Regular Board Meeting- February 23, 2026

001Evening everyone. It is 6 pm on February 23rd, 2026. I'm going to call to the call to order our regular schoolboard meeting here at Woodford County Public School central office. Roll call. We have all board members here and in person and we have invited some of our amazing Southside students to start us in the pledge of allegiance. So, if everyone could stand and the flag is over here to your left. >> Mommy, are we done yet? I pledge of 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 both very much. >> All right. Do we have any pro proposed amendments to the agenda tonight? >> All right. Then we will move into

002our superintendence report. And I believe we have some recognitions tonight. I'll call up Miss Bailey. Hi everyone. For tonight's recognition, we have a very special team. It is the 2026 Winter Storm Relief Team. So tonight we want to take a moment to shine a spotlight. Actually, sorry, let me get housekeeping out of the way first. Um, I will read the recognition and then I will go through and read names. Um, the board will be standing here as you hear your names called and you will stand up and you're actually going to walk this way. Come shake the hands of the board members and then Dr. Raburn has a certificate for you and then since it's a rather large group we will meet um outside in front of the mailboxes for a group photo. Okay. All

003right. Now for the recognition. Tonight we want to take a moment to shine a spotlight on a group of individuals who truly went above and beyond during the recent snow and ice storm. While the winter weather kept our students and teachers safely at home for several days, our snowstorm relief team was out in the elements working around the clock. We want to specifically recognize our custodians, maintenance workers, transportation office staff, and mechanics. For most of us, clearing snow means a quick shovel of the driveway. But for this team, pre-treating our sidewalks and parking lots, which was just the tip of the iceberg. When the snow turned to layers of thick ice, they didn't head inside. They stayed out there shoveling, chiseling, and chipping away at inches of frozen ice to ensure our campuses were safe.

004Because of their tireless grit and determination, Woodford County was one of the very first districts in our region to get students back into the classroom. To our team, you are the reason our doors are open today. Your hard work behind the scenes doesn't go unnoticed and we are incredibly proud to have you on our team. Thank you for your excellence and your dedication to our students. Okay, beginning with our maintenance department, Sherman Green. Matt Cr, Philip Lowry, Ryan Eastman, Bobby Griggsby, Cody Reid. That's our district maintenance team. In central office, we have Carlos Villan Noeva, Lorie Clayton, and Lucia Cortez. Our transportation office, William Sloan, Griffin Hecathornne, Robert Woodrram, Brian Wy, Cindy Peele, Joanna Stewart, Sandra Ze, and Jaylen Prather. At Safe Harbor Academy, we have Brian Brown. At Huntertown Elementary, we have Aaron Rockwell,

005Landon Wford, Joshua Hartzell, and Blanca Martinez. At Northside Elementary, we'd like to recognize James Harlo, Luke Harlo, and David Xanodi. at Simmons Elementary. We'd like to recognize Crystal Summers, David Harlo, and Stacy Griffin. At Southside Elementary, we have Mr. Brian Reynolds, Belinda Beasley, and Edia Saledo. At Woodford County Middle School, we have William Wills, William Mui, David Buffin, Tony Stroble, Jonathan Spencer, Alan Perkins, and K. Reed, Jean, James. And at Woodford County High School, we have Wade Slama, Sherry Slatten, Metcalf, Sha Clark, Shana Pierre, Michael Metalf, Josh DS, Christina Morose, Helina Camille, Kevin Kumer, and Daniel Yazelle. And that's it. Thank you so much for this uh the amazing effort of this group. One more time. Do it one more time. Okay, first do that again. Yes. >> One more time. One more time. All

006right. Again, thank you so much to that team. It really made a big difference to the students and staff and parents. We'll move into our superintendent remarks. So, I um I have a brief video that I would like to share with everyone um that I shared earlier with the um high school staff just and I feel like it'll bring a lot of clarity around the budget process as well as the staffing process and so I would like to share that for my update tonight. >> Morning Woodford County High School. just wanted to bring some clarity around the budgeting and staffing process. Um, >> you received your preliminary staffing last week and I wanted to make sure that I provided clear information on how that process works. So step one in the um budgeting process timeline

007is to pass a tenative budget or I'm sorry pass the draft budget and that has just that was passed back in January. And then step two is what you just received last week which is preliminary staffing. And preliminary staffing is calculated based on the projected enrollment um in each of the grades in your building for next school year. And then once you get that each school principal receives that preliminary staffing, um we sit down with each one of them and have a pretty intensive work session where we talk about the needs um for the upcoming school year. And then step four is to we will get a seek which is the state funding dollar forecast um for next fiscal year and we will look to see are we going to have an increase um in

008seek dollars that sort of thing. So we that gives this process is you know mandated by the state of Kentucky and it gives us a way to be able to really about, okay, what income or what revenue are we going to have this year? What are the needs of our students? And to be able to meet those needs while also still maintaining our a healthy budget. So then after um we see the preliminary seek um forecast, then we come back and we give each school final staffing and final staffing allocations will be um given to each school principal um prior to May one. And those are based on once we know more about um what revenue is going to look like, what our budget is going to look like, then we're able to uh and

009how we've been able to use um all of our funds effectively and uh most efficiently in those principal work sessions. then we're able to see, okay, can can we afford as a district to um restore some of the allocations um that we originally were not were not able to give in the preliminary staffing and then in May the board passes the tentative budget and finally the working budget in September. So when we look at those preliminary numbers um this year based on the current enrollment in eighth grade and the 12th grade class that is graduating this year um you will see that enrollment has gone from 1,222 to 1,164. So if we had not changed the um the allocation to 1 to 24 from 1 to 22 if we take that 100 or 1,164 and

010we divide that by um the 22 which is what we've always we've staffed at the last few years. that would give you 52.9 positions simply based on the drop in enrollment at the high school that's projected for next year. So that would have automatically taken us from 55.5 to 52.9 right there. Well, if you take that same number, the 1,164 projected enrollment, and you divide it by 24, which is the um proposed staffing allocation that we talked about earlier, that puts us at 48.5. So, the combination of having a smaller incoming freshman class and a larger outgoing senior class, as well as the loss of students to WVLA, um that is a significant drop in student enrollment for next year at the high school. So, that certainly does impact um the number of certified positions

011that are allocated. I did want to also clarify that policy which was we follow very closely and then it's those first preliminary staffing allocations both certified and um school decision a school level decision superintendent does not that a master schedule is going to meet the needs of all 164 student it is under the um supervision and the authority of the schedule. So all that to say, I just wanted to reiterate the proc um the specifics about the drop in projected enrollment. Appreciate it when when you do that. Thanks. >> Thank you for letting me share that. >> Absolutely. All right. Next, we're going to move into our good news report. And Miss Mcante, I'll start with you down there. >> Okay. Well, hi everybody. Um, I just wanted to give a huge and sincere thank

012you to all Woodford County teachers for their dedication and effort during the snow days. >> Your commitments to keeping students supported and engaged even from home is truly appreciated. So, thank you, >> Miss Macau. Yeah, I just wanted to thank um all of the staff, all of the um folks with the county and with the city that worked together to help get our schools ready uh for people to return to class after the snowstorm. I know that that was a monumental effort. It was not easy to shovel. Um it was solid ice and I really appreciate all of the extra time uh and work that went into that because I know that that was not easy. Um, so I just wanted to reiterate um, thanks from me. >> Mr. Chairman, I spoke with a u,

013a member of one of our booster clubs the other day. Happen stance. Ran into them and they told me and outlined all that they do. I was simply amazed. Um, and quite frankly, if it weren't for our boosters, a lot of things that happen would not happen. So, if there's any boosters here, thank you. If there's any boosters listening, thank you. You all do a fantastic job. You're really unsung heroes and and thank you so much for all the effort and resources that you all put in. Thank you. >> Good. Miss Springgate. >> Oh, I usually get last and I never have anything new to say. Um, I did just want to say that I felt like this past weekend at the KSBI conference was wonderful. Um, lots of great learning. Um, lots of really

014good ideas. Um, I did find out some stuff about AI that I was completely unaware of. So, um, I will be able to weigh in on those conversations moving forward. >> Dr. Gold. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, I wanted to give a shout out to Miss Amy Oats and our superintendent, Dr. Jones for traveling to the cap and a former um employee of ours, Leslie Gilpin, who was also a part of that. She used to be a social worker at the um at Safe Harbor, but just going and letting their voices be heard and advocating for change. Dr. Jones was advocating for prek for all. Um and that's a monumental task that um that she was able to get up and be a part of that and share why that's so very important to our

015learners. um as well as um Miss Oats was able to advocate for um a bill that's going through that involves school social workers and school psychologists and there's quite a bit of a shortage in school psychologists across the state. So I just I think that that sets a great example of letting your voice be heard um and be able to create change within our state that absolutely impacts all of us in our in our county and community and beyond. So, thank you both for for doing that. And as well as thank you so much, I want to echo getting the kids back in school. That was monumental and as a parent, much appreciated. And it was great to be able to say, "Hey, Wford Countyy's back, you know." So, so that was wonderful. Thank you

016all so much for all that you've done. >> Thank you. Yeah, echo kind of the same thing everybody else said. Um, getting back to school is really important for students. Um, again, as a parent, having the the kids at home, uh, for those of you that were in that situation for a week and a half, it it was not easy for everybody. And so, very blessed for the relationship with the county, the city, the school district that we we have folks that'll put in the work, get out at 3:00 a.m., drive those roads, see what is safe, see what is passable, um, and and finally get to the point where we can get everybody back. So, really appreciate everybody's effort in that. Um, but what I'm really excited about and my good news is going

017to lead into our school performance by Southside Elementary. All right, there we go. Good evening. I'm Katie London, the music teacher at Southside, and these are a few of our very talented first graders. the entire grade level last week on Tuesday night uh presented an expo night. They had been doing some lessons in class with their teachers, a project-based learning um unit about hearthealthy choices. And so we tied their performance of the year into that with a cute little show called Happy Healthy Me. And we presented that at the end of the night after they did activities with their parents talking about all this awesome stuff they learned being heart healthy. This is one of the songs we did um for our show. It's called the healthy eating song. We hope you enjoy it. >>

018I like potatoes. I like tomatoes. Apples and strawber. I think it's great that I want to grow up to be healthy and I want to sing about it. And this is my song. and everywhere. We all want to grow to be healthy and peaches and cherries. Grapes and blueberine slice or red beans and rice, carrots and broccoli. I want to grow up to be healthy and I want to sing about it and This is our song and kids everywhere will be singing along. We all want to grow up to be healthy and strong. >> We love healthy food. WE JUST WANT to grow and we want to sing about it and everywhere we'll be singing along. We all want to grow to be healthy and strong. We all want to grow to be healthy and

019strong. Thank you so much first graders. That was amazing. You all put a lot of work into that and it was fantastic. Thank you so much. >> One more round of applause for them everybody. If you are a parent of any of our uh singers there, take take this moment to head out with your children. All right. And we will invite Miss Samples and Miss Durr up for the Southside Elementary School presentation. And I think you're going to open up with a duet, right? To compete with the first graders. Is that the amazing work that our students do. Of course, we got to showcase a little bit of it just now. Uh so we relish and appreciate any opportunity uh where we get to share the great things that are happening at Southside. And that

020was just one small um example of that, the collaboration, the hard work that our teachers um have with one another and put on every day so that our kids can have unique learning experiences um that not only align to their core curriculum and their Thank you. their curricul curriculum and standards, but also just real world applications uh and ways to bring back uh and connect to their community. Um so, um as many of you know, this is my first year as principal at Southside. Um Southside has always had a very special place in my heart. Uh when we first moved to Versales 12 years ago, that was the school that my children attended. And the love and the support and the care that my children received there made a place that wasn't our home feel

021like a home. And uh so when I think about the work that the teachers did to pour into my own children, I was so happy to join that team um and work with them to continue that long tradition of excellence. Um so Miss Dur and I are incredibly proud of the major initiatives that Southside um is undertaking, many of which really began in 24 and 25. Um and so to kind of provide a roadmap of that, thank you. To kind of provide a road map of that, uh Mr. is going she's our administrative dean is going to talk about uh a recap of last year's focuses and highlights uh from the 24-25 year. Okay. So you guys have really walked alongside of us as well and it's truly been a journey. So I love that

022Miss St. Map because it just feels like it has been a journey for us. So looking back to last year, Mr. Mr. Reynolds and I had our big rocks that we focused on and those were student agency connection and community engagement. And so we really went down our first road of the journey towards project-based learning and incorporating the houses because we felt like those things truly encompassed all of our big rocks. So throughout the 24-25 school year, we had a tremendous amount of success with both and we truly felt like it shaped Southside in the best most positive way. We saw so many positive changes. We saw so many magical learning experiences and we have just continued with that. So a quick recap of last year in the highlights. So, every single student in every

023single grade level had the opportunity to participate in two project-based learning experiences, one in the fall and one in the spring. We continued our partnership with Magnify Learning and that's continued on through this year and they were able to train us. So, we felt like as a staff and our teachers, we were equipped to lead them through this journey and it was a huge success because it truly made learning vibrant and meaningful for our students. So we also put everybody in Southside into a house. They were all sorted. Our staff, every student that came to Southside was also sorted into a house. And we felt like our attendance was on the rise. You can see the statistics here went from 94% to 94.28% and it increased to 95.71%. And we truly associate that with that

024sense of belonging and just excitement for learning. Um, and then with our community engagement, we had lots of brand new community partners that have actually continued on through this year, but lots of people were invited into Southside that made an impact on student learning, but also influenced our students to think beyond the walls of Southside Elementary. So, we welcomed lots of local businesses, just to name a few. We had the food pantry, the veterans association, VPD, our fire department, EMS, Ball Homes, lots of local government officials, and then we even branched out past Woodford, partnering with the American Heart Association, KET, Miss Kentucky, and even had some state government officials come in and pay us a visit. >> Um, and so as we work to establish our big rocks for this year, we would have

025been remiss to not uh continue that work and continue to look at that foundation. Um, so not only from last year, but also the long history that Southside has had um, of success. And so as we decided and we talked, we talked with our staff, we had one-on-one meetings with our staff this summer. Um, we looked at our desire for innovation, our ever growing staff commitment to moving forward, taking that feedback. Um, it really allowed us to develop our big rocks for the 24 or excuse me, 2526 school year. Um so we kind of use this systematic process of reflect, act, aspire and it's really kind of become the anchor of what we have done all year. Everything that we have worked through has kind of been under this lens. Uh of course we've reflected

026on the positive strong characteristics um and strong track record that we've had, but we've also taken the time to say what are some things that we can do differently? What are some things that we can change and add to? Um and so we've taken action in those areas. And then we've also aspired to move forward in big bold visions uh because we think that that's what our students deserve and our staff wants to do. So our big rocks this year have really focused on um again goals related to reflecting, acting, and aspiring, but also looking at our major initiatives, our PBL, our house system, and our professional learning communities. So, this really allowed us to strategically reflect on the current instructional practices we have um to enhance our personal learning and continuing that partnership with

027Magnify, which has continued to be so profound and monumental. I'm sure many of you have seen the flag dedication that we had. We have a flag flying high and that's something that our children um can proudly say that they're a part of for not just now, but for years to come and that's really something that's monumental. Um our house system, we want our students to feel a strong sense of belonging and community. Um, I love that that has now spread to not just our elementary school, but all the elementary schools are jumping on that bandwagon. So, now we have all not just four elementary schools, but one family of of house students. And so, that's really exciting. Um, and then lastly, our professional learning communities. We have really dove into that work and been strategic

028in our planning and our instruction and our um uh communication with one another to build not only strong um teachers that we already have and build their capacity, but also looking at how do we continue to uh move that needle forward and have high expectations for our staff and our students that just only um grow um and move our success forward. Um so again, all of our focuses are related to our PBL, our houses, and our PLC's. Um, and we're really excited for the rest of the year and um, all that's to come for Southside. Um, but as we had a wonderful presentation of our first graders, um, our other students also have an opportunity to share some things with you. They can uh, probably much more eloquently convey the amazing things about our house

029system and our PBL uh, better than I. So, at this time, we're going to invite them. They're over here. Yeah, we have some fifth and fourth grade students who are from our house committee and our student council that are just going to share a little bit about their perspective about our houses and our PBL system. So, thank you so much. >> Hi, my name is Carter Brady. I am a fifth grader at Southside Elementary and this is Southside all in our journey with PBLS and houses. Do I click it or Okay, thank you. All right. Southside as a whole. Safety. Houses and PBLs help us be safe every day. House rallies influence great behavior by applying safety in rallies. PBLs allow us to see life in the real world so we can be safe when

030we were out in the world. Respectful. We have many respectful opportunities to show. House points are earned by showing lots of respect to yourself and others. Not to mention PBL's involve the community and we always respect our county natives. Responsible. Being responsible at South is easy. PBLs are real life situations with real life consequences. So students are few to act responsibly. House rallies are a privilege to all students. So we are all motivated to be on our best behavior. Hi, I'm Lucas Franklin and I'm in the fourth grade. Um, how do PBLs affect students? PBL allows us to experience real world problems and solutions. It also helps our personal growth in ways that a regular lesson can't do. A PBL teaches concepts and and and inspires lifelong learning at the same time. As a student,

031being able to do PBL is exciting. It's a very fun way of learning while still having fun on the way. We can do so much thanks to PBL's. >> Hi, I'm Charlotte and I go to Southside Elementary. PBL's fantastic impacts. They taught us we can still have fun while learning. When we're doing activities, I can tell that all students are trying to engage. When I started PBL, I realized how much better I've grown in school. PBL has helped me so understand so much more in my classes. The first picture is uh the parents visiting during expo night. Uh the second picture is when the fifth graders taught about the houses to the kindergarteners. And the last picture is when we uh the fifth graders got to apply for jobs at Southside Elementary. How do houses

