Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Uh it's nice to see everyone here this evening. U it's a pleasure to have such a large group in our audience. Uh and we're glad you're taking Yeah. These are hot. If your lights on Is mine not working? I don't think it's working. Yeah. Yeah. It is. Can you not hear me? That's better now. That better? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, each of you all will have yours as well. Thank you, Arlette. Um, but anyway, um, welcome. Uh, I'm going to call the meeting to order for the board of supervisors, and I'll defer to Mr. Rorley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, yeah, good to see everyone tonight. I want to thank the board of supervisors, of course, for hosting us, having this joint meeting so we can discuss some issues. Uh, so on behalf of the Frank County School Board, I'll call this meeting to order as well. Thank you, Mr. Worley. Uh we will have our invocation offered by Mr. Jameson and subsequent pledge by Miss Greer. So if everyone would please stand.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, we just thank this day. Lord, we thank the opportunity to be here tonight to do the county's business. Lord, we ask your guidance, your wisdom. Lord, Lord, we just lift up this county, our state, Lord, and our nation. Just ask that you just continue to bless it. In Christ's name, we add all all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Would you join me in honoring our flag? I pledge allegiance 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.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jameson, Miss Greer. Uh the first item on our agenda um is career and technology education update. Um I would just preface um this um item on our agenda. This is an exciting time uh for both uh boards and for our constituency especially our students and our teachers. Um so we proudly uh look forward to this discussion. I know we've got a couple presentations um on this uh item on our agenda. I would first um like to call up uh Brandy Roser um uh our assist one of our assistant county administrators. Is that right? Assistant um Brandy has been working hard. The the direction that we have provided to sta our staff is to um let's look at what next steps look like for the project. Um we're good to go. we've got the zoning um you know done with the town of Rocky Mount and so we want to capture this momentum that we have and and keep moving forward and so we asked Miss Rosser to put together a narrative and some slides as it would relate to those next steps. So Brandy if you would be so kind.

Of course. Absolutely.

Thank you. All right. Good evening, U board of supervisors, members, school board members as well, staff. Uh my name is Brandy Roser. I am the assistant county administrator over uh facilities and capital projects. And tonight, uh we're going to be going over a fairly brief overview of the future of the redevelopment of the former Majikraft property. Um while this is listed as a career and technical education item, we will also be touching on um the other project that's involved in this and that will be our public safety um center that'll be located on the front of the property along with multiple uses for the educational facility portion. Uh we will be going over a programmatic um and project management framework. Um if you have any questions while I'm reviewing this, please feel free to jump in. I I promise I won't read the whole sheet verbatim. Um, but I did want to read the project overview for everyone that does not have the handout. Um, the Franklin County Board of Supervisors is advancing the redevelopment of the former Majikraft site into a public safety center and education facility. This county-led initiative will require extensive coordination among Franklin County departments, the school board, and external partners. Uh the project is multifaceted, community centered, designed to serve public safety, workforce development, and educational needs across Franklin County and the region. Excuse me, I've had a bit of a cold. So before I jump into the framework, I did want to cover some key definitions just so everybody's clear about what I'm talking about. Uh the redevelopment project refers to two separate projects. That'll be your public safety center, which is the two-story modular structure in the front of the property. That's going to include your sheriff's office, E911 dispatch center, and your fire and

EMS administrative offices. The second project is the education facility. that will include career and technical education, higher education partnerships, um with community colleges, um possibly farm college, um economic development and workforce development coordination and regional business partnerships. Um, when we refer to project partners, um, this is not an all-inclusive list, but the main partners are going to be the Franklin County government departments, Franklin County Public Schools, our external agencies, which again will be those higher education, economic development, um, business community partners, um, and then our advisory and working groups. So looking at the project delivery um strategy uh for procurement we could certainly go the traditional route which is going to be to issue a request for proposals or an RFP seeking architectural and engineering services. Um if we choose to go that route there would be two projects under one singular RFP but it would be managed as separate projects. Uh this would allow us to have flexibility with timelines for each project. Um in case one project tends to have a faster timeline than the other. Um at that point a separate invitation for bids would be issued after the building is designed for construction. Uh we do have an alternative route to that traditional RFP and that would be to receive solicited or unsolicited proposals and that's where it really jumps into our project delivery method. Uh we won't be making a decision tonight about that method but just to touch very quickly we could do the traditional as I was saying design bid build that's where you put out the RFP you procure the A&E services under one contract once the facility is designed you issue an invitation for bid and then the construction is under a separate contract. The two alternatives that are design build and the public private education

act. um design, build, or PPA options. They typically allow for a more comprehensive all-inclusive approach. Um you'll have one contract that addresses the project from design to construction. Um but I will say there's multiple ways to carry it out specifically under the the PPE route. Um I did want to note that the school board was provided with a an overview of these u delivery methods in 2020 uh by RRMM. So, if you haven't seen that presentation, I would highly recommend that you look at it. It definitely covers some of the pros and cons of each of these delivery methods. Um, ultimately, the board of supervisors will award a contract for whatever services are included in the proposal, whether it's A&E to begin and then um construction or if it's the full uh comprehensive proposal. So looking at partnerships and programmatic coordination, uh this will certainly be a collaborative design with extensive input from our project partners. Um we will definitely need to define the partnership model um and coordinate user needs. We fully understand that every user in this building is going to have very unique needs. Um everything from 911 dispatch to CTE, it's going to be very specialized. Um so obviously highly complex project um specific design criteria will need to be outlined by each user and that's where we really pull in our project partners um that have expertise in each of these areas. So we see this as a separate but coordinated programmatic management of each space. um they will be managed separately but we definitely need to make sure that the um the spaces interact with each other well and provide um any type of requirements we have either from the DOE um sheriff's office anybody else um looking at financing um obviously borrowing will be required for the construction um grant funding will be pursued in

coordination with our project partners um the sheriff's office is looking at VDM grants I know the school may apply for a school construction grant um those will be done in coordination um with all of our project partners. But in the end, the overall financial management will be the responsibility of our county finance office. Um as for construction, it's highly likely that the timeline for the public safety center um is going to be quicker than the education facility. Um and we will most likely look at a third party construction management company um to assist with project completion. Um looking at the governance and management framework um I will serve as the overall capital project manager um I will be responsible for overarching coordination capital planning um procurement oversight schedule management and alignment between the two projects. Looking at the public safety center specifically again um I'll serve as that overall um capital project manager. Sheriff Overton and his staff will have oversight with the E911 dispatch program. Chief Fowler and his fire and EMS staff will have oversight of fire and EMS administration. And our focus areas will include specialized public safety design requirements, operational efficiency, technology integration, and emergency response functionality. Um, moving toward the education facility. Um um I won't go over the overall capital project manager again uh but Dr. Sears and school staff will oversee um school and CTE programming uh curriculum so SOQ requirements etc. Um and Danny Poe will um help us coordinate economic development, workforce training, businesses and higher education coordination. Focus areas for this facility include educational programming, workforce

development, alignment, and regional business partnerships. Um, I don't want to undervalue the the worth of our advisory and working groups. We really appreciate the work that's gone in not only with the CTE advisory group. U, we have a group at the sheriff's office that's been working on on this as well and certainly public safety. Um so given the complexity of this initiative, we will be forming specialized working groups that will address the programmatic leadership um or I'm sorry that'll address the design criteria, operations, technology and partnerships. Um structured coordination between the programmatic leadership and project teams is going to be critical um throughout the project. So uh we will certainly focus on clear communication defined decision-making authority and discipline project controls that'll be essential um to ensure the successful implementation. So just key takeaways. Um while the project is county-led, there's going to be extensive coordination with all of our project partners. Uh we definitely don't want anybody to feel like they're not having input or they're not involved in the project. Um we fully understand and appreciate the work that has already been completed. uh for both projects and we look forward to continue that work as we uh progress through the projects. Uh programmatic and project management framework. This is something that's really going to evolve um or evolve over the the life of these projects. Um what I presented is a very simplified version of this. There's going to be a lot of people involved underneath each of those groups. Um we're certainly not underestimating what it is going to take to to su successfully implement this project. um collaboration and communication are going to be critical um for the projects to be implemented successfully. And finally, the proposed framework um we hope that it establishes a foundation for successful redevelopment of the property um into transformative public safety and

education assets uh for Franklin County and really the region. So, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. I'll also uh we have finance staff here um and other staff and board members that can answer those questions as well. Thank you, Brandy. I'm going to open up the floor now uh for inquiries or comments um on everything Bry's presented. Um so the floor is open. Uh if you so desire, if you would introduce yourself. Um that's one thing I failed to do is go around the table. Um maybe Jeff, is it okay if we just quickly go around the table for introductions? We do have some new faces. That was an oversight of mine. Mine as well. Would you like to start on your side, Jeff?

So, I'm Jeff Worley, uh, Franklin County School Board representing the Rocky Mount District. I'm current chair of the Rocky Mount or the Frank County School Board as well. Kevin Sears, superintendent of Franklin County Schools. Todd Martin, school board member at large. Jerry Connor, school board for the Boone district. Jonathan Holly, Blige District. Rebecca Sloum, school board member for Gills Creek District. Arlet Greer, Blackwater, District for School Board. Ron Shifflet, school board from the uh Snow Creek District. Mike Meredith, board of supervisors, Boone district.

Marshall Jameson, supervisor, Blackwater district. Tim Tatum, supervisor for Blue Ridge District. Mike Carter, I represent the Rocky Mount District. And it's great to see such a good crowd here tonight. Nick Mitchell and I represent District. Good evening. Steve Sandy, county administrator. Lorie Smith, chair, board of supervisors. Okay. I'm sorry. Who you have to your left, Jim? I'm Mandy Bernett. I'm the school board clerk. You've got to introduce yourself first. I'm beneath her wings, right? Yeah. We we shouldn't leave Mandy out of the

Well, um again, I will open up the floor um for full discussion um on Bry's presentation, and we welcome your input, feedback, concerns, and questions. Do we have a shy group here?

I I'll ask one question. I you know you mentioned uh we did talk in 2020 when we were originally talking about this project and I do not remember some of the pros and cons of the different designs like the the PPE or the design build and I cannot remember the one we fell on. I I wanted to say as a board we felt like we did want to retain some control of the project and one of those sort of took some of that control away. Am I remembering that correctly? Yeah. design build or PPE, it takes away a little bit of that control. Um, you guys issued the RFP and selected mostly architects under a design bid build.

Okay, that's what I thought. Yeah. Um, and that there's a lot of different ways to attack this. They gave us a lot of good. So, I do agree if there's some questions about that, you should look up because there are um some good considerations on all of them. Absolutely. Yep. Madam Madam Chair, I have a question. Randy, for the benefit of the audience, I know it's very early and prelim preliminary. Could you give a timeline on some of these projects roughly?

Part of it's going to depend on how what procurement method we go or what project delivery method um we embark on. Um I think if I had to guess um and don't hold me to it, I would say public safety may be able to go in in 24 months with CTE and maybe a three-year time frame. It's really just going to depend on how that project coordination goes and how long it takes to program the facility. Is that good, Mr. Carter? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Anyone else?

Randy, I'd like to um know are we planning or have we got to the discussion phases yet about how um updated meetings are going to to move forward? Is is there going to be like um small group between like the school board and the board of supervisors? It could be via liaison or you know joint meetings quarterly or have you given any consideration to that? Uh I don't think that we've gotten there yet. I think we've we've kind of got um a direction of how we're going to proceed and how we might structure that but I I don't know that we have a final answer on that yet. Mr. Roy, it would be great if you could think about that on your side with your board what you would like that to look like.

Okay. and we'll be doing the same. I I think it's really important that we stay um in lock step. This is critical uh that both our boards stay informed. We're on the same page um and that we're all moving, you know, to the same goals and objectives that have been put forth. Our CTE committee is still in place. It is. Okay. It is. And we have, I believe, Mrs. Gre, is it Mrs. Greer or Mr. Holly? I think or Mr. Connor. Yes. Okay. So, it is still in place. So whenever we feel like there's, you know, a moment where we need to at least start Yeah. with a conversation when we can reach out to them, start with the small group, um, and then move forward if we need more information as a, you know, entire board, I think.

Yeah. And that's good information for Brandy to hear. Um, you know, as we just begin to start putting the pieces together. Mr. Chair. Yes. Go ahead, Mr. Conor. Would it not be advantageous to have the building committee included in that? Yeah, I guess it could. Yeah, we also have a building committee um that that you do. Yeah, we do. Um so it could be Yes. Uh for for uh potential discussion with that as well. Okay.

Okay. That's great information. Thank you. I just want to add I know it's very early perhaps premature to to uh ask this but it would be nice to have some projections if we're talking about 36 months. It would be nice to have some projections on how this is operationally going to affect a budget and money that perhaps we need to be thinking about now to be working into a budget some way in terms of operations. Yes. Okay. I think that's a very good point. I we don't need to worry about it this year, but no, the coming years that's a something we need to be putting money away for.

