Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Commissioners, regular session, Monday, May 4th. Like to call to order. Madame clerk, would you do the roll call, please? Commissioner Mason here. Commissioner Mitchell here. Commissioner Smith here. Commissioner Howard here. Commissioner Hunt here. Vice Chairman Jones here. Chairman Booker

here. Um, our first item is to do the pledge of allegiance and then following that we will I'm sorry, we're going to do the prayer. Following that will be the pledge of allegiance and we got a special event tonight. We got a Boy Scout and Cub Scout troop number 97 and they are going to lead the pledge. So have the prayer first and then we'll bring them in to lead us on the pledge. Holy God, giver of peace and author of truth. We acknowledge your rule over our lives and the life of this county. We know you have plans for us and the power to make them happen. Give those in this space a vision of your will for our county today. Help us to always remember that we serve a great people and hold a sacred trust on their behalf. May we see that no nation lives for itself alone, but is responsible to you for the well-being of your creation. Now, let your blessing rest upon all who represent Craraven County and of course upon our nation, our state, and our county. All this we pray in your most gracious name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Okay, guys. You're going to lead us in the pledge. Take it away. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you folks. You may be seated.

Thank you, BOYS. Before we start the meeting, I want to read something real quickly here. Good evening. I want to welcome everyone to the meeting tonight. As we start, I want to provide a few brief reminders. Please remember to silence your cell phones at this time if you have not already done so. Please do not disrupt while speakers are presenting. There will be a public comment period at the end of the meeting. During the public comment period, speakers will have three minutes to make remarks to the board. And u with that, I would like to um ask the commissioners, you've all had the agenda. Uh is there anyone who'd like to make any changes, additions to the agenda? I will make a motion to approve agenda as presented. Okay. Second.

Have a motion and a second. Madam clerk, call the role, please. Commissioner Mason, yes. Commissioner Mitchell, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Commissioner Howard, yes. Commissioner Hunt, yes. Vice Chairman Jones, yes. Chairman Booker, yes. Thank you. Um, Mr. Vice Chair, the first item on our agenda is the petition of citizens and I'll let you call off whoever is uh who's signed up to speak. All right, Mr. Chairman, this is for agenda topics, petition of citizens. We have three citizens who have signed up this evening. The first is Mr. Paul Hill. And uh we do have three minutes uh but you will have a time clock in the back. Thank you.

And if everyone will just please give your address uh again for the record.

Thanks for the opportunity. My name is Paul Hill. I live at 914 Crooked Creek Drive here in Newurn. Been here for 19 years. The county commissioners are meeting uh this evening to receive budget requests from the Craraven County Schools and the Craven County College for the fiscal year 2627. The Craraven County Schools are requesting funds increase after receiving a substantial increase last year. This year's request is driven primarily by the exhaustion of the reserve fund and the continued operation of excess physical school campuses and reduced uh student attendance. The reduction in student attendance has persisted for more than 10 years and is likely to continue. The Craven County Schools need a comprehensive strategy to guide the pri prioritization of the needed uh facility reduction which is clearly required to support an effective strategy and the uh exist the existing 2019 school facility engineering study also needs to be updated. This can be easily obtained since the engineering company that that did the original uh facility study of 2019 is currently under contract actually in the process of upgrading the the creek side school. The uh with with a modest expenditures by the commissioners to update this study the school system and the school system creating a strategy plan reduction in the school facilities can rap be rapidly identified. Uh if implemented, this approach will allow the Craraven County schools to reduce their physical operating cost and better align their functional structure with the NC State school funding model, which clearly we do not match today. Without a current and accurate definition of the existing facilities and a comprehensive facility strategy, we'll be back here next year discussing how how an outdated

oversized school facility inventory can be funded by a limited state and county taxpayers. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hull. The next citizen who signed up is Miss Christy Frasier.

Thank you, uh, commissioners. I'm Christy Frasier 800 Dearfort Circle Newburn. Across the state, we've witnessed a pattern where public school systems appear influenced by political agendas rather than the core mission of educating students. CO 19 shutdowns in 2020 marked a significant turning point. Schools remained closed through most of spring of 2021 and students were kept online. Substantial federal and state funding flowed into these districts. Big red flag. Last Friday, we witnessed 22 school districts closing, representing roughly 17% of North Carolina's districts. These closures enabled coordinated demonstrations in uh Raleigh and Charlotte. Media shows up and accelerated all of the information. Community members believe these actions were driven by political motives and through the union. again lacking the needs of students and the realities of local budgets. During the same period, counties across the state are entering into the annual budget cycles. And so, here we are. Let's go down the memory lane of Craraven County Board of Education Review. The absence of board-driven strategic plans. I don't know anyone who doesn't do a strategic plan through a a board to plan for the year. the lack of formal board presentations to the commissioners. Um, there was a leadership failure affecting academics and athletics, including the loss of 2023 football championship at Newurn High School, multiple superintendent buyouts, as well as principal buyout following a DUI incident, a decline on student enrollment at 15,000 to 11,800, which cons is a consideration of the school without a consideration of school

closures to date. a $5 million shortfall during a prior leadership. Now there's a depletion of fund balance to zero. A recent 5 to1 board vote requesting Craven County taxpayers replenish the zero fund balance and increase the budget which is unacceptable. In contrast, commissioners have maintained a responsible fund balance demonstrating the type of fiscal stewardship the citizens expect from all governing bodies. The stability of our schools is at risk. Overall community confidence is low. Our community needs restored trust and we believe in you. Community may have voted on the board elects and we see right through this lack of leadership. 5 to one vote says they don't care about planning or spending or correcting. It puts the superintendent and the commissioners in a very difficult situation unwilling to participate with goals and objectives. Thank you very much.

Thank you. The last one is Mr. Glenn Frink.

Hey, Glenn Fink, 646 Goose Creek Road. Uh, I was surprised to not find the board of education presentation in the agenda. Um, I feel the public needs to have access to that information unless I just plain overlooked it. That must have been a non-timely presentation to get it in there is all I can conclude, which is unfortunate. Um, you know, contrary to some people's belief, I am very much an advocate of our public school systems. I've been engaged in it with Kim, my wife, and I we want to make it better. Uh, I attended the board work session, board work session where the budget details were discussed. uh and I'm not prepared to really talk about specific comments on the budget. I didn't dig into it that deep, but during the work uh that work session, there was references to a zerobased budget approach. And uh I've been involved in that process in corporate America and that's where you got to defend every single line item to move it off zero. And I don't see where that likely took place. Although I wasn't there so I can't say. Uh I am encouraged with the direction of taking some real action on reducing facilities and facilities cost. I do hope the concern about a bloated central service administrative um staffing is addressed in the budget in some form or fashion. And that's all I got to say about that.

Thank you. Okay, that's it on the petitions. Yes, sir. Thank you. Item number two, consent agenda. We got four items. The minutes of the April 20th regular session, tax releases and refunds, the sheriff's got a cash donation budget amendment, and the health department additional state funding budget amendment. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. Got a motion and a second. Madame Clerk, would you please call the role? Commissioner Mason, yes. Commissioner Mitchell, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Commissioner Howard, yes. Commissioner Hunt, yes. Vice Chairman Jones, yes. Chairman Booker,

yes. Okay. Board of Education budget presentation. Dr. Matthew Cheeseman, Superintendent of Schools, will be our next speaker. Dr. Cheeseman, welcome. Hey, good evening. Hello everyone.

Thank you for having me and such a pleasure to be a part of Craraven County, Craraven County Schools specifically. Uh, I would like to just pause and introduce some of our board members who are here this evening. Mr. Kirkman, if you can just wave your hand. Miss Dy, I believe. Also, Miss Spece in the back. and Miss Gibbs as well. So, I want to say thank you for being able to join us tonight. So, I'm super excited to be here. Now, in my 11th year as superintendent, 31st year in public school education. I've been in North Carolina since uh right around January 2013. Originally from New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, Illinois, and back to North Carolina a couple times. Uh and this is the place we call home. And so what I'm excited about is um to really talk about maybe a little bit of where Craraven has been, but where we'd like to go. And so for some of the public comments, uh so I will apologize. The agenda and the presentation is my responsibility and I did submit it this morning. Um so next year I'll make sure it's on time. But what you see on the screen here is the Craven Commitment. So this was established in 2024 towards the strategic plan. It's really under the guidance of a compass and what in terms of what direction we're trying to go and when you look at the success of our students our decision should be based off of that. It's what's in the best interest of students and I'm sorry I don't know which way to face but I'm trying to figure this out first time here. Um, and so a lot of times adults specifically as employees, but also maybe the community, business partners, we all have a lot of ideas of what school should look like, sound like, and feel like. And we really do our best both in public school and in our community to make the decision of what's best for students. And it's okay not to agree to those sometimes, but it's great

