Special Regular Board Meeting- March 30, 2026

001Mhm. >> All right, thank you everyone for being here. We're going to call to order the special called meeting on March 30th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. here at the Woodford County Central Office. Roll call, we have all board members here and in person. And if we could stand for the pledge of allegiance. And I know we have a lot of middle school students here, so if you wouldn't mind leading us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Just wanted to get you warmed up before your performance here in a little bit. All right. Well, we're going to start off tonight with some recognitions, so I'm going

002to call up Ms. Bailey. Okay. We have four recognitions tonight and they are each wonderful. I'm excited. Um, so board, don't we? Yeah, so I'm going to invite the board to come stand here in the center. Um, I'll read through these recognitions one at a time and um, when you hear your name, you will come up and get your certificate um, and shake the board's hand and then we'll get a group photo, okay? Okay, up first, we have a Woodford County High School student, Carlos Marin Melendez. Woodford County Public Schools is proud to honor Carlos Marin Melendez with the Superintendent's Hive Award for Harvesting Innovation, Vision, and Excellence. He was not not nominated multiple times by those who have witnessed his impact first hand. Carlos is a shining example of what it means to lead

003with heart and purpose. As a dedicated member of the Principal Advisory Committee and an English Learner Peer Tutor, Carlos has become a fearless advocate for our Spanish-speaking students. He consistently goes above and beyond his required duties, ensuring that every student has a voice and the support they need to succeed. His vision for a more inclusive school community is matched only by his innovation and how he helps his peers navigate their educational journeys. Carlos' excellence extends far beyond the classroom. Despite facing significant medical challenges, he has shown incredible perseverance, maintaining a rigorous schedule of dual credit courses while balancing athletics and a part-time job. His ability to remain an active, positive force in the community while managing these responsibilities is nothing short of inspiring. Carlos, thank you for your resilience, your advocacy, and for being such

004an integral part of the Woodford County family. You truly embody the spirit of Hive. Next up, we have Ms. Paula Everheart. >> [applause] >> We're moving from student leadership to the heart of our community partnership. True community isn't just about where you live, it's about how you show up for one another. For over a decade, Paula Everheart has shown up for Woodford County Public Schools in ways that words can hardly capture. Tonight, we recognize Paula with the Superintendent's Hive Award for Harnessing Innovation, Vis- Vision, and Excellence. For the past 10 to 12 years, Paula has been a quiet force of nature behind the scenes. Whether she is partne- partnering with our staff or supporting our students, her commitment has never wavered. Her vision for a supported student body and her innovative approach to community partnership

005have left an indelible mark on our district. Paula, thank you for your decade of dedication and for your heart for every child child in your care. Next, we have Ms. Rebecca Gooslin. >> [applause] >> Innovation in education isn't just about new ideas. It's about having the vision to bring them to life for every single student. Our next honoree, Rebecca Gooslin, is a master of doing exactly that. As the equity equity team lead at Huntertown, Rebecca serves as an empathetic communicator, ensuring that our schools are places where every student feels seen, valued, and heard. Rebecca's visionary approach to learning is perhaps best capture- captured by the fifth grade cake wars project-based learning event, which is so unique. What started as a classroom activity has become a model of innovation shared with the Kentucky Department of Education

006and districts across the state, proving that Reb- Rebecca's excellence has a reach far beyond our county lines. Beyond the curriculum, Rebecca is a responsible contributor to our community. From leading the House of Reverse charity drive for homeless veterans to organizing the Trick or Trot fundraiser for the fifth grade DC trip, she is constantly modeling student stewardship for her students. Whether she is beautifying the Huntertown Community Interpretive Park or mentoring her peers, Rebecca represents the very best of our school family. Rebecca, thank you for your tireless work to connect people, inspire purpose, and truly unite the Hive. Next, Ms. Lori Clayton. >> [applause] >> Our final honoree of the evening is a face that may look familiar to many you. Just last month we recognized her as part of our incredible snow storm relief team. But

007tonight we are honoring the magic touch she brings to our halls every single day. Please join me in celebrating Ms. Lori Clayton. >> [applause] >> Lori joined us just 6 months ago and in that short time she has completely transformed the feel of our building. She didn't just step into her role. She jumped in with a vision to elevate our environment to a higher standard. Lori has a gift for seeing the details that others might overlook. From meticulously scrubbing windows and their blinds to ensuring every door and knob is polished and pristine. Her work is the very definition of excellence. Beyond her daily upkeep, Lori's constantly seeking out new areas to refresh and revitalize treating our school with a kind of care and pride uh usually reserved for one's own home. Because of her efforts,

008our hallways, stairwells, and offices feel brighter, fresher, and more welcoming for every student and staff member who walks through them. But it it isn't just her skill that makes her a standout. It's her spirit. Whether she is in the zone humming a tune while she works or stopping to offer a kind word and and an uplifting perspective, Lori is a true professional. She has turned the role of custodian into a master class in stewardship. Lori, thank you for your drive, your standards, and for being such a blessing to our Woodford County Public Schools family. You truly make the hive shine. Thank you again to all of our honorees tonight. Next we are going to move into our superintendent's remarks. So Dr. Jones, I'll let you get your presentation pulled up there. Well, good evening. As

009you can see from our presentations, we we truly have an incredible school system. And I would venture to say that's because of the incredible students we have, the incredible staff we have, but also our families and our community. And some of my remarks tonight will revolve around those themes. So again, our theme this year is unite the hive. All voices are united in building the next generation of excellence in Woodford County. My special shout outs this month are to the Woodford Educational Endowment Foundation. They are incredible partners of Woodford County Public Schools and they do such an incredible job of supporting students in being able to have multiple opportunities in the arts and in other areas and I just wanted to thank them specifically for that but also for their sponsorship of the choir that

010went to New York City. They sponsored for every student on that trip to be able to see a Broadway show. And that was very special to to those students. So I want to thank them for their partnership. I also want to thank our Woodford County Foundation who also supported They support so many things every single day in our district and so does WEAF. But specifically I also want to thank community partners Mayor Laura Dake, Lyle Taylor, William Downey, Larry Blackford, Chantel Bingham, James Kay, Kelly Carl, Ann Miller, and Lisa Johnson for specific donations to a cause that came up the last couple weeks that um was very important and I just really appreciate them and and their donations and their partnership. I also want to give a shout out to we had a senior student

011who um wanted to have the entire school student body at the high school honor two of our students who are graduating and it was very special. So the entire school she organized the entire school to be able to do a send off for these two students and then I also wanted to recognize some of our boys basketball members who um have coached the Special Olympics basketball the the um team the unified team with several of our students and I just I just think you know, it just shows exactly why we are so special and and really why we are just an incredible school system. Um just just wanted to briefly go back to the budget timeline. So we are now in the in April we will receive a seek forecast from the state the Kentucky

012Department of Education telling us kind of what our state funding is going to look like for the next year. And so that will then lead us into final budget conversations or tentative budget conversations with the board in May and also final staffing for our schools. And anything that we talk about with the budget is on the budget transparency page and I just wanted to remind everyone of that. I also want to say that several people have said we really think you need to take the budget road show to the community. And so we are planning to do that in May after the board approves the tentative budget so that we I can answer questions from our community members as well. And last our new superintendent training this month focused on educational law and finance and

013I was able to learn quite a bit about that as a new superintendent from both my mentor coaching and then sessions at the educational law and finance conference. So thank you all. Thank you. And next we'll move into our good news report and Ms. McCown I'll start over with you. Thank you. I just [clears throat] wanted to share that on Tuesday, April the 14th at 5:40 p.m. at the WCHS baseball field there's an event called bases for books. So elementary students can run the bases before the game and they will receive a free book. And all of the elementary students will receive free admission to the game so I'm sure the weather will be great. If anybody is not doing anything on Tuesday, April the 14th take your kids to the baseball game and let

014them run off some energy and get a free book. Thank you. Mr. Wilson. Mr. Chairman, thank you. I want to I don't know who organized the recognitions this evening but they were powerful. Powerful. And that that was such a great way to start. It was. I'd like to on my good news report I'd like to uh to share the March 12th issue of the Woodford Sun. The lead story is WCHS students stage walkout to protest ICE in Woodford County. I'm not getting involved with what they were protesting but I do want to congratulate them on having the courage and the conviction to stand up and tell us and everyone how they felt about a situation. Um I grew up in a time where demonstrations happened all the time. And I understand it takes courage to

015do that to to commit to a to a cause and especially in in our world today where everything is a 50/50 issue. You know when you say something 50% of the people are going to think you're wrong. But yet these hundred students did it. They they said how they they felt and I think that was wonderful on their part. I'd also like to include in the good news the work that our administration did at the high school in helping to organize this and to ensure everyone was secure and and everything was done properly. The next thing I'd like to do to recognize is I'd like to recognize Lena Clayton who wrote the article in the paper about the event. Bob's Bob writes very good too but Lena really writes good. And uh uh if you

016read further in the paper the journal journalism class and the Woodford Sun are working together to help our students get into the newspaper and I've seen several articles that they have written. And it's well done. So I'll conclude by saying the hundred or so students, well done students. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. Dr. Gool. So I had the privilege of being a parent chaperone for the FCCLA state conference this past week. I also was able to see many of our Woodford County students receive awards in their star events at the state level and get bids to nationals. And I just want to say we have amazing students in both of the middle school and the high school that were there competing, networking, engaging in different building career building opportunities, really just having just an awesome experience

017overall. So, I just want to say congratulations to all the star winners and all the people that participated. Shout out to the middle school, all of their competitors advanced to the national championship earning first or second place in each of their categories. So, that's pretty phenomenal that every one of them moved forward and special shout out to Miss Olivia Wright who is the sponsor for FCCLA there. But, also congratulations to all of our high school students that advanced to the national competition in Washington, D.C. So, I really encourage anyone who is not involved with a CTE related organization to get involved. The belonging and connection that these young people felt across the state was just phenomenal. So, we have just a showing of just how wonderful our Woodford County students truly are, how smart they

