Richmond County School Board (November 10, 2025)

001After coming out tonight, it's if you ever been outside, it's a little chilly out there. It's getting even colder. But, thank you all very much for coming. We do have an existing quorum. So, please call this meeting to order. Mrs. Webb, will you please lead us in the prayer and pledge of allegiance? Will you stand, please, for a moment of silence? Thank you. And now, if you would like to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Mrs. Hawkins. Board members, in front of you you have the open session minutes from our October meeting. >> [snorts] >> I just need a motion

002to approve those minutes. >> the motion. Motion from Mr. Ethridge. Second. Second from Mr. Baldwin. Is there any discussion? All in favor, say "Aye." Aye. And I guess it's something like that. Dr. Farrell, is the agenda okay? Yes, sir. Okay, so we will adopt this agenda under consent of the board. And our first order of business will be >> [snorts] >> our one and only Cameron Whitley. Good evening, Chairman Satterfield, Dr. Farrell, members of the board. We're excited to introduce our new "Inspiring Excellence Schools" and we're going to start with Scott Withrow in Cordova Middle School. Cordova Middle School Cordova first. Cordova first. Good evening, Chairman Satterfield, Dr. Farrell, and members of the board. Uh thank you for giving us this chance tonight to honor some of our excellent workers. While it's difficult to narrow

003down to just two people due to the amazing staff we have in Cordova Middle, I would like to to introduce two people who are great assets to Richmond County Schools. I will start with a man Miss Amanda DeFabio, who unfortunately could not be here to this evening. She has a second job after school that she could not skip out on, but Miss D, as the kids refer to her, values her students and instills in them a confidence in science lessons that students need to feel successful. She engages them in other curricular areas as well, while supporting the ELA content area with factual readings and skills needed to address nonfiction text structures. She assists in math instruction and tutoring as well. Her lessons are engaging and her room is abuzz with learning. She works to get

004grant funding for areas of science to enhance the learning for the kids and volunteers to help out with sports scoring in her free time. She plans to start a science club after school to further engage students in the curriculum and the methods of scientific thinking, learning, and exploring. So, unfortunately, Miss Amanda DeFabio could not be here. We also have [clears throat] representing Cordova Middle School Miss Sally Mormon. Miss Mormon is our head custodian at Cordova, and she deserves this inspiring excellence award for the many things that she does to help the children and staff at CMS. She maintains a continually clean environment for the students and the staff. She's always willing to jump in and help where needed, including driving a bus to ensure the students get to and from school each day. She drives

005for field trips, sporting events, and other events around town. She was pivotal in getting a sign put up on Highway 1 to ensure the students would able would be able to safely get onto their bus at the bus stop. This year, when she lost her long-time second-in-command to another school, she took the new member of the staff under her wing and she kept things rolling as usual for CMS. Um she's always willing to jump in and lend a helping hand wherever needed, including popping popcorn and doing anything else that we need done, right Miss Allen? So, COME ON. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US. CAN I TAKE YOUR picture with you? I can take a picture for us. You got your picture? Thank you. I wish we had

006some popcorn here, I just said. It's good. It's good. Here we go. One, two, Thank you. Do you have anything? Can I tell them anything else? Okay. One, two, three. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And next, we will have Miss Meredith Norwood at LJ Bell Elementary. Um Chairman Fields, Dr. Farrell, and members of the board. I am delighted to be here tonight to recognize two of our finest Bumble Bees for the Inspiring Excellence Award, and I will first start with our long-term teacher assistant, Ms. Bonnie Cable. Ms. Bonnie Cable is a legendary teacher assistant with over 31 years of dedicated service to L.J. Bell, and she's still going strong. Known for her tireless work ethic, she's one of the first to arrive and the last to leave, making sure everything is taken care of. She takes

007pride in keeping things clean and organized, but don't even think about putting glitter around her, because she has declared that public enemy number one. Ms. Cable goes above and beyond for teachers, students, and families every single day. She knows every student and every car in the car rider line, which is a true L.J. Bell superpower. And she always is ready to lend a helping hand, a kind word, or a quick solution. You'll always find her volunteering her time to help with car dismissal, ensuring those young singers make it safely to their cars. But don't be fooled, Ms. Cable does have a competitive streak. She loves a good challenge during the school day and takes special pride in being the first to answer the hidden question in the weekly newsletter. Whether it's tackling a challenging task,

008solving a problem, or winning a friendly competition, she's always up for the challenge. With her dedication, humor, and unstoppable energy, Ms. Cable is the heart of L.J. Bell, a hard-working, spirited, and absolutely unforgettable individual. >> [applause] [snorts] >> All right. 1 2 3 Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Congrats. 31 years, right? I think it was 31 and a couple months. Well, actually around a day. Um next I would like to recognize our social worker, Ms. Caitlyn Martin. >> [applause] >> If multitasking were an Olympic sport, Caitlyn Martin would be bringing home the gold. As our school social worker extraordinaire, she's part counselor, part tech guru, part motivational speaker, and probably part magician, too. Do you need a home visit in July? Caitlyn's already there. Do you need a student check-in before your

009coffee kicks in? She's on it. Need help wrangling an attendance challenge with Ms. Essoms? She's turning it into a full-blown game with positive vibes. Her lunch buddy sessions are excellent, equal parts heart-to-heart therapy, stand-up comedy, and cafeteria food critique. Students flock to her because she listens, she cares, and somehow makes everything feel a little brighter. And when Nurse Stubbs needs an extra hand with a student, Caitlyn is there without hesitation. She doesn't go the extra mile, she does the whole marathon. Probably checks in with students along the way. Bottom line, Ms. Martin keeps our school running with a heart and a whole lot of hustle. We're all lucky to be ON HER CASELOAD. >> [applause] >> THAT'S ALL I WANTED TO SAY. >> 1 2 3 >> [applause] [clears throat] [sighs and gasps] >> It's

010that time of year again that our friendly auditor is here with us tonight. Mr. Dale Smith, come on up, Dale. How you doing tonight, sir? I'm doing great. Thanks for being here tonight. And it's good to see y'all again. We appreciate y'all allowing us to perform the board's audit for this past year. Uh I think all of you should have a electronic copy of the report. You notice it is still labeled a draft. Uh the federal government uh they're they're very late this year in releasing the uh federal compliance supplement. And the federal compliance supplement is like a 2,000-page document and it's got various procedures for every department in the US government. And also the US Department of Education. Um and we have gotten a draft of that report, but we've not gotten the final

011copy yet. And the AICPA is uh not allowing firms telling firms they shouldn't uh finalize audits until that final document is released. And with the government shutdown in place, we're not sure how much longer it'll be. I've heard the shutdown might be close to over, but in any event, they'll still have to get back and approve that document, finalize it. But we've um performed all testing that we feel like is needed um on the financial statements which we feel good about everything in the report and there shouldn't be any changes once that document is released, but we do have to believe it as drafted right now. Now the audit is broken up into two sections. You've got a financial section that covers the first few pages of the report and we did issue an opinion

012letter on that section and it's an unqualified opinion which is exactly what the board wants to receive. It basically means that we feel as though all the amounts and disclosures in the report are reliable and free from any sort of material misstatement or errors. And out of the financial section, there's a couple of pages we'll look at. If you want to turn to page 13, we'll start there. Page 13 is the balance sheet of the governmental funds of the district and um It covers basically all of the funds of the district except child nutrition. We'll look at child nutrition on the page once we get down here. We'll be focusing on the first column which is the general fund and if you start at the top, general fund had cash and cash equivalents of 3,152,053

013at June 30th which made up the majority of total assets of 3,158,230. And there in the middle, you had liabilities of a million 542,710. If you take the assets minus liabilities, you get the district fund balance at June 30th which is the next last number in that first column. >> Page 10 is on there, not 13. >> 10. Okay. Do we have the right page? >> It It's page 13 is what it should be. It's going to say mine didn't say what you were saying. >> Okay. Let me make the document just a little bigger bigger too. It does. It does. It does not. All right. Maybe turn to or four and about three pages. It's perfect size but it's still not I still think it's page 10. I think it is, sir. Just scroll

014up. Scroll up three pages. Scroll down. What says 13 there? There you go. Oh, there it is. There it is. All right. We'll we'll start that. I can't get the top. I was I was I was saying I I I I can't see it but I don't think that's the right number. Okay. All right. Looking at the uh the first column in general fund at the top y'all had cash and cash equivalents of 2,000,000 and 152,053 at June 30th. That made up the majority of the total assets It's a 3,158,230. Um Total liabilities in the middle of the page were 1,542,710. And if you take total assets minus total liabilities, you get the district's fund balance at June 30th, which is the next last number in that first column of 1,615,520. Now, that number represents

015a decrease of about 1.2 million from the amount of fund balance that was reported at June 30th, 2024. And in the previous year, the year ended June 30th, 2024 that we audited, fund balance dropped that year by about 908,000. So, fund balance has gone down about 2.1 million over the past 2 years. And uh it's my understanding that y'all have budgeted 1 million to balance the current 25-26 year budget. And um that 1 million you can see that if you look back at that 1,615, the two numbers above there, we've got the 1 million that's uh signed for fiscal year 2010 expenditures. So, that's the amount budgeted for the current 2025-2026 budget. And if the district were to spend that million, what it would leave you is your unassigned fund balance, which you see is

016that 609,343. So, if you did end up spending that million, you wouldn't have another million to be able to spend at that point. You'd be down to that 609,000. So, you know, all of this obviously y'all need to either increase revenues and or decrease expenditures and um try to get the budget balanced without fund balance. I know from talking to management y'all have been working on that and you've got some plans in place to to address that situation, but uh didn't want to just point that out that if you do spend the million, you're down to 609,000 for the following year. So, you wouldn't have another million to be able to uh to uh to budget with. Does everyone understand that? Okay. All right. Let's turn over to page 58. We'll talk about the school

017nutrition program. Can we back up a little bit? Sure. Uh so, what is what is the recommended I know um or appropriate fund balance? What would you What would you recommend to be a appropriate fund balance? Typically, [clears throat] the the LGC used to put a number out there, which was 8% of your expenditures. So, if you look at um you know, y'all got um close to $12 million of expenditures. So, you know, you be looking at um a minimum of around a million is what you would want to to carry. But, ideally, you would have, you know, this 8% is roughly 1 month's worth of expenditures. We'd recommend trying to carry at least two to three months. So, yeah, you'd probably want to try to stay in that two to three million mark, which

018is where y'all typically, you know, used to stay at. And uh that gives y'all some cushion for cash flow purposes. And then if you do have some kind of an emergency that comes up, y'all all got cash available you know for that emergency need or a one-time need. Right. Anybody else have a question? We are hard y'all. We We very due diligence on that spending that million dollars. I promise you that. That's good. All right, let's turn over to page 58 and we'll talk about the school nutrition program. Okay, page 58 shows the revenues and the expenditures of this program for the year ended June 30th, 2025. If you look about 3/4 of the way down, there's a line that says net change in fund balance. It's the last line that has three columns to

019it. And the middle column shows the actual results for the year. And you can see the program reported a loss of 119,639. Now, in the previous year, it reported a loss of 476,000. So, it had a year-over-year improvement of over 355,000, which is really good to see. Um and the improvement primarily came from a reduction in operating expenditures last year. Um cash balances in the program, they don't show up on this page, but cash balances are around a million dollars, which is which is a good level uh for the child nutrition program. Um so, hopefully the program can keep making improvements and get back to at least a break-even level. Um now, it did stop paying indirect costs, I think, last year. So, to get back to where it's, you know, breaking even and paying

020indirect cost, it would still need to cut, you know, another 300,000 or so or at least flip another 300,000 or so to get to that point, but um in any event, it you know, it did improve 355,000 last year. So, that was that was good to see. Any questions about the child nutrition program? Okay, and starting on page 59, as mentioned earlier is the compliance section and we did issue three letters related to the compliance portion of the audit. And for the compliance part of the audit we have to test a large number of state and federal grant awards expenditures. And we pull the back or have the finance department pull the backup documentation for those transactions and we look over those to make sure that the expenditures are being made in accordance with the

021various state federal laws and regulations. That are over those grant monies and we're happy to report that all three of the letters that we issued are clean unmodified reports which means that there were no internal control weaknesses, no findings and no question costs reflected in any of those letters. So these letters speak highly of not only the finance department but everyone in the district has got a part in overseeing the grant monies and making sure that monies are spent in accordance with the state federal regulations. That they fall under. Anyone have any questions about the the compliance section? Again there was a separate three page letter that we issued and there's no need to turn to it. It's a called a required communications letter. And it it covered basically boilerplate areas that we're required to

022communicate to the board about. And it basically states that there were no difficulties or disagreements encountered in dealing with management. There no upgrades statements noted in the audit and there were no reportable conditions, reportable issues noted during the audit. So it's a what we'll call a clean letter. And we also spent a good bit of time testing the individual school records. We went to all the schools or majority of the schools. And no big issues were noted there. We always note minor items that we report to Ms. Jordan and her department. That they go over with the bookkeepers and principals but for the most part looks like the bookkeepers of principals are all doing a good job and in overseeing the finances at the school level. That was pretty much all I planned to cover.

023Was there anything that I didn't touch on out of the report that someone had a question about? So, when the full report comes in, you'll present it to to Dawn and Pharaoh and then we'll get If there's any Yeah, if there's any big changes or any changes really out We we we'd let you know, but I don't anticipate there being any changes at all other than the the the the dating of our letters. Like we would change that. But again, I think overall everything went very smoothly with the audit. Um Ms. Jordan and her staff, they do an outstanding job. Um which we take everywhere we go. >> [laughter] >> We've got quite a few audits that still aren't finished that we're working on, but they they they do a great job. They're very diligent

024and uh very meticulous and care a lot about what they're doing. They take a lot of pride in what they do. And whenever we look at the records, everything's well documented, very transparent. Any questions, Mr. I have I have a question. Um is what you're seeing with this use of fund balance for Richmond County Schools, is that typical of what you're seeing in the audits that you're doing in other places? >> Yeah, yeah. With with with the the SR money kind of winding down last year, a lot of districts were were were using that as kind of a buffer and and we are seeing a lot of districts start to dip into fund balance. You know, if you if you go back to, you know, the 2008-9-10 period with the the ARRA funding that districts

025received, you had the same exact situation. Districts built up their fund balance when that ARRA money was coming in. And then if you look at like 2012-13-14, those years fund balances were dropping off because districts were having to try to wean wean themselves off of that money because they didn't have it anymore. So, we're kind of seeing the same thing now and you know, some districts are a lot worse than others. I mean, you know, like I said, y'all y'all y'all y'all aren't bad. Just need to, you know, try to cut it off now if you can. Yeah, I I think that that's kind of what I wanted to hear, but I also um when you talk about this other time period when these things were going on um and districts were starting to tip

026uh dip into fund balance as you said, um were the cost of things rising then like they are now? I don't recall there being the inflation back then. That that that's >> Because that's one of the thing I mean, Don and I talk about that all the time and it feels like no matter what we cut, something comes in and takes the cut that we made because of a rising cost. And so, I was just curious if other districts were experiencing the same. It's not It's not just rich >> same. It's It's statewide. But under under Dr. Farrell's leadership though, we did the million-dollar challenge last year. Yeah, and it should have been 3 million it sounds like. >> to save and so, we'll see that since we did it last year, we should see

027that come to fruition this year. So, hopefully that will will help us in our fund balance. That's good. Good y'all trying to stay out in front of it. Well, that's that's the plan. Yeah. But again, [snorts] with rising costs. >> Yeah, I was going to say we we we plan and we execute the plan, but And the rising costs of the state And when they keep cutting us. We make a cut, they make the cut. And theirs is deeper than ours. >> [snorts] >> So. So, that makes this question and I'm asking this um So, I know I I do know a school not here in North Carolina, but I do know of a school district in another state um where um they they have with SR funds would were set down. They kind of

028used those funds to kind of for positions. Uh-huh. Are we in a position I mean I hadn't so we're good there. As far as okay. Yeah, we had some but we've reduced all of those. We did we had um a few positions that we did create and then we kept them a year or so with some grant money but as of this year they were no more. Okay. All right. Thank you. People got in a lot of trouble around the state with using these restricted funds for reoccurring positions and then oh yeah. Mhm. When it was time to stop. It hurt. Yeah, we've got we've got one or two that that's pretty bad. You know, their their fund balances into the negative. Um you know, some of them were were surprised by they didn't know

029what it had happened so it's rough. Now we do appreciate you your your help and everything you do for us in Richmond I appreciate y'all and if Donald's got my number if anybody has a question [snorts] as you're going through that report they got something you want to talk about feel free to call me. Thank you very much, Dale. >> Thank you all. >> [snorts] >> Proposal to name Richmond Senior High School soccer field Mr. Jamie Johnson and Mr. Chris Larson. Good evening, gentlemen. Good evening. So I'll speak for a minute or two then I'll let Chris kind of kind of hit some high points and stuff. He came to me a while back with a with a thought about renaming the soccer field in honor of uh Minnie Howard. So I mean first kind

030of how it works is it'll be a Raider Raider Stadium soccer Raider soccer stadium. It's just kind of wordy but you all have one Raider Stadium and then so the basketball people you have Coach K Court at uh Ali You mean you did it? Yeah, yeah, yes I was looking for the name I I lost my Cameron Indoor. Cameron Indoor. Yeah, sorry. Uh so so our line of thought would to something along those lines. So the the stadium is still the same, but it's a way to honor Coach Howard. And when Chris came to me, I I realized Benny had been here quite a while, done quite a lot. And when when I started digging into it, I think it's it's 37 years with soccer. Now that's what Chris just told me. And you know,

031not only is that a lot of time in one county, but on one particular aspect that you know, there's probably not a soccer program without him at this point. It was he was there for the beginning of the boys, there for the beginning of the girls, and they and he's still been with us and I don't think he's ever truly really stepped away for any period of time. So, we just wanted to bring this night to you for your your consideration and and you can you can take it and do with it as you please. And I'm let Chris hit some of the I was about to say I think you have the same document I have in front of me. Um, but some of the things that's not in there that that come to

