it's congruent to the standard engagement as well as exit slips. That's our data again from January 6th through the 14th. So we can see, you know, really big gains there across the board. But that's taken a tight walkthrough schedule, monitoring and coaching for all teachers. So what are the next steps? Our next steps to focus on our engagement, higher level questions as and as well as student discussion. [snorts] Any questions? Yes, >> I don't have any questions. >> Okay. I'm working on my 16th year being on the board here. Back 15 years ago, Miss Mitchell encouraged assigned each of us board members at the time a school. Well, she assigns me Sav

087Street. She didn't tell me that principal was an older lady and a little bit hardcore when she sent me over there and I was a new board member. I was gung-ho. And anyhow, her and I didn't buted heads there for the first little while. I go back to Miss Mitchell's office report. She said, "Oh, well, sorry. No, I'll handle this." So anyway, as we as I continue to go over there, I made her a promise and I'll make you this promise. I said, you improve, get your schools approved. I make your school. I will make you go back to the board. I will get with them, the members, and we'll make we'll do things to make your school shine. One of the things we did sent Sample Street the Kentucky School Board Association uh annual

088meeting at the God House, they all performed. Miss Mitchell, that's correct. Uh and the principal after her and I quit button heads, she was a big Raul person. She thought R Paul was her. I don't know. But anyhow, I I said uh I will I'm going to do something nice for you. You've improved. I appreciate it. And we got a lunch. Uh we didn't get Rampaul, but we got his aid. She brought a big picture autograph and had lunch at the school. Miss Mitchell was there uh with me and I make you the same promise. You approve, you go back there and you approve. I will get with these board members and we will make we will do something. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> We'll get you an autograph picture. [laughter] >> Are

089there any other questions? >> I have a question. Yeah. I don't whether you know this or not, but what percent of [clears throat] the three elementary schools, how's the percent of free and reduced lunch compared between those three schools? >> Well, don't know that. >> They're all free. >> Sappel Street does have a higher free and reduced lunch percentage population. Um they have a lower um enrollment um as compared um to Robert B. Turner and MMA Ward. However, um the way the boundaries are aligned is how that um percentage would fall. So um I'm not sure if Sappel Street is around 60 70%. You know, Miss Lucas, >> it's hard. And I know our enrollment is like 333. That's our number. Um I don't know off the top of my head. It's something like that.

090I could get you that number specifically, but I I do know it is a little higher. >> That was one of the things you That was excuse she gave me because they had a higher percent of free and reduced lunch. My comment to her was I have to get way to motivate those students to do better. It may take a little more work but they can learn and progress the same as you just got. Yeah, and I mean I completely agree. I think all students can learn and with this structure in place, this is differentiated based on students so that we can meet them where they're at, but also get them to that grade level standard. So I feel really passionate and strong saying that I do think with these in these structures put in

091place, we will see improvement. You did a great job. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next. [clears throat and cough] KS first offer of assistance consideration to approve the first KS offer of assistance for FY206 for the amount of $37,582. It's based on the ADA figures being used seek for this year >> in accordance. Have a motion to approve. >> Second. Steve Carmichael >> with a motion and a second. Roll call vote. >> Yes sir. Mr. Brown. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes. M. >> M. Mr. Fentre. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant. >> Purchase over $10,000. Five bluegrass. Uh the first five bluegrass is requesting permission to provide the following donations to Dolly Parton Imagination Library in the amount of $11,812.50 to the Dolly Parton

092Imaginary Library of Frankfurt for $10,687.50 to Jesine Public uh Library. We're in charge of the uh Dolly Parton Imagination Library funds. Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael with a motion. Second. Uh, roll call vote, please. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown, >> yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fentrez? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant? >> Yes. SFCC construction offer of assistance pursuit to the K KRS157-622 school facil facility con uh construction commissioner is hereby offering to make an official offer of assistance for the Anderson County school system educ board of education with the amount of $22,966. Acceptance of this offer will uh will be in compliance with the statutes, regulations, government program. The matter is used towards construction and major renovation facilities outlined in facility plan. >> Are there any questions I can answer regarding the

