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The Board of Education met on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 for a called workshop and regular called meeting. To read all of the information that was provided in the meeting (and was available online before the meeting), go to the Pike County School website at pike.k12.ga.us/ and then hover over Faculty to open a drop down for the Pike County Board of Education or simply go to the Pike County Board of Education website at pike.k12.ga.us/board-of-education From there, anyone can click on helpful links like the board meeting agendas that include links to all of the paperwork mentioned from the facilities review, central office renovation, technology review, and PreK enrollment change mentioned in the 5 p.m. meeting.

[Note from the Editor: I cannot attend these meetings on a regular basis but am planning to attend a few right now as the search for a school superintendent is ongoing. If you or someone you know has the drive to attend meetings and write them up like I do for the commissioners, please ask them to contact me. I'd love to upload with their name on their work. There simply is not enough hours in the day for me to attend all the meetings that are going on in this county for the cities, authorities, and the regular county commission meetings and get those online along with covering the news that is ongoing in our county. Pike County Times is just me, and I greatly appreciate y'all's support with what I do!]

Members attending the meetings are:
Allen Edwards - Chair
Floyd Miller - Vice Chair
Emily O'Steen - Board Member
Denise Burrell - Board Member
Marcie Bradberry - Board Member
Brian Hubbard - Board Member

I. Call To Order

II. Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance

III. Approval of the Formal Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda. Approved 5-0.

IV. Executive Session

Executive Session. 5:02 p.m.

Back in Session 5:41 p.m.

The Superintendent is not present. Chairman Allen Edwards chaired the meeting.

A. FY24 Budget

Debbie Woerner, Director of Finance, gave an update on the budget. 2 public meetings have been held for the public to ask questions. It’s also been posted on the website. This includes state mandated health benefits and raises for the teachers. QBE and the fund balance will cover the deficit. She asked for consideration of the debt service budget for bond obligation and said that no additional funding is requested for this.

She said that the state made health benefits retroactive though QBE funding from the state will cover this. Typically, we don’t have a budget adjustment like this, but the 2023 budget must be amended because of the mandate and the fact that QBE funding has been sent from the state.

B. Facilities Review – Facilities Director Mick Rawls

The auditorium is starting to make some progress. They say it will be ready by the first day of school, and it looks like it. The different movements at the schools were discussed. Apoxy flooring in the bathrooms is being restored.

Field House. Work is being done on this. The inside is a big task. The various coaches are in agreement with how this is going to be done.

The City of Zebulon may take over the roads and maintain them from here on out. This would bring LMIG money to come in to care for this. Apparently there was an issue with LMIG funding that is being worked out on this.

C. Central Office Renovation – Facilities Director Mick Rawls

Central office possibilities. Remodeling and AC work. Done in 3 stages. Fall break, Christmas break, and then the rest later on. The question was asked whether the city pushing for this? No. We have a space issue up there. Question whether we have agreed to give the building for the paving of a road. Discussion: We paid the $300,000 for the paving of the road so this is not part of an agreement/no obligation. Bradbury said that she thinks it makes more sense to renovate than to build.

D. Technology Review – Technology Director Richard Hendrix

Hendrix. The cloud is back up again since the outage. They are looking to provide us with a new server. The system was probably 10 years old so we got our money’s worth. Walked through summer plans. Looking at future upgrades for the financial and phone systems. Looking to hire someone in July to help with troubleshooting, etc.

E. PreK Enrollment

PreK Report. Policy change proposal. The community needs childcare. Employees have long petitioned for their children to be in the PreK program. We have an idea for a compromise. Add a PreK class to guarantee for employees and the community. They can do this at no added cost with new teachers going on the Bright from the Start so this will be self-sustaining from the beginning. 5 year expansion plan. They have a classroom as well as someone interested in teaching the class. Can we vote on this in July? This year there were 18 employees. Congratulations on the grant. This will be for next year.

F. Review of Agenda Items

VI. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn. 6 p.m.

They announced a short break between meetings. Scroll down to read about the 6 p.m. meeting.

[Note from the Editor: If you appreciate being able to read information from county meetings for free on Pike County Times, please make a donation to Pike County Times through the PayPal link at the bottom of the page or by check to Pike County Times at PO Box 843, Zebulon so I can justify the amount of time that I am spending away from family. It may not seem like much but sitting in a meeting and then typing it up takes a lot more time than you might imagine! Thanks for reading Pike County's only FREE newspaper.]

All board members listed above were in attendance. The superintendent was not present. There were many people in the audience.

[Note from the Editor: There are links to the minutes, financials, FY23 and FY24 budgets, job descriptions, and job requirements on the meeting page. This was pretty short and sweet because of the workshop prior to it.]

6:10 p.m. Opened the meeting.

I. Call to Order

II. Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance

III. Approval of Formal Agenda

Approval of the agenda. Approved 6-0.

IV. Approval of the Consent Agenda.

Motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Approved 6-0.

VI. Superintendent’s Report

Monthly financials. Woerner. Total revenue is at 101% due to ad valorem coming in higher as well as QBE state allotment.

Expenditures at 91%. We should be underbudget or right at the budgeted amounts at the end of the summer.

VII. Unfinished Business

A. FY24 Budget

Includes revenues $37 million and expenditures $38. Deficit will be made up through the fund balance. Still projecting a mid-term adjustment. Unbudgeted revenues will be a part of this adjustment. They will roll into the FY2023 fund balance.

Asked for FY2024 M&O budget to be approved.

Asked to pay for the M&O bond. The principle and interest for the 2016 debt obligation bond. Asked for approval.

Motion to approve the budget as amended. Approved 6-0.

Motion to approve the debt service. Approved 6-0.

Woerner said thank you for the Board’s patience and questions as we worked through this. The Board thanked her for her hard work.

VIII. New Business

A. FY23 Amended Budget.

State health benefit plan. 67% increase to provide insurance. The state has funded QBE (state funding) for this. In future budgets, we will have to pay for parapros, secretaries, and bus drivers that are not covered under this state increase. Motion to approve. Approved 6-0.

B. Textbook Approval

Motion to approve the 3 textbooks for Spanish 1, 2, and 3. Approved 6-0.

C. Job Description Review.

1. After School Program Coordinator

2. Director of Technology

3. Superintendent

4. Teacher

5. Teacher – Pike County Alternative Program

6. Teacher – Special Education

7. Technology Specialist

8. Transportation – Mechanic

9. Transportation - School Bus Driver

10. Transportation – Special Education Bus Driver

11. Inactive Job Descriptions

a. Teaching and Learning Assistant

Superintendent job description has been updated. Not a lot of changes for the rest. Motion to approve the changes. Approved 6-0.

D. Policy Changes Recommended

1. Board Policy IHF: Graduation Requirements

Health and PE Credits. This is what is done in Lamar. Our students participate in Lamar County. Motion to approve. Approved 6-0.

IX. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn. Approved 6-0.

6:26 pm

[Note from the Editor: If you appreciate being able to read information from county meetings for free on Pike County Times, please make a donation to Pike County Times through the PayPal link at the bottom of the page or by check to Pike County Times at PO Box 843, Zebulon so I can justify the amount of time that I am spending away from family. It may not seem like much but sitting in a meeting and then typing it up takes a lot more time than you might imagine! Thanks for reading Pike County's only FREE newspaper.]