Madison County Schools students granted option to "redo" pandemic year

May 12—Madison County School students will have the chance to "redo" the 2020-2021 school year.

In Tuesday's special held meeting for the Madison County Board of Education, the board voted on Senate Bill 128.

The legislation, also known as the Supplemental School Year Program or "redo" bill, gives Kentucky school districts the chance to give their students a "redo button."

The bill would allow students to use the upcoming school year to retake the previous year, which was affected by COVID-19. However, whether or not the option for the supplemental year is used is up to the individual school districts.

The board elected to allow the supplemental year, but there were many questions.

Some concerns centered around athletics at the high school level.

David Gilliam, the superintendent, explained the most impact from the allowance of the bill would be for students in high school.

He said Madison County Schools now have a graduated senior program. This means the seniors who wish to retake the year will graduate at the end of this school year. However, they will have the chance to come back and enroll in additional classes. He explained they would have the opportunity to take college course classes, but they will be dual enrollment and not dual credit. Which means they will have to pay college tuition rates. Beyond the 2021 through 2022 school year, Gilliam said, there will not be a senior program.

As for student-athletes, Gilliam said the district is working on counseling each student-athlete who is thinking about taking advantage of the bill. He said for those who do wish to retake the year, the supplemental year will count as a year in high school.

For student-athletes, the NCAA only counts a student's first four years in high school. A supplemental year of school could pose an issue with eligibility for student-athletes.

However, Gilliam said this is an issue the district has made students aware of, and they are working on doing individual counseling with the students this might impact.

The bill was approved, which means all of the students who filled out the application to participate in the supplemental year, were approved to do so.

With this supplemental year decision made, the board looked at yet another change with COVID-19 in mind.

The board approved the Pupil Attendance Regulation Waiver.

Gilliam said this waiver outlined how virtual instruction students would be counted in attendance. He said there was no law to allow for the extension of NTI days. He explained when the district begins the 2021 through 2022 school year, they are in the regular calendar with all of the compulsory attendance laws in place. However, he said some students still want to continue with their virtual learning.

The waiver allows students in a virtual environment to be counted the same way they would be counted in person.

Gilliam said overall; there are around 100 students from kindergarten through 12th grade who have requested virtual learning in the 2021 through 2022 school year.

Other business:

* Construction continues with the Berea and Richmond technical schools.

* Tony Thomas announced to the board they got approval to bid on the Clark Moores Middle School project.

* Mark Woods, chief financial officer, gave the financial report for the district. As of April 30, the district has a reconcile balance of $87,825,740.73.

* Woods also explained the motion to set the penal fund. He said the Kentucky Department of Education does a calculation every year on required penal sums for bonding. They set the requirement at $800,000. However, the board felt they needed more. So, they voted to set the fund for fidelity bonds for the treasurer and director of financial services for two million dollars and for addition board finance-related positions for the amount of $800,000 for the 2021 through 2022 school year, as well as authorizing the renewal of current bonds in place. The motion was carried.

* Woods then went over the approval of the indirect cost rate, which he said is another annual item the board looks at. He explained there are a few grants they charge in-direct cost rates for, which allows them to collect their traditional overhead from those grants. One of those is food services. So, the board motioned for the district to have the ability to charge in-direct cost rates to specific federal programs based on a federally approved formula and approve the in-direct cost rates. The motion was carried.

* The board motioned to blanket approve Approve 2021-2022 Booster Events/Fundraisers. Woods explained the board is required to approve any booster event to allow them to operate and raise funds for the schools. For the past several years, the board has approved the events upfront. With their approval, as long as the school principal has reviewed the fundraiser and approved it, the board is considered as having approved it. The motion carried.

* The board then motioned for the similar process of approving school-wide fundraisers, which are fundraisers every student in the district participates in. The motion was carried.

* The board motioned to approve FY22 Site-Based Allocations. Woods said he had met with the schools in two separate meetings to figure out their needs.

* The board motioned to approve the Family Resource School District Assurances. In this process, they assure the district will maintain compliance with all laws and regulations and spend the funds per all laws and regulations.

* The board motioned to approve the revised BG-1 for the Phillips building. Woods explained the district is changing the funding stream. He said the district's capital funds they have each year would escrow on June 30. Once this happens, they have to set them back and get more restrictions. So, to secure the funds and get what is considered a capital request, the district has to do this in May to get the funds allocated and have them available.

* The board approved two Madison Southern High School football assistant coach positions, a football assistant coach and a football paid assistant. The stipends will correctly correlate to the appropriate amount listed in the approved salary schedule for the district-provided positions. Madison Southern football boosters would pay the cost of the stipend plus all associated fringe benefits.

* The board approved the FY22 Site-Based Allocations.

* The board approved change order #1 for a credit for Richmond ATC.

* The board approved ESSER II Assurances.

* The board created and ratified one special education consultant position.

* The board created and ratified one school psychologist position.

* The board created and ratified four districtwide academic coaches/teachers.

* The board approved the job description for the director of teaching and learning position.

* The board created and ratified a director of teaching and learning position

* The board approved bus driver trainee pay for the weeks it would take someone interested in a bus driving position to get their bus driving certification.

* The board entered into an executive session required by state law for the preliminary discussion of the Superintendent's Evaluation; per KRS 156.557 (1),(6)(c) and to discuss future acquisition or sale of property for which publicity would likely affect the value; per KRS 61.810(1)(b). However, there was no decision made during the executive session.