001To 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. We might [Music] The most thirst [Music] of the home. [Applause] Thank you all. With that, this August 11th uh regular schedule board meeting uh is called to order. Uh can I get a motion to accept the agenda? >> Motion to accept Steve Carmichael. with a first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins, >> yes. >> Scott Brown, >> Steve Carmichael, >> yes. >> James Sergeant, >> Sunonny Fentrez, >> uh, attendance report. Uh, let the minutes show that, um, all members except for Mr. Brown uh, are present. Uh I know uh Scott said that uh he was unable to connect.
002Uh he may connect in later. So if he does um then we'll we'll uh let everyone know. Um next up or uh can I get an approval of the minutes? >> Motion Steve Carmichael. with first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Sunonny Fentrez. >> Yes. >> Financial report. Good evening. For our financial report this evening, uh you can see overall revenue has increased uh by about 9%. The increase is doing in part to an increase in seek funding of 63,000 or about 6% and an increase in interest income of about 18,000 which was uh double what we had at this point last year. Other revenues for July are basically zero uh due to the timing
003of receiving funds at this point in the year. Um, so that's kind of just a little bit of information about the revenues. Expenditures for salary and benefits are up 1.3%. That is reasonable based on the step and four and a half% that was approved. I do anticipate that that will increase as we start the school year and we have all of our teachers being paid uh starting in August. Non-s salary expenditures are up 22.3%. We have several drivers of that increase including the timing of our infinite campus renewal payment that was in the beginning of the year versus the end of the year. The addition of a traceable communication platform that was at a cost of $15,300. Insurance premium increases for our workers comp was about 20,000 and our property and casualty insurance increased $88,000.
004uh an increase in just general supply costs and service provider costs as well um are driving that increase on our non- salary expenditures. Couple of other items I'd like to touch on this evening. Uh later on tonight, we're going to be discussing the tax rate. I'll be giving you all some information so that you can set that tax rate for fiscal year 26. I'm going to go in depth with expected revenues, uh detailed values during that presentation, but I just want to highlight a few items for you uh before we get to that point later on this evening. Last school year, we had about 500 full-time employees. I believe it was actually 498 with an average salary of $47,000. Approximately 75% of those employees live in Anderson County and contribute to our local economy. If
005you if you extrapolate that out, that's about a 17 to18 million boost to the local economy uh from our employees from the 1718 school year. From 201718 school year to the 202526 school year, starting salary for a rank three step zero teacher has increased 20.31%. a teacher who started with Anderson County in 201718 with a with a rank three and did not have a rank change up until today for this fiscal year 2526 school year they would have a 36.9% increase in their pay with step increases and raises throughout that time period. A teacher who started with Anderson County as a rank two in 1718 and did not have a rank change would see a 38% increase in their pay from 1718 to 2526. That's including the step increases every year and the raises that
006have been approved by the board. In terms of classified pay, classified bus driver starting pay has increased 31 a.5% from 1718 to today. And a driver who started with us in 1718 and continues driving today has seen a 41.1% increase in their hourly rate. That's including step increases and raises that were approved. Instructional assistant starting pay has increased 37.7% over that same time period. And an instructional assistant that started with us in 1718 and continues to work in that same position today has seen a 48.8% increase in their hourly pay during that time. That includes step increases and other raises that were approved. Food service worker starting pay has increased 32% from 1718 to 2526. Food service worker that started in 1718 and continues to work today in the same position has seen a 46.4%
007increase in their hourly pay. Now, while I would say there's probably still some room to improve, those are pretty good increases. I mean, we've definitely invested in our people over that time. Additionally, over that same time period as a district, we have renovated and upgraded HVAC, lighting, and other mechanical systems at multiple school locations. Our bus fleet, maintenance vehicles, and other equipment has been upgraded and replaced. Two schools have been recognized by US News and World Report. We have ranked as high as 19%, the top 19% academically in the state. District, regional, and state championships have been won by our athletic and extracurricular teams and organizations. Thousands upon thousands of meals have been served at no cost to our parents and students. And we've provided basic school supplies for several years in a row at
008no cost to our families and students. And all the while the tax rate in the 2425 school year was 5.1% lower than it was in 2017 2018 and 9.4% lower than the peak rate during the 1920 school year over that time period, that 1718 time period. Again, I'll go into more depth with the revenue that we would expect based on the the different rates that I will present, but I just wanted to highlight um a few of our accomplishments and investments over the course of the last decade. Thank you. >> Could you repeat that one stat you talked about tax rate from 2017 this >> the 1718 school year? The tax rate was right now in 2425 school year. We haven't set the 2526. In 1718 to now, the rate is 5.1% lower as a
009percentage of the rate. You're welcome. Can I get a um motion to approve the financial report? >> Motion. Steve Carmichael. >> Second. Sony Fentures >> with the first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins. Yes. >> Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Sunny Fentrez. >> Yes. >> Orders of the treasur. >> Are there any questions regarding the orders? >> If no questions, can I get a motion to approve? >> Motion. Steve Carmichael. >> Second. Sunny Fres. >> With the first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Steve Carmichael. Yes. >> James Sergeant. Yes. >> Sunny Fentrez. >> Yes. uh superintendent report. Right. I'd like to thank everyone for being here this evening.
010Um thank you for supporting our our students, our staff, our wonderful um district as a whole. We are very appreciative of your support and thank you for attending. And those of you that are online, thank you as well. Um, we had a great start to the school year um on Thursday, August the 7th. Um, we started um the year and I'd like to just officially welcome all of our students, families, and staff to the 2526 school year. I'd also like to thank all of the staff who worked tirelessly, long hours, additional time um to make the transition back to school seamless. um that includes so many people. Um I'm not even going to try to name them all, but um Anderson County School staff prides themselves on a seamless transition, but also making the beginning
011of the year um just very special for all of our students. I'd like to also thank our Anderson County Board of Education for $45,000 worth of school supplies. Um as Mr. White said, basic school supplies as we start our school year got into the hands um of our students. I' like to say thank you to our assistant superintendent Travis Harley who worked uh very closely with the F FRC coordinators uh and very importantly um some folks from Walmart um Bill Thrasher um as well as Miss Julie and Cheyenne just did an amazing job organizing um and making sure that everything was seamless when uh parents um from the from the time the parents got the vouchers to the time they went through the line at Walmart to hopefully into the classrooms rooms um on August
012the 7th. Also like to say thank you to Mr. Harley for getting the additional school supplies that were requested um at the schools and making sure that everyone um including our teachers got all of the needed supplies that they need um to start the school year off. I'd also like to say thank you to our sheriff's office. Um we are blessed with an amazing um group of uh people. our sheriff Milm as well as our lieutenant lychans um did an amazing job organizing a wonderful community event um the DARE event which was um Saturday August the 2nd um everybody showed up and showed out and we had the perfect weather for the perfect day and um I just want to say thank you to Sheriff Milo Lieutenant Lyens as well as um our SRO James
013Dunn who did an amazing job getting everyone um to attend the event for our students and our families. Um, but again, I'd also like to say thank you to our F FRC folks and Mr. Harley and Blake Jury and um, all of the folks. I know I'm missing somebody, Mr. um, Murphy and Mr. White who came out to help us as well. Mr. Robin Ratliff I think was there. Um, it was a really nice day and we saw a lot of folks gave away a few t-shirts and um, it was just a really nice event. So, thank you for uh, to you all for organizing that amazing event. On that following Sunday, on June the 3, excuse me, August the 3, um on that Sunday, the Lawrenceburg Police Department did their annual cuts, uh cops
014for cuts and had a lot of um Anderson County students um come in to get fresh haircuts to start the year. Um they uh pay for all of that. Um, I'd like to also say thank you to so many buticians and barbers who came in um as well um to just donate their time and be there um to make sure that our students were ready and prepared for the start of school. So, thank you to uh Chief Beach and his uh staff, all the officers that came um and spent the day um with us and our students. It was just a really nice event as well. Uh we're so grateful for so many community partners. um they care so much about our kids. Um they care so much about our families and uh we're grateful
015to have all of them um provide funding and a lot of time and support um to help us um support our students and our staff so that we can uh have a successful great start to the school year. Um I have a very special introduction this evening. Mrs. BJ Gritton is our new food service director. Let's give her a great big round of applause before we get started. also like to say thank you to our students who um who led our prayer and our pledge this evening. Ryan and Sawyer, thank you all for being here and uh leading us through um our opening. That was a very special treat. We're grateful for you to do that. And Saberlin, I know she's left. Um but wasn't that just beautiful? I started to come to try to
016turn her microphone on and put in her hand so that everybody in the community could hear it. But wasn't it great? Let's give them a round of applause so we can get our started. Last but absolutely not least, I have a very special um award that I would like um to present tonight. And um this is a big honor um just to graduate from high school um with honors of course but with a college degree as well in the same month uh that you graduate from high school is quite an accomplishment. So we have a young lady who I just love dearly. She's very special to me. I know she's um very special to uh her mama and her daddy but a lot of folks at Anderson County High School. And I get the honor
017tonight of giving her an award. So, uh, Miss Caitlyn, come on up here. Miss Caitlyn Lily, um, of course, again, she's a very special person, but she has the highest GPA of a student athlete at Anderson County High School. So, she receives, uh, the Jim Boyd award um, for having the highest GPA um, at the end of the year. So, let's give her a great big round of applause for that accomplishment. [Applause] shake your hand. But I have to say these things about Caitlyn. So besides being just an amazing young lady and just being smart and an amazing athlete on the track in the classroom, she is just an overall good person. I would go to Walmart on the weekend or not Walmart but Target. See, I messed up. at Target on the weekends. I
018would go to Target in the evenings and I would see her working. So, not only is she an amazing student as far as her academics go, she's an amazing athlete, but she's just an amazing student, an amazing person. So, congratulations, Caitlyn. We are so proud of you. We can't wait to see what you do at Bellereman next year. I know um mama is a little bit sad that you're going, but we're so proud of you and can't wait to see you do big things on your educational journey at Bellereman. Let's give her another great big round of applause. Would you like to say anything? >> No. >> All right, chairman. That's all I have this evening. >> Thank you. >> Uh, next up we have uh comments from visitors. Uh, but we had no one
019sign up. Uh so moving along we have um next is our leave request um ACS staff member uh requesting approval to take unpaid leave to attend a family wedding September the 2nd through the 9th 2025 uh using three personal days and three unpaid leave days. >> Any questions regarding this request? Second. Steve Carmichael >> with a first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Sunny Fentrez. >> Yes. >> Construction updates. some of the information. Now you can hear me. some of the information in the programming was lost or or mixed up. They reloaded the program, but it's still not working correctly. So, they're going to go through that and finalize that programming. Uh the field, the
020contractor, that grass is still coming in. It's not in perfect. Contractors continuing to mow it right now. They're going to spray it for weeds and continue to do that. and they have reassured us this fall they are going to be coming back and refertilizing the field to try to help accelerate the grass growth especially that time of year. Um and then over at Safel I don't believe there's anything outstanding over that we've worked through some issues with the uh suppliers and the manufacturers for the equipment on that. We had several meetings uh working through some issues with some of the unit ventilators over there. By and large, those have been taken care of. There's a couple that are still throwing some wonky codes and having some issues with. We're working through those with the contractor.
