Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

So nice to have you all with us this evening. My name is Lori Smith. I represent the Gills Creek District. I'm also honored to be the chair of the of the board of supervisors. Um I'm going to call our meeting to order um officially and um I will defer to to Arlet to do so for December. Okay. I'm Arlet Greer. I'm the Blackwater district representative and I'm the vice chair. Our chairman tonight called us. No, he has he has CO. He believes he has CO. So um so I call our school meeting tonight to order. Is that good?

Okay. Um, Arlet, why don't we do a round of introductions of our board members if that's okay with you? Um, would you like to start? No, you go. Mike Meredith. I'm represent the Boom District. Marshall J, represent the black district. I'm Nick Mitchell and I represent Snow Creek District. It's nice to see everyone here tonight and I see a lot of educators in the crowd and a lot of you all. I remember when my kids were in school and it's nice to see you. I'm Mike Carter. I'm the Rocky Mountain District Supervisor. And I'm Tim Tat. I'm the Blueidge District Supervisor.

Good. Good evening. Chris Willow, County Administrator. Mr. Quinn, you're just in time to introduce yourself. I'm Lee. I'm Dan Quinn. I'm the Union Hall District Supervisor. Okay. Whisper.

I'm Kevin Sears, a superintendent of Franklin County Public Schools. I'm Jerry Connor and I represent the new district on the school board, Jonathan Holly Blue Ridge District. I'm Ron Shlet. I represent the Snow Creek uh Magisterial District. Thank you. I'm Rebecca Sloum and I represent Gills Creek District for the school board.

Thank you. I would uh like to make a special welcome to our new uh school board members. Um this is our first time, I think, being a joint meeting with you and we welcome you. We're glad you're with us. And our one of our new colleagues, Mr. Mike Meredith. Of course, we welcome you, Mr. Meredith. Thank you for being here. Okay. At this juncture, u we'll have an invitation delivered by by Tim Tatum. Tim, if you would do so, please stand. Afternoon this time, let's go in prayer. Most kind and gracious heavenly father, we come to you this evening, Lord, thank you and praise you for all you do for us, Lord. All the many blessings of life. Lord, we thank you for this time that we have to come together to discuss a portion of the county business and work together with the school board and and carrying out our duties in this response. And Lord, I just pray as we go through this meeting as in every meeting we have. Father, we look to you for wisdom and guidance and this direction in everything that we do. And I pray that everything that we say and do will be pleasing in your sight and according to your precious will. In Jesus name I pray and ask it all. We will now have the pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Carter.

You all would join me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Uh, next on our uh, agenda, before uh, I call you up um, Dr. Sears, I would like to call up um, Mr. Whit for some introductive remarks. If you would, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, the chair asked me um, this evening if I could just give a little bit of background, I think, uh, of the purpose of tonight's meeting. And so, uh, just by background, uh, in June of this last year, uh, our county finance staff shared with the school system finance staff as to what appeared maybe to be some differences, uh, in revenues and expenditures when looking between fiscal year 24 and 25. Uh, and therefore, at that time, our staff, I understand, encouraged the school system staff to maybe take a closer look at financials in terms of year end. It's about that time of the year that I think we look uh to try to project what may be carryover and so forth. Um during the July meeting uh of the finance report, Madame Chair, members of our board, um our board inquired to our staff any inquiry for any surplus projections for the year. We typically do that typically look at surplus projections around August, September. At that time, uh, county finance staff advised, of course, our board, madam chair, members of our board, if you all would recall, uh, that certainly on the county side of the ledger, we would have carryover, which we did on the county side of the budget. However, we did note at the time, our finance staff, that we were a little unsure as to if the school system budget would have carryover given year-over-year. Um so upon that point um it was noted there could possibly be um it would not necessarily be a carryover but we really did not necessarily know that from the school system. So following that of course Dr. seers uh and and our staff, our finance staff, we we said, well, it was probably very important that we would arrange quarterly finance meetings to really look at financials. And of course, we did that. Uh and in July, we had a finance meeting and during that time, we were walking through the financials and again uh asking the uh school staff, you know, do we look like we'll have some

carryover on the school side of the budget at that time? And at the time, I think some year-end financials were still being uh received, if you will, even though the fiscal year ends June 30th. Financials um in terms of revenue, state federal revenue often follows se uh June 30th rather. And so at that time, I think uh the school staff thought yes, there there would likely be so. And of course, uh we held another quarterly meeting in October uh again. And at that time, uh, it was noted that it looked like, yes, there could possibly be from the school system side, um, some surplus. Um, but really that's really not known until all of the entries and so forth are completed at the year-end financial audit. And so we encouraged the school system and the staff at that point uh, to make sure that they got all the information from insurance consultants and so forth into the county auditors. the school systems portion of the county budget rolls up under the county budget. And so at that time we said, well, it's very important that we get the information in as soon as we can in a timely manner just to make sure that the auditors could complete their audit. Um, with the federal shutdown, we know there was some delay and so forth um in reimbursements likely from the federal government. And so, um, at the December 16th meeting, our finance staff of course advised, um, our board that it would likely be the audit would be delayed due to some of the federal shutdown and just giving information in in a timely fashion. Uh, that required the county by code to do a public posting of a delay of the budget uh, or the audit rather. And of course, that was posted uh, properly. And then this past week, Madame Chair, members of the board, on Tuesday, this past Tuesday, we certainly received the audit

uh at that point. And of course, during the December 16th meeting, Dr. Sears, we appreciate you being with us at that meeting where Dr. Sears shared with us that it looked at that point there would likely be a deficit in the FY 2425, if you will, uh in terms of a surplus. there would not be a surplus but perhaps there was an overexpenditure due to an accounting error. Uh likely an over projection of revenue on the school system side of the budget and I believe at that point madame chair u Dr. Sears and I think has met Miss Greer with with the school board as to possibilities of how to make that deficit if you will up back to the county. And so, um, really the purpose of tonight's meeting is really, I think, to to hear from the school system, uh, your thoughts on how that could be accomplished. Um, and so I think I covered everything, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. WLO. I appreciate that. Um, does that, uh, clear any county staff from other comments? Does that conclude county comments? I I think so. Do you have anything else to add, Mr. Carter?

