6/9/25 Regular Board Meeting

001June 9th, 2025 finance committee meeting. Mr. Mlasha here. Miss Roy here. Mr. Tuier here. You have a quorum, Mr. Tuier. All right. Our committee meetings are broadcasting live. To access the stream, there's a video icon located in the online meeting agenda and a link is located on our district website, Facebook, and X, formerly Twitter. All right, first item up, discuss and approve the Ural Parish School Board monthly financial statement, including the income statement and the revenue and expense summary by fund through May 25. The reports include a comparison of budget to actual for each fund including a percent to goal per budgeted account within the funds. Do I have a motion? Motion by M. Roy, second by Mr. Mclasha. Mr. Stewart. All right. Good evening everyone. Uh, as it relates to our comparisons, which we're

002going to focus on revenues. Uh, the larger amount of the revenues that we see that are still um unreceived with special revenues particularly are internal transfers. those transfers are made uh from general fund to the corresponding funds at the end of the school year or at the end of our fiscal year which would be this month. Um as it relates to the other special revenues that we reimburse that we get reimbursed uh those are all be done after the fiscal year when those special revenue funds are closed. Um and they will all be reimbursed by July 15th and the bulk of that is roughly 3.4 million for those special revenue accounts. Uh of that if we spend 3.4 4 where we we will reimburse 3 we will ask for reimbursement for 3.4. If we spend

0033.1 3.2 we will ask for that. Um and that's some info regarding that line the agenda item. All right. Thank you Mr. Stewart. Any other comments by the audience? Comments by the board? All in favor? I pass unanimously. Item number two, receive an update in relation to the audit finding within the AUP report. Mr. Stewart. All right. So, for the first time in many years, I am I'm very elated to say that we are caught up with our reconciliations. Um, we are reconciled up to last month. Uh, which is significant as we go into our season of audit, as we wrap up this fiscal year. Um, I'm very uh very uh happy and and and want to congratulate the the entire team that worked on uh reconciliations and in particular congratulate Jessica Jones for uh

004the countless hours that she spent after work uh getting everything caught up. All right, thank you for that. Any comments? Audience board? It's not an action item. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion by M. Roy, second by Mr. Mlasha. We are journ. Thank you. Thank you. Building and grounds committee meeting June 9th, 2025. Miss George here. Miss Hickden here. Miss Holmes here. You have a quorum. Miss Hickden. Thank you. Our committee meetings are broadcasting live. to access the stream. There is a video icon located in the online meeting agenda and a link is located on our district website Facebook and X. Okay. Our first agenda item, our monthly work order status report. Mr. Cactelli, good afternoon everybody. Okay. on the month of May, they uh this the school had submitted 120 work orders.

005We've closed 116 and right now we got a little bit more because we had a good little push, but at the time of the report we had 37 left over. And if if you want, you can see I broke down the craft and where our majority of the work is coming from. And it's carpentry right now because we're changing boards and we're touching up walls and painting a little bit. So, it's going to be mainly carpetry right now. This is when we go in there and clean up everything. Great. And that's it. Okay. Any questions from the audience, the board? Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Uh the next item, project planning list. All right. So, if we go um I'm going just go real quick with a couple of these because a couple of these things

006have just waiting on to be finished. Cafeteria renovation at Crescent. We still waiting on some locks and keys to come in. The hot water heater was in was installed already. Was working on the punch list. The library right now, we just walked in there. They started already today. They're starting to paint in it right now. Everything's cleared out. They're going to start the floor soon. And the learning center initiation process, but I am working on the demo to get that building demoed out before we start. Do cafeteria. We were working on the installation of that new tank. We got it put in. The firewater and plumbing is about 90% done. That should be wrapping up here shortly. East Iberville Elementary and the fieldhouse that we keep talking about, they are progressing. We're waiting on Energy

007right now to install a power pole and so they can install the transformer. I want y'all to understand, we talked to Energy. There is a long lead item is a transformer. Luckily, they already ordered this one, but on any future projects that's coming, the transformer that comes from energy right now has 72 to 100 week lead time. So, we we will be um looking at energy to speed this thing up, but we're at the their call on that one. There's nothing we can do. Just wanted to make y'all aware right now. We don't have a problem with it, but in case any future big projects that would need this transform from energy, it is a 72 to 100 week lead time. All right, parking lot improvements, dirt work has begun. Demos on the ground, demo

008of the ground, scraping the ground is about 75% at the time of the report. It's it's coming very along very well. We had great weather so far, so they're moving pretty good. The welding and pipe fitting classroom. Um, the design is almost complete. I had I got a 50% here because we were waiting on some things from the architect and engineer. I did reach out to them. We talked to them today. Josh and I fire marshall has approved everything, pre-approved everything. We're waiting on the exact power source that we're going to need because we need to upsize that building or that area so we can run all this new equipment. And that should be coming out. I'm trying to get that for the 4th of the the July 14th board meeting to ask for permission

009to advertise. We we should be okay. I just got to um work on some the power and stuff is the big problem. Um the office remodel, they have started it. That's going that's going to that's starting to move pretty quick. We did add some more stuff on there. Um and we talked about it. We rewalked everything uh yesterday with I mean I'm sorry um Thursday with them. So, they're rocking and rolling. Eastville baseball softball you will see out today and we're going to ask you if we can advertise it. If we do advertise, it's going to advertise in June. And the old fieldhouse demo, it does have asbesus and lead in it. We have a company that we're working with that's a part of our system already. It's Win Whites Group and they are engineer

010on the asbes asbesus and lead abatement engineers for that job. So, we're working with them to get this done. Abraville Elementary pro uh the perimeter fence. We will go off for an RFP on I mean I'm sorry request for quotes on that one here pretty soon. I'm waiting for one more design to come in and then I am waiting for the um aluminum fence quote because you're going to have your perimeter fence is the black poly vinyl and then the aluminum fence. MSA West Academy is the same thing. I'm waiting for the quote to come back for the aluminum fence. As soon as it comes back we can progress on this. So, this should be coming up pretty shortly. MSA West Academy, the prek and admin edition. As you can see, um we're moving really,

011really good on that. They started all the exterior bricks done, shingle roofs done above ceilings, uh MEP's done. They're working right now on the first coat of paint. Uh let's see, went Thursday. They had a meeting over there and they just they're progressing on that side. The other side of it, the admin edition started already. They started the demo process already. They did have some fire marshall review issues that we had to address. Um that all got addressed and we're moving forward on it. The driveway improvement, the design's done, the bid was done. The they did start it and they I think right now they demoed everything and they're going to start scraping ground and getting back to the soil samples and and then we're going to start adding everything. So, we're going to start

012going back with everything pretty shortly. Classroom building G at North. It's a long list of things. If y'all got any questions, just ask me because I mean it's looking good. It's going very well. And as well as that is the elevator on the main building. You'll see it. It's also on here. All righty. Northville football. We're waiting on the scoreboard to be installed. It was delivered. We can't install it because we got some ground work to do and before we and it's it has we're dealing with some irrigation systems. So once that gets approved by the state department, we're going to go ahead and get that done and then install the scoreboard. But it is on site. Uh Northville, the football field's doing fantastic. The bleachers were delivered. Um they y'all can see there's, you

013know, a lot's going on over there right now. But if you have any questions, please let me know as you read through this list. Plaimman High, the parking lot has been, as you seen, has been scraped, demoed, and they started staking everything out where the new concrete is going to be poured. The kitchen rens, everything was accepted, and they're starting to move equipment and all their stuff this week. Band room, I put this on here. The design phase is not done yet, but this is just a reminder. We still have it on our list to do, but and we're all working it. We just got to get some of these things either finished or or start progressing even um closer to finish line. The CIA HVAC system upgrade is almost complete. I got 75% on

014this because at the time of the report it was about 75, but I think we're about 90% right now and we're going to start doing a punch list item pretty quick. The twostory the second story building of here is design phase is about 50 to 60%. We're still waiting on some electrical stuff to come in and we're going to work towards that one here shortly. All right, here's the one that everybody's been asking about is the multia campus greenhouse project. We are doing at four campuses. Design phase is done. It's the same exact design at each site. I'm waiting on location on three different sites right now. We want to have enough location so we can add to it and that's kind of tricky at some sites. So, we're working towards that. I talked to

015Dr. V. I talked to Mr. Brian and we're we're just we're moving forward with it. We're probably going to see it uh July 14th. We'll probably come to permission to advertise on it also. Okay, great. Thank you. Any questions, board members? Mr. Mlasha? Yes. Uh Evan, do you know if the engineers have any new information to share as far as the cafeteria at MSA West as far as a location? Um adding on I I know, excuse me, last meeting we talked about it. They just at the time they didn't they didn't have any information. They they needed to go back to the drawing board a little bit more, which is a tough deal. Yes. uh when we when we did the walk through, it's just it's it's they have some problems. Yes, sir. We I