Absolutely. And I totally believe that u Mr. Worley and school board and and uh supervisors, we want to stay in front of these types of challenging decisions. And um you know, funding is always at the top, but you know, we're going to build this wonderful state-of-the-art complex. We sure better be able to sustain its growth um and its management over time. And we don't want to do that on a shoestring. We want to make sure we're doing it well. So that's a point I'll take. Well, it'd be much easier to, you know, it'll be better to be thinking about it now than it would be five months before it opens. Thank you for that. Yes, sir.

Uh yeah, I I have I've never been actually in the building or at the building, but I don't need to be to see that it's a big building. Uh over the years I've seen a lot of projects stall because the uh the the owner and the contractor involved tried to renovate the whole thing at one time. Uh this may fall in that category. I hope there's going to be uh some some thought given to picking one or two of the of the use groups. Like use group, maybe the fire fire and EMS will be one. Uh and maybe the welding teacher be the other. I I don't know. And of course get the roof fixed and get the exterior at least weatherproof but not in its final form. And then and then take it chunk by chunk and develop uh the the inside of the building for the fire and EPS EMS and the the welding and so forth and so on. uh that has the potential to spread your cost out over a long period of time. It also gets more people being served by the building quicker. So I hope uh I hope we take a long look at that approach to the construction.

Absolutely. I think during the project design um our architects and engineers are going to be phasing this project in an appropriate way um so that we don't have increased costs with having contractors there for extended periods of time. Um how that gets phased is certainly something that'll be discussed. I think you're absolutely correct about that and um just having talked to staff and understanding a little bit more on the construction side I think there's going to be areas that we can have some cost efficiencies among across three projects. I mean there might be one one piece of the contract that we could do touch maybe one or two projects at one time there and you know have some cost savings. So, this gal right here is she's she's going to crunch every penny, I can assure you. And it's important that we are very costefficient, but we want a quality project uh at the end of the day that serves our students. Anybody else comments, questions? Okay, Brandy, thank you so much. Uh we appreciate your presentation.

Thank you, Dr. Sears, you have a presentation to offer, sir. Yes. Uh Mr. Bumgarnner, our CTE administrator, is here to just provide a quick update on on where we stand with uh well, he wanted to do a kind of a quick background to bring the new board members up to speed on how we have arrived at this point and and then talk about some of the programming components we are assembling currently. Good evening, Mr. Bumgardner.

Good evening. How are you? Thank you. All right, good evening everyone. Uh, thanks for having me here today. Um, as Dr. Seir said, he asked me to give a presentation on kind of how we arrived at this point right now and kind of some next steps forward for Franklin County Public Schools. Um, so, uh, I do really well with questions as we go. So, if you guys want to interrupt me and ask questions as we go, feel free. Okay. So, just how did we arrive kind of at this point? Well, we arrived kind of at this point because let me see. There we go. Um because there's a need for a new CTE center um within Franklin County Public Schools. Um the current challenges that exist in Franklin County Public Schools include the safety and security issues with West Campus. Um for students to get across the West Campus, you cross a major roadway. Um it's also 20 ft or so from a public sidewalk um uh to enter our building. So lack of classroom space for lots of our trade classrooms. Almost all of our trade classrooms l lack a dedicated classroom space. Um limited lab space meaning that we're unable to maximize student enrollment within those. And I've given some presentations before um with enrollment numbers versus numbers of students that were able to put into those classes. I'd be happy to share those numbers again for anybody who wants them. Uh we currently have courses scattered all over campus but not only um around campus but also off campus. We have courses here at the Franklin Center. We have courses um our HVAC course is across the street uh from the high school. So we have to bus students uh to and from there. Um and the really the big thing here is uh in order to stay upto-date with a modern um workforce uh we don't have any room for expansion or flex flexible space where we can um add new programming. Um and that that is a detriment. There are

programming areas that we wish to expand into. Um and I'll kind of go over some of those a little bit more. Franklin County's vision though is to have a modern workforce development center. um a workforce development center that is able to attract new businesses, retain existing businesses, and train a modern workforce. Our goal is to keep our students here. Um we want our our best students staying here. Um you know, being vibrant members of our community and contributing to the things that happen here in Franklin County. So, that's really important for us to try and remember is to how how can we best retain our local talent. Okay. Um, this is a slide. I I I really like this slide. Um, we we presented um at a town hall meeting uh in Mr. Quinn's district um last week. And this is a slide I helped him kind of uh develop that kind of envisions um the role of career and technical education and a lot of other things within the education or workforce continuum here. So obviously the starting point here is K through2 education. students will start all in the same place um and they will enter really this continuum, this workforce continuum as they come into high school um where students really get experience into all of these aspects of education but also enter the workforce. We have lots of students who enter the workforce in high school and our goal is to kind of harness that. Um, and I think it's best described as on-ramps and off-ramps. And we want to give students the best possibilities of success postgraduation that we absolutely can. And that allows them to harness all of these different areas um within our school system. Um, they enter this education continuum. They can take the career and technical education route. You can double down with uh dual enrollment credits either through a community college or college and universities. they can get affiliated with different associations through a

lot of our CTSOs. And the one that we're really trying to expand here is the employer workbased learning. I've been working very closely with Danny over here to try and introduce um programs where we can connect students and employers because a lot of times the um the problem is students don't really know what's available in Franklin County, believe it or not. So, our goal is to introduce them to all of the different careers and jobs that are currently here um so that we can get them on this continuum and hopefully keep them here. So, I'm going to go back just a few years. Um for those of you uh many of you will know that CTE has been um different CT iterations of this project have been for since I started teaching here in 2008. Um, I'm only going to go back to when I started as a CT administrator at the high school, which is 2022. And when I started in 2022, there was a steering committee already set up that was exploring different options for a new career and technical center. Um, and of those three options, I think they were A, B, and C. I actually labeled this one as option three, but um, of those options, they chose option three or option C. um which was to put a uh new CTE facility on the Purdue property site which is just behind Franklin County High School adjacent to the track property. That project was about a 97,500 ft facility at a cost of roughly $73 million. It may have been just under that or just over that, but that's that's a ballpark figure for what that project would cost. Um ultimately that project was was pretty expensive uh and deemed too expensive. So that we moved on to a different plan which was as uh Brandy said was a previous plan that started in 2020. In fall of 2024 we revisited the uh 260 Weaver Street property which is the old modcraft facility. The board of supervisors took the step in the spring of 25. they had

the foresight to go ahead and purchase this property and their purpose for this properties was a multi-use facility that included a new CTE facility, a 911 dispatch center and public safety administration offices. Um once they purchased the property, it then became the challenge to get it reszoned. So, in October of 25, um there were text amendments approved to the zoning ordinance that allowed from the planning planning commission at that point um that would allow for these three facilities to be housed at this address. And then in January of 2026, the Rocky Mount Town Council approved those text amendments. So, that's where we're at today with the approved plan. Um, I hesitated in putting the next two slides in because these are these are the drawings from kind of 2020 when they did this initially. Um, what you see here is kind of a bird's eye view of the property itself. Um, and how they designed this. This probably, and I don't know, we're not into the design phase. Um, might look very similar to what it's going to look like in 3 years hopefully. um with a dedicated school entrance and a dedicated county entrance to the to the offices and the facilities that are there. Um and uh the next slide um is not what our CTE facility is going to look like, but this was a rendering that the arch architectural company at the time did just to kind of show what what it may look like. Now, they're already looking at this. I can see some changes that I would love to see, but um they did not take into account um input from a lot of different groups in designing this. And I think that's one of the things that the school system and Dr. Sears and I have talked about um that we want to do. We want to make sure that we go through all of the steps that that are are necessary in order to develop this to be a community use um facility. Um, this is an important project for all of our community, especially our school system, but we need to have input from everybody. And the last thing we want to do is go through this project and and

have a group or an individual come to us and say, "You didn't ask for my opinion." So, um, we've got some ideas of how we're going to get um those opinions as a school system moving forward. Um, so what does this mean for Franklin County? Really, this is a generational project. It really is. Um it's going to allow um Franklin County to stay relevant in developing a modern workforce for the next 30 to 50 years. We hope um it is a workforce development center that I I hope we can use to attract new businesses and retain existing businesses and train that modern workforce and it is a more cost-effective and more square footage for the school system. Um we're I don't have rough numbers. I know what the numbers back from 2020 were and I think for the total project there was somewhere around $34 million with the CTE center um around $28 million of that. Um don't quote me on that but if if I remember right that's what it was um which is very um very um less expensive than the uh project was that was developed into 2022. Um but it's also more square footage. The old um project plan was 97,500 ft². If you go back to this slide um in that upper right hand corner, this is estimating and again this could change somewhere around 132,000 square ft. So we're roughly 30 to 35% more um square footage here for CTE facilities um with this project. Um what would it mean for for the school system? Um students wouldn't have to cross a major road several times a day. um which I think is a is a big plus to cross a four-lane um roadway is is it can be um a safety hazard at times for students. Uh it would allow students or the school system to maximize student enrollment in our existing programs which are not able to do right now. Um and provide more classroom and and lab space and provide better experience for those students. Um greater building security for students and staff.

And here's the really big one that I think is is good for everyone. It will allow some flexible space for us to adapt and change to new programming areas and new businesses that may be attracted to Franklin County. Um, so this would enable us to kind of switch and uh develop new courses, new programs that would help retain and attract those businesses. Um, this is another slide. This slide uh was developed by Mr. Quinn. Um, and I like this slide because it really gives you the three realms in which CTE courses are developed. um you really have some student interest um student and parent interest then you have Franklin County course um um course capabilities and then on the right hand side is the Franklin County and regional business demands um and if you look in kind of where those areas overlap on this vin diagram in that darker red area are kind of the courses that students want but businesses don't necessarily need in our region or or our area. Um, and on the right hand side, we have courses that businesses want, but we don't necessarily have that student interest. And it might be because it's not necessarily that the students aren't interested in those companies or those courses, it's because they don't really know about them. Um, so our our goal is to kind of expand that area and make sure that we're including those regional workforce needs into our course discussions um and generate that student interest. It is worth noting that obviously uh most of our all of our CT courses fall right in that middle. That's that's the sweet spot for us. Um but it is it is worth noting that any course that gets approved by VDOE, we wouldn't um ask for a course to be approved by Virginia Department of Education without having the capability to have that course. But the other two pieces of that are when we submit new course proposals, we have to show that there is uh student demand for these courses, but we also have to show that

there's a regional and local workforce demand for these courses. Um so those are things that we have to demonstrate to VDOE. So our sweet spot for CTE is right there in the middle where those three areas overlap. So what are the next steps that we're going to take kind of as a school system? Um and we're still in the planning phase of this, but really what we want to do is engage the stakeholders, teachers, parents, students, community members, local local government um individuals, local businesses, local and regional industry leaders. We want to engage them um in this process. And one of the ways we're going to do that is we're going to take and form a committee with each one of our programming areas. We have seven different programming areas um that encompass CTE. And what we want to do with those programming areas is get them into the weeds of how can this facility um meet the needs of all of our stakeholders um from their specific program area from regional business um um uh individuals, from community members, from teachers, from students. We want to get their input and make sure that we are um getting their information for how we can best serve this facility. Um, and one of the things that we're currently doing, um, is we're aligning all of our learning outcomes with business and industry needs in order to meet those workforce needs. We've been working, uh, very closely with the economic development office in order to um, form partnerships with local businesses more so than ever. Um, and that that's going really well. I'm really encouraged by some of the things that we're seeing there. And then we want to identify the program needs in order to provide students those skills and training um needed in order to make them successful beyond high school when they enter that continue that workforce continuum. How what can we give them that when they enter that they have a better chance of being successful um in their careers. Okay. My last slide is just this has been a very collaborative success. Um uh a huge

thank you to everyone everybody sitting at this at these tables here. uh Franklin County Board of Supervisors, Franklin County School Board, um everybody from Franklin County Public Schools, Rocky Mount Town Council, and so many more people that I haven't even included here. This is this is how we've gotten to this step. U and it and Miss Smith put it right. This is a really exciting time for career and technical education um in Franklin County. Um we're going to be a leader in in that aspect um as as we move forward. So um with that, I'd be happy to take any questions that anybody has. one uh questions. Mr. Worley, um do you want to facilitate this portion on behalf of your employee?

Thank you, Curtis. Uh a lot of good information as always. Um it's always good to see, you know, that we want to be on the cutting edge of some of this stuff. And I do I do think I I applaud the county a lot of times when they do embark on a project like this, uh they want to make sure it's right. And so it is it is good to hear that uh you know the focus is going to be on a worldclass facility and I think it will be. Um does any of our board have any questions um of Mr. Bumgardner? I mean we've heard a lot of this stuff before. I think that it always is good to hear it again. Mrs. Greer looks like you wanted to say something.