018are, how considerate and caring they are, and how they take those opportunities to network and get involved. is just so very important. So, I just want to share that experience. So, it it was a privilege to be a parent um uh chaperone in those thing at that event. Thank you. Miss Springate. I just wanted to share that April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and so we'll be seeing the pinwheels around the county and the state and also the little blue ribbons. And Wednesday, April the 1st, people will be wearing their blue. So, hopefully that'll bring attention and uh that we can all find ways to be helpful and supportive of our children and our families. Thank you. And my good news is actually connected to our presentation tonight, but I got the opportunity to

019go see Newsies this weekend. It was fantastic. Y'all did an amazing job. Thank you for that and about what you're and what you're going to share. I also got an opportunity to go see Willy Wonka's performance at Simmons Elementary. And so, just a huge shout out to all of our school's theater music departments. The amount of work that goes into those from the students and the teachers, directors, student directors, sound, stage crew, everybody puts so much into these and they come out fantastic. So, just wanted to give a huge thank you for for that. All right. And that was my transition into our next piece which is our Woodford County Middle School Newsies performance. Hi, everyone. I promise I will be very brief. My name is Mica Gearing and I'm the choir and theater director

020at the middle school and I get to work with these amazing kiddos every day. We did just close Newsies yesterday. So, this was kind of one little extra Easter egg we got to do and I thought it'd be fun if we at least wore costumes. We're going to do a number from the show called Seize the Day. And if you're not familiar with Newsies, it's great. Check it out. But, the premise is is these kids on the streets of New York, they stand up for themselves and they speak up for what they believe in and as a result of doing so, people listen and a change actually happens. So, that's kind of the overarching theme that we've been discussing during rehearsals. That and also what a newspaper is because none of these children have ever

021held a newspaper. Um So, yes, we're we're going to do a little dialogue, a little scene, a little dancing. So, enjoy this quick little excerpt. >> [singing and music] [music] [singing] [music] [screaming] [cheering] [screaming] [cheering] [screaming] [singing and music] [singing] [applause] >> Oh my god. Thank you all so much. One more round of applause for them. That was fantastic. >> [applause] >> Yeah, that's it. Thank you so much, everyone. Nice job on the back flips, too. That was impressive. Yeah, I don't know. That's your turn. Give everybody a minute to head out. And whenever you're getting set up, we'll open it up for the Woodford County Middle School presentation. Perfect. Okay, I got it. Okay. So, while she's setting up, I am Brittany Collins. I am assistant academic team coach at the middle school and

022the one handing out the buzzers is Allison Westcott. She's the head coach. And for the past 3 years, we have had the wonderful opportunity of taking our quick recall team to state. So, we had thought it would be fun to do quick recall the academic team against the board. And um some of the board members are finding out right now that that's what we're doing. So uh I'm going to go over just some of the quick rules. Um Mr. Brickler, you are captain. Okay. Sammy, you already know you're captain. Uh the way it's going to work is it's either going to be a toss-up or a bonus. Okay? If you buzz in on a toss-up and you get it right, your team gets a bonus. You get to talk to your team, which means um

023Ms. McCown McCown? McCown, you may need to move at some point. Or just be loud. Or just be loud so they can hear you. Um and then if you get the bonus correct, that's an extra point for you. People are already buzzing. Cool. Um the buzzer will go off up here um and will say either board and their name or Woodford and their name. They're in here as Woodford and WCMS. I will be the moderator because I'm the moderator at practice. Um so I will say toss-up and then a number. Then I'll read the question. Please wait until you are called upon to answer. And I'll let So so so we're going to do a buzzer check, but we know Sherry's works, okay? Uh board Adam, buzz. Just hit your little button. Y- yes. Uh

024board Katie, if you would buzz. Board Sherry. And board Sarah. Uh Woodford Adrian. Woodford Sammy. Oop. Are you clicking? He is clicking. It's It's that funky buzzer that works sometimes. There it goes. Oh, that's River's. Swap with So swap with River. Oh, I'll also say that um while we're up here, River did also um place to go to state for math. At the written assessment. Oh, good. So you have a ringer on your team. Awesome. Well, he did finish I think 39th out of probably what, 120? >> Oh, wow. Nice job. So uh yeah, River's our math person if you can't tell. Um and then we have Adrian. He does quick recall. Sammy does quick recall and uh Claire does quick recall and she's our arts and humanities person. So, these questions are typically three

025sentences long, so they take a second uh to be read. You can buzz in at any moment as long as you are recognized first. Okay? All right. I got to get my official voice going on, so. You can plug it right there. There. Thank you. All right. Toss-up one. This American author famously gave lectures around the world, including a world tour made to pay off debts he accumulated from failed investments. He co-wrote The Gilded Age, a satirical novel about post-Civil War America with Charles Dudley Warner. What American author wrote The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson? Board Sarah. Faulkner. Incorrect. Board Claire or Woodford Claire. Hawthorne. Incorrect. It was Mark Twain. Toss-up two. Hawaii served as the principal setting and filming location for this 2025 film. Board Katie. Incorrect. As of September 1st, 2025, this Disney release

026has grossed $1 billion since its May 22nd, 2025 release. Name the live-action Disney remake that tells the story of Experiment 626 and his adopted Woodford Sammy. Lilo and Stitch. >> Correct. Bonus for Woodford. This musical exercise is typically done with arpeggios and cadences for warm-up. Types include pentatonic, chromatic, major, and minor. What is the name It's a bonus. You can't buzz. What is the name for a series of notes ordered by pitch? Scales. Correct. I forgot to say that on bonuses you don't buzz. Uh toss-up four. This simple element is odorless, tasteless, highly flammable, Board Sarah. Incorrect. And is the most abundant element in the universe. It usual Woodford Sammy. No answer. It was hydrogen. Toss-up five. 33 is the product of two prime numbers. How many numbers smaller than 33 are co-prime with the

027number 33? >> [laughter] >> Oh, were you buzzing? Yeah. Okay. The time was out. Sorry. So it was 20. Toss-up six. The prime factorization for 360 is 2 cubed * 3 squared * 5. Given this information, you can find how many factors the number 360 has. How many factors does the number 360 have? >> [laughter] >> Woodford River. 17. Incorrect. River got it wrong. Board Sherry. 24. Toss-up seven. This book is set in both 2199 and 1999. In it, Ridge Zabala travels from the future and meets Michael Rosario. Name the 2025 Newbery Medal winner by Erin Entrada Kelly. Time. It's the first state of being. Toss Toss-up eight. Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Chicago are all located along the shores of this Great Lake. It's southeastern and Woodford Claire. >> Michigan. Correct. Bonus nine. >> [laughter]

028>> This vector >> [laughter] >> This vector quantity is constant for C in a vacuum. It changes in this quantity define acceleration and its English unit can be miles per hour. What is the change in displacement over time measured in SI units of meters per second? Incorrect. Captain? No. No answer? It's velocity. Toss-up 10. This man was the court painter to King Philip the IV of Spain and Portugal. Centuries later, artists like Picasso and Dali would pay homage to his work. Who is this painter of Las Meninas? Woodford Claire. Degas. Incorrect. Board Adam. Diego Velázquez. Toss-up 11. The Force Bill passed by the US Congress in 1833 helped to resolve this conflict. Former Vice President John C. Calhoun's opposition to the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832 drove this conflict. What conflict arose

029when the South Carolina legislature declared federal tariffs null, void, and non-binding within the state's borders? Time. It's the Nullification Crisis. >> [laughter] >> Toss-up 12. This religious leader's name real name was Siddhartha Gautama. His Woodford Claire. Buddhism. Incorrect. His eponymous religions believe in the Board Sherry. It is Buddha. Bonus for the board. Uh 13. This organ is also called the pinna and its unique shape attempts to funnel waves in or sorry, funnel waves to improve its function. This organ in mammals contains three ossicles called the hammer, anvil, and stirrup, as well as a vibrating tympanic membrane. Wow. Name this sensory organ that is responsible for equilibrium and hearing. You just tell Adam. Correct. Board two, Woodford three. Toss-up 14. River, I'm coming to you. A linear function has the form f of x = mx

030+ b. If m = 3 and b = -2, what is f of 4? Woodford River. 10. 10. Yes. And to answer your question, it was the Kentucky Association for Academic uh competition. And these are actually questions from District Round 3, which is the lowest competition we do. >> [laughter] >> Way to rub it in. THANK YOU. UH OKAY, BONUS 15. Verbs are classified in numerous ways depending on how they are used in a sentence. They may be transitive or intransitive. What specific type of intransitive verb is used to connect the subject with a word or phrase in the predicate? I designate Adrian. Correct. Linking verb. Toss-up 16. This quadrilateral has exactly one pair of parallel sides. It can be isosceles. Woodford River. Trapezoid. >> Correct. Bonus 17. This list of statements found in the

031Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 is part of a larger speech given on a mountain side. The speech by Jesus Christ is about blessings and the rewards of suffering. What name is given to this series of statements, which each begin blessed are the, delivered during the Sermon on the Mount. >> [laughter] >> No, I don't remember that. Oh, no answer. Correct. That's what we call a bounce back. Toss-up 18. According to the Venerable Bede, these German invaders established the kingdoms of Essex, Wessex, and Sussex. Charlemagne battled these or sorry, battled with these people for 32 years. Board, Sarah. The Huns. Incorrect. For 32 years in a namesake war ending with their incorporation into the Frankish Empire. What people invaded Britain along with the Jutes and the Angles? And uh Woodford, Claire. Saxons. Correct. Bonus 19. A