032mind, as Coach Johnson said, uh Coach Howard was the first one. And on the bus, I haven't really told him that this is going on behind the works, so hopefully he doesn't see it. But, um I didn't realize Benny volunteered the very first year. He's always told me he was the second soccer coach, but he actually volunteered the very first year. Um, and then, you know, thinking of some things to say that you don't have on the paper in front of you. Uh actually five, I believe, five of the middle school coaches here in the county are all products of Coach Howard. So, even the kids that are still getting back at the middle school level have all been a product or been a former player of Coach Howard. So, um kind of what got

033the ball rolling on this in my in the back of my mind was one of our long-time coaching buddies down at Lumberton retired this year. And the field down at Lumberton is named in his honor. And so that kind of got that thought, well Coach, how many games have you coached? How many? And when he started talking, it's like well over a thousand ball games. And then when you throw in the handful of years that he's helped me run the JV program, He's over 11 almost 1,200 ball games as a soccer coach at Richmond Senior. So, he gives me a hard time. He's keeps asking me when I'm going to get rid of him and I say I'm going to let you stay as long as you can. So, now he's got that 40-year mark

034on his mind. He says if you let me stay around for 3 more years, that'll be 40 years doing what he loves. So, I just feel like it's a great honor. It would be a great honor to take that into consideration and add it to our facility names here at the high school. We appreciate y'all coming here. We The board will take that under consideration and we will look at look at policies and so forth and we will get back to you. Anything else athletic while I'm here? Any questions or Everybody good? Let's go ahead and next Friday. Our Raiders play Friday night. Next Friday? What is Friday? This Friday. >> This Friday. I'm still in last week. >> going to be? So, Jess? Yeah. Oh, God. Give me a prediction. Final score. >> [laughter]

035>> We'll play We'll play another game after this one. All right. We'll play another game. Hey, James. The The baseball field's really coming into shape. They've got it all done. It looks like a field again now. Very good. People are saying that. Right. The thing is Friday afternoon he said it's starting to look like a field again. So, it looks looks really good. They're doing a a tremendous job with it. I go by it every day. I actually park my car out there and watch. When they When they get out there and they're rolling it's It's It's impressive to watch some of the stuff they're doing. So, they're doing a really good job. Rockingham Middle School football won the conference championship, didn't it? I think. Yeah. We won the Girls track middle school championship as

036well. I think that's a collaborative team if I'm not mistaken. Yes. All our sports are doing well. We're doing well. Can we get them to a board meeting maybe in January? We'll do it in January. Right. December is Christmas. Yeah, we We wouldn't be able to do it in December. We got football as well. Yeah, I'll start putting them together. I appreciate that, guys. Yes, sir. Thank you. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. When we honored football field team will be the champion this year. [laughter] That's not pressure on me. That's That's for them. >> [laughter] >> By the way, what I do, I said I I go sit in the booth on Friday nights a little bit, but I don't talk about the pressure stuff. That's That's those [laughter] coaches. Win or lose. Thank

037you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you, guys. >> [clears throat] >> Um >> [snorts] >> Let's see. We have Mr. Jennifer Taylor during your remediation retesting program program plan. Good evening, Chairman Hatfield and fellow members of the board. Um Last spring, during our end-of-year testing, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction provided schools the opportunity to remediate and retest students on the required end-of-year and end-of-grade testing to be administered during the last test window, the last 10 days year-long, the last 5 days semester. Richmond County Schools took advantage of this opportunity. And tonight, I want to present to you our plan for end-of-grade and end-of-course during-year remediation and retest plan for this year, and then ask for your approval. The purpose in giving students the opportunity to retake the end-of-grade and end-of-course assessments is simple. We

038believe that some students can achieve proficiency with additional instruction, support, and opportunity. Courses that would be retested are math and reading at grades 3 through 8, science at grades 5 and 8, and all high school and of course, assessments, which are biology, English 2, math 1, and math 3. Eligibility criteria include students scoring below grade level proficiency on any one of the assessments. Students are eligible to retake any test that they score not proficient on the initial administration. Students are not eligible to retest if they have a proficient score on the initial administration in any of those courses. All remediation and retesting requires parent permission in the form of an opt-in letter in order to participate in this opportunity. After initial EOG and EOC administrations in fall and spring, schools will send the parent score

039notification letters home like usual to parents and guardians along with the opt-in letter as eligible as they're eligible to get the letters, and then provide retesting to those students who have opted in to that opportunity. Grade 3 reading will provide the RTA Read to Achieve as the retest opportunity for all grade 3 students who are not proficient on the grade 3 reading EOG. In years past, we haven't been able to provide the opportunity for grade 3 students to retake the EOG. Um but this year, the state is allowing that opportunity, so we want to take advantage of that. So, the retest that we are going to administer to them is going to be the RTA. The uh form is the equivalent to the reading EOG retest at grade 3. We just feel like it would

040provide a better opportunity overall for our students to retake that RTA as they opt into it. We will also continue to administer the Read to Achieve test to all third grade students who did not pass that beginning of grade three reading test and they do not have a good cause exemption and they do not pass the EOG. So, for those students, it is a must take RTA to satisfy that requirement for third grade reading. And the end-of-course tests are administered within a state-mandated 5-day test window. The English two test uh takes longer to score in order to accommodate the constructive response scoring. So, the state is going to allow a four additional days after we get that last score back, we can schedule our retesting for four days after that initial score is received. That

041only applies to English two. All other retest opportunities for EOCs at the high school, biology, math one, math three must be given during that last five days of the semester. And the locations that we will provide the during year remediation retest opportunity is at all of our locations. Um all of our schools will be able to provide this opportunity to all students who score not proficient. And at this time, I would like to answer any questions you might have and then ask for your approval for our plan. Do you know what the percentage of students retaking the test were last year that that did not were that were not proficient? I don't have that right offhand, uh Mr. Chairman. >> lot of people I know the schools do a really good job of getting the

042kids to come back. >> [snorts] >> They absolutely do. And part of the thing about this past year was it was the first year the state allowed the opportunity for during year. So we had more students available to test. So it was a lot more than usual. Usually our criteria are that we invite students who are within a couple of points of proficiency scoring a level three. Well, in the during year model, we can take advantage of this opportunity for all of the students who don't score proficiency. So we feel like we're opening it up to everyone to give them an opportunity. And then English two will that that will be after school's out because of the delay in test or will that be during the school year? Well, for fall testing, our fall EOC

043window is 15th through the 19th. So because probably all English two schools won't be back, um the state will allow us when we come back after Christmas break four additional days to retest those students to provide that opportunity. As long as all that testing is done by January 23rd, I believe it is, >> [snorts] >> um we're good. But then the second semester Yes. you'll have to come back. Well, it's going to be the same thing. They'll have to come back after the last day in uh test day in June. But yeah, they will allow you up to four days for that. And the re-scores count for us. I just want to make sure that's correct. Is that correct? Do they count for us? Absolutely. The beauty of it is the first retest they take

044will count for proficiency and growth if it is higher than the initial administration. So it really is a win-win for schools, for students, um for for everyone, I believe. And we should And we should test all the English two kids in the in the fall semester. >> [laughter] >> Well, that's some pretty creative thinking. >> It is. So, we get them back. Didn't we do this last year? We did last year and um the state, if you recall, they kind of pushed it out a little bit late in the spring, but our schools rallied around and and and really did a good job of it. It's a lot of hard work once those test scores come in and you have to try to corral the the students back up. I would like to put an

045exclamation point behind that because they have such a small window, especially in the high school. They have 5 days for all initial administrations. They have to They're tasked with testing all the CTEs, all the final exams. It all has to be done within that 5 days. And now, additionally, remediation and retesting. >> [snorts] >> But, typically, we don't have a lot of response coming back for retesting, so we're hoping that this is going to be uh a turnaround for them as well. >> [snorts] >> So, you need a motion to approve this plan. Yes, sir. I'll make a motion to approve the plan. A motion by Ms. Hornsby, a second by Mr. Etheridge. Any further discussion? All in favor by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Thank you for your hard work on this. Thank you.

