Greg Thompson:

2025-2026 Budget Proposal

Revenue Assumptions:

• Enrollment 275 
• TISA Funding (per pupil amount) $12,700 Based on preliminary estimates from Memphis Shelby County Schools 
• Total TISA Funding $3.5M 
• Title I Funding $165K Based on preliminary estimates from Memphis Shelby County Schools; will cover personnel costs 
• Turnaround Action Grant $56K Will cