Regular Board Meeting- November 17, 2025

001All right, it is 6:00 p.m. on November 17th. We are here at the Woodford County Central office. I'm going to call to order our regular schoolboard meeting. Roll call. We have all board members here in person. And I'm going to ask our Huntertown students to stand up and lead us in our pledge of allegiance. It's right here behind my right >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. You did a great job. All right. Um, I do have one proposed amendment to the agenda. We're going to move uh the regular agenda item a approve audit report audit presentation up to uh after our Huntertown Elementary School presentation just so

002we can get our auditor out of here a little earlier. Are there any other proposed amendments? All right. So, we will move into our recognitions. Miss Bailey. >> Good evening everyone. We have four recognitions tonight. So, if you are here to be recognized, um either I or someone else will read a brief uh summary of what you've done and what you're being recognized for. And when you hear your name at the end or when I finish that or the person finishes that and we start clapping, um you can come up and shake Mr. Brickller's hand. Um and then we'll get a group picture with the board. Okay. So board members, if you would like to assume your position. Okay. Our first recognition tonight, let me give this to you, Mr. Brickler. is for our 2025

003Superintendent Holiday Card contest winner. This is something we do every year. It's a beloved tradition. Um students of all ages can submit artwork and then the central office has the very difficult task of voting on which one is going to be our holiday card. So this year I would like to congratulate and he can come on up second grader at Southside Elementary, Benson Adams. [applause] Awesome. [applause] Perfect. And then Mr. Brookler and Benson, you'll head to the middle. And here was Benson's artwork. So, it says, "Happy Holidays from the Hive." And it's a cute little snow globe with little yellow jackets everywhere. Love it. Okay, next I'll introduce um Mr. Laroo, social studies teacher at Woodford County High School and golf coach. He will be doing the next recognition. >> Well, again, I am Douglas

004Laru, a first year girls golf coach. But when I started this year, I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Uh even my our greatest golfer showed up late to the season because she had a forensics camp where she solved the murder. And GSA when this young lady showed up and my first year coaching golf, you don't realize how much grit is required for these young ladies to push carts up and down mountains and hills. Even by the time it got to the state tournament, our first round rained out with the first couple holes soaked in the rain. But she persevered. this talented young lady, not just a phenomenal student athlete, great example of what it means to be the gold standard of Woodford County. Miss Abigail Kaine, please come up and

005receive your award. [applause] And we can pause for Bill back there. [laughter] Okay, our next recognition, Miss Addison Moore. Addie is wonderful. She is a wonderful student. She is a wonderful friend and she is a wonderful athlete. She has many accolades and many impressive feats in running as you'll hear in just a minute. But the thing we are most proud of is who she is as a person. She's very humble and kind and loves her friends and her classmates so well. So, but let me get into those accolades real fast. So, Addison Moore is the KHSAA class 3 state champion in cross country for the third consecutive year. She broke the state cross country record. Oh, she set the she set the cross country record that she had previously broken and it was set eight

006years ago um by Collins High School. Addie is currently being considered as a candidate for Gatorade's cross country Kentucky Female Athlete of the Year, an honor that an honor that she has already won in the previous two seasons. Lastly, Addie will race at the Nike Cross Country Regional Championships on November 22nd in Kerry, North Carolina. And depending on how she does in this race, she will qualify for the Nike Cross Country National Championships in Oregon in December. Congratulations, Addie Moore. All right, our final recognition tonight is our chief academic officer, Mr. Ryan Asher. Mr. Asher is being recognized today for his exceptional dedication and commitment to education in Kentucky. It is with great pleasure that we acknowledge Ryan's efforts in strengthening strengthening the quality of education for our students. An endeavor that has earned him

007the prestigious values-driven award award of excellence from Cognia earlier this fall. This award is a testament to the fact that Ryan doesn't just meet standards. He embodies the values that drive true educational improvement. His work has made a tangible positive difference in compet based competency based education in Woodford County. He is leading the work in bringing the portrait of a learner from the abstract to concrete and being asked to share that work on a national and state level by speaking at conferences and hosting state workshops to explain our work and journey. Please join me in congratulating Mr. Ryan Asher on receiving the Cogna Valuesdriven Award of Excellence. Thank you, Ryan, for leading with such distinction and commitment. All right. And next we have our superintendent remarks. Dr. Jones. >> Well, good evening everyone. >> Sure

008that my presentation comes up. First off, I just want to thank our board for their patience um in the transition to um our um we're we're transitioning a couple different key positions and they have been super patient with me and super supportive and just understanding we needed to add things at the last minute or just um asking questions and really supporting me and our district and I just want to thank them for that. There we go. [cough and clears throat] A couple things I wanted to highlight u for this month. Again, um our our theme is and our statement is all voices are united in building the next generation of excellence in Woodford County. Of course, you can see that um I was able to see Addie um more beat her own record that she

009set. And let me tell you all something, she was far out front. I mean, it was like there was no one between her and the rest of the pack. and it was so incredible to watch and she's so humble. Um, also we had our first u attendance award winner employee, Mr. John Kelly. Um, he won $250. Um, he's a wonderful bus driver we have and uh, every month our employees now get entered if they have perfect attendance for that month, they get entered into a drawing sponsored by American Fidelity um, for $250. And we were excited for him to be that winner. And then I also wanted to feature um Safe Harbor. Um I was over there for one of their challenges and this particular challenge, you can see the mold that they created, but

010they were um in small groups. They had a challenge to create the monsters that we have to overcome and we have to to um tackle the adversity we have to tackle in life. and they did such a great job coming together and really um naming those things that they've been able to um overcome and that we all have to overcome. So, I just wanted to feature that. Um also wanted to mention a couple key resources for families. Um be on the lookout. We are about to start a book club. Our mental health um uh leaders in the district and schools are going to be starting a book club for our parents or our caregivers um called The Anxious Generation. Um it's a followup to what we've been talking about um with bullying, cyber bullying, and

011just awareness around um really what key things we can do as parents and caregivers um to help our our own children and their mental health and well-being. And then the other thing, we are really uh engaged in our uh food drive this month and I'm sure you've seen lots of advertisement around that, but I just wanted to remind everyone that we really are trying as a district and a community to really support our food banks. And uh we also have one here at central office now that we've started um for immediate needs when families can't always get into um other facilities, other um services. And so thank you all. We've had a really huge outpouring of support around our food drive and around those resources. So thank you. Few shoutouts. I wanted to thank each

012of our schools for their Veterans Day programs that um so uh celebrate so well our veterans um and what they mean to us as a community. And we had some incredible um some really great programs and many of them studentled. And so I just really want to thank the teachers and the students and the leaders who really did such a great job with Veterans Day. Uh also a shout out to our softball team. Um, I was at uh a family event for our migrant families last night and our softball team was there serving our families and um really making sure that um we had resources and that we made all of our families feel welcome and they did such a great job. And last, I just want to give a shout out to Judge K.

013Don't know if you've seen this, but a lot of we've already seen just this month alone so many partnerships that he has um established with our teachers across the district for projectbased learning opportunities um the middle school and I believe we also had North Side um in the fiscal court this week. And I'm just going to tell you that's that's exceptional. Like I'm I'm extremely thankful for our judge executive and the partnership that we have with him. Again, just wanted to mention a few of the the themes from uh rounding our strategic visioning uh focus groups. We are seeing a a improvement in um student voice. Students feeling like they have um input into um things that occur in the classroom and and how we learn and given opportunities to have choice. Um, also our

014students and our families really express thankfulness and appreciation for our um, school resource officers as well as our mental health supports um, that underpin our safety. And then um, three systems we're still working on. As you know, we're working on our um, onboarding human resources um, and uh, payroll that whole system to make that more effective. And then we're also of course still working on um getting some some strong systems in place with our budget. Also want to mention once again we do have a budget transparency tab on the website. Um I really recommend that you go look at all of those resources there. Anything that the budget committee looks at, they are post those things are posted there as well for anyone on our community to look at as well. This week, our committee

015is our budget committee is meeting. We're looking at trends and considerations for the upcoming budget. And then last um truly looking at new superintendent training in November. Um I was in Harden County and the training was uh November 12th. We looked at their um career and technology center and they also talked a lot about those key communication strategies um that we as superintendent really need to to use in order to engage all of our stakeholders. So just wanted to share a little bit about that and I think that's all I have. >> All right. Thank you and we'll move on to our good news report and Mr. Springgate I'll start with you. Oh, thank you. Um, very proud to be a Wfred County School Board member with all the awards and accolades tonight. Very impressive.

016And I know that we will have a wonderful presentation coming up. Um, I did want to ask about the uh test data that's going to be released soon. Um hoping that uh we have good news there and we can get some um sort of a email from the superintendent about um those results um as soon as possible. Thank you >> Dr. Gul. >> Hello everyone. I'm excited to see Huntertown here. Huntertown's one of our home schools. So I'm really excited to see all the students and it's exciting. Um so there's a couple things that I wanted to give a shout out. One is to the middle school and the high school cheerleaders on their nationals bid at Disney. How great of a performance they put on um this past week and um that is really

017exciting that both our middle school and our high school are going to actually get to go and represent us this year. So big things happening of course with our cheerleading program as always. Um there is something that's going on at the middle school that I wanted to highlight in case anybody's interested in contributing. Um, but I also think that it's really important for us to highlight the innovative ways that some of our teachers are really going above and beyond and creating new opportunities for all of our students. Of course, that happens um on the daily basis across our district. But, um, Miss Drake at the high school, she shared on her Facebook page, and I talked to her a little bit about this. Um, she or the high school, I'm at the middle school. Um,

018she just said, "Our middle school students are launching a weekly printed newsletter that will be shared with all students and staff every Monday. It will include upcoming school events and sports highlights, a teacher spotlight interview, a community member feature, and a special section with jokes, riddles, or puzzles. And it's going to be a studentled club, and they'll write and design and distribute every issue, but she needs some assistance with that. She's looking for donations for just sheets of paper, like a ream of paper. Um, so she's hoping that businesses across our community might um, contribute or potentially other members of our Woodford County community, parents, caregivers, and those of us who can. So, um, I just think that that's a really nice way to grab a bunch of different individuals who may be interested in

019publishing and journalism and, um, support that interest that they may have and that creativity. Um, also want to highlight um, a story I heard coming out of Safe Harbor where some teachers were thinking of innovative behavioral ways to encourage their students to participate in their weekly assignments and have great behavior and that sort of thing and just pulling money from their own pockets um, to really be able to support those efforts. So, I just wanted to applaud them and highlight the the good work that every our schools are doing in multiple ways. Thank you, Mr. Wilson. >> Mr. Chairman, I may have needed to ask you for your permission to do my good news, but my good news tonight is you. >> Um, he started he was elected chairman unanimously in January of uh 2025.

