LINCOLN PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
Ruston, Louisiana
REGULAR SESSION
Tuesday, December 3, 2019 6:00 p.m.
The Lincoln Parish School Board met in Regular Session on Tuesday, December 3, 2019, at 6:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Parish School Board, 410 South Farmerville Street, Ruston, Louisiana. Members present were Ms. Debbie Abrahm, Mr. Otha Anders, Mr. Michael Barmore, Ms. Lisa Best, Mr. David Ferguson, Dr. David Gullatt, Mr. Danny Hancock, Ms. Lynda Henderson, Mr. George Mack, Jr., Mr. Joe Mitcham, Mr. Hunter Smith, and Ms. Susan Wiley.
No members were absent.
President Mitcham called the meeting to order and Ms. Abrahm gave the invocation. Ricky Edmiston, Supervisor of Auxiliary Services, led in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag.
Upon a motion by Mr. Anders, seconded by Mr. Barmore, the Board unanimously voted to adopt the agenda as presented.
Upon a motion by Mr. Barmore, seconded by Ms. Abrahm, the Board unanimously voted to approve the minutes of the Regular Session held on November 5, 2019, as distributed.
Lisa Bastion, Chief Academic Officer/Assistant Superintendent, shared that the Administration was very proud of all the schools in the district. The district has great principals who are great leaders. She wanted to recognize several principals who have done an outstanding job and their School Performance Scores prove it. Ms. Bastion introduced the principals of Choudrant High School, Ruston High School, Simsboro High School, and Ruston Junior High School. The three high schools were all “A” schools and Ruston Junior High School moved from a “C” to a “B” school. Ms. Bastion then reported the growth and performance scores for each school. She also said that CHS and SHS both had a 100% graduation rate and RHS had 97.2%. All four schools were recognized as Top Gains honorees. Based on principal increment performance guidelines, these principals were recognized and presented a monetary performance award for the outstanding growth in their schools. Each principal thanked the board, Mr. Milstead, and the administration for their support. They also thanked their teachers, staff, students, and parents for their hard work, support, and dedication.
Superintendent Mike Milstead thanked all the principals for their hard work and said they all understand what it takes to “grow” a school. We have seen tremendous growth in our elementary schools as well. Because of their combined hard work and determination, Lincoln Parish is the highest performing district in north Louisiana. Mr. Milstead then shared that he had an opportunity to recognize the business hall of the central office for the good job they do in appropriately managing finances. He said that LPSB was recognized by the Association of School Business Officials International for receiving the Certificate of Excellence for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended 2018. This was the 25th consecutive year to receive this award. He attributes this honor to the high quality people who work in the business department, people with a sense of dedication and integrity who are unsung heroes. He then read the commendation in full and presented the plaque to CFO/Business Manager Juanita Duke. Ms. Duke thanked Mr. Milstead and said this was a great honor. She verbalized that this would not be possible without the hard working staff in the business department who all work so well together. She said credit also goes to our auditors, Allen, Green, and Williamson, who help prepare the report.
Superintendent Milstead went on to welcome principals, instructors, students, and parents from the Language Immersion program. After visiting several models of Immersion programs in south Louisiana, he saw the benefits of the program and wanted to bring it to Lincoln Parish. The program began in the 2018-2019 school year with two classes of four year olds at LPPEC. This year the program has expanded to include two kindergarten classes at Glenview. One hundred percent of instruction is in French at LPECC and sixty percent at the kindergarten level.
Mr. Milstead introduced Corrine Nutt, World Language Coordinator, who teaches German at Ruston High School but also coordinates the Language Immersion program. Ms. Nutt thanked Mr. Milstead for the opportunity to speak tonight. She shared that Language Immersion began over thirty years ago. These programs have tripled across the United States in the last ten years. Our program was the first one north of Interstate 10. She said the benefits of learning a second language at such an early age are really too many to name but one important benefit is better test scores. Immersion students enhance their academic potential and success. Brain training and problem solving are a huge aspect of Language Immersion. Several parents shared positive comments and thanked the Board and Mr. Milstead for offering the program. Ms. Nutt introduced Adrianne Iannone, one of the four French Immersion teachers, who led a group of students in a few question and answer exercises and several songs, all in French.
Ms. Duke reminded the Board that last month they had approved implementing the Blue Advantage Plan for retirees as a health plan cost reduction measure. This was with the understanding that retirees would revert to the current plan if the change was not equal to or better than the current plan. As a result of making the change, a few amendments need to be made to the current plan document to define retiree eligibility for participation in the current Blue Advantage Plan.
