School Board · Special Called Meeting · May 21, 2026
Thu, May 21, 2026
Hickman County Board of Education meetings, including regular sessions and special called meetings.
Outline
Disclaimer:
This outline was created using AI based on an automatically generated transcript. The transcript and this outline is likely to contain errors, inaccuracies, or omissions. Always refer to the original audio recording if you need to verify any details or for official purposes.
Call to Order
- The special called meeting was called to order after preliminary audio and setup.
- The board observed a moment of silence and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Agenda and Attendance
- A motion was made and seconded to approve the agenda, but attendance was taken before proceeding.
- Four board members were present, with three absent, and a quorum was declared.
- The main business item was the school budget.
Budget Background
- The board discussed the need to return to the county commission on Tuesday with a budget after prior submissions had been rejected.
- The board had originally discussed a 13-cent increase, then presented an 8-cent version to the county commission.
- The county commission rejected the 8-cent version and recommended 4 cents; the board then approved the 4-cent recommendation, but the county commission later rejected that budget as well.
- The latest county commission counter discussed at the meeting appeared to reduce the property tax increase from 4 cents to 2 cents and lower the local option sales tax estimate to about $3.1 million.
- The 2-cent reduction was described as reducing school revenues by roughly $166,000 to $168,000 compared with the 4-cent version.
Maintenance of Effort and Revenue Discussion
- Members discussed how sales tax affects maintenance of effort differently from actual revenue collected.
- It was stated that sales tax revenue depends on where and how much people purchase, not simply on what is budgeted.
- The school system receives 50% of local option sales tax collected in the county.
- Property tax was described as budgeted at 93% of collectible property tax, while actual collection is usually closer to 100%.
- The 2025-2026 sales tax amended estimate was discussed as about $2.975 million against a $3.1 million figure, with current estimates ranging from about $3.4 million to $3.6 million.
Staffing and Operational Concerns
- Discussion emphasized that each penny of property tax was roughly equivalent to about two positions.
- Staff reductions were described as likely regardless of the final budget outcome because multiple schools had more positions than the funding formula supported.
- Board members expressed concern about cutting teachers, aides, nurses, and other support staff, especially because of student safety and health needs.
- It was stated that no new positions were believed to be included in the budget.
- The board discussed past efforts to handle staff reductions through attrition, while acknowledging that reductions without attrition may become necessary if revenues do not improve.
- Personnel costs were repeatedly identified as the school system's largest cost.
Capital and Cost Pressures
- The county commission had also discussed one-year maintenance capital outlay funding of about $405,000.
- A capital list of about $435,000 was discussed, including tennis court resurfacing at both ends of the county, a roof item, and intermediate school playground fencing.
- Members discussed how capital projects were historically handled differently and noted that capital funding does not solve the operating budget deficit.
- Rising costs were cited, including buses increasing from about $92,000 in 2020 to about $147,000 currently.
- Declining enrollment was discussed as a major revenue challenge, with an estimated 500 to 600 fewer students at roughly $7,000 each, or about $4 million.
Budget Motions and Votes
- A motion was made to accept a budget with a 2-cent property tax increase plus $405,000 in capital outlay.
- The 2-cent motion died for lack of a second.
- A second motion was made and seconded to approve a 4-cent property tax increase with the current $405,000 capital outlay.
- The 4-cent motion passed by roll call vote, with all present members voting yes.
Sales Tax Estimate Vote
- After the 4-cent property tax motion passed, the board discussed whether the local option sales tax estimate also needed to be adjusted.
- It was stated that leaving sales tax at $3.3 million would essentially send back the same budget previously rejected.
- A motion was made and seconded to move the 2026-2027 sales tax estimate to $3.1 million.
- The sales tax estimate motion passed by roll call vote, with all present members voting yes.
- With the $3.1 million sales tax estimate and 4-cent property tax increase, the maintenance of effort increase was described as about 8.28%.
Budget-Neutral Scenario Presentation
- A board member presented a simplified "household budget" explanation of what it would take for the school system to reach a budget-neutral position.
- The presentation said Hickman County receives about 16% to 18% of its school budget from local government, compared with a Tennessee county average of nearly 40%, placing Hickman County in the bottom 25%.
- Projected revenues were described as about $32.5 million, while estimated expenditures were about $38.5 million, creating a roughly $6 million deficit.
- The deficit was compared to roughly $6 million in state-mandated pay raises and increases that had not been matched by funding.
- Increasing the sales tax forecast from about $3 million to $3.6 million was described as adding about $600,000.
- A 4-cent property tax increase was described as adding about $350,000 and bringing projected revenue to about $33.5 million.
- A scenario involving a 10% budget cut, roughly $4 million, plus closing two schools was described as saving about $1 million to $1.2 million and producing about a $200,000 surplus before capital projects.
- Capital projects were described as historically costing about $750,000 to $1 million annually, meaning the scenario would still become negative after capital needs.
- The operating budget was described as about 70% to 75% personnel, or $27 million to $29 million, with operating costs at about 25% to 30%, or roughly $9.5 million to $11.5 million.
- The presentation emphasized that the board mainly controls cuts to jobs and possible school closures, while revenue sources such as sales tax, TISA, and county-approved property tax are outside direct board control.
Fund Balance and State Oversight Risk
- Operational fund balance was discussed as about $9.76 million in 2023-2024, $9.57 million in 2024-2025, and $8.29 million in 2025-2026.
- The fund balance was said to have dropped by almost $1.3 million from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026.
- The legal minimum balance was discussed as 3% of the budget, or about $1.2 million.
- Comptroller guidance was discussed, with two months of operating costs corrected to about $6.3 million.
- The board discussed concern that, if the fund balance reaches the state minimum, the state could step in and tell the district how to operate and set the tax rate.
- At the current rate, reaching the state minimum was described as possibly about two years away.
Additional Revenue Ideas
- A possible $50 wheel tax was mentioned as an example that could add about $1 million.
- Members discussed increasing online enrollment or bringing students back into the school system as another possible revenue strategy.
- One member estimated that filling the roughly $6 million gap through maintenance of effort alone could require about 70 to 72 cents.
County Commission Timeline and Legal Questions
- The board discussed that it was not on the regular county commission agenda and that the county commission would need to amend its agenda to consider the school budget.
- Members asked what happens if the county commission rejects the budget again.
- It was stated that, as understood from the law, the county commission can reject the budget and send it back with suggested numbers, and the school board may have 10 days to respond.
- Members discussed the need for legal clarification about Act of 1981 budgeting rules and county commission authority.
- CTAS had been contacted, and members also discussed reaching out to Ben Torres, the school attorney, and other legal resources.
- Board members were encouraged to read the full law and not only highlighted sections.
- It was noted that the special called meeting had to be arranged quickly, with roughly 30 minutes to make the decision to call it.
Adjournment
- After budget, sales tax, timeline, and legal-process discussions, a motion was made and seconded to adjourn.
- The meeting adjourned by voice vote.