Okay. Thank thank you very much uh for setting that foundational information for us Mr. Whitlo. Um Miss Greer I want to turn it over to you uh at this juncture for um moving into the school's presentation. First of all, I'd like to thank the board of supervisors for um making this happen. Okay. I think that um we all know it's a huge mistake on the school division's part. Um, at the same time, as a um, native of Franklin County, I've seen us go through other financial troubles in the past. And I think if we lock arms and and and and we can overcome this and go forward and provide the best education we can for our students um and and provide um for our teachers as well and go forward with um taking care of the needs within the school division. So I thank you for for allowing us to do this and to present what Dr. Sears present what what we have in mind. to Dr. Sears. Thank you, Miss Greer, and members of the school board and madam chair, members of the board of supervisors, Mr. Whitlow. Sorry, this microphone was very sensitive. Okay, I'm going to go through uh uh

how we got here and then we'll get into some of the steps that we've taken so far. But um as has already been discussed, uh we know that an accounting error of $2.6 $6 million went undetected until the FY25 audit was conducted last fall. Um that was uh revenue that was uh received for the FY24 year that was not adjusted off of the FY25 books and uh it was carried on as revenue earned revenue for FY25 even though it was not received for that year. Um so because it was carried as revenue for that year, we finished the fis we went through the fiscal year and finished the fiscal year believing we had a healthy carryover balance and um we were informed once the audit was complete that we had over spent by approximately 1 or $1,413,850. that was adjusted down from the initial deficit of 1.7 million that was reported to the school board and board of supervisors in uh 2025. FY25 did have a few unique circumstances. First, let me just say this error was ours. We own it and we own the responsibility for correcting it. Uh the next points I'm making are not excuses. They're just an attempt to explain some of the circumstances that we were dealing with last year that led to things happening and and try to help explain why it probably went undetected until the audit occurred. Uh this was the first year of the current bianium where we experienced a sixpoint LCI increase which necessitated the closing of two schools. So we were attempting to operate with a significantly reduced

budget and projections were probably less accurate than they would have been in regular years. Just to give you or see what the overall budgets were between those two years, the FY24 budget was 111 million uh 623,000. The FY25 budget was 98,949,000. 9 million of that, a little over 9 million of that was esser money that was going to the capital project. So you take that out, it's still about 3.6 million difference. We were still looking at a budget that was about 3.6 million different that we were trying to make adjustments for and work through with that year. Um, every position in our finance department turned over in FY25 except one and that was our accounts payable clerk. It's a small department. We have um five positions but four of the five turned over that year. And then the hold up in federal dollars at the end of year of the year did make it difficult to gauge where we stood in regard to the end of the year revenue. In what areas did we go over budget? There were a number of areas where expenses were more than we projected and there were a number of areas where expenses were less than projected last year. That's the same every year. Budget is the best guess as to what's going to be and they are never exact for anyone. However, there were two general areas last year that would have been very difficult for us to reduce. Um, and I think it'll come back on you. It would have been very two areas where we would have had a hard time reducing and if we had not been able to reduce in other areas, we may would have had to come to the board of supervisors and ask for an additional appropriation. Let me just

say if the accounting error had not masked the the fact that we were going into a deficit, we would have tried to cut elsewhere. We would have certainly tried to take care of them before we would have asked for an additional appropriation. It would have just been very difficult to cut anything from these two areas. I'm not saying these are the two areas that caused it. I'm just saying these are two areas that we would have struggled trying to cut from as an example of what we were dealing with. Transportation, we saw increases with substitute cost, overtime cost, parts went up. We had to make more repairs than what we typically do. We had to hire some additional pair of professionals to deal with escalating behaviors on buses. We had to add some additional special ed routes and we had to add additional routes to comply with the McKenna Vento homeless assistance act. That is a requirement that comes with no funding. If we have a family that finds themselves in a homeless situation and they move in with a grandparent in a neighboring county, but it's determined that it's in the best interest of those students to remain in Franklin County schools, we still have to provide them with transportation to and from school from the neighboring county. So there there is no funding for that, but we are required by law to provide them with transportation. And um we had several of those last year. It's uh just another one of those things. It's it's hard to plan a budget for that, not knowing each year how many of those situations we're going to encounter. Um, in special ed, the the CSA uh cost were 579,000 more in FY24 than they were in 25. And that comes with uh typically comes with a corresponding increase in transportation cost as well because a lot of those students do require one-on-one transportation or sometimes those

students require a pair professional in addition to a one driver to keep the driver safe. These are students that you know you these are the students that are our most high need special ed students that typically are not being successful inside of our regular classrooms. So the steps that have been taken to address the budget deficit at the board meeting on January 12th, 2026, the Franklin County School Board approved that the following school funds be applied toward covering the deficit. There was the carryover from FY24 367,000. Uh there were food services uh reimbursements that uh county staff and uh school division finance staff will have to figure out how that can be applied. Um but that's 518,000 that is available to to be applied toward the deficit. They are working out the details of that uh reimbursement from the department of emergency management of 110,000 for uh some of the damage that we uh encountered last year in the ice storm and also reimbursement for expenses we incurred when we opened the emergency shelter for the community during the ice storm. And uh we asked uh every school to uh set aside 15% of uh funds that were allocated to them for supplies and other areas this year and that was 164,000. So all total we have 1.1,160,185 readily available to be applied toward that deficit. The school board also approved the following budget reduction measures which should result in a carryover balance at the end of FY 26 that can be applied toward the deficit. There were three secondary

teaching positions for the second semester that we did not feel. They were able to cover make adjustments in the schedule, two high school positions and one middle school position. Um so we estimate that'll be about $100,000 savings. uh adjusted tutoring programs. Uh the all-in tutoring uh because of adjustments that were made for last year, the all-in tutoring money was gone. So, we've already made those adjustments to cover uh the available hours with uh PIR and title one funds where title one is applicable. Uh we're not going to pay for any professional development for the remainder of this year through uh well through June 30th, remainder of this fiscal year. If they had already been approved and paid for, staff can of course attend those because most uh providers do not re they won't refund the money, but we're not approving any future for the remainder of this year. All out of county field trips must be funded by sources other than local funds and summer curriculum work will be limited to those opportunities funded by grant or state funding. think there might even be opportunity for some federal funding to cover curriculum work and the size and so scope of summer school programs will be reduced. Um we had already been discussing the possibility of this anyway because of the shortened summer schedule. So I don't think that creates much of a hardship because we are condensing the summer anyway with uh so where we usually run a two or three week summer program. We had already been talking about reducing that to a oneweek summer program this year because we are reducing the summer break by about two weeks. There were two other suggestions that were uh put forth to the board that are that were not approved that night, but

they are still on the table if additional steps are needed to address that. and that was suspending the DSIP program. That is a program that pays retirees to come back in and fill the roles of substitutes. U they are paid at their daily rate. The advantages for that program is that you get qualified uh professionals to come in and cover often in classes or enrolls where they, you know, have not been out of the job very long. So the the students really don't miss a beat when they come in and and cover in those positions. Um so it it does bring a value in to the school division, but it does come with a higher expense than than a regular sub. So we have to weigh the benefits and the the the downside to suspending that program. and the board, you know, asked or stated they would like a little more time to consider that before making a decision on it and also eliminating two grant funded positions. Um, you know, it's always difficult when you talk about uh eliminating anyone's position and that's uh probably the toughest call of all because that is taking two people uh in positions that uh you know they they depend on and their family depends on. Um so those are positions that I mean those are two areas that are still out there uh if we have to take additional steps. We have also been working on a plan to change our processes and procedures. So how will we keep something like this from occurring in the future? We have scheduled weekly budget meetings between the finance director, the assistant finance director, superintendent, assistant superintendent, and federal programs

administrator to review our revenue expenses and our grant funding. We will hold a monthly meeting between the finance director, assistant finance director, superintendent, assistant director of pupil services, curriculum director, and the CPDMT representative to review the CSA invoices and evaluate the number of students placed in out of district programs through the CPDMT process. That's those special ed students, the high need special ed students that we were referring to a minute ago. We've got to get a better handle on that. um and make sure we are evaluating those invoices and and doing a better job of evaluating the services and the cost of those services. Holding a monthly budget meeting between the superintendent, the FCPS finance director, FCPS assistant finance director, the Franklin County Administrator, Franklin County uh finance director, Franklin County Assistant Finance Director to review revenue and expenditures to assess year-to- date percentages. uh review CSA funding and discuss other areas of concern. Uh this group will also work to address all of the audit recommendations prior to the end of the current fiscal year and look at an outside audit to recommend an overhaul or standardization of our accounting system to one that allows for easier tracking of funds and facilitates a smoother transition when there's turnover within the department. And finally, a a public budget overview will be provided monthly to the Franklin County School Board. And at this time, I will open it up for questions. And after questions, I do have a closing statement if the chair and vice chair would allow me to make that.

How would you like to proceed, Miss Square? Well, first of all, I think maybe there's a lot of folks who don't understand the cost that's involved in that day placement that you know and so um maybe a figure of how much we spend on these transporting these students out of the county um for for the needs that they have that we do not have provisions here in the county to provide. So, um, that's not too much to I I I just think that the general public doesn't un doesn't doesn't know all this. And Miss Griff, if I may respond to that. Um we um have acknowledged that it's we did this two years ago to provide the school board with your members in place um a thorough overview of CSA and you know we will be looking to set that up within the next month or two. Um I I think our purposes of tonight and my colleagues correct me if I'm wrong. Um, I don't think that tonight is going to I think it's going to help for us to start breaking down the numbers and where the variances are. Um, both of our boards, our finance departments do that day by day. There's, you know, budgets are fluid. Um, I don't think it's going to help us get to the outcome we're looking for this evening, which is understanding. I kind of think it's apples and oranges to some extent. We've got a deficit. Uh, what caused it has been framed as an accounting error. um to talk about areas where you all have had undue stress on your revenue. That's an important matter certainly, but I don't think it's it's going to get to the heart of the issue that we have tonight. I think there will be a time for that and I would suggest perhaps the

time will be when we begin our budget discussions at the end of February and I do think that's an important conversation. So um with respect uh and my colleagues if my colleagues agree um I would I would ask my colleagues to I'll defer if there is any objection to my statement that I just made. Okay. Um and so Miss Ger I think um Dr. Sears you wanted to open up the floor for questions and answers at this juncture. Yes. Yes. And is it for both boards that you'd like to do that?

It's however the boards would like to handle this. It could go one board at a time or if you want to open it up for both. I think that um I think what would be probably helpful to those listening and observing us um I think to do some Q&A on the board of supervisors side um and then you know I'd like the conversation to be conversive um and open and as questions are asked and answers are provided you know certainly open roundt discussion I think is very very helpful. I think we owe it to the citizens of Franklin County um to let everyone know what's being asked, what the answers are as we try to, you know, map our way out of this if that's okay with with you all. So, at this juncture, um I would open up the board of supervisors for any questions that you would have.

Uh got a quick question. just kind of unique situation for me um just joining the board but I also taught the high school about 14 15 years so it's a very unique situation for me but one thing u as this budget came out the quote was made to make minimal impact to teachers and students and you know we asked our schools to return 15% of funds we are not covering three secondary teaching positions which means teachers are covering those classes I'm sure uh the DSP program which our teachers are unfortunately not earning what they get. That's kind of a perk for them. And so I got looking but I don't see nothing at the school board level of any cuts or adjustments. So I done a little research here and you know I noticed there's 21 positions at the school board office. average salary is 100,000 a year and we're asking our bus drivers at 15,000 m to step up. They're doing double routes. Teachers are driving buses, tutoring, doing all this. But then I dug a little more and back in April school board meeting. There was actually three new administrative positions created at school board that had not exist for 15 or 20 years. Plus, you got two schools less. You got less over a,000 students less. So, I'm kind of curious on why we would invest $350,000 to do positions at the school board and not give that to our teachers, repair, something to help out there. I would personally as you said this is something that happened at the administrative level but I feel like our teachers our students are getting punished and nobody at the school board office I don't know nothing I look at directors all your

departments they should be seeing their monthly figures every month they should be tracking they should be asking questions so I hold them all responsible so I guess my question you or the board who approved is why would you create three new administrative positions with two less schools, a thousand less students? The uh they were restructured positions. They were not three new positions with the number of positions remained the same. We just restructured three different positions. We we I mean you could look at the number of positions we had in 2023 uh versus the number of positions now and we are actually we have 78 and a half less positions now than we had in in 2023 and we did not create new positions. We have uh restructured and combined duties and uh shuffled things around.

Well, according to your board docs, there's only one here. It says transfer due to position elimination federal programs. Um I have the old organizational chart from 23 and I'm not talking about support staff. You have more supervisors now. There was never assistant HR director. I worked in the school system. I remember Mr. P. There was only u Miss Atkins who was over people personnel services. it was heard by herself and the school level coordinators coordinator and also assistant director of HR. You know, I was just curious on how we we've lost a thousand students with two schools less and yet we're creating more administrative positions, but yet we're asking our teachers, our support staff, parapros, cafeteria works who are taking money out of the pocket, buying supplies for these kids, buying them food, everything. And we're asking them to do more. And yet, I don't see nothing at the schoolboard level. I don't see the sacrifice. Why are we asking them to sacrifice and not our school board administration who created this for

Yes. I I'm I'll end there, but I just I'm just curious. Very good. Uh Dr. Sears, did you want to respond? Are any members of the school board, did you want to attempt to respond or would you like to move on? I don't want to. The reason I'm asking is I don't want to um keep anybody responding if you wish to do so.

Yeah, I would just say that we have looked, you know, we we're trying to do this without cutting any full-time positions. I will say, you know, in looking forward to the FY27 budget, which does not look good. It it's very similar to what we looked it uh at in FY25. you know that has been a topic of conversation and it's something that we are looking at you know without getting into specifics I mean is something that we do have to look at um we're looking at every possible way to deal with our budget challenges

okay um I will defer to another supervisor um for questions I just had one question. You said that there are 78 uh positions that have been cut as of over the last couple of years. Okay. Out of 78. How many of those were uh teaching and uh and um other positions versus how many of them were admin positions? I do not have the breakdown, but we can get that and and send it to Mr. Willow. Okay. Good. Get that. I'd like to see that.

Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. I've taken a lot of notes here tonight without really getting into the weeds. Uh I look at this as a problem that we're going to have to jointly solve. I don't want to harm the teachers. I don't want to harm the students moving forward. And I think that's the goal of everyone here. Uh Dr. Sears, what savings did did you all accumulate from closing those two schools? You know, I don't know that we could put an exact dollar amount to it. Well,

um we trying to figure how the budget got in this situation. Um, I guess as a followup to that, moving forward, looking ahead, what does the next LCI look like with the loss of is it what 200 more students this coming year?

Well, that is what the state has projected. Yes, we don't know why their numbers are that way and we have called and uh or we have emailed we plan to call and try to get them to evaluate that projection because recent enrollment loss does not uh bear that out. You know, we still are losing students, but we're losing somewhere between 30 and 50 a year. So, we don't know how they have come up with that type of projection. So, do you think we're looking at another $2 million? That is what the calc the current calculation total that we're working from has us losing about 2.3 million. Yes.

The $518,100 in food services. Is that the money that's tied up with the feds and you think you can recoup that or it we have that money? Uh it it and the our current finance staff are currently working to figure out how that can be used to to offset uh county contributions or if it can just be uh return it in hand. Yes, we have that in hand. Okay.

And I guess my final three things on here. Um, I want to thank you all for not approving the $200,000 to take away from the DSIP. I think these retired teachers, uh, a lot of them retired, counting on that to offset their insurance and and I think you're punishing them for something that they really had nothing to do with. I don't like the fact you're taking away the field trips and I certainly I don't like the $164,290 you're asking the schools to return for supplies. I think that's money the teachers need and the schools need to furnish things for their students. Thank you.

And Chairman Smith, can I also respond back and and board member um M I appreciate your comments and as Dr. Sears was talking about with the administrative roles. I remember we questioned Dr. Sears on some of those administrative roles and my understanding is there were some roles that would be better restructured. perhaps they weren't fitted under the right spot in administration and for the most part those were largely negative effects to the budget. But I also would like to point out while we have a board of supervisors here and I really appreciate your help moving forward on this. You know look at the the budget of the schools from last year into this current fiscal year. You know the school budget is down approximately $13 million from where it had been before. Uh, and also to point out that the positive side, Franklin County Schools ranked 26 out of 129 school districts in the state this last year based on SO school scores, which is fantastic. And I think that's a real testament not only to the parents in the county, but also to the dedicated staff, the teachers, the support staff, the administrators. And I would just hate to see that we've loed that through these budget discussions. But part of why these budget numbers we keep getting cut from the LCI is largely because of the high property values in Franklin County and I think that's something we're really going to have to work towards as both boards solving. Um because I agree Mr. Carter, I don't want to see TIP go away. I think our teachers need that money. Um especially and it benefits the students too bring that expertise back into the classroom after they've retired. So I'm thrilled to hear you say that. So I really love to see moving forward we figure out ways around some of these obstacles and also although it's a strange time to mention it the phase three the compensation study that's something that we really also need to somehow maneuver into the conversation just to bring our teachers

back up to a competitive range. So thank you Mr. Sorry, did you have something?

I I sure do. It was mentioned uh earlier uh that uh that it would be a good thing that the part of the school board meeting was a comparison of what we spent to what we budgeted. Uh a budget's no good. A budget's a mathematical model. We it's it's an an assembly of guesses that we make one year as to what's going to happen the following year. So we we know that the majority of those guesses are going to be for the lack of a better term wrong. So we need to revisit our expenditures compare it to our budget if not every month at least every other month and review it. uh the administration present to the board where we're at so that the board then can come back and uh make decisions if they have to about changes that need to be made in in our in our spending. Uh, and of course we and I'm not talking about every item in the budget that would that would be a lot. But say uh buses for example. Uh it takes so much money to operate the buses. It takes so much money to buy the buses and it takes so much money to maintain the buses. And that's probably the three items we need to look at and see where we compare with with the with the budget going on and go on to the next one. But it needs to be something that that uh the administration and the board together re reviews if not every month every other month.

Mr. How many times in this class we're talking about 25 did y'all receive the financial report finance administration

we always get a monthly um that we're on budget. Yeah. We always get a print out. Um, now a deeper dive. Well, that's that's what we need to do do a deeper dive and that's we've asked them to do that monthly. Um, as that that's that's a problem. If you had business anything else, y'all were deficient in that. You need to stay on top and move.

No doubt. No doubt. I will say about the um the restructuring in the um administrative office um our HR department um it's it's overwhelming um I think you all have two people in HR correct do does the county have two HR people

yeah okay based yeah just look at the numbers that we that our our HR people deal with and it takes it takes someone that is constantly recruiting new teachers when you know throughout the year when people when people leave or retire or whatever it may be it's it's a lot for them to do that. So somebody has to kind of stay on top of that. Um and as far as um restructuring, we had not had anyone that was primarily taking care of the secondary education and someone doing elementary. And so it when it was restructured, we'd have someone that heads up all of our secondary education and someone that does our elementary. So, it it makes for a better um uh just a more conducive atmosphere and and and you don't you don't overlook things within the educational system, I think, when you have someone that's that's tackling each of those things. Um but yeah, there was no I I concur with Dr. Sears. There was nothing no new position created. they took and they restructured it where they thought those are certain areas needed to be under which heading which department and um that's

I appreciate that Mr. Jefferson would like to hear about time what may said ago there was a report I read back I think it was 24 somewhere along there times and talking about the cost of the educational system going up nationwide and the numbers I've come close the student cost was something like 72% the teachers it was like 7.8 administration was 80.45 four five somewhere along there and that's about that's nationwide but I think the administration is very easy to get top and here again I don't remember the title the position but there was a position probably in school there's one in California and I think I remember job description was to help the teacher prepare a lesson plan to help the teacher implement that lesson plan to be a role model for students Now I'm thinking and the her side where was just under six figures and you got you got people working Callaway u teachers what 40,000 50,000 tops there some teachers uh I guess they're not certified teacher what do you call them thank you

$38,000 and you know it's just top that's ridiculous to me And why don't we have hiring a teacher that can't prepare a lesson? I mean, it don't make I don't understand. I'm old school. Miss Virgin Promise. Oh, yeah. She had probably 35 students in her class and wasn't this problem. I tell you that quite a bit.

But, you know, there's some common sense here somewhat along the line. Got me. And the other thing I want to mention Dr. S you remember we met back in June for review of the comp plan and uh you myself miss to um Mr. Willow and Mr. Carter and to take away from that the county had given the school everything that you had asked for at that time when it school compound was presented. That's not to say it's short. We have done our part. We had four teachers there at the last meeting asking us to fund a keep their comp plan. I can understand but we did what we supposed to do. I think round figures the uh state y'all were looking at comp plan the state about $3 million a year for excuse me million a year for $3 million sounded the same thing. $3 million for three year period. The school systems going to come up with $8 million for a total $14 million compound. And what I'm looking at now, y'all come up with a little over five so far. And you're looking for about 300, I'm excuse 3 million. Um, and like I said, not saying we're not going to fund it, but we've already done what we said. the teachers come to us after it. My point is we've done what we was asked to do at that point and I'm saying it don't need more and I'm sure it does.

