Nelson County Board of Education Meeting May 6th, 2025

001[Music] You [Music] are pretty. [Music] High. It rain. [Music] Let me feel. [Music] You found me. [Music] You got a chicken wing. [Music] You are happy. [Music] Higher. Higher. [Music] Keep [Music] it raining. [Music] You are free. [Music] You are [Music] freeing ring. feel. [Music] I love [Music] you. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] ring. Hey [Music] You are free. [Music] You got a [Music] ring. Got a tucker. feel. [Music] Make [Music] it rain. [Music] You are. [Music] feel free. [Music] Feel it. [Music] You are right. [Music] rain. [Music] We call this meeting of the Nelson County Board of Education to order on May 6, 2025 at 5:30. Please join our board team as we recite the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

002for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We may be a little high on sugar right now, but we got to celebrate Kevin before the meeting. So, um, cake is going to kick in here in about five minutes. So, in the Nelson County Schools, we reunitei, see, we unite students with people, place, and purpose to thrive in work and life. The goals of the meeting tonight are to discuss the development of the major employee benefit initiatives for to support employees thriving in work and life. Going to update the board on the local planning committee with progress in the draft plan. So moving on to that, Miss Hogan is going to review our staff benefits policies. So, I've been talking to you all about the last five months. So,

003I've been talking to you all over the last five months about some of the work that we're doing on the HR team uh to look at ways that we can help our employees thrive in work and life. So, um as a reminder, we um we've had these teams of people across the district. There are employees from every operation and from every position we have in the district who've been represented in this benefits teaming conversation. So, uh, as a reminder, they've had over 20 meetings. They've been talking about what are the things they would like to see as staff in the district. And we used that information and came up with the things that they wanted us to begin looking at first. bereavement leave, paid maternity leave, gym membership discounts, and staff child care were the

004things that came up the most. We looked at the cost of what these things would cost us, and it comes up somewhere between $200 and $250,000 a year for the district. Uh the things that I'm mostly going to focus on tonight are bereavement leave and paid parental leave, but I'm also going to uh gloss over gym memberships and other discounts. So, we've been working with gyms in our area throughout the community to offer discounts to staff members who want to participate in gym memberships. And we also have created an all-in perks page. So, if you go to WeHeartNC, you'll see an all-in perks page that offers discounts to all staff members. They can get anywhere from 20 to 40% off at different uh retail outlets like Under Arour and Colombia and some of those uh

005some restaurants and um a lot of places that they might order school supplies and that type thing as well. And then staff child care is another one that we're looking at. So we currently offer morning and afternoon child care for school age children. We already offer that. Um we have um that for um Foster Heights, Bloomfield Elementary, New Haven, Boston. Is there anybody I'm missing? ELC. Yes. So, uh, that is offered currently for all of our staff, but all of our staff were reaching out to us telling us that they were also interested in staff child care on non-school days. Those would be days like backpack days and that kind of thing where they're coming to work, but it's not a school day and they needed someone to care for their children. So that's something

006that we've been working on with staff child care along with all day child care for children and grandchildren of staff members anywhere from ages six weeks old up to three years old and then we assume that after three years old they'd be going to preschool at the ELC or somewhere of that nature. So that's something we've been working on as well. So the bereavement leave policy uh this will all be shared with you all when we go over the policy updates but I wanted to give you some of the details of that. The purpose of that is of course to care for our staff when they have a death in the family. There's a lot of things that people deal with when a death comes up in the family and we just wanted to allow

007them some time off. So employees would have up to two days. They would have two days off if they had any fi family member who passed away in this area and one day off if they had any family member who passed away in that area. So uh that would allow them time away from school to care for their family and the needs that they have related to uh the funeral or anything they had to follow up with after the funeral. the parental leave policy. When we first started looking at this, we were calling it a maternity leave policy, but we recognize all of the family are affected when someone needs to be off related to having a baby or adopting a baby. So, it's now a parental leave policy. So, any full-time employee uh can

008take off when they have a baby at the birth of the baby or an adoption of a baby. So, they can be off up to uh 6 weeks or 30 days and uh they would be paid for that time that they're off from work to care for their family um and the needs of the change in their family. um they would still currently if someone is off uh for having a baby or adopting a baby, they can go on a FMLA leave and they can take up to 12 weeks off and they can use up to 30 days of their own sick leave when they take off. But what this would allow is that employee would have up to 30 days of paid time off and then they could start using their sick time after

009that would which would allow them to be paid for a longer period of time while they're off and they wouldn't have to be without income. So uh the number of days are up to 30 days because that's typically what a physician would give someone when they uh have a baby. That's why we came up with the 30-day portion of that. Any questions? I think just adding clarification to the bereavement policy. We're not saying you need to turn return to work if you lost a spouse or a child in two days. That's correct. We want to just give some ease ease on that end. So, we're not asking people to return on day three verification. No. Again, they could continue to use their own personal or sick days if they needed to be off for a

010longer period of time. This just allows them some paydays. I'm glad to see Nelson County adding this. And having worked in other districts, it was provided. So, I'm glad to see that we will now be providing that as well. And just as a clarification, was there any maternity policy prior to you all looking in this? And what was that? answer was they they were able to be off from work for up to 30 days using their own sick and um personal time, but there was no paid time by the district. Okay. And then of course under the FMLA law, they are able to be off up to 12 weeks, but that's unpaid time. I really appreciate that the policy is parental leave. Um I agree. You know, as women, I think we believe we carry

011the burden, but we don't. Gentlemen, this is a two-way. So, I appreciate that. This is something that we're we're looking to support everyone in the family, all employees. Yes. And I believe Nelson County will be one of the first among the first districts in the state to adopt this. Very few have it, only a handful. And I think it's important because it speaks to how much we value our staff and their commitment to us and recognize that their families also have a great deal of matter to us as well. So the goal would be to revisit this on March May 20th um at the next board meeting for the first reading the policy. Yeah. And would we be talking more about the child care? Is that something that because I know that's pretty exciting for

012a lot of families. Yes. So, Hope uh is very engaged in that conversation. She's meeting with current child care leaders and principles of schools to discuss options for that. So, we will be giving a further update on that in May. And one of the things that I will say um and I believe I might have forwarded it to you that a parent was asking you know is there an option to have something less than fulltime? So, um, again, I appreciate that we're even having that conversation because again, I think it, as Dr. Lee said, everything here shows that we're trying to support our families and our teachers and our staff as much as we can. So, yes, and we did reach out to some of those that we received emails on. And right now, staff

013can um take their child for before and after school care. And there were a lot of folks who were interested in could the price be reduced if I just brought them in afternoon care. So we are looking at that option as well. All right. Great. I'm glad you clarified on the bereavement policy, but is is there surrounding counties that have any more additional days because previous jobs I had, they actually had three days for a parent or child. There are some districts who offer this and there are also districts who offer no days. So, we thought this was a great start and then we'll see how this goes and possibly build on it later. And I think that's important to really any of these policies, including these policies that we're talking about tonight, they are

014fluid. They are policies that when we see demand change in our district, we should be changing and adapting with those. So, while these are policies that are set in stone for the moment, doesn't mean that we're not going to be able to adopt them or change them or uh revise them as years go on because I think we do have to be agile when it comes to what what are the demands of today and it allows us to remain competitive and especially not only with local school district employers but also the generalized um work environment outside of education as well. Yes. And another reason we started it this way, we don't have a tracking in place right now to track how many people are off and how often they're off and what the needs are

015because if someone passes away in their family, they use a sick day. There's no real way for us to track that and be able to provide the board what the cost looks like on that. So, we thought we'll start with this and then come back and look at it um next year as well. Thank you, Kim. It's great info. Thank you. So, we have a couple conversations here tonight. Um there's two different pieces to this and mi Miss Bowling or other board members can speak a little further but ultimately we the the uh board asked for uh a conversation about the process we use to maintain and upgrade our buildings uh continuously as we think about our larger facility planning process. We also know that there's a daily process and a weekly and tri-weekly system

016process that we use. Um, and we wanted to do that and also celebrate really Mr. Maddingley's transition and get to know the team a little bit. Um, this is a team that hasn't presented in front of the board and they're so excited too tonight. They're so excited. Clint Cooper and Justin Hall over here have been asking me about this for months. Hey, when can we get in front of the board? Uh they Justin put his new got his new boots on tonight. We're excited about that. Uh so with that said, that's the first part. I think it really um as the district has been having the local planning committee discussions. This conversation really leads us into why LPCs are formed. Um, you know, the state requires that for one, but it really is about understanding

017how our maintenance teams are looking at our facilities on a daily basis, a monthly basis, a weekly basis, you know, annually. And it's something that that we believe that is is imperative that we as a board hear on a routine basis. So annually, we would like I know you guys are excited to be here tonight, but we're going to go ahead and say in 12 months, we want to see you again back up here talking about what it looks like across the district. Our goal is is to make sure that we have well-maintained, safe spaces for our students because we know that they do better in those environments. So us understanding that will also help lead the next LPC in four years as those conversations continue 10, 20, 30 years down the road. So, we

018do appreciate we definitely appreciate Kevin and all that he's done for the district and the foundation that he sort of left. We know he's leaving everything that he's done in great hands um and with extremely qualified hands because we know that you guys did not just come in off the street to do this job. You are well trained and I'm excited to hear more about that. So, I'm going to start out by celebrating the people on this board here. In about 2019, a year after Wes got here, we were only like five maintenance men and then we had custodians. He came to me with the option said, "What do you think of your team needs needs the most?" And I said, "We need someone at these buildings. It's their house. They can paint. They can

019help with the windows. they can help with, you know, everyday things they would do at home. So, we've been blessed to have great people in our buildings and, you know, they really show that. And then Melissa's going to talk now about some of the systems we've created since 2019 to help us get better. So, just a quick gl that primary shift was the facility lead role moving into where really everybody's a part of really upgrading and maintaining facilities. And we're fortunate to have a powerhouse group back here, even Willie. Uh, and um, really the the work is being we've been able to do is a byproduct of the systems you guys are talking about here. Yeah. I was going to take a second to celebrate our facility leads. They are like salt of the earth