Key figures and statistics
| Figure | Type | Context / topic |
|---|---|---|
| 4 members present | Count | Quorum for special called meeting |
| 3 members absent | Count | Attendance |
| May 7, 2026 | Date | Prior budget committee/county commission recommendation discussion |
| May 11, 2026 | Date | Prior county commission rejection referenced |
| Tuesday | Date / deadline | Deadline to return to county commission with budget |
| 13 cents | Rate | Original property tax increase discussed by board |
| 8 cents | Rate | First budget version presented to county commission |
| 4 cents | Rate | County commission recommendation later approved by board |
| 2 cents | Rate | Latest county commission counter discussed |
| $166,000 | Dollar amount | Approximate reduction from 4 cents to 2 cents, as first stated |
| $168,000 | Dollar amount | Approximate additional revenue reduction from 4 cents to 2 cents, as later stated |
| About two positions per penny | Count / estimate | Staffing impact of each property tax penny |
| 6% | Percentage | Maintenance of effort increase discussed with 2-cent/property-tax and sales-tax assumptions |
| 11% | Percentage | Earlier maintenance of effort increase referenced for comparison |
| 50% | Percentage | School system share of local option sales tax |
| 93% | Percentage | Property tax budgeted share of collectible property tax |
| Close to 100% | Percentage | Typical actual property tax collection discussed |
| $2.975 million | Dollar amount | 2025-2026 sales tax amended estimate discussed |
| $3.1 million | Dollar amount | Lower local option sales tax estimate and later approved 2026-2027 estimate |
| $3.3 million | Dollar amount | Prior sales tax estimate in the earlier budget |
| $3.4 million to $3.6 million | Dollar amount | Estimated current sales tax range discussed |
| About $3.5 million | Dollar amount | Lower sales tax estimate attributed to Crystal |
| About $3.6 million | Dollar amount | Higher sales tax estimate discussed |
| $405,000 | Dollar amount | Current capital outlay included with approved 4-cent motion |
| $435,000 | Dollar amount | Capital project list discussed |
| $400,000-plus | Dollar amount | Capital projects amount described in discussion |
| $4 million to $500,000 / $4 to $500,000 | Dollar amount | Garbled transcript reference to capital outlay; context indicates about $400,000 to $500,000 |
| $83,969 per penny | Dollar amount | Approximate value of each property tax penny |
| About 7 cents | Rate | Comparison of 2-cent increase plus capital money as "money-wise" equivalent |
| 8 votes | Count | Number of county commission votes one commissioner believed could be secured |
| $92,000 | Dollar amount | Cost of a bus in 2020 |
| $147,000 | Dollar amount | Current bus cost discussed |
| 20 years | Time period | Age cycle for roofs after new high school opened |
| 500 to 600 students | Count | Enrollment decrease discussed |
| At least $7,000 per student | Dollar amount | Revenue impact estimate per student |
| About $4 million | Dollar amount | Approximate revenue impact of enrollment decrease |
| 8.28% | Percentage | Maintenance of effort increase after 4 cents and $3.1 million sales tax estimate |
| Nearly 40% | Percentage | Average county local-government share of school budget cited from TSBA information |
| 16% to 18% | Percentage | Hickman County local-government share of school budget |
| Bottom 25% | Percentage / ranking | Hickman County position among Tennessee counties for local funding |
| $32.5 million | Dollar amount | Projected revenue in budget-neutral presentation |
| $38.5 million | Dollar amount | Estimated expenditures in budget-neutral presentation |
| About $6 million deficit | Dollar amount | Projected deficit |
| About $6 million | Dollar amount | Approximate state-mandated pay raises/increases referenced |
| About $3 million to $3.6 million | Dollar amount | Sales tax forecast increase scenario |
| $0.6 million | Dollar amount | Revenue added by increasing sales tax forecast from about $3 million to $3.6 million |
| About $0.35 million | Dollar amount | Revenue from 4-cent property tax increase, as stated in presentation |
| $33.5 million | Dollar amount | Revenue after sales tax forecast and 4-cent increase scenario |
| 10% | Percentage | Hypothetical budget cut scenario |
| $3.85 million | Dollar amount | Ten percent cut amount before rounding |
| $4 million | Dollar amount | Rounded cut amount in budget-neutral scenario |
| 2 schools | Count | Closure scenario discussed |
| $1 million to $1.2 million | Dollar amount | Estimated savings from closing two schools |
| $33.3 million | Dollar amount | Resulting expenditure/revenue figure in closure-and-cut scenario |
| About $200,000 surplus | Dollar amount | Projected surplus before capital projects in scenario |
| $750,000 to $1 million per year | Dollar amount | Historical annual capital projects cost |
| 70% to 75% | Percentage | Personnel share of budget |
| $27 million to $29 million | Dollar amount | Personnel cost estimate |
| 25% to 30% | Percentage | Operating cost share of budget |
| $9.5 million to $11.5 million | Dollar amount | Operating cost estimate as heard |
| $1 million to $2 million deficit | Dollar amount | Deficit range referenced during personnel/operations discussion |
| $9.76 million | Dollar amount | Operational fund balance for 2023-2024, as heard |
| $9.57 million | Dollar amount | Operational fund balance for 2024-2025 |
| $8.29 million | Dollar amount | Operational fund balance for 2025-2026 |
| Almost $1.3 million | Dollar amount | Fund balance decrease from 2024-2025 to 2025-2026 |
| 3% | Percentage | Legal minimum fund balance |
| About $1.2 million | Dollar amount | Approximate legal minimum fund balance |
| Two months | Time period | Comptroller minimum operating reserve recommendation |
| $3.7 million | Dollar amount | Initially stated two-month reserve/monthly operating cost figure, later corrected |
| $6.3 million | Dollar amount | Corrected two-month operating reserve figure |
| Four to six months | Time period | Comptroller preferred operating reserve range discussed |
| About $7 million | Dollar amount | Initial four-month reserve estimate before correction |
| $10.4 million | Dollar amount | Initial six-month reserve estimate before correction |
| $12.6 million | Dollar amount | Four-month reserve after correction |
| $25 million | Dollar amount | Six-month reserve after correction, as stated |
| Two years | Time period | Estimated time before reaching state minimum if current trend continues |
| 20 options | Count | Chess analogy for first move |
| 400 options | Count | Chess analogy for second move |
| Over 5,000 options | Count | Chess analogy for third move |
| 10 Commandments | Count | Analogy in budget-neutral presentation |
| 11th commandment | Count | Analogy about not fooling oneself |
| $50 wheel tax | Dollar amount | Possible revenue idea |
| About $1 million | Dollar amount | Possible revenue from $50 wheel tax |
| 70 to 72 cents | Rate | Estimated maintenance of effort increase needed to fill $6 million gap |
| 10 days | Time period | Possible response period if county commission rejects budget |
| 30 minutes | Time period | Time described for calling the special meeting |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vivsNUAN3So
HCBOE May 21st, 2026 Special Called Board Meeting
10:1110 minutes, 11 secondsYou know, you go to the
10:1810 minutes, 18 seconds[clears throat]
14:1114 minutes, 11 secondsHere we go. All right.
14:2814 minutes, 28 secondsCall this to order. This is special call meeting and uh have a moment of silence, please.
14:4314 minutes, 43 secondsThank you. Pledge of Allegiance.
14:4814 minutes, 48 secondsI aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under
14:5714 minutes, 57 secondsGod, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
15:0415 minutes, 4 secondsOur agenda for the night. Um, we need a motion to approve the agenda. I'll make a motion we approve the agenda. Second,
15:1215 minutes, 12 secondsI need to take attendance and I'm two seconds, please.
15:1815 minutes, 18 secondsOkay, that's probably I'm sorry. I need to I'm so sorry. Thank you so much.
15:3315 minutes, 33 secondsAnd then Mr. Lane and then Miss Taylor. Second. Correct. Okay. Thank you.
15:4115 minutes, 41 seconds[snorts]
15:4815 minutes, 48 secondsOkay. We have four members. We do have a quorum. We have three out. So, we can
15:5515 minutes, 55 secondshave business. Item five is budget again.
16:0216 minutes, 2 secondsMr. Elkins.
16:0416 minutes, 4 secondsYou want to fly in first to it as or do you want me to?
16:1116 minutes, 11 secondsWe have to be able to go back to the county commission Tuesday with a budget. Uh we've been back twice.
16:2016 minutes, 20 secondsSo, as I say, it's hard to get blood out of turnup, so I don't know what else they want.
16:3816 minutes, 38 secondsBear with me just a moment. We We always have this issue as uh we're trying to get this thing loaded up, don't we?
17:2617 minutes, 26 secondsAll awkward moments of silence that we always have.
17:3117 minutes, 31 secondsMedley wants to sit there and [cough]
18:0918 minutes, 9 secondsUm so what is on the screen is the last approved budget by this board.
18:1818 minutes, 18 secondsUm, it was rejected at the board meeting that we attended on the 11th. May 11th I think was the date.
18:3218 minutes, 32 secondsUm, even though it was uh the recommendation
18:4018 minutes, 40 secondsthat they sent us back with from the meeting on May 7th that we had that they when Miss Dwell presented on May 7th.
18:5018 minutes, 50 secondsThey rejected that one, but sent it back with uh the recommendations for
18:5818 minutes, 58 secondsu sales tax and property tax that were included in this that you approved on May 7th when we had that meeting uh
19:0719 minutes, 7 secondsafter the uh budget committee meeting that night. And so as it was presented
19:1419 minutes, 14 secondsum discussion was had rules um were sus suspended I think voted on to
19:2319 minutes, 23 secondssuspend some of the rules so their chairperson could speak and then from there they rejected this budget and made
19:3319 minutes, 33 secondssome recommendations again uh the recommendation was to that uh 2% There
19:4119 minutes, 41 secondswere a two cent increase and were a little fuzzy but I think it was to
19:4719 minutes, 47 secondslower. So a two cent increase going from two to four. Let me just from four to two.
19:5719 minutes, 57 secondsFrom four to two. Thank you.
20:2320 minutes, 23 secondsAnd if I remember correctly, um I think it was 31 1 0.
20:3320 minutes, 33 secondsUh but I could be wrong on that. Was that what you remembered?
20:3620 minutes, 36 secondsI thought it was just 3100, but maybe it was.
20:4020 minutes, 40 secondsWell, 10,000 is not going to make that big. Yeah.
20:4520 minutes, 45 secondsWe'll go at the lower and uh I think they had talked about
20:5420 minutes, 54 secondsthat being a maintenance of increase effort by somewhere around 6 cents or 6%
21:0221 minutes, 2 secondsversus they had approached 11% on
21:0821 minutes, 8 secondsthe other. So yeah, so that hits us close to that 6%
21:1521 minutes, 15 secondsum that they were discussing. So again, they discussed um but the only
21:2221 minutes, 22 secondsrecommendations that they gave was the two cents and whatever that
21:2921 minutes, 29 secondslocal option sales tax, we'll leave it in there at 3,100 which would increase the maintenance of effort overall um for the year from year to year.
21:4221 minutes, 42 secondsSo, um, from that, um, I don't know if we really started
21:5021 minutes, 50 secondsworking on anything additional. It wasn't stuff that we weren't already planning on working on together and implementing
21:5821 minutes, 58 secondsregardless from an operational standpoint. Um, it's just to add to that, they did also in
22:0622 minutes, 6 secondsthat meeting discuss and seemingly voted on giving us the uh maintenance capital outlay um portion 405,000.
