In session. I make a motion to return to open session. Motion is Gallman.
Second. Second Mr. Surratt. All in favor? That's unanimous.
Item number eight, action as needed from executive session. I move that the board authorize the superintendent. to resolve the cyber security incident in Cherokee County School District as discussed in the executive session. We have a motion that Dr. White is allowed to resolve the cyber security incident. We have a recommendation.
Can I get a motion? That was a motion. I'm sorry, that was a motion.
Can I get a second? I'm so sorry. Second.
Second, Mr. Matt B. Any discussion? All in favor? That's unanimous.
Any other items from executive session? I move that the superintendent notify complainant A and B that the board agrees with the superintendent's resolution of the complaints. We have a motion by Ms. Gallman.
Second. Second. Mr. Wilkins, any discussion? All those in favor?
That's unanimous. Personnel recommendations. I move to approve the rehiring of certified employees as presented by the superintendent. We have a motion by Ms. Gallman. Second.
Separate by Mr. Surratt. Any discussion? All those in favor? That is unanimous. Any other motions?
I move to approve the personnel recommendation as presented by the superintendent. I have a motion by Mr. McVean. I'll second.
Second. Mr. Greer, any discussion? All those in favor? That is unanimous. And any other motions?
I make a motion to approve the initial capital projects presented by the superintendent. I'm not too far away. I'm sorry. I was going to call him out, though, about the white suit. I was on a roll.
I wasn't going to stop him. I mean, we can go on and do it. I was sitting there.
No, we got to wait. I'll give it an explanation for it. So we can move on now. There are no other motions. We can move on now to item number 10, interim superintendent report.
Yes, ma'am. And so very quickly, our next meeting is. April the 21st and we plan to hold that meeting at the new band room course room at Gaffney High School and there will be some entertainment by the students who are over there that time as well kudos to to Billy I'll get with you later but appreciate everything that you've done getting us up back and running from the cyber security attacks in your packet you've got three different issues dealing with calendars one is chronological listing of events happening in the school district.
And then you have by school major events that are happening in April and May. It's a busy time of year, and I know you'll want to get some of those on your calendar early. So those are in your packet. And just a heads up that there are several board committee meetings that I'll be contacting you all about, maintenance property and grounds, budget personnel.
policy committee and student services and actually I don't have it on here but curriculum and instruction as well. So we have some committee meetings that will be coming up and I'll get a hold of you guys and schedule some dates for that. That's my report. Item number 11, budget update. Alright, so this again, board, is a very high level budget review for FY26.
Capital request. are all in. We'll schedule another maintenance and property and grounds committee meeting to go over that in more detail.
The operational budget requests are in and so that will need more review of course as we go through the process and we'll get with you on that. At present, the budget from the House has the state minimum salary schedule for teachers increasing by $1,500. That puts the first year bachelor's degree zero years of experience at $48,500. The hope was to go $3,000, making the starting salary $50,000. The budget...
From the Senate will be taken up very soon and we will see where that goes, but it's my understanding that the money is not there on a recurring basis to go all the way to $3,000, but you never know what might happen there. Two weeks from now, the BEA will meet again. and we'll give updated budget information to those in the House and Senate, and so that will be helpful as well.
And I think the Senate Finance Committee meets this Wednesday at 10 o'clock. So with that in mind, some of these slides you have seen before so I won't belabor them but again how we build a budget we went over this I think at the very last board meeting that we had so just a review of all the things that are considered as we approach the budget season salary related expenditures of course are the largest part of our budget some 88 to 90 plus percent of the budget is tied up and in salaries and benefits and that is as it should be. We are a labor-intensive industry.
Other employees will receive a step increase, just like the teacher salary schedule, if they do qualify for those. At this point in time, the state has added a 2% increase for bus drivers, but that's the only thing that's come out. any other categories down there.
On the good news side, as of right now, the employer retirement component shows no increase, and the employer health component shows no increase. Those were pretty significant last year, so that's good news for us this year. Ms. Isom's going to talk about this slide for us. So on the first line there is our local guidance. You'll notice all these numbers are real preliminary because we haven't gotten off the state and some of the transfers.
So all the numbers are very low level. We are projecting at least $1.1 million in revenue for the year. If you'll notice the total transfers from our budget, $10 includes the money we added back from the fund balance that we're hoping that we won't have. Right now we're expecting that we're going to, so do y'all have any questions about the revenue?
What I do for the local industry career, I take our millage times what our society is at the time that we're going to be able to report. That's how I get that in the state. Money comes from the state.
Some of the transfers are indirect costs type things. Yes. All of those are subject to change. We don't think they'll go down. If anything, they may go up.
And so that would be 101 492,000 plus in revenue. All right. All right.
The sale amount and the rest of the district getting at least 5%. That's what we're, that's our preliminary numbers for that. Purchase services, that is going up, of course. That includes all of your repairs and maintenance, your utilities, all your instructional costs.
So, of course, utilities are going up. SROs are also included in that, and that, of course, is increasing. Project with the city and county are going to give their raises.
