August 10, 2023 at 5:30 PM - Bradley County Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion:  Chairman Lee called the meeting to order and welcomed dignitaries in attendance. 

Discussion:  The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mr. Josh Taylor.

Discussion:  Dr. Cash welcomed new principals, Jeff Paulson and Kelley Key of Waterville Community Elementary, Chris Green of Black Fox Elementary, and Adam Ferguson of Oak Grove Elementary. Dr. Cash then opened the floor to Mr. Peter Ludman for a preview of the Capacity Study of the Elementary Schools. 

Peter Ludman, Architect, informed the Board of the process of completing the Capacity Study, including;

• Met with the principals of every school to understand some of the complexities, some of the challenges, anything that is particularly related to capacity. As for instance, if the gymnasium is undersized, if the cap of cafeteria is undersized, and adding to anything that you want to take those kind of considerations into play. 
• Met with some individuals from the city to get an understanding as to where the economy or I should say the growth trends are happening.

Mr. Ludman gave the Board a preview of the Capacity Study infographic that will be presented for each elementary school.

We wanted to understand some of the complexities some of the challenges anything that particularly be related to capacity as for instance, if the gymnasium is undersized, if the cap of cafeteria is undersized and adding to anything that you want to take those kind of considerations into play. So that was part of the reason for sitting down with principals and getting a better understanding of the more intimate details for each school. Also, as part of that, we have met with some individuals from the city to get an understanding as to where The economic or I should say the growth trends are happening. So I can give you just a bit of a preview here. The This chart just shows the way things have been since about 2017. So we're, we're going through and collecting historical data on enrollment population, there's a lot more charts and data that go behind all this. But just, it's about 75 pages of report. So I think I've got about six pulled out here, just to give you an idea of what we're doing. So it's been steady. As you can see, over the years, there's not one that kind of stands out as an anomaly. They all are in some way. They're caught in some kind of parody, throughout growth and without system. And one thing to mention, I think it's important that we took 2020, just out of the equation altogether, because it's it's obviously a drop across the system. And what you're seeing in most cases is things kind of going back to the level. But what we're also seeing is an influx in certain areas, in addition to just steady growth. So in defining what the map starts to look like, even with the idea that you have, you know, call it open districts, if you will, we still have to be cognizant of what local impact growth or economics is going to have. So we're kind of defining what these districts are. And then in terms of being able to overlap, what is deemed to be a few are actually are five distinct areas of growth. So that is the Northern Corridor, East corridor, southern corridor, rabbit, valley, and river. So each of those are shown with each of the respective schools in those locations. So there are different stories that go along with each one of these, but in short, each one represents some level of work. So we also have a bit of understanding as to some of the geographical challenges, where you've got some, some issues with septic on the southeast, some issues with terrain on the west, and some preservation on the northeast, you know, those are areas that are obviously going to be limited that one impacted school district. So ultimately, there's a lot more information that goes into how we derive this sheet. But what we're trying to do is identify what those developments are doing to each of those particular districts as they relate to each of the schools. So that's somewhat of an infographic that starts to show how those can be quantified, and what the average growth per year would start to look like. So I don't want to get deep into the numbers or anything. But this is just an idea, these are being refined, because we have we're just realizing some of the growth in the current enrollment. So we're going back and looking at this as the relate back to where they are, might be impacted by some of this development. So you can see, just by current numbers, there is a projection, where we'll start to see pretty significant impact over the average by 2027. I think more we're looking at right now we're gonna have a quicker impact than maybe 2020. Some. And just to give you a quick example as to what each school looks like, every one of these is going to have a cover page. And we'll have the historic growth for each of the grades, you're going to have that center piece that's right there that has the grades as projected for the next 10 years. So we're looking at a 10 year projection just overall for the system. You can see in the red if this happens to be Hopewell, which has been identified as problematic school, so it's some kind of hotspot. So everything gets in red there and basically says you're out of capacity. Now, but the everything is all based on recommended ratios of 20 for K through three, and 25 for fourth or fifth. So each school will identify the constraints that limit additions, or at least have to consider in doing so. And you can see where you got playgrounds, electrical service, you got force mains and some conditions. And we're identifying the names or the dates of the additions. And for meeting with the principles, we're able to come back and provide some of the specific issues at hand that we want to identify in dealing with how you might expand the school as persons here gymnasium was highlighted as being significantly undersized. And, you know, cafeteria would need to be considered if you want to do any kind of significant addition but it works well. So just a brief example. And then we're going to have a recommendation on how you would consolidate grades how you would take care of some of the major deficiencies, how you address side rows and any of the capacity needs to address this in a short, she just asked me to give you a preview on what this looks like. So if you had any questions, I'm here to update on this.

