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FCPS School Board Special Called Meeting, March 31, 2025

Added Mar 31, 2025 •

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Special Called Meeting begin at 6:00pm

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call me uh the school board uh today's Monday March 31st 2025 okay let's call to order roll call please Dr Mike Brown miss miss Mar Miller here Mr David Reed here Mr H rounds here Mr Warner speaking here miss Becky trim here Mr James bless the T here Mr Mass Wilson here okay we uh we go to the public comments and we have our list yes we have 1 Mr more hops good afternoon my name is Mo Hopsin um owner I'm proud graduate of fair work from 1981 I really don't know what this means about but what I see uh reorganization we need we really do I'm looking at this right now we do really do need some reorganization I'm seeing a couple guys up here that I've never been a board member Mr blue uh Mr Speaker Mr Brown Mr Reeves I know you think I do I Mr uh Mr Harrow uh y'all must got grandkids that that's uh in the school system great great great kids yes okay so all the all is here for the same thing and what does reorganization I'm talking to my black Brothers now this is not a diversity board as I see not diverse at all I'm not hoping that y'all want to sit on this board well uh do the right thing for us what you are representing I still own property here in fed County and I will be I will be out here at the more often the board meets or whatever to find out what we got going on because ain't no way in the world you call this diversion but I'm sure the vote going going and y'all favor I'm sure it is I'm sure it is I deal with it every day up there the Madison County but with that 19 Caucasian poor blacks how in the world are you gonna get something done with the bull stack like that and the reason why I'm talking to my brothers right here we create this because we shouldn't at the house not not coming to these meetings we're not in the community not getting our people involved this got to stop this got to stop I see you with your hand on your hand like you know well you ain't talking about nothing I don't know your name or whatever but this doesn't make any sense all I'm asking you to do make sure you do the right thing just because you don't we we the least now the least of what is release every uh uh person and and the first shall be last remember that remember that and what y'all doing you say you got grandkids in this system or whatever make it work for all of us when you vote vote vote for the people not for somebody that you you know that you support me cuz we ain't going back to the cotton field I'm sure some of y'all since some of y'all ain't never they never heard of 10 City have you your church City sure what about you 10 10 City yes sir yes sir you okay we'll talk about that another day but I'm really I'm focusing on my brothers here whatever 15 seconds we need to yeah I'm sure you counting count me down we got to get out in the community get our other brothers here and pack this house and stop this y'all have a good day thank you all right any of the board members have a comment I do yes sir um we have on the 7th and 8th of the coming month what's called listening sessions at every 1 of the schools I've been to 2 years worth and the number of parents who supposedly give a darn what we're doing are not showing up at the schools so I repeat what your answer is we need to get the parents out got it we got okay all right 31 any other we have a speaker other speaker know that's that was it okay all right all right with that said um I'm gonna have to address some of the rules it's been very clear that we're going to be very vocal and very disruptive tonight it's my job to try to keep order and keep this meeting moving in the positive direction let's all be respectful for each other uh let's let this meeting proceed and that's that I would ask you as chairman to allow me to do that if you have a comment please make it you had your chance uh here and uh I would say right now I I'll would ask the board someone to make wants to make a comment now instead of disrupting us later could we ask them to do that any any objection from the board what's the question I don't understand the question we're in okay we're and the uh public comments on and we did have 1 sign up but in lieu of disruption later if there's some comments that need to be made I'd like from the make board level or no out here all right with that let's close it all right let's move on right now uh we have uh 2 items on the agenda and the and the first item is textbooks text book discussions Mr rounds yes from the textbook committee we have uh spent uh quite a bit of time uh the uh textbooks have been exposed to everybody very few people showed up to take a look and see what's in the science textbooks but uh we have had uh the comments come in from the teachers and we have their uh varied votes their their some of them are vote for some and some for other so we've got a account on what the votes are and it looks like there are 2 vendors at this point that uh that are uh still viable uh we want to look back at the history of the textbooks we have over the last few years and what uh what we think the contributions of them to the grade results uh is so we're looking for those statistics and then based on that we will uh plan to make our recommendation it may not concur exactly with uh the majority of uh the teachers comments and so on but there's a minority as well and so what we have to do is be the ones who balance that out so uh we'll be looking at actually presenting a little bit more at the board meeting on Thursday and that's where we stand right now thank you for the time okay so let's let's understand if you would what we all in the process of doing tonight is your committee is moving this to the full board will be yes we're moving to the full boarded at our status right now but it turns out there's a little bit more work to be done so which we had expected