093SFCC construction offer of assistance in the amount of $22,966? >> Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael. Second, Sunonny Fentress >> with a motion. Second roll call vote with Mitchell, please. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown, >> yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Centress. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant. >> Motion approved. Payment to the commission group. Uh, commissioning group for project 23-130. consideration approving uh to approve the $2,160 payment to Commission Group for services provided Anderson County Middle School and Sal Street Elementary School. >> Any question regarding this monitoring? >> Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael >> second. Sunny Fresot second. Mitchell. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Fentrez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Next fundraiser request. Sav Street elementary principal Nikki Lucas is

094requesting permission for a Kana Ice fundraiser at Sappel Street H S Street System supplies for S Street System and supplies for the remainder of the 26 school year. >> Motion to approve Steve Carmichael. >> Second, Sunny Ventress. >> You have to bring us some samples [laughter] with a motion and a second. Uh roll call vote, please. >> Yes, Mr. Brown. Yes, >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes, >> Mr. Fentrez. >> Yes, >> Mr. [clears throat] Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Donations over $1,000. Consideration to approve donation for the amount of $2,000 from Young and Thread uh to the 2025 football season for Anderson County High School football program. >> Motion to approve. Steve Carmichael. >> Second. Sunny Fur >> with a motion and a second. Roll call vote, please. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown, >> yes. >>

095Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fentress. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Mr. Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Motion approved. Phil field Phil field trip request. Anderson County High School band director. Uh Philip Song. Uh Sean, get it out. Second. And the music teacher. Uh Hayden Bright is requesting permission to take 20 students. The all state band and course uh student competition February the 2nd and 6th. So 2nd through the 6th 2026 at the golf house in Lake in Louisville, Kentucky. Transportation is required and students will pay the cost. Second, Anderson County High School FCCLA uh is requesting permission to take five students to overnight trip uh to the FCCLA competition and the officer's duty in uh Louisville, Kentucky at the golf house. The date is March the 24th to 27th of this year 2026. Students will

096pay uh portion of cost and the students will be transported in the CT vehicle. Motion to approve Steve Carmichael. >> Second. Sunny Fentress >> with a motion. Second. Miss Mitchell. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Fentress. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant. And we have two things left on the agenda. Uh the financial report. There he is. >> Good evening. Good evening. >> For the um December financial report, overall revenue increased 8.2% for the year. Um you can see that that is due to a larger beginning balance. And you heard from the auditor earlier. Typically, we would have that number a little sooner in the year that I would have already dropped into the the presentation, but we were behind on getting that audit completed because the

097federal government was behind on getting her the information. Um she was actually here in August uh to do most of her field work. So that is now there. So, we started out with 3.6 million this year. I was anticipating we were going to start with 2.8 million. So, we started with more than I thought, which is good. That's what we want. I didn't want to start with less. So, we're in a good shape there. Our seek revenue for the year um shows an increase of 4.79%. At this moment, though, all of our tax revenues for the year are currently running lower than this time last year. Now, I'll give you a little caveat there. In November and December of uh 2024, we collected approximately $7.7 million. And then in January, we collected about $900,000 that

098year. So last fiscal year. This fiscal year, uh tax collections in November and December were about 6.5 million. However, in January, we collected about 2 million. So next month, I think we'll see that bottom line of the receipts kind of catch up to where we thought we were going to be. It's just a timing thing of when the money made it to us from the sheriff's office. Um, so we're we're in good shape. Nothing to worry about. Uh, but it's it's all about timing and when that check actually gets to us and gets deposited. So, next month I think we'll see a little bit better. Additionally, I think you guys know this, but I'm going to say it again anyway. Uh, we received the inflation reduction act rebate for the month of December. We received

099that in the month of December. I know we're in January now. That was a little over a million. The exact number was $1,116,655.72. So that throws everything off as well a little bit uh because that's a million dollars we weren't really expecting to have sitting there. Um but it it does skew for the year because we didn't have that million last year. But that's a great thing. That's for the uh middle school project, the HBAC project we did. Expenditures for salary and benefits are up by 7.4%. I believe that's reasonable based on the step and four and a half% raise that was approved. non- salary expenditures, they're only up 2.7%. Several areas that I track for non- salary expenditures, when I start looking at those, they're actually showing year-to-year decreases. Uh, which is that's great.

