CCBoE 07.08.2025 Meeting Notes
Regular Meeting
*discussions are not transcribed
Board Members in Attendance: David Dekle (Chair), Judy Teasley (Vice Chair), Philip Kent, Kristi Baker, Katie Allen
Also in attendance and addressed the board: Dr. Steven Flynt (Superintendent), Alex Casado (Chief Financial Officer), Penny Jackson (Associate Superintendent of Support and School Operations), Anthony Wright (Chief Human Resources Officer)
Call To Order: 5:30PM
Invocation: Congregation Children of Israel Rabbi Dr. Seth Oppenheimer
Pledge of Allegiance: Harlem High School JROTC
Approval of Agenda: Yay 5, No 0
Special Recommendations:
Andrea Sanders: Lakeside HS, Assistant Principal: Yay 5, No 0
Andy Tran: Harlem MS, Assistant Principal: Yay 5, No 0
Approval of Consent Items: Yay 5, No 0
Minutes of 6/10/2025, Regular Session Meeting
Many Financials
Budget Amendment
Employee Travel
Program/Camp/Employee Participation Request
Lease/Use of Facilities
Adoption of 2025 Tax Digest Millage Rate of 16.234: Yay 5, No 0
16.234 Rollback Rate. Budgeted for a $3.8 million shortfall covered by the general fund. This would show a $5 million deficit but there is enough in the general fund to cover it if the rolled back millage rate is 16.234. This will be the lowest millage rate in 35 years.
Casado: The tax commission puts this together. The formula is in the 2nd half and it’s based on the property reassessments. You can see the 16.234 rollback rate.
There will be 2% more property tax revenue from growth even at the rollback rate.
The budget that was passed in May 2025
Allen: Was the CPI 2%?
Casado: Yes, the south is a little bit lower than national so between 2-3%.
Allen: So, we are saying our local revenue sources were reduced by $3.8 million?
Casado: Correct
Allen: Will we need to amend the budget?
Casado: Yes, we’ll bring you the amended budget…
Allen: How do we plan to cover that deficit next year and later?
Dekle: We’re using the General Fund next year to cover it. We’ll see next year what that looks like.
Flynt: We have some expenses that will end soon. We might have to have a discussion about the building program. But we’re in a unique position that we can spend down the fund balance now.
Allen: So, some of the operating expenses - some are not reoccurring.
Flynt: The technology piece (for building security), about $3 million, that’s not a reoccurring expense.
Allen: Will we have some additional expenses when it’s on a replacement schedule?
Flynt: We work the replacement schedules for equipment into a 5-year budget plan. The technology we’re putting in right now is above the replacement schedule.
Casado: With the new laws that were passed for school safety, we have a big outlay right now and then there will be a replacement cycle for the equipment (technology) that will be worked into the annual budget.
Teasley: Instructional equipment is already on a replacement schedule but the new building Safety technology will be on a replacement schedule, however it won’t be as much each year as this initial expense, right?
Casado: Right. We won’t be budgeting into a deficit each year based on that replacement schedule for the new technology.
Allen: If we find them when revenue comes in that closes gap, so we don’t have as much of a deficit, where would that money go?
Dekle: Let’s not discuss hypotheticals. I’m happy to be in the unique position to go back to a rollback rate.
Baker: The “wish list” comes from the department heads so the budget process starts early in the year.
Dekle: We’ve already adopted this budget
Allen: I want to make sure we’re not yo-yoing back and forth through high-low millage rates. I want to make sure it’s sustainable.
Kent: He’s glad to be able to have the opportunity to rollback the millage rate but it’s important to look forward 2-3 years to consider unintended consequences of building projects. We don’t want to find out we are budgeting at $3-5 million deficit and it ends up $8-10 million deficit.
Flynt: We haven’t had that big of cost overruns. I don’t anticipate a $8-10 million.
Kent: Lakeside HS and ??? increased by how much in the past?
Flynt: There were adjustments to the building program with inflation. Those decisions are brought to the board with those circumstances. Maybe you decide to hold off on a project or finance something differently in the past.
Allen: I think it’s an important discussion to have about….
Dekle: Are you saying you oppose rolling back the millage rate?
Allen: No.
(then, I couldn’t hear what either of them said. Kent wanted to hear the question also but had Dekle hammered the gavel and brought to a vote to end debate. Dekle, Teasley and Baker approved to end debate. Kent and Allen were opposed to ending debate. Then they unanimously approved the rollback millage rate.)
