Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education
March 11, 2013
Work Session
Minutes
The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education met on March 11, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. at the Long Street
Administrative Office with the following members present: Dr. Richard Miller, Mrs. Kay Wright Norman,
Mrs. W. Jean Kennedy, Mrs. Susan Cox, Mr. L. A. Overcash, and Mr. Charles Hughes. Mr. Josh
Wagner was absent due to illness. Also present were Dr. Judy Grissom, Mr. Gene Miller, Mr. Nathan
Currie, and Mrs. Bonnie Holder, Clerk to the Board.
Call to Order / Roll Call
Dr. Miller called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. Dr. Miller officiated the Pledge of Allegiance. Mrs.
Kennedy shared a prayer.
Adopt Agenda
Mr. Miller requested to postpone discussion item #5, District Marketing Review.
**Mrs. Norman moved to adopt the agenda as amended. Mr. Overcash seconded. Unanimously
approved. (6:0)
Board/Superintendent Comments
Dr. Grissom mentioned the NCTIES Conference and noted that Rowan-Salisbury Schools presented 16
of the 29 seminars. She said she had received several communications from those who attended that
the presentations were wonderful and beneficial to the attendees.
Mrs. Cox stated that in the teacher survey regarding their thoughts on the Core Curriculum, two
recurring issues were indicated. One was that elementary teachers felt they needed more time to train
on the curriculum. Mrs. Cox said she appreciated Elementary Director, Mrs. Alesia Burnette for
finding a way to pay for four days for the remainder of this school year for those teachers to train and
plan. Dr. Grissom noted the teachers will also have five additional days in next year’s calendar that
they may use to plan.
Mrs. Cox said the other issue of concern was school meetings. She said Mrs. Burnette plans to discuss
at her elementary principal’s meeting how to minimize the number of meetings. Mrs. Cox said she
hopes that most of the meetings can be cancelled until the end of May.
Discussion Items
Energy Systems Group Program
Mr. Gene Miller reminded Board members that he had discussed the energy program with them at the
February meeting, and they had asked for time at this meeting to learn more about how the program
would work and the costs associated with it. He said he has now completed the process to obtain a
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contractor, and that Energy Systems Group was selected. Mr. Miller introduced representatives of the
company, Mr. Gray Medinger, Mr. Steve Zip and Mr. David Ames. He noted that a letter included in the
information sent to the Board from Lynn Hoy stated RSSS followed proper procedure and had a good
vendor.
Mr. Miller also stated it was a lot of money over a long period of time and he was concerned about that.
However, he felt it fair for the BOE to hear the presentation from the representatives of ESG.
Mr. Steve Zip began the presentation and shared their program. He stated that a performance contract
is to help the schools out, and we have an energy crisis happening throughout the nation. Mr. Zip stated
that the school system would be re-investing their savings that would go into their funds for a significant
amount of improvements.
Mr. Zip noted that the state energy office and the LGC validate the savings for the project. The program
also helps us to keep away from energy rate hikes.
Mr. Zip continued the presentation for the BOE. He stated that the savings would come from the
system’s actual utility bill.
Mr. Zip advised that the program has minimal financial risks; it doesn’t count against bond indebtedness;
there is a security component, and there are no finance payments until savings begin. He said
performance of the equipment is monitored throughout the contract term and the payment is a firm fixed
price, because all of the savings and costs are known when the contract is signed.
Mr. Zip stated that in the scope of work, they would work to standardize equipment. High schools would
get irrigation upgrades for water conservation, and a significant part of the project would be mechanical
up fits.
Mr. Zip said the main consideration would be if the utility rate increases faster than expected, the school
system could go into cost avoidance. However, EGS will guarantee their rate. He said ESG will stand
behind their program.
Mr. Hughes said we have many schools that need upgrading and a couple to be rebuilt, and asked how
will the plan work with the older schools. Mr. Zip said by doing the performance contract, ESG will make
sure that the school is performing at peak. If changes are made down the road, it will need to affect the
schools they are doing. However, they are not planning to upgrade anything to those schools, but they
will be eligible for future phase. Mr. Zip stated that at this time 14 out of 35 have been selected, and
they looked at the schools with the higher energy cost.
Dr. Miller asked if there was any way not to get engaged with the county commissioners. Mr. Medinger
said not under this contract. The county commissioners have to sign a resolution not to decrease the
school system’s energy budget because of this project.
Dr. Miller said the Board has to weigh this project, knowing the budget request that the Board is going to
have to submit to the county commissioners.