032affect students? The house system has changed our on school so much this year. We have loved coming to school every day. The house system encourages us to push through things even when things get hard. School is so much more engaging because of the house system. It makes us want to learn because it drives us to be our best self. And I'm in the house of Isabendi, which is obviously going to win this year. House system impacts. The house system makes our school a better place by making students want to act better. It makes kids have a better opinion of school and makes it have a better vibe. Everyone works together and treat each other like we're family. We get to help others have a chance to be leaders. Houses in action. This is a picture

033of when we were sorted into houses and I'm in the best household. >> How my school has improved. My school has improved so much especially from the house system. It is a great opportunity to Just let yourself embrace what is really inside of you. I feel like we all finally belong. Our favorite PBL and house memories. Hadex Browning stated that planning for a big bash partners was our was his favorite PBL. Mey Brim said that making a flag for her sales was her favorite PBL. Laya Waters said that kindergarten house sorting was her favorite house memory. Avery Glattis said that donating 7,000 items to veterans was her favorite PBL. And finally, Carter Brady said that field triping was favorite. >> Well, I know we've been talking a lot about PBL's and houses, but we don't

034we haven't really talked about the success of them. Uh, so starting off with best behavior. Houses motivate students to be on their best behavior because they want to get house points and for their house to win. Every day when I go to school, I'm motivated to get house points, but also mode does not need them because we are going to win. So, um, motivation. Students at Southside get motivated to come to school because of our house rallies, PBLs, and fun learning environments. All of these qualities make every day a great day to be a Southside stallion. Every day is very motivating for all of us. I think we can all agree on that. Um, better learning. Before project-based learning was present, learning wasn't as motivating for us. Now, we can all practice problem solving skills

035and expressing our ideas to the school. I think everybody knows that they have the freedom to think what they want and uh share their ideas. Um in conclusion, it is always a great day to be a Southside Stallion. And although we are four houses, one school, we are also six schools, one county. Thank you for the support. But we have to do one more thing before we leave. We've talked a lot about houses, so it's time for you guys to get sorted into some houses. time to pass out. >> Um so yes, this is a fun idea that we hope you will entertain for a moment. Um we you know as and I have to let you all know u that part of the presentation from the students they created entirely themselves. They have had

036working lunches to plan this to present. Um this has been very much like a mini PBL for them. They knew that this was coming up. They wanted to be very well prepared. They've had lots of great ideas. There were different uh they are not the only uh students who participated in this. We also had an elevation team and a creation team who worked very hard behind the scenes to make the presentation that they had today. Um the students do also have little thank yous for you all. It was for it was initially for last month when we had board appreciation uh but of course that uh was delayed. So we wanted to go ahead and give you those in person if you guys want to go ahead and pass those out. Um, and now probably

037the most fun part. Um, as you all know, every elementary school in the district is participating in the house system. So, regardless of what community you represent, this is one anchor that can tie you to those schools. So, when you go in and visit or you go see them, they would love to see the house that you now represent. Uh we like to say that the house chooses you um based upon your characteristics and how it aligns with the house. Uh we do have something for you that will let you know a little bit about your house and its characteristics. Um so if without further ado, if you would love to come up and spin, we would love to have you. >> Come on in. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So what do we do? >>

038Okay. So you're going to spin. your choices are. And I know we have a lot of representation. >> All right. A little to the side and do it. >> You're going to spin it. >> Yep. And just like this little part of the wheel moves. Yeah. >> Uhhuh. And we're going to see. Here we go. >> Give it a good It's kind of like the Price is Right. >> All right. >> We're gonna see. Okay, >> you're in all tresmo. YEAH, >> THE HOUSE of givers. >> Congratulations. The best. >> All right, Miss Gold. >> You're going to give it a spin. You're gonna give it a whirl. I think you're going to get >> the spins. >> So two for all charisma. >> Congratulations. >> The house of courage is >> veryisive. >> Yes.

039All right. You're just going to give it a little spin. A little This little part right here. Yep. Give it a whirl. >> Yes, sir. >> I didn't do very good, DID I? >> THERE we go. >> That's right. >> You'll get tired of doing that, won't you? >> There's no whammy, so it'll be fun. >> Dr. Jones is also an Amastad. >> Just right there. Yeah. Here we go. >> Wait, WAIT. All right. >> All right. Full transparency. I have a daughter that's an altruismo. So, I will either be an ally or will be a house divided. So, >> we do have a few houses divided. That's okay. And Millie, you have already been sorted. Yes, >> I am already in a house. I am an altruismo. So, >> yes, it is the best

040house. I agree. Oh >> has to be alter. >> I'm not touching it. >> Okay. >> I think we're I think IT IS RISMO. >> IT'S GOT exactly what it should have been. >> All right. >> Okay. Thank you guys. >> Okay. Yes. Do you guys want to show them their your signs? >> Is the bendy >> reverse is not here but it would be like this. I am but yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Do yours. There we go. I love that. >> Very good. to tell us about the house. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. >> Well, now that you're sorted, you are cordially invited to any of our house rallies. So, you can join your house during our house rallies and have some fun and we can get some house swag for

041you while you come visit. >> Sounds perfect. >> Uhoh. >> All right. >> Thank you all so much. We appreciate this. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. I love it when we incorporate fun into these. We'll give them a moment to to leave as well. >> How do we follow that? >> I mean, good luck. Yeah, >> we have numbers and charts. I don't know. >> All right. Right. Well, we will move into our Explore Time Company or ETC presentation with Miss Johnson and Miss Sullivan. >> Hello. Hi. I'm Kim Johnson. I'm the community ed director. This is Ashley Sullivan, my program manager for ETC. And here we're here to talk a little bit about ETC. Um, and as you see on your screen, I think, uh, talk a little bit about the past,

042present, and the future of ETC. And I'll let Ashley talk a little bit about >> Hang on. Hang on. We're not working. >> Okay. You guys have it up there. Okay. I don't know. >> Maybe the tech guy can help us. >> I did. Okay, there we go. There we go. >> I held it instead of just tapping it. Sorry. >> Okay. All right. And I'm gonna let Ashley start off. >> So ETC, as you all raise your hand if you have had a child or a family member participate in ETC. Exactly. So ETC has been around since about 1992. We tried to go back and figure out exactly when it was chartered and the oldest person that I spoke with that had been part of it then couldn't remember if it was 91 or

043' 92, but I found a document 92. So we'll just roll with that. But we were founded as a program as an extension of community education which is um what the what Woodford County brings to the community as what they need. So do we need fitness classes? Do we need cooking classes? Well, they need a child care because we know that Woodford County for school age is a childare desert. So we provide that for the community. Um, ETC is a financially self-sufficient program, meaning we operate solely off of money paid by participating families and any monies that are paid to us from the childcare assistance program or CCAP as some of us may know it by. We are a statelicicensed type one daycare center through the division of regulated childare or DRCC. And in 2009

044through the Kentucky Community Education Association, we were voted as the most outstanding afterchool program award. And so we got a plaque and a nice award and everything for that in 2009. >> So let's talk about those years, those those few years there, few years back. So, with COVID, um, I was telling her today when we got our first COVID check, we actually only had 5,000 left in the bank. And for us to be completely self-sufficient, the next payroll that rolled out, I was freaking out a little bit because I was in the community, I was in the program manager position at that time. So, when we got our first check of 45,000, I did a little dance. Well, through that, the CARES grants that we got only paid for certain things. The ARPA money that

045we got only paid for certain things. With that, it was mostly employee wages, if we had facility mortgages or rent payments, facility insuranceances, employee portions of employee benefit insurance, and consumable materials, including food and cleaning materials that were included in the original CARES money. With that, we got a total of $885,000. The second round of money that came through was from the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA as we refer to it. That money could only be used for employee wages, fixed expenses like facility rent or mortgage, facility utilities, insurance premiums, personal protective equipment, um cleaning supplies or food, updates to equipment necessary to meet COVID protocols. So any modifications we had to make to our facilities in order to be able to operational during COVID. It also included um items for social emotional learning

046curriculum activities in order to help kids acclimate during that time because it was a great effect as we all know now. Those grant monies that we got totaled a separate $859,971. So in total we got a significant amount of money paid to us through the co grant monies. That money was allocated based on your licensing possibility, not what was currently enrolled as we all know because it was extremely capped on an enrollment. So I just want to give you an overview of the staff um within ETC. So as you know um I'm community ed director. I'm over a few programs within the district. Um but Ashley is over the program manager or director within the state um hierarchy of child care related uh or licensing regulated. Um she works um a 260 day contract eight

047hours a day. She's over the program in general handles the day-to-day operations. We have site coordinators at each one of our elementarymentaries and they handle the day-to-day operations um within their seven and a half hours and they are 185 days and then I'll let her go into the assistance um the subcontracts and then what the trainings have to happen based on that licensing. So we have um ETC assistants the only variation between those are some are contracted and some are non-contracted. We don't really consider them a sub even though the district classifies them as such. So a contracted staff member must work their contracted four and a half hours a day. They are given the option for the benefits package that the district offers because they work over four hours. They must work a minimum

048of 180 days in the school year and they must be available to work some scheduled pre-arranged full days that we offer. Our non-contracted could work up to four and a half hours a day each shift as needed. ratio. They are required to work each school day and this is the new one that we are pushing a minimum of at least two hours given the option to work full days as needed for ratio. So all ETC staff have a certain requirement that they have to fulfill within daycare regulations. I have to have at least 18 hours of training as listed as the state director. Normal ETC staff have to have a minimum of 15 hours. These are ECE TRIS hours. These are not the safe schools that the district has to do. These are daycare training

049only. >> Please let it be known that I have to do these as well. >> Yes. Um we have to pass a CARES background check in addition to the district background check, which is why we have to have our own separate staff. We have our own background checks that have to be cleared. We can't just have a regular teacher come in and hang out for a couple hours after school if we're really short staffed. Um, we have to maintain and implement all ETC policies and procedures that goes along with also the district policies and procedures. And we have to maintain a current TB test, a current CPR physical training. We have to maintain a food handler certification. And I'm sure there's others as we go along, but those are the ones that I thought of

050immediately. And that has to stay current. That has to stay current in our office. Has to stay current in all of our sites. So that is something that the ETC site coordinators they're responsible for as well as ourselves as the program directors. Okay. All right. So, a little bit about um our tuition. Um so, versus state funding. So, totally uh right now we have around 270 enrolled in our program over the four elementaryaries. Um and right now we're only getting about 17 kids that are receiving state funded. So, that's CCAP. And I'll have you know that we are only a half day program. That's only 11.5 dollars that we're receiving in funding per day because of a half day program. We do not have a full day program except for on those full days that

051we are open, which aren't that many. But as a reimbursement back to us, we only receive 11 and a half dollars for that. Okay? And it could be even less depending on what that family actually qualifies for. So um non-state funded, those would be the families that actually pay us each month about 253 families. Okay. So, the majority of our funds come from our families that pay us each month. All right. So, let's look at our history on what we've been actually um our tuition history that we've been over the course of the last several several years. So, uh we couldn't really find exactly when this started because we couldn't go back that far. Couldn't find that information. But up until 2018, we were charging per child monthly 157.50 plus there was a sibling discount

052and we were unsure. We couldn't really find documentation of what that full rate was. In 2018, there was a 50 cent increase to 158 per child, which is monthly with a sibling in discount and also unsure what that full rate was. We did that up until 2020 where we increased it up to two $200 per child monthly with a 10% sibling discount. So if you had multiple children in our program, it was $200 and then that sibling discount was at 10% off. And then we charged $40 per day with no sibling discount. We have not had an increase in tuition since 2020. But go back to what happened before. Okay. Right after that, we had a lot of money coming in that we used. We knew that we were going to have to have a

053tuition increase at some point. Okay. So, I want to give you a history of where we have come from, where we have where we are right now, and where we want to go in the future. Okay. Yep. So, I want to Ashley because she is our day-to-day income expenses person. She really goes into the details. I really want to show you all what our over the course of the last basically 10 years, our operating expenses have been our income from families have been. So you guys can really see what has been going on for like the last 10 years. >> So our goal as etc is not to be a for-profit organization. We are here to provide a service for the community, but we need to at least break even. Otherwise, we're going to run

054into a deficit as you can blatantly see between our red and blue columns. Um we hope to maintain a contingency fund between four to six months. If, god forbid, something happened and the state come in and shut us down, I still want to pay staff. It's not fair to them in case one thing goes wrong or Knock on wood, we have another COVID problem. >> Um, got it. >> Move on. Move on. >> But with that, um, we did add together 2020 to 2023, um, as grand totals because between the grant money that we got, it came out of certain funds. It was hard to dictate, you know, what was where there and how to add it together and how it melded in. So between 2020 and 2023, we used all of our grant monies

055that we got. 90% of that was put towards wages. I was instructed at the time by the financial officers that putting most of that money towards wages was the best bang for our buck, if you will, on how to get the most length out of that money. >> And don't forget, we also we were very limited on how we could we could use those funds. So, we used those funds and take that took that money and bought what we could with that money or with that money and we basically bought all the things that we could that we knew that wouldn't expire, per se. We're still using band-aids I bought with COVID money. >> So, okay. Um, so we took that money, we bought the things that we could buy to use that money up,

056though we wouldn't use that money or use money in the future to buy those things. >> Yes. Which allowed us to create a large >> looks like a large contingency fund with monies that parents paid because we weren't having to use that until after specific money ran out and then we used it towards food. We used it towards um you know different markers and crayons and day-to-day consumable expenses. So back in 2016 you can see our operating expenses were under what we were bringing in. The next year pretty even and then it started to kind of go it started changing and then after COVID as you can see it really made a different uh difference between the income and the uh income and the operating expenses. All right. So this next one really takes this

057into percentage of the income over expenses over income. But you can see that percentage really sees that one to one. So in 2016 we only used 84% of the money that came in. In 2017 we were break even within a few dollars. In 2018 we started eating in the contingency that we had built. In 2020 to 2023, we used 86% of what came in. That's including all of the COVID funds. Between that and 2024, we also had a pay increase for our wages um because we had to start competing with places like Kroger that had increased their wages to get people to come back to work. >> And if I'm not mistaken, Ashley, we were required to receive that money. We had to up our hourly wages, right? Correct. >> To a point. >> Yeah.

058to receive a certain so in order to receive some of the ARPA money it was based on the money that you paid out in salary >> the highest dollar amount was 13 we started out at I believe 12243 or something around that when the money was starting to be dispersed so we were almost top tier but it wasn't necessarily contingency to raise our our >> so we were trying to be competitive with those around us because we couldn't get anybody to apply so we were having to be competitive >> unfortunately as I've said before in previous board meetings we are a niche time a day and we have to find a certain type of qualified person to work that time of day. Um 4 and a half hours from 2 to 6:30 is a rough

059time frame to hire someone for. Um so as you see moving into 2024 it's at you know almost 200% of what we're bringing in. Um in 2025 it went down a little bit and so far in 2026 it's down a little bit but still not enough to be where it needs to be per se to break even. Okay. All right. So, looking for the future, um what we're looking at then is what we're going to be in down the uh later in the agenda today, you're going to be voting on uh looking at an increase for tuition. Um so, what we're looking at for an in excuse me, a tuition increase um for the fiscal year 27. It's not going to be on the agenda today, but what we're looking for is summer today, but

060we will be presenting later on down the road. but that an increase of a monthly tuition of $25 per child with that 10% sibling discount um and increasing that full day rate by $10 and we're looking at possibly reopening etc on uh in etc on NTI and snow day. So we're working on getting that as well um at the superintendent's discretion and then also the following year in 28 an additional $25 per child. So we haven't done that obviously in the last five years. So, we we've got to catch up. So, we've got to get that back up to where we needed to be. And our food costs have doubled in the last five years. >> They doubled in the last year. >> When I ran expenses, food costs had doubled in the last year.

061>> You all know it, too. Yeah. >> And we're feeding close to 300 children. So, >> all right. Um, so, as I told you, um, those are some upcoming updates, potential updates for us. We're also looking at handbook updates, looking at discipline and behavior sections within the parent handbook. Uh modifying the employee handbook coming up. I told you about the NTI and snow days. We're looking at some adjustments there. Um at a possible like second plan for that as well. Um and then further discounts possibly for employees. So we're looking at some other things that we can offer to be a little bit more well-rounded within our community and within our school district. But here's what you're going to be voting on today. >> No, the picture didn't. >> Oh, all right. Well, there was

062some pictures there. So, later today in your agenda, uh we are proposing uh an increase to the tuition for our summer program um for from $40 a day to $50 a day. So, it's a $10 increase um from $200 a week to 250. Um and I think we want to comment a little bit about what we saw in some around um around the county too. Like it's pretty comparable um to this is what most families are paying per week right now. So we need to be a little bit more this is we we aren't making any money. We're not trying to make any money but we just got to make more money so we can keep ourselves afloat. Otherwise we we aren't going to stay afloat. Traditionally in the summer we've always taken a deficit.

