Anderson County Board Meeting 12/12

001say a few words a good Lord and please you all might understand first off thank you all for coming it's great most gracious Heavenly Father we come to you with Humble Hearts today ask for your wisdom guidance to lead today and make decisions that were better the school system as a whole in the county for our students the fine adults please heaven and amen before we get started tonight I want to tell all y'all Merry Christmas and I'm so thankful that I you all allow me to live here in Anderson County I work from Louisville to Pikeville and there's no other town in from Louisville to Pikeville that I'd rather live in than here in Anderson County so thank you all for allowing me and my family to be here all right we'll get right

002on ends and work some things all right can I get a motion to is there any addition to no sir no additions to the agenda tonight all right can I get an emotion to Domino's take it all in favor aye any opposed motion carriers all right let the tenants report show that all board members are present the speech you all my understanding we'll do the pledge allegiance to you mind the lead it's my speech please into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right approval the minutes recommend approval of the November 22nd regular board member minutes I make a recommendation to approve the board minutes second Peggy Peach motion second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries all right Finance report where's that famous

003Financial rate yet good evening it is December already can you believe it I'm having a hard time okay November of 2022 our Revenue receipts increased approximately 19.2 percent and this increase in revenue is due in part to an increase in property taxes collected of 1.4 million and an increase in motor vehicle taxes of a hundred and one thousand keep in mind that in November we get the bulk of our property taxes in an addition we received 171 000 more in utility taxes but that was just due to a timing issue we ended up getting November's right at the end of November and last year we didn't get that until December we also received an additional 244 000 and seek funding over prior year our salary and benefit expenses show an increase of 3.9 percent from

004prior year this is reasonable based on our step and three percent increase approved in May and the increase in our benefits costs other non-salary expenditures increased approximately 16.9 percent there was an increase of 70 000 from prior year of seventy thousand and student insurance and this was a timing issue that I've mentioned before in previous months in the current year the district paid for the cadet Core Curriculum that you guys approved a couple months back and so that shows that we spent more this year obviously of approximately seventeen thousand dollars there's an increase in technology expenditures of forty five thousand to start our Network upgrades we experienced an increase in tax collection fees over prior year of approximately 61 000 due to the increase in the tax collections in the month of November we also

005experienced an increase in property insurance of approximately 36 000 and that's due to the increases in our property values we experienced an increase in vehicle expenses due to the new Suburban that was purchased which the board approved and that was approximately 53 000 and overall we have seen an increase in goods and services due to inflation what questions do you guys have for me tonight I don't have a question but Mr Collins and I attended a finance class Friday uh the director on a strict Elizabethtown Ultra Classic you know and she was bringing it to each one's attention after 2024 things it's really money is really going to be tight oh my concern is we need to start preparing now not waiting for 2024 and then get in a budget crunch at that time and

006that's something we will factor in into the next you know two budget Cycles because all the Esser money is going to be gone you're right and she was giving us you know she was very Grim picture I'm sure explaining that some districts were bought programs and different things and you know now the money is going to go away and probably they're going to have to scrap what they spent because they won't be able to afford to continue with their arms and those were all discussions right call those were all discussions that we have had with our principals and determining what you know what's really going to be the best use of money going forward and how are we going to you know factor that in and so there have been discussions especially given we're figuring

007out how to spend the you know the remaining piece of the SR money so well hopefully some changes with our legislators and federal government comes in place to help us you know the Lord knows we don't need all right that's the only thing I have to comment about any anyone else thank you so much I get a motion to a promotion to approve Scott Brown second Jason Collins all in favor aye any of your polls motion carries orders of the treasury questions Mitchell super you're next superintendent report oh I'm sorry did we have a motion no SEPTA orders of treasure I make a motion to accept the orders of the treasurer I second the motion Rose Morgan you got a motion second all in favor aye any opposed ocean current all right now you're next

008I'm sorry I'd like to welcome everyone to our meeting tonight it's great to see so many people here on behalf of Anderson County um students and staff as well as our district and we had a great first semester um our last day for students for this semester will be Friday until the new year we will return on January the 3rd and Christmas is right around the right around the corner we've had a lot of activities and holiday festivities as well as Sports and concerts for our students and family so I hope everyone has been able to participate and attend one of those events or activities uh within a year as you know does bring inclement weather and I'd like to remind everyone that's a parent or Guardian to please make sure that you do update

009your student information in case we need to use that but I also like to remind you that our primary and primary media Outlets to for communication will be one text media Outlets Facebook District website and again those are the primary ways we will be communicating any type of changes in what it is that we do either during the day and or for school on the next day the one call system will be utilized when needed so please note that I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday and I hope that you spend time making lots of memories with your family and your friends tonight I have a very special recognition Mrs Rose Morgan has served on our board for the past four years with complete passion for students and staff she has a true servant's

010heart and work to ensure her voice was heard on behalf of all students every vote she cast was to show her dedication to education Improvement at the local or state level being a retired teacher herself Miss Rose understands the public education and the challenges that we face and we surely during some tough times with covid um being a very big challenge she genuinely cares about doing what is right and made a tough decision as a board member to stand up for what she thought was best for students and staff Miss Rose I would like to personally say thank you for your service I very much enjoyed working alongside of you learning from you listening to you passionately advocate for our children and our staff we will miss you we love you and we hope that

011you stay involved a humble thank you for your dedicated service to our students and staff on behalf of Anderson County students staff and the Anderson County Board of Education if you'd please come forward we have a gift for you that we'd like to present to you as a small token of appreciation for your service let's please give Mrs where I was a great big round of applause foreign I'll tell someone recently that um I have through my whole career in education I have been with the least of these I have worked with the children that were very hard to work with at times and I felt like my service on the school board was just an extension of that um I'm going to recite something my eighth grade teacher taught me in a few minutes

012he was the first speech I made kind of to bring my point across was from because of this man um he was a coach and my speech was you're better than that and I always heard from him you know when I messed things up I know you're better than that so this person taught us we had to do the preamble to the Constitution of the United States and um on a minute I will recite that remember me from the eighth grade um also did um this other person was Mr Fields will appreciate this was that U.S history teacher would not be allowed to teach in today's because we got to the war of 1812. that's as far as we got in our U.S history class but mainly was because this man really really was interested

013in the Constitution we heard constitutional arguments we heard um the fights that went on um about our Constitution and how it was formed and um is really funny um this man was U.S history teacher was a teacher Monday through Friday everybody on Sunday he was a preacher so when I think back on what he taught us because you know his big one of the big points was that religion is is not in the Constitution they wanted religious freedom for all for all religions and that was one of the arguments that they had and I thought now this came this lesson came from a preacher actually was a preacher so um I'm gonna tell you the preamble to the Constitution which is the first it gives us our first glimpse of the Constitution and how important

014and I know we pledged the flag but if we don't have our Constitution that flag is meaningless and um so and if you don't know who Red Skelton is you need to listen to his monologue on the Preamble of the United States of America um so here you go see if I can remember it we the people that's everybody that's black white Muslim uh Christian it's everyone We the People in order to form a more perfect communion to establish justice to promote the general welfare which is what we do in at this board we promote the education is for our general to promote the common to provide for the common defense we do for Jane and establish this Constitution of the United States listen to braidscale and he does it much better than me thank