So that's that. The next one is supplies and material. What's in there is our software and any of the supplies for the school relation. Everything's going up. The next line is your transfers, which is your pupil activity and your indirect costs and all other items that go in there.
There's these in there. So with our total expenditure for $1.49, we're still finalizing these numbers. We're going to do some trend analysis and hopefully get some of those expenses down compared to what we did. Because a lot of those are numbers that we're looking at.
Like I said, we still have a whole bunch of numbers that we're still getting together. I think it's worth noting that the first time we looked at this last year, this time, we were $10 million out of whack, and this time we're only $3 million. Point two million out of wax.
I'm optimistic about the budget moving forward. And again, all the revenue numbers are conservative so far, and expenditures may be a tad on the high side. All right.
So just a reminder, these are all of our continuing areas of concern. You've seen those before. Not to belabor the point, we've also talked about the use of fund balance when there is a shortfall. and why we need a healthy fund balance and we're still in pretty good shape there in the district so that was working for us in terms of operating millage that's a history of where the millage lands in the school district district.
Most important part of that probably is that in this year, based on the formulas from Act 388, the board could go up as much as 8.35 mils. That's what's available to you. In a look-back scenario, where if you have a situation where you need to reach back and bring millage from the past into the present, you have 22.6 mils available to you there. Don't anticipate.
needing anywhere near that but that's available to you so you've done a good job of managing it so speaking of that obviously this slide is about making sure that we remain cognizant of the impact of the budget on the taxpayer and so we just pay real close attention to that and try to keep those down as much as we can and still accomplish the mission in school district you Budget summary thoughts. We've talked before about the major shift in the funding methodology and the philosophy from the state. So far, the money coming from the state in the state aid to classroom.
I think there was $112 million of new money, and the way that is being dispersed, there are some 20-something, I think, school districts that are getting less than they have before and the remainder getting a little bit more, but that's still being fleshed out in Columbia, and we hope those numbers will get better. Again, we will review every line item for potential savings before we bring you a final budget. Realigning personnel and staffing is needed. Millage increases to be considered, but hopefully we can avoid that.
And use of fund balance is necessary. So all those things are on the table. Again, I know that was pretty high level and pretty quick, but again, we're very early in the process as well. So any questions? Yeah.
Sure. Okay. So next item on the agenda. Capital projects. I got my book upside down.
Thank you. All right. So I made mention that there were several. Select capital projects. The reason we are pulling these projects out and asking for approval of them early is because some of them have some really long lead times and others of them are related to safety, etc.
So the list. kind of goes like this. The school district has been addressing playgrounds at elementary schools over time.
The next two schools to be addressed are Blacksburg Elementary and Grassy Pond Elementary, and both of those estimated... budgets are slightly over $400,000 each. Okay.
Then there are two more schools where we will be addressing the plumbing that is in underneath the floor in the kitchen area that has to be addressed. Pipes corroding and collapsing and things like that. So Blacksburg Elementary and Blacksburg High School are the next two.
And those are about $300,000 each. So. Some tile in the cafeteria at Blacksburg Middle School needs to be addressed. It's creating a safety hazard there. The same is true with some of the mobile classrooms at Limestone Central.
Drakeville Elementary bathroom tile has got to be replaced. District-wide safety. There are cameras that we need along with servers for the safety component as well.
Those are about $130,000 for all of that. On the technology side, it's time for... Some refresh of our...
So the Chromebook refresh will be about $1.1 million. The active panel replacement starting at B.D. Lee and the Institute of Technology is about $300,000. iPad replacement is about $195,000.
We need PCs for new staff members, about $45,000. And storage area network replacements in technology is about $88,000. So that's about $300,000. not quite $3.4 million. You've got more than that available to you in capital monies right now.
The next bond sale that you will have next year under the same millage that you have right now is about $5.5 million. So that leaves a good 2.5 million. million dollars for other capital projects that we will flesh out over the next few months okay so that's my request that you approve those particular capital projects tonight can we get a motion to approve these initial capital projects Have a motion, Mr. Surratt? Second.
Second, Mr. Wilkins. Are there any discussion? All in favor? Just unanimous.
So at this time we're winding down. Do we have any announcements from any other board members? I would like to invite everybody tomorrow night to the high school to watch the honors choir perform. It's going to be a fantastic show from Sunday Elementary School.
What time? It starts at 6. 6 o'clock. Thank you, Dr. White.
Any other announcements? I hope the students and the staff and faculty hope they've got a well-deserved break coming up. So I just hope they can continue to push forward.
I know this is always a tough stretch in the school year, but it's coming up soon. So hopefully everybody is rejuvenated and refreshed after spring break and a week or so. If no one else.
I'd just like to say thank you to all the technology departments. I know Dr. White's already addressed you, but not just you, but all the technology representatives in all the districts and all the schools. But thank you all for the job well done.
I know it was a tough couple weeks we've had. Thank you. If nothing else, at this time I ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Motion is called.
Second. Second, Ms. Shackelford. All those in favor?