032major one of these events occurred when the Chicxulub crater formed. And that is referred to as the KT one of these. Habitat destruction is the number one cause of these types of events, but other factors such as over-harvesting may also result in these. What term refers to the complete loss of a species through the death of all its individuals? Correct. Toss-up 20. Like the harmonica, this German instrument is a type of free reed aerophone. The right-hand side has a small keyboard, while the left-hand side Board, Sarah. Correct. Bonus 21. This This international agreement replaced the papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI that set up a line of demarcation in 1493. In 1494, the final treaty divided the New World with a meridian line halfway between the Cape Verde Islands and Hispaniola. What treaty's primary

033goal was to settle conflicts between Spain and Portugal over newly discovered lands? You may tell. Uh Treaty of is in parentheses, so it's partial. It's not a buzz, it's a bonus. Incorrect. Uh I designate River. Treaty of Spain and Portugal. Incorrect. It is the Treaty of Tordesillas, because everyone knew that. Toss-up 22. A triangle has a base of 15 cm. The height of the triangle is 20 cm in square cm. Woodford, River. 150. Correct. >> [laughter] >> Bonus 23. Oh my goodness, if you get this wrong. Another name for this instrument is the potato flute. Usually egg-shaped, it is often made of clay. What is this small woodwind with eight finger holes traditionally used in Italian carnivals? Ocarina. Correct. I'm going to time out and I'm going to sub. Okay, because Noah's been over there

034dying. >> [laughter] >> Noah, go for River. I'm taking River out. Griffin, come on. River. Oh, and we're putting Griffin in, too. Cool. It takes a second for us to change the name. You put in Griffin. Huh? It's my last name. No. No, I didn't. I didn't. But we do have 2 minutes and 2 seconds left in this half. All right. Hurry up, Sammy. Come on. Sammy. So you CAN'T BUZZ. ALL RIGHT. ALL RIGHT. Toss-up 24. In this work, Billy Weaver is a young man just arrived in Bath to take on a new job. He's looking for somewhere to stay and comes across what appears to be a cozy bed and breakfast. Things don't turn out well for Billy, however, because the proprietor of the bed and breakfast has a penchant for taxidermy. In what

035short story by Roald Dahl? Woodford, Sammy. >> Person. Incorrect. Board, Sarah. Incorrect. The landlady. That is a story by Roald Dahl, yes. You had the author right. Toss-up 25. These large weather systems march across the world bringing rain and or snow except in the equatorial belt. Their masses of air move around a central point in a counterclockwise motion and are steered Woodford, Sammy. Typhoon. Incorrect. And are steered by the jet stream. Name these weather systems that are noted as a capital blue L on weather maps. Board, Sarah. Correct. Because it had pressure system in parentheses, so it wasn't required. Bonus 26. This is the meaning of the Greek root found in words like agnostic and recognize. You also see it in terms such as diagnosis, prognosis, and incognito. What is the meaning of the Greek

036word gnost? It's g n o s t, by the way. It is knowledge. Toss-up 27. These structure Okay, these structures in a fungus facilitate the creation of spores for reproduction in the main structure of Board, Adam. Incorrect. Reproduction and the main structure of growth for the organism. They are composed of elongated cells which branch out and provide the vast network for nutrient and water absorption. What are these thread-like filaments that make up a fungus? Woodford, Sammy. Spores. Incorrect. It's hyphae. Match time. Match time. Final score. Final score, Board 6, Woodford County Middle School 10. And uh is is it Claire's time now? Is Claire presenting? Um do you want Claire to go now or Okay. All right. >> [laughter] >> No, we're not. Okay. No, I don't. >> [laughter] >> Music trivia. All right. Yeah.

037All right. All right. All right. So thanks for entertaining us with the quick recall match. I just wanted to give a big shout out to Miss Westcott, Miss Miss Collins, and our students for coming out tonight. And also the Newsies is so so good. So thank you, Miss Gearing, for all that you poured into our students. I think you're still back there. And [snorts] I just thank you to her and thank you to our students for coming to share their talents with So back in the fall, I shared our three big rocks with you all. So they were unity, all kids thrive, we're going to get there, and future ready. So tonight I just wanted to show you all about how those have looked this year as we've gone through the year, and then I

038have a couple of students who are going to share their experiences with us. So while the two experiences that you saw tonight, the Newsies and the academic team, they look very different, they're all building the same things. So they're building confidence, they're building teamwork, they're building communication, and they're building resilience. So these skills are highlighted in our portrait of a learner, and a lot of what I'm going to talk about tonight is also the highlighting that work. And so all of that is also helping to prepare our students for life after middle school. So I've said it before that middle school years are really hard. >> [laughter] >> Middle school is is challenging for for the kids, and so something that is really important to me is that our students feel like they belong when

039they're in our building. And so that led us to selecting unity as a big rock for us this school year. So we want to make sure that our students feel connected in our building. So we I have talked with you all about our bar model before. So through bar, intentional team structures and initiative like earn your stripes, we are working to build a sense of community around our school. So our behavior data continues to show that this model is working with our behavior referrals decreasing over 50% since we've implemented this model. And then some of my favorite things that we've done this year, you've got some pictures, are we have started recognizing students of the month, and that's been really fun to do with our teachers and to recognize the students. And then we're having

040stripes competitions. And middle schoolers really love free seating at lunch, so they they're working hard to earn their stripes. So and then two pictures on here that you'll see, two of our teachers, some of our math teachers teamed up and had our eighth graders teaching our sixth graders math. They pulled them during class, brought them into the cafeteria, and they were teaching, and it was awesome to see. Yes. We'll work on that. >> [laughter] >> All right. So all kids thrive is our next big rock, and this is focusing on growth and opportunities for all of our students. So we are extremely proud to have grown um a green school on KSA. Um and we also had positive gains in the school climate and safety survey. Um so this rock is also all about experiences

041and I personally think that our teachers do an amazing job of providing experiences and opportunities for our kids. Um from class projects like the Millennial Fair. Um I think that those pictures uh you all have seen those pictures before. Um we've had the Millennial Fair, we've had the Pathway Fair for our eighth graders, we had the Career Fair. Um I recently sat in on Shark Tank for some of our sixth graders. That was really fun. Um and then some of our seventh graders have an opportunity they're writing children's books right now. Um and that's just been really great. Um so we have that and then we have the success of our athletic teams that have been doing awesome this year. And then recently our band and our orchestra earned distinguished ratings um at their state

042assessment. So and then like Ms. Collins said, our academic team has made it to state for three years in a row. So that's really awesome. Um all right. And then the next slide is future ready. So with this one we are really focusing on ensuring that students are just developing skills um that's going to help them in the real world. Um so our teachers are again creating opportunities for students to engage in just authentic learning experiences. So we are doing things like student led conferences that are coming up soon. Um we had students um present a case in in the courthouse. Which was a great trip for them. Um we have students taking on leadership roles through FCCLA and through FFA. Um and we recently had students who piloted their defenses of learning. Um and

043that was great to see them just um own that that piece of learning. So those are all skills that we want them to have in their future. So right now I have just a couple of students who are going to share their experience with us. I don't know who wants to go first. Go Claire Jones. All right. Okay, I'll I'll try not to ramble super long. I wrote it down. Um being a resilient learner is a concept that all members of the team need to understand and comply with. When you play um on this team sport, you need to be able to believe that your answer matters. And that if you aren't correct, that's okay. You need to pick yourself up and understand that making a mistake is part of being human. If we give

044if we gave up the first time we lost, we never would have made it to state three years in a row. Academic team teaches vital life lessons, teamwork, resilience, patience, responsibility, and the vital importance of studying, public speaking, and much more. To close, academic team has taught me so much about myself and other people. It's been a joy to spend three years on the team. >> [applause] >> Those are really funny pictures, guys. Um Hi, I'm Annie Boba Marati. I have a speech. Um I played Cratchit. I know it's super hard to tell. It's a really hard character name to remember, guys. But um I've been doing theater and choir with Ms. Gearing or Mama G. We call her Mama G. for three years now. Since I was an itty-bitty sixth grader. And the arts

045are like my biggest thing now. I do so much theater. Um the arts have always benefited students in so many ways. Not only does theater bring students out of their comfort zones, but it also improves their self-worth. I've known so many actors they're here tonight that have found that theater made themselves feel really good. It makes you so happy. Theater helps people my age realize that making one mistake is not going to ruin your life. Um I think that theater makes us responsible contributors by making us work together to have a great show. You should see the magic of tech week. It is insane, guys. Ms. Gearing can vouch for that. Um I also think theater can make a better reflective collaborator because it teaches students how to collaborate and add their own little twist

046in the show and it makes it so much better overall. Like we all had little things that we did. It was so cool. And theater is a place where anyone who hasn't found their place in sports or activities can find a group. Thank you for your time, guys. Hope y'all are excited that we performed cuz we were awesome. >> [applause] >> All right. Um so as we talk about unity, all kids thriving, and students being future ready, it all comes back to this. Helping students find where they belong, giving them opportunities to grow, and preparing them for what comes next. So as I wrap up, I just have to invite you guys to the Amazing Shake. Um we are uh or in the fall, I guess you heard from Gavin Burns who was one of

047our winners of the Amazing Shake last year. We are kicking off the Amazing Shake round one, the gauntlet, um tomorrow at the middle school in the library. We're starting at 8:30. Um and we would love to see you guys there. So thanks. Thank you very much. All right. Anybody? I just want to say I love the middle school. >> Yep. Same [laughter] here. Ms. Preston, thank you for everything. Thank you for your staff, the support. You have two middle school parents up here and it means a lot for everything that you do. >> All right. Next we're going to move into the new high school project update with Dr. Rayburn. Good evening, board. Um tonight we are going to talk briefly about the high school project um that has coming to an end. Um this

048is your March 2026 update. I'm going to show you tonight the parking lot expansion that we have been working on um which should be open and ready to go by um coming back from spring break. So um students will be able to park there and um such. But before we get into there, here is your budget for your two projects with the remaining total of $700,000 um between those two. Again, the project number two is your field project. Main project is the building. Uh total those two projects together have remaining balance of 700,000. Um out of that remaining balance came the um the voted on items from the last board meeting. So that is why you see a reduction in your total there. Uh this is from the student parking lot into the new expansion.

