e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody thank you for attending our board meeting this evening um I'd like to just go ahead and take this time just a little housekeeping just to kind to uh address what our agenda is in and starting off our meeting we'll begin with Awards and recognitions so I just wanted to let folks who have arrived to um speak with the board that um we will be doing um public comment after we do our Awards and recognitions I do want everybody to know because the amount of people that have signed up each person will be given two and a half minutes to speak um and then also just to let you know when you do address the board you just come up here to the table and and talk to us um we will not be answering or going back and forth with you we will we will listen to what you have to say and then we'll call for the next person to come up so I just wanted there to be a general understanding on that's how we do our public comment so all right well moving right along um I'd like to um go to number three Awards and recognitions Mr Parker all right so we have with us Ava Castleman who is a freshman at Scott County High School and uh I'm GNA talk for I'm going to talk about you for a minute so you can hang out back there for just a little bit uh she's also a state champion and tonight we are thrilled to recognize this outand outstanding student athlete and School record ER Ava won the 107 lb weight class at the girls State wrestling championship and holds the title of first ever State wrestling champion at Scott County high schools yay sharing a 46 and S record with 33 33 pins excuse me as I understand it Ava is a well-rounded student and multisport athlete who also plays soccer and and is a previous Finley 5K winner join me in celebrating Ava's strength and tenacity and Paving the way for younger female athlet athletes during National Women's Health Women's History Month excuse me congratulations to state champion wrestlers Scott County High School student and history maker Ava Castleman [Applause] all right that concludes our Awards and recognition Okay number four agenda approval I would like to amend the agenda and um add do you want me to read want to add okay um I want to add um the approved to award bid to Griggs Enterprises as the general contractor bid for Oxford Elementary well I I think it's after after that one we're wanting to add we're wanting to oh after that yes thank you we will add approved revised bg1 for the Oxford Elementary School second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number five public comment and please forgive me if I don't do a great job with name so I'm I'm come along with me um number one Jackson Brewer would you please come on up thank you for joining us just have a seat and you can sit right the mic's turned on and ready for you my name is Jackson Brewer and I've been a student in Scott County for my whole life I can't say I'd be the same person I am today if I had gone to a school anywhere else Scott County is not just a district where we rest easy and do what's always been done I've seen experimentation I've seen Innovation I've seen progress all in the name of delivering a better education from Career and Technical Innovation to Middle College to the entirety of ECS no matter what your dreams or learning needs Scott County has been there for me and is always there for students in our high schools we have students learning how to weld we have cuttingedge farming practices trial law even basic Medical Care from it to engineering to the trades I can promise you that no student will walk at graduation the same person they walked in and I know that whether it's board staff Administration or teachers everyone who works in Scott County schools here I personally had our superintendent Mr Parker as a substitute teacher and I've had teachers bend over backwards to find the program to find the programs I need and I can't remember for time that I have not felt supported at Scott County Schools you don't often hear from students at these meetings and I want to say that your work is appreciated we're proud to grow up in Scott County and I have seen that the impacts have on students of Scott County and it is truly incredible thank you thank you so much thank you okay uh milia Robinson good evening good afternoon my name is Amal Robinson I'm a student at Great Crossing High School and as well as a former Georgetown Middle School student while I feel strongly about the removal of music program I would like to focus on the overall effect of this decision one of the most life-changing gifts you can give to a child is trust having trust in a brighter future trust in ourselves and Trust in our community are crucial to the self-esteem of everyone however I was not encouraged to trust in fourth grade the older kids told me about GMS they convinced me that I'd be entering an extremely unprofessional brutal setting once they planted the seed in my mind there could be no other truth joining clubs or Sports never seemed to be an option to me because I had not been given the opportunity to find pride in my community the only place I felt confident talented and heard was within the GMS band under the decision the direction of Dr Cruz why while the children of Scott County why so sorry why the children of Scott County are taught to view Georgetown Middle School in the way that they do cannot be misunderstood it has always been my understanding that GMS does not receive adequate funding without a strong Foundation students cannot be expected to trust their community and administration certainly cannot be expected to make do students of impoverished schools across the country receive unequal education opportunities and while it is a common issue it cannot be brushed aside Scott County I urge you to fight against the Eraser of community self-esteem and pride do not allow this scenario to come to fruition thank you for your time thank you thank you for [Applause] Shar Christine thank [Laughter] you lighter thank you for joining us thanks good evening my name is Christine holer I am the art teacher team leader uh for the special area teachers at GMS Scott County Education Association building representative and most importantly a parent of a ban student at GMS I'd like to take a moment to talk to you the members of the Scott County School Board about a recent situation at Georgetown Middle School last night the GMS scace Council met to discuss the teacher allocation for the upcoming academic year due to the projected decreased enrollment of 40 students GMS was asked to cut six teacher positions from our already very small and dedicated staff as a result the site base Council decided to cut the band position my question to you why is the fastest growing District in the state forcing its schools to cut teacher positions which in turn is forcing site base councils to cut Fine Arts and Performing Arts programs we are building new and beautiful schools but several of our elementary schools do not have Arts programs GMS will now only have one teacher to teach both band and choir our students at GMS will no longer be able to participate in all district band and choir All State band and choir opportunities and we'll no longer have a jazz band our eighth grade students this year marched with the great Crossing High School marching band that won't happen next year as an art teacher two-thirds of my students coming to me have not had access to a dedicated art program in their entire Elementary career in the last several years Scott County has lost music at stamping ground music is only7 at Eastern and several art programs at the elementary level have disappeared so how are we allowing this to happen to our students we're