063We've never had as many students as we needed in staff to make sure that everyone was well cared for and everything was taken care of. And we're not necessarily looking to cut that deficit drastically, but transportation costs have gone up. We still want to take field trips. That's part of the great thing that we do. A lot of our pictures came from field trips. Um but what we need is, you know, just a little bit more um per child in order to make it more feasible >> to eat those costs. And just a reminding a reminder that when we have our summer program, families sign up per week. So if they need a week, they know the week they're going to sign up for. They pay for that week. So if they only need three

064weeks within the summer, they pay for those three weeks. They don't pay up for the whole summer. So it's per week that they sign up for. And because of that, we do have a uh deposit a few years back. If you were on the board, um we did uh institute a deposit and you all approved that. and we are asking for an increase from 50 to $60 for that deposit. So, any questions? >> I've got a quick question. So, with the COVID money, did those did those funds go to increasing pay for staff or did it go to hiring additional staff or both? And so then when the money >> the ratio in every group went from one teacher to maybe 25 kids, which is what our second through fifth grade is legally allowed to

065do, to 1 to 15, >> which was what our kindergarten and first grade is legally allowed to do. >> So we went from being able to take 25 children to cut the cost of that one person's wage to 15. And that was finally alleviated through the CO restrictions. And that was finally alleviated somewhere in 2022. I don't remember exactly when those restrictions kind of >> lightened up a little bit, >> right? >> Um, but when we were finally able to accept more children in and do more with it, you know, we increased as much as we could with the kids. And to be honest, we still have a wait list. We have a weight list at some schools and some groups. It just depends on, you know, what we can do with what we have

066with our staff. Um and with the co money we put it towards one the pay increase to become as competitive as others to get a better quality person so we're not spending time and time and time again hiring. >> Um I had come before earlier I don't know if you remember not to ask for an assistant because I had done over 180 interviews in one school year >> and that facilitated with a staff of like 20 people at that time. >> Um Luckily, because we have raised our wages, we have retained our staff. We have two or three that might have a better job opportunity for a full-time job come along and they might leave us and we have to fill that position. But outside of that, we've been able to maintain our staff for

067the last couple of years. And it has been amazing for our training. You know, you say it once and it's retaining. You don't have to go back and visit it again unless it's a brush >> and our kids >> and the kids and the Yeah. And the consistency with our kids. So, yes, we use part of the co money towards raising rate or not raising rates. Obviously, we're not raising rates. um towards raising wages but at the same time that we put it towards as much other as we could also that was allowed. >> I don't have a question. I just had just a quick comment. Um I think that uh this program is a really wonderful opportunity not just for our students but also for um you know our staff and our parents. Um

068and and uh I did have children who participated and um it was a really wonderful experience. I think having the kids in the building and the parents in the building and having that goodwill and having that safe, secure, nurturing educational program for um our children is just wonderful part of Woodford County. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> I mean, I've got a comment, too. I was in ETC all through elementary school and I absolutely adored all the wonderful women and men that were in that program and they were so loving to me. So, this program truly needs to stay alive because it impacts so many children. So, thank you. >> If something were to ever actually happen to etc., this community would not survive. >> We are we are the child

069care backbone for the working community here in Woodford County. >> We are it's it's >> and we want to we want to keep it going and keep it growing and keep it thriving. So, um, and that was really the the consensus when we, you know, we were talking about this program was the people that reached out to us like whatever you've got to do to keep this program going, keep it going. We have to have this program. So, >> can I ask a follow-up question? As far as the amount of money that you're asking for, will that sustain it? >> For which part? The summer or the >> for both like with the increase? >> The summer time it will just be for us to just like I said, we we like she told you

070we don't really anything. It's just for us to make some extra because of the cost things are going up. Now, when we put the money ahead, I told Dr. Jones when we were looking at this and we knew that we were going to have to increase rates because we knew the money that we had received through CO that it had basically floated us for a few years um that we were going to have to go before the board to do an increase. Um this would have happened two years ago had we not received or if CO had not happened. >> Um it'll probably take us about two years. That's why we want to do it incrementally over two years that we'll have to continue to reassess where we are. Um but we're going to be

071looking at other costs to make things more um cost effective within our program but not put all the burden on families. Right. Right. >> As well. So that's why we're only going to, you know, increase it by 25 the first year and then kind of reassess where we're at. >> Um and then look at another $25 the following year if we need it or see where we're at. Um but that's kind of what we're looking at right now. And what would you need to be to expand services for those areas that like the different schools that have weight list? Because I know everybody's like got to sign up for ATC now. You know the stress. >> It's nothing. That's I mean we can only So according to state regulations it's one child per seven square

072feet. >> So you can only have so many children in a space at that at that size. We operate out of cafeterias. So you're kind of limited to the size of the cafeterias. Luckily, the places that we have weight lists are due to the way we have our groups structured. So, at some schools, for instance, at Southside, we have seven groups for sixth grades. >> Seven, seven. We have kindergarten that has two groups because we had so many students on a wait list, we hired another person, started another group. Same for first grade because last year was so large. They have two first grade groups, one second, one third, and then a fourth and fifth. because at fourth grade kids can go home on the bus, >> right? Absolutely. Yeah. >> So, our numbers drop,

073which is fine. We expect it. It's, you know, part of the program, >> but um but with the with the way that we have the groups set up and everything, um it just kind of depends because at Simmons, we have three groups. >> We have a kindergarten and first, a second, and then a third through fifth because of how the children enrolled. So, with that, we can only have up to 25 in that third through fifth because that's the age range. >> And so if we hired more people, we had to make sure that we have enough kids on that weight list to justify the wages of that other person. >> It makes sense. Yes. >> Because for every person that we hire, it's at least $15,000 between 12 and $15,000 if they're contracted or

074if they're >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Sure. No problem. >> I mean, I appreciate the approach you you were taking with this of just trying to incrementally raise these rates as needed, looking at your volume, looking at your expenses. So, I mean, to me it it makes sense and it doesn't look like it's going to be a huge burden. It looks like it's really necessary. So, >> and I will say the the co money that we received, I want you all to know that we took that money, like I said, and we used it for the things that we only could buy. And so, we we did a lot of things. We did a lot of improvements. We took a lot of things. We replaced a lot of things that we could

075take that money so it didn't come out of our our bottom line. And so we took that money and we used it wisely to buy food for our kids, to buy furniture, to buy supplies, to buy all the things that we could buy with it so that we could improve our program. Now we're on the other side of it. Now we've got to look at where we are now. So >> anybody else have any other questions, comments? >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you for everything you do. >> Thank you. >> All right. At this time, we're going to move into our new high school project update with Dr. Raburn. Good evening board. Um, every time I'm not patient enough for this thing and sometimes it just takes just a second and so I

076hit the button before it gets started and then it just doesn't happen. Can you make sure I com? And then it was going to decide. It's a little sluggish this evening. Um it's it's been recovering from snow as well. There we go. All right. All right, board. We're going to talk about the high school update. On your agenda this evening, you have two items to go over. So, we're going to give you our recommendations, talk about what we have, um so that you can make an informed decision when it comes time to make that call. Um so here is our current balance for our high school projects. This is combined between the two balances. Uh remember the one balance is in the negative. The other one is in the positive. It's a collective hole that

077we will clear up once the BG is finished and we have to go through and clean that up. We'll clean that up all at one time before we submit it to the state. So this will equal out to be zero. So it will not be $1.7 million in the hole. it will be zero dollars and the other one will reflect the change at the top. So we have currently about $787,000 in our contingency fund for the new high school. Um so you have uh the first item on your agenda tonight is the proposal to extend the parking at the high school by 100 spots. This is a gravel lot of sorts. This is a compact gravel lot that we are adding to the back of the high school in the student parking area. There's a

078big open spot. We're going to add that area right there. Um, it will be gravel. It will not be black top. If you want it black top, it add about $100,000. That's what the quotes have come back. Dr. Jones and I chatted. We just don't feel it's feasible to make that uh option or to provide it to you all because it's so expensive. But this is the base layer that they would be putting down to lay gravel or to lay black top over top. So we're going ahead and laying the foundation to where that if we want to later come back and add black top to that area. All we have to do is put the black top on. We don't have to reo the whole thing. So this is it's not gravel like you

079would see in a driveway. This is compact gravel that's been compacted down. They will take a roller over top of it to force it down. Um we might be able to put lines in place. Um, but the high school has a plan for if we can't put lines in, the lines will just wear out over time because it is still rock um that we'll have. So, this is uh the first contract and these are all the same quotes that you received back in December when we gave them to you. I'm just bringing them back up to your front. We checked with every contractor. These bids are still good. Um, and nothing has changed. So, 60,000 for bid one and then 121,000 for bid two and 62,000 for bid three. So, we did a comparison and

080did a contract um bid contract rubric where price was the top and then everything else down was based off of the bid package that we sent them. And you can see that we actually did take the lowest price bid um for that and that's what we're recommending. So, as a district team member coming to you to recommend, we are recommending that you take the P&R construction bid for the $60,000 to um to make those additional hundred spaces in the back of the parking lot. We've talked a lot about the spring box and um I want you to know I've got some pictures here and a little bit of a video so that you can kind of see. We are recommending not to approve any any for any going forward movements with the spring box to

081just let it die. Um because we want to allow the maintenance staff to mitigate it. Um we can do this. We can put a nice French drain down there and channel the water. There's a drain. So let me just show you. Okay. So at on your screen you're looking at the spring and it's already had a natural path since the creation of the high school in the bus loop that has created itself this nice little trail that goes right down to the bottom where there is a drain. We can just take that and put it into the drain and it away it'll go. Um and so we'll just create to where the channel goes down um as we see fit. This is in December. Um actually no, this is January. There's a little bit of

082snow on the ground. This is before we had the uh snow magedon that came through. Um but you can also see this is a picture taken in side of uh goo or Apple maps. the actual the spring path is on the on the map. It came from the satellite picture. Um, and so at the top where the arrow is, right by this sign up here is where the spring is actually located. It is not impeding the drive. So, I took this video to help um with traffic when we first opened the high school and didn't realize it, but we could see the spring right there, too. Um, like I said, it's followed the same path to this drain, which is right here on that. So there's a drain there. We can just drain it. So

083we're recommending not to do that. All right. Any questions? >> Yeah, we can. We're voting on this later, but I think since we're talking about this now, it makes sense to to talk about it now. Um I I'm very interested in this fact that we don't need the spring box because I think the cost was around 75,000 or something that it was quoted. They were going to so where this bus is coming up, they were going to have to cut through the concrete and the black top there, but the spring box there, and then >> refinish the the road work there. And it's not ever come close to the road. >> Mhm. >> So, >> well, thank you for doing this work. And I'm sure there's other involve others involved in figuring this out. >>

084It's been very much like our maintenance directors that we can handle this ourselves. We don't need to spend $70,000. >> That is amazing. I'd rather spend $70,000 on a parking lot. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask ask a question about that parking lot? Okay. So, I'm just looking at the student side of it. I mean, I know Mr. Reed is here and maybe he can answer this question for me. >> I'm just thinking on the side of that's going to be 16, 17, and 18 year olds in a gravel lot. I'm just thinking how exactly are we going to organize that where it's not total chaos and gravel being slung everywhere. So, I had that same thought. >> Okay. >> I did >> because I sling gravel in my own driveway. So,

085I'm just thinking >> it's not gravel like you think in your thought. Okay. Like it's it's almost concrete is what it is. So, it's compacted and compressed down. >> Mr. Reed, >> can I ask you a question? >> Okay. Did you say 70? >> 70 students on wait list for parking spots. >> Oh, yeah. My parking spot gets taken every once in a while. >> I know. >> Millie. Right. >> Okay. And then >> right now they have no flexibility. So >> yes. And then do we know when this gravel lot is going to be finished and usable? >> You probably won't be here. >> Yeah, I assumed that. They'll start as soon as the weather allows it to. As soon as the board votes on it, we'll tell them to go. Okay, they'll start.

086>> Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Reed. >> I have two things. One, there is a plan for lining it, correct? So that way cars will be >> We will do our best to line it. >> I mean to whatever it needs to happen to where people are not taking a parking spot and a half and >> that's a school issue. But yes, we will do our best to to help >> to make Well, I just think about the the cost of that. Does that need to be added into the overall cost of the parking lot >> for striping >> or whatever the plan is or just to do a material that can be >> Okay, >> Mr. Reed, can you come up here? Sorry. Since we're >> That way everybody can hear. >>

087Just so the people that are watching online can hear you that way. >> Yeah. So So we We do sell um parking spots each and every year. I think they're $15 a pass. That money goes into our general activity fund at the high school. So, we'll have funds available to buy that um kind of marking paint for that gravel lot. Um I think once we get the lines marked um students will kind of learn um how to maneuver and where everything is. We'll do our best to stay up on top of it, but but I think those funds are typically reserved for us to renew parking passes every year. those um tags that we give out and that would just be another um expense that we can use those funds on. >> Okay. Thank you.

088Um I do want to say one thing and I want to say this one thing and I want to stop with the whole drainage. I still cannot believe the spring dried up and they said don't worry about it. We don't know what's coming back and not to belabor it but I am still absolutely floored and disheartened by that process. I was not here for it, but I've been here for the conversations. And I think it's absolutely ridiculous they left us with that mess. And I appreciate our maintenance team being able to take care of it and save that money for things like the parking lot that is definitely needed, but that should have been remedied from the beginning. And that's all I will say. >> And for the record, none of us knew it until

089they told you all. >> I mean, it was nobody knew what a spring box was or why it was on the agenda. So, I think it was news to everybody. and why why they did not they were the ones that were championed with telling you all and advising and that that never came up that that just blows my mind. So I just will say that and then I will leave it alone and it is last it's history at this point in time until it's not. So >> the only thing I will say just to kind of echo that I think there have been a number of things that that that has kind of happened and if you look at the amount of contingency funds that have been spent for really kind of basic things that

090I think we thought we were getting uh or should have been getting um it will blow your mind. Um, but again, I would just echo that I am so glad there's a line drawn under that and at this point we can just move forward and if our maintenance folks can't, then you know, we can come back and revisit that. But I think it's a very good idea to just draw that line and to be done and to move on. >> Agreed. >> I still think they should be held responsible for it, but that's just my personal opinion. >> Thank you, Dr. Raburn. All right, we're gonna move into our curriculum and instruction update with Mr. Asher. All right, we spent an extensive amount of time going over a lot of data and information just a

091couple weeks ago. Um, so basically what I'm doing tonight is following up on some of those questions you had. While I don't have every aspect or area uh that was requested, still working on those, I do have quite a bit here. Um, you have it on your screen and in print. So we'll go to the first one uh dealing with demographics here. First off, uh it came up of capacity specific to Southside. Uh so here is from the district facility plan last done in uh 2324 I believe. Uh so Southside's capacity, you'll see there at the bottom right uh at 650. Their current enrollment or what it was when I pulled this uh for that meeting just a couple weeks ago was at 532. Um obviously the capacity this would be the old or this

092high school this building that we're in right now it was at 1333 uh asked uh Dr. Rayburn our new high school is 1,400 approximately. Uh moving forward uh we looked at student demographics uh the pie chart on the lefth hand side the uh columns on the right and where there was a question about um some longitudinal data in regard to both of those areas. So, if you'll go to the next one, you'll see student ethnicity trends there. Um, our Hispanic population has been uh the one to uh increase the most. Uh, I thought I had those exact numbers. It's a little bit hard to read there, but I believe uh that last orange dot, we're at roughly 18% uh where you see most other populations pretty uh pretty stagnant. There was a decrease in percentage

093of white students uh currently. Uh moving forward in the different categor categories, uh you'll see here from 21 all the way to through last year. Uh this was off school report card similar to what we were looking at uh district uh to state on achievement data. Same thing here with populations. Uh couple things to note uh an increase uh from 7.5% English learners back in 2122. We're now at 8.3. Although you'll see that is a trend in the state as well and we are dead even with them at that at uh at last year's data uh pretty uh pretty stagnant or close range with our free and reduced percent economically disadvantaged. We are up when I pulled it uh for current year we are right at 49%. Uh but that does fluctuate. Moving on, percent

094students with disabilities, uh you'll see an increase, although obviously pretty steady, holding at 16.8% over the course of three years, uh but below state average. Uh and then percent homeless, uh big increase. Uh we're just speculating on that right now, whether it was a reporting uh could potentially be um folks displaced due to the flood during that school year. Uh but you'll see an increase there. uh we do have funding uh title funding that is dedicated to help support those uh those families and Jill Hargus uh works in that area. And then finally, percent migrant. This is related to one of my requests tonight uh as far as adding another position. Uh you'll see there a very drastic increase and well above state average. Hence why we are getting additional funding in this area. While

095I know obviously we're talking about budget cuts and things like that in many other areas, our funding for our migrant education program has significantly increased. Uh it is very restrictive what you spend those dollars on. Hence why we're asking asking to add more staff. Uh we just hire we had added the instructional assistant just got that hired. Uh tonight on the agenda is to add a recruiter advocate because what you realize and if you I I presented on this several months ago um it's it's not just academic uh services. It it runs the gamut from birth uh to adult um in terms of u health department health needs, food needs, all of those things. But as you can see a a significant increase in that population. questions about any of those any of the demographic

096data we just went through there. All right, moving forward more academic based uh we looked at our AP numbers and enrollment. Again, there was a question about uh longitudinal over time. Uh so if you look here sorted uh both by ethnicity of enrollment as well as AP courses taken. Uh there was a dip uh from the 2020 2021 school year. Uh but then you'll see that increased uh last year of total courses down there in the bottom right at 645. So just to explain the numbers what you're looking at in the table total students uh but some of those t students take two or more classes so that hence why there are more courses number of test takers so those that opted to take the test in a given AP course and then number earning

097the qualifying score of three or above to earn the credit and then obviously the uh percentages of um student enrollment. uh you a marked increase in our African-American population taking AP courses uh pretty steady in Hispanic uh steady uh with our white population. Um so not a whole uh drastic movement there uh with the exception of African-American. Same thing on dual credit. Uh I think this is the last one I have to go through. um same layout students um and then taking multiple courses uh nearly doubled from 2021 where there was 566 courses last year we were above a thousand so uh there was some discussion about which path uh students are taking uh what they're taking opportunity of you can see here a definite increase in dual credit also a lot more offerings there

098and partnerships that we've been doing to to expand that uh in all areas Uh so the uh columns there represent a pretty steady incline that year after year keeps going up. Um on the ethnicity side of things, you'll see an increase once again in our African-American population. We had looked at that and that trend holds true uh this year and current uh as well as our Hispanic population uh continues to grow there. So that that also equates to if you remember me talking about through our equity work how we had a change to make it uh make those offerings more open and available to all students. So again um uh it worked uh way back from that 20 uh 2021 school year till now continue to see an increase there. So that was an update

099on just a few things. Uh again there uh I think there was some behavior data you asked for in a couple other areas. So I'll continue to work on that. Dr. Judge, >> I just want to say this is data to be celebrated. >> This is this is unprecedented and and it should be absolutely celebrated and thank you Ryan for doing such a great job just going back and addressing all the questions and bringing this data back to the board. Yeah, high school there deserves a lot of credit for that for the focus uh for the intentional scheduling for uh pushing the students to enroll um all students as you can see taking advantage of accelerated course work there. >> Yeah. >> Um last thing, I'm sorry, any other questions on data here? >> Last,

100>> I do have a quick question. Um one of the things that I noticed is and it seems to be a wider gap with the AP courses versus the pass rate for the dual credit courses. I was just wondering what if if you track like what are some of the signi s signifying events that may um contribute to the lack of pass rate in some of these areas. I mean it's it's not a huge number but there is a significant gap um when we look at earning qualifying score especially in the dual credit courses which are concerning to me when they take those those um grades that they earn into their college career and maybe put them behind on their GPA from the beginning. So I was just wondering what what precipitates a lack of

101>> GP side of things. >> Um I'm looking more well both of them. the dual credit it's like 50 and then if I'm looking at this correct and then the number of test takers and the number of earning a qualifying score it looks like 366 test takers and only 241 of those earned a qualifying score >> on the AP yes >> I would have to it it really fluctuates from course to course and test to test uh we do have that data uh I can dig a little deeper to look for trends in there um but what I've noticed uh we we do um analyze that not as heavily as we do um KSA um but initial look at it just it fluctuates quite a bit um but certainly can pull that and and add

102that to this >> well I just think about the cost right like the the long-term cost as far as especially if you're paying for a dual credit course or if your your GPA is following you forward to your college courses now that I remember looking that also to put as I always do put together averages next to that. What are the uh just so you have some comparison data so I can pull that and add that to uh this piece right here. >> I also wonder if there's any deficit in pass rates under certain groups of individuals if there if we could look at that data. I don't know if you have that. It may not be that >> uh I believe so different I got this from I believe you can check that box.

