Regular Board Meeting- January 26, 2026

001You're good to go. >> Sherry is having difficulty joining the link. >> So, >> all right. We're going to call today today's meeting. This is a regular scheduled meeting uh of the Woodford County School Board of Education on January 26, 2026. We are virtual tonight um due to weather and so we are going to have all of our speakers, presenters virtual tonight. Um we want to thank everybody for participating this way. Hopefully there's no technical issues. Uh roll call. We do have three members here on the call. So we have quorum. We do have another member that's going to be late and another one that's trying to join now. So, we will go into Oh, I do want to also mention uh we have public comment that were emailed in. And just as a reminder

002to everybody that's watching, um it's always an option to email any public comments that you want read at a board meeting. And so, this isn't something we just did special for the virtual meeting. That is always an option. So, did want to remind everybody of that and we'll go into our pledge of allegiance. Think I don't know if we've ever done this virtual kick us off. >> Oh, sorry Sarah. Were you saying something? You're muted. >> You're still muted. >> Sorry you guys. I was just talking to Sherry trying to get her help logging in. >> Gotcha. All right, let's go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of America >> to the republic for which we stand nationisible with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Um,

003we don't Does anybody have any proposed amendments to the agenda? I do have one update, but not necessarily an amendment. Um due just to again the weather, Southside is going to have their performance and presentation next month. We're going to postpone that again just because we couldn't have uh people there in person. So the only thing on my end changing for the agenda is that Southside will be presenting next month. Does anybody else have any proposed amendments? All right. See you shaking heads. So we will turn to the superintendent report. Dr. Jones. Good evening. Hope everyone is warm and and well. And um want to say a quick thank you to all of our um emergency um crew here in this county. They are incredible. Um I can attest to that. we've met daily, sometimes

004multiple times a day truly just to um you know update are there unmet needs, you know, and I I can't thank all of you enough. We have some incredible community partnerships and um I feel I feel completely supported. Our school system is is really fully supported by our um elected officials and I'm so thankful for that. So I will share. Sorry. >> [clears throat] >> So, I did want to share um this month I have been fortunate to have um our student hive meetings. Um the elementary group you can see on the right there uh all elementary schools representatives from third, fourth and fifth grade come together at central office and that is a dynamic group. They are very serious about the role and about um their uh what they bring to the table with

005two-way communication. they bring issues um to me and they are very um upfront about what needs uh to be addressed and what they love. And so we had a really great conversation about what makes uh the best teacher you've ever had. Uh we talked a lot about how can we increase student voice uh in the school setting in our classrooms and and a couple other things and they were dynamic. You can see on the left that's my uh high school hive and those are students um who represent all of the students at the high school. And again, they are engaged. They give me incredible uh input and I'm able to give them talking points to take back out to students as well. And same at the middle school. Also have my community hive, family hive,

006um all of my classified and certified. and those are lifegiving. And so I want to thank each one of you um that serves on the hive um for what you do to increase two-way communication in our district. The other thing I wanted to say is that um our principles and our central office came together um this month as well to to begin looking at what does the strategic plan look like and what what are our next steps that we want to bring to the board. And so that was a wonderful um work session with stutter and it was it was exhilarating and it reminded me of what where we're headed and what we're we're aiming for and so that was really incredible. Did want to remind everyone we are in the in the midst of

007the middle of the um parent and care caregiver virtual book study and it's going really well. So, if you signed up for the anxious generation, please um feel you will join us tomorrow for the part three or part two um at six o'clock online. And I'm hearing incredible comments um and and feedback from families uh and community members who are reading this book with us and studying it together. Um, I did want to go back to um I've had some questions about how do we determine what's our process for determining um whether we take an NTI day or a non-traditional instruction day or a snow or weather day. And so I wanted to address that briefly. Um we are also going to um send out uh this one pager with a little video as well

008for those who um are not here for the board meeting or watching uh at home. I did want to tell you that. So our process is between 3:30 and 4 um myself, Dr. Rurn, and Mr. Sloan, our director of transportation, we all have uh routes that we drive. And so, um, I also have a, um, superintendent, uh, communication with all superintendent around us. And so, um, we begin discussing any upcoming weather, um, days before. And what our plan would be, we, um, go out and we drive those routes, um, anywhere from 3:30 to 4 is when we start. And then um we are communicating with Forcel's police department, uh county road crews, James K, um any several people in terms of okay, what what do our roads look like? And um this past week we

009had a situation a couple times where several parents have reached out and said, "Hey, I really think a delay would have been a really good option." and and I agree with that and I appreciate you reaching out to share um solutions and thoughts. Um that's what a problem solver is and I thank you for engaging and being a problem solver with that. Um and so the reason that we couldn't take delays is because they're not built we're currently we do not have any delays built into our um calendar and so our school calendar and what that means is if I had taken a delay last week we would also have to make up that day additionally at the end of the year. So um we currently do not have those uh written into our calendar.

010we do have makeup days um written into the calendar and so um that is what we will be using um we have been and are continuing to use those makeup days and those are listed on the district website on the district calendar. Um, I also wanted to mention that um, I try to look at what resources are available for students when I'm thinking and families thinking about whether we take an NI day versus a snow day or an other weather related day. Um, because I want to make sure that I feel like our um, families have the resources they need and are set up for our students are set up for success for those NI days. I also know if we have several in a row, I try to vary those so that families and

011just like you, I I have two two in the system, our our school system as well. I understand what it's like to manage all of those things uh in that one day. And so I I try to take that in in consideration as well. So, I just wanted to share that tonight in my last thing I just want to say is this is how we started the year and this was just my message to our staff and I think it's based on where we are in the world right now and based on where we are um in Woodford County. I think these are just some good reminders that I just wanted to come back to. I think we're all we all need to assume positive intent as much as possible. We need to engage and

012be a problem solver. Um, we need to handle concerns directly and professionally and and you have done that. Um, so many of you have emailed with recommendations. Um, and I thank you for that. Um, we need but we also need to stay focused on our vision as a district. We have a pretty incredible vision. This is just a this is just a bump in the road. We have to make this right. And once we get this back in place, the finance finances and and that sort of thing back in place, back on track, we've got greater things to accomplish. And I want every single person to remember your impact because whether you believe it or not, you truly do have an impact. And that impact is very important. It's important that um we think about

013that as we're modeling for others with our behavior and our actions. And then to support each other. we are all in this together. We're in this for our students to make our community stronger. And so, I don't know, it just I just wanted to come back to that um as we um move toward our vision as a district. So, thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Jones. Sorry, get my screen back up here. We will go into I think we're on to the somebody correct me a good news report. Is that where we're at? All right. Uh Miss Macauen, I'll let you start that. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um there's there are a lot of things to share. Um but something that I um found recently um and just wanted

014to congratulate our Southside archery students. Um they had a really remarkable um outing recently within the last couple of weeks and um they came in first place and are actually ranked number one in the nation for elementary school archers. So I just wanted to congratulate those um Southside students and coaches and parents on a job well done. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Wilson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, there are always people behind the scenes that never get recognized that worked so hard to help us as individual board members. And Jesse Rabburn is one of those people. Uh, I've kitted her before. She's the uh district one junior board member. She helps me so much that I consider part of uh part of the district one representation, but there's countless ways that she's helped

015me and I know I can see from Sarah and Adam uh >> nodding their head she's been good to them. Jesse, thank you so much for everything you do for us. We couldn't do it without you. >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. Um, for me, I I just want to really thank everybody that has been assisting with uh the weather, going out at 3:00 a.m. to see how the roads are. Um, I know there were some uh videos of um Judge K and our EMS director of Grimman Bailey going out and and showing all of the roads today. Um, that's really important because I I don't know that people always know. It might look good in one area or where they live, but maybe not in another. And so, as Dr. Jones mentioned, uh, it's

016not an easy decision to cancel school and nobody wants to do it. Uh, but thank you to everybody who does that. Um, I did have a couple students I wanted to shout out. Um, there was a recent statewide scholarship program, um, distinguished young women, and we had two Woodford County, uh, seniors that participated, uh, Claire P and Sutton Shared. Um, they're both in the top 10 finalist. They uh both earned throughout the entire program, their local program and the statewide uh thousands of dollars in scholarship money. So great job to them. Uh you know encourage any any students looking for scholarship money, you know, definitely need it. College is not cheap and so take any opportunity you can to participate in programs like that. Uh so that was it for me. I know we are

017again just want to mention on the agenda we have southside uh performance and presentation. We're postponing that till next month due to weather. And with that I'm going to invite Lisa Johnson to join and talk. >> Yes. >> You forgot two board members. >> Oh, are they on here now? Sorry. >> Yeah. And Milliey's also on here as well. >> Oh, perfect. All right. >> I think we're pinned. That's I think that's what what's happening. >> Oh, there you go. All right. Well, Dr. Gould, since you're I see you on my screen, >> good news. >> I wasn't trying to jump protocol. It's usually not the way we normally go around. Um I just want to say congratulations to our cheerleaders. I know both at the middle school and high school, they've worked really hard

018to um get to their national competitions and um I believe the middle school actually won their cheer um competition and um our high school did a really great job as well. So, I just want to say congratulations and safe travels as they go to sunny Florida and participate in their national competition. Um, I wanted to add, you know, echo the the sentiments that have already been said. Um, Jesse, Miss Raburn, she is great at organizing us and keeping us on track and just a huge asset to uh, central office and to the board just in general. Um, as well as, you know, the the snow call. Um, I think that those things are never easy. you know, you're you're right even when you're wrong and you're wrong even when you're right. Um it's hard to

019please everyone because everybody has an opinion about that. But I want to say that just thanks to Dr. Jones for making those challenging calls. You know, our kids are safe and warm um when you know it um when they're in school. We know that. But also, you know, when we can't navigate those trips uh streets to get to um the school buildings, it's really dangerous for both students and staff alike. So, I just want to say thank you for that and all those hardworking individuals that are trying to get our roads cleared. It is it's treacherous out there. So, everybody stay warm and safe as much as you possibly can. So, >> thank you, Dr. Gold and Miss. >> Yes, I apologize. I could not get my link to work. So, thank you, Sarah. I'm

020sorry I frantically um texted you after the meeting started. Um but uh I just wanted to say briefly thank you to the budget committee and all of the hard work that they put in um to to be the foundation for our discussion tonight. And then also just to thank everyone who participated in the strategic vision work um that we are also going to be I think approving tonight. So thank you to the uh those two groups. Lots of work um and deeply appreciated. Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Springate and Millie. Okay, so I wanted to congratulate our swim and dive team. Uh we had two people that we know 100% are moving on to state after placing in regions. Addy Worthman, who's a senior, placed first in the women's 200 free. And then Charlie

021Gatewood, he's also a senior, placed second in the 50 men's free. So they're both moving on to state. And then I'm pretty sure that Harper Lacefield is moving on. I'm not 100% for sure, but I believe she is moving on. who she placed second in dive in swim regions. And then I also wanted to say a sad goodbye to coach Blair Hicks who is retiring this year after coaching for I believe 12 years. So this was her last year. >> All right. Thank you, Millie. Thank you everyone. And now I believe I'm on track. We can introduce Miss Lisa Johnson with Mentors and Meals. >> Hello everybody. Thank you so much for um inviting me to come. I really wish we could be in person because I appreciate all you do and um and just

022being in person is is how I communicate. But I [clears throat] really wanted to just take a moment today to share a little bit about Mentors and Meals. This is going to be quick. It's going to be a uh just who we are, what we do, and why it matters. I am the founder and the executive director. Um, and also on this call is McKenna Haldderman who is my program director and she has been the program director at M&M's for 10 years. Um, so I'm really uh appreciate having her. Uh, I think we are going to have that PowerPoint. Oh, there we go. Next slide, please. So, here we are. Uh, Mentors and Meals is a 501c3 nonprofit afterchool program and its mission is simple. It's to enhance academic achievement in middle schoolers through mentoring

023or as McKenna likes to say, we feed the minds and bellies of middle schoolers. And if you've driven downtown on Main Street, that is on a really nice banner uh right there um at the corner of of um of Maine and um Morgan. Um it was founded in 2011 to meet an unmet need in our community. There were at that time no afterchool academically focused programs for that middle school age group. So we have been here in Woodford County for 15 years. Next. Okay. I always ask this question. Would [clears throat] you go back to sixth eighth grade? Any anyone want to raise their hand and um claim that they want to go? Okay. Dr. school, there is always one uh or two in a in a room full of people. I mean, we we

024all have to admit middle school is difficult. They are developmental years that are different from elementary school where they were coddled and, you know, handheld and now they're in they're changing classes. They This is a higher academic and social pressures. I would not want to go back to middle school in this day and age of social media. I I just you know when when things happened at school they happened at school and you could forget about them. Now if it's captured on you know on a cell phone it stays with you. So that's just it's a lot of pressure. There are hormones and yes middle school has drama. Next slide. [clears throat] So why mentors and meals? Um first of all of all as I mentioned middle this program addresses that unmet need which was

025uh middle school students who may need academic or they might need social interaction. They just might need that little extra um that little extra support. Snacks and meals. It's hard to concentrate when we're hungry. And um at Mentors and Meals they get an afterchool snack immediately when they walk in and a hot homecooked meal is available daily. And that's our little kitchen. And those are all volunteers that help uh prepare the food and serve the meal. Um also safety for our youth. You know, the most at risk time of day for youth for drugs, alcohol, and sexual activity occur between 3 and 6:00 p.m. You know, I almost thought it was after dark, but America after 3 p.m. did a huge study um through the afterchool alliance in 2021. And that 3 to 6 p

0263 to 6 pm time period is critical. Next slide. So, here's kind of our agenda. At 3:15, students are released from Woodford County Middle School. They arrive by bus to 160 Lexington Street, and that is the First Christian Family Life Center. Uh they are immediately masked with a mentor. Our optimal goal is two students to one mentor ratio. They get their snack and then there is a hum of activity as these high school and I will say we have in uh intergenerational mentors. There are some adults but the primary mentors are high school students. We also have a wonderful um collaboration with um with Midway University and we get five work study students that get to come to mentor and meals and get paid uh through work study as and we are their site supervisors

027and we do have like I said a few adults. We had an 82year-old um gentleman who came every Thursday. He had been an author of 23 books. He has unfortunately since passed away, but he helped our our book club and the kids considered him to be like a grandfather figure. Um, so there's this hum of activity while homework help goes on at 4:45. There's a group activity that could be gym time. We did the book club. Um, we do have a reading therapy dog that comes. We also invite guest speakers to come and talk to our kids about their career, about um um act uh opportunities that they might be able to find or or um enjoy in high school or beyond. And uh we have college kids that come back and talk to our