046Thank you. District improvement plan, Dr. Keith Smith. Um good evening, Chairman Satterfield, Dr. Farrell, and members of the board. You all have had the chance to look over the district improvement plan um that outlines how we are going to support schools with academic achievement, teacher preparedness for their classroom, and overall student behavior. Um in the K-12 setting, as you can see, the plan and the action steps have are very interdepartmental um Um, it allows all of us to work towards a common goal that is teacher and student-centered. So, I can certainly take any questions that you have about these action steps, but at this time, um, I would ask for your approval for the district improvement plan. You have a motion to approve the district improvement plan. I'll move. Second. A motion by Mr. Tillman,

047and a second by Mr. Bowlin. Any further discussion? I just want to say thank you for the hard work a lot of the time that coaches put into this plan because I know it can become very tedious. So, thank you. And our departments work really well together. So, um, you know, it's a we feel like it's a pretty comprehensive plan. Any other questions? All in favor by saying uh, state by saying I. All opposed? It is approved. And so, at this time, I would ask you all to take the next 30 days to review the school the individual school improvement plans that are in BoardDocs. Each one of them has a goal related to achievement, um, growth, um, they're required to have a goal related to safety and attendance, and then each one of them

048has a goal of choice. And so, you'll see that outlined. And then I've also uploaded their action steps for each one of those goals. So, we just need a 30-day review. That's easy. Yeah. That it? Yep. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I just lawn and landscaping contract. Uh, you have a new bid again. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, fellow members of the board. Tonight I bring to you the Ozark Landscaping, um, Russellville Senior High Athletic Fields Maintenance Contract. This is actually a renewal of the original contract in 2016. It was a 3-year contract. It was at that time $85,740 per year. And keep in mind this did include uh the Nike Academy fields. So, they had the Nike graders there at that time. So, the new proposed contract uh reflects, you know, chemical and

049labor uh price increases as as most everything um does um and it's since 2016. We did add the soccer practice field at the high school. So, that that's in addition to the original contract. Um but keep in mind we are excluding the the fields at Nike Academy. The new proposed contract uh also includes uh soil sampling at each playing field at the high school and uh a nematode treatment, which is I I had to Google it. I didn't even know what that is. That's basically a parasite or a worm type thing that that are that's in the ground. So, the soil sampling and the nematode treatment uh came as a recommendation from the uh company that's putting the new baseball field in. So, they explained it mainly like you go to the doctor, you have

050your blood drawn, and then they analyze it and see what you need, and they go from there. Soil sampling on athletic fields is kind of the same thing. You take a sample, send it off, they tell you what treatment it needs, if you're doing what you're doing right, or you need to do something differently just to keep the fields in in good shape. The new proposed contract also includes um some additional services for the um this 5-year period for the renewal for our baseball field. As you know, we're um renovating our baseball field, but then, you know, drainage, irrigation, sod, all those things. Um so, that the company recommended that we deep tine aerate and top dress our our baseball field uh once a year in addition to the the original contract aerates and top

051dresses all the fields. This is one additional um service that that they recommend at least for the first 5 years. So, the new proposed contract contract, is a total of 109,500, $109,500 per year. This is a $23,760 increase since the 2016 contract. But, if you break it down, it's only like 3% a year over 9 years. So, going back to the labor increases, chemicals, uh adding the soccer field, additional services, soil sampling, and nematode treatment on all the playing fields at the high school, and then the additional services on the baseball field. Well, they also lost the ninth grade academy. True. Now, and ninth grade academy [snorts] was my understanding that was one more time, but it didn't get quite the attention. I don't have [clears throat] the details in front of me. >> to

052play it on them. That the high school did, so it it would be hard to compare the football field at ninth grade to the football field at the high school, the level of service that was given to it. So, you said the last time we the last contract was a 3-year in 2016. Yes, sir. Why did we go so long without a contract? Without a I can't answer that. So, do we bid I mean, we bid this out? No, actually, um according to EVA, it's a service contract that does not have to be public bid. And this company that we've used is a local company. It's the only company that I'm aware of locally that can provide this type of service. >> [snorts] >> When I was principal at the high school, I know I

053was the AD. I was the I think the football coach we used a company from Greensburg that would come, and they did it when they could get here. Um I don't know what the cost was. I can't remember. I do know I liked it being local, but on the other hand, we're talking about fund balance, we're talking about money. We have got to figure out over the next 3 to 5 years why this contract is in place if we approve it, how can we figure out how to cut costs on this? I think somebody said something the other day. You know, the one thing we don't want to do is we don't want to lose our fields cuz once you lose a field, you can't get it back. Well, you know this is probably you

054can't get it back and it's going to cost you more money. But there's got to be a way that we can figure out how other districts deal with rather than spending $109,000 on three four fields. Softball, soccer, baseball, football. Well, there's Three practice fields, three practice football fields. So three impact football fields, which you know The only thing I can remember Corey is looking at this uh years back when the school board we talked about it. You can't get anybody to do it. And just like you say it, if you let it go down a year, then the next year it's going to cost twice as much to get it back like it's supposed to. I mean, I can remember lots of hours. Don't y'all remember talking about it back then? >> it because that's

055how they paid Hal extra salary was him doing the fields. I agree with Corey we need to cut costs, but um I mean, I guess if you have had your I don't don't pay to have my yard done every week, but My only question is in here like Steven said, it's how much did you say the increase from that original contract? 23,700. >> Okay, but that's really not the increase because we've been paying more because we were out of contract. He was still paying doing the contract amount 7145 a month um plus increase in fertilizer cost and all of that. So we've really been paying about 102. Keep in mind they added 7, $8,000 just to make sure that the baseball fields and investment is taken care of. We don't have to do that. The

056deep tine aerating, instead of aerating this deep, it goes about that deep. It pulls plugs out, plugs about that big, and then you have to go back over and you have to put sand on it several times a year. And so, we're trying to protect the investment, so you could cut back on it. And every time that we try to cut back on it, we realize that's just something that might bite us later. Now, you talking about the baseball field? I would not want to do that just because that's the reason why we're in the predicament that we're in now over a 50-year period it wasn't done. >> Exactly. Okay, so I fully get that, but we we are smart enough, Mr. King is smart enough, the community is smart enough to know that we

057can figure out a way to make sure over the next 3 to 5 years that we have something in place that we do not have to spend $109,000 a year. And there are other ways we can do it because other school systems do it. With not getting into spending more money because we don't want to spend more money right now cuz you're going to spend money to reduce that cost over a 10-year period. Okay? So, there's ways to do it. And Mr. Chair, I would like to even look at other school districts kind of see what they pay in their costs for their field upkeep. Is there a way we can kind of research that? I guess look at some surrounding schools. Just kind of see what the the cost or what they're paying out.

058I just wrote that down. I know that I know that we have people that cut grass. All our coaches get a stipend to cut grass. Um, but when you're talking about the aerifiers and you're talking about the sand and talking about the sprayers, we don't have that equipment. That's why somebody else comes in and does it. So, it would cost money. I know in in Scotland County, they have somebody they pay somebody to take care of their fields. They pay them he's on the set he's he's salaried but now they also he also has to buy the chemicals as well for the fields. And I don't know what the cost of that is off the top of my head but it's other they do it every county does it differently. And then I noticed like

059in in I guess for the sand and top dressing we have to cover that cost, right? I think I read that in in this contract. My understanding this past year that the sand company local sand company donated most if not all of the sand. Right. He still had to put it out. And that took two or three days and two or three people would you know get it done. So I guess my question is like what would be the cost What is the cost for the sand if we're having to come and and I guess top dress the fields and we got to do that. I mean do we even have a ballpark of how much that's going to cost cuz that's additional cost on top of the contract as well. Right. But that would

060be a if the sand company for whatever reason decided to not to donate and I I I don't know the answer to that. I I've you know the last I've been working on this probably four or five or six months but I I've just recently come and you know involved in it. Prior to this I I didn't have any involvement in it. Got you. So the coaches we're also paying coaches to cut grass? The coaches cut grass, yeah. Our high school does. >> Again this is this contract here is maintenance is fertilizer. >> Fertilizer is part of maintenance. >> Well yeah but they don't come every day. I'm saying they don't come once a week. Our coaches cut the grass. This is fertilization, aeration, um winter rye to turn the grass green in the winter

061time, pre-emergent pre-emergence all that stuff. >> Sand it's And and fertilizers are expensive. Now I don't you know they're expensive. I bought I I ride my yard and fertilize it it was $200. You know. I was just wondering maybe about a a more itemization on because the contract if if it looked to me like it was this 9,000 some dollars a month. Well, you don't airate every month and you don't do I mean so I was wondering how if there was a way to get more of an itemization per month based on the services. It takes It takes two. All the way to the bottom. Yes, if you are looking at the bottom Okay, I can't see that. It doesn't give you a price. It just itemizes the months that he will do things. The

062company won't do things. >> Every day in the contract is is Right, I saw that but then the contract is that it's 9,000 a month. Well, the same thing's not happening every month is my question. I guess they just take the total over 12 months. You're right. I mean some months they may be out there two or three days a week. Two two or three weeks a month and then other weeks, you know, not so much. I I'm I'm assuming that they just took the total and divided it evenly. But but 12 because there's two months on this that they're not here. Because the the adjustment the schedule doesn't offer anything that month. Well, I guess I'd just like to see and I know not to just It doesn't have to be that detailed but

063at least to have some breakdown of seeing how we came up with that price. Maybe if if somebody if if we get maybe start calling some other and just to start a plan. Again, this is not a plan that we're going to start now but later on down the road to do that. How are the districts? You go with your fields. But you need this contract approved, is that correct, Mr. Kennedy? Yes, sir. So, I'll make a motion to approve the contract as presented uh but I would also like to see in that 5-year period us us do what we can to be more efficient on our own and actually bid this stuff out instead of just taking one one contractor. Have a motion. Mr. Baldwin. I'll second that. Second from Mr. Tillman. Any further