Yeah. And just to to that point uh you're right when the comp study was done we did not have the LCI increase. You know that kind of threw everything from that formula out the window. all the those figures were altered at that point uh because it it just it skewed everything in a different direction. Um also the that the comp study was based on a 5% annual raise from the state which did not materialize after year one. So that also threw it off. Was it good or not? the state just has not funded uh they funded 5% I think that first year and since then it has not been funded at that same rate the 5% raise

Mr. Cuy is that correct money on this second year too 5% for the bianium I believe 5% for the bianium I'm sorry what the same Mr. I thought that you showed me that you showed me I thought state given something every year. So there was somebody there was enough. I think it was short. Yeah. But they they have given a raise each year but it has not been what was projected what was projected to be in order to meet all the components of the uh compensation study.

I I appreciate what you was going through the extra cost. you talk about any budget at all where the owners was and excuse me deficit was we face the same thing every year talk about transportation we're looking right now we're uh we need fire trucks and just in emergency services we need fire trucks it's needs to be funded we need uh ambulances the sheriff's department needs cars be responses all need to be repaired in existence. We've got also the uh we've got about $5 million right now being asked for the rest of all departments right now and we were counting on $3 million that was transferred here to use that to fund this these cuts and these ass. We're in the same boat. I mean we we're trying to use spend the people's money tax money as as efficient as we can. And like I said, this is a huge hit on us.

Um, I just got one followup question. I'll move on, but I got the 22 23 organization. So, after we're done, if you want to show me how those were combined, I know it's personnel, I'll respect you, tell me. But to go back to uh adding instruction, y'all were ranked 26th in the state in education, correct? That was with one director of construction curriculum for what 15 years. That's pretty awesome. I mean that's a compliment to what we got but it still don't answer my question on why we added another one when what was seem to be working great. So I've just kind of you know I'll move on but it just the answers I'm getting and we can discuss afterwards so I don't take up your time but I just once again the teachers pair pros they're careless and we give knowledge.

Thank you Mr. Mayor defer to Mr. Mitchell Dr. Sears Mike asked you about the 518,000 food services and you say that you all already have that in your coffers. Yes. Are you confident that you're going to be able to move those and use those toward this deficit? When this first came up and I remember having this conversation with you, you weren't 100% sure. We are we when I met yesterday with Mr. Carter, they are trying to figure out how that can be applied toward the deficit. I don't know if can you or Sharon explain how that would work. Um

well there is no step this way. So the bottom line is do you feel comfortable answering this? I'm I don't want to put you on the spot here.

Well and that's the bottom line. We're still in preliminary stages of understanding the cafeteria funds on the county side of the house. Um that program is funded with federal funding as well as local funding. And I think our main concern is we want to make sure we know which pot of money we're talking about drawing down and what the requirements and restrictions on those funds are. And so with what our combined staffs are uh working together on is finding that answer. But Mr. mention at this point we do not know that answer with what we've seen. Okay. Thanks.

And we've got you in the hot seat, Brian. I've had a lot of constituents over the years ask me about the lottery money. They accuse the county of doing something with the lottery money. Can you for the benefit of the public record say once and for all how the county how that money comes to the county to the treasurer and it's dispensed to the schools just go through the fact we never have that money.

Um yes sir that that's the allocation. So the lottery money really the county has no involvement other than those funds are deposited into the joint account that the county and the schools operate out of. So the process, the allocation at the state level, uh the treasur receives it like the official. The treasur receives it, codes it to the school system, but does not touch county staff in any form or fashion. And so that that really is how the lottery funding operates. It's based off of the school formulas that were Dr. S was talking about. That's going to vary from year to year. Uh but but that's the extent that county staff have. It's a direct pass through from the state to through the treasur the elected treasurer to school board.

I'll let you uh Dr. Se also the 110,000 from emergency management. You said that came from schools being open for shelters during the ice storm. Uh to my I is it normal for the transfer of funds like that to be this far behind? Did you all have to send in for reimbursement for reimbursement? Yes. Is it normal for it to be this far behind from that ice storm last year?

You know, it's the first time we've received a check like that since I've been here or the first time we've applied for that type of reimbursement. So, I don't know. I know the state and federal government have both been incredibly far behind in all of their reimbursements this year. So, uh, my guess is it probably is normal. Okay. Or at least for this year it's normal.

And I say that for the Marshall B $3 million that, um, was basically county rollover. And just for the the knowledge of the public, is that that three it was $3 million even though, and you correct me if I'm wrong here, Dr. Sears, 1.6 6 million of it will come in in reimbursements, but just due to the timing of it, the 3 million had to go with that and the true deficit being the number that is 1.4. Yes.

So, I think it's important for everyone to understand when we say $3 million in carryover money that was there and that was the county's portion of the roller. It all had to go to this for the time being. Um, I'm not uh I'm not going to get in the weeds and talk about what positions are there and what should be cut. That's the school board is elected separately from us for a reason. Uh that that's y'all's decisions to make. But I've always said, you know, budgets budgets are fluid. They're they're all about choices. Budgets are nothing but choices that our board and you all's board has to make. And um there's some tough ones coming. There's some tough ones for this board. You know, the LCI hit them last time. Had to close two schools. All We're going to have to make some tough ones and this board's going to have to help with that connect. We're just we're not going to have a choice. And I I have I have kids that are in in the school system. They love it. And I'm so I'm not going to talk about pair of professionals. Some days teachers that have my kids need them bad. And uh like I'm not going to get in the weeds, but I will just reiterate that budgets are about choices and there's no point in having one if we don't live within it. And that's no it's no different than any other department.