021That's all kind of normal warranty stuff as we get all of that dialed just in dialed in just right uh with the commissioning and the testing and balancing and all of that along with the units. Outside of that, uh, we're continuing through the warranty phase. So, anything comes up, I'm in touch with Terry and the school. Um, and optimally next month, you all will have your last report for me. Best case scenario, that's until you want me back. Just I live here in Anderson County. Thank you all. >> Thank you. The next two items I'm actually going to step out for um um being being attached to the fire service even though I'm not with uh an Anderson County um fire district who's actually the one presenting and asking. Um, I don't want there to
022be any kind of uh conflict of interest. So, I'm going to step out of the room for this. Uh, if Mr. Sergeant would care to take care of those items for me. [Music] Approval of fire instruction. Anderson County High School First question I have the first and the second thing is the next item first and second. One is saying no cost to the district and the next one is saying fire program start not to exceed 35,000. So before I just like >> Thank you, Mr. Sergeant. Um so the the first request is the approval of the fire instructor. And so um as you see Mr. Glass um has worked with our um fire chief from our county and um we um are requesting an adjunct um teacher. We have two fire um firemen who are
023able and are credentialed in order to serve in that role. And so the request, the first request is for um approval in order to proceed forward with the fire instructor. Um again, there'll be two. So if one is absent, the second one would be able to fill in. And our um fire chief is um asking his um fireman to uh fill that role so our students can have that career pathway and um be able to um take that class. The second item is for equipment if necessary and needed up to $35,000. Uh one part of that is for them to have a nice collared shirt, a pair of uh pants, and um some shoes so that they can have a uniform as you see um some of our um students who have already gone through
024that program um are wearing. Um the second part is for equipment for them to be able to use to train. Um the request is to come from um we have a career and technical education grant through the Kentucky Department of Education that helps us fund that. And u Mr. White does a really great job of working with the administration at the high school as well as KDE to pay that money out and then get reimbursed. Um so it would not technically come from the general fund. So um to pay that out. So, it would be up to $35,000 um if the board so chose to approve that part um so that our um fire instructor could work with our students that are um enrolled in the class in order to be able to to train
025um fore year or is that something that each year? >> It's a great question too. So the uniforms would be for the student to have for the entire um time of uh their um coursework in the class and then the other equipment would be reused. So it will be reused from year to year from student to student um over the course of I guess the life of the uh the equipment. So, how many students do you have already enrolled in this class? >> That's great. reason why I'm asking all these question. >> Sure. continue. >> I really I really appreciate that question. And so Chief and I have have worked um if you'd like to come on up, chief, and answer. Um he and I have met. He also met with Anderson County High School.
026Um he has arranged some meetings for some potential funding. So I'll ask him to Would you care to respond to that? Oh, >> absolutely. So this this equipment uh 10 year life expectancy is what we're looking at. So I think it'll be getting used over and over. uh polo shirts and pants. I don't want to reuse those. As you can imagine, we're only asking for one set uh for that. If they end up joining up our cadet program, which is what I would hope they would continue to, and that would be with our department, I'll be willing to go ahead and pick up the uh the remainder cost of that to provide another uniform for them as well. This year, uh we worked very hard on this. It's it took us about a year to
027be able to do this and to meet with your all staff and Mr. Glass and and Miss Mitchell as well as my staff. Something I'm very proud of. U we didn't know if we were going to have a need for it. So, uh, we got kind of down to crunch time. That's where we were at. I'm willing to pick up both of those guys salary as well as any other equipment. I'm not asking for that. So, on any given day, I'm willing to roll a million- dollar fire truck up to your school so that they can use that as well as all the equipment on there, air packs, nozzles, uh, any extrication tools. Um, if I was to purchase that separately individually, we would be probably 1 point uh $1.7 million that I'm willing to
028invest in Anderson County because I know you guys are willing to invest in me. I think there's other grants out there. We just haven't had a chance to apply for those and those would be awarded in October if it was for the fire service. Um, I'm willing to have my grant guy do that, which is the guy that is Major Brown. Uh, I apologize he could not be here tonight. He had to reschedule. Um, he is going through an interview process to be a deacon at his church. He is a retired firefighter uh out of Shelbyville, a legacy firefighter. His dad was a a captain there. Three of his sons also work for me. One of which went through our program. Two of those that you've seen lead here tonight have went through our program
029as well. So, we're going to be feeding into our own system. And I want to keep those people working here at home and giving back to our community is what my goal is, as well as partner with EMS. and I'm willing to take on uh the cost of those supplies to include our instructors. And one of those is Brienus uh who just come in there on the hat on the right. Uh she is also uh one of my adviserss from my cadet program. So my goal is when they graduate this program is to be a certified firefighter as well as an EMT. You have to be 18 to take the National Registry test. One of those is sitting here uh which is Mr. Ryan Wac and that's all he's waiting on is to turn 18
030to be able to do that. his dad. All but two people on all of my command staff to include his dad, which is my assistant chief, started right here at Anderson County. I am a product of this. If you if you had had this in school, I would have taken this program. Um I'm I owe my career to this fire department. I started here. I started here as a junior firefighter, which was basically a way to get insurance on people that was under 18 years old. So, worked my way through, went to EMS, worked for a couple different agencies to include Frankfurt, retired there, and come back here and turned out to be the the chief, as well as my other assistant chief, which is, uh, Brandon Brown, graduate of Anderson County. All three of
031my battalion chiefs, all but one of my lieutenants, uh, and three of my captains graduated from Anderson County, and they're in leadership roles right here at this department today. And those are also going to be your instructors that were going to come in and volunteer their time to be able to give back to their community. >> We're paid. We're paid right now, sir. >> Yes, sir. We're combination. >> Yep. No, sir. I've got two stations. We were staffed out on Wildcat Road. Uh that one is staffed 24/7. Uh when I took over a year ago, uh I end up staffing Beaver Lake Fire Station Monday through Friday because I thought it was important to have somebody in the center of the county. Those people pay taxes as well. That's very rural out there and it
032gives us about a 10-minute jump on anybody that's coming from town to include EMS. So we're about 110. >> That means you haven't had an emergency. That's a good thing. >> Absolutely. >> No, sir. You know, I'm elected. I answer >> very valuable questions and I want you to go out and be a cheerleader for this program. So, I want you to know what's going on. >> I have answers me >> 100%. >> Nope. >> I do. >> Sure. Yes, sir. >> When I took over a year ago, we had 50 firefighters. We're up to 110 right now. I don't know the number and I don't micromanage my people. That's why I don't know this number, but I got the lady that can tell you how many cadets do we have right now. Am I
033seeing us? We have 14. Oh, put two more on. I would hope any of these 27 will go into our cadet program. They can come in on Thursday nights, train with us. We'll get them certified that much faster. Uh, but as you know, you've known me for a long time. I'm full transparent, full disclosure, have nothing to hide. Uh, that's why I want to come up here today. Yes, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> I'll also give you this tidbit. When I took over, I had a $250,000 deficit. Last year when we finished out, I turned over $300 or $300,000 surplus. So, when I tell you I'm frugal with your money, I assure you that. And any of my people back here can attest to that to include Mr. SRO Lieutenant Lyens back there. I I
034don't I don't take it lightly that uh when you go to give me money, we're very frugal with it and we spend it very sparingly. >> Yes, sir. I'm sure he'll tell you the same thing. >> Who's your nephew? >> Yep. I know Brandon. Yes. Very good guy. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. That's all my question. One other thing I did want to add just for y'all's information because Miss Miss Mitchell alluded to the CTE pathway. This will be a pathway and it will start this school year. Uh I want to give a little bit of kudos to one of my assistant principles, Robbie McCann. He worked with Kentucky Department of Education on the certification for the two gentlemen that are going to teach and they're they've agreed also. I can't speak highly enough