100Uh, but we have had some other costs that we know are big ticket items that have been a lot more this year than we had anticipated or not necessarily that we anticipated that, but more than we had last year, I should say. That includes insurance, software, an additional bus. we went with three instead of two. So, all of those things uh push up those non- salary expenditures, but we're at a modest increase of about $76,000 for the year. So, any questions on the financial report for December? [clears throat] >> No, I I would just say quickly that the auditor was very complimentary of the process here in the district and of you. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. I did listen to her comments on the way in uh where I was coming

101from uh somewhere else. So, I do appreciate her saying that. I'll be honest with you, and I've told you all this before. Um, it's not me. I I do plenty of work in a day, don't get me wrong, but uh the folks that work around us, they do they do the great job. They do the real work. All the bookkeepers at the school, I know she I know she said we had eight management comments and um I think she said 15 to 30 is typically what they see. You know, I could go to Mr. Glass the high school. They have thousands upon thousands of transactions. Um, so does the middle school. Middle school has thousands of transactions. Not as many as the high school. You're gonna have something something's going to slip through the cracks.

102And to only have eight from the ones she tested. And when she tests, she sends it to us and we get a big stack of them together. And when I say a big stack, it's a very large stack of paper. And she goes through lots of things. I appreciate her compliments, but it's the folks that that work with us in our our financial department here in the building and at the school level uh that really do the work. So, it's not me. >> Give us something she found. Next year, I'd be saying it's time for us to >> She's great. I ask her a lot of questions throughout the year, too. Um, so some stuff that she would have caught me on, per se. Um, I've already asked her and head that off and gotten

103it right to begin with. Um, so I think some folks maybe in the past or at other districts try and do what they think is right. I try and make sure I'm right because I'd prefer not to to have her tell me I was wrong in the end. So I do ask her a lot of questions throughout the year. But yes, I'm with you. If we didn't find something, then we need a different auditor. I would agree. Any questions from that? Okay. Motion to approve. Second. Steve Carmichael. >> A motion. Second. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Brown. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Mr. uh Fentress. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sergeant. >> Thank you all. [clears throat] This is not very large on the screen. Um, I have a presentation for you, but

104I'm going to go through it. I didn't get it connected here, and that's that's not a big deal, but I can talk through it all with you as we go. Um, let me see if I can >> drafting of the budget. >> Hang on just a second. He's doing that. Do we have a bowling team? My boss coach bowling team. All I've heard last week I didn't know No, I've been bowling, but I'm not good at it. >> Yeah. You know what? Right. >> You're listening on Facebook. We were right at work with you. All right. My apologies there, gentlemen. For the draft budget tonight, this is for fiscal year 27. We are required by state law to review this by January the 31st. So, we're reviewing it. I'm going to talk you through it

105and and really the the points I'm going to make towards the end are more pertinent than the the fact that we're talking about draft budget for fiscal year 27. Right now it's just a roll for of what we're doing at the moment. There's minor minor minor changes just so I could balance everything out, but it's it's the fiscal year 26 budget at the moment because if we start talking about the information that I needed to make an accurate budget for next year on the left hand side are all the things I would need to know. I would need to know an accurate enrollment count. We have a rough estimate, but it's still six, seven, eight months away. We don't really know who's going to show up in August for sure. Um, I would need to

106know our average daily attendance from last year, from this year. Don't know that yet. We'll need to know our school staffing levels. Well, we don't really know that yet because we don't know our enrollment yet. So, it's hard to get that number out there. We would know need to know our property assessments. What's the the seek number going to look like? How much money is coming from the state? We don't know that yet. We need to know our local effort. We don't know that yet. Uh December one child counts, we do have that information. So, that's one piece of the puzzle. And then our retirement rates, and that's twofold. You've heard me talk about this before. That's how much money are we going to have to contribute on behalf of teachers and other staff members