064discussion? So what? We're We're making a motion to accept this as now. >> To approve the contract as presented but in the in that 5-year period to to see what we can do to be more efficient in our with our own resources possibly and also bidding out. Any other further discussion? All yeses, please say I. I. All opposed. All right, we have a contract then. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. King. What was it, Nick? Okay, is this stuff Mr. Treasurer, um Is there any way that we can get maybe good relations cuz I don't want you to work on crazy things but I know Mr. King, well, he didn't know that this contract was that old. This it's what? 9-years old? Is there any way we can Well, you can get cuz I don't

065know from memory but get a list of all our contracts to make sure that they are up-to-date? You know, so we don't have to work on something being out of date 9-years. I don't think we have any out um that we're not other than that one because there's been discussion on this one for a while because it was >> It's been a long while. It was done at the high school originally and then signed. Um this one has come up. For right now, I can look and see but cuz that's one of the things that the auditor asked us for is any contracts that we have going over multiple years. Um Right now, I'll check and see, but right now I don't I can't think of any other than this one that I know of

066because you've got yours that are He has the most multi-year. We don't typically do multi-year. Yeah, cuz this is the first time I'm this is my my third year on the board. It's the first time I'm seeing a contract from from from budgets. >> We do multi-year. We typically do It's our copiers. We don't like to do multi-year. Maybe we should have done a one-year contract. So you won't contracts. Multi-year contracts. So you're talking all contracts period, even the single-year contracts. >> So I guess you have a program that could tell you all the contracts you have. Am I right? Or We We keep up with them in our office. We have a book that we keep the multi-year. And then most Most of ours are annual. We don't do The only multi-years mainly are

067our Stevens. Um We don't really typically do other multi-year contracts. >> all The only thing I believe is the multi-year contract. >> try not to do those. Like we've got our sister's copier leases right now, and you've got maybe a couple more. Other than that, that's all we have. We're only doing a document. I mean >> [laughter] >> that I've seen pop up, but now we have been talking about this one for a while because you know, every time that bill comes in. I thought that's a great great point though. I mean, looking at looking a little closer that, you know, especially when we we just got a audit report talking about fund balance. And it may be some things that especially talking about long-term contract like that. That could be something that could potentially

068eat up fund balance if we don't have the funds. Yeah, that's $600,000 over 5 years. Yeah, so I mean, I think it's worth looking at. And also, let me say you this, is that I believe in partnerships. Um and I and I consider anybody that we have a multi-year contract with is a partner with us. Mhm. So, what are they doing for our school system, too? You know, we're paying them a lot of money. They doing anything for our athletics or our school system? Are they doing anything for our athletic scoreboard? Are they doing anything else for our Are they giving scholarship away to a senior at Early College or Ashley Chapel or Berkeley Senior High School? Are they doing anything to be a partner with us? We're not asking for hundreds of that thousands

069dollars, not even thousands of dollars. We're just asking for partnerships to help our school system and help our children. And to Mr. Tillman, to your point, there there are clauses in the contract that we could get out of the contract >> Okay. for the 5-year period. Now, you have to meet certain criteria, but there there is if we were to run into a situation we couldn't fund it any longer, we can get out of the contract. I just don't want to see us get to that point. Yes, to me it seems fiscally irresponsible not to bid something that big out. Yeah. I think we're we're supposed to be good stewards of taxpayer's money, and if we're just taking a contract because it's put in front of us. I'm all for somebody local having it. Love

070that. But, I would like to see it bid out. Just for transparency, just for fairness. So, we will So, we'll work on that. Just if you can give us like a Friday update, Dr. Farrell, or something like that, that would be that would be fine. You go from Or you can present it how many you have. Sometime. Next Friday is sweet. Next Friday's fine. We're tied up this week, too. All right. So, we it's approved. So, you want construction updates, right? Keeping you up here a while. It's all right. So, just starting with the former Knight Grove Academy renovations, converting that that building back to elementary school. Um So, maintenance department, uh along with technology, we've been just kind of going through the building just taking pretty much everything off the wall, the chalk board,

071white board, just just stripping the building down so we can get get ready for paint. And we're not sure exactly what technology we're putting back up, so we just didn't want to have a building freshly painted and then need to take a white board down and then we got a wall that's messed up. So, anyway, we've been going through the building doing that. Um we did find um some HVAC piping that that school is a boiler chiller system and believe it or not, it's our second newest school, but it's built in 2000, so it's 25 years old. We did find some of the piping in the classrooms actually in 38 locations that you could about take a pencil and just stick through the pipe. So, uh there was some chases kind of like these columns

072here, um concrete uh concrete block um chases encapsulating the pipe where it comes out of the union in the room, so we had had to take the block off so we could access the pipe. Um we're going to have it start Monday, um have contractor in there replacing the piping. And we're probably going to go back with a powder-coated um metal chase just so it's accessible. We wouldn't have to tear the block off if we had a problem next time. Um I wish they'd done that the first time, but anyway, um I've got RFPs out, request for pricing for the painting and uh general renovations. We got some walls that need to be demoed, walls some cute computer labs that need to be torn out, a wall that needs to be filled back in, two

073rooms that was it was made it was two individual rooms and they tore out a dividing wall and made a big CT lab. Need to put that wall back. Some of the restrooms that were in the classrooms were torn out, those need to be put back. Uh it was just a little bit bigger project than we could do in-house in a timely manner, so we have those two painting and uh general renovations out for the pricing. I'm working on the uh playground um RFP and fencing RFPs. We actually have a meeting Wednesday morning with >> [clears throat] >> EC pre-K. These are the folks that will be using the building. Make sure my plan or my what I think the building needs is what we actually need. Just to make sure everybody's on board. We'll

074also discuss the playgrounds and try to get that out for for bid here this month. Um we also looked at um all the all the lighting in the building is fluorescent lighting except the media center has been converted to LED. So we felt like this would be a good time. The building's vacant. Go ahead and convert the whole entire building over to from fluorescent bulbs to LED bulbs. So working on that. Um our staff is doing some of the group restrooms and um lowering the lavatories or toilets, whatever needs. Some of the water fountains needed to be lowered. We're doing that in house. Um Any questions on that? The running track at the high school just kind of it's sitting idle while the asphalt cured. Um we are on on track to start on the

07517th, which I guess will be next Monday um with the surfacing uh applying the new surface. Um hopefully that coordinates with football schedule. Um moving into the um the baseball field uh renovations. Got a little PowerPoint here just to show you a couple photos. Now Mr. Chandler field says he parks out and watches it some. It's just interesting how they just move earth and they add to it and it's pretty crazy. Yeah. So with that being said, they you know, they've moved over 100 dump truck loads of of material. They saw and and top soil and different things. Camera, do I just click this? Sorry. So that's basically what we started with, you know, just um which Eric, you know, knowing that we were going to tear out the field, he wasn't irrigating it and,

076you know, really mowing it. It didn't make any sense. So, it looks a little rough there, but that's kind of what we started with. Um Then they they brought some dozers in and um you know, just started stripping this the top soil and then sawed off. >> [clears throat] >> Um you can see where they they were piling it up. And then for a while, like I said, they had uh big triple axle dump trucks just you know, as fast as they could get it loaded, they were hauling it out there. Um So, you can see that some of the different equipment they had out there on the fields. >> [snorts] >> The trucks they were loading. So, this machine right here was pretty neat. I had a video of it, but I I didn't

077know if it would play through this. So, uh the the tractor there as you see is got a trencher on it and it's GPS guided. So, it the guy in the tractor is basically just just hold holds on. He doesn't drive, doesn't steer, doesn't do any fuel, you know, gas or brake or anything. So, it controls um the depth that it digs and it it keeps it on a straight line. It's got a conveyor belt that that takes the dirt up um as it's digging. Very efficient process there. So, nearly 1 mile of underground 4-in uh drainage pipe is being installed on that baseball field. So, should shouldn't have any problems with drainage. So, the drain pipes are put 20 ft on center, so you can imagine it's a little over 2 acres. 20 ft

078on center, I mean, that you know, if you do the math and the linear feet, it's it's just a little over a mile or nearly a mile. So, as you can see um back behind those trailers, those are the rows of of the drainage that are going in. This is a typical [clears throat] drain um trench. So, they they they They it, they put the heavy uh landscape fabric in, they put a coarse rock in the bottom, then they put the the 4-in drain pipe in, and then they cover it with rock, and then they'll just wrap that that fabric over the top of it there. Another efficient piece of equipment they had here, this this hopper here, they they load it with a front end loader with gravel, and then that conveyor there, they

079just drive along the side of the ditch, and it just conveys the gravel out. Very efficient process. This is standing like behind home plate, just kind of looking out. That'd be down right field line. It'll be mirrored on the left-hand side. And this project was a little challenging for them because I guess normally when they build a a field, they build the field, and then they put in the dugouts and the fencing and all the things around it. So, they only had one point of entry and exit on this field, so they had to kind of work theirself out of the field. So, the left field left outfield is what what they'll do last as they work out of there. Um over on the left-hand side, that white almost beach sand color there, that's that's