035of them wanting to do this and make sure it was a fullfledged CTE program where we can get postsecary readiness for our students and all that kind of stuff. So they are both going to go through the continuation. They're going to do an education program over the next two years in order to make sure that they become certified CTE teachers through Kentucky Department Education so that we have this in place. I worked in tomorrow. That's my people. They do a great job. I feel guilty for this because I get to stand up at meetings like this and I get to go to physical court and other meetings and I get to take credit for all of the hard work that they do. And I'm glad they're here tonight to be able to hear that as
036well. I have a great group of individuals that work for me and do a fantastic job. I cannot speak good enough about them. As well as your school staff been awesome to work with. Everything's been on the table. Uh any any issue that's come up, we have found a solution for it. Didn't matter what it was. We've worked all the way through this thing. The stop was was not in their vocabulary on this. They were going to make it happen. So, They smoked about two packs a day, too. I worked with a lot of them. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yes, sir. >> Absolutely. >> Just a couple of questions. First of all, um there's two different items on here. Yes, sir. >> I absolutely support the first item on here because I think this is
037a tremendous opportunity for our young people. >> Sure. >> I'm curious, is there a program for EMTs as well or is this part of the same program? That's one question. And the other is, is this a program that supports both the county and the city? Because the district I represent, it's kind of a donut hole in the in the middle up here in town. >> Absolutely. >> And the county. >> Absolutely. So th those >> city and county. Do these young people, the program that you have that meets on Thursday nights, it prepares them to to to advance in the program, is it does it support both city and county or is it simply the county fire department? I I don't know. I don't >> 100% same way with the cadets that are in the
038class. If they live in the city boundaries, uh they're more than willing to or more than welcome to go ahead and join that department and get their extra training. Um, but I what I've started doing is a lot of places I I can honestly say this, they don't have as many opportunities to train. Usually they train once a week. Uh, sometimes they get cancelled on that. So, we we bring people up from Spencer County, we bring them from Franklin County, we do joint joint trainings, we bring them from Woodford County. Those people will come over and train as well. My thing is it doesn't matter uh what imaginary boundary you're within. As long as learning has occurred, then credit's due. So even if it is somebody from from somewhere else, we can learn from those
039people as well. And it also makes our instructors stronger. >> So yes, it it'll feed either system. >> Okay, that's that's part >> your question on on the EMT program. I want to be very careful on staying in my lane here. I think there's been some talks from EMS about doing an EMT program. What I can also make this promise is is that if that does not happen, our instructors are are more than capable of taking over that program and we can add that to this. >> I don't I don't know a lot about this, but I know when I see a firet truck respond, there are always folks on there and I don't know if their EMTs what their role is, but their firefighters just depends on those services, but EMTs do come along
040as kind of as a tandem kind of a situation there. So I it's lack of knowledge on my part how that works. >> It depends on the jurisdiction. So some people were just firefighters. Uh so I retired out of Frankfurt. Everybody was there was required to at least be an EMT. Uh and then probably 40 of us were paramedics as well. So you were dual role. So some days it was your day on the ambulance, some days it was your own day on the fire truck until you got promoted. And but even at that, if you showed up on a firet truck and medical care needed to be given, um then they were they were asked to do that as well. Same way here, we spend about $15,000 on EMS supplies, every one of our
041trucks has got an EMS bag on it, uh to include an AED. And then all of our command vehicles. So if you see the pickup trucks and SUVs out, uh they have an AED on it as well. And those are more of our quick response vehicles. >> I think it's a tremendous opportunity for our young people that you have a chance to do this if that's where your calling is. >> Absolutely. a chance to get started as a freshman to be able to follow this through for four years at the high school and then have the possibility of a job opportunity at the end of it. >> Absolutely. >> So, keep in mind a lot of fire departments have had problems with the recruiting and they've dropped their ages down. So, even Lexington, my son
042just finished up with their their uh their academy over there. Uh he had went to Frankfurt and a lot of guys that I trained were his bosses. It was a great opportunity to do that. He wanted to get out from underneath my shadow for one. Uh for two, there's just not a retirement system anymore. Uh, everybody in law enforcement and state government is tier three. That's just a 401k hybrid. Uh, Lexington still has their own retirement system, and that's where I encourage people to go. But as far as Franklin County, right down the road, 18 years old, you can get on full-time. We're working on a grant to have full-time two extra full-time people here. Uh, that'll be at no cost to the county. Uh, we're just waiting on getting awarded that grant, and I
043feel pretty confident on that. That's a safer grant, and that should come around October. So, we've got about $3 million worth of grants out right now. uh to include a a a um a hydrant program grant. So to put hydrants out into our uh high priority areas that that will come at no cost uh to the county and that's just networking and and working with other agencies to include South Anderson Water District. So >> more questions for you. >> Absolutely. Uh James asked about that as far as paid positions are are the Lawrenceburg and the county are they paid positions or are they volunteer positions or are there some of both? >> So Lawrenburg uh has a full-time chief. He makes about $40,000. Uh that is their only paid u slashpartime position. I think they
044require them to do about 20 hours a week. Um, I've got uh three full-time guys, probably three and a half right now, depending on how you cut this other guy. He also he's our mechanic and he also works for the county. And then the rest of mine is filled with part- timerrs uh to to cover that staff uh Monday through Friday uh out at um out at Beaver Lake and then on Wildcat Road. That's covered 247. Uh and those are by part- timerrs. Generally, a lot of those guys are they're also full-time firefighters somewhere else. they either started here or they've moved here and they want to give back to their community. But, uh, these guys right here, uh, they do ride days as well. So, it's like co-oping. They go out and ride. U,,
045we really monitor them. They can't be around live fire, uh, but other than that, they can they can do a lot of other stuff. >> Last question. >> Yes, sir. >> I was reading some of the prep stuff before we got to the meeting, and the breakdown was, I think, $3,000 for the polos and and whatever attire goes with that. >> Absolutely. $28,000 for equipment. >> Yes, sir. >> Still have some concern about the polos. How do you make those last for four years? I can't get mine to last for a year, but maybe you can. Maybe young people are better at that than I am, but that part's okay. The 28,000. Sure. >> What kinds of equipment are we talking about? And is this is this equipment that's that's ours that last goes forever,
046or is this stuff that's is it reusable, recyclable? Is it what what are they going to do with it? >> It's gonna be helmets, coats, pants, and boots. And that's a wildlandauto extrication type gear. It's not full uh firefighting structural gear. That's about $1,000 first uh per set per person is what that's going to turn out to be. And that should last about 10 years. I've got some extra gear, and as much as I wash that, I'm not going to take the risk. because I I talked with Superintendent Mitchell, just the carcinogens uh and other cancercausing agents, I'm not going to take that chance, especially at the age group at which these people are going to be in entering into this program. So, I would I would prefer to have them in full-time gear or
047brand new gear, I'm sorry, and that would last approximately up to 10 years. >> And I think I can speak for all five of us. We're about the most frugal people you will find when it comes to spending money. >> Sure. >> Just I'm wondering with the 000. Is this is this since we're just getting started, is it necessary to have new equipment or is this something that other firefighters could donate that we could use that's usable that could kind of extend us maybe into the next year or the third year before we went out and bought brand new equipment? Do do fire fighters donate equipment? Do other systems donate equipment? Is there stuff that's that's still good that that other communities buy new equipment and they do something with their old stuff? Is it