020And immediately he was faced with the situation of a superintendent retiring and he had to work with the superintendent regarding any and all transitional needs that might come up. and that we and we should know about. He also uh had to begin the process which is a difficult process. It is laid out by statute. He had to begin the process for the hiring of a new superintendent which led to the employment of Dr. Jones. He has worked closely with her to ensure she has everything she needs to be successful. And that is I'm not I don't want to say it's difficult, but it's it's a process. Um, you know, I can attest that being um the chairman of a board of education is very difficult from time to time and Adam uh has handled it

021each and every meeting with professionalism and fairness to all the members. Uh and we heard about the presentation earlier the word gold standard was used a lot. I think Adam has showed the gold has shown the gold standard in being chairman. I just want to thank you. Thank you [snorts] very much. That's very much appreciated and unexpected. Thank you very much, Mr. Wilson. >> Miss Macau, >> that's hard to follow up. Um, but I just want to say um with Thanksgiving approaching, I hope all of our students and our families and our staff have a wonderful Thanksgiving, have a great few days off and get to [snorts] spend time together um and have a good meal and um just kind of relax and and think about things that we can be thankful for here in

022Woodford County. So, I hope everybody has a great holiday. >> Smack and tea. >> Okay, I'm last this time. I usually go first. This is different. Um, but with, you know, now we're going into winter season with sports. I just kind of wanted to highlight all of the sports teams because we have so many amazing athletes and coaches that get our athletes to that, you know, amazing path that they follow. I mean, the football team is still live and kicking, which that's amazing. They're playing the quarterfinals on Friday, which is we haven't been that we haven't been there in a while. So, that's really exciting, especially as a senior. Like, this is this is really cool for me. But, I just kind of wanted to shout out all of them because all of our athletes

023went so far this year and I think it's I think it's amazing. Um, like I said, the boys football team is playing in the quarterfinals on Friday. Uh, the cross country team, like we said, Addy Moore won state for the girls. Um, both boys and girls soccer teams went to the region semifinals and the volleyball team went to the district finals. So, I think it's really cool to highlight, you know, all of our amazing athletes and I think sometimes [snorts] the coaches don't get enough recognition either because they get them there. So, I just wanted to say thank you to all of our Woodford County athletes and coaches. >> Thank you very much. [snorts] Um, for my part, you know, really just all of the activities that the the teachers and the staff put on

024for the students during the holidays. I know my daughters come home excited every time there's something special going on, a themed party or or a holiday activity. And so I just want to give a big shout out and a thank you to all of the staff members that that make school fun for our students as well. Um the food drives that have been going on. You know, I I took one [snorts] of my daughters to Kroger and we were just grocery shopping and I saw a bunch of high school students at the entrances with printed out grocery lists for things that they were looking for. And so what Dr. Dr. Gold mentioned earlier, just being creative with these types of uh charitable actions is really important and helpful. And I mean, it was very nice

025to just have a list and and pick things off of it. Um, and that goes to really good cause. So, I just want to thank everybody for for their creativity and and work. All right. Now, very excited to bring [snorts] up our Huntertown Elementary School presentation. Mr. Wilson, you want to lead that effort? I'm pretty sure he has some really good assistants that are going to come up and join him. >> All right. Good afternoon. >> Nope. [snorts] All right. Good afternoon. My name is Ryan Wilson. I'm the principal at Huntertown and I also have Amanda [snorts] Nent who is our administrative dean of students. Um and we're here to present to you all tonight. Um, originally I had about probably 15 to 20 slides that I had uh ready to go and I was

026joking around with Mr. Brickler. I got there this morning and I I just started deleting one after another um because you can look behind me, you see a lot of amazing young faces. Um, one of the many reasons that makes Huntertown an amazing place is because of these students. And then behind them, you'll see a lot of our supportive parents, which again makes uh one of the things that makes Huntertown such an amazing place. And then in addition to that, you'll see a couple of our teachers here to support our students and had really kind of when this opportunity presented itself, it wasn't real difficult. I asked Miss Nent said, "Hey, do you mind to talk to a couple of our teachers?" She said, "Yeah, no problem. I got it." And they immediately jumped on

027board. So, um, made my job super easy. So, what you're going to get from myself and Miss Nent tonight is just kind of a quick synopsis of of what our focus is at Huntertown this year. Um, kind of what we're trying to achieve and accomplish. And then I'm going to [snorts] turn it over to the stars of the show. So, >> got to move this down. >> And so, I just found out uh that I was going to even talk. So, thanks to Mr. Wilson for including me. Um, but I was just going to show you kind of our quote that we have really taken on this year. This comes from Ron Clark Academy, which we have had several staff members go to this year. Um, and that is, if you're going to be here,

028be here. And to us, that quote really means if you're going to be in our building working there, then that means not only being physically present every day in our building, but it means being emotionally, mentally committed to the work that we're doing at Huntertown. And we have three pictures there that kind of represent our goals. The first one is a picture of the Northstar. Um Huntertown is in a wonderful place. Like we're doing good things, but we can always get better. And so there's always room for growth. So, you know, eventually we want to just keep on improving and eventually want to be a school that people look to to come to to see all the great things we're doing. The middle picture represents a green light culture for us. So, that is uh

029something that we're really trying to do, letting teachers, you know, if you have a grand idea that is outside the box. Um we're pretty much saying go for it, try it, do it. um because most of the time it's things that kids are going to love and that's what we're there for is for the kids to love coming to school and getting to try new things. And then last but not least is a pack or a group of wild cats because we're going to have fun doing it and we're going to work together as a group. And Mr. Wilson wanted me to share I found a cool fact about wild cats since we're the wild cats. Does anybody know what a group of wild cats is called? It is a destruction of wild cats. So,

030we're going to be a destruction of wild cats coming through doing big things. So, that's what we have going on. Uh so in order to make this happen um we kind of focused on six things uh throughout the school year but uh our main focus was on the three with the check marks and again a lot of this encompassing our green light culture um and and that northern star and then just having fun doing what we're doing. Um, so over the summer we had a group of about I think it was six teachers attend a PBL training and so we're kind of trying to get that up off the ground and you're going to hear a little bit about that today. Um, just kind of baby steps, not trying to overwhelm our our teachers, but

031just really trying to get our project based learning up and off the ground. Um, so we we focus on that. Recently we had a teacher PD where we did some planning um, trying to get some ideas circulating throughout our building. um continue to emphasize our exhibitions of learning and our student le conferences and then also tying everything that we do trying to make sure we tie that back to our portrait of learner including what we do with our PBI structures and our behaviors. We also try to tie that back into our portrait of learner. Um our three main focuses this year come with deeper learning just making sure our students have opportunities to high cognitive engagement and again you're going to see a little bit of that tonight. Um we've really put an emphasis with

032the instructional design cycle with Mr. Hunley trying to make sure that our lessons are fully developed and appropriate for our students. Um then again lastly, we we've been putting a heavy emphasis on our PBIS and Ron Clark structures. Um you know, again, we we we spent a lot of time this summer with our staff to really make sure that we had a consistent and cohesive uh structure in place so that it was um equitable for all students throughout our building. And so um you know, in addition, we we've uh put an emphasis on our soft skills. you know, we we put an emphasis on on being respectful and responsible and safe. Um, but this year, one of the things that we're doing is we're trying to be more intentional about teaching our kids how to

033be polite and respectful young men and women. And we do things like teach them how to shake hands, teach them how to greet people in the mornings and and being outside in mornings, I've noticed a lot of improvement with our young men and women. Um, you know, I've got a couple gentlemen up here that every morning they get out of that car, first thing they do is they walk up and they tell me good morning, they shake my hand. and it's one of the greatest things, one of the greatest ways to start the morning. So, um, just proud of the work that we're doing. Uh, like Miss Nan said, I really feel like we're in a very, very good place to really kind of take off and do some big things. And tonight, you're going

034to see a little bit of of some of those big things that are happening at Huntertown. So, I am going to first of all hit the right button and I'm going to first turn it over to Miss Stanley who's going to go over our or introduce our third graders. you bringing up your destruction of wild cats. >> Okay, I am not going to do any talking. They're going to do Are you all in the right order? >> Yep. [snorts] >> Good evening. We are third graders from Miss Stacland's class. My name is An Cabain. This presentation will show our projects based on learning. Hi. Hi. My name is Mia Holmes. This year, we will have pen pals from a third grade class in Pennsylvania. We will write letters to each other all year long to

035share about our lives, our school, and the things we are learning. At the beginning of the project, we learned how to write friendly letters and we read books that are that were lit that were written as letters. In social studies, we learned about the United States Postal Service and how male travels from one place to another. This project will help us become better writers, make new friends, and learn about another community that is different from ours. Hello, my name is Kase Royalty. We explored the question, how do people use words to express themselves? By reading books that were written as letters, these stories showed how people shared their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Through writing, we saw how letters could help us connect with others and tell our own stories in special ways. Hi. Hi. My

036name is Ellie Butler, Wolfford County Public Library. They donated mentor books to help us learn how to write great letters and even gave us stamps so we can mail our letters to our pen pals in Pennsylvania. Hi, my name is Nora Black. A local mail carrier came to talk to our grade about what the post office does for our community. We learned how mail is sort delivered and how important it is for helping people stay connected. It was so cool to hear about what happened before our letters reached to our pen pals in Pennsylvania. Hi, I I'm Nvea Bellamy. Our pen pals are a third grade class at Park School right outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We will write letters to them all year long to share about our lives and what we are learning at

037the end of the year. We will get to have a Google Meet so we can finally see and talk to our pen pals in person. I really liked the letters that we are doing because it is very fun. The [snorts] class has been starting to write our second pen pal like letter. You might be wondering if we could ever meet. Well, we won't be able to travel and meet them in person because they live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and we live in Versailles, Kentucky, but we are planning to meet them on a Google Meet later this year. I think this has been very interesting because I got to learn about my pen pal. Once we are done, it will be very exciting and fun to wait until they send their letters. In the beginning, I was

038so excited about our pen pals. And when I found out who my pen paw was, it was so much fun. The letters and being Oh, yeah. The letters. The reason why I think it is fun is because I like writing letters and being able to talk just by writing letters is so cool. I get to ask them questions about things. Example, I could ask them if they play a sport. I definitely think the next class should do this. Thank you for listening to me. >> My amazing learning journey at Huntertown Elementary. My learning journey has been amazing because my teacher is doing a bunch of stuff with us together and we are learning a lot of new things in class. We've been doing a lot of social studies lately and it's been really fun. Let

039me tell you why. Lately, we've been starting to write our second pen pal letter. You're probably wondering what is a pen pal? A pen pal is someone you write to and you write back a response. We are starting to write down some ideas for our paper and are turning them into sentences. We are sending out letters to them in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and they've been told that the end of the year we get to do a m meeting with them on our computer. I'm super excited about my next letter that I'm writing and I can't help but wonder what they will write in response next. It is really fun. We also talked to a mailman who taught us how the post office works. We learned how mail delivered and then we got to take home coloring

040papers and color them. We also got to learn how our letters went through the process to get to Pennsylvania. Since then, I've been inspired to write more letters. So, my mom got me these cards and I got to send them to a whole lot of different places. That just inspired me to send even more letters. I just wonder when will it arrive. I was super excited that I got to help at the board meeting and a little nervous. So, I'm excited that I got to do this and continue to grow as a student and a person. These are just a a few examples of why my learning journey 100 elementary has been amazing and all the great things my teacher is teaching me. Here are some things I'm doing in school. One thing I'm doing