22:1822 minutes, 18 seconds4 to 500,000. Yeah.
22:2122 minutes, 21 secondsHe talked about now he's they that's just this one year though.
22:2522 minutes, 25 secondsHe said now that's Yes. Yes. Yes. But but he said they'll be able to pull he said they would be able to uh they had a fund they could
22:3222 minutes, 32 secondspull that from without rav right that too was discussed in that meeting.
22:4422 minutes, 44 secondsSorry.
22:5122 minutes, 51 secondsSo, how do y'all feel about what what what they countered back? I
22:5822 minutes, 58 secondsmean, what's the any pros positives about it?
23:0323 minutes, 3 secondsUm, it it it's it's difficult to ask me because it for me every penny represents
23:1323 minutes, 13 secondswhat I what I figured as about two positions and that's a very difficult place to be. I already knew we were going to have to cut positions.
23:2123 minutes, 21 secondsuh regardless of what they came back as.
23:2423 minutes, 24 secondsUh that was that's just something that's going to have to happen to write the ship. My predecessor I think kind of postponed some difficult decisions in
23:3223 minutes, 32 secondsthat regard and I understand why because no one wants to do that. That is not a good place to be. Um but we we know
23:4023 minutes, 40 secondswe're at a place now where cutting positions would have to happen anyway.
23:4423 minutes, 44 secondsNo matter what happens with this outcome, it has to happen. um multiple schools um were over in an overage
23:5323 minutes, 53 secondssituation, meaning our VEP TISA gives us um a certain amount based on the number of students in a school. So, we were
24:0224 minutes, 2 secondsgetting funded for a certain amount and then we were paying for sometimes two or three positions over that. And so, we
24:0924 minutes, 9 secondsreally had to look at decreasing some of those positions. So, that was going to have to happen anyway. um when you when
24:1724 minutes, 17 secondsyou when you talk about pennies, you're talking about people ultimately because that's where you are gonna get back, you
24:2524 minutes, 25 secondsknow, we're going to recapture some of those funds that we're I guess what I'm getting at is how we we went there with a budget, right? And you presented it.
24:3524 minutes, 35 secondsYes.
24:3524 minutes, 35 secondsHow much bottom line, how much less is this what they counted? Do y'all know?
24:4124 minutes, 41 secondsDo you know it's Yeah, it's roughly two pennies. So, it's 166,000. Which time?
24:4924 minutes, 49 secondsWhich time? Last one or the time before that? Well, I'm talking about now. Okay.
24:5324 minutes, 53 secondsWe got to we got to we got to get we got to get this budget by two.
24:5724 minutes, 57 secondsOkay. So, again, they recommended what for us to come back with. We from we went from an
25:0425 minutes, 4 secondsoriginal 13 that was presented the board went to eight. So what was presented to the county commission the first time was
25:1225 minutes, 12 seconds8 cents which um um from there they rejected that did a recommendation of 4
25:2025 minutes, 20 secondscents. Um so you all approved the four cents. You approved their recommendation and
25:2825 minutes, 28 seconds[clears throat] then went back and it was presented to them again and they rejected the recommendation and cut it
25:3625 minutes, 36 secondsanother two cents. So, but but but [clears throat] they're saying they give some money back. I'm I'm not that on the 6% increase. Where
25:4525 minutes, 45 secondsdid that come from? that. So, if you go and listen to their conversation
25:5325 minutes, 53 secondsum about sales tax, and there were multiple commissioners
26:0026 minutesthat said that night the same thing that I had been saying for 10 years, that an
26:0926 minutes, 9 secondsincrease in sales tax does not increase the funds that we will get the next year.
26:1726 minutes, 17 secondsin May said that is true. They commented I did not talk during this meeting at
26:2426 minutes, 24 secondsall. Um they made the uh comments that increasing sales
26:3226 minutes, 32 secondstax does not increase revenue for next year because sales tax is not
26:4026 minutes, 40 secondsdependent on the budget. sales tax is solely dependent on where people
26:4726 minutes, 47 secondspurchase and how much they purchase. We get 50% of all local option sales tax
26:5526 minutes, 55 secondsthat happens in the county. So it is an increase in maintenance of effort. So [clears throat] they can increase
27:0127 minutes, 1 secondmaintenance of effort by increasing sales tax but maintenance of effort is a budgeted number. Right.
27:1127 minutes, 11 secondsOkay. And so it just has to be you just have to be budgeted
27:1827 minutes, 18 secondson the local side at or more than what you were budgeted on the local revenue side the prior
27:2727 minutes, 27 secondsyear. It does not necessarily go in and look at what actually occurs. Now there
27:3427 minutes, 34 secondsare some legal aspects if you give revenues that are less than that.
27:4027 minutes, 40 secondsum not per line item but per for the maintenance total amount then then there can be some stipulations and stuff that that get addressed.
27:5127 minutes, 51 secondsUm but as far as meeting maintenance of effort in a budget that is just a number
28:0028 minutesof your budgeted local revenues. And so again, and this is I know I talk very
28:0828 minutes, 8 secondsmonotone and kind of straightforward when I'm talking um uh budget stuff. And
28:1528 minutes, 15 secondsu I made a comment Marcy as Derek and I sat at a uh fiscal conference last week for two days
28:2428 minutes, 24 secondsand I said, "I understand how people feel when I'm talking budgets because we do not make budget numbers exciting."
28:3128 minutes, 31 secondsHopefully I do better in my math classes there that when I teach kids, but when you talk budgets, you're kind of
28:3728 minutes, 37 secondsmonotone than fiscal. So, uh, it's just increasing maintenance of effort is, you
28:4428 minutes, 44 secondsknow, I'm not saying that's not a good thing.
28:4728 minutes, 47 secondsI'm going tell you what they what I was told. So, so by county commissioner yesterday and he was talking about it.
28:5228 minutes, 52 secondsSo, and so and so that still leaves uh the two positions you're saying even with the the I'm still just trying to
29:0229 minutes, 2 secondshow much impact you're saying it's equivalent to two cents.
29:0629 minutes, 6 secondsIt will impact our revenues 100 from the four cents that you sent over there. It will reduce it an
29:1529 minutes, 15 secondsadditional $168,000 from what we sent we went back with. It will reduce those revenues that much.
29:3229 minutes, 32 seconds[clears throat]
29:4629 minutes, 46 secondsNow, keep in mind we do always collect more. The county collects more property
29:5329 minutes, 53 secondstax than what is budgeted each year. We take that into account as we make our estimates on what our actual revenues
30:0230 minutes, 2 secondswill be. But the property tax is budgeted at 93% of the total property tax that's collectible.
30:1230 minutes, 12 secondsRight?
30:1230 minutes, 12 secondsSo generally we'll collect close to that 100%.
30:1830 minutes, 18 secondsUm most of the time that's collectible and then you even get some deferred prior
30:2530 minutes, 25 secondsyear and you can see that we have trustee collection budgeted dollars in there for prior years also. and uh where
30:3430 minutes, 34 secondsthe people may be delinquent and laid on property taxes.
30:4730 minutes, 47 secondsRight now we're set on sales tax. How close are we
30:5430 minutes, 54 secondsto what we supposed to be? the sub amended estimate 2526
31:0031 minutes2 975 against 310. When's the last time we got a report on that? April.
31:0731 minutes, 7 secondsYeah. Um I'm estimating it to be about 3.6. Uh Crystal and I have had discussions.
31:1531 minutes, 15 secondsShe's having a little bit lower at about 3.5 somewhere between 3.4 and 3.6.
31:2231 minutes, 22 secondsUm, again, it's, you know, it's an estimated number as far as that aspect.
31:3431 minutes, 34 secondsWhat I'm afraid of, if we're going to get into cutting and where do we cut and there's places that we can cut? I mean, I can think of
31:4231 minutes, 42 secondssome places right off the top of my head um that need to be considered extra. But
31:4931 minutes, 49 secondswhen we get into uh cutting teachers where we got classes where we start cutting support staff, uh support staff,
31:5731 minutes, 57 secondsaids, nurses, people like this, we're setting ourselves up for fair. Now, luckily we don't have to pay for SRO's
32:0532 minutes, 5 secondsstate pays for that. And actually, when you look at some of these people that do more work, the actual work and help
32:1332 minutes, 13 secondskids, these people in that I'm talking about, it's not as hard as they're protecting the school and the kids are in the school uh for a day-to-day basis
32:2232 minutes, 22 secondsas these other people that are there to help the kids that we had. Um last week we had two people at school, one at
32:3032 minutes, 30 secondselementary, one intermediate school, but nurses had to be there. One lady fell had to car it off an ambulance and another child fell on the floor and had
32:3832 minutes, 38 secondsa concussion or something and lucky the nurse had to be there. If we had dropped from another school like we've had to do
32:4532 minutes, 45 secondsin the past, we're setting ourselves up a lot more than a failure. We're setting ourselves for a
32:5232 minutes, 52 secondslawsuit. We're not providing a protection. And that's the thing I think two things we ought to do is safety and security of our kids.
33:0133 minutes, 1 secondeverything else stay. So, and we're gonna figure out who could cut his, you know, her business, not ours.
33:1033 minutes, 10 secondsWe just have to approve of the budget.