016haven't touched base with them on that. We were trying to get some of this other stuff going and and finished up. The last we heard about it, the the area that we wanted to do messed up our drainage system and it kind of messed up the way things flew and and if we were to put it there, it would cause other issues. So, I I'll reach back out to the um architects and stuff and see where we at with it. And I want to respond. I have had conversations with uh Fusion in regards to that. We know we need more seating space. The kitchen is is fine, but seating space is the issue. The spacing in the way that the campus is is built is extremely challenging. One of the things that they spoke about,

017you know, when we first went there was converting the gym into a space for the cafeteria, but then there's no way to build a new gym, you know, and and they need that gym. Uh they can't get by with with just one gym for that entire campuses. One is used for the elementary side and one for the high school side. So scheduling wise, Miss Blanchard has done a great job of getting kids in and out of there, but as prek has expanded, that kind of presents a whole different set of of circumstances to deal with. We know it's still a priority. Trying to find a place to do it where it's not going to negatively impact other infrastructure is is really the biggest thing. So that's still on our list of trying to figure out

018the best solution once the admin piece is done with the new addition that we're doing now. That will allow us to kind of take a look at where we've got these portables at to determine whether or not we need to keep them there or if we can remove them. If we can remove them, that could potentially be a space to to feed maybe the the younger kids over there. But it it's on the radar. But that one is really a huge challenge. There's not too much really usable space for that on that campus. Okay, Mr. Tier. Yeah, I see Mr. Thompson here. Uh, did we get everything straight at Crescent with the grease trap and was it hot water tap? Everything's good. Yes, everything's going to be okay with it. What the hangup was whether

019or not if we're going to demo the Crescent building, the prek or not. And we decided yes, we are. So, the hot water was coming originally from that building because there is a restroom right there that had hot and cold water. So, we're going to tap in there. So, now we're going to we got to reroute it to the kitchen area. So, we're going to pick it up where the kitchen is and then just bore underneath the concrete and come straight up to the new dumpster pad. and then the grease trap looking at the interceptor instead of running the line that's there. It it didn't work as far as tying back into the old line and then rerouting it. So, we're going to put an interceptor right in the middle. There's a little grassy area

020right there. We're going to put probably put an interceptor somewhere in that area and all the grease is going to go there and then it's going to end up going into the as gray water going into the the septic system from that or the grease trap from there. Yeah, we're we're moving forward on it. We're just trying to get some pricing on a couple things. And the biggest thing was that hot and cold water. Since it's not going to that same building, we got to reroute it and start boring underneath the concrete or break up the concrete. And I think it's easier just to bore. But right there in that area is tough because that's where your electrical is at. So, we got to be very careful. All right. Perfect. Thank y'all for coming up

021with a solution for that. Yes, sir. We'll keep in touch. Any other questions? Uh, what's the timeline on the prek at MSA West? The building. The prek part should be I don't have it with me right now, but I'll get it back to you. But we're I I'd have to get back with you. I'll email you and let you know. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Any other questions? Okay. Item number three, discuss and approve granting permission to advertise two. What is this? 2525 MO2. Okay. The project number East Riverville High School Baseball and Softball Complex. The budget 5 million. May I have a motion? Motion by Miss Holmes, second by Miss George. Any questions? Yeah, I don't have any questions. Uh, the design for it is on here. Uh, we did hold a meeting with staff

022over at Eastville with their coaches, athletic director, and uh, principal as well that Tate was at and our engineers were at. Uh, and we're recommending moving forward with the process on this project. This um this includes um just let y'all know this includes our new standard for turf on athletic fields. So we we went to a standard for the football field and it was that that non-infield feel. It's pivot turf. So this is the new turf that we're going to use for this football field. It's a lot better for the kids and a lot better on the joints, a lot better on the heat and everything. And if if you if you want to, I can send y'all a link on these studies that they shown. So this is the best of the best for

023our kids and our players. So it's different from Plaeman High. Yes, ma'am. It is different. So Plaqueman High is the Plman High. The what? The first generation. And this is this is the this new stuff. So there's not that feel that goes in it. It's the same stuff we put in at at uh Northville. So it's that it's the same type of type of turf. is just going on the baseball and softball fields. And so how much of the field is going to be turf? The entire thing, right? Yeah. The entire the whole thing. Wildfield too. Yes, ma'am. The whole thing. Just like Blackman High. Just like Pikeman High. Yes, ma'am. When we get high not Yeah. We we had at at that time, right? Sure. Mr. George. So, is it for the baseball and

024softball that be turf? Yes. That's going to be our new standard from now on. Any other questions, comments from the audience, from the board? Okay. All in favor? Passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. I have a motion to adjourn. Miss Holmes, second by Miss George. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the Parish School Board meeting. I call to order the June 9th, 2025 regular schoolboard meeting. Our meetings are broadcasting live. To access the stream, there is a video icon located in the online meeting agenda and a link is located on our district website, Facebook, and exformally Twitter. Also, the meeting can be viewed on Cox Channel 21 every Saturday at 700 PM following the schedule board meeting. The schoolboard agenda can be found on our district website every Wednesday afternoon

025prior to the monthly board meeting. The public participation policy is located is posted on our district website and the front entrance next to the elevators. Thank you for following our policies. Roll call, please. Miss, Miss George, here. Mr. Abear here. Miss Hickden here. Miss Holmes here. Miss Laws here. Mr. Mlasha here. Miss Roy here. Mr. Tier here. Miss Williams, you have a quorum. Miss Los. Thank you. We will have reflections by Miss Pam George following a moment of silence. Please stand and remain standing until after the pledge of allegiance. [Music] Dear Lord, as we gather for this meeting, we ask for your presence to be with us. Guide our decisions and discussions that is best in the best interest of all for this district. Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States

026of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Miss George. And now we will have the Parish School Board vision statement by Mr. Davin Touier. With our families as partners, the Ibra Parish school system will provide equitable opportunities, academic excellence, and positive school environment so that every student thrives in the path that they choose. Thank you, Davin. Now, we will begin with tonight's recognition presentations. If there are any elected officials, please show a hand. Any elected officials? The first item, recognition of Miss Malaysia Hubert, a student at MSA East for winning the state championship in the 100 meters, 200 my sorry, my sorry, let me see 100 hurdles. 200 hurdles and 400 meters. Did I get that right, Tate? It's close

027enough. I'll get didn't sound right. I got it. Uh, last year she won the 100 meter hurdles. That's why it's up there. But Malaysia Huard is the daughter of Kimberly Brown and Lorenzo Huard. She is a student athlete at Easterville who attends MSA East. She is currently in 11th grade and holds a 3.6 GPA. So, not only is she an athlete, she's a very good student as well. Malaysia is the class A state champion in the 20400 meters. She had a personal best in the 200 at 24.56 and in the 400 at 55.62 to win the state championship in both events. And like I said, she also won the 100 meter hurdles last year. Everybody please give a round of applause for Miss Malaysia Hovers. [Applause] Second item, recognition of Miss Nazerie Johnson for completing

028the Louisiana Department of Education Aspiring Principal Fellowship. The Aspiring Principal Fellowship supports the development of aspiring school leaders across the state. The Louisiana Department of Education launched a pilot cohort in 2021-22 for aspiring principles and have continued the aspiring principal fellowship each year. This fellowship prepares us to up to 50 individuals with critical knowledge and skills needed to serve in the principal role. This selective statewide fellowship is rooted in Louisiana's priorities. APF cohort participates meeting during the school year to explore best practices with regional experts, participate in school visits, and reflect on leadership practices. Participants exit this fellowship with a robust leadership portfolio, the guidance of some of Louisiana's most successful principles, and a strong network of lifelong colleagues. Fellows explore the following topics. Observation and feedback cycles, accelerating learning, staffing and scheduling, instructional leadership

029teams, teacher collaboration, recruitment and retention, and school accountability. Congratulations to Miss Naserie Johnson, master teacher at North Aville Elementary, who completed the LDOE's Aspiring Leader Academy during the 2425 school year. Congratulations. Thank you. I just want to say a few little things. First of all, I thank God because I was going to be a speech pathologist because I saw the $80,000 uh price tag that go along that went along with being a speech pathologist. But God kept waking me up 3:00 a.m. in the morning with uh LRC LRC and I started that program as the inaugural program. I went up to do the interview. Had never taught a day in my life, but when I got there, I I felt at ease. I felt comfortable teaching. And from that point on, I've been going. And

030I thank God for what he has done in my life. And I also thank the parish because I left home a little upset, but came back and you have welcomed me with open arms. And I still have my boots on the ground ready to go. So anywhere I'm needed, I'm there. Anything I need to do, I'm there. But I love being in Ibraville. Thank you so much. Next, we will have the consent agenda, which is considered routine and will be enacted with one motion. Discuss and approve a condolence resolution to the family of Mr. Leonard Jackson, a retired teacher at East Pavville. Discuss and approve the May 12th, 2025 regular schoolboard meeting minutes. Discuss and approve the June 9th consent agenda as presented. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Mr. Mike