Dr. Miller asked about the percentage or fees to EGS from the $5M that will be invested. Mr. David Ames
stated that the Board would be engaging a firm that is an engineered, turnkey project, and delivered.
He said there is no risk on the school system’s side to put the project in place. Mr. Ames said once the
equipment is in place, the Board will receive a performance guarantee for the next 15 years that the
system is going to perform as it did when it was installed.
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Mr. Zip said that means the fee is approximately 15 – 20%, and suggested the Board consider what
equipment will have to be put into place.
Dr. Miller said that the BOE has to be armed with all of the facts before moving ahead.
Mrs. Norman said in looking at the schools that we have and what is it costing us now, she asked what
can the Board expect the savings to be.
Mr. Zip reviewed with the Board a spreadsheet of the cost savings for each school.
Dr. Miller asked the pleasure of the Board.
Mr. Hughes asked Mr. Gene Miller his opinion on the project. Mr. Miller said if the system had the money
to do the projects, we could and would save on the fees. However, we don’t have the money and we
can’t do the projects. Mr. Miller said that if we don’t go with this program, we are going to have to find
money to replace and repair equipment in the next few years. The energy program is a long-term
program.
**Mr. Hughes moved to take the proposal to the county commissioners and Mrs. Norman seconded.
Mrs. Norman said she would, however, like to see where the staff is with our proposed budget.
**Mrs. Norman moved to table the motion until the budget discussion has been presented.
RCCC Board of Trustees Appointment
Dr. Miller reviewed the recommendation submitted by Rowan-Cabarrus Community College to appoint
Mrs. Patricia Fulcher to the RCCC Board of Trustees.
**Mr. Hughes moved for the BOE to advertise for the RCCC Board vacancy with resumes to be submitted
to the Central Office. Mrs. Norman seconded. Motion failed. (3:3) Mr. Overcash, Mrs. Kennedy and Dr.
Miller opposed.
**Mr. Overcash moved to accept recommendation of Ms. Patricia Fulcher submitted by the RowanCabarrus Community College Board. Motion failed for lack of second.
Item will be placed on the 25th agenda.
Update on the County Owned DSS Building
Dr. Miller explained that he had asked the Board of Rowan County Commissioners for an extension for
our Board’s response to their offer of the DSS building until March 15 because he had not received
information from Mr. Page until late Friday, and did not have time to put anything together for the Board
to review. Dr. Miller explained that Mr. Sides emailed him that the BOC did not vote discuss or vote on
the request. Therefore, the issue is mute and there is no need to put energy into considering the DSS
building.
3b. Discussion of the Long St. Building (added item)
Dr. Miller said there had been several inquiries from the Town on East Spencer having access to use the
Long Street building. He said unless there is any objection, he would a consensus of the Board to
engage in dialog with the Town of East Spencer to pursue any options they may have for the building
and what kind of sell or lease they would want.
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It was the consensus of the Board for Dr. Miller to engage in these discussions with the Town of East
Spencer along with Dr. Grissom and Mr. Miller, and to review any historical documents regarding the
building.
The Board took a break at 6:20 p.m.
2013-2014 Budget Update
Mrs. Trexler reviewed some of the major updates she had received since the last meeting.
Mrs. Trexler said she is expecting a $5M deficit, which includes: EduJobs funding - $1M; recurring
expenses funded by fund balance in 2012-13 - $1,440,000; Projected cuts in state budget - $2M;
Mandatory increases related to salary is $481,000; Unemployment insurance, changing the way billed $88,000 = $5M deficit.
Mrs. Trexler said additional considerations are: LINKS grant is expiring, which holds substantial amount
of staff that offer support in our schools (5 social workers, 2 transition counselors, 5 early intervention
specialists, and 2 Hispanic specialists).
Mrs. Trexler advised that the Safety Committee recommendations were: Six (6) middle school SRO’s,
and three (3) front office clerical, which would put the system back on the allotment formula, both at a
cost of $368,000. There is also the Board stipend increase - $12,000.
Dr. Miller asked if there were any other grant funded programs that are expiring that the Board should
be noted, such as the LINKS program that has been very beneficial and we would like to continue
funding.
Mrs. Trexler said two other grants will expire. The Carol White (PEP) grant will be expiring, which paid
for a coordinator, but the majority of the funding was for equipment. She advised that the coordinator,
Mrs. Haywood, is retiring. The second grant is the Henderson grant that employed a few personnel.
Mrs. Trexler explained that the forces out of Raleigh are pushing vocational programs, so we may see
some money to pay for the salaries of the Henderson grant.