028students about why uh it's important to do well in school. Um if you know of any guest speakers, that would be great. or if any of you want to come and talk about your your uh real job careers, we'd love to have you come and speak. Uh at 5:00 the um the meal is available and between 5:15 and 5:30 parents or guardians pick up um right in front of the uh of the building. Um oh, our school year runs Monday through Thursday, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. or as soon as the students get in until 5:30. We also started um probably eight years ago a summer program because we realized that some students might need that meal or those snacks um in the summer months and they're also the goal of the summer program which is

029u Tuesday through Thursday noon to 5 allowing the kids to sleep in a little bit um but we do have lunch together we do activities around the community and we are really trying to prevent summer slide so we work on math facts we do our book club we go to the library and and and participate in the teen program. So, um we are continuing to provide activity and um and enrichment for the students during the summer months. Next slide. Oh, you'll recognize this slide and it's a little fuzzy because I had to pull it off the website, but metros and meals aligns perfectly with your portrait of a learner. creative problem solver, working together, students working together on homework, on on project completion, on study skills. Our mentors help maybe do get index cards and

030teach them how to to do some study study um cards, getting ready for uh for exams or quizzes. Resilient learner mentors and meals stated goal is to help our students achieve a C or better in their four core subjects: language, arts, math, social studies, and science. Um, if they're already at a C, of course, we're going to encourage them to get an A or a B, but we are bringing kids up from D's and Fs and getting them to at least a C or better. Empathetic communicators. If I could just show you these mentor student relationships, it is so warm, heartwarming. Um, you know, I'm not really cool. I'm not I'm kind of a parent maybe almost I'm I'm probably um almost into the grandparent category but oh my gosh a high school or a

031college student walks in and they are automatically cool. So that um that student relationship um and that communication is is vital reflective collaborator. Our kids work on group activities and teamwork. Even when we're in the gym and we're playing a an activity or a game that's teamwork and then responsible contributor. I cannot tell you the number well I'm going to tell you in a minute the number of hours that our high school students and our mentors have put into um volunteer mentorism men mentoring um so the service and accountability piece is absolutely um part of being a responsible contributor. Next slide. So research shows that students who meet regularly with high school, college and adult mentors are 52% less likely to skip a day of school. 46% less likely than their peers to start using

032illegal drugs. And 76% of atrisisk young adults who had mentors aspire to enroll in and graduate from college or trade school. If you look at that picture, that's the activity happening right there. About half of those students are mentors and half of them are are middle school students. They've got their Chromebooks open. They've got their whiteboards. We use whiteboards to help help work through math problems. Their heads are down. They're looking at each other in the eye. That's what I call engagement right there. Next slide. Okay, this is a very busy slide, but I know several of you are have been in the research field. Several of you are PhDs. Does the mentors and meals program work? Well, um, several years ago, I had the opportunity to go back and get my masters of public

033policy at the UK, uh, Martin School, uh, public of policy and administration, and I did my master's thesis, um, evaluating the actual data from mentors and meals. Um, uh, go to the next slide because I'll show you um, this is more words versus numbers. Um, there were 236 treated students. those were that were enrolled in the mentors and meals program and they were compared to a control group of 2,601 untreated students in the same Woodford County school system, same years but not enrolled in the M&M's program. There were statistically significant improvements those yellow uh pictures that you saw or the the the highlighted um numbers you saw in both language arts and social studies. There was improvement in science grades and there was a trend towards significant improvement in math grades. it was just under

034that 95% confidence level for me to count that. Um, but this shows that yes, interestingly, it was not the number of days per year that the student attended mentors and meals. There were more statistical improvements when the students attended from sixth to 8th grade. We could see the tenure if they started in sixth and came in seventh and stayed for eightth. Those students are the ones that had the most significant improvement. And to me, that's showing that the program was showing a helped them develop um a a um a historical or a or a oh, what's the word? I'm trying to find a basically a trend or a habit that they took with them into high school. If anybody would like that information, I would be happy to email it to them. I still have

035it um available electronically. Next slide. other long-term impacts. Student, we want students to have success in middle school because we know that that sets them up for success in high school and beyond. And what we love is that the students at Mentors Meals become volunteer mentors in high school. The students in this picture are Yoseline Revalorio, Sam Ballard, and Preston Graham. Yoseline was a student at M&M's from sixth to 8th grade. She has dedicated hours towards mentoring, volunteer mentoring all four years of high school. and um and has actually just um interviewed and been um um been accepted to be a paid intern uh with the program for her last semester. Um they also these students become leaders and collaborators in our community. All three of these students helped write a grant through New Vista

036to um to expose the uh or to talk about the myths of vaping in middle school. We held two parent and and and student cafes and these students helped write the grant. Well, they wrote the grant uh along with Trevor Alexander who was a midway intern and um they implemented the program and they evaluated the program. Um so that is truly a sign of of leadership. Um this strengthens the local workforce. When we have mentors at M&M's, this is sometimes their first real job. Um they are expected to show up. They're especially the interns, they're expected to have certain other um things to help, you know, set up the room or clean up the room at the end of the day. The interns become the ones that the new volunteers will will um will stay

037with or will will work with the first day. So, they're learning, I like to use this term, transferable skills and also just um just some important skills um what we call soft skills. How to look people in the eye, how to take responsibility. And we want our students to live, stay, and work in Woodford County. So, let me give you one more um example. Next slide, please. And I call this Sandy's story. Um I do have approval from uh Sandy to show these pictures, although she hates her sixth grade picture. Some of you might know Sandy Pacina. She came to M&M's as a sixth grader. That far uh that far um picture with the with the M&M on front of it. Um she stayed all four years as a high school mentor. when she went

038to Midway University, she was a work study student. I think she accumulated 900 hours of volunteer mentoring or um her internship or and her internship hours. Um and then she became an interim assistant director when McKenna went on her first maternity leave and had that additional experience and she is now working as a customer service representative at the Social Security office in Frankfurt. She is married and is a Woodford County homeowner. Um, we still keep in touch with Sandy and uh, we call that a true mentors and meal success. Next slide. Other impacts, I'll just give you some stats. Um, from 2011 to 225, the number of middle school students served is 1,278. We have had 1,628 volunteer mentors or folks in the kitchen who have dedicated 64,061 hours plus. This is o this is

039ending in June. So this is already well over 64,000 hours towards mentoring or meal prep. The number of meals served is 31,769 and counting. And I cannot even count the number of snacks that we have given and put in pe in in students hands. Next slide. So, I'm almost done here. Here is one thing um that I can ask and this is this is one of the reasons I came and and to ask how you can help. Refer students who could benefit from the extra mentoring or meals. They might need one, they might need the other, they might might need both. And we are there. This is a free program. This costs nothing to Well, it's free to the students and families. We are running about a $350,000 a year program on about $175,000 of

040earned income with the rest being inind donations of many things including bus transportation which we do not take for granted. So, thank you for that. Um, you can encourage high school volunteers to sign up for service hours or internships. If you have a high schooler in tell them about this program, have them come and give it a try. We always ask a new volunteer to come three times. The first time is a little bit like organized chaos. The second time they really kind of understand what's going on and they might say, "Hey, this is cool. I really made a difference here." The third time they come, they're going to either say, "I love it. I want to keep doing this." Or, "You know what? This is not for me." And sometimes knowing what you don't

041want to do is just as important as knowing what you do want to do. So those are important things for our high schoolers to learn. Continue to partner with us. We love this collaboration. We are so proud to be part of this school system and to help as as best we can and to also meet that niche, that middle school niche. Um, this is how you can get a hold of me. Lisa mentors-meals.org or McKenna at mentors-me.org. Go to our website if you want more information. Um, and there also there's QR codes and ways to sign up either to refer students or or um there's an enrollment for the for the high school volunteer. I will really I would really like to come to one of your next meetings and bring you um some materials

042in hard copy and so we'll we'll plan to do that. Last slide. We appreciate everything the school board does and all the people that are listening tonight. Um that means that we're involved in our school and our community and that's important and I'd be happy to take any questions you might have about mentors and meals. >> I'll just start it off. I want to thank you so much for collaborating with us. Uh thank you for starting the program. Anytime we can see opportunities for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and you you have a great program because you're not only offering services to those middle schoolers that need something extra. You're also offering leadership opportunities to those high schoolers that clearly they'll take with them. So, um I don't have any questions, but I just really wanted

043to say thank you so much for presenting. Uh, I know I learned a lot more about it tonight, especially with the, uh, data that you shared. So, um, with that, Mr. Wilson, I'll I'll turn it over to you. Do you have any questions or comments? >> Uh, no questions. But I do have a comment, Mr. Chairman. In my in my previous board experience, I attended a session and I watched Lisa and I watched the mentors and I watched the students from the moment they arrived until they left. It is absolutely fascinating to watch what goes on in a short period of time to make the lives of those students better and I would urge other board members to attend because the presentation was helpful but when you go it all comes into focus. So that's

044all I have. Thank you Lisa for sharing with us. >> You're welcome and we would love for any of you to come uh show up at 3:30 3:45 and you can see the magic happen. It it it's fast and furious. >> Thank you very much, uh, Miss Macauen. >> Yeah, I just would like to say, Lisa, thank you for coming and speaking with us. Um, I've got a niece that participates in the program and it has just been it's been a game changer for her. Um, middle school students really are a I think a group of kids that sometimes they, you know, they may not they're not little anymore, but they're also not grown either. So, um, >> y'all, you do such good work and I just really appreciate it. So, thank you for coming.

045>> Thank you. I like to say, um, middle schoolers are like cacti, you know? They're soft and squishy on the inside. Kind of if you can get in there, they're still that sweet little middle that little elementary schooler, but man, they've got their prickles out, you know, and they want to hold adults at that arms length distance. That's why I'm totally not cool. McKenna is still a little bit cool, but she's a mom now. So, you know, it's the high school and college kids that really get them. >> All right. Uh, Dr. Ghoul, I see that you raised your hand, so I'll let you go next. >> I just want to say thank you so much, Lisa, for presenting and sharing all this information. I am so excited about this program. I I've known about

046it for a long time. I know that you and I have had some conversation about it, but I just I can't say thank you enough. And this is a perfect example of seeing a problem and working to resolve it in our community. And the support that you have had for this extended period of time with this program just shows how beneficial it is. And the data, I love the data collection of it all. And I have to say middle school, Wford County Middle School is one of my some of my favorite years. I know it was a very different environment than it is now, but even having a middle schooler of my own, I mean, goodness, I just I I just in working with middle schoolers, um, when I worked in the Methodist home, that

047has always been such a unique and wonderful age group. And I think you described them perfectly as cacti, they [clears throat] but once you get through it is just it's just a joy to be with them. So, I would love to come volunteer. I think it would be a great experience. So, thank you so much for sharing all this information. I think my follow-up question is probably something that you have already done, but I was just curious if you um have maybe sent out, can we send out a parent square reminding and updating um parents, families, potential volunteers how to get connected and do the referral process um to either be a volunteer or to participate in the program. >> I don't know. >> Yeah, we have QR codes. We have QR codes for everything.

048We have a QR code for the mentors. We have a QR code for the um I if you can see that this is our trifold which I'll bring and a QR code for donation. Um and it I'll have to ask Elaine. I know that we had it on parent square. I'm not sure if it's still there. So maybe it's time to put that back out there again. So thank you for that. [clears throat] >> Good to send out like once the beginning of the school year and then the halfway point because you may be going along okay and then you realize I need some additional support. this is getting tougher or whatever it may be or last year was okay but now it's a bit more challenging so just a way to keep keep the

049name out there keep it rolling so but thank you so much for your team and for all that you all do thank you thank you >> appreciate it >> all right Miss Frankgate >> yes I'm not sure how to raise my hand I could not get logged in so I am on my phone but I just wanted to echo um you know just very deeply appreciative that you saw a need and then you just jumped right in there um deeply deeply appreciative of you for doing that and then your staff and all the volunteers. Um I did notice that it's your presentation is not attached to the agenda. So I don't know if you can send that to Dr. Rabburn or if Dr. Raburn has it if he can attach it because then that way

050folks can go back and and find it even if it's a couple months down the road um somebody remembers or somebody thinks of a need then then they can just kind of go there and find that. Um but I also did have an opportunity to visit and very uh very impressive program. So thank you. >> Please come back. we'd love to have you. And um always always recruiting um mentors because the the mentors that come first of all, you know, we finally gotten back up to postcoid levels. There was a time after COVID when kids had got just gotten used to going home and they weren't giving back. We get a lot of NHS Beta Club students because they obviously get volunteer and service hours. Um but any of the other clubs that need volunteer

051and service hours, please, you know, encourage that. Um I would love to see the school, Dr. Jones, I think I might have mentioned this to you, have a requirement, a volunteer requirement for every student, even if it's 10 or 20 hours that would get them out in the community. However, it's up to then the community members to be able to provide those meaningful work experiences and volunteer experiences because not not all of them are good and we need to make sure that we match not all of them are the right match. You know, some kids want to make food and some kids want to tutor and some kids want to work with their hands. So, uh, I would love to see an opportunity though to really encourage our our students to to volunteer more. They

052already are a lot, but >> Well, thank you so much, Miss Johnson, Miss Holderman. Appreciate your time tonight. We will definitely share the information um that was provided tonight. Make that available. So, again, just thank you so much for being here. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now we're going to go into our new high school project update and Dr. Raburn, I believe that is you. >> Good evening, board. Um, we don't have much to report on this evening. Um, as far as the new high school project goes as a whole. Um, there are some lingering discussion points that we need to be had and I just need to know the direction of the board related to each of the items. So, the first one is the spring box. um are the is the board

053in favor of moving forward, not necessarily with that quote, but pursuing additional quotes or additional opportunities for mitigating the spring box? Um I need to know your all's thoughts on that just as a discussion item, not as a a vote. Um and then as well as the high school parking lot, adding those additional spaces back there are some things that we have chatted about that we still are kind of lingering out there related to it. Um the project as a whole has kind of sat um stagnant. There's not much going on as far as uh movement on anything. Um but I I would like to hear some discussion from the board related to the direction that you all wish. >> Uh Miss Macauen, now that you raised your hand there. >> Um Dr. Raburn, my

054question I have two questions. So, what is our where do we stand with our contingency on the high school project? >> So, the last I checked, we were um just shy of um the $800,000 mark that has been reported the last few times. Um one of the things that we did have to um pursue is purchasing ovens for the kitchen. Uh when we built the high school, we did not purchase ovens for the kitchen. We brought them from the old high school. and during the move and due to some electrical issues um I think that we need to purchase new um ovens for that. So we did um go ahead and make that purchase order for those new ovens. But other than that, that is all that we have taken from that. Um, that was