to have dialogue about it. And that's really what I'm asking for moving forward as the superintendent is for us to have rich dialogue about what we feel is best, what our community feels is best for public schools of Craven County. When you look at premier professionals to ensure that our students have a highly qualified, impactful educator, that's fantastic. But at the same time, the state of North Carolina and much of the country is finding less people walking into this business of education. And when I say less people, I don't mean just teachers. I mean less teachers, less TAs, less tutors, less bus drivers. So the organization of how we actually look at the business of education, especially when you look at teaching reform being 46th in the country in terms of educator pay, we are finding that our universities, our colleges are graduating less educators. So that second piece there is a challenge and we absolutely are doing our best to make sure that we have pipeline growth such as TAS or teacher assistance to teacher programs, teacher programs to administrative programs. Those are pieces that we need to start building internally and maintain a consistency to make that happen. Superior systems committed to creating nurturing learning and working environments and I have heard some of you talk about our facilities. Yes, you can have older older facilities, but we also want to make sure that they're clean, welcoming environments, but at the same time, our buildings are aging, 50, 60 years old. And do those buildings actually keep up with the innovation and what we believe is best for learning for students. So, through working with you, yes, we have facility needs, we also have uh facility surveys. So I invite us to have continued conversation about what that looks like over time in order to support our communities and our

schools for that matter. But we cannot do this work without our community. Meaning we would like the public to come. We want them to talk with us. I invite them to come meet with us. Speak to your board of education members directly. They are your elected officials and they work not only for the district of where they were elected, but they work for the entire county. And so I invite greater conversation with our board of education. I invite the community to invite me to come meet with them. I'd be more than happy to meet you in your space at your time. But as we move forward, let's talk about focus areas and what I'm really obviously here to talk about budget, but at the same time, I'm new to your arena, new into this environment, but what do public schools in North Carolina and Craven County schools really look at? But even more so, how are they judged? And maybe some of the people in the audience and maybe some of the people at home may not necessarily know this, but we're judged on the accountability model that our state legislators put in place years ago. And more specifically, that develops a letter grade. And that letter grade for a particular school suddenly becomes its symbol. And then 12 months later, you might get a new symbol. And that symbol is based off of a formula percentage that many people don't agree with, right or wrong. And so through that, that accountability model is a piece that we in the public school systems, unlike other systems, do not have, but we have that. And it works off of an 8020 percentage. It's part of a dissertation somewhere else that people put together, I'm sure, but it's an 8020 model, meaning proficiencies versus growth. So at the end of the day, we hear about our students growing, but that growth is only worth 20%. So they have to be proficient, which is worth 80. If you consider that in your own bank account, you understand where you'd like to focus. Well, part of that is how do we actually relay that message to our community, our business partners. When

you look at enrollment, enlistment, and employment for life after high school, when you look at people coming to this community and they want to bring their children into this community, they're going to look at those letter grades. But when we look at teachers who give their absolute best and children who take a test on a singular day and that turns into a letter grade that represents the community, I would like all of us to give pause into that. The other focus area, which is non-stop, is our ADM, average daily membership. For those who don't know the acronym, my apologies, student enrollment, but you're also in a county where students come and students go. Meaning the number I give you today may not be the number I give you tomorrow, which was different than yesterday. You have a military community. Those numbers change over time. Of course, our budget a lotments, which is why we're here, but I want to pause there for a second and say I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry this happens to you. And in my professional opinion, it's a bit backwards. And I may share this opinion with others or I may not, but the state of North Carolina has not passed the budget. We know that it impacts public schools. The other part of it is for those who may not know, the budgeting process is a little backwards. You as your county commissioners, as the local funer, should probably fill in the gap instead of predicting the gap. So, I want to thank your county manager, your county finance officer who's invited us back to the table for sure up later on just in case things change when the state and the federal government put out their numbers. But what most of the public may not understand is that you're making decisions say by June for next fiscal year which starts July 1. But as evidenced this year, the state did not provide a budget. So we're working off of last year's budget in an entity that never develops its own cash flow. Public schools do not develop their own cash flow. So in short, I just want to say thank you for taking this time to think

through this. I know it puts you in a difficult position at times to really help us understand or even guess at times and I'm not sure the community understands that you're in that difficult position. So I do want to thank you in advance. When we look at planning aotments, what does that really mean? Well, the state of North Carolina specifically for the community understand they do in fact help us with teaching positions and other positions. Well, their planning aotment supposedly is a planning aotment. Meaning, as an example, they might say you're going to have 100 positions. In Craraven County, we have about 750 teaching positions, give or take, on a given day. So, the state sends us a planning aotment, what we, the state will pay for versus what we might need title funding to support, what we might need your help with in supporting. Well, what happens is that planning aotment seems to then say, "Hey, here's your final allotment." But since we public schools don't fund ourselves, the state of North Carolina can add or subtract midyear at any moment. So that's very much like a baseball being tossed to a hitter and then suddenly someone takes the bat away from the hitter and gives him a tennis racket right in the middle of the year. Doesn't make sense. Not the same game. And so what happens is in our budgets, they are so fluid at times that today I might have 30 allotted teachers for a school and then I open my email when I go home tonight and I might have 28, but I still have those adults in the building. That's real. So what I'm saying to you and the public when you look at planning aotments, they're not final allotments and those final aotments are never truly final a lotments. So, as our finance officer, Miss uh Heidi Daly will come up a little bit later will tell you, last year alone, we had over 90 budget revisions

from the state of North Carolina. I'm not sure anyone in here checks their own checking account 90 times in a year. You kind of work off of what's in your mind with your own budget, but in fact, when we open up emails, we see things come and we see things go. So the other focus that we're looking at and our county manager and I had a great conversation about this in order for the board of education but you as the county commission to really help plan accordingly. We are going to start working on developing a 10-year capital plan meaning what does the facility use look like? Where are we now? Where are we projected to be? Again that's involved with planning aotments. That's involved with total number of students. That's involved with the age of the buildings. And for the community, we do submit a required document to you which will be given to you by the end of this June of what our five-year uh facility survey looks like. So, you'll be receiving that. The next part is building teacher and administrator pipelines. Here's a focus area, and you're about to see some statistics coming behind this. But in short, as evidenced by what I've already said to you, if we struggle with finding teachers and we struggle with hiring professional administrators, then our goal is to really build from within. So those individuals already know our children and our children already know them. And so building that administrator pipeline does look like teacher going or TA going from a teacher, teacher going to an assistant principal, maybe assistant principal going to principal. And sometimes they're moved throughout the district. Why? Because some of our employees like to they have their own aspirations of where they'd like to be and what they would like to do. Other times it's for effectiveness inside the county, inside a particular school. And so we are now establishing what pipelines might look like. And I'll get to those statistics in a few moments in a few slides. Wellness. I think a lot of

you heard this coming out of COVID, but wellness was a big thing before CO and let's not think it wasn't. And wellness is now a big thing after CO meaning it's pretty easy to put your foot first foot down out of bed. It's much harder to put the second foot down in the morning. Once you put that second foot down, you're fully committed. Well, as adults, we stand up and we immediately think, what do we have to do today? What's our list? What's my stress? Where are my finances? Where are my children? What am I doing? What's my status at my job? That's before you get out of the shower. However, our kids feel the same thing. Their second foot down is about where they're going to get their meal today. Who's going to love them and respect them? Is it the same bus driver that's going to pick them up? Is it the same bus driver going to drop them off? In fact, are they going to feel loved and valued? So, in terms of wellness, our employees need that, too. And so, in terms of morale, we need to improve. But at the same time, our educators, including school nutrition, custodians, nurses, anybody affiliated with the public schools, we're going to do our best to make them feel valued, respected, and loved. And finally, I'm really in terms of focus areas, I'm really excited to be able to work with the sheriff, county, um, county sheriff's office, and school resource officers. No better opportunity to make sure our children and our employees and our community feel safe while they're at our schools. And so I'm really excited about that partnership and that's a focus area that we'll always look to grow and get better at, including the types of devices that we want to use in order to make sure our kids are safe. So let's talk about our schools. So 15 elementary schools and you have seven low performing schools. That's what the LPS means behind it. But I can assure you if you walk into every one of those schools, it may not feel low performing. It might feel like it's the exact place the parent or guardian wants their children to be. And at the end of the day, they don't worry so much about

the letter grade. Those families worry about whether their children were loved and come home better than the than they were sent to school. They worry about whether they were fed, whether they're doing right from wrong, and ultimately, are they reading? Are they writing? They doing mathematics, whatever it might be in terms of content. If you look at middle schools, you have five middle schools and two are low performing. five high schools, one's low performing and a virtual academy that off to the side is low performing. It comes under a different standard. So when I look at this, we have 26 schools and we have a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do. But this is a rating based off the state standard of an 8020, which I'm not going to debate. But I invite you to walk into our schools and walk into our classrooms to see much of the great things that are going on because you may realize that what's happening in the classroom for our students may not actually match what test day is. So let's talk about who's leading the schools. So some people use the word turnover and I like to use the word change. They're typically different. So if you look at the change that's happening, you have a step up to leadership. You've had it before I got here and you'll have it while I'm here. A step up to leadership. Specifically, 10 of your 26 principles come this July 1 will have less than one year in their role as principal. Certainly, they've been assistant principles. They may have been um district employees. I've heard people talk about right sizing. I don't say bloating but right sizing. But to the point is 10 of those individuals brand new into that role. There's opportunity there. There's opportunity for change. There's opportunity for growth inside the building. Maybe a new vision. If you look down, 18 of the 26 principles will have less than five years in their current role. Which means that some of