041in school is I'm about to write my second pen pal letter. Another thing I'm learning in it I'm learning is about the US Postal Service. When Mr. Charlie came, I felt like it would inspire me to be a mailman. And he was really kind and he was a little nervous. I could tell. But when he started, he was like, "This is not that bad." So that told me it's okay to be scared. When we started our pen pal letters, Miss Boogie at the library donates stamps and parents donated stationery. And that makes you feel good and makes you know that there are good people in this world. One way I felt about my pen pal letters was that I was scared of what my pen pals were going to say. But what they said made

042me feel better. I want to say thank you for letting me be a part of this. It's a big deal. >> Thank you. >> Very nice. Thank you so much. [applause] I had him. Dr. Jones, why don't you get up there with >> We got Yeah. Can Yeah. Excellent job, third grade. And now we will turn it over to Miss Goolan, one of our fifth grade teachers, and her students. Hi, my name is Harrison Huber and this is Huntertown Elementary fifth grade ELA presentation. From me to we, a collection of community stories as told through the eyes of a fifth grader. Our journey as Kucky's authors. This year, our learning began with a real challenge. Could we capture the real stories of ourselves and turn them into a book that matters? Through our PBL project,

043we became Kucky's authors. Our book, From Me to We will be displayed at the Frasier History Museum, Tiny Bird Books, and the Wolfer County Public Library. Every story started with an interview, a conversation, and a piece of history worth of preserving. The launch. On Wednesday, October 8th, we launched our PBL storytelling with a visit from Becca Lo, the owner of Tiny Bird Books here in Verscels. She showed us how writing and storytelling connect to the real world by sharing how authors find, shape, and publish meaningful stories. Her visit help her visit helped us understand how our interviews writing matter outside the classroom and guided us as we explored our driving question. What makes a story powerful enough to capture a reader's attention and keep history alive? Hi, I'm Sun Foster. Guided by historian expert learning

044that matters. Partnering with the Fraser History Museum's 120 Cole Kentucky counties project, we interviewed friends and family to uncover authentic forale stories. Historians Megan Chain and Mick Sullivan from the Fraser History Museum guided us on the understanding how real Kentucky stories are preserved, shared, and published. Kentucky published authors in the making. Throughout this project, we learned how to research, communicate, and write like real authors. We created our own collection of stories, and the top five will even be published in the Fraser Weekly magazine, which 35,000 people read. >> Hi, my name is Katie Divine. The writing process. Once we gathered stories from our interviews, our next challenge, and it was a big challenge, was to make sense of everything and turn it into powerful writing. We asked permission, listened carefully, and treated every story with

045respect. By synthesizing what we learned, we drafted, revised, and published our writing. This project empowered us to take ownership of our learning while celebrating and amplifying the voices of people in our community. Hi, my name is Cooper Chisum and I'm reading an excerpt from my dad's journey to team USA. It all started like any normal day until my dad got news that would change everything. He had been invited to be part of the very first Little League USA baseball program, not just anywhere, but in Taiwan. Dad was very excited, but he was also nervous. He had never traveled across the world before. [clears throat] Traveling that far for baseball sounded unbelievable. And the team had one big goal, to win. What happened next became a story worth telling. I'm Sam Crawford and this is an

046excerpt from my story. Who needs a kindergarten? In 1967, my grandmother, Jean Crawford, became part of something new and important. St. Leo School was starting its very first kindergarten, and in it needed people ready to build it from the ground up. Little did anyone know, this new start would become something meaningful for many years to come. I believe that my grandmother's story is important to hear because it shows that kindness and determination are very important to have. She reminds us that ordinary people can create extraordinary change when they choose to help others. Her legacy at St. Leo continues to inspire families, students, and teachers, providing that proving that even small acts of love can shape a whole community for generations. The Woodford County Public Library. The Woodford County Public Library is supporting our work by

047purchasing a copy of our book from Meto, adding it to their catalog, and placing it into a circulation alongside other local authors. They will also display our book in their special events case so our community can see and celebrate our work. [snorts] Hi, my name is Emma Young. The power of community partners better together. Our community partners played a huge role in our project. They showed us that learning does not just happen in the classroom. It happens when people share their stories, their knowledge, and their time. The Frasier History Museum, Tiny Bird Books, and Woodford County Public Library all supported our work in meaningful ways. These partnerships helped us feel like real authors and reminded us how powerful it is when a community believes in its students. Coming soon. We are excited to share that

048our book from me to we will tent tentively be ready to purchase by the holidays. We hope you enjoy reading our stories as me and as we enjoyed writing them. Happy holidays. from Miss Gooseland's fifth grade ELA students. [applause] >> Do you want to do a picture, too? Is it all right? We do a picture real quick. >> Sorry. >> [snorts] [applause] >> Thank you, fifth graders. Amazing job. >> I have to say I love Miss Goolland and all of our Huntertown teachers, but this project has been amazing. like, oh, I was tearing up just listening to it. >> Always innovative. Thank you for all that you do. >> Thanks so much. >> Best part. >> All right, so next we are going to go into Oh, can I have a motion to approve our

049audit report, audit presentation? >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. and we'll open up for the presentation by Mr. Sparks. >> Good afternoon. >> Just push the button. >> There we go. Thank you all for allowing me to come and uh present um what this is. This is a draft of the audit. As you know, our country has gone through a shutdown and the uh compliance supplement that we have to use to test the federal programs was not available. So what we did as a firm, we did the used the 2024 uh compliance supplement and checked the procedures and then we obtained a draft of the 25 but it's not been formally published and checked the procedures and we are in good shape. So when it does get officially

050sent out of Washington whenever that is and they get back to work then we'll check and see if we have to do any more federal procedures. It's not going to change any numbers. It would only be a part of the back report of this audit as it relates to compliances. So, I just want to um get that point across because this is different than prior years. Um one, I want to thank the board for allowing our firm to do uh the audit this year. Um Shane and Katie were very helpful in providing this information and we appreciate their assistance. Neither one of them are here tonight and then Shane has resigned I understand but um they were very helpful and the staff was very helpful in providing us information. Um the audit I'm not going

051to go through all the 90 some pages of audit but I do want to hit the highlights of the audit and if there's any question that you all may have please stop me and I'll address it at this point. So what's important as the auditor is the first letter in your report and the second paragraph says in our opinion. This is where we as a firm express opinion on the financial statements. We issued an unmodified opinion which is a clean report means in our testing we did not find any evidences of fraud or anything like that. If we did we'd have to add a paragraph and do extra procedures. The second paragraph the third paragraph is emphasis of matter. This year, the governmental accounting standards implemented a new standard that had to be applied to

052your well, all governmental entities relating to an estimate of what potentially could be taken as um leave or um you know, as you say, you got you can build up so many days and crew vacation or crew sick time and now you have to estimate it at a a different way and so we had to implement it and because we have to implement it you'll see a footnote in the audit called change of accounting principle the first thing I want to draw to your attention is um on page is the MDNA which is management discussion analysis if you'll turn to page six this is a nice uh snap snapshot it's got 24 and 25 and the change of course as you can see there was a big decrease in cash um between the two years

053and then you also had well you also had an increase in current non-current assets and that is the building of the new school. So what you did, you took bond money and you put it into a new school. That was a transfer of cash. And then uh the anything you see deferred outflows, deferred inflows, this relates to your pension and oped uh requirement that the state's actuary does each year. They come out and they said, "Wolfer County has this, this, it's a potential liability or an asset that the district would have." Now, if every district, every district had to pay it, they'd all be bankrupt. Okay? Because it's all underfunded than the pension is. And uh I'll address that in a few minutes. But overall, you see the liabilities did go down. you had a

054current year the payment of uh some construction payables and also uh repayment of some debt that was so that's why the liabilities went down. And then one of the things that you really have to look at it says total net position you see it's a negative 378,000. That's not a good sign. If it's increasing that's a good sign. If it's decreasing that's a bad sign. So, it means you need to watch out and I think you already know there's some cash flow issues and everything going on. So, you need to build that back up and u uh so that doesn't get any worse. Uh the next thing I want to draw to your attention is on page seven. This is also a good snapshot of 24 and 25 comparative of like your revenues and your

055expenses. And you can see up at the top, one of the things that's a big change uh this year is you look under federal revenue. As you all know, the ESR funds are gone. They're not coming back. And that's why the federal revenues went down. It's it's not coming back. And then um if you look down in expenses, uh one of the big things you see is expenses did go up about $3 million and a lot of that was in uh instruction and benefits. So salary and benefits. I think there was a raise given last year and I think that's some of the consequences of that. If you look at your u position, your uh business type funds, uh that's mainly your food service. Um your local revenues did go up quite a bit, $600,000.

056That's a good sign. And then uh the other positive item on your food service was that your expenses were held down and that's good. So the food service is in pretty good shape. Uh if you look on page eight uh down toward the bottom of the page, this is uh another snapshot of the revenues and expenses under a different uh method of accounting. Um I won't get in too technical with that, but the 25 is here and if you turn on the next page is the 24. And so you got a comparative between the two years. Um so there's not much going on there. Um the next thing I want to draw to your attention um is um if you turn to page uh [groaning] page 15 page 15 is uh a statement that has

057your general fund, your special revenue, your construction fund and other major governmental funds. The other governmental funds will change each and every year depending upon how much money they have, how much revenue they have, which would elevate them to be a major program. And then they would be presented in a column by themselves. But this year, if you can look at one of the major things to watch out for, look at the very uh the third line uh from the bottom says net change in fund balance. The general fund had a negative 2.8 million. Special revenue was 35,000. construction was 17 million negative. Of course, that's natural because you're buy you're spending the money to buy the new school or build the new school. And then the other non- major governmental was 98,000. And on

058the back of the audit uh on page 7576 is the detail of what these non- major programs are if you wanted to see what they are. Um let's see. After that, uh the next part of your audit is the notes which are pretty standard. Each year we do have to u anytime there's a new accounting implementation, we have to disclose that and that's one of the big parts of the of uh your notes this year. But other than that, just want to uh point out on page 35, if you'll look, this is your capital assets. and your capital assets. At the top of the page, if you look under construction in progress, you'll see addition of 17.8 million. And of course, that's the new school. That's the biggest highlight there. And then if you turn

059over on page 38, I just want to point out that if you look at the middle of the page, it says bonds, you had an ending balance of $78 million. And of course, most of that is from the new school. The other thing I want to point out to you, if you look under the new accounting standard, this compensated absences, that's what it's called now. Not acred payroll or anything like that. It's called compensated absences. You'll see the addition. You see that 1.4 million. That's the impact that new standard is on all the districts we audited. It was huge because now you have a a long a larger estimation of how much leave will be paid out at some point in time. Doesn't mean it's going to be next year, but when you look at

060all your employees and you take an estimate of how much they've accumulated and when they take it, so now it's got to be shown. Um, if you go to page and and and I don't get too much into this, but these retirement, you know, you have um pension retirement and you also have OPED, which is other pension employee benefits. The state actuary does all this. We just take their numbers of the big thick report that they have and just put it in your audit. And but just for a disclosure, if you look on page 53, uh the district's liability for their CS pension was 15,300,000. And then if you go to um page 53, your OP liability was 6.4 million. As you can see, if all districts had to pay this amount of money as

061of June 30, you know, it's not going to happen. So, uh, the state is doing try to take measures to get the pension funded, you know, in a similar matter and and it has done better than it has in the past. Um I do want to point out u to uh board members and maybe new board members on page [snorts] 63 note number 14 on behalf payments. What this means is the state pays funds for Woodford County at that level. They don't flow through Woodford County. So you're not you'll never see those resources coming in here or those expenses coming in here, but the impact of it has to be reflected in your audit. So you can see this year uh $12 million, well really $24 million was paid at the state level for Woodford

062County. Um on page 64, this note number 17, change in accounting principle. This is what I'm the impact of that new accounting standard is Gazsby 101 had on your financials and we have to we had to restate the prior year and then put in the current year. So that's why it was such a big deal. Um, and then if you're going into the audit, you have in the back you've got some RSI, which is a required supplemental information required by the pension and the OPED actuary has to be presented. And then on page uh 7576 are the non- major programs. basically your your district activity fund and your student activity fund make up a big portion of that. Uh the next part back in the back is the um [snorts] the schools. On page 77,

063you have where each of those uh each of your schools stand. Uh at the end of the year, uh your high school and your middle school are in pretty good shape. uh the elementary schools, there's not that much activity really happens at that level. Most of it is at your high school and your middle school. And then on page 78 and 79, we're required to test what's called the red book standards. And it's called red book. At one point in time, it used to be a red book, but now it's not. And um what we have to do is check that the uh student activity funds are in compliance with those procedures. And one of the big things we have to do for high schools is make sure there's no deficit balances in a fund.