048possible that we could kind of extend ourselves into year two or year three before we spent $28,000 on on brand new? >> No. As I said before, it's got a 10-year expiration date on that. And the other gear that I have would be able to mismatch sizes for these people. And that gear has been used in firefighting. And no matter how how many times I I wash that gear, I'm not I'm not willing to risk possible carcinogens still being in that and then placing it on them. I I would scrap the whole program before I would risk that. You understand that completely. So, I think it's best to go into new gear, gear that's not going to be used in firefighting, uh, and will serve their needs. That gear, uh, is roughly about $1,500 a
049set. The good part between me and my major is we've called uh surrounding dealers and they've basically given this that gear at cost. That's that's going to be at no overhead for them. They're they're not it's no profit. >> So would this be a onetime expense? $28,000 a onetime expense if it has a 10-year life expectancy >> unless we added other people into the program. >> My life expectancy maybe. I don't know. >> So unless we added other people into the program. So, if we move into another 30 people, which would be a good thing, um I think my budget would probably be more in control uh and and underway next year, and I would just pick up that cost. That's no problem. >> So, did you just say this might be a one-year expense
050and next year you would pick it up? Is that what you just said? >> If if if feasible, yes, sir. No. Yes, sir. Yep. No, I'm willing to do that. We'll sit down. We we'll look at my budget and we'll see what's going on. I'll I'll bring you a copy of my budget and you see where we're at. >> This is a great opportunity for our school system, our community, our kids. >> No, >> you know, we're very frugal up here. No, I completely understand from folks occasionally asking about taxes and vaccine rates and all those kinds of things, but we're really very frugal up here. >> Uh, you know, we're spending the community's money, so we we try to ask a lot of questions. >> Sure. >> We understand what we're doing before we
051vote on it. No, but also understand >> you say is that this 28,000 would get this program started and we would probably not hear from somebody next year asking for another $28,000. >> That would be my hopes. Yes, sir. But like I said, I'll come back. We'll reexamine my budget. Uh I'm not asking you to to pony up to the bar there and me not. Uh I'm I'm willing to give back if you're willing to invest in me. Yes, sir. >> We appreciate your commitment to this. >> No, absolutely. school. So, one one of my guys salary to be honest with you is $45,000. I'm I'm willing to put that up. So, uh, to be able to pull this out of recruitment and retention and fire equipment next year, yeah, that's that's where my money
052would come from, out of the fire district, and it covers for this program. Uh, the cadet program, they also have their their budget item as well. Um, I think, uh, this coming year it's going to be about $15,000 into that. Sure. Absolutely. >> Just ask one other quick question. Is are are there ever opportunities when folks have equipment that is still new that they've not used that they purchased that they could donate? Not something that's been in a fire. >> No, usually that's going to be just an oddball size uh set of gear. It's going to be a 3X or it's going to be an extra extra small because any extra gear gets gets donated to people in in North Carolina when they had the floods, those fire departments get work get wiped out. Um
053and we've sent gear down to those people as well. London ends up having tornadoes and they lose their air packs, we send our old air packs down there. And we also use those for training. When those get outdated, we use those for training so that we don't tear up our new our new air packs and equipment and gear. >> Yes, sir. We had this conversation last time I was down here. I remember that. It was uh it was engine four. It was a custom cab that sits out on Palato Road. We had a fire about two doors down from that right across the street out there by Mr. Tony's. That'd be a good opportunity for me and you to go sit down with him and get him to donate that fire truck to this this
054program. He bought that. >> Yes, sir. >> He donates money to donated fire truck. >> Mr. Carmichael to answer your question. That's who I'm going to go approach to buy the gear for next year. Is that gentleman right there? >> I'm in. >> Yes, sir. >> Again, I'll say this is this is a great program and we're incredibly blessed. >> Sure. >> Have this starting here. So, my my question is really about the funding part of it, but >> what you're saying is that this is a one-time expense for us as a board that you'll find a way to if if we need addition. >> That is what my hopes is to be. Yes, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Absolutely. Yes, sir. >> I would also like the record
055to show that Ste uh Scott Brown joined our meeting at 7:36 PM a few minutes ago. So, he will also be able to be voting on um this item. Is there any additional conversation or questions or discussion at this time? Is that on is that on the first one there for the Okay, >> I'll make I'll make a motion. Steve Carmichael, >> Sunny Fresh, second. All right. I think we all voted in favor of it. >> All right. Can I also get >> Thank you. >> Mr. Brown, are you a yes vote? >> Thank you. >> Mr. Sergeant, are you Mr. Fentrez and Mr. Carmichael all yes votes? >> Thank you. Next, request for fire program. No, sir. >> I'll make a motion to approve it. The way that the chief has explained it here,
056that's uh it's $28,000 this year plus the uniform cost, the onetime expense. Second Sunny Fusion second. All in favor system. Thank you, sir. All right. Just for the record to show, did anyone vote? No. All right. Thank you. Next up, we have data security breach. Um uh chief information officer Blake Drury uh will provide the annual data security breach presentation. All right, thank you guys. Um, so this is the data security update. Each year, uh, we go through best practices, uh, with our staff, uh, and staff are trained each year and this is the update to the board, uh, about the data security that we have here in the district. Um so the purpose is basic awareness of data security and notification to the board as required by law. Um most common causes of uh
057a data breach or accidental sharing email website uh paper being left out, lost or theft. Uh we see a lot of fli fishing, clickbait, spam messages, weaker stolen passwords, and then everything else, all of the other people that are trying to get your information or trying to get people's information. Um, again, I'm not going to read through this definition of personally identifiable information, but it's the information that different agencies collect uh at times, including social security number and things like that, uh, that could be used by people for malicious intent. So, we want to make sure that we protect that. The methods, controls, and safeguards that we use, uh, we have one, we have operational safeguards. That's training, education, best practices. Each year our staff are trained and they go through training about uh furpa
058about HIPPA law and then also about uh personally identifiable information and how to safeguard that. Uh we use location and access rules. We use locked doors uh to keep information behind locked cabinets. Uh we have retention schedules. There's a databach notification uh that is required if we were to have some type of data breach. There's a process we go through to notify the people involved and also other agencies within the state. Uh and then we also have insurance coverage for any kind of cyber attack, cyber security. Uh privacy safeguards, we try to minimize the the stuff that we collect. We don't want to collect, you know, private information that we don't need. Uh so we're very cautious with that. Uh we ensure proper destruction uh and disposal. When we have things that we have to
059release, we make sure that we check and redact the things that should be redacted before they're released. And then we we teach clean desk guidelines, not leaving personally identifiable information laying out in the open where someone that comes into your office could see that. Um then again we have and last we have our security controls, authentication, password encryption and all of the stuff that we do to make sure that we keep our people safe electronically. We make sure we purge stale accounts. One new thing we have this year is the Q's project where and that's a statewide program where we are moving to automate some of the process of creating accounts and deleting accounts so that when somebody leaves their accounts immediately disabled doesn't become a stale account which a lot of times are used
060or targeted by these people looking to to uh get your information. So that is all I have for tonight. >> Thank you Mr. Drew. Is there any questions? If no questions, we'll move on. Uh, next up is approved traceable communication systems. Uh, Chief Information Officer Blake Dury is requesting the board to add Fresh Desk uh, help desk ticketing system to the Anderson County Schools list of approved traceable communication systems. uh the system meets the requirements for traceable communications in KRS 160.145 which was created by section one of Senate Bill 181. Uh another part is in order to support uh the full compliance with Senate Bill 181 and to ensure uh secure consistent communication with students enrolled in dual credit courses. BTTC is requesting approval of the following communication systems currently utilizing uh utilized by KCTCS.