those principles have actually moved on to other jobs. But when I say current role, that doesn't mean they're brand new. What that might mean is they're new to that building, but it might be a 15-year administrator who has experience and knows what they're doing. Look down 92% 23 or 25 assistant principles will have less than five years in their current role, which means some of them have shifted around. They might be a nine-year they might be a nine-year assistant principal, but they're new to their role. So, what does this really mean? That there's change happening in Craraven County in order to align to the board of education in terms of what their vision and mission is to make sure that there's a high quality opportunity for students to learn and have skill sets for life after high school. This should not be scary. This should be welcomed. And when you look at that chief of schools position, part of what we're asking for local funding and support is in terms of mentorship for all of those mentioned above that word. Meaning the state of North Carolina looks at a beginning teacher to say you have three years in a beginning teacher mentor program. The state of North Carolina looks at a principal or an assistant principal and says you have three hours. Figure it out. There is nothing there other than NC Papa and a few other affiliates to help. So internal pipeline, internal support, why we're trying to use some of this funding is to support the very educators and leaders inside the building that are going to impact children and work with our families. So in terms of district leadership, again, not so much turnover, but change. And when you look at change, so I've been here 91 days and I am the superintendent who arrived on February 1st and called five straight days off to school for snow. Kids loved me, families did not. Uh, but in short, a little bit of humor, but I'm so excited to be here. But when you look at this, we now have

assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction joining our team. We have an assistant superintendent human resources. Like to thank Mr. or Dr. Steuart Blunt who's in the audience as our interim assistant superintendent of operations and and systems our financer finance officer Miss Heidi Daly who will join us here shortly has been here less than a year and of course the chief of schools position that the board is considering. So in terms of district leadership again you have new opportunities to grow with your principles, your assistant principles, your teachers, your counselors. Change is looking positive and we're excited about that. So in that change, what are we really looking at? So there are things that we may not be in control of. So you've had state and local leadership changes. You have a new state superintendent. You might have members of the state board of education and you might even have those who are guiding them that are new to the table. You will have change on the board of education come the end of this year in terms of election. And so when you look at that change, you're now having different visions and missions modeled and aligned to where you are now. And hopefully in that conglomerate of thought that we continue on with our strategic plan and make sure that we have great opportunities for kids preparing for retirements and departures. Every year we have retirements. We just retired or announced at our banquet last week 60 retirements. Uh super excited for those people. a little bit envious as well. But at the same time, those people had such impact 1,367 years of experience over uh 11 million uh hours of time with with young people. So in short, we're facing departures each and every year. That's not a bad thing. And that doesn't mean things are going bad. That's natural progression of vacancies. So you will have vacancies every single year. We're in a people-driven business and so as people finish their career, we look for new

people. That's why the pipelines are very important. Departures, a lot of times we have great things happening with our teammates and other districts try to grab them. And so in short, we're constantly looking at how we can staff our schools accordingly. But that planning and acting in a time of uncertainty, well, what's a time of uncertainty mean? The state of North Carolina has yet to put a state budget together. I'll say it until I'm blue in the face. I'm hoping to have one before the end of this year and I'm hoping to have one next year. So, if the state of North Carolina is not helping the state board of education and our team understand truly what our a lotments are, then we're somewhat planning forward but relying on the past to where we are in our practices. And again, I go back to the final consideration. Local, state, and federal left to right is how public school districts are typically funded. meaning we're starting with you first and that's hard for you and I appreciate that when in fact we should start with the state then to the federal and then to the local and so I'm just letting the public know that you're in a hard position in that regard and so 26 schools just over 11,600 children grades I would say age three all the way up to age 22 in some circumstances prek through grade 13 in some circumstances. And so through that, we have an awful lot of opportunity. And I'm now going to invite Miss Heidi Daly, our chief finance officer, to come front to really talk about what our budget looks like, sounds like, feels like, um, and what we're asking for.

There you go. Thank you. Welcome. Good evening.

Thank you. Good evening. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. So, as Dr. Cheeseman stated u the North Carolina General Assembly has not passed a comprehensive budget for 2526. Um of course we're the only state in the US without a budget for this fiscal year. Uh there's no basis at all to forecast adjustments for 2627. So also unfunded state budget requirements that we saw in 2526 could be a real thing going forward. the increases um for step increases for c certified staff in 2526. We actually had to fund that out of local. Um right now the governor's budget request has an 11% increase for teachers as uh in his budget. And with that we have our local supplement at 10 and a half%. So I haven't budgeted for that supplement to be um to have an 11% increase. So that's to be determined as everything unrolls at the state. So uh potential income tax reductions to reduce revenue by 2.1 billion. This keeps being brought up because it's a real factor and we not we're not sure how it's going to play out either. So um with the revenue triggers that have hit there is a reduction of uh income tax which will go from 3.99 to 3.49%. So with that that is a $2 billion reduction in tax revenues to the state and education K12 is 40% of that. That's $800 million. When you do the math and you divide all the ADM, it's $7 million to us. We are not sure how that will play out. We are not sure if they will pass along that deficit to the districts

based on ADM, but we do not have any idea yet on how that will factor in. So, we're really having to live in this state of uncertainty and we're forced to be reactive rather than proactive. Sorry, I didn't hit play. Could we go back a little bit so that our citizens could could look at what what what's been presented? There's an awful lot of data that you're talking about and I'd like people to be able to see it. Sure.

I gave really a summary on this slide. A lot of a lot of what I said, it's just Yeah. not on there. But I'm sorry. I'm a visual aid person. Everybody learns better with it. So, okay, let's move on.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh, so I didn't come over quite lined up on this slide. Um, but budget considerations. Um, so salary increase and this is just for local just for local current expense fund projected at 3%. Um, as you know, for all of our classified staff, there was no pay increase for 2526. We are hoping that uh they will have a pay increase next year. Um, but so 226,000 there. Uh, retirement rate increase is going from 24.67 to 25.76. I was surprised by this. Um, we weren't really anticipating this large of an increase, but that equals uh $83,000. um health insurance increased from 8,500 to 8925 per person. So that equates to 56,000. The 10.5% teacher supplement I mentioned just a minute ago with a 3% increase is $200,000. So we can kind of quickly do that math if the if it goes to 11%. Um charter school increase just anticipating an additional $100,000 there. um that does continue to grow. Uh and then uh insurance premiums about 50,000. We were actually fairly fortunate there to not receive too many increases, but that right now is projected as I'm still waiting for some quotes to come out. Um and then utility increase of increase is about $120,000. It's only $120,000 to local current expense because I do have a lot of utilities that are in another fund. Um and then uh Tyler implementation. So we were successful in receiving $218,000 from the state towards implementation.

So we will be moving to Tyler Munis. Um our current software is the uh SunPac AS400. It's it's DOSS. It's black and green screen. And they've put a sunset on that of June 2028. They have also put a sunset on HRMS which is our human resources uh human capital management program and so that is also June 2028. So we have no choice but to do the full conversion. So after a lot of communication back and forth I was really happy that uh DPI will be paying about 218,000 towards that but our portion of that this year is $200,000. Yes.

Question. I'm looking at at the beginning the salary increase projection of 3% and you have the amount. What is it based on? Based on how many teachers are what is that? Because you if you're having teachers retiring I'm assuming the people coming in the salaries would be smaller and the percentage would be less. So is this based on what you think is going to be the numbers of people coming in including the ones that are there currently or is it based on what you had last year?

So this is actually based on current year employees that are in place right now but it does not include any teachers. So teachers are paid out of state and this is only in local. So it's mostly support staff. Okay. So it's support staff that are currently involved. Yes. So the but not including the retired people. Some of the support people I know you said usually you use the support staff from the beginner salary the smaller. Correct.

Oh it it just depends. So, you know, out of local, we actually have a lot of our classified staff and our um like maintenance. Sure. Is all paid out of local. Mhm. Well, none of them retired, but that's Oh, we I mean the ones that we know are retiring, we can do those calculations knowing they're going out. What are the specific numbers of people? 3% of how many people would give you that amount of money. Am I Yeah, absolutely you are, but I don't have that total number of of employees that are paid out of local. Okay. Yeah.

So, I sentence Yeah. be happy to send I was trying to think pick it and put it in my head. And I was thinking that as we go down, give you I for me to understand and I and just this is just me, not everyone. Sure. But I have to understand the numbers of people you're dealing with for that amount. Just not the percentage of cost and the and the final cost. Absolutely. But how much% what is what is transferring to bodies. Sure. U employees. We can send that back to you. Thank you. Yeah. And also if you notice the eight points that are listed there

um those are all things that happen to a public school system. I understand that not things that we initiated ourselves. So lots of behaviors happen to public school systems and that's a primary example. Thank you.