080what they're putting over the top of the um the drain and the irrigation. And um they they have installed probably 3/4 of the irrigation already. Um this material here is a DuraEdge Collegiate clay for the infield. It's a special clay mix that's that I don't even know where it comes from, somewhere up town, up around the Raleigh-Durham area, I think, that will be on the infield there. >> [clears throat] >> So, as you can see here, they they have boards where they form up the the infield with the clay. Um they'll actually form up the the out the outfield where the warning track is, and it'll have a fine granular material. So, they've >> [clears throat] >> you stripped all the material off, they've installed the drainage, they've installed the irrigation, they're putting up for

081the infield clay. They'll form up for the outfield track. And then they'll um they'll come in and and lay the sod between the the warning track on the outside and the infield there. So, today they've had about six rain day delays. So, it's not too bad. They're still tracking on to be on schedule. They said that they would finish the drainage and irrigation in left field sometime this week, and then they'll >> [snorts] >> be doing all the rough grading uh starting next week, and then over the next 2 weeks um they'll actually charge the irrigation. They'll put water on all the lines and test it before you know, they bring the sod in. Do the final grading. The clay will be done. The warning track will be done. Um they'll test the irrigation, and

082then all that, you know, all the stars align, weather stays good, they'll start in sod installation on the 24th. So, 2 weeks. About 2 weeks they'll be doing that. So, substantial that's the week before Thanksgiving. Substantial completion of the contract is 12/1, and final completion is 12/7. [snorts] So, talked to the project manager today. He said they're they're on track. They have all your sods lined up. Um all the materials are on site, so So, it's looking good. Any questions on that? Just one. Just real quick. They're going to put the sod down, and then they're going to have to put some winter rye on that sod. That's correct. So, you know, and so but basically what it is is the sod and the winter rye has to attach the root system has to attach

083to the ground. For some reason well, if if we get to the summer and some of that sod is not good cuz it's dormant right now, are they going to come back and help us? >> I I did ask that question early on in the contract, and I don't I don't want to misstate, but it was my understanding for the first season that yes, if they come out there and there was an area that was for whatever reason that patch of sod just was bad, you know, either it was grown and had a disease and brought there or irrigation didn't work or something, yes, that they would they would make it I mean, in a year's time our field should be back appeared to look like it did before they were over there. Perfect. Well,

084Thank you, Mr. King. So, are you okay? Uh PC contract, this is Don Jordan. Good evening, Chairman Satterfield, Dr. Farrell, members of the board. You have before you one AC contract. We have This is our last one, right? We've been waiting on this one. Um this is for PCG. This is um the group we use for our Medicaid claiming and cost reporting. Um this There is an increase in this contract, but this is the one that we get reimbursement back from uh Medicaid for. So, we're asking for board approval for the Public Consulting Consulting Group. We won't get all of it back though, is that correct? Mhm. We won't get all of the money back. Eventually. It's been taking a little bit of time. Uh it's getting caught up with the state. There was um

085we still got some in arrears, but it it's coming in. Make a motion to approve the contract as presented. Have a motion by Mr. Bowlin. Second. Seconded by Ms. Hornsby. Any discussion? All in favor by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Thank you. >> Thank you. House for approval. Mr. Ingram. Good evening, sir. Good evening. Mr. Chairman Sattler, Dr. Carroll, members of the board. On your board, I have actually have a list of policies presented last month for review. This being the conclusion of the 30-day review period, I would like to present the policies for adoption. 1310, 4002, parent involvement. 3210, parental inspection of and objection to instructional materials. 3320, school trips. 3510, religious based exemptions for school programs. 4120, domicile or residential requirements. 5024, 6127, 7266, emergency epinephrine auto injector devices. 5030, community use of

086facilities. 5070, 7350, public records retention, release, and disposition. 6125, administering medicines to students. 6340, transportation service vehicle contracts. 7100, recruitment and selection of personnel. And 7820, personnel files. Could you state those one more time, Mr. Ingram? So, we need a motion for the 12 policies that were stated by Mr. Mr. Chairman, can I ask, can we take a vote on policy 50 30 by itself? And that's a community facilities. >> Yes. Weren't we still talking about that? And the change to it, do you have that in front of you, Mr. Ingram? >> I do. Can you read the change? I guess that that it's the the one in the red, is that correct, Mr. Yeah. So, if you could read that. Can we read it? Can we Are we allowed to do that? No. Yeah,

087yeah, yeah. I mean, it's under um section B. Yes. Policy code 50 Facilities available for use in the citizens policy permits groups to use school facilities only for educational, recreational, civic, and cultural activities. Therefore, individual users and uses of private or personal nature are not permitted. By way of example and not limitation, the use of school facilities will not be permitted for events such as family reunions, birthday, anniversary, graduation parties, bridal or baby showers, wedding receptions, funerals, or associated proceedings, or garage estate sales. However, facilities may be rented for memorial services, funerals for current Richmond County schools students or employees. Such events will be subject to the rules applicable to section A group three users. And if I'm able to share that's I have I have no problem with any of the other policies. Don't

088have a problem with this policy with the exception of that this policy only allows for current Richmond County school students and employees. And because of that I I can't support it. I mean I I to me I just think again, nothing I just think that you know, the with the facility I think it should be open to to to if if someone with the way it's written right now, if unless the person is currently in our school system whether staff or student that can use the facility. So, what happens if you got a staff member or former staff member that needs to use the facility? So, now we're saying they can't use it based on the way this policy is written. So, for me if this policy is I can't I can't support the way

089that it is written right now. Could it be that that a former person staff member that retired from Richmond County schools or you're talking about any personnel that worked for 1 year, 1 day? I was saying any personnel. I To me, I just To me, I just think that if if a person want to use the facility if if they're Richmond County former Richmond County staff or student, they should be able to use the facility. Mr. Chair, if I may, and this is just for the public cuz I know you know this, but um that would be specifically for memorial and funeral services. Certainly if a former employee has a baseball team or something, they can use it the same as anyone else. So, just funerals. Yep. So, so let me just let's even figure

090out her So, do we just vote on the policies or do we take it out? >> make a motion to approve all policies except for 5030, and then someone else can make a motion on 5030. So, yes, you can take them separately. Okay. So, we will need ourselves just to get this right for the board. We will take a a vote on all the policies with the exception of 5030. If if that is Mr. Tillman's motion. That would be my motion. I'll second. Any further discussion? So, we vote now to approve or to vote on all the policies except for one. Right. And then we'll have to have another motion to approve those policies. No, no. This will be approving all the policies. With the exception of that one. And then we can have another

091motion to either approve or not approve that, okay? So, I have a motion by Mr. Till by Mr. Tillman to approve all policies except for 5030. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Baldwin. Any further discussion? All in favor of saying aye. Aye. All opposed. Okay, so all policies now with exception of 5030 are approved. I thought we were still discussing that policy anyway because we had asked and and Dr. Farrell got us some information about what surrounding counties were doing. >> That's correct, but we have we had to bring something to you all. >> Yes. And so the where we sort of landed last time last meeting was something very very similar to this. So what I said to Mr. Ingram is put that in there, but that could change because they

092wanted to see all of the other surrounding um districts and how they handle it. And I'll I'll say Ronald to go along with you after soul searching that for 30 45 days, I'm in complete agreement. I I don't think it's going to be a common common factor, but I also would like to make sure that we're not putting a strain on our staff and being there on weekends and you know, no interruption in the school day obviously. Yeah, and I you know, and I pre- appreciate, you know, the superintendent doing the research and getting those school systems that are are that are allowing it and those that are not. I was looking at one of the school system, Columbus County, and they have their auditorium. This is in um under B facility available to use.

093It says auditoriums may be used for funerals of students or staff members after school hours. The facility may also be used for funerals of community members on days that are that are not school days for students or work days for staff. So I just I just think it should and be opened up to the you know, [snorts] to not only our current students and staff, but also our our former students and staff as well as the community. I don't see where it's going to be like a overflow of people wanting to use the facility for funerals or memorials. The only thing I would do different would be former students and staff, not entire community. That would be my only line. Yeah. And the only reason that I say this is because if if you remember

094we had had a situation where we had a family that wanted to use the facility. Um that did not get a chance to use the facility to have a have a funeral of a kid that went was in our school system that played sports in our school system. So to me that was just kind of a like a slap in the face. I could see it on that side as far as with the the parent and the family, you know. And that's just that's just my opinion, you know, so. Who who would Who would open these build- Who would open the buildings up? Who would be responsible for that? >> That's a great question. Yeah, who would have to take time on Saturdays or Fridays or Thursday evenings or whatever day to open the buildings

095and be there? Would it be our security? Would it be our principals? >> [snorts] >> It would It would be the custodian. And if they would If they agreed to it. If they agreed to it cuz they don't have to work for it. And if there was a security risk of any, you know, any kind, then you would have to have a SRO, you know. If they agreed to it. They would have to agree to it as well. >> Because anytime we open our facilities, we should have security there, a custodian there. So But isn't it already like that anyway when we rent out for athletic the the I guess sports teams that's playing out on the the the ball fields? We have to have We have an addendum where they have to do a