33:1233 minutes, 12 secondsAnd uh so was is there any there's is there any new positions in this budget?
33:2333 minutes, 23 secondsNot that I can think of. Not aware of. No.
33:3633 minutes, 36 secondsBut we're going out of money in a couple more years. Yeah.
33:4133 minutes, 41 secondsWell, and we've been talking about that for a while. And even even at this two
33:4733 minutes, 47 secondscents and even if when we presented the 13 cents, um we we had discussions
33:5733 minutes, 57 secondsabout ultimately the need to look at reducing
34:0334 minutes, 3 secondsstaff as we had the ability to do it. Um and that's just some of that's logical.
34:1234 minutes, 12 secondsUm, and the problem is, and we don't, we try not to mention it too much in meetings, but we're to the point now
34:1934 minutes, 19 secondsthat you have to mention it in meetings because when you do mention it, the one thing I am acutely aware of,
34:2834 minutes, 28 secondsuh, as these things are broadcast, there's good and bad about things being broadcast, but that
34:3734 minutes, 37 secondsour words can cause people to panic.
34:4534 minutes, 45 secondsAnd so those words have to be chosen in a way
34:5334 minutes, 53 secondsthat tries not to create that. We have never hidden from the board uh or the county
35:0335 minutes, 3 secondscommission about us looking at the ability to reduce positions. We've
35:1035 minutes, 10 secondstalked about it numerous times for the last four years that we would do it with
35:1635 minutes, 16 secondsattrition when we could, but if revenues
35:2335 minutes, 23 secondsdid not improve that we would there would come a time that we would have to do it without attrition.
35:3235 minutes, 32 secondsUm, so I know I'm not the best at explaining things evidently because I can hear
35:4135 minutes, 41 secondspeople finally start saying things that I've been saying for six years in a in a meeting in relation to sales tax and
35:4935 minutes, 49 secondsproperty tax and all that. But um, those are things that we have discussed and
35:5535 minutes, 55 secondsbeen working on. um been preparing our staff and our princ our principles for
36:0436 minutes, 4 secondsuh the last several years have been discussing it with the board the last several years. We always said we hoped we could do it through attrition and
36:1236 minutes, 12 secondsaddress it that way. uh [clears throat] additional revenues
36:1936 minutes, 19 secondshelps to alleviate some of that, but it still doesn't mean in the long term that we do not need to be looking at that
36:2736 minutes, 27 secondsbecause we do because that that's going to be a school system's highest cost is
36:3336 minutes, 33 secondspersonnel. And we have the board when I say we not not me but the board and I'm
36:4036 minutes, 40 secondsnot I'm actually giving a positive here the board has over the last several
36:4736 minutes, 47 secondsyears said we need to pay our people more. Now we had the legislature through the aspect of the teachers but
36:5636 minutes, 56 secondseven before that if you remember six and seven years ago you all were addressing the issues of our teacher pay. We you
37:0437 minutes, 4 secondsall also addressed aggressively the pay of our support people. Uh and rightfully so.
37:1537 minutes, 15 secondsUm but [clears throat] all of those things end up becoming they build and they
37:2337 minutes, 23 secondscontinue to build and so they end up at some point [snorts] in time if the revenues are not supporting those the
37:3037 minutes, 30 secondsdirection you have to go is in staff reduction whether it's through attrition
37:3737 minutes, 37 secondsor um through decision
37:4537 minutes, 45 secondsWhen the new high school was built and opened up to us, we were up on our roofs.
37:5337 minutes, 53 secondsWe replaced every roof up to that point.
37:5537 minutes, 55 secondsPlus, now we're seeing 20 years later, we're seeing roofs start to deteriorate. The board replaced
38:0338 minutes, 3 secondsthe one at the gym at the East High School. Had to do that. And I say this is going to be an ongoing thing. And I
38:1138 minutes, 11 secondsdon't think they understand that. When I came on board first time, the county paid for buses. They paid for our roots.
38:1838 minutes, 18 secondsThey paid for any maintenance issue with big me issues. All that was covered until the BEP rolled around and they backed up and said, "No, no, we don't
38:2738 minutes, 27 secondshave to pay for this anymore." And so we've been paying for it ever since. Um, so that's costed. They don't understand
38:3438 minutes, 34 secondsthat in 2020 the bus cost $92,000. The same bus today is $147,000.
38:4038 minutes, 40 secondsActually, we figured a budget out last year. How much sure are we going to be on diesel fuel for this year? We weren't expecting that. Yeah.
38:4738 minutes, 47 secondsGas prices and all that hits us at the wrong time.
38:5238 minutes, 52 secondsSo, just I said we just can't take a keep getting hit.
39:0339 minutes, 3 secondsAnd when you have a decrease of students, that's the big one. That's even less money. Yeah.
39:0939 minutes, 9 secondsSo about five or 600 children times at least7,000. So you're talking about $4 million approximately right there. So I
39:1739 minutes, 17 secondsmean that was part of our plan couple years ago was to try to u Mr. Mullins first got here. We was
39:2439 minutes, 24 secondstrying to do something to get more students to bring some of those back into the school system. That was part of the plan
39:3139 minutes, 31 secondsto grow the grow revenue and and to grow CTE. We've done that successfully with the middle school program, but right now
39:4039 minutes, 40 secondswe have this before us budget. And so, uh,
39:4639 minutes, 46 secondsone of the commissioners, um, approached me about with the two cents and plus capital projects. And the way they
39:5539 minutes, 55 secondsfigured it was, well, if you multiply the, you know, whatever each penny is 80 what? 83 83
40:0340 minutes, 3 seconds969. And then you so that it's one you know 60 something and then if you take the 400 and something,000 for capital
40:1340 minutes, 13 secondsprojects if you add that all together according you know it's about seven cents like moneywise total which I know
40:2140 minutes, 21 secondsthe capital projects doesn't go toward the budget so that's but it but it used to we always had since I've been here we had project but
40:3040 minutes, 30 secondsI think they don't understand cuz Like originally when we brought it to the commission it was 8 cents and
40:3840 minutes, 38 secondsthat was with no capital projects and so um then they think well with two cents
40:4540 minutes, 45 secondsplus capital projects moneywise that's about seven cents right yeah I'll disagree with you a little bit
40:5240 minutes, 52 secondswe did present the capital list with with the 8 to to to you all actually we presented
41:0141 minutes, 1 secondit with the 13 cent cents. We did not include the capital in the budget because even with the 13 cents, we were
41:1041 minutes, 10 secondsstill projecting to run Oh, yeah.
41:1241 minutes, 12 secondsa deficit. But we presented that list uh and at that first meeting
41:1941 minutes, 19 secondsum because we did we weren't sure on the East Hickman High School gym floor and the cost on that. We just completely
41:2741 minutes, 27 secondspulled it out and focused on that $435,000 worth of items which and and just for the folks at
41:3541 minutes, 35 secondsstate that's two tennis court the tennis courts at both ends of the county to be resurfaced. Right. plus a roof, I
41:4241 minutes, 42 secondsthink, and these two intermediate in the intermediate playground fences. Yeah.
41:5041 minutes, 50 secondsSo, I'm just I'm just saying that that's what they approached me about. Like, so if you add the 400 and some odd thousand
41:5741 minutes, 57 secondsplus the one, you know, that it comes up to about what seven cents would be.
42:0342 minutes, 3 secondsSo, you know, I mean, I get that justification. It's just that we wanted [snorts] 8 cents plus. [laughter]
42:1042 minutes, 10 secondsYeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get that, too. That's what I was just kind of um putting it out there.
42:1842 minutes, 18 secondsExactly. Exactly.
42:2042 minutes, 20 secondsPutting it out there for like people that Yes. Yeah. You know, have heard that and well, it's only, you know, that ascent different. Well, really, it's
42:2842 minutes, 28 secondsnot, you know, it's it's that plus whatever.
42:3442 minutes, 34 secondsWell, y'all been interacting with the commissioners and and do you and we've talked to some and so do we feel like
42:4342 minutes, 43 secondsthat uh they're going to do anything differently? The person I talked to yesterday,
42:4942 minutes, 49 secondsuh commissioner, he he he said the last offer he made, he said he
42:5642 minutes, 56 secondsbelieved that's the one he's going to be able to get eight votes for. So, do y'all believe we can what what do we can change anybody's mind or?
43:0743 minutes, 7 secondsWell, at this point, [clears throat] I think we have to go to the community. I think we have to spend the next year. We take this year. I agree with you.
43:1543 minutes, 15 secondsAnd, you know, considering it's an election year, people don't want to do a vote in these
43:2343 minutes, 23 secondsguys aren't want to vote a significant tax increase during a t election year.
43:2843 minutes, 28 secondsSo, I think we take what we can get this year and spend the next year.
43:3343 minutes, 33 secondsI'd like to jump on the board if I can and explain to the community where we're at.
43:3843 minutes, 38 secondsWhat is it going to take for us to get to budget neutral? Is it now a good time for me to do that?
43:4443 minutes, 44 secondsWell, you well we're going to take if we're going to I say we ought to vote on this maybe first if we're going to
43:5243 minutes, 52 secondsalready you've already stated that uh and I agree with you that we take what we got and then big and put
44:0044 minutesa program or something in place for next year. But I I'll make a I'll make a motion we we accept the budget at the two cents.