Okay. Um any other questions on those items? Um I'm not sure why the slide did not line up, but at the bottom um I was going to discuss state planning aotments, so I'm going to go ahead and do that now. Um so state planning aotments that represents the floor of funding especially when we're working on a continuing resolution. So as Dr. Cheeseman stated there were close to 100 revisions to state last year alone. So we expect the same for this upcoming school year as well. So, um, as it stands right now, it's about $1.7 million less than what the planning allotments were for, uh, school year 2526. So, with that, um, it equates to about 21 positions. Uh, there in our position a lotments, we actually cut about 13 positions. And then we do have some salaries that are being paid out of some of our dollar aotments. and that makes up really the other eight positions. So, we're looking at having to reduce by at least 21.5 positions out of state funding this year. So, budget reductions um we have I have cut 1.4 million from the 2526 budget. So based on zerobased budgeting and yes went through because I hadn't done the budget before because I needed to learn it from go. I justified everything that went into every single line item to know okay is this needed and really um the

priority for that to be in local. And so also we use like a centralized approach which means all of the departments who receive budgets sometimes in those departments you need that just in case money the emergency what if something breaks money. So those pockets now live in business services. So if there is a need then that we need to allocate some funds to it comes to business services and we allocate those funds and then right sizing so and just really prioritizing what we need to spend the money on. So by doing that we were actually able to reduce that by 1.4 million. Um, in addition to that, in this last year, we have really gone through and made some of those changes. So, it's been in place since the start of this fiscal year. And originally, we had budgeted to spend deficit spend $5.2 million. So, basically all of the fund balance. And thankfully through some of those reductions that have been made this year and some right sizing that needed to be done uh we were to the good $2.5 million. So we will not be deficit spending the 5.2. We will really be more like 3.7. So um and then potential school closure savings. These are things that uh we uh are still discussing and they are in the agenda for at least gram is on the agenda for May and we are discussing uh Craven Virtual Academy. So if we were to close this rule of thumb they told me that if you close the school it's about 25% savings. They were right. It's about

25% savings because a lot of the expenses follow the students obviously and so uh with this this is not just local savings this is actually some of the state savings we have some flexible PRC's that are instate and so when we were able to save money in those PRC's PRC huh PRC program report codes sorry okay

my apologies when we are able to save money in some of those pots of money from the state then we are then able to move other local expenditures into those freeing up the local expense. So if uh we move forward with those uh it's about 600,000 for Grammy Bon and about 580 for uh Craven Virtual Academy with uh the total being about 1.2 million that we would be able to save. So overall for local current expense fund uh 30,319675 currently and with that instructional services about 50% there and systemwide support services of course that's everything like classified staff and as well as uh equipment materials supplies everything that's supportbased. Um and then the 1.8 8 million charter school allocation. That's anticipated a loted ADM. This was touched on a few times tonight already, but I'll go ahead and give you the visual on this. Uh so starting 201617, this 10-year look 14,91 and we are now at 11,644. So that was the count um best one of two ADM that we have uh from the fall and that is what we were funded on for next year.

Yes sir. For the public who don't know what ADM is, would you please explain what ADM stands for? Average daily membership. Yep. Okay. So you're actually getting funded at 11838 right now, right?

That's correct. This year is 11838. So trends here um county funding and ADM 10-year history as well. So funding over that 10ear span has increased by 17%. ADM has decreased by 16% and overall the cumulative inflation has been approximately 30%. So what are the budget concerns here? um staffing minimums. There are class- size laws, program requirements that we have to adhere to. Fixed and variable costs do not shrink with ADM. So, fewer students does not equal proportionally lower costs.

Can I ask a question, chairman? Yes, you can. Per pupil expenditure because at the same time you've had approximately a 20% reduction in students. Do you know what that's been over the same period of time? Uh, you know, I do have that. I did not bring that with me. I do have it for 25 26 and propose for next year on a later slide.

Oh, sorry about that. So, uh, financial outlook. So, starting fund balance, uh, we I am projecting the $3.7 million as our starting fund balance. So, as I originally stated, uh we budgeted to spend 5.2 million of fund balance, which would just leave us $1.2 million left in reserves. Um with the budget savings of $2.5 million, um we are definitely better off having that 3.7 million. However, there are uh a million dollars of restricted and unspendable that is typically accounts receivable inventories and stabilization by state statute. Um so really the available fund balance that we do have is $2.7 million. Our operating position expenditures exceed revenues currently by $3.8 million. So projected ending fund balance is essentially depleted. So really the recommended level of fund balance is 8 to 10% of expenditures which is equivalent to 2.4 to3 million and that represents only one month of operations. So the funding gap that we are looking at right now is to maintain a minimum fund balance equal to that one month of expenditures net of the restricted funds. Um an additional $3.8 8 million is required.

Mr. Chair, can I ask a question here? I I understand that just closing a school um is going to result in let's say 25% savings because the expenses follow the students. Correct.

But the facility also has a cost. It still has it needs insurance. It has to have the grass cut. It has to have heating and air due to mold. Blah blah blah. What what happens when the facility is sold and comes off y'all's books so that you are no longer having to look after it? What is the savings when a school is closed, say Grand Barton, and is sold to another institution so that you're no longer having to look at it, look after it. Do we know? So what happens with if we are to sell it then the expense goes away? I know that's right. I understand.

If we weren't to if we were not going to sell it, what happens to that? No, no, no, no. When you sell it and the expense goes away of maintaining the facility, right? Let's say in the case of Grand Bard. Okay. What's the expense associated with the facility? Long as you own it, you have to look after it. So, and and these numbers that I gave you are essentially if the facility is no longer in our possession. Well, So if if we were to dispose of the asset then we would be um that's what we would be saving that includes the cost utilities and ongoing maintenance.

Does it include the staff that you no longer need demand to to do the administrative functions for the facility? Well for for example you would not need a principal. You would not need we would not need a principal, assistant principal. Yeah. Custodians, bookkeeper, or any of that. So, correct. So, any cost that goes with the student goes with the student, which is the majority is teachers, transportation, everything. So, um but everything else is included in this. Okay. So, so if you're talking about closing, for example, Grand Barton, um, and and you close it and the facility is goes to another owner, that would be a savings of approximately 600,000. Correct.

Okay. Yes. Thank you for clarifying.

I have another question as well. I think I might have misheard but did you give an expense the expected expense that was u a larger amount than the expected income the revenue so the anticipated yeah so the anticipated revenue that I have with proposing like if we were to just use what we currently have right now um right now the county appropriation is $25.5 million And then uh we have fines and forfeitures budgeted around 900,000. So uh 26.4 million

and right now about $30 million uh 30.2 leaves us a deficit of 3.8 million. Okay. Now how do you plan to address that? What do you do when your when your budget does does not come out? Yes. Yeah. Let me step up to the Yes. Well, I think first and foremost, um, you have to go back and look at what your a lotments are and where your kids are. So, naturally, the board of education is looking at, um, budget reduction, I mean, excuse me, personnel reduction, positions that may be open that we can close, okay?

Other people can pick up those job duties. Our goal is to not touch the classroom to the best of our ability, meaning that we maintain the integrity of what's happening between teacher and students. So you might see other positions double up in responsibility with a cost savings for a position that's been consolidated. So in short, you have to reestablish how you might do business. And so some of those programs recommended number of um per student teacher. So your ratios are different from K3 class size law. People behind me might not know but okay

your ratios for K3 class size law are established by the state. Beyond that, your board of education for 4 through 12 can establish ratios. Okay. But other than being grossly out of proportional, there are really no caps that the state puts onto it unless they're special programs like CTE and EC programs. Correct. So how how are how are we in that regard at this point? Well, right now we're looking at say for example ratios with your assistant principal. She might be slightly over the ratio,

but what's the explanation as to why? meaning did you need additional adult supervision in a larger scale building that might had um behavior issues with young people or wellness issues that need to be addressed. So essentially what Miss Daly and I are doing in our new found professional relationship is really asking the question why why are we actually ratioed the way we are staffed the way we are but ultimately July one moving forward what's the need versus the wish and so we did actually have departmental department meetings we've had meetings with our principles individually to really talk about what school looks like sounds like feels like in those areas but to answer your question directly how are we dealing with the shortfall is ultimately trying to reduce programs, reduce vacant positions as those retirements happen or departures happened. Again, studying whether we can actually consolidate those and capture those back. So, I think the board has done a very nice job of having a plan of action um for us moving forward in terms of what each individual position looks like.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Go ahead.

Okay. So our request excuse me uh so 2526 as they just stated 25.546 million uh we're proposing the 29.346 uh difference of 3.8 million 13% overall increase and then the ADM as we are also mentioned has decreased by 194 2%. Um charter also anticipated possibly 2% it could go up. I wanted to make sure that I budgeted just in case that it did go up because it did significantly increase this year based on what was budgeted. And then allocation per student. So, uh, 2016 in current fiscal year and then proposed 2,355 difference of $339 per student. So the state average right now is 25504 and in 2627 is 2695. So that still leaves us $340 less than the state average.