096some kind of agreement where they have to pay for the the custodial expense and things like that. So don't see this being no different. It's a good point. So, good we put it in there provided staff's available, too. Open the facility and do what needs to be done. I think our agreement Or is that too subjective? Our agreement states that our agreement states that I just think just like Mr. Timmons was just saying is that [snorts] if I wanted to use our auditorium at Rockingham Junior High uh for my mother's funeral that I need to understand that that comes with the cost of custodial and we require security, security. You've got the right to use it. But, the school system shouldn't have to foot the bill >> Right. for paying for the custodian and the

097and the security. And as long as they know that they've got to pay these individuals, you can use it. >> Right. If you willing to pay these individuals. All right. Is that going to be in the policy? I think it has to be. I agree. I think it is. So, it >> it's already in there. It says they're subject to fees. the rules for group A three. So, that would be custodial and supervisory fees will be charged. And then fees and utilities as applicable. I mean, I'm sorry. Kitchen and utility as applicable. Most people I assume will not use the kitchen, but yeah. So, I think right now the way we have it if it was a memorial for a student or staff member, they would pay the same amount as a scouting or 4-H

098group would pay to use. I I gather yeah, of course I I didn't have to do it. But, there must be a cost for using a funeral home. Am I Is that Is that correct? Mhm. Oh, absolutely. >> I mean, but a lot >> to use our facility? I would think so. There should be. >> Now, what is the cost of our to use our facility? Because if it's cheaper than a funeral home, that's what I'm thinking. Where are people going to want to have their funeral? They're going to have a funeral in our school system because it's cheaper than going to a funeral home. I think they would want to do it more so for comfort. Uh like the last uh family we denied, they knew there was going to be a large group

099of people because that individual was real popular, even in his uh latest state, uh he was still popular, very popular athlete here, um and >> [snorts] >> they knew there were going to be a lot of people on and they just wanted everybody to be comfortable. I think they do it more for comfort than um anything. But, the funeral home, you going to get a couple I bet you can you can't get 100 people into that hall. Yeah, I I get it. I I just my whole assumption my whole thought process is the amount of work we are going to put on our personnel. That's That's all I can say. And uh you know, but Well, I'm concerned about that, too, but we're all what We're also always advocating for community involvement. So, I mean

100I'm all for opening it to the community, but I'm like I don't want to overwork our staff. How long are we locked into this? Because I just don't think it's I'm hoping it's not going to be as big a deal as we think it is. >> [laughter] >> What do you mean, Mr. Mayor? It depends on who's time to fill, but at the most at the most two or three hours. But, how often is that? We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. Pam had told us that she gets X number of calls per Can you repeat that? About one a month? On average? Well, I think when you putting the car the way I look at it, I mean it's no different than how we're doing it now for athletic teams that's using

101the football field. We charging fees for that. We charging a security fee. We charging a janitorial fee. It's written in the contract what what why can't you do the same thing for people that want to use the facility auditorium or gym have a memorial service or a funeral. It's the same. I don't see the difference. There's not a difference. It's just more of it. It's just It's just another thing. So. >> [snorts] >> Yes, I agree. It's the same it's the same thing of security, custodian, somebody unlocking the building. Does that money go to the individual schools of where Yes. the percent There's We have to pay the employee. So, we pay for that, but there is a percent of the rental fee that school gets like a 60/40 split. For electricity? >> Where's the

102money? I mean, where in there does it say the fee for That's right. Most of the time we're not on the winning end of that deal. On the application We're usually at home. It's on the website. Look at that. We should put the prices to cover the cost of what it costs us to do. The downside we usually are on the losing end of that. But Jerry, what we just said, we're looking for partners. This is like a community partnership. Um and you know, we're providing services and facilities for our community. Um and to be honest with you, uh when you're talking about those people that are going to be working uh these uh events, these a lot of these individuals are looking a way to make more money because we don't allow them to

103have overtime. So, this has just [snorts] been another way that they can add to make more money, put more money in their pockets because I think we still have a policy where we're trying to reduce the amount of overtime. Is that not correct? >> Absolutely. You heard the auditor say that we're using a million dollars a year out of fund balance. >> Right. So, we're trying So, let's give that individual opportunity to make more money and if that money doesn't come out of our pocket, it's coming from the people that are using the facility. I just think it's a a great thing to uh allow our our community to use it for these specific reasons. Mainly the memorial was one that really stands out to me, the memorial. Right. So, uniform fee schedule for a

104K-8 auditorium. Let's say they're going to uh Let's say they're going to Fairway Heights. You're going to have a a funeral there and the funeral last and memorial last just say 5 hours. Okay? And $4 an hour. It doesn't matter how much is how much we paying in security and how much we paying police an hour. Well, it says it says that down. Right, $25 an hour. $40 an hour. So, if I just say it's 5 hours, that's $125. 40 * 5 is what? 200? So, that's and they're charging them another $100 [clears throat] and that pays for I guess for the electricity and so forth and so on. I'm just trying to think through it. And the superintendent is authorized to change those, you know. Yeah. He can increase the fees up to cost

105increase. So, would there is there a motion to adopt the policy but add revise it so it says current or former staff and students for memorials? You're not a motion yet. Right. I would like I mean I would make that motion but I would like to make sure that we're not operating at a loss as well. So, I mean do we need to put a little bit more time into the fee schedule to make sure that we're not operating at a loss? And that was one of the things I noticed. I'll say Scott, I was looking at Columbus County's um policy. I mean they got it broke a fee schedule broken out. Say like for example, for facility use, this is for auditorium is $150 an hour. I mean they got they got it broken

106out. >> [snorts] >> Um I think it's very detailed. So, it's you know, to me using something like that may be helpful for us. I I guess kind of looking at what would be our call I mean what would be our calls and putting it into putting it into into policy. And it may weed out some folks may say well that's a little bit too much. I can't afford to do all those fees. But the opportunity is there. >> But the opportunity is there. Because I agree we don't need to take a loss on our end but at the same time at least have it available give people the option if they choose to do they're willing to pay the cost to use the facility then so be it. So let me ask you this

107Eva is there a way a way to make a motion on this and leave the fee schedule part of it open? Yes. So I think they're they're kind of separate discussions. So you could I mean because you if the board says we want to start allowing more funerals then the administration can raise the fees as necessary. You mean it's they bring them to you for approval but what I'm saying is if they need to raise fees to carry that out then you can raise fees to carry that out that policy direction but for what the the policy says the superintendent will bring the fee structure um prior you know prior to the beginning of the school year but you could bring it again if it needs to change. Well is it possible just to table

108this one and come back to it once we get the fees worked out? Yeah yes it's definitely possible. I think the question for the administration is Because we need to get the fees worked out and uh and make sure that we all agree and um but like we said you they have the opportunity the question is are you willing to pay the fees that we have set forth in the in our policy. Um to answer your question firstly, but um I don't think we had concerns about the fees. I think that I mean, we can certainly revisit them and do some comparison to other districts. Um I think that this change to this policy specifically where memorial services are concerned came because of an incident that happened in this community prior to me being here.

109And there was some information that there was going to be a memorial service on a school campus and there was some sort of threat of retaliation. And that's when all of this apparently changed. And so, we're still in some ways dealing with the fallout of that. And so, nothing happened, fortunately, because the request was denied. Am I correct, Mr. Ingram? The request request was denied because of the potential threat that there would be some sort of retaliation at the memorial service, which would have been on one of our campuses. So, our discussion has been if we get information that there is a potential threat to take place during a memorial service, how do we say "Kate Smith, we have information that you cannot have your memorial service here because we understand there there's a potential

110threat for retaliation or that kind of thing." But Mr. But Melvin Ingram, you can because we're not hearing that there's a potential threat. Because one of the things that I were we try really hard to do is put things in place that do not open us up to discrimination, whether it's, you know, a person with green eyes was able to have a memorial service, but a person with blue eyes was not [clears throat] able to have a memorial service. And regardless of the reason that we do it, we could still be accused of discriminatory practices, and we don't want to do that. And so, you know, is that something that if if law enforcement comes to us, we can then say no, but then how do we know law enforcement's not being discriminatory? I mean,

111it's just it's just so gray, and I think that's what ultimately led to the current students or staff, which I suppose you could have a potential threat with one of them as well. It's just significantly reduced. Um And so, that's that it didn't I I say all of that to say it didn't have to do with fees. It had to do more with that kind of thing, I believe. >> [sighs] >> So, if we So, if the superintendent is saying that we have no concerns with fees right now, then how do we want the policy to read, and are we going to kick the can down the road for another month, or are we going to vote on something? I'd rather go ahead and do it. Well, I can't I just can't Chairman, I can't

112make a motion. >> I'll make a motion to amend the policy to state former students and staff would be able to use it for memorial services. I'll second that. We have a motion to amend the policy [snorts] to allow current and former staff and students to use it as for funerals. For memorial >> a motion For memorial services. For memorial For memorial services. I have a motion from Mr. Baldwin, a second from Mr. Tillman. Is there any further discussion. All in favor by saying raise your hand. >> [snorts] >> 1 2 3 All All against? Are you not Are you not voting? I voted for it. Okay. So, we have 6 5 to 1. It's 6 to 1. 6 to 1. Excuse me, my math is a little bad. Sorry. All right. Yeah, yeah, we're

113counting people. All right. Um You're welcome. It still says that you have the You have to check one of those boxes that they understand the fee change under your order. The the fees? Is that what you're saying? Well, yeah, can you get back up there so I can Why does this thing keep going off? That's a great question, too. Ma'am. I'm going between two different things. >> Okay. Let's see. Ours is still off. Is your screen there up there? There it is. Do you mean where it says I understand that fees may be subject to change and that I am responsible for any damages to Richmond County Schools property? Yeah. So, that's all part of the what happens when people come in and and sign up for the order you complete the facility rental form.