015you very much I've enjoyed my time on the board and I think that God has placed me where I needed to be during the time that I needed to be here thank you all right oh are you done this Mission yes sir Morgan uh as I just want to thank you for your service Ms Mitchell when I leave here you're not going to give me no lamp I have a tendency of opening my mouth at home my wife would probably pick that up and hit me with it so I don't want it to land I I don't want any so maybe maybe we'll get one of them hatchets y'all know I have each one of these board members knows I have a tendency to open my mouth and I should have kept it closed so

016and my wife will would put me in my place real quick but all jokes aside Miss Morgan uh thank you all right we'll get in uh to the comments and visitors there's the seat there's the mic uh looks like we got four here tonight uh Christy Franklin your first Miss Franklin welcome good evening my name is Christy Franklin and it's my understanding that a new chairman is going to be voted on tonight I want to first thank the current chairman James Sargent for doing an outstanding job you've kept your promises by voting not to increase taxes on the people of Anderson County and you've always kept the children and teachers at the Forefront of your boat we need another person with common sense who will also keep their promises has good moral character and fears

017God rather than men that person is Peggy Peach she has voted right alongside you James most of the time and for that it has made Anderson County Schools better I hope that other members of this board will see that too with Becky Peach as chairman and Mr Carmichael in fourth district who I congratulate and support Anderson County Schools will have a brighter future thank you I mean [Applause] it's been a long day oh thanks for Mountain Dew I have to take another little drink there uh Mr Marty Terry your next a hand wrote this so hopefully I can read it thank you all and I appreciate this time to utilize my First Amendment right to petition my government for address of grievances to peaceably assemble and Free Speech thank you for your service that had

018a lot of respect for you so I appreciate your service there James I just paid a tax bill in 57.18 of that went to the school system that's a lot nine percent went to the Beloved Anderson County Fire Protection District and so on I'm encouraging you all to support Miss Peggy Peach to be the next chair of the board she's a steady conservative who reflects the views of many taxpayers while being civil enough to listen to anyone she's approachable and is consistent on fighting the Perpetual tax increases she can make a decision without consulting an attorney and she will not bow before the Kea or team Kentucky she was a nurse and an EMT for decades if I remember right first EMT first female EMT in the county I remember if I remember that correctly

019it should have been listened to over the covet policies and the mass things instead of the Godless Dr fauci and other policy making eugenist the lack of Courage with covid policies has led to irreparable damages to the students and that was not her fault part of the Preamble Constitution is to ensure domestic tranquility and the mass policies did anything that ensure domestic tranquility I respectfully ask you all to support her and hopefully drain the swamp thank you Mr Terry all right next on the list is Diane Goff time thank you you're welcome well I'm thank you for letting me speak and I'm Diana Goff and I am aware tonight that the chairman physician is to be filled a little over a year ago I moved to this area and then picking up the Anderson newspaper

020I found an article of interest to me it was an article on CRT critical race Theory I thought great the school board is doing its job Peggy Peach is the one featured in the article I agree with her views I like that she is not afraid to disagree on votes and States why she is doing so I have worked with her on different projects and she does not give up she is always looking ahead and would be a true asset to this position as chairman in prayer I look forward to 2023 being one for the kids and one for Peggy Peach as chairman thank you and God bless America thank you Miss golf all right next Dr Nessa Penn Davis hello I'm Dr Anissa Penn Davis I'm president of the Anderson County Education Association I'm

021all red and green because it's theme week and today was Christmas colors tomorrow is just like Grandma or Grandpa my kids won't give me grandchildren so I'm not participating in that one so a couple of things you know I normally do my normal December thing but I got an interesting email that I wanted to let everyone know because I'm a little excited about this I got an email the other day from Midway University and they have approved two new majors and a new minor for students the new degrees to be offered are a Bachelor of Science in coaching and Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Sports Marketing the Sports Marketing will combine curriculum elements of both sports management and marketing Communications that allow students to focus on the many aspects of marketing specific of

022marketing specific to the sports industry and the coaching and sports leadership degree program is for those students who want to be much more Hands-On in the sports industry such as a coach or leader of an athletic organization those were pretty cool um and these are available to both face-to-face on campus and online students the minor in music and they've got three tracks to choose from performance music therapy and music education and this minor will be of interest to students who are participating in the Midway Corral program and to students in program areas such as psychology and teacher education so yay for Midway okay so now my normal December little speech you know I've been in this district for 19 years not that I'm counting 19 years and I love the fact that every year our

023calendar and our agenda says Christmas break other districts have moved on to holiday break winter break and they've gone from Christmas trees to Holiday trees to Winter trees I don't even know what that is and I just love the fact that here if a kid says Merry Christmas I say merry Christmas if the kid says happy Hanukkah I say happy Hanukkah you know however they address me I address them and I just love the fact that we are in a district where we are able to do that where a lot of districts are kind of reigning that kind of that stuff in and I think it's great for our kids I think it's great for us I want to wish you a Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Kwanzaa whatever you tend to celebrate and I

024will see you in January all right Merry Christmas all right that's all the comments from visitors we'll move right along into our agenda and other items tonight first thing is our audit report for 2122 I am are you gonna how you doing tonight hello I'm survived Merry Christmas foreign sorry I tend to talk loud anyway but um but what we tried to do with our firm is really test different kinds of transactions each year so every year we have to test payroll every year we have to do some federal program testing you know every year we have to do certain kinds of things but we do have some leeway and so I might Focus one year on travel or I might Focus one year on a certain area so that over a number of years

025we look at hopefully everything that's going on in your District so I feel very comfortable in saying that your District financial statements are fairly presented Pages 7 through 13 is your Management's discussion and Analysis Jenna does a wonderful job with giving you some narratives so if you have not had a chance to read this please do so I won't go over it in detail but it gives you a more um more friendly perspective of your financial statements instead of looking at all the numbers so do take time to to look at that but let's start looking at numbers on page 14. age 14 is the page where we reclude all of your assets and all your liabilities so it includes your buildings it includes your buses it includes you know lots of different transactions there

026but it also includes all of your liabilities and the the page part of the page that I want you to draw your attention to is about three quarters of the way down you'll see pension liability a total of 11.7 million dollars opap liability which is really other post-employment benefits so that's really part of that retirement part is 9 million so we're looking at 20 million dollars in liabilities now this isn't something you're going to pay for tomorrow but what you do see is an increase in your budgets each year for the contributions that you're paying toward this so that's one of the things when you start looking at those budgets for 23 24 you will probably see higher numbers because of the increase in those costs so something just sorted to keep in mind let's

027look at page 16. 16 is the number that you look at when you're starting to look at budgeting because this is your fund information this is the information that you get on a monthly basis and you'll see there you're unassigned in the general fund third line from the bottom is 2.5 million dollars that is a 10.87 percent contingency so almost 11 percent contingency and in addition to that you have 414 hundred dollars in purchase obligations that have been recorded otherwise that unassigned would have been Higher by that four hundred and fourteen thousand so a very good carryover which is what we typically think of on that then on page 18 again I'm going to focus primarily on the general fund but if you have a question about other funds let me know you'll see third