061Uh that's Blackboard um with just through Anthology um Outlook which is the email for kctcs.edu uh and starfish which is uh eBab. Is there any questions on that? If no questions, uh, can >> second. Steve Carmichael >> with a person second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins, >> yes. >> Scott Brown, >> Steve Carmichael, >> yes. >> James Sergeant, >> Sunny Fentrez, >> yes. To be clear, I want to make sure that everybody understands that any um requests for BCTC on any of these traceable communication tools come through BCTC, not from Anderson County Schools, because we do not cover any of the three of those for for KCTCS or BCTC. Next up is KSBA custom uh policy procedure service um from or for the 2526 year uh consideration
062to approve payment for the 2526 policy and procedure services and e-meing maintenance service uh in the amount of $5,725. It's about the same of last year. Um, not much different. So, this is for the maintenance. As you all know, we have those annual updates. They do all of the research, the um the add-ins, the deletions that you all um typically would hear me read out loud and to ensure that we are in compliance with statute andor any other recommendations by their attorney. and our attorney as you all know read those as well. But any questions that I can answer >> motion to approve Sunny Frazz Carmichael >> with first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins, >> yes. >> Scott Brown, >> yes. James Sergeant, >> Sunonny
063Fentrez, >> surplus request. Uh, Sappel Street principal uh Nikki Lucas uh is requesting to surplus 125 old uh stored unused student desks. Uh the request is to sell, donate, or dispose of the desks. >> Any questions regarding this request? Just a quick question about donations in general. When we have things that we want to donate that that we're going to surplus like books or desks, whatever, is there are there folks in the community that can use those things or how do we how do we dispose of those? I'm just curious. I know we have other folks who might be able to use those. >> That's a great question. And so it depends on the principal making that request and or the director. And so Mrs. Lucas has indicated that she for this particular request would
064see if we could donate those um to any other um entity or organization that might want to utilize those. And then um I'm sure some of them are not going to be uh able to be donated just because they're broken or they're um not usable. Um and then we would of course dispose of those. But um typically we would ask entities around the community first and then if there are other organizations outside of our community we would um you know a lot of them contact different places to see um you know if they can use them. It's a great question. >> Thank you. >> Motion to approve Steve Carmichael. >> Second. Sonas >> with first and second. Can I get a roll call vote please? >> Yes sir. Jason Collins. Yes. >> Scott Brown. >>
065Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Yes. Sunonny Fentrez >> Sor Sro uh salary request uh consideration to uh approve paying seasonal SRO's $25 per hour for the 2526 school year. >> What was it this year? $18 per hour increase. Is that >> White's doing the math right now. question. >> Don't admit it. >> Yes, sir. >> Mr. Mr. White would be able to answer that specifically of the actual amount that we are able to receive back and I'm going to ask him to explain that please. >> We get can apply for did receive however you want to say that $20,000 per school campus last year for a total of 120,000 as a district. This year they've opened up the funding at the same same rate of 20,000 per campus that has a full-time
066SRO. And any remaining funds that are in their aotment of of dollars they put aside for that, we can then apply for an additional $20,000 per full-time SRO that we have. So for us, that would be a seventh SRO and another $20,000. So potentially we could have $140,000 from the legislature this year. The legislator is going to come across. Great job. >> That is true. >> That's okay, sir. >> I knew they were doing a great job. >> Tell everybody in across the state. >> We are very proud of our SRO program and we're very blessed. So, thank you, sir. I will take responsibility for a little bit of that. >> How many hours a day do they work? So our so our SRO works he is holding up eight hours a day. So >>
067what are other districts paying >> more more than us? Um is is the short answer to that. >> I I should have brought that with me. I had a a stack of that on my desk and if you want me to run get it, I can do that. But basically $25 an hour would put us kind of in the middle. So, I looked at every district that I could find information on that had that published readily available on the internet. Uh, Scott County, I believe, was 26 $27 an hour. And some of their SRO's, if I remember correctly, come from Scott County Sheriff's Office and maybe some from the Georgetown Police Department. Mercer County, I believe, has their own force and they pay their guys, I believe it's $38,000 a year for 195 days or
068something along those lines. Um, so Woodford County was uh in the same boat. They're paying roughly that dollar figure. Um, and that was for their own police force. Spencer County, I believe, contracts their services out and they pay whatever the going rate is at Spencer County Sheriff's Office or Taylor PD or whomever they're employed through. U, but the the bottom line I came down to was $25 an hour makes us competitive, but it doesn't it doesn't put us at the top of of very many lists. if you will. Um, and the the difference there is we're not employing year round. These are seasonal 9month positions. Um, so these gentlemen are typically or females, whoever it is, are typically retired folks who've come back to work. Um, so, you know, they can go make say $28
069an hour to drive to Scott County, but they got to drive to Scott County if they live here. And a lot of our folks live here. So, if we can get somewhere in the ballpark, I think we can be competitive with them. But 25 gets us in the ballpark. It does not put us at the top uh by any stretch. >> I don't think you can put a dollar figure on school safety and we're blessed to have outstanding SRO's. Um they do a great job interacting with everybody, students, staff, parents, it's very reassuring and to be in the middle of the pack is not necessarily something to be proud of, but it is a step forward when we raise that raise that uh hourly rate from 18 to 25. So again, we we can't pay
070folks enough for the job that they do. We're really blessed to have outstanding people. Can can I jump in on that? So, what I would ask that you ask of them is they allotted 17.6 million, I believe, to school resource officers in the last fiscal year, and I think it's 18 point something this fiscal year, whatever the number is. But their language of their bill says whatever's left over goes into the budget reserve trust fund. I think they should change that to say whatever's left over, we distribute out to the people who already got $20,000 up to including their cost for their school resource officer because if there's money left on the table, why are we putting in the budget reserve trust fund when we could help out all the districts that are employing these
071SRO and meeting their mandate to have one per school location? Um, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And I'll also add in we also get about $72,000 in safe schools funding from the state of Kentucky. So all told, you got 72,000 in the 120 guaranteed, if you will, uh funds from the legislature to fund our SRO program. I have a question. What is this a yearly salary? What will that figure out? >> So, if you're paying roughly 180 days at eight hours a day and $25 an hour, that's $36,000. >> How much will we pay a start teacher? >> 43,17 off the top of my head. I I will say that this year I did sit in on the active shooter program um at specifically at SAFEL Um it it's an
072alarming I mean I have done it before but I don't care how many times you go through it it is alarming and those are our one line of defense that's actually going to be there um to potentially save our our students. Um so I mean I'm not going to I'm not I'm not saying That's a big jump. >> No, absolutely. >> I'm I'm not I'm not going to argue with that. >> Should have been paid more in the beginning. ask one more question. When's the last time the SRO's got a raise? >> If I'm not mistaken, we bumped them to $18 an hour last year or two years ago. off the top of my head, but it was it was like a two or three or 4% raise over the previous year and they were
073making $167 an hour or something. It I don't recall that off top of my head, but that's >> it's and not very recently have we done anything substantial to invest in that program in terms of hourly rate. Are >> you looking at are you looking at a different number or you're just looking at a one time increase or consider this year. >> Yes. >> Well, it would be for next year, wouldn't it? >> I mean, it's not for future years. I mean, far >> it would be it would be for >> talking about all this money >> moving forward. It's $25 an hour. >> It would be for this year and and yet the next year until you make the decision to make a change. >> Can everyone please make sure you use your microphone
074so Mr. Brown can hear as well, please? contract >> turn on. >> So this would be for this year and next year moving forward. So whatever decision you make for this year, it would go for this year moving forward starting tomorrow and then the next until you change it, it would continue at the $25 rate until you make the decision to change it moving forward is the request on the table. Are you wanting me to reition? >> No, I was just asking a question. Again, obviously as a retired teacher and school administrator, I understand how important teachers and administrators and everybody else who works in the building. I understand how important those people are. But I also understand as an administrator, my number one responsibility was school safety. If we don't have a a safe
075school, if we don't have the right kind of people in there, I'll say it this way, people in there with a pistol who can actually defend us if there's an issue. If we're losing good people to another school system because they can make 25, 26, $27 someplace else, Scott County or someplace else. Again, we want to pay teachers every penny we can pay them. We'll say dime, every dime we can pay them. >> Um, and administrators as well. uh we all know that they're that they're overpaid and underworked, but you know, it's just the way it is when you're a school administrator. Um they're all worth everything we can pay and that should be a priority, but school safety is the number one responsibility that we have and we need to keep the very best
076people we can in those positions and I the 39% is a little bit hard to swallow as a teacher and former administrator. It's hard to swallow, but we can't afford to lose people someplace else for you know >> or $7 an hour. I mean, again, I know how hard these folks work to make sure that our schools and our staffs, everybody across the board are protected and have the skills necessary if we have one of those situations. And we hope and we pray that we never have them, but we need to keep the best people we can there. And if we don't pay them, they're not going to stay. >> Am I taking that as a second? >> Where was the first? Is that >> Sorry, you first on the 25. >> Oh, yeah. I
077did. >> Okay. You put you in. >> This was like a half an hour ago. going on for a second. >> Second. Steve Carmichael >> with the first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins, >> yes. >> Scott Brown, >> Steve Carmichael, >> yes. >> James Sergeant, >> yes. >> Sunny Fentrez, >> I do have one final comment. One of the problems we have here is we need to have something come here that generates a lot of money for us, brings in a lot revenue for our school district. You know, I just heard that Mercer Countyy's got the big billion dollar Apple plant. You know, we've got to we've got to create or we can't you know, that's how come they beat us in being able to
078give so much. We don't have I agree. We need more industry. >> Mr. Sergeant, for the record, I just want to make sure your motion is $25 until further and until the board changes it proceeding forward. Thank you, sir. >> Mr. Carmichael, that is your second as well. >> That's my second, but I find a hard time believing we'll lower that number next year from now. >> Correct. >> Yes, ma'am. That's that's my second. >> Thank you. Next up, we have trip requests. Uh recommended to approve the following trip requests. Um, Anderson County High School, uh, FCCLA teacher, uh, Lauren, uh, Wayne Scott is requesting approval to take the team, uh, to the FCCLA, uh, Fall Leadership Institute at the Disney, Colorado Springs uh, resort uh, in Orlando, Florida, October 15th through the 19th uh,