Well just sitting here thinking what Mr. Shifflet said about doing it in phases. Do you have some idea how that would affect our the school's end of taking students over and you know if it's done in phases as he was talking about. So are you we we haven't we haven't gotten into that kind of discussion yet. I don't think we're far enough into that process yet but that's something we can look into for sure. Yeah. Some think we need to look at I'm sorry. Go ahead. I think we need to look at it and see how before we go for before we get to that point know what how it's going to how that's going to work on the school end if we do it in phases session

some of the components we have been phasing in are in the partnerships with Patrick and Henry Community College with uh you know we are hoping to be able to send students down next year to start in the welding program and uh mechatronics and uh motorsports. Two of those programs are programs we hope to have available in the new facility. And we're working with them on a partnership too that'll come before the school board at the March meeting on offering evening adult education courses beginning next year in our current facility. And of course, that would then transfer over to the new state-of-the-art facility once we uh have that built. and and that opens up a lot of different grant opportunities through the community college that can get us equipment that public schools do not currently have access to. So, we are I mean we're working in phases on the pro programmatic standpoint, we really haven't had any engaging conversations yet uh with the county on the construction side of things. Well, I know with, you know, with the middle school, the way that was phased in with with the uh remodeling, students were in a a building outside if it was affecting the area that they were in. This is a little bit different because you're going to have student you would have students going in where there's construction going on within the building. So, that's something that we I'm sure I'm sure other people have thought about that, but that's just something with a husband in project engineering. it comes with the territory of thinking about that. So,

yeah, certainly anybody on on the board of supervisors, please ask Curtis any questions. Um, any of the educational aspects, he'd be absolutely glad to answer. Mr. Jameson. Yes, sir. The I think Spectrum worked with y'all on that last print for the Majrab building, I believe. So, I wasn't necessarily involved with with that portion of it, but I believe it was Spectrum. Did did the the school coordinate the square footage of these course areas that they needed? Is that does that coordinate with them or does that still stand? Is that going to change or

That's a good question and I I don't have that answer for you. I can find that out of how they came up with that square footage determination within that Majcraft facility. Um Daryl Spencer I might be able to figure out because I know he he headed that kind of project. Brandy May.

Um I was involved in the 2020 feasibility study that was done and there was extensive involvement with Mr. Spencer along with other school staff along with public safety and the sheriff's office. Um the study was never intended as a full-blown design. So when you see that that plan, they basically took um the programming that we were told would need to be in the building, what the industry standard would be for the square footage for those spaces and just gave us um an answer as to whether we could feasibly fit those activities in the building. It was never intended as a partnership model um or in some ways it shows collaboration between spaces about what needs to be grouped together, but it was never intended to exclude our businesses, our community colleges. It was really just programming for space.

There was never any kind of architectural rendering of what that space would look like. It was very early. I mean, it was very rough. I think it was conceptual at this very much. Very much. Well, it it was definitely a feasibility study or a space programming exercise. It was not intended to be a full-blown design of the building. That's something we're going to have to really tie down or we need to start thinking about far as when we get into uh design. Absolutely. when we get our architect or contractor on board, however we we choose to proceed with the the construction method, um that's where we're really going to see the collaboration between these groups to determine the programming of the space. Okay. Yeah. That that at that particular time the project halted

for various reasons. So, uh that's that's why it never really went forward any further than just those conceptual drawings on the table here that wanted to say something. Mr. Carter, was you Mr. Tatum? Yeah, I have a question I'd like to ask. Mr. Bone Gardener, I was curious. Could you talk a little bit about the collaboration between local businesses and industries and and the students and and who you're working with and and a little bit about I'm just curious about it.

Yeah, we've um good question. We've we've had um lots of meetings with local businesses this year. Um and really our our purpose has been to try and connect students and employers. Um, we want to connect students with employers prior to leaving high school so that when they leave high school, they they may have a career to go into or if they go to college, they maybe have something to come back to. Um, and we have talked with many different local businesses and organizations this year. We've had meetings over at the Franklin Center with several asking them, "Hey, what skills and um what training do you need students to come out with from high school so that we can better match our programming with with what the industry needs?" Um we just had a meeting yesterday with Home Homestead crearyy that's looking to take on interns for next year for the first time. Um and we've had several others, Boat Company, Rock Outdoors. I know I'm going to miss some. Um, and we've had lots of discussions from um, these businesses about how they can get students involved with their workplace. Currently, we have a pro, you know, programmatic change that we're going to do next year is that we have an internshipbased class coming on board at the high school. Um, so that we can put students in with those employers during the school day. Um, and and that's really our goal moving forward is to expand those work-based learning opportunities with those employers. um again to connect students with what they might not know about um and and hopefully keep that talent here in Franklin County.

Great. Thank you. Yeah. Excellent.

I will say from the uh town hall in Union Hall last week, the there were probably what 30 or 35 people there, Curtis, the feedback was incredibly positive. I think this is something that the community has strong support uh behind. You know, there were a few naysayers, but they were, you know, in single digits. the overwhelming majority of the people there seem to be um at least interested in finding out more and and you know on the surface seem to be supportive of trying to to make all of this happen. Even when we started discussing the possibility of the 1 cent sales tax needing to be passed through a referendum as a means to fund this. Um you know I I think there was strong support for that going through as well from from that group that was there. Certainly not unanimous support, but there was support there.

I agree with you, Dr. Sears. Um, Mr. Burley, I recall back six years ago when I first took office and our liaison meetings that we set up. Um, I think all four the two school board members, I think it was you and and Miss McCrae or Mrs. Blue, I think. Yeah. I think that one of the first goals that we all sat there and held hands with is CTE. Y

um and the unfortunate um piece that it's been sitting there marinating for over 20 25 years and my understanding is the boards just couldn't get it together. You know, it's relationshipbased challenges and those are not good excuses. I don't think I think our our children and our teachers um they deserve our our best attention and our best efforts. And um so I am very proud of the fact that the school board um and the boards of supervisors um have really championed this project um and we're going to see it to fruition. Uh you know at this point I can't imagine things that would hold us back at this point. I think the timing and the time frame of, you know, seeing it to completion. Um, you know, there's going to be challenges along the way that are logistical or um those types of things, but the intent is certainly um to bring closure to this and it will be tremendously um there'll be a big celebration uh with our kids and and with parents and the teachers on this project. And you know, I would say one more thing about moving away from the Purdue property. Um, I think in today's dollars, Mr. Worley, I would suggest that project may come in around $80 million today, perhaps.

Um, and um, I think that we can, and I'm just going to guesstimate be saving the taxpayers upwards 30 $40 million at the end of the day. And that is a big deal. Um, and it's allowing us to work, you know, forward and have some room to breathe because there's a lot of needs for the schools. Yes, there are. And um you know, we definitely would like to put a referendum out on the 1%.

Um and see if there's an appetite u by the taxpayers for that. and that money um for those of you that don't know exactly how I'm in the weeds with all this this uh legislative stuff, but um a lot of school divisions around the Commonwealth um well in our region actually I think there were six eight um that were allowed and afforded the ability through the general assembly to have this 1% referendum. They left Franklin County out and that's not been okay. So, um, we bought it up two years ago and so now it's turned into a a more broader effort, um, to affect the entire Commonwealth. Um, another tool in our toolbox, if you will, and um, with an approved referendum that that 1% is going to be totally dedicated and restricted to school construction and renovation. So, when we talk about our schools and the age of our schools and all the serious concerns we have um and not having been able to have the bandwidth to go in do hund00 million worth of renovations or whatever that number is going to be, this is an exciting prospect and I can tell you our board um we are we are firmly committed um to getting capital um under control with our schools. Um, we've got some ABM's coming up next and I'm sure some of that will be uh yielded at that time, but uh, you know, we we want to make sure that our schools are taken care of properly and um, you know, we're going to do our utmost as a board um, to work in collaboration with the school board to that extent. So, um,

thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that. Um, truly with a lot of our schools, it's a matter of, you know, not if, but when some of these things happen. So, I'm glad that there is a focus on it. Um, and I do I do trust we've had good conversations about that. I will say last year the the 1 cent uh referendum did pass through both chambers and the governor vetoed it. That's correct. Um, so there was a chance for us to already be uh you know have this to the voters to decide. Uh, and I think that will pass this year. I think has it already passed? No, the governor hadn't signed it yet. Um but it will and then it'll have a chance for the voters to decide and absolutely

it's the it's the best way because it does allow people that travel tourism they can help fund these things with their dollars. So the the true um burden of this is not just on Franklin County taxpayers. That's right. And I'm glad you brought that up, Jeff, because um you know, the only other avenue that's left for your funding body, being the board of supervisors, um is um you know, we have sourcing of revenue through taxation and hoping to have proactive economic development opportunities.

Um and so, you know, the revenue uh stream for this and it being dedicated is going to keep a lot of pressure off the real estate tax rate. um where you know tax increases over time would be required to take care of these aged schools in the proper way because they have not you know they they've sat there for a very long time. Correct. And um so I think that we'll have opportunities to proactively, you know, address these matters. I think it's it's high time we do it. Agreed. Yeah. Anybody else? Curtis, thank you so much. Thank you.

It's always a delight to hear from you and we appreciate your presentation. Mr. Early, did you have anything further uh on the CTE project? I think I think not. I think that we will continue that discussion at length when necessary. So,

yeah, and I will tell you, Mr. Ro, I kind of think you'll agree. Um, I'm going to be looking forward to setting some type of routine uh follow-up meetings. I think the joint meetings of both bodies are going to be important moving forward, perhaps quarterly. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I think it's really important uh that we all work together, stay on the same page, and that our citizens see the importance and the collaboration on this project and how both boards are standing firmly behind it. Absolutely. Okay. Very good. Thank you.

Okay, Dr. Sears, I will turn uh over the next introduction to you, sir. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh we have with us here this evening uh Mr. Whit Blake with ABM. Um ABM has been working with us for about a year now. They've done a uh an extensive energy efficiency audit throughout the school division and and also taken a look at some of our um uh HVAC needs and other facility needs to put together a very comprehensive report of the the things that that our schools need and kind of a time frame that they are going to need to be addressed. And and as you can imagine, there are some needs that are just incredibly pressing right now. um and and he's going to give a a presentation on uh on some of those high priority needs and some of the options that we have to move forward with them.

Thank you, Dr. Sars. Good evening. Good evening. Welcome. It's great to be here. Glad to have you.

It's uh good to be here. And um my name is Whit Blake uh with ABM. Um members of the board, it's a pleasure to meet you. members of the school board have had a pleasure to present several times. Uh so it's pleasure to be here this evening to present um what we think is a really good solution and approach for the county to consider tonight. Um just a quick introduction. I'll take us back briefly kind of a overview of the timeline. We've been working quite extensively with the schools for u well over a year now. But we have come up with some um we'll go over high level of the audit refining report and then we'll talk about some solutions that and technical recommendations that we recommend the schools consider. So, back in we actually first presented to the school board back in November of 24 when we introduced this concept um formally engaged uh about a year ago um in April. And there were four priority schools that were identified uh for us to consider in our audit to look at significant heating, ventilation, and air conditioning upgrades. And you'll see those four schools there. um the conversation earlier when you talked about uh funding challenges. You know, we work pretty much exclusively with K12 schools across the country. My team here just in Virginia, uh we see this as a common theme for our public schools in Virginia. Um there's always new demands, whether it be unfunded mandates, aging facilities, um and resources just revenues don't quite keep up with that. So, there's a funding gap. So, what we look to do in our projects is to help identify some funding sources to close that gap and bring those improvements back into your system. Um, just quickly here, just wanted the boards to understand how long we've been engaged and working uh with the schools.