031Abear and I have a second from Mr. Miss Yolanda Holmes. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Miss Siraj machine please. Online B is now open. you. Okay, I'll put on the record. Thank you. Online vote is now closed. Passes unanimously. Next, we will have the superintendence report. Dr. Voron. Yes. Good evening. Uh we've got a few items on these updates this evening. The first one is I would like to introduce to you Miss Kendra Paul who is the new principal of Eastville Elementary and High School. Uh Miss Paul comes to us most recently from uh Point Cap Parish and has served a number of years uh as a school administrator in both Texas and Louisiana. Miss Paul. Um, first I want to thank God for this opportunity and I

032want to thank you guys, my interview panel, for seeing something in me that um, I knew was in me. Um, secondly, I want to say it's with great enthusiasm that I introduced myself as the principal of um, East Abraville High School Elementary High School. Um my goal for this year is to build uh the future together and my theme uh reflects uh our vision of staff, students, family and the wide community working in unison to construct an environment where everyone thrives. Um much like strong structures, our success will be built on foundations such as teamwork and trust among all stakeholders, high expectations for learners and behavior, and ongoing innovation and growth. and I feel together um as a community we can make this happen at Eville Eastville. Congratulations, Miss [Applause] Paul. We look forward to

033great things. On the next slide, we we just want to celebrate this. We got it on billboards. We posted it on social media. The class of 2025 earned $5.2 2 million in scholarships and TOPS awards. Uh that's $3 million more than the class of 2024. And if you divide that by the 275 students who graduated this year, it's pretty significant. As well as 626 dual enrollment college credits, 234 industry-based credentials. And we had four students who enlisted in the military out of that class. two of them into the National Guard, one into the Marines, and one into the Navy. Uh we definitely wanted to highlight our graduates. They they really did well. Our employee engagement survey was completed. All I have for you tonight are the the rates of completion. We just got all of

034the data back in our management meeting this morning. So, I'll give you more details uh at the July board meeting. I can tell you this, we are far exceeding the national average for all districts in the country with these participation rates. Uh and the results that we saw this year show good growth with those employee uh engagement indicators. Summer school started uh on June the 2nd. We have a total of 983 students enrolled in these various programs that you see listed uh in the presentation. For the last couple of years, we had about a thousand kids who enroll, but only about half of them to 45% will show up each day. Right now, we're averaging close to 65% showing up. Uh, and we definitely appreciate that improvement, but we want every kid that signed up

035for summer school to show up. And our summer school staff are working to get in touch with parents to try to make sure that they come. And here's some important dates for uh the next few weeks uh for your information as a board. Uh that concludes my updates for this month. Okay. Thank you. Next, we will have governor's business uh discuss and approve the June did the June 9th finance committee meeting recommendations. There were two items on the agenda. One was an action item, one item passed. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Mr. Mario Mlashia and I have a second from Miss Polly Hickden. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Miss Raj Machine, please. Online voting is now open. Online voting is now closed. Passes

036unanimously. The next item is discuss and approve the June 9th, 2025 buildings and grounds committee meeting recommendation. There were three items on the agenda. One was an action item. One item passed. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Miss Terresa Roy and I have a second from Miss Yolanda Holmes. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Miss Raj Machine, please. Online voting is now open. Online vote is now closed. Passes unanimously. Next we have finance and business operation. The first item is to discuss and approve the 2025 2026 master salary schedule as presented. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Miss Yolanda Holmes and have a second from Mr. Davin Tuier. Are there any comments? First, we'll have a discussion by Dr. V. Uh,

037Mr. Stewart and I have been working on this following the last board retreat that we had and the action that you all took at the May uh board meeting. So, just to to summarize tonight, you already approved the $4,000 across the board pay raise at the last meeting. So that would be reflected in all of the salary schedules listed in the master salary schedule. You also approved increasing the hourly rate for student workers and for support staff substitute employees that were hired through Kelly services and time card power professionals from $10 to $15 an hour. That's reflected in the document attached in your agenda tonight as well. You also approved the safe school stipen at the last board meeting that will be included in those notes towards the back of the book. Other items for

038your consideration tonight in approval of the salary schedule. We had a lengthy discussion at that last retreat uh in regards to the differential of pay for teachers and staff who are master's degrees. We currently have in the salary schedule two different ways for that compensation. Uh to be in compliance with the law, we have to have a salary schedule that reflects experience, demand, and performance, you know, and our salary schedule of course has that. the mast's part of it. In general, prior to this recommendation, there was a $840 differential in salary from mast's to or bachelor's to masters and then from masters to plus 30 to specialist to doctorate a,50 for each increment. The recommendation and what's reflected in uh the salary schedule attached is increasing that differential from bachelors to masters to $1,500 as

039opposed to $840. And also in the current master salary schedule, the demand component was a range of $700 to $1,300 if you had a master in an area related to the assignment. We're recommending that we we don't have a range because it it really doesn't matter if you're at year six or year 20. If the master is there to help you do your job, then the number of years is really irrelevant. We're recommending that that stipen be increased to $2,000. that would also be reflected on the uh salary part that for people who are not paid on the teacher salary schedule which is a small group of support employees in the district. The salary schedule recommendation also includes uh another item that was brought up in the retreat which has to do with caps. Uh

040this is on page five of the salary schedule when it comes to high school and middle school coaching. Uh you kind of were penalized if you were doing two things and the two factors exceeded what the cap was. So that recommendation for athletic director, high school coach, and middle school coach would eliminate that penalty if you were doing more than one. And then the last item is on page get to the page now. It's a little further in for co-curricular or extracurricular club sponsorship stipen. We are recommending that you separate out, this is on page 19, the theater sponsors uh to a $2,400 stipen as opposed to the $1,200 for the other club sponsor stipens, but there has to be a minimum of three performances after hours each year. uh our theater individuals who've been

041doing this at MSA West in particular uh they have had these performances and with this recommendation then it would require that if anyone's going to qualify for that it can't be just one after hour activity to qualify they have to have three and Mr. Stuart, I unless I miss something, I I think that is comprehensive of everything that we're recommending for the next salary schedule that will go into effect on July 1st. Okay. Uh any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Miss Higgin? Yes. I I would just like to say that I couldn't be more pleased with these pay increases. I think our employees deserve probably deserve more and hopefully someday we can we can do that. But right now I feel like we have um we've done a really good job

042in in increasing uh the stipens and increasing the salary and I'm very pleased. Thank you. Anyone else? Any comments from the board? And I I'll just make this final comment before you all vote. Uh thank you all for your support for the work that we've been doing uh in this area. Uh our folks absolutely deserve as much as we can give them and I appreciate you for for you supporting this. Without you know you taking these votes in this arena then I can't do these things on my own. This is a part that you do have to approve. So I thank you very much. You're welcome. And I think we all as a board is very excited to give these increases and raises to our staff. Thank you all for the hard work that you

043all do. Um Miss Raj machine please. Online button is now open. Online B is now closed. Passes unanimously. The second item is to adopt and approve the amended budget for fiscal year 2025. Do I have a motion? Have a motion from Miss Teresa Roy and I have a second from Miss Polly Hickden. Mr. Stewart. All right. Good evening again everyone. The amended budget or budget revision agenda item has been brought forth to remain compliant with the state and audit policies in accordance with the audit compliance guidelines. We must remain within the 5% variance and that includes our revenues and expenditures. Uh this particular item is usually brought up with the budget adoption. Uh but because we we have been dinged so to say in not having it done before the turn of the fiscal year,

044I have to separate that out and ensure that we can a vote on it before the fiscal year changes. Um and that's what this is. Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Are there any comments from the audience? Comments from the board? Maj is now open. Online vote is now closed. Passes unanimously. Next we will have curriculum instructional campus operation. The first item on the agenda is to discuss and approve Head Start policy council agendas, minutes, reports, and handouts. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Mr. Mario Mlashi, and I have a second from Miss Pam George. Miss Hickden, thank you, Mrs. Law. Can you start rolling the attachments, please? Thank you. Okay, great. Um, unfortunately at Iberville Elementary, we had three possibilities for a member on our council and we still have no representation.