107to the retirement system. We do know that our CRS rate is set to decrease again next year. It's gone down the last few years. Um it's at 18.62 this year, I believe. I think that's going down to 17.92. I didn't commit that to memory yet, but uh it's going down again. But I know there's some talk uh in the the current legislature of whether or not they're going to put some uh money to to us to say, "Hey, you need to pay for a raise for retirees." U so there there's lots of things out there that we don't know yet, and I don't know who's going to retire, uh who's going to replace him or any of that kind of stuff. So I don't know a whole lot of information right now to make an

108accurate budget. But nonetheless, I will present the draft budget to you this evening. Going back, looking backwards, historical trends. This chart is local money versus state money. And state money is the seek is really what we're talking about. The red line is our local money and the blue line is our state money. And how much comes into the general fund. We're only talking general fund. And I went back to fiscal year 22 and you can see that the red line used to be smaller than the blue and then the red line overtook the blue and now they're very close. We are almost 50/50 on local funding versus state funding. Um so we're almost 50/50 at this point. Our primary local sources of revenue that we receive are our property tax, our motor vehicle, and our

109utility taxes. Um and then any interest on investments which right now that is a fairly substantial number but it it's decreasing by the month um in terms of the percentage rate that we're getting on our savings that we have. Uh so I think we were we were at 5% for a while and we're down to 3.5 at the moment which is still better than where we have been in many years past. Uh but not as substantial as what we had. And our primary state revenue is the SEK fund. seek dollars. You can see the seek per student is the red graph. And for basically one, two, three, four, five, six, seven years, that number didn't change at all. What they were giving us per student. Uh that was fiscal year 16 to fiscal year 22.

110Fiscal year 23, four, five, and six, you can see it started to creep up a little bit. Not enough to make up for eight years of nothing changing. Um, but that is what happened and that's great. I'm appreciative of the state for doing that. I wish they would do it every year. Don't know if they will or not. The blue line is the total seek funding we received each year and there are numerous things that can affect that. Um, but overall you can see it's it's kind of just a level line when you really think about it. We haven't gotten substantially more money in seek um over the past 10 years. The big driver of what we get in SEK funds ties back to our assessment values. And you can see that the assessment values

111continue to increase year-to-year. In fiscal year 16, the overall assessment value for Anderson County was 1 bill660 million. For fiscal year 26 from the tenative seek sheet, it was $2.6 billion. So it's gone up a billion over 10 years. So when that happens, we end up as a local group putting in more funds towards our funding of schools versus the state putting that in. Um so that that has an effect. And we don't have any control over assessment values. I don't pick those. Those come from the PVA. Um you've heard me talk before at tax rate hearings and all those things or that night that we set the tax rate. I'm a local taxpayer just like everybody else is. Um, so I'm happy that my home's worth more, but I'm also not happy that my

112home's worth more u because it just results in different things. So the actual considerations we need to talk about and and really what we need to be thinking about as we as we move forward. Um, again, you heard from the auditor earlier tonight and she told you that our starting balance was 3.6 million for fiscal year 25. That represents about a 14% contingency. About a 14% carry forward is what that represents. Um, you can see we've grown that from fiscal year 23 we're at 5%, 24 we were at 8%. In fiscal year 25 we're at 14%. We are budgeted this year at 7 something%. I think it's 24 off the top of my head. Um, I hope to to end better than where we budgeted at. Um, but I don't know for sure yet. We

113can make projections, but I would love to stay around 10% if we can. That's kind of where I would love to live and be there year after year. seek next year. [sighs] I don't know. Uh they're meeting right now. We don't we don't know. Is it going to go up? Is it going to go down? Is it going to stay the same? Where we going to be at? U for the past two fiscal years, they've had to seek shortfalls in some capacity. Uh last year, we thought they were going to end up cutting us. They worked something out and it was all fine. Um this year, the last I read, there was a $40 million seek shortfall. They're going to be able to cover that from uh on behalf payments that they didn't have to