028line from the bottom there that you had revenues and excess of expenditures of seventy seven thousand dollars part of that is because you did use Esser money to pay for some of the things that you would typically be paying for out of your general fund so once that s or money is gone you're going to have some tough decisions to make and you know the session that you guys went to uh last week is On Target unless the state legislature really picks up and gives you additional seek money I think there's going to be some tough decisions that you're going to have to make and one of those is probably not going to be something that your community is going to want to hear I know this board fairly well I've been working with you

029guys for a while and I know you don't like to increase taxes nobody likes it and I just heard the gentleman say about 57 percent of his tax bill was for um school taxes if you're going to continue to meet the needs of your kids you're probably going to need to raise taxes in the future if other things don't happen if the federal government doesn't pick up additional funds if the state doesn't pick up additional funds that's the only place to do it always the school board always has to have us mentioned no very good question okay there is a group in Washington DC called the general Accounting Office that um directs and makes standards for accountants and for financial statements and so let's let's go if you don't mind we're going to stick just

030a little bit and go to page 64. on 64 you'll see that in 2015 we started reporting the pension part of that liability there was a new standard in 2015 and I will tell you that this year we had eight new standards that about drove me crazy trying to implement all of them in one year because it postponed some because of covet so in 2015 we had to start doing that and the reason they made that decision was because at that time there were some local governments that had gone bankrupt because they had not been reporting all of their liabilities and so when you looked at just the annual transactions it looked like they were doing fine but in reality they weren't keeping up with their responsibilities So based on that the GAO in Washington

031said we want all governments now to start reporting their share of pension liabilities they postponed for a couple years the OPEC part of that so if you looked at page I think 66 you'll see we've only been reporting that since 2018. and again that was sort of a a period to try to get everyone up to par on how to report it how to calculate it how to present it and then you know three years later we had to pick up the OPEC part but a great observation we have not always had to do that um for Kentucky Kentucky has always shown that the entire amount not just their portion of it now I will tell you that the teacher's retirement has chosen to pick up the entire portion themselves you do not report the

032teacher's retirement part only the cers for your classified employees yes employees we have to pick up the insurance to remove yes yes fund it yes right other than the contributions that you were actually doing on our annual basis well unfortunately the state wasn't picking up what they needed to pick up which is why we have this liability yes yes and where of this deficit yes I don't think the people in the public know why yes yes very good point yes so the state has not on an annual basis contributed enough to cover sometimes even that annual amount and you can see that by looking go back to page 64. the amount of your share of liability from 2015 to 2021 almost more than doubled now it did go down a little bit this year and

033I want to just make a couple comments about that one I think a lot of districts were using Esser money to increase the number of classified employees and so their portion percent actually went up and your percent went down a little bit plus they've actually started having you make larger contributions so it went down a little bit this year certainly not significant but since 2015 is more than double so we're not making any Headway in that liability hear the constitution of the state of Kentucky says that the state of Kentucky will fund Transportation at a 100 level and they have never done that is it about 50 now is it okay so I was going to say about 50 percent alleviates their responsibility to the children of Anderson County basically uh who has to pick

034that up you do yes you do yes scan another thing is Kentucky Department of Education of the seek men some of it does yes I don't know the answer to that I because I don't understand that calculation entirely and I'm not sure anybody does yes yeah raising taxes and it's just that we want the basic education for the children absolutely I mean to just continue to meet your current needs you almost always have to raise taxes now I would tell you I'm from Scott County and about 75 percent of mine is for school districts but yeah yeah so it is a big chunk but if we are to educate our kids and continue to maintain the quality of Education that we've got it's something that I personally think you have to do um so I

035know a lot of people don't like that I don't live in Anderson County but I can tell you that your rate's lower than mine excellent excellent discussion I totally agree with you um I do want to draw your attention if we can go backwards a little bit to page 20 and 21 for food service because I will tell you food service director has done an excellent job this year your district has the um largest increase in Sun balance and revenues of any District that I have done and you're not the largest District that I do so he has done an excellent job this year and certainly I wanted to draw that to your attention because a lot of times food service has a hard time just meeting you know their budgets and their needs so

036excellent job and just wanted to draw that to your attention so that you'd be aware of that and the other thing that I'm excited about is on page 88. we had two comments this year I would tell you I've never had a district that I haven't had any comments of things that we might could improve or things we might need to do differently the first one had to do with your insurance coverage and I will also tell you that this was the same for four different districts I did this year and it was because KDE was so late in getting their rates out when you all were doing your insurance you were meeting what was out at that time but once the new rates came out you didn't reevaluate it and up increase it so

037I know that's already been taken care of but that that really was an issue with them not getting the information out in a timely manner and then we literally only had one at the school activity level which is exciting back in 1718 when I first started doing your District this time around we had 48 management comments and now we have two what that tells me is that your administrators your staff recognize the importance to correct things that they need to correct and take the time to do so so um I'm excited about that that's what I like to see I like to see districts that continue to improve their financial internal controls their financial records and how they maintain their documentation so I'm excited about it you're glad to answer any other questions or if

038there's something I haven't covered that you'd like for me to cover I'll be glad to do so as far as insurance goes everybody probably renew their insurance go through it because your house is worth a lot more than was last year probably yes but but KDE requires you to to do at least a minimum replacement value and uh in order to do that you have to know what those minimums are so it you know it just came out so late last year that that was an issue with a number of districts so any other comments questions Haley Conway is coming back to the board over here good you know Haley Conway I do know Haley yes I've known him for many years so yeah all right thank you very much thank you I appreciate the

039opportunity to work with you and you guys have a merry Christmas and a happy New Years all right no other comments so I've got to have a motion to accept the most accepted I second the motion Rose Morgan you got a motion a second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries all right Mr Fields you're up next with your safety update all right thank you very much this is our uh second update um remember that we do uh this quarterly that's part of the state law and um it's a really good report uh our principals and teachers and students have done a fantastic job this fall helping us increase our safety profile for all of our schools the first thing and we won't mention everything we're just going to highlight a few things first

040of all uh Thanksgiving at our elementary schools one of the main questions was we have this Raptor system and we're going to have Thanksgiving again in the schools and we have hundreds of parents in fact it was a total number of visitors was over 1400 how do we get all 1400 through the Raptor system the background checks the the ID labels and everything that's required by law and still have time for the kids to eat and the parents to eat with the kids well our elementary schools they did a fantastic job Mr Wooldridge that school was up first and he did a fantastic job is he here uh but anyway he did a fantastic job working on a plan that the other elementary schools I think kind of followed along using Chromebooks to set up

041stations and we really didn't have any issues at all they did such a great job uh that with the sros there too to be able to process people in eat with their kids and get out and everybody was accounted for so that was a fantastic work that they did all of our schools passed the school Marshall compliance inspections this is from our investigator uh Mac Rayburn from the state school Marshal office for my records I've completed your District Anderson County continues to be a leader in this region as all of the schools and districts were in compliance and it does show a great commitment by everybody involved our school staff the sros everybody is doing such a good job in even the state Marshal was able to see that our weekly door checks um you