Uh if I may, I'd like to take a term here. Um I would say um when I ran in 2020, uh one of the hallmarks of my campaign was support of our public schools. Um I have been uh what I would regard as a very um significant supporter of Franklin County Public Schools to the extent um that we engaged uh two school board members with two supervisors to meet on a monthly basis which we've done so now for six years with the with the effort to try to to mend historical bad relationships um and to basically understand how we can move forward collaboratively because at the end of the Today we are responsible for the very very high bar of the of the allocation of taxpayer money. Folks, it doesn't get any bigger than that. Our roles as elected officials um are above approach, you know, when it when it comes to that. So moving forward this situation I know that um there's been some posturing um you know really about this is how this deficit um or variance arrived and I respect that. Um I I would say quite frankly um we have to have our heads on a swivel month to month um at the county. Uh we experience a lot of unfunded mandates coming down from the state. Um many times with not a lot of um acknowledgement of when it's coming and we've just got to meet it. uh one example I'll just cite one simple example when the commonwealth I mean when the constitutional officers get a two or 3% raise from the state then what do you think the localities are going to do for the rest of their employees you know it's kind of like do we let the constitutionals just get an increase and then we don't reciprocate for the rest

of our staff it puts a burden on your local staff in board supervisors to be um commensurate with what the state's doing important stuff. Um things like school resource officers. Um there are all kinds of things that I could sit here and list that we have got to be flexible. We've got to make good sound revenue projections. And I'm here to say that our finance department does a stellar and outstanding job managing the moving parts of what essentially equates to including about $200 million of taxpayer funded services. This situation was very shocking to me. And it was shocking to me not because you have um challenges with with expenditures. We all do. The shocking part of it was that it was phrased as an accounting error and I understand that. But an accounting error that was most egregious was done in your finance department with the oversight of your school superintendent. And as some of my colleagues have stated tonight, trying to mitigate that on the backs of our students and our teachers, in my humble opinion, is patently unfair. I would like to see I know you all have adopted some of your proposed cuts last week and I know that's a difficult decision and I empathize with you on that. Please know that um this error cannot happen again. The fact that you all don't get monthly finance reports, we get in-depth finance reports every single month.

Yes.

And you all have the same level of money, you know, if you want to just kind of generalize it, 100K per body to be responsible and accountable for. And when we had our first meeting when we were apprised of this um in a meeting it wasn't it was a private you know meeting with the administrators the one thing that I found most astounding for myself is that I had to ask three questions out of the gate in that meeting I knew the answers to them but I needed to explore exactly what I felt the superintendent and schoolboard leadership knew and what they didn't know. I was hugely disappointed when the superintendent could not answer my questions and what that equated to me and I and please Dr. Sears don't misunderstand. I've always had great respect for you. I admire you. Um but what that translated to me was number one a finance department that doesn't know what they're doing. And second of all, I'm looking at the potentiality of a school superintendent not having a working knowledge of his budget

when I was questioning things with CSA. Um, no acknowledgement that that had been transitioned over a period of years. Um, and then only to find out that that you all had done some homework saying we're the only school division that pays for CSA. Well, we're going to tear that that onion down here in a month or so because there's a lot of inaccurate information that's been put forth in the public sector regarding who's responsible for what with CSA. Um, I'm not going to call this um anything more than what looks to me, and this is hard for me because I love our schools and I love our teachers and I love our students. This represents to me incompetence

and and I'm sorry. Um and if if it were on our side of the table and our staff had made such egregious errors, you can rest assured I'd be saying the very same thing to to our staff. It's unacceptable. And there there there are laws that prohibit this. The Code of Virginia prohibits school boards from coming in in the red. It's against the law. And we out of the gate, we understand, I will just go to this. We understand that there's going to have to be some collaboration moving forward. Um, probably on the we will versus we think collaboration. We'll get into that in a few minutes. Um, about how we move forward because what's at risk in my opinion now? Um, we've got continuing declining APM. We've got uh two schools that have closed. You all had put two other schools on the potential chopping block at some point in time. Um I'd be interested in seeing what your class ratios are now because I've heard just through second and thirdand information we've got some overcrowding now. So um we're working with getting, you know, corrected revenue projections. That's got to be better. That's got to be more accurate. Um because you can't come in in the red. So you better be on your Q's and you know better be crossing your tees and dot and gras when it comes to revenue projections and um so when I look at that I look at the the failing or the declining ADM I ask myself just on the other side of the table and I've been a school board chairman when I lived in Wayneboro I was on the school board and I was its chair for three years so I have an intimate knowledge of what goes on on your side of the table which I'm very grateful for because it has enabled me to understand the intricacies that you go through and

the decisions you have to make and when you don't have taxing authority. I get it. I so get it. This is a very difficult discussion for me to have with you guys because I know that you all sit in your seats with love for this county and with love for our teachers and our students, but we've got to show it in the measures and the decisions that we make. and the board of supervisors. Uh we have done our steadfast best effort. Uh our budget discussions every year are difficult, very difficult. Um we would like to be able to give you everything that you've asked for. You have you all have also an over hund00 million CIP list. Aging schools very common place across the Commonwealth. Uh schools that are dated in the 1940s and 1950s. We've got to take care of that and we're working on measures. We've been working legislatively especially and with optimism that we'll see some some movement in this session. Um we've got the same things on our side of the table. So what you have got two elected bodies who've been entrusted with significant taxpayer money and our job is the high bar way up here of making sure that we have best practices accountability and transparency in place because at the end of the day if you don't this is where we end up and this is not okay as I said if we had been in this position we would be taking a lot of remedial efforts but again I would love to see you all reconsider some of the cuts that you're looking at. And I know I know how school divisions work. You typically go to instruction. You typically go to field trips and the like. But at the end of the day, our teachers and students have taken a lot of hits over the last few years. And for us um to constantly being told that we didn't fund the third phase of your case study that that that kicks us in the gut

because as Marshall said we did what we were asked to do. And so um I'm going to conclude there. I could go on. Um, but I just wanted to get it clear on the record. Um, my thoughts and and really most emphatically my concerns and um, and I'm I'm trying to do it in the most tactful and respectful way that I can because I think each one of you that know me know that this conversation is very hard for me to have. Uh, I prayed about it a lot, kept me up all night last night and and I'm sure my colleagues the same. So, um, I will pass the mic.

Our chairman uses a lot of acronyms. I wanted to explain to the audience what a hund00 million CIP is for people that don't know.

I'm so sorry. I live in acronym world. Um, CIP is capital improvement plan. So, each of our bodies have an operating budget and then we have a capital improvement budget. And the things listed in your capital improvement budget, CIP, are things of a larger nature that go beyond normal maintenance and operations. Things like HVAC systems, roofs, uh, and the like, things that rise to a higher level of, uh, a requirement. And the schools have a CIP. We have one. We adopt the school CI in with ours because when it comes to going for grant monies uh for certain things um it is so helpful to have the school CIP adopted with ours so that the need is established jointly by both boards. Does that help? Who else would like to speak?

Okay, Mr. Quinn, do you have anything? Okay. All right. Miss Greer, I will turn it to um the school board. Uh we have beaten up on y'all a bit. Um so I would certainly like to make sure that the school board has ample opportunity to ask us questions or share your thoughts and concerns. Well,

Madam Chair, I appreciate your um your willingness to stick yourself out there. I know it's tough. I know it's tough and you all have some tough decisions to make as well. And um um I do apologize for for this mistake. And um uh going forward, I think Dr. Spears has put into place some things and we can look at those, see if there are other things that we can do to keep this from happening again. And certainly a more in-depth um financial statement. Um um looks like we'll have a lot more, you know, digging to do, lot lot more reading to do before our meetings, but um do appreciate you all as board members and for you working with us and um we do have a good working relationship and that's that's very important and u um do appreciate that. Any other board members to add? Okay. Um, excuse me. What I would like to do at this stage of the meeting, I just want to make sure that both boards um have had adequate opportunity to speak. I would ask my colleagues, is there anything else you'd like to say before we shut down Q&A? And same or with your members, are you all satisfied that you had the time that you need? Yes,

please. I'll be back.