114to push out. They had some money left in that fund. Are we going to stay at $4,586 per student? Are we going to go up from $4,586 per student? I don't know. Couldn't tell you. No clue. We won't know until we're getting ready to do our tenative budget. I mean, that's really where we're going to be at. Uh because I when they adjourn and then come back and and who knows what's going to happen. So, it is a budget year. There's a lot that's going to happen. Um hopefully they do increase the seek. If they don't, we'll manage. We'll do what we have to do. Hopefully they increase the transportation funding. That was supposed to be at 100% this year. It's not. I believe it was 82%. So those are things that are we're really

115up against the wall with that we don't have any control over, but but hopefully we uh we do get some reprieve there. Our property values and our tax rate. Um we can't predict what our property values are going to do. We can't predict what our tax rate is going to be. I can't do that. I can't force anybody into a a compensating rate or a 4% rate or greater than that. Just happens as as it does and we'll make adjustments as needed. I can say that our current rate is still below the 22 23 rate. And if you look back over the last nine years of tax rates for the Anderson County School District, we are still the third lowest rate this year than we have been the last nine years. Um, I understand your

116assessments values go up, which means that even if the rate stays the same, your tax bill goes up. I understand that. Uh, but you know, we're doing our part here to try and keep those as low as we possibly can. And we've we've really made some investments. You all have made some some tremendous investments in our bus fleets over the last decade and we are in really good shape there. Um, we got to keep doing it though. Otherwise, 10 years from now, 5 years from now, we'll be talking in the same thing we were 5 10 years ago, oh my goodness, the sky is falling. Our buses are falling apart. What are we going to do? Um, so we have to maintain that course and and just keep pace with where we're at. So, the

117draft budget does it. It has the money that was in there for the buses this year because it's the same budget. Is a bus going to cost $146,000 or is it going to cost $196,000? I have no clue at this point. So it could be one bus, could be two buses, could be three buses. Um it just where does all that shake out? A lot of unknowns at this point. And then our staffing levels, we, you know, we'll start now assessing those staffing levels and as we get enrollment estimates, um looking at those, getting in line with KDE um requirements, making sure we're meeting all those standards and doing what we're supposed to be doing there. About 75 to 80% of our budget goes towards salaries and benefits. So, if you're really talking about if

118we had to make a cut somewhere, where are you going to cut to to get to, you know, the most meat off the bone there? Well, if 75 to 80% of your people are your budget, then that's where you'd have to look more than likely. Not saying that's what we're doing, but that's just a piece of information to have. Um, I did not do any adjustments to salaries and benefits um for the draft budget because it's a roll forward of where we are. So, nothing's changed there, but I know that competition for personnel continues. you know, if you can go here and make a little bit more money or you can go there and make a little bit more money or you can get this or you can get that. Uh those are things that

119that I hear from our staff telling me we, you know, we got to do this, we got to do that. Well, we can only do what we can do, but we're trying our best. Um and Mr. Alexander, I wrote this down when he was speaking. He said, consistency over intensity. Is that correct? Is that what you said? And I and I think that's really the path that we've taken on salaries. And Mr. Fields, before he retired, he and I had this conversation many times. You know, it's really nice to say we gave a 10% raise one year, but if you have to do zero the next, is it really that nice, or is it nice to say we did three and four and three and four and three and four? So, you're consistently seeing your

120paycheck increase versus one big burst one year and then nothing. and then one big burst and then nothing. So, I think that consistency, if we can maintain that, I think that's really good and that's what people look for. Do I have a little bit more in my pocket than I did the year before to do a little bit more with in my household? Um, that table there on the screen, it can tell you roughly what uh 1% with a step increase would cost. If you're looking at current uh personnel, it would be about $683,000 to do a 1% raise in the step increase. And the step on average is about 1.3 1.4% um depending on which box you're in in the salary schedule and all those kinds of things. Uh so if you know if