045I'm certainly hoping that will change next year. We have several several pages of our spring benchmark um data. And just to give you an example, um, our three and four year olds for letter identification in the fall was 20% in the spring was 80%. That's just one example of the growth in in this in all the skills. The testing team for the spring is different from the fall and the winter. It can consist not of the classroom teacher but the master teacher, an interventionist or anyone the principal designates to do the um the testing. So there's there's a lot of reason behind that and has seemed to work very very well in lately. Um our instructional support continues to be approaching proficient. Our emotional support in classroom organization scores are excellent and high proficient. The

046instructional support that is probably the most difficult to get an excellent and high proficient but we're very close. We're very close. There were policy revisions. Um yeah, policy revisions and there will be no Head Start council meetings in June and July. attached is the behavior management policy, the safety monitoring, and of course, what's written in red has been deleted. Uh there have been thankfully no concerns for our safety monitoring in April because this is a month behind. Um we unfortunately we still have issues with biting with our babies. Um, lots have been we've been doing a lot the staff has been doing a lot to address that and it's it's an ongoing issue. We have 98% attendance, 94% enrollment. Um, our enrollment did not change from last month. We have round three registration which began

047May 5th and the acceptance letters were sent home for for uh that. We also have what's happening in family services, our mental health report, our fiscal report, and our specialist report. Thursday, August 28th is our next meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Hickden. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Maj is now open. I know it's it's slow. Got it. Do you want to just say it for the No, I got it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Online voting is now closed. Passes unanimously. The second item on the agenda is to receive a report on English language proficiency test results. Miss Martin. Hey y'all. So last summer um myself and a couple of team members spent some time learning a new assessment, some new standards, a new language, and I couldn't

048be more pleased to share the outcomes of that work. So uh a little bit about what our district is embarking on as we center the experiences of students learning English in our schools. Um, first things first, as you can see, we actually picked up about 30 students into this program from the beginning of the year to the end. And it's likely that that will continue in the other four districts participating in this partnership. We've seen similar trends. Um, so students have moved around a little bit from different areas, but we've picked up several kids. Um, we've gained, like I said, more than 30. Um, and our district responded to that in the best ways. Um, you guys found money for us to be able to purchase um, curriculum assessment programs. I know you can see

049all those things up there, but just like in our core subjects, we want to make sure that teachers have the right materials to put in front of students to help them be successful. Uh, we made this happen for our students who are learning English in our schools as well. and um at Iberville Elementary, which was our pilot site for this district. For a little bit of context, each of the districts that I'm working with chose a site to kind of be the pilot where I spent most of the time and worked the most closely with the teachers. We actually set up a learning uh language lab at Immville Elementary and we'll be modeling some of the things we learned there at the other schools throughout the district. Um, the English language proficiency test is something

050that I have to own as a principal. I didn't know enough about and I'm excited to have the opportunity now to share it with more principles so we can make great choices for kids. But it works differently from other assessments. Um, there are four domains connected to it. Um, speaking, listening, reading, and writing pretty much the way that we all communicate. Um, and students have to show growth across all four of those domains. and they actually have to get to um a level four proficiency level before they test out of the services and we can say, "Yep, we feel like you're ready to be fully worked into campuses." So, these kiddos are not just learning math, social studies, science, and things like that in school. They are also learning how to communicate at a very

051elevated level. And I couldn't be prouder to share some of the data in just a second. Um the just so you have a point of reference um we normally hear words like basic or mastery or advanced when we talk about data at these types of meetings the words that we want to listen for when we talk about the ELP are emerging and that's the very beginning progressing which actually the state divides into three levels. So there's P1, P2 and P3. Um, and then finally, proficient. And when students hit the proficient category in all four domains, that's when we start talking about transitioning them out of the program. So, if you can share the next slide. Super pumped. Couldn't be prouder of these kids. Um, last year our ELP proficiency rate was just 6% and we

052more than doubled it, bringing up to 14%. Um, that's six kiddos who worked their tails off. um and at different levels that they began with completely acquired English language skills that's competitive with or even exceeding that of their English speaking peers. We saw a 10% increase in the number of our students um that we had in 2024 who met their trajectory targets for 2025. We have some other kiddos that we think did the same, but because they weren't on our rosters last year, we want to make that official before we share it proudly with you guys. But seeing a 10% uptick already in the kids that we have meeting very rigorous targets that we don't set at the school level, the state sets that for us and in some cases that involves jumping like three

053or four proficiency levels in order to hit the target depending on how long they've been in the program. So really, really special for that. I think I'm the most proud of this bullet and one on the next slide, though. We saw a 30% decrease in the number of students who showed no improvement. Anybody who knows me knows that I value growth. And we finally are beginning to see kids who are not staying stuck. They are finding ways to learn and communicate, listen, speak right, all of those wonderful things. Almost a third decrease. Um on the next slide, couple more little facts. 56% of Ibraville students who were honor rosters from last year grew by at least one EP ELP language domain. Remember I told you there's four domains. Um to hit trajectory targets a lot

054of times kids have to grow on all four. It's really rigorous. But we are really proud that more than half of our kids again the kids that we had last year and still have this year more than half of them grew in at least one area. And once we get the official rosters um and cleanup is finished, some kids that we acquired from other districts, we know that they grew a good bit, too. So, we'll update you accordingly. And this is that other bullet I told you I'm like the second most excited about. We track progress in this um on this assessment. We track how kids do like over extended periods of time. Learning English is not easy. I've been trying to learn Spanish for a whole year and I get stuck at like noada.

055I'm not good at it. learning language is hard, right? Um and so kids, particularly in the middle and high school levels, they tend to get stuck and sometimes for years and years at a time. Um but in this district this year, we saw a decrease 32% almost a whole third of kids who'd been stuck for three or four or more, one child at the same level for six years finally grew. and to have that confidence coming into the learning space and seeing how that translates into their ability to ask questions um share their concerns and fully engage in the campuses where they're attending school has been really really special for our team. One more I think maybe two um some just really really basic highlights because I know the other districts like to tell their

056stories just like we like to tell ours. I'm very proud to report that in West Baton Rouge, their ELP proficiency level uh or rate increased from 12% to 19%. We had set a goal of 17% so we were pumped when two more kids cross that line. I'm really excited about that work. Um the little school that I work with in Bachelor, Louisiana, I didn't even know that was a place and now I go there pretty regularly and I've fallen in love with that little community. um they finally for the first time ever got to celebrate one of their students transitioning out of receiving services and it was really really special for the kiddos but I'm going to say it was more special um for the teachers to see that when they lean in and do

057some of these things make time for kids to speak and listen within the classroom experience really big doors open for kids. Um, finally, moving forward as we think about expanding this. The work in all four districts is kind of taking a similar path. Um, we're not just going to work with pilot sites in the four spots. We will be expanding out so that more campuses get um, coaching and access to some of these materials. The ELE instructional planning support that I I was specifically providing to teachers when I visited their campuses is going to shift to me working with master teachers and other districts call them instructional coaches so that they can then take that learning back to their sites and integrate it into other professional development that's already occurring. And my work will then

058be to support them in walkthroughs and ways to monitor progress as they introduce these ideas. And finally, I'm really excited about this. We will be putting in the hands of all um schools, principles, counselors, etc. newcomer starter kits that will allow for us to have really great visual communication for new students and their teachers right from the get-go. So, even before we have the opportunity for folks to exchange um spoken word, we'll be able to have some really important basic communication plans in place as soon as kiddos are um arriving. So, thank you for the opportunity to share. Um, I'm not sure if there's any questions. I'd be happy to answer them if you do, Miss Polly. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Martin. Where are most of our Ibraville students? You said we have 30.

059Where are most of our students? Well, we've picked up 30. We actually have about um between 70 and 80 is the number right now. There's some movement back and forth. The majority of the students right now are primarily at Ibraville Elementary. Um, but that also sometimes changes. MSA West has several students. They're crossed across they're they're kind of spread across more grade levels. So, we sometimes don't realize how many students are enrolled there. Um, but it's pretty cool to have see the growth happening at Villa Elementary and how the campus has kind of seen this as a population that brings a unique perspective to the school. Thank you, Dr. Bryan. Yeah, I I just want to thank Miss Martin uh for her work and Miss Oakley who is our e teacher in the district as

060well. Last summer we we approached you about developing this consortium and Miss Martin's work uh because of the numbers in Iberville Point Capi West Bat Rouge and U Academy. So we've got a charter school that's part of this with us. None of us really had enough students to do this kind of work just in one place, but we all had more than enough to to share in the cost of this type of programming. So, we we're going to continue that consortium into next year. The three other school districts are seeing the same. We don't have numbers yet for U Academy. But what's happening with this too is the way that Miss Martin is is presenting this at the school she's working in is these are strategies that can help any kid. You know, not just

061our non-speaking uh English, you know, population, but they can help any kid. And so we look forward to this continued work uh and our work together with with our neighboring parishes with this as well. So thank you. Dr. B, can you um just in case the audience don't know what ELT program is? So English language proficiency test. Uh so every school district in the United States when we enroll students who do not speak English as a first language, we are obligated to get them to learn how to speak English. And so our students uh in Louisiana really haven't progressed that well. And with the new accountability system that's coming into place, that population, although for us it may be a very small population in Jefferson Parish is probably who knows, I don't know 40 or