uh we would be done by today yeah we're we just received the email on the historical data based the current textbooks we are using based on 5 year performance to what they're recommending because some of the recommendations that we have and 1 Bend are then 8 past 8 years the same books I don't even repurchase the same stuff as that well why is that that okay so it's new information that we knew information so would you move this back to your committee or now do we move it to the full board we need to have 1 more committee meeting I think all right so we need to flash a little bit more out on it okay so correction excuse me uh so will not take this to the full board we'll take it not not not not tonight not April 3rd we're not going to have this on the agenda right because we've had not been able to have the uh committee meeting yet okay we can make that modification so yeah back to the committee yes so you can have time what you're saying you don't want to have time to review the historical data based on the textbooks yes that that already been chosen the the ones for the last 8 years and and the ones for the last yeah the textbooks are we've got the comments no textbook has been chosen no no no I said I'm saying the ones that they utilize maybe that's the word I should yeah the 1 that have been in use for the last several years and what we're looking for was once for several years coming um so we need to be real careful all right we'll process it exactly committee okay yes that's what I was gonna say we'll discuss it we'll process it through the executive committee back to the committee yeah and so thank you for the time today thank you okay all right the second item second item is uh the presentation of a uh organization chart that has been addressed now for excuse me can I have a minute to preface this conversation okay yes sir so let me finish I'll finish this I'll give it hand it over to you all right so uh we uh we prepared uh our word with the board now for 3 meetings and putting together the chart uh this Orchard now before we go into the orchard discussion uh we need to have a little bit of uh historical financial information and so with that uh Mr Miller but yeah um I think of you know that John purify left us about 2 weeks ago and and we really don't have a we don't have a permanent Financial director and what he did when he left he he had a kind of a data dump on where he had done the preliminary budget and um I wanted to share that with the board tonight and just talk about funding and what we have to do to close the gap so so the um and I and I've shared this with Dr Lewis and and mayor Taylor in the last week just to show the scope of the problem uh what the budget that John purify left with is uh was 34 Point Excuse Me 3 3. 4 and that includes a 4.15% increase for across the board for all employees it also included the the maintenance plan that we developed a few weeks back if you remember doing that and um and that's somewhat mandated by the state requiring us to have all teachers have a minimum 47,000 that's how we came at the 415% so we put it across the board okay having said that that's the that's the expense part of it the the uh cost I mean the money that we get for for Revenue we we've got the original the the February estimate February estimates was 27 million but that didn't had uh did not have the uh whole harmless portion and it's fairly easy to calculate um and so my best estimate of that is 28.3 million so if you do the math we're 5.1 million short for this coming year that we've got somehow offset and and I I did some just at least my thinking for whatever it's worth uh how do we get here Marlon can you would you show them that that would put that graph up this this is what I believe is driving where we are because our our finances come from numbers of students 5 years ago we were um 3,300 now we're 2600 if you go back 2015 we were at 3650 students so we've lost a thousand students in 10 years and all that has a Financial impact coming from the state I mean it's we don't like it or it doesn't matter what we like it or not that's just the reality of it and and it would have been nice if the and I told the mayor there's lots of lots of um like a better words blame to go around but we the leadership should have started to see the trends because the trends would go the wrong way at the same time staff was added in this whole period of time and so what what's happened is is that the the Staffing went up and and the students numbers going down and and the the year 201819 the cost per student was 9900 today it's 13 thousand dollars per student it's just not it's not tenable to do keep doing what we're doing and so that's kind of what drives at least from my standpoint and I we we need to talk about Warner's the art chart he he left us with because that's only a small part of what has to to take place to reduce costs to run the the uh the school system and we may not like it and I don't like it because it's going to be involved some amount of pain for some people but the Orchard's going to provide some of the savings but not not anywhere close to what we need it's going to take a real look at the entire structure of how we do the class sizes and everything we do I mean whether it be turning off every light that we walk out of a room to don't run a bus any longer than you have to do no travel I mean it's just it's the whole gamut we our Behavior has to change and the moving is to site-based management allows us to make some of these some of these changes but again that's that's only a it's a it's an important part but it's not the whole part uh we talked about prec uh living within our means on that money that's a big part of it too that's John had budgeted the entire full amount so the work that's ahead of us and literally the next few weeks is a 95.1 million so that's just I wanted to so that's that is my estimate of why why we are where we are and it goes back even further like I said 10 years ago we're at 36 3650 students yes sir question is that question to