We spent the summer of 25 thoroughly doing uh an audit of all school divisions uh within the county and we did an actually engineering analysis and design on four schools for HVAC replacements, Snow Creek, Callaway, Rocky Mount, and Liam Wade. Uh we'll talk about next steps, but all the boxes that have been checked so you can see we've engaged for quite some time now. uh most recently presented to the school board back earlier this month and we're here today. Uh I'll take a step back and introduce the concept. Uh so K12 schools in Virginia can utilize um these type of projects to drive down their utility cost. Oftent times we get our electric bills. We don't think much of it. You probably did this time though with the cold weather um and record utility bills we've been seeing. Um, but when schools, they have multi-million dollar utility budgets. And if we can do district-wide improvements to drive down the cost of electrical and energy, utility consumption, we actually use that, we'll call it savings or reallocation to help fund a project and then any additional savings stay within the district. So, this would be a snapshot. Um, these are guaranteed type of projects in accordance with state law. This does fall under state statute. Um, so results are guaranteed and bonded. So we do refer to this uh as could be a budget neutral project because you're working with inside your existing budget to fund improvements. Same concept, but over time often times clients will say, "Well, my energy bills keep going up or my rates keep going up." They're going to go up. Utility rates are going to continue to increase over time. If you do nothing, your baseline, which is the top line, will continue to go up. And if you implement a variety of project recommendations

that I'm going to go over here, we're going to permanently reset that baseline, lower the cost to operate the schools from an energy and utility standpoint. And that orange section there over a period of time, typically 15 or 20 years, is used to pay for the project. And when the project is paid for, all the savings stay with the district and you have newer equipment. So, quickly, I'll cover some project categories um that we see in our projects and that we've recommended for Franklin County Public Schools. Those include energy conservation measures, things like uh LED lighting, lighting controls. The district has really done a good job of doing some LED lighting upgrades where they've had renovations like your new middle school. Other schools have it, but it's not districtwide. So, if we go to a full LED lighting project, um that's going to drive down the cost of electricity. Uh building envelope improvements is a generic category, but things like insulation, weather stripping, um those type of things, caulking, door seals, door sweeps also help are lower costs and help keep energy in the building. And then water conservation where you do have schools on well, you know, water is costly as well as the sewer side of it. So, if we can conserve that responsibly by just going to lowerflow fixtures, not waterless fixtures, just low flow, uh there could be some savings there. When you put all those savings in a pile, it adds up pretty quick. Um other projects that we look at are going to be your heating, ventilation, and cooling projects. So, boilers, chillers, uh air handler units, all of that type of equipment. And building auto automation systems also very important. Um it's kind of like your computers. If you're operating on Windows 95, it's not going to operate that efficiently, if it operates at all. So, we've got to keep up with those building automation. Those are the computers that run your buildings, which are a lot more complex than your homes that would you typically are used to. And then capital

improvement projects are things like roofing, um, track resurfacing, turf fields, things like that. So, these are just some general project categories. I'm going to get into the specifics recommendations for your district. Our audit, again, we did an extensive audit. I have more information details for every single school. We have built what we consider what we call an asset inventory for all the schools. This is looking at it districtwide. Um we work with schools. We try and keep it simple. We grade your assets from A to F. A would be perfect perfect equipment, brand new, relatively new equipment. B's would be pretty new, working very well. You get the idea. FS would be equipment that has failed or is holding on with, you know, I want to say duct tap and bubble gum, but that's not true. The I will say the the staff here that's been maintaining these systems that are 30 plus years 30 plus year old has been phenomenal that they're still operating to this day. Um, so you you can see when you look at the pie chart lower left, there is a significant amount of equipment that is at or very very near its useful life. Um, so the majority of the equipment is at or near failure. What that does, that represents a lot of capital exposure. So risk of failure. So whenever you're having to deal with something to replace something when it fails, you're typically having to pay a higher price because you're going to put in what's just available to you. And you really don't have an opportunity to take a look at how would you do it differently if you had time. So there's a significant amount of volatility. That 84.6 six number. The higher that number to 100, the more volatility risk of failure there is. So, um, the numbers are estimates that include just kind of equipment replacement numbers, but I've got specific numbers that I want to go over in some future slides. For the sake of time, I'm going to highlight the four schools that were identified as kind of the high priority

schools for HVAC needs. Our engineering team did a full analysis and agreed 100%. That the systems at Rocky Mount and Liam Wade as you can see are primarily failed um and are again just ability to keep them running um with the the skill of the team that's here um the staff that's here. So the both of these facilities uh the HVAC equipment is well beyond its useful life um at failure near failure. Callaway isn't too far behind and Snow Creek is also um in that category of mostly DE equipment. What you're seeing in front of me here is is kind of a eye chart, but just focus to the very first column on the left after the school name. That's called an energy and uh use intensity. Um average is 48. So you can see where there's red like Callaway and Phum 79, 81, 79. That tells us that these schools are using a significant amount more energy to operate than the national average. When we re when we implement projects, we typically get them down into the 40 range. So, I put this slide in here just to illustrate to you that out of the U roughly $2.9 million in utility spend, there's an opportunity to reduce that pretty significantly. So, what we're recommending districtwide, so every single school in the district district except for your middle school, cuz that just underwent a major renovation, uh would receive all new LED lighting where it already hasn't been upgraded. Um, lighting controls, building envelope, again, that's that gen generic category that would include things like insulation, door seals, sweeps, so forth. Uh, insulating of piping and duct work. Um some of the schools were not recommending replacement of boilers. We were looking at adding boiler controls which just

helps the efficiency of that existing boiler system and then water conservation where it makes sense in schools that are on um not on wellwater. And then we are recommending pretty significant heating, ventilation and air conditioning uh improvements and I'll go over those um replacing boilers with new high efficient boilers and also doing some upgrades to building automation system. So, this would be district-wide recommendations and then we've come up with kind of a a phased approach to tackle some of this in a a manageable way. Um, starting with Lee Wade. Rocky Mountain happens to be the first one in my slide deck here, but just so you could see some of the condition of the equipment. We've got um boilers that are about 30 years old. Uh these boilers are utilizing um fuel oil which typically we would not do that these days because availability of propane. It's more efficient. It's easier to get. Um it's less hazardous to deal with when you're talking about storing it and so forth, but primarily more efficient. Um you've got rooftop units that are um 96. So again, 30-year-old equipment. Um and you can see the narrative there. It's the equipment is utilizing um parts, refrigerants that aren't manufactured. So it's very expensive to obtain or they have to fabricate because you just there's obsolescence of parts just they're just not available. So when you go into uh Rocky Mount Elementary, you'll see uh dehumidification units which are just plug in. They use a lot of energy because they just cannot control humidity in that building. There's a technical limitation which does not allow the anybody in the schools to control humidity. So they're fighting with humidity. Uh there's existing whether where there hasn't been replaced LED lighting. You see fluorescent lighting which if you spend a lot of time in a classroom teachers will tell you that that can be very

distracting because of that older lighting technology just has flickering and different elements to it that make it very distracting. and where there's an opportunity here to go with some lower flow fixtures. Again, not waterless, just lower flow. Um, those are the recommendations we have for Rocky Mount. Um, listed here. I'll kind of talk through more extensively the mechanical system because that is the primary bulk of the work. Um, but we would look at abandoning the hydronic um, piping. So that piping is original to this building. 1964 if my notes are correct. Um so that that metal piping that runs throughout the building. Uh it's served its purpose. Uh it's time to go to a different technology where we are looking at for Rocky Mount. Each classroom would receive um classroom heat pump units. We would also eliminate the need for fuel oil. We would convert the school over to propane heat. Um, so you would have the ability to control humidity and each classroom would have the ability to individualize control. So a lot of the complaints about humidity, temperature control, things like that would no longer be an issue. Uh, following this, this is also going to assist with indoor air quality. Uh, when you talk about legislation earlier, you know, there's legislation out there that requires schools to do an audit for their indoor air quality. This is going to greatly improve that because that is in the next three years something that's going to have to be done. A lot of the information we've gathered is going to help in that, but this is going to address a lot of the indoor air um issues that the school has. And again, going over with propane heat um for the gym and that would also because we're doing a heat pump would allow air conditioning in those gyms. So, it would just wouldn't just be heat. Uh then building automation system upgrades. Uh this is an overview of the mechanical plan just so you can see we've done, you

know, um full design. We're ready to go on both Rocky Mount and Lee Liam Wade. Liam Wade. U again, this is probably the highest priority school right now. The uh the middle picture would be a typical hot water radiator. Um I was told that uh the piping they just recently within the last month or so had a a crack in the steam piping because this building is supplied the heating is supplied with steam. And so on the left side you've got oil fire boilers that are producing steam. Steam is hot 215 to 240°. Um they had a pipe failure. That hot steam went out into a bathroom. Fortunately, nobody was injured or in the bathroom. But these are the type of problems that are going to start happening and continue to happen if they're not addressed very quickly. Um, again, this equipment is uh 30 years, 34 years old, so it's well beyond its useful life. 30 years is considered pretty good, and you've you've gotten more years than that. Um, we're going to be replacing all of the package rooftop units on the roof. Uh, those were also they were put in 96. This is 30 years old. And again, the narrative here with Liam Wade, very similar to Rocky Mount. Um, if it wasn't for the technical ability of the staff, I don't know how the building would continue to provide any sort of conditioning. So, there just uses there's there's no parts available. It uses an older refrigerant that you cannot even find anymore. It's all aftermarket and very expensive. Um, some more pictures at at Liam Wayade. The fuel oil tank is around the back. That would be uh replaced with propane tanks. Again, you have more availability. it's more efficient. You have some ignumatics which are very older building controls and you got the same issues with lighting at Liam as well that we've observed during our audit.

So for Liam Wade, we'd be looking to replace the rooftop units with newer technologies. Uh heat pump with a propane backup heat. Again, that's going to address your indoor air quality, ensuring proper outside air ventilation, filtration. Uh, we would also replace the unit, the H&V unit that's serving the gym. That'd be replaced with a new heat pump technology, which also would add the ability to condition, cool, add cooling to the gymnasium and building automation system upgrades. So, again, we can operate this building more smartly to make sure it's operating efficiently and that the team could do some diagnosis when they're not at the building as well. Allow that for remote access. Um, this is again the design. We're ready to go at Liam Wade. We've done the design for the mechanical. We've done design reviews. We're ready to uh really really ready to go when when we when we get the authorization and we'll talk through timeline here. Now, obviously we've done uh audits of all your buildings u that has been provided. Uh if you haven't seen it, I can make sure I that you'll you see that. And I just for the sake of time wanted to focus on the buildings that were the most critical and the financial approach that we're recommending uh for your consideration here this evening. So when you look at the district-wide energy conservation measures um that would deliver almost 200 well over $260,000 in annual savings. So $4.3 million roughly to implement that. Um if you look at the HVAC projects that we've um designed so far, Liam Wade is uh just over 3.9 million. There's not a lot of savings with HVAC. I think there's more repres that's going to be had, but we're being very conservative here. Again, these are we call discounted capital projects because there is savings, but not enough to completely pay for the

program that sort of upgrade. uh you can see respectively Rocky Mount, Callaway, and Snow Creek. You know, working with the teams, you know, obviously we can't install. There isn't enough time to do four schools in one summer. So, we really had to kind of focus the approach and which school should we tackle first. Um and that has shown to be Liam Wade for a few reasons. um safety because of the steam piping and the deterioration of that piping. Also availability of the equipment. Believe it or not, we are late in the season to do summer work. Um typically, you know, contracts have been in place since winter, you know, first of the year. So, we're a little on the tail end here, but we can get rooftop equipment uh easier than some of the other equipment that was proposed at um Rocky Mount Elementary. So, we still have time there. We're recommending that in the summer of 26 during the um summer break, we do the full HVAC project at Liam Wade and we also implement district-wide energy conservation measures throughout the district. If you selected to do that, the total project value is about $8 million. Um, energy savings is going to help fund a lot of that, about $4.9 million worth of it. But the county would need to contribute approximately $3.1 million. I say approximately because final financing would determine that amount. Um, and we have engaged with some lenders, but we would need to get a final financing offer to be able to know exactly what that number would be, but it'd be pretty close to that. So, you can see the numbers in green, the annual savings, and then over the 20-year term, we would actually guarantee that savings for a 20-year period of time, which we're allowed to do in Virginia. So, it would

allow you to have that payment stream for 20 years to pay off that financed amount. I've put forward here the financial proforma. So when you look at financing $4.9 million to do that comprehensive price the first green circle is the utility savings that I mentioned earlier would be recognized by doing the project. Carry that all all the way over that would be used to pay for the energy lease project. These projects are typically financed using an equipment lease, a tax exempt lease purchase program. Um, so you would be neutral. In other words, it wouldn't cost anything additional. And then you would start seeing positive cash flow in year 11 and have about $600,000 in excess cash flow. Again, we would need the bank to run the final amount, but I provided this up here for illustration purposes to see so you could see how this type of project works. You'd be using some capital pro money to put as a down payment. and then the rest would be financed should the choose should the county choose to do it that way. Uh just some real quick bullets on benefits of the project. I think most importantly that we've already outlined is the health and safety of the students in the building. We have some critical HVAC needs that need to be addressed. um this project will address it again is in a phased responsible approach so we can do a good job you know at Liam Wade Rocky Mount next year maybe two schools next year that will depend on you know your funding and so forth but um we will deliver a firm fixed price contract um no change orders on the identified scope in the contract um and our results are guaranteed in accordance with the state legislation accordance with state

Now, back to the timeline. Um, we're presenting here today. Um, in order to get Liam Wayade to accomplish the summer of 26, we would need to order equipment before the end of March. So, um, you know, that roughly gives us about a month to work through details. um happy to talk about any questions, but obviously, you know, the ideal time to implement this type of project would be in the in the summertime when there's no disruption to students. I believe that's all I have. Any questions? Thank you so much. Mr. Worley, did you want to take this?

Well, uh thank you, Whit, as always. I mean, we this is as he has said, uh he updated our board earlier this month because there were some new members that didn't get to hear presentation. Um, I don't know if any of our board members have questions, but we have heard this a few times, so I would open the floor to your board as well. I'm sure they have some concerns or questions they'd like to put forward. Thank you very much. I appreciate that,

Mr. Worley. I'd like to mention, first of all, thank you, Mr. Really. Every time I hear your presentation, I'm struck at the thoroughess of your assessment, but also the skill of the maintenance crew that's kept this equipment running as long as they have. It's quite impressive. I I have a question actually for the board of supervisors. I understand a transfer station for gas is coming to Summit View Park is right. What is the likelihood of a transfer station coming to Rocky Mount where the schools might have access to gas to think for in the future for utilities? I'm going to let Mike I was going to say I saw Mike Carter smile.

