It was a unique work session Monday (4.6.20) for the Lakeland School Board (LSB) as all members and Superintendent Dr. Ted Horrell met from their homes in an electronic format due to COVID-19.
Eric Plumley, LSB attorney, explained Gov. Bill Lee’s Executive Order #16 allowed local governments to meet electronically during the pandemic. He said Boards can handle essential functions without being present in the same room and such meetings are permitted for the time being.
The same format will be used for the business meeting in a week, April 13th.
Link to meeting video: https://lakelandk12.org/4-6-20-board-of-education-work-session/
Link to agenda: https://lakelandk12.org/res/web/04.06.20%20WS/04.06.20%20Work%20Session%20Agenda.pdf
Dr. Horrell said the number one question he is being asked: When are we coming back to school? He said the Lakeland School System (LSS) is officially following the guidance of Gov. Bill Lee and the answer is “We don’t know.”
He said, “We aren’t officially cancelling activities or anything past the point of the current closure.” He said school sponsors of clubs and activities have been asked to cancel any travel for the rest of the school year.
The second most asked question, said Dr. Horrell, is end-of-school activities. Will they be rescheduled if cancelled? Dr. Horrell said activities will be reviewed and he hopes to do as much as is appropriate and advisable. “For now, we are going with the latest information.”
Dr. Horrell said the Tennessee Board of Education (TDOE) is looking at options on how to use funds through the CARE Act, federal stimulus legislation. At the request of Chairman Kevin Floyd, Dr. Horrell explained the state waived the 180-day school requirements and there will be no assessments (state testing) this school year.
Presenting an overview of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21 budget, Dr. Horrell said he is anticipating some changes to budget revenues. “The economy and sales tax revenue are in a very different situation than they were during the month and a half previous when working on the budget. We did try to adjust for that in two ways.”
- Lee announced in his budget he would provide money for teacher salaries, said Dr. Horrell. He said he is assuming the Governor may not go anywhere in terms of enhancements from state funding. So he said he pulled those dollars out of the budget.
- He said he also adjusted sales tax revenue by about $700,000 less or 28% of what is normally projected.
“It’s very possible because we don’t know how long this is going to last, we might have to bring the budget back and make changes.” He added, “As always, we are very conservative in our revenue estimates and expenditure estimates.”
Among assumptions from Dr. Horrell for the new budget for 20-21:
- 1,900 students for the LSS school system, an increase of 120 students
- 1,000 students at Lakeland Elementary School (LES) not counting preschoolers
- 900 students at what will become Lakeland Preparatory School/LPS (currently Lakeland Middle Preparatory School)
- 52 regular teachers at LES, an increase of four
- 37 regular teachers at LPS, an increase of three
In addition, Dr. Horrell said there will be no requests from the City of Lakeland for additional operational funds. “This is not changed in the six years we’ve been doing this. We’ve never requested any additional operating funds beyond the 15-cent property tax equivalent required by law.”
The new budget increases total revenue from $16.48 million to $17.74 million.
And the rest of the meeting
Dr. Horrell praised LSS staff, principals and teachers for their efforts in starting the remote learning hub in the wake of the pandemic and organizing all the aspects of running a school system remotely.
To provide an idea of the scope of the effort, he said Dr. Wanda Terral, director of technology, made Google Voice available to employees so they could make phone calls for school business without using their personal phones. Online and student registration services are continuing and every document created is being translated for non-English speaking families. “I am very grateful for the work of our team.”
He said the remote learning started Wednesday (4.1.20). There have been 15,719 visits to Schoology in the last seven days for middle school students and 10,800 page views on the remote learning hub for LES. He added 5,000 students logged into Clever, a service for schools to use education technology products.
Budget amendments for FY 19-20 include routine items for federal monies allocated by the state and $1 million for possible land acquisition for a future elementary school. Dr. Horrell said an additional elementary school is not eminent but will happen in the future. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time. But it’s never been formally put in the budget,” said Dr. Horrell. He said if land is identified before July 1st, it would be in the budget. “We are just formalizing this.”
Also in the amendments is a change to the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the City for soccer fields on the middle school campus.
Link to budget amendments: https://lakelandk12.org/res/web/04.06.20%20WS/FY%2019-20%20Budget%20Amendments%20-%20April.pdf
On the topic of Capital Improvement Plans, he said there are no surprises. “It is good practice to update the plan, said Dr. Horrell. It was also requested by the City. Link to five-year capital improvement plan https://lakelandk12.org/res/web/04.06.20%20WS/LSS%20CIP%20Budget%204-2-20%20Update.pdf
Dr. Horrell announced Anecia Warren-Scott, an instructional technology facilitator at the middle school, defended her dissertation Monday and is now Dr. Scott.