Discussion:  Chuck McKay - The first one was the Ocoee Middle School painting. I know those numbers are wild. Four people showed up at this, but only two people bid. We're recommending that Art Painting get the job.
Josh Taylor - I had a question on that. There was a pretty large difference on that. 
Chuck McKay - It was huge.
Josh Taylor - Art Painting is $80,120, and Ross Services is $500,816.60. Maybe they're running all their own lifts? I don't know.
Ted Bryson - Do you know either of those places?
Chuck McKay - I do not know either company.
Ted Bryson - Do we have time to see if anybody else wants to bid?
Chuck McKay - No, we just asked. We put it in two papers, we put it on Facebook, and we put it on the website. We did everything we're legally obligated to do. We paid well, to give you an example, we paid $40,000 to paint the outside of Bradley. And, it was a lot less wall space, because half of its brick. This is $80,000 to do the inside and the outside, so you know it's fair.
Rachel Goins- Well, I do have a question when you paint something because I think those are concrete bleachers.
Chuck McKay - Correct
Rachel Goins - Are they going to pressure wash them first before they paint?
them.
Chuck McKay - I think they're just doing the ceiling and the walls.
Rachel Goins - Oh, the ceiling and the walls, not the bleachers.
Chuck McKay - Yeah

Chairman Lee - Alright, the next item is the Michigan Avenue Security Doors
Chuck McKay - At the pre-bid, I only had one company show-up. We kind of contacted six or seven. I got a few emails back from Jetco. You know, they quit doing that type of aluminum. But, Skilled Services came in at $52,380 and then plus an additional $14,575. That is for a total of seven doors, and a lot of windows around. I'll give you an example. It's two full sets of doors in hallways with sidelights/windows on each side and on top. So it's not just like you're buying a set of doors. You're buying all the frames, and all the panic hardware to get out. 
Rachel Goins - Is this when you go in the entrance and it cuts off those two entryways, I guess to the whole the hallways.
Chuck McKay - I can give you a map.
Rachel Goins - Okay, that's perfect. Thank you.
Chuck McKay - We're going to cut a new door into the office. There's a door into the office now and we're going to use it as the exit door. Then, we're going to put, between those two doors, a pair of doors that keeps you from going down that hallway towards the cafeteria. Then, the other set of doors will be to stop you from going to the back hallway. And, the doors on the right, we're replacing those using the same hardware, but we're going to put it in windows. So, we will have line of sight for anyone in the building, since those doors will be shut all the time.
Josh Taylor - Skilled Services, they've done work before?
Chuck McKay - Yes, they did doors at Bradley.

Arlette Robinson - So with the Innovative Schools Model Grant, we are building a greenhouse at Bradley. We will take down the old greenhouse that many of you visit across the island every spring to buy your tomatoes, and we're going to get a state of the art one, so that our teacher does not have to come and water every single day and worry about heat and cold. We put it in the banner and in the Times Free Press. We put it on the website. We sent the RFP to three different vendors. And, we also had a list of greenhouse vendors, and we sent our link to our website. We did have three bids. They vary quite a bit in price. We have decided to go with the Greenhouse Megastore. It is designed more toward education and not as much toward commercial. I think that's why it's a little less in price. But, it's good quality. It is $112,026.50 with a 12-week delivery time, which would get us set for spring. It is a kit with installation. We will still have to do the concrete, and plumbing and the electrical, that'll be on a separate bid. But for the kit and the installation, this is the bid.
 

Discussion:  Dr. Candice Belt - Dr. Cash, Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you so much for your time this evening. I'm excited to come before you tonight to ask for your approval to add lacrosse as a club sport at Walker Valley High School.
Vicki Beaty - Girls?
Dr. Candice Belt - Yes, ma'am. There is we had a interest meeting in the spring. And we had over 70 replies the majority of them were girls, but there were some boys as well. But at this time, yes, it's girls.
Dr. Jeff Lovingood -  Just one question. I'm glad we're doing this. Just do we provide locker room space for you?
Dr. Candice Belt - At this time, there wouldn't be locker room space for other sports. That is an area we would like to see grow, especially with the addition of the tennis courts. In that area, the soccer area, the lacrosse area. So that's not currently available. But, we would love to see that in the future for more of our sports.
Dr. Jeff Lovingood -  Does it help us better balance any Title Nine, since it is a club sport? I don't know.
Dr. Linda Cash - Yes, but it does help us balance it, but it is also sanctioned by TSAA beginning 24/25.
 