020people. Shirt off of your back kind of folks. And anytime I'm in those spaces and they're showing us or going walk through whatever it may be, they are so proud of the spaces that they're in and they're excite excited to show you that. Um so I just appreciate the work that you guys do every day in day out and really help us drive these um systems to uh ensure that our schools are in high quality condition. So uh we'll start with that. We're going to look at three different um strategies we really uh implement. There's others that we could talk about. I think these are stand out. Um so initially some of the systems that we have in place and then we'll follow that up with some partnerships that are key to our success and

021then data that we collect from our students and staff so that we can constantly be um looking at that and making decisions for how to continuously improve. So, uh, first systems that we're going to look at are quality control systems and, um, the facility leads in the space could talk about their, uh, facility pride monthly walkthroughs and Mr. Kevin is going to share a little bit more about that. Yeah. So, got me there. So, we use this system every three weeks. We're in a building Monday through Thursday. So Monday, you know, one week we'll go to four different schools that week, the next week, the next four, the week after that we go to the next four. We visit every all 12 schools and central office every three weeks. And this is kind of the

022criteria we use to go through. Now, we realize that some of the high schools and Foster Heights and Okone that are bigger, we concentrate on one section to make sure we see everything and not trying to rush through and missing things. So our facility leads have become very reliable on these tools to start looking you know and uh we even you know once or twice a year we'll go with Paul from tandem solutions to look at classrooms and how we can better help them and them support us and teachers in their classrooms. So, um, if you got any questions on that, but it's every three weeks we look at different things, you know, athletics, outside, you know, we do it all. So, and then I think one of the one of the things to point

023out there, I know like when you live in a space and you're looking at it all the time, you have a tendency, it's like that nose blind thing. And so, whenever they do these walks, they're looking at very specific things. We're focused on the floor. We're focused on the ceilings. we're focused on the walls. So, it really ensures that we're looking at the nitty-gritty, really trying to pinpoint um ways that we can mojo up our space, which leads to uh Mr. Patrick kind of talking about another system, our mojo maintenance. Yeah. So, this right here is our QR code that we implemented this year. When we done our surveys last year between the students and staff, the staff came back and you remember what the number 80% Yeah. 80% said that they could uh had

024trouble or I guess they got with us. Yeah. So the 20% had trouble reaching out to us, contacting us, stuff of that nature. Well, everybody's got a phone in their pocket nowadays. So we created this uh QR code that's in a lot of the common spaces. It's in every classroom throughout the district. So, um, anybody that needs us can scan that, fill out the information that we've requested, and it also helps anybody that goes to do the work, um, navigate what that looks like. So, this here is what a normal work order system looks like. We use Mojo. Um, you can see here, this is the person that submitted the ticket, what the ticket may look like, and then each morning when I come in, I assign these tickets to whoever it best fits. So,

025if it's a HVAC request, you know, Justin would handle it. plumbing, Clint, so whoever would best fit to each row. And then this is also for uh custodial services, too. So, this is a good tool that Paul with Tandem uses that holds his people accountable for cleanliness issues and then reoccurring issues as well. So, and also when you break a ticket down like say u I think Joe Peak put a ticket in, he's requesting some work on the softball scoreboard. So, we would respond to that, let him know that we've like receive the ticket and then if we go to work on it, you know, we've given update saying this is what we've ran into. This is a timeline of when we think the repair would be. So the communication is, you know, we think

026pretty good according to the previous survey we got as well because it went a lot higher. So yeah, I also add Paul from part of this. He assigns to Paul. Oh, okay. Paul. What is tandem? They're the tandem solutions. Thank you all that was on the board last year that trusted us to hire tandem. It's been great. They're our custodial service. Okay. We entered into a new contract with them in May of 2024. Is that right? And in short turnaround, they were able to um level up. Leveled up hard. It's good stuff. I was going to talk about them a little bit, too. It's been a great partnership. Um so, other systems that are in place. Here's a couple of the annual Well, actually, I guess three of the annual maintenance systems that we have

027in place. Um Kevin, I think, are you talking about the 20-year paving? you are talking about. Oh, so this is our 20 year plan that we look at every parking lot, every the ceiling, the paving, and we come to the board, you know, every year with the schools that we think has the most priority, you know, and we may push one back a little bit if we think something's going to big happened at that school because we can use restricted funds instead of general funds on that. So if you know it went away but so we try to do you know paving every 10 years and bus loops get longer out of the regular staff parking and other areas and then we try to seal everything you know five to 10 years and it basically

028we have to look at everyone every year they'll change on and so is it to ensure like there's an ongoing plan and budgeting across time so you don't have multiple crisis right it's a maintenance okay and each stab at the bottom We have square footage for each school and you know and some of them even I think have the blueprints that we use for the people that bid on it. So this is our uh when it pops up is our painting schedule. It's on a uh fiveyear rotation. And at the top here, like we used OKA for an example. They have three basic colors we put in every room to keep the building looking uniform, nice, simple, everything looks the same. It's easy. And uh everything's coated from ceiling to floor. If that door jams

029and everything, everything that gets coated from here will uh then be moved to down the road for another five years. Like a football bathroom, for example, that the whole room jam jams everything. It's pretty simple, easy to follow, and everything looks the exact same as it would at the top. So, and this helps empower facility leads in many ways. Oh, absolutely. Right. Also for teachers, you know, when a teacher wants to know her, this doesn't mean that something. This is just a full repaint of the entire room or area. I think more than anything, it shows that you're preventative and you're not waiting for a crisis to hit. Everything that you guys do looks like it's really looking forward and being forward thinking. And then building with you guys. Really there are two inventories we

030you know the inventory that uh Steven Ward shared with the facility plan was a very detailed indepth uh kayfix report that has lots of smaller pieces and parts like a crack sidewalks etc. These are some major priorities that the facility team has as they look to the next 5 to 10 years. Um, these are things that we as a team look at and think about. Uh, is this a facility plan conversation or is this a general fund conversation just depending on the nature of it? And that's this just gives a context on that. And uh, Justin, you is this your is this your time? So, this is the Kix report. This is showing everything that we are currently doing at these campuses. And this is showing what we believe to be the range of life

031for our HVAC systems throughout these campuses. Uh Justin, can you talk a little bit about your experience before you came to Nelson County Schools because you are an HVAC specialist, right? So, can you just talk a little bit about your journey? Uh yes. So, I started here at a local company. Um I worked two years under a master doing new construction and service. uh was able to get my hours to make me eligible to become a journeyman licensed HVAC technician and uh you know I did that for five years and you know a job came open here and I felt like pursuing it. Work with Ray. Worked with Ray Jury. Yes. Yeah. I think another part of this is nice is Justin's a Nelson County High School graduate of 2012. 14. 14. Cooper's a 2015

032graduate at Thomas Nelson. Gund's a 2013 graduate of Nelson County. Kevin's a 83 83 graduate Nelson County High School. 1973. Um, and it's fun to see the pride you guys take and to have you guys back in our schools. But I think one of the other pieces that's really important for our board as we look to the future is we have a great team and continue to invest in the in the facility team. Having specialized roles is a part of that. Justin, if he's doing his job well is saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Uh and we'll talk a little bit about some of those systems we have in place where that we're learning to monitor effectively and efficiently through our energy cap system. Yes. So what we have here, we're using Thomas

033Nelson as an example. This shows our monthly cost and uh electric up here and water here for examples. And this is data that we input monthly. And you know, we like to see consistency throughout because this shows like over the past few years. And like you know if we see a spike we know that you know we may have an issue that we need to look into further. Like for example this spike would be where we use water from the lake at Thomas Nelson to water the sports fields. You know sometimes if we're in a drought we may have to add water to it so we can treat the fields. I was um with some other school folks recently from other districts and there was a lot of conversation about um some of the systems

034that we are using here and in particular um with the energy being one of the most efficient school districts in the state and they've looked to us as a model for um cost savings and and ways to create and monitor things. So I'd like to applaud you on that. tracking it. I like the way you think, Kevin. I think we had and I don't know if that if we have included that in this conversation. I talked earlier about the quality of of our employees here. And I think that is something that I don't think we can stress enough. Something that we have talked about before is when you have people that are in your district that are qualified to do the job, then you don't have to subcontract subcontract it out. And I think the

035benefits of having you guys that are journeymen that I don't know if really people understand how um blessed we are to have that so that you are able to address those concerns when they happen. And again, it's a reason why you look ahead and not wait for it to blow up. Um, so I don't know if that's something that we've talked about or if that's something that we need to really start to look at, you know, because we want to make sure that we're making sure you guys level up as the district moves forward, too. So, um, we because I know you can go outside that door right there and probably make a little bit more money. might not be as happy of an environment, not to be able to work for Kevin, but but

036we know that that people like you are needed in the industry and we are grateful that you chose Nelson County Schools. So, thank you for that. And definitely, if we're not talking about it tonight, we definitely want to talk about it in the future, qualifications, how we can better support that and make sure that we are continuing to support you guys in the work that you're doing. And I would add, Kevin, could you speak a little bit um to the diversity and knowledge of your staff? And I say that because I think sometimes in traditional school settings, we think of of people who are involved in maintenance as being handymen, you know, doing o overall things. And you and I had a conversation recently about how you had worked to select people for specific skill

037sets. I think that's valuable to add here. Yeah. Thanks, Karen. Yeah. So we we started looking for people that knew how to do different things because we were outsourcing so much and when we find people that are not scared to look at roofs and find leaks or you know Justin he's a journeyman as an HVAC some counties that's all they do they will not help you pull a toilet or anything. We have people that will do whatever the emergency is and need it, you know, and I think I told you all sometime back then when there was five of us, we were reactive. Now we're kind of proactive, you know, and that's all we could do five years ago. So, we are blessed to have people that are skilled and not scared to get their