06250% of their population is uh e, but it's a much bigger component of accountability in Louisiana uh to make sure that what we're obligated by federal law to do, we're Any other comments for Miss Martin? Thank you very much, Miss Martin. Appreciate the data. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. The third item on the agenda is to discuss and approve the local pupil progression recommendations. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Mr. from Mike Abear and I have a second from Miss Pam George. Miss Johnson, good evening again. The pupil progression plan provides a comprehensive plan for student promotion and placement. The purpose of the district plan is to supplement the minimum standards approved by Bessie without conflicting with state and our federal guidelines or regulations. Our pupil progression committee met on

063April 10th and reviewed all recommendations made by employees and the public from a survey that was conducted during the month of March. Tonight, we are recommending the revisions the committee agreed upon for the local portion of the plan. In August, after the close of the legislative session, we'll bring the entire plan for approval. You know, if there's any new laws that have to be put into place then. So the first revision in your packet is the annual account for the number of days students must be present which is 159 days this upcoming school year and just to change the school year from 2024 25 to 2526 and also the committee is recommending for this section the language that is in blue to address truency. Students would now be required to attend attendance recovery to make

064up miss days. So if students are in kindergarten and first grade, they would have to make up two hours of attendance recovery and that would equal a full day of attendance. And students in second through 12th grade would have to come to four hours of attendance recovery to make up a day missed. And this is to help in our efforts to combat truency, which we have been working on the entire school year. The second recommendation is just applies to MSA West. The language used to state certain subjects for electives would receive letter grades. Now the all electives will receive letter grades and that's because now we're offering more electives than just what was listed in the plan. So this will encompass all of the electives. For the third recommendation, this is to add language regarding

065grade placement in high school to take into account the tops tech jumpstart career diploma. Before it only addressed the university track diploma. The English and math options for grade placement were expanded to include the English and math courses taken by students that are pursuing tops or the jump start technical career diploma. And the final recommendation um is how grades are entered. So key changes in the grading system system, we will be changing from a quantitative or percentagebased grading system to a quality point system. And under this revised policy, major subjects for students in grades 1 through 12th grade will now be assigned letter grades A, B, C, D, or F. And for each of these letter grades, they will correspond with with a specific number of quality points. For example, an A is equal to

066four, a B is equal to three, C is equal to two, D is equal to one, and an F is zero quality points. The only exception to this would be higher level courses, which are dual enrollment or advanced placement, and they would follow that college and university grading policy. And underneath that would be Miss Bailey, if you can scroll scroll down some more. Underneath that is methods for obtaining the grades. Um to reduce inflation of grades, daily participation and conduct will not be part of independent grades. Um we will have four major at least four major but no more than six major assessments in a nine-week period and at least five minor assessments. So at least nine assessment grades would be in there. The major assessments would account for 70% of the grade and the

067minor assessments will account for 30% of the grade. Any questions for Miss Johnson from the audience? Any questions from the board? Dr. I just want to to reiterate these are the recommendations that are coming from our local pupil progression committee only. We have a committee of educators, committee of parents. We had the meetings for that did surveys to get feedback and so forth. The state department of education has not released their template yet for the 2526 pupil progression plan. So at some point later on once they do that with whatever changes the state is going to to mandate we will be bringing you back to approve the entire book for pupil progression. But for these local ones that we've got full autonomy over, we need to bring this to you and and and get your

068decision on it. So with changes that you do approve, we can get ourselves ready to implement long before our teachers come back to work uh in August. Okay. Um Miss Raj Machine, please online is now open. Online voting is now closed. Passes unanimously. Next, we will have new business. The first item is to discuss and approve naming the Eastville School basketball court after Mr. Robert Grace senior as recommended by the naming of facilities committee. Do I have a motion? Have a motion from Miss Teresa Roy and I have a second from Miss Yolanda Holmes. Mr. Tate Dupont. Yes. Following schoolboard policy, we advertised that there was a recommendation to name the court after Coach Grace. I received several emails back in support of naming the court after after Coach Grace, and I did not receive

069any other names or no negative comments on naming the court after Coach Grace. So, I'm going to tell you a bit little bit about Coach Grace, and then I'll let y'all decide on a vote. Coach Robert H. Grace senior will always be the cornerstone of Sunshine High School and East Everville High School. Both remain dear to his heart. He performed many roles during his years at Sunshine High School and Eastville High School. Whether it was a teacher, coach, guidance counselor, assistant principal, mentor, mentor, father figure, etc. Coach Grace finished his coaching career with 422 wins, 160 losses, 13 district championships, four Louisiana High School Athleta Athletic Association top 28 state basketball tournament appearances, along with numerous coach of the year awards. Robert H. Grace, Senior began his teaching and coaching career at TA Levy High

070School in Rosedale, Louisiana in 1967. While at TA Levy High School, he coached all sports during his three-year tenure there. This was only the beginning of an illustrious coaching career. In the fall of 1969, he transferred to his alma mater, Sunshine High School, as an assistant coach for boys basketball and baseball. In 1975, he became the head boys basketball coach, head baseball coach, and started the first football program at Sunshine High School. So, he was the head coach of three sports all in the same school year. The following year, he coached the boys basketball team to their first ever appearance in the LHSA top 28. Over the years, Sunshine High became a traditional powerhouse in boys basketball. In 1982, Sunshine High discontinued its football program program and the school changed to a class B school.

071He continued to be a powerhouse. They continued to be a powerhouse in basketball. In 1983, Coach Grace and his team was one of two teams to defeat defeat the eventual state champion and pass rival White Ha Castle High School under the direction of Hall of Fame coach John Bush. In 1989, he revived the football program and bought it brought it back to Sunshine High School. In the fall of 1990, Sunshine High School became East Ibraville Elementary and High School. Coach Grace continued to serve as athletic director, head football coach, head boys basketball coach, and head baseball coach. In 1992, Coach Grace relinquished his duties as head football coach. In 1994, he relinquished his duty as head basketball coach. Coach Grace continued to serve as athletic director and head boys basketball coach until 1996 when he

072officially retired from coaching, but he pursued a role in administration and became the assistant principal at Eastville High School. So you can tell that he spent a whole lot of time coaching at Sunshine in Eastville and he's definitely definitely should be rewarded with the court named bad in his name. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Mr. garage machine, please. Online voting is now open. Sorry, Miss Holmes. I just I just want to say um Coach Grace hired me as a lifeguard at Plagma swimming pool. I was a lifeguard. Thank you. Absolutely. Online B is now open. Online voting is now closed. Passes unanimously. [Applause] his daughters would like to come up and say a few words. Good evening everyone. Good evening. I have my siblings

073with me. This is my sister Rochelle and this is Robert Jr. Um we have a message from our father. I am honored and deeply humbled by the school board decision named the gym floor after me. This is a moment I would cherish forever. Not only because it recognizes my coaching career, but it symbolizes the strong bond I share with the Eastville community. East High School and Sunshine community have been my home for decades. He served like um coach Deon said, he served in several roles serving the community, but each part was a journey, but coaching always was a special part in his heart. Even though reflecting on his wins and his losses, all of his accomplishments, nothing was more important. It tells a story that's more important that the incredible young athletes who he trusted,

074challenged himself, and grew not only as his players, but as people. He is proud of all his accolades and the honors, including the coach of the year recognitions. But his greatest achievement is seeing those that he has coached including my brother and taught grow into competent, compassionate and su successful adults. This is the true legacy of coaching. The gym floor will ever remind him and hope that all who enter that success is built on commitment, respect and community spirit. He is grateful beyond words to be a part of this legacy and to know that his name will forever be ever stand and be a symbol of perseverance, pride and generate for generations to come. Again, he thanks the school board, the administration, his colleagues, his athletes, and the families who have supported him throughout the

075years. Together, we have made Eastville a place where champions are made, not just on the court and life. Thank you, Robert H. Grace, Senior. And on behalf of our father, we like to thank everyone who showed up tonight to support our father. We have several family members here, family and friends. Please allow them to stand. Please stand. [Applause] And it's it's truly that he was building a basketball team because he has six grandsons, one granddaughter, and three great grandsons. We only have one girl, Kaitton. Kaitton was the only one. Um, also we would like to thank the Delta Talk chapter of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity for coming out tonight and all of his former students and players. Again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a long time coming. [Applause] Dr. Voron and Mr. Grace

076con congratulations on this honor. When when I first saw the bio, it was quite impressive and quite deserving of this honor tonight. uh you have left a legacy in this parish as you can see in in the room tonight with not just the east side but the entire parish uh is out here supporting you and beyond. Thank you for your service and what you've done for our community as a whole and for the amount of time that you spent at Sunshine and Eastville. and we will have a a ceremony uh at some point when basketball season starts to uh to have that name placed on that court for you. So again, congratulations. [Applause] Uh I just want to say he was my high school principal. I know you didn't think I'd ever get here. Thank