I had had a comment I was going to save it to later, but I I figured I'd put it out now. These people that are here watching these two boards talk converse back and forth. Um, you all came here want some answers and y'all deserve answers just like the other 56,000 people in Franklin County deserve answers of what what we're going to do these two boards to fix this problem and make sure that it don't happen ever again. And to give you a short answer, I can't. But I can give you a a commitment from me speaking and I'm just one of seven. I'm committed to do whatever I have to do to work with our school board to provide to the best of our ability for our kids. I'm a lifelong resident of Franklin County. Uh grew up in Henry, worked for the sheriff's department almost 30 years, retired, working in Barham now. I'm still in Franklin County. I love Franklin County. Uh, Coach Whitaker and I several years ago coached a little football together at the middle school. Our kids deserve the best that we can provide for them. And you know, we're committed that our board is committed to do what we have to to make sure that they get the best that we can offer them. Unfortunately, too often when you deal with government and you know many of you know you get the best equipment low bid to buy. Well, as far as the service that we provide for our children, we need to make sure it's better than low bid. We need to make sure that's the best we can do. And as I mentioned the other night

at that board meeting, you know, Franklin County, we contribute uh more than any other locality around with that with the exception of Reno City, but our teachers are paid less than any locality around except for Floyd and Patrick County. That's concerning. I received an email today that I was reminded that yes, we're down over a thousand students because of homeschooling and private schools uh since CO well the numbers were going down before CO, but CO really kicked into overdrive. Also want to reiterate that so are the other counties that are around us. They're seeing declines as well. This part of the state is seeing a lot of declines because of the lack of growth that we enjoyed back in the ' 90s and early 2000. And we need to make sure that when you all leave here tonight that you you feel comfortable that these two boards are going to roll up our sleeves and we're going to put our petty differences aside and we're going to do what we have to do to make this right. Does that mean making cuts? I'm sure. Does that mean we're going to have to possibly raise some taxes? That's a possibility. We do have some uh proposals that we've made in the past and we've asked from the general assembly. and one that hasn't come up tonight, but I wanted to just introduce it to you so if it does come up, you'll know. Our board and other counties around have asked that the general assembly give us the authority to put as a form of referendum vote a 1% sales tax to be

kept here locally in Franklin County that would go towards strictly school construction and school maintenance. Other counties are seven other counties and localities south of us and east of us that are that were permitted but for whatever reason we were left out. If we if we were allowed to put that and were allowed to incorporate that one just 1% sales tax increase that would take care of our aging building that would take care and I'll tell you the high school was built what 1948 somewhere around there and still a majestic building still very you know user friendly but you know old building and with that comes uh a lot of maintenance that 1% sales tax and this is just one option. If we get that option, that would take care of the maintenance issues on all of our schools. It would take care of the debt uh service on the new CI uh T program. Uh I mean it it would take a lot of pressure off our local taxes. So if if it passes and we're able to put that on the ballot, you will have the final say. You will vote on it. And I'm just telling you that 1% sales tax increase will take a huge burden off of our local property taxes that we're currently having to rely on so hard. So keep that in mind. Make yourself a note. You see that that you know just so that you know going in tax is a bad word. Nobody likes higher taxes. This is one that if we're able to incorporate this takes away some of the pressure that's currently being put on your property taxes. And I don't know about you, but I think I pay enough in property taxes. And I I see a lot of hits and I don't

want those going up. You know, a 1% sales tax increase is something that visitors to our county that don't live here, they pay sales tax. So, I just wanted to introduce you to that proposal and we're hoping that it will be on the general assembly's agenda this year and hopefully the governor will sign it and hopefully you'll see it on the ballot this fall. We're crossing our fingers. That would be a big help. I mean, a huge help as far as our maintenance and our school construction. And that's big dollars. We're talking millions of dollars a year. And that would that would certainly help. Now, does that fix everything? No. But these two boards, we're going to have we will put our petty differences aside. We work together. Are we going to be able to provide you everything that you need to get you where you should be? I seriously doubt it. But can we move a very strong movement in the right direction? We owe you that. Now, I retired from the sheriff's department after 29 years of service. I was a little over halfway up the scale. I never reached top pack. So, I know how you feel about getting frozen in the middle of the scale. And so, you have my word. I'm speaking just for me. I'm not speaking for the others up here. I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and work with the other board and work with you all. I'm interested in you have ideas that we need to consider. Hey, I'm all ears. There are no bad ideas. Share them. Let us know. You know, we're we're scratching our head trying to dig and find things, but uh sure we're planting those money trees. I don't know. Uh but uh just

know that these two boards realize we don't realize we need to. We owe you all. and we are the other 56,000 people in Franklin County and that's why we're here.

So, uh if it pleases the board of supervisors and um the school to hear us, um we have worked on a proposed corrective action answering that question. Uh and I would like to read this um get it into the public record. Um, and of course I'm not asking for direct feedback tonight. Uh, we would look towards adoption of this. I have a February meeting. So this is the corrective action plan. It's in draft form. In an effort to address an egregious school system accounting error related to the FY25 budget, the board of supervisors hereby proposes the following actions to be taken. $1.4 4 billion will be reduced from the current year 2026 budget. School board and school administration take responsibility for this error and will determine how the school budget is to be cut to reflect this reduction. The board of supervisors expectation is that these cuts will minimize the impact on instruction. Second bullet, the school superintendent will present monthly reports in person to the board of supervisors as part of the monthly financial report. Next, county staff will be included in the interview and hiring process of the school systems chief financial officer position that is currently being advertised. Next budget and bullet, excuse me. school system will promptly submit reimbursement requests for federal and state funds within 30 days of expenditure and keep county finance staff prior to such efforts. Next, the school system will respond promptly to auditor's request for information throughout the year and at year end during audit. The last bullet, county is in the

process of securing a financial consultant to assist the county in providing some oversight of the current school financial and associated FY25 audit related matters. The consultant will provide recommendations for improvements to processes and policies within the school finance department and is pointed out in the fiscal year 2025 audit. The consultant would also be included in the interview and hiring process for the school's chief financial officer. And this consultant will report directly to the finance director. There is another part of this. Um, excuse me, I had a couple copies here. Um, I minus a a statement at the end of the copy that I have. Um and I will just paraphrase that statement. Um basically uh the statement that you will see uh in the final draft document states that uh the school division will bore the cost of the consultant um and any subsequent um remediative action to get this situation under control now and in the long term. Did you have that last question? Okay, I'm I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Um, so another bullet simply states the board of supervisors reserves the right to reduce future school system budget and consider more frequent appropriations as deemed necessary. Meaning that instead of allocating one lump sum during budget with the onetime appropriation, there