A Referendum Resolution of the Board of Education of Columbia County to Regulate and Provide for the calling of a Special Referendum Election for November 4, 2025, for the Purpose of Submitting the Question of Adopting and $8,000 Homestead Exemption from Columbia County Ad Valorem Taxes for Education Purposes: Yay 5, No 0
Board Policy BAB, School Board Governance
Human Resources Update, Chief Human Resources Officer Tony Wright
7/8/2025:
Fill rate certified: 98.6%
Fill rate un-certified: 94.1%
Building Program Update:
North Columbia ES
Timeline
7/7-7/11: Furniture delivery
7/14-7/15: Administrative Staff
7/17-7/18: Teacher Transition
7/28: Pre-planning
7/31: Open House
8/4: 1st Day of School
8/19: Ribbon Cutting
Brookwood/ Stalling Island: New Parking Lots complete
Lakeside HS:
PAC, Chorus, classrooms on right open at start of school
Back right - no portables. Gym is going in there. beginning.
Baker: Where are the tennis courts?
Flynt: They were relocated by the other practice fields
Flynt: Parent drop-off in the back. Back student parking entrance. There will be 2 sign-ins.
Evans HS:
Summer staff is relocated to middle school
HVAC reworked, gym coming together. interior will need work over the next couple of years. There will need to be lots of clean up on the back and sides before school starts.
Kent: Lakeside HS should be done in 2027?
Flynt: 12/2026 - next summer (2026). Evans about 1 to 1 1/2 years later, so summer 2027.
US Department of Education:
This will be impactful for Georgia but won’t be as impactful for our district
Federal Grants
Title 1 Part C - migrants (negligible)
Title 3 Part A - ESOL (over $100K)
Title 4 Part A - Achievement grants ($250K)
AP Exam fees, cyber programs, supplement to pay teachers to develop ACE curriculum
About $358K all together. Can make up the difference so we won’t be as affected.
Allen: Commended the district for their strong leadership in not relying on federal sources of revenue over the years which makes our district more independent.
Flynt: It’s based mostly on the number of students on free lunch. We don’t file for a lot of grants but we don’t use federal grants to hire positions.
Superintendent Reports:
United Way of the CSRA Stuff the Bus 7/18
Leadership Conference 7/21-7/22
New Teacher Induction 7/23-7/25
School’s Open Drive Safely AAA Press Conference 7/23
Open House Dates
High School 7/29: 3-5PM
Middle School 7/29 5-7PM
Elementary School 7/31 5-7PM
Teacher Pre-Planning: 7/28-8/1
Employee Back to School Kickoff - 8/1
First Day of School, 8/4
Early Dismissal/ Parent Conferences, 8/29
Labor Day, 9/1
Progress Reports, 9/5
Retirement Reception, 9/10
Excellence in Governance Institute Training, 9/25
Executive Session:
Personnel: Yay 5, No 0
Board Items:
Allen: There was a message sent about a transfer to the building program this December?
Flynt: We’ll start the discussion in August through December. We will still have enough….
Allen: We’re having a deficit but we’re making a transfer to the building program?
Casado: 25-26% currently in the fund balance. We can transfer some and still have money above what we traditionally see. We can see what it looks like in December.
Flynt: Running a deficit… there is enough in the fund balance to cover that.
Casado: Even if we have a deficit of $5 million, the will still have enough in the General Fund balance.
Kent: Is there an incentive to keep the fund balance at 20%?
Casado: No….
Teasley: The bond ratings.
Flynt: Transfer to the building program can reduce interest payments in the future.
Allen: Have we paid additional bonds early?
Flynt: Each board has to make these decisions based on the current situation. You can delay projects, pay the bonds earlier ,etc.
Flynt: It can hurt the bond rating if we drop too low in the General Fund. We can also be penalized by the legislature if the general fund is too high. The legislature has discussed that also, even though our general fund isn’t as high as some other government entitities.
Allen: It seems like there’s conflicting interests then between keeping the General Fund high and spending it down. Can we get a cheat sheet on different influences on the bond rating?
Baker: I have a question about how we are implementing the ban on cell phones?
Flynt: The HS Principals really got on board with this. There’s not as much challenge in K-8. It can take up to 20 minutes if a student uses their cell phone in class, even for instruction, and they get a pop-up from Snapchat or something, it can take up to 20 minutes to get their minds focused back onto instruction.
Jackson: We are already communicating with parents and working out consequences. We are going to have to be very strict and come down hard the first week at least to set the tone.
Adjourn: Yay 5, No 0
Next work session meeting: 7/22/2025
Thanks for the notes. I appreciate your efforts.
Is it just me or does it seem that the board members and county super shut KA down when she asks a question? It seems that PK and KA are the only ones who question and do not rubber stamp anything put forth by the county office. JMO.