Just a little comment on that. Yes.

As I look at the National Association, the North County Association of County Commissioners, we've moved from 65 in the state to 35. And based on the numbers last year, we're probably somewhere around 25 out of 116 districts for our per pupil expenditures. So we may not be the average, but there's some heavy weights out there like Wake County, Dare County that weight that differently. So we're probably um you know realistic guess top 25 top 25. So that that number average state average is a little bit misleading just for point of clarification. Yeah, I think it's really great that you're in the top 25 and I applaud that as well. Um, but I also think when you look at the cost of educating a student with their needs today versus years ago, we really try to not look at what the state averages are in terms of list and where we rank, we're really working with the board of education to see who our children are and what their specific needs are and what the requirements are for those needs. So, I would think we would fluctuate up and down that list over time. Um, but in short, we're also trying to move forward in a way that we thrive, just not hit the averages, per se. But thank you.

So, capital outlay second piece of this. Um, so, uh, our projects are based on the 2019 facility study and on recent health department and fire inspections. Uh, category one right here, uh, improvements to existing sites. There's a total of 12 projects listed there for $1.4 million.

Please let me know when you're ready for me to move on and if you have any questions on any of these projects.

We we'll get a copy of this so we can sure look at it. Okay.

Sounds good. Um, category 2 projects, furniture and equipment. So, just these four items for $300,000. And category 3 projects, vehicles, $60,000. And then, uh, other is the Apple lease. So, we are currently in our, uh, approaching our final year of our Apple lease of the 1.1 million. Um, so we do have that expense in the next fiscal year. And then we do have a K5 refresh that is approximately $600,000 that we need to do next next fiscal year. So, and with that um it'll be uh Roger Bell Academy will be K5 will be one one other 14 elementary schools K1 will be uh classroom sets of 10 and grades two through five will be one to one. Okay.

Okay. So, a total funding request operating request of 29,346954 and then capital outlay request of 3,543576. So, potential for budget true-up pending final state budget approval and as all the uncertainties that I discussed earlier with the state, hopefully we'll find that out sooner rather than later. Good. Thank you. Thank you.

And as we wrap up, I first want to say thank you very much for listening to this consideration. Also want to thank the board of education and our community for giving some input. But I'd also like to extend an invitation to all of you, especially when you're looking at the capital needs. Would love to be able to take you through a tour of our schools and our properties, maybe walk with the principles and see some of our teachers and educators to really see the conditions of what these requests are about. Um because I know when you look at it on paper, it's a number and it's a destination. But when you're living through it and you're looking at is this the space that you want your children of Craven County to be in, then I think that becomes a little bit more um a little more of an opportunity to really see how your decision- making would be influ influential inside the school building. So I look forward to potentially taking on tours. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Did you want to ask a question? a couple about capital outlay. I was curious about the $620,000 in uh HVAC system for transportation. Something about over a half a million dollars for an HVAC system for transportation. What's that mean? Uh to provide HVAC to an area that currently doesn't have a full functioning HVAC system. Uh specifically in a building space where Men and women are working in the heat of the summer and in the cold of the winter be able to provide for them. So is this for what building?

For a transportation area, right? Specifically for a transportation department where they're buses services. Okay. And then the Apple lease is that an increase um and it's in the capital as opposed to operations. We've had it in capital every year. Has it been? It has been and that's an increase in the programming fee.

It's a an increase in a new lease. So yes, so 1.1 million is the current lease that we do have. That was on the capital that we received from you this for this fiscal year. Um we have one more year under that lease. And then this six around $600,000 is for the K5 refresh. So that is a new lease for new devices. New lease for new devices. Yeah. those devices are are significantly outdated so and end of life and so we needed to do the refresh for K5. Okay. So it is an increase. It's an additional lease.

I understand that there is some consideration in other schools within North Carolina that they would do away with computers for the K5. We've actually approached our board to actually consider what it looks like K2. Um the greater issue is the state of North Carolina requires that end of course end of grade testing be on a computer and that is essentially looking at third grade and above be done on a computer or stated on a computer

completed on a computer. A student is using technology in order to answer the questions that are delivered to them on a device. And so I think there's lots of studies right now of what's the best education and what's the best opportunity for especially prek through two and I've actually made recommendations back to the board to study that closer in terms of screen time and whether we should have devices in the hands of such young people. But when you're looking at testing and accountability which is where I started on the 8020 our children need devices in order to actually utilize them in the classroom of which where they're assessed. Is that a legal requirement or a guideline to for it to be done on a computer?

Well, I'm not sure it's a legal requirement, but that is certainly the expectation of the state of North Carolina that their testing is going to be done by a student on a computer with a device. And so throughout their education, we utilize those. I would love for you to represent us to have conversation with the state of North Carolina about that because I would love to be able to get back to paper pencil. I really would. I

I would love to, too. Listen, I'm not standing here advocating for it. I'm standing here saying this is what I am charged to do in the current moment. Um, but I can say both being a father, but also a 31-year educator, love to get back to hands-on. Love to get back to reading and writing the the way we do it on paper and in a firm book in your hand. But unfortunately, through accountability, child has to sit in front of a a device and actually complete the state's assessments on those devices. an adult cannot do it for them unless of course they have some type of accommodation.

Okay. Well, we thank you for coming and presenting. I will make one I I haven't asked any questions, but I'm going to make one comment and that is it's my understanding that every private school in our county, and I don't know this to be a fact, but I'm told this um are operating with paper and pencil. all the private schools with exception maybe one the rest of them are using paper and pencil and and that's their call they can do that and I understand your situation and I think a lot of us believe maybe us old people that we ought to get back to where we do it where they at least for the younger younger grades.

Yeah. And I listen love your thinking. I'd also like the state of North Carolina to hold the public schools accountable and the method they do for private schools. I understand I understand both of you who presented are new to this county uh school system and you've had a tough task and so we appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Item number four, Craraven Community College budget presentation. Mr. Great stats, Mr. Stats. Dr. Stats, uh, I wonder if you're going to get applause at the end of your present. I guess we'll I guess we'll find I guess we'll find out. First thing will be whether I can operate this uh device here.

Well, welcome. Uh, thank you for having us again this year. We we uh I have have two people with me. I have Mr. Jim Mard. Uh, he is the school's uh chief finance officer. Um, I had the good fortune Jim's been employed by the college, I guess, off and on in your case since retiring from the Marine Corps in 1999. He did take a seven-year pro, uh, sbatical to go earn money. Um, but then he came back to us. Uh, we also have with us, Miss Denise Serno. Uh, she is a product of our wave. There you go. Uh, she is part of our succession planning. Uh we've been uh training assistant deans and associate uh vice presidents uh in the event that uh Jim or I slip on a banana peel uh sometime in the future uh that we have sufficient expertise at the college to carry on. So welcome Denise. Uh I'm going to start uh by uh having Jim come forward and talk about our year in review and the notable infrastructure projects we did. He'll talk about our five-year facilities plan going forward. Uh we've had a five-year rolling plan since 2013. It works well. Um we'll talk about our fiscal 27 priorities. Uh and then he'll turn it back over to me, although I'm keeping the clicker uh all the way through, I guess. Um and we'll talk about our successes and initiatives, and I'll touch base on the corporate training center, uh the public safety training center, our tenure enrollment, and then some individual projects that we're working on. Uh and then finally, I'll conclude with our formal budget request.

Thank you, sir. Good evening everyone. Commissioners, evening,

good evening guests. Dr. Stat has graciously uh said he would click for me because my glasses are in my truck right down there. And so just to make sure we don't go clicking all over the place, I asked you to help me out. So again, I'm Jim Lens, vice president for administration, uh and chief financial officer over at the college. We talk about uh some notable infrastructure projects. Brock exterior stairwell updates. If anybody's been over to Brock building, you go up the outside steps. They were getting a little bit uh worn. So, we've actually redone that. Bender refurbishments. This is a big one. Sign installation. We have a digital sign now out there so you can actually see what's going on in the campus. We've wanted to do that for a very, very long time. Uh we have a brand new a second uh greenhouse installation. Uh the transition students are doing great work over there. Uh we actually have quite a bit of activity going on. Nursing classroom upgrades. I'll talk a little bit more about that. Brock office upgrade. Uh Volt Center. Uh Volt Center kitchen who's doing great things. We've re put a new uh new flooring over there. And then our Havlock campus. Uh in fact, I got to walk in today. It was finally finished. The library refurbishment down in Havlock. if you've had a chance to be in there, it is amazing. Uh great great job they did down there. And then I'll talk briefly about gate updates. We put some gates in to kind of help out with some issues we've been noticing. So So here's the uh part we were talking about. This was just kind of getting slick and it was getting kind of worn. So we wanted to make sure get that taken care of and we've got some more work going on underneath on this next fiscal year. So, bender refersence, we had a couple things happen. So, the bender is where our early college is and our basic law enforcement training is held. And one of the things that happened, we actually had a delivery driver thought they could pull the truck

underneath that overhang and it was too tall. And so, they kind of smacked into that. So, while we were at it fixing it, we went ahead and uh redid the whole piece because it was kind of getting worn. and also many of their classrooms, uh, the walls, the flooring, all that stuff has been redone over there in the vendor building. Uh, talking about the greenhouse. So, this you see there's actually two right there. The one on the left is the newer one. Uh, and then what we were able to do, and I'll talk about this in a little bit, but one of the things we got was the right permits, and then we went and we've got a plumber on staff who actually run the water. So, we were able to save a little money uh without having to go out and have it done. We did it ourselves and got all the water running. So, now we have uh the greenhouse is is basically self-contained the water system in there.