064That means you know a sponsor cannot overspend their uh fund and there wasn't any. That's the good news. your level of your federal funds are on page 80 and 81. If you um on the back on page 81 um let's see where is that? Oh yeah, you can see um it's called education uh stabilization fund 101,000. That is the esser monies that are gone. So, you had until September the 30th of 19 of 2024 to get all that money either obligated or spent and you all did. Um, we didn't have any federal findings, which is good that we know so far. We haven't got the final compliance supplement, but we did have a state level finding and it's on page 89. Uh we found that the district did not publish the annual financial statement or

065budget in the local newspaper. There again in this day and age, you know, uh whether something is online or in paper is still per KDE has to be in paper. So uh I talked to u Dr. Raburn and told him you know our thoughts on for compliances what could be in compliance in that and I think he has a good understanding. Um the other item that we had is on page 92 [clears throat] we have what's called management comments. A management comment is not a finding but it's something that could elevate to a finding if not addressed. So at the board level, we had uh two instances where the purchase order was was written after the invoice. This is a budgetary control. You know, you got to have that PO so you know how much

066of the budget is going out for that invoice, not the opposite way around. That'll get you in bad trouble. And then also at the um um board level, we had an issue with when we were testing payroll, uh we noticed several certified employees were paid for hours outside of their contracted hours. What's that? What that means is it was approved by the board, but the single salary schedule was not updated. It is now updated at this current time, but at the time we tested it, it was not updated. But those hours had been approved by the board, but it just wasn't in the single salary schedule, which is what we have to go by when we test payroll. [snorts] And then um at Hunter uh Elementary, uh we did some testing and there was multiple

067invoices uh that we did couldn't find an approval or a check number on the invoice and that's not good. Um I found a typo. I was going through this and there again this is a draft so a final one will be issued when we get the uh federal government's uh go-ahad but um anytime you have an invoice you've got to have approval and there should be documentation of what check paid that. So, um that was on page 92. And then the good thing is the prior year findings, let's see, uh the status of the prior year findings, uh we still have an issue with the purchase order and but the high school has been cleaned up. We did not find any evidences of that as a repeat finding. So, um, as I talked to Shane

068and Katie, um, I told them that we would, and we're doing this for all our districts, we are presenting the draft and when we get final approval from Washington on the OM compliance supplement, if there's no change, we're done. But if it says now you have to check for this, then we'll follow up and check for that. So we don't anticipate any changes in any numbers. There just may be a potential finding which will be noted in the back of an audit. So everybody's in the same boat in the state of Kentucky. KD's already sent out their announcements concerning their audits and you can't submit anything in. You can send in the final AFR and it can be checked, but you cannot send in the audit. That's a lot of information. >> Thank you. Yeah,

069thank you so much for the work that you do. I know that that is a lot and that was 98 pages. Um so we really appreciate everything that you put into it. Um you know, you started out saying that um you didn't find any fraud, any mismanagement. Obviously, you did note some procedural things that we need to clean up, we need to focus on. Um I'm sure Dr. Jones is going to be on top of that. And so I really appreciate you identifying those and sharing it. Um we obviously know about the revenue and expenses um that we are also tackling with the budget committee and are going to have multiple conversations on that as well. So um you know you had good news and you had things we we can improve on. So I

070appreciate you being very transparent with us. >> And you are not the only district that's run into this type of issue. Uh talked to Dr. Jones and I let her know that, you know, we've encountered other districts where you kind of get hooked on this er >> and then the brick and then you the cliff comes and you got to transition. Well, it takes time to transition all those new employees that you added and their employee benefits and just, you know, so uh but once you do, you'll do good. You'll get it transitioned. >> So, um >> any questions? >> Does anybody have any? >> I did have a couple things. I just wanted to kind of look at. So on page [snorts] nine um >> uh you know obviously I'm concerned about all the

071parentheses which which are deficits um throughout the report but on page nine at the very bottom it says general fund budget compared to actual revenue varied from line item to line item with ending actual revenues being 2,390,491 more than budget. general fund budget compared to actual expenditures varied from line item to line item with ending actual expenditures being $3,16,85 more than budget. Um, and so I guess, you know, I have said it during the budgeting sessions that when our revenues in the budget are off by millions and our expenses in the budget are off by millions, it's impossible for the board to provide any real oversight um when the numbers are just that that off. Um then the last thing is the total general revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30th 25 2025 before

072interfund transfers was 47 million an increase of 3.1 million from the total revenues for 2024. So does that mean that we took in um 2.3 [snorts] million more in revenue than than what we had budgeted? >> No, no, no. So um the difference between page eight and page nine if you look under intergovernmental state >> on page eight >> yeah on eight you see it's 22,27 under the general fund 22,279,000 [snorts] and then if you look under that same line item on page nine it says 20,582. This is where your on behalf payments get posted. So as the state pays more money for you and you get reflected, it's hard to budget that [snorts] intergovernmental state because you don't know exactly what the state is going to pay on your behalf by the time you

073have to adopt a budget. So, this really comes in like after the fact for the audit, you know, I mean, I don't I I am not aware of any district that budgets their onbehalf monies, but they have an idea of what it may be. >> So, that on behalf, like I say, never flows. >> Yeah. >> And when you go back up to the first line item where it says, um, actual revenues were 2.3 million more than the budget. So, does that mean that we had 2.3 million more in revenue for that fiscal year? >> What page are you on, please? >> Just nine. The first sentence there. >> Oh. Oh. Oh. [snorts] Well, if you look at on page uh 17, >> on page 17 and page 18 is the actual comparative of the

074budget that you adopted. any changes. So you have the original budget that the board adopts and then you have any amendments that may have taken place during the year. That's the final and then the actual numbers is what we audited and the variance that's the column there's where your issues are. So if you look I mean like I say under your expenditures most of them are negative and like I say when we did our testing we found that they were ne I mean the negative happened because of employee wages and their related benefits it through everything. So uh in reading the minutes there was a increase given last year that was part of that impact. >> Sure. And then also the transition of no ESER monies. So the general fund had to pick up any

075transition of any employees that were in the special revenue fund, >> right? And and that was to be expected. I think everyone knew that the almost 7 million in SR funds was one-time money for the pandemic and so you could plan that that would not be uh reoccurring revenue. Um so um yeah. Payroll and benefits was the big impact there like you >> mentioned. Payroll and benefits. >> Okay. >> Yeah. When you add, you know, your pension, your oped, your, you know, health insurance, life insurance. I mean, it's, you know, >> quite a bit. >> Thank you. >> And then on page 63, note 12, just says, "The food service fund reports a deficit fund balance of 1.1 million at the end of June 30th, 2025. Daycare reports a deficit fund balance of 42,000 as

076of June 30th. The other funds had operations that resulted in a current year deficit after transfers and other funding sources resulting in the reductions of the fund balance. Um so I guess my question is um we've never really heard about these funds ending in a deficit balance. Well, you have to remember this year you had the implementation of Gazsby 101. And so what that is for the food service, you have to show on their financial statements this acred pension oped, but you don't have to do that for the general fund. So that's why every school district we audit in their food services deficits because you don't plan on funding uh your pension liability. So that's why it's a that's why the the deficit fund balance of 1.1 million. A lot of that is the implementation

077of all this new estimated funds that's going to have to be paid at some point in time and the payment of pension and nep. So it's not like the food service incurred a deficit in cash [clears throat] but for accounting purposes they had a deficit. >> So we've had an additional liability added to it that we didn't have before that shows long-term pension leave information. So it just automatically knocked everything. >> Is that the same on the community service fund and the general fund? >> No, no, no. So the the general fund, the community service fund, they actually did operate at a deficit. I mean there was a deficit there. A real deficit there and that was related to the primarily I can't say in totally but wages employee benefits. >> Okay. So those were

078deficits just the food service fund is just >> food service and daycare. Those are treated as proprietary funds and they are required to reflect pension liabilities. The that deferred inflows and deferred outflows all that actuary monies that they report has to be reported on those two funds because they are under accounting terms proprietary which is like a business. Is there double dipping? Like for example, if it's if it's counted there, it's not counted over with the >> the massive sum of No. >> So their their employees are separated out. Yes. >> This Okay. So that's not showing. >> That's right. So you only have like your uh food service and your daycare. They would only be subject to CERS and not KTS. And that's your certified employees. >> Gotcha. I I did have a question

079about the Huntertown Redbook issue. Is that related to school funds directly or is that related to like PTO or any other >> school funds? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, the PTO does not have to be tested by us. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anybody else have questions for Mr. Sparks? >> Thank you for coming this evening. >> If you all do have any questions, got my email, please send me an email and I will respond as soon as I can. >> Yeah. Do you Oh, sorry. I was going to ask, do you know an estimated time of the federal government releasing the >> I do not know the federal government side KDE has said if the district wants an extension, it has to be in writing and submitted to them by

080December the 1st, but their audit is not due until December the 31st. Well, that's all contingent if the Washington submits this case. I mean, so they've been on what, 45 days. >> The last thing on their plate is to deal with the OM compliance supplement. In our office, we're we're saying it may be January before they finally publish it and then we can do a final and then KD would have to change, but the audit is basically done. We're just waiting on to see if they add anything >> just in case there's a change. Okay. >> That's right. >> Okay. And I was just going to ask if we could have a hard copy of the report. I guess I don't know if now or when it's final. >> Yes. When it's final, we'll be

081issuing a f I just like I say, there's a few little typos that I found that I'm going to they'll be cleaned up and u but this is the draft. >> Yeah, that's fine. It was good to say paper for the draft. Then we get the final version. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you so much for all the work. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we are going into the new high school project update and Dr. Raburn's gonna present. >> Oh, you're right. Thank you so much. >> We did have a motion. >> So, I guess I we did have a motion and a second. >> Yes. Yes. >> Do are we voting on a draft audit or >> because it's not final yet. So, do we really vote on