042know one of the things that we've really been working on is just the fundamentals making sure the outside doors are checked all the classroom doors are locked at all times and um that's one of the things I do each week and then I send a report of any findings to the principal and to um the uh superintendent and any issues that are found you know I'm sure you all read some of the Uvalde stuff where there were issues where doors weren't locked and there were repairs not taken well we've had just a couple of issues and for example the last one was on December 5th I found a malfunctioning door at the middle school it was an interior door and I texted director Terry Drury at 9 50. received a text at 10 26 that

043it was repaired so anytime we have any issues with doors malfunctioning things that aren't safe and things aren't secure Mr Drury is always right there to hurry up and get get it fixed as soon as possible and we really appreciate that you know this year we started off with a weekly classroom door inspection so we go around and check every door uh at least once a week so we go check all the buildings if you think about all the hundreds of doors we have this is the data that we have in August for the August average it was 10.67 September was 6 October 4.5 November 3.75 and December 1. so the teachers and the superintendent or the principals and the sros are doing a great job but another group that really deserves a lot of

044credit are our students because a lot of times doors are left open not intentionally as the student leaves to go use the restroom just kind of closes the door but doesn't latch it and when you walk through these halls and you see kids that leave the classroom it's locked it's latched and so our students deserve a lot of credit for helping us with these numbers of course they're teachers that are training them so we're really excited about that and lastly we have uh Soldier Sergeant Tony lykins and you know one of the issues ahead of Uvalde was getting into classrooms and so one of the things that sheriff balam and superintendent Mitchell agreed on were some tools that would help us to be able to get into classrooms and I will let Sergeant Tony Likens

045and then one of our new uh sros Deputy Mike Carnahan we have such a fantastic group if you all know These Guys these guys are highly decorated highly professional uh great group of guys I mean I can't imagine a better group of sros anywhere in the state and I will turn over to Sergeant lykins if you all noticed that uh I'm kind of loud so I don't need a microphone after what happened in Texas it was weighing on my mind a lot and the job that was entrusted to me by superintendent Mitchell and Sheriff Milam was to ensure the safety and security of our kids and while I was thinking about that I made a couple phone calls one was to Mr fields Miss Mitchell with Sheriff Milam and I said hey I've got an

046idea about these doors but I need some help and they said whatever you need let us know that's a typical response I get from Miss Mitchell hey what do you need let me know if we're going to be safer you know she's she's always all in and I made a phone call to the County fire chief if you all don't know there's I don't know of any building that I've never seen a fire department not be able to enter so that popped in my mind over the years of fires that I've been to and and and watching these guys and I said hey chief what do we need to do and he said well we can do some training we can walk you through it we can talk you through it and the other he

047came to the schools he looked at our doors which are very very safe and he says yeah we need to do some training we have great doors we have the best doors in the state probably they're great all the locks are up to date everything meets or exceeds the factory standards but if something happens we can't get in every SRO has a key right I mean first you try the handle right if it don't open you use the keys right well what does that key don't work well then we've got extra keys on the exterior of the building something I brought the principal glass six years ago he went he went in 100 and we had Knox boxes on the outside of the building so that means you walk up unlock that box and you've

048got spare keys for the building well what if that fails like it did in some of the school shootings where the lot gets disabled how do you get in I can't imagine that feeling of those First Responders being outside that door trying to get into it and one thing that I came up with is we don't wait around no more and if you all don't know Anderson County leads the state and we're going to continue to do that because I've always learned that if you don't try to do something outside what you know or what you're comfortable with you'll never grow I wasn't comfortable with with forcible entry but I am now and this is what we use it's an accident an halogen bar we have that and then we also have here if this

049don't work we have a hydraulic tool that we'll use to enter whatever we need to so rest assured we don't wait around no more and we have a superintendent that backs us we got Mr fields at boxes and we got our Sheriff Joe Milam that boxes so I feel like there's nothing we can't accomplish the board thank you all for backing us and allowing us to be into schools and to continue to be in the schools to keep everybody safe just like it says right there prepared and responsible we are prepared and we're responsible enough to stay there and keep our children safe thank you for taking care of our kids and loving our kids that's all we have uh here's Mike they didn't call him Mikey Maury's Pitbull that's right bills I have a

050comment one of the things that I'm thankful of is you know some of these bus drivers told uh that I was particular when it comes to the school bus safety yes I am because I'm the safety officer at my work and one of the things I'm thankful of is with my job I'm up and down the road all the time in the company's truck so I get behind a lot of school buses I've got behind school buses from other counties in a 55 mile narrative I couldn't keep up with doing 60. I'm thankful that I've never yet been behind an Anderson County bus that wouldn't go on the speed limit you know I just want to say thank you because you know safety on that bus is just as important as safety in that classroom

051absolutely and on behalf of uh director Conway and director Harley I know they appreciate that they do a lot of work on safety and a lot of work on training all the bus driver trainers it's a big responsibility and they do a fantastic job I agree well I've text message Miss Mitchell before going down the road and the bus was doing 65 on 127. I've text messed her with the bus number in the school and said would you please contact this superintendent because this is unsafe it wasn't one of our buses but though there were still children on that bus and no and I didn't feel like that was the speed you know for that bus to be going it was not the law either they were breaking the law thank you Mr Fields any

052more questions Mr fields uh that's not a motion item it's just an update it's correct all right moving around along create a special education paralegal educator position yes sir Mrs Beth Morgan cook is our special education director and she works very closely with our team that works um to serve the needs of individual special education children and we do have one school that is needing additional support through a para to help with a special education student and the request is to make the District 5 position so that we can utilize that position at this particular school until the end of the school year and or she'll make the determination as needed on where to place them for the next school year if needed but at this time there is a request because of an arc

053meeting that is needing support for special education student do I have any questions this is Morgan cook would you like to add anything else thank you make a motion to create that special education para educator position Peggy P I'll second the motion Jason Collins the motion got a second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries trip request I'll give you all a second to read the trip request if you have any questions please feel free to answer them or ask them excuse me well it's been a long day the older I get the crazier motion to approve Scott Brown you got a motion Peggy Peach I got two seconds all right all in favor aye any opposed motion carries all right comprehensive District Improvement plan Mr Murphy good evening ladies and gentlemen of the

054board as well as our visitors tonight I'm going to go over our c-dip and try to be as concise as possible Miss Marshall do we have it on here right here look it up maybe right here okay all right don't you find all right so the intention of our c-dip is to um basically lay out our list of goals objectives strategies activities and success measures how we monitor progress as well as our funding sources throughout the year you guys have an expanded document that includes all of those items tonight I'm going to hit the highlights with the goals if you have any questions feel free to stop me or ask at the end however you still choose the first goal that the state requires us to have is a state assessment results in reading and

055math and these are long-term goals so they're usually three to five years out so by Spring to 2025 and the intention is for Anderson County Schools to increase the percentage of student scoring proficient distinguished in Reading to 80 percent across all levels elementary middle and high is measured by the state summative assessment also known as the Kentucky summative assessment likewise the same goal Benchmark is for math so 80 is our Target benchmark for gold two we have state assessment results in science social studies and writing in the former accountability model this was quoted as the separate academic indicator Sai but they've changed the language so it does involve science social studies and writing still and our benchmarks across all those content areas are 80 percent across all levels you may wonder why I choose 80