049Um where we have a few pictures of that. So this is closer to the um the center walkway that goes down between the two parking lots in the middle. Um there's a stop sign there and then if you look beyond the stop sign down here at the bottom is the opening where they will go into or out of that parking lot area. And then here is a side view of it. There's also an entrance right here. The cut off is there um to allow for parking into into there. So um they're pretty much getting close to being finished with that. So they should be done like I said by the time they come back from spring break. Um they've actually moved really fast on this because we've had some beautiful weather. So that does help

050with that. Um and then this is just another view there. The next thing that we have to do is stripe it. So we haven't that will be striped. Um we're going to get them started and then the high school will continue that um every year to restripe that for their for their project. The other thing that I'm going to update you on is our concession stand. If you remember um back in the wintertime, there was a concession stand water leak that destroyed pretty much all of the drywall on the inside. Um this was at no cost for to us. We did not pay for this to be replaced or repaired. Uh and um the company that put it in put fixed their mistake. And so um this is inside the concession stand. And then inside

051the bathrooms. Um and these were both taken all these pictures were taken today. So you can see that they're all up and working. Um we have just a few little check marks that we still have to do on check boxes to make those correct um with a few lights and stuff that the sensor got damaged. They're replacing that sensor but other than that they have um Mr. Green, our maintenance director, has worked tirelessly to get this back up in order and ready to go for the spring sports. Um and you can tell that the damage doesn't look like there was anything that ever happened there. Um and then this is the inner wall uh where all the pipes are in between the two restrooms. And and you can tell up here at the top they

052have insulated it. Um and they did correct their mistake where the lines were actually supposed to be through a channel. The lines are now through that channel um to allow for that. So that is all I have. Any questions for me tonight? Can you remind me how many parking spots the the new lot will accommodate? >> They're estimating at around 100. Oh. And we have a 70 wait list of 70 students right now. Absolutely. I I will let Mr. Green know that 100% cuz this um talk about somebody being hurt. Um Mr. Green was hurt when he walked into this building to see cuz he's one of the first people that saw it and like that's the pride that he has in this project in this county and he saw it put back together. Yes.

053Yes. All right. Anybody else? All right. Thank you, Dr. Avar. >> All right. Thank you. I have a follow-up question, Dorie. Oh, when when are we closed out when will we close out the project completely? Is it after we finish the striping? Well, we'll close it out as soon as we're completely finished. We still have the um they're still working on some of the the issues that they have with the mechanical stuff that's going on. Um they're still working through that. Again, that that hasn't concluded yet. So, we can't close out the project until that is done and like I've said many times that we don't start that warranty process until they have completed it. So, they are actively working. There's weekly meetings that are still occurring on it um and they're getting closer um

054and then they find something that else is wrong. So, they are they're actually fixing it. We're not paying for that. So. So, we don't anticipate any more money coming out of that fund, correct? Uh Anticipating. Yeah. There's nothing anticipating on our end that we have that um we have any plans for that. Okay. Thank you. And then I just wanted to um just quickly follow up. So, at the end of the project, you'll be bringing us documents. We'll see exactly how much was spent, how much the overages were, where the overages were, um just kind of a holistic kind of picture, and then send documents to KDE that that we I guess we'll have to do some revisions and and that sort of thing. >> we'll have to do a revised BG1 um to make

055all of the numbers match what we actually paid to what Trace Creek says we actually paid. Um we'll make all those adjustments, then you'll approve that BG1, and then we can send that off. And once we send that off, then we close the project and it's done. Um projects at this percentage, 1%, can take years to close because there's these little things that they have to do. So, we're just kind of working through those little projects. But, it doesn't impact the actual building and in the usage of the building. Thank you, Dr. Avar. Next, we're going to move into our curriculum and instruction update with Mr. Asher. One moment trying here. Yes, sir. As we are waiting for this, there we go. Um we recently I've mentioned this several times over the course of the

056year because it has indeed taken all year uh to collect and put this together is our accreditation process. Uh so, this is through Cognia. Uh used to be a 4-year cycle. After COVID, they uh increased that to 6 years. So, we were due as a district. Uh there's just a a brief uh description of what that is. Uh last Thursday? Thursday, I believe it was. Uh we had a virtual presentation of myself, Dr. Jones, some members of the CNI team, and uh two board members here to go through that uh presentation. And essentially, it is uh trends over that time. Uh we don't look at the whole 6 years. We focused on the last 3 years. Um and you have to match up to 31 standards. Uh not only do you have to write narratives

057for each of those and and uh do a lot of analysis, but also provide evidence uh for all of those 31 standards. In addition, we are also going for uh CBE certification, which stands for competency-based education. So, essentially, our portrait uh work and how we bring that into the classroom into our schools. Uh so, we are hopeful to receive that certification as well. It It we would be the first school district in Kentucky uh to achieve that. Uh all signs look good uh from that, but we do not know the ultimate outcome of that, and I hope to be able to bring that full report to you. Um actually, once received, I'll just email it out uh just so a heads-up of you receiving that. Uh anything to add from members that participated or any

058questions? I I was just going to say it was a great presentation. The Cognia team asked really important questions about how everything happened. And as a board member and a parent of seeing how portrait of a learner came to be from getting staff buy-in, from getting everyone to include it within their instructional process. Um you know, cuz they did ask for feedback afterwards, and from me it was glowing remarks. So, thank you for all the work that you and your teams put into it. Thank you. I also think that we're on the cutting edge. I've mentioned this before. I just want to say kudos to the competence-based learning idea. I mean, that's going to follow through into your higher education um capacities as well because many of the accreditation standards that different majors and um

059programs have to use are competency-based. So, it definitely parallels into that next step in um post-secondary learning. Thank you. I look forward to the report and just suggestions on um continuous improvement. Um and to that note, uh heard a couple things as Mr. Brickley you said just students continuing to use the language when they're up here uh in um Ms. Bailey as she read the description um for uh oh goodness, her name escapes me. Uh our teacher this evening. Help me out. Thank you, Dr. Goslin. There we go. Uh mentioned a lot of the portrait language there. And also mentioned, let me segue into this that uh her work on on the Huntertown equity team, but also our district equity team. So, segue into this. Um we are renewing and rebranding. Uh that is uh

060strategic there in that we we want to get away from that term just due to uh some legislation things like that, but we want to continue the work and and we've uh since rebranded ourselves to access and advocacy team. Removing barriers, championing voices, and ensuring access to uh access to excellence for every student. Uh so, this is our draft logo. We continue to work on that. Uh we have settled on that vision statement and the title. Um it has been uh some good work. We are really at We are a high-functioning team right now. We've been uh at this for uh since 2019 as I keep saying, uh but we have a great membership, uh folks that really will speak their mind, uh have healthy debate, and really have some great ideas for advancing this

061work. So, more to come in April and May as we do that that uh renew and rebrand. Um tried to do a better job with this team this year of looking at data, uh whether it be disaggregated um uh achievement data. Uh this past month, we looked at uh survey data, and I heard uh Ms. Preston uh mentioned this about their uh school climate and safety survey. Uh so, this is taken by all third, fourth, and fifth graders who are taking the uh assessment as well as 6, 7, and 8, and then 10th and 11th graders. So, it's a pretty good representation of students. So, one thing that we were proud of, and a lot plays into this, not only our focus on equity, uh but also programs like BAR, um uh stronger connections things

062things, excuse me, that came out of the Stronger Connections Grant really support this. So, the question was students from this school respect each other's differences in regard to gender, culture, race, religion, ability. Um particularly at a uh uh elementary always at a high level. That's at in the 90% of students that agree or strongly agree. So, this doesn't take in There are There is a neutral answer, but what we were most um noticed here significantly is in our secondary schools, the middle and high, where it was at 43% increased to nearly 60% over 3 years' time. So, I think that speaks loudly to uh a number of things. It's again, it's not just the equity team, uh but a number of things that we focused on uh to to uh address this. Um similar question,

063but adults from this school respect students' differences. Uh fortunate to see it's always been at a higher level above 80%, but again, you see that incline or increase, I should say, at uh middle and high school. So, again, uh that it's often times hard to um find uh quantitative data on such qualitative work uh qualitative work, I should say, but uh we pull it out when we can in terms of our our enrollment numbers and in those um accelerated classes that that I mentioned a couple months ago, and then the survey data. So, it's working once again. So, you always want to look at proof of of it working. That's all I had to report on tonight. I'll take any questions. Mr. Asher, I just It's not a question, it's a comment. Could you go

064back to the uh logo? That that slide. Yes. I can't tell you how much I appreciate uh and ensuring access to excellence for every student. Mhm. I know you believe that. Mhm. And I appreciate that, and I appreciate your leadership very much. >> Sure. We have a number of folks that believe that and >> Yes. I I'll go back. That's what the portrait is all about, too, cuz every student can be each and every one of those things. Absolutely. And thank you very much. Mhm. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Can I circle back real quick to a conversation we had? I guess I can't remember forgive me which month it was. I feel like this these spring months have just well, this time this year has just flown by. Um when

065we looked at the numbers for pass rates for our AP classes and our um dual credit classes, have we gone back and addressed that at all or has there been any conversation around that with the high school about what we need as far as it again to champion that access and advocacy work? Is there What are What's the next >> you said AP and the AP and dual credit. The passing rates for those two core those two areas those two core areas. I just wondered if there was any review. It's not so much the dual credit. Those were at very high rates. The AP um that is yes, there has been conversation on that that. We always go back to comparison data. Uh to Once again, it is hard to achieve that three or higher

066and off the top of my head, no, I don't have that, but they're pretty comparable to national rates as far as AP passing rates. Uh there is a wide variance in um in the classes and in those assessments. Um that's the thing I can't speak to. Um but certainly we look at comparative data to see if they if we're way off the mark in a given area. So, yes, it the high school is asked to look at those and include those any any improvement planning they may have. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Asher. All right. Uh we do not have any public comment. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. All

067those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to accept notification of personnel matters? >> So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to accept notification of payment of bills? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the February board meeting? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to approve February financial report treasurer's report? >> Motion by Mr.

068Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan and we'll invite Dr. Grivens up to provide that report. Good evening, board. So, I have the financial updates for February. As we'll going to go through here. Welcome to your first presentation to the Woodford County board. We appreciate you serving here. Thank you. My pleasure. So, the monthly budget for February, you can kind of go through and see the ones that I'm most wanted to speak about is on this slide. If you look at the total revenues uh compared to previous years, we're about a negative 2%, but the expenditures year-to-date compared to last year is about a negative five. So, if you look at those two, we're actually about 3% better year-to-date than we were last year. So, that's very promising with some of the changes that's been put

069into effect and that's kind of held the trend the last couple of months. So, really excited to see that. I do have a question. Do you want to do questions at the end or questions while we're going? >> You can ask as we go. So, on the last slide The last slide? Mhm. The previous one that I had >> previous very first slide? Okay. Um the next slide that we were just talking about. This one? Yes. So, um when you have the 26 budget and the 26 actuals, are those year-to-date comparisons or is it the Year-to-date comparison. So, February this year to February last year. Okay, so we're looking at Apples to apples. Perfect. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you. Moving on. You can see the overall tax collection for the month of February.

070And then we can break it down. Next slide. This is from MUNIS. Totals year-to-date. And that is fund one and 320. So, it doesn't include fund two. And then this is broken out specific taxes and you can see the dates that those were collected whether it's penalties and interest, property tax, etc. 27 just over 27 million to date. Here's our special revenue funds. Can I ask you a question real quick about the tax revenues? Do you know how close we are to collecting I know we get them every month, but do you know about how close we are to getting full payment from tax revenue? >> [sighs] >> It's not linear uh but I would say at this point we're about 80%. Uh I'd have to go back and really look at but as a

071just looking at it about I'd say about 80% through what we expect to receive this year. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Our special funds. And our district activity. Our school activity funds. Food service. And ETC which we would really call out that we had a really promising this was the first month in a while that revenues exceeded expenditures. So, they've been doing a really great job over there and and really watching the expenditures and controls. Can you return to the um food expenditures food service? Okay. Mhm. Um Am I reading this correctly that our expenditures are exceeding our revenue? Correct. Yep. So, expenditures to date 1.579 with the revenue at 1.511. And there is discussion Dr. Rayburn had discussed that we are looking at a proposal of raising the cost. So, that will be coming up

072in those discussions to adjust those costs um for next year. Okay. I do have a question about that as far as I know that food costs are rising, but I also know that our revenue that our families are facing are not equating to those costs that food costs are rising. So, is there any grants that we have explored or anything to offset those funds especially as we look at free and free lunch for Simmons as well as Safe Harbor. Um is What are What are some opportunities that we maybe we can explore before we raise the cost of of meals for our students? The other thing that I had a question about is um I I know that there is a lot of ex like extras I guess is the best way to say it

073that our cafeterias provide and I was wondering if if the cost rate benefit ratio to some of those if those extras are playing into this in a positive direction or a negative direction in that sense too. I'm just trying to like search of how to maybe equate those funds a little bit better, but I just I I would really love to see any potential funding come from outside sources in some capacity other than our families because I do think it's becoming an increased struggle. The other thing that I have been hearing from students um in particular is that some of the quality of our food has not is not necessarily the same. So, maybe exploring different vendors or what can we maybe do to entice people to want to buy food versus eat school lunch

074eat school breakfast versus maybe bring their lunch from home. And I think that the quality of the food I think we do a really great job variety or nothing nothing against the people that are preparing these meals because I think they do a very good job, but the vendors. If we can maybe explore different options to increase some of that that may entice individuals to potentially or maybe even more options at the elementary school level or something of that nature because I know that we have additional options at the high school, but maybe following that model. Just any way that we could explore not raising cost to our individual families. Yep, there's like Yeah, I can cover. There's a couple things there. So, options on funding right now uh the really only options right now

075would be to dip into general funds which we don't necessarily want to do, but there we're watching a couple legislation bills specifically the one that talks about local grown Kentucky food. So, if that does go through the passage, we know we got about a two-week veto period. So, once those are done, if that passes, what that would do is enable us to locally source food and then we get a a percentage back from that. So, that would be one piece that would help. Um I think the second piece that we talked about that we start to see at the high school is by providing more options, you get more kind of uh quantity of students coming in. So, if you can increase that, then that kind of helps bridge that gap of revenues to expenditures.

076So, more participation is going to really shrink that and I think that comes to the options that we see at the high school. So, if you can kind of take that into the lower grades middle school, if you can replicate that to some degree any increase participation, then that's going to decrease your uh gap as well. It could flip to a positive revenues. Um quality of food we can talk to. >> Courtney does a great job of what she does there. >> that um first that we are mandated by local, federal, state laws and federal laws that require us to have certain types of food and certain um we have certain federal regulations that we have to do so that we can receive federal reimbursements related to food cost. Um every family has the option

077and the ability to apply for fee waiver and and that's not just free, that's reduced pricing. So, if they are meeting a threshold or have an issue, they can work with the the food service director to have that as an option. And then uh we are we do have to raise prices. There is no way around it. Um we are going to have to raise prices. I I'm sorry, but there is no way around it. Um we're not asking to raise prices by $100 or anything that we have we have to stay within and the state is going to force us to raise it if we don't raise it because they have a formula that we have to make. So, um that's going to be part of our presentation when we have a food service

078presentation, but I also want to remind you that what you hear doesn't always mean that that's the exactly the quality and it could not necessarily be 100% true. We've actually put a survey out to all of our students and we have about 400 or 500 students that have partaken of that to combat what you um are reporting. So, just so you know, like we do we are taking proactive measures, um but we are not sustaining a low food quality or low quality of um preparation. >> Let me clarify. I'm not saying that the food quality is low. I'm saying the food quality is different. It seems like the sources there has been some shifts in some of the sources that have come the food has come from and it seems like that is a a

079different show whole thing. I don't think we're serving kids food that is not edible by any capacity. So, I want to clarify that. >> Broccoli. Well, maybe broccoli. Maybe your vegetables. Maybe your vegetables is choice. >> vegetables. But, I do think that we have a threshold in our community of people that kind of are in the middle, right? So, we have people that don't meet that free and reduced lunch threshold and I I think it's amazing thing. It also is tied to our title one funds. So, the more people that fill out that free and reduced lunch and are able to qualify for that, we increase our title one funding. So, there's many reasons to fill that out, but I think that you're not Let's face it and not to argue semantics, but the daily

080living wage that we're experiencing in our nation is not equating to the expenses that we're having regardless of where you are. The cost, you know, the percentages that you make at your job or whatever it may be does not make up the cost that we're spending and we see that at our grocery stores, but we're also going to feel it here and I understand that we can't pull money from our general fund because we are at um capacity for that. But, let's face it, uh our food is a basic need and it is part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If you don't meet those needs at the bottom, you're not going to meet those educational needs at the top. So, I think that that is something that we really have to consider um and and

081be creative in ways to maybe increase our revenue uh and draw people into having hot lunches at school. There's a difference between your packed lunch and a hot lunch at school. And so, I do really encourage you all to look at potential ways to to work around that. So, um I'm very aware that we have federal mandates and guidelines for food service that we have to follow and meet and I know that Courtney does a great job of having a creative menu that is also a Kentucky proud menu. We're already doing those things that the legislation is proposing, but I really think that we need there there's maybe potential for expanding and growth and maybe polling our elementary school kids for what what other options would bring you to the lunch table and purchase your

082food versus bring choosing to bring food from home might not be a bad thing. Um that's just my suggestion. But, I would really like to see what we can do to not raise those costs at all if possible. Oh, I'm sorry. I just had one one quick thing. So, for that the meeting that's coming up, um if we could have just some data about over the last maybe, you know, 5 years about the um the the numbers, like what it has cost, what the expenses have been, um what the reimbursement has been, and then um how much of a general fund contribution we've had to to use to to cover that. And and maybe just a little bit of history of when we were on the, you know, waiver, what that looked like. Um so,

083maybe having some of that data would be helpful for us just to know if this is something that's really gone on and we're actually doing better this year. And then also uh as part of that data, I would like for us to know over that same time frame um how much money we are kind of, you know, utilizing to be able to kind of pay ourselves to kind of run programs and different things or if we've used some of that money to buy, you know, stoves or refrigerators or other sorts of things. I think it would be very important for us to have that data so that we know if this is actually what what the what the cause the root causes might be um because that would help us be more creative, I think,

084in finding some solutions. Yeah, absolutely. Um we have sent out the survey for the recommendations for like what types of meals would they want and prefer. So, that has gone out and Dr. Rayburn had just discussed I think we're up to like earlier today like 400 plus responses so far. So, that's really good. Um and yeah, I'll have the historical data. I have a historical data just about on everything back to 2022 right now. So, that's a lot what I do is look at past data, look at trend lines and where we're progressing. And I think it is a good discussion to talk about inflation cuz that that's something that I want to talk about in when we start to go to this next type of budget session when we look at what what we're