Mrs. Trexler said that if there were any other considerations to be put on the table, she would need to
know them before the March 25 meeting.
Mrs. Trexler stated that an additional consideration is the $1.4M of the $2.7M of the subsequent year’s
expenditures will have to be addressed this year. She said that $3.5M is 9% of our fund balance, and
the LGC’s recommendation is 8%. Mrs. Trexler explained that this tells us that in order to stay at the
LGC’s recommendation, we could appropriate $500,000 toward the $5M deficit.
Mrs. Trexler said that at a recent conference she attended, there was discussion that local BOE’s adopt a
policy regarding the amount to be kept in fund balance and how it should be used.
Dr. Miller said that he had a conversation with Mr. Sides as a follow up of the Feb. 7 meeting to discuss
the per pupil expenditure. Dr. Miller said Mr. Sides told him that he would discuss it with the other
commissioners.
Mrs. Trexler discussed the federal sequestration and said one of the largest impacts will be the federal
funding. She added the 2013-2014 funding level would actually drop back to the 2011-2012 level, which
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is $365,000. In addition, there is talk of additional cuts. Mrs. Trexler said this could be from $640,000
up to $882,000 in cuts.
Mrs. Trexler explained there may be some additional requirements like, Read to Achieve Requirement –
3rd graders in 2014; Request of Elementary Collaboration time, and that 4 days would be $265,000. She
said this would impact allotments to schools.
Mrs. Trexler said EC & Title II would be affected. However, their funding is more stable so we won’t see
too much on the first tier.
Mrs. Trexler said other options could be to request an increase in county appropriation, identify cuts, or a
combination of requests and cuts. She said she feels comfortable in appropriating $500,000 from fund
balance. Mrs. Trexler explained the BOE could also look at increasing class size. She said increasing
class size by one student would mean $1.6M (32 teaching positions), and increasing class size formula by
two students would be $3.3M (66 teaching positions). Mrs. Trexler explained the classroom allotment.
Mrs. Trexler said the Board would need to decide at the March 25 Board meeting, because our budget
request must be submitted to the County Commission by April 12.
Dr. Miller asked if the staff could have their recommendations brought to the BOE and do more walk
through before the March 25 BOE meeting.
Dr. Grissom reiterated that $24M has been cut in the last 3-4 years and it’s hard to cut much more
without hitting the classroom, and she doesn’t want cuts in the classroom.
Mr. Hughes stated he would let the commissioners know that we need a certain amount and see what
we get. He said it would be up to the commissioners then.
Mr. Miller reviewed the capital outlay budget of $26,686,500. He noted I was a $4M budget in 20112012. Mr. Miller’s recommendation was to request the total amount from the county commissioners.
NCSBA Seminar Report
Mrs. Cox distributed a copy of a document she received from the February 21-22 Law Conference. She
reviewed how the new letter grade, A – F, would be used in each grade level. Mrs. Cox shared that
several recommendations were given to revise portions of the procedure. She went on to discuss how
the schools would be graded.
Dr. Miller said the major issue is that in high school there is more to score from tests, but in elementary
they don’t have that to do.
Dr. Miller shared information from the items he received at the March 4th Special Issues Seminar.
Mrs. Norman discussed the information regarding Charter Schools that was shared at the SIS
Conference.
Closed Session
**Dr. Miller moved to recess into Closed Session at 8:04 p.m. to consider personnel action that involves
an [officer] or [employee], or [prospective public officer or employee] of this board. [NC Gen. Stat.
#143-318.11(a)(6)]. Mr. Hughes. seconded. (6:0)
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
Personnel
Report of Closed Session
None
**Dr. Miller moved the Board meeting start at 4:00 p.m. on March 25, 2013. Mrs. Norman seconded.
Unanimously approved. (6:0)
Announcements
3/13 - Parents Matter Workshop - Safety/5:30 p.m./Carson High School
3/20 - BOE Curriculum/Technology Sub-committee Mtg./3:00 p.m./Long Street
3/25 - BOE Meeting/5:00 p.m./Long Street
3/28 - Early Release Day
3/29 - Holiday (Offices and Schools Closed)
4/1 - 4/5 Spring Break (Schools Closed & Limited Office Personnel)
Adjournment
**Mrs. Norman moved to adjourn at 8:23 p.m. Mrs. Kennedy seconded. Unanimously approved.
(6:0)
Dr. Richard W. Miller, Chairman
Dr. Judy S. Grissom, Ed. D., Secretary
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