056or why we've chosen 80 percent um to be our Benchmark and that is because in an ideal RTI model or an mtss model eighty percent of students should be performing in the proficient range at the core instructional level and then aside from that you typically have 15 to 20 percent and that may be in need of tier two interventions and the remainder of students possibly needing to receive layered tier three intervention as well the third goal is the achievement Gap goal and by Spring 2023 all right these actually um in this particular goal it doesn't require us to have long-term targets so you'll see a more of a short-term goal for the achievement Gap and that is that our school district will reduce the percentage of students in the special education Gap group scoring novice

057or Apprentice in radian Mass to 30 percent or less across all levels as measured by the state summative assessments so that is the targeted group that we've identified and we funnel a lot of supports to our Gap groups so that they can be successful with their commensurate peers goal four is there English learner progress this is a new goal that's required by the state so again long-term goal here by 2025 our school district will increase the percentage of students identified as English Learners to reach English language proficiency at 80 percent of those students as measured by the state summative assessments so a lot of times we get students that enroll in our district and they have no English proficiency and it is our charge and duty to get them acclimated to English proficiency as quickly

058as possible sometimes for some students especially in their early rudimentary years they're sponges and they can pick it up pretty quickly and that you see growth at an exponential rate sometimes you see high school students that come to us and they don't have any English proficiency and sometimes it takes a little longer for them to soak it up I see it in my own kids I used to teach high school students and I can see sometimes in my own personal children as well as elementary students that I've worked with that they their minds are very malleable and they can soak things up pretty quickly so all that being said it's not to say that high school students can't do it either it's just it's a work in progress and it takes time to become English

059proficient the English language is a very complex and and complicated language as compared to other languages uh throughout the world yes ma'am we sure do yep we've got a full-time ESL teacher certified and credentialed traditionally certified and credentialed um and we also have a um another uh substitute that assists that particular full-time teacher as well so we're very fortunate they're a very good team we met with I met with her today or a full-time teacher because we got some Assessments in that we use to measure English proficiency so we had to inventory those and choose a fine lady so her name's Miss Nikki Montgomery and Miss Sarah Young is her assistant all right so next goal five is the quality of school climate and safety a lot another long-term goal each Anderson County High School

060will reach at least the high indicator status on the qscs survey as in as measured by state summative assessments so we're going to make a lot of good Headway this year I feel very confident in that we've had a couple of schools that reached high this Baseline year and Our intention is four more schools to follow that pattern so saffell and Robert B Turner actually met High indicator status on this particular indicator so we're going to move forward with other schools meeting that and then by Spring 2025 and I think it'll be sooner than that that we actually reach high indicator status for this particular indicator anybody have questions on that one okay goal six is post-secondary Readiness formerly called transition Readiness formerly College College and Career ready so going through a few different accountability

061models and some terms there ACS will increase the percent of our post-secondary ready students to 100 percent it's our job to make students uh ready for life so I wish they just call it life ready and be done with it but you know that's our intention is to make sure again they're prepared and responsible and they're contributing members of society and they have what they need to be successful as young aspiring citizens in our community goal seven is a graduation rate we are on the uptrend thankfully um we um Our intention is to increase the ACs graduation rate to 100 percent by Spring 2025 as measured by the four-year adjusted cohort rate how are we continue to grow well just like any other business especially those that that deal with people we develop our district

062by exploring implementing best practices strategies and processes I've learned recently through a training that I I received is that the success to any business is that you have the right people in the right processes in place and you make big things happen and we grow by taking calculated risks and embracing failure as a mechanism for our growth and development a lot of people say you shouldn't fail well you know what I learned more from my failures than I ever did for my successes and looking at the great scientists throughout history they'll tell you the same thing so um you know that failure or fail is first attempt in learning so we grow a lot when we reflect and learn from our failures we improved by systematically enhancing processes that elevate efficiency and quality speaking to

063one of my peers Mr Ronnie Fields he's very good and efficient at balancing his budget making sure that he's got more income than expenditures and so I'm proud to learn from folks like that that are very efficient and have those mindsets ACS is implementing a solid plan together for the common good of our students and school community and our unified plan is based on key core work processes that are time tested and proven to be effective one being designing and delivering high quality instruction so instruction on social emotional learning as well as academics they're both very very vital to the success of our students reviewing analyzing and applying data designing a lining and delivering systems of support as well as strengthening a culture and environment focused on improving learning outcomes one thing we've learned over

064time through Partnerships and and just wisdom of our mentors is that relationships and culture Trump strategy any day of the week so we've got to have that intact and in place before we can choose to do anything else here are non-negotiables that have been in place for several years now this is kind of what we live and die by each and every day as administrators teachers and staff members throughout the district so you can see the first one up there I'll always like to highlight I'm not going to read them all to you but positive relationships with all students daily I found that my greatest success as an educator is whenever I have a strong relationship with a student that's conducive to to their benefit and learning and the the best Educators that I've ever

065worked with have also been able to accomplish that so I'll leave you with a quote Improvement begins with I it's simple okay but if we wake up and look in the mirror every day and we say you know what I'm going to be better than I was yesterday and that's my goal and if we all do our part to improve I believe we'll successfully reach and likely exceed our goals and we'll do it together thank you folks all right this is a motion out of Miss Mitchell informed me listen to proof Scott Brown got a motion improved back in the motion second all in favor uh in your polls motion carries next will be the Anderson County Middle School principal Rose Dale she's got a few more gray hairs because my grandson's over there I

066knew he would do that to her I knew he would do that it's Middle School you all actually have the 14-page school Improvement plan that is in detail for the middle school because with our TSI status you have to have these specific complete detailed plan this is just a snapshot of that because I really want everybody to see what takes place in school in addition to just the academic piece because there's a whole lot more that goes on in education K-12 this same time than it did 30 years ago or even 10 years ago so if you look at the pictures as we go you'll see the smiles on students faces and the things that they're doing in addition to um while they're learning the core part of it it's also bringing in some of

067the social emotional interaction and learning that has been missed the last few years with covid and the isolation that took place during that so these are just some highlights about the school to begin with the demographics if you look the middle school has 814 students enrolled as of today and there it is the breakdown by grade level um and it also have broken down by the staff members and the different supports that we have in place for those 814 students in our sixth through grades six through eight here in the district the opportunities there also things that are listed that we provide them um throughout the school year not every middle school provides students with enrichment classes and all of our students in the middle school take careers stem art Spanish health and PE music

068they have an option to be in course and band those they get that every year not all middle schools in Kentucky do that so we want to provide a whole rounded opportunity for them to grow as people not just as academic test score numbers and there are other support things they in place and opportunities for them to get involved the last column is real important for me and for our staff and for our students for you to see the accomplishments that were made because when you just look at the numbers from the state assessment scores you may think it doesn't look great but there are gains made and keep in mind last year you'll see at the bottom the Middle School tested 728 students in reading and math no other school in our district tested