082it? >> I would recommend approving the draft >> the draft version >> that you or draft audit that you receive pending any changes. Then we can revisit the final one. >> Yes. >> Do we? Yeah. So, let's do that. Let's go ahead and vote on it as is and then if we get a change on the final version, we'll have to vote on approval of that as well. All right. So, we had a motion and a second. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes five to zero. Thank you for calling that out. All right. Now, Mr. or Dr. Jones, I'm sorry, Dr. Raburn. There you go. >> Did we get the votes for the discussion on this one? >> The discussion. Did we get the Never mind. All right. So, uh,

083tonight the We don't have much to report on the new high school. Tomorrow, we walk through the high school with the architects and everybody else to do a final one-year punch list. That's part of the procedures that they walk through the building and they make sure that everything is done before we hit our oneyear mark so that we can make sure all the all of the stuff that was said they were going to finish is finished. So, we walk through tomorrow with the architects and some other people. Um, we are experiencing some boiler issues at the high school that we are currently working with the manufacturer and with CMTA on uh to address those issues. There's long emails and threads that um I've been exposed to um the last few weeks and um we are

084actively working with them to figure out the solution. Um it's kind of pointing fingers at this moment. Um but we are actively working to resolve those. So we are recognizing that the boilers at the high school are not functioning properly. They are functioning. We just have to go reset them. every time the below 32 degrees we have to go reset the boiler so that the heat works in the building but the heat does work we just have to reset it. Um and then the the other thing that we have going on um is the parking lot on discussion. So we did get quotes back. They're ranging from about 60,000 for the first quote to add the 100 parking lots to um 62,000. They had some alternates on that one which would include the first one

085and then 121,000 for that additional 100 parking spots. At this time, Dr. Jones and I are discussing it. We're not recommending of any changes happening. um we want to kind of see where this project's going to lie before we recommend any additional um changes to that. Uh and as far as the spring box goes, um we have taken it to some basically gotten some second opinions on it and they're agreeing with us to just kind of wait and see what happens in the spring um to see if it's going to bubble up and to cause us any issues and then we can reevaluate in the spring. Um, so it will probably close out the project without if we can get it all done, you know, the project completed. We will probably close the project without

086completing the spring box um in the project construction funds and if we need to look for additional funds to do that. We are working with community partners though on grant writing to address it if needed. um the government shutdown kind of prevented from talks from happening, but once the government government opened back up, we were able to talk with some local um community members to help us find funds to support that um through conservator or through some funds that they have available to us. So that's our goal to not have to pay for it. Um so any questions that you all have? >> Did the construction companies did they ever own their part of it? like whatever happened to the communication with them about reducing the cost like I guess my concern is if we

087close out the project and if they were by happen stance to come back and say oh we'll take off whatever fee or we acknowledge our role in this and then we have closed it out do we have access like I'm afraid if we close that door will it open back up again and I do appreciate the grant writing I think that that's a marvelous idea I still am kind of hung up on the fact that I do think they have some ownership in it also am very concerned concerned about the boiler situation that we're paying someone to go out there. I'm presuming by the hour to turn that back on. What happens if our pipes freeze in that school? We could have I'm sure that we're taking care of it, but it just seems like

088brand new school. We shouldn't be having these complications. So, I'm just curious if the ongoing conversation with them has resolved any of that. If you could give an update. >> Do you want to do one at a time? Talk about the answer the spring box question first. >> Sorry, I just knocked it all in there all together. >> Go ahead, Dr. So, our water conservation uh board and experts are also seeing they they really question whether it really is truly an issue after they've reviewed it. Um and so they said we really need to wait until spring to see whether or not that is truly a concern. But they've they've looked at it and they they are saying they really do not think and they've studied all the maps, all the geological maps and everything

089and they are weighing in and saying they really do not see it as a major con as a concern really. Um but we're waiting till spring to do a more invasive um exploration of that once we start seeing that water flow again. Um the other thing is the construct uh trace creek did say that they would wave the KDE funds if we decided to uh go the other route. Our um architect firm did not. >> No, that that's backwards. >> Oh, sorry. >> Ross Trent said they would wave the fee. Trace Creek did not. >> Oh, I thought it was the opposite. >> Travis, I thought said that he they would wave the fee. The construction >> Yeah. >> the KDE fee. We'll look at that. And Yeah. Yeah, but the as far as the

090other entities they have not owned had taken and we did meet Josh and I met with or Dr. Raburn and I met with all four of them and um so our the other groups did not take any ownership of that and um so that's where we are. What about the >> We are in a heated um we are in a heated conversation and um we have definitely we are in the process of nailing that down. Um we right now it's currently the root cause we're looking at it's either manufacturer or it is um it's they're looking at electrical as well. So we're looking at to make sure that we pinpoint the root cause and then I am aggressively pursuing that. >> And when she says aggressively, she is meaning aggressively. Um we our one year

091does not start according to them until we have this resolved. So even >> even once it's done, this has not been completed. So that this does not impact our one year according to them. So, our one-year warranty >> and even with the boiler system, I am in that building. When they turn it back on, it works. The heat system works in that building. >> I [clears throat] can vouch for it. >> Yes, the math teachers have to open windows. So, because it gets too hot sometimes in 30°ree weather. So, the it does work when it gets turned back on. It is a good system. It just >> it's safety mechanisms that when moisture levels it it's really complex and so we're trying to figure out um our experts in CMTA has been great about coming

092out trying to figure out what the root cause is and then >> that's where I get to advocate once we know what the root cause is. >> But your children are warm in the building. >> Yeah, I'm sweating. >> Thank you for that validation. >> Yes, I am sweating in sweatpants. [laughter] >> So I Oh, I'm sorry. No, I was just going to say, is this related to the issue that was brought up previously when we were talking about the condensation? >> This has been going for a little bit. Okay. I just want to make sure it wasn't two separate issues. Thank you for working on that, both of you. >> Y >> and I was just going to add that um you know, this has been an issue, an ongoing issue. Um month after

093month after month and um you know, it was a very expensive school. I'm sure this system cost, you know, bukoo of dollars. I was just wondering if we could um at some point get kind of a history of here's what happened, here's kind of what it cost, here's the, you know, times that there were, you know, issues brought to the board or issues brought to the company and here's kind of, you know, how we sort of a history of kind of how we got here. Um because it is kind of a major issue. And really same thing on the the parking lot. I mean, I think from before the school was even built, you know, we had board members saying, I don't know. I mean it doesn't seem like enough parking. Can we look at

094that? And um so of course here we are and you know it turns out that that you know there there is that issue. So um hopefully that'll be something we can can hear about at some point and and see about moving forward or having some options that kind of thing. At this point where is the contingency like numberwise? >> Uh it hasn't changed since our last report. We haven't dipped into our contingency. So um I'm not 100% sure what Mr. Smith said um but it's still within that I think he said around $800,000 mark. I don't 100% know that one off the top of my head, but I feel like that's what he said in our last meeting. We have not dipped into our contingency fund to pay for anything this month. So >> So

095is there a reason why we're not moving forward with the parking lot at 60 to 62,000 versus Well, I could say 121's pretty high, but 60 to 62,000. Is there a reason why we decided not to move forward? I am recommending to you that we wait >> um especially with winter you know you typically don't you want to wait until like especially with gravel you want to make sure that the ground temperatures are correct but also I think the board needs to know like the like the actual accurate once the bills are paid what's left in that fund and I feel like you can make a better decision based on that. >> It's not going away permanently it's just tabled for now right now. Okay. Sorry, I just I misunderstood that. I thought it was

096done. So, thank you. >> And I'll say this, too. I've actually talked to several Miss Springate, I've talked to several superintendent who've recently, you know, had new constructions and they are seeing the exact same trends in terms of um either manufacturing um or in some cases it might be electrical or design just depending on what the situation is. And so, it's not it's not just um isolated to us. I've I've talked with actually three other superintendent who have recently completed building major building projects and it's it's certainly not what we want to see, but we just have to I have to pursue it and make sure that it gets resolved as the superintendent. >> Thank you for aggressively pursuing those solutions. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Jones, because you inherited all of this. I mean,

097really, this the school was done last December, and I appreciate you. >> You know, it is what it is. It's here now. we have to deal with it. So, >> uh, any other questions for Dr. Raburn on the new high school update? >> All right. Thank you. >> Next, we will move into our curriculum and instruction update with Mr. Asher. And congratulations again on your award, sir. Dr. Rayurn, is there a trick here? >> There we go. There we go. All right. I'm going to report on three main things. One, just an update um as related to our overall strategic planning. two uh will be the two items that I have on the agenda tonight just so I can explain some more details and context to that. Um so as you're aware and Dr. Jones

098mentioned earlier, we're going through a strategic planning process uh with Stutter which is uh and I just want to put this visual to it which is the umbrella for all uh systems operations everything to do with Woodford County Public Schools. uh we are continuing especially on uh the curriculum instruction and technology side of things with our paths to the portrait and so we will continue uh we've dropped the term strategic plan for these just to avoid confusion with up top but we are continuing with our paths uh to the portrait plan and so these are just little snips here uh we have activities and strategies uh within the 2526 school year that we are uh making progress on actually at our admin meeting tomorrow with our principles we'll will be doing some progress monitoring on

099those. Uh it is also coming up um CIP time and CIP actually we're in the throws of that and as on a related note uh the public release of school accountability KSA is actually the 19th. Uh so that's coming up. I will be able to report on that some uh in December. Uh but also we'll be um tying that in and relevant to the the CIP process and where we are going with that. So just some clarity on that uh not going away from what we had a strategic plan uh with our portrait uh work uh we will continue with that just it is underneath the umbrella of the strategic plan. Any questions comments on that part. >> May I interject >> please? >> Sorry. Um I also wanted to mention um I think it

100was mentioned earlier that um there's a new um process. It's an updated process with KDE in order for um any board member or anyone to see um data before it's publicly released that there are two now two non-disclosure forms and if you would like to discuss the data before the public release you will we will get you with Miss Tracy Miss Susan Tracy and we'll be able to look at that if you'd like to do that. All right, the second thing I wanted to talk about was to give an overview on our migrant education program. Uh due to the uh staffing request on the agenda tonight. So if you look at the left hand side uh migrant education program oftentimes uh shortened to MEP uh there is our current MEP enrollment uh 106 uh school

101age enrolled students. And then also the program serves uh birth all the way to 21. And so there are uh a handful of folks there uh students there 18 uh total. So a grand total of what 124 uh that little note there the asterisk at the bottom it's not it's often times um confused for it but migrant is not the same as ELLL although as it says there 74% uh are identified in both categories. So the point there is those two programs of EL and migrant often work together uh closely. Uh how it is distributed across the state, we are in the southern region. Uh so we are our our governing body, whatever you want to say is uh in out of Madison County at EKU. Uh that's where the oh it says it down