Ms. Best asked a question regarding the “grandfather” status for some retirees. Insurance broker David Charpentier, of Brown & Brown of Louisiana, explained that there is a group of retirees that will not be eligible for the new plan, they will be grandfathered and stay on the present plan. The four groups are those that are not yet Medicare age, those who never paid into Medicare, a few with dependent children (they will move after dependents age-out) and a group who do not have both Medicare Part A and Part B. Going forward; all retirees will be required to obtain Medicare Part A and Part B at age 65.
Upon a motion by Dr. Gullatt, seconded by Ms. Best, the Board unanimously voted to approve the recommended changes to the health plan document effective January 1, 2020.
Board members are required to receive six continuing education hours annually because of Act 705 of the 2010 legislative session. An additional responsibility had been imposed by revised statute 43:1170, requiring elected officials to receive a minimum of one hour of education and training on the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act during each term of office. Finally, a press release giving the training status of each member must be published in the official journal each year. Mr. Milstead asked for permission to publish the board members' 2019 training hours; eleven met or exceeded the minimum requisite and one member, Ms. Henderson, would obtain hers prior to the end of December 2019.
Upon a motion by Ms. Henderson, seconded by Mr. Anders, the Board unanimously voted to grant permission to enter board members ' 2019 training certificates into the official minutes of the Board.
Two policies need revision according to the Board’s policy service, Forethought Consulting. Ms. Bastion asked members to study the following revised policies until the next meeting: JS – Student Fees, Fines, and Charges and GBRJ – Substitute Personnel.
James Payton, New Construction Supervisor, reported the need for change order #1 on the Simsboro parking lot project. He explained that an existing stump was discovered below the original grade in the area where the parking lot was to be constructed. The stump would have to be removed and the debris hauled off. In addition, select fill would be brought in and compacted where the stump was. The removal would add $1,290.00 to the contract price. Seven additional days need to be added due to inclement weather.
Upon a motion by Mr. Hancock, seconded by Ms. Wiley, the Board unanimously voted to approve change order #1 for the Simsboro parking lot adding $1,290.00 to the contract price, the new contract price would be $216,290.00. Seven days would be added to the contract date, moving the completion date to December 20, 2019.
Ms. Duke reported that she, Ms. Bastion, and Mr. Milstead recently met with Mr. Charpentier and Blue Cross representatives regarding our health plan performance for the past year and renewals for our Stop Loss insurance and plan administration. The impact of moving retirees off this plan will reduce our plan administrative costs by approximately $480,000 per year. There will be additional savings for reduced claim costs due to the reduction in participating retired plan members.
Mr. Charpentier reported to the Board that Claims Administration and Stop Loss insurance are priced on a per employee, per month basis. These represent the “fixed costs” of the plan. Blue Cross of Louisiana increased the medical administrative fee by 7.2%. With that increase, the total administrative fee per employee, per month, which includes Medical, Dental, and Cobra administration, is going up 6.5%. Blue Cross has guaranteed the medical and dental fees for three years (through 2022). The Stop Loss insurance is going up by 17.45%, due to an increase in the severity of large claims. This averages out to an increase of 13.57% in total fixed costs per member, per month. Blue Cross stop loss carriers gave the best renewal offer. Choosing this renewal ensures timely reimbursement of stop loss claims.
Mr. Edmiston presented a report on foam roof maintenance for the district. The maintenance department continues to move forward with a preventative maintenance program. Foam roofs need attention and care and are a very costly item to replace, $8.00 - $13.00 a square foot installed. He shared a report that lists by school the square footage of the roof, the manufacturer, the contractor, and the warranty start and end date. He recently entered into a contract with Brazos Industries, $7,445.00 per year, to perform our foam roof inspections. They will inspect each roof once a year, then our maintenance employees will inspect each roof a second time. Brazos will make any immediate repairs that can be fixed with caulk. Any large repairs would require quotes before the work could be done. Brazos will also give an estimate of the life expectancy of each foam roof after their inspection, as well as recommendations on how to move forward with each roof. In the past, warranties had typically been for fifteen years, now that the silicone layer is a thicker mil manufacturers are able to offer a 20-year warranty. The life expectancy for a roof is 20-22 years so there is no need for an extended warranty. He explained that we needed to be proactive with our ongoing roof maintenance and extend the life of the roofs as much as we can.