Discussion:  Corbett Drew - Good evening. The three items on the change order tonight, change order 22, the first item is adding signage to the commons to commemorate Wackers' donation. So to put Wacker's name on the outside of the building, it's $8292. We just got their permission today, we finally got their final approval on the imagery today, but that that line is $8292. The second item is to add framing and conduit to demise at lease space. Caroline's Cheesecake, we've signed a lease with them, and they're not taking the entirety of that space. We're going to take the rest of that space and turn it into a property management office for adding stock and storage and all of that. That will be coming at a future point in time, but for now we just need to put up the walls to separate the two spaces. That line item is $18,768. And, the last line item for $4180 for some drywall repair that was damaged. 
Rachel Goins - How was it damaged?
Corbett Drew - This was a Goal Academy. There was a scuffle. I think the SRO went into the wall. Since our contractor is still there, and our subs were still there, it was faster and less expensive for it to go through the contract. 

 

Discussion:  Corbett Drew - We had a meeting with the subcontractor and the engineer, the subcontractors doing a takeoff and putting together a plan to submit. That should be to the engineers hands by tomorrow. We've gotten the general contractor involved, not just a subcontractor. They both assured us that this repair should be fully effective. They said it's only going to take, once they get everything approved and the engineer signs off on everything, the actual repairs are only going to take three to four days. And, they're fully confident, I just spoke to the general contractor outside, he's fully confident this will be repaired within the next three to four weeks. So not just the solution, but completion.
Dr. Jeff Lovingood - Both Schools?
Corbett Drew - Yes. The Walker Valley repairs are a bit more surgical, but yes.

Discussion:  Corbett Drew - We were excited to get nine different firms that responded. I met with almost everyone. I didn't get a chance to meet with Mrs Goins, but I think you met with Kyle. I think of the nine, there were three that had a depth of experience without athletic facilities that kind of separated them. And, within those three, as per our discussions, we are recommending Cope Architects, given their history with University of Tennessee's practice facilities and the expansion at Neyland Stadium. And track specific, they did the track at Oak Ridge High School, which was one of the ones that Turner and Eddie particularly liked, and called out. And, then the athletic facilities at Carson Newman. They also, because of their involvement in designing the science wing expansion, they already have a working understanding of the campus and have the basis of design information, so it's going to be much more efficient. And, they have the expertise. So, the recommendation is to move forward with Cope Architects and negotiate a contract for them to bring back to the Board.
Dr. Jeff Lovingood - I thought the process was awesome. Just having the amount of people that went through the process, and the expertise of final finalizing those three for us to choose from. It was professional. And, I love getting the diagrams and design and to be able to look at all three of the guys. I'm excited about Cope and the opportunity of them, if we vote that tonight, because I was just I just got back from Carson University today, and looking at what they've done. Between them, the University of Tennessee, and Oak Ridge, if you think about those three institutions, their quality and they are state-of-the-art in East Tennessee. 

