April 21, 2021 at 4:00 PM - Board of Education Budget Session

Rationale:  In attendance:  Chair Butch Campbell, Vice Chair David Settles, Wes Ballard, Roseann Barton, Becky Goff, Amanda Moore, and Jimmy Richardson

Staff:  Dr. Trey Duke, Kim Williams, Sandy Scheele, Greg Lyles, Lisa Trail, Angela Fairchild, Sheri Arnette, Ralph Ringstaff, Beth Prater, Joe Marlin, and Larry Willeford

Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Taylor and City Liaison Bill Shacklett

 

Rationale:  Dr. Duke answered the questions that were asked at the previous night's meeting:

Mr. Richardson was concerned about medically fragile students for next year and the possible issue of remote learning. Dr. Duke explained that we have seventeen medically fragile students as of now that are doing virtual school.

There was discussion about umbrella schools.  Dr. Duke said that we have twelve former students in the TN Connections Academy in White Haven.  These students do register with Mr. Lyles.

Ms. Williams brought the cost of the contract with Jobe Hastings, the auditing firm for the first three years. She stated that cost below:
1st year-$37,500
2nd year-$38,600
3rd year-$39,800
She explained that we had to increase the budget line item by $5000 for next year but it is well worth it.

Dr. Duke went over the budget goals again with board and handed out another powerpoint presentation:

• Utilize resources to maximize educational outcomes for students
• Retain personnel by continuing to offer competitive salaries and employment benefits.
• Provide consistency for positions and programs as we move past the pandemic with new district administration.

 

Rationale:  Dr. Duke explained that we have three different ESSER monies.

ESSER 1.0-
$1,298,208.00 
This money has to be spent by the end of next school year. He told the board that we received this at the beginning of 2020-2021.  He informed the board that this money was spent on PPE, custodial supplies, medical supplies, instructional supplies, and things needed for us to become virtual.

ESSER 2.0-
$5,642,066.00
We have two years to spend this money. It was spent on several reimbursements in the GP budget as far as subs and nurse overtime. More was spent on PPE, cell phones for principals, summer schools,
training, technology, mental health contracts, and air purification systems.

ESSER 3.0-
$12,671,280.00
This money should be received by early July.

Mr. Ballard asked if summer school is coming out of ESSER 3.0. Dr. Duke
said that the state is funding some of the expense, but most out of ESSER 3.0. Dr. Duke added that he found out from the Commissioner today that we will have to add public participation to our plan.

Dr. Duke went over allowable expenses for ESSER monies.
.
Mr. Ballard questioned the 15 positions that we are going to reimburse
our GP budget with.

Dr. Duke explained that $2.5 million has been allocated for learning loss in the ESSER 3.0 budget.

Dr. Duke went over the planning process for spending ESSER 3.0.
He also explained that President Biden is talking about an ESSER 4.0 for
infrastructure.  

Amanda asked what the plan is for ESSER 3.0 is if we get to move some things into the infracstructure part of ESSER 4.0.
Dr. Duke said that we would re-evaluate our list of all departments' needs if that happens.  He also handed out that "wish list" to the board.

Roseann Barton asked about providing transportation for students when teachers do extended contract services. Dr. Duke said that he will look into that.
Amanda Moore asked how many teachers and the cost for Extended Contracts. Dr. Duke explained that the plan is for five contracts per school which will actually give us ten per school because the State will match that.  

Ms. Barton asked if there was a cap on the number of students for services provided by extended contract.  Dr. Duke said that usually there is a minimum of students instead of a maximum number.

There was much discussion regarding mental health services. Mr. Settles
asked if ESSER 3.0 was a way to get some things that we have needed all along regarding mental health. Dr. Duke said that we will look at how the programs work that we use ESSER money on and if they are a success, we may possibly try to incorporate them into the GP budget in the future.

Becky Goff asked when we will start ESSER 3.0 projects. Dr. Duke said that he is waiting to see if the infrastructure bill passes, but possibly we will start projects next summer.

There was also discussion about the library and front office projects for Reeves Rogers and how long those have been needed. Lisa Trail told the board that she has drawings and can share them if they want to see them.
Mrs. Trail also explained that she is working on a grant from the Christy Houston Foundation to help with these projects. Amanda Moore added that she would like to see portables done away with.