103One of the questions that I wanted to follow back up on um from our our data meeting is the the CTE courses um and the pathways and I know some of this is beyond our control because of the state kind of designates which pathways you could take >> but some of the things that I've heard is the and again I mentioned this the last editing meeting but data meeting rather but what about if you're not if they don't offer your pathway what do you do instead and what if you get into a pathway and you decidem this is not necessarily for me and maybe that's a Mr. Reid question. Um what what's the process as far as switching? Is it are you able to switch easily? Are you able to try out different things if

104this is if there isn't a CTE pathway that fits where you want to go to in college? >> Yeah. I mean first off we just try to have as many offerings as we can. Um hence and I reference this while we put some programming here. Um we um obviously lost our connection with Fyet County. Uh and that's not a bad thing. We wanted to bring things more local. Uh work with Miss Probes in terms of some ecoin things that we do around here. Obviously we're uh in a good spot for that. So um there just may be some situations where we can't offer it. Um diesel mechanic for example, we have a couple kids that were grandfathered in over at Fyet, but in the near future we won't be able to here. Now we want

105to continue to look at that. Uh unfortunately, I think we talked about the grant didn't come through for us to use that other space back there, but something uh we can work towards in the future. Um as far as um changing, uh yeah, I would ask Mr. Reed to talk uh to that. I know from personal experience um my daughter started in one and changed up went to another. Um but if you don't mind, sorry, put you on the spot. >> Sorry. Um I I guess the reason why you know like again I think about too those students that may may again not have a pathway offered or maybe one that doesn't fit their needs or like how do you kind of handle that navigation because again I don't know if anybody watched the data

106meeting but the example that I gave was mental health. There's not a mental health CTE um given by the state and what if that's the track you want to go into. What are what do you do in those situations >> for those? We try to work with students and understand kind of what what path they want that we do a lot of ILOP work. Um and we're trying to get better systems in place to to coordinate that and we might not ever have anything that directly aligns. Um but we could have something that kind of parallels. Okay. Um so for mental health we have um an education pathway, we have health sciences. Um we have a student that um this past year that really wanted to um has found a path in social work and

107really connected with the fire science um teacher and there's aspects of that that really correlate um and so we're able to talk with our um teachers and really help foster kind of that passion area within the programs that we have. So that's kind of been the real focus that we've um tried to start. As far as changing, we're always open to that. Um, that's one big benefit. I know you'll probably hear a lot about our schedule and as you've seen, um, that that's a big concern for us and and those multiple opportunities, um, uh, create, um, the the opportunity for students to to really explore different things. Um, at the end of the day, we do want students to to try to find a path, become concentrators, become completers, um, because that only helps us

108grow our programs um, financially and be able to support more offerings down the road as well. >> Thank you. >> And these CTE pathways are incredible. There are so many gifted teachers in these pathways that really do care about their students and they try their hardest to help their students find something within their pathways that they enjoy. Um I sometimes tend to not be easily make up my mind very easily. I was in four different pathways before I found one that I loved. I was in agra science. I was in culinary. I think I was in an art pathway. There was something along those lines. But then I found media and I have truly had such a amazing time with Mr. Kulie and the cinematography pathway. I mean it even helped me find what I

109wanted to do with my life and my career. So these CTE pathways are truly unbelievable and they do help a lot of students. So they are very beneficial at the high school. Well, and I love hearing your story about the flexibility because that's what I worried about like if you get on a path and you decide that you don't want to be on that path, having the chance to change and and find your passion and and maybe lead to your post-secary career, whatever that may be, be it college or straight to the career path. So, that's great to hear that you have flexibility in that capacity. So, >> this is why we have a student representative on the school board. Not every district has that. I'll just say that. That's something Woodford County does and

110that is not always a given in every district. So any districts listening, that is why we have that. So thank you. >> Anything else for Mr. >> Yeah, just an update. Um and I emailed you earlier. Uh we are going I said this probably beginning of the year. We're going through an accreditation process through Cognia. Uh so that big date is March 26th. It's a virtual meeting. It's very different anymore. So it doesn't require on-site visits, things like that. But uh they asked that two board members attend to one hear the presentation and then they interview the board about their role basically in continuous improvement. I did ask for board chair. Um so I sent you the information and then if you could if you're able and or help me recruit uh other participants for

111uh March 26th. Okay. Uh and then after that uh we'll be receiving our report within weeks. So I will certainly bring it will be a whole uh extensive on all of the um instructional standards as well as competency based education which our portrait. Uh so we'll have a great outside look and uh evaluation of our systems in that regard. >> I just had one quick followup. Um, so, uh, the data that I had requested about the total numbers of certified and classified staff, um, hopefully we'll be able to get those over the last five years just so we can kind of see trends, if the numbers have increased, if they've increased significantly in certain areas, that kind of thing. So, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Asher. Um, next we're

112going to move into our public comment. And before we do that, I do want to uh allow Don Morgan, our board attorney, just to address um kind of the roles and responsibilities here with the school board. But before I fully hand it over to you, if you didn't have a chance when you walked in or before you leave, we do have a trifold and a one-pager that really breaks down the roles of the school, schoolboard, superintendent, sites, sightbased decision-making groups, um, and the principles and I think it's relevant to this. Um, so Mr. Morgan, I'll turn it over to you. >> Thank you, Mr. Brickler. Um, so you know, I know there is a uh a central office reorganization that's on the agenda tonight. Uh, one thing that always comes up when when these types

113of issues are on the agenda, um, that is often a surprise to people is that the board members are prohibited. They they create positions and they eliminate positions, but they are prohibited by statute from weighing in on the employment of any particular individual. So, I know that, you know, obviously, you know, we probably have some folks here that are are going to want to comment on that. Um, but to the extent that we're discussing a particular individual or how this is going to impact a particular individual, uh, as opposed to positions, organization, the board is prohibited by statute from considering that. And so, Mr. brickler may have to to redirect you if if you get into an area where the board can't go. Um and that's not because they don't want to hear you. They

114do. Uh there's simply this is one area where um actually by statute uh board members can be subject to removal from office if they if they go there. And so for just wanted to give everyone that background and you know obviously we look forward to hearing your comments. Thank you. >> Thank you. And again, just to reiterate, anybody that's coming up to talk, if it's specific to a school, you may have to say the same thing at that school sitebased decision-making group. So, just wanted to to put that out there. Um, but we'll go ahead and start. We have, and if I mispronounce anybody's name, I'm sorry. Uh, Jacob Peace, and the topic is that reorganization and staffing. All right. How about now? There we go. All right. Uh, thank you all for the opportunity

115to speak. Uh, I grew up in Woodford County. I walked across the stage in Frankfurt, get my diploma, went off to college, and saw the country. But my love of the area was so great that I came back with my beautiful wife. love her to death. We'd like to start a family here because Woodford is special. Nowhere else I've ever seen has been a Woodford County. I suspect no place ever will be. When I went to Woodford County High School, what made it great was the teachers, the people. I had the absolute privilege to be taught and coached by some icons of Woodford County and considered a privilege to consider many of them friends to this day. These educators are intelligent leaders in our community and they are and they and others are our most

116indispensable capital as a school district. Without faculty and staff, we have no way to effect the standard of excellence that I was taught to believe in when I was a student at Woodford County High School. A standard that I still believe in as an alumnest. In February of 2025, I was released from my dream job as a conservationist as part of the federal Doge cuts. I can speak from experience that losing a job you love is devastating. And I can also say that I believe the budget is no better off while I know the folks I was forced to leave behind are seriously overburdened. In the same way, I foresee faculty and staff within the district similarly encumbered if teachers are laid off. And for that reason, I do not believe that a reduction in

117force is conducive to the standard of excellence we have here at Woodward County. It is my hope that WCPS can dig deep and abide by its core value of finding innovative solutions to problems, budgetary or otherwise, rather than laying good, intelligent, hardworking teachers off. Those are not the cuts to be made in my opinion. We can find the money without putting the district at a disadvantage when the student population inevitably rebounds. Without these educators, leaders, role models, and tutors, coaches, friends, and loved ones, we cannot adequately meet our mission statement or core values, and by extension prepare our students for what lies beyond the captain gown. Thank you for your time. Hail Woodford. >> Thank you, sir. Next, we have comment from Robin Ray. Rehea. Ray, >> thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um,

118in light of the upcoming budget decisions that you're going to have to make over the next several months, I wanted to bring up some data points um, published by the Legislative Research Commission at Frankfurt um, in conjunction with the Department of Education. They're part of the Kentucky District data profiles. They allow you to look at all 171 school districts and compare how Woodford stacks up to um our other school districts. Uh there are two areas where we stand out that I wanted to call attention to. One is instructional funding. Um, according to the Legislative Research Commission, there are only four districts in the entire state of Kentucky who spend a smaller percent of their per pupil spending directly on instruction. Only four. Meny, Russell County, uh, and two others that I can get back to

119you on. And according to the LRC, we are also in the bottom 20% of studenttoteer ratios. Um I was surprised by both of these numbers but felt that it was right to share them because we are an outlier uh and not in a good way. The other area that we are an outlier is administrative and support funding as a percent of our per pupil spending. We are in the top 11 in the state and administrative and support funding. Um it has not always been this way. Um 10 years ago we were in the middle of the pack on both. Um over that time our school admin FTEES have gone up by 40%. And our administrative and support funding per pupil has gone up 70%. Um the slide that I was able to see yesterday um

120predicted a 15% reduction in educational FTEES at the high school based on a 5% reduction in um staff. If that were to go through, according to the LRC, we would be in the bottom six statewide um in studenttoteer ratio. I know that you have hard decisions to make in the upcoming months. Um but we are already an outlier in a negative direction and any budget balancing that is done at the expense of instructional FTEES is in my opinion not the right way to go. and I encourage you to um step back from any of those decisions. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next we have Tracy Prop. Good evening board members and community. I come to you this evening as a mother, educator, and a resident of Woodford County. This is a community

121and school system that has always been known as the gold standard because of the opportunities that we continue to provide for our students. On February 17th, Dr. Jones spent the day with us at WCHS to educate the teachers and staff members about how the district worked. She explained tax base, answered questions. The road show, as it was called, was informative with great information that every person in our district should know. During this meeting, we were informed that WCHS would lose four certified positions. On Friday afternoon the 20th, our administration called an emergency meeting and said that we were now set to lose seven and a half certified positions, almost doubling what we were told a few days prior. The reason being given is that incoming eighth graders is less than the graduating 12th graders. The

122enrollment reported in 2526 is 1,222 kids. The enrollment anticipated next year is 1,164 kids. This is a loss of 58 students. Was this information not previously considered? 58 students in my mind does not equal an additional or almost doubling the number of faculty members that we would lose. I do not find that the eighth grade class dropped by 58 members from Tuesday to Friday. I don't know that if this information has simply been overlooked the past two months, but as I later reviewed the information on the WCPS budget web page, every document online also indicated a four-position cut. Due to the staffing numbers, the administration at WCHS immediately resurfaced conversations about scheduling due to the decrease in funding and increase of a sa of a class size because of the staffing allocations that we were

123told. So I would ask our board members and our community, please show me a Kentucky school with the staffing levels that you are proposing on a sixth period day that was proposed due to staffing and class size that has the same level of achievement that our students have. comparable accolades of GSP, GSA, National Merit, Blue Ribbon Status, National CTSO Honors, National CTSO officers, and so on. Please show me this data and I will then agree that this step is a step in the right direction. These are not just extras. These are things that our students deserve in order to be prepared for their best. It is also not lost on me that the effort that the education of Woodford County is a communitywide effort. In order for our board of education to provide the deserved

124opportunities for our students, our community must be willing to support. In most cases cases, that may mean tax rates need to be adjusted in order to provide some of these opportunities. As a Woodford County taxpayer myself, I also feel this financial burden from additional taxes, but I also understand the importance of that financial burden for our students. With that said, I also believe that the board of education must be good stewards of taxpayer funds. I feel the amount of positions added to the district over the last five years has been astonishing. All while teachers continue to have more things added to their plates in terms of classroom management and reporting. I applaud Dr. Jones for looking at these positions. I applaud Dr. Jones for proposing a reduction, consolidation, and reallocation of some of these positions.

125However, I still have faith that we can find additional funds or make other indirect cuts so that student opportunities and our students in Woodford County do not bear the financial burden of this. I do believe that continue to cut teacher positions that I do not believe that continuing to cut teacher positions is in the best interest of our students. As you vote this evening to approve the reorganization of positions, I ask that the board consider everything possible to give teacher allocations and money back to our schools, back to our students, even if it means postponing the approval of new positions so that we can go back and make sure that our reorganization is what our reorganization needs to be. Just maybe there is more money to be found prior to the approval of new positions.

126Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Next, we have Robin Ray IVth. >> Uh, hello. Is it working? Yes. >> My name is Robin Ray. I'm a current junior at Wford County High School. And I wanted to give you some background information uh background information about my experience Wford County High School that affects uh my view on how we should proceed in this. Um, I have kept over 3.8 8 GPA throughout my entire high school career. Uh I am heavily involved in a CTE pathway which would be um animal science which is run by our a teachers. Uh I'm also involved in extracurricular activities as I'm an officer at our local FFA chapter. Um throughout my entire experience, I can without a shadow of a doubt tell you that everything that I have been striving

127for, all the excellence I've achieved, uh that aligns with our core mission as Woodford County High School is that um teachers cannot be underestimated in their effect on me and other students. Everything that they have done has supported my growth and my opportunities. Um I have learned public speaking. Of course, I've strived academically throughout their help and I've gotten to expand my interest. Um, and I ask you, if we want to align ourselves and we want to continue our mission statement, how can we continue student growth while actively depreciating the resources we provide students? Uh, teachers are so beneficial to us. They teach us everything we know. So, I I don't understand how we can actively consider removing positions while trying to still encourage our students to grow. So, I leave you with the idea

128that um while you're considering who to not who to remove, what positions to remove and debating between administrative staff or teachers, please do not under underestimate the impact that all these teachers have on our students as I believe they're the basis for all of our learning. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Next, we have Faith Anne Davis. Good evening. My name is Faith Davis and I am a senior at Woodford County High School. Um, I'm a student that's been involved in numerous different programs and career pathways while at WCHS and a student who plans to become a CTE teacher herself. Um, I am also the student representative on the WCHS sitebased decision-making council. Whenever I left the SBDM council meeting last week, I was concerned. I was concerned with how we

129were going to cut four teachers and be able to keep our current schedule, which as far as I could tell after the meeting was still in discussion. Then came the news that we were going to have to cut seven and a half teachers. Where are we going to make these cuts from? The thing that makes our students so successful in Wer County is our teachers. Our teachers are passionate about their subjects and programs and are vital to students learning. Coming from a home where both of my parents are CTE teachers, I know that whenever significant cuts are made, many times that elective teachers have to take the brunt of the cuts. But that's not what's always best for the students. We know that the main focus in education centers around math, language arts, science, and

130social studies, which I understand is the foundation to education. But the electives are what reiterate those foundational courses into something that students can apply to their real lives. The programs and class opportunities that we have at WCHS allow students to explore a wide variety of interests and career paths and prepares them for life on their own after graduation. Our CTE and arts teachers are experts in their fields and they are what makes our programs exemplary. Why did WCHS get a blue rating this year? It's because of everyone's contributions including the significant increase in students who passed their EOP exams and were designated post-secary ready. I myself passed five end of program assessments last year due to the knowledge base and exemplary teaching of my instructors. Currently, WCHS students had the opportunity to be involved in

131a variety of career and arts classes. But if we were to lose seven and a half teachers, some of those opportunities would be gone. It's devastating to think that our students may have to suffer this great loss simply because teachers, the people responsible for our daily learning, vital to student success, may be removed. Our district prioritizes producing students who are responsible contributors, resilient learners, empathetic communicators, reflective collaborators, and most importantly in this situation, creative problem solvers. There's no doubt that we as a district have a problem right now. But I would like to see our board and our district practice that creative problem solving and find a way to keep the teachers who foster student learning and create such a great difference in the lives of our students rather than taking the easy way out