038hands dirty and do different things and learn more, you know, and get certified in different things we need them to, which like you said, you know, they could go do that one thing at somewhere else. HVAC and plumbing, right? these different areas. We do the plumbing, we do the electric, we do the HVAC. You know, anything we can do in house, we try to take care of it and we're very blessed with that. Absolutely. I think Justin's got more to say. Yes. Well, I know that oftentimes if you have an emergency in a district and you're trying to find someone to come in, that is substantial cost. And I've seen districts spend regularly tens and tens of thousands of dollars. And I appreciate that we have people with expertise on our staff so that we

039have the people we need right there. Not that we never need some outside support too, but I know that that represents a tremendous investment on our part. So, thank you all for all that you do. Thank you all for putting trust in us. Thanks, guys. You all can sit down now. Leave me up here alone. I appre I appreciate this conversation so much too because it's giving us an some insight in particular this building condition summaries that's on that inventory around things that as a board we need to be mindful of in our decision making to have awareness of what's going to be needed. Right. So absolutely I appreciate um you guys so much and uh really thinking future forward and how can we be more preventative and proactive than than reactive. So, um, thank

040you for those systems. Thank you for letting me work with work with you guys. Um, one of our partnerships that we did mention a little bit earlier, um, Tandem Solutions and, uh, Kevin thanked you and I'll thank you again for allowing us to, um, hire them as our custodial services, uh, is Paul and Angela Cornell. So, Paul's gonna come up now. He's here. There he is. and uh speak about how his partnership with us and the systems that we have in place and brag on his team a little bit. Thank you, Melissa. U thank you all for inviting me here, you know, being a part of the team. That's what I really enjoy about Nelson County is very inclusive. You know, we always uh always working together. Uh a lot of the different things that

041we're, you know, that we're trying to do is, you know, try to build the relationship, right? Work as a team, work as one. Um, you know, we work hand inand with all the facility leads here, you know, throughout the, uh, facilities department. Um, certainly appreciate the opportunity, you know, to to provide those services to you. But we, um, you know, some of the things that, you know, really help, you know, drive the things that we're looking for are like the the QR codes, right? You know, that's immediate results, immediate follow through. uh gives us an opportunity to correct the things that you know uh we we had shortcomings on and build and get better. Uh really pride ourselves on, you know, really working in tandem, you know, with with Nelson County. Uh many different ways

042that we've already began partnering uh with Nelson County Schools, whether it's through working with the central office to make sure that everyone has a Nelson County badge, you know, so they're represented, right? you know, in in the schools. Uh some other things that we're doing, partnering with the athletic programs and the fundraising. Um you know, continuing to partner with facilities and, you know, I I appreciate, you know, all the facility leads out here. Uh you know, I look around, you know, the room and you know, I talk with you guys daily, right? If not weekly. Uh but uh certainly appreciate the opportunity and it's you know really blessing to be here. One fun thing with Paul and the team there is they're local and this is the first time we've had a local team. Tandem

043is uh uh started just here and uh Paul is a Nelson County High School graduate as well. Um and one of the things you know I know it's important that for even for your children that your school the schools are are taken care of. So that's been nice to see that local ownership. It's the first time we've had that from an outsourced company to be frank. So um we are fortunate that it's been able to work out for us this year. We look forward to continuing to uh have a partnership of mutual reciprocity and accountability. I would say being a bit humble here in all of the outside um facility or um yeah facilities that we've worked with prior um you don't necessarily see the manager or the owner on campus and Paul is on

044campus every day boots on the ground hands in the dirt doing the work with his team. Um and he has you know a lot personally and professionally invested and I'm just so grateful for that team. It's been it's been a really good partnership and I appreciate you so much. I know I probably drive you crazy, but I really appreciate all that you and your team do. For sure. Absolutely. Thank you. You're off the spot now. Thank you, Mr. Cornell. Unless you guys have questions. No, just appreciation. Yes, very much. If they're happy, then I think as a board we can be happy because they're the ones that you're working for, the students and the staff. Yeah. Thank you so much. Been great. For sure. Thank you. Um some of the other partnerships when we think

045about facilities is really our first responders. Um annually we wrangle them all in together whether it's the chiefs or um some other representative from the um county and the city uh first responder groups and we do safety walks of all of the buildings. We've learned uh quite a bit through that process. uh really a couple of years ago, I think we had a grant for some cameras and they uh didn't have a home for a bit. So, um the officers locally went into all of the buildings with us for the purpose of identifying locations that those cameras needed to be placed. And so we feel really confident that all of the areas of the schools that really needed need to be monitored for safety purposes that that is um squared away um due to their

046partnership. Uh we've also ensured that all of our um entrances are fobbed and then as you now enter into all of our schools have that um foyer area. And so they've now fobbed that for your area as well because that allows um our officers who all have fobbed access to our schools to be able to enter through both doors quickly to ensure that they have access as quickly as they can given we have a safety issue. They also um the sheriff's department comes into our buildings once a month. So, they're on like a rotation and they'll come in and if they have issues with getting into our buildings, they're able to report that immediately. We're able to identify what might be causing that and um able to support the fire department. I think you guys

047just approved not too long ago um the safe the uh fire pulls, how we've talked about those being a potential safety issue if a student were to pull that and we evacuated. Um but with the help of Barstown City um they recommended with Upcenter like we don't need those. It uh will prevent potential safety issues and it saved us money. I know saving money is always um pretty awesome. And then fire department also we have NOX boxes on all of our schools now which allow quick access for our fire departments to get keys and into our buildings. Um, another partnership is the Kentucky Center for Safe Schools, John Acres, Matt Moore, they've been great to work with. Um, I feel like we have a pretty mutual relationship. They they support us. We have um shared

048some of our ideas with them. Uh, but they do an annual risk assessment and really one of the the first I think 11 pieces of that assessment is all about access control and visitor management. Um, so they've been super supportive with that. they've been really grateful for the systems that we've implemented. Um, again, this is on facilities because none of this happens without this team putting uh these things into place. And then also the school the safe schools assessments. Um, we're doing two of those annually provided as a service from Kentucky Center for Safe Schools. They make safety recommendations. Um really some of it seems like trivial but it is um all about that crime prevention through environmental uh through environmental the whatever the D is design so that um you are able to quickly

049survey um that you can be aware of what's around the building. So things that seem silly like the bushes have to be a certain height, the tree limbs have to be above a certain level so that it's really easy to be aware of what's going on. And they also provide us with funds annually to um update safety. So appreciate that as well. Any questions about any of those? Does our sheriff's office or state police or whoever the emergency ever do mock drills or anything with us? So, they they will use our buildings um sometimes to be able to train their their staff. Uh a couple of summers ago, we did um a training at Thomas Nelson. It was voluntary of a um it was a mock run of if there was an active shooter. And

050so anybody who wanted to participate in that was able to. Um they've used our buses. That was something that they were interested in doing. Um because when you think about a safety situation on a bus, like a hostage situation or whatever, they really wanted to be able to evaluate looking, you know, around all sides how they would be able to support in that. So they do use our facilities and they use our buses now to um train. And then the fact that they are uh the sheriff's department at least is in all of our buildings at least once a month is really beneficial for them to be able to know the lay of the land. And then further they now have uh with an ooua I don't ever remember the u or the a um

051with uh dispatch that they have access a very controlled access but to our camera system. So, if they ever needed to batch in to our cameras, um, they'll be able to do that to support as well. Did that answer your question? That's answered quite a bit there. Okay. I'd like to hear that because that's one thing that really scares me as a parent, hearing that. And we're I know I've just heard a new a new plot, I guess, some bad people um duplicating a child's voice and claiming someone coming out of school this week. And that that's really scary. And I'm hoping and I know we are up on top of that. And I know our police officers are doing our best and to train that and that's one thing. Glad to hear that. Thank

052you. Yeah absolutely. So the last piece um is you know this mojo data that we talked about you know that's the shine that's the magic that's the sparkle. That's remarkable spaces. And so once a month our students and staff so a different school once a month will uh complete a quality of services survey and this data is directly from that. So my school is clean and I contribute to keeping my school clean are uh the results up to this point in the year. Uh staff my school is clean and well-maintained. And I will speak to that I receive timely responses and updates to my maintenance and custodial requests. there's a little outlier there. Uh last year Patrick talked about 80% of staff knowing how to uh request maintenance support and so we realized we need

053to help folks with that QR code. So this year the first school that took the survey there I received timely responses data was 72% and we were like uhoh we need to figure out what's going on. So that's when we started implementing the direct communication so that it went back to the teacher who uh submitted that request. It went to the facility lead and they were able to do responses with each other to understand I did get it. I ordered the part. You know it's going to take a little time. So if you take that first one out of there, this is actually 97% now satisfaction. So that improved greatly between the QR code and and putting those communication pieces in place. That's awesome. Thank you. I mean, 89% still sounds good, but that sounds

054better. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, this little outlier if we just pluck it out. Yeah. Great out. Yeah. Yeah. But it was helpful because it allowed us to get better. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And I think that's all for me. Golly, I've been up here for a while. Do you guys have any questions? Any discussion, guys? One thing I seen neat one time, I was down in Boston. I was going to bring it up and I saw thought was pretty neat. Kch child was struggling and how they had him help clean. And I've been I watch a lot of documentaries on Japanese schools and things and I love seeing how they incorporate their children and fixing their lunches and cleaning and and taking care of their school and they have such pride in it and I know

055just wanted to you all think about something like that and I know you it's already been t been doing that in our schools. So, that's something that I ask him about. Yeah, I bet. I bet middle school and up would say, "Heck yeah, we get those students to support us." Um, you know, to provide some purpose and value for those kiddos. For sure. I know. I used to watch David Cter do it all the time. Like, come on, boy. Come over, help me. I've seen that. You see the pride in that child's face and I just love that. So, yeah. And that is one of our one of our, you know, we want to take care of ourselves, take care of each other, and take care of this place. And so part of that take