Nursing uh Dr. Stef will tell you, but nursing is we've got people on top of people.

And so, what we wanted to do is they needed another place for our surge tech and they needed another classroom. We're able to take and that wall that you see in that center picture down below. Uh our team put that in. Uh we are regulated by the state as to how much we can do on our own, but we went ahead and got this done on our own because we probably saved probably close to 30,000 or more on that getting that done. Uh my team is a mad they are an amazing group of folks who have lots of skills. So whenever we can use them, we use them. And this is one of the projects they did. So, they put that wall in to break up a room and then uh we now have an extra classroom.

Again, here's uh some of the things in Brock. We also did an office upgrade. We were trying to kind of break off an area because there was too much traffic and too much conversation going on different places and it was just really hard to do. So again, uh, our team put together, uh, this wall and they've closed it all off and I would put their word up against anyone. It's really good. 5,000.

Yeah. And that was that was actually a job that was bid for 30 some thousand dollars and we probably did it, I want to say it was probably less than three, three or four just in materials. Uh, so when we can use our folks, we really try to use them. Uh, again, kitchen refurbishments. One of the problems here is we got in the bolt and we were it gets a lot of work over there. Uh but the floor is a is a wooden floor that they had the plate or the boards down but it started to kind of crack up. So we actually just yanked it out and put a new one in there. So we've got new flooring over there uh so we can make sure it also stay it was actually a compliance issue with the inspector. So we've got that taken care of so we're no longer getting any kind of a problem. Again, the library, if you get a chance, you're down Havlock, you get a chance to go there and see that library, please do. It is really changed. I I've been around here since uh 1989 and Havlock's gone through several library changes during that time frame and uh but this library has been there a while, but it looks completely different. Very, very good job. Havlock gates. So, we've got some gates uh at Havlock. Uh, believe it or not, they might not seem like a big thing, but you're trying to keep people out of our HVAC area or you're trying to keep them out of the storage area or other places they're not supposed to be. They come become really important. So, we threw this in there because it's not just big projects. There's a lot of little projects that get done all the time as well. Next, please. This is our sign. Um, it's probably it's going to get the biggest used uh this year for graduation coming up, but we we do everything on that sign from advertising an event that's going on to theater to register to graduation, things like that. Uh, it's something that we really wanted. It helps out and and helps the students know what's going on. One of the biggest things, and this is where the gates come in, one of the

biggest things is if we're having a problem, if we have to lock down for some reason, we can put that up because the last thing we need is additional people coming onto campus if we're in the middle of a problem. So, uh, we've got those kind of things there. It helps on weekends, it helps at night. So, very good. And we have gates if you think, uh, we just installed them. They went live on last Friday. If you think of the airport, uh we all have badges and you just drive up if it's closed. You drive up, flash your badge, gate goes up, you go out, come out, it's a center. So the biggest reason for that, we had people that like to inspiration point.

Yeah. Lover's lane was becoming the back of the campus and we were having problems with people back there doing stuff they weren't supposed to be doing. And so we were trying to figure out a way, well, how do we do this? And then again combined with the sign and closures in case of a a real life bad event. Um that those those gates are extremely important to us like that. So

AC replacements u so these are some of our five-year plan major goals. We've got AC replacements. I thought I heard something but an AC unit for one of these big buildings is between 567 $800,000 and a year lead time. So everything works great as long as things break when they're supposed to in accordance with our plan. But sometimes they don't. And so the one thing about the five-year plan that we've got, it allows for adjustment because things never follow the way, you know, the plan that we have. And so when something goes wrong when it's supposed to, then we go ahead and we can adjust that plan a little bit and not put anything in deferred. So that's a very important thing for us. Uh, underground utilities is something we're really going to have to do in the very near future. It's not been changed as far as I know in probably decades and needs a little upgrade and some maintenance. Um, parked roadways, sidewalks, roofs, uh, all the HVAC units, updated electrical, all these things are the things that we do uh, with the facilities plan. Now, one thing I'll tell you also, um, and again, this is I I get this opportunity. I'd like to just, you know, kind of plus up my my team a little bit. Another thing we did is we took out an AC unit that was bad, not working, but there was parts of it that were still good. So, what we did is we we kept it. That's kind of nice, but we kept it. And uh, but what we were able to do is we took parts out of it when other parts went bad. And so we kind of did the old Marine Corps Air Station cherrypoint thing and we, you know, kind of took parts off this one and made that one work and and it worked for us. And then the other thing is when we're finally done taking parts off it and catalyzing what we can get, we'll take it up and have the metal

control exchange. Exactly.

Okay. Again, uh the other thing, like I said, we do a lot of concrete repairs, and this is a bigger thing than one might think. When I first got in my role, I was told that the number one problem we have with injuries is trip and fall. And I just I don't know why. I guess I just did not think that that was the case. But now that I've been in this role, it is in fact the case. Trips and falls are something we deal with all the time. And what can contribute to that is if you have an uneven sidewalk. So one of the things that uh John Melville, great great facilities guy, he comes to me and says, "I got this plan." So we actually now will go and they'll find every place on campus that's got a raised uneven uh sidewalk for example and they'll grade it down so it's so it's even so hopefully we can eliminate some of those. Roofing repairs are a constant um you know buildings over there 50 50 plus years 55 years and so you know and the roofs are that old as well. So, keeping on top of this stuff is something that we have found works very well for us and been working for 13 years and we'll keep it going. Next, please.

All right, I guess it's on you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

So, if you've been over on the main campus in the last uh year, you've noticed the giant dirt pile right dead center in the campus. Uh in another month, we hope to have the dirt cleaned up and the grass planted. Uh we're expecting to have occupancy of this building uh looks more like the 1st of June now is the as I think somebody mentioned five snow days all in a row. Um that kind of threw a leap into things. And you also cannot lay concrete uh if the temperatures 20 20° hotter than you thought it was going to be. It sets up uh real quick. Uh so but we are tenatively scheduled to do a ribbon cutting on the 10th of June. This is a 12,000 plus uh square foot multi-purpose facility. Um, in the center of the building is about a 6,000 square foot room uh that when it's used for lecture can seat about 450 people uh in what what uh the restaurant folks call eight rounds which are the round tables. Uh we can get a little better than 250 in there. It'll be the first time in the college's history we've been able to get the entire college in one place uh comfortably. Uh another piece there is as our nursing program has expanded uh we now do three orientations for the nurses. Uh starting this year, we'll do a single orientation for the entire cohort. Uh career programs uh uh the dean and staff will occupy. Uh they'll be moving in from the uh Bosch building and behind them will be a daisy chain of folks uh competing for new spaces. Uh that'll give us new room for basic skills, our TRIO program, and our surge tech program.

Question. Yes, ma'am. Is that the same is that building the same as the one at? Are those all the same? Those are all the same building. Okay. Um, now the one on the right is is an artist. Well, no, that that's couple days and a couple days ago on the back. So, that's the back side. Okay. You've got the front. Um, again, you're looking over the field all the way from the other side of the campus. So, you can't see the dirt, but but there's dirt on the back side.