102there in the in the lower right hand side. Uh we are a standalone program because of our numbers. Um, and with more numbers that increases the funding as I as I'll go on to the next one here. It's a federally funded program. It is a um uh subsidy of title one. It's title one part C um that we get the funding for. The mission is to provide services and alleviates barriers uh to successful academic achievement. So that can be a variety of things and it I'll explain more when we get to services provided down there. Eligibility is uh as I mentioned children up to age 21 if they moved across district county or state boundaries uh for the purpose of seeking or obtaining temporary or seasonal work in agriculture. I stop there because we don't

103really have fish commercial fishing activities but as you can imagine we do have uh qualifying a activities in our county. So the services provided are academic first. Um, I'll note right there one one-on-one or small groupoup tutoring is the purpose of the request for the additional instructional assistant. Um, and then you'll see some other services provided there and then on down into supportive services. Everything uh from referrals for uh health care uh to translation services and then certainly an adult ed and GED uh preparation. So, this program also works with our adult ed in that regard. Uh finally, I just want to a shout out to them. We had just yesterday uh this is the second time for this second annual uh a collaboration with Kingsway Church. Uh and our as I mentioned here, our

104MEP team members are responsible contributors. Yinia Flores is the uh coordinator. She's probably in her fourth year with us. Uh we've really gained some stability in our staffing there. Nab Flores is the recruiter uh which is a specific position just for that because what this takes is going out on site going to farms going to uh uh local groceries, restaurants, things like that to recruit folks. Obviously this is meant because they are a transient population but here this is how we can help remove barriers to academic success for your your children. uh and then recently um transferred over as we've had one instructional assistant position, Monica Cheney. She's transferred over. She was working at Simmons Elementary and is now with this program. Um as I answered some questions to Miss Gould uh earlier, this would

105give us a second instructional position and would allow us to then focus one at the elementary level and one at the secondary level. It is no, it's it's grant money. We we use it or lose it. And we actually increased uh I think the figure I gave you from last year $134,000 more than what we had before because they're recruiting more getting more numbers in the program. So it's it's money that we have to spend. So that is that request. Any questions as related to migrant uh MEP or the request? >> Just a clarification real quick. There was no gap in services during the shutdown, right? Because this was fedally funded, right? Title One Part C. There was no gap in services to our migrant population. >> No. Um right there at the beginning um

106a little bit of worry uh but it it that didn't last very long and there were no gap in gaps in services. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> We had to put a hold on a couple resource type purchases but the staffing remained. >> Can I ask a question about the the request for the position or the staffing? >> So it is grant funded. So if something were to happen with the level of grant, let's just say for some reason it was to go down. I mean that this position would be like fedally funded time limited. Okay. >> Yeah. We'd have to we just wouldn't fill it. >> That was a that was a question I had that Mr. Asher answered. I also had questions about whether or not that if it would serve the entirety

107of the population versus like cause a deficit in one area versus another. And he answered my question. So I appreciate that very much. I mean, when you get 124,000 more, that's kind of hard to spend. Uh, and staffing is a good way to do that, and it's it's obviously uh needed due to our numbers. >> And it's great that you'll be able to serve more schools, it sounds like, with that, too. So, >> the second thing that is on the agenda, and let me walk you through this. It's called the plan for promotion of advanced coursework and accelerated learning. So, this was legislation, which the top u graphic shows there. This was a guidance document sent out earlier this year. This was House Bill 190 required school districts to establish policies by grade level. And

108then so down there uh the the next box down uh we did adopt a policy in in July. It was the standard KSBA policy and what the policy told us uh was to do a plan. So policy to do a plan and there were certain things that you had to follow once again by December 1st. So what I am uh what I've put on for approval or first reading is that plan for promotion. Uh there are three uh plan requirements. Uh Miss Gold had Dr. Gold had some questions on this. And please note that this is not gifted only. So it is advanced coursework. The the purpose of it is that it's it's offered to a wider range of students. And the next slide I'm going to show you is um how it works and

109and some some benefits we have seen since doing this. So um put the plan together. The good news was within our district and I had gone to some sessions some work sessions on this. We had everything in place quite honestly. All we had to do was put it in one articulated plan. So, when I say everything in place, um, a GT ident or excuse me, primary talent pool starting, uh, at the at the younger grades to advanced course work, advanced courses even at ele, excuse me, middle school, uh, flexible grouping opportunities at at elementary and then, of course, you get up to high school and your AP, dual credit, and advanced courses up there. So, the good news is we had everything uh, just had to put it together. Um, one core example, and we've

110looked at this in several, uh, meetings. The, uh, high school looked at it with their site base. This is actually a strategy that came from our equity action plan way back in 2019. And what that strategy was was to um, if you'll see the box over to the right, WCHS revised their policy and not only to AP, but just advanced courses overall. And what they did and we had talked about this uh a while back. Um but what it did and I will point out students may enroll the middle uh section there the middle statement. Students may enroll in advanced level or college college board advanced placement course if one of the following conditions is met. So that was key change that they made. It used to be multiple and now if they hit one

111of those they're able to enroll. So again this was in 2019. uh some data current data is so so this is AP and I'll note the uh far right column uh the one in the middle let's just take Hispanic for example um 45 students enrolled Hispanic students enrolled in AP of the total population of uh AP students that's 12% so that's a little discrepant in that we have well I shouldn't say this because I don't know the um I know overall we're at about 17% for the district but I'm not certain at the high school But of that population of of the Hispanic population at the high school, 21.2% are enrolled in AP. Uh it is of particular note and the emphasis on dual credit and the again offering to a wider range. If you

112look at this one, um if you'll notice, uh let's stay with Hispanic. Of the Hispanic population, 46% of Hispanic students are in a dual credit. 52% 53 roundup of uh African-American students are enrolled in dual credit. So uh they are even at a higher clip higher percentage proportionately than white students at this point which is at 45%. So it from that time in 2019 this that policy change has now opened it up right that we are getting more and more minority and if you even go down uh beyond uh race and ethnicity you'll see the same thing there with free and reduced with ELLL with IEP students uh that are able to uh not only take AP but at a higher rate dual credit. So sometimes you got to stop and smell the roses and

113see uh the results of of hard work that you've done. Again, we've talked about equity action plan for quite some time and people are like, "What are we doing?" Well, this is what we're doing and here's evidence of that six years later. So my point is this uh the advanced level promotion, whatever it's called, is on the agenda tonight for the first reading, and I'll uh take any questions you might have on that. >> Do you have follow-up questions? I think this is wonderful and I think the numbers speak for itself and I'm super excited to see those numbers and how we're ahead of the curve um from the legislation and that sort of things that have passed in recent years related to this. I would like to see the middle school follow suit because

114I know we're still requiring signatures from parents, guardians for some of the advanced placement classes um and or leadership kind of oriented coursework. And so I I know that some of that coursework um may be more specialized and maybe needs some more engagement and conversation, make sure the student is the right fit for that to make sure they're successful. But I do think the barrier also comes with the signature required from the parent. Um and so I just on the flip side of that, I would like to see more engagement with parents and caregivers around gifted and talented advanced level identification. you know, this whole category that we're talking about, like you said, not just gifted and talented, but um widening that pool, but also like having clear communication about what services are being provided

115to meet those needs and a conversation ongoing with parents and caregivers around that. Similar to a dare I say a 504 IEP kind of conversation because I do think that sometimes parents, caregivers are at kind of a loss of what ex how exactly are their students needs being met once they're identified? like I know that the the paper comes home um they're identified there's testing that gets approved and that sort of thing um and permission for that testing has to happen um which is I think is it's good to have that conversation with parents but that ongoing consideration of this is how my child who has been identified this is how their needs are being met be it gifted and talented or or the tears that you were talking about previously. So those are the

116two things that are of like my main concern um in regards to this just that ongoing communication but also mirroring this process at the middle school level so students can start that process earlier on if possible. >> Okay. I will uh take that feedback and consult with our gifted talented district coordinator. Uh she regularly meets with the school level contacts for that coordinators I should say. >> I just I have a quick question. I mean, are you going to be covering more in depth about the ad advanced coursework at APs tonight or is this just like the only moment we're talking about it? Because if so, I have some questions. >> You can ask questions. >> So, this has been like a concern through like the sophomores at the high school um since we have

117taken at least from what I've heard, we have taken away um Woodford County providing the ACT for sophomores is the way I just want to make sure I'm correct for say this. Yes, that is correct. >> Can I go ahead and answer that? Uh it's because the state changed the rule. We are no long we are no longer giving ACT. We're actually switching to >> SAT. >> That was up in the air uh for lack of a better term for several months as the vendors uh Pearson I believe it was was appealing that decision. Uh just went through how long ago was it official? Like a month ago. So we were in limbo that we couldn't commit to either side. And so once that came through, uh, Miss Tracy there was just at the training

118today with KD about SAT and so students had the opportunity to take PSAT. Uh, but that's a major overhaul o uh, switch for the state of Kentucky that we're switching to SAT, >> right? Which I fully support that. I think the SAT, I mean, I've taken the PSAT and I loved it a lot more than the ACT. Um, just because the way I test, I preferred it. But my only concern was or at least a lot of sophomores concerns were um following into dual credit and AP classes. I know AP wasn't as rigorous but dual credit is you had to have a certain 3 point I think it's a 3 point something. I don't want to quote me exactly because I don't know the exact number but it's a 3 point something or you had

119to had to have a specific ACT score to get into dual credit classes. So, I know some students that were wanting to go in as juniors next year who cannot take the ACT in the spring were worried about how they were going to get into dual credit classes because they didn't have this certain 3.0 something GPA >> and they wanted to take the college class. >> So, a lot of those all of those requirements comes from the university. Yeah. >> Whether it's it's a grade point average or ACT, they're going to have to shift. Now, if if students aren't going to have an ACT score, they're going to have to shift, as the entire state is, to SAT. So, I'm not aware of any conversations just yet. I know that they know of the change

120um higher ed. Uh so, they will just have to shift uh because it's changed, the rules have changed for the whole state. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Yep. I will say too, I think that when you talk with your high schoolers, it's important to realize that some of those dual credit classes go with you and affect your higher ed track GPA. So, it's always important to figure out it that's great if you want to take it, but just be prepared that that could also impact your GPA whenever you transfer that credit in. Um the other thing to keep in mind too is that some schools are starting to do away completely with the college entrance um platform exams and that sort of thing. So that might be something that shifts and we need

121to keep our finger on the pulse around that too. Um, Miss Tracy was bringing up because normally when you referenced our sophomores taking ACT, um, we want to get back in that practice with SAT, but just being in limbo, we weren't like you had to commit way earlier than the decision was made. So, moving forward next year, um, we'll look to put that back into uh back into place to where you get two opportunities at the school to take SAT. It was just unfortunate we were, you know, stuck with the decision. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> And then I did just want to say um I uh always appreciate like when the board is kind of ahead of the game and wanted to be more inclusive and um and change some of those

122rules and I love seeing the data for that and it makes me feel really happy. Um and I know the the law is going to require us to to you know put this plan in place and have the reading tonight. Um but I'm wondering what about the K through three? like is there any way to kind of address them also and make them part of >> the um >> the law just it says 4 through 12, right? >> So K through three you follow and for whatever reason that you weren't to include it. The law says specifically 4 through 12. Uh but I mean there still are opportunities there with primary talent pool that focuses on K through three. That's a that's a separate law different uh regulations that you have to follow. uh it

123just wasn't called for in this specific plan for whatever reason. >> Well, could could we go and be a little more inclusive and and do some of the the things that we're doing for the fourth through 12th graders for the K through three? Also, just um >> we we do do those things. I'm just saying the format of the plan. Here's what the law requires 4 through 12. This is how you write the plan. So, I just simply we simply just didn't go below that because that's not what the law called for for whatever reason. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I understand. I was just kind of thinking maybe we could get ahead of the curve and maybe we're already doing some things um before the law was required for our entire population K through 12.