44:1244 minutes, 12 secondsHave a motion accept the budget as two cents plus how much capital?
44:1844 minutes, 18 secondsIt was 405,000 5,000 or or well we need a second.
44:2844 minutes, 28 secondsCan I discuss?
44:2944 minutes, 29 secondsYeah, we just get a second then we can discuss. Okay, we get a second. We get a second.
44:3844 minutes, 38 secondsSo what are the what is the other option if we accept this? We don't accept it. I mean what other choice do we have? Probably not. Yeah.
44:4644 minutes, 46 secondsWell, I think the the So somebody made a statement earlier that I was unaware of that the capital projects would be funded from a different bucket, not a tax increase.
44:5644 minutes, 56 secondsRight. I said that.
44:5744 minutes, 57 secondsThat was you. Okay. So that that adds a little different twist to it that the county commissioners can come and say, "Hey, we're not paying extra $400,000
45:0645 minutes, 6 secondscapital projects from a tax increase." That's coming from a separate bucket. So really, we're only talking about a two cent tax increase.
45:1445 minutes, 14 secondsWow.
45:1545 minutes, 15 secondsSo I I'm almost to the point where we say 4, ask for 4 cents plus the capital projects. If the capital projects aren't
45:2245 minutes, 22 secondsgoing to be a tax increase, I mean, every it's still not going to get us budget neutral. It's still not going to get us close to budget neutral,
45:3045 minutes, 30 secondsbut it at this point we're we we have to get every funding we can.
45:3645 minutes, 36 secondsSo, you think if we go with four and that we did
45:4545 minutes, 45 secondsthey came down. I mean, so you think we go back in at four, they're going to change their mind?
45:5145 minutes, 51 secondsWell, I think if I if I can break it down on the board to let the community know and let them outreach to their county commissioners that we are so far
45:5945 minutes, 59 secondsaway from a budget neutral scenario that two cents, four cents, who cares? We're not even close.
46:0546 minutes, 5 secondsMr. Hobs, we have a motion on the floor right now. Do I I do I need a second to it prior to discussion? Second to continue.
46:1246 minutes, 12 secondsOkay. So the motion currently is motion to accept the FY27 budget at 2 cents with a 405 uh is that right 45,000.
46:2346 minutes, 23 secondsOkay. Capital outlay. And so I have a motion made by Mr. Lane and I would need a second and then discussion could occur.
46:3246 minutes, 32 secondsWe haven't yet. So that's that's proper way to do it. You get a second then you have a we and we don't. But what do you do in silence if nobody seconds?
46:4246 minutes, 42 secondsMotion dies. The motion dies.
46:4446 minutes, 44 secondsThen we go back to whatever you go back to bring up another.
46:4846 minutes, 48 secondsNo second then. Well, I go back to So that motion failed, right? Like a second now.
46:5846 minutes, 58 secondsSo I mean I mean at this point like I was saying it's so I mean I can't I mean you don't have a
47:0747 minutes, 7 secondsmotion before or do you want to but we got to have this budget. Right. This is an emergency meeting. Right.
47:1647 minutes, 16 secondsRight.
47:1647 minutes, 16 secondsRight. And so we got to have it for when Tuesday.
47:1947 minutes, 19 secondsTuesday. Right. Tuesday. We got to have a budget with and so but go ahead. I mean [laughter]
47:2847 minutes, 28 secondsI mean this buddy I'm just saying we went with four didn't we?
47:3347 minutes, 33 secondsWe did and they knocked it out.
47:3547 minutes, 35 secondsSo I'm just asking you do you think if we go back with forward if they're going to accept four or do you think they're
47:4247 minutes, 42 secondsgoing to push it out again? Then what happens? Am I I wish I could tell the future, but I'm saying we have to reconvene and
47:5047 minutes, 50 secondsthen Well, here here's why I'm saying that because originally we went with eight with capital projects. They kicked it
47:5747 minutes, 57 secondsback consider four with a lower um sales tax revenue. Okay. Well, they kicked it
48:0548 minutes, 5 secondsback with four and lower sales tax revenue. We accepted what they told us to go back and look at. We accepted it, went back to them and they still
48:1348 minutes, 13 secondsrejected their own recommendation. They rejected their own recommendation.
48:1848 minutes, 18 secondsBut I think they wanted to give you the two through sales. They they come back with an increase in sales tax the two, didn't it?
48:2548 minutes, 25 secondsNo, they wanted to lower the because they didn't want to raise their maintenance of effort.
48:2848 minutes, 28 secondsRight. I understand what I'm talking about dollars. What we're going to wind up with. I mean, I know it's not going to be it's not ideal and it's not the
48:3648 minutes, 36 secondsit's it's not it's not really the budgeted number, the sales tax, but they in in their mind, they feel like they give you that they kind of brought it up
48:4548 minutes, 45 secondsto four, but they they took two of it and put it in sales tax. I think that's what they I wasn't there. That's what I heard yesterday.
48:5248 minutes, 52 secondsWell, I mean, if they look at the what Walmart just forecasted for the rest of the year, I don't think we can bank on sales tax. Walmart's forecast came in
49:0049 minuteslow with what's going on and so we're setting oursel up for failure if we bank on that.
49:0749 minutes, 7 secondsYeah, there's people not getting out buying stuff.
49:1049 minutes, 10 secondsNo, I'm not a lot of people Mr.
49:1849 minutes, 18 seconds[laughter]
49:2049 minutes, 20 secondsin the past. Uh I will answer questions but I'm not going to fight away 12 back 10 cents for where we used to be.
49:3049 minutes, 30 secondsYeah. I mean I can go along with two two four.
49:3849 minutes, 38 secondsI mean we're still not close to where we need to be.
49:4049 minutes, 40 secondsSo we're you know it's a it's a piece of bubble gum on a big hole in the dam.
49:5049 minutes, 50 secondsDo you have another motion on the floor for anything else? Increase it.
49:5949 minutes, 59 secondsAll right. Motion we increase it to 4 cents. Bless that. I'll second that motion. Have a motion. Second.
50:0850 minutes, 8 secondsVote.
50:1150 minutes, 11 secondsMotion to increase to 4 cents with the current capital outlay 405. Right. Right.
50:2550 minutes, 25 secondsAnd Mr. Hobs with Mr. Tidwell. Correct. Correct.
50:3250 minutes, 32 secondsOkay. Miss Taylor. Yes. Mr. Tidwell. Yes. Mr. Hobs. Yes. Mr. Lane.
50:4050 minutes, 40 secondsYes. Miss May. Yes.
50:5150 minutes, 51 secondsCan we have some discussion now?
50:5350 minutes, 53 seconds[laughter]
50:5550 minutes, 55 secondsWe could have had it after. We could have had it after the second. [laughter] Okay. So, guy. Yes.
51:0351 minutes, 3 secondsI said I would say but need to interject. Um,
51:1051 minutes, 10 secondsyou need to set what local options sales tax dollars you want to go back
51:1951 minutes, 19 secondsbecause the original budget that we not the original the budget that
51:2851 minutes, 28 secondswe had we had 3.3 million in sales tax.
51:3451 minutes, 34 secondsSo, but from what we remember from their suggestion with lowering the two cents
51:4151 minutes, 41 secondsdown and also the sales tax down lower it to 3.1. You can do that later,
51:4951 minutes, 49 secondsbut the only thing that would change right now actually would be nothing from what we
51:5751 minutes, 57 secondsoriginally presented on the 11th because the only thing you changed is property tax.
52:0552 minutes, 5 secondsWell, you didn't change it. You left it at 4 cents. Does that make sense?
52:1752 minutes, 17 secondsNow you don't have to do that right now.
52:2052 minutes, 20 secondsYou can do that later. I'm just let it stop. All right. Presentation.
52:2552 minutes, 25 secondsWhat does that do to the 6% that they said that they in essence they added to maintenance of efforts? This it won't be
52:3352 minutes, 33 secondsin the four cents, will it? So if you if you go to the 3.1 I keep forgetting to
52:4152 minutes, 41 secondsadd one more zero in there for that. And then if you go back to the 4 cents
52:5252 minutes, 52 secondswhich becomes 31 74 is that 849 89.
53:0053 minutesThank you.
53:1353 minutes, 13 secondsThat puts maintenance of effort increase at about 8.28%.
53:2253 minutes, 22 secondsOkay.
53:2553 minutes, 25 secondsWait, go ahead. Okay. So, I mean, I guess everyone's aware we're we're at a
53:3353 minutes, 33 secondscrossroads, right? So, we as a community, we have to come together. We have to let our representatives know.