085spending on the kids 5 years ago inflation adjusted to today cuz I think that's important. Agreed. Thank you. Anything else or did you say more on the All right. Does anybody else have any more questions on the treasurer's report? All right. Yep, the last one was the ETC slide. Yeah. Yep. All right. I want to thank you very much for your next report. You know, I thought you'd been here for a long time. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. All right. I echo that, too. Thank you because I know Dr. Rayburn started putting these um slides together for us and it really helps because what we had been getting was it's just hard to make it through. So, um one of the things that I shared with Dr. Jones is that when we have our budget

086meeting our budget work working session, um some of those funds like the um I think special revenue and the food service and all those things just we're I'm anxious to get an idea of if our if what we budgeted and what we anticipated in terms of revenues holding. So. Absolutely. But, thank you. Yeah. All right. Format definitely helps than looking at that minute spreadsheet. So. Absolutely. All right. All those in favor of approving February financial report treasurer's report? I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to 0. Can I have a motion to approve hardship applications? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. >> Second by Ms. McCallan. Any discus- or well, we won't do discussion on that, but uh all those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to 0. Can I have a

087motion to approve ETC 2026-2027 tuition increase? >> So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. Any discussion or questions on this? I think the presentation that we had earlier make it made it very clear. So. Okay. I mean, earlier meeting last month. All right, last month, yeah. All right. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to 0. Can I have a motion to approve student insurance option? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. >> Second by Ms. McCallan. Any discussion or questions? This is for athletics, correct? We probably need to have a All right, board. So, what what I would like to present to you tonight, we have um Mr. John Roberts here from our insurance company as well as um an option for for you. But, in the

088past few years, we have purchased uh the insurance for all students. This is above and beyond their current insurance. If they were to get hurt on property or anything along those lines that we cover their um cover their injuries 100%. Uh and one of the things that came up last year was related to do we recommend to do it for all students or do we recommend to do it for athletics. Um it's kind of a 50/50 around the state who's doing what um in an the recommendation we're going to recommend to the board tonight is that we approve the athletics only. Um in your packet for the the board packet that you all received this week, um you received the different options here. Um and uh just so you know, like this is the coverage

089that we are going for that the plan one. And um this is the historical claims on our student insurance um for for the different years. And you can notice on the sides here that again, this was all presented for you at the upload of the agenda, um the different activities. And so, anything outside of athletics was related to um ath- was school activities and everything else was related to athletics. And you can see breaking down by sports. From when we first got it, we had a higher percentage of our school activities um and then as it's gone down, the um the usage has kind of based off of the incident numbers. If you look at the incidences, they are lowering, which is a good thing. Um kids aren't getting hurt at school as much. Uh

090and so, those are taking to play. 2025 is not a good valuable option for us to review because that number there are still claims in process that could not be reported. So, we want to stop at 2024. Did you have any You want to come up here? Oh, no. If you have any questions. Okay. All right. Does anybody Oh, go ahead. Sorry, before you all vote, I just want to clarify the superintendent's recommended action on this was to adopt plan one. I just want to clarify Mr. Wilson, was that your motion was to take the recommended action by the superintendent? Thank you. >> absolutely was. >> to make sure it was clear. Thank you. Can I ask a follow-up question? And you may not know the answer to this, and that's okay. Um what happens

091if someone gets hurt on school property and we don't have insurance and they don't have insurance coverage either? We step up and become liable. But if we only take the athletics option, do we have an option to cover said injuries? Like if a kid falls off a slide or something. Yeah. So the liability insurance will kick in to whatever. Okay. What about like if it's just like a I don't know, a freak accident. Like something Liability covers anything that happens within the school. So what did the extra insurance cover? This is So let's say So let's say that my my child Mhm. um is a student and they get hurt at school sprain an ankle, something like that. Um if it happened at school, they can submit that through this policy and get assistance, help

092at in above their own insurance. >> Okay. Um to cover costs, any that they're interested in. >> like a rider. Yeah. Okay. What if they don't have insurance and that happens? If they don't have insurance and that happens, then again, we've got the liability insurance, but you know, we just we haven't had a lot of claims for the school activities for the And the school activities would be taken out, correct? >> Correct. All the athletics would be Okay. >> covered. It's about an $8,000 difference. So if something happens like on a trip, like the New York trip or the FCCLA trip, what would happen then because it's not on school grounds? Would that still be uh So our liability insurance um and if it Well, would you like to weigh in on that as well?

093I'm happy happy to if you'd So liability insurance kicks in if something happened that was negligent on the part of the district, right? This is more like a benefit to students or to athletes that is above and beyond whatever health insurance they have on their own. Okay. >> So it's it's an added layer of coverage, but >> Right. but accident insurance, unlike liability insurance, there doesn't have to be a negligent party or somebody at fault. This is just for you know, things happen when you So you roll your ankle on a mat in the gym at the the elementary school and you break your foot. And I'm speaking from someone I know and I won't say names. >> Right. You break your foot. Now if that person's family didn't have insurance, even though it's on

094a liability kind of situation, their family Sorry, I didn't mean to swing my hand. Um their family would then cover all costs, correct? So if they have a significant deductible or no insurance at all, don't What about it I mean, could this be I feel like in the past how this was handled before we started doing all of this was that there was an option for folks to just purchase that. So is there a an ability to be able to just say um athletes and non-athletes, here's this this additional policy. You guys can purchase this should you choose to purchase this and then if they don't have insurance, they could choose to purchase it? What would that would that look like? You We still have the option to provide voluntary coverage if a parent choose

095and that's 24-hour coverage, not just school sponsored, school supervised activities. So we provide that just as a [snorts] a benefit. Um but KHSAA requires you to insure your athletes up to $25,000. If you don't have somebody monitoring, checking that, making sure the parent buys the voluntary coverage, there could be a a gap. Right. But we could theoretically say, athletes, this is required and it could just be part of your checklist. You have to have a physical, check. You have to buy this insurance, check. You have to pay your fees, check. We could also calculate as you know, we talked about previously, we could also calculate the cost and then we could add that into the the fee structure as well. But how is that going to be a barrier to students? Again, I I think

096that I'm going back to my previous conversation with um the free and reduced lunch kiddos. There's a pocket in our of our demographics, just like, you know, Affordable Care Act. You know, your insurance, there's people that can have incredibly high deductibles that pay a very minimum monthly cost, but their deductible is so outrageously expensive that they can't afford certain things, right? It's going to be the same thing if you add a significant fee to an athletics I don't think we can calculate it. I'm sorry. This also kicks in for co-pays and deductibles and filling that gap. So that's if you get the extra if you cover all students. The way it's the way it's set up now, it will step up fill in those gaps. Well, I also wonder too, how many families actually know

097this even exists because I don't know like is it something that our nursing staff say, "Hey, by the way." Okay. So that's part of the policy. Um the other cuz So it would be about it would be about $50 a student. $50 a student. So if they were if they their their fees were waived anyway because of income, then they wouldn't have to pay it. But those families again, I'm looking at the families that are right above that threshold that still struggle to make ends meet significantly because our free and reduced families are covered because it's waived. But what about those that are just right there that that could be a barrier to them participating in athletics or an activity or something of that nature. To again, to look at advocacy and It sounds like

098our options are either we cover it from general fund. Correct. >> we can't use that money for, you know, books or teachers or whatever, buses, whatever. Or we pass the cost along to them. Like that's pretty much the only two options, right? Either they pay the fee or we pay the fee cuz it's required. >> Yes. Yep. KHSAA bylaw 12 section two. So what about the like regular student insurance is what would that cost look like for families to pass that cost on? It's not very much at all. >> Yeah, I mean it's 100 depending on which plan, it can be anywhere from 150 to 350 per year annually. I really think we need to let people know about that. If that if that if we take this away and choose option one, I think

099that that that is a much cheaper cost than >> Mr. Chairman, it sounds like that uh after we vote on the motion, that we might want to do some uh I'll wait for a minute. Can you say that again? I'm sorry. Sarah Ambrose, I didn't mean to So if looking at fee structures, [snorts] it's about So the $8,000 difference between the athletics or all school activities, it's about $8,000. So that would be about $2 per student. So it'd be $8,000 out of our general fund to cover all students versus Yep. And my you know, my recommend It's a wonderful insurance organization, but just looking at all of the budget conversations and looking at, you know, where we are with the budget, my recommendation was to go just with with athletics because of our budget situation.

100Um but again, you know, I'll leave that to you all. So. So the motion is approved, option one, correct? >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. And it's it sounds like Mr. Dr. Rayburn, are you Have you concluded your presentation? Yes, Mr. Wilson. >> Okay. Um it sounds as though that um once this uh recommendation is approved that we need to maybe do some um communications making people aware of the different options. Uh but but but I would call for the question, Mr. Chairman. All right. We have a motion. Can I have or all in favor of approving student insurance option one? I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you for coming to see us. >> Yes, thank you. >> having us. Can I have a motion to approve nursing services position? Uh so moved.