056care of this place is this new language around mojo and really getting students motivated to um contribute to caring for our schools as well. And they do. It's just going to up the Annie a little bit. I appreciate everything that our um facilities teams do. They do all the members. They are awesome. And they are such a vital part of the school community. I know my grandchildren come home and speak about the facility leads in their schools and so that they know them by name. They have relationships there and that you all are very much real people who care about our students and put them first. Yeah, there's no doubt. I know Miss Belinda like she knows every kid in the building. She knows who kid what kid has an allergy probably because she has

057so many allergies. She knows what they shouldn't be eating. Make sure they don't touch that. And I don't and I I don't know if we appreciate that in the sense of there are school systems where they are shadows on the wall and our people are in our buildings and I I would guess if guests came into our spaces they could would not be able to tell our facility leads from our educators in the space because the kids know them as much as they know anyone else in the buildings. And that again is another one of those prime examples of the foundation that you guys are laying for students to understand that everyone has purpose in our space. And there they're I would say and I know with Miss Belinda anyway um if you ask every

058kid in the building who they know the most and I would say would be Belinda. And I think we should shout out Miss Vicki for her nomination for a statewide Fred award. um that that is a tremendous um recognition and I've seen that award given many times and so I'm very grateful to have someone from Nelson County be be nominated and part of that that happened before our meeting started with our celebration of Kevin so yes definitely a celebration of Miss Vicki as well Kevin cried for you and Kevin we appreciate you thank you for your service to Nelson County schools and your leadership ship through all these years. Absolutely. If you haven't been in our schools, you should definitely go check them out because they look darn good. Yeah, they look really good. I

059just want to say thank you to the facility league. When I see them, these guys here, when I see them out, they're positive and I like to be able to talk to someone if you do have a problem and and seeing the work you all doing. But thank you all for that. Even you, Willie. Even you will. Thank you, Miss Casease. Passing this mic to it would be I think it's a combination of several people. Um, it says Laura Arnold and Freda Jeeper, but I'm pretty sure it's not them. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not they just did they just did this part. That was them. Let's see. I think we're starting with the superintendent. Yeah, I think I have the first couple slides here. Yeah, it should be fine. So, um, the next conversation

060is a transition to looking at the where we are with our local planning committee process. We know all this work really is supported through what has been a 30-year effort. We've had a 30-year effort to upgrade schools starting in 1991 with the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Uh so many of our schools have been impacted by the Kentucky Education Reform Act and the local nickel in Nelson County. Um the majority of our schools today have been impacted through that uh revenue and have allowed us to have 30-year eyes. With that said, as we talk about this, if anyone uh is watching or on your phone, if you go to ncslpc.com, you can find all information and then some, including all meetings, all minutes, uh all links to every meeting and videos to every meeting. If you

061just got 12 hours, you want to binge watch them, you know, feel free. You can watch them all week long, okay? There's a lot of action on there and they're live streamed. So uh I share that as an introduction to say this conversation started in January started January 21st to be exact uh and has continued on over this last 12 uh 12 to 16 weeks. So, uh, welcome to, uh, the LPC conversation and, um, I think this board priority conversation has continued, um, to develop to and help drive some of that original conversation for the local planning committee. Um, so this is just a little timeline here as we look at the facility related meetings. Uh, as for those of you who are a part of, uh, this conversation, this really has been a four-year

062facility planning conversation in Nelson County Schools. So, it was a very transparent public conversation. But in the Nelson County schools this year, we started on January 21st and met with our um financial adviserss. We also began looking at seating the local planning committee. Then in early November, we selected the architect and began to talk about um the selection of a facilitator. And in the same way on the 19th of um February, we then began we actually selected the local planning committee through that process. So uh just gives you a little bit of context. The first meeting however for the LPC didn't start until March 19th which really kicks off where we are uh tonight as that last seven weeks have led up to the LPC sending that through the Kentucky Department of Education as a

063draft DFP. So with that said, is it uh Alex, James, Adam, Kim? I think it's a combination of all of them. We got multiple microphones here. Um so I can just remind everyone of this process. Uh the Kentucky administrative regulation 4180 defines the local planning committee very scientifically. we found um and uh we went through that process uh as a board. These are the members of the local planning committee. You can see them all live on ncslpc.com. Um and uh I think Mr. Nihoff will also be able to speak to some of the some of that process and the character of that process that he's observed um as a facilitator but also somebody that's been a part of local planning committee conversations for many years uh across Kentucky. So So Adam Gossum is the is

064a representative that was for OKH and as a parent representative and he was also um the LPC chair. So he helped lead the meetings with u Mr. Nihoff and Miss Kim Hogan who works for the district. She was the central office um LPC member and she was the vice chair. So that is why they are presenting tonight. Um I would like to just remind of our purpose in having the LPC representation here. At a prior board meeting at Bloomfield Middle School, we discussed having them come forward to um briefly um tell us about that process that was used. Um my understanding is that all board members have followed along closely. Several of us have been present at the majority of those meetings too. And then more importantly, when the LPC chose the recommendation to provide

065us a summary of the the rationale for that. Thank you. We're almost there. Uh just a reminder, the local planning committee there were we this was the introduction first meeting. Um the local planning committee develops a draft facility plan that provides choice to the local board of education. big part of that is engaging the community and ga in developing uh public input and working collaboratively together which really leads to kind of the design principles and James can speak to some of this uh in the stages of the LPC but really James I thought it was useful for you to just kind of comment upon your experience over the last uh seven weeks working with the team and then Adam and Kim can take it from there. Thank you superintendent Bradley. We really appreciate the opportunity

066to be here. Members of the board, um I have been so impressed not with not only with your involvement in the process, but with uh the way the superintendent and the staff um organized and led um this process. And um I will tell you that um um at at fear of being called out by the superintendent as being old because of the year I graduated from high school, which we'll not mentioned tonight. Um I I'll just say I've seen the LPC process work through a lot of years, uh since since it first began. And um I've not seen a school district or a leadership team um put more time and energy and effort into uh conducting this exactly by the letter of the law than I have seen uh in this in this process. So,

067I hope that you all feel excited and encouraged by the fact that your team has really taken due diligence to do a great job with the LPC process. So, procedurally, uh, I think it's exemplary, much like some of the other things we've talked about tonight in the district are being done in an exemplary way. So, it speaks to your leadership. Um I was um uh pleased with the uh initially with the selection process just to make sure that all of that followed the law and uh so I need to be trying to see the camera. There you are. Yeah. Um and so from that point on it's just been uh meticulous in the way the process has been handled. One of the other things that I thought was really well done um was the way

068the public forums were handled. Uh not only was there the opportunity for people to speak uh to sign in and speak um their three-minute time frame, but uh Adam also gave others the opportunity if they had decided while they were in the meeting that they wanted to add their name to the list at the end. He allowed that to happen, which I think is a very good thing and a responsive thing. and that also there was the opportunity for people who had come um interact directly with um with members of the LPC in um with the poster conversations and you're going to hear some a little bit tonight about the poster conversations, but I just thought that was a great opportunity um with public forums in any topic, not just LPC and school districts and

069and in local government as a whole, just by the nature of the public forums are conducted. Often times people don't feel like they got to have a personal conversation with someone and the way you all handled that was done in a way that gave that opportunity for personal conversation within the context of the meeting and while everything was still being recorded and part of the public meeting. So um just kudos for that. I thought that was really well done. And I'll just add as part of the public forums and stuff and we'll dig into it here in a little bit is is really once that the public comments the guest comments were done, Mr. Mr. Nyhoff led us in an exercise to go back and actually each LPC board member actually LPC member actually gave

070feedback on what they took away their take their personal takeaways from from those comments and stuff so we could all hear the common themes and everything. So I thought that was that was very important. And before I dig too deep, I've got to give a shout out to the facilities team and stuff. And Mr. Willie, um Lena, my youngest daughter, you're her favorite person at OKH. So a shout out to you. I know Superintendent Browley's giving you a hard time, but I'll take up for you for sure. So, um, anything else you want to talk about, Mr. No, sir. Awesome. So, we'll get started here. This just goes through the different stages of the LPC development. As you can see uh you know in the beginning we were developing understanding the purpose of the LPC

071uh proposing the different models uh based on benefits and then studying models and data request to compare and then evaluating uh components to the draft DFP. So we'll start with our first meeting here which happened at Nelson County High School on March the 19th. And as you can kind of see our our meeting goes here uh to build the LPC team, get to know uh what brings us here. So, we kind of went through and introduced ourselves and really why we were there. Uh, review the current uh DFP plan. Um, go over the, of course, legality of the requirements of the um Kentucky Department of Education. And then we drafted a calendar and established uh organization. And then we looked at uh we were provided um uh an initial data packet uh that Mr. Martin

072provided to us and everything that had a lot of information and stuff in it to start with. The next meeting uh happened on March the 26th at OKH. Uh the different things that our goals there for that meeting was uh reviewing the DFP and the requirements again. Uh we finished that legal training and stuff that we needed to do that we started in the first meeting. uh we discussed the relevant DFP data and data requests uh that gave us an opportunity to review more data um for the LPC members that we thought were pertinent uh to to the work and everything that we were doing. Uh next we established guidelines and best practices for public forum. We wanted to be prepared going into the next um meeting where we had our first public forum at

073Bloomfield Elementary School. So we talked about really the value of what was important for us to talk about and present to the public. Uh in in that work there uh we talked, you know, about the dem demographic data where the majority of um Nelson County families and stuff live in the central uh part of the county there. And then we talked a little bit about um cost delivery of each school. Our third meeting uh on April the 9th at Bloomfield, we had uh held the public forum. Uh we talked about the feasibility of uh Bloomfield Middle School uh as a career and technical education center. We talked about extracurriculars and feeder patterns uh with a audit from Mr. Mike Lefavers. Um we talked about the purpose um our proposed school organizational models to evaluate and