069that many in reading and math and we tested 259 students in seventh grade science and we tested 239 students in 8th grade social studies and writing the Middle School test every single child we test every child in grade six through eight so the accomplishments and the celebrations are important for us to recognize in sixth grade our current seventh graders at the middle school are the highest performing in Reading in our district at 55 percent they tied with 10th grade at the high school um and they also have the lowest novice in the district from last year's test scores um they um our seventh graders also were the highest in the math as well for the district overall our math while it's sitting at 41 percent it is there at the state average that sounds kind

070of low that's a 13 increase from last year and so even though we had the two years of covid we still worked as a district because we rely on the elementaries to send us the fifth grade ready to go and so that helped us make that 13 increase it's hard to do with 728 students um the 8th grade math had a 19 increase alone uh last year so those students that we sent to the high school that are sitting in ninth grade right now made a 19 gain in math and that's after two years of covid with all the online learning that we did have to do from time to time so we have uh five goals at the middle school we're going to focus on four of them um today or tonight in this

071presentation the fifth one is the English learner progress and that is to we don't really have a group in that to Target and we didn't have a specific score but we are looking to reduce uh novice performance in that when they are assessed because it depends on the year that they're in for their accountability to actually account for us that is still listed in the actual plan but where we don't have the specific number I didn't have it in here our goal as Mr Murphy pointed out for the district the goals are set to be in two years these are one-year goals because we want to get out of the yellow status we want to be in the high status as the middle school next year and we can do that it's easily done with

072moving a few kids out of novice and into apprentice and proficient so this is It's again supposed to be a two-year goal but it's a one-year goal for the middle school so we're going to be there by the end of this time next year we want to reduce our novice and reading in my answer 18 as a whole school and increase their proficiency up to 55 percent in both of those our sixth grade reading was sitting at 55 percent and our mass at 41 so we can get there um the science social studies and writing proficiency there you can see the combined index which is made from the novice Apprentice proficient distinguished scores we want to reduce novice in all of those areas while we increase proficiencies and there's the specific numbers and again science

073is only tested in our seventh grade and social studies and writing will be our eighth grade so those are and again you can see those are students those are the things they're doing in the classrooms and you can see those yes that one little one is probably mortified for having to dissect a frog um in seventh grade science the strategies that we're using and they worked well we the ones we implemented last year the non-negotiables that Mr Murphy went over the lessons aligned to standards we've tracked those for the last two years with our standards tracker it was hard work um it was very stressful work for staff and that was seen through our climate and culture surveys but when our scores come out the Middle School staff saw how that worked and it made

074a difference by the gains that were made especially with that sixth grade group that's now sitting in seventh grade and then the gains that were made in our math from tracking the standards to make sure we had every standard addressed by the end of the year we are continuing that at the middle school and we're doing it monthly we create our own monthly benchmark assessments we call them based on what we have taught for the month and we're assessing them and we're immediately reteaching whatever for that month that students weren't mastering or doing it individualized or in whole group if it was a specific standard so that is immediate it's live we're not waiting till our map scores come out in January and February or another Benchmark we're doing our own and we're tracking that

075data still we're doing transformation Zone work with our math instruction we've had District staff come in and do walk throughs with the eight mathematical practices and you saw the gains that it made in our math scores with an increase of 13 we're continuing that as well intervention and acceleration centers using the resources you all have provided for us as a school with Reading Plus the IXL program of study island so we do those in small groups but they can also practice those on their own and make gains and they work for incentives as they grow to see those and we have additional ESS opportunities for after school support in small groups oops I need to go back one um our achievement Gap goal this is the goal that we are in they target and support

076and Improvement status for which is our Disability Group um our performance in all five core content areas was low for that to give you an idea of this TSI category there are 403 schools in the state of Kentucky who are in the TSI category of those 403 147 are Middle School there are only 202 middle schools in the state of Kentucky 73 percent of middle schools are in the TSI category 96 of those are one subgroup we are one of those 96 51 middle schools have more than one subgroup that they are in TSI for and most of our surrounding Middle School County the counties surrounding us have more than one we have one and so this is our targeted group for that and we're in a good position to move forward and we're actually

077our goal is to be what they call a hub school for people to come and see and what we're doing the strategies we're doing are very similar to what we're doing in our core classes we're just doing them in smaller settings if we have resource classes but it's also part of our co-teaching model that we're doing in the regular class with center-based instruction we also have the PBIS program to increase positive student interactions Behavior was an issue through throughout the last couple of years just as students were re-entering school after they had been isolated for a while and then our past program also to have positive behavior supports the fourth goal is the school climate and safety goal um we are aiming to be at 70 on that we did fairly well we were in

078the yellow so we were right at the middle of that the safety part of it is really kind of how they interact with each other the bullying piece which is a dominant concern in middle schools and then the school climate as well do they feel safe within the classroom how do the teachers show they care about them if they show that we were higher in the climate piece because when you look at the results you will see students rated the questions about how staff interact with them in the 80 percent agree or above in all of those that relate with the adult questions and how they interact with them the low scores were from how they interact with their peers and so we're going to work on that and the strategies we're going to do

079for that we are again using our PBIS to teach positive behaviors and interactions and incentive program with our Mustang books we have implemented where we do the school this climate survey because we have the questions we're going over it with them and we talk with the students about what those questions mean what does bullying look like what do they consider that to be how could they help resolve it it's been interesting to hear their take on some of those questions and we are also looking to implement some monthly parent support sessions we're going to partner with the high school to bring this in from a survey we did with parents at the middle school level concerns that they had and or support things they needed or would like to see and one of them was

080on social media with students we've had a speaker from the state police come in and talk with sixth and seventh grade about the dangers of what they post online and who they think they're talking to but it's really not it was a really good session and so that's when we're going to try to have for parents but we're going to Target those areas of concern one a month and offer different sessions for parents to sign up to attend if they choose and finally again looking through all those pictures that you see there's a lot more that goes on in any of our schools than just the core classes and the difficult part of this and not to sound negative but Schools students teachers education in general is judged on a one-hour test for 170 school

081days I'm not sure and I've been trying to think and I've asked a lot of people what profession is judged on one hour um so there's a lot more that goes on and that one hour could be tough for a child that comes in uh we don't know they may have had something go on at home that morning before they come in they may not be feeling well they may have lost their pet but they don't get to redo that one hour so when we look at the numbers that we see don't forget about these Smiles that you see on all these pictures from students at the middle school because we have a great school we have challenges but any part of society any part of life has challenges and we've got to grow these

082kids so that they will be successful in academics and character for whatever profession they choose to go into so I invite anyone to come by and see the different things that are going on in the middle school and you may even get to dissect a frog any questions all right can I get a motion to accept Improvement plan please all right do I got a second a second Jason Collins got a second all in favor uh any opposed motion carries all right look at you I feel sorry for this lady too she's got one of my Grands kids too I love having your grandkids hello everybody um I'm Robin Ratliff and I'm very grateful and blessed to be the principal of Ezra Sparrow Early Childhood Center um I promise not to talk too long but

083I get very excited about that building we are very blessed in Anderson County to have an Early Childhood Center you the board our community has said the foundation is very important to us that if you're a three four and five-year-old child here in Anderson County we're going to give everything we have to build that foundation and if you're a person of Faith like I am what does it say that great Foundation a wise man builds his house on the rock and that's what we have done here in Anderson County so I want to talk to you about our school so there's our mission I won't read all that to you but most of our school promotes a safe nurturing and positive environment where families staff and Community work as a team to set a foundation