114Yeah. Can we talk about some Can we talk about something else concerning this? Because I I really do believe that in future that our job descriptions for custodians, SROs will need to say that they're going to need to help work after hours some days for, you know, for overtime pay. Is it going to have to be They'll have to be required to work. Somebody's going to be have to be required to work. I know we're not having a problem with it now, but if it gets out of hand, which I don't think it will, I'm just saying what are the unintended consequences of any decision that you make? And we got to be prepared to handle that cuz the principal just can't do it him or herself. Somebody's got to be there. If the custodian

115says, "Well, I can't come right now." or the SRO says, "I I got something else to do. I'm not coming." So, you should have a principal there whether it's a ball field, you know, I I and I haven't heard any problems yet, but this could turn into something bigger. That's all I'm going to say. The custodian on site is not available, and then you can push it out to other custodians in the county. That's right. Or other SROs in the county. Uh as long as they are members of our as long as they are employed by Richmond County schools. So, you know, we can't find anybody at Richmond that wants to do it, we can push it out. Now, if nobody in the county wants to do it, then now you got a problem. I

116just you know, again, more work not It's more work being done by our people that's not on educating our kids. That's all I'm going to say. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Policies for review, right? Yes. Um and board, actually have a list of policies that we would like to present for 30-day review. 3101, uh dual enrollment, 3220, technology and education in the in the educational program, 3225, 4312, 7320, technology responsible use, 3226, 4205, internet safety, 3227, 7322, web page development, 3460, graduation requirements, 4050, children of military families, 4130, discretionary admission, 4150, school assignment, 4152, unsafe school choice transfer, 4318, use of wireless communication devices, and 6560, disposal of surplus property. And we have 30 days to review that. >> Yes. >> [snorts] >> Perfect. Thank you. Back to Mr. Anglin. Dr. Ferrell, surplus. Okay. So, we

117are requesting board approval uh for the following items to be listed for sale on vehicles. We have a 2009 um three uh truck and a 2006 Ford F-150 truck and various size laptop charging carts. So, we need a motion to approve the request. >> to motion. A motion by Mr. Ethridge. Second. Seconded by Mr. Mason. Any discussion? All in favor by saying aye. Aye. All against? All right. We have got that surplus. Any comments from our Board of Education members? Mr. Ethridge. Um I had the opportunity, been doing it for quite a while now, the Student Health Advisory Council meeting. And uh Dr. Wendy Jordan was doing that. Angela Gallagher did a great job doing that. I was able to freeze my my knees off at the ball game. It took me a while to

118get warm after we whipped Pine Crest. And I'm so glad. And then I was able to go to the RCC part of the state superintendent coming here and enjoyed that. Thank you, Mr. Ethridge. On my behalf, I just wanted to give a and it's already kind of been said today and we did have uh Miss Sally Mormon um that had um got recognized tonight, but um what I also thank um our uh Dr. Carter and Benji. Uh it was a situation where we had a a signage a signage issue um on one of our highways and it was a potential it could have been a potential um issue where could have probably had could have been a bad situation. So I want to thank um um B&G and and Dr. Carter for looking into that.

119And and because of that we were able to get a um a a bus stop ahead sign in this location. So I really want to thank thank him and B&G and Miss Sally for bringing all that to our attention and I appreciate the quick response um from our staff on getting all that. Thank you. That's all I have. Anyone else? Friday night is a big game. Go Raiders. Are you going to Dr. Fair, are you going to tell about the Amazon Monroe Avenue children participating? Yes, you can go ahead. Well, I just I thought that thought was really good that the Amazon um >> This is your time to talk. groundbreaking Um I was just really glad we had um seven Monroe Avenue new students that um were recognized. They helped they all were given

120a shovel and did the digging and it was very good, but I was also really glad that they um Miss McDonald that spoke the beginning teacher of the year. She did a good job. And um I was really glad that she represented our schools and uh I just think great things are coming from Amazon and it it was that was exciting. But I also want to make sure you knew that the Educational Foundation presented the $1,000 grants to every school and um um several of I didn't get to go with them when they did the presentation, but several of I mean but the um Well, Fitz King talked and she said they were so excited and seemed to be so surprised and so I think that's really taken off and I appreciate the Educational Foundation

121for the work they're doing and they've gotten new members and it's it's really work um they're doing a really good job in um promoting education and teaching trying to help us um get and retain teachers, sir. So, Bobby, so were there submissions from every school? Every school. That's awesome. Every school. [snorts] Um I just want to go We were there the morning that uh Superintendent Green was here and our students were showcased. They served breakfast that morning. Richmond Senior High looked great. [snorts] Mhm. Uh and it just showcased what Richmond County Schools does for our for our students in the CTE. Uh just couldn't have been more proud of everybody that was involved with that. A really good day um for Richmond County Schools. Senate members were awesome in their presentation. [clears throat] >> They

122they were the three the three students they were fantastic and uh just could not have been more proud of uh everybody that was associated uh with that. I also do want Not just them, all throughout the students participated and talked to um Superintendent Green. You know, they really did a good job of involving the students at the school. And the auto mechanics Mhm. never looked Mhm. better than that day. It was really really good and kudos to Which is Who's the teacher out there? Jeff James. Jeff James doing a just great job. So, good. I also want to uh thank um Cameron Whitley um for our Facebook page because we we just have a lot of things going on it. So, thank you for keeping up with that because um that's where a lot of

123people get their their stuff but and the newspapers aren't doing a lot of visits and so forth and so on our accolades. So, it's really good um that that's going on. And um so, we're looking forward to uh more things on the Facebook page. And that's all I got. Anybody else? We're good? Corey, I'll just say to your question to Jennifer, how many kids retest and retake and pass? I um actually just looked up on our um data tracker and this past year we had anywhere between 1 and 9% pass on the retake. Um and I mean it could be it's very teacher dependent and it's very schizophrenic. So. One fourth grade school might have five kids re- retake it and pass and another school might have 15. So, you're saying from each school from

1241% of school to 9%? >> 1% of the those that retook the test, 1 to 9%. So, the most we had was about 12 to 15 kids um in a grade level pass on the retake. And did all those kids retake that? Did all of them retake? The The only the ones that were really close. I understand. Yeah. Cuz anything anything helps. Absolutely. >> Yep. So. >> [snorts] >> Thank you for giving that to us. Dr. Ferrell. Um just a couple of things. So, tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11th is Veterans Day. School will be closed. Please find a way to uh express your gratitude for veterans for all that they have done and continue to do for our nation. Um looking forward to spending time with you all um this week at the um North Carolina

125School Boards Association conference. Um and as Jerry pointed out, congratulations to the Raiders and their win over Pinecrest for the conference championship. And we will be hosting um this Friday night at um Raider Stadium, so that's a good thing. And of course, Thanksgiving break is coming up so fast in just a couple of weeks, November 26th through the 28th, school will be closed. Okay. That's it. That's it? That's it. Thank you, Dr. Ferrell. Uh need a motion to enter closed session pursuant to North Carolina General Statute 143-318-11A1 and 6 for the disclosure of confidential personnel [clears throat] records. So we need to discuss personnel matters. I make a motion. Motion by Mr. Tillman. Second. Seconded by Ms. Owensby. Any further discussion? All in favor of the motion say "Aye". Aye. All opposed? We are now

126in closed session. Dr. Ferrell and members of the board, on board docs is a personnel report and addendum. I'm asking for approval at this time. You need approval of asking for approval of the November 10th personnel report. Need a motion. So moved. Motion by Mr. Tillman. Second. Seconded by Mr. Mason. Any discussion? All in favor of the motion say "Aye". Aye. All opposed? It is passed. Thank you. We do have our next meeting is the Christmas breakfast, which is December 11th. December 11th. Do we know I thought it was a Is that Is that the correct date? >> It might not be. That's off the top of my head. >> December 11th. Do we know where that's going to take place? Fairview Heights. Fairview Heights. Okay. And it's 8:00, right? 8:00 a.m. December 11th, Fairview

127Heights, 8:30. >> 8:30. 8:30. [clears throat] So that'll be our next meeting. >> No, that's the wrong date. The 11th. So the 11th at 8:30. I'll have to put that on my calendar for the right day. Anything else for the good of the cause? You motion? So moved. A motion by Mr. Solomon. Seconded by Mr. Ethridge. For discussion. All in favor say "Aye". Aye.