077you all. The second item that we have on the agenda is to discuss and approve removing a monastery program from the name of Ibia Elementary School. Do I have a motion? We have a motion from Miss Py and I have a second from Miss Pam George. Dr. Voron. Yes. The board took action several years ago when Monasuri was implemented at Ibraville Elementary. Over time, uh it's been phased out and as of the end of the 2425 school year, we no longer will have monastery programming at all. So we need to have the name of the school go back to Ibraville Elementary School. Okay. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Miss Raj Machine please. Online B is now open. Online B is now closed. Passes unanimously. The Grace family, please

078feel free if y'all like to take some pictures over on the right side, please feel free on out. Thank you kindly. The the third item on the agenda is to discuss and approve the updated cooperative agreement between Debville Parish School Board and the Iraville Sheriff Office for School Resource Officers. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Mike Abear and I have a second from Mr. Mario Mlashi. Dr. Voron, Miss Blanchard will present this first. Okay. We were notified um at the beginning of May that the Eastville City Council decided that and voted in favor of terminating the contract that we presently had with St. Gabriel Police Department. They provided two police officers, one at East Ibraville and one at MSA East. they decided that they no longer wanted to provide that service

079to us. So, they voted at their May board meeting to dissolve the contract. Um, we received from Mayor Johnson the letter stating such and so the superintendent and I contacted the sheriff and the sheriff has agreed to provide two additional police officers. So, we'll have 11 sheriff's department deputies assigned to our schools. Um, and we will actually also have one additional crossing guard which will be on Bowie Street in White Castle. Um, because we have the a lot of children who do walk to school across that highway there. Um, that will begin at the start with the start of the new school year once this contract is approved. And Dr. Voy, yes, Miss uh, Caroline Leu, got to get the pronunciation right. And Mr. Lou Deah worked on this uh new agreement over time. You

080had an original agreement and then it's been revised and revised and new schedules coming in with salaries and so forth. So we asked them to draft a completely new amended agreement to to capture uh what we actually will have with the sheriff's office. Uh so thank y'all very much. If you have any technical questions, they're here to to answer. Any questions from the board? Any questions from the audience? Thank you, Miss Brandy. Miss Siraj machine, please. Online B is now open. Online voting is now closed. Passes unanimously. Uh item number four is to discuss and approve adopting a resolution accepting the granting of a predo servitude by Edward Jgay planning and manufacturing company. LLC and authorizing the board president to execute a servitude agreement effectuating the granting of the servitude. Do I have a motion?

081I have a motion from Mr. Mario Mlashi and I have a second from Mr. Davin Tuier. Dr. Thoron. Yes. Uh Mr. Jesse Thompson is here. He is the civil engineer on that particular job. if you got technical questions. But in summary, half of that driveway falls on the property line. So half of it on ours and half of it's on the EJ Gay Company's property. This is all of the legal paperwork to give us the servitude for the work that's being done over there at no cost to the school district. Uh as far as the the usage of the land, uh when it was surveyed, that was discovered and Mr. Thompson took care of what needed to get done on the the legal side. As you know, this was one of these repair things we

082brought to you. That was unexpected, but it it really had to get done immediately. So, uh if you don't have any questions and I'm just recommending your approval. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Any questions from the Any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Major is now open. online vote is now closed. Passes unanimously. Item number five is to discuss and approve a resolution to authorize the school board president to execate to execute sale documents to sell land owned by the parish school board to the parish council. Do I have a motion? I have a motion for Mr. Mario Mlashi and I have a second from Miss Terresa Roy. Dr. Ron, th this is just the first step of a lengthy process. Uh we've discussed this for probably about a year now with

083the potential sale of the plaza building. Uh the first step is for you to authorize the the school board president to begin executing these types of documents. Uh Mr. Deah and Miss Leu have been working on uh the documents and the resolution attached as well. The parish council has several steps more that they would have to take uh because it actually isn't the library that would be doing this purchase. It would be the parish council. So, they've got to do resolutions, ordinances. I think they've got to do a public hearing. Uh and we've got to update the appraisal on it as well because the appraisal was done about uh eight or nine maybe 10 months ago. So, uh, again, this is going to, if it all makes its way through, we are relocating temporarily, uh,

084the personnel that's at Plaza Drive with the plan in eventually to get the second floor in usage here at this building, which it it it something needs to be done on that floor. you know, was just sitting there collecting uh other things. Uh and we need to have human beings in that floor, right? Uh but at any rate, uh if you've got technical questions, we've got the attorneys here. Uh otherwise, I do recommend your approval. Okay. We want to thank our legal counsel. Are there any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Mr. Raj Machine, please. Online is now open. Online voting is now closed. Passes unanimously. Item number six is to discuss and approve the revisions to the school food service account clerk two three and a secretary 23 job descriptions. Do

085I have a motion? Have a motion from a first Miss Theresa Roy. And do I have a second? I have a second from Miss Polly Higen. Miss Anita Miller. Thank you. This is simply um coming to you to clean up the two positions that we have on here. Um for the account clerk, there was uh two items that were removed because it's not something that the account clerk will do or is doing on a daily basis. This is something that this person has never done and will not be asked to do. And then we added the one thing that was missing. Um it's in blue. Um where it speaks about deposit slips and um bank statements and checking for accuracy with in regards to the accounting side. The other job description is for the school

086food service secretary. There were several items in this job description that has never been performed by the school food service secretary and they are centered around accounting level items. So those items were removed and there were several items that were added in regards to assisting when needed in certain areas. So, we just wanted to make certain that the job description reflects what is needed in the department by those particular positions. And so, it's just a matter of cleaning up those two um job descriptions in the school food service department. So, I please ask that you um grant our request and approve those. Dr. Voron, and this is part of an ongoing process. I've sent you some communications and email. Uh last summer we brought you a whole bunch of job description with revisions on the

087certificated side and I've charged the uh finance department, all the operations departments on those support sides to revise job descriptions as needed to reflect what people are actually doing and taking off the things that they're not. Uh there has been a little restructure in the school food service department. uh once uh our school food service supervisor retired uh and Miss Miller's taken over those duties. So, we need these things to reflect what's actually happening and to keep up with some of the changes that take place with USDA uh as well. And this is just the beginnings of the operational side of this. uh maintenance may have some things coming later on and and so may finance to to make sure these job descriptions are actually accurate. I have a question. Yes. So on the um

088let me see which one this is. SC school food service accountant it says um prepares monthly reimbursements for school food services and it's marked out who actually does that. So it's report it's stated a different way in here. The monthly reimbursements are things that were happening at the supervisory level and we had accountants the other accountant that was responsible for doing it. So it was removed from that particular position and taken on as an administrative level position. And you'll see that a little bit in the next um the next but like right now before we make any changes who's doing it now I I am doing that I have assumed those responsib simply because the reimbursements is how we survive in school food service. If we do one wrong thing in regards to the reimbursements

089our funds will be jeopardized. And so you want this moved to an accountant position? No, it's enter an accountant position. It's It's in there now. I want it removed because that's not something that that this the accountant will do. Okay. All right. Any other questions from the audience and any questions from the board? Mr. R machine, please. Online Bon is now open. I got a I got a question. Is this I don't want to jump the gun, but I mean, is this going to affect somehow what we do on this next item? Yes. I mean, it is, right? Yes. So, I I I didn't think we could jump to the next item, right? But I don't I don't So do you clearly understand? Should I just I don't really No, I don't. Okay. I don't

090I don't I I I know it's like I don't So I I can speak I can speak about it. So the accountants as they stand now in the position, they don't do the reimbursements. the way that the positions are handled right now, the accountants that's there that the accountants that's in the room now, they handle all of the bidding and the invoices and the paying of bills, those types of things. The reimbursement piece will fall under me because of the level that's needed to make certain it's done and done accurately. The next position will offer assistance to it, but it will be solely my responsibility. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. Okay, that's right. That makes sense. I couldn't figure that out either because that seemed like an accountant piece to me and so one

091way or the other I'm responsible regardless. And at the end of the day, the the reimbursement piece is actually taking the meals that are served in the cafeteria and putting them into formulas to send to the state to get that reimbursement back. When the reimbursement comes back, the accountant will handle the reimbursement, but the process to get the ball rolling with the meals and stuff that I feel is a is a very critical position, a great very critical task to be handled in that department. And in the past, it's been handled by others and we've seen grave mistakes. And I'll leave it at that. And I I do want to clarify also It's called by title accountant, but it's technically an account clerk position, right? That those two there's two of those in that department

092do not require accounting degrees, do not require a degree, right, at all. Right. So whenever you know the opportunity may present itself then that's something that you know we've got to shift and look at because if we ever end up with a vacancy in one of those two spots we probably need to convert that to a account degreed position. Yes sir. I I understand that part of it. I just was confused because the the new creation looks more clerical to me than it does accounting. And so I couldn't understand moving that piece from accountant to clerical. Yeah. And it it when we get to the next one, you'll see it's to assist with it. But the responsibility has been taken from the full responsibility has been taken from the accountant andor any clerk or secretary.

