January 9, 2024 at 4:00 PM - Working Committees

Discussion:  Vice Chairman Safdie called the meeting to order at approximately 4pm. 

Discussion:  Vice Chairman Safdie opened the meeting with a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. 

Discussion:  Safdie presented the policy committee portion of the agenda and asked Stull to lead since Hamby was not present.

Discussion:  Stull asked for a motion to approve the last set of policy committee minutes. Nichols moved to approve and Stull gave the second. 

Discussion:  Stull presented policy 2.200 with changes to the committee. Nichols made a motion to approve. Safdie said this policy was revised to assist new board members in better understanding what will take place during the budgetary period. He said although this policy was clearer than previous one, it's lacking a set of procedures. He asked Stepp if there were procedures designed for this policy. Stepp said once this was approved they would work on one. Safdie asked if Stepp had a draft of said procedures. Stepp said no-he would do it if they approved this policy. Stull said this past year they moved from BEP to TISA funding and the timeline has been pushed further and further so is there anything that can be put in place for things like that, that can come up. Stepp said they have no way to predict when TDOE will release that first estimate. And no idea how they will do it next year. He said he's already starting getting information together as to what each department budget needs look like so he can create an executive summary for the board. He said he can't put timelines in procedures because TDOE controls that. Stull said that is her concern with putting the dates in the policy. She said with some of that info not set in stone from the State but the district setting dates within the policy, she doesn't want that to cause issues. Stout asked when they got TISA last year?  Stepp said September. Stout asked when they are predicting the district would have it this year. Stepp said Jan/Feb. Stull said if the March 1st date gives him enough time. Stepp said yes, they would work on projections. He said each year the schools will work on what they project. Stull asked if he was confident that the dates in the policy would still be good for him to work with. Stepp said yes, it's standard operating procedure. Stull asked if they needed to put something in the policy for adjustments? He said again it's standard operating procedures, and they could write it down if they wanted. King said some of the dates within the policy are deadlines by the state so you have to backwards plan and those dates need to be there. Safdie said when elections take place in September and the new board comes in, they are going to be blind and they aren't going to know what procedures are being followed and he would hope in the next few weeks that Stepp would provide the board with a schedule of tentative event that gives the new board members an idea of where they are going and where they fit in. Stout said the Google Drive that Stepp shared on the Drive was great last year. Stull seconded the motion made by Nichols. 

Discussion:  Stull presented this policy to the committee. She asked for a motion to approve. Nichols made a motion to approve. Stull said she found on line 18, page 2, a grammatical error that she requested to change. "If' changed to "of". Safdie asked Stepp, was here anything the board needed to understand about the testing programs? Stepp said this was basically covering operating procedures at each grade level. Stull gave the second on this. 

Discussion:  Stull presented this policy to the committee for review. Stepp told everyone this was previously brought up in a policy meeting to see about updating it to be a little more inline with where we are now in terms of this technology. He said this change lines up with TSBA's policy. Stull asked if this was the same policy that had been previously discussed about different grades having cell phones. Stepp said yes. Stull then said there is nothing in this update to talk about how far down (grade wise) this policy goes. Stepp said that would be in procedures. Stull asked about not having kindergarten having cell phones and will procedures cover that for principals or should that be covered within the policy. Stepp said it's part of the procedures and then asked Homestead's principal Edmonds to comment on that. Edmonds said they don't typically see kindergartners with cell phones, but if they do, the teacher just holds onto the phone, and they usually aren't activated. She said a parent can pick it up, or they just send it back home, but it's not an issue they typically see at that grade level. Stull asked what grade level she sees cell phones being an issue. Edmonds said 2nd grade they can see students with active cell phones. She said that grade level is more structured, and they don't have the free time like standing at lockers that the older grades have. She said 5-8 is more where they see their issues with cell phones. Stepp said most of the time, elementary students keep their phones in bags, and they are not out while in school. Stull said on line 16/17 she thinks that portion should stay in the policy instead of removing it. Stepp said in the student conduct books, they address cheating with cell phones. Stull said it's not just cheating, but also students' individual privacy. Stout said that a lot of policies references TCA so could this policy reference procedures? Stepp said yes, they could do that. Safdie asked if anyone knew how the reference should look. Stout said it can be under cross-references like other policies. Maddox said this is straight from the TSBA model policy, and he can get those cross-references added. Patton said line 13 should read "or" and not "of". Stout asked if they could approve with the additions of adding the references? Stull said she did like that idea. She asked for a motion to approve with the recommended changes. Nichols made that motion and Stull with the second. Safdie asked Stepp to follow through with those changes. Stull then told everyone that concluded the policy portion of the committee agenda. 

Discussion:  Safdie presented this portion of the agenda. He said since Hamby was not present for the safety portion, and he was the last chairman of the building and grounds committee, he would act as facilitator. Stull said she thought the board discussed and they were advised at the last board meeting that the chairs from last year were staying in place for this year's committees per the board chair. Safdie said he would need to look at the reference on that. He feels that since safety and building and grounds are 1 committee now, he feels there should be 1 chairperson. He said he would proceed with the agenda, and they would discuss it at the board meeting for clarification.