Dr. Duke talked about the technology refresh plan in ESSER 3.0.

Dr. Duke summarized the ESSER portion of the budget by stating that the grand total was 12.5 million dollars and the allocation is 12.6 million. We will have about $500,000 for overages.

Dr. Duke explained that this plan was full transparency and the board
can look at all that was asked for on their handouts.

Dr. Duke will send the chart to the board regarding positions and what
he plans to do with them after ESSER funds are depleted.

Dr. Duke explained that he wants to build up a very healthy ending fund balance.  He said that if we don’t have a healthy ending fund balance, the
State won’t pass the budget.


 

Rationale:  Dr. Duke explained the Capital Improvement Plan and
explained the two sources of revenues for capital improvement:

• City’s CIP Budget
• Rutherford County Shared Bonds

Mrs. Moore asked about hot water at MNP. She said that seven classrooms do not have hot water and were not built to have hot water. Mr. Willeford has received a quote to install on-demand units for each classroom.  That cost would be a little less than $3000.00, and they are already working on that.

Chair Campbell asked about moving the playground off of the corner at
Mitchell Neilson Elementary.  He asked where we are with that project. Mr. Willeford explained that we are looking at moving the playground to the rear of the building and making an overflow parking lot at the front. He told the board that those were plans for 2023.

Dr. Duke also discussed looking at the growth on the West side of town.
He explained that we will have to discuss rezoning next year on that side of town.

David Settles asked if we have a team looking at rezoning. He asked what
Is our standard bus ride time.  Dr. Duke said that it cannot be longer than
90 minutes, but he will find out for sure and let the board know.

Mrs. Moore said that it would be great to know possibly where a general
location of a new school would be so as not to disrupt families so many
times as far as zoning.

Roseann Barton asked about the new transportation facility. Dr. Duke
agreed that that was definitely a need, but at this point, we have no land for that building.

Mr. Campbell asked how many buses we have.  Larry Willeford said that
we have 38 buses in our system.

 

Rationale:  Mrs. Moore asked how federal funds are distributed and spent in Title
Schools. She asked if the principals are the main decider for spending the funds. Dr. Duke explained that principals work with Mr. Marlin and himself to decide how to spend the money. He said that it must be allowable
school-driven money.

Ms. Barton said that in the past, the larger systems received huge amounts of money from PTO’s, so this money helps the title schools to provide programs that they normally couldn’t afford.

Mr. Ballard asked about the ELL program.  He wanted to make sure that we are spending money appropriately to take care of those students. Dr. Duke
explained that we will have a consistent ELL curriculum and offering PD for
teachers to help with that program.  Dr. Duke understands that ELL students have suffered with being out of school during the pandemic. Mrs. Arnette
told the board that the ELL liaisons do an amazing job in keeping our ELL families informed and provided for. Mrs. Arnette said that she will get the percentage of ELL students that plan to attend summer school to the board.

Dr. Duke explained that there were no major changes to the School Nutrition Budget. He asked Sandy Scheele to add any information that she would like to that statement. Mrs. Scheele explained that we will feed all children at no cost for another year. She said that she had a call with the State Department this week and would get more details.

There was some discussion about the summer feeding program.  Mrs. Scheele also added that the snack program would be increased so that more students would qualify for snacks. 

Dr. Duke said that one advantage to everyone getting free lunches is that there are no more high lunch charges.

Dr. Duke said that our nutrition budget looks better than most nutrition
budgets in schools because of the leg work that the Nutrition Department does.

Mr. Ringstaff then discussed the ESP budget. He stated that ESP has a healthy fund balance right now. It is a self-sustaining budget and that program is doing very well.  

Chair Campbell asked if the Board would need to approve this budget at the 4-27 Board meeting, but Dr. Duke said that the approval of this budget would be included in the May 11 Board meeting.  Dr. Duke explained that he would present it to city council the day after the May 11 meeting.

Chair Campbell asked if anyone had any other questions pertaining to the budget. No one had questions. 

The general consensus was that the budget discussions over the past two nights were very successful, and Dr. Duke's presentations were so clear, transparent, and helpful to the Board. 

 

Rationale:  The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.