132to solve this budget crisis. I say this not to be disrespectful, but because I have faith in our district that we can find a better solution to this problem without losing essential resources for our students. I spoke briefly about elective classes earlier, but I would like to reiterate the significance of them in my life personally. The opportunities that I have had to part to participate in a variety of pathways has allowed me to take my multiple interests and explore them in depth in order to obtain the solidified vision for my future plans. I've participated in the engineering, agriculture, and education pathways as well as in the choir program at WCHS. Each of these electives has shaped me into the person that I am today, the student that is able, confident, and passionate enough to speak

133in front of you all. Through the variety of courses that I've taken in these pathways, I have learned and practiced the core values of the district's portrait of a learner. And I've used those skills to represent WCHS at the local, regional, state, and national levels through career and technical education opportunities and organizations. These teachers and their programs shape students high school careers and it and would be detrimental to lose. I understand that cuts are made based on projected enrollment numbers and studenttoteer ratios and I recognize that teacher salaries make up a significant portion of this district's budget. I know that it isn't an easy decision and it carries weight no matter the outcome. However, I respectfully ask that you reconsider the number of proposed cuts at the high school and carefully weigh what would be

134truly lost if we had to cut seven and a half teachers. Teachers are mentors, innovators, and the driving force behind student success. I ask that you protect and support our CTE and arts pathways. Not only for students like me, but for every student who walks through the doors of WCHS, searching for their passion and their purpose. Once these opportunities are gone, we cannot simply recreate them and cannot replace the impact of the teachers who make them possible. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Next we have Arlene Crabtree. >> First off, thank you for letting me speak this evening. Um to add to what >> you might have to hit the button. >> Okay. Thank you for letting me speak this evening. Um so pretty much everything that needs to be said to some extent

135has been said by Miss Propes as well as some of the others and the students. So you guys got to hear that. Um I am one of those pathway teachers um that that lives in that world and I too had questions in terms of uh Wednesday the road show. Great, very informative, very appreciative. Four cuts. Hey, I get it. I understand. You know, math is math. Former math teacher, I understand that. Um but by Friday afternoon, 7 and a half. And again, I too at 58 students um using the 24 to uh 24 to1 ratio is 2.4. four teachers, I'll give you two and a half. Where's three the other three? Where's the other one? Okay, so four to 7 and 1/2, you have three and a half. So, I don't necessarily agree with that

136at all. Um because I I would like to see those numbers. But I would also like to say that that 24 to one is not a reality in most classrooms. Okay? It's just not. Um the world that I live in, I I'm kind of a lone wolf in what in what I teach. Um I did the numbers just to see. And right now based on my current student loan student loan that I have because of the sheer number of preps that I have, I work anywhere from 25 to 35 plus additional hours a week just to ensure equipment is maintained to ensure that it works because my students depend on that as part of their curriculum. Okay, that's a given. If we go to losing the shortages that we have and those classroom sizes go

137up, we're not looking at 24 to one for those of us that have that. We're looking at because I currently have anywhere from 29 to 32 at any given time in my classroom. That's not what we're looking at. I don't have the space in my classroom um with all the equipment that is needed in my classroom. So, we really need to look at how does that truly affect how does that seven and a half teacher cut, how does it affect if we have to do that and we have to change our schedule from a block scheduling. I as an individual am not sure that I can be effective at what I do because teachers aren't just teachers. They do a lot of other things and like they have stated the successes that our students have

138is not by accident. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Samuel Bringingman. My name is Samuel Bringleman. I'm a senior here at Woodford County High School. And I believe that you can't put a price on education. Cutting teachers their pay and increasing class sizes diminishes the value of the education that the next generation is receiving. increasing salary in other areas while decreasing theirs seems a bit redundant. That money can be put back into our teachers and to better our education system. Earlier, the Southside kids had a performance about loving healthy food. Unfortunately, they won't be able to learn about what healthy food does for them without the amazing teachers that we have here tonight teaching science like biology and anatomy. They won't have access to that food without the wonderful people here and the

139wonderful teachers that I've had teaching them agriculture. Those computers in front of you, those cars you've even driven here. You wouldn't have any of those without the wonderful teacher that I had and who's here tonight teach me computer science or her teaching engineering. And I would not have found what I wanted to make my career in and what I want to do in my life without the amazing media teacher that we have here today or an English teacher that I had last year. Teachers bring a great value to students education and education is one of the biggest backbones of our society and these teachers heavily support that. A vote in favor of cutting teachers is a vote to dismantling education which Kentucky Senate Bill 2 already tried to do and was shot down by our

140Supreme Court. Be smart like our Supreme Court. And don't be smart and don't be dumb like the people that proposed that bill. Be better. Vote for teachers rights. Vote for students education and most importantly don't be remembered as someone who didn't terra. Hi, I'm coming as um a choir mom and uh thank you Dr. Jones. I know that you've worked really hard with what you were given when you took your position as our new superintendent and also thank you for letting me speak today. Um everybody's sort of said what I have written down already. Um, so I just wanted to reiterate what um, some of the people here have already said about if we reduce this the teacher population by seven and a half and then we have to red we have to change the

141scheduling, it's really going to detriment these amazing programs that we've built our brand new high school around. Um, whether it's at the choir, I'm coming as a choir mom, have a graduating senior and a rising freshman. Um, and I think uh, Mrs. I'm terrible at this. Uh, Mrs. Pro talked about, you know, all the kids who have gone to GSA and won all these like state awards and national awards and it's due to these programs that that take so long for these teachers to build up. And if the students don't have a chance to start those programs as a freshman because they're only working at in their core pro pro their core um classes and they can't take these classes until they're a junior or a senior. Like we're not going to see these kids

142going to GSA all the time or going to these ad competitions and all these other things that are are um so important to their de developmental. Like my daughter when she was a freshman, she wouldn't audition for anything. And now if Mr. Strickland's like, "Hey, Josie, I need you to go um sing the national anthem." She doesn't even blink. She goes and sings in front of everybody at the football stadium. And she's one of one of one of two high school kids who's in the spring musical at Woodford Theater. So, like they develop so much in this time um because of the support that these extracurricular um teachers give them and they won't be able to support these programs if their schedules are dropped. and if they're um if we we just have a low

143teacher count. So, thank you for listening. >> Thank you very much. >> Um I believe Miss Bailey also has some emailed public comment. That's everybody that signed up for live comment, but we also received some email that she's going to share. Okay, this first comment is from Heather Lochman. Hello, I have a current freshman and two younger children who attend Woodford County Public Schools. We're proud of the education they receive and the opportunities the high school pathways offer. If there are staffing reductions or a change to the scheduling pattern, there won't be the same opportunities to grow in these areas. The agriculture program, pre- N nursing, and pre-farm pharmacy technician pathways are something our daughter loves and has planned for her future her has planned her future schedule around. Our county excels by preparing these

144students for careers or a jump start on thriving at college, being eligible to be a certified nursing assistant, as well as a registered pharmacy tech by graduation, and getting exposure to areas of interest. Our community benefits from students studying any of the electives offered, and a change to the schedule would greatly inhibit their ability to pursue additional learning opportunities outside of the graduation requirements. Please don't prevent the students from going through these experiences by changing the schedule or reducing staff. Losing 7.5 full-time employees at the high school seems like a large change from the four anticipated reductions reported previously. The high school student parents haven't been informed of the need for staff reductions, possible schedule change that laying off more than five teachers may require as noted in your minutes, and how the student learning

145opportunities may differ from reduced elective offerings. Please look for creative solutions to prevent this. Has fundraising been considered? Any grants or financial long-term planning that can help prevent a massive adjustment such as this? I see the agenda has a proposed new position for funding a migrant family support position. How does that best serve a student and school if they are losing several teachers? Please continue to consider what else can be done to prevent a scheduling change and minimize the staffing impact to give our students the best chance to continue their excellent school offerings. Thank you, Heather Lochman. Evelyn House. >> Is this working? >> It's working. Okay. >> Every day I wake up and go to a class I don't want to go to. I do assignments I don't want to do. And I eat

146lunch in the cafeteria with lunch too expensive. But the one thing that makes us better are my teachers. When schools face budget cuts, teachers should be the last positions eliminated because they are the ones directly responsible for student learning and student happiness. When budgets tight tighten, districts should first evaluate administrative surplus, consolidating overlapping roles, reducing non-essential positions, and streamlining streamlining operations. Protecting teachers protects students. With the loss of teachers, a change in class schedule will disrupt all classes of students and make it much harder for us to learn. A change in schedule that is only due to a decrease in our educators. So, find another cut. Our teachers are not one of them. Hunter Sutherland. My name is Hunter Sutherland and I'm a junior at Woodford County High School. I've recently seen discussion about potential

147teacher layoffs and the possibility of switching to a different bell schedule next year. I strongly feel that the schedule should not be changed, especially since students have already completed scheduling for next year. Many of us, including myself, specifically planned our schedule around opportunities such as co-op and work-based learning programs. If the school moves to a six or seven period schedule, it could directly interfere with these classes and programs impacting students who have already committed to them. At the very least, I believe a survey or vote should be sent out to the students of Woodford County High School to gather our input since we are the ones who will be most affected by these changes. Thank you. Pamela Hutcherson to the members of the Woodford County Board of Education. As you heard during public comment at

148the January board meeting, I have concerns about the draft budget, specifically the reduction of certified staff days from 188 days to 187 days. During that meeting, Dr. Jones mentioned the additional day was added this past year prior to her time in the district when the transition was made to the new high school. However, when reviewing past Woodford County salary schedules, certified staff have been contracted for 188 days since at least the 2016 2017 school year. I share this information for you for your further review. Thank you for your time. Pamela Hutcherson, Woodford County teacher. Harper Beasley. Hello, my name is Harper Beasley and I'm a senior at Woodford County High School who is concerned about the proposed cutting of 7.5 teachers that is being discussed and voted on this evening. I understand budget cuts need

149to be made because of the detrimental financial situation our school is in. However, I and many other students and parents believe that cutting our teachers is not the right place to do that. If you voted to cut the 7.5 teachers, the school would be forced to change how our daily schedule works because there would be less classes. Currently, our schedule works on an alternating black and gold day schedule with four classes on each day. This allotss each this allotss each student a total of eight classes, which allows for your four core classes, essentials like PE and health, work-based learning, and student aid blocks and electives. Our classes are roughly 75 minutes each, which allows for real learning in each one, and every student is able to get individual focus. I have never had a class

150beside fresh I have never had a class beside freshman year PE that was longer than 30 minutes. And the best learning has come in classes about 20 and under. If the teacher teachers were cut, the school would need to create a daily schedule with six classes because there would not be enough teachers to support eight classes. In that format, class sizes would need to be increased to an average of around 35 students. I'm sorry. I think I read something wrong. I want to go back and correct it. Um, I have never had a class beside freshman year PE that was larger than 30 students. And the best learning has come in classes of about 20 and under. If the teachers were cut, the school would need to create a daily schedule with six classes because

151there would not be enough teachers to support eight classes. In that format, class sizes would need to be increased to an average of around 35 students, which would be detrimental to individualized learning attention that students need, and the length of classes would be crushed into a mere 45 minutes. That time is not enough and would not be enough for students to truly learn and understand the material they are working on and students understanding of the work would be lesser. Additionally, just six classes would mean freshmen would not be able to take any electives, sophomores would get one elective, juniors two, and seniors would only get three for everyone to be able to get enough credits to graduate. The pathway system that the school had previous had previously set up would be rendered useless as students

152would not have any class space to use for their pathway classes until senior year which defeat the purpose of them. AP classes will disappear with the new schedule. With cut teachers and less blocks, the classes would have to have a much larger amount of students, which means that traditionally smaller college level AP and dual credit classes will likely be almost fully cut. Without those classes, students will not have the advantage of experience experiencing higher learning before college and earning credits. I am in the school's new emergency medical technician training class, which would not be able to support a larger class size than its current 12. Currently that class is also takes up two of my current elective class blocks which are already longer and if the classes were shortened and the time that the shortened

153classes would allow would not be enough. This new program which set which sets students up with an incredible skill and potential for a job straight out of high school would need to be cut. The same applies to things like the new fire science program and the other CTE pathway programs. Things like internships, community service, and work-based learning blocks would also disappear as the shortened schedule would not allow enough time to to go to and return from these programs. If the goal for Woodford is to set students up for success and prepare us for the workforce, cutting these classes because of a lack of teachers would be extremely counterintuitive. These extra programs and time for students to go out into the real world are incredibly valuable, and without them, students will be less prepared for real

154jobs and contribution to our community. Currently, Woodford County High School produces a good portion of visual and performing artists as well. In past years, we have had a surplus of students selected for the Governor's School for the Arts program, and our band and choir programs are highly ranked in Kentucky. If teacher cuts were made, the daily schedule would be forced to change and students would have less and shorter classes. The first things to go in that area would be our arts elective classes that supports Woodford's artist. And I suspect Woodford would see a strong decline in our GSA candidates and arts performances. Many colleges across Kentucky and even some in surrounding states give out extra val give out extremely valuable scholarships for student participation in programs like GSA. If you were to cut the teachers

155which will lead to less classes, many students whose artistic strengths would have given them these scholarships will be missed and artistic students of Woodford County will be robbed of a pathway to college and other higher education. As a GSA alumni myself, I likely would not have had the encouragement or time to apply without my art class at school. And I believe that these arts electives are needed to help students thrive and succeed. I understand under ideal circumstances, of course, you wouldn't want to cut anything, but the pressure of the school's financial situation is forcing your hand. However, I would strongly urge you to not focus your budget cuts on the teacher side of things and instead look to the administration and other creative solutions. Our current student toteer ratio is lower than all the other

156schools around us. And I understand that part of the goal of this teacher cut would be to raise that ratio. But according to the KDE, for a school the size of Woodward, we should only have two principles. Instead of cutting valuable teachers and forcing the school to change our schedule, we could instead cut down on two of our current principles, four principles that would allow budget cuts in areas that we truly don't need and keep our learning protected. This would likely not be enough cuts, but it would be a significant portion of what needs cutting, considering the principles are paid significantly more than any teachers you would be cutting. Additionally, there are other positions within the school administration that could be reassessed to understand the necessity of them and cuts made places other than teachers.

157I will be graduating this May and won't be impacted by changes made for the next school year, but my younger sister is a freshman this year and I care about her and the rest of Woodford's future students receiving the same quality of learning and advantageous position advantageous positions I have. I believe that not cutting teachers will be an investment in the students futures and will help the school's representation and financial situation in the long run. And I again urge you to avoid cutting the 7.5 teachers. If they are cut, the school will be forced to change the schedule to change the schedule which I will which will be the fault of the board. So please, when you vote, think of the people you represent. Thank you, Harper Beasley. Lindsay Hall. As stated, my name is

158Lindseay Hall, and I'm the mother of three current students in the Woodford County Public School System. I have a junior at Woodford County High School, an eighth grader at Woodford County Middle School, and a fifth grader at Southside. My concern stems from the possibility of SCA of class scheduling changes at the high school. Information is swirling around social media, specifically Facebook, about changes that the administration wants to see implemented at the high school, that the SBDM council would be voting on at their next meeting in March. And I am unsure if this is true or not. Point being that we need transparency and communication about what is going on. We are reading information and being told from staff that due to budget cuts, school staff members will be cut anywhere from four to eight teaching

159positions in the upcoming school year. We are told that some of the reasoning behind this is due to the budget deficit, but also because of a smaller incoming freshman class at the high school this next year, too. We have seen information and been told that there is a push to move from a fourcl class block style schedule that alternates between a block and block schedules and moving to a traditional sixclass schedule with no variation. We are hearing that seniors will no longer be able to participate in internships or co-op workplacements. We are being told that votech classes are no longer available to students. We are being told that dual credit college classes and most AP CLA credit classes will no longer exist for our students. This is all very alarming. All of the things that

160have set Woodford County apart and helped us be regarded as a top-notch accredited school are in jeopardy. Stripping back the offerings to students that allows for so many choices and diversity to help them succeed in the future are possibly being removed. And it's not okay. My own child, Evie Hall, a current junior, is interviewing this Wednesday for a coveted position with the CHIPS program at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. That only a total of 10 high school seniors are able to be selected for. And if the scheduling blocks change, she would not be able to participate in this program should she be selected. either on A block or B block days for her entire senior year at school. She would go and report to UK at 6:30 a.m. each block day, and she

161would work and complete six different rotations within different disciplines of medicine to determine which area of medicine she would like to pursue. This would be so beneficial to her and the other fellow nine students chosen for this program to get a head start on determining their career pathways within medicine. They get to jump ahead in school and act as if they are already in med school pursuing their pathways within medicine. Sorry, uh pursuing their life's dreams, but getting to do so while still enrolled in Woodford County High School. On the opposite block day, she will continue to be a traditional student at Woodford County High School, but only the block style scheduling makes this possible. I have reached out to SPDM council members to ask for clarification on what is happening and there seems to

162be a huge discrepancy in what all information everyone knows. I have been told that the SBDM council believes that the conversations are happening to begin discussing a potential hybrid class schedule system. When asking what the details of this are, there seem to be four different potential pathways that this new hybrid system could consist of. But yet no one is at liberty to discuss in detail the particulars of this. It's also been mentioned that a parent survey was sent out sometime in the past year or so to ask parents opinions of the current block scheduling system. I can assure you that the survey was so vague that no one had any idea as to what they were asking for parent input and or even as to what other alternative class scheduling options there might be that

163could potentially be implemented. The biggest problem is that there is no transparency. Parents and the community all need to be educated on why potential other class scheduling models are being looked at and what the benefits of the implementation could be. Parents need to understand why changes are being wanted and pushed for by current administration. It isn't right for the school board or the SBDM council to make decisions for the community without us being fully educated on all aspects of potential changes so that we can make informed decisions and share our desires with the board and council members. Ultimately, our students need to be protected and their best interests do not need to be sacrificed at the expense of saving a dollar due to budget concerns. Kind regards, Lindsay Hall. Evie Hall. I would like to

164start by stating my preference for the next school year's daily schedule. I believe that the scheduling for AB block days is the best option for every student. AB blocked scheduling is the best issue for multiple reasons. As there are many reasons for this part of scheduling, I believe it is more important to focus on what would happen without it. If our school days were implemented into six or even seven classes a day, it would hurt all students. I have heard that there are concerns with AB block scheduling and the issue of teacherto student ratio. Yet, currently we have a few different classes that account for the teacherto student ratio in a classroom during some blocks. You want to cut seven and a half teachers all because of 58 less kids coming in than going out.