079of 2025. Uh flights are requested for transportation. Parents, guardians, and ELVAC funds are paying for the cost of the trip. Um Coronado Springs is a very nice resort. Um FCCLA uh teacher Lauren W Wayne Wayne Scott is requesting uh approval to take the team uh to the FCCLA fall state ex executive council me uh in Mount Sterling uh staying at uh Big Sky Barnhouse on September the 8th through the 9th, 2025. This is an overnight trip. Transportation is requested. There is no cost uh for this trip. Uh a CHS FFA teacher uh Christy Ford is requesting approval to take two students to FCCLA or FCC FFA leadership camp in Herodsburg on September the 12th through the 13, 2025. Uh this is an overnight trip request. District transportation is requested. There is no cost for this
080trip. >> Are there any questions regarding these trip requests? >> Fantress. Motion to approve. >> Second. Steve Carmichael >> with the first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins. Yes. Scott Brown. >> Scott Brown. Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Sunny Fentress. >> Yes. >> I was going to say, did we lose, Scott? Okay, we'll move on. if he pops back in, he can give his um purchase requests over $10,000. Um I'm going to let you all read through all those. Um but I'm going to request uh myself um to break out number six from from the rest of those um just because it's it's a little little different uh type of request than than the rest of these. Um, >> do you want me
081to go through them real quickly, sir? >> Uh, yeah, if you would like. That's >> right. So, there are six total requests. The first one is from food service director BJ Gritt and chief information officer Blake Jury requesting to replace six POS um due to the lifetime um the end of life for these um devices at each school. There were three quotes given with the cheapest quote being from Hartland at $10,352. That also includes new pin pads for partial um of those um CDW 1380 uh 13,820 and pro prosthesis 14,718. The second request is from chief academic officer Bobby Murphy to purchase the NWA MAP assessment for the 2526 school year. This is to assess student skills and monitor academic progress in reading and math in grades K through 12, but also the state required
082fluency in grades K through three and science and grade uh which is a tested assessed uh grade levels in 4,7 and 11. The cost is $41,129. This is an annual reoccurrence um that we have to purchase for assessing three times per year for all of those MMA Ward, Sappel Street, and Sparrow Early Childhood Center. Uh principles are all requesting intervention programs with MAB Wards being magnetic reading in the amount of $24,4816. Uh it is budgeted from the um the reading diagnostic um fund. It is a grant provided by KDE Sappel Street principal Nikki Lucas to purchase Lexia core five reading for tier 2 intervention as well for grades one through three in the amount of $37,75351. It's also budgeted from the grant and Sparrow Early Childhood Center Robin Ratliff principal requesting permission to purchase eight
083UFly decodable reading with six pack sets including 128 titles uh in the amount of $24,675 for kindergarten. So all three of those are intervention programs to be paid out of the reading grant. Those are the first five. Are there any questions regarding those five? >> If there's no questions, can I get a motion to approve >> to approve Steve Carmichael? >> Can I get a second >> with the first and second? Can I get a roll call vote, please? Yes, sir. Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Scott Brown. >> Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Sunny Fentress. >> Yes. >> Um the breakout item um is the Anderson County High School principal Chris Glass and Assistant Principal Kayla Smith is requesting approval to purchase a vehicle uh for the FFA program. They have a
084very successful program and a state officer and will need it for travel purposes. They're requesting this to be paid from the general fund and reimbursed from career and technical education elvac funds. Uh CFO Josh White obtained the following quotes from Bachmann Chevrolet uh 2025 Chevy Traverse at $44,469 and a 2025 Chevy Suburban uh $64,600. >> Requesting to buy both of them or just the one? >> That's a great question, Mr. Fentrez. The request is to purchase one either the Traverse or the Suburban. >> I will go ahead and ask the question. Do we have I know we have a few vehicles. Um do we not have a vehicle that they can use? Um >> yeah, >> please. >> So we do have one Suburban at this time. Um the thing becomes with transportation especially of
085smaller numbers of students and that's the reason we got the initial first one. Now we're in a situation where you can transfer six to eight six to eight kids pretty easily but then you get to that 13 where you're having to take an entire bus for 13 kids. That 13 14 number runs quite a bit especially when you're talking about um like kids going to a leadership conference not the entire entire people will go. uh this is some of the purpose of what we used our layback funds previously. So it's the same same pool of money is what we get from from that. But the the ability to transport them and not put the transportation cost on our bus where our bus is down in those situations where we have smaller number of students traveling
086especially on some longer trips so on so forth. The other thing is cost to um the funding and the cost to the students because if we were to pay for all these trips, we just wouldn't be able to possibly do it. So obviously taking a Suburban gas money is 10 times cheaper, a lot more cheaper than affording being able to afford a bus driver, paying mileage on the bus, all those particular types of things. So that's kind of what that's kind of what the purpose is behind it. Um our FFA and FCCLA programs are very big. the others who have used it. Some of our athletic programs have used it as well. Golf particularly uses our suburban quite a bit. And we've even used uh it's been used in the district some to transport um
087some of our uh food programs for um so that's another reason that we you know we have used it in the past at times to do that. Now I do know that they did purchase some extra vehicles so that obviously has been done as well. But primarily the reason we're looking at is for those trips and that transportation because it just gets too costly to the programs to be quite honest with you than it is today already own. >> Well, but to the but but to the actual uh club themselves, the fees are the fees. I mean, we still have to charge for the bus driver. we still have to charge. Um, in the grand scheme of things, it'll make, you know what I'm saying? Yes, in the upfront, no, that's not the case. But
088in the grand scheme of things, I think it overall, yes, it's costefficient. >> Have one vehicle, >> We have one at the board office. >> Yes. So theoretically we could when we have those situations where we have 12 13 students we could use both of those vehicles and not >> purchase a new vehicle. >> It occurs at times. It does not occur at times but yes it could yes theoretically yes 100%. >> And and I I love this program you know I love this program. I wish this program had been there when I was in school but then I'm not sure I don't know where I'd have been at that particular age. I love this program. It's just I think the expenditure we're back to being frugal and I hate to keep saying that because
089we're going to talk about this other stuff here, but $44,000 is a lot of money to I mean what what what do we do the next time the next group ask about we'd like to have one because you bought one for FFA. We'd like to have one because we've got 12 kids that want to go. That's my That's the part I struggle with. >> It may help if he explains a little bit about the funding as well. >> He knows I'm remedial so he'll go real slow and talk real loud. >> Suburban what they initially had said, what they had had looked at was the suburban, I believe. So, the funding we're talking about using would be the CTE supplemental funds that we would move to pay for a salary of employees in the CTE
090program that we're currently funding out of the general fund and then pick up the purchase of the vehicle from the general fund because the Kentucky Department of Education won't let us directly buy a vehicle through CTE funding. So, it's a it's a one for one dollar swap is essentially what we would be doing there. So a teacher that we're paying for out of the general fund will get paid for from CTE funds because that is an allowable expense and then we replace that dollar with the purchase of the vehicle in the general fund. So these are CTE directly related funds. These the benefit is the rest of the district when available could utilize the vehicle because it was technically purchased with general fund dollars at that point and it's not restricted funds. >> We have
091to insure it. >> We it would be on our fleet insurance. Yes, sir. Yep. Who's going to drive it? >> One of the teachers would drive it. So that eliminates the cost of the driver. >> Bus driver. >> It doesn't have to be a bus driver. No. As long as it's nine passengers or less. And all these vehicles are nine passengers or less. Um it's not does not have to be a bus driver. Didn't have to have a CDL, which also doesn't take a bus driver away from the transportation department. So that gives a little more flexibility to the the program itself in terms of being able to go and come. uh if you take a bus driver out of the the normal course of their route and Mr. Harley can attest to this or
092tell me I'm completely wrong, but if M Conway doesn't have a a bus driver for her afternoon routes because they're out on a field trip, that puts everybody else in a little bit of a pickle then if we don't have a substitute driver. So if the teacher can drive the vehicle, the thought process there is also that they're helping the transportation department in in a in a way because that bus is still available for morning or afternoon transportation. If it's an overnight trip, we're not taking a bus somewhere overnight and that driver overnight as well. Um, so to put a pencil to it to say it's absolutely cheaper, I don't know that that is 100% correct. I would say it is much more convenient and conducive to what they need to have happen for their
093programs and the timing and the availability is if we need to go this weekend because we have a state officer who is participating one person um they're in a district-owned vehicle as opposed to their parents having to transport them or uh the teacher transporting them in their own car which be not something we would want to have happen. So we have that available to us. How many times has this happened during the course of a year that we have >> a lot >> 12 kids? How many times? Five times, 10 times, every month. >> I mean, you're you just approved three trips for FCCLA and FFA and they would probably utilize one or two of these vehicles for every one of those trips if I was guessing. Um, in some way, shape, or form, they
094travel FCCLA and FFA. When I was administer, I felt like they traveled every every week. It seemed like it's probably not that often, but it is very frequent that there is some sort of leadership opportunity that they've got, some training they can go to, some showcase for the kids. Uh there there's all manner of things that they're going to participate in through those programs. >> Okay, this is, you know, I woke up one day and I was old. I don't know how that happened, but and I'm kind of with, you know, a train of thought kind of a thing. I'm still asking on this though. We have two vehicles and I don't know how often we use the one here at central office, but we have two. That's part of my thought process. And the
095other part of the process, wouldn't it be less expensive to rent a vehicle when we needed one on occasion when there's one not one available versus again I'm kind of I'm swallowing. I've got water, but I'm swallowing hard on this $45,000 or this. I can't see without my glasses and I'm not putting them on because I know it was big. It was big. >> That's the only problem I have is like could could we not rent a vehicle on the days when we're we need additional which would save us >> I guess if one is available that that meets their needs we potentially could rent one. Uh that's typically not something that we >> but we thought another question I have that he just turned my light on and >> oh I turned it off.