the fastest growing District in the state but we are cutting the Arts I'm fully aware that it is a School site based Council that makes the decisions on whether teachers they are allocated by the district will teach the Arts or work as classroom teachers I've been a teacher for 25 years I know how this process works I'm here to ask you as the board directly why are the schools in our district with the most high-risk students students who receive the greatest benefit from a dedicated arts program are receiving less allocated teachers our class sizes will be larger our students will not have access to the Fine Arts programs or the access they have will be diminished the district is not hurting for money but our students are hurting from the lack of access to the Arts if the district can find money for a behavior coach and a leadership teacher at GMS why can't the district find money to ensure that every school in this district has a dedicated art and music teacher especially now in March this is National Music and our schools month and yesterday we cut the band teacher GMS is a small school but that does not mean our students deserve less than any other middle school students in the district thank you for your time thank you [Applause] Jasmine good evening my name is Jasmine wood I am a current eth grader at GMS I have gone to GMS for three years um all of my middle school years and the only safe place I have found there is the bander is Dr Cruz all of the vice principls the counselors they don't even know my name and you're cutting people's safe spots safe places this is this is I don't know um whenever you're just you're cutting people's safe places and making it so um people do not have the support that they need and um the uh like what they need to thrive the only um the only times I've been I've attempted to talk to counselors and other people and they have just brushed off everything I've had to say Dr Cruz can tell when I'm upset when I've just the way I'm playing my instrument he knows and he talks through things with me and makes sure that makes sure that everything is okay and um which is more than any of the vice principles or anyone at the building has ever done for me or from what it sounds like a lot of people and it's not even his job to do that he cares he cares truly so much more than anyone else there and he's getting cut I don't see how that is fair for anyone that's all I have to say I'm very sorry thank you Shannon hello hi my name is Shannon McConnell and I am a mother of two students at GMS I was also a long-term sub at GMS several years ago um I'm here this evening because I don't know if the decision from last night is definitive or not I don't know if there's still an opportunity to have um a say or a hope that can go further than what we received last night but I thought I'd come and share a story um I am new to the area my family and I moved here in 2021 and I have three sons two of whom are at GMS like i' mentioned one who's at g with no art program side note um but that said I we had met a family when my boys were playing and the family has two children two boys same ages as my two oldest Sons so I have an eighth grader and a sixth grader the family has an eighth grader and sixth grader as well our families connected it was the summer of um the year prior to middle school so the summer between their fifth and sixth grade year and I had this um habit of asking every parent I met whose child was about to enter Middle School which middle school is your child attending and over and over it was royal spring it was Scott County it was never GMS people chose to go away from GMS and this is the morale that our city carries for GMS or the lack of morale so sure enough I find this family with two boys the same ages as my boys and they are going to GMS and they're darn proud of it and I said heck yes you are now my best friend I love GMS it is hard I work there and I would cry to Mr picker roll because it is hard but it is it's amazing I I I long to be back there because it is so amazing so my son is named Thomas he is in eighth grade in sixth grade he couldn't he was so excited to do art that was again we didn't have the art program at G he was so excited but there wasn't time for the sixth graders there wasn't availability for the sixth graders to have art so for him to have art in seventh and eighth grade is huge for him that is where he finds his people my friend her son's name is Will Will has been in the choir the last three years Thomas and Will are both incredibly shy kiddos that said will was able to find his tribe in choir my son was able to find his in art so many other students are here tonight talking about how they found their tribe these are important these teachers are important these courses are important the morale of GMS is important it is a darn good school there are wonderful Educators there there are incredible children there and taking away anything from them um there was a mom last night who called it the little school that could and she's right right we can GMS is small But Mighty Buffs on top thank you thank [Applause] you Melissa hello thank you for joining us thank you my name is Melissa ASU I also have two children at GMS as e8th grader and a sixth grader have a third grader at Lon Mill as well and my children are not in band but are in choir and I come to you because I fear as a person who has two degrees in music that this cut of the band teacher will also affect the choir teacher because a person cannot efficiently teach both positions I have been to both attend both site based meetings at GMS the past two weeks I have reached out in effort to multiple people to see what else can be done by emailing superintendent the board members the director of pupil personnel and the principal GMS I sat in a meeting last night with information presented of Title One schools in fet county that had incorrect information and when that was brought to the attention of the necessary person it was said it wasn't important that the information was wrong the same information did not compare those schools band choir and Orchestra programs which seemed to be conveniently eliminated in a situation where that information would have been very useful I will admit that I do not not know the exact cuts the other middle schools are facing but somehow they are keeping their teachers each teaching one subject and keeping their choir and band programs while GMS is looking at the likelihood of a dune music program and having six teachers needing to teach dual content core classes I could stand here or sit here and defend the Arts at our schools all night but that isn't the only problem facing GMS I received a message back from Mr Parker that was condescending and contains several things that I feel are caused for concern he said and I quote at the middle school level schools receive one position for every 24.75 students end quote the information presented at the site based meeting at GMS is projecting 40 students Less in the upcoming school year than were originally being told to have to cut six positions but because of Title One funding they were able to get it to four but even still the numbers don't make sense and for clarification on such drastic change would be appreciated Mr Parker also mentioned several things in the works the leadership Community opportunities that would be only offer at GMS as well as the driving possibilities in the addition of the behavioral Coach position I'm aware of the driving possibilities initiative because I participated in a focus group when it was first being discussed I aware and proud of the good things that are happening inside the halls of gms's school year and the positive effects they are having