055a it was a need because our ovens top oven would work, the bottom oven wouldn't work, and between the contractors had determined that there was some electrical things that the specs weren't done the way that they were supposed to be as far as they had the specs from the oven, but it wasn't really the specs. So, I think there was some damage done to those ovens, and um, I would prefer to have working ovens. So, we went ahead and submitted that purchase order for for that. But um I think that was like $30,000 uh for those ovens. We we purchased um two oven sets that are there. So the kitchen will have all new equipment instead of just the everything but the ovens, which is what it was. >> I would be in favor, I

056think, of using some of the contingency to at least explore options to remedy the spring box problem because I don't see that. I don't know. I that could be a big big problem if we wait on that. Um and then I can't remember what the last quote that we got was for um the parking lot, but I'd be willing to hear others thoughts on that. So I'll mute myself. >> Yeah. And I shared those quotes with you all at the one the last board meeting. I I presented all those numbers um for for you all. I can pull them up if I need to. >> Okay. Um Dr. G, you're next. You're muted. >> Good catch. Thank you. Um, so I am greatly concerned about the whole oven situation. Like every time I hear of

057this, like we had this problem and they went for it and the contractor said this and I think if I remember correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong, that there was something about the plugs to the oven that we had to pay to fix to begin with. And now there's an issue and now we've got $30,000 in the hole to buy new ovens which have to be there. But again, just like the spring box issue, I think it's incredibly concerning to me that there continues to be these issues, which I know happens with any build that are that are causing us to hemorrhage money that we could spend on other places that we have to remedy. And I don't know who I mean I know we're almost done but I think these are lessons that

058are hard lessons that we have to take forward if we do you know pursue another building at some point in time in the course of you know our community expanding if we ever need to do that. Those are hard learned lessons and I just I'm grateful that we're almost to the end of this. Um but I still am kind of hung up on the spring box issue. I wanted to double check because I thought that the last we had heard about it was okay. we think that it had gone away the spring could move and so the the recommendation was that we not advance on that. So I just would like an update of kind of where we are because I'm much like Miss Macau I'm confused about that process and I do think that

059if we let it sit it will get worse if we have the potential for it to get worse and it needs to be remedied while we have the money to do it in the contingency. Um last thing and then I'll turn it over to whoever else wants to go next. Uh the parking lot. I think we have to have the parking lot. Um, you know, when the high school was built, it was built with less um parking spots than the old high school had. When it was even tight, I remember driving there myself as as a teen and trying to find a parking spot, and that was way back in in the dark ages. Um, and so I especially with the new change in driver's license laws. Like, we we are at capacity and over

060capacity now. I know it's um spilling into the streets in the neighborhood, parking um the neighborhoods as far as parking goes. And I I think that we have to provide that for our drivers. And I know there's a back and forth about you could we provide buses, but I mean in the reality of it, our teen drivers pick up their siblings. You know, I see lots of kids walking over to the high school for transport home. Um, you know, they I know it could be a privilege, not a right, but I think it is a privilege that they need to be able to have the capacity to park effectively. So, I think that is something that we definitely need to look into. maybe um providing um I'm not sure which surface we want to go

061with, but something that is sustainable that is not going to cost us more in the long run um that we could provide this onetime fix because this money is to make sure that the high school is is equipped the way that it needs to be moving forward and be set up for success. So, yay to the parking lot. Let's figure out what the the spring box situation is that we need to move forward with and let's try not to spend any more money if we possibly can on on things that recommendations say one thing and we end up damaging equipment that we could have surplus and potentially sold. So, it's it that that part is very concerning to me, but I'll stop and let somebody else talk. >> Yeah, I don't know how to raise

062my hand. Uh but just a few things. I do think that we need to go ahead and just have that on the agenda to have the discussion and to vote up or down and then just kind of take it, you know, so that we can move forward. You don't have to have that on your perpetual to-do list. Um but but I do agree also uh with with um at it it's very concerning that we pay for one thing and then it's like kind of a bait a switch uh damage uh unforeseen and then all of a sudden you know the $100 uh oven we were going to get ends up costing us $1,000. So so I I don't like that but but I understand that's not not anything you can control. Um I did have

063just a couple questions though. is the round $800,000 contingency. Does that take into account the negative balance from the project for the track and field? >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Yeah. Excuse me. It is all uh combined. So, at the end of the project, we will have to adjust the BG1s to make those accurate. >> Okay. And then um are there any other outstanding bills or do we think that around 800,000 is truly what is left in some type of a contingency kind of situation for both projects? >> Um all of the other ones are already encumbered. So that price is the price that we have and has remained consistent for the last few months. >> Okay. I just wanted to kind of double check on that, but I I do think that we need

064to go ahead and have it on the agenda with options and then just vote up, vote down, and move on. All right, Mr. Wilson. Anything for you? >> I don't have anything to add. Thank you, sir. >> Um, I agree with Miss Springate on we need to go ahead and vote and and decide on what to do with those. Um, personally, I think we need to address the spring box issue. I know obviously we can't test anything right now. Everything's frozen, but once we can, um, I know it's come up and in this instance, it seems we should probably be, uh, safe rather than sorry later. Um [clears throat] the the only thing with the parking lot for me, I know we have this contingency fee. Uh but correct me if I'm wrong, this contingency

065fee that we have can be used for other facilities as needed. Right. So >> yes, that's why we haven't >> we haven't moved forward on anything and just kind of waited to see right >> on everything because that does impact future opportunities for um new roofs and other things and other projects. >> That's that's where I was going with that. I know we have some roofing needs and so I don't want to take away from those cuz I would say the roofing needs are priority over the high school parking lot. So depending on what we can do there. Um you know I think we need to prioritize that. The spring box does seem to be more of an urgent issue that could cause damage further on. Um the parking lot I know is a a

066a need a a want convenience as well. Um but I think the roofing takes precedence in my eyes over that. So again, kind of need to see what we need exactly what we need for those roofs. Um, and then the I think the other thing I'm drawing a blank right now, but anyway, that's those are my thoughts on those, but I agree with Miss Spring. We need to put those on the agenda to to actually decide on. Um, Dr. Ghoul, did you have something else? Uh well the issue that happened at the fieldhouse with the leak is that taken out of the cost or was that just another maintenance cost that was covered? Did that lower our overall? I had that and then another thing >> the the fieldhouse is being handled by the contractor.

067>> Okay. >> No cost is we have not incur occurred any costs from from that. The other question I had was we had talked about and I know it is not an exorbitant amount of money but that they had the individuals that came and talked to us in the meeting that they had decided to wave a fee even though it's not a whole lot. It was something can we still get that or have we waited too long to to get what they agreed to waving with the spring box? And I also would like to revisit because I thought that this was something that we had talked about and it was decided um based on the survey and the individuals that came out that this wasn't an issue that we no long it was it was

068an issue that didn't seem to be as pressing. So now it seems like it's pressing again. So I just wanted to get clarity on >> No, there's it's not there's no been not been any change. I just said that I would bring it forth at the next meeting for discussion so that you all after I had time to look over the quotes and everything on both items, we could have a discussion and then sounds like we're ready to move forward at our next meeting with decisions to be made related to um one way or the other. And related to the spring box, Mr. Green and I, the facilities director, and I have chatted about some mitigation options that might not require moving fully into the realm of tearing up the black top and other things.

069Um, discussing it with some other people. Uh, we feel that we can mitigate that in-house, but I do want to be clear like that's on us. That's not going to be able to be handled by Trace Creek or anybody along those lines. So the cost of us doing that in house, what is the ch like what is the shifting between the two costs? Because I know we were talking about a French drain and the spring to get you specific. >> Yeah, let's let's since we're going to have that on the agenda next month, let's make sure we have all of that detail and explanation so we can >> Yeah, we'll have I'll have you the details on that and you can compare the two and then make a decision. >> And can we get a

070quote like I know we talked about and I I understand the roofing situation too. Like I I that's definitely in the forefront of my thought as well, but can we get a quote at I know we had a certain amount of parking kind of a meet in the middle. Can we add some parking spaces and see what maybe that may look like for the next agenda and maybe not do the full scale project, but kind of a hey, maybe we can offer both solutions um and make everybody kind of happy in that situation um with the roof as well as additional parking because I will say to as a discussion point on this, I I do feel like when we and I was not on the board when this was all t taken up, I

071would have mentioned it in that sense if I had Um but and we didn't know the law was going to change to be fair for the 16-year-olds um when that process was taking place. So I just I do feel like you know this is this is money that finishes that project out and if it's if they're lacking in that capacity to I would like to know what the numbers are. I know that um principal Reed did present some of those numbers, but if we could kind of revisit that and see if maybe a reduced parking um capacity may help us have a foot in both camps and fix the middle school roof as well as, you know, offer them the parking spots that they may need as well um to try to meet that need

072a little bit better than what we actually have with our current facility. Is that possible? >> I'll ask Mr. Reed to be here. >> Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Dr. Rabburn. We're going to move on to our school safety presentation, and I believe Mr. Wells and Chief Sutton are here as well. >> Yes, sir. Good evening. Um, Chief Sutton, I we don't have any slides tonight. It's going to be a very brief presentation, just an update. As you may recall, we had some vehicles donated near the beginning of the school year. And so Chief Sutton's just going to give us an update on how that's working, how those are being used, and then also give you an update on expanding that fleet. So I'll turn it over to

073Chief Sutton. >> Good evening. So like Mr. Wells said, you're all aware of the two surplus cruisers that were donated to us by the or Franklin County Sheriff's Office back in the fall. They're fully in place. They've been extremely beneficial. Um, as you know, we're directing traffic at three locations and also covering after school events. Um, the high school, middle school officer where they're currently assigned for the other two are probably using those every other night. Uh, covering events somewhere. So, they've been very beneficial for that. Um, so some more good news on that. During Christmas break, we were able to obtain one from the Boone County Sheriff's Office free of charge. U, it's a surplus vehicle. They donated to us. We went and picked it up on the staff day back a few weeks

074ago and it should be road ready next week or two. We've got everything transferred. Got to get some maintenance done on it, but I see it being uh issued out shortly. Uh and also recently in this past month's fiscal court meeting, the Woodford County Sheriff's Office has uh granted two surplus cruisers to us as well and we've got those transferred. Got to finish up some paperwork. So, they're coming down the road and possibly a third one. We found out this week. We just found out Friday there might be a third one available from them. So if that was the case, we'd have one for each officer every school. Uh because that if you haven't seen the new decal logos, I can send those out. But it's pretty visible present. There's an officer there uh at

075the school in each event. So I think they've been very useful. Uh and so far we had pretty good luck with them. They [clears throat] are used, but they've been serving their purpose pretty well. >> Chief Sutton, I just want to thank you for all the work you've put into this. I know that your relationships and connections with individuals in other counties has gone a long way for this project or you know project or getting these vehicles for us. So I just really want to thank you so much for everything you've done to get those for Woodford County. >> Thank you. I would like to thank my assistant chief Mike Forney who's been kind of instrumental with the sheriff's department here. He's a former employee there as well. So he's kind of been my contact

076for that once I do want to give him a shout out. Like we went over Friday and try to get those started. So we're getting close to getting those out. So thanks to him as well and and the fiscal court, you know, Boone County, Woodford County, and Franklin County, all who've came through with us on these as well as even a bigger blessing. >> Thank you. Does anybody have anything for Chief Sutton or Mr. Wells? >> I have a follow-up question with the cruisers. I think this is great. I'm super excited. So, thank you so much. Want to echo that. Thank you um to getting those those vehicles because they do make a huge difference, I do believe. Will this mean that our SRO's that are in the remaining schools that um for sales PD

077now do traffic control at will they take on those responsibilities like the middle school has and other areas that have the the vehicle already because I know that that was a concern about um taking over those duties. So that's the first part of my question and I have followup. The only other one I'm really Huntertown was was not rarely covered except for maybe the first day a couple of school. Southside was another location they were covering in the past. So that's something we can obviously look into. My preference is still I would prefer we're at in the schools during our busiest times, but again something we can look at. It would give us that opportunity to do that if that's a path we want to go into. You can't without a mark cruiser. I hate

078putting an officer on a on a busy highway just for safety purposes for everybody himself, other traffic, pedestrians, and students. But it's something we can look into, of course. >> Well, and I'm I'm echoing your thoughts. I do believe that, you know, with Southside and Huntertown in particular, their their schools are located, you know, it's not like Simmons where you're right on the street, right? They're a ways back. Um, I do know as a parent who drops off in the morning, how vital it is, especially at Huntown. And I'm assuming that Southside's probably a very similar situation with all the traffic, increased traffic on 33, and that area continues to grow. Um but Huntertown's in a very similar situation with lots of um subdivisions feeding, lots of people using that thoroughway and it's kind of

079on a hill and it's dark um in the mornings and so even like on a rainy day it's hard to see officers if you know even in that location and getting in and out without somebody directing traffic is is rather dangerous for both our buses and our families dropping kids off obviously. So, I was wondering um I'd like to continue to advocate for V for sales PD for that relationship that we've forged with them to continue to monitor especially Southside and Simmons not sorry Southside and Huntertown rather. Um even with the addition of these cruisers because again I know that that was a barrier for SRO's before. I just hope that that we can continue to work with for sales PD and providing that service so we can keep our school resource officers back closer

080to the building in those areas um during those drop off and pickup times because I do think that they're definitely needed there. And plus, they serve such a great function for our kiddos that check in and check out um capacity, those relationships that they've built with their school resource officers. It's nice to see those friendly faces in the morning as well. So um so yeah, but thank you so much for all you've done. Just want to do a little advocacy there that we keep up our our patrolling in those or direction, traffic direction. But I have to say, Officer Carmichael, I see him every morning and every afternoon and I appreciate all that he's it's made a world of difference at the middle school. Um, and it really keeps our kiddos that are that are

081um walkers and everything else just very safe. Our buses coming in and out very quickly. It has been a wonderful addition this school year. So, thank you so much for all that you all do. Rain, snow, sleep. You guys are out there. >> Anybody else have anything for Chief Sutton? >> All right. Thank you very much, sir. Have a great rest of your evening. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we have our curriculum and instruction update with Mr. Asher. >> Uh, good evening. Let me share my screen here. Uh I'm going to take this opportunity to review our CIP or comprehensive district improvement plan which is on uh later on down the agenda for your approval and I want to go through that uh in uh in more detail. Now uh so this is

082a requirement each year uh that we have to do both at district level and school level plans. I will say that um while it is on the agenda held off uh just due to they've missed some sitebased meetings and just had some difficulties. So, I'm going to hold out and do the CIPS uh next month for your review. Um, this is a new template from KDE uh this year and while titled comprehensive, it's actually much more condensed in what is required. Uh, it has a different look to it. It's not the usual table format. Uh, it's just more in in list. Um, and I said condensed, but when you consider, and I mentioned this before, how our strategic plan is serving as our overall umbrella, um, as as far as an action plan along with