096I got it right here. >> Turn it back off. Uh what about is it cheaper if we lease the vehicle sort of back because that's what are most of the companies nowadays do. They don't purchase they lease. >> Most companies don't hold on to their vehicles for 20 years though. >> The the leasing of the vehicle is it gets turned back in and we lose that benefit for the cost that we've put out. >> Um so we don't have any kind of an asset at that point. So I I mean we could we could probably go down that road. I don't know what it would cost to lease a Suburban. Is it $1,000 a month for 36 months? Is it $800 a month to lease a Traverse for 36 months? I I don't want to
097know what that number is right off the top of my head, but you would expend half the money and have nothing at the end is essentially >> get nothing when we sell them for surplus. >> No, but we've got a 2007 model Suburban sitting out there in the parking lot that we could still run around town in if we absolutely needed to. So, we've gotten 17 years worth of benefit out of that. 18 years worth of benefit. I'm sorry. >> They lease theirs and they keep them for 10 years and they're still leased. I didn't know. I'm just curious like >> it could be cheaper. I I don't know. That's not anything that I've really dug into for this particular situation. >> We talked about leasing buses. >> This has been a few years >>
098I remember that we had discussed and we never But we did discuss at least one advantage or disadvantage. We requested information. >> Is it is it possible you could look into leasing or enterprise rentals or something and just see what kind of costs are involved in that? again. >> It's tough when we're asking about >> I'm I'm going to step in here. >> I'm sorry. >> Can we table this for a month or so and then >> I just like to look at we can look at other possibility. >> I'm just happy to answer questions. I'm not making any decision one way or the other here. I just happen to be the guy who stood up here. I don't the table until we get more information on lease and we can think it over. >>
099So you would like to know what it would cost to lease a similar vehicle >> and rent >> and disadvantages >> and then what the cost to rent a similar vehicle would be. >> Yes. Because I think on those occasions when we need an extra vehicle, it'd be cost effective to rent one. I I don't >> And if you know like a week ahead of time, I know you can always go up to like Enterprise and get a a 12 passenger. >> I don't know that we can drive a 12 passenger. Is that correct, Mr. Harley? We cannot drive a 12 passenger vehicle. Is that >> We're over We're over the limit of that. >> Okay. >> I will gather that information and bring it back to you. >> You need a second. You get
100a second. Second. Yeah. Steve Carmichael >> with first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Scott Brown. >> Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Sunonny Fentress. >> Yes. >> That's why I broke it out. Um, next up, uh, maximum nursing, uh, contract special education director Beth Morgan Cook, uh, is requesting approval of the maximum nursing contract to assist in the special needs student. uh as recommended by the board attorney. Uh the school board attorney is reviewing both of the agree of these agreements requesting approval with his recommendation. >> Motion approved. Honey Ventur >> second. Steve Carmichael >> with the first and second. Can I go roll call vote please? >> Yes sir. Jason Collins >> yes. >> Scott Brown. >> Steve Carmichael.
101>> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Sunny Fentrez. Yes. >> Can you please tell me who seconded that motion? >> Uh, it was Sunny and >> Mr. Sard that motion. >> Motion. I second this one. >> Yes, >> I second. Mr. Sunny made the motion. >> I don't remember which one did which. >> Uh, and now we're to the fun part. U, next up is set real estate and property. uh personal property tax rates. Mr. Watt, feel like I've been up here all night, >> I guess. All right. So, um for the tax rate information, Kentucky R statute allows us 45 days from the date that we receive the certified tax rates for the district to actually adopt a tax rate for the fiscal year. So, we're within that window currently. Um, the compensating
102rate would get us generate us the same level of revenue as the prior year, excluding any new property that was added to the tax roles. And then the 4% rate would be a 4% increase in revenue above what was collected in the prior year. For fiscal year 26, the fiscal year that we're just now starting, the difference between the compensating rate and the 4% rate in terms of revenue is about $555,000. If you were to adopt the compensating rate, there is no tax hearing that is required. The 4% rate also does not require a tax hearing. And if there was no change to the tax rate, there would need a hearing only if that rate exceeded the 4% rate, which in our case it would not be. If the rate was not to change, it
103would not exceed the 4% rate. So that's just kind of the general tax information and and all the rules and regulations surrounding that. You've probably seen this before. I've been adding to this chart um every year that I've come up here to show you this. I know it's kind of small there. I'll just run down the the 2425 real estate tax rates for the surrounding counties. And then I also lumped in Boil and Scott because that's a couple of districts we often compete with. For Anderson County in 2425, our rate was 59.5, Franklin was 74.1, Mercer was 71.6, Nelson 67.3, Shelby 71.4, 4, Spencer 60, Washington 58, and Woodford 67.3. Rounding out the list, Boil 65.3, and Scott 62.9. Of those list of counties, Anderson counties is the second lowest tax rate in our immediate
104area. We are the 74th lowest rate out of 168 districts listed on KDE's tax rate list, and there are 94 districts with a tax rate that is higher than ours based on KD's tax rate list. I was talking to our fiscal agent Baird um and she told me that the average real estate tax rate for fiscal year 25 was 64.4. I didn't fact check her so to speak that but that seems reasonable based on what I'm looking at here and what I looked at on KDE's list. Those are all numbers that are greater than ours currently. If you look at Anderson County is the light blue dot going from 1718 across the board. You heard me quoting 1718 school year. Um and the the differences in pay from that point and I was doing that
105because this is the information that's on my presentation. The blue dot you can see is the second lowest in 2425. It was the second lowest in 2324. It was third in the the previous years there carrying on through. You can also see the downward trend of our tax rate over the course of the last few years. And if you just look at Anderson County alone, this is our tax rate on real estate. Some years the tangible rate, the personal property rate matches that, some years it doesn't. I just use a real estate rate. You can see from 1920 until 2425, you all have had a downward trend on the rate that has been adopted. oftent times you've taken been able to take the 4% rate and reduce the tax rate. I'm going to jump back
106to this previous slide. And you can see I've got 4% and other underneath the 2425 rate and the 2324 rate where it's not just a number, it's a percent or the word other. Anytime you see other in there, typically what that district did was they kept their rate the same even though they could have reduced it. So they kept it the same and probably produced more than 4% revenue in many of those cases. You all had that opportunity to keep the rate the same and raise more than 4% revenue, but you didn't do that. You reduced the rate and we're still able to take 4%. So reducing the rate over the last five years um has been a benefit to the the residents of Anderson County, me included. Uh pretty much anybody who has paid
107taxes in the last 5 years in Anderson County has seen a reduction in their tax rate from the school district. If we were to adopt the compensating rate for fiscal year 26, that rate would be 58 cents per $100. 58 per $100. The 4% rate with exonerations in the previous 58 I included the exonerations as well. The 4% rate would be 60.3 and the current rate of 59.5 you could adopt to keep that as well. You could just say we're just going to leave it what it is. If you were to adopt the compensating rate with exonerations and go with a 58, we would expect about 13.985 million in revenue. If you were to adopt the 4% rate with exonerations or 60.3, you'd be looking at about 14.54 million in revenue. And if you just
108left the rate the same at 595, we'd be talking about $14,346,000 in revenue. Doesn't mean a whole lot until you put it in context. So looking at the total revenue that we expected in fiscal year 25, bottom left number, $13,623,000. That's how much we expected for fiscal year 25. Um, if everybody paid their tax bill, the expected revenue for fiscal year 26, if you went with a compensating rate versus what we received in fiscal year 25, compensating rate would get us about $361,000 more in revenue than we had over fiscal year 25. If there was no change in the rate versus fiscal year 25 revenue, it' be about a $723,000 increase in revenue. And if you went with the 4% rate for fiscal year 26 with exonerations versus fiscal year 25 about a $916,000 increase
109in revenue compensating verse 4% you already heard me say this is about $555,000 in additional revenue and the compensating rate versus no change in the rate would be about $361,000 in additional revenue. Questions so far? And remind me last year when we gave the teachers raises >> four and a half percent. >> It uh was a little over a million dollars, right? >> You let me let me let me clarify your question. You're talking about when you did a raise in April coming into this year. >> Yes. Four and a half% in the step. Uh, and it'll be about a million two >> million two million three somewhere in that neighborhood depending on where we end up in terms of who's hired and all that kind of stuff. If you're thinking about it in terms
110of the cost on a home, I can get this to dial in here a little bit better. $100,000 home value, 2425 rate. The tax bill for the school system was $595. If you adopted the compensating rate, it'd be $580. And if you adopted the 4% rate, it'd be $63. The 1920 rate, which was the highest we've had in the last few years, that $100,000 home would have been $657. Now, you guys are like me, your home value probably increased uh over the course of the last five or six years. If your value of your home went up by 10% and you had $100,000 home, now leaving $110,000 home, you can see the rates there. And the 4% rate with a 10% increase in value is very similar to what somebody was paying in 1920 in