124So um I didn't know if there was some um opportunity to um to to also be able to do some of the the things with with that group too. But I understand the >> I can look into that. [clears throat] >> Anything else for Mr. Asher? You're welcome. >> Thank you, Mr. Asher. >> All right. All right. We do not have any public comment. Uh, can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. >> All those in or well, any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Nay. Motion passes four to one. 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

125in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the October board meeting? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I I >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes 5 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 4 to one. >> Can I have a motion to approve October financial report treasures report? >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. Second. >> Second by Miss McCauen. And we'll open it up to discussion with Dr. Raburn presenting. All right, board. Thank you for

126the opportunity to present tonight. Um, I have tried to take that 61page document and screenshot it for you. Um, and open it up to interpretation as you wish. Um, you will notice, and I do apologize that there were different reports this month. Um, so, uh, for full transparency, Mr. Smith resigned to take a new employment. Um he resigned on November 11th uh and I started on November 12th. Um assuming the interim role of this position just so we all know that um so full transparency we are working the best we can. Um we are still going and so the financial reports that were shared with you um the real one that you get is also going to be uploaded to the document and all of these numbers are coming from the 61page document that you're

127used to seeing. The numbers are also on that other report. They're just not in the normal place where you go to look. So, um, for your information, the general fund balance, um, we hadundred or $1.2 million in receipts and $3.5 million in expenditures. Um, and also what is not noted on this report because it happened in November is we did receive our tax check um, for a little over $18 million from the sheriff's office. So, our cash balance is back to a healthy level um right before the payroll was due, which is very nice. Um and so you can see those reports there. And again, this will also be published onto the um website for onto the board agenda for you as well to review. Um and then the total receipts for our special revenue

128fund 2 balance is 277,000 with our expenditures at 349. And so if I put the arrows on there so that you can see the month-to-ate reports. Um you can also look at the budgets and everything. Um and so this one had a negative and so did the last month's uh uh for general fund for the total month from receipts to expenditures. They are in a negative. Um but the total balance and budget is still in a positive or remains in the positive there. Um so you have to look at the whole picture there. Um district activity funds uh brought in 58. So this is our district activity funds that we have fund 21. Uh we spent 71 probably because we received that prior to that. Those funds are not actually in the negative. Those funds

129are still in the positive but for the month we spent more than we received. Uh the school activity funds are 158 in the positive for receipts and then 70 in the expenditures. These are probably because we are doing more field trips now. So we're receiving more field trip funds. Um, that's for our school activity funds and sports fees and everything else that go into those activity fees. Um, there's nothing in the capital outlay 310, the building levy. I don't actually know if he presents on that one, but I gave it to you anyways. Um, our construction fund is at 955. We had some payments there that we paid out last month. Um, and then our food service, uh, sorry, no debt service payments, but those were already paid in the last payment. And then our

130food services uh account is in the positive 51,000 for the month, which means that um I do want to brag that two of our schools even um are well above their budget. They're actually selling more food. Um one of those being the high school from the layout of the high school to allow kids to go and get more food. That is a positive um for our food budget. So, normally we're in a negative at this point, but Miss Quire's talked to me about it before she um is out and mentioned that the high school is operating in the positive, which is a nice thing because of the the way the building was designed to encourage kids to go back in and buy more food. Um, and every time I'm there, I buy more food, too.

131So, just know [laughter] um I just pay cash for it. So uh the daycare fund is in the from receipts received to expenditures are in the negative 23,000 um again but the as a whole it is in the positive um and remember revenue is normally shows in the negative um depending on which budget you look at. Uh and then community ed fund has just a little bit of money left over in it and we're trying to spend it as it comes. So there's a little bit there. I thought this was an interesting slide. So, this is a different slides presentation than what you've seen. Um, this is our payroll for last month for October. So, our payroll runs us about $4 million for the year or for the month. And so, you can kind of

132see the breakout down of all the different object codes that are for the payroll. Um, Dr. Jones and I um have met to build a dashboard and we're working with um this is part of the dashboard that's being built out and stuff like that. So, um these don't represent specific people. of these represent specific job codes for people that work in our district. And as a whole, our district is $4 million a month for payroll. Um, and so the uh cost there is how much we spent at the top versus how much we received at the bottom. So we spent $3 million more than we received. Again, that's because we hadn't received our tax payment. That'll be different for next month um when you get your financial report for that one. So, I know there's

133a lot of talk about different budgets and everything, but an object code is based off 0110 and the 011s are normally your CL certified. 012s are normally your classified. Um, and then it kind of breaks down to different things there. And then our deductions that we have to pay are also on there as well. So, deductions and payroll cost us about $4 million um a month. 2 million twice a month. any questions that I can answer for you since November 12th? >> Yeah. Well, [laughter] more of a comment. I know that, you know, the mun reports are just long and very complicated and so I just want to thank you and doing the extra steps of kind of breaking this down a little bit, grabbing those screenshots um and putting it putting it in this

134format. I think that's very helpful. So, thank you. >> Yeah, both of you. >> I didn't make up any of these numbers. I just took screenshots of them. So, I promise they're on the report. Yep. >> Dr. Jones and I have been reviewing them pretty much every day to make sure we're accurate and understanding. So, >> thank you. >> Anybody else have a question? >> All right. >> I do look forward to our January board meeting where we can actually get some of the budget reports that you are asking for kind of nailed out so that we understand what you're asking for and as a district we can present those in a fashion that you are expecting. So, um that's coming in our January work session. >> Perfect. >> Thank you very much. Um, all

135right. So, there is a motion right now. All those in favor of approving the October financial report, treasures report, I >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. >> Can I have a motion to approve the hardship request? >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCauen. All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve the migrant education program staffing request? >> Some move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second. Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? Further discussion on that? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes five to zero. >> Can I have a motion to approve WCPS advanced coursework and accelerated learning plan first reading? >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. And

136>> I I will just reiterate that I would really appreciate if there was conver language in there that supported conversation more with caregivers and parents around the needs of other children that are being identified. I think that that as a gifted and talented parent myself, I think we've had a lot of turnover and maybe that has led to um some of the lack of conversation that I've in like had with with individuals who were in charge of providing gifted and talented services for my child. I've also talked to some other parents who've also um shared the same concern. Um, and I do know that we are under new leadership in that area and I do believe that that will change. But I just think that having it for if that turnover continues to happen or

137something shifts, if we have it in our plan to where parents, caregivers are more involved in that planning process, similar to again a 504 or IEP, um I do think that that would be really beneficial um as well and pull our parent and caregiver involvement into that process even more to support and and to truly understand and to be able to advocate for their child that is being um presented in this manner. So, I would love to see that added. Um, so it's very clear in that that plan. That that's the only thing that I really see. I think because there is so many different options of ways that the the need could be fulfilled. I think it's really important for parents and caregivers to understand this is exactly what's happening in this situation with

138my child. This is the choice. Because some of it is very obvious if you're in an AP class or a dual credit class or an advanced language arts class or something of that nature. But to truly understand how your kids's need is being met, I think is incredibly important, especially for those who um may not have the chance to be as involved as others. So, >> all those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes five to zero. >> Can I have a motion to approve the reclassification of position? >> So, move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? I >> I any opposed? >> Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve director of finance, job description, and

139title update? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve chief operating officer job description update? >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion on that? I just want to say I want to thank Dr. Jones for looking at this. It's a cost-saving measure for those of you who are in the audience who may be listening at home. Um that this is really going to help with that. So that's why it's being shifted out and and for other reasons obviously. So thank you very much for looking at that. That's it. That's all. Just a comment. >> Perfect. Yeah. All those

140in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve certified salary schedule amendment for SPED department? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion or questions? >> I don't know that I'm clear about what the funding source is. Is it title? >> We'll ask Miss Francis to come up and speak to us. >> [snorts] >> So, um that's a good question. The funding source can be um anything from IDA, which covers uh 3 through 21, or it can be out of the general fund due to maintenance of physical effort, or it can be from my Medicaid budget. It just depends on um how we determine to pay specific p uh personnel in order for them to be able to

141work with and deal [snorts] Medicaid and then all that kind of falls into place. There's a lot of pieces there for us. I guess my only concern would be and that and I'm I know that there are requirements legally around positions like this one, but not understanding if it's going to come out of general funds, if it's going to be federally funded, and then based on that, you know, we're talking about we know what we're what we heard in the audit. This is something with our finances that we is not a surprise. Um, but I just think that when we are adding positions, then we have to think about, okay, if we're going to add this and that funding is going to come from the general fund, then what are we going to take away

142>> because we've got we can't keep adding like we have been >> and have them start out, you know, coming out of this fund and then it gets transferred to the general fund like it happened with our ESR dollars. Um, or we find ourselves kind of in this not good situation. >> So, I don't know. Do you have anything? >> Go ahead. >> Just do you have any >> comment on that? >> Um I mean I don't really know how to respond to that other than you know we all have department heads at in different departments. Um and they fall right in line with having the same opportunity as anyone else leading a department and um they deserve to be paid for that instead of doing extra work at home just like everyone else is

143doing and not getting compensated for it. So um in the past I have covered that through limited contracts. I have covered that through all kinds of means trying to compensate that and um over the years this is this is where it leads more work expectations put on staff they deserve to be paid for it and compensated for it. So that's just kind of where we're at with it. If you look at it from a general education standpoint and what their opportunities are for that those departments, it's the same should be the same for special education. >> And we've seen the trend. I mean, you've you've come to us with many legally required positions because our numbers are going up and we need that. So, I mean, it makes sense that the work would continue to

144increase in different areas as well. So, >> yeah. >> Did you have anything, Dr. B? >> I just had a question about the Medicaid reimbursement. is the enactment of the big beautiful bill is that going to impact because I know it's impacting a lot of different Medicaid reimbursement rates. So just curious if you had any insight on that. >> I have no information from the state on that right now or from any other entity that I deal with. So I am unsure of that. >> That's a good question as well. >> All right. Anybody else? All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Nay. >> Motion passes four to one. Can I have a motion to approve amended salary schedule? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> I'll second that. Any discussion,

145questions? >> All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Nay. >> Is that what I'm sorry I didn't hear you, Miss Springy. >> I guess I was surprised there was discussion. >> Oh, I called for discussion, but >> we if there's a discussion, we can have it. What would be nice if we had some information? >> Yeah, I called for discussion, but that's fine. Dr. Ra, you have >> Yeah, no problem. I'll uh present to you just kind of show you what um some calculations that have been done related to um all the positions that have been changed. Um for your information, um these are also on the board agenda item. Um so the director of finance position depending on the salary range um I put that there between 79 and 114. Um 30