074then outlined the public forum. And as you can see, you know, talking about the feeder pattern data, that was important information there. We focused a lot on the CTE uh for Bloomfield Middle School and what that would look like. And then really that opened up some opportunity for us to talk about what specific models we wanted to review uh as an LPC. So all members uh had an opportunity to talk about that. Our next meeting was on April the 16th at New Haven. uh we opened up with the uh the public forum there. Uh we reviewed uh the New Haven school DFP uh and uh the priorities and the current status. So that gave us an opportunity to really dive into uh the plan that was already in place for New Haven as we all

075knew that there's a lot of uh important and focus and stuff and uh things that we need to to work on at New Haven there. And then we studied uh the school organizational models and you can kind of see the feedback from the other meeting and stuff. We had uh picked out some different models and started to do um the work around in small groups and even the community at that point that were there, they got to walk around and kind of see that work and stuff as we were doing it. Our next meeting uh was on April 23rd at Foster Heights. Uh our goals for this meeting was reviewing um the data review. Uh so Devon O'Brien came and talked to us about the busing and cost of services for the proposed models that

076we had reviewed. Uh we evaluated elementary DFP priorities. Um we discussed uh the preferred middle school and high school DFP changes and recommendations. So you can kind of see the work kind of coming together there. Uh Mr. Ward was there and kind of reviewed some of the the current DFP uh things that were in place and then again focusing um on that the different models and stuff that had been recommended. Our next meeting was on um April 30th at Cox's Creek and that's when we really went back and we discussed uh Mr. Ward discussed the KDE and the pricing and the bond capacity with Mr. Martin and then we evaluated the plan. um that we had uh put in place from the model that we had chosen. We'll dig into that a little bit here

077and Mr. Ward did a great job of going through uh with the draft DFP to make sure that we really understood and gave all us an opportunity to ask questions if and clarifying questions on what we needed to do. And then at that meeting we voted um to approve the the draft DFP. So our wrong way, sorry. So to go on to guest comments, we talked about this a little bit earlier. Um so everybody that was there, we made sure that they had the opportunity to speak and uh as Mr. Nyoff said, we went back at the end. We had we wanted to make sure if they didn't sign up and they thought about something as we were talking, they had that opportunity to go back and sign up and we did have uh some

078takers on that um that wanted to come up after the fact. And then these are some of the the main topics that we got from those public forums. Clear uh school feeder patterns, access and opportunities for all, community, a sense of community and belonging. The data uh informed decision- making. Um one thing that stood out a lot is our students can't wait. Um and then to focus on staff and student benefits. And then one thing that was brought up that we had got clarification on was the feasibility of the buildup at Bloomfield Middle School. And we got that clarified at one of our meetings there. And then like I said earlier, we went back after public forum, we went back and you know, we highlighted each member highlighted what they took away uh from the

079public forum. So we kind of had that at top of mind. And then this is just to show um the website here that you can go through that's got all the information, all the recordings, all the minutes and everything uh all the slides and stuff. And then um we had talked about in one of our meetings the uh parent and community uh survey that was sent out. So this is um a QR code that kind of goes to that. So anybody that hasn't been able to follow along, they can go back and and review all of those meetings. So these were the focus points that we had um as far as how would we differentiate the model impacts on students and of course you know we got teacher access, the smart use of funding, uh

080local and location and busing and then uh student access was our main focal points uh for this um this work that we went through. And you can see and all of this stuff, all of our works um things are over here. This is one thing that's pretty powerful over here. If you look at this, we went through as a committee and kind of put these focus points on each model as we thought that they were the best model that really delivered effective and efficient efficiency which was set forth by by the board as being the the focal points and everything. Excuse me. Do you mind providing some clarity like what to exactly what the red dots mean like how what this process was so that Yeah. So we were able to go through and and

081basically this helped us to decide which one of these models. So the red dots are student access. So which one of these pro models would provide the the most um qualities um uh out of student access for our students. The blue dots are teacher access. uh location and buses are the yellow dots and then um smart use of funding are the green dots. So you can see between the different model options and stuff there's a lot here for location and busing on the line because between those two models there's a lot of similarities in between those. So they felt like you know either one of these models can do that. You got something you want to check? Well, I just wanted to add very early on um the LPC asked to see these models and

082they were also asked does anyone have any other models they want to look at or what models do you want to consider and the LPC said these are the four models that we want to look at and focus on. So that's what brought us to these four models. Um, I also wanted to share that we've been talking a lot about facilities and the maintenance team tonight. We were very fortunate as an LPC that we were able to focus on these four things and focus a lot on student access and opportunity because what I've heard from Mr. Ward and Mr. and IHOF and others is a lot of times when districts are going through this process, they have to focus on facilities too as far as taking care of current facilities and we're very fortunate that

083our facilities are in the condition that they're in and we didn't have to focus on that. We were able to focus on student access and opportunity. Um just so so that we have clear understanding that this was far more complex than what we're seeing tonight. Oh yeah, there was there was a ton of work into it. And I know there was there was question at time during our meeting is we're focusing so much on middle and high school and stuff and everything. Well, we all know, you know, what the current DFP had in it for New Haven and Coxus Creek and that kind of stuff. So we reviewed those, but our main focus was on the middle school and high school and everything. And so and each time we were given data and asked to

084go back and review that on our own time and prepare for that before each meeting. And so everything was examined through the each model was examined for these criteria how well it would serve these based on data and information that was provided. Correct. Yes. And there are posters over there where LPC members evaluated each of these models around each of these areas on the outside. those I saw those posters and those provide great feedback and um I was there when that was done and I I greatly appreciate that it captures what the LPC members were thinking about each model is they weighed through the different criteria here and and framing it from the data that was there. So, I I think that that was valuable. And um are these is there a way that people

085can see these results of these posters? Yeah, absolutely. We've got slides of them up here, but if you go through the Nelson County website, the LPC, all of these models are going to be up there and all this work and stuff that we've done is going to be there. So, anybody who accesses tonight's work session documents would be able to see these because they're added at the end. Okay. Thank you. anything else? We can add uh just the slides with the photos on the website as well as part of that conversation. So, we didn't we didn't acknowledge the four models, but um that's something that's that you know was a part of the discussion. Um model number one was a east west middle school. Uh that would include building a new middle school on the

086west side somewhere near uh assumed to be near Thomas Ellison since that's where land is. Um uh option two was a 612 United campus. Option three was Nelson County High School as the high school. Thomas Nelson as the middle school. Option four was Thomas Nelson as the middle school as the high school. Nelson County as the middle school. Uh those were the four broad options discussed. Thanks for clarifying that. And those were the only options that were uh brought forward by the committee. And then uh to focus on the discussion around the choice on option two as we go back and focus on the four uh dot points there student access and these were some quotes and stuff that you can find from the small work groups and the LPC committee broke up in in

087small groups to actually work on this. Um so for student access best model to allow for early academic access and diversity of courses including CTE programs. uh more kids have an opportunity to participate in clubs and sports. We currently have over 544 students participating in current high school athletics uh which Mr. Lefvera has talked about. We've got a a great uh participation rate uh in sports and then of course increased student belonging under the teacher access. Uh middle school and high school uh sponsors and coaches are in the same building together to plan and work together. uh fosters and builds a 6 through12 student and family connection. Uh fewer student um transitions. According to the uh American Psychological Association, students who move out of a school feeder pattern were experience an average uh 10% reduction

088in performance. Uh staff can walk down the hall to support students and teachers. Improve staffing flexibility. Under location and busing, uh siblings are together. Uh, best model to increase long-term family engagement, streamline busing transportation, fewer student transfers and busing hubs. Um, currently 875 students spend an additional 20 minutes or more on the bus. And then under smart use of funding, uh, increased enrollment and CTE programs, increases funds to spend on students, uh, fewer buildings to leads to reduced operational spending and optimiz optimizes staffing models. and then effective um for future growth and flexibility which we also thought was important. So that kind that that's not all the feedback but that's the highlights for each of the dot points there. So the this represents what the LPC felt was unique about this model that gave it

089an advantage over others. Yeah, correct. These are quotations and stuff taken exa specifically from the work that we broke out in groups and focused on as we evaluated each model. Uh this is the feedback that we came back around for the option two. Clarify your question. It's why we see so many dots in the center. Correct. The under under option two. And I know one of the things and I, you know, I just want to lead into um one of the things that really spoke out and I think we heard um the representative from Boston because she has a kid um or a student I shouldn't say kid, a student at OKH and she also has a student at Boston and trying to navigate those um environments where you're having a parent teacher event and

090a lot of those fall on the same evening or at the same time like dean's breakfast and A and B honoral this year fell in the same time. So you sort of pick which kid you're going to support and that was one of the things that she repeated multiple times in the conversation. So um I can see where that really would start to disintegrate your parent engagement um when they feel that they're sort of being pulled and torn between locations. Yeah. Parents are struggling to get them to school. So they're having to pick which one they drive to school which one gets bus. We've been hearing that from parents who speak about having multiple children and needing to take them to school and it being difficult to drive. Yeah. G just the geographical difference that

091you have to navigate each day in traffic too on top of that to get your kids where they need to go. To me, that slide is one that is um of great value as we weigh this as a board member because this provides us things to think about and frame that conversation in terms of current models and different models compared to what was selected. This speaks tremendously. There were a couple conversations we also wanted to talk about as we looked at concerns brought up. There were two primary concerns brought up in this conversation uh publicly. One of those was around school safety for option two uh as we look at connecting middle school and high school students on the same campus. And um Melissa leads a lot that work with the Kentucky Center for School

092Safety and also our our district. And we were going to talk a little bit about that knowing that it's a long-term planning process. Um, and we also wanted to talk about funding as we know that's also another uh conversation that impacts our community. But I also want to add this morning I actually had a conversation uh a phone conference with the Kentucky Center for School Safety about this very issue and they're excited to partner with us in the design phase if this moves forward. Um, in fact, there's a a small uh group of uh team members at the Kentucky Center for School Safety that are seeking interested partners in uh projects of this nature. So, um I had a conversation this morning about that and that's really an exciting process as we think about partners