093That's just how critical that that piece is. That's our bread and butter. Everything else we can we can shift, but if we don't get these claims right and get this money flowing into our department, we'll have a major problem. And just to to clarify, they're two separate items because one deals with existing job descriptions that are revisions, right? The the next item is a new job description. So, those really couldn't be bundled into one agenda item. Okay, I'm going to reopen the online voting. Thank you, Miss Kim. Online voting is now open. online vote is now closed. Passes unanimously. Okay. Uh item number seven is to discuss and approve the creation of the school food service administrative clerk 2 three and job description and revision and revise the master salary schedule to reflect the approved

094position. Do I have a motion? I have a motion from Miss Teresa Roy and I have a second from Miss Yolanda Holmes, Miss Miller. Okay. So, after serving as the boots on the ground leader for this particular department, it has been a challenging yet rewarding experience. However, I have found that in order to be more effective, we have to fine-tune some of the work that is being done to drill down to what we need in every job description. So if we can be more mainstream for specific work that we focus on, we can allow for cross trainining and utilize individuals that will positively impact and help us to create a career ladder for the food s school food service employees. This is not an additional position. This is a position that is being repurposed. For

095years, the district had an itinerant technician that was housed at the district office and utilized to go and assist various schools as needed. That position a year ago was used to fill a vacancy. And so I'm asking that the position be returned back and served as the capacity of um an administrative level clerk. In that job description, it's several things that we're asking for this individual to be responsible for. And one is assisting with the reimbursement. The other one is we are really struggling with ensuring that our warehouse and the things that we order and come in actually reach the school and we keep track of everything going in and out of our warehouse and into the schools. The other piece of this um of this particular position is to assist when equipment is down

096or maintenance calls are needed. This particular person would assist with that. Sometimes as early as 6 in the morning when these ladies get onto campus, they find issues with things. They're calling. They're trying to get things rectified. And I have we have in the department a secretary who comes in that handles her particular paperwork. We have an accountant that comes in to handle her particular paperwork. And then this particular piece is left void if not filled um directly by the supervisor position. And so in the past, it's been the supervisor that actually does a lot of this um fielding out and making certain that um things are are called in to maintenance or things are work orders are put in. But at this point in time, we have um no one doing that. And these

097ladies that are in those in this particular department are already working at full capacity. And Dr. Vron mentioned future um future reorganizations. There will be when the time presents itself and I can assure you of that. This is a position that I think will help um with our career ladder. It'll help with the efficiency of the department and I really feel like it is needed and when we get the right person in the position, our wheels will begin to turn more easily. So I ask that um you approve this position a repurposing of this position that's Dr. Zar and and to clarify a little bit further this is a new job description because this doesn't exist. We would not fill a vacancy in what's a school food service technician position. So, the number of employees

098in the school food service department does not change. There is about a $10,000 change in salary because that technician position is a 180day employee. This position will be a 12-month employee. This does not affect your general fund at all. This is funded through reimbursements from the federal US Department of Agriculture that we get. So there's no budgetary impact on the general fund. Any comments from the audience? Any comments from the board? Yes, I I do. I appreciate the the explanation uh Dr. Vyron and um Miss Miller and I spoke to Dr. Varon earlier today about this because I'm this concerns me because I am looking at this um this position as a new position. That's how I'm I'm looking at it. I'm I'm not looking at it like we're taking a technician who we don't

099have a person there. Uh understand we have we have a few technician positions available and that's a ninemonth and then we're creating a 12 month on a grade 20. Um I just find this very cumbersome and a little confusing and at this time I I I just don't feel like we need to create any positions. We have been very very generous to our employees. Um, very generous especially with our wonderful salary increases across the board. And I just feel if we add a position here, and I do believe we're adding a position, that's how I'm seeing it. We're going to go, you know, there's we have all kind of departments here. We could add one here. Everybody needs something. Everybody needs help somewhere. I just feel at this time I'm not seeing this um I'm

100just not seeing this as a repurposing. I'm seeing it as a creation because the agenda item does say create creation. That means new to me. So that's just how I feel about this position. And I and I'm having a little difficulty understanding a grade 20 if this is such an important position. Um, you know, that's that's a school bookkeeper. School bookkeeper has a grade 20. So anyway, it's confusing to me. It's um not clear to me. And this is just how I I look at this position. And I and I appreciate that. I just would like to say this this department does not have a leader. There's a vacancy in the school food service supervisor position that we have chosen not to fill. But there is a task there are several tasks that the school

101food service supervisor does that I am now doing in addition to everything else that I'm responsible for doing. So, I'm trying to pull out those things that are considered tedious things that I know another person can do and I not be actually tied to doing that all day every day. And I don't think that's fair to you. And I actually that's what I wanted to make sure that I had a clear understanding is that we didn't fill the supervisor position. So Miss Miller has been doing these duties since we haven't filled that position and also we hired a consultant but the consultant doesn't do these detail tedious tasks. No ma'am. So I think it's really unfair for Miss Miller to continue to do those tasks, you know, on a daily basis, especially those tasks are

102tedious, you know, and those are some of the things even a supervisor was doing. So I do believe that um we should restructure that part since that supervisor is no longer there. I know we gave those pay raises across the board, but I feel like that's something that needs to be some attention to. I have a comment, Miss George. So there I see that there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of cloudiness of this thing. I personally am sitting here looking at this list thinking, who's doing this now? I am. You're doing all the Holio stuff. Majority of this stuff I am doing. Okay. So maybe we need to look back at what we're pl pay paying for a consultant and maybe we need to go back to looking at a supervisor. Maybe we

103need to table this item until we clear it up. I don't know. But it's too many questions right now for me. The the cost of the consultant is minimal minimal very minimal and that is just strictly to provide technical advice. West Baton Rouge has the the same model that we've switched over to and is saving $1500 to $200,000 a year in salary and benefits. It's a substantial amount of savings by not filling that supervisory position. Uh and we're not the only district that's operating that way and is being done uh efficiently. Again, this particular proposal is part of reorganization of a department to be more efficient, to be more effective, and everything in that department has been run in a a much more effective and efficient manner to the degree that I've been able to

104put off any recommendation to do anything even with a school food service warehouse that was originally planned to to be built at a cost of $3.5 million projected a few years ago, which probably in today's dollars would be well over 5 million because of how efficient things have and had been going. Uh but this is part of what I've charged finance to do what I've charged maintenance to do to go in look at jobs look at descriptions where can we be meet more efficient without adding any FTEES they're called in the business world which is fulltime employees. This is a creation of a new job description, which we have done over the last couple of years when there was a need without adding total full-time positions to the district's budget. We did that when we

105did the security coordinator. We we did consolidations when the maintenance coordinator uh moved into something else and we consolidated those job descriptions which is a position that's now your energy manager and your maintenance you know coordinator that was combined into one. So this is not something that has not been done before in an effort to be more efficient in the way that we do business, which in the big picture is a tremendous cost savings because if we go back and fill that supervisory position, you're looking at an extremely high increase in your budget. I think after we've done this now for close to a year and a half, I got we can operate this department without that supervisory position being added which again depending upon who's hired and what their credentials are and what their

106experience is is is a six figure plus uh salary and benefits. And this recommendation is to tie in with the first one with those revisions to those job descriptions and to streamline that type of work. And again, this is funded through your federal grants that come back in for the meals. And I can tell you, we got more kids eating now than we did a year and a half to two years ago. We've got more kids eating in the summer now than they did a year and a year and a half ago. We don't get all these pictures of food on social media that we did a year to a year and a half ago. Everything has been improved and run. But this is part of a plan for all of our departments to operate

107in that manner where we are more efficient without adding full-time positions in the budget. So it's a plus one and it's a minus one which makes zero with a very minimal change in the amount of money that will be budgeted for the salary that again is not coming out of our general fund at all. Question so Dr. B I have another question. So we have a person in school food service who was our CFO should have some experience in some of this stuff. So why are these these duties not spread out amongst some of these people? There are some personnel matters I cannot discuss in this meeting. We can certainly talk on the side, but that's why I think we need to table this until we get it cleared up. Well, that part I I

108can't really do ever in public. Uh Mr. Mario. Yeah. When I just um need a clear explanation, when we create a new job description and repurpose within our district, is that does that mean that we are moving an employee that is employed in this district to this position? Are we have are we going out to hire someone else? Yeah. What if if this job description is approved, it would be advertised. Anyone inside can apply. Anyone outside can apply, which is generally what happens with all of our advertisements. We have vacant positions. A vacant position would be eliminated. So, there's nobody individually uh that's affected. And we have not been able to fill all those school food service technician positions for years. So we've always had vacancies in those. What's the difference between a secretary and