me no no we I have I have not seen anything on the budget normally during this period of time we are we are on our budget that discussing as the full board nothing's on shared file nothing this is uh no nothing so I'm you're catching me offline on everything that you're talking about some of that I'm aware of when I have meeting with Finance yeah well I've not seen documents on shared file which we're all supposed to be using to share and be a averse of each committee what they're doing and where we stand and I don't have that tonight that's very accurate uh because we don't I have a finance director and and all I have is what John left us and uh that's that's that's the extent of it in the budget was it what you're presenting tonight you remove the IEP the uh beyond the bowel the what now beyond the belly that was taken out and also the IEP Porsche because IEP is Grant driven I first of all I I haven't done anything thing with the budget other than making sure that that the maintenance plan was what what we developed and um make sure that the 4.15 is across the board is it just the to these are round numbers these are not exact numbers we we are we are starting to uh get caught up we're we're we're meeting with uh David hust tomorrow to help us work start working through the budget well that's the contractor right that's the contractor that we have on retainer but we we've got a a finance director bid out in the system and that's when it's really going to come into play um we're clearly not in the same place we were last year or any other pre previous years and we also have a finance committee that does differently as well so there's a lot of factors but big part of it we don't have anybody doing it other than what John has left before he before he went to his new job Ruby possible just to get something so we can look at it sure please so the the message is we got 5.1 million gap all right we're on a school calendar and on that Google Calendar it says that we will submit a budget to the County Commission and part of that process you cannot submit a budget without a organizational chart that reflects what does the the organization is going to look like in that budget so that is what we have in front of us tonight is what has been the you know developed and it's on the table it's right here you have a copy of it in front of you and now it's time to discuss that uh and everyone sitting here has had adequate time to present and discuss so uh what now do we do yes sir um you said we had adequate time but most of this is done through email and backward and forward and the meat that's Malaysia Sunshine Law but that's another question um so can you or anybody else tell me how many positions are being eliminated with this chart and what what the cost is what savings is it we're not going to talk about anything but positions that would create a great what is what he was talking about 11 we're not talking about names we can't talk about personnel we can talk about position only all right and that's what we're talking here this positions that's my question and you can you can take this and make your own chart of what positions this will delete no way am don't take that position so he can't no sir no way well somebody should be able to answer we talking about cutting positions we don't know how much money all right I just want to know how many positions are we cutting and how much approximately it doesn't have to be the painting how much money are we saving I'd like to respond to Mr Wilson Mr Wilson from what I'm seeing here what I heard the finance committee report the number dropped in the last 4 years I think it's pretty evident we've got to come up with about a 30% cut in cost and that's going to cost that's requires eliminating for the positions it's going to require turning out the lights no travel anything that's not absolutely necessary we're going to need to eliminate now can I sat here tonight and tell you exactly what that's going to be no sir I cannot I don't think you can sit here and tell me tonight what it's going to be either but what what I do think we do set up tonight is we set up a or chart it's got the basic structure which the board is required to do to furnish to the administration to start filling in to take the match the money with the structure to give us a livable operation budget and that's that's what this is and I would call for the question on this on this organizational charge at this time yeah but you have to you have to have you have to have funding to run a school system you have to have position so if we we're going to cut everything we can cut every position up here in this office and that's not going to uh balance the budget no sure it's not so who is the funding about it for the for the School the kind of commission no state of Tennessee that's where the that's where the herd is no we're talking about local money save the Tennessee doesn't find anything locally we talking about local money well okay we know what the state does County County can do whatever they want to do so it's a funded my comment that would be that in my time here in this County the County Commission is not giving the school board any more money than they absolutely had to the basic required amount of money yeah I've heard that before well and I don't believe they're going to do it in the future in fact I'm pretty sure they're not going to do it in the future what I think we have to do is put this put this uh uh or chart out there go to the County Commission tell them give them my report on where we are financially we're already working with the county mayor and Mr Miller and Miss admit and they were trying to work through things we get to get the new superintendent in place we fill in the chart the superintendent tells us what they've got to have to run the school district and we wrote but we cannot just keep sitting here pushing things down the road and you know we for 3 years almost 4 years you losing kids you're losing you lost a thousand kids kids yet we've added jobs and we've added