121you did 1% with step be about a 2% raise for folks. 3% with a step would cost about a million one million two somewhere in that neighborhood. 4% about a million 3 million four and then a 5% with a step would be about a million six. So just something to consider and ponder and have that information. some additional considerations. I touched on this a little bit. We're right in the the beginning of the 2026 legislative session. There's all kinds of things that are floating about that could potentially uh come our way. So, that's something to to be mindful of. State grants, which ones will continue, which ones will we be reawwarded? Um there are several that we've just reapplied for. Hopefully, we get those again. Will there be any changes to any of the state

122grants we get? Will they fund any uh instructional resources? My guess is no. Will they fund any professional development? My guess is no. Uh but those are things that that are dollars that that we depend on to do what we do. Uh the other thing that can be potentially volatile, if you will, is our some of our operating costs, utility costs. Fiscal year 24, our utilities were 676,000. Fiscal year 25 719,000. we can reduce our energy use, but again, if the the rate that the energy cost goes up, doesn't matter that you reduce it. You're right where you were. Um, so that's tough to to look at sometimes. Supplies, uh, you heard the auditor say, as I told you, I listened to her as I was coming in. Um, the things we buy cost more.

123The things that you buy in your house cost more. Everything you you want to do cost a little bit more. Fiscal year 24, just supply costs that we had. And I'm talking paper products, cleaning supplies, classroom needs, anything like that, uh, was $760,000, bumped up to $847 in fiscal year 25. If you started looking at the food cost in the cafeteria, the the items they buy to feed the kids cost more. So, you got to start making changes on what are you buying, how do we put a menu together, but you still have to make people want to eat your food. So, um, it's it's really a balancing act. And then the big one, our property and casualty insurance. And this this ties into lots of things. Ties into the value of our property, the

124cost to rebuild them if something tragic was to happen. Um the various natural weather events that have happened across our state in the past few years, but our property and casualty insurance went from 318,000 to $456,000 to $544,000. It's over half a million dollars going to that. And uh you know, I know our agents are doing everything they can to keep those those numbers where they they need to be. Uh but we also have to have coverage. You know, something bad happened, we wouldn't want to be standing here and not being able to replace uh what we've got and what we've built. And then uh one other item that's that's out there that I'm not really sure um exactly how we're going to address, but I've I've been researching and looking at it. I've got

125until at least 2030 if I want to take it to bring some sort of recommendation. But paid maternity leave, what are we going to do there? Um, we're required by 2030 to provide up to 30 days. So, what will that cost? How is and and I don't even really know how I can project how many folks are going to have a baby and need that. U, but I've been trying to wrap my mind around it and really look at other districts that have implemented that to try and get some idea of a recommendation to bring, but that's an unknown that's out there. It's a consideration. Then on the right hand side, you heard Denise, our auditors, speak about federal funds and and how there's some I'll use the word again, volatility there. Just so we

126have some idea of what we're talking about. And I I know I went through this at a previous board meeting, but our Title One funds this year for fiscal year 26, it's nearly $850,000 for Title One coming from the federal government. that money, that pot of funds supports full-time eight teaching positions, and those are folks that do intervention and additional supports at our uh elementary schools. That's what those are. It also helps to support and match some of the state grants that we get. So, that would be our math coach, our MAF coach, um and our um reading coaches at those schools as well. And that allows hundreds of our struggling learners to get some additional assistance every day and have one more person that can help get them where they need to be. Uh

127you heard Mr. Alexander, Miss Lucas speak tonight. Um you know, you're able to do some of those stations. You're able to have some of those resources because we have this additional funding. You know, if you're down to one teacher and 35 kids because you can't buy some additional supports with federal funding, that's a little different scenario than we have somebody who can come in and help coach. we have somebody who can come in and work with our struggling readers um or our struggling math students. So that those are important dollars and [snorts] uh there was a time at the beginning of the year I wasn't sure if we were going to get all those. There was a time I wasn't sure if we were going to get frozen out. I I mean you just don't