but I was told and I quote the more I am forced to publicly speak on these things we are providing for GMS the more pressure mounts from the schools that are not receiving these additional supports for their piece of pie I would hope that there is complete transparency Within in our school district for what is being offered at every school so this is very concerning to me the Scott County School System claims a mission of a profile of a learner to fulfill this Mission this District's moral obligation is to fulfill teacher roles with highly qualified for every subject they are required to teach putting a choir teacher in front of a band teach a band class is the antithesis of this Mission band and choir literally cover all six aspects of a profile or learner Be an Effective and engaged Communicator be a respectful and accountable collabor Ator be a resilient and creative Problem Solver be an empathetic and compassionate citizen be a curious and adaptable learner and be a confident and responsible leader you cannot educate the whole child when you do not have experts in their field teaching students it is coming on the administration to provide the students with an opportunity to achieve the goals and the profile of a learner the decision I'm sorry it's two and a half thank you do you want to summize real quick I would I just ask for transparency for the district and to see all schools in our County be treated fairly thank you [Applause] thank Cara good evening my name is Cara coot I have a student at GMS um I just wanted to make you all aware of the of how phenomenal the GMS Band program is and how big of an impact this will have on around 130 students the eighth graders at GMS have been given a great opportunity to join the great Crossing High School Marching Band I think there's around 14 of them and um they also had the opportunity to be in the great Crossing High School pet band so my daughter has been in the Jazz Band pet band the marching band I mean those are huge opportunities so um so they are joining the great Crossing band and outranking current high schoolers for next year's band placement one of the students from GMS made it into the top band my daughter she made it into the middle band this is her second instrument she made it into the middle band first chair she outranked a high schooler I mean these are great opportunities for kids and I said um this gives them a great Advantage at receiving musical scholarships down the road I mean this is a great thing for our kids you know 120 kids all the eighth graders I'm pretty sure they have the opportunity to join the marching band and then it's a seamless transition I said I understand it's a difficult decision but I hope there are more options to explore thank you all thank [Applause] you Mike Davis hello uh well I'm not going to take up your two and a half minutes or anything like that I think what I'll do is I'll just email you all my letter and U go about that in that way but I would like to say something to the wonderful young people that have come and spoke tonight so eloquently and so passionately about what they love I was here last month and I believe if I believe it was last month Mr Cruz received a uh coin of Excellence uh he seems like a wonderful human being I I had a chance to go a couple weeks last year to uh work with the guys at uh GMS on their buffway program and uh you know the students are awesome The Faculty is awesome and uh but I'd also like to encourage every single person who came here tonight in in defense of Mr Cruz in the music program to know how important it is and it sounds like a lot of them have been involved but the site based decision-making councils are huge you should always be involved with it so you understand everything that goes on because they control everything at the school that happens uh you know and I encourage them to to be involved this is a great thing where we can have people come and and express whether it's pleasure or Discord you know to the board I appreciate you all listening uh hopefully that they can take this back to their uh uh site base and and get it worked out there's a lot of things left to go it's just March and I hope that they will you know uh SE several some of these people spoke to me this morning before school even started and I you know I'm glad to see that they uh you know were able to come and express their opinions and and fight for Mr Cruz obviously he he he must do a heck of a job for for the amount of people that showed up in his support and like I said you know there's a lot of stuff I could bore you about our our legislative session and raises and things of that nature but I felt it was more appropriate to to to allow them to have the evening and uh like I said I'll just email you all what I have you know I'll put together some numbers and things of that nature that I'll email you all but I appreciate it and I appreciate these people behind me thank you Mike thank you that that concludes our public comments for this evening thank you everybody for coming and sharing your opinions and and making us aware of um individual comments and and thoughts that that you have and and we greatly appreciate it yeah it's um as I have communicated to many people um the allocation formula that we uh live by here in Scott County Schools it's been the same allocation formula since before I got here it it's nothing about it has changed in terms of those numbers for middle school students when student enrollment is projected to decrease it should serve to reason that there are going to be positions that will not be provided um since the 90s since the 90s we've had school-based decision-making councils I can recall during covid when we were told as a board team by our legislators that it was our decision to make some of those tough decisions that came with that time frame I also remember the frustration that came when some decisions were made that they didn't like then resulted in efforts to claw back and take that that opportunity away um just as you all are elected to be on this board we've got people that are elected to be on the site based Council for schools and that's why they're there to make these tough decisions so schools are faced with them every year and they have to figure out what they want to do with regard to those positions so again this is a Scott County Schools board meeting not a Georgetown Middle School site based meeting and we will not be and as a result this this is not a decision of the Scott County Board of Education um I mean it follows law um and and again it's just not right that's what those those individuals were elected to do so that's all I've got to say all right thank you number six consent agenda items a through j i so move second all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries number seven approved to award bid to Griggs Enterprises as a general contractor bid for Oxford Elementary you want me to read the whole BR now yeah if you don't mind approved to award bid to Griggs Enterprises as a general contractor bid for Oxford Elementary with a bid of 29,400 accepting the base bid as well as Alternatives number one and number two I move to approve the award bid to Griggs Enterprises as the general contractor bid for Oxford element second all in favor I I those oppos motion carries 7A I think I'll call it approved revised bg1 for the Oxford Elementary School so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number eight construction report Tony yeah Tony doesn't have a whole lot to to share today so we're taking a little bit of a different approach with today's meeting um U Miss Simmons her presentation will be rather short and um at request of many on the board we we like to give you all