111the fiscal year 20. And I broke it down for some more home values on down the page there, but you can see those yellow boxed values. the 1920 rate is the highest we've been would be very comparable to somebody's tax bill with a 10% increase in value on their home um if you were to adop were to adopt the 4% rate questions on that chart. >> Sunny Fender, I make a motion we take a 4% increase and set it at 60.1%. Sense. >> Would you include the exonerations and go to 60.3? Yes. >> Do you >> Yes, sir. >> I plan on making a motion compensation. Great. And this is the reason why we, you know, you had brought up about the uh the employee salaries. This past year, we've had some older uh employees
112that retired from our district. Miss Mitchell has moved other people into those positions to help cut cost. And my hat goes off to her for that. You know, whenever we lose a an employee that with 25 or 30 years service and we replace them with a year or two service, we save money. So, our cost of of of our salary goes down. And we've had this past year, we had a lot of older employees retire. So that means that the newer employee, you know, our salary cost is going to go down. So I see no reason to add more, you know, burden on the tax the people's taxes and raise it because I feel like we can make it on what we've had in the past, you know, with the same amount of money. That's
113>> good. Could I just ask again? I've say this before. I taught social studies and not math. Now, I love social studies. I like math. I don't like it a lot, but I love social studies. When you go back to that chart you just had, between a $100,000 house and a $200,000 house, you're talking between eight and $15 more a year at 4%. >> So, this is this is my home. Okay. My wife and I live here in Anderson County. >> Our home is valued at $240,000. It's public information. It's on the tax roles. So up until 2425, we were valued at 200 thou 220. So we had an increase in value. So you can see our tax bill for the school in 2324 was $131,340. we had an increase in home value. So our
114tax bill went to $1,428. If you were to adopt the 4% rate on the new value of our home, $240,000, our tax bill for 2526 would be $1,447.20. Right above that, you can see that's less than a $20 increase or about a $160 a month additional in taxes over what we paid in 2425. I'm a homeowner in Anderson County. That's my tax bill. That's what it would cost me. A little more than a little less than $20 for the whole year. >> Would it cost you >> a little less than $20 for the whole year? >> $25040,000 home. >> On a $240,000 home, my tax bill would go from $1428 to $1,47.20 if the rate was 60.3. >> That's good because that's about where my math was on that. So, it's nice to be reassured
115that I was close. >> I do I do agree with you on percentage, but The problem has happened is they raised the values of people's homes. So they're having to pay more tax. >> Got that figured in >> mine didn't go. I you know I have a duty as people elect me. I have numerous calls from my neighbors. I have to do what they ask of me. I've represent live in a very conservative district. My neighbors own a lot of property in let it be. They are very vocal to me before I get here last day or two. So, the last thing I'll show you is the the overall seek picture, and we don't have a a final seek number for this fiscal year yet. Um, just the middle of the screen is what KDE
116provides in the the seek sheet, if you will, is what they call it. So, in 2425, we were set to get or we did get 12,866,140 in seek funds. The forecasted seek amount is 13,193,000. That's a difference in seek money of about 327,000. That's if everything holds true, numbers of students, ADA, all those things because this is off the forecast that came out in April. So, the difference in the compensating versus the 4% rate with the seek money included, with the additional SEK money included, at the 4% rate, we would have an additional 1.2 million in revenue and at the compensating rate, we would have about $689,000 in additional revenue. Mr. Collins asked me what our raise cost was approximately 1.2 1.3 million coming into this year. and we've tentative budget uh was to spend
117about $390,000 in additional operating expenses and you heard me touch on some of those earlier. Traceable communications, property insurance, all of those things. Um you know, there's not a whole lot that hasn't gone down in cost that we do. I'm sure the hot topic across the county for a while was the uh garbage collection. That's going to factor into our cost as well because we have lots of dumpsters sitting around at our campuses that get picked up daily. Um, so that's going to be an additional cost for us this year as well. So there's lots of things that'll hit us just like anybody else. But I'll go back to this previous slide, this is going to be the the cost to my household. Uh, if you were to go with the 4% would be an
118additional $20 for the year, about $160 per month. And you can see from 1920, $144,540 was the tax bill on a $220,000 home. $1447.20. That's less than a $2 increase from 1920 to 2526 and we've had a $20,000 increase in the value of our house. >> We do have a motion on the floor. >> Mr. Fentrez, would you like to amend your motion to 60.3 or you want to keep your motion, your original motion at 60.1? >> He said six. He he did say 60.3. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm getting confused here. What what motion is on the floor? >> 60.3, which is the 4% um uh with exonerations. >> Here's the part that concerns me. Not not about that particular motion. It's just we have to stay ahead of the curve and that I
119I nothing we buy today is going to be the same price tomorrow or a month from now, you know. And I know of at least two districts in central Kentucky that are struggling with multi-million dollar deficits that they're trying to figure out how do we recoup enough money to to pay to pay salaries to get through next year. And we've had great leadership for 16 years. We've had, you know, Josh does an outstanding job watching our finances. I agree with with James. You know, I serve at the discretion of the people in the fourth district. I don't want anybody to pay any more taxes than they absolutely have to. But when I'm looking at the difference between $8 and $20 a year to make sure that our school system stays on solid ground, it's really
120hard for me to swallow staying the same. You know, again, we're like everybody else. You know, every month we're paying bills and trying to see what do we pay this month or what do we maybe don't we don't pay or we do without. I just can't. I think being able to stay on solid financial footing for our district going forward is one of those things where we can't afford to stand still because I think our costs next year are going to be more and I know Dr. Davis is going to come back next year and ask about raises and absolutely teachers and administrators and bus drivers and custodians and all those folks deserve a raise as much as we can pay and I just don't see how we can continue to do those things if
121we don't at least take the minimum that we can with the 4%. Again, that's that's where I am on this. You know, Steve, these districts got all this co money and they went out and prepared for the future. Now they're in the financial battle. They built new schools >> and they're still building and and I had our representative tell me that they came griping to them wanting more money. after they spend it. You can only get so much. Well, eventually the well goes dry and eventually you've got to start cutting back. We've got to start cutting back. I'm not saying me personally, I'm not going to sit here tonight and vote to take away money, but I'm just looking at keeping the money the same. And that's why I personally I was supporting the compensate
122rate because we get the same amount of revenue in. And I feel like with teacher salaries, we've lost some of these older uh teachers that were older and we've got younger ones and they're they don't make the same. So, I feel like we've had quite a bit of cut there and it would make some help with us and we would we made it through this year, we'd make it through next year. That's just my And that way I've got, you know, I've made my word with my people that know I've spoken to me. You know how much I respect your position. I just I just have to feel like we need to stay on financial footing that's sound and solid and moving forward and keeping us in a responsible position as a school district. And
123I don't think we can stand still and be able to do that. That that concerns me looking forward. be great if we could predict the future, but we can't. Uh, but we can at least put ourselves in a position where we're financially stable, and that's I would have to agree with Mr. Fentress on the on the 4%. >> So, I just want to make sure, Mr. Fentre, your motion is 60.3. So, the 4% with the exonerations. Is that your motion? >> Yes. >> Second. Steve Carmichael >> with a first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins, >> I I'm going to state with just as um Steve and um and Sunny has said that we can't nothing's getting cheaper. You know, I I if if this was
124going up, you know, a considerable amount, um then I I would have to say no. There there just no way. Um, but when we're looking at the trip, you know, one trip to Arby's difference for a year, um, then it's, you know, I'm I'm I'm going to have to say yes because nothing else here is going cheaper. I mean, it's we're even with this, we're bringing in less than what we've put out and that's going to go year after year with these teachers. uh with the raises. So my vote is yes. >> Scott Brown. >> Steve Carmichael. >> Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Sunny Fentress. >> Yes. Uh next is set uh motor vehicle and watercraft tax rates and utility tax. Uh the maximum tax rate for motorcraft is 51.3. The current motor vehicle uh
125tax rate is 51.3 and the utility tax is 3%. Can I second that? Is there discussion? >> I like to be in agreement occasionally with you. Second. Steve Carmichael. >> With a first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Yes, sir. Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Scott Brown. Steve Carmichael. >> Yes, ma'am. >> James Sergeant, >> yes. >> Sunny Fentrez, >> yes. >> Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> To adjourn. Steve Carmichael. >> Second. Sunny Ventress >> with a first and second. Can I get a roll call vote, please? >> Jason Collins. >> Yes. >> Scott Brown. >> Steve Carmichael. Yes. >> James Sergeant. >> Yes. >> Sunny Ventress. >> We are adjourned. Hey, I do hard know.