084for a lifelong love of learning these are our demographics we have a 180 preschool students we have a 171 kindergarten students that's like 10 classrooms a preschool and eight classrooms of kindergarten students we have a daycare on site that 20 in the morning 20 in the afternoon that creates an all-day preschool experience we have a big waiting list for people to get the four children to get in there but that's all we can handle at this time we have around 60 staff members we have around 35 certified staff and at least like 25 classified the reason we have a large number classified is because of regulations you will have an assistant in a classroom it's a great staff we have our Community Partners we have quite a few Community Partners but I wanted to name

085our Frisk Mr Harley is here he will not appreciate me calling him out his team they do a great job of supporting our little ones he drives the bus and he knows the kids get it on his bus better than I do appreciate that the Early Childhood Council the Anderson County Community Early Childhood Council they donate money to us they support uh families and our PTO and just like Mr Murphy shared with you um the different goals that we're expected to do our Early Childhood Center is a little different we don't do every goal because it's not applicable to us but we have a proficient goal which is by Spring 2025 the percentage of SEC kindergarten students scoring proficient or distinguish in reading and math will be 80 percent as measured by the nwea map

086assessment we don't do State Testing but we do a testing that is done all across the country and that's done in every school in our County so that every child children start with us they go up into the elementary the middle school the high school they take this assessment we do a gap goal that's similar to what Mr Murphy has shown for the district 30 percent or less would be in the novice and Apprentice and then we have an El go again that they would reach proficiency at 80 percent and then we have added a preschool goal we have another goal that you could add we have said 100 percent of preschool students coming into kindergarten will increase their social emotional skills rating by one level and each objective from their fall assessment level as

087measured by their assessment which is teaching strategies gold and if there's ever a time that we need to focus on social emotional learning for our children is now and I'm not going to go into everything of what we're doing at ECC we're very data driven we know everything about our children we assess them we observe them we take notes on them you act we can pull up any child we can tell you how many words you know they uh sight words they can read we can tell you how many letters and sounds they know we can tell you um if they know their numbers if they can count all these things we know so much about each individual child in our building and we're very committed to knowing every child we will be focused on

088uh modeling on walkthroughs watching our students supporting our teachers coaching that we only will get better at what we're doing to meet their needs so this is just broken down with math and reading both have the same goal where are we let me go back to reading reading where are we now in the spring 66 percent of SEC students scored proficient and distinguished we saw a little bit of that coat what kova did to our children our Littles they need Hands-On instruction they need you to be right there with them they need to handle materials they need to be able to share materials so that 66 percent we we are going to work very hard to get that risen that was at the end of last year at the beginning of this year this is

089where they're starting 50 58 of students are the proficient distinguished level and I'll bent down here to math math is what's ironic is they both are at 58 starting out a proficient distinguish so that means 42 percent of our students that enter kindergarten are not on level who are we we believe in developmentally appropriate practices look at those pictures this is not a show if you walk in our building these are just me walking around building taking pictures this is how our children learn you take the coin the picture up in the corner they had to learn math they learned shapes they were building yeah it was Christmas time they're building gingerbread house for their family night but they were taking shakes and talking about how this is standards based how those shapes fit into

090the world and and as I was asking them well why did you pick a square well I might put a rectangle there miss Ratliff they're using that language and knowing that they're building look how happy they are look at the children learning about their veterans creating for that look at the children with the pumpkins comparing look at the children down up at the top they they learn their letters they've been working on that then they celebrated by doing a parade and then you say oh are they writing are they using pencil paper they absolutely are but if you ask a child to a how-to piece on how to do something we'll look over here yeah there's paper there's pencil they're going to write about that but guess what they got to do it first isn't

091it much better to write about something when you've done it there's our children look at that melting in the corner there he wanted to write about that child said my snowman melted because he sat by a fire look at that already making those sounds making words and writing that's what's going on at our school look at her graphing there she's got something in her hands that she likes to work with look at those Littles down there learning about numbers they know what a three represents because they're seeing it on a die and they're seeing it just counting out things I get excited when I see that type of learning how blessed we are in this County that that's the type of learning that's going on every day at that building that you all support so

092that's all I have to say do you have any questions can I get a motion to accept secs Improvement plan not brand motion approved all right we got a motion a second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries donation over a thousand dollars consideration and accept donations from Kentucky FFA Foundation incorporating an amount of Seventeen hundred fifty eight dollars and 33 cents to the Anderson County High School FFA I make a motion to accept second Peggy Peach we got a motion second all in favor any opposed motion carries uh moving right down the list Surplus items consideration approved the surplus of the following daycare items items will be donated through family resource or throughout the community you all can look over the list I have a question yes the three cribs that are going

093to be donated are those four actual children are they for actual children have you checked with OSHA or whomever to see what the standards are for cribs because uh we had to actually destroy our cribs at our church I really appreciate that yeah thank you Miss Rose any more questions to approve we got a motion Second Jason Collins second all in favor aye any opposed motion carries moving along agreement of Anderson County Sheriff's Office yes sir I would love to we have our wonderful two of our wonderful sros here um they both do amazing jobs Sergeant lykins does such good work leading our district alongside of Mr Fields with ensuring safety also our newly hired Sergeant is it Sergeant Carnahan is that correct no officer Carnahan he's amazing these two gentlemen alongside of five others

094do an exceptional job every single day ensuring that our students and staff are safe I cannot say enough about the work that they do the leadership they provide just the I know that if something were to happen God forbid hopefully nothing will ever happen in our schools but I'm confident if something does that these gentlemen will make sure that they do everything in their power to ensure the safety of our students and our staff so we're very blessed our Sheriff isn't here tonight but Sheriff Milam is an advocate and continues to work very diligent to help us have an exceptional safety team of of Anderson County folks leading the safety in our schools we're very blessed to have a partnership I'm like second to none in the state he works very hard to recruit and

095retain and keep these strong gentlemen in leadership in our schools so I'm very grateful for him and what he brings to Anderson County schools in regards to our mission so we're very blessed to have that partnership and with that being said you allowed as the board us to hire a seventh SRO to ensure because we all believe and know that safety is the number one priority in our school district so at this time I would like to recommend that we continue to have a resolution and a memorandum of agreement with our Sheriff's Department to continue the strong safety that we are blessed to have in our schools every day because of these men and the work that they do and the dedication to our students our staff our community and our school district are there

096any questions regarding this memorandum I'd just like to say that I've seen how our sros um interact with the children the children love them and they do and the whole time they're interacting with the kids they're still looking out for their safety the entire time looking you know not just looking at the kids that may be talking to them but they're looking ahead of them um and I'm I'm proud of who we have and with that I'll make a motion to extend second Peggy p all right we got a motion the second all in favor in your pose the motion carries excellent job kids love you all next is an understanding of EKU employee Advantage program this is a similar memorandum of agreement I um through the co-op work of our ckec superintendent group and