146years of experience would put them at 114. Um the chief operations officer would be between 84 and 141 depending on rank because it's a certified position now instead of a classified position. So the rank of the person holding it and the years of experience related to that. Um and then the special education um depending upon so that's a daily wage um so it could range from five days for 14 or sorry,545 1,145 or 2,100 I need to put commas on there $2,14 based off of the years of experience and the rank of the individual. Um there are three additional positions added to there and then the VI stipen that was on there um $1,200 to $2,000 and all of those are highlighted in the salary schedule. Um to note the changes there, um was one

147additional clerical change that I saw uh in the salary schedule as I was updating this one. Um first off, I made these larger so I could read them. Uh and then the um director of finance is there and this one said FY26 instead of FY27. The south the certified and degree programs is pending the next year's budget if it'll be available to us. So that is why I updated that one as well. >> Dr. Raburn, can I make a statement? >> Yep. on your um calculation that's correct if that salary is correct for COO if they are also holding another director position at the same time. If you look at just the additive correct for COO so the I did the whole salary range. So like it would be like they take the teacher because

148a certified position director level whatever's [snorts] on the certified one is based off of the teacher salary. Um so you take the rank of the person holding it certified position. Take that rank divide that salary that they would receive as a teacher by 188 days. That gives you the um daily wage of that person. Then you multiply that by 240 days because it's a extended contract. And then you add the additive on top of that. So that is with the additive and the daily rate and everything else. Um, so I compared it what the previous uh COO position would have cost the district. Um, pending the changes, it was about 158,000 at 30 years with a doctorate. Um, and if they had that many certifications, uh, with the as a certified position, it's 141 at

149the very top of the salary schedule. So, so just know that that's the difference between the two. And our plan is to reduce one of the director levels that are currently on the salary schedule and not rehire that uh position. Um but that will come later as we roll out the new um organization charts that Dr. Jones will be presenting whenever she's ready. And I guess um I just wondered if it would make more sense to wait and have the vote to add and change things like at the same time as we're having a vote that this is the big picture and this is what we're taking away and this is how because u what you're describing makes um sense that there would be some some taking away later. But I just I would feel

150more comfortable like if we could just do have all that discussion and have all that at the same time. But do we need to do this now for a certain reason? >> Uh the real reason why is if you would like me to continue as the interim, I'm a certified and not a classified. So that would impact that one. And full transparency, we're not hiring a chief information officer. My duties are going to be assuming the chief information officer and the COO position until Dr. Jones is ready to roll out her org chart. Um at that time you will have the big picture that we don't understand yet because we're waiting on the strategic plan to be developed and then her vision for organizational chart will >> Okay. Well, thank you for that that um

151kind of information because I had like bits and pieces but it wasn't really really put together until um >> so essentially you're you're saving the salary that I currently have. I'm getting a small bump and then and just in the index that would be from a 23 to a 40 um as the interim until we are ready and then I mean Dr. Jones could go in and change all the titles and everything as the board sees fit during that time. Um this is just to hire a finance director. We have to have that. I'm not able to do that um and do everything else. So we're going to hire a finance director. We have to have that as a classified position. and that person's not going to make the same amount as the previous finance

152director, but still have a competitive salary that's in range with other districts around us. So, that is kind of why we need to approve this tonight. Um, >> so we're going to have the cost savings because we're going to be able to make these shifts and then starting out with um you're taking folks with certain certifications and degrees and experience and then you're going to get someone who maybe doesn't have as much experience or um or those sorts of things. So it would be a lesser cost like hiring a first year teacher. >> The index the index for the uh the COO position was a 1.63071 >> on the classified salary schedule. The index for the director of of finance is a 1.05. So you're saving on your index there which is impacting it's an

153260day contract eight hours a day. Um, so you're impacting a significant portion. I think between the big picture of things, we're looking between 30 $35,000 a year um savings depending on whoever we hire um at the at the top. If they would come in with 30 years, we're still saving a significant portion of funds right now. Is that 30 years or a doctorate or 30 years plus? >> So I just maxed out the the most that we can get which is 30 years in a doctorate. >> We don't get 31 years. >> And just to clarify when I communicate with the board, I actually showed them the calculation for the 04 additive. >> Okay. >> So that's what I had explained to them rather than the entire salary. >> Complete salary. >> Yep. So that

154was a miscommunication between you and me on that one. Any other questions? All right. So, all those in favor of approving the amended salary schedule. >> I I Any opposed? >> Nay. >> All right. Motion passes three to two. Can I have a motion to approve the first reading of the drug test policy? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion? >> I had a question that I emailed Dr. Jones and she answered that question for me. I I do think that that one section of language is a little bit tricky just the way that it's grouped together. And what I'm talking about is it's like a student and an employee >> statement, but when it's read together, it's a it just tripped me up. So, I don't

155know if it would trip it just me, but I do think it it is a little bit tricky if we amend that just to separate it out so it's clear that this is a student, this is an employee. That makes sense. >> Dr. Here's the uh here's the proposed reading for the first reading. If a supervisor has reason to believe an employee, not a student, an employee, is under the influence or of or impaired by alcohol or drugs in the workplace, the supervisor may require the employee to undergo alcohol testing by a portable breathalyzer test administered by a WCPS law enforcement officer and or blood urine uh test administered by a medical facility of the district's choice. Refusal to submit to either such testings may be grounds for disciplinary action, including termination of employment. If

156the test results confirm the employee was under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs in the workplace, the employee shall be subject to disciplinary actions, including termination or may be referred to a treatment program of the district's choice. Um, this is on the classified and the certified language for the same policy. We have two different policies for classified and certified. This is only staff, not students. Um and as well as medical marijuana that is included in the um authorized drugs that is um administered to um so it says administered to a student by if it was to be traced there but it is really talking about the prescription from a medical professional in that authorized spot there >> and and that's the the language that I had a question about the authorized drugs employees who

157personally use or who are designated to administer to a student a drug authorized by. I think that's the language that gets tricky because it is talking about administration versus use, student versus an employee. Just making that more clear. And the reason why I asked that is because we are now a medical marijuana providing state. And I just wanted to make sure that we were in accordance with the change in policy from the statewide. Um, but that that language did trip me up because I thought it was just related to a stu like it just was confusing. I guess >> this is KSBA language that we have. So all the other districts around us have that same language. >> Can we make it clear for our people or do we have to follow KSBA? Does it

158m I mean I know our legal representative is not here. So maybe that's a question to follow up on later. But like I said, I just feel like this is something that we're going to be facing as a as a state as we start to administer medical marijuana cards. And I just don't want us to face backlash of lack of understanding or something of that nature. So, I just wanted to make sure it was clear. The other thing that I had a question about that I just noticed and I apologize I didn't email this earlier. Um, if you'll go back down to maybe refer to a treatment program of the district's choice. I feel like that takes away autonomy in the person who may be paying for this or um maybe their insurance provider. So,

159just making sure that there's some flexibility. If someone is willing to engage in treatment, I don't want us to restrict them in saying, well, you have to go to this specific treatment provider for you to to meet those needs. So maybe Min said a they must you must meet these qualifications or something of that nature from the providing partner. >> The difference is that this is all may and not must. So we're not we're not requiring them, but if we if they don't have a medical facility to go to, we may require them to go to one. May is different than a month, >> which I think is I think it's just the district's choice is what I'm talking about. I guess it's it takes away the autonomy and someone to choose and consent to

160their treatment. So, but again, it's May, so that's different than SHA. >> And as a as the superintendent, it's really important to me that um I have the option if an employee is >> is suspected of that. And with we did not have that in our policy at all. And um I'll just say that as the leader, the superintendent, it's important to me that we are able to hold people accountable in that regard. >> And I'm not trying to take anything away from that. I'm just saying as far as say I think it's different between and I'm not trying to argue semantics. I have addiction background where I teach this and have provided treatment myself. Um been a provider of treatment, not being an addicted person. Um, just make that clear for the [laughter] for

161our newspaper in the back. Um, just to make sure that language is clear. Um, but where it says may and that's why I'm harping on this, I guess, is maybe referred. I think that that's a completely great language because we do need to make sure people are supported in that um, and that you can hold people accountable. I was just saying the district's choice of treatment program is different. That's the language of autonomy that I was talking about as far as consent to treatment and that sort of thing having that because it's hard enough to go to treatment as it is. I think that it's just important that they that we work with people if they do decide to go to treatment or if that's something that is mandated. So again, I just my social

162work brain is working here. So that's that's just >> Can you put the period after the word program? >> Sure. >> Yeah, >> I think that's good. I think that that's a great suggestion that clarifies that >> it is the first reading, so there will be another reading. >> I was actually surprised that the district didn't have this because other districts that I've reviewed and worked in h did have this. So that was an interesting >> discovery. >> Yes, thank you for for facilitating and I love the fact that there is an option for treatment in here. I think that that is great. It's great language to have. So on the second reading, this will have those words stricken. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um all right. So all those in favor

163of approving the first reading of the drug test policy. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes 5 to zero. >> Can I have a motion to approve facilities rental procedure? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss Macauen. Any discussion or questions? >> I think it's Do you have any So, I just want to clarify that all we are doing to the district agreement is increasing cost and sharing the splitting the cost with the people that are reserving our space for outside entities. Um, it still gives us the autonomy to to pick and choose what we pay, but like it gives us some set prices that were not currently available. >> And I will have to say that Dr. Raburn did a lot of research. He pulled several surrounding >>

164and [snorts] I've met with we're building a whole system behind rental procedures. So this is just the first step of the system to get this approved so that we can move forward and thinking forward thinking not retroactive thinking. >> Can I ask a follow-up question? I think this is great. I just wanted to ask about our partnership with Falling Springs. Are they adhering to this rental agreement or is that a completely separate different contract? This would just be for our facilities. >> Yeah, this is our facilities >> when they use our facilities like our middle school or not middle school but our elementary school gyms and that sort of thing for recreation basketball. >> Um that's a diff that is already under a separate contract. >> Okay. So they don't have to pay these extra

165fees. Okay. That's what I was asking. >> Y all those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve UK athletic trainer contract? >> So move. >> Motion by Mr. Wilson. I will second that one. Any discussion? >> I need to recuse myself. >> Um I guess I'm just wondering um like what the impact on resources is if that's different with this revision and also um where the funds come from to cover the fees. >> So this is a >> is that something we need to include from here on out this funding source? Nice >> rather than >> Yeah. So, this is amending the original contract that we had. We previously had been paying for three athletic trainers and now we are amending it to pay

166for two as a cost-saving um mechanism. So, that is the only difference. And this is I want to just say we knew that Miss Macauen had to recuse herself. So, that's why it was not in the consent agenda. >> I And Mr. Morgan's not here tonight so I can't ask, but should I My husband works for UK Healthcare. Do I need to recuse myself? Okay. >> I think we ran into that before and you didn't have to. >> I didn't know. I couldn't remember what we ended up doing, so I just wanted to be transparent. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion passes four to zero. >> Mr. Chairman, I move we reserve. >> We have Yep. Thank you. Motion by Mr. Wilson. >> Second by Miss McCallen. All

167those in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes five to zero. Good night, everybody. >> Thank everybody very much.