County was promised that before I was elected. That was one of Runup Gas's selling features. Uh, I asked the vice president of Ron Oak Gas on three occasions in a public meeting, when would we get it? Who was going to pay for it? Well, they couldn't answer that. They've had the right to supply Rocky Mount Gas since 1964 and haven't uh offered it. Uh my personal opinion is unless the county funds it or there's money put forth, they're not going to build it because I don't think we have the residential demand to make it profitable for them to run gas. But with that being said, and I've mentioned it to Dr. Sears and Jeff and others, the school board needs to put pressure on the town of Rocky Mount to start demanding them to run gas here because their promise was it would reduce energy costs for schools, the hospital, the courthouse complex, the sheriff's office, uh all these industries in town that would utilize gas. So that that's kind of where it is in the nutshell. And and one question for you, Whit, if you install these boilers, would they be able to convert easily to burn?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I'm glad you asked that because yes, whether it's uh liqufied propane or natural gas, uh the equipment that we would put in would could handle either one. So, and the propane tanks are provided by the propane delivery company. So really the the only investment that's would be a loss would be a chain link fence that's going around the propane tank. Very minimal. So if you ever do get natural gas, those could be that equipment would not be u abandoned. It would be able to continue to be used um with just a change of an orphice.

Can you speak to what the savings would be versus propane versus natural gas? Do you have any idea for that? there would be some um I don't know ex exactly but the the the big gap u of savings is going from fuel oil to propane. Um but there would be some additional savings with natural gas because you don't have to pay the transmission charges. Well, you still pay transmission but they're less costly. Yeah. But it it would it would be it would be there just wouldn't be like what we're going we're going from fuel oil to propane. Becca, did that answer your question?

It did. Thank you. Okay. And uh you know, I'm happy to assist in any way. Um you know, if if we need to liazison uh with Rocky Mount, we want to make sure we're supportive of your efforts. Thank you. And is there any way in the future we could get maybe some harder numbers on what that savings could be? It might help us in the lobbying process for the for the natural gas. Oh yeah, we have we could we could provide that. Okay, that' be great. Thank you. Supervisors, anyone have any questions, comments?

These capital, they haven't come up just under this either one of these boards. This has been 20 30 years in the making and I understand the 1% sales tax on the refer will be a great great tool for us to have and you can't use that 1% sales tax to pay back on if I understand correctly you can't use to pay debt that's right we've already done so that would be an option but I I think it's a high time that that we have this and I would hope that our our board gets any of your questions answered we can take action on this or leave way next month

thank you Mr. I think Wit said it really well at our last meeting. You know, the cost of doing something once it it breaks for good like with finality is is going to be, you know, more cost prohibitive than probably taking a a proactive approach and not even counting the disruption um you know to students or to the school. And so yeah, so that yeah, Mr. Mitchell, thank you. I I mean that's these are these have been punted for quite a few years and we're catching the football in in midair right now. Like I said, it's 20 years in the making. Yeah, absolutely. On all the schools quite frankly or most of them. So nice. Yeah.

And I was there the other day and I saw where the trailers are moved and uh I'm glad that one's behind us and it's time to start the next one. Yeah. Anybody else? Yes, sir. How how close is natural gas to us now? Um, so I

I think and and and I don't know, I'm not an engineer, but I think the closest connection would possibly be down on Route 40. Uh, where it crosses Oh, I'm sorry, down on 122. Uh, where it crosses 122, I would assume would would maybe be the closest. It it comes to um the Blackwater River and crosses under 220 and then it goes back north on 220 and winds around and it ends up over towards 122. I guess at Summit Point they actually have

there's a tap there. So if if we were to get it, they in my estimation, they would have to put in another tap somewhere there around that 122 area to run it to town. Anybody have comments with the project at le you're talking about that's going to be constructed. You can do that during December 26. Yes, sir. Is that just HVAC end of it or is that the lighting all? We would do all of it. all of it. Now that price is that install price, equipment and installation.

We are we are ready to go to contract on these numbers. We actually provided a contract, but we went through a design review and tweaked it a little bit. Um so we've got you'll have a contract just was looking for some direction about, you know, if if if the boards agree that Liam Wade is the priority, then we certainly do. Um then we'll update the agreement and have it in their hands. These are contract ready pricing. Yes sir. Could we get a hard copy of that the board? Absolutely. Of this or the contract? No. Or both. Of this the absolutely presentation. It's on this machine right now.

Mr. Jameson, did you have anything further? That's good. Does the board have any um you know obviously any um action to be undertaken would have to be at our March uh board of supervisors meeting um and so what I think we ought to do um getting a copy of this um and allowing uh Mr. Sandy and I to engage our colleagues um and prepare for a decision to be made at the March board meeting. Um if it's in the affirmative then that would that give you enough time to get the equipment ordered. You said by March end we would have to have identified funding in place. Okay.

To be able to order equipment. So it's it's would be the contract and funding. So if you have sources of funding that would have to be you know identified uh as part of it. But that's would be all we would need. Okay. Yes. Mr. Mitchell. Um, I wanted to make sure. So, when we're looking at this for the total for the total project at 21.3 million and that's so all five of those. Yes, sir. That's right. So, say if we want to take action next month for Liam Wade, can we take Can we pull just Liam Wade and take action on just that on just the 3.9 million? Yes, sir. You could. So, we can break it up that way.

Yes, sir. And and the price would remain the same at 3.9 million for Lee Wade if we want to take action on that. Yes. Yes. It's 3.907881.

Okay. Hold you to it. And and I'll I'll add that the the financing piece uh for the energy conservation measures typically would be done through a a lease purchase and could be done separately. Um because that typically is an agreement that the schools would enter into. Um but yes, to your point, March, uh that number is good. If you take action on that, we would that would be the contract amount. We would order equipment and be ready to go to work. And madam chair, your your meeting is the 17th, correct? Uh March 17th. Yes, sir.

Would you need Wit to come back for any reason to perhaps outline some things, answer any additional questions because I'm sure that you you may have some Wit's been keeping it hot coming down here and speaking to us. I'm sure maybe one last time he wouldn't mind coming down at all and speaking. I I would defer to my board. You're hearing the presentation this evening. Do you all have a desire to have them come back in March or do you feel you've got adequate information from this presentation? I think so. Okay. Everybody okay with that? Okay. I think we're good. I think we don't we don't mind being there if there's a question that comes up.

Yeah. And I do have a question. So, uh if we break Liam Wade out, um are the how long are these uh numbers good for contractually? So, the district-wide improvements, the 4.3 um is also good through the end of March. The other schools are good through the end of March, but realistically, we won't be able to implement all of these schools. So, we would have to refresh this pricing next year for next summer. Um, and there likely would be a slight increase just based on equipment prices going up, but we could come up with a pretty good guess of what that would be.

Do you have contingency built in these numbers? We have done extensive re um engineering and design. So, we eliminate a lot of contingency um because we do the design upfront, right? So we have all of our costing categories covered, you know, from engineering, design, all of our labor, mechanical equipment. That's why I have a specific date of what this these numbers are good to because our, you know, vendors that we're buying equipment from have provided locked pricing. So we've got those costing categories very well defined. So we don't we don't have to carry a big contingency like any very very small. I don't know the number off the top of my head. Okay. But is it less than 5%.

Uh yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. There because we we're putting together a firm fix price. Um there's only things that would be not identified in our scope. Oftent times if we're doing something and something comes up and we're asked to deal with it, we can do that. But that would be an owner uh initiated change order. So we do firm fix pricing. So, it's a, you know, price that's not going to exceed that unless it's something outside of scope.

Well, and I mean, when I look at this just from a common sense perspective, if you will, you know, if if the magic bullet came and, you know, we had a board that said, "Let's go for the 21 million. Let's get it contracted." What's the reality and timing of implementing these projects if they're just taken chronologically in order of priority? I mean, so that's getting to my question about how good are these numbers. Um, if if you contract for more than just one school, um, or let's just say again that magic bullet for $21 million. Um, that number would hold true then, correct, for each of these projects. But you're saying that if we break them up, there's going to be cost.

No, the the only thing that would add cost would be time. That's my point. Yeah. Yeah. Time. So, you know, next year I can predict that there's going to be an equipment, but I don't know exactly what that rate increase would be. Um, but that would be the impact on summer of 27. So, fair enough to say that any contract that gets signed for anything more than Liam Wade, there are going to be price adjustments. That's correct. But yes, so originally we had two schools that we were proposing, Rocky Mount Leam Wade. That was our original contract was put together for un and we we can easily do two schools in a summer. We would have had guaranteed price for that but unfortunately we have just lost that window. Understood at Rocky Mo. Yeah,

understand. I think it's safe to say that we have to wait and see if the if the 1 cent sales tax is going to go through. I I think it's fiscally responsible of us to take off one school. Oh yeah. And and then I would say pay attention to that. If it passes, we're going to need an updated price and perhaps we'd be ready to pull the trigger on the rest of it. Yeah, we'll have to, you know, if I don't know how long it's going to take to actually put the referendum out if we get approval to do so. Um, and when the actual implementation of, you know, will that be 2728 revenue if we implement a referendum this fall and we are successful? My assumption is you could start that immediately. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Has to pass first. Pardon me. It has to pass first. Yeah. Correct. I'm not spending any of that money until it passes. Oh, seriously. I am very optimistic that even the governor is going to sign it. Oh, I'm not talking about it being signed. I'm talking about it being a referendum on a of a referendum in this county to pass. I think that's fair. Yeah. And and you know, Jeff, just realistically speaking, you know, it would be so wonderful to have, you know, our parents and different entities and groups that, you know, want to see um this referendum be available. so that we don't have a huge tax burden that's directed solely on the tax rate of every citizen in Franklin County. Totally agree.

So I I think you know we would like to encourage that and I'm sure you all would. Oh absolutely as well. Okay. Thank you so much. Quick question and you may have addressed a while ago. I missed if you did. Yes sir. Are you comfortable that you can get that project leeway done over the summer if we can get equipment ordered by the end of March? Yes sir. That's the caveat. Are uh in your contract is any liquidated damages addressed in case you don't? Uh we do not have LDS in the contract.

We've we've worked I mean the team has sat down with our construction management management group or not management group but our construction project managers and we know the window we are working in. Um, that's why it's critical to get equipment is going to be the the big issue is we've got to get contracts in place by middle March. Know that there's funding there so we can order the equipment no later than the end of March and then yes, we can get it installed. We're used to working in school deadlines. Okay, I can give you some references, too. We we pulled off a big renovation at Orange County Schools uh last summer

and Brunswick County Schools last summer as well. So, okay. Well, thank you so much for being with us and I appreciate the school board sitting through this again uh with us. This has been highly informative and very well done. Um and if we can get a copy of your presentation um we Amy's got it. We'll we'll take this um under due consideration immediately um as we prepare to work towards the March 17th board meeting um so that we can be very definitive about this at that point in time and I'll have time to work with my colleagues on the board in the interim. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Whit. Thank you.

Okay. Uh we're going to take a uh 5 10 minute break. Um the restrooms um are at the hall this way. Um, there's refreshments. If anybody wants a water or something else, uh, let me know. But, uh, let's just take a short break. Thank you, madam.

Okay, thank you all very much. Uh I hope the break did you got y'all refreshed. Um and so at this uh stage in our agenda, we are down to uh Franklin County Schools budget presentation and I would defer to Dr. Sears. Mr. Sandy, did you have any introductory remarks before Dr. Sears gets started? Okay. Welcome, Dr. Sears. Thank you. We're so glad to have you. Thank you all for having us here this evening.