updates on facility projects and and whatnot and as a result uh Dwayne will be sharing with us uh some information Tod to facilities so okay thank you and I was just going to mention congratulations on your bids I know everybody should know this came in lower than expected and there's some trending downwards in the inflation of construction so congratulations on your good bids and I was excited to see the number of bids that we actually received this year yes six bids I haven't had six bids in a while so yes yeah very nice thank you all right thank you good afternoon folks uh how we doing tonight um going to hit you with a a uh long list of things I have unlimited minutes from my group back in the back uh they they've given me all their minutes for the night so the Bingo board is good um just want to touch base on on some several uh projects that kind of fall under me uh and talk about my team and where we're at and uh where we've been where we're at where we're going that type of kind of catchup moment so going to start with Oxford Elementary just to kind of get you guys geared up for that uh as far as my team uh and their role uh several things that will be uh running point on uh when you kind of think about that project you know all the furniture that's provided there playground equipment uh all the daily and and and monthly inspections that we'll walk through uh the fencing that comes along with that that project and um things from TVs and some of the other little stuff uh but then also you know moving two or three schools that probably will be impacted with the redistricting so another summer of movement uh next summer uh so the guys will be uh pushing forward on that um custodial uh also falls under my U you know my watch uh right now we have every every spot full uh but we do have uh 10 Anderson folks uh that we contract with at this point uh so we've tried you know it this is the first time in a long time I can easily say yes we've got everything covered you know tomorrow I have an opening because I've said that but um it's been a while since we went this long with not without having a hole to field so that's been good so I think the the raises and some of the things that we've done has made things better and we are having a lot more applicants so hopefully eventually you know we can start even replacing more of the the Anderson contract in part the um uh and and what's proving to be good is some of those Anderson folks if it wasn't so long it would be quicker but want to come on with us after working with us uh but there's a year type of non-compete rule in there with us so but after a year you know those folks especially the the ones that we really like you know jump right on board with us as soon as they they get that year up so that's been good um uh uh jump to Safe schools a little bit um you know right now we're in a situation where mechanically you know we're in really good shape as far as access control and and and doors and locks and all those things uh you know when I first started here you know we replaced a lot of doors over the last 10 years we've replaced a lot of cameras and a lot of you know we had almost zero access controls except for maybe one building back then so um at this point we have all that mechanically equipment type stuff taken care of to to a degree there will always be some onesie twosies that we need to either improve or replace um uh or you know but but for the most part we're in really good shape in those areas we are going to start rural spring uh replacing those cameras in that whole building it's co- axal uh type of cameras so they run a lot they have a lot of issues and it's time to take all those out and we've got a list running where will use safe school's money over the next four or five years to replace some of the Aging cameras at at each building sometimes you're talking 60 to 80 cameras per building uh or more so uh we'll try to knock that out each year and make sure that we stay up to up to par there um you know and that's us buying the cameras and a retired uh maintenance guy U making you know knocking it out with with a little help here and there so we're able to do most of that inhouse uh the big thing that safe schools that we'll be kind of transitioning for uh is trying to get a second DARE officer and also making sure that we have uh getting to that one:1 SRO ratio and being able to fill it over campus even though we're committed to it financially finding them is is a little bit harder than than it appears sometimes so uh getting to the the fact that we have one to one SRO and then trying to have that secondary officer there it's not just something you can just do you have to go through several weeks of training and uh and and be that type of person that you can stand in front of kids and and and and you're you're a teacher you know so as a DARE officer so um the big reason that second person would help us we're trying to transition from fifth grade year to fourth grade year but we don't want to miss out on that that one year uh if we just jump into start doing fourth grade next year that will leave the fifth grade without it and never have had dare before so we want to make sure that we figure out a way even if we end up with one that we still hit both fourth and fifth grade next year so that the following year we just stay in the fourth grade because they're the least tested versus fifth grade fifth grade in the spring it's like you know you're fighting uh teachers to get into their rooms they don't want to give up any instructional time so it's been hard on the the deer officers uh especially if we have like bad weather and it pushes their their time back uh so we felt it was time to to move that and and and make that change because fifth grade might be the one of the biggest years tested uh and and all K through 12 um one of your handouts um I want to point out is um this sheet it's got three pages to it uh when I first started uh I think this was 16 I started in 15 but I think this we did this in 16 it's got the three pages and there's a lot of yellow highlights um when we started that whole list you know the Highlight has been done since 20 2016 when I put this she sheet together back in 2016 about every school had a good you know five to 10 things that we really wanted to try to accomplish and um you know as you could see over the years we've been able to knock out a lot of those things and that's that's a huge team effort by you guys by my maintenance team by the contractors uh everybody's been involved in in getting all those things accomplished so um you know that's that's that's good to look back on each year and see where we're at and see how much things we've accomplished because a lot of times you know it's like anything you for you forget all the things you have done sometimes you kind of forget so it's nice to go back and review that and see and when we did those things um so a big kudos to you guys for helping because that that takes dollars you know that takes commitment sometimes and uh and I I think Scott County schools has proven shown that they want to have you know a nice uh environment for learning there and and it takes some of those things and those efforts um where we're at with some of the projects is the next page so you kind of take that three pages that we started with and you kind of come now to this page is what I work with uh each year you know so we've been able to really uh narrow down some of the list and some of the schools uh you know and I think most of us know the three or four schools that we want to hit next the good thing is most of the things that we want to hit are not horribly uh wrong they're just aged or dated you know some flooring some windows