101>> Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Seconded by Miss McCallan. Mr. or Dr. Rayburn, any information for us on that? All right, board. So this is a position that we are looking to add. Um this position is funded majority through the Healthy Kids reimbursement that we receive. So through the Healthy Kids um MOU that we have assigned through with Cumberland Family Medical Group, they have a 40/60 split. We pay 60%, they pay 40%. Um we were under the impression when we hired a nurse at um at South uh Simmons that they were covering all of the costs and then we found out that that is not the case that we were going to have to pay 40/60 still if it's their employee or if it's our employee. So instead of it being their employee, we are

102asking the board to approve this position. Um all of the costs will be done through that reimbursement anyways because we are um well exceeding our uh price for the cost of that nurse um and allows for us to have a school pay uh district's nurse instead of it being an outside agency nurse so that they can follow the way that we practice our schools so that they can see every student, not just the students that have assigned agreements like um would be for Healthy Kids Clinic. Um and we have a little more wiggle room when it comes to um what we can and can't do with them if they're our employee versus if they're their employee. So the cost is the same whether we pay for them or they pay for them. We would ask

103the board to approve that position um so that we can have that position. Any questions? Miss Springate? Just just to clarify. So I for some reason was under the impression that that we would be adding an additional person. So are we not adding a person? We're just changing the way it's funded? Technically, yes, because Healthy Kids was They they were paying for Simmons nurse. >> So how many nurses will we have at Simmons after we make this up? >> One. Just the one. Like we No no additional. So what happened to the position before? The position was not paid It was not under us. It was not paid for by us. It's contracted. >> employee. Got you. So, the salary cost doesn't change. It just they become our employee. Got you. Which we have more

104And I thought we were going to get an additional staff because of the number of people using it. So, it still will just be the one staff. Yeah. No, we can't use it. So, it still will just be the one staff. Yeah. And do they have an increased caseload or can one person like handle all of the the summons nursing needs? Okay. Yeah. It really was just a matter of the vacancy was there. It was whether Cumberland would fill it or whether we wanted to go ahead and take it back and do it ourselves. And we were already paying for the cost anyways. It doesn't change anything. Okay. And um we had a question one of our board members asked about the stipend for our nurses because they do um the you know, the paperwork

105and everything with their nurse practitioner and there is a stipend as well. They'll keep the stipend. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And we re- renegotiate that contract every year. So, as our percentage goes up, the Healthy Kids Clinic reimbursement goes up as well. So, our percentage using it? Is that what you're saying? Correct. Got it. Okay. Any other questions? I I think I do have one like statement, I guess. Um I think the Healthy Kids Clinic partnership is amazing. I can't say that enough. I think that it is doing wonderful things. Um I do wonder at some point in time when the when we get so much use of the Healthy Kids Clinic, it does negotia- it negate Not negotiates, negates the capacity for like a random visit. Like insert whatever that doesn't necessarily need

106It takes precedent over like a sinus infection. >> A sinus infec- Well, like something that we would traditionally see a nurse for, right? So, like I I hear kids saying, "Well, I put in to see the nurse, but it took so long to get there." And I've heard nurses saying like I'm you know, I'm I'm seeing all the They're triaging all the things that you would normally do in a medical clinic. And it's a wonderful partnership, but at some capacity, do we need to look at Do we need to increase our nursing staff even if we have a float to if if we're getting reimbursed at the rate that doesn't it isn't a detriment to us that maybe we have more accessibility for our kids both for Healthy Kids, but also for like maybe you

107don't need to see the doctor. You've got X wrong. Um stomach ache that maybe you need to lay down for or something like that that may Do you see what I'm saying? Like I get to the point where they say, "Well, I didn't get called today. I put in to see the nurse, but I didn't get called today." I hear that rhetoric quite often not only in my own home, but for my kids friends and other people as well. So, I just And our nurses are doing a phenomenal job. I'm asking do they need help at some point in time to continue this process? Does that make sense? That was a long way of saying It makes sense [clears throat] to monitor Yeah. Right. Right. Do they have the capacity to do all the things

108>> believe you're doing that, but it would be good just to share >> Yes. But I'm thinking that might be something needs to happen down the road if maybe they need some extra assistance. Mr. Chairman, where are we? We are >> Voting. ready to vote. >> Okay. All right. All those in favor of approving nursing services position, aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you, Dr. Rader. Can I have He's not going anywhere. Oh, okay. Can I have a motion to amend the 25-26 school year >> calendar. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. Newspaper? Sure you can. It's an old one. Maybe he's going to do a trick. I feel like there's a visual coming. He's going to make a puppet. We're all in suspense. We do have a source

109of the paper here. That might be what I share whatever you need. Do you have some in your back pocket? >> [laughter] >> I'm trying, Dr. Jones. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the excellent job you did on your uh whatever you call it. >> Quick recall. Quick recall. I think he should have subbed me out. I couldn't understand two-thirds of the questions. Sure, I did like the fact that every question you answered was wrong, but every one you didn't answer you had in your head was right. [laughter] I don't know why you didn't. I couldn't get the buzzy thing to work. And you carried us sometimes. >> with grace. >> We did. >> Yes. I think next year we should mix it up. We need this the

110the actually needs to become beyond our team. And then what? Listen, I did the math problem and had the answer. You're kidding. Adam, I can't believe you can do math. So, next year you need to be on our >> Yeah, you do. I can sub you out. Sub you out for me. Math that's There's no math in social work. None of the math. Never mind. I was trying to be like the newsies, but I couldn't find the correct uh paper. Sorry. >> Oh, no. But, the Woodford Sun did report what I'm about ready to share with you. Okay, that's what I was trying to share that uh the Woodford Sun reported on our famous snow day um that took out all of central Kentucky for whatever reason. Um we were lucky enough to uh not

111have uh an accident occur. Um so, around 5:15 that morning we checked the roads. We were fine. And then 15 or so minutes later, like Dr. Jones reported in her news article um the weather changed quickly. Uh VPD was calling us. We were all on the phone trying to figure out what in the world can we get school in session and it just came to the point where it wasn't a possibility. So, with that being said um March 17th, the day that shall live in for- forever of 2026 There'll be something worse. Yeah. Yeah. Um Yeah, just the Yeah, it was it was not good. Um requires us to make up that day. So, the proposal for you tonight um is to amend the 25-26 school calendar to remove the staff work day on April

11213th, 2026 and make that a school session in school session day. Um to get started, I want to remind you of your board commitments, which is placing students at the center of every decision ensuring every learner regardless of background or identity has the resources and holistic support needed to reach their full potential. And KRS 158.070 is the whole lovely definitions related to what a school calendar is and how many days we go, how many hours we're required to go. And that is a student is required to go at least 1,062 hours of instructional time for students delivered at not no less than 170 instructional days student attendance days. If a school district So, we'll stop there. So, 170 days and 1,062 hours. I shared with you all in a video um that I made for

113you after we've sent the agenda item out that when we run the report that shows are we at 160 or 170 or are we at 169 if we don't take April 13th that report that gets reported to KDE says we are at 169. We are not meeting the KRS that require the requirement there. No matter how many hours or how many minutes or how many whatevers we do we are one day short of that calendar because of that snow day. There is no way to do it. We have to make that day up. Um there is no legislation in there that is going to relieve us of 170 days that is close to being passed. So, we have to take the action tonight to pass that 170-day mark, which would force us to either go

114on April 13th May 19th or June 1st. Those are our three options. So, May 19th is election day. If any school in a district is used as a voting pursuant to KRS 117.065 the school district may be closed on that day. It says may, doesn't require us. Days of the election and those days may be used for professional development activities, professional meetings, or parent-teacher conferences. So, we can go to school on election day. That is a possibility. North Side is a voting precinct that requires us to have it open to the public from the time the 12 hours that voting is open. That means anybody and everybody can walk into North Side and we have students in the building with an egress out that doesn't allow us to lock it down. That's not an option.

115Sorry. Um I mean, you all are welcome to vote that. That's that's you, but we're not recommending that. Um the other one is June 1st, which is uh graduation occurs on May 30th. June 1st is a Monday. Kids going to school on a Monday June 1st versus Monday April 13th um we're going to have a higher percentage of kids going on April 13th than we're going to have on June 1st. So, our recommendation to the board so that we equal 170 days is that we amend our 25-26 school calendar to make up March 17th, 2026 on April 13th, 2026 and that will put our last day of school uh still at May 29th. Now, that takes care of our students. We have some staff requirements as well because a classified and certified staff member have

116to make days of contracts and hours of contract for classified. So, in order for us to make up that staff work day, we are proposing to the board to have that be a requirement to work election day. Um staff can work that as they would any other staff work day. Um and then the remaining of the calendar would flow. Um that was on the attachment. The June 1st would be the required professional development day, which makes up a snow day. June 2nd would be the closing our certified staff work day because we have two that we have to make up. Um and then closing day for uh staff would be June 3rd professional teach parent-teacher conference on June 4th. That is my our proposed agenda. All right. I would just One thing you you said

117I wanted to point out cuz I did get a lot of questions about this. Two half days don't make an actual full school day, and adding 20 minutes to the end of the day a certain amount of days doesn't add or include a full school day. So, we don't have the flexibility in our current schedule to do early release days or certain number to make up that day. So, just want everybody to be clear that is something we're trying to address with the next agenda item. But currently, we can't do half days, extra minutes to get to that 170. We have to have a full day. So, I just wanted to be real clear. >> Just so the board is aware, we actually exceed the 1,062. So, if that legislation for 170 days wasn't required,

118we wouldn't have to make that day up. We exceed that by eight or so hours at one of our schools, and they go by the lowest attendance school. So, I have a couple things. I too, I'm sure everybody got lots of responses and feedback from both parents and guardians and teachers alike, and I want to say I hear you all. I I know that this is not ideal. I know that this is at the end of a very long break, and people already have plans they've had in plan in place for months. Some people um just weren't anticipating taking that day off. Um I know that this is an important day for teacher development and mental health and um lots of things were relayed to us. So, I just wanted to say I hear you

119all. I I agree with the election day. The school safety is of most forefront, and I don't think that we could compat like open we we have such a rigorous check-in process that why would we negate that for election day? I did talk to Dr. Jones and Dr. Rayburn about can we potentially move the polling place of Northside at some good time because what are the other options that are not in a school building? I'm not a huge fan of people entering a mass amount of people entering a school building without really cause to begin with um because of many different things, but um I would love to see our um whoever takes Ms. Sandy Jones' position or whoever is in charge of that maybe having that as one of their priorities of looking at

120how can we move all of our polling locations out of our schools so that way we do have election day as an option moving forward. Um the other thing that is of concern to me is um just to talk about our strategic plan and the commitment to our students. June 1st, let's be real, how many kids are going to go back to school? And I'm not so much worried about attendance as I am worried about productivity on that day because at that point time diplomas are handed out, promotions already done, and I feel like that the um work can be more the educational experience can be more better facilitated with this day. With that being said, I think it's a really rough situation, and I want to acknowledge that. I don't think it's fair to

121our educators that we have to be put in this position, but I also think that um we're trying to remedy that with some creative calendar experiences with the next uh thing agenda item that we're going to vote on. So, um taking all that into consideration, I just wanted to say that that will support the vote that I have. Um and I do I do want to acknowledge it's very challenging on both our educators and our families to to have this late in the game switch, but I'm really glad that all of our kids were safe on March 17th or what whatever day that was. Because look at other counties, and we did we did a good thing. You all did a good thing. Um I did want to say, Dr. Jones, can you speak to

122the EHO option for that day for families? Just as always, you know, a parent note would be excused for the 13th, and also um our principals have extended, if you guys vote for this, have extended the deadline for EHOs, educational enhancement um through tomorrow. So. So, if you all want if you all are planning on not going to that day, those of you who are listening, um please make sure you get your EHO in so you can have that day as counted as a school day. I I just would echo that I've had a lot of communication from different people about this issue. I think the school calendar is just something that we try to get ahead of. We try to do early. We try to make sure we have lots of things built in.