Okay. We uh tried to do the budget presentation a little uh different this year from how we've done it in years past. Uh first uh we tried to do um some research to address some of the questions and issues that were brought up at the last budget meeting and hopefully the first part of the presentation will answer a lot of those questions. You know it comes up frequently that there is a perception in the community that uh we are topheavy when it comes to administrators. you know, it doesn't feel that way when you're working in the school division and everybody's putting in 60 hours a week. Uh, from the classroom teachers to the administrators. I mean, everybody's just really working very hard. But, you know, I didn't know how we compared to other divisions. I didn't know how we compared to other divisions regarding teachers, support staff, any of that. Um and there uh is a report on the state uh superintendent web page, an annual report that is done. The most recent report available to us is from FY24. So those were the data that we had to draw from to come up with these first few slides that we'll be talking about. But it it's kind of an analysis of our staffing patterns and and a look at how we've been handling things over the last few years. And I think it will answer a lot of the questions that came up at the last joint board meeting. But just a quick agenda for what we will be covering this evening. First, we'll be uh talking about the data analysis that covers our staffing ratio, staffing ratios, per pupil expenditures, and some of our recent recent staffing trends. We'll be looking at a review of our budget request and approvals from FY25 and 26. We'll be looking taking a a closer look at the FY27 budget based on the governor's proposed budget and talking about uh some of the school board's priorities that are currently under consideration. Of course, they have not approved a budget request yet. So, all those uh uh priorities are still very

fluid at this point. We've just been trying to quantify them and and have discussions about them with a a brief follow-up conversation on the compensation study, where we stand with uh the number of employees who are still behind on the pay scales from where they should be and a conversation on our capital needs list and then talk about the impact on the increase in LCI uh to our school funding and and how that is impacting our uh uh competitiveness in our region in that it it is really shrinking the uh funding that is available above what is required by the state which is the money that you have to become competitive with and then we'll summarize it and take on any questions uh or listen to any comments that anyone wants to make and just like uh Mr. Bumgner said, "If you have any questions as I present, stop me. It'll probably be better that way than trying to hold everything till the end." So, with our data analysis, what we took a look at was region uh six, which is Franklin County is part of region six. I know the board of supervisors always likes to look at the school divisions that touch Franklin County. So, we threw in Bedford County as well for comparison purposes. So, this is a data analysis for region 6 plus Bedford County on our administrative staffing for FY24. And we the state report covers uh principles and assistant principles per 10,000 students and central office administrators per 10,000 students. As you can see in here, um the regional average is uh 4.86 for principles and assistant principles and central office administrators 4.53. Franklin County is just a hair below the regional average on both of those and um a hair below the regional average for total administrators. We are at 9.2 total and the regional average is 9.4.

Bodat County is slightly above the regional average but taken as a whole I would put the two of us as you know as close to the average as you can possibly be because we are right in there. So when you compare us to other divisions and the number of administrators per thousand students, it does not appear that we are overstaffed. At least compared to region six and with Bedford County, we are on the low side of average. We also took a look at instructional staff in FY. Keep in mind this is F FY24, the year before we consolidated schools, and we've taken some uh some measures since this point that that will affect these numbers when the new reports come out. But in FY24, uh Franklin County had 94.86 86 teachers per 10,000 students, 27.9 teachers aid per thousand students, and we're behind uh only Ron Oak City in the number of instructional personnel per thousand students. So, I think the the perception that we aren't invest that we are investing in administrators and not teachers is a misperception. I think the data show that we are investing in direct services to our students, uh, to instructors in the classroom, people who are hands-on with our kids every day, which is where the investment should be. And and we have reaped tremendous dividends from that investment with academic achievement because our numbers, as we discussed previously, you know, we are currently in the top 25% in the state in regard to student achievement. So, uh, it's not, uh, an investment that doesn't bear fruit. It it is really turning out great, high-quality graduates, and our teachers just do an excellent job. When you look at the total employees per

thousand students, Franklin County is the lead in the region. There are a number of reasons that will contribute to this that we'll talk about in a few minutes. in our cost uh per pupil comparison for the region. Something I forgot to mention on the on region six, Craig County is a member of region six, but I took them out of the uh comparison because they only have 400 students and it really skewed their numbers to look like they had 20ome administrators per thousand students and and that's just not the case. but because their enrollment was so low, it they really weren't a good measure. We just left in all the school divisions that had more than a thousand students. But in some of the other comparisons, Craig County is in because we're doing an applesto apples comparison. Um but with the cost uh per pupil for FY24 uh Franklin County is six out of uh 14 and uh you know at 14,000 we're we're at 106 we're below the state average slightly above the region average. And this formula that is used to compute the um per pupil expenditure from the state. It takes into consideration everything except capital outlay and debt service. So it is everybody is putting the same input into this formula. Whereas I know we like to do the take the local budgets and and come up with a an average on that for conversation purposes but that is not necessarily an accurate reflection because that is factoring in debt service and it's factoring in different grant monies that not every school division has and not everybody has every year. So this is the the official report from the state and and we are certainly on the the the upper 50% of the region but we are not at the top of the region which is also another

misperception about Franklin County. Dr. Sears may ask a quick question. Do these numbers does the state uh put in sped with these numbers? Yes they do. Okay. Thank you. Now, what would not count would be uh CSA costs because those students actually are pulled out of our enrollment. So, those costs are not factored into any of the CSA, right? Right. Of course. Thank you.

Okay. FCPS staffing reductions. These are all the categories since FY23 where we have reduced staff by uh more than 5%. And like I said, the data that we were looking at were all from FY24 and that you know we that was uh the last year that we had 12 elementary schools. So we have been taking steps to uh to reduce staffing in accordance with the decline in enrollment and as you can see here during the that time period uh you know the number of teacher and we've been been able to do this all through attrition. We've not had to do a major riff. We haven't had to lay off anyone. It's uh done as people leave. We evaluate whether or not that position can be uh absorbed by other people and uh and through transfers and attrition we have been able to do a reduction in force. Um so as you can see that um teachers have been reduced by 9%, pair of professionals by 11, principals by 14, librarians by 12 and a half, food services by 19% custodians 10 and a half, bus drivers by 8, and a total reduction of all FCPS employees of 6% u during that time frame. I put a note down at the bottom because I think this is very important. It's easy when you start talking about positions and budgets to say y'all need to cut positions or you should look at cutting positions. But it's also important to remember that 80% of our employees are citizens of Franklin County. So, if we start talking about doing layoffs and riffs, we are talking about really upending families in Franklin County that live here and pay here and making the investments in those uh employees of Franklin County Public Schools is putting money in circulation in Franklin County that makes its way through our small businesses. It makes

its way back to the county and tax dollars. So it it it is a very good investment in this community to have the employees working for Franklin County Schools. So it it's there's a there are many layers to the conversation for folks who think that we probably need to just go through and do a some type of quick downsizing in that there are unintended consequences. And once again, we have done great things in our classrooms with the investments that have been made. So what do these data show us? That we have made a strong investment in instructional staff and employees who provide direct services to children and families. Administrative staff fall into the average for the region, the low average for the region. Reductions in the number of employees since FY23 should be pulling us closer in line with the regional average for staffing trends and cost per pupil. those reductions that we made when when the numbers for FY25 come out uh probably at some point this spring or summer, we'll have the state superintendent report for FY25 and we can compare and see where we stood with the reductions we made then, but we should be coming closer in line with with other divisions. Uh, you know, we certainly don't want to be the lowest though because you look at the the school divisions that are at the lowest, they are also at the lowest in regard to student achievement in many cases, not every case. Some of them do very well with a minimum investment, but as a general rule, the the lower th those that receive less funding are struggling more academically. Um and then uh just a note on the total employee category that uh one slide that showed us at the top of the region uh it's there are a lot of unanswered questions with that and and there are a lot of reasons why that number looks so high and we didn't have time to poll all the

divisions to see how many of them outsource support services but that definitely has an impact on that number. all of the support services within Franklin County Public Schools are Franklin County Public Schools employees. There are school divisions in our region that outsource custodial services, that outsource uh food services, that outsource uh transportation services, and we don't do any of that. We just don't know which of those divisions outsource which services, but th that would impact that number. So, we put it there for conversational purposes. So we would know we had 217 employees per thousand students and 87% of those employees are Franklin County residents who live here and pay taxes here on our contributing members of our society. But it it's not that that is seen as a financial burden. It's because other divisions have just as many people working per thousand students. It's just they are doing that through contracted services and not directly employing their uh support employees. Okay. Our recent budget request. Um I I know we've had uh conversations and there I don't know if it's a misunderstanding or what, but there seems to be a feeling that uh that all of our requests are getting funded. And while we certainly appreciate the additional funding that has come through, uh you know, the full requests certainly have not been funded and we understand that they can't be funded. But, uh, we did want to put this in here just to try to clarify that, uh, you know, what we asked for, what we got, and what we had to eliminate from our budget priorities when we didn't get what we asked for. And I only went back to FY25 because that's the time that I've been here. I didn't try to go back prior to uh, my arrival and and dig through the budget reports. But in FY25, uh, that was the year that we closed to elementary schools. the board uh kicked

in uh 920,000 additional. We asked for 39 million. We got 366. Um we were able to do phase two who two of the compensation study. Um that came with about a $3 some odd million dollar price tag. So a large portion of that was covered through the cost savings from consolidating the two schools. The 920,000 helped make up the difference for that. Um what we couldn't cover that year but that had we had hoped to cover was offsetting some of the health insurance cost uh school security measures and bringing some of the other positions up to market salaries. In FY26 the board of supervisors approved an additional 500,000 in local funding that uh that along with some of the additional state money did allow us to provide a step increase for all employees. What we couldn't do that year was implement phase three. We couldn't expand health benefits for uncovered employees. We had identified transportation needs that we had to push to the side and we weren't able to bring some of the identified positions up to fair market value. So, it's this is just to try to clarify that, you know, we certainly appreciate the additional funding that has come our way, but it has not been what we needed to to it. It's it's not been what was presented in our needs-based budget. And we'll talk about some of the uh fallout that we're now experiencing from that this year when we get into the the capital and the transportation budget request for FY27. Okay. The FY27 budget transportation. I'm going to ask Miss Tuttle come up to uh give us the initial uh numbers on that and then I'll take back over and cover the budget priorities that are currently under consideration by the school board. Good evening, Miss Tuttle.

Good evening, boards. Uh, it's pleasure to be here tonight. Um, as Dr. Se said, I want to go over some of our budget projections for next year. Um, and the governor's proposed budget. Um, currently our budget is uh based on 5,74 students. The state has projected that to decrease to 5,567 which is a decrease decrease of 137 students. Now over the last three years we have not seen that big of a of a decline. However, the most conservative um number to use is what is provided for the by the state because if we miss that number um then that's all on us. Our projected ADM loss of 137 students iso is uh going to re uh result in a reduction of state revenue of 1 million439 uh 33 $349 sorry um and we currently have 987 students currently enrolled in homeschool. However, this is a decline from $,08 from last year. Our LCI has increased from 04596 to 4829 which is again resulting in a loss of state revenue of $1.2 million. lottery fund uh is projected to decrease which is a loss of $281,282 and the lottery fund helps uh fund things like our VIP program, our atrisisk students uh compensation for teachers. Um so that is being the state projects a decrease in that. The proposed budget decreases the employer contribution rates to instruction retirement benefits, which actually

brings us a net savings of what we project to be about $993,000. The budget also includes the state share of routine benchmarking, which is basically the state's inflationary factor. Um, and that um that affects all of our standard of quality and other direct aid programs. So that is helping offset some of the loss funding from the increase in LCI and the projected loss of ADM. Uh based on the calculations from the governor's proposed budget, we are projecting state revenue or total revenue of 99 million54,114. Once we look at what we project our um expenditures to be for next year. Uh and this is without any initiatives. This is just based on our our base expenditures. Projected salary and benefits are projected to be 83.4 million. Non-s salary um expenditures are expected to be at 15.7. We do have our last debt payment for the Windy Gap project coming up in July. uh at 380 and then that is the last payment for that that will drop off. We do expect um CSA increases to continue to uh trend up. Um we are estimating uh $350,000 increase in CSA cost. And then of course the state has raised the minimum wage to 12 from 12.77 cents a dollar um an hour to 13.75. And this is effective January 1. And we project the cost to to the school system at $432,422.

And that's just 6 months of that minimum wage increase. Um and then of course in the future it's projected to go to $15 an hour. So we are estimating our expenditure budget to be 100,392,977. So, right from the get-go, we are looking at a deficit of $888,858. And I think Dr. Sears would like to go over the uh initiatives. Was there any question on what I just went over? Can I ask a quick question on the uh LCI? I thought that number was going to be a lot higher than 1.2. Is that the final number?

That is the final number. So, as bad as it seems for me to say, that's right. cuz I thought it was going to be a lot worse. Right. And the and the property values around the lake are really driving that, right? You know, we do have high property values in Franklin County. Thank you. Any other questions? So, can you explain the budget includes the state share of routine benchmarking? Can you explain that to me?

Yes. Um when all of the schools pres uh submit their annual school report basically they look at how much has the overall cost of operating increased. It's basically an inflationary factor that is given to the school systems by the state. So it it's just a another word for inflation basically. Sharon is that every two years or every two years they do the rebenchmarking. That's what I thought. Thank you. Any other questions?

Miss Settle, just to clarify, when asked following your speech, it sounds like even taking out the revenue loss from the loss of students, the $1 million, by the time you add up the LCI increase along with the loss from the lottery fund and the retirement, we're still looking at about a $2 million loss from the state. And um is that fair to say? Rebenchmarking offset a lot of that. We're starting with about close to $900,000 deficit is where we're starting the the discussion for FY. So, it's better than we initially thought and it could be better still when the general assembly budget comes through.

Probably not much. It doesn't look like a whole lot is changing in either the House or Senate version, but there are a few tweaks that that could, you know, benefit benefit us. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? All right. I'll turn over back to Dr. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon.

