April 11, 2017 at 5:30 PM - Bradley County Board of Education Work Session

Discussion: 

Chairman Dillard welcomed Mr. Bennett to the Work Session.  Scott Bennett, Attorney for the Board, was invited for the discussion of the contract for the Director of Schools.  The Board created a contract and sent it to Mr. Bennett to be sure it had the proper legal language and that everything was in order.  Mr. Bennett told the Board that the draft contract put together by the Board is very different from the old contract.  The board gets to decide what it's terms of employment are for it's director.  The only things he did to the contract the Board sent was reorganized some of the provisions so that conditions are under one section, duties under one section.  They were scattered through out.  He deleted a couple of things that were redundant.  You don't want someone who reads it 10 years from now to wonder if the second entry has a different meaning.  Mr. Bennett told the Board that he understands that Mr. Frazier has specific concerns about the Board paying retirement benefits to the Director if the director went on to other employment. He feels that the contract needs to be clear that those benefits would be terminated if she moved on to other employment.  If you look under Section 5 A 2 ...  provided, however, that the BOARD shall have no further obligation to pay this premium in the event that the DIRECTOR shall later become employed by any employer who offers health insurance to its employees.    This is the only addition he made to the contract.  There are two things he called the Boards attention to.  Look at Section 7, the evaluation section, it is very different from last evaluation section.  It really does put a lot of the authority and control in the hands of the director.  Most school districts in the state have a section like this.  What really drives this is at the top of page 6  paragraph 7 section c ... As part of the evaluation process, annually, the DIRECTOR will present a District School Improvement Plan (SIP) based on the results of the district data, evaluations, and surveys with a plan of action to address the goals and objectives set by the SIP and aligned with the BOARD goals.  The DIRECTOR should present this SIP in time for the BOARD to consider its implications on the evaluation format. That is what is driving the evaluation model  which makes some very good sense because as being the leader of the professional educators in the system the Director is going to have more input into that to help steer the Boards direction, Mr. Bennett told the Board.  He went on to say that is fine, it is different than your last model.  In it the board developed the goals  and priorities and pushed them down.  This is the most significant way the contract is different. Mr. Bennett stressed to the Board that it will be up to the Board to stay on top of the evaluation process to be sure the director is giving you a plan that jives with what you want.   There is no right or wrong - you just need to understand your role in the process.  Most Districts have this system.  Vicki Beaty asked in 7 A it says this evaluation shall include the systems progress towards goals established by the Board in consultation with the Director and as a piece of that evaluation process is the school improvement plan.  Mr. Bennett answered yes, the SIP is what is going to drive a great deal of this.  He also told the Board that they need to be mindful of their calendar.  Plan a specific time on your annual calendar agenda when these are going to be due and ask the Director how is it coming and communicate that to the other board members. Chairman Dillard explained that it does say the SIP and aligned with the Boards goals and the Board still sets the goals.  Mr. Bennett told them that in the old system you set goals and pushed them down. This is more of a loop. The danger of a loop is a loop lets the Board and DOS work in isolation and not communicate.  The Board must true goals all the time. The danger is a set it and forget it.  The other thing he wanted to bring to the attention of the Board is insurance.  Look at previous contract. It provided the Director participate as the same terms as the employees.   Old contract is page 2 section 5.  That is  Language we started putting into contracts 6 or 7 years ago.  IRS says you can't treat certain employee more favorably than any other employee.  The Board will pay a portion or all of the insurance.  When you put this together this proposal, in Section 5 A 1 you lifted it from the contract with Johnny McDaniel.  That is perfectly fine as long as the payroll department knows they will write a check to the Director and the Director writes the check for the insurance. Teddy Bryson explained that the three new Board members were at a TSBA training and Dr. Dale Lynch and Richard Bennett told them that you can not give the Director family insurance unless you offer it to your teachers.  Someone ask how you get around it and they said you give them the money.  Jerry Frazier asked Why not just raise the salary and not put in the contract that you are going to provide independent coverage?  You can do that was the reply from Mr. Bennett.  He went on to say that Mr. Frazier made a valid point of just raising the salary.  What is the Board's pleasure?  Would your pleasure be raising the salary by the amount?  We can make this read In addition, to the componsation set forth in section 4 the board will also provide the Director with a stipend equivalent to the cost of family coverage.  Amanda Lee asked if they will have to come back and re-visit her contract each year when the insurance increases to supplement that amount. Mr. Bennett told them no because it is under other employment benefits and with the wording "equivalent to".  Vicki Beaty asked if you add it on as income then when there are raises that would be her base pay.  Mr. Bennett told them that they wouldn't want to do that because this is another employment benefit.  If you give a 3% raise based on performance, why should that drive up the cost of her insurance stipend when the insurance cost did not go up.  If you put it here and insurance does go up, it adjust it automatically.  This is a change to the contract so he was glad he brought this to their attention.  He will make changes to the contract so the Board will have a clean version for the vote on Thursday.