123Um so, hopefully we'll be addressing that um with the next agenda item. Um I will say that I would have preferred if we had um you know, incorporated some sort of a I don't know if we did or not a survey with parents and also with our um staff and our teachers before making, you know, significant changes. I think that's always probably a best thing to do. Um that being said, I was asked to just share that the staff voted um on this calendar, that that was something that we incorporate with the calendar committee, and um just that it's critical um that they remain in um healthy uh healthy home work-life balance, and that um you know, of course our teachers work incredibly hard. Um and so, the ask from the majority of the folks

124I talked to was having school on 6/1 as the best choice. Um that that would um would be what what the folks I talked to preferred. Um and I will say I know that we have a certain number of days, I don't know how many, that you take your lowest attendance days, and and those are not counted. So, we do have those five days that should, you know, 6/1 not be a wonderfully attended day, you would you would be able to to not count that towards your AADA. Um so, again, I I realize it's not ideal, but I do think that um you know, that that's that the option that most of the folks that have talked with me have preferred. And then we would just just drop that day. That would be a drop

125day, so it could be a field day, it could be a whatever. Um and you're still doing some teacher days after that, and you're still doing some um parent Mr. Chairman, question, please. Mr. I think you No, I just asked a question. Can I ask one more question? And it's not a discussion, I just have a question. The parent-teacher conferences after school year's closed, is that Why are we doing that? That is always. So, those are built into our calendars to give our certified staff members who partake in parent-teacher conferences, after-school activities, it is a flexible day for them. So, it is not a required, but if they didn't do it during the school year, that would be a required work day for them. So, I understand like having that as a required work day,

126that's understandable wrapping up your thing. But but why are we doing parent-teacher conferences after school year's closed? We're not doing give staff credit for when they have done parent-teacher conferences So, like Okay. students do um their student-led conferences in the evening at the middle school. So, that's Those middle school teachers, they have to be paid for that. So, it's compensated on that June 4th day on our calendar. So, it's like a um It's a flex day. A flex day. Got you. I would misunderstood. I'm glad I asked that question cuz I was very confused as why we were doing parent-teacher conferences after the fact. So, thank you for explaining that. All those in favor to amend the 25-26 school year calendar? I. I. Any opposed? No. Motion passes 4 to 1. Can I have a

127motion to amend the 26-27 school year calendar? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. Seconded by Ms. McConnell. Back to you, Dr. Rayburn. All right, I want to go um a little bit of history for you. Um the year we opened our high school, when we moved from this building to the new high school, we gave five staff work days that year. The year prior to it, we had four, and prior to that, we had um a couple built in, but that was that was the year we really built the calendar to have um work days around the breaks. So, around fall break, around um spring break, around winter break so that staff members had the ability to come back and to um use that. When we went to the high school, we gave five

128days so that the high school staff members had the ability to use a staff work day so they could move and transition between buildings. Um that calendar has remained since that time. So, we still have five staff work days that are built into the calendar. Um the proposed agenda tonight is that we remove two of those staff work days to allow us the option in the future, if we get to this point again, to have one flexibility within our snow days to operate on a 2-hour, 1-hour, 2-hour delay, um to start to bring back back early release days in a strategic manner um that we haven't had in a while, but have been well received for our students and staff, and our parents have been well received on certain days to have an early release,

129and then to um incorporate uh those staff work days on those critical days that are around those breaks so that a staff member doesn't have to give up their break to come in and work during the break. So, on um on the agen- on the screen you see here, um we we sent this survey out. We sent it out to our calendar committee, and then we also send it out to staff so that they could give us their opinion on it. And this is convert the Friday, September 4th, 2026, which is currently a staff work day to a student instruction instructional day. 152 staff members took it. They had Everybody had the option to take it. 152 took it, and you can see blue, red, and orange are either neutral, no strong preference, all the

130way up to support. Green and purple are opposed. So, over 75% around that point have either don't have a preference or support us converting that September 4th date from a staff work day into a student work day or student instructional day. And the same thing for March 8th 2027, which is currently a a staff work day, taking that back into a student work student instructional day. The pie chart is the same on both of those. So, our staff members that took the survey feel that they can make up those hours and make up that time. These two days specifically are not as critical as the three days that they still have built into their calendar around fall break, the Monday after fall break, the Monday after spring break, and the work day after winter break.

131Those three critical days are critical to our staff. And so, this is providing us with this equal balance of we're able to give a little bit and take a little bit, but we're still able to maintain those longer breaks for our staff members and our students. You know, instead of having a longer 4-day weekend on Memorial Day, we'll just or Labor Day, we'll just have a 3-day weekend. The same for the March date. That's a required professional development day for staff members on that Friday. So, students will still remain with a 3-day weekend instead of a 4-day weekend. And so, that is our proposed removing the September 4th, making that a school in session day, removing the March 8th, which is a school in session day, and then changing the last day of school to

132an early release day. This allows us to still meet that 170 mark by giving us extra days, but also giving us extra hours so that we can start to bring back in early release days. Like I said, that's a 2-hour release, so they we get out of school basically on a 2-hour release schedule. And then we can start to incorporate those as we take them back to the calendar committee. See, was it effective? Do we continue this to bring them back? They haven't been around for the last 2 years because of the move and the shuffle, and so this is a way to reintroduce them in a in a way that is probably already an early release day. Let's be real. The last day of school, they're doing their attendance, they're doing their award ceremonies,

133they're doing the promotionals, and then they're going home already. So, this would just allow that to happen. And it still meets our 170-day requirement and well exceeds our 1062 requirement as well. And then the snow days, adjusting that March 8th day to be a last day would become a regular school day if we made it all the way down that far. Yeah, I mean, I think it makes sense to add more flexibility into our schedule. And you know, we know there's one, maybe even two days where the roads were terrible at 6:00 a.m. and by 9:00 a.m. the sun was out, and we could have done a delayed start, but because of the way our current calendar is, we didn't have that ability, which a lot of people ask about that as well. This would

134give us more room to make those kind of decisions where you know, we can get everybody in school even if it's a little late or like you said, early release. So, thank you for putting this flexibility in this proposal. And there's no guarantees that we can't do this again. Like we may have a horrible winter, but this I guess I'll say this very carefully because there's no guarantees and knock on wood, right? But this will make sure that those staff days work days on the back of breaks are protected, correct? Because I do think that that is When we speak about mental health for our teachers, they do a very hard job, and I think that it's really important that that we protect those things moving forward and put that in the forefront with the

135calendar committee as well. So, Any other discussion? All those in favor to amend the 2026-2027 school year calendar. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Motion Motion passes 4 to 1. Mr. Chairman, can I thank Dr. Raven for your presentation? And I you're very good at at anticipating our questions and giving us the information. Thank you very much. It's almost like you know us. All right, the last vote we have. Can I have a motion to approve UK clinical practices agreement? So moved. Motion by Mr. Wilson. I'll second that. I have a question. I have a question. Wait, you got to I have a question. On that contract, it mentioned something about liability insurance. Does that mean that we have to pay for liability insurance or is that the student and university's requirement to cover? Well, we

136have liability So, we are good. We're not This is not causing any extra cost. Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> All right. Any other questions? No, I'm just going to recuse myself, so I just want to put that out there. All right. All those in favor to approve UK clinical practices agreement? Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 4 to 0 with one recusal. Thank you all. Have a good evening. Thank you. Motion by second it. Yep. And then could you open up discussion? Yep. All right, the last thing that we have for the regular meeting is discussion item. I just wanted to let everybody know on the district website at some point the board members' emails fell off of that. A community member reached out to me and let me know about that.

137I think it was when they were doing some website design, but that has been fixed. So, if you go to the school board website to the board, you'll see our pictures on there, but also our email addresses. So, if anybody needs to email a board members, that email address is on the website. So, just wanted to put that out there. All right. Can I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Motion by Dr. Gould, second by Ms. McCallan. I'm on the books. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 4 to 0. That concludes our regular meeting, and now I'm going to call to order the finance corporation meeting on March 30th, 2026 here at the central office. We have one regular agenda item, and that's to approve the minutes of the February finance

138court meeting. Can I have a motion? Oh, Adam, just note attendance for the record if you would, please. >> Oh, okay. Um There are four board members here in person. All right. Can I >> Mr. Wilson is absent. Yes. All right. Can I have a motion to approve minutes of the February finance court meeting? So moved. All right. Motion [laughter] by Ms. McCallan. Second. Second by Dr. Gould. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 4 to 0. Can I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. All right. Motion by Ms. Springate. Second. Second by Ms. McCallan. All those in favor? Aye. Motion passes 4 to 0. Thank you, everybody. >> Mhm.