added things we can't add we've got to take away okay hold on the order Mr rounds is next Mr Miller's next all right um the question as I see it is is this org chart um a tool from which we can build more information and organization but I see here is a skeleton and the function of a skeleton as you start hanging flesh and uh more on it this the question is is this a good place to start finding out where we need all the positions in the system and make sure that they're needed and find out where we can come up to a point where the budget is met and the needs are met this is just a beginning of an idea so you're saying cutting a positions from it is just the wrong approach we're trying to build them okay Mr Miller yeah I'm I'm gonna I was gonna say something before you said I think the whole concept of need is going to have to change because they're going to be programs that we're going to have to just not do and the community is gonna not gonna like it it's just gonna happen we we had a presentation with ROTC last 2 weeks ago when it was we're not going to be able to fund our OTC I mean and so so so the definition of need is is going to change and and there are I mean I can I can you know in all of us can take a look at this chart and say what's what's what is the current Staffing in in this organization versus what this points to and you can name name off 6 or 8 of them board and he wasn't finished well well I mean yeah let me I'm not done oh you're not done okay I thought you was good I'm sorry no I I I wasn't going to say anything about needing except until Hal brought it up because I think the whole concept needs changes but the data says the county has been consistently giving us about the same amount of money for the last 6 years here and you know 7 years is is is the 1 coming up and it won't change plus or minus 100,000 we're not talking 100,000 problem we're talking a 5 million dollar problem and I I I don't like it I mean it's just but it is what it is so okay I'm done you're done thank you I guess data is showing that Across the Nation you're saying this takes take place but what we're looking for here are facts we need evidence to prove it and I'm so glad to see so many new faces out there and want to continue to encourage you to bring more with you not only here but also to the County Commission meetings we all need to be present we all need to be present because this is something that's not just taking place in fed County it's taking place Nationwide and it's time that we stand up for our public education because they're trying to dismantle it and it's obvious it is obvious we're here now speaking about making budget cuts and we have nothing before us that shows that we need to make these Cuts but lip service I need some paper I'm visual I need paper I need numbers in front of me so I can sit down with someone and talk and discuss and we yet to have that but yet you sat here and said that you have talked to you have spoken with County Commission and the committee but what about the rest of us the board is making the decision not just the committee and County Commissioners all of us are our stakeholders in this we need to see what you're looking at this shows we have this deficit I want to see it before we start this and putting positions vacant positions how do you have vacant position conditions and we're talking about cutting positions and you're adding you know it's make it make sense just make it make sense if we're going to have this organizational chart up here we also need to have the budget up here what the budget's not done like I said we we don't need to discuss this until it's done okay time out that's not true all right hold on hold on all right first off let's let's clearly clearly State this as a a board member you received every month your financials and if you don't if you don't look at your financials and if you don't understand the position we're in you need to talk ask questions and go and dig deeper now the financial committee has that obligation and they do it every every month they make that they can communicate that no we hadn't received financials well you've heard verbal Finance now you you received your financials every month you have received them from in your package now somebody correct me I I I think I received them well I don't think they're the same thing as Melanie's speaking to thank you for your honesty that's I I'm always honest thank you the the the the thing that's whether you see the numbers or not the the money from the tisza money plus the county money is going to be about 2 8. 3 9 I don't have to we won't even get the fee we won't even get the final number until later in the year okay but it's not going to be it is our job it's it is our job okay let me finish all right okay that's that's the income side of it the the cost side of it is the thing that John left us with that he did a preliminary look at it and that's the 34 33.4 million and and it it may it may vary at 100,000 or 200,000 but the magnitude is 5 million and and whether you have to see that written some I can write it on a piece of paper but it's not going to change we're going to meet Our obligation to the County commission for a budget and we have a calendar for that and all this is progressively moving in that direction and we can uh you do get your financials monthly uh now the committee that we Ed to do this job has been working to achieve this so has Mr perro who resigned to move on to another job so that that is uh part of the the facts that we're working with and the facts that we know is we have to have a skeleton we have to have an orchard or we cannot meet that obligation for that budget we will not it's a waste of time so now uh either we are going to stay on schedule or we're not now I have an obligation to keep it on schedule and that's what I'm doing right here I have spent 3 weeks putting all this together with y'all's input so now don't don't come up here and start telling me I've wasted 3 weeks Mr chair yes sir me know well go ahead it is not true that we