128know. It's very uncertain um in terms of the federal dollars that are coming our way. Title two, which is another part of the title program. Obviously that's about $132,000 for fiscal year 26, our current year. That's our professional development funding. Um, you heard me say the state doesn't send us professional development dollars. Our folks still need training. They still need resources. They still need all those things. Title two is what provides that for our teachers. Um, it allows us to to pay them for their time when they put in additional time beyond their 24 hours of of PD that's required. It really allows us to do lots of things to support our teachers and our staff so that they are supporting our students. Um, so that's that's one thing that's out there as well. And

129finally, the other really large pot of federal funding that supports our struggling students is our idea money. The IDEIDAB or IDEIDA basic. It's more than a million dollars for fiscal year 26 supporting again hundreds of students. Uh that December one child count is those students that's who that's supporting. And it supports 12 12 if I could say the word 12 or more special education related positions. The 2.2 $2.2 million that comes from the state on the seek formula would not even begin to provide all the supports that our special ed students need. Um especially if they're a high need student and as Miss Lucas said they can all learn and they all have the right to have access to an education and we should provide that to them and that's what this IDA money helps

130us do. And then Mr. Sergeant you spoke about this a minute ago. Our building and infrastructure is going to continue to require funding. Uh we've made some investments. We have there's more to be made though. roofs and parking lots. Okay, I spoke about insurance. Roofs are going to be a big deal with insurance. It will be it will become a very large deal if we do not maintain our roof and the insurance company has asked to repair them because of some wind damage or some hail damage or some other item that causes us to involve our insurance company in that regard. If they have not had maintenance and repair as needed, there is a chance they could say, "Well, we're not going to give you the full replacement value. We don't want to be in

131that boat. Um, so we need to make sure we do the maintenance that's needed there. And it's going to cost some money because everything costs more than it used to cost, right? But it's going to cost something. Vehicle and equipment repair and replacement. We've made some tremendous strides in the last few years on this. Uh, if Mr. Jury was here, I'm sure he would attest to this as well. When I first got here um at the board office doing this position, uh, he told me he needed a plow truck. That's one of the things he we've got to have a plow truck. Got to have it. Got to have got to have it. And we we were able to do that. And um he was telling me, I think it was 2 years ago, that

132first snowfall, if we hadn't have bought that plow truck, he wasn't sure he would have been able to plow that time, that first snow because the old truck they had was down. I do not want us in a boat where we don't have what we need to do what our folks need to do. And they don't need to be using worn out old unsafe equipment to do it. Um, you know, I I would tell anybody, it's a whole lot easier to do your job with something that works and something that works the first time and that is safe and comfortable to use. So, like I said, we made some great strides there. Um, we we purchased new equipment for some custodians last year and we've done a lot of stuff and I'd love to continue

133to do that. And then field and grounds maintenance. You've heard Mr. Sarah talk about this. You've heard the coaches ask about this. We've got some some pretty decent facilities if I had to say myself. I know they're not turf. I'm aware of that. I've heard people tell me that. But they're nice and we can keep them nice by doing some maintenance on them. Some small things to go a long way uh to to keep what we have in good shape. And then plumbing, electrical, mechanical systems. I believe it was 3 weeks ago, Miss Mitchell, correct me if I'm wrong. We had a water heater that went out at the high school. Is that correct? About $7,000 best I remember for a water heater that we were replacing there. wouldn't take too many things like that

134um to to put a dent in some some budgets. Uh but we we are fine in terms of having money to to take care of those. But those are items that have to be repaired and maintained and replaced. Um as our buildings age safer said 2002 is when Turner opened. Everything there's 24 years old now. Okay. Parking lot's 24 years old. The water heater is 24 years old. The heating electrical systems 24 years old. My house is 20 years old and I've already had to replace my roof. So [snorts] you those are things that it's it's a gigantic household. Uh several hundred,000 square feet of property that we maintain and and we just have to keep up with with what's going on there. Questions? Yes, sir. But our young mere is us attracting new people