Mr. Bryson asked if the contract starts on July 1, does she get the raise that teachers get?  Chairman Dillard told the Board that she will get it.  She has been here two years and not got an increase.  Mr. Bennett told the Board that if the Board votes to award a raise effective July 1 and the Board votes to award the contract on the same day as raises, he thinks the Board has decided that this number is inclusive of the raise.  According to Mr. Bryson, the board doesn't think that.  Then Mr. Bennett said he thinks it needs to be changed.  Chairman Dillard read from the contract..during the term of this contract the Director shall receive the same raise as all licensed employees.  Mrs. Beaty said that she feels like the salary is what we voted on.  If the raise becomes effective on the same day as her contract Mr. Bennett thinks it will become difficult to argue that the Board intended this salary.  The Chairman made a good point.  He reads B 1 as inclusive so lets change it to inclusive of any raises.  He will make a change to 4 B 1 and make it inclusive. 

 

Discussion: 

Dr. Cash recognized teachers and students that attended the 2017 TSBA Student Congress on Policies in Education conference.  They represented the Board at the conference.  Students from Bradley were TC Jones and Avery Morrison.  Students from Walker Valley were Lauren Pate and Natalie Church.  Teachers were Penny Howell from Bradley and Rebekah Ball from Walker Valley.  Avery told the Board that they were divided into groups with different schools across the state and had discussions on several topics.  They talked about replacing EOC's with ACT's and requiring IEP's for students.  Lauren and Natalie let the Board know that it was very interesting to hear how fortunate Bradley County is compared to other poorer Districts in the state.  They broke up into teams and had debates.  They all said they really enjoyed the experience.   

 

 

Discussion:  Patti Hunt gave the Board an update on the American Uniform Project and the grants being submitted to support our vision for innovation Hub. Today we submitted a $3,999,785.00 grant in support of the Innovation Hub at the American Uniform building.  We have a strong partnership group that came together and is working with us.  The grant is called the Education, Innovation and Research grant and we are calling ours PIE (post secondary, industry, and education) working together.  The grant will help with equipment, professional development, and students innovative ways to learn through virtual reality.  We believe they will read the grant and see our ambitious effort to bring all different groups (education, industry and non-profits) together to prepare students to have the best opportunities when they leave our schools.  Dianna Calfee asked if there will be any money for construction in the grant.  Mrs. Hunt told the Board that there was no money for bricks and mortar in the grant.  Mrs. Calfee also asked when will we know if we get the grant and how long does it run.  It will be next school year before we know and it will run for five years Mrs. Hunt told them.  Dr. Cash thanked the Board and County Commission for believing in this vision.

Discussion: 

Emily Brown, School Nutrition Supervisor, welcomed the Board to come eat at the schools.  Year to date they have served 1,400,000 meals to staff and students.  She told the Board that her budget is self supported.  All funds come from student meals.  She ask the Board to consider an increase in meal prices for the 2017-18 school year to be able to present a balanced budget.  The last increase for staff was 2005 and for student 2012.  While complying with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Act of 2010, there was a decrease in ala carte items they can sell and increase cost to purchase more fruits and vegetables.  She presented the Board with a comparison chart for meal prices for surrounding counties.  Bradley County is lower than most-even with the requested increase to $2.50 for elementary and $2.75 for secondary lunches.  In the balanced budget Mrs. Brown told the Board that she would be losing two positions and would be able to give a 2% raise and cover the health insurance increase. 

 

Susan Willcutt, Finance Director, presented the highlights of the 2017-18 general budget to the Board.  The objective is to provide every child in Bradley County Schools with the best possible educational opportunities and to maximize the use of available resources.  She told them that the total revenue is funded 34% locally, 66% by the state, and .002% from federal funds.  She gave the Board a short explanation about the State BEP Revenue.  The BEP formula is strictly a comprehensive funding formula.  It is not a spending plan or budget.  It determines the funding level that each school system earns to provide a "basic" level of service to all students.  The formula is based on student membership.  She also told them that it is important to note that not all positions in Bradley County are funded in the BEP formula and it does not pay 100% of the funded positions either.  In her example of just some of the positions, there were 633 positions she looked at and only 461.69 were funded through BEP and not fully funded at that.  81% of our expenditures are spent in salaries and benefits. Dr. Cash added that it is very admirable of this Board to continue to pay for positions that are not funded by BEP to provide more instructional pieces to go above and beyond for our students.  Step raises, 2% across the board raises for all salaried employees, estimated 7% increase to Health Insurance, substitute pay schedule, begin payment on ESG, and unassigned equity exceeds state requirement and meets local requirements are included in the budget being presented.  To give a 2.5% raise would add $262,199 or 3.0% raise would add $518,946 to the current budget.  Mr. Bryson asked if the state sends more money will it all go to raises.  Yes, Mrs. Willcutt told him.  That is what Dr. Cash and the board have told me was their pleasure.   She also added that they plugged 1.3 million in to get the 2% raise and it will take $518,946 more to get to 3%.  She told them that she will be happy if she can make this work but she feels the responsibility to make sure we can cover it.  Mr. Bryson added in the future, too.