109administrative clerk? That's I if you look at the job descriptions, a lot of their things they do overlap. One of which is process and work orders. So, the secretary that's in the room, um, the secretary that's in the office now, she processes work orders for things that are happening in the actual room there. She doesn't do work orders for the schools. She does work orders for it's it's like any other department that has a secretary that will handle the work orders that happen in their department. So in the three-story building, I'm just going to use Kim. Kim may be the person that's responsible for submitting work orders for everybody in this building, but there's no particular person that's responsible for submitting work orders for the 10 sites that we have. No one does that. So,

110right now it's they'll give a call because they're calling at like 6:00 in the morning, 5:45 in the morning. And if something if something's leaking, then they call. They call me, then I call maintenance, and then we get the ball rolling. That's how that happens. And so that's pretty much what that particular line item means, that they will this person will do things for the 10 sites that that we have in regards to work orders, in regards to um if there's equipment repairs, that type of thing. So, what is it that our um our field person does? Our area manager, whatever she's called. I'm not Yes, our area manager. She is she supports the actual cooking of the food, making sure the serving portions are right, making sure that the staff that's there is professionally

111developed. Like, like it's it's really a science. And I've looked at every one of them and what they do. and these things that are falling here, no one's actually responsible for them, but it's going to be it's difficult to ask them to take on some of these things simply because of what they're doing now and the level that needs to happen with these particular things. And it's not to the level of where, you know, a level grade 25 or anything like that. You can train this person to do everything on this list and be the go-to for that. That person will be trained to do everything on this list and be the go-to person for that. So, Miss Miller, let me ask you this question. The administrative person is is will be serving in the

112capacity more like a I don't want to call them a districtwide, but they'll be serving all the schools in the parish. Yes, ma'am. But for for the things that are listed, right? Things that are listed as far as work orders instead they'll be doing like all the school force school food service uh offices within all the schools as far as work orders. So yes ma'am to give some light on this since June or July of last year I have a spreadsheet so where when they have an issue they go to a form document they'll list what their issue is whether it's with equipment whether it's um whatever the case is generally equipment though and there were 172 different inputs from June July 1st to May 23rd 73 times that a person from the school level

113went in and said, "Hey, my hot water heater is not running." Or, "Hey, my dishwasher is leaking." Or and then it doesn't just stop there. So, once they identify a problem, then it has to go to someone who will call someone and then who will follow up to make that make sure that person gets to the school and does what needs to happen and then call back to the manager to say, "Is it taken care of? Are you still having problems? It's that type of thing that's going on right now that no one is actually responsible for doing because I truly believe the si the way that the department was set up and I don't want to say micromanaged but it was like the supervisor did all of that. The supervisor did it. She did

114it. I have one more comment and then I'm done. Okay. So on a school level when there's a problem within the school there's a system where they enter work orders right and I was under the assumption and I may be wrong that the principal or somebody who is de uh dedicated to doing that or delegated to do that on that school system is entering these work orders in alio or whatever how does it work can you explain that school food service yeah school food service operates completely separate from that kind of work order uh chain so to speak. So, well, they've got a whole different level of federal bureaucracy in regulations that they've got to deal with. It's kind of like Head Start. Head Start kind of operates as is the school system within a

115school system because of those regulations to the degree that you've got a policy council agenda that gets presented every month and they have these meetings that's got to be done. The way that USDA operates their paper trail is one of the most scrutinized ones out of every program that we run in this system. not only from a fiscal standpoint but from a health standpoint. So their work order protocols are different than what we need to do for all the other work orders that get entered that are really more maintenanceoriented. A lot of their work orders is dealing with equipment that they've got to have a whole different process for the procurement of contractors for instance to fix equipment you know. So our maintenance department not all of it. It does not. Okay, I'm I'm ready

116to move. So Dr. V, let me let me kind of just take this up a little higher. So the consultant and this administrative clerk position will handle the task of what we had a supervisor for. The consultant doesn't do any day-to-day task, right? He doesn't do any day-to-day task but he has absolved some no having all so the consultant is only for technical support technical support okay that the consulting that we use she strictly if Miss Miller calls and says I got this paperwork from the Louisiana Department of Education they're getting ready to do this audit which happens regularly what do I need to pull to do this? Okay, that that person good example doesn't do any job being in. So that person has the knowledge within the department that a supervisor would have that

117we don't have. That is correct. Okay. And we don't need to have a line item on a budget that big for that. Right. So the consulting is for the expertise. Not my expertise. But do you see where that is a problem and something needs to be done at all right so what we could do to help you know you know to better understand and and that's to me that was a I appreciate the example because now you now know the role of the consultant the consultant is really for the expertise when we have different federal requirements that are needed that um Miss Miller may not know then she have to reach out to the consultant to if we had someone who was qualified and educated as a supervisor, they would know that stuff and wouldn't

118have to reach out to a consultant. So, um I don't have any more questions. I'm going to ask anybody else on the board if they have any more questions. I do. Okay, Miss Roy. So, you know, we can sit here and as a board, but my question is, Miss Miller, do you think that we need this? Yes, ma'am. We need it. We can continue working effectively and efficient with this position and me taking the role of quote unquote supervisor or liaison and it won't cost the district half of what it would cost if we have to replace and put a supervisor because that'll be the next suggestion that we do. Okay, that answers my question. Okay, any other questions from the board? I just have one comment. Yes, Mr. Abear. If this passes, um, if

119we need another school food service technician, I mean, we need to get them in the schools. I mean, I don't want this position just to take that and never have, you know, you saying it's been years since some of them's been taken. We've developed solutions, Mr. Abear where actually our bus drivers some of them that don't have jobs in between bus routes have come in to serve as substitutes in those cafeterias because and look that has been a tremendous morale booster in that transportation department. We have not been able to find subs. We've had kitchens that have a staff of six or seven and on any given day could have had two or three people out. Y'all, I'm going to tell you now, the school food service ladies are some of the hardest working people

120in this district. Barone, they are. And they do whatever they have to do to get kids fed. When I send y'all those texts early in the morning about a school's out of power or got water issues, those ladies have already developed a solution to feed kids before you get that text. So if there's ever a need for that, I will absolutely make sure we we we come to you for it. But the way that we're structured right now with with the completely different way we're doing things, I don't think we're going to have that need. So this this position, this food school service administrative clerk existed when that's never existed. Oh, I thought we said it was and then we bringing it back. No, we never said that. That position never existed. Oh, it's never

121existed. So it is a new position. It is a new job description for a new position which is a plus one and we will eliminate one of the school food service technician positions which makes it neutral and a net of zero. The number of positions in the district will remain the same. The total expenditure is about 10,000 more a year which does not impact the general fund at all. It's all reimburseable from USDA. I I think what you may be referring to and and I may be wrong, but there was some talk around whether or not we would fill the school food service supervisor position. And with this plan, we don't think we need it. It's an expensive line item that we have developed a solution where we don't need to tie up again a

122six figure plus salary which pushes it well over 150,000 with benefits costs. It's a savings in the long run. In the short run, it's a savings. A savings today already. Okay. Any other comments from the board? I thought Miss Miller said that that was a position. Didn't you just say that? Yeah, that's what I thought too. That position that would bring us back. Would bring him back. That's exactly what she said. I know what I I said that if this what I was referring to. If this particular position would not be filled, the supervisor's position, I would ask to advertise for that. Okay. That was a reference to if we don't put into our job descriptions and the organization of that department that then it may lead to a recommendation or actually that's already in

123the budget. We haven't taken it out of the budget. you know, we do this, we can pull it out of there now, but to that may need to come back. And as I mentioned before, we don't need to spend that much money on a position for something that we can do the way that we've been doing it now for over a year. And we save money and we're saving a lot of money. Good. Any other comments from the board? Anybody has un you know not clear understanding. Everybody understand? You still on it? I'm good. You're good though. Okay. All right. Miss Raj machine, please. Online voting is now open. Online voting is now closed. Six yays, two nays. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you. Uh the number eight on the agenda is to discuss and approve

124sending policy EGAC health insurance to the executive to the executive committee for possible revision. Do I have a motion? Have a motion from Mr. Davin Touier and I have a second from Mr. Mario Mlashi. Uh Dr. V. Yes. This item tonight is just simply to refer the policy to the executive committee. It's not an item for discussion or approval on any revisions. Just very quickly, I've sent you this in a few emails. Uh we had a request to take a look at what can we do potentially to work around that vesting schedule to recruit more uh experienced employees into our school district. We have had an influx of inquiries uh for positions for next school year by very experienced people but the vesting schedule is just turn them away. All right. So this again is

125simply to refer this to executive and then at executive we get into the details of recommendations that I'll have and then any modifications that you all would want to make. Okay. Any questions for sending this item to the executive committee from the audience or from the board? Mr. Raj machine please. Online voting is now open. Online bonus now closed. Passes unanimously. The last item on the agenda is for German. Do I have a motion? Mr. Risa Roy and a second from Mr. Daventier. Thank you. made a journal.