Okay. At our board meeting last week, uh we started um trying to put into a list our budget priorities for uh FY26. And this is where I think at least for the last two years that um that I've been superintendent, we have fallen short in communicating our priorities to the board of supervisors and letting you know when funding is not made available what we have to set aside. And I think that has led to a lot of misinformation or or believing things that are true that aren't true over the years. So this year we are going to try to do a much better job in communicating what we're asking for, why we need it, and if you know, and once we know what our funding is, what we had to cut from this list in order to make our budget and um and hopefully that will clear up future conversations about uh you know, our budget and what we were able to do with the funding that was provided. But uh for the sake of conversation I divided it into three categories or we divided it into three categories. We we divided our priorities into instructional and personnel additional transportation initiatives and then capital project initiatives that exclude uh major renovations and construction projects because those are an entirely different conversation that really don't factor into our operational budget. Um but as far as our uh instructional and personnel initiatives, of course, phase three of the compensation study is uh the certainly the top priority and has been ever since we implemented phase 2 and that comes with an estimated price tag of about 3.9 million. Um market adjustments for positions that were left behind in the compensation study. When it was done, there were a number of positions that um and Mr. Cuddy could answer any questions about this if any board members have at school board or

board of supervisors. But there were positions at that time that we were not able to bring up to market value such as nurses and some of the bookkeepers and these other positions that are still paid well below market value. So in order to bring them up um to where they should be, it would it would take an additional 350,000. The DSIP program for current retirees is 414,000 for next year if we want to continue that. Um DSIP program for 2026 retirees if we want to make it available to them that estimated cost would be about 130,000. Uh local share of textbooks uh the math adoption is needed. uh that is estimated at about 500,000 and um CTE enrollment at Patrick and Henry Community College. This is the program that we talked about earlier for the we do have to pay tuition for those students uh to participate in welding, advanced manufacturing and motorsports and also uh a bus driver to get them down there every day. That would be an additional 95,000. Um the SOS program that is our special ed student employment program at farm college. It's just an incredible program that our senior special ed students can go down there and get work-based experience u and learn very valuable job skills. Many of them have went on to attend farm college. I think maybe all but one who've participated in the program were employed immediately out of school or in college right out of high school. So the success rate for that program has been wonderful. They have been grant funded up to up through this year. The grant ends this year and so uh Mr. White who runs the program came to the board earlier and asked that uh we consider using local funds in order to keep that program going and that would be a cost of 54,000. And then health insurance premium

increases for our employees uh come up to 1.2 million. So the total instruction and personnel initiatives that the board is looking at currently is 6.7 million. The transportation initiatives um Dr. Yes. What percentage was your health insurance? How much did you go? What percentage? I think it was 12.7%. Thank you.

The transportation initiatives um you know we are really struggling with buses and we'll talk about that more in a minute. Um, as far as been able to fund the repairs that need to happen, you know, we we've talked about at previous board meetings that in order to be on the state replacement cycle, we should be replacing 12 a year and we've been replacing three or four a year. It's really catching up to us now. Um, we currently have three buses that are sidelined because they need uh transmissions or or major repairs that we do not have the funding currently left in our transportation budget to do this year. So, we're having to push them to the side and just use substitute buses right now. That problem is only going to grow every year and uh because we have, as Mr. Wley said, this has been punted, hasn't been punted by the current boards. But if we neglect to do something in the very near future, we're punting it just like everybody before us has done. And it it is uh we're getting to a critical point in regard to transportation. So, there is a program out of Virginia Beach where they sell uh used buses in in that are in really good shape with what do they have, Dr. Nester? About uh 50 or 60,000 miles on them.

Those are five to seven years of age. So, we feel like with some kind of with a decent investment, we can get a good number of them and replace some of them that are failing now in addition to the the three or four new buses that we're able to purchase each year. and also uh all of our safety equipment, cameras and uh and the cost of uh uh inflation and uh additional personnel. We are having to put more pair of professionals on buses currently to help deal with behaviors. Um so uh for our transportation initiatives uh we estimate the additional cost would be about 1.6 million.

Dr. Sears, if I may ask a question, how much is a new school bus these days? is a Dr. Nestor the new how much is a new school bus right now new buses running around 150 starting in 2027 with all the EPA restrictions we're going to be looking at about 187 okay thank you thank you Dr. You're welcome.

Um, capital project initiatives, like I said, these are, uh, you know, we're not talking about the CTE center. We're not talking about the ABM project. These are just things that need to be done that we really don't have the funding to do within the the million dollars or so of annual uh, capital uh, money that we receive. the hot water heaters at Central Gym. You know, if you remember last year during the ice storm, we used that as an emergency shelter and had hundreds of families come through and and take showers and and received food there and were able to use it as a warming shelter. Well, as soon as the shelter shut down, the hot water heaters quit working. So, uh they uh it would be impossible to use it for that same purpose. Now, we could still bring families in and distribute food, but we would not be able to offer them showers and and some of the same services that we did last year. The cost for those hot water heaters is 250,000. Uh FCHS fire alarm replacement would be 80,000. Uh tech C and tech D need some of the rooftop units replaced. That would be 150,000. school security uh up. We need to upgrade our cameras and we uh would like to install a weapons detection system at Franklin County High School and Benjamin Franklin Middle School. That comes with an estimated cost of about 200,000. And then our playground equipment replacement cycle. We initially started conversations on this at trying to do $50,000 a year and put uh put two schools on a 10-year rotation cycle. And if we could make 50,000 available, then they could work with their PTO's to try to make the uh raise the additional funding, but with conversations that Dr. Nester has had uh with with and Mark Law have had with uh with some of the maintenance folks, the repairs and the the d or the the wear and tear on our playground equipment is happening much more quickly than uh a 100,000 will or

50,000 a year uh for two schools. that's probably going to to help. So, we may need to tweak that number or maybe say a h 100,000 a year go toward one school so they can start replacing their equipment because it it playgrounds are incredibly expensive and and they are used frequently not just by the school. I mean, they are in essence the community parks in all of our communities and they were where parents take their kids in the evening and and so that is an investment in recreation throughout the county when we have good safe playground equipment. Dr. Sar mayor, if you did, did you want us to do this along the way? Yes.

Um on the emergency shelter piece, have you had any conversations with our public safety department um about pulling VDM money's Virginia Department Emergency Management? Um, I know that there's been funding made available to localities uh through VDM. Have you all had any of those conversations? Not about this. I know we have been working on getting uh the middle school set up with a generator so it could serve as an emergency shelter. Should we have him contact you and chief? Yeah, please. Please. Yeah, that may be a possibility to to get some funding to help as uh for the water heaters for the emergency shelter. Yeah. So, that's something we can look at. Okay.

There. Yeah, you're right. We we've been successful on a couple generators um through their shelter upgrade fund. So, there might be an opportunity there. Yeah. So, um Mr. Sandy will get with the chief um Chief Fowler and um maybe interface with you guys and see if we can help out on that.

Okay. All right. Thank you. So total the initiatives that are currently under consideration by the school board would total about 9.9 million. That's when you factor in the the 888,000 deficit that we are starting with. So as a follow-up conversation on these initiatives with phase three of the compensation study, I think this is another u question that came up at the last joint board meeting. How many employees are behind? So, as you can see here, we have 134 that are one step behind, 124 that are two, 92 that are three, and 157 that are four steps behind still. And for those who don't know uh what it means when we say they are behind, for over the course of about 20 years, there were seven years that Franklin County did not offer salary increases or Franklin County Public Schools didn't wasn't able to offer salary increases. So when the compensation study was done, it was implemented in three phases trying to bring all the employees back up to where they should be on the salary scale. So for example, if you are an employee who are still four steps behind, let's say you've been here uh 18 years, then you're getting paid on step 14 instead of step 18. So if we can implement the full phase three of the salary study, then you would be getting paid on the salary scale where you're supposed to be. When you look at our salary scales and compare it to other school divisions in the region, we do okay. We're certainly not the top. We're not the bottom. Um we're somewhere in the middle, which tends to be where we fall in a lot of the data. But what's not factored into that is how many employees are behind on the salary scale where they should be. So just looking at the salary scale is not really an accurate measure of what our issue is. Our issue is that we have had employees who have been very loyal to Franklin County

Schools. They have stuck with us through some very difficult years and and we have not been able to make them whole as to where they should be on our salary scale. And many of those employees are at the retirement point and really do need to be maximizing their salary so that when they retire they can maximize the retirement salary as well. And we just have not been able to get them there yet. Um but we have a total of 507 employees who are at least one step behind where they should be on the salary scale with our capital improvement budget. Uh each of you should have the the big form that is our full capital uh needs list and uh you know that probably warrants a meeting in and of itself just to review that. It is a pretty extensive list and we're not going to go through item by item, but certainly look through it and if you have any questions, you can reach out to Mr. Law or Dr. Netor or or me and and we'll try to find the answers for you. But on that list, you'll see that there are $17 million of identified capital improvement needs. That that is including the new CTE center. The nonCTE projects that are pri prioritized for next year on that list are close to 13.6 6 million, but that's with the the ABM projects factored in. And the ABM projects that we were looking at when this list was put together was uh all of the uh the energy savings and uh Liam Wade and Rocky Mount. So, of course, that that that number will change based on I think some of the comments that were made tonight, but this was a list that was put together when we were still thinking that Rocky Mount might be on the table for this year. Um,

Dr. Sears, can I ask you a question while you're talking about the capital improvements? Um, and I just hadn't thought about it up until this point. Um, with the ABM presentation tonight and and looking back at the um, capital project initiatives, could the tech C and tech D is it is it something that needs to be done fairly soon or can it be factored into the ABM? I would uh defer to Mark on that. Mark, the question is is can the tech uh projects uh be put off uh or is that more of an urgent need? with capital.

Okay. Okay.

So, we've identified approximately $780,000 of urgent needs for FY27 that are identified on that initiatives list that aren't major construction or renovation project. And then I just have a note at the bottom of the presentation to say we are uh currently not able to make major repairs on vehicles, equipment or with facilities for the remainder of FY26. We have three buses that have been sidelined and we cannot afford to do the repairs. Our buildings at this point are being triaged for the remainder of the year because our uh the funding that that we have to do these uh um repairs with and upgrades with has been expended for this year. And we have not probably done as good a job as we should have at projecting the increases in uh you know in the cost for parts and incorporating the tariffs into that the inflationary impact into that. You know we've kind of just flatlined what we've been asking for in those areas over the last few years and the additional funding that has been made available. We've tried to put that into our employee salaries and because of 20 to 30 years of everything being kicked down the road in regard to uh the transportation uh replacement cycle uh facility upgrades, replacing HVAC systems, replacing roofs, but because that has been kicked down the road so far and so long, it is catching us now. And that's only going to get worse each year. uh the million dollars, the 1.4 million that that we receive, while it's appreciated, it is not adequate for us to be able to meet the needs that we are currently facing with our transportation needs and our facility needs. And uh that will bring us to school

funding in Franklin County in the age of an increasing local composite index. So, um, you know, we we've kind of beat the conversation to death about the local composite index, but I don't know that everybody understands exactly what that means for us. Um, so we put uh a few slides together to talk about required local effort and required local match and where Franklin County stands in regard to that. Uh, required local effort, that's what the locality is mandated to fund based on the standards of quality. the the board of supervisors has to fund the required local effort or h yeah the required local effort required local match it unlocks specific funds that aren't necessarily requirement but if the county doesn't put up the matching funds then we don't get the state funds so for example this coming year there is either a two or 3% raise for teachers factored into the budget which is what Miss Tuttle about 500,000

so if we don't put up the matching funds on the county side, then we don't get that $453,000. So that $888,000 deficit we started with becomes a $1.3 million deficit. So that that is what counts as required local match. In FY23, Franklin County was funding us at a a 46.7 46.07% above the required local effort and required local match. Comparatively, that was pretty high funding. we were definitely in the top half of the region uh maybe even in the top 40% of the region in regard to that funding in FY25 even though the state the local funding has increased each year because the LCI has went up and the state funding has decreased the percentage of local funding that is above the required local effort required local match has been cut by more than 50% um to 20%. So we went from being in the top you know uh the the top tier of the region into the bottom third of the region. Um and we put this together this and we did have the required local effort required local match data available for FY25. So this is the most recent data available and as you can see um where we stand we are are sixth from the bottom. So still close to the middle even with the reduction in 20% um from uh you know from the others but uh if you look down like at Danville City they're funded at about 80% above the required local uh effort required local match and McGomery County 74% and um so it it's it's more just a conversation point it's uh you know we we are certainly still better off than a lot of localities around us in regard to local funding, but that number is going