Discussion:  Safdie asked for a motion to approve minutes. Stull made a motion to approve and Safdie made the second. Stout asked didn't it need to be members that were on that committee last time. Safdie said that is what he needs clarification on and in order to keep the meeting moving...Stout said she would think the members that were on the committee when it took place would need to approve the minutes from that meeting and then they could move forward. Safdie said he would go along with that in order to keep going. Stull said when they (new board members) came on board last year, there were new members approving minutes because some members were no longer on the board. Stout said she don't remember having carry over from last year but however Safdie wanted to proceed. Stout said she was willing to attest that she has reviewed the minutes, she was part of that committee and she was there and they are accurate. Safdie said he accepted that. Stull again moved to approve minutes. 

Discussion:  Safdie presented this item to the committee. He asked for the update on the Pine View elementary roof repair. Stepp said this was a temporary fix and principal Spicer shared with them that it's back leaking again. Safdie asked Stepp where the money would be coming from for the repair. Stepp said a couple of options are: TISA funding outcomes-there is money that was not budgeted last year and they might could use that. He could line item that for the roof. He said the bid is about $150,000-$200,000. Stout said last year it was around $150,000. Safdie asked if the $601,000 from TISA would be reimbursed. Stepp said it's already paid to the county but has not come to the school system yet. The board will have to vote where to put that money. Safdie asked if that amount would be in the '24-'25 school year. Stepp said it would happen again. Safdie said at this point did Stepp feel the B&G committee should approve the roof repair and let the budget committee deal with the funding. Stepp said yes, that was one way. He said he might could get this bid out and present at next board meeting. Safdie said the executive committee could approve the bidding process and then come back to full board to approve executive committees action. Stepp said yes, could also do that. Stout asked if there had to be an approval for a bid. Safdie told her anything over $25,000 has to be bid out. Stout asked if they had to approve the executive committee to get the bid and Nichols asked if they have to pay for the bid. Stepp said yes there is a cost. Nichols asked what the fastest way to do this was. Stepp said the executive committee. Safdie said the B&G committee asks for the executive committee to bid this out and then present to full board when bids are in. 

Discussion:  Safdie presented this item and asked Stepp to give the rundown of what he feels/wants to take place at HES and what timeline he's thinking. Stepp said there are a couple of different approaches to this. He said if they put the entire school under 1 key, during budget time they would discuss saving a certain amount of money each year on a Homestead line item to get that done. He said even though principal Edmonds and the adults are doing everything to ensure the safety of the students, Sheriff Cox and Edmonds still have concerns. Safdie asked if the district took money and put it in a separate account as a capital expense, and it took 6–8 years to complete the process unless there were grant opportunities. Stepp said they are currently looking at grants. Safdie wanted everyone to be aware this is what they were looking at but told everyone the full board would have to discuss it, and they would have to have recommendations from Stepp and Bray on how much money would need to be removed from the budget to fund this project. King asked if they had an idea on cost. Stepp said Chamberlin said between 8-10 million. King said if they wait 5 years it will be $20 million. Safdie said the only solution would be to ask the county commission to provide the funds to make that happen. He said he does not know what the county's sentiments are. He has not asked. He said he doesn't believe they can come up with an $8 million dollar grant. Stout said they may have to piecemeal. Stull said at the annual TSBA convention they listened to a presentation from Wayne Gregory with EverSafe, and they work with getting grants for safety projects. She said his presentation would be beneficial to the district. Safdie told Stepp that the general consensus from present board members were they would like to explore options. He said he wasn't sure this needed to go to the building and grounds committee again or just straight to the board meeting. He said Stepp could work that out with the chairman of the board. 

Discussion:  Safdie asked Stepp to explain what is being done. Stepp said both of these are going to take an extensive amount of time. He said CCHS could be bid out at an appropriate time so that it could be bid out over the summer. He said they couldn't buy parts last year and the Fire Marshall understood their situation and worked with their maintenance crew to get it running. He said North the Fire Marshall is concerned about it not having parts but understands and makes sure it's running like it needs to run.  Stepp recommends that would go on the budget next year since renovations are going on at North next year and it would just be a line item within the budget. Stull asked what the cost was for both of them. Stepp said between $300,000-$400,000. Stout said last year the budget worksheet gave the estimates of $300,000 at CCHS and $350,000 at North. She said this estimate was probably not considering the new auditorium at CCHS. Stepp said that was correct. Stull asked if the fire alarm at the auditorium was part of that project and Stepp said yes, it would all be keyed in with the current system but the current system was not expandable. It was full. Stepp said he wasn't worried about the safety side unless it goes down and they have to wait 2 weeks to fix it. Stout asked Stepp to explain to everyone how it works during a fire alarm if it is functioning properly. Stepp told everyone that the Fire Marshall required them to do fire walks every 15 minutes and they sign off that the areas of the building had been covered. Safdie said that is what the budget next will see year. Stepp said he would recommend bidding CCHS out so that it can be complete this summer during the construction phase of the auditorium. Safdie asked Bray if she had anything to add. Bray said she feels the price could come in a bit higher because it's been a year since the project was bid out-for both of the alarms. She said it could even be beyond $400,000. Safdie told everyone this competed the portion of the building and grounds section of the agenda. 