Dr. Doris Lewis, Director of Human Resources, communicated the following personnel changes:
1. Retirement of Debbie Cloud, Special Education Inclusion Strategist, effective January 1, 2020.
2. Resignation of Anita Pickett, teacher at Ruston Elementary, effective December 4, 2019, and Jackson Colvin, math teacher at Ruston High School, effective December 21, 2019.
3. Employment of Bridget Willis, teacher at Cypress Springs effective November 22, 2019, replacing Stacy White who resigned.
4. Employment of Betty Spivey, custodian at Simsboro School effective November 14, 2019, replacing Lawrence Vernon who resigned.
5. Employment of Angela Odom, cafeteria technician at LPECC effective November 14, 2019, replacing Regina Walker who resigned.
Ms. Duke shared that sales tax collections for November 2019 only increased by .8% due in part to the fact that the sales tax office did not receive collections from the Department of Motor Vehicles in November. The delay was due to the recent cyber-attack; however, $192,000 was received today. If you factor in these collections, we would have reported an increase of 15.9% over this month last year. These collections will be reflected on next month’s report.
The General Fund balance was $4.4 million for the month ending October 2019, Ms. Duke reported. The total monthly expenditures were $8.1 million in the General Fund, including a $300,000 transfer to the 5-mill maintenance fund to help cover numerous maintenance issues at the beginning of the year. There was a $480,000 deficit ending balance in the 5-mill fund for the month. The 2019 property tax collections expected this month would help to reduce this deficit. Total fund balances combined were $28.5 million, with the unassigned fund balance being $8.3 million, which is approximately 11.9% of total budgeted operating expenditures for the year.
Ms. Duke stated that a $600,000 transfer from investments was made in the health insurance fund in October to cover expenditures. Claims paid for the month of October were $948,000 and total year-to-date claims paid were down $350,000 compared to this time last year.
In his construction update, Mr. Payton showed pictures and communicated the following update:
Progress is going well with the 49 space concrete parking lot at Simsboro High School. The pouring of the concrete is 90% complete. Weather permitting; the remainder of the concrete should be poured Friday morning. The contractor is doing a great job. The Department of Transportation has given us permission to cut a tree that is on their property but could possibly cause problems with limbs falling on vehicles in the parking lot. Entergy will place lights on existing poles in the area so the parking lot will be lit. Everything should be complete when school resumes after the Christmas break.
The slab and rough-in plumbing are both complete at the 5,500 sq. ft. pre-k building at Choudrant Elementary. All four of the classrooms would have their own restroom. The next step was to construct a cinder block wall that would adjoin the pre-k building to the existing building. The building should be complete in August 2020 if all goes according to plan.
In a Report of the Superintendent, Mr. Milstead said:
1. Committee Preference forms for 2020 were included in board members’ packets. He asked that those be completed and turned in by the next board meeting.
2. A copy of the STEM Center activity was also included in the portfolios. November was the first full month the center was open. There were 11 school visits and a total of 657 students that visited the center during November. Ms. Wooley will keep us up-to-date with monthly reports.
3. Jon Guice will provide training for the school board members on Tuesday, February 11, in the Board Room. Board members are welcome to go to the conference in Baton Rouge if they would like.
4. We are very proud of how our District Performance Scores have grown. We grew 1.8 points this year, 1.1 more points would have earned the district an “A”. If we were on the same schedule we were on before, we would be an “A” district. Principals are all working hard to make this happen.
5. Data Analysts from Education Resource Strategies were here the week before Thanksgiving. We turned over data related to personnel, salaries, budgets, and properties. ERS is great at crunching numbers and will study and analyze our data to help in our making a master plan of their findings. They will make recommendations to make the most efficient use of our dollars and prioritization of our dollars. Lincoln Parish is one of only three parishes in the state to have the opportunity to work with the data analysts from ERS. The master plan and recommendations will be shared with the Board when the study is complete.
6. He wished all board members a happy Christmas and reminded them to remember the meaning of Christmas and what it means to each of us. He appreciates how hard we work as a Board and the fact that we can work together is very gratifying personally. He is proud of all the supervisors and principals and appreciates what they do to make our school district such a success. It is a wonderful place to work.
After comments from the public and several board members and following a motion by Ms. Best, the meeting adjourned at 7:29 p.m.
Mike Milstead, Secretary Joe E. Mitcham, Jr., President