53:4153 minutes, 41 secondsThey have to come together and we have to work oursel out of this. We're not unique. A lot of counties are facing this. Um, but a lot of counties are also
53:4953 minutes, 49 secondsstepping up to the plate. And so we have to step up to the plate as well and and work oursel out of what we got ourself
53:5753 minutes, 57 secondsinto um or where we find oursel. So and before I start, I'm here to present what
54:0654 minutes, 6 secondsa budgetneutral scenario would look like. Okay, what does that mean? What does a budget neutral scenario look like? That means we're not putting money
54:1354 minutes, 13 secondsin the bank, but we're also not eating into our savings. Okay. What is it? What is I'm going to look at it just like our
54:2054 minutes, 20 secondshousehold income, our household uh uh budgets. Okay. What's it going to take to balance my budget at home? Okay. I'm about to show that what would take for
54:2854 minutes, 28 secondsschool just because we throw out terms that a community people may not [clears throat] four cents this cent pennies and not let's take terms that
54:3754 minutes, 37 secondspeople may not know and may not understand. So, I'm going to try to break it down as as concretely and as succinctly as possible. That way you guys can grasp it and have a
54:4654 minutes, 46 secondsconversation piece with your with your elected representative, with your county commissioner, or even with us. Okay? Our budget our budgeted items are here. If
54:5454 minutes, 54 secondsanybody has any questions on our budgeted items, we're here happy to discuss it with you. There's nothing to hide in here. Okay? It's public information. Okay? I just think that
55:0255 minutes, 2 secondsthere's a disconnect between communication, us communicating to the community, us communicating with the the county commission and the community
55:1055 minutes, 10 secondscommunicating with the county commission. Okay. So, the first thing I want to show is something that the TSBA, Tennessee School Board Association,
55:1855 minutes, 18 secondsyes, put they they recently sent out an email and did some research in Tennessee and just the average county gets 40 almost
55:2655 minutes, 26 seconds40% of their budget coming from local government. Okay? Whereas we this this chart right here shows where Higma
55:3455 minutes, 34 secondsCounty is and we're floating somewhere between 16 and 18% through the years. So we're below half of what the average county gets from local funding. Okay.
55:4755 minutes, 47 secondsKind of shows you where we're at in in the grand scheme of things of Tennessee. We're in the bottom 25% of counties.
55:5355 minutes, 53 secondsThe bottom 25% percent of counties. Okay. So, and
56:0156 minutes, 1 secondI know this is shown online, so I just wanted to dispel anything. I have nothing to gain for being here. Okay.
56:0756 minutes, 7 secondsWhatever we get paid, I donated it back to the school. I don't get insurance. I have no relatives here. I I have nothing to gain. I'm here for the people, for my kids.
56:1656 minutes, 16 secondsOkay. I went I came through a couple years ago with my son who Miss Anderson knows and I started seeing a a little bit behind the curtain.
56:2656 minutes, 26 secondsUh I saw a lot of the struggles that was was specifically with special ed and stuff that was going on and I knew I couldn't sit idly by. Okay. The only
56:3456 minutes, 34 secondsthing I have to gain from this is a headache. Okay. And I've got one. So, and I'm okay with that. If that's going to make a change, I'm okay with that.
56:4156 minutes, 41 secondsOkay. So, there's really nothing else to gain from this job. Okay. So, here's our house. Let me let me draw better than that. I'm not an artist, by the way.
56:5356 minutes, 53 secondsYou guys can come around if you guys want to see the front of the board. And by the way, you guys speak up at any moment. I don't want to be up here doing the lecture.
57:0157 minutes, 1 secondOkay. So, here we have our house, Pigman County. Okay. Just like any house
57:0957 minutes, 9 secondshousehold, you have money coming in, you have money going out. Okay, I just I'm just going to talk about our original budget. Okay, those are the numbers I've
57:1757 minutes, 17 secondsrun. So, the proposed number of dollars coming in is about 32.5
57:2357 minutes, 23 secondsmillion. Okay, I'm talking concepts, big numbers here. I'm not getting down to the pennies or the thousands or even the
57:3157 minutes, 31 secondstens of thousands. I'm talking big dollars here. Okay, we're not doing exact math here. So, our revenues are projected to be about $32.5 million this
57:4057 minutes, 40 secondsyear. Okay? Whereas our expenditures are estimated to be around 38.5 million.
57:4857 minutes, 48 secondsAnd if you can't tell, I have terrible handwriting, too. So, if you can't read something, let me know. Is that clear on the camera? Can we see if we're good
57:5657 minutes, 56 secondswith that? Okay. So, what does that come out to be? Okay, that delta
58:0358 minutes, 3 secondsis about a negative $6 million. Okay, roughly a $6 million deficit that that
58:1058 minutes, 10 secondswe're projected at. Okay, and oh, by the way, if you go back and look at our from our meeting at the high school in the last since we started doing the
58:1758 minutes, 17 secondsmandatory pay raises and uh increases, what was that number that that cost us since those started implementing?
58:2458 minutes, 24 secondsRoughly about $6 million is what we estimated at. Yeah, probably.
58:3158 minutes, 31 secondsIt was somewhere around $6 million. So, basically, you see, you see this number almost reflecting exactly the amount of payraises that
58:3958 minutes, 39 secondswe've had to give that were statemandated.
58:4258 minutes, 42 secondsOkay, there is no coincidence there that our expenditures have gone up by 6 million, but our funding hasn't matched.
58:4858 minutes, 48 secondsOkay, so keep that in mind. Has a delta of $6 million. Ah, thank you.
58:5458 minutes, 54 secondsOkay. So in that budgeted revenue, we could also increase our forecast for sales tax.
59:0459 minutes, 4 secondsOkay, which would increase our revenue.
59:0559 minutes, 5 secondsSo if we went from roughly 3 million to roughly 3.6 million, that would add6 million.
59:1359 minutes, 13 secondsOkay. Now, if we go in and add uh what was it? 4 cents.
59:2059 minutes, 20 secondsThat's sales tax.
59:2459 minutes, 24 secondsSo if we go in and add 4 cents, that's what 35 million.
59:2959 minutes, 29 secondsThat's at 4 cents that that we're asking for.
59:3459 minutes, 34 secondsOkay. Where does that take us? That takes us to $33.5 million of revenue. Okay.
59:4459 minutes, 44 secondsBut the other side of the equation is is where can we cut to bring that back closer to budget neutral? Okay. If we cut out 10% which is 3.85, we'll call it 4 million for easy math.
59:5759 minutes, 57 secondsIf we cut out 10%.
1:00:011 hour, 1 secondTake that out. And I don't want to hear the gasps. Okay. If we close two schools,
1:00:101 hour, 10 secondsokay, again, I'm showing you just one of many scenarios that we could do to get to budget neutral, that would save us around one to $1.2 million.
1:00:251 hour, 25 secondsOkay. And where does that bring us out to?
1:00:291 hour, 29 secondsThat brings us out to, if I can find my paper, 33.3
1:00:381 hour, 38 secondsmillion. Okay, pretty close, right? We're actually running in this scenario, we're running about $200,000 surplus.
1:00:471 hour, 47 secondsBut we have in this number right here, we have no capital projects in here,
1:00:561 hour, 56 secondswhich from history, we're somewhere around 3/4 to a million dollars a year in capital projects.
1:01:021 hour, 1 minute, 2 secondsSo, we're still net negative once we start adding in capital projects.
1:01:071 hour, 1 minute, 7 secondsOkay? So if we take this 38.5 million budget and we break that down, what's
1:01:161 hour, 1 minute, 16 secondsthat consist of? Okay, about 70 to 75% of it about 27 to 29 million.
1:01:261 hour, 1 minute, 26 secondsIs this getting too messy? Do I need to read? Is that getting too messy? You're doing great. It's okay. It looks good. It's like an infographic. It's great.
1:01:341 hour, 1 minute, 34 secondsSo this 20 this 27 million or 27 to 29 million is 70 to 75% of our budget is is paying personnel.
1:01:441 hour, 1 minute, 44 secondsOkay. Operating costs are roughly 11 12 to 9 12 million.
1:01:531 hour, 1 minute, 53 secondsOkay. 25 to to 30% of our budget is that. So, if we're running a a deficit, $1 to2 million deficit, or we're having
1:02:011 hour, 2 minutes, 1 secondto cut this $4 million, where's that going to come out of? This bucket or this bucket?
1:02:081 hour, 2 minutes, 8 secondsOkay, you can't really cut operation costs. Okay, you can't cut electricity bills. [clears throat] You you can't
1:02:161 hour, 2 minutes, 16 secondscut, you know, heating bills. You can't cut some of these other textbooks.
1:02:211 hour, 2 minutes, 21 secondsThose are almost fixed costs. This is the bucket that's going to have to come out of is the jobs.
1:02:271 hour, 2 minutes, 27 secondsAnd that's even after closing two schools.
1:02:311 hour, 2 minutes, 31 secondsThat that's where we're at. Okay. The people have to know that that's where we're at. Okay. So, we as a school board, what what can we control? We can only control these two things.
1:02:431 hour, 2 minutes, 43 secondsWe can only control cutting jobs and closing schools.
1:02:481 hour, 2 minutes, 48 secondsOkay. We cannot control sales tax. Well, we can't kind of can. Anything you buy, buy online. So, we get the sales tax
1:02:561 hour, 2 minutes, 56 secondsrevenue. Okay. Everybody watching, local, shop local. Absolutely. Shop local. Buy Amazon. Buy Walmart online. Have it
1:03:031 hour, 3 minutes, 3 secondsdelivered to your house. We get the sales tax dollars. Okay. Other than that, we can't control sales tax dollars. We have no control over revenue. We have no control over Tissa.