Discussion:  Safdie presented this item due to the absence of Board member Davis who was the athletic chair.

Discussion:  Safdie asked King what his recommendation was to approve the minutes and King said he thought those present should approve them. Safdie made a motion to approve minutes and King with the second. Safdie then told everyone he had nothing else for the athletic committee. 

Discussion:  Safdie brought up the tennis courts under this portion of the agenda. He asked the question of how we are going to handle the tennis courts. Stepp said they would be looking at it in the budget next year and see if they could line item to take care of 1 school, and then he would recommend the following year taking care of the other school. Safdie asked if there was any way to reduce the numbers of courts from 6 to 4. Stepp said he would have to talk to the coaches, principals and athletic director. Stout asked if tournaments might dictate that. Stepp said you needed 8 courts to run a tournament. Safdie said tournaments can be done somewhere else. Stout said maybe they could look into a shared court between the schools to make it cost effective. Safdie asked if Stepp had spoken with the State Park or FFG to see if there were other courts in the county that our students can use until this is figured out. Stepp deferred to AD Maddox. Maddox said SMHS has access to the majority of their courts and they aren't utilizing the ones that are really bad. CCHS has worked out a deal with Pepe Perron at Camp Nakinawa to use their facility for practice. Hale asked why they are considering limited the courts. Safdie said costs. Hale asked if this would take away tennis meets. Safdie referred that question to the DOS and Finance officer along with the maintenance supervisor and principals because he had no answer for that. Stull asked if the overage amount that was factored into the CCHS auditorium build was still available if they could use that to build those courts since that was previously discussed. Stepp said the board would have to vote on that. Stull said that was an option they initially discussed. Stepp said he could talk to Upland Design about that. Stull asked if that was quoted at $500,000 and Stout said a couple of years ago, yes.  She feels that could go up in price as well. Safdie said he was optimistic. Safdie then asked if there were any other questions. Safdie asked Stepp how the SMHS field house was coming along. Stepp said he believes they have a spring/March complete date. Bray said it's based on the weather but they are laying the block now. Stout had a couple of things she wanted to address with everyone and asked all the members that were present to please consider adding the outstanding budget minutes from the May 2023 meetings to the upcoming board meeting. Safdie said he's of the opinion that if the budget committee doesn't meet before the full board meeting that this is taken up as a voting and approving issue at the full board meeting. Stout said she asked for that in Dec and was told no-the budget committee would take care of it the next time they met which would have been tonight. She then said since the budget committee was canceled tonight she would like to see this done. Safdie said they would get it settled. Stout then asked if the members could settle on a standing date for the committees to take place. Stull said they wanted to initially do them earlier in the month to give enough time for any approvals to get to the full board meeting. The members agreed that the second Tuesday of each month worked and Stepp gave the date of February 13th. Everyone also agreed to start the meetings at 4pm. King asked in the meantime if they were still planning on voting on the budget minutes at the next meeting. Safdie said unless there was a budget committee called between now and then. He said his question was directed to Stepp and asked if he foresaw a reason to have a budget committee meeting before the next full board meeting. Stepp said he only planned on showing everyone different sample salaries at the upcoming board retreat on Saturday. Safdie asked Stepp to verify and coordinate with Boston and it would all work out.    
Safdie then asked for questions from the media or the audience. Linda Clark spoke up and told everyone that she had been doing a lot of reading on Robert's Rules of Order. She said when committees don't meet for a substantial length of time, they can appoint a minutes committee to approve minutes without holding a meeting. She wanted to encourage the board to look into that. Safdie asked her to send him a copy of the Robert's Rules of Order she was referencing. Karen Frantzen then asked how the bidding for projects were determined and is that factored in to final costs. Stepp said that was law from the comptroller's office but asked Bray to elaborate. Bray said anything over $25,000 has to run through a contractor and has to go out for bid. She said they use Upland Design and they take care of all of that. It then goes to the county finance director and it's sent out to the bidders on the bid list. Then they submit bids and the district opens the sealed bids on the designated day and then the bid is awarded. Frantzen then asked what the cost of the actual bid was. Bray said the architect gets a fee, not the bidder. Safdie said the standard architectural fee was about 7% and Bray said anywhere from 6-7%. 

Discussion:  Safide thanked everyone for being present and asked for a motion to adjourn. King made the motion and Stout with the second. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:48 p.m.