may be the board may decide uh that we would as an example allocate school funding on a quarterly basis as an example where more scrutiny can be put towards um smaller allocations of revenue. And following the work of the financial consultant, a position will be created in the county finance department to assist with the greater oversight of the school system finance matters as well as more oversight of CSA social services and related expenditures. Such position is to positively be funded by agencies on a pr-rated basis. So that is the draft of the corrective action plan. Um it's in draft form as I stated. Um the board will look towards um continuing review of this draft. We thought it only fair uh to share it with you this evening and share it with the citizens of Franklin County. Um and we will look forward to uh as I said to um hopefully adopting this in February. I do understand that you all have begun your remediation efforts and you've been hard at it since and that's very much appreciated. Um but we will give you all a copy of this um for your consideration. Uh we just want to make sure that we are delivering um our due diligence and our fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Franklin County and putting forth our effort to get this remediated. Miss Greer, are there any other comments that you would like to make? just appreciate you um for um working with us so diligently and u um I think you're headed in the right direction. I think this is something that's that's needed and um thank you very much. Thank you. And I I really appreciate the attendance of your school board members tonight. Um, sorry for the new guys on the block that uh

you're getting welcomed in um with a heavy burden, but we all share it together. We will walk through this together. Any additional comments on the board of supervisors? Dr. Sears, do you have anything further? I just have closing statement. No,

I forgot about that, sir. I apologize. Yeah. Well, um, thank you all for meeting us with us here this evening to listen to this presentation. Once again, I'm very sorry that our accounting era has caused so much difficulty for so many people and assure everyone the correcting issue was our top priority or one of our top priorities. I think it is important to restate that this deficit occurred because of uncounting count. Sorry, let me get my water. I think it is important to restate that this deficit occurred because of an accounting error. There were never any missing funds and nobody was ever suspected of any deliberate wrongdoing as was confirmed by the auditor earlier this week. It is also important to remind folks that the 2025 budget year was an incredibly challenging one from start to finish. First, we were hit with an enormous loss of state funding when our LCI increased by over six points, which meant a loss of $3.7 million in state funding. To address this, we closed two schools and eliminated 78 full-time positions. In the midst of this, we also had to adopt a new elementary reading program, purchase materials, and train all of our K5 teachers over the summer and throughout the year. It was a huge endeavor. All of these changes, the closing of schools, transfer of personnel, reductions in positions, new reading requirements made it an extremely difficult and stressful year for our faculty, staff, students, and families. It would have been very easy for folks to have just said, "Forget it. I'm

done." and decide to leave FCPS behind. But that is not what happened. Instead, our schools excelled. Our overall SL pass rates improved to place us in the top 25% in the state. All of our schools ended up being fully accredited. Three of our schools earned a distinguished rating, which is the highest rating possible in the state's new accountability system. Academically, it was one of the most successful years in the modern so history or modern uh history of Franklin County public schools. Modern history been defined as posts so I felt since moving here that we have the most talented and dedicated educators with whom I've ever worked and last year they proved it beyond all doubt. But the successes and growth that we experienced could not have happened without the students and their families buying into what we had going on in our schools and working hard to excel. All of those accomplishments were a great reflection on the strength and resilience of our overall community. Another reflection on our community during this time was the strong partnership that was formed between these two boards. Together they started a comprehensive HVAC roof replacement and renovation project here at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. Real progress started getting made toward a new CTE center. They work together to implement the much anticipated phase two of the compensation study which helped reinstate some of the salary step increases that FCPS employees had lost over the years when salaries had been frozen. through a strong collaborative process and good relationship development in a year when the state cut our educational funds by millions and said that the county had the capacity to pay more toward education than any school division in western and southwest Virginia. The board of supervisors was

able to lower the property tax rate from 61 cents to 43 cents for its citizens while still funding the school board's top budget priority for the phase two of the compensation study and also provide additional funding for buses. All of these things were good accomplishments for the county, but they could not have happened without the boards working together toward common goals and objectives. Fast forward today to today and I understand that we are now a place where the accounting error has eroded much of the trust that we worked hard to build. It is also recognized that the responsibility to repair that relationship falls to us. Please know that we are committed to getting the deficit covered as quickly as possible in a way that does not diminish the quality of education provided to our students. It is my hope that we can soon get this issue resolved and start looking forward to some of the initiatives that we have been working on and tackling some of the other challenges on the horizon such as the 2027 budget which looks to be as daunting as the 2025 budget. In closing, I'd like to express my appreciation for the time that Mr. Carter and Mr. right have taken to tutor me in accounting over tutor me in accounting over the past few weeks as I try to get a better handle on the way our system is set up to work with the counties keep in mind that I'm first and foremost an elementary school teacher so their task of helping me try to understand incumbrances restricted funds munus etc is daunting but they've been very generous with their time and patience and Mr. Sandy did have also been great to work with as we try to figure things out and put a plan together for ensuring that something like this cannot happen again. So, thank you all again for your time this evening. I hope that you all have a great Friday and that everyone is stocked up with food and generator fuel

for the weekend.

Thank you, Dr. Sears. That those are wonderful closing remarks. U Mr. Whit, do you have any closing remarks that you would like to make, sir? Oh, I appreciate Dr. Sh. I appreciate your sentiment um with the appreciation to Corey and Brian um and to our board. You have two great um public servants in your finance department and Corey and Brian who's really stepped up. It's not their responsibility. The school finance portion uh is the school system's responsibility. It's not theirs. Uh, and I'll let the school board and this board of supervisors know. Um, they they've been more than willing to step in and help and assist where they can. And, uh, I I just want to personally thank thank them for helping through this. You know, uh, appreciate the school board, your comments, Dr. Sears this evening. Uh and from a county staff perspect perspective, we stand ready to assist the school um finance staff continually uh going forward um to to help you all um manage um through this.

Thank you, Mr. Whit. Um in closing, I would like to just express gratitude to all of you that have come out tonight um to listen to this discussion. Um, I always get um, you know, I always feel so much better working through some difficult issues when I know the hearts and minds of our citizens are with us um, watching live streamed or being here with us physically. And we appreciate um, the time and commitment that you've shown this evening by coming out moving forward. Um, we want to make sure that we extend any and all opportunities for you to call us individually. Uh you welcome to call me as board chair. Um I know that our staff uh would offer the same opportunities. Um Miss Greer, I'm sure the school board would reiterate that. I feel certain. Um so please let us know your thoughts and concerns moving forward and uh we we're going to roll our sleeves up and we're going to start um moving forward uh with optimism and we're going to get the job done. So I appreciate it. Thank you so much and have a safe weekend.