U, we're very fortunate. Uh, Dr. Jim Congleton has given us five new pieces to his collection. Uh, so we'll be adding a few of his pieces of artwork, uh, including a very big one there in the back. Uh the next big project is uh the public safety training center. Uh it is underway. We broke ground on November 3rd. Uh we are at the moment on track uh to start initial operations this fall. Uh those initial buildings that will open up between the fall and next spring are an indoor shooting range. That's a 10-lane shooting range, fire tower, and a two-story burn building, a burn pad, and a 400x600 concrete driver training plan. And uh Dr. Cheeseman, you'll be happy. We will finally be off the West Craven lot with our BL cars. Uh Craven County Schools has hosted our driver training on that lot decades. Uh so we've been tearing up asphalt for a lot of years. Uh we will finally uh stop doing that. Uh hopefully by next uh by the winter again. ILC in the fall, full operating capability in the spring. Uh enrollment's looking good. This is a 10-year look. Um it it looks pretty stable when you look at it. 3182 FTE. Uh we use full-time equivalents uh as opposed to membership. Uh basically that means that when you mash enough students together to qualify as one complete student, you call that an FTE. Uh for curriculum courses, that's basically onetoone. One student attending full-time, that's an FTE. Uh but the math gets complicated. uh when you have one student attend for two weeks to take a short-term course uh that's something like 0.005 005 FTE. Uh and see takes a lot of students to mash together into one good one. Uh and that is why the although these numbers go from 3182 to 3519, which is a 12-ear high for the college, it seems like we're growing much faster. And that is because 12

years ago we were essentially a junior college teaching math and science and general education where you put 20 or 25 students in a classroom, you teach them English, you empty the classroom, you come back the next hour, you teach 25 more students math and and so on and so forth. Now we're teaching nursing uh which requires uh nursing beds and hospital room surge tech which requires a surgical technology setup. Uh, as of last December, for a few months when we had an English uh, vacancy, we had more welding instructors than English instructors. And so, we cannot teach enough welding. Uh, Jim, do we have any idea how many welders we now have? I think there's five

welding instructors. I think there's 50 or 60 actual welding welders uh, that are spread across uh, the three campuses and uh, at least one of the high schools. Those things take up a lot of space. Uh, and that space isn't reusable. where I set down a welder, I teach one student, he goes away, the welder sits there for the rest of the day. So, our footprint has grown considerably even though our FTE only shows a modest increase, but it's been a good year. Uh we've been busy. Uh we celebrated our 60th anniversary last year. Um we are in the midst of our once every 10 years or dennial reaffirmation with the S association of colleges and schools. We submitted our self-study uh in March, got their reply and now we're getting ready for an on-site visit and then we'll get a decision next year. That's an all hands-on event. Um that's how we stay in business as we have to be accredited. Health Sciences increased their uh search tech capacity uh by going from one cohort with 10 students to two cohorts two cohorts with eight each. Uh and we graduated our first night weekend LPN course. That's real important. that that class was almost entirely Carolina East employees. Uh they graduated in December and had a 100% lensure rate. And I didn't put it on the slide, but there's a couple other things we're doing. Uh we have something called the FWAC. You can use that acronym now. It stands for the Fleet Workforce Education Center that's out at Havlock. We're starting that project with a 5,000 ft shell building. Uh that'll be operational here in the next couple months. uh that'll be hosting some expansions to sheet welding, sheet metal welding and composits. Uh and I know some of our commissioners were present uh last Friday at the ribbon cutting for Starbase Cherry Point. Uh that's a partnership with the Department of Defense, Craraven County Schools, Allies for Chelard Points Tomorrow. And the employees are actually uh Craraven Community College employees. Uh that was

a deal we worked with ACT uh because as a nonprofit they were not allowed to employ people. Uh so we took up that that piece. Um I think about a thousand fifth graders are going through there every year. It's a regional program for Craraven, Carterette, Jones, and Pamo. We were talking about pencil and paper a little while ago. Uh we have a major initiative underway called generative artificial intelligence momentum. Uh we added the M so we could say things like game on. Uh we did our kickoff in January. Artificial intelligence is a part of our lives now. We used to think of it a few years ago as how do we know when students are are cheating? That really isn't the issue anymore. It's now how do we teach students knowing that they have access to vast amounts of information, including creative tools. How do you know, for example, when a student uh takes a calculator, adds two odd numbers, and gets another odd number in response? Do you know that he's wrong? We have to teach things differently. We can't just teach getting the answer and assuming that because they got the right answer that they actually know the material. So that's going to be a big big challenge for our faculty. But it goes further now. We're managing our students when they're going through the enrollment process and we're using uh systems now that prompt students to continue their enroll pro progress, detect when they're falling behind in their enrollment and check in on them when something's happening. We're using it for early intervention for students who maybe are an A student and all of a sudden get two C's in a row. machine learning will pick up on that and say there's something wrong and then we can alert a human being to go make a phone call and find out what's happening with that student. So, we're setting up those processes. For Jim's team, uh fraud detection uh is is is a big piece. We can detect purchase patterns. We can detect uh bid patterns and begin to use that as part of how we're doing our business. So, this is a very important tool, but we've got to learn how to use it. Uh Jim and I are learning how to write music, which is completely unrelated. Uh but there's some fun aspects uh that go with that as

well. Our foundation has had a great year. Uh last December uh Timothy and Linda Hincken uh left behind them $2.46 million. It's the largest request in the college's history. Uh it was unrestricted. So we have split it into three parts. Uh and we are using it for three different construction projects uh that are underway. Light up a life was a uh unique dinner that we did last fall at the Volt Center. You wouldn't have thought you could take that warehouse uh and turn it into a dining venue, but we did. Uh raised $100,000 in a single night. Um and if you were with us last Tuesday, uh you know that we celebrated our 16th CFA uh and commissioner alumni uh Chuck Tyson uh was among our uh awardees. A lot of new CTE pathways that we've been working on in partnerships with our high schools. Uh these are programs we've either started this year or in the queue for next fall. Newurn High School, we have the associate in fine arts and music out at Havlock computer network control machining and aviation. At West Craven, nail technician and barbering. And for all of the high schools, career and college readiness, uh that's the pathway for students who aren't quite ready for college to give them a boost in getting ready for college. This fall, we'll offer beginner tennis uh in partnership with one of the local clubs. and we're putting the band back together uh mostly for uh early college uh on the main campus. Uh we are adding band as one of our activities with the music department. And I would be remiss without noting that our club baseball team, which has no scholarship players, an unpaid coach, uh is the reigning 2025 uh uh national collegiate

club baseball association. There we go. Division 3 national champions. Uh the first and only community college to make the World Series. much less win it. Um they're not doing quite as well this year. Uh that's what happens to a community college when you lose half your team every year. Uh but it was quite a year last year. We really uh were thrilled. We are overflowing in summer camps. Uh that's just a list. I won't even try to read them off. Uh uh but they are all over the place starting uh as early as third grade and going up through uh college age. Uh the vault center continues to be a success. Uh as of about 3 weeks ago, we had uh completed 5,516 students. Um but what I think is notable about that is the way that's manned. Uh because that is exclusively a workforce development campus, exclusively developed with with grants and local funds. Uh we're able to run that operation with five full-time employees, two part-time employees, and an average of 23 adjuncts. That's unheard of. Um, and we're running about 200 FTE and those 0008 at a time. Um, that's about a thousand students to get that 200 FTE. We're working on building nine. I won't talk too much about that. We're waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency uh to give us a clearance to advance in those negotiations with the city. So, here is our budget request uh for this fourthcoming year. We start with a baseline from last year of 5,81,783. Our personnel request is 77461. Uh that accounts for a 1.5% increase in salaries uh last year that we implemented for our county employees. The increase in the retirement system uh rates and of course health insurance. Our operating request is $99,136. Uh that is mostly utilities. uh we crested over a million dollars for utilities uh for our campuses this year.

Uh that wasn't good news. Insurance costs have gone up considerably for us. Um and so that is driving that number. Few years ago as we began building uh buildings uh we worked with you on uh funding to be spread out for these new buildings over a number of years with the corporate training center opening this year. The remaining 75% funding for that building at 72189. uh and the public safety training center moving from one-third funding to half funding at uh 49 48917 uh for a total operating fund of 55,379486. Our capital allocation u after working with Jack and his team uh we have uh figured out a way to keep that level for this year. Uh, and so that will stand at $550,000, which brings our total request uh to about $297,000 or 5.29%. And I'm ready for your questions.

Questions from the board. Mr. Chairman, I not a question, just a comment. Uh, we honored to have uh re Reverend Ethel Samson with us tonight. And um, Mr. Johnny used to sit here for years and prior presidents, he'd always advocate for um as he would call it, trade classes at Craven Community College.

And I just want to commend you. Um that has been a desire, a vision of this board for many, many, many years and also a lot of our citizens who lived here. um to continue to, you know, some folks wanted to take that in a different direction, but I commend you for bringing it back and uh and having it as a resource to citizens here in this county. So, I remember Commissioner Samson's advocacy.

Uh and I also remember Miss Ethel, who is a CFA alumni. Welcome. Thank you for coming. I would just piggyback on that in that increasing development in our county, bringing companies here, um it's really critical that we have the workforce to to do the work that these companies need to have done and the Bolt Center is a primary uh in my opinion a primary function of doing that. So, I totally agree. That's why it's so important. They're not there's no other county around here that has anything like that that I'm aware of. And so, that makes people that are coming here to check out our county. That makes them stand up and uh and listen. I know Jeff likes to talk about the vote.

Sure does. And thank you to the commission. You have a little over $2 million in operating expenses that have gone into that since 2019. So, we're very appreciative. Great success. Anybody have anything else? Yes, I have a comment. I would thank you for all the work that was done at the Havoc Library. I know not only do all the librarians love it, but the public loves it as well. And I utilize this space myself. So, thank you. Well done. It's hard to believe what we consider to be a new campus. It's only 20 years old, but the traffic that goes through the library. Um 20 years is a long time uh for carpets and paint

and and that library takes care of so many different communities. The elementary schools are right next door. the middle schools, the early college, your college. I mean, just so many people in the community itself. It's a lot of footprints. A lot of people in there. Anybody else? Okay, we appreciate very much. Thank you.