backward. And I just thought it was important to point that out that we are moving backward in the the additional funding that we have. And when you think about it, it's the money that we receive above required local effort, required local match is that makes you competitive because everything else everybody has the required local effort and the required local match. every single school division in the region is getting that money. So, it's the money above that that you can sink into employees and provide a a higher quality work experience, higher quality education for students. Those are the funds that really make or break you in competitiveness and we are moving backward in regard to that. Um just a tax rate comparison in counties with LCIS between 4 point or 0.4 and 0499. And let me just say I am not advocating that you all raise taxes. I'm just saying that we are at the bottom when it comes to the tax rate of other school divisions that have to fund schools at a similar rate to Franklin County. Our tax rate is 5 cents below everyone else's and it's uh 40 cents below the highest. Um, so, you know, it is what it is. But, uh, I will just say it is becoming very hard for us to maintain the quality that the folks around here are used to with the increasing LCI, the reduced state funding, and uh, you know, just the fact that we're trying to make up for 20 or 30 years of neglect in regard to our facilities and our transportation fleet. All of this is hitting us at once and we are at a a very uh critical breaking point as a school division right now. So parting thoughts regarding our FY27 budget planning. You know the high staffing levels certainly contributed to

our inability to keep up with salary scales of surrounding school divisions. I think we have we acknowledge that and and you know when you have more employees um you can't pay them as much but that has uh paid off for our students and our families in academic achievement. I still think we have Franklin County has made a very good investment in putting the number of teachers and direct service personnel in our schools that have been put in our schools because our kids thrive. They thrive in our schools. They thrive in college. They thrive in the workforce. And that is not the case with graduates from every division around us. A lot of them do very well. Some of them struggle, but Franklin County gives our students just an incredible start to their lives and the investment has been well spent. Starting with FY24, we have been reducing personnel through attrition and we should see those staffing numbers move closer to the regional average in future state reports. Like I said earlier, we we want to move it closer to the average because we are losing enrollment and that number should be moving closer to the average, but we don't want to be at the bottom. We do not want to, you know, have a minimum. We don't want to just meet the SOQs because that means we are having class sizes of 30 and 35 students at the high school and we are not providing students elective opportunities, CTE opportunities because many of those classes are not covered under the standards of quality. They depend on local funding to keep them going. The increase in LCI has significantly reduced the percentage of local funding above required local effort and required local match. Uh which also reduces our ability to be competitive. Uh and finally, we are at a critical juncture in regard to the FY27 budget and we are looking at having to make some pretty drastic measures uh in order to to make this budget work without some additional

funding coming in this year. Uh you know, it's no secret we are taking a very very high level look at a 4-day school week. No decisions have been made. No proposal has been put forward. But that is a way we could save about a, you know, between one and$2 million dollars a year if we went that route. Dr. Nester and the uh transportation team, they are looking at how we can reduce bus routes and uh you know what that would mean for us is probably staggered start times with secondary starting earlier or later than elementary and uh and using the same drivers to run both runs, meaning that drivers will be working longer, but we need less drivers and and we don't we haven't yet been able to quantify all that, but these are the types of things that we're having to look at currently as well as reducing positions Like I said earlier, we've been able to reduce, you know, 6% of our uh workforce in the last two and a half years through attrition. I don't know that we could do that this year without additional funding been put in. It could be we would have to implement a full RIFF plan in order to get where we need to be with this year's budget with some of the needs that we've identified. So with that, I will open it up for any other questions or comments that anybody might have.

Thank you, Dr. Sears. Um, have you given this presentation to the school board yet? I sent it to them to review, but no, I have not discussed it with them. So, I'm going to make sure the floor is open to both boards for questions and comments. Thank you. So, the floor is open, Madam Chair.

Yes, please. I would like to say that piggyback on Dr. what Dr. Sears has reported um to say that in spite of the the the the inability to give our teachers the uh uh more pay. Um we are fully accredited in all of our schools, 10 elementary schools, middle school and high school. There are a couple of schools that are uh on the performance level are off track, but do they have more sped students in those schools? One of them is off track because of sped scores.

Um and one was like 4/10en of a point away from being labeled on track. We also have three schools that are distinguished.

Distinguished. Yes, I was going to point that out. And and like I said, in spite of that, um the US News reported that Franklin County High School out of 1,87 high schools in Virginia, we come in as um 178th um in the nation as 8,940. and I didn't get the number of high schools in the the nation, but it speaks a lot to our our teachers and what they're doing is is working. And also um the other thing I wanted to say say is our teachers according to Virginia Department of Education at um we have 80 81% that have their master's degree and we have 55% that have their bachelor's degree. So, it speaks a lot of the quality of of teachers that we have in this county and we'd like to see us keep them. Uh because, you know, with any family that's looking to locate in Franklin County, one of the first things they're going to look at is school system and they're going to see that we're fully accredited across the board and the caliber of teachers that we we have. And so I think in order going forward we need to assure that we keep that going.

Thank you m those are your points well taken. Questions comments like to make one more comment. Dr. Sears when I was doing the math as you were presenting I was struck by the number of teachers or or staff that was missing at least one step and by by my math I was getting about 40%. Is that about accurate from yes total number of employees? Correct. Yeah. It was a bit just higher than I had realized. Yes.

Yeah. I know that's our top priority for the board. I'd be remiss not to say anything, but just the loyal staff that are here and and also the ability to recruit when we have openings. It would be wonderful if we could fix that gap. Thank you. Well, it it helps us when trying to draw from other divisions because what we do as a division, if there is a teacher with 20 years of experience from another division that wants to come here and we can only offer them, we would not give them their 20 years when there are people in our division that don't have their 20ear step. Does that make sense? I think I'm saying it right. So, it does hurt us in being able to attract some some quality people into some some positions that we need. Um, and I I know Shannon Brooks is here. She can nod her head while I'm saying this. This started way back in like 2008 or nine. Correct, Shannon? When we were freezing steps.

Maybe you can't help me. Okay. So, yeah, it was okay. It was It was the first recession.

It was the first recession. And so, I think for about six or seven years consecutively, those steps were frozen. And I think there was one more year during co uh 2020 or 21. I think it when we were worried. I think that some of you were on the board at that point. We were worried about state revenues. We we asked for and y'all graciously gave us just a level budget because we were certainly worried about cuts that year. That was another year we didn't fund a step. So I I I can just in my memory it's been drawn out over a period of almost now two decades. Um but uh we have I know we were able to start getting a step every year at least not falling further behind in about 2015 maybe 2016 I might get my year incorrect but it that's so it's been important not to fall further behind.

Absolutely. But like Dr. Seir said this is their retirement. Uh you know we we value those employees. We certainly don't want to you know punish them or or make them hold out longer than they have to. Um, so every year that they can reclaim some of this lost money, it does affect their life, you know, once they leave the school system. Those are good points. Jeff, comments, questions. Dr. Shears, I'd like to um commend you and your staff. This is probably just in my seven years on the board, this is a presentation that I think is the best one I've ever seen.

Well, thank you. And it is I love the data um comparisons. Um it really puts things in a frame of context. Um you know this stuff gets taken out of out of context just in community conversations and you know perceptions. The data speaks for itself. Um and I think you've done a very very good job at framing the challenges uh versus the data. um and a good hard honest look at what the challenges are. And this to me, all of the concerns since I've been on the board, um as we hear each year, you know, a school presentation, as troubling as it is to hear, you know, that we need to be doing better. Um you've done an excellent job of pulling this together and making it make sense. Um and in in that um there's a lot of ability to defend how we spend taxpayer money and we strive to do that, you know, on our side. Do we get it right every time? Absolutely not. Um and and I know we've, you know, I know our last meeting was very challenging. Um and you all certainly have had some challenges. Uh we've had some on our side. Um but you know, I'm looking forward for this evening to be a starting point. um beginning with your foundational budget presentation and we're getting ready to move into our budget. Um but this is about the best presentation that I could have hoped for to make an informed decision and I thank you for that.

Well, thank you. Well, and and our board certainly would like I I know I feel pretty comfortable saying it. Y'all have a lot of hard decisions too as a board. Um you know, shame on the state quite frankly. I mean they have put us and just think if we if this LCI funding was not affecting us to the degree we would be having a much different conversation in this I'm sorry. Huh? I was just going to say if the LCI had not went up we would be receiving over $5 million in additional state funding right now. That makes me crazy from two years ago. No. Yes. And the LC with the rebenchmarking and

Yeah. And on the school side, you know, it's the LCI that is absolutely a ridiculous conversation like we're talking about when we talk about on the county side with some of those challenges, Jeff, that you're referring to. Um, every year we are being required to provide new money, the unfunded mandates and different requirements that's coming down from Richmond. Um, and we're having to come up with new money to fund things that are required, not optional. Right. And so it's like the LCI. um and when they give 2% raises to constitutionals but they forget about all the other employees. So where does that burden fall? It falls back on the locality right

so um there's a lot of inequity that localities are being forced to undergo um while we try to balance the money that we have and it's extraordinarily difficult and I commend the board members sitting around this table. This is not an easy job. No by a long shot. Y'all have a lot of hard decisions to make in regards to this community because in in a lot of ways there are some people who could afford to pay more. There are many that cannot. That's right. And we absolutely understand that. That's right.

Um I can't yell at the state. I wish I could. I mean, I would love to yell at them and shake them and go, "Look, you're you know, you're bragging about your surpluses, but we're we're we're hanging by thread here and and it's affecting everybody in this county." And and and it it is um I know that this county does not want us to fail as a school system. Absolutely. Absolutely know that. And so when we when we And these numbers are very sobering. I I I know that when you see it, it is it is hard to swallow. It's hard for us to swallow, but you know, we still, and I know you know this, we have a responsibility, we feel like, to ask for stuff that's going to make our division better and for our employees.

Yeah. And I think Jeeoff, to your point, um, kicking the can down for decades, uh, when we spoke earlier about CTE, um, you're going to pay the piper sooner or later. And you know, when it gets to the point that we've got our backs against the wall, we've got degradation in school buildings for goodness sakes where our children are. Um it's unfortunate that courage has not been shown over decades. Yeah. To keep up incrementally. It would have been a lot easier to do so. Much and smarter. Yeah. So, um I appreciate the challenges that school board that you all are having. They're significant.

Yeah. Um, and we want a be we want to be a good partner while we're trying to balance on our side of the table um all of these unfunded challenges that we've got to meet, figure out where the money's coming from. Um, so I appreciate again this presentation, Dr. Sears, and um I we'll get a copy of this. I'm hoping it's got some great stuff in it.

It it is uh it's posted on board docs, but we'll send an electronic copy as well. And uh there is an appendix on the board. I didn't print it off because it was so long. But uh the appendix does it has more budget information from uh the governor's proposed budget as well as some additional comparison data of school divisions of similar size. The the results were about the same as regional, so I didn't go over it, but there are some other data points to look at if anyone wants to take the time to read through the appendix. And just so you all know, um we the county, the board of supervisors, um we now have a very active presence in Richmond, uh with the with the legislature. Um uh Steve and I were there for two days about 3 weeks ago. Um and Southwest Virginia is getting hammered.

Y um you know, it's it's our the counties in our um region. We're getting hammered at the cost. Um, you know, it's really because I don't want want to point fingers, but a lot of money is going to Northern Virginia. Oh, yeah.

And, um, it is what it is. They've got density. They've got pressures, too. Um, but it's at the behest of the rural localities in Southwest Virginia. And so, for the first time in my tenure, you know, I'm working with other counties in our region that I mean, the the conversations are all the same. we're all under the same level of challenges on the schools and on the county operating side. And so we're starting to have a stronger voice on behalf of our rural localities. And um my seat on the VEO board, I'm not sure they realize what they've done putting me on that board. Um because we are going to have a voice and if we don't, shame on us. So I just want you all to know that there is a concerted effort and I know you all do so with the SBA as well. We do and uh I'll be serving on their uh legislative positions board as well. Um wonderful. Their lobbyists contacted me in the last couple days. Uh Mrs. McCrae was formally scheduled to serve and then they asked me to serve it. So

Oh, good. You know, one of the things we talked about was this change in LCI funding. And I think you spoke well to the fact that it's not hurting every division, right? It it some the divisions that have are flush with money are getting more state money and the ones that aren't are not. Yeah. And they we I will you will never be able to convince me with any formula that we stand on the same ability to fund ourselves like any Northern Virginia county. The formula is flawed. I mean the formula is flawed. It is.

I mean the fact our free and reduced lunch is not a component in that formula is terribly misrepresentative of what we have here. So, I won't belabor that. Um, before we close down and adjourn, are there any other questions or comments? Yes, sir. Well, I just uh I'm I'm working my way through the uh all of the three and four character acronyms. I'm I'm I'm getting there. I'm not quite there yet, but even where I'm at, I could follow every word of your presentation, Dr. Sears. All right. Well, thank you. That's impressive. Good pilgrim. It

there. The post office and public education love acronyms and it's you'll never never find a place that uses more. We talk acronyms across the board. Bless your heart. I know. Okay. I'll get there. If there's no further business to come before both boards uh for the board of supervisors, I will recess us until March 17th at 2 PM for broadband authority and um subsequent board of supervisors meeting at 3. Mr. Worley, if you'd like to Yeah. And and I will recess this board into I think our regular scheduled meeting is March 9th.

Correct. Um uh so again I want to thank you madam chair members of the board and your staff uh having us having a good discussion tonight. Um you know like I said challenges are best met when we work together. Absolutely. Um we're looking forward to continuing to work together on this thing. A privilege. Yep. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you all for attending.