097very fortunate to have opportunities for our employees this memorandum of agreement with EKU allows our district to participate in an EK what they call an EKU employee Advantage program that allows several things for our current employees if they so choose to continue their education or do their education through EKU and that is an eligible Anderson County Schools active teacher shall receive the discounted tuition right of 350 dollars per credit hour and a staff or administrator administrative employees shall receive 25 percent flat rate discount in tuition for participating in EKU Advantage program this discount is not stackable and therefore cannot be combined with any other scholarship award or tuition discount made available to the employee by EKU additional non-tuition expenses related to the enrollment of any NK you use online or on campus courses shall not

098be discounted and shall be the responsibility of the Anderson County School student employee participating in the EKU Advantage Program well this is allow what this allows us to do is offer this to our employees so that they're able to attend at a discounted rate through one of our schools I'm an alumna of EKU I received a great education I have two degrees from there and I highly recommend EKU but it also allows them to do some recruitment so we're able to provide the student classes coming out of Anderson County High School as Juniors and seniors to them so that is the benefit that they receive from this but at this time I would like to recommend this benefit for our teachers our staff our administrators so that they can receive this benefit any questions when

099you say staff do you staff would include any there's two levels so the first one is teacher shall receive the 350 per credit hour and staff or administrative employees shall receive a 25 flat rate discount in in tuition for participating in their program any questions make a motion to exit this memorandum understanding through EKU Advantage program I'll second the motion Jason Collins got emotion second all in favor any opposed motion carries next on the agenda election of school board officers for 2023 election the chairman and vice chairman for 2023. I promised last year and almost Peggy would be an excellent chairman but I make a motion don't make Jason Collins yes I second the motion Rose Morgan uh motion a second all in favor any opposed I just like to say something I want to

100thank everyone for coming here tonight in support of me and um I want I want to say that KRS 160.60 directs a school board to guide and direct and to hire a superintendent to take care of things on a day-to-day basis and something has gone upside down here in this County this board isn't guiding and directing uh the superintendent is guiding and directing the board I thank you all for your support I'm sorry that my board members don't feel that way during covet I tried to give good advice medical advice I I was in touch with uh medical people that were there to heal and to help and I think we had some division there during that time I just think it's sad you know Terry Carter came in here and told us one night

101that we were a superintendent controlled board and she was right this board is being controlled by our superintendent and that's upside down that's not what KRS has directed and it's not what you people deserve here in Anderson County and I'm I'm just sorry I'm sorry I had asked each one of my board members for their support um I have been your Vice chair for the past two years and the vice chair normally moves up into the Chairman's position so something's very wrong here I mean and I I just um I just want to say I'm very disappointed for what's going on here in our district and again I thank you all for coming and supporting me and uh and I'm sorry I'm just sorry what what has happened and um with that I'll I'll just

102say thank you okay thank you Miss Beach we've got a motion in a second I said all in favor hey any opposed motion carries and those election of the vice chair I'd like to make a motion for Scott Brown to be Vice chair an emotion for us second the motion Rose Morgan a second all in favor any opposed all right moving right along to the superintendent's evaluation last year in January we done the superintendent's evaluation and I made a comment in the public meeting that we would do the superintendent's valuation this December on my last board meeting we conducted that evaluation in closed session remember before I I would like to just share a little something with you all uh I was elected here in 2010 and I actually I was supposed to come on

103board in 2011. but I won the election in 2010 and there was a board vacancy uh so the commissioner of Education appointed me a month early and I was appointed to start serving December the first of 2010. Miss Mitchell had just been hired as superintendent I I think she was hired June if I'm correct by by the board members that I did not I did serve with those folks but I was not part of her hiring and uh and I'll just tell you the true facts I am the oldest board member on here I've served with I've been here basically with her or her or her career here's superintendent we were when she was first hired the true facts uh I'm just going to give you true facts the school was broke we barely had

104enough money to pay the teachers salaries and it it was it was broke just plain simple nothing to beat around the bush it was broke we as a board discuss matters with her I was told that uh they just you know when she was hired they had to hire her in a lower pay scale than most superintendents she was willing to take the job on at a lower paid and surrounding superintendents because she always had a dream of leading this District that she had worked in for her career the board members that I served with we came out with some strict policies that we brought in front of her one was whenever you buy anything you had to get three quotes and bids before uh before they just bought whatever no we come out with

105a new policy we want three bids and if you don't have three bids you're not going to get it it's going to be tabled to the next month we were very strict and and if I say something because I'm tired it's incorrect please correct me uh over those years uh we we kept taxes through a minimum uh there was not that many very few years that it was an increase I've been to many of ksba school meetings and one of the first things they preach nickel nickel tax it's your duty nickel tax go home raise the nickel we in the 12 years that I've been on here we've never raised a nickel tax it's never happened and Lord knows as long as I'm on here it's never going to because I'm I'm going to fight

106it tooth and nail if I and have I over the years had disagreements maybe my thoughts were a little different yes you know there's nobody out there even my wife and I have disagreements um you know um but the way things are we all we're five or five of us and sometimes we have differences of opinions that's just the way life is but anyway uh one other thing before I go over her evaluation a superintendent normally lasts about five to seven years in a school district that's the life of a superintendent it's a very stressful very long day it's not as great a gravy out there as people think you know you have a there's a lot of times that you have to take away from your own family to take care of business that's

107and you you got you know that's just part of life you get up in the morning and you hear on the radio what's the roads like and 24 7 you're on call that's life you know if you don't if you can't accept it you need to find a new career you know that's just the way the job of superintendent is we were we discussed in closed sessions some improvements so we thought there's nobody there's no perfect person even at my work they talk to me all the time when my do my evaluation there's some improvements uh you know we we have uh new our board is established a superintendent evaluation it was established back some time ago uh policies to about how to and what to evaluate the superintendent on we evaluated her own strategic

108leadership and from uh instructional leadership culture leadership human resource editorial leadership collaborative leadership influence and Leadership and in general overall the way I did this is we've got a form and we've got checks on it I asked each board member to keep anonymous and fill it out and give it to me and I would read a general overall just like anything else if you if you have 10 of one thing and one over here or disagree the majority rules just like when you vote or whatever uh ah it's kind of difficult for me normally as a general rule the chairman makes does an evaluation and presents it the next board meeting well since I'm leaving off of the board I'm not you know I've not got a big statement approved made up because we've done

109the evaluation just earlier today I will have to still produce a letter and I will have to sign it and it will go to the Department of Education or it will go on and start a record overall accomplish uh overall and all we all uh majority it was she overall is an accomplished level she's accomplished what the board is expecting her to do we uh you know we any board any members always got things that they would like to see maybe improvements on or whatever that's just life the same way my work we've discussed that with her by law we're discussing in closed session and we did and so that is the finding tonight and I think I still have to present a report um and like I said because since I'm doing it as

110a chairman that being said do any of you board members got anything you want to comment before we close and go home I didn't know oh yeah I want to know if they had any comments before we get a motion okay can I have a motion to set my report motion accept report Scott Brown sake of the motion Rose Morgan second uh all in favor any opposed motion carries and I get a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn I second the motion Rose Morgan all right got a motion a second all in favor aye any opposed we're adjourned thank you all y'all have a blessed night