1:03:121 hour, 3 minutes, 12 secondsOkay. We have no control over the 4 cent property tax. They may kick it back. We may get two. We may get none. Okay? But
1:03:191 hour, 3 minutes, 19 secondsthis is hopefully they get four cents or hope hoping we get four cents. Okay. So that is a I meant to use red. I asked for red mark. You're doing great.
1:03:291 hour, 3 minutes, 29 secondsI got in the zone. Show red. 6 million in the red. Okay. So we are still there with no capital projects.
1:03:381 hour, 3 minutes, 38 secondsOkay. So what why does that matter? Well, the other thing I wanted to show
1:03:491 hour, 3 minutes, 49 secondswas our bank account. Okay.
1:03:561 hour, 3 minutes, 56 secondsSo, in our bank account, the operational dollars now, the dollars we can actually use is that's those are the numbers I'm going to talk about.
1:04:091 hour, 4 minutes, 9 secondsOkay. So in 23 to 24 we had about $9.7 mill6 million in our account.
1:04:201 hour, 4 minutes, 20 secondsOkay.
1:04:221 hour, 4 minutes, 22 secondsIn 2425 we ended up with 9.57 million.
1:04:321 hour, 4 minutes, 32 secondsOkay. We took a little bit of a fund hit that year. From what I understand there was a little bit of esser fund still available. softened the blow.
1:04:411 hour, 4 minutes, 41 secondsOkay. Now extra funds might be good to call it. That's co Yeah. CO money. Yeah. Yeah.
1:04:481 hour, 4 minutes, 48 secondsOkay. So 2526 we are at about $8.29 million.
1:04:581 hour, 4 minutes, 58 secondsSo you can see from 24 to 20 2425 to 2526 we hit our fund balance pretty good.
1:05:061 hour, 5 minutes, 6 secondsAlmost $1.3 million.
1:05:081 hour, 5 minutes, 8 secondsOkay. So, this right here is the number that we're really focused on. Okay. So,
1:05:181 hour, 5 minutes, 18 secondsMr. Mike went to a conference this Tennessee comproller conference this week and they actually by chance gave
1:05:251 hour, 5 minutes, 25 secondsout recommendations on what your balance what they recommend for balances to be. Right.
1:05:311 hour, 5 minutes, 31 secondsSo, we as a school system are mandated to have a minimum balance here. What is that minimum balance? The minimum is 3% of your budget,
1:05:391 hour, 5 minutes, 39 secondswhich Can you do that math for me real quick?
1:05:411 hour, 5 minutes, 41 secondsIt's about 1.2 billion, something like that. 1.2.
1:05:451 hour, 5 minutes, 45 secondsYeah, it's somewhere around there. Just approximately.
1:05:481 hour, 5 minutes, 48 secondsOkay. Yeah, we're working approximate numbers, right?
1:05:501 hour, 5 minutes, 50 secondsYeah, we're working on approximate numbers. You can go with that. If it's something different, I'll let you know.
1:05:571 hour, 5 minutes, 57 secondsSo, we have to keep by law $1.2 million in the bank. Okay. But the controllers's
1:06:041 hour, 6 minutes, 4 secondsoffice recommends at a minimum two months operating costs. Okay, two months
1:06:131 hour, 6 minutes, 13 secondsmin recommendation. And for us that's about 3.7 million
1:06:211 hour, 6 minutes, 21 secondsdollars. Two months minimum. They said in a perfect world kind of goes back to Dave Ramsey 4 to6 million or 4 to 6
1:06:291 hour, 6 minutes, 29 secondsmonths of operating cost. So you'd basically take that number and double it. be what? Uh set a little over seven.
1:06:361 hour, 6 minutes, 36 seconds4 months is about 7 million and 6 months multiply that by 3 is 9 10.4
1:06:451 hour, 6 minutes, 45 seconds10.4 million something like that. So the controllers's office recommends a minimum balance of 3.7.
1:06:541 hour, 6 minutes, 54 secondsOkay. They really would like to see it between seven and 10 $10 million for us.
1:06:591 hour, 6 minutes, 59 secondsAnd so we're approaching the four months right now. You're not correct. Huh? Two months is 6.3 million.
1:07:071 hour, 7 minutes, 7 seconds6.3. Oh, yeah. It is 3.7 a month.
1:07:111 hour, 7 minutes, 11 secondsI'm sorry. I about to say that didn't look right, did it?
1:07:151 hour, 7 minutes, 15 secondsThank you. I always, like I always say, I always like to reserve the right to be wrong.
1:07:211 hour, 7 minutes, 21 secondsThat's what I say all. [laughter] And so, so two months is 6 point what?
1:07:301 hour, 7 minutes, 30 seconds6.3. Okay.
1:07:321 hour, 7 minutes, 32 secondsSo now multiply that by two, you're at 12.6.
1:07:371 hour, 7 minutes, 37 secondsYou multiply that by two, so you're at, you know, 25 million.
1:07:431 hour, 7 minutes, 43 secondsSo we're approaching the absolute minimum number that the comproller's office recommends.
1:07:511 hour, 7 minutes, 51 secondsOkay. So once we get down to this number, which honestly if we keep going at the
1:07:581 hour, 7 minutes, 58 secondsrate we're going, that's two years out, right?
1:08:011 hour, 8 minutes, 1 secondIf we get to the state minimum, guess what? Something happens that none of us in this room and none of us online won't want to happen. The state's going to step in.
1:08:111 hour, 8 minutes, 11 secondsThe state's going to step in to start telling us how to handle our business.
1:08:141 hour, 8 minutes, 14 secondsOkay? There it doesn't matter who's on the county commission. It doesn't matter who our county mayor is. It doesn't matter who's sitting in these seats, okay? They're gonna come in. They're
1:08:221 hour, 8 minutes, 22 secondsgoing to set the tax rate, okay? They're going to tell us how to run our schools, okay? Nobody in this room wants that.
1:08:291 hour, 8 minutes, 29 secondsKen, did you ever contact the the the gentleman at the state about what would happen the the procedures that goes through?
1:08:361 hour, 8 minutes, 36 secondsNot yet. I haven't been able to catch him. Okay.
1:08:401 hour, 8 minutes, 40 secondsSo, that that's where we're at here. I I'm hoping this paints a little bit clearer picture of where we're at and how we get the budget neutral and how
1:08:481 hour, 8 minutes, 48 secondshard how steep the hill is. Okay? You know, we you know, sequencing of events is important, right? It's like in chess.
1:08:591 hour, 8 minutes, 59 secondsSo, in chess, the very first move, you have 20 options.
1:09:031 hour, 9 minutes, 3 secondsOkay? In your second move, you have 400 options. Okay? In your third move, you have over 5,000 options. So, it's really
1:09:111 hour, 9 minutes, 11 secondsimportant getting those first two options down path. Okay? We got to boil it down. We got to keep the important thing. The important thing, the important thing is to get in the budget neutral.
1:09:201 hour, 9 minutes, 20 secondsOkay. Now, I will say that I've been blessed to have mentors in my life and my mentor once told me they said,
1:09:281 hour, 9 minutes, 28 seconds"Brandon, if you ever set out to do anything, you know, God gave us ten commandments." Okay? God gave us 10. And
1:09:351 hour, 9 minutes, 35 secondsthis is not to mean be heretical in any way, form, or fashion, but he said if you're sent out to do anything, you need to have an 11th commandment. And that
1:09:421 hour, 9 minutes, 42 seconds11th commandment is, "Thou shalt not foolth." Okay, that's a fancy way of saying you set out the set a you set out a goal for
1:09:511 hour, 9 minutes, 51 secondsyourself. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're going to achieve that goal when you're not working towards that goal.
1:09:561 hour, 9 minutes, 56 secondsOkay, this is our goal. It's a budget neutral scenario. Let's not fool ourselves to thinking it's just going to happen if we close our eyes and put our
1:10:031 hour, 10 minutes, 3 secondshead in the sand. Okay, there's a lot of work to do, a lot of hard decisions to be made, okay, on our side and on the
1:10:111 hour, 10 minutes, 11 secondscounty commission side. But I hope this paints a little clearer picture on on where we're at. Any anybody have any questions?
1:10:171 hour, 10 minutes, 17 secondsI think you did a great job.
1:10:201 hour, 10 minutes, 20 secondsDid I miss anything? Let me see if I missed anything.
1:10:271 hour, 10 minutes, 27 secondsWhat's the solution, Ray? [laughter] Well, I mean, so I mean, there's there's a lot of scenarios in here. We could we
1:10:351 hour, 10 minutes, 35 secondscould say, okay, what if they throw in a $50 wheel tax? Okay, a $50 wheel tax would put another million here.
1:10:461 hour, 10 minutes, 46 secondsOkay, a million goes a long way. What if we get a lot of kids online? Okay, get a lot more kids online. That adds money down here, too.
1:10:561 hour, 10 minutes, 56 secondsOkay, I'm I I can't I don't know all the ways that we can generate money, but I mean there I don't know what what tools
1:11:041 hour, 11 minutes, 4 secondsthe county commission has at their disposal, but I mean there are ways to to do it, but it's not going to be fun getting there.
1:11:111 hour, 11 minutes, 11 secondsJust thinking about that 6 million. I just figured I think that would be approximately 70 or 72 cents we'd have
1:11:191 hour, 11 minutes, 19 secondsto get from added to our maintenance. It had to be maintenance ever because it's every year.