083our portrait of learner long range plan, we do indeed have a very comprehensive approach, uh, towards continuous improvement. Uh, so the CIP is exclusively to address areas of state accountability uh, measures. So I'll go through uh, this in detail now. There we go. Um so I'll just use the scroll and I'll highlight as I talk because again the the a lot of lot of words and uh busy page here that you'll see. So uh the first area required is achievement gap goal. Uh we have chosen to address uh novice reduction for our students with IEP as well as increasing the proficiency uh for economically disadvantaged. uh shared some data with you last year and uh we'll plan to do so again uh here in a couple weeks uh that our free and reduced or economically

084disadvantaged is uh our major barrier uh that we continue uh to plan for and so we chose to address that yet again. I'll highlight these two areas. Uh as you know we have our literacy grant that is multi-year and we are very much using that to address our resources. you're going to hear a lot of uh HQIR or highquality instructional resources that were referred to. Uh so very much wo that into our plan here. Uh in addition uh I Ready is new at the middle school level and we're trying to refine just how to use what is called my path uh as an additional support at middle school level. And then finally, um really want to again using re instructional resources and using the funds we have for that uh uh developing systems protocols uh

085for tier one and accommodation needs uh because all students uh get tier one instruction and then those accommodations or interventions oftentimes they have to connect to that tier one. So we are working on uh specific systems and protocols for that. Moving on, another required is to uh have goals in the areas of reading and math. Uh we have three or we have uh long range goals each of these as required but then also uh yearly objectives. And so we break those down into elementary, middle, and high uh using our universal screeners so we have a better idea um and it's more timely to be able to set our goals. And these were established uh through our MTSS process um for all three levels. As we move down here, again, as I mentioned, you're going to

086see this woven in throughout. Uh we are uh moving into the area of math as it was required by legislation uh that we've adapted adopted, I should say. Um a math curriculum, comprehensive math curriculum for K through five that we'll move into next year. Um but then also not only the resource but very much uh an yet another acronym CBPL uh the professional learning to go along with that and again our on the ELA side or literacy side our grant will help support that. Um couple other uh supportive in terms of our essential standards work that we continue to do and that's an example of where our portrait of a learner plan uh has woven in. Um and then the support implementation of the uh instructional cycle which is basically a it's pedagogical approach that

087really supports student engagement uh critical thinking and those attributes or competencies I should say of our portrait of learner uh and then we have intention of continuing our best practice academy and learning cohorts which have seen have uh received some very good uh feedback from our teachers and staff of how that's been structured um from there And again, this is another uh example of how it's condensed. You then choose priorities. Um, and it's our thought that uh kind of less is more in this. So we we we don't have too many plans, too many activities going. Uh we want to be able to imp implement as best as possible and progress monitor. Uh so uh one priority is our English learner progress. Uh that is specific to their English language proficiency assessment which they're currently

088taking right now. that's always given mid year as soon as we get back from the uh holiday break. And so that's in uh in process right now. Uh this would be an example of kind of a two birds one stone approach uh those systems and protocols to meet the tier one and accommodation needs as related to our EL students. And then finally uh one other uh priority indicator is our post-secondary readiness. Um I have made mention of this but not have not gone into much detail yet. Our our collaboration with one goal uh to develop a district-wide vision that uh codifies student uh post-secary success. So as we have built uh we what we call continuum programs for our at the high school level you obviously we have WCHS uh we have safe harbor academy

089and we have uh WVLA Woodford virtual virtual learning academy and hybrid versions of that. So it can get kind of um it there's a lot going on there. So what we are what we're working to do is just uh that we're all working towards the same vision of post-secary readiness and and meeting that for all students whether collegebound or careerbound. Um so all of this work supports that. Uh we've had several collaborative meetings. I just had one what last week and another one supposed to occur this week. Um but I will update you uh more of that work as it uh as it gets more refined. So that is our uh CIP in total and I'll take any questions if you have those. Now >> one thing you mentioned earlier was the positive feedback on

090how the cohorts were structured. Has there been a change or was there something addressed that made that structure change that you know you guys saw a gap in? I mean just continuous improvement and you know we go we go to professional developments ourselves and how they're structured and uh rather than an all day sit and get breaking it down into more of a conference style where there's multiple sessions uh providing teacher choice within those uh we also uh made it a point and kind of picked up the strategy from talking with other districts. we kind of have a tier one message to all um so all in in the auditorium together and then go a conference style from there. So I think that was major uh and then in terms of the cohorts it's connecting

091that uh research says again one single sit and get as far as uh any kind of professional training or development it's best that that's continued. So uh they start on that given path like for example I lead the deeper learning cohort uh we started on that at the best practice academy then addressed that in uh on the November PD day and then again I'll meet with that same cohort in March and we have a number of those uh Dr. Jones leads one uh Dr. Rayburn uh many of us obviously the CNI team all lead one. So just that that continuity and that ongoing professional learning were two key points um that got good feedback. >> Perfect. Thank you Mr. Asher. Uh Dr. G, >> I just had a question. Can you explain one goal and

092what that does? >> Uh one goal it is it is a third party and it's actually we got a grant uh for this. It is just it it's an outside facilitator um who is bringing perspectives, bringing structures like we developed a uh oh the name escapes me but uh a flowchart of sorts uh to kind of just align and and as as it mentioned there that I went across just our overall vision. We've got all the stakeholders at the table and we continue and and purposely when I say stakeholders among uh those three programs WCHS, SHA and WVLA and we continue to expand out of of who needs to be at the table as we continue to refine it. Uh it is actually Cindy Anderson who is a former counselor here who works uh for

093the company. Uh this it's all there are a lot of things as far as the state goes uh of workforce development and post-secondary readiness. So that's why it's supported through a grant. Um, and just like I'll I'll mention our our strategic uh planning process. It's always good to have that outside facilitator. Um, they they they bring strategies, they bring tools, they bring structures, they bring the facilitation skills so that all of us that are around the table can truly uh interact and collaborate uh around a given uh given topic, given direction. And is that allowing us to increase access to credit programs and and that sort of thing when we think about like go and I I like the idea of everybody being at the table and being because you do you're right you have

094multiple different tiers not tears but um am I trying to say um with BLA and the you know the high school and all those to get together what is it like what is the I guess the end goal as far as career readiness postsecary what are what are some of the overall drives that you were trying to get to get everybody on the same page just to speak to that like you don't have to go it and do a lot >> I mean one of the one of the and I don't recall the percentage but one of the goals is that the post-secary data like after high school graduation we want to address E and E enrollment are they enrolled in a in a um higher ed program where that be a two-year four-year uh

095technical training or are they employed and so we want to track those numbers what students are well once they're no longer our students And um once they uh leave our threshold of the high school um or safe harbor or WVLA uh we are tracking that E and E enrollment and and employment uh numbers uh and so that we are properly preparing uh uh them for those days after high school graduation. So that that's one example. >> Oh yeah, that I was just curious. So that's >> big picture type stuff that is very uh very necessary. >> Yes. Thank you. >> All right. Uh, yeah, Miss Springy, >> I'm just gonna do the oldfashioned hand. >> Yeah, that works. >> Um, I just had a couple questions. So, uh, the only funding information I saw in

096the document was a $40,000 general fund requirement. Is that the, uh, the total amount of general fund you think will be required for the plan? >> Say that again. Is it >> Yeah, just the only funding that I saw that, uh, you know how the old CDIP had funding by each and every category. So, the only one I saw on this document was approximately Oh, I'm sorry. Does it say 40,000? It says it does 40. >> Okay. There's just a missing zero. Okay. >> Oh, it is missing a zero. Yes. Um Yes. And that is primarily uh for our math math curriculum. While we have the grant to support ELA uh literacy resources. Uh we at this point we don't have a math grant, although we're going for one. No, I take that back. We

097do have a small one uh that is supporting some elementary um but yeah that is 40,000 um should our math grant not come through uh it's a couple months till we hear back on that uh but that is specifically for that now where in the general fund that could come you know I have an overall CNI budget uh we could look at some title funding uh obviously once we know our draft budget and what we're working with general fund uh we will have to go from there of where that expense will come from and again that is prim primarily for our um math HQIR adoption. >> Um [clears throat] and so I guess my next question, the follow-up question would be either to um Dr. Raburn or um Dr. Jones. Uh is is this expense

098already included in in the budget or is this something that is is not included already? >> Well, I I'll answer that. The first place we would look uh CNI has a number of different budgets. uh um more title budgets um grant budgets than than we do general fund. So what we do is sit down and go through a needs-based budgeting process and this is a need. We've established that we are adopting this by legislation we have to adopt it for uh uh the elementary level and so we are going to plug in that need. It may be a split cost where uh out of out of our CNI budget pick up x amount and then over here in title we're picking up the rest. Uh but that would be the first uh step to the

099process in identifying where that expense is coming from. >> Okay. And if it does end up being uh shifted over to kind of the um grants or the um title uh funds, will will you just kind of let us know? And it sounds like maybe it's already kind of built into the budget, so we don't have to find this this extra money anywhere. It's kind of already built in. And if you take it from grants or from um title funds, you'll let us know that it's not going to come out of general fund or will you just kind of do that behind the scenes? How does that work? >> Miss Spring, some of the uh some of the things that we've been working on with Dr. Jones, Mr. Asher, myself are different ways to use

100the funding that we already have to purchase some of the HQs. We met u myself with the curriculum instruction and Dr. Jones team. Um I don't even know what day it was. It's been so it's been it's been within the last three days work days um that we had that meeting to just discuss how we can accomplish the HQIR without increasing or decreasing anything from the general fund um budgets that we already have. So working with our current needs in our current structure in the current draft budget to not take those from anybody else. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I just wanted to make sure. >> Anybody else have anything for Mr. Asher on curriculum and instruction. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Asher. Appreciate your time. >> All right, we are moving into public

101comment. I believe Miss Bailey has those that were emailed in. Again, just as a reminder, uh public comment can always be emailed in um at any time. That's not something we just did special for the virtual meeting tonight. Um, so just wanted to remind the public, but Miss Bailey, I will turn it over to you. Okay, I have them just right here on my email, so I'm going to read through in the order that I received them. Can you all hear me? Okay. >> Okay, great. >> We can. Yep. >> Awesome. All right, this first public comment comes from Lorie Sorman. I'm aware that you may be making some difficult cuts to the budget in the near future. One of the items to potentially be cut is the certificate program for classified staff. I would

102like to bring to your attention an issue that I think is important. Some of the staff, myself included, as well as several others that I am aware of, have already started the process of earning their next certification and have paid money out of their own pocket to get these certifications with the intention of submitting them for the next calendar year. It is my understanding that current classified staff will be grandfathered in with the certifications that we already have. I would like to suggest that those saying grandfathered employees are allowed to submit their next certification for the 2026 2027 school year even if the program is eliminated for future employees since they have already put forth the time, effort, and money. Thank you for your consideration of this matter when making your decision about which programs

103to eliminate and how to make it equitable to those who are who are already enjoying those benefits. Comment number two is from Stacy Burn. Hello, my son is a kindergartener at Southside Elementary and we participate in the ETC afterchool care program. A few weeks ago, there was an anonymous letter posted to Facebook describing potential changes to the program that could be detrimental should they be implemented. I sent an email to our superintendent and district members, but wanted to reach out again to ask for an update on what is actually happening or being considered. At the time of my email, I don't believe there was any resolution. We want the program to stay quote as is quote any reductions to the service provided would be hard for our family to handle given lack of child care

104options in the area. I can appreciate that budgets are tight and no one wants to lose services that they personally value. The ETC program provides a muchneeded and not just wanted service to families across the district that have two full-time working parents who need a steady solution for child care until the end of the workday. My son comes home happy from his time at ETC and the staff members I interact with are doing a wonderful job. I would hate for them to be negatively affected as well. Respectfully, Stacy Burn. Public comment number three is from Franka Toiver. Dr. Jones and Woodford County Board. I am writing to express my concerns for the interventionist positions for Southside Elementary. As a departmentalized reading teacher, it is up to me to meet the ELA needs for nearly 100

105students. This would be entirely impossible without Aaronheim, our reading interventionist. While the intended person while the intended purpose is for the intervention to target tier 2 and three, Aaron is doing so much more than that. She provides intervention to students who may slip through the cracks, helping at least 25% of fifth graders on a regular basis because she is looking beyond one piece of data with the intent of helping students learn that they need what they need in order to succeed. We have structured groups to target teaching vocabulary, pre-teaching skills we have found to have deficits and then reteing as needed. Because Aaron provides so much support, I am also able to reach more kids who need help filling in gaps but don't reach that 25th percentile cut off. Aaron is such a resource to

106me with a wealth of knowledge to help our students become better readers. There is no way our fifth graders would be growing and learning like they are without her and the team of people she leads. Losing these positions would have a direct impact on classroom instruction as fifth grade has 50 minutes of time where our interventionist is teaching reading alone is teaching reading alongside me. In response to Senate Bill 9, Mrs. Heim developed reading plans for 15 students who are current fifth graders who needed additional support but did not meet quote intervention criteria. Nine of these students were able to move from apprentice to proficient because of this work. I have worked with our interventionists as a special education teacher and gen general education teacher. In both roles, I have seen the immeasurable impact that

107they have made for our students. The success of our kids is heavily impacted by the work both interventionists coordinate and implement. You are faced with a very challenging task and I commend you for all of the work you are doing to take care of our district. I am asking you for I'm asking you to consider the direct impact impact on our students the loss of interventionists would have. Public comment number four is from Paul Gilbride. Good afternoon. Thank you for the alert in Parent Square regarding the school board meeting this evening. I appreciate the parent community being included. With all of the recent weather cancellations, I'm wondering why the district does not utilize tactics other than the cancellation of a whole school day. For many of the days canled, the conditions did not warrant missing

108an entire day of school. The use of two-hour delays or excusing tardiness for students impacted by morning adverse conditions would be far more prudent in many situations. For K12, for K12, I attended a school district that had over 175,000 students. They were able to successfully utilize delays during winter weather, especially when ice might be a factor. They were far more judicious with whole day cancellations. The delay allowed time for conditions to improve or for the district to make the decision to cancel if conditions did not. It also allowed students to not miss an entire day nor miss out on planned after-school sports and activities. With limits on the use of traditional school days and NTI days imposed by the state, our school systems school system needs to consider alternative solutions to complete day cancellations. I

109appreciate your time hearing my concerns and hope that we can utilize all the options to ensure our kids are safe and receiving a top-notch education. Thank you. Public comment number five comes from Sarah Houston. Good evening. I would first like to commend Dr. Jones and Dr. Rayburn on all of the work that has been done, but most recently the three-page document that was posted on the budget transparency transparency page Sunday evening. Thank you so much for keeping the interventionists at the inter elementary level. These positions are critical for our schools. With this, I also have some questions and significant concerns. Number one, grant funding around $600,000. Current funded board positions. How can we budget for a grant that might not be there in years to come? What current board positions is this covering? Thus, if