Got your applause. Okay, item number five. We have one more budget presentation tonight and that would be the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. Mr. Albert Lester.

Uh, good fing commissioners. I'm presenting a juvenile crime prevention council physical year 2026 2027 budget. Um, this budget here is the same budget that we presented last year. We had uh no increase or decrease. I'm requesting that the board approve $320,355 for the fiscal year 2026 27 juvenile crime prevention counseling. Okay. And that's the same number we approved last year. Yes, sir. Exactly the same number.

Okay. Uh board, do we have any questions for Mr. Lester? Okay. We got your request. Thank you for bringing it. Yes. Okay, we need a Yeah, thank you. We need a motion and a second on that to approve his request. Second. Got a motion and a second. All in favor? I We need a roll call. Yes. We all say I, but we'll still need a roll call. Yes, sir. Commissioner Mason, yes. Commissioner Mitchell, yes. Commissioner Smith, yes. Commissioner Howard, yes. Commissioner Hunt, yes. Vice Chairman Jones, yes. Chairman Booker.

Yes. Okay. We're going to take a fivem minute recess. Uh for those of you who would love to stay with us, you are most welcome, but if you've uh heard what you need to hear, this will be a time that you can uh call it a day. So, thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

Mr. Jeff Wood. Good evening, misters. Good evening.

Kraton County has been invited to participate as one of eight counties in North Carolina in the attainment NC initiative, a cohort based model developed and supported by my future NC to advance career uh connected learning and post-secondary attainment. This initiative is funded at $100,000 per year for two years and brings together key partners across education, workforce, economic development, and industry se sectors. As part of this effort, a core team will be established consisting of representatives of K- through2 education, higher education, workforce development, economic development, healthcare, and community organizations. Uh that this participation requires an execution of a member understanding and also to approve appointment of someone to be a part of the uh group. Uh I've uh um coming in front of you to ask that I would be uh have that memorand of understanding approved. It was in your packet and then also to appoint me to be a part of that group and then uh Lyanna clock in my office to also be my alternate if I can't make it. Uh our goal will be as part of this group to be able to be as a liaison to companies. So when they're trying to figure out how to reach some of the attainment goals when it comes to education skilled or a four-year degree or two-year degree, uh that industry input will be involved in that effort.

Okay. Um so move. Okay. Second motion. We're asked to approve the appointment of Mr. Jeff Wood, alternate Lyanna Clark to serve as our representative of the workforce pipeline cor collaborative core team for the attainment NC initiative and ex execute theou. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Opposed? The eyes have it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Congratulations.

Okay. Item number seven is appointments commissioners. You'll notice under pending Craraven Aging Planning Board, Craraven County Clean Sweep Committee, Juvenile Crime Prevention Council and Recreation Advis Advisory Council. Um under current tonight we are going to consider number one clean sweep committee Debbie Roberts seeks appointment. I nominate Miss Roberts.

Okay. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none. Mr. Roberts will be appointed by acclamation. Second one is local emergency planning committee. Jonathan Gaskins seeks reappointment. Mr. Chairman, I nominate Mr. Gaskins.

Okay. Are there any other nominations? Hearing none, Mr. Gaskins will be appointed by acclamation. Um upcoming co community college board of trustees uh under Augustus Willis, Craraven County Recreation Advisory Council, Carlos Ka Kowala, Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council, Jonathan Stevens and Candace Garris, um Fire Tax Commissioner, James Hendris, Fireman's Relief Board of Trustees, we got Jason Core and Dennis Wilson. And under the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, Miss Jennifer Dy and Jean Canick. Those are future appointments that we will be looking at. Take make note of those and you have anybody there that you want to recommend, you will be asked to do that. Um, next will be the county attorney's report.

Mr. Chairman, I have no report this evening. No report tonight. Okay. And the next report will be by the county manager.

Good evening, Mr. Chairman, commissioners, I have one item for your consideration tonight. That is a resolution. Mr. Chairman, if you would, I'd like to read this into the record uh before the board uh determines what to do with it. Resolutions entitled proclamation recognizing May 3rd through 9th, 2026 as professional clerks to the board of county commissioners week. Whereas the role of the clerk to the board of county commissioners is crucial for maintaining an informed community, facilitating effective local governance through communication among citizens, governing bodies, and administrative departments. And whereas a position of clerk, one of the oldest in local government, continues to be essential as the official recordkeepers of their counties with responsibilities that are deeply rooted in history. And whereas North Carolina General Statute 153A 1111 requires every board of commissioners to appoint or designate a clerk to perform any duties that may be required by law or the board of commissioners, including but not limited to the preparation, filing, and protection of local government records, which are vital for accountability and transparency. And whereas clerks enhance their professional skills through active participation in the North Carolina Association of County Clerks to Boards of Commissioners, which in partnership with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Government and the International Institute of Municipal CL Clerks offers nationally recognized certification programs and continuous professional education. And whereas clerks through their dedication to professional development not only improve the efficiency of their offices but also bring positive recognition to their counties by participating in advanced education and obtaining professional related certifications. And whereas Abigail G. Wilson serves as clerk to the board of commissioners in Craraven County and exemplifies a high degree of professionalism, dedication, knowledge, and willingness to serve. Now therefore, be it proclaimed by the Craraven County Board of Commissioners that May 3rd through May 9th, 2026 will

be recognized as professional clerks to the board of county commissioners week in Craraven County and extends its appreciation to clerk to the board Abigail G. Wilson and to all county clerks and deputy clerks for their vital services they perform and their exemplary dedication to the county they represent. So, Mr. Chairman, I would ask the board consider this resolution. Okay. Have a motion to motion to approve. He got it first. Okay. Motion to approve and a second. All in favor? Opposed. It better not be anybody opposed. Abigail does a wonderful job for us. Thank you. That's all I have, sir. Thank you.

Okay. Commissioner reports. Um, who would like to start? Mr. Smith. Commissioner Smith, you go first.

I would like to remind our citizens of the upcoming event of the PI, the Partners in Education lunchon, which is which is scheduled for May 28th at 11:30. And I would remind you that partners in education supports the children of Craven County. It supplements resources that are received by the state, the county, and the federal government. And as you heard tonight, uh those resources are are needed. It uh encourages innovation and provides funds for teachers in the classroom to provide innovative programs for students. So, I would encourage you I don't have tickets. The cost is $35. I don't have tickets. I'm not selling tickets, but I would encourage you if you can purchase a ticket for $35 and on May 28th, attend the pie lunchon. Thank you. Is that it?

That's it. Okay.

I just have a couple things. If anyone didn't hear, Navy has uh released a public um an official press release talking about um that they're doing an environmental assessment for home basing of their E one uh 130J Phoenix at Marine Corps Air Station. what it means along with stationing all those aircraft here with high security um construction of necessary facilities to support the aircraft and stationing of approximately an additional 1,000 personnel and their family members here uh locally in Craven County. So that's been officially put out there. And I want to personally and publicly thank all of the volunteers at the Havlock Resource Pregnancy Center, another wonderful organization in Havlock that I could not be more proud of. Uh they are changing so many lives in an impactful way. And as somebody who's pro-life at all ages, I especially appreciate the fact that they do wraparound services for not only the new babies, but for the mothers and the fathers. and and that's critical to establishing the family unit right here at home in Craraven County and the family unit is where it all starts at. So, I'm very grateful for all those volunteers in the city of Havlock. Thank you.

I'd like to add to that announcement that construction will start no earlier than fiscal 28 with operations to begin no earlier than fiscal 29. So, which is Yeah. Like in two months. Yeah. six months. That's it.

And no, I would like to compliment the city of Vanceboro on their uh their strawberry festival. It's too bad the weather didn't cooperate. Monday night was was beautiful, but Saturday was was rough on them. They kind of everybody slowly evacuated on Saturday, but the BFW barbecue was still good and they had cheap shortcake there. So, it was really good. And then finally, I had the pleasure of attending a 100 counties prepared program here in our convention center put on by the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. And it was very enlightening. It was the focus was on communications during an emergency. And that's all I've got. Okay, Mr. Howard,

I think I'll pass. have a couple things to say, but you two gave me the look like it's getting low on time, so I'm just kidding. But with that, I guess I'll keep my mouth shut, too.

Just one item, Mr. Chairman. Uh, a friend of Commissioner Smith and I, uh, Miss Retha uh, Manley, better known as Granny. She will turn a hundred uh, this coming Saturday. She's from the Jasper community. and uh her family were supposed to get us some information to have available for proclamation, but they didn't get it to us. I would like to ask this board if you would approve tonight, maybe just getting staff to uh come up with just something a knowledge and this board of commissioners um recognizes her 100th birthday and maybe get the chairman to sign it. So, I'm going to pre-approve a second. Thank you. Okay, everybody agrees. All in favor? Opposed? Okay, thank you. We'll do that.

Thank you. I have nothing uh to talk about tonight. We'll take just a two-minut break and then we will do our final um our final item on our agenda which would be the petition of citizens. Okay. Proclamation.