1:11:261 hour, 11 minutes, 26 secondsYeah, that's that that's what you're talking about. And we're debating about 4 cents and 2 cents.
1:11:321 hour, 11 minutes, 32 secondsAnd so I mean peanuts [clears throat] at this point, but I'm just saying it would be 70 or 72
1:11:401 hour, 11 minutes, 40 secondscents to fill that gap at the current rate if I'm not mistaken. Yeah.
1:11:451 hour, 11 minutes, 45 secondsAnd so good job. Yeah. I didn't get you all night.
1:11:501 hour, 11 minutes, 50 secondsGood. [clears throat] No, it was good.
1:11:521 hour, 11 minutes, 52 secondsThat was good. You got a couple people you've got to pick up.
1:12:031 hour, 12 minutes, 3 secondsGot a hospital. You need to go check on him.
1:12:061 hour, 12 minutes, 6 secondsWe've had a motion. Second and we passed it. Is there any other?
1:12:121 hour, 12 minutes, 12 secondsYes. So, we don't address sales tax unless you want it left at 33, which is basically sending back the same budget
1:12:201 hour, 12 minutes, 20 secondsthat they re that they sent to us and then they rejected. I mean, keep it leave it 3-1. Go to 31. I
1:12:271 hour, 12 minutes, 27 secondsmean, again, it's not going to affect our budget for this year, right?
1:12:301 hour, 12 minutes, 30 secondsGot to make a motion and you got to vote on Sorry.
1:12:341 hour, 12 minutes, 34 secondsI'll make a motion to keep the sales to move the sales tax estimate to 3.1 million. Second.
1:12:421 hour, 12 minutes, 42 secondsRoll call vote.
1:12:471 hour, 12 minutes, 47 secondsSo motion to move the sales tax estimate to 3.1 million. Correct.
1:12:531 hour, 12 minutes, 53 secondsOkay. The to the 2026 2027 estimate.
1:13:051 hour, 13 minutes, 5 seconds[cough and clears throat]
1:13:111 hour, 13 minutes, 11 secondsAll right, Mr. Tibble made the motion and the second came from Mr. Hobs.
1:13:171 hour, 13 minutes, 17 secondsOkay, Mr. Lane. Yes. Miss Mazize? Yes. Miss Taylor?
1:13:251 hour, 13 minutes, 25 secondsYes. Mr. Tidwell? Yes. Mr. Hops? Yes.
1:13:341 hour, 13 minutes, 34 secondsIs there any other How's [clears throat] this play out now?
1:13:381 hour, 13 minutes, 38 secondsWe time we supposed to be there this time early again.
1:13:431 hour, 13 minutes, 43 secondsWe are not on the agenda. That is a regular um county commission monthly meeting. They will have to amend the
1:13:511 hour, 13 minutes, 51 secondsagenda and that could put us at anywhere in the process of their timeline. So be a long night.
1:13:591 hour, 13 minutes, 59 secondsMaybe a longer night.
1:14:011 hour, 14 minutes, 1 secondMaybe a longer night. So um but they will have to amend the agenda if they so choose to deal with it.
1:14:101 hour, 14 minutes, 10 secondsNow according to the uh the email and the communications about the timeline,
1:14:181 hour, 14 minutes, 18 secondsis there any uh what's the result? If they reject it again, is that what does that put in place? Does that give them more leverage over our budget?
1:14:281 hour, 14 minutes, 28 secondsFrom what I read in the law, not necessarily. Once it goes to the county
1:14:351 hour, 14 minutes, 35 secondscommission, they have leverage over the budget and they can make suggestions.
1:14:411 hour, 14 minutes, 41 secondsThey can reject and send back with a with some given numbers. I won't go into
1:14:491 hour, 14 minutes, 49 secondsdetail. Um but uh and then we the way I read the law that may be but
1:14:561 hour, 14 minutes, 56 secondsnot a lawyer but the way I read the law then we would have 10 days to respond. Okay.
1:15:041 hour, 15 minutes, 4 secondsSomebody needs to reach out to uh to a lawyer right or school lawyer about the I have reached out to CASS which is
1:15:121 hour, 15 minutes, 12 secondsCASS that's the one um have not had response from them yet but I have reached out to CASS. I know Crystal has reached out to CASS also.
1:15:231 hour, 15 minutes, 23 secondsUm so it's just to get clarification um on the laws that relate to the act of
1:15:331 hour, 15 minutes, 33 seconds81 budgeting aspect that we are under.
1:15:391 hour, 15 minutes, 39 secondsCould it could we get that sent to the board members? The the email that was it it already has been. Okay. Mhm.
1:15:471 hour, 15 minutes, 47 secondsIt's It really is an attachment and it's the law so you can read it. You just said you just sent it. Yeah.
1:15:541 hour, 15 minutes, 54 secondsYeah. It's It's the law. It's Crystal's email where she I don't think she included the whole Oh,
1:16:021 hour, 16 minutes, 2 secondsit's part the two PDFs. It's sent Miss Tibble, you're correct. Yeah, it's sent to the board. The two PDFs.
1:16:111 hour, 16 minutes, 11 secondsYeah. Let me see if they included everything.
1:16:241 hour, 16 minutes, 24 secondsUm, what I will encourage you is to read the whole law. Do not just read the
1:16:311 hour, 16 minutes, 31 secondshighlighted areas because the whole law is what impacts
1:16:371 hour, 16 minutes, 37 secondsthe highlighted area. Okay. So, I'm just encouraging you because I made
1:16:441 hour, 16 minutes, 44 secondsthe mistake of not reading the whole law at first and so read the whole law of the PDF, not just a highlighted area.
1:16:531 hour, 16 minutes, 53 secondsI I would love to see somebody reach out to uh Ben Torres or or our school attorney
1:17:011 hour, 17 minutes, 1 secondand just verify because we say we think don't mean nothing against Mike. I mean, but or anybody. I mean, we think, but we
1:17:091 hour, 17 minutes, 9 secondsdon't know. And it sounds like it and it sounds like to be fair talking to a county commissioner yesterday and him talking about the conversation with
1:17:161 hour, 17 minutes, 16 secondsCrystal, it is rather comp. It is complicated. It it it is a little it's so I think we need a definite I really
1:17:251 hour, 17 minutes, 25 secondsthought we really should have had it going into the meeting now. We we definitely need to know legally where we stand.
1:17:321 hour, 17 minutes, 32 secondsWell, and so I mean as a board as a school district and because they've got another opinion.
1:17:381 hour, 17 minutes, 38 secondsThey seem to think that it if it's rejected so many times then it then they they got more uh scrutiny over this.
1:17:451 hour, 17 minutes, 45 secondsThey do have they do have scrutiny over they have scrutiny on the not on line items, right? They have a scrutiny on the total dollar.
1:17:521 hour, 17 minutes, 52 secondsYes. We we chose to operate under the scenario that they
1:18:001 hour, 18 minutesbelieve that we need to operate under the scenario. So we we're operating under
1:18:071 hour, 18 minutes, 7 secondstheir scenario that they think the direction that they believe the law says. Okay.
1:18:131 hour, 18 minutes, 13 secondsSo that's I'm just telling you Yeah. that you need to read the whole law.
1:18:181 hour, 18 minutes, 18 secondsYeah. But I'm not a lawyer either. I'm going to read it, but I'm not a lawyer either. I mean, I'd feel better if a lawyer we got we got access to to Mr.
1:18:241 hour, 18 minutes, 24 secondsTorres at TSBA. We've run out on him a lot. I mean, we've run a lot of stuff back by Ben Torres. Tim and Tim has a
1:18:321 hour, 18 minutes, 32 secondsreally good relationship with him and uh and then we have a school attorney. We did I mean
1:18:401 hour, 18 minutes, 40 secondsYeah, Mr. Bennett. Thank you. I could remember him. I spoke with him. Oh, you did? You got a hold of me?
1:18:451 hour, 18 minutes, 45 secondsYeah. Today. Yeah. He got right back to me about Please understand we did not have time to do that the other night because we
1:18:531 hour, 18 minutes, 53 secondsliterally had 30 minutes to call this meeting to where it would be called right where it would be in time.
1:19:001 hour, 19 minutesSo we could operate under the scenario that they feel we need to operate. So yes, we have reached out to CAS. We will
1:19:091 hour, 19 minutes, 9 secondsreach out to the others, but we haven't not done it just because we didn't want to do it.
1:19:161 hour, 19 minutes, 16 secondsOperated Well, no, I'm not saying you're saying that, but I want people to understand that.
1:19:211 hour, 19 minutes, 21 secondsRight. Gotcha. and because they do they watch and listen and uh so when it
1:19:301 hour, 19 minutes, 30 secondswas brought to our attention that that might be the possibility uh we definitely want to operate in that
1:19:371 hour, 19 minutes, 37 secondsfashion that uh allows for things to happen quickly. But we literally had to make that decision in
1:19:451 hour, 19 minutes, 45 secondsabout 30 minutes the other night. Okay, that's all I got to say. Anything else?
1:19:521 hour, 19 minutes, 52 secondsMotion to adjourn. I'll make a motion we second. Second. All in favor say I. We have it.