110you are covering something new, what are you taking from? How can this be sustainable? Why are we doing this? Number two, reducing 188 days to 187 days. Is it 152,000 or $12,000? Which one is accurate? Number three, what is 52000 fund service. 46 last FY but is new year 51 138.19. What is this from? Number four, custodians being reduced 200,000 or is it 240,000? Which is accurate? Section six, 288,000 or 300,000. What is accurate? While I understand that this is a draft budget and there can be estimates, it is incredibly important to be transparent about the numbers with all stakeholders. Quote, lowest impact on classroom instruction student centered budgeting prioritization. End quote. If the goal of the budget committee and the Woodford County Board of Education is what is written above, we need to be

111looking at central office positions that do not have a direct daily impact on working with students. If positions have been added, the question should be, what is the direct impact it is having on students? It is my understanding based on the documents on the budget transparency page that multiple positions in the transportation and finance department have been added. At the end of the day, we as a district have not grown with our number of students, but yet we have increased positions that have no direct impact to students. Why? Why are we spending money on positions that don't directly impact our students? Our subs, specifically our retired teachers, are an invaluable asset to our classrooms. They know the behavior management systems, student expectations, and how to actually teach when we as e educators have to be

112out of the classroom. Please consider keeping their daily wage thresh threshold at $300 per day. I can speak for many individuals when we say there is no one else we would rather have in my classroom subbing than a retired teacher. Finally, I do recognize that Dr. Jones and Dr. Rabburn are trying to dig us out of a financial t challenge, but this also requires our Woodford County Board of Education members to be financially responsible as elected members representing our taxpayers. Best Sarah Houston. Um this next comment has a request to remain anonymous. Um so the comment is speaking on behalf of many concerned parents that the baseball fee is um being collected before baseball triyouts and the total fee to play is 300% higher than other school sports in Woodford County. This issue really needs

113some attention. Sincerely, baseball parents of Woodford County. Public comment number seven. This comment is from Marty Day. First of all, thanks to all who have been working tirelessly to determine cuts needed to reduce the $2.9 million deficit left at the end of last year. Kudos kudos also go out for all of the hard work put into developing the draft budget. These proposed cuts appear to have focused too much on monies that do not directly relate to daily classroom instruction. Without knowing what is actually included in the central office reduction plan, our board members should not approve cuts that directly affect classroom instruction. The budgetary dis discussions have been centered around positions, not personnel. And these positions at central office should be named in open discussions. Other positions to be cut like custodians and retired teacher

114substitutes have been named as such. Why shouldn't those positions included in the central office cuts also be named? Transparency should be across the board, not just for select positions that are to be cut. Let's truly unite the high for the benefit of all Woodford County students. Sincerely, Marty Day. Okay, this next comment is public comment number eight, I believe, and it is from Pamela Hutcherson. To the members of the Woodford County Board of Education, I am a veteran teacher who has dedicated my entire professional career to serving the students and community of Woodford County Schools. I'm express I'm expressing strong concerns regarding the proposed reductions to the operational budget. Several of the proposed options directly affect teacher retirement and long-term financial security. Most concerning are the proposals to reduce certified staff contract days and to

115cut the 403b matching program. Reducing contract days reduc reduces teacher pay and permanently impacts retirement benefits. Eliminating the 403b match undermines the retirement security incentive that supports educators long-term financial stability. These proposals are especially troubling in light of the January 20 January 17, 2024 email sent to staff which stated that board had approved a 403b match to demonstrate its commitment to employees financial well-being. Eliminating that match and reducing on track days directly contradicts that statement commitment. The referenced email is attached at the end of this correspondence. As a teacher who has invested my entire career in this district, I depend on stable contracts and predictable retirement benefits. Budget decision decisions that directly reduce retirement compensation send a clear message that long-term service is undervalued and will have serious consequences for morale retention and the district's

116ability to recruit and retain experienced educators. I strongly urge the board to reject any proposal that reduces certified contract certified staff contract days or eliminates the 403b matching program. Protecting teacher retirement must remain a priority in all budget decisions. Thank you, Pamela Hutcherson. Public comment number nine is from Ally Duncan. Good evening. I am the ETC coordinator at the Southside Elementary and felt compelled to send this email for public comment as there are a number of ETC staff with concerns following the January 13th board meeting and the article published in the Woodford Sun. With staff having concerns, I imagine the same is true for our parents and community. My purpose is to clarify some information regarding our program in the hope that we receive clarification based on recent communications. I appreciate the board members for

117opening the conversation about ETC at the last meeting during the discussion about staff reduction. As mentioned, there was a letter posted on Facebook with the purpose of notifying the community of foreseeable of a for of a foreseeable change to the program. Quote, anonymous quote voiced that what was presented to all ETC staff at a mandatory meeting called the evening of January 8th. One resignation was submitted immediately following the meeting and I am aware of more than a half a dozen staff who are currently seeking other employment or plan to resign come May. We were told that starting February 2nd once students were picked up and numbers were down that non-contract staff were to be sent home using a rotating schedule designating who was to be sent home first. This was not presented as an option,

118but as a necessity to cut payroll cost. To be quote fair, quote, to staff who showed up to do their job, sending people home was to begin after 4:00 p.m. so that people would receive at least 2 hours pay. The news that staff would potentially be sent home after a 2-hour shift hit hard, as this would impact all staff, either directly or indirectly, as well as all of our students. The letter to Facebook reflected the concern that the majority of ET staff would be leaving before the end of the school year, which it would jeopard which would jeopardize the existence of our program affecting the families of over 200 students. I do want to clarify how our staff is categorized by the district. There are individuals who are contract staff and there are subs. At

119ETC, we call our quote subs quote non-contract staff. They are substitutes to fill in as needed. They are as essential as contract staff and are not disposable bodies per shift on any given day. Our non-contract staff are regularly scheduled staff members expected to work a 4.5 hour shift each school day, just like contract staff. The only exceptions are the few who are college students, where at Southside, one works four days of the week and the others work the fifth day of the week. Both are indispensable. All ETC staff are necessary to comply with statemandated ratios based on the number of students enrolled at ETC per school. At the last board meeting, it was said that in a situation where we have a much smaller number of students that particular day, then subs can get can

120be given an option to go ahead and go home. We already allow for this to happen with non-contract staff once numbers are down at the end of the day. As stated in the article in the Woodford Sun, quote, staffing changes would only involve substitutes scheduled to work on a day when there is a much smaller number of students at ETC end quote. This statement was confusing to our staff as it was interpreted to mean we were to call out quote substitute quote staff on a day when quote there is a much smaller number of students at ETC end quote. We do not know how many students will be absent on a given day. We are staffed at each school to accommodate the number of students we have enrolled. At staff at Southside, that number is

121110. Every day we assume that all 110 students will attend and we have staff present each day to be in a ratio for 110. The questions and concern voiced by staff involve the discrepancy of what has been communicated. We were told sending non-contract staff home will be mandatory yet other communication sounds as if send sending staff home is optional just to use staffing wisely. I hope the above helps those outside etc understand in some way how our program operates. At this point we would appreciate clarification on how we are to move forward with our staffing. With respect, Ally Duncan. I believe that is the last public comment. That should be all nine in total. >> Thank you, Miss Bailey. Appreciate you reading all of those. >> Sure. >> Um, and just like regular meetings in

122person, we don't converse on the public comment, but uh again, thank you everyone who sent those in. Again, that's always an option to email those to be read at an open meeting. And although we don't converse, I have a feeling some of those topics will be addressed when we talk about the draft budget tonight. Um, and with that, we will >> Yes. >> Um, prior to the regular agenda, I just want to remind board members that all cameras have to be on during the vote and any presentations that are shared this evening, we have to stop sharing so that all board members are able to be seen as we make that vote. >> Perfect. And I believe everyone is on camera. All right. Uh, can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >>

123So moved. >> Motion by Miss Macauen. If anybody is muted, I think everybody everybody has to be unmute as well so we can vote. >> Second by Mr. Wilson. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. We'll move into our regular agenda. Can I have a motion to accept notification of personnel matters? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson, second by Miss McCauen. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Oh, was that was that an I, Dr. Gold? >> It was. I'm so used to being on Zoom and just raising my hand, so I apologize. >> Sorry. Yep. We do need a verbal confirmation. >> Yes, it was a delay. I apologize. >> No worries. All right. Motion passes five to zero. Can I

124have a motion to approve minutes of the December 2025 board meetings? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? All those in favor? I >> I >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to accept notification of payment of bills? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. 520. >> Hang on one second. Mr. Brickler, can you do that one again? I accidentally hit share before, too. And um Miss Dr. G was off the camera. >> Okay. All right. >> All those in favor of accepting notification of payment of bills. >> I >> any off is that causing Am I just not pinned? >> Motion

125passes five to zero. I don't know if you're pinned. I think he was he was sharing. So anytime you share >> that was a video of us. >> Yeah, we don't have control over who pops off and who doesn't. So I accidentally hit share as you all were voting and it popped you off the screen. So I wanted to make sure that that was recorded appropriately. >> I just didn't want to get in trouble. >> No, no, you're you're fine. You were there. You were there on a different screen because just the way that Google meets work, they just have different um options. So that's >> So now I'll share my screen. >> I was going to say now you share to go through the December financial report. Have you had your motion and a

126second? >> Um, let's see. Yeah. Can I have a motion to approve December's financial report, treasures report? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. And now we will open it up for Dr. Ra to present. >> All right, board. Um, tonight your financial uh, updates will be similar to those from the past few meetings um, where I'll present some of the information over the past two months so that you can see that. So, pay close pay close attention um, to the date at the top of the screen so that you know if we're looking at the November or the December board meeting or uh, agenda um, financial reports. Also, please note that this is uploaded to the agenda already as I sent it to you all last night and

127then um uploaded it to the agenda at the same time. So, this is available to the public and has been with um over the whole day today. Uh this is our November um report just so you can see where we were in November. 15 million um for peri month to date and in revenue and then two million in expenditures 2.9 million expenditures. Um last month our report was focused on the taxes that were received um from the sheriff's office and that was what was reflected in our total uh revenue source from the 15.6 million. This month you'll see a lower number um at 3.1 million. That does mean that we have received more funds which I told you about at the last month meeting but um these numbers are reflected there and a 2.9 uh

128expenditure. Uh this is the November um report that I shared with you. So you can see we were our expenses our expenses are trending in a downward motion and to continue that from the budget to the actuals that is what that percentage is there. Um you can see where we spent from 25 to FY25 to FY26 that remains the same. We are still trending in a downward motion from our um expenses expenses from what we are budgeted to what we are actually spending. So we are doing our best to um not spend the budget. So that impacts our contingency. If we were to take the contingency as of a current um end of the actuals, we would have around $5 million uh set aside. Our budget it is um if we continue on this rate

129we'll have 1.8 um as the budgeted uh contingency. The uh taxes that were collected shown here um they are around $2.3 million in revenue uh that has been collected in December. You can see it from the different agencies that we received it from um and all of that. And then um these are where you will find them in your uh financial reports and the page numbers on page one and page 27. You'll see that for the month to date that number does equal $2,314,000. Um and this is our total revenue that we have received from taxes from the various agencies uh related to our object codes. the object codes are there and you can see those correlated on um on your budget reports that you have access to your financial reports. And then these are

130all of the taxes that have been collected over the course of this um fiscal year from um August all the way through up until the end of December 2025. We have received more for January, but um those will not be reflected until next month. in our revenue, special revenues, that's our grant funding. You can see that our expenses versus our revenues are there. Um, and our year-to-ates are um they're again sometimes these trend in the negative because uh we are spending more from a previous grant cycle that is occurring. So, um that is where we're at. But if you look at the total available budget, we're in the positive on the grant funds there. And also sometimes we have to spend the grant prior to receiving the reimbursement. In our activity funds, this is our

131student activity fund account. Um our expenditures are 37,000 and our expenditures are 39,000. Um and then the total expenditures for the year, our revenue is 323,000 versus 287,000. So while it might look like we spent more in December, our revenue um over expenditures are still in a positive there. Um for our district activity funds that's our fund 25 it is the same um revenue over expenditures is off for the month but as a total from the year to date our revenue is accurate and we are spending less than our um total received for food services. Uh we have 218,000 for revenue and 186,000 for expenditures. Um, and you can see that this one actually is the opposite. Uh, where our expenditures are more than our revenue. And that is due to we're still coming out

132of the August September time where we had to buy a lot of the beginning of the year food. Um, so that it should equalize itself out over the course of the year. And as it's trended, it is trending in a downward motion, but we still have a a negative balance to occur from there. And then our ETC balance um is listed here with our revenue being um less than our expenditures. And you can see that on your screen that um the expenditures and revenue have been opposite of that one as well. So any questions related to your financials for this month? I did have one thing I just kind of wanted to go back and discuss. Um, I found the last attachment. >> Sorry, what was that, Miss Springate? >> I did have one one

133thing I wanted to go back and look at on the last attachment. >> Okay. >> On page one. >> All right, let me pull it back up. Go back to the Yeah, go back to the agenda >> on the agenda. >> Mhm. >> See, >> yeah, the the third attachment or the fourth the last one. It's our regular report that you usually give us. It's like maybe 80 pages. >> Okay. Is that it? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um [clears throat] so I just I know last meeting we talked a little bit about um the budget appropriation for just our our topline taxes um was more than that. When we approved the budget in September, it was around I guess 19 million. >> You're referring to the the line item 111. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So,

134we had budgeted that it was going to be uh more than what we were receiving. >> Yeah. And so, we had kind of I kind of talked about that in September and just uh you know made mention that that seemed a little bit high. Thought maybe it was an error. Um, but now, you know, apparently it maybe was an error. So, now we're back down to an number. And so, I just wanted to um uh just I looked at our audit because I think this has been kind of an issue in the past few years. We just have kind of gotten um some bad estimates, some incorrect information. And so, um, in the past, I think, uh, we kind of talked about like, you know, what's required policy-wise, that sort of thing. And so, I

135just looked in the audit on page 29. I think it's the same page every year. Um, and I just wanted to point out that, um, once the budget is approved, it can be amended. Um, so we could could amend that. Um, but, um, attachments would have to be presented at the board in regular meetings. Amendments are made before the fact and reflected in the minutes of the board. They're not made after the end of the fiscal year in accordance with state law. Each budget is prepared and controlled by the budget coordinator um at the revenue and expenditure function object level. So all budget appropriations lapse at the year end. Um, so I'm not sure. Uh, well, actually I am kind of sure. When we talked about it in September, it wasn't changed then, but apparently