um some paint here and there some Paving uh things that we can knock out pretty quickly in a lot of in in in a lot of ways so it's just a matter of now we're getting to these where we can uh tackle some of the the issues in some of these um older schools you know the 1989 or are past typically is where we're looking at as far as the school's age uh so uh we'll we'll uh and some of these are going we're going to try to knock out you know this summer uh so we'll see how we have that highlighted next summer um the next page I I gave you is districtwide needs uh for this year that we're going to try to tackle uh so that's that's this one with uh some pricing beside it uh so there's several really good projects that we're going to try to tackle and um and you'll see us coming out you know coming out hot out of the gate to try to get these things accomplished ASAP um you know things like moving the Eastern trailer to to um you know Paving Northern um and we're also going to tackle adding a lane at Northern so that we can have more room for the buses to get around some of the traffic issues that we have up there sometimes and also I'm going to I don't know how it's going to work but I think we can then turn that extra Lane into extra parking during Grandparents Day or whatever else we have talking talking about at the top of the I'm talking about going up going up okay going up to that yeah going up be the be the where we at it yeah so uh yeah you will have to walk up a hill but they're having to anyway uh when they have grandparents day or whatever when they have too many uh and and just don't have enough parking up there uh so you can you can see that list and you know if you have any questions about any of those things but um you know there there's a good list of things that we want to try to get knocked out and um I've already got a lot of folks you know lined up to ready to to tackle those and we should be in pretty good shape um equipment wise something to think about for maintenance folks um you know it when I first got here you know we barely had vehicles and we were trying to buy too many vehicles each year uh we've gotten to a point where we're in really good shape with vehicles but if you know we have to always maintain that and if you rotate one each year you know you don't you've got one that's 15 years you know so so 15y old Vehicles typically have 200 something thousand miles on it the bottoms are falling out of them so if you it's it's easy to say that you know we don't need anything but odds are every year you're going to we're going to need to buy a floor scrubber we're going to need to buy a vehicle of some form whether it's a van or a work truck that we push uh snow with so just keeping that in your in your um brain that you know this yearly thing of of keeping it up keeps us from having to buy five vehicles at one year because they've all went could put at the same time so um other things coming uh down the pipe that you might have to always think through too is is yearly mulch yearly waxing yearly those prices increase each year unfortunately uh and they're and they're they're hard labor you know it's not easy to wax a building it's not easy to put playground mulch down it's not easy uh to wax gym floors but we try to do all that in house you know we don't hire anything uh on just about any project my guys are doing it whether it's custodians or maintenance and that's that's pretty cool added M what's already there uh typically it we divide it so each School usually has uh if they don't have it sometimes they don't have them spread out but they kind of always have a primary and a and a intermediate uh side you know so two playgrounds so we B we go uh one year with one one and then follow up the next year and just kind of keep it you know you got to keep it raked up a little bit on this year two but for the most part it's regulated to yeah yeah you supposedly you can eat it if you ever want to try it thank you very it's expensive enough it should taste good you know um drives me crazy every time I see the bill you know um but it is it's intense uh to get you know you're talking June to July it's hot you got to you got to get in there of a sh and and get it done assist that's that's you'll see on there for the temporary higher guys we try to H those college kids to come in and take care of it um speaking of the maintenance guys you've got uh you know those guys are knocking out typically on average probably 20 work orders a day uh from my team um and and that adds up real quick so just uh kudos to them uh typically when I see a work order before I even got to get a chance to ask about it they've usually got it knocked out you know so we we've got a really good maintenance team when I go to other conferences and meetings all the time um Everybody agrees with me real quickly when and most of them know our guys and know what they do uh the other vendors that come in and talk and work with us with their products know that we have a great maintenance team and guys that can handle and do things with their products so our maintenance team is is by far I think the best in the state um some of their efforts uh I wanted to kind of throw out there for example uh the stick ball uh storage building that we're building right now for scoty high school we value engine value engineered that out and look to put it back in by change order with uh DW Wilburn for $120,000 you know we're going to be able to build that for under 20 you know so saving the district under ,000 may I ask what is stickball baseball and softball so just we started using that uh when we built great Crossing because we got tired in meetings always having to say baseball and softball so it became stickball so it's kind of we we Mor a whole new sport yeah yeah uh Terry from DW Wilburn coined that for us um another thing that um point out BMT uh over the last two years is a um is a a service group for uh mity and her food service group uh all their types of equipment uh last year we took that back on our we kind of put that on our shoulders saying instead of calling out to a Outside Agency call call us first odds are we might not know what we're doing but we'll we'll try to tackle it first or and if not then then we'll call BMT well you know we went from numbers of you know they that average so that's the average is spending $157,000 with BMT down to under 20 so far this year you know and again my my electrician might not know anything anything about that oven uh but he's he's tackling it he's calling the manufacturer he's looking up a manual and he's trying to trying to work on it same thing with plumbers and whatnot hbac guys everybody that might know something about any of you know dive in and try to figure it out so again Kudos of them um again on in the cages again another value enging project we went from a $50,000 cost to down to 15,000 uh getting that taken care of I also leaned on DD Wilber a little bit for a favor there too so I can't take all the credit um and things like graduation and big events you'll see my team and the custodia team out there hot and heavy whether it's setting up the stages traffic Duty uh you know Battle of the birds types of games we're we're there hot hot and heavy uh making things happen so uh big kudos to them um roof for inovation and and review inspections I'll have this to you before uh summer uh electronically to share that I'm going to go ahead and you know I did this when I first started and we've had so many new roofs added and uh some some things done so I'm going to have our uh Roofing manufacturer go back and review every and inspect every every roof that we have and then and be able to give us a report on where we're at with everything um you