093and being a model for the design process. But additionally, Melissa Casease has experience as a middle school principal and as a high school uh teacher and media specialist and now administrator. So, she's going to talk a little bit about some things that we know for certain are a part of this design process as we think about that campus model. And I would just say before you start, it it was made public by our two high school principles, you know, their their their dedication u to making sure that our students are safe in this atmosphere of Yeah, absolutely. So, I think um you know, one of the things to really point out there is um the number one bullet, the strong school culture and safety ratings. And really if you look at the bottom of the

094page here, you can see um how that um how much growth we had in just a year's time and really supporting our kids in thinking through like what does this mean? How are we treating each other? Um being able to identify safety problems, being able to report those um easily um should they arise. So really proud of the work that the schools are doing there. Um so as far as past times um those would obvious I shouldn't say obviously considerations that would be made is u making sure that they were staggered so that you had pastimes that occurred at the high school level and then whatever that minute five minutes whatever it might be then the changes would occur at the middle school. So just making sure those schedules are staggered a bit. Um highly

095supervised obviously that's you know we do that already. Uh but just being really intentional about where people are placed. Um the high schools are currently using digital hall passes and they've been really successful and what those allow you to do is uh determine how many kids can be out of a room at a time. Um if there's conflicts between kids, you can say if this kid is out of the room then this kid can't be. Um and so that really that uh digital hall pass system really helps to eliminate potential issues if um there are known issues. um could potentially support in if middle schools are in this area than high schools. So, a lot of stuff that you can do with that. Uh when we think about restrooms and lunch, you know, places where

096kids may be in the same spaces, we really would be looking to make sure that middle schools had their own restrooms, high schools had their own restrooms. Um and really at the middle school level, uh the Kentucky Center of Safe Schools, they do that assessment if you request it when I was at OKH. um we had put in place that student restroom breaks were you know we took them on restroom breaks and they were supervised and even through that that's still the point where students um said they felt unsafe. So we continued to make sure that we were taking students on supervised restroom breaks and so I would see that as something that we would do um at that middle school level especially with our sixth graders. We would be intentional in really planning sixth

097grade lunch separate from high school lunch. I say sixth grade just because they are so much smaller um than than high school kiddos. But even in like when you think about transition, if middle school students uh were to transition to other spaces in that high school space, especially our young ones, that would be uh with the support of a teacher, you know, walking with them, passing them off to the next teacher. and ensuring they were um just supervised throughout. Miss Casease, what's an example of what when that might happen? So, let's say um the high school art space is a phenomenal space that we want a middle school student to experience in sixth grade. So, the art teacher would be they the art teacher wouldn't say, "Meet me in the art room over in the

098high school." They would walk with them. So they would meet in their space and then u go on a supervised walk to that space. So they wouldn't just be moving about the space without supervision. Um centralized admin hubs. We think about um the middle school having its own vice principal, its own counselor, and then even as we think about the design of the campuses, having that administration hub in the middle of the school versus right in the front just really allows um for more awareness. um more, you know, ease eas easily popping out into the hallway and being in those spaces with kids. Um and it keeps kids out of the front office, which is I think um you know, when you think about uh visitors and such, I think having them in the hub

099in the center of the school is probably a little safer anyway. And then making sure that um the 612 campuses had their own assigned SRO. When we think about acts, let me interrupt you. I'm just got notification that you're like breaking up every other word on the live feed for some reason. So people are want to hear what you're saying like that. People want to hear what you're saying. So I don't know if we got a technical issue going on. I think this is a very important call. Right. Yes. Colin, can you hear me with trade mics? I wonder when they quit hearing. Um I said it's bad. Is it still bad? We'll get some more input. It's just me. Okay. No, thank you. And I would say because of the importance of this conversation,

100if we need to move forward with the meeting, I would request that perhaps you do like a screencast later, isn't there something that could be done and put out there? Yeah. For this so that it could be recorded separately intentionally and posted to the website. Yeah. I think we could also do parents in the know events about these types of issues too. We know that they're they are highly detailed, lots of questions because I think this presentation is very informative and I think parents would want to see it. Absolutely. So, you're sounding good. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry about that. Um, so when we think about, so quick synopsis is really thinking about staggered pastimes, um, digital hall passes, um, supervised restroom breaks with middle school students, middle school and high school restrooms

101being separate, really thinking about sixth grade lunch being a separate lunch than others. Uh, because just we think about the size of sixth graders. centralized administration hub so that the admin office is in the middle of the middle school space and in the middle of the high school space. Um and having a vice principal and a counselor assigned to the middle school as well as an SRO on the 612 campus both of them should this model um be what is accepted. And then thinking about access, that external and internal access, really thinking about the middle schools and the high schools having separate entrances. And then whenever you think about the internal space, like doors such as the the ones behind us here, uh being intentional about what fobs open those and that they are locked.

102And so to move from one space to another, you would have to have a specific fob to move through that. So if I'm a teacher taking a group of students over, my fob will allow us to walk through that space, but they otherwise wouldn't necessarily be able to open that door. Clarity, that is to separate the middle school and high school sections of the building. So we would be intentional about where we would want doors to be that would really need to be access controlled. Um, of course, a lot of this comes with design and really like mapping out the space and thinking about what makes the most sense. Um and then that last piece really um having our SRO's and then local law enforcement engaged in uh video surveillance system so that again like

103currently we're making sure that um the spaces that really require the most surveillance for safety um that we have cameras in those spaces. So there's a I think there's a lot of things that you know we can speak to. I think these are just kind of highlights. Um, and I also think, you know, with as quickly as technology is moving, who knows what this might even look like a year, two years from now that we would be able to utilize that currently doesn't even exist. So, and um I know I'm putting him on the spot, but Mr. Award, is this something that is considered in design that um have you had experience with these structures? Are there other schools and districts who've been through this? It is something that we consider. Um when when we

104were working on these projects before we were having uh meetings specifically focused on security. Um but with every district we work with, we end up uh working with the security staff and those districts and verifying that their protocols and the way they do things are are matched up with the building with the facility design. Okay. Thank you. And I think this presentation is incredible, not just because I think it's important that we we value those who were concerned, but the fact that we should be having these conversations all the time, and I know they happen all the time. This is not unique to a 612 campus, right? These conversations around safety, school safety, just like um Mr. Norman was saying earlier, those should be ongoing conversations that I know you guys are having internally and

105I appreciate you bringing that to the table in this moment when we're talking about this campus. But ultimately, I know that that this is not unique. This isn't something that you guys are just designing because it's a 612 campus. These are conversations that you're having all the time because you already are concerned whether it's a middle school, a high school, a combined campus, an elementary, a 612, a eight or K8. These conversations happen all the time because safety is a priority in every one of our buildings. I appreciate the awareness and the intentionality and I was at the meeting when Miss Sakowski and Mr. Marfield spoke to this and um they had their own awareness and concerns and had been giving thought to this and um I look forward to hearing their thoughts and um

106speaking about it's not these are not quick answers. These are just as you say awareness areas that if this transpired would have to be considered. It's important for parents and community members to know that this is being thought about. It's important to me as a board member and um also trusting that our staff would come together toward finding solutions, right? And ultimately, I think we all know that everyone's individual child is their most important priority. And so, uh we want to make sure that that they feel good about that priority for sure. Thank you, Miss Casease. Thank you. Another conversation and obviously is always uh a hot topic is thinking about efficiency of our facilities and funding of that and how any given model you know impacts tax rates etc. So, one conversation we had

107with LPC again was really around facility revenue and current expenditures. Um, school facility or school funding in general is not easy to understand. So, these few slides are just trying to shed light on um money that's specifically itemized for facilities. Um, and then also looking at our current expenditures. So, again, just a broad overview in terms of local revenue that's generated for the school district. Obviously, Nelson County, uh, there's lots of property in Nelson County. If you look at our 20-year trend, we continue to grow and develop and have more property. And also, as a byproduct of that, property values have also increased. But essentially, property assessed in the county, and then the tax rate set by the school district, which is currently 67.3 cents. This is money that we generate local revenue that we

108can obviously use for our schools. Uh inside Nelson County, we have three often referred to as our nickel tax, which we have three nickels, which makes up about 15.9 cents of the tax rate. And really what I'm trying to paint here um is that even if the school district in September when you guys set the tax rate, even if you made a decision to say drastically lower it to say 50 cents, the the money that's specifically itemized for facility, these bottom three nickels are still in existence. So really the money that's generated from your property for your three nickels in a sense if property values stay flat, that money is always going to be there. annual revenue that you're getting that's specifically designed to spend on your facilities. Um, so again, just as just trying

109to make it clear, so if you, for example, if you had a $20,000 or $200,000 uh property that was assessed by the PVA and the tax rate at 67.3 cents, essentially about a,000 of that is spent on instructional money. That's the green section here. This facility money would amount to about $318. If you change that tax rate to 50 cents, the the money that's itemized for the facilities, those three nickels are still there. So really, the tax decrease would only really impact instructional funds, assuming this property value stays flat at that $200,000, $200,000 rate. So really, that's the revenue. Um the current property values in Nelson County is generating, it's about 7.4 4 million that we have annually to contribute towards our facility funding. So these three nickels currently making up 7.4 million. When you

110look at u so we do have projects that we currently owe money on uh they're listed here. Here are the projects and their expected end date in terms of uh when the bond is we no longer owe money on it. Most of them are 20-year uh bonds. And you can see these blue bars essentially represent current debt that we owe on facility projects. So in fiscal year 24 that amounts to about 4.7 million. So essentially of the 7.4 million that's generated from your three nickels essentially you're spending this much currently on current projects in existence. So the orange area represents additional money that you have available that you could bond to spend on facilities. And what the bars show is you can see by 2031 many of the projects that we're currently paying on currently

111drop off because the note ends. Uh and then beyond 2036 a few more drop off and beyond that currently the only projects that we would owe on if you didn't bond anything else would be the upenter and the bus garage. So again this is just showing if property values stay flat. The 7.4 4 million is just annual revenue that you have every year to spend on facilities. And this shows how um how the projects kind of phase out over time as you continue to pay those off. And I would just add this 15.9 cents is there protected uh by state legislatoration to pay it forward. In 1990, there was no mechanism to provide funding to support school construction. So across the state of Kentucky, all these buildings were getting condemned and they and some of