135as old will retire because the young folks go somewhere else. Is that correct? >> Yes, to an extent. Um I don't have those numbers in front of me. I'm going off of memory. I looked at that u when we were talking about salaries back in April. We're not number one in our surrounding area for any step you want to pick. Now towards the end of our scale with a rank one, we do surpass some folks, but we don't get to the top spot. We're not at the bottom anymore, though. But if you look at starting pay, um even the strides we've made, the we've come over $40,000 for everybody to start at. Um we're not to 50, which is where I think a lot of districts are trying to get to. We're in the ball

136game, but we're not the winner. So, I think is the way to say that we're we're there. You know, I I think everybody deserves to make more. I don't have an answer for you. Then we could be more competitive. Um there are certain areas that we have gotten a lot more competitive in. Uh we brought our classified pay, lowest classified pay we have right now is $13 an hour for a full-time person. I still don't think that's high enough. Um but you you can't, you know, you can't just take off in a sprint. And like I said, there's got to be some consistency to it because we can't jump giant leaps and and and get there in one year. We're going to get there eventually, but it may take us a while. Um, we brought

137our PAR educator pay up to a starting of $15 an hour. That was up from under 14. Our bus drivers are um they're at 18 right now to start. I know some districts are starting at 20. Some of them condense their scale to get there. So, you know, you may start at 20 and end at 22. You know, just it just depend. There's all kinds of scenarios, but we're we're not number one in any any pay um that we have. We're in the middle of the pack on a few and we're at the bottom on a few. And I can get you those numbers if you want me to um and bring those to you. I've got them in my office. I just don't have them off top of my head. >> Saturday, I was

138talking to our state representative as he was driving here. He had one of the things he told me. Yeah. So, so to that point, if if 50% of our funding comes from from the state, which is roughly the number and that doesn't change and only the other half changes based on whatever tax rate we said or whatever assessment values out there or whatever whatever the scenario is, we are limited on what we can do. um unless we dip into that carryover number, that con that contingency number if you will. Um and that 3.6 is higher than I thought we were going to be and that's good. And part of the way we got there, and I don't remember if Denise said that or not, is is we've been using transfers in from I think I

139heard her say something about transfers in. We've used transfers in from the building fund because we have that ability to do and we have an excess balance in the building fund versus what we need to go out. So, this screen you're looking at right here, um, if you look at the money that's coming into the building fund, looking at 5.9 million and then about 5.3 goes out, but of that 5.3, uh, roughly a million dollars of that is already a transfer. Our debt service is 4.3 4.4 million. So, if we brought in almost six and only had 4.3 4.4 before go out. We have a million6 surplus there. And as I said, we have a lot of needs that we can meet with that money. And so that's what we've been doing. That's how we've

140bought new buses. That's how we have uh done some some roof repair work. That's how we have done um some other maintenance type items. And if we don't use it in the year that we're supposed to use it, then it can become restricted. Then we can't go get it. And that's part of the SFCC. Um and odd years, odd fiscal years, I have to restrict those funds to where then you can only use them for certain projects. There's there's all kinds of things that go along with that. Um, but one of the ways that we can sort of get to money that's gotten in our account is we can move it from one fund to the other. And that's what I did last year at the end of the year. CF the CFRs that you

141all approve. That's what that's what those are. Um, those are dollars that we have that are restricted for use unless you do a maneuver, if you will. Nothing illegal or wrong about it. It's just the way to get them in your general fund so you can then do what you want to do in your general fund. Do what you need to do, which is put good teachers and good staff in contact with our children because we're not competitive. We can come up with all the plans you all want to come up with, but we can't implement them because we don't have what we need. And that's good teachers and good staff educating our kids day in day out. >> Good job. Thank you very much. Entertain [clears throat] a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to

142adjourn. Steve Carmichael. >> Second. >> With a motion. Second. Roll call vote, please. >> Yes. >> Sorry. Mr. Brown. >> Yes. >> Mr. Carmichael. Yes. >> Mr. Fentrez. Mr. Sergeant. >> Yes. We are adjourned.