get by was every month in the past we have that's the old board members know every month we got financials we get budget amendments if we do not get the full ones when I I finally had to go to director bill here say I haven't seen financials for months can I see it he gave it to me that's what we got every month that is correct thick packet then starting in February previously this is what the old board is used to we got rejections the tisza projections and all that every month we got this budget I know the committee does this but nothing's on shared file we all agree to keep pushing this thing everybody agree we're using shared file this is our sources are your historic and there's a very few community members that will put everything on that share file but we have not seen the full picture so I do agree we haven't seen the full picture where we stand now I do disagree that you are correct this is a skeleton I have no problem with this we're not doing uh uh staff Cuts not in here this is setting up the basic structure that you will build on to figure out where the budget lies that's going from the executive committee we approve this or however you too work on the correct what's that yes executive it once the board says this is the structure that we're going to the skeleton we're approving the skeleton then the executive committee gets this this is what they what the board wants us to work with the executive committee by policy will set up all Staffing working with the budget committee correct me if I'm wrong where we lie and if there has to be budget say they come back to us and say this is the Staffing Cuts or buildings that we have to close or do we have to consolidate schools do we continue busing because it's not a requirement law to do it then we start doing it so tonight it's just the business the structure that we're looking at the basic framework correct correct I I did not disagree with that but I do I do say that we need more information we have not seen the full picture yes sir okay all right hold on I'm ready I'm ready to call for question all right 1 more we Mr Wilson so that the uh when did the superintendent house staff sit down and work on this charge I'm not sure that all right go ahead once it's approved tonight it goes to the superintendent and she and her staff will start working on it no I'm asking have they have we set in about a sat down with the super then the other staff to see they know more about what we need to run the school system and we do they work with it every day and that's the superintendent's job to come up with business not the board okay Mr Man any other comments no yeah I got a lot more go ahead just looking at this chart here that you have before us and we're talking about say even money in that kind of thing and we're talking about the student enrollment has decreased and here we're looking at a chief of staff a deputy superintendent and an operational manager we have 2 minute supervisor House of Supervisors and supervisors so we got a transportation supervisor we also need to look at who the state pays the state doesn't pay these for the state pays in attendance supervisor a high school supervisor the elementary supervisor uh the state pay shows position but all these Chiefs here uh the state is not paying these folks and uh it's good if we can have them we got the money you see we don't have the money so when I look at cutting stuff I look at non-academic we got a athletic director on here that's something that schools could be doing and I don't see why we need a chief of staff a deputy superintendent in the operational manager all those are just people at the top making a lot of money they're good people but we need to look at all the ways to do that uh we can move them into other positions if we're going to cut these positions but it seems like to me we just kind of choosing who we want to cut in around about way no I don't what I see here is an organizational chart that will go to the superintendent to revise to look at and bring it back to board with money and and approve it this is as Mr House said this is a skeleton to build off of where you take take a bone off here add something there but this is a starting point so do you think a small District like this need a chief of staff a deputy superintendent and an operational manager probably not at that but it's on there it doesn't mean it has to be filled Mr Mr chairman I've got a call for the question I I'm we could argue this all night have a second second the question on the table call for question I second vote okay let's let's understand what we're voting on kind of the question that the motion was to adopt the oral chart presented tonight as to be skeleton beginning for the for the next year's budget and Staffing okay we all right all right we are we going back to discussion know I have a question I haven't spoken all evening we called for a question but so do you allow most of her go ahead Miss I'll I'll I'll you thank you so we're voting on this skeleton page this is going from us voting on The Skeleton to Dr Lewis and her staff to build it out budgeted and bring it back to us no ma'am okay no ma'am the board the board bills this the board bills the board has authority to build the organization chart she will bring back a recommended she'll bring back a recommended Staffing she does the personnel she wants to fill it with personal Personnel that's correct all right but it has to be a position now for her to tell us that she can't fill a position that's not there she came back to the question that's a roundabout way eliminating folks call for the question please we had a motion already uh to roll call vote please speak me yes Mr Miller yes M Dr Brown yes Mr Reese yes Mr rounds yes Miss Maguire know Miss trim yes Mr blasty yes Mr Wilson know okay the motion approved uh do we have any other business make a motion to here

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FCPS School Board Special Called Meeting, March 31, 2025

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