112them in Nelson County were getting condemned. Um at that time the state legislature made a move to allow for local communities to fund the future of their facilities. We like many other districts across the state of Kentucky have been able to use that money to invest. So if you look at our facilities across uh the county, you go down the line, Coxus Creek, Bloomfield Elementary School, Coxus Creek School, Bloomfield Middle School, all these schools were touched with this original money and funding scenarios and uh so on and so forth. So, it's really a way to protect a long-term investment in school construction facilities that was legislatively um created to ensure that we weren't going into what we were in 1989 and 1990 where buildings were essentially dilapidated. So, I just give some historical context. This

113is really a 30-year conversation, 35 years now. Um I can't I was thinking the 90s was like the you know but 35 years and um it's about paying it forward and I share that as why that's protected currently. I know that if you'll go back to that prior slide I'm still new to this and so what I say may be over overly simplified but I'm learning and been studying. I want to make sure that I truly understand here. So, when I'm looking at this, if this is my tax amount over here on the the left, okay, I'm paying my taxes. These are my rates that it's broken down and 15.9 of per Is it per $100? I think it is. Is that correct? That's right. Yes. Per $100 goes toward a building fund. So, I

114don't see that necessarily on my tax bill. I see the whole 67.3 cent times the number of $100 my propertyy's valued, but when it comes out, I write one check, but it gets sorted into two counts automatically by the district for the money. And that's fixed by law. The district has no choice. The district cannot take that 15.9 cents and use it for other purposes. It's intended for facilities. Am I right? That's right. Okay. And so essentially, no matter what my rate is, that 15.9 cents is the three nickels that are set by our local law or it's protected by law. So that money, no matter what the tax rate is, is going to be 15.9 cents is going to be put into a building fund, essentially a facility fund. And you said well at

115one one of the LPC meetings you said it never goes up and it never goes down. That 15.9 is always going to be 15.9 does go back and forth uh 0.12 it does move 15.8 but it's basically 15 cents. Three nickels. Yeah. basically 15 cents is always going to be there because we're never going I mean I don't want to say never but chances of us adding another nickel isn't going to happen. So that would increase it and there's not really a way I don't there's no reason to take away a nickel. So, when I was at one of our when our mandatory KSBA trainings, I was went to the finance session and there was a longtime board member from a nearby county and he was talking about this and I had never thought of

116it this way and he said that is set aside because we tend to think of things the way we buy homes and this isn't the same. He said because you tip most people own one home and you're making that payment. And he said so essentially you eventually plan to pay off your home and when you before you buy another one or you know you've got a plan in place but he said you got to think of this as most school districts own multiple buildings. You have multiple buildings you're trying to keep up. you're not going to be able to pay off one and wait before you come up with something else that has to be done. And that's what resulted in all these old dilapidated schools. And so it's the legislature forced districts to set

117money aside to stay active and keep buildings going so you didn't get kids in crisis with roofs leaking everywhere and buildings falling down. It's to keep facilities effective and efficient for our students. Yeah, keeping things modernized and keep districts keeping it going. There's a funding source for that. Does a recession affect it any way? I mean, essentially, if property value, it's really key on property values. If this is the property value, that's every year, then this 15.9 cents would amount to this amount every single year. So, if property values were to increase, then really the total contribution currently is 7.4 million. Then that would increase. So, so let's say property values went down. That's your question, right? So, if property values went down, the state has an equalization formula where they offset that to protect

118that because there's very few counties where that occurs, but it does occur. There's places in the state, you know, that have had some um people leave town, businesses, etc., uh especially in some of those smaller eastern Kentucky communities. There's an equalization formula that protects this naturally um which is also state regulated. Yeah, state regulated. So that 15.9 cents, that nickel growth, if you'll go to the next slide for us, results in about currently about $7.4 million. That's what this graph represents. What's in the orange is the amount of money left that could be used to essentially make a payment on a bond. Correct. Is that correct? Yes. And it increases across time because we have other facilities that are going to be paid for. And what I'm seeing there projects tells me the end date

119when each of those prior projects would be paid off. Right? So we could see what they are. That big drop that happens in 2031 is when Thomas Nelson Foster Heights and ELC would be paid off. Okay. Thank you. Big picture, I just want to remind everybody how we use that 51.4 4 cents is a big issue when we talk about efficiency in the LPC. Getting a return on investment of the 51.4 is part of the design process. In fact, if we if we're if we're being frank with ourselves, which I have been for the last few years, we have not the better slides this one. We have not reduced our general fund cost of delivery in any way. we have not uh decreased our duplicating admin and operational services. Um we've not been able to

120become more efficient in the models that we've had. And that was really a big part of this conversation is if we have the 51.4, what are we doing to leverage that in a way that's going to be uh a high return on investment? So I share that to say it's not just about the it's not just about spending money on facilities. It's about how do you get a return on your investment annually every year. Uh if you look at Jessica Rogers over there and James Nihoff they're saying okay now we're talking right so I share that because that's a bigger part of this conversation. So the 51 that what's in green would be the amount the contribution toward general fund. Correct. That's what gets contributed toward general fund which is our day-to-day. It's our payroll.

121It's our instructional supplies. It's all the things that that go into that. Okay. That would also be electric and the water bill and things like that too. Right. So it does include facilities just in a more dayto-day expense. Because when we go to that next slide, that says to me that we would never want to be in a place where we're exceeding that cap and pulling down from general fund to try to make any kind of payments. So, and I don't know if Nelson County Schools has ever been in in that situation that I'm aware of other than energy management services where they were getting a high return on that investment. I just think that the finance is a very important consideration because that is when I think of um efficient schools that that's a

122key thing is it's a lot of that is tied to uh the resources that are there in time and money and money being one of those. And I'm I appreciate something said earlier tonight about thankfully none of our buildings are in a true state of crisis currently. Um unlike some districts where you go in and there are facilities there from the 1920s that are just hanging on. And so that has allowed us to think about effective and I thought greatly about what the definition is of effective schools. I think the LPC has addressed that and defined it, gave context, you know, what are the elements of effective which I would call student centered because um there are projects in this district that need to happen. We have buildings with needs and it's incumbent upon me

123as a board member and I I think upon all of us to have awareness of what other needs our students may have because we need to know where we're going and what those considerations are because you we look at things holistically not on a buildingtobuilding basis. Um, so in other words, it's not just one school. You have to think about, you know, systematically what is best for our students and our community and how does then addressing one school fit within that model. So at this point, uh, the LPC, as Mr. Gossum has indicated, they have, uh, sent the draft DFP on to KD and are currently waiting revisions uh, for that. looking to set the next meeting on uh May 14th. All of the slides that follow here are really just for reference for public.

124Um these posters are here that you guys can come over and view, but uh we also wanted to made them make them accessible electronically. Um would some you go back to slide 17 which was the LPC piece um the where it talks about the website and has the QR code. I would request that you click that LPC Nelson County and then Alex if you could take just a moment and show people where how to navigate this site so if they want to view these things it's accessible to them. This is the site like if they want to see a video of a meeting what do they do right here? There's the video. It's live right now. Look at that. Okay. And let's go back. And if people want to see the data that was presented

125to the LPC, how do or these slides, how do they go about doing that? Just click the link the link of a date and that has and there's the slides and then within that where it said presentation for example um because these these slides have links to other things. Am I correct? If it says presentation that may be where the data is housed. Yes. I just want to make sure we have full transparency for community members to be able to access and view any of the links that are live. This is know how to do it that it's there. Yeah, good feedback. We Yeah, there's a lot of data in here that goes in depth about different parts of efficiency and effectiveness and that that's where people can go to see that. So, look for

126those blue links to click and see those pieces. to me. If if you've not watched the videos, if you're watching them, you want to pull these presentations up alongside it because they're so small on the screen, you can't always see everything. But if you've got it pulled up or printed off, you can follow along. Thank you. Thank you. And I want to celebrate our tech team for uh live streaming all of these events. Um it's a major undertaking. uh and uh they've continued to reorient their schedules and and um prepare for these events in a uh highly effective manner. Yes, they have to set up in advance and then they have to move down later. So yes, it is an undertaking when they and especially when they're moving school to school. And this has been

127a grueling schedule for many people. um the members of the LPC, that tech team, people who are leaders in our school and our district who've had to um set up and prepare for these things. And I want to acknowledge that and say how much I appreciate and value your work and your effort um for our students. And I know Mr. Nihoff and Mr. Gossom tried to keep those meetings in a very efficient way, but there were some that went a little late and that included our staff still being in the buildings and still working late and still going to school the next day. So, um I do appreciate all that the LPC members have done. I think for the majority it was almost 100% every meeting that they showed up and um was present. So,

128I'm great grateful for that. I want to remind everyone that that May 14th meeting is a public forum at Thomas Nelson. Um, always encouraging everyone to participate in these meetings, to be present, share your voice, um, come and speak if you are comfortable doing that. If you're not, you can email the LPC members, you can always email the board. Um, and you know, again, just reach out, let us know what you're thinking, and everything is appreciated that we hear any commentary that is um provided specifically addressed to board members is shared with us and um any written communication. So, I want to assure people that um we do receive those. I do read every one of them and I try to respond. So, um, thank you for for if you don't come to the forum,

129um, there are other ways to have feedback. So, are there any other questions around the local planning committee, do you guys have I just wanted to add that it was very rewarding being part of that process, which I know this is not over, but since we're talking about it, I'll just go and throw it out there that I feel like everybody on the committee took it very seriously. Um, I think the attendance was very high. I think everybody was really attentive and I feel like it was effective and efficient. We appreciate you doing it, Jody. That that Thank you. It was great. It is great. Definitely. Any additional questions? All right. And there's no decision tonight. This was justformational as our work sessions are just for learning purposes. Correct. So um the next portion of