Discussion:  Susan Willcutt - Most of these tonight are pulling things back out of reserves from fund balance, just so that we can use them. I've got them a little bit out of order, because I thought it would be simpler to discuss it this way. But, you can stop me at any time.  I'm going to start with number three. And, basically, what this is, is we are amending it back out of fine balance. Most of y'all have heard this until you're tired of hearing it, but I just always like to remind you that at the end of June 30, if we do nothing, all of this stuff rolls to zero and any overage or underage goes into our fund balance. So, if there's anything that we don't want to roll into the fund balance, we will put it in what we call a reserve or an assigned account. So, because you guys fought so hard last year to assign so much money to capital outlay, you've been updated all along, all of those projects were not able to be completed by June 30. To keep you from having to go back and reassign those jobs again, that money was put into an assigned fund balance. But in order to use it, we have to pull it back out. And, we journal entry it into fund balance, and then you have to pull it out and put it back into those expense accounts. Does that make sense? So basically, everything we're doing tonight, that's what it's for, it's money that you've already approved. It's money that is earmarked for specific things that we have to pull out in order to spend it. So this first one is actually not a capital outlay item, it is actually a couple of grants. But because of that, we didn't want that to roll into fund balance we wanted, it has to be used for what that grant was assigned for. So the first one, on number three is for CTE. It's a Spark grant, and also a Community Foundation in South Alabama grant. And you can see that adds up to $100,158. So that's that one. Then, if you go on to number four, what it is, it is the safe school money that was not spent by June 30. And the way the state handled that is, it was not actually us rolling it, it was actually the state saying that we're going to count that as carryover. But we have to again, amend it back into our books, so that we can use it. Now, this one's a little bit more involved,o I left them till the end, because this involves 141 and 177. So, if you remember, there was about a half a million dollars, well actually $362,000 that was allocated for PIE F&E, furniture and equipment. And, I believe, if you go back to when that was originally voted on, you would remember that they said, if we don't need all of it for that, we will transfer that over into the construction account. So, we can go back if you need for me to, but that is that's actually what the directive of the board was at that time. We are now through with F&E, so we would like to take the $362,308.34 and move it from 141 capital outlay into 177. So, you can look at those side-by-side and see what that's been earmarked for. We can go through each one of those, if you'd like for me to. The rest of that was for regular capital outlay. If you look at number two amendment, the $140,500 was actually specifically for regular capital outlay expenditures, that has not been able to be completed. You can see the cost centers on that CTE for 55,000. The PIE Center was actually earmarked for RNM supplies and landscaping. So, that's not actually construction. So we're actually keeping that in 141. I know that's a lot of information. I just want to make sure you guys understand what we're doing here. So, we are asking to transfer 362,308.34 from 141, and you'll see it show up as a transfer in 177. Which is amendment number one.

Discussion:  Susan Willcutt - Okay, so you can see the $362,308 at the top, transfer from from 141. The 30,538.55 was what rolled into fund balance in 177 on June 30. So, we're just asking to pull that back out, so we can spend it. 177, being a construction account, it's not really intended to have a fund balance. Once that's all intended to be spent, then when it is, that thing goes away, if that makes sense. So we're pulling all that money that was rolled at June 30, back in that's 30,538.55. And then, the 73.025.55 was actually just a reassignment of expenditures. So, it shows up at the top as a reduction, it'll show up down below as an addition. But like for instance, object code 304 for 64,490, that is for architect fees, that's where that's going. 510 is a trustee commission, 590 is a transfer to other funds. And then, you've got the money that we allocated bringing in, and then that 6620 was really, to be honest with you, that's just our balancing account. We had that much left and we put it into building improvements.

Discussion:  Ms. Vicki Beaty - I'm going to be like Susan, I'm going to jump around a little bit, if you would look at h and h is Threat Assessment chain. This is policy 3.204. This is a new policy required by the state of Tennessee. And it describes the requirements for this threat assessment team and their activities. So my motion is to adopt policy 3.204 as a new policy as required by state law.

Chairman Lee - Does anyone have any questions on that one? Nope, keep rolling.

Vicki Beaty - Okay. The second one I would like for you to look at f. Appeals to and Appearances Before the Board. This policy is a new state law. However, I'm recommending no changes to our current policy, because Bradley County already has a policy regarding the public's ability to speak before the Board. This policy was reviewed by Scott Bennett and Ben Torres, and it does align with the new state law. However, we're required each year to review all the policies. So simply, this one is to say that we have reviewed the policy and we've revised the date.
Now the last section, and the remaining policies, all of these policies are really, they've been updated just to reflect the state law, and/or minor wording modifications. And when I say minor wording modifications, I'm talking about, it sounds simplistic, but it may say, system in our policy and the state law says district, so it's that simple. It doesn't change the meaning of the policy at all. So, my recommendation is that the remaining policies will be updated to reflect these changes. 

Josh Taylor - I believe I have a good understanding of it. But just to clarify on the appeals to the board. We don't have to change it because we were already doing what they expected us to do.

Vicki Beaty - Yes. it's a very broad policy and it gives a lot of flexibility to Boards, but each component that the state requires, we have already in our policy.
 

Discussion:  Chairman Lee made upcoming announcements. 

Discussion:  With no other items to discuss, the Chair adjourned the meeting.




                                                                      
Amanda Lee, Chairman



                                                                      
Dr. Linda Cash, Director of Schools