136at some point it was it was changed. And so um I don't know if we need to do some sort of an amendment process for for the uh for this or I don't know how that would work. >> I'll look into and get back to you. >> Okay. And then the other thing I just wondered um on the franchise tax last year it was around 1.19 million and the appropriation it looks like for this year is 765,000 and I just wondered why why that decrease. >> Uh Miss Spring I wasn't the one that prepared that budget. I can't give you that answer. >> Okay. Well, if that if you don't mind something maybe looking into that too because I think it's just really important that we know >> what we've received so far. You can

137see on your screen we have only received 96,000. >> Okay. Well, maybe just something to kind of look at. I just wondered why the discrepancy. So, thank you. >> I'll get an answer about that and get it back to you all. >> Thank you. Could I ask a quick question before we move on? >> I guess it would be just, you know, there were several areas like ETC and um I can't remember all of them, but several of the areas that were mentioned we are exceeding I guess our revenue at this point, but the idea is that it will line itself out. So I guess my question is we are managing to the bottom line of this budget. We aren't because if you look at it now and you you tried to come up with

138you know an annualization or something like that it would look like oh we're going to be over over our budget in each of these areas but essentially we are managing to the bottom line. Yes. And then you know if if any um modifications in behavior or expenses and things like that are needed then that then those adjustments will be made. Um I guess I'm just looking for that that is correct. >> So we are looking at every line item of every budget every month with almost every department every director. Um, I mean, we are we are consuming our lives of this budget. Dr. Jones and I are. So, so yes, we are we are doing our absolute best to do that. We might not have all of the answers to all of the questions every

139month, but we are actively working with every possible agency that we can to to look at every budget line item to make sure that we're in align alignment with all of that. And then just to be clear, if like the daycare or um any of the enterprise funds are negative, uh food service, any of those funds are negative at the end of the year, then we have to use our general fund to cover that. So, I do think that's a good point. Um Sarah, that that's something, you know, to kind of just think about as a board member and kind of keep an eye on. So, thank you. And currently we are concerned specifically about ETC because we are spending almost $13,000 a month more than we are taking in. So um that is a

140big concern. And so that's um it is a concern and it's we are looking at all ways that we can still keep the program and keep it high quality but at the same time that is a big concern. >> Dr. Jones, can I ask a follow-up question to that? Is there has I know that you're working with individuals about their budgets and what that looks like. Has there been a reason given for the 13,000 you said thousand correct difference per month? >> I'm just going to interject real quick because we are on still on the December financial report and I think that might go into draft budget conversation. So hold that. I don't want to just pick on the December financial report right now and we're immediately going to go into the draft budget. So,

141>> yeah. >> Does anybody have any other questions or comments on the December financial report? >> All right. All those in favor of approving Sorry, let me get my wording pulled back up here on approving December financial report treasures report. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. >> Can I have a motion to approve FY27 draft budget? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen and Dr. Raburn and Dr. Jones will open it back up to go through the draft budget. >> All right. So, we are presenting to you tonight the draft budget for your approval. Uh remember, the draft budget is the first step in our budget process. As I've mentioned and has been mentioned multiple times over multiple uh occasions that this is the draft.

142This is not the final. This is not what we put into this requires us to hold true to it to the tentative season. Uh the tentative is more definite than the draft. What we have done is looked over over the past is to take a a stewardship approach to this from um September October time frame where we started with our budget committee where it was recognized that we have a huge crisis that we need to to look at. So this process started back then with the budget committee. I'm only telling you this to remind everybody that this has not just been a oneanddone situation. We have we spent months on this and um we had a collaborative effort from community members all the way through um to working with board members. So the draft budget

143that's approved tonight um or hopefully approved tonight will be um the start of the a continuation into our tenative budget which is approved at the U May board meeting. at the May board meeting is when you'll set your salary schedules and that is when you'll set some of these um items that we are on the topic for tonight. Um so so just know that we have from the February board meeting through the May board meeting to have discussions related to specific line items if those are on your um on an issue for you or you would like to bring up in conversation. um as well. Last night I posted to the budget transparency page the uh draft budget um proposal that we are proposing for you which does um take a $2.9 million look into

144um decreases from our current FY26 into FY27 so that we can m maintain fiscal responsibility for our district and um get start to rebuild our contingency fund um to allow for us to maintain um control and ownership and you all to maintain control and ownership over our finances at our district. So, I'm going to present to you tonight the draft budget as we are leaving it for your approval. Um and this again is on our budget transparency page right here on the January 26th proposal underneath the um budget transparency on the homepage of the district. if anybody would like to see that. So our draft budget um projections are flat. We do not have any additional revenue that we have added to our draft budget. Um our revenue has maintained this remained the same from

145FY26 into FY27 and that is due to the fact that we don't 100% know um and we we're still at the very beginning of our seek discussion within the state. So, we don't know where that's going to end up. So, we can't budget for something that we don't know. So, we're budgeting based off of our current revenue sources um which is projected here tonight. Um based on all of the um budget alignments that we are doing our best to correct um and uh if needed, we will bring before the board for a budget amendment. Um is 2.9 million beginning balance for from the 4.8 million that we had at the beginning of this year. And um throughout all of this we were we are at a $2.49 contingency fund million dollar contingency fund. You will

146see that originally we said $2.8 million but after long discussions um Dr. Jones has gone back on some of the recommendations and those are reflected in this one and I'll let her speak to those when we get to them. Um and she can al also always speak whenever she wants to. Uh but you will see that this is a balanced budget where our contingency or our revenue and our expenses are $0. Um and unlike in years past, it is not going into the contingency fund, but actually it is correcting the contingency fund um where it currently stands. Our our priorities have always been to have the lowest impact on classroom instruction, have a student- centered budgeting prioritization, which I'll get into in a little bit, maintain as many current offerings that we have for our

147students, such as CTE classes, arts classes, electives, class offerings as much as possible, and to maintain the step increases for staff. all under our district's stewardship pillar to carefully and responsibly manage the our facilities, our operations, and our processes, which includes managing and budgeting appropriately from budget purchasing, staffing, and maintenance to ensure our district's sustainable for the future because we want to keep this district being the best we can. So, our first line item that we have that you will see on your screen that we have talked about multiple times is our interventionist. Um, Dr. Jones. >> Yes. At this time, um, just for the draft budget, um, I'm recommended that recommending that we, um, keep those in the draft budget based on board input, um, as well as, um, staff input. Um I I

148do plan to look for we will continue like we said like Dr. Raburn said we will continue to have um you know these conversations about how can we reduce what we're spending out of the general fund. And that's really what we're talking about when we address this. We're not talking about anything not being valuable because we certainly know that every single thing is valuable. Um but we also know that as Dr. Raburn said that we we do have a um fiscal responsibility to ensure that we have at least 2% left in our contingency at the end of the school year. And that does not we we really should have 5% at least is what we really should but we're required by law to have two. And so we're not talking we are really t truly

149talking about what are we spending out of general fund dollars. That is the amount we are given. And I was just reading earlier today um on KDE's website and KSBA's website, the reason that this budget process works this way is because there are so many factors that are not in under the control of the school system. For instance, right now we are currently our legislators are looking at the new bianium, the state budget. We have no idea what that's going to look like. You know, we do not know what SEK dollars are going to look like. And then we don't know property assessments. We don't know what that's going to look like for us in Woodford County. And so, um, we do have to keep that's why this is a process. This is just the

150very beginning. And so, for now, um, I'm recommending that we leave them in the budget in the general fund budget, but I am looking for other ways to be able to pay for those positions. Uh so board that is one of the reasons why your contingency dollars are less is the um interventionists have been added back into the draft budget. Um 1 to 29 middle school uh studenttoteer ratio uh it is currently 1 to 27 that would be two certified staff members there. um 1 to 24 high school teacher to student ratio. Um it is currently 1 to 22. That is four current positions based off of that. Um you can also see that the board action items that will happen in the near future would be that um these would be staffing formula consultations

151as long along with the uh custodial staff square footage adjustment to 1 to 25,000 square feet. Um it is currently 1 to 20,000 and um that is a five uh staff member reduction at the school level. The section six allocations taking it to $100 a student and removing all section seven uh reductions that is um a typical practice. And so um for other districts and that would be taking that down to $100 and and then anything above that $100 is section seven. And um uh Mr. Asher, myself and uh Dr. Jones are meeting with each school principal in the coming weeks to determine how to best um how to best budget and utilize our funding. And so while we might not be able to give them the $147 a student at this very moment, uh

152we are going to have them prioritize their um needs and in in consultation with their SBDM have a needsbased analysis done for each of the schools so that when September rolls around and we know what our budget is, we can start fulfilling those needs um from the district level in our budget. So, while we can't guarantee them this money right now, that money will come back to them um provided we have that ability. >> And then section >> Oh, sorry. Do you want us to wait and ask questions at the end or ask questions as we go through? >> Yeah, let me just read through the list and then I'll get get that all there for you. Uh section seven, allocations for um travel support. Again, this is not cutting travel. This is just support

153that has been added over mainly last year, year before last maybe as well um to take it down to the level that was um prior to that which was that 49,000. >> Let me reemphasize that it is not it is not eliminating travel. >> No, it's just support that uh has been given from the general fund to support travel >> additional travel. um that is reducing the certified contract days from uh 188 to 187. Uh this would impact all certified staff members including administrators >> and the let me add there Josh that day was added this past year um previously of course to me but that that extra day was added when we transitioned to the high school. that was an additional staff workday that was added last year. >> Um so then using grant

154funding to support um some board funded positions. Uh that is to to shift some funds around so that we can use the grant funding appropriately which is not currently happening. Um certified DWT uh substitute pay to a max of $225. You will note that this is a difference from the $200,000 at $75,000 difference. When we originally looked at it, we were looking at the highest surrounding district. Um, and Dr. Jones has um made the decision to do 225. Dr. Jones, do you have anything? >> We value we value our retired teachers who are subs tremendously. We want to be competitive. We also we want to balance our budget. So, we're trying to meet in the middle on that. and um several several um uh substitutes who are retired folks have reached out and said they

155felt like 225 was a fair recommendation. So, >> um, and just for reference on our budget proposal page, that's not on here, but it is on the website, there is a cost analysis of what each of those rates would look like all the way down to our $145, which is uh what we currently offer to non to substitutes that are at a certified level. um if anybody wishes to look at that. And then our central office reduction plan is going to be around 885,000. Um that is staffing reduction in all departments. I did leave the 403b match in there um at the current 1% but that can change based off of the board um discussions. Taking away the 63,000 from the um Chromebooks that will be replaced with our KTS funding. So utilizing grant funding

156instead of general fund for that. Um and then some debt services and natural gas usage budget alignments are in there. And some of the things that we are currently actively doing and considering um that are not reflected in this draft budget are renegotiating all of our contracts and services that we have the ability to. So every time they're up for renewal, we are evaluating each of those contracts to make sure that they are a need and a necessity for our district and are we getting the best value out of that. Um we are also looking at providing um a reduction of 10% or more to all central office budgets. Um that is in the works that is not 100% set but that would also impact our current um budgeting process that will be for the

157tenative cycle. Um and then central office utility usage and vacation payouts are there uh for discussion to happen later this year especially related to the vacation policy payouts and acrruals. Uh we have to do two readings on that one. And then interest funds of the general fund instead of our um funds that we're currently giving those to. >> Dr. Jones, did I forget anything? >> You did not. What questions do we have? Um, I'll actually turn it over to Dr. Gould since I asked her to table her question on the last topic. So, you want to start us off? I think you had a question on etc. >> I did. Um, and I've I've seen the Facebook post. I've seen the comments and I know that there's concern. And I will say before I say

158this, I want to say I I think that having our ETC is a immeasurable value because this allows our parents to be able to stay in our families and caregivers to stay at their jobs during their workday, know that their kids are seemingly transitioning into their building in their building to after school care. Also, it provides opportunities for you know education continuum and that sort of thing. My question is why is the budget over so much for them? What is being spent? Is it staffing? Is it materials? Like what where is that that disconnect between the budget balancing for them happening >> staffing? >> Okay. So, are they overstaffed or and and that's what you're trying to reduce like with with when we talk about the numbers and I know some of the concerns if

159I understand correctly has been you know my my child knows this person if this person goes home who's my child left with especially with our children that may have special needs or developmental delays in some capacity who need to have that stable person but is it just strictly like >> because the the thing that we need to remember about etc is that it is child it is a child care service. So we have both educational services and we have and this is a child care service. And so um I am currently looking at how do we run it as a ch a high quality high quality. Um, if you look into my previous role, I was I was in charge of all of our afterchool programs and my my mission was to make sure they

160were high quality. And they they were um but we have to run it. It has to run as a business just like food service has to run as a business. And so um we are looking at rates, we are looking at staffing. There's not one answer for each school, but I promise you that we we are looking at how do we keep a high quality program, but also um at least have a zero, right? At least have nothing. Like we didn't didn't lose anything, didn't make anything. Like we're happy with that, but that's how that that has to work in order for it to continue to run. >> And this is me not knowing, and I'm sure you do know the answer to this because you have that experience. Is there any funding through the

161state since it is a child caring facility that can offset some of that cost? >> So, um individual families can apply for um assistance, CCAP assistance if they qualify and that will pay for part of the um fees if not all of the fees depending on u what services the student what child care services they they're enrolled in. >> Does that help with our budget concerns? Is there anything that we could apply for as an a child caring entity in that sense to be able to offset that $13,000 deficit that we experience every month? >> Um, I'm just looking at it from an operational side right now and from a management side as the superintendent. I'm really just trying to look at it um each school and I'm looking we're just looking line by line

162to make those decisions. Thank you. >> Dr. Gold, before I turn anybody else, do you have any other questions on the overall draft budget? >> Oh, I'm sure I do. Um, you >> Okay, [laughter] if you're not I can come back to you later. I just wanted to give you an opportunity if you're >> I appreciate that. And I do have one question um that's that seems to be in the forefront that I just wanted clarification on. I mean, I do I have lots of thoughts about all of this, right? Um but I I do want to ask I'm so sorry, Dr. Ray, can you put that back up again? I can't remember the language that I was going to ask about. It has to do with the vacation days. I just wanted clarity on

163this so I know that I'm understanding when we talk about reduction of the of the vacation days. Are we actually reducing because I know we talked about going to an earned model of years of service earns additional vacation days, but what does that look like for our individuals who are we going to pay those individuals out? So, we're not and I understand the need to to not hold that because that means if they if somebody was to leave, we have to pay that out and that's a lot of debt to be held. Um, but what does that look like as far as impact of the number of vacation days? Bless you, Empress. um the [clears throat] number of vacation days that they are re reducing help me understand that just I'm just seeking additional clarity