165But I believe that you are not accounting for our open enrollment options. There are many different reasons that people want to come into our school district. Some of which include athletics, certain needs, and better opportunity. Also, the need for teachers should not be going down because you are also not accounting for future class sizes. The current sixth grade class is bigger than both the current eighth and seventh grade classes. Without AB scheduling, there would be a multitude of issues. To start, there would be less class time. This would be very difficult due to the fact that in all of my classes, we still managed to push the time limit. There would be limited electives. Freshmen would not have the opportunity to start a pathway that first year, which means in turn they will not be

166able to finish a pathway. Yet somehow a graduation requirement is to finish a pathway. There are many things that are not being thought through. AP and dual credit classes will be reduced dramatically. This limits chances for students to be able to be advanced and pulls them down to the average of everyone else. seniors will not be able to leave and go get real world opportunities. I thought our school was about getting any I thought our school was about getting ready for the real world. Yet, every single piece of information going with this new schedule will go against everything that our school has ever taught us. There is plenty more I would love to say yet I'm running out of time because you all have tried keeping this a secret because you all know that everyone

167in the school district and community will be against this. I ask that you please take this and everyone supporting my concern into much consideration. I believe that if we do not do AB block scheduling, it will truly be the downfall of our community. Sincerely, Eevee Hall. Sheridan Dixon. Good evening. I am a WCHS 2025 graduate and am currently in my second semester of nursing school at BCTC. It is thanks to the amazing teachers and AB scheduling at Woodford County High School. I was able to take my prerequisites for nursing such as medical terminology, SRNA certification, English 101, AMP1,2 and more at a cheaper cost. These classes are difficult as is. Removing the A and the the AB scheduling would allow less time for the content and make it harder to digest and retain. This AB

168scheduling is essential to getting ahead and completing pathways. Our teachers already make do with stretched resources. Do not do not make their jobs harder. Sheridan Dixon. >> Thank you, Miss Bailey. >> I have a question. Can I kind of comment? Don't have time. >> We Well, no, not time. We don't typically converse on the public comments, but >> if if anything lines up with one of the topics we're talking about, maybe that time. Um, >> and just to just to clear up, not that I'm conversing with the public comments, but I do want to let everybody know, we are not voting on the staffing allocations tonight. That is not what we're doing tonight. We are voting on the reorganization of central office. So, I just wanted to be clear about that so that anybody that

169thinks we are voting on staffing allocations, that's not correct. Preliminary allocations were provided to the staff earlier this week. Final um staffing allocations will be provided to them in May, which will line up with the tenative budget that the board >> April, sorry, April. So, just wanted to clear that up in case everybody thought we were voting tonight on the staffing allocations. That's not what we're doing. Um, so with that said, that's why we appreciate you coming to us and speaking to us because there is still time for conversations, for action. So don't think that tonight is the night when this is all final. I just wanted to kind of reassure everybody on that. All right. Um, that does conclude uh the public comment. So again, we appreciate everyone coming, speaking, everyone that emailed in.

170And next, we are going to move into our consent agenda. So, can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Can you? >> So, moved. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCauen. All those in favor? >> Oh, I just had discussion >> on >> item H. >> We don't do discussion on consent agenda. >> We have many many times had discussion on consent agenda. >> If you would have wanted that, you would have had to pull that out during proposed amendments to the agenda. If you go back and look at the meetings that we've had over the past year, we have many many times had discussion on consent agenda. Um >> if you wanted to do that >> that we have discussion about this item. I had a couple of

171questions. >> It has been the procedure that if you do want to talk about something, we pull it out during the proposed amendments of the agenda. >> We talk about the consent agenda items quite frequently. >> Does it we can't do it though? like if something comes up just I mean it doesn't happen often but if something comes up in the course of a meeting tonight and something did so I made a note >> so I'm gonna stay consistent with what we've been doing and in the future if you want to discuss something on the consent agenda during the proposed amendments we can pull that out >> it doesn't have to be pulled out to have discussion you have a motion you have a second and the next thing is discussion that is just how

172agendas work and that's how we have been working I understand it could be pulled about I didn't have a question about it until a presentation tonight and I would like to have discussion about tuition students the number of tuition students that we have and to revisit the policy of having no tuition payments for one particular school. >> Who would you like to direct that question to? >> I would like to have discussion amongst the board just so that everyone is aware. So to >> Okay, hold onate hold on. Who would you like to direct the question to? >> I would like to have discussion amongst board members so that we are all aware that the public is aware and also to have a question. I assume that Mr. um Asher or the superintendent would email

173us the answer. Uh that seems to be how things are working and I'm fine with that, but I think we need to have a larger discussion. we're talking about cutting teachers and so this directly impacts that if we're talking about our open enrollment numbers, how much revenue we're receiving from open enrollment and then also just the fact that we do have one school where there is no tuition. So I think that it would be discussion I will allow at this time going forward if you want to pull something out of the consent agenda. >> I just want to have a discussion >> that is the same thing. The consent agenda is to approve the consent agenda as total as is. If you want to discuss something outside of that in the beginning of the meeting,

174we have proposed amendments to the agenda. That is your opportunity to pull something out of the consent agenda to discuss it. >> And I appreciate that you want to have one rule for me and one rule for everyone else. That is not for everybody else. I think that that's appropriate. We have discussion meeting after meeting. >> Do you want to talk about this right now, >> Mr. Mr. Chairman? >> Yes, Mr. Wilson. let's please resolve this. Okay. >> Okay. >> So that that would be my question. If we're talking about cutting teachers, I think probably a good step would be to take a step back and talk about other options. This appears to be one option that we could look at. Someone mentioned tonight, you know, our open enrollment numbers. I think it would be

175a good idea to have a discussion about that prior to cutting staff at our schools, prior to changing our uh teacher ratio and our staffing allocations. So my question is like what do our open enrollment numbers look like? What are those numbers? How much is that revenue? And do we want to revisit the policy of having tuition waved for one school? Um I just think those are discussions that we need to have as a larger group. And again that came up from discussions from the public tonight and from Mr. Asher's presentation. So that's why I think it's important to have discussions at board meetings about board business in front of the public. >> Okay. So you had a few questions there. Who are you directing those questions to? You can't >> superintendent may answer. >>

176So what is your question? You start with one question. What is your question? >> Again to reiterate, I think that we need to have a discussion about the open enrollment numbers. >> Okay. So what are the open enrollment numbers? >> How many students do we have? What is the cost of that? What is the cost of that to taxpayers? Because we don't receive. >> Okay. You're just rambling off questions. What is your question that we can direct? >> Those are the question. Who are you asking that to? >> I think that that Dr. Dr. Jones understands the questions. >> Do you have that information available right now? >> I do not have that information, but I will get it follow up with us. Thank you, Dr. Jones. >> Okay. Is that everything? >> I I

177have a follow-up question. If we >> Oh. Oh, >> well, we'll just >> Why let you talk? I'm going to let her talk, too. >> No, it goes it piggybacks on what Miss Springbait just asked. Do we are we voting on with the consent agenda? Does that close the door to open up the tuition for North Side because that's the one that doesn't have tuition. >> So just just to clarify, the action that's before the board is proposed due dates, >> right? >> The the students accepted to North Side will have the tuition payment waved is in board policy 09.124. >> So we have to put something on the agenda to modify that policy. But that's not the action that is before you all tonight. It's just a few days. >> Thank you. That that

178explains I appreciate that. >> All right, we have a motion. All in favor of approving the consent agenda? >> I I >> Any opposed? >> Nay. >> Motion passes 4 to one. >> Can I have a motion to approve central office reorganization? >> So moved. >> Motion by Miss Macauen. >> Second by Mr. Wilson and Dr. Jones. You have information to share with us? sluggish today. Increasing. >> There it goes. >> Thank you. So, um just to reiterate, you know, the charge that um our board uh gave me back um when I was hired. Um one was to um to balance our budget and to get us back in a place where we um would be financially sound and the other was to um help the district create a common vision. And so we are

179standing sort of in between the current financial situation that we are in and and we're going to get through this and we are going to move forward. Um but we're moving toward a really great vision and that vision was established by um all voices being heard. And so I want to tonight's presentation is it's as much if not more about the vision as it is um the budget. So, I just want to say that upfront and it does take us all um in the middle truly working together um to make that happen. So, I'm asking for um the board to enactivate the following positions. Um, assistant superintendent, district guidance counselor, special ed records clerk, sub call or subcenter assistant, community education assistant program coordinator of alternative programs, accounting supervisor, payroll supervisor, district gifted and talented

180coordinator at the district level to be um those duties would be taken up by our curriculum and instruction department, but more uh importantly, they would also be um moved back down to the leadership would be moved back down to the school level um with that uh position reduction. Um reducing the uh inactivating the administrative assistant uh account clerk 2 for transportation maintenance and technology. um inactivating the district communication technology or technician one and a half positions. transportation logistics coordinator um reducing the um central office um positions by one or for custodians by one and then uh inactivating the computer training specialist position and I'm asking the board to um with the reorganization that I'm going to talk about in just a minute to create a director of student services, a director of staff services an

181administrative dean of alternative ed, an account clerk too um for operations, a payroll clerk, half.5 and 0.5 staff services support um and then um halftime home health instructor, halftime 504 coordinator for our district with 16 extended days for the summer for coordinating summer school. So, I want to start by saying that, you know, we've heard our um citizens, we've heard our students and our staff members talk about really what we're we're moving toward and what we already do so well and what we're going to continue to do, which is um really create we have that legacy of excellence and creating a future of opportunity. In order to do that, we truly do have to to balance our budget. we we we do it this year or the Kentucky Department of Education does it next year

182and that means um no fin like this board would not retain any financial management of the school system. Um so with that being said I I do want us to look at the reorganization and um and what I'm recommending. So, um it was very clear from staff and students and families that um these were the four pillars that we need to work on in our vision. Um one of those being successful and engaged students and a lot of that work is happening already with our portrait work. Um and it will just we'll continue to get better and better and see student results from that learning student learning results um increase. Um the second one is an area that we really have heard loud and clear that we need to focus on as a district and

183that's skilled and committed teams. And so in the reorganization, I'm asking for a classified position um that would be a director of staff service services because um in the realignment, I want a I'm asking that and I would like to create a department that truly does focus on taking care of our staff members. um from hiring, it's it's everything in that column from hiring to um you know mentoring to training to you know making sure that our staff members know what their benefits are um that things are done accurately and that um we provide continuous support for our staff members. The third column is um caregivers and community partnerships. And that really centers around um truly supporting our families, supporting our caregivers, and capitalizing and informing our community about what our needs are um uh

184for our students. And then last is stewardship, which is really taking care of what we've been given from our budget to our our facilities, um the processes we have in place to make sure that we continue to be a successful school system. So, um the the reorganization um in eliminating one assistant superintendent, it would just be um the superintendent, the chief academic officer, and the chief operations officer. Um as well as the public uh information and communications officer, and an administrative assistant. Then under chief operations would be the director of finance, the director of maintenance, transportation, um the director of food service. We are not filling the director of technology. Um so that would remain um open coordinator of districtwide programs and athletic director. And then I'm asking that one of the positions I've asked

185um to be created that I talked about was that director of staff services. And so this department truly would be around making sure that our our um stewardship and also our teams, our employees are taken care of. Then the director of finance under them would be um uh one assistant finance director, accounts payable, the revenue clerk, and then school bookkeepers, which there are six of director of transportation. You can see um the individuals that would be under there. Um bus drivers, monitors, uh transportation data assistant, the vehicle maintenance supervisor and the um training coordinator. And then we have two um mechanics as well. And then under director of maintenance, um you would see that none of the um positions that I'm asking for would um be imp would be impacted would would make a difference

186there. Same with director of food services. No changes proposed there. Um I did want to mention that um when we were doing comparisons um of districts around us um we we we have one full-time athletic director and then there are three stipended positions that also assist the athletic director. Um I've heard different, you know, uh interpretations of that, but I want to make that clear. that is one staff member uh one position and then three stipended positions that assist. And then um with our coordinator of district-wide programs, that position would be um over preschool um community ed. And then part of community ed is the ETC program. uh director of student services would be the department that we're talking we're discussing with the reorganization of truly trying to target the skilled and committed teams ensuring

187that our staff are taken care of. Um, and so that would be the director of staff services, a classified position, two payroll, one payroll, uh, half payroll, one half, uh, staff services support, and then an employee benefits specialist, director of technology. Um, we would not fill that position with anyone. We would, our chief operations officer would also serve as director of technology. And then um in technology you have your um technicians, you have your systems analyst, um you have your student information systems administrator that works with the infinite campus. You have digital learning coaches, two of those. And then the district network administrator and our clerks at the schools, our infinite campus clerks. And then under chief academic officer, we would have um student services, and that's a new position I'm asking for, the director

188of student services. Um we would have director of special ed, director of student achievement and um migrant uh education program um as well as an administrative assistant. truly that that department is going to really center around um just ensuring that our students have what they need both support-wise and academically to be able to meet um their goals and to be able to um to be successful. And so moving those under one um department really does um continue what we already do so well for students. Um so and then also under um the chief academic is the student the director of student achievement and there is an MTSS coordinator that's 0.5 um and then digital learning coaches also assist work under um that department as well. and then a coordinator of curriculum instruction and assessment. And

189then director of special ed. Um you can see here school psychologists, um occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists. Um we have special ed leads that um at the school level that um receive a stipen and we have ARC chairs um as well. Uh we have hearing and visually impaired um instruction. three of those positions and an administrative assistant. And then finally, under the director of student services would be the the police force, our our force here in Woodford County, our district health coordinator and the nurses. um our home hospital program um the assistant director of pupil personnel which is our direct our district social worker and then our family resource youth service center coordinators. So um in that department I'm asking for a director of student services that we talked about. I'm also asking for

190since we I'm asking for you to um inactivate the um coordinator of alternative education, I'm asking that that be created as an admin dean of alternative education and they would be the um administrator in charge of Safe Harbor um which has four teachers and a counselor and then um WVLA which has one teacher and one counselor. And um the also the other position I've asked that we create is a part-time home hospital teacher.5 and that position would also be a 504 coordinator. Um we already pay um for subs additionally to support our home hospital program and so this would actually be a cost savings um as well. So the other um thing that I'm asking the the board to take action on and this um this is I feel very strongly about really being able

191to expand the opportunities that we have for students at Safe Harbor. And so after rounding with students and staff at Safe Harbor, um I'm asking that we relocate Safe Harbor to the newest wing here at the um central office building to be able to give them several more classrooms and more um just room to be able to expand services and to um give them more opportunities to be involved with um CTE opportunities as well as um just having more space. So, currently um Safe Harbor is located at our um preschool center was originally built I think in 2000 as a preschool center and um so they are currently in four classrooms and as um middle school services um expand and really looking at um based on staff and student feedback, we feel like we need

192um to really have an opportunity to have more space there. So, um the newest wing, um as many people tell me, it's the English Hall. The English Hall. Um on the bottom floor, we are um asking that Safe Harbor for next school year be um located there. Um we Mr. Colbertson has um worked met with staff. We've talked with staff about um just the opportunities that it would provide and also being able to um have access to a a gym and having access to the cafeteria and other spaces here as well. Um and so we're really excited about the future that that really um provides for our safe harbor students. Do you have questions for me for the reorganization? I've got a question. Oh, you go ahead. >> No, go ahead. You start. >> I

193was just I have questions all over the place, but the one that I have right here is just we we heard all the time, you know, the reason that we need a new high school is because this building is not good enough. It's bad. There's roaches and there's bats and there's mice and there's this mold and whatever. >> Yeah. >> So, we've had central office here now for a year. >> One year. And so I think some of the concerns that I'm hearing are if this building was not okay for >> high school students, >> how is it okay for safe harbor students? And really we we had no conversation about central office moving here. It just happened. But >> I just wonder if you could speak to that because I think that's something that

194I'm hearing from people in the community and >> it would be good to just kind of >> So in my experience so far um you know, we use a limited amount of the building and so we we right now use the newest, you know, some of the newest portions and and to to bring safe harbor over it really would like for me to be okay with it and to feel like it was a good move for students. Um it it had to be a better opportunity for students. And so um we that wing is in good shape. That wing is in excellent shape. um we would be able to have a secure vestibule um entrance there. Um you know, we would be able to truly have more space to be able to expand for um

195to meet the needs of our students and to be able to increase therapeutic services for our students. Um you know, Safe Harbor truly is a special place, a special staff. Um and it became very clear to me that we needed that additional space. I Personally, um, our our building, the the portion of the building that we use has been a great space. Um, we we enjoy it and I the space they would be moving into is also a great space. >> And I think you you wouldn't know this, Dr. Jones, but maybe Miss Springade or Mr. Brickler, did we was there an air quality study that was done on this building? >> I vaguely remember something like that. And they even looked like I think a rumor was black mold as well and and and

196things and they disproved all of that and I believe the air quality study was clear. >> Um we could probably find somebody to look back. >> I can go back and look back at that but >> um yeah because I remember that being a concern too and and that was disproven. So >> well I just had a couple questions. Um, one, I know when we had the January um, budget meeting, we were told that um, there would be approximately um, $885,000 in um, reductions to central office. Is that the amount of the reductions and the the changes that you're recommending tonight? >> Good question. It actually exceeds that amount just a little bit. Now, here's the thing. when you calculate um those salaries, you know, it depends on the person that comes into a position