know something better than just my my uh my viewpoint some you know some of these technical things that I don't I don't know I mean I can get up there and tell you this is a crappy uh roof or I can tell you it looks clean but uh they'll have some technical terms to give us and and where we're at in warranties is a big part too um energy efforts uh you know obviously DT drives this train each day and and he's he's he's rejected the the request of coming up to talk um but uh recently uh you know he's done a couple of different things but the uh a big thing he's pushed is we've had a a company come and do a a thermal scan of of Northern Elementary and and point out some maybe some areas where we can tighten up our envelope a little bit and look to see you know where are we uh losing uh the air that we're putting out and and working we tighten you know maybe some caulking here adjusting some doors there um and then look he's always looking and working with KU on things like you know splitting meters when it makes sense or or you know they're going to raise our rates andless we split meters you know we have to add the cost of a meter but over time it it makes sense you know for the next 20 years it's going to be cheaper so always looking at that with our energy efforts um and we're always looking at gas prices uh to to make sure that we're getting our best price on our propane and things um we're continue to have uh you know operational meetings big 15 meetings uh that I run uh ksbm I'm I'm I've went back to being a kspma board member again um kind of reluctantly uh but we do have new leadership at kbma so that's kind of been fun to to work with the new leadership and and I see kspma growing uh now that we have new leadership and even bigger than what it has been uh I was able to take Brent and and Stephanie to their first kspma uh meeting and I think we blew their mind a little bit by the things we talk about uh they had some chemistry type of uh discussions on refrigerant and the the world of refrigerant where that's going to be in the next 20 years um that was one of the first things I learned when I got here was R22 is going out what are you going to do you know and uh that's a big deal you know went from th you know not a big deal to a thousands thousand of extra dollars a refrigerant that we have to buy each year uh until it goes away so um the last thing I want to touch upon that we started um is um the co-op program three years ago we've had three wonderful co-ops go with our electrician HVAC type guys and uh we hired one right out of right out of high school and he's going through his journeyman and then um uh the other two have have been phenomenal so I we I I love this program I hope we keep it up um it's well worth the money uh do they're the young guys so they do do a little bit more grunt work than than maybe some of the old teeth uh Journey guys uh but uh they learn a lot and I think uh we're setting up our bench pretty good by by keeping that program going so um I I really want to try to keep that and talking with the other folks on the on the operation you know the biggest thing that you know like mity and food service and Josh at that transportation is always trying to hurdle through is is Personnel you know just staying above uh where we're at right there uh making sure that we have enough uh folks and you know knock on wood their heads are above water now um you know when when we have our operational meetings most folks you know you know every day we feel like we're we're right there you know we're not as good as we want to be but we're right there a lot better than we were just a just a few few years ago so um and I think um uh that if if I don't have any questions um I think the last thing I I just need to uh I've had a couple meetings today where I've had to to kind of say this but uh I wanted to uh say this in front of you guys uh I will be retiring uh July 1 U and uh I just want to say thank you um to uh the leadership uh you know it's been uh a dream come true really because I I I literally did as a as a young teacher uh Circle director of maintenance is something I wanted to do to end my career and to get the opportunity to do it for 10 years and and and work with Billy and and and it's been you know a dream uh I love Scott County Schools I'm very proud of uh my team uh uh you know I've told him that a lot today um I'm very proud of our school board and and what our leadership is always trying to do and uh you know I'll take our our district up against anybody so uh thank you um for putting up with me all these years um I told Billy if I kept doing it he'd probably have to end up firing me um so so it's probably guess best to get out before he has to do that so but thank you all thank you [Applause] well Dwayne I actually had some questions but no no no no no no I'll get you I'll get you but I just want to say after you announce that I I of course could not so but I just want to say thank you for all that you do and and we know you have a lot of heart and and what you put into your Serv here and thank you so much thank you I I didn't know if he was going to share that or not gosh yeah I'm glad I was ready for that thank you okay I'll catch up on that list with you some other time um is that all for our construction we hear anything or good okay all right I just want to make sure didn't want to leave you out Tony okay number nine student achievement report good evening oh hello everyone um just wanted uh this is not going to be very long um this is just for awareness um we are now deep into testing season and so I have a calendar for you all just for so that you all have awareness um there is also a key at the bottom in case you have questions but I don't think there's anything on here that you won't already be very familiar with um in January and February we um have been completing our access testing with all of our eel students it was a challenge because of snow days but we did it um also we are in the month of March and on Tuesday the 11th we gave the ACT to all of our juniors in Scott County and then now um starting this week we begin our end of program testing and that's for students who complete their CTE pathway this is for them to become postsecondary ready in Career and Technical Ed and then of course in April we will jump into K through 8 I ready testing with reading and math so I'll be really excited to share with you the growth from the fall to the spring um Pro possibly in May or June and then lastly we have the busy month of May um and you can see in the red we have AP exams and those are for our AP students at the high school level and if they pass it with a certain score they can earn earn college credit so excited for that and of course our favorite time of KSA testing the last 14 days of school um where our third through 10th graders will be testing um in reading math and possibly science social studies and On Demand writing so um do you all have any questions awesome thank you all right have a great evening thank you thank you thank you sorry that was kind of funny there Wendy all right number 10 yeah [Laughter] if they' have asked questions you could have said you were retiring oh that's that's what I've learned we're one one n is enough do not do not do that please goodness gracious that's not an acceptable answer don't do that anybody don't do that please all right number 10 approv 2025 graduation dates and times for Phoenix Horizon Community Scott County High School and great Crossing High School second can I jump in real quick on this one um one thing that was left blank on this is the location for Phoenix Horizon's graduation and that is because we were still trying to iron that out they had some options