130our agenda is to talk about our calendar. Um we are revising the May 20th meeting to be at central office just there may be a conflict with where that location was originally. And as a reminder that is also graduation week. Um, so one of the things that I want to touch on briefly is, um, since I've been on the board, I've really tried to re-energize what graduation looks like across our district. Um, and I will say that I'm grateful that our principles have reinvented some of the role that the board has played. We used to hand out diploma, my first year, we handed diplomas out. I know some of the students that my kids went to school with, but that my kids were not graduating at that time. So handing a diploma to a a

131student while rewarding for me wasn't necessarily I think the most heartfelt way to hand a diploma. So I have I advocated that we transition that and the principles came up with their care and connect leaders um which was a beautiful thing to happen. I mean, seeing these these people that have been part of these students lives for four years, um, sometimes longer if they transition from middle school to high school was a wonderful thing. And I have continued to advocate for a transition of what our roles are as board members. And so I'm really given permission to our principles to look at what that looks like. How can we incorporate people across the district that have really been embedded in the lives of our students? Um, and again, our roles as board members is be

132there to support these students and to celebrate them, but I don't know necessarily if we should be on the stage. So, I'm sort of looking at ways that we can talk about that with the principles and hopefully by the 20th we will sort of look at what that or yeah the 20th what that looks like so we're prepared on the 23rd. Um do you want to talk about the recommendation that you made? Well, again, it was really about the journey of the students, whether it's our elementary principles being part of that that moment and our middle school principles being part of that moment so that they can sort of share in that celebration with those students and sort of come full circle from their moment that they walked into our buildings to the moment that

133they walk out our buildings. The very people that have been there to support them and engage with them and to uplift them, I think would be an an amazing experience. And I was talking to Miss Belinda earlier, you know, this week our seniors have been going to their elementary schools to celebrate that last bit and she's like, they did not want to leave. So again, I think it's just it reiterates the amount of heart that these kids have for their elementary principles and their their middle school principles. And I I really think that would be a great way to start. Again, that's just part of the conversation as we go forward in the next couple weeks. or is it it is two weeks, right? Well, I guess I I I would just say from a

134logistic standpoint, I just evaluating the board's openness to this conversation, there's really two options. Uh from that context, you could have a school representative, for example, you could take it where hypothetically Miss Belinda represents the Boston school on stage that night. Uh which as you know, there's a lot of humanity in that. There's, you know, it would be kind of like a a symbol for that school. The other option is that it's the principal. And there's the I think the assumption is twofold. There's a larger conversation we're trying to have as a district right now around this student is in in everyone's care. Doesn't matter where they go to school, they're part of our care. And they also are part of a 13 14-year journey. and that elementary and middle school principles need to see

135the impact they have as kids are leaving our system because we often lose track of the big picture. uh and we we do that we compartmentalize we say this we say that um so those are two scenarios I think there's benefit to both of those scenarios um I will say this the principles you know by nature are uh also kind of part of a whatever happened last year changing that is always like oh you know the stage is real sensitive we found uh and I do appreciate Miss Bowling furthering that conversation I think it does beg the question. If the board isn't on the stage, where would they be and uh what would they how would how might they serve in that uh space and capacity? Because we do know it's important uh that you're

136all's work as community leaders is is there and present. Um but I guess really it would be more so how open is the board to that conversation because we would need to make the decision over the next week allowing for uh the principles uh to prepare for that. I mean, and I don't have an opinion. I mean, whatever you want to do. I I think maybe just saying principles, I like the idea of it a representative because hopefully we don't have the turnover that we've had at the principal level, but you know, maybe to find somebody that was there if you're looking at this class. I mean, I think it's important that it be representative and sometimes the principal is not the representative. Well, and sometimes the principal like you know and Miss Clark may

137not go to Nelson County High School because they're they may have one or two students that attend that school, but they may be more connected to students at Thomas Nelson. So I think again it is about logistically looking at where are the connections and where are the strong connections. So I think again it's just a kind of opening up the conversation of giving more importantly it's about us giving permission to our principles to reinvision what graduation looks like for our students and and us not being the impeding thing that says oh we got to think about where the board is you know I am com again I am serviceoriented so if if I need to hand out tickets or if I need to hand out pamphlets, if I need to direct traffic, you tell me

138where you need me, where's your shortfall because that's where I'm going to be and that's how I want to look at my role. But I also want to honor what the principles want in this process. I trust our principles to work with our um staff and more importantly our students in designing what they would like graduation to look like and making it meaningful and representative of their um accomplishments and support to get to that day. So I do like the idea of someone being on that stage that the kids recognize from their early on years of education up to their graduation. I do like that. Um, I would like to explore that more and see how we can come up with that. You know, uh, me as a board member, I don't think I have

139many connections with these kids as some of these principles and teachers that's devoted their whole life to them. I do like the idea of like maybe service like maybe we could just, you know, hand out tickets or water, man a table or whatever. I mean, that would be fine just to participate without being on the front row. No big deal. James Nyoff is so proud right now to see a board having this conversation. I love this. Yeah, he's he's very because to be frank, these are the types of things that are important about thinking about the schools. And one of the things that's happened in the last two years is student behavior has improved when they walk across stage, walk across the stage because they know the person they're about to shake hands with or

140hug. And we saw that very clearly. they see Amy Durban's face, they absolutely are going to behave walking across that stage. We did. We really have. You know, I hate to say this, but you know, more and more when they're on the stage with people they don't know, they're more likely to do the little, you know, weird game of the marble or this or the that. We've not seen that with Karen Connect leaders in the same way because they're right there with them. First of all, like I know these four kids. They're walking across the stage. There's an ownership and accountability in that. We saw that both at Thomas Nelson and Nelson County. And the other big thing is the kids are genuinely smiling when they get to they're not just nervous. The first year

141we the car and connect leaders at Thomas Nelson did it was the year my daughter graduated. And I I remember after graduation I talked to the superintendent and I said I had the best seat in the house because I wasn't on the stage. I chose that for myself that year because I wanted to be a parent that night. And I said, I had the best seat on the house because I got to see the look on the car and connect leaders face when their student came up. And he's like, no, I beat you. I got to see the students. And it was it was that moment where you sort of realize that that is such a special moment for those two people coming together that we can't replace that. There's nothing that we can do

142to replace that moment. So I think that's why we do we need to sort of give permission for this process to happen. and also the awkward robe. We could get out of the rope. We could get out of the room. So, I'm okay with that, too. So, u with that being said, um the June 10th meeting at the UPC center, I believe we need to still make sure that um we get permission from our construction leads to that we're going to be okay to be in that space in July 22nd. It's summer, so those meetings will be a little um yeah, less heavy. um policies, things like that. We'll be going over those. If we can't be if we cannot be at the UPC center on June 10th, perhaps we could do like a tour

143before Yeah. the meeting or something just to to see maybe a hybrid progress and then meet nearby. We we would need to approve the revised May 20th location in order for it not to be a special call meeting. I make a motion to approve the calendar adjustments as discussed. I second. All right. Thank you guys. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. Um, I'd like to take just a second and celebrate it's National Teacher Appreciation um, day and week. And I'm so grateful for the committed staff who choose to be part of Nelson County Schools. And that's beyond just our teachers, but it's everyone connected into our buildings who work with our students. And um, in this day and age, it is very difficult to find good quality and retain good quality teachers.

144there are options for people to go in many places and everyone who chooses to be part of Nelson County Schools is just um to be celebrated and um I have grandchildren in the system and um I I give so many shoutouts for the care and the way they go above and beyond to make them feel part of things and loved and to invest into our students. So, thank you. Thank you to our educators. I want to take a time to congratulate the robotics team. They placed first. Yes. Got to meet them at the uh conference, the last conference we had. What a great bunch of guys. Great teachers. I don't want to mention anyone because I'll leave someone out, but uh thank those teachers specifically and all the teachers too, but u what a great

145job they done and I know they're at fiscal court today even performing there for them and doing some great work there. So, thanks. Thank them. I I believe we're going to try to have them per be at our May 20th meeting. I went to see them at their championship game in Lexington. And I know we get excited about football and we get excited about baseball and we get to watch those kids, but it was they were down with I think it was Russell County and they came back to beat them by one point in this robotics game and it was so exciting. I mean me and another parent was over there and we're sweating like what is going on? Why is this so hard? Why are we so excited? Um it was it is such

146a cool space that these kids are in and what they've created. So um yes, they are definitely something to be celebrated. Um also last night I wanted to mention um we had 15 students from across Nelson County graduate with associates degrees before they're graduating from high school. And one of them, Mr. Jacob Reynolds is a junior graduating with an associates degree here in Nelson County. It was our very first um celebration in that space with these kids and it was remarkable and and just the excitement in the room, but more the powerful um speech by the the gentleman from ECTC talking about the work um and how this is just something to be celebrated. Um but those students remarkable. But to have a junior graduating with an associates degree in just incredible. Um so we

147need to celebrate those. And right now it is celebration season. It's our teachers. It's our students. We have events going on across this district. Um retiree um and pride award winners are Thursday night. We get to go celebrate them. Um again, just take a moment, enjoy one of these events. Get out and celebrate our people and our students and our staff. um because they're doing they're doing remarkable things and the students are meeting e every expectation and it's it's just a true joy to watch. So I guess does anybody else want to celebrate? Sorry I took a lot of that. Okay. So the trip to the art event we have in Nelson County, what a great job Miss Williams and Miss Glass me Glass. Glass what a great job they're doing there and and the

148children's very proud of their work and rightly so. It was so I say these events are just incredible, aren't they? Yeah, they are. It's like you just walk away and you're like, how are we not talking more about these things? So, yes. And I wish I could attend every single one. And sometimes we run into competing times and it it's hard, but I'm so grateful for all that that is done for the students. Yeah. So, it's good stuff. All right. With that, um do I have a motion to dismiss? Motion. Journ. All right. Thank you. All right. Thanks, guys. All in favor?