197and how much experience they have. But yes, it actually does exceed that amount in the spring gate. >> Okay. And then we were also told that the staffing reductions would be in all departments. So, are there staffing reductions in all departments? Do you have numbers that you can kind of show us? This department with this number and now we're down to this number. Just something of that nature. And it doesn't have to be tonight. I just want to make sure to follow up. >> Yes, I can actually tell you that right now. So, um, with the reduction or the inactivating, uh, positions, I'm asking you all, um, the the bigot, so every department. So, I'll just go through the the positions. um assistant superintendent of course is from the um the leadership that would be

198the leadership level but specifically um really in in both um student services and staff services. Um but then creating new two new positions to make to have more attention on those areas. um district guidance counselor. Um that would come from the um student services department. Special ed records clerk would be special ed. The suballer is from um human resources. Uh community ed assistant program coordinator is from ETC. coordinator of alternative programs is the one that I've asked that we inactivate but then create the the administrative dean for um and so they would be in charge of safe harbor and um uh VA accounting supervisor payroll supervisor are both from finance um the district gifted and talented coordinator will be from curriculum and instruction um district computer technician reduction is from technology ology. The transportation logistic

199position is from transportation. Um custodial the reduction by one of course is custodian maintenance and then um computer training specialist is also from technology and then the administrative assistant would be both transportation maintenance and technology. >> Thank you. And then um I guess I had another question just um in one of the public comments tonight um some data was discussed from the district data profiles. Is that something that we can uh have a discussion about um possibly at the next board meeting? Um because I did uh and have consistently said that I think that our admin costs are um just kind of out of out of whack and and have gotten out of whack. And I know I ask a lot of questions like can we see the numbers? Can we see the increase of

200our our staff at different um kinds of areas, positions, that sort of thing? Um so I think that's something that we really should absolutely 100% look at u before we talk about any cuts that touch students. U which again is why I voted no last month on on the budget. I just want to make sure that we're having a holistic larger discussion where we're talking about, you know, kind of all different kind of aspects and avenues of cost reductions and that the very very last thing that we want to do is cut um anyone that that touches our students on a daily basis. Um so, uh I think it would be important to kind of have that data um and that information because really and truly I mean our decisions, you know, can only be

201based on if we have good information. if we have information early, if you know the public has the information and if we have time to kind of talk with our constituents, you know, prior to votes, um that is is absolutely um ideal. So, >> yes, actually I'm very interested in that as well. So, I made a note to look at that specific report. Um yeah, >> thank you. >> Dr. G, >> you ready for me? Um, okay. So, one of the questions that I had that I know that we talked about this a little bit, but the gifted and talented um position, how do you envision that being dispersed to the local schools and who is going to be I know you said principles are going to be overseeing that and then the um someone

202in administration and I'm just wondering how who decides what that looks like and the services that they're overseeing and making sure who who provides that services at the school level. How does that work? Do we have an idea? Can you speak to that I guess as well? >> Yes, I'm gonna have Mr. Asher also talk a little bit about that. >> So essentially how that responsibility is going to be absorbed and what that's going to look like. >> Thank you. >> Hello. >> You're red. You're red. >> Hello. they will >> uh it'll be a collective effort essentially it'll go back to uh since my tenure here uh we did not have that position previously we do have school level coordinators uh that we will share the responsibility among my team of what the current

203uh person does uh current coordinator I should say uh in terms of the testing identification meeting with the school level coordinators uh the schools will have to get creative in terms of additional services pullout groups uh whether it be um um special area teachers what have you. We had we we had done such things uh previously as I mentioned. So it'll be a collective effort. Uh we literally have within my department we have roles and responsibilities listed out and we will um we will divide those out uh so that we all have a have a role in that. I guess my follow-up question to that, and I apologize that I didn't ask this ahead of time, but this just made me think about this as we look at cuts to our middle school and our

204high school, especially what we were looking at tonight, and all the testimony from the people that came here, and kudos to the students, by the way, for all their wonderful submissions and being present. Um my question is how do we manage that with a reduction in staff at the middle school and high school to make sure those gifted and talented services are being adequately performed in those areas. I know that the ADP classes and the dual credits and all that kind of take precedent in that sort of thing. But I guess more of the oversight of those students. >> There's there's school level coordinators at each of those. And honestly, when you get to the high school level, it is much more along the lines of advanced course work and outside opportunities. Anything from uh

205independent studies, uh I've mentioned in this before, we had a young man working in the UK uh lab. Um so it's those type of things that would be out really outside of the school building often times, >> but the people that are in the coordinators that are in the school will make sure that those opportunities are available for our students. Is that correct? >> Available and presented because often times Yes. It would require another step, you know. Mhm. Absolutely. >> With UK or something like that. >> Okay. Um my other question I have with this and I think that this I've had questions be posed to me about the cuts and and how that mirrors. So like I know the optics of it when we're making new positions and also cutting positions. And I know

206that Miss Springgate just talked about this, but I just want to clarify that even with the new positions that are being created, we are still creating that cost-saving measure of close to $900,000. Correct. Over $900,000. Um I get Thank you, Mr. Asher. I appreciate you. Um, the other question I had is are there other areas that we could, especially in light of when we're talking about especially the the impact to the high school in particular, are there other areas that we could look at cost-saving measures at central office to increase that number or combining um roles using our resources? Is there anything else that could be additionally absorb? I I appreciate the hard work on this. Let me say that. It was good to hear from people because I a couple things I want to

207address with that. Um, one is that when we talk about certified positions, we're not always just talking about teacher positions. And so, >> um, you know, my previously anytime I've talked about and I I hearing some misconceptions tonight, I'm like, oh, okay, this there are some pretty big misconceptions out there about this. So, I want to clarify those. Um so in many districts you you follow this process where you get the preliminary staffing. You sit down with the principal and you talk about okay how can we re how can we use the grant funding that we have? How can we um look at positions not just teaching positions but how can we look at any certified positions that are on the table before we ever cut classroom teacher positions. So that's part of that process

208is really looking at with each principal, okay, how can we meet the needs of our schools without cutting as many teachers. So looking at all certified positions and discussing those because the allocation that comes to the the sitebased council and the t the principal it's all it's like you have above and administrator roles and that sort of thing but you have several like there are different positions that are also certified not just teachers. >> So would that be looking at cutting administrators as well as part of that process? >> It could be any Yeah. I mean it's all now some administrators you all have put into your policy. So like some of them are staffed. It's in the policy. >> But um but yes I mean so that's a that's definitely a misconception that needs

209to be clarified. But just to be honest like my children are in this district. I would not cut entire program. Like I would never advocate for that. Um so you know this whole process is mandated. I mean, it's like this is how it's supposed to be done. You're supposed to be able to say preliminarily this is what we have. This is what we're seeing with with enrollment. And then this is the revenue that once we know what revenue we're getting to be able to make decisions, then we give the final staffing. So, um none of those like that's definitely still all a process going on. The budget process is still going on. So, I mean any any ideas and we've told everyone this all along. If there are other ideas for budget cuts, please send

210those to me. Please send those to Dr. Ray Burn. And now we have Dr. Gribbons as well, our new uh finance director. But um we are always looking for those ideas. So yes, absolutely. >> So who would have the final decision about that? Because nothing against our lovely administrators. I don't mean it in that way at all. But when we think about our site base and I'm still a little bit confused as how the the high school has a little bit less authority with their site base than other site base but that's a whole another question but when we look at that if you think about you're cutting your from your own team as an as a principal who has the final decision on that how does that get balanced out who is the person

211who balances that choice? So the principal um works with consultation from sitebased council but ultimately they do have the final decision. They do have the final decision. >> So sitebase does sitebase have the authority to go and say we want we would recommend this position this position this position over our teachers >> to consult. >> Okay. >> But the principal will ultimately Mr. Reed would make the last decision. Um, so I think that that's important to clarify for people that were here, but also people that are are joining us on Facebook or whoever is wherever that that are sightbased. We set the staffing allocations. The staffing allocations are are >> don't necessar >> based on our staffing policy. They do not necessarily have to be teachers. They could be in other areas of certified individuals

212in the school. Correct. >> Yeah. >> Is that what you're saying? >> There are other positions. Yes, >> Mr. Asher. >> I just want to comment on that. We specifically intentionally I'm making I'm sitebased coordinator. So, I've made the rounds to all the not not all yet. I think I got one more. Um because it's decision-m season. So, I go over uh the levels of governance in the in the district starting board of ed superintendent uh sitebased committee principal. Um and then also we look at specific policies that may play into decision- making whether it's budgeting, staffing, scheduling uh just so that um it's it's it's calibration and so I've made the rounds um I have seven today and have one more to go so that they're clear on that. >> So are students allowed

213to attend sitebased meetings and voice their opinions as well? >> Just like this >> they are. Okay. >> Yeah. I think that's good information to put out as well because obviously there were a lot of students here and I I mean I've been here a couple months now. I've never seen students show up. It was amazing. Um because that's obviously that's obviously why I wanted this position was to so I could voice people's opinions. So see students step up and actually use their own voices was amazing. So I think for people watching, for parents watching, if their students really do want to talk about that subject again to take it to sight base because the board technically like they said they make kind of the the first say but sight base has the final say.

214So >> and the principal >> and the principles. Yeah, exactly. >> And then I had another question while I was already talking. Um, of course I'm in the the high school bubble of things, so I'm not um completely knowledgeable about the rest of the bubbles, but how many middle school certified positions are going to be allocated? Because I've only heard high school on Facebook. And >> so currently um with the um enrollment that's projected for next year, um there will be two certified positions in the preliminary set. >> And then are any elementary schools also taking that hit as well? Or is it just the middle school and high school? >> Not currently. Okay. >> Thank you. >> And I did want to circle back because you had a question earlier. >> Yeah. >> Did

215you want to address that while we're talking about this? >> I So I want to go ahead and apologize. I did not know that we could not make comments after public. That that is a rookie mistake. So I'm sorry about that. Um, I just kind of wanted to to back what um, all the students and staff had came here to kind of voice their opinions on because um, sometimes I wish I could wear a GoPro in the high school to like play on a big screen. I mean, not everything needs to be shown to teachers and staff, but like just kind of some people are scared to voice their opinions because I mean the high school I mean like it is a hive, but it was a buzz today. Like it was it was so

216I mean that was the topic of conversation in every room whether it was teachers whether it was freshman to seniors. I mean I have never seen people in the high school get so riled up about a certain topic before. So it really does show how detrimental the the teachers and the staff at the high school really are to people. And I completely understand I've been on this board. I mean technically not on the board but I'm here and I do see how hard your jobs are. I don't think some people understand how difficult it is to make the decisions you do make. So, I I do ask for some people to give you guys grace. I mean, you all have big decisions in your hands, but you're also just humans, too. You just are trying

217to perfect the school in any way you can. But I also understand where students and staff are coming from. Just for myself, like when you know, kids came in here and they're like, "Well, I don't want to see my CTE teacher possibly lose their job." Because like you said, it's not just teachers, it's certified positions. But if that were to become the case, sometimes it is those positions that lose their jobs first because of course the primary four core subjects are what we keep first. Um so I am that concerns me. I won't be here anymore. So yes, it technically won't affect me, but it will affect my siblings. Um both one of my brothers has severe learning disabilities. we he goes to different types of things to help him with that. But just from

218looking back, I have a lot of friends with like dyslexia or ADHD or different things like that who do benefit from block scheduling. And I think sometimes that does get overlooked because, you know, I have never benefited from a 25minute college course. I mean, you got to think about put yourself in a position where say you're on your first day of freshman year college, you go to your class and you have 20 minutes in there and that's all you get. and you're like, "Oh yeah, you got to take a test next week." And so I think that's where a lot of students are coming from because I'm in a lot of hard math classes, science classes. I'm in college chemistry and I am not a science nerd. That does not come easily to me. I

219struggle immensely in that. But to think that I would probably only have cuz yes technically we probably have 45 45 to 50 minutes then but with teachers having to take roll call get the class settled down that usually takes about 10 minutes which is sad to say but these are high schoolers who are so bored in the classroom that all they want to do is like chitchat to their friends and talk about things and that's not the teacher's fault that's just a bunch of 17-year-olds in a classroom but I think it would definitely be an issue And it it what these people are saying are worth talking about because Mr. Reed and all the principles and the teachers do a wonderful job at the high school, but there are certain things that could possibly be

220affected if the high school were to lose certain teaching positions, but also I understand where you guys are coming from as well. Well, I want to piggyback on that and I want I would like for clarification about what we can do and what we can't do because I think that that and I could say for me as before I even ran for the board, I had this big grandiose idea of like I'm going to go change it's like my social work dreams coming right back. I want to go change the world, change our district, make all these things. And there are certain things that we can do as far as governance goes and set policy, but there's a lot of things that we cannot do. And this is one of those things that we don't

221currently have control over. We cannot control how the schedule goes. That's a sitebased and and principal Reed's decision as far and just like we said about the we could set how the staffing but we cannot choose you know if it's a teacher or if it's somewhere else an administrator whatever that is something that's up to the high school. So, I greatly, if you all have heard me talk once, you've heard me talk a thousand times about using your voice, and I appreciate all the people that have reached out and came tonight and spoke, but I just want it to be clear that there are certain things the board can do, and this is not one of them. We do not follow in the preview of being able to set this. Um, and so I just

222wanted to make that very, very clear that we have to shift our focus. And I have a rising ninth grader like this directly impacts my family, too. Um, I just want to say that that's this is not the space for it. And I I do appreciate all the testimony. I would love to see us have more CTE career pass. That's why I mentioned that tonight. It doesn't not all the ones that we have fit everybody. I would like to see that increase significantly. Um, but there's only so much we could do. One of the things that I did want to bring up that um with the number of students that are coming behind because I do know because I remember being on site base how big our sixth grade class is um across the district

223and as we lose um positions here I think we just have to think about embrace for being the teacher need returning right because we'll have an inflated class size right around and if you turn around and if you think if you're losing these teachers to another district. It may be I've also been on the hiring side of things. I know how sometimes it can be also a struggle when you're trying to figure out late in the game what our numbers are going to be and trying to get the best teachers in those seats or in those classrooms. So, um again, that's not something that we can resolve, but it's something that we absolutely should keep in mind as we look at this. But to go back to the reorganization, I'm just curious. I I just

224want to be clear that just like Dr. Jones said that this is still a cost-saving measure just as much when we create look at creating new positions to fill those needs um that she mentioned um with that. So just to kind of circle back to that >> and I would like to point out on a couple things um you mentioned and just to we talked about this early on but Dr. Jones and her staff did come up with some information that if it's not already online, it will be where it does break down the responsibilities of the board of the superintendent sitebased decision-making and principles. Um, so there's two documents that are available. Um, which I think will help a lot and I appreciate the clarification that Dr. Jones provided earlier about certified positions are

225not just teachers. So, they're looking at everything. Um, I also appreciate the fact that you're looking at reducing $900,000 of the budget at central office because I know that's been something that people have asked about and came up as well. You know, before you do anything else, what are you doing at central office? >> Cutting $900,000 at central office, consolidating responsibilities, job roles. Um, so I think that is probably the first and most step important step that people were wanting. And you know, we we've talked about taxes before. We we've had public comment about tax increases. And one of the big biggest asks that we had as a board was, can you please look at ways to save money? Please look at ways to to cut things before you raise the community's taxes. And so

226we've done that. That's that's what's going on right now. And a lot of it's painful. A lot of it it makes people uneasy. I think that the clarity that we provide to the public is extremely important. I know that things get posted on Facebook. There's some things that are accurate as we heard in some of the things tonight, some things that aren't so accurate. And so I think part of our response responsibility is to as these changes are being made or as the proposals are being made that we're also sharing that with the public. And so you've already mentioned, Dr. Jones that you had some things that came out of those public comments that you want to look into review and and so this is an ongoing process. Again, preliminary staffing allocations happened earlier this

227week. Final will be in April. Tenative budget will be in May. And so this is all a moving process and that's why public comment is so important and you know we spent a lot of time listening to that tonight because we really do want everybody whether you are a parent, a staff member, a community member, whether we're talking about reductions or cuts or we're talking about tax increases. U it's all important and so you know you have to have the money to to pay for the system. And so it's it's a really treacherous balancing act. Um, and we everybody up here cares about that. Whether we disagree or agree on everything, it's very important and all of us care about the school system. Um, but I I've talked I think a lot of people have.

228Mr. Wilson, do you have anything? >> I don't know if I I don't know if I should say anything, but I >> You should. >> This me this meeting has made me profoundly sad. And the reason it's made me sad is I think where we are today could have been predictable. One of the gentlemen back there, I don't know who which one it was. I think he's gone already. Um did a summary of the last five years. Expenses way up. >> Revenue didn't meet it. We should have been able to know that we were going to get to this point. And then I'm reminded seven months ago in August when we knew we were facing well we should have known we were facing this situation. We were very fortunate in that the property evaluations went

229up. So, we were going to be able to get some revenue that that was surprising, but instead we chose to make the move to lower our tax rate. If we had not done that, many of these things that we're talking about today, we wouldn't have to talk about today. I'm sad also that that Dr. Jones had to come in and lead us through this and she had absolutely not one input or decision regarding this. Um, but I think we also on the speaking of the agenda item, not only did Dr. Jones help reduce the uh expenses at the central office but by over 900,000. She made it more efficient. We don't even talk about that. >> We don't talk about that. You know, we don't talk we don't talk about the fact that she's done

230listening tours all over this county >> and she incorporated what she heard into this plan. It's going to be more efficient. It's going to meet the needs of our employees and students. But uh >> and our strategic plan. >> Absolutely. It's all connected. >> Uh but it has been a sad week. That's all I have to say. >> Well, and I did want to just say a couple little things. I know it's almost 9:30 and we want to get out of here. Um just to be clear, we are here because the board failed to do its duty. We are here because Mr. Brickler, you kept finances off the agenda, refused to allow discussion with with a couple other folks, a block of three, kept it off the agenda for over a year, year and a

231half. Um, and so we are here and it is very predictable and it is very sad. Um, but at the end of the day, I think that we in order to move forward need to make sure that we don't make those same mistakes again. We need to be able to have discussion in meetings, especially about finances. I have screamed to the top of my lungs and Miss Macauen did the same month after month after month asking to discuss finances month after month after month saying it looks like we're going to end about three million in the hole. Month after month after month saying those numbers don't seem quite right. Can we discuss that? Can we look at that? When I subtract, I get this month after month after month. And so I'm glad that we're

232now in a a a time where we're looking at expenses as we should, but I also think that we need to have a holistic discussion. One thing I think we really need to desperately do before we make cuts in positions that touch the children is to look at all of our district level positions to kind of look and see what that looks like and to make sure that we are doing things that allow the school allow the sitebased um to have the freedom that if they want to make some cuts that they're not restricted because we have a district level position that you know they can't they can't look at that they can't. So I I want to make sure that they have all the freedom that they need. So I think that's important to

233kind of look at all those positions and say, well, is this position, you know, more important than this position or how would we like to to move those kinds of things around a little bit? And I think it's really important that we have that information really prior to um you know the next budget discussions because I understand that you know the allocations, the staffing, all of that will come prior to us having the next budget vote. Well, and I think too we could look at and this is hard. This is hard, but we could look at what job debies can we maybe absorb one to another. And I feel like that that's been done quite a bit at central office, but just considering if there's anything else that can be I know I sit here

234and say this, but I also even in my own job have multip when there's a shortage, we take on more more things. We do an overload. do all these things, right, to make sure that the boat floats um in in rough waters. And so I don't know if that might be something that, hey, you take a little bit here and add it and you take a little bit here and you take a little bit here and then that way we can keep our ship afloat until the water's calm and then maybe we can, you know, disperse those job duties back out. And I think that that's happened a lot with this reorganization. But if we could just continue to look and see what else can maybe be absorbed in central office areas um to make

235sure that again we're not touching our kids um with these these cuts as much if we could keep that buffer as big as possible. Now I will say I think that every person that's connected to our our school system is for the kids there. Everybody has a role that is important to um making sure that our school system is successful. But I think that we've got a really great start at reorganizing central office. I just think that we need to continue to look at where where we can save cut corners and save money. And some of it may not be favorable. I mean, I'm talking thinking about how much money it's going to cost us to have graduation at Falling Springs, right? And that was something that the that was already in the budget, the

236past budget. That's something that the community voted on. But that's like, you know, a significant amount of money. Not that equates to a position, but we all have to kind of think about what are privileges that we have that maybe can be absorbed in other areas. Um, and what are areas that we have to have to make sure our students needs are fully met. Um, and so that's that's just something to consider. I think we just have to continue be due diligent and look in all these different areas that that seem to um can make even a little bit of a difference. A little bit adds up. Penny saved is a penny earned, right? So have to think about that too. And I think Dr. Jones again has inherited this mess and kudos to her

237for doing the best she can to try to figure it out. Um >> I will say just in a response to that Dr. Gold that we have looked at all those duties and we have absorbed >> with reduction of that many people that that's >> that's what's happening >> done. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, >> all right. We have a motion. All those in favor of approving central office reorganization. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> N. >> Motion passes 4 to one. Can I have a motion to designate Woodford County School Board Treasure? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. >> Dr. Jones, did you have anything? just introduce. >> Oh, we want to introduce our new treasurer. Dr. Gribbons, >> Jason Grivens will become our new treasurer. And he

238has an extensive background in um leadership and finance and >> come on down. >> Education, >> the Price is Right. >> And he um we're really excited to have him here. So, Dr. Gman, >> yes. Uh, it's a pleasure and a joy to to join such a a wonderful school district and such great people. So, I'm definitely looking forward to uh continuing the legacy and the impact here um in Wood County. So, like Dr. Jones said, I come from higher ed uh done in K12 um also vocational technical schools in the military. So, looking ing all of those different experiences across the US. Um I was talking to Adam earlier about um getting to travel across the country and overseas. You get to see things that are done really well in some states and some

239that maybe aren't this good. So it gives you a really well-rounded picture and bringing those to such a great school district. >> Thank you so much. Sorry, we just wanted to introduce you to everybody. I know that put you on the spot there a little bit, but just just wanted to introduce you. Um, all right. All those in favor? >> I >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to accept notification of personnel matters? >> So move, Mr. Chairman. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to accept notification of payment of bills? >> So moved. >> Motion by Miss Macauen, second by Mr. Wilson. Any discussion?

240>> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to approve January financial report treasurers report? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. And I invite Dr. Ravern. >> All right. Good evening board. I'm going try and be quick as quick as I can with a bunch of numbers. Um my goal is to never see this number again and have to do this again. But uh we'll see what happens next month. Dr. Ribbons is all you. So I'll get you through January. Um this is our month monthly report for December. Remember taking a look at the top month is what's important to know what's from December to January. where we left $3 million month to date uh for revenue and

241then um 2 million in expenses and then January we're at 5 million and 3 million in expenses and so as we have in the past here's our uh chart that we have been looking at over the course this is for December we were at a 3% reduction in expenses from this year that December last year to December of FY26. This month we are at a 4% reduction. So we are continuing to reduce our expenses every single month. Um just so you know that we have been reducing. We have not seen a positive gain. We have seen a negative gain in that negative from there. Um and the actuals there are 28 million in revenue and 20 million in expenses. um the actuals versus the budget. Um if you're looking to know how much revenue we

242received for this month and our tax collections, we've received $4 million in tax revenue uh for this month. And you can see those sourced in your agenda items with each of the page numbers. Remember, I put the page numbers at the bottom so you can see these reports. These are screenshots straight from the report. 4,121,000 has been received and total $26 million in revenue has been received by the different organization object codes which you will find in all your monthly reports that we've been given. Um, and then if you want to know exactly when they were received and on what dates, you can see those on this form here and they're also been recorded each month to you for your review later. Our fund two balance is still in the negative. Again, fund two is

243our special revenue. That's our grant funds. They sometimes run in the negative because we have to get paid back and reimbursed. So, we are in a reimbursement state on these. And the ones that I've done a check of all of them, most of the ones that are in the negative are state revenue or state grants that we haven't received the reimbursement for. So, we are continuously every month and every quarter. We just ended a quarter to submit for reimbursement on those. Our district activity funds um are in the slightly over expenditures. It's a healthy balance and our activity our school activity funds are in the same only this one has more expenditures than revenues. Again, these are school accounts and district activity funds or district accounts but at the school level. Um and then our

244food service is still spending more than receiving and I are preparing a indepth view of what that's going to look like and have a presentation for you all in the future as we are looking at it specifically how the snow days and TI days and all that impacted our revenue but this is January that's February so we don't really know how it's going to play out until the end of the month report uh and then our ETC you heard about tonight still operating in a deficit of there. So, any questions? >> I had a question. >> The distilled spirits tax, when does when do we top over on that and start going down? >> Do you know off the top of your head? >> Spirits are on here. >> Yes, but it's gradually decreasing, right?

245Are we at that point where we've passed it and it's going to start going down? >> Yeah, it started the decrease in the high 90s still. Okay. >> It's every year. It's a time, but we received our distilled spirits. our monthly balance so far this month. >> Okay, so we're we're good for right now. >> Yeah, we've received them all. >> Okay, thank you. >> Are we expecting any additional tax revenue? >> We get them every single month. They're there like we've received our big chunk. We're not going to expect any huge chunks anymore. Um, you know, it's people that pay their taxes late. Um, they pay their car taxes in January. They give us a check in February. You know, that's broken out there. property taxes have been paid for unless they're behind on

246our property taxes. We receive mostly property taxes >> because I may have done it wrong, but what I was looking at on the financials was just annualizing it out what we have and what we budgeted that we would receive. It looked like there was a gap, but maybe that was my miscalculation. >> I have not seen any gaps. >> It's then it's me. >> Yeah. Like um if you do notice, let me know. Anybody? >> I just want to say thank you. Thank you for doing this for the last couple months and making this so much clearer for everyone to see. I mean, this has just been brilliant. So, I think it helps people that are watching from home and I just want to say thank you so much for taking on that role. Just

247what I was just saying, I feel like Dr. Raburn has he is the poster child of that right now. >> Just know that the number page numbers don't change. So, the report is not uploaded. The actual report is uploaded in time. It takes a little bit of time to get all of the numbers here, but all of the page numbers remain the same from month to month. So, anybody that's looking at the uploaded one from today can go next month and look on page one and find the numbers on page one. >> But thank you. And I also echo that. I love having this little breakdown. Um, are these have these been included on the agenda? Can the public get the presentation? been working as I upload the required stuff which is your monthly report

248and your balance sheet by your all set time. >> It's normally Friday when I do it, but that gives you all time to look at it and then this is uploaded after my presentation most of the time. >> Yeah, I I just it's like you know 80 90 pages and I like this format better. >> Tell you right page is the exact same number. That's why I said it. The number on the page is the exact same. Page one for each month has the page one, page 27 has that. All of them, all the president, that's why I put it here. Page 16 down here at the bottom has that so that you could go and find it if you needed it. >> Yeah. And I definitely appreciate that. So, thank you for doing that.

249And um I will review this once you get it uploaded. Thank you. >> I think it's actually already uploaded now. >> I didn't see it on mine. >> It'll be uploaded by Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. Anybody else have any questions or comments? >> You're gonna get mad at me. Um, this is not This is just a question that goes back to something we already voted on, but it doesn't change a vote or anything. I was just wondering where school safety falls underneath all that and the reorg >> falls under the director of student. >> Okay. Thank you. >> The director of student services is what that falls under. >> Okay. Thank you. I again, I'm sorry. >> All right. All right. Uh we have a motion. So all those in favor of approving

250January financial report treasures report I >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the January board meetings? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCauen. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. >> Can I have a motion to approve hardship requests? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve migrant education program staffing request? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? >> Yes. >> You have discussion? >> Okay. um more of a clarifying statement because I

251asked this question via phone earlier, but the position and correct me if I'm wrong that with the migrant education program staffing request that is based on the the grant, not the grant, but the title one funds. And if those title one funds go away, they're paid for by title one funds, which is what Mr. Asher was referencing earlier because we've gotten more because there's an increased migrant population. So, the position is covered. correct by those funds that have to be designated an earmarked for this position or a position such as this in that area and the position would cease to exist if those funds reduce or go away. Correct. >> Okay. >> And then the other thing just to clarify too, so there's no impact to the general fund with this position. So it's not

252money that we could take and use for other um you know positions and that kind of thing. It's specifically can only be used for for this uh program. So just I just wanted to clarify >> good clarification for both from both of you. >> Yes. And that comes from also that it was mentioned during the public comment too. So just clarifies that too. >> All right. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the etc summer program tuition increase? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. Any discussion? >> No. I I would just say that I do think we need to really make sure that we are um doing adequate cost for the services and that it's

253not going to run over into to general fund um you know kind of be a spillover so that it stands alone as an enterprise fund. So thank you guys for um really having the foresight to kind of begin looking at that to make sure that there's no general fund impacts. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> All right. All those in favor I. >> Any opposed? Sorry. Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the high school parking lot expansion? >> So moved. >> Sorry. Hold. >> Need more water. >> Not talking tonight. >> I hear some water. >> Listen, I've been there. I know how it feels. >> Any discussion on that? >> Did we get a second? >> I don't know. I don't think so. >> Second. All right. >> I

254didn't, but I'm >> Who did the motion? >> Me. >> Okay. M. Macauen, second by Mr. Wilson. >> They're switching up tonight. >> I need discussion. >> Yeah. >> Um, I just want to say I think that this is much needed. Um, I think that it serves a great need. The school was built with not enough parking spots. It and this is money that's already allocated to the school being the school building fund. Um, so it belongs to them in that sense and let's make it the best we can and fulfill that student need. So that's why I'm voting. Yes, >> I completely agree. I don't get to vote, but yeah, this is great. >> If you could vote, you >> if I could vote, I I'd say yay. >> Your input is still very

255welcome. >> Again, to clarify for all those in our viewing audience, this has nothing to do with the general fund. This is not take away anything from the impact of the money that we have to cut. This is already high school build fund, so it goes to them. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Oh, and just well, we said it, but just to clarify that it is with it was the quote with P&R Construction talked about. >> So, >> um, can I have a motion to approve the high school spring box project? So what we're asking is that we want to approve the project of spending no money and allowing our maintenance department to do the work. >> So this would be to approve that

256spring the actual spring box. So if we don't if we don't get a motion for it, we're not doing the spring box and then it would fall >> do look at the attachment. >> Yeah. So so a point of order that the the proposal that's before you would be to approve moving ahead with the spring box project, right? It it was recommended to you earlier to disapprove that. So you can entertain a motion either to approve or a motion to disapprove that project. >> Okay. But the project as recommended is for the the drainage that maintenance would >> create. And we want to approve for our maintenance department to do it at no cost. Correct. Right. So, this is something that the superintendent has recommended we approve a plan of having our maintenance department at

257no additional cost do the um you know spring box spring box >> mitigation >> French drain I think is what they said. >> Yes. >> So, so we we do want to make a motion for a no cost project for our department to do it. So, I would make that motion. >> Yep. >> So, we I'm confused. >> If we confusing if we Yeah. If we approve it, it would be for the recommended French drain at no cost >> for maintenance. >> For the maintenance to complete. >> So if we vote yes, we're voting for the maintenance. If we vote no, we're voting for the spring box >> or just or not to do anything. >> Not to do anything. >> So yes is yay maintenance, right? >> Okay. Just making sure. >> All right.

258>> So is there a motion and a second? >> I made a motion. Yes. >> Oh, >> who else? You all need you need to be very very clear on what motion it is you're you're entertaining and whoever is making the motion needs to say it because bids have been taken for this project and so you are taking action to not accept any of those outside bids. >> Cherry that's all you just you just want to be very clear with that so there's no confusion later. >> Yeah. So absolutely what what the motion was was to accept allowing our maintenance department to do the spring box mitigation at no cost no other bids our maintenance department to do that >> second >> okay discussion there I don't believe we can correct this problem without any

259cost there will be cost involved. You're going to have to have tile, etc. So, if the motion says no cost, I'll have to vote no because there will be cost. >> Well, no additional outside costs. Um, so I guess maybe I don't even know what what do you want the motion to say that we're not going to approve any bids to do any work for the spring. >> We need some clarification. >> Do Dr. Raburn, can you >> No bids? >> Nope. Because so you you're the only thing that requires board action, right? because the the regular expenditure of maintenance getting out there and doing this doesn't require an outside bid or board action. >> So what you are voting on is to accept or reject the the bids that were collected on this >>

260on this project. So >> So if you remember back in December, we submitted the bids that Trace Creek had submitted to us for mitigation. We are not recommending we approve those bids. So that is the agenda item. >> Yeah. So what you what you need is a motion to reject the bids that you all got. >> Oh, that's simple. Okay. >> Okay. >> We're making it complicated. >> Okay. >> We can we can still fix it without we just don't have to take those bids, >> right? >> Okay. So motion to reject the bids from outside companies. >> Yes. >> Okay. I'll second that. >> Any further discussion? >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes 520. Can I have a motion to approve SFCC construction offer? >> So move.

261>> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? >> Is there an offer? Like how much is it? >> That's an interesting question, but I'll I'll explain. Um so the original calculation um our folks at Mayor figured out that it was incorrect. And so, um, I spoke with the commissioner and we spoke with KDE and they are recalculating it now, but we need to go ahead and accept whatever they offer us, but it will be more >> because there's a deadline in place. So, we have to accept it >> to get it, but they're still doing the recalculation to get us more money. >> Did you need to put your recommendation and your signature on it or does it matter? It's not on the attachment. >> Um, I will look at that.

262>> Okay. >> Yes. required. Yeah, I'll do that. I'm sorry. >> It's okay. I just didn't know. >> It just helps guide us. >> Do you recommend something or not? >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Uh that is it for the regular meeting. Uh can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I will make the motion, but I'd like to say well and I haven't discussed anything this evening, so I'd like to take 30 seconds to make a comment. Uh it's my opinion that the chairman's role in drafting agendas and conducting the meeting has had nothing nothing to do with the financial situation we find ourselves in. And I would go even opposite that your role as chairman your collaboration with the superintendent have

263helped us to make good decisions. Motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you. >> Second. Second by Miss Macauen. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Thank you everyone who's here for the regular meeting. We do still have >> um >> other thing to do. >> Thank you so much. Your words are very helpful. >> I'm sorry that I voiced my opinions. >> No, >> that's why you're here. >> Valued. >> Sorry if I put you guys like >> that is why you're here. >> Doing no you didn't. >> There were a lot of people asking me questions. said >> that that is your role. So, thank you. >> Now, your answer is >> what's the first item, Mr. Chair. >> All right. >> I'm going to call to order

264the Woodford County Public Schools Finance Corporation on February 23rd, 2026. Uh, roll call. All members are here and in person. Our regular agenda. Uh, can I have a motion to designate school district finance corporation president? And who will that be for the motion? >> Be myself. >> Okay. I would like to uh >> nominate Adam Brickler for whatever we're nominating for president of school district finance corporation. All right. Motion. >> Thank you. >> Second by Miss Macauen. All those in favor? >> I I Any opposed? >> All right. Motion passes. Can I have a motion to designate school district finance corporation vice president, which would be Mr. Ambrose Wilson? Motion >> motion by Miss McCauen. I will second that. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have

265a motion to designate school district finance corporation secretary, which would be Dr. Jones? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. I will second that. >> Any All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to designate school district finance corporation treasurer which would be Dr. Jason Gribbons? >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Mr. Macauan. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> I will second that. >> All those in favor? When did I write when did I write that? >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Motion to