placed before them and they had selected I'm going to look right now to confirm Scott County Middle School's Auditorium as the location for that and so just wanted that to be just just so you had that had that information okay thank you so move and I second corre yes all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 11 approv to amend the 2024 2025 school calendar so move second all in favor all I those opposed motion carries number 12 REM review administrative procedure 092260541 move to approve actually you won't you won't need a motion on reviewed it's a review number 13 approve to abolish one guidance counselor position at elorn crossing school so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 14 approved to create one assistant principal position at elorn crossing school move to approve second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 15 approv to create one districtwide speech language pathologist position so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 16 approved to create 11 temporary summer work positions for maintenance and technology for 2025 move to approve second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 17 approve section 7 funding for the 2025 2026 school year so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 18 approve the school resource officer agreement between the Scott County Fiscal Court and the Scott County Board of Education move to approve second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 19 approve of after school program fees for the 2025 2026 school year so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 20 approve independent contractor agreement between Scott County Board of Education and Jennifer strong of strong Vision Services so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 21 approved Transportation agreement between Scott County Board of Education and Scott County Parks and Rec so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 22 approv memorandum of understanding between Jag Kentucky and Scott County Board of Education for the 2025 2026 school year some move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 23 approve memorandum of understanding between Scott County Board of Education Creekside Elementary and the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bluegrass so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 24 approve the establishment of the great Crossing High School girls lacrosse team booster so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 25 award general maintenance supply bid for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 26 approve renewal of bids for general maintenance bid for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 27 approve award general maintenance Contracting rates for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 28 approve award Pest Management Service bid to Terminex for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 29 approve approve award request for proposals for sanitation service and cleaning supply bid for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries number 30 re approved renewal of diesel and gasoline bid for fiscal year 2025 2026 to move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 31 award request for proposal for audit proposal to Barnes Denning and Company for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 32 approve renewal of bid for Fidelity Bond on board treasur and director of accounting for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor those opposed motion carries number 33 approve renew awarded bid for School treasurer bookkeeper bonds for fiscal year 2025 2026 so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 34 approve Surplus items as submitted don't move second all in favor I those opposed motion Carri carries number 35 financial statement after all those approvals do you want to sit back down after all of that thank you number 36 approve current bills so move second all in favor I those opposed motion carries number 37 superintendent report all right so uh this month a lot of legisl ative heavy kinds of things uh but I'll just start with the top uh again we've worked on the Georgetown leadership academy uh this past uh past few weeks uh went to stamping ground Elementary's leader and me Community Learning day uh an Mason had read Across America event that I was able to participate in and uh Scott County High School's drag drag class uh they asked for uh you know for a real life situation and we provided one to them and so they shared some ideas that they had um for for the Georgetown Leadership Academy as well and that was pretty cool to see um the students getting behind those ideas um cultural leadership kedc uh one of the cooperatives that we are a part of in our district they have a piece um from their communication um liaison Carla Cy on the road with Carla and she featured both of our high schools I believe that you all received a message uh from Renee on that one um it rather lengthy a lot of lot of good stuff in there um split up by schools but then also to have uh the entire the entire District kind of all in one in one compilation as well um scoty High School Black History Month presentation was able to attend that attended the state wrestling competition and uh Malachi Marino's All-American Jersey presentation happened um here recently as well um Human Resources round two of allocation meetings were completed and uh recently met with representatives from the city of stamping ground to discuss some items uh that came to uh my awareness um around SRO agreements um managerial leadership a lot around Oxford Elementary pre-bid meeting and bid day the other day for Oxford Elementary um Maran County recently has built an elementary school with Gregg's um construction and they've been very pleased so um we know Dwayne and myself know several people there uh and they've expressed nothing but great things about Greg so we're really excited about that uh attended ksba conference with the board and uh attended a school leadership lunching at Georgetown College as they're looking to revamp their uh principal selection uh or and principal uh certification excuse me um program that they're going to offer lastly uh again attended I think every Council or committee meeting of the House and Senate subcommittees in Frankfurt um they are in The veto period they've got two days to come back here in a couple weeks and uh so we'll see what comes of that um participated in superintendent lunching for um new superintendent I'm a mentor for another superintendent so attended that and participating there and then uh last but not least the state of education um address that uh was given at the chamber luncheon I know everybody wasn't able to be there but thank you to those that that were and um I will stand by the fact that I might have been a little overtime but they were a little late and letting me get to the stage to so I think that that was was fair um you know I I do I just you know thought a little bit I want to just say one more thing you know I think it's it can be sometimes unfair when people can cherry-pick your comments and and and skew your message and again many of the recent Communications that I've gotten around the Georgetown uh Middle School um recently it's it's included some version of you know our school doesn't receive as much as the other middle schools and um as I as I explained to one of our speakers you know that's just simply not correct uh I don't care how anyone wants to try and slice it how mad they want to get about whatever it is that they would like to see at the school that's not that's not correct um you know it's just I think it's incredibly unfair to suggest that our board