164around that and is does that take a if you've already been in service that many years or is it new employees that come in what does that look like is a larger picture >> so prior to two years ago u our vacation policy read 40 days you could roll over every year you say have a max of 40 days. You receive 10 vacation days um at the start of an 260day employment. So these are only for our classified individuals that are 260 days. Uh these are not all classified individuals. They receive 200 or 10 days for the first five years and then every year after year five they received an additional day up to 20 days. So that based off your years of service to Woodford County Public Schools, not years of experience or years

165of service in another entity, it's Woodford County Public School Service, you could have a max of 20 days >> total. Um, by the time that you've been here for for a good little bit of time, uh, that was changed two years ago to be everybody from the start gets 20 vacation days and we can roll over a max of 80 days. Um so essentially doubled it and gave everybody their um their vacation time from the beginning. So the histo history history there um so what we are proposing um in the coming months will be something similar. We're not exactly sure of the language and I I do not want to >> I do not want to make sure that we aren't promising things that we don't know until the policy comes back. Um but it

166would be a similar role where you get so many days that you can have and then it will be a use or lose after that like it is now. So if you have more than 80 days right now when it comes June 30th then you you don't get to keep those days. They just they fall off your acruals. They're not available to you anymore. Um, also keep in mind that these individuals also get uh 12 to 13 holidays according to our board policy on top of that. And then as the current state is 15 sick days and three personal days on top of the 20 vacation days. So a 260day employee gets all of those benefits right now on top of the vacation time. And so um to answer your question, Dr. I'm not 100%

167sure what that would look like. We've we've kind of gone back and forth on is it a bank time situation where we just bank those days until retirement. Um do we give you a check at the end of the year for all the time over the new rate? So if it was like 40 days, we give you anything from 40 and above to 80. um we are not 100% sure yet which is why um I don't have all of those answers but we are actively looking at what does this look like um to know it's not a line item in the budget so it's not technically part of this but it is a policy change that we need to make so that we can um remove some of the liability that we currently have on

168our district which does become a budget issue it's just not budgeted thank you that helps Dr. Jones, did you have something? >> No, you Well, you you guys missed my announcement. I'm sorry. My Alexa announced that it's >> Oh, I was wondering what that was. >> Family time at our house. So, yeah. >> Family time. >> Oh, we all get to have family time with the Joneses tonight. >> That's it for right. I mean, I have more. I'm sure things will come up in my brain as as we continue this conversation. So, I'm sure I'll chime in, but that was what I was seeking clarification as far as understanding um that I just wasn't quite clear on. I feel like everything else I understand what what's being presented. >> And for the just so you

169know that the 260day employees um you know, those are our custodians um that are their central office staff members that work year round. We have transportation staff members that work year round. Um, and majority of those, at least the leads in those departments, I've had conversations with on what does this vacation time look like? Because I think there was some misconception like if we went back to the 40day, then we got to use all up to 20 so that we get that 20 rolls over, which wouldn't be the case. Um, you know, so it like I said, I don't want to quote this is what we're going to do until we have a sure plan of this is what we're going to do. And I guess my other thing to go back to the certification

170um conversation and one of the questions that I followed up with with the person who reached out to us is if we do do a situation where if you're starting your certificate or if you've already started your certificate under the old policy and you now need to finish and um because I do think that that's a financial investment. Um I did ask a question of when would everybody be finished with their current certificate certificate cert certifications um to be able like do we need to look at because you've already started it under the old policy do you continue to move forward and then anybody who's starting moving forward that looks different under the new policy so that's just something that I wanted to echo as part of this too so but that's it I'm I'm

171done for right now for for right Now, >> did did either of you want to address that that part of the question of prior certification enrollment and being grandfather or whatever that would look like? >> I I do want to say that as part of the certification program in general. Um, so this is this is just a everybody for your information on the salary schedule since the beginning of the certification program. It has always been pending the next year's budget and it's in the verbiage on there. So it has never been a guarantee since we started the certification program and and I was one of the ones that brought it brought it to the board that we can't always guarantee this. So we're going to do this on a year-to-year basis. So it could be

172that we don't have the funding for it and that at the salary schedule time we just say sorry we can't do that this year. It's been on the salary schedule from the beginning that it is always pending the next year budget and it's not a guarantee. >> Thank you for that. >> We are I will say we are looking at ways to revamp it so that we can present it to you all at the salary schedule time. So you enter into this process with the understanding that it could not be funded. >> Yeah. I mean you're funded for the current year. >> A salary schedule [clears throat] is only a guarantee for that current year. So we don't want to just like a contract. We don't want to put a board member in jeopardy of

173having to um hold up a contract that's years down the road without the ability to get out. Same way with the salary schedules. We can only guarantee you that salary schedule for this year. >> Okay. And I do I I get it when you start investing money in in your education and your future to to better your financial stability. That's hard when it gets taken away from you when you didn't realize that you know that it could be or you didn't think it was in jeopardy, so to speak. So, okay. Thank you for clarification on that. >> Um Miss Macau, I see you have your hand up. >> Yeah. Um I'd just like to take this time to thank Dr. Jones and the team for working so hard on um prepping this year's budget for

174us. Um, having the opportunity to really discuss and have access to the to the granular detail behind these numbers is something that I've not experienced since I became a board member. So, I really appreciate that because I know that that takes a lot of work. Um, and I also appreciate the staff and the families who've taken the time to reach out with their feedback. I think by being more transparent and more open about the process, people are are getting more involved and they understand more. you know, they more there. We have so much more information available to them and visible to them. So, I appreciate that. Um, people taking the time to speak up that really does matter. And there are not easy answers. Uh, no one tweak is suddenly going to reveal itself and

175all of our problems be fixed. Um, I think everyone knows that it's going to take sacrifice at every level of our district. Um, and the goal is absolutely to avoid the negative impacts on our students to to the extent we can. Um, so I just wanted to go on record saying that I appreciate all the hard work and um, thank you for all the information >> and Miss Macau, I imagine your work on the budget committee also helped to give you a lot of insight into the process. So, thank you for being a part of that as well. >> Yeah, very happy to. >> All right. Um, Miss Springgate, did you have I think you might have had a question earlier as well. >> I did. Um, so just to be clear, all of these

176um budget cost savings, budget cuts are contained in the budget document that we're voting on tonight with the exception of the interventionist which is marked out. >> Yes. So everything that's on the document is line item in our budget. There are no hidden hidden changes anywhere. >> Okay. So um when it says like um you know we'll we'll be meeting to look at the staffing formula is tonight the consultation the procedure consultation or is that a different meeting? What is that? >> No. So remember this is just the start of the process. So we you'll approve the draft budget which allows us to have the conversations and start the conversations. It is not a final vote. just because we approved this draft budget that is not locking us into the um consultations that will come

177later and Dr. Jones will have those with you all. >> Okay. So, will we have an agenda item next month for um for the all of the things that need to be done February and then in March and then again in April um to see that through because I know we have to do a vote on the salary formula, salary schedules. There are some things that we have to vote on. >> Yes, that's a good question. And so if you think about the timeline, you've got both staffing and budget timeline. So, um, you know, preliminary staffing is due to schools by March 1st, but again, that's it's it's very similar to the draft budget. It's preliminary. And so, and that's it's it's there intentionally for a reason because so many things are in flux depending

178on revenue and that sort of thing. So um yes you will though there will be um budget items central office um reorganization will be uh an item that you will see at the February meeting and you will it will publicly be discussed. Yes and thank you all the others. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um and again I don't want to you know overstate but but when we vote on things we're actually voting on these cuts. They are in the budget. All of these things with the exception of the interventionist that's marked out is in the budget. These cuts are all contained uh within the budget. >> In the draft. Yes. >> In the draft budget. Yeah. Um and I did have a question about the section six allocation. Um when you look at that, it's

179kind of hard to to understand. So, let me make sure that I'm just understanding it. So, what we're saying is we're going to reduce section six from 147 per student at at each school. and that will go down to 100. So that'll be like about a 47 around $47 loss per student to the sitebased allocations. Correct. >> Yes. >> And then >> yes >> the section seven are we doing 3250 per student for every student? >> So each school receives a flex focus which at one time when we had the flex focus requirement it was a match requirement. So it was a dollar for-doll match. Um that is no longer required. So that would be removing that dollar fordoll match for the flex focus. >> So do they receive currently like if you add those

180together are they getting around 180 per student or are they only getting the 147 per student? Right now >> they're getting both the each each site base has a what they'll call a flex focus dollar amount and then they'll have a section $6 amount um that they are using to allocate. So what we're saying is the the 3250 per student that's gone. That's zero now. And the the section 647 would go down to 100. So essentially you're saying instead of around 180 per student with these allocations, we were going to go down to 100 per student. >> Yes. >> Okay. I do think that might be something if I don't know if we can kind of clarify that. Um I think the under section six where you say it will go down to 100 per

181student. Um maybe if we could have section seven would go to zero or or just something just so that people are aware. We're going from 180 per student to to to 100. So I mean that's even a bigger cut than than I was expecting or thinking about. Um >> that was in my last presentation, but I can add it to this one. >> Well, I think that's how I knew it. So thank you for telling us in the last presentation. And then of course um on the next page, I do have some questions about this grant funding. I think the person uh um Sarah that um emailed in had some questions about that also. And I didn't get to write all of her questions down, but I I do hope that um you know, someone

182from the administration will follow up with with everybody who asked questions. I think some of them, you know, uh, you may have already answered about, you know, the, um, snow days and and that kind of thing, but do you do you go ahead and and email everybody on public comment back and let them know kind of those answers? >> I go ahead. >> Yeah. Well, I was going to say I don't know that that's ever been a requirement, but I think we could definitely look at all those questions and maybe come up with an FAQ based on some of that information that that was requested. um so that that can be shared. Um >> yeah, I think if people take the time to write a question in or come in and ask a question, I

183think the least we can do is just kind of respond. And I don't know if if that just looks like a quick email or a phone call or, you know, FAQ document, just whatever it looks like. Uh but any rate, under the um grant funding, I did have some of the same kinds of questions that she had. So what exactly it is, what does this mean? What are the positions that are being swapped in, swapped out? Where is the money coming from? What's it being spent on now? Just all those questions. >> What that means, and you know, again, I'm I'm coming in the February meeting with a list of s office organiz reorganization, which is part of the conversation, but the greater conversation here is >> what are we spend what can we spend

184out of other buckets. So idea, what's appropriate to spend out of a AA and B? What's appropriate to spend out of title? What is appro like all any grant funding that we have? Looking at ways to spend out of those before we go to the general fund. That's what any any entry like that is about, which of course is a managerial, you know, a management piece of superintendent, right? So looking at using that grant funding wisely so that we don't have to take as much out of general fund. >> Okay. And so I guess maybe some clarity will come at the next meeting what what exactly that kind of means and looks like. Um or is that just something that you won't really discuss with us since no board action is required? >> Or maybe

185like is this a case where we have cert like positions that have been hired maybe special education as an example where maybe we're using general funds but you could use IDEA instead. Yes. >> Okay, that that kind of helps. I just wasn't sure in my mind exactly what what that meant. So, um so that helps a little bit. And then there will be further discussions and information or not not so much since it's no board action required. >> The re the are you talking about the reorganization of central office? >> No, this grant funding stuff. Would you like you would like to sit down and see all of the >> No, I'm just asking I'm just asking a clarifying question just because I'm not exactly sure like you know when you vote on things you

186want to know what you're voting on and so I'm just not sure exactly what that looks like. Are we giving some things up the shifting around? What are we losing? What are we getting? Uh or are you just planning on kind of doing that because that's something that in your purview and no board action is required. So, you know, not to not to kind of expect that. I'm just trying to to figure that out what that looks like. That's all. Well, we're, you know, we're looking at it every day right now to figure that out. And so that's just like good leadership. It's truly just looking at how can we best, you know, it's just an operational thing really. Just utilizing grant funds to the maximum benefit for our students is really what we're talking

187about. If you would like to talk about any of those things, you're welcome to do that with me. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Um and then uh of course the central office reduction plan. You said that's something that we'll you'll be discussing with us probably next month. So we'll have some clarity on what you know that kind of looks like and what that means. Um >> definely definitely get it. >> Um >> and I think that the only other question I had was on the back sheet where we have like the the ones the they are not included the page three. These are not included in the draft budget. these reductions. Um, not that there's much money associated, but there's one like the utility usage. Is that $20,000 anticipated reduction included in this budget or

188no? >> Uh, they are not currently reflected. No. >> Okay. >> But they will be reflected in the tentative budget. >> Okay. And how much kind of cost savings are you sort of anticipating? And I'm not trying to nail you down to a dollar amount, but just in general, how much can we kind of expect from these um, you know, five things on on the last page? what what kind of savings are you anticipating there? >> Um I I honestly can't give you that answer, Miss Springgate, because like the 10% per budget line item, like we need to we need to see all of our district budgets at the central office to know what that number would look like. So I I don't feel comfortable giving that answer. Not because I don't trust that you'll

189um not use it appropriately or anything. I just don't have that answer and I don't want to give I don't want to misquote or misrepresent. Well, that that makes sense. I appreciate that. I'm just trying to wrap my head around exactly how much do we really need to be cutting? Where should those cuts kind of be coming from? Can we swap this out and that in like a bigger kind of picture and look at look at all the puzzle pieces. Um, and so that was why I just kind of wanted to kind of get an idea in my mind. So, thank you. I appreciate the information. >> I think that's Could I ask this question real quick, Miss Springgate? What What is What would be your goal for the contingency fund? What would you like

190to see the contingency fund get to? >> You know, I I I don't think 2% is healthy. Um, and I'm not really quite sure that that 4% um even covers, you know, a month's worth of expenses. So, I I do think that that is something that um that you have to build up year after year by being financially responsible, and that has not happened in Woodford County for the past few years. Um, and so I I do think that there's going to have to be a lot of a lot of hard conversations. Uh, but I also think that we need to have a realistic idea of what our revenue might be, what our >> [clears throat] >> um, you know, actual receipts look like, what our expenditures look like. And one of the questions I

191had kind of sent to you and I'm I'm kind of wait, you know, hoping to kind of hear back and have some more clarity um, after February those meetings. But, you know, in looking at all the documents, I I wasn't even sure if we were talking about cuts from actuals u of 25 or projections for 26. You know, I I there just, you know, some some questions that I have that I think um you know, having uh some clarity on will really really help me. But just in general, I just like to see the whole picture. I like to know like okay so if we're cutting here maybe instead of doing that cut we could could look at this or if you know this could be covered by grants then that maybe means we don't

192have to cut this like just the big picture is is uh really important to me and I want to have that that overview um you know from the thousand foot level um 30,000 foot level that sort of thing so >> okay thank you >> I I will say that Miss Springy that is why some of the original discussion points that were on the one pager that originally was sent out by the from the budget committee. Not all those things end up ended up on the draft budget proposal because we are looking at ways to swap and swap and swap to have the lowest impact on our classrooms. >> And I guess that's my follow-up question with this budget and I know that Dr. Jones and I have had conversations about this just to increase clarity

193um is that this is a draft. We're saying we're taking it down because we have to take it down. And that doesn't mean that this is the end all beall. It could be that those swaps take place later on as she continues to go out and talk to individual schools about their budget and managing and and you know those sort of things like these are these are cuts that are on the table 100%. But as we know about our seek dollars and the the boat seems to kind of ride itself this not every single one of these actions may happen. Is that correct? >> That is correct. Yes. >> These are just areas where we can cut to get to that. So we're not voting on the individual cuts today. We're not saying we're going

194to, you know, take >> You are voting on a draft budget. You are voting to begin the draft budget. That's what you're voting on. >> Yes. But I guess >> that's contained. So really you are you are voting on on those cuts KT. I mean I I know there's time to maybe change things and look at things and this is just the first budget but for me I think you know voting on this means I'm voting for all of those um cost savings cuts whatever you want to call them. I'm I'm voting for that. So >> I I guess my clarity point is that even though we are voting for that may not be the way it comes out in the wash. And so I guess that's my point that I want to to reiterate

195that, you know, when we look at these are the cuts that we're making, but we went back and we changed it in some capacity because we found money or the seek dollars were better or whatever it may be. I just don't want it to be like this, but you said this and oh, magically money appeared because I think it is >> kind of convoluted for people to understand it. It's hard until I went through training and understood it myself, you know, about our PVA, our SE dollars, where money comes from, the budget at the state, all these things that there can be changes to this later on um in some capacity once we have a better understanding. That's why it's a draft budget. Once we have understand and that could mean that we have to

196make more cuts, too, like it could flip on the other side. >> Yes, it could. Yes, it could. >> Um and so again, as I plunk every single time, call your legislators. let them know that you need them to fund seek dollars and to adequately fund public education. Um because that those are there signific significant bills about that that going through this legislative session. Things that we thought were buried are coming back up. Um, so I guess my follow-up question as we kind of go through all this and again, we think about how it's going to individually impact both our staff, our our educators and our our kids that are in our our buildings. I don't know if we could necessarily quantify that um and really elaborate on what some and we talked about, you

197know, of course some things that are off the table now, but when I think about recruitment and ret retention of our teachers, I think about the difference that 1% may make for them um to stay retained into our our our schools. I think about the difference that the ratios may make. Um, and I also understand that we have um people that are in these positions that just like Dr. Jones that we hired into that to trust her to make those um those sound decisions because she is an educator and she has this experience and that's her job, right? Um, and that there are certain things that she has privy over that we we make the policy. We don't necessarily say that this is, you know, this is what we if you look at that, you

198can see what the board responsibility of it is. And I think that we have to keep that in mind as well. But ultimately we have to be good stewards with our budget and the end is that you know we may be taken over by K KDA um KDA yes KDA KD like acronyms are hard um if we don't do this. I think that that's what we have to to keep in the forefront is what we want our school system to thrive. We do not want to be in that position and this may change as a draft budget. Um, so I just want to make sure that my understanding of that is clear before I place my vote. And it sounds like it is correct. Um, >> yes. >> All right. Uh, Mr. Wilson, did you

199have anything? >> No further questions nor comments. >> All right. Um, just for my piece, uh, you know, we've tasked Dr. Jones with balancing the budget, and this is an extremely difficult job that she's been given. Um, she's utilizing her teams. I know she's meeting with everybody every day about this and trying to find the best possible solutions. Um the recommendations are hard and I don't think she takes any pleasure in these recommendations because they are very difficult. Um we as a board are tasked to approve these draft budgets and tenative budgets. Um but again, Dr. Jones, you're the one in there every day looking at these and so I appreciate all that that you and everyone's doing with these recommendations. I know they're not easy. Um, and we need to to support, you know,

200in the best interest of the school system, the students, the staff, um, tax dollars. So, you know, this is not a a fun process, but it's something we have to do and and we have to make sure that we have the funds to take care of our school system. Um, all right. I think everybody everybody good to move to the vote. We already have the motion, right? >> All those Let me get my wording here. All those in favor of approving FY27 draft budget. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Nay. >> Motion passes four to one. >> Can I have a motion to approve comprehensive district improvement plan C DIP? >> Still move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. And just because I can't see everybody on my screen, did we

201have anything else? I know that Mr. Asher presented this earlier. Does anybody have any questions or discussion or anything else to add? >> I did have a follow-up question that I thought about after he presented and I apologize. Um, and it it just just for clarity, I just want to make sure I'm reading this right or I know we talked about our um free and reduced lunch students with some of those goals and I know there was the English learning students that we were targeting as well, but that covers both of those just to just to clarify. Correct. with the goals and objectives with the new plan. Uh well there were two separate actually. There is the uh achievement gap goal that's required. Um but it it it basically included all those that not basically

202it did include all those that have uh supplemental plans or individual plans such as IEP which is acronyms. Here we go. Um ESP for EL learners, English language learners. So yes it does. And then there's a separate goal that addresses the um English language proficiency. So while you got one that's addressing uh proficiency on reading and math specifically then uh separately uh for the e uh language proficiency but yes it encompasses both. >> Okay. Thank you. I just want I thought that that's what I understood. I just wanted to clarify. Thank you so much for that clarification. >> Sure. >> All right. All those in favor of approving comprehensive district impromp improvement plan CIP. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. >> And I have a motion to approve third reading of

203advanced coursework policy. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Allen. Second by Mr. Wilson. Anyone have discussion or questions on this policy? And it was attached in the agenda. All right. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the 2026 2027 calendar? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Mr. >> Mr. Mr. Brickler. >> Yes. >> Yeah. You got to pick one. So >> you'd be you'd be you'd be voting on >> Oh, you're right. >> One of one of two options. It's either option one or option two. >> That's right. Mr. Wells, would you mind sharing the difference and then I'll I'll redo the motion. >> The sole difference is fall break. Option one um has a

204fall break that was preferred by all three groups that we surveyed, which is essentially the first full week in October. Option two mirrors option one except fall break would be a week earlier. Okay, perfect. >> Can I ask a follow-up question? I don't know. Is this time for discussion? Am I jumping? Okay. Um, can we build in those delays and what would that take? Is this like is this going to put like a major road block into approving the calendar? Because I know people are already starting to plan fall break and I've had people reach out saying which do you all when are you going to approve the calendar? Um, so I was just curious about that. And also um and I don't know if this is far enough ahead of time, but there was

205lots of concern around the state track meet being the same weekend as graduation. And I just wanted to make sure we were not conflicting with any major um events with graduation date because we wanted to make sure all of our seniors are able to participate in graduation. >> So I'll address Yeah, go ahead. So, I'll address the um the delays. You don't really build in delays. We are required to meet two minimum things. One is an hour requirement, which is 1,62 hours a year. We have there's no issue there. We're well over the hour requirement. The other requirement is that we are required to attend school 176-hour days. So we have to be in school full days 170 days. >> When when our calendar when we when our students were in school more days when

206we were in 174 175 days we had that buffer kind of built in. So if we had to call an early release or if we needed to do a delay um we still met that requirement because we went extra days. Now, what has happened over the few years are the essentially the staff work days. Those have kind of gotten gotten into the calendar. Um, which those are valuable as well. Um, they're a great recruiting tool. I think our employees really like those. So, but that that is why the delays and the early releases are not I mean, we can do them, but we would still have to make that day up because they aren't full days. So the only way to build in time to be able to do that would be to extend the

207number of student days. And the only way to do that would be to um kind of carve into the staff work days. >> Okay. Thank you for that clarification. That makes sense. >> So I do have a question to kind of follow up with that. Is that something um Dr. Jones that you can do? I think this year has has shown a clear need. Uh and I would like for you to be able to have that flexibility. Um so I'm just just you know asking. >> Yeah. So >> yeah, I mean we we absolutely you can you can amend the board can amend the calendar um even after voting on it today. Um, we would need to go back to the calendar committee if this is something that the board would like to do in

208terms of adding additional days for students. I would like to see a survey from from parents and caregivers to see if they would want their kid like is it better to have their kids in school more because I know that adding those work days sort of twofold with supporting our staff but also like if you wanted to take a shorter vacation or extend your vacation or just have a day of rest you know when you come back if you are traveling or something of that nature. I just I feel like that's bigger than us that we need to get feedback from our caregivers and that may change from year to year. But I also understand the the stress and concern of you know if I'm calling in to work is it better for families to

209be able to take off a full work day and maybe have a remote work day or is it better to have a delay um in some cases when we can take one them and I remember when we had like this is again going back to when I was in school um where we had the Wednesday it was like a half day on Wednesdays. I feel like that was going on for somewhat. Were we able to build in the delays when we had those Wednesday half days and then when we switched to a full workday that changed? Is that what the time the does that make sense? >> From Mr. Well, you can probably answer this better, but from what I understand, we we when we built in the the staff work days after breaks, that

210really took the buffer that we had had where we could do something like that. Um because we wanted to let them also have their time off, but also be able to come back and get their classrooms ready, get their u you know, programs ready, which has been a from what I understand, what have I, what I've heard, very uh wellreceived with the staff. Like Mr. Wells mentioned, if we wanted to build in delays, we would have to maybe carve those out or take some of those back. Um >> those would have to become student days rather than >> So this is different than the half day Wednesdays that we used to do where we would do training on those days or whatever would take place on those days and students had early release on those

211Wednesdays. potentially um the calendar requirement, you know, in my, you know, 24 plus years in the district, the count, there's been two or three times where the legislature has changed what the calendar requirements are. The current rules we are under have been in place for a few years before COVID, right? So um when you were in school it was probably different rules then but the rule the rules now are62 hours and 1,0706hour days >> okay >> so I guess it's just a balancing act like do we want to go back open the committee put the calendar out late or do we want to approve the calendar and possibly amend it do we want to you know it it's just kind of a balancing act what is your recommendation or What what do you think um

212Dr. Jones would be best? I just I want you to be able to have flexibility so that um our parents and our staff and our students can have you know the best possible option. >> I think with this year you know the calendar committee already um consider you know all this we've gone through that process people are waiting for that. Um, I think I re I recommend that we go ahead and and pass it as it is and then um we use that time to, as KT said to um continue the conversation with families about building in those days for next the following year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And it may be that people don't want them. I mean, but I I think that that shows that we're we're taking in the the the

213>> Yeah. Thank you. And that can definitely be something that we have for that calendar committee next time as well as a point to include on that survey. >> Yes, >> everybody. Yeah. All right. Uh all those in favor of approving option one, which is the fall break, first full week of October uh for 2026 2027 calendar. >> I >> any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Can I have a motion to adopt WCPS strategic vision? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. I'll open it up for any questions or discussion on that. >> I think it's great. I'm happy to have something. I think that some of us that have been on the board for a little while have, you know, we've got to have a roadmap. >>

214Um we can't be reactionary. And I think having this strategic vision laid out will help us as board members are is what I'm voting on supporting this is that you know it's going to be so helpful. [clears throat] >> Yes, agreed. This was another another thing when Dr. Jones came on board you know budget and strategic vision were were the big uh goals. So thank you for putting all the work into that. Thank you for bringing um Stutter in to help with that and everybody else that participated in the process. And I just want to highlight Dr. Jones has been a rock star in these first, you know, six months, you know, like having her strategic plan in place, looking at our budget, all these she is trying to do so quickly. Um, she's really

215been able, you know, sometimes when you put something you do something quick, sometimes things kind of fall apart, but she's been able to hold it to what it needs to be and to really stay focused and um to accomplish these monumental tasks in a way that's effective. um and and just you know just again been a rock star at it. So thank you. >> It's easy when you have a great team. All of our staff and and every single you know everybody everybody's voice [clears throat] is has been heard >> um in the vision and that makes me happy. >> Right. All those in favor of adopting WCPS strategic vision I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. And let's see last thing on here discussion items. So u Miss Wilson and I just

216wanted to share um COSBA which is the consortium of state school boards association which is a national conference. You know we're familiar with KSBA in our state. Um but this one is actually having their national conference in Louisville in March of this year. Um so any board members that would like to attend to that can. Um, this is usually all across the country and I think it's the first time it's been right in our backyard for a long time. Um, so again, no requirements on this, but if anybody on the board does want to take advantage of participating in the national conference in Louisville in March, we can get you the the official dates. Um, but just wanted to let everybody know you have that option. >> What's the cost? >> Yeah, that's what I

217was want to say. What is the cost? Uh could probably >> let me look it up. >> We can share that. We can share the details. That was more this was just a discussion item to say if there's any interest, but uh what we can do is get get the cost. Um and if you want to um Jesse can set up the uh registration and stuff like that. >> Well, and I'm going to say this on the tales of the conversation that we just had. I I think I mean I'm a conference girl. I love going to conference. I love learning. That is something that I find to be very invaluable. So I don't want to say I'm anti-conference because I'm not. We have certain requirements that we have to meet for education continuing education

218as schoolboard members that we have to obtain. Like that's just something that we have to do. But if this is going above and beyond because we have multiple conference opportunities throughout the year and we already are attending one, I think that it'd be great again a great learning experience. The travel's been minimum. It's going to be in our backyard. 100% get that. But I think when we're asking all these cuts to happen, we're looking at cutting teacher positions. We're looking at or, you know, multiple ways that we're looking at cuts. I think we also have to be good stewards with that too and model what we preach. And if we want to go, I think we should pay for it out of our own pocket or, you know, if we can get our CUS or

219continuing education units, then we forgo another conference that we may have gone to to obtain those units and swap out that cost in some capacity. Um, again, I think that learning is invaluable, but I just don't think it's fair for us to sit here and say, "Well, we're going to go to a conference, you know." Um, no, we have to go. There's certain ones we I want to be clear that there are certain ones have to go to, like there's one in February, so we can get those continuing education units, and that's something that is part of being on the board. But if we're going above and beyond, I think that we have to pay for it out of our own pockets. >> And KT, I I love I love a conference. I love learning.

220Like, literally lifelong learner here. Um, and I did want to just say that there are a series of virtual um, CASPA trainings online. There's one coming up at the end of this month and they're free. So, sometimes the topics are really, really relevant, but it's just free. So, I love a free training, too. >> Me, too. Definitely take advantage of those. >> Yep. Yeah. Again, just wanted to share since it was here and and like I said, usually it's across the country, so no expectations, no requirements. So, if if you don't want to go, don't have to go. Um, all right. I think it's on here. Executive session. Did we have We didn't have that. We didn't have a need. So, >> we don't need to do that. Um, so our next one is, can

221I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second. Second by Miss Macauen. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. Have a good night everybody. Thank you. Stay warm. Stay safe.