cares less for any school in the district simply because we're applying the same allocation guidelines to one school that we're applying to every other school in the district every single year um you know again when any size Schools Enrollment decreases the Staffing is going to naturally decrease with that um again this happens in every school in our district it's happened in every school that I've ever worked in across three districts it happens in every school that I know exists um as I previously expressed you know in Kentucky site based councils have that authority over how those staff positions are utilized and not the school board um I do appreciate people's passion for their schools I do appreciate what I heard today from students in particular um as well as parents that um are are without talking too much about it because I don't want to breathe life into it are trying to combat a narrative that's what we're trying to do too um so I guess I'll end with that well on that note um board comments is next number 38 and I'm going to start out by saying um GMS is my neighborhood and um my kids went to that school my my kids went to G um I do want to say bouncing off of what Mr Parker had to say this board cares about every single school and while that is my neighborhood we work hard for each and individual each and every school that we have in this board above none we try very very hard to really pour into what our community offers our students and we're really proud of that I'm really proud of what Jackson had to say tonight and I loved his message thank you so much for stepping up and speaking because we love to hear those things um I'm sorry that happened with GMS I'm sorry that their attendance is projected to be a little bit lower um but that's something I can't control um but what we can control as a school board we've added on programs we lean into it we talk about it we talk about G we talk about southern um while people want to say and I'm going to use this term because I was at the leadership academy and you also attended it's a great program that that we've been discussing for months now and one of the things a kid said to me that just broke my heart and broke my soul they um they don't want to be called the ghetto school so please as parents are talking about this and your kids are listening to you please lift this school up lift up the school lift up the administration lift up site base they're doing the best that they can with what's given to them them we all do we're regulated by all kinds of rules and regulations we don't like I would love to say let's change everything but we don't get that opportunity so but what I do want to say is that school's trying really really hard Mr pickerel's trying very hard the teachers are the behavioral coach is trying really hard I'm really proud of the progress we're making at GMS please lift up these kids amen please let that be the narrative I had a parent call me before I came here she was one of my neighbors she trusts what I have to say she trusts what we're doing and I just said to her please put this message out there so I want to say that to everybody who's listening please put that message Up Lift them up and make the best of what we can to get to the next step okay please that's what I'm asking amen amen and I I just want to piggyback off what you said because I'm a product of georgtown middle school I went to Georgetown Middle School Bernie Jenkins was my PE teacher George Les was my principal and I got Hur as a cheerleader and George lby carried me in his arms so I could go to the hospital Georgetown Middle School is an amazing place I was a cheerleading coach with Kim Bridges at Georgetown Middle School and during that time when I went and when I was a coach it was known as the bad school so guess what happens people don't want to go you have this The Stereotype of students that are off the chain or things happen but you know what it happens every everywhere and so the reason why people don't go is because of the map that what we're saying just like you said if you want our school to be better and for those parents that left I'm sorry but if you want the things that you're asking for keep people keep people in the school fight for your school the what you're fighting for right now fight for the educational part of the school fight for the behavior do those things and I like I said I'm a product I now I tried to band I couldn't blow the instrument so I quit so I'm a product of the band for about five days um but I'm a product of the music program so I understand but we are the The Advocates we have got to say okay we don't like what's going on then we need to step up and stand up and we need to put things in so people will stay in that school amen amen yes and I will help you and I got I wrote down some ideas and I don't want to say them publicly because I want to make sure I talk with my board members but I have some ideas yes yes and I believe it yes and I and we are here for you but I don't want you to think that this man over here is doing anything different please don't put your your okay he is here for everybody every school he's a proct of Scott County and so he is here to support so let's make sure we get the narrative right that we give everything equally to the schools but if there are less students we can't give more money and we need every parent not just you guys I need to see all the parents that's we need to see all of you all but thank you so much for coming out and thank you students for speaking because guess what that shows that we have leaders at Georgetown Middle School I just got for myself all right we got a little we got a little we got a little passion about that there for that's cool now I wear green thany okay just Amen to Diana and Wendy and thank you for your your thoughts on that we're we're all standing together as a team on that I'm going to shift gears a little bit I just want to um mention that we had all been as Mr Parker mentioned to the Kentucky School Board Association conference and I so appreciate that experience the continuing learning that is offered to us as board members is very valuable certainly to me and I just have a little prop I brought with me this is Lizzy and she made quite a hit at the conference because our students from uh El Crossing were there exhibiting and they have been doing amazing things with 3D printers um in in their training and they had uh printed out all kinds of cool things on their 3D printers but I fell in love with little Lizzy she I thought she was a lizard she's actually a baby dragon but I fell in love with her and they let me have her so I wanted to bring her just um to say we were very proud of our elorn Crossing students who exhibited at the conference and to thank the um the board for allowing me to go and learn more about what I'm doing so I can better contribute to the PO thank you excited to meet Lizzie just as I was I spou nights Withers she goes everywhere yeah she does does anyway Dwayne but I appreciate everything that you have done made so easier for S as the and Billy was speaker at our of Commerce was wonderful I just so proud so proud of our leaders that it does make it do love children we do love the children I have children and I could not say enough about uh my daughter being cheerleader under Wendy and I and the that so thank you so much thank you for your leadership okay thank you very much number 39 we're not done yet normally that's the end of our session but tonight it is not number 39 move to close session pursuant to KRS 61810 1f to conduct student discipline proceeding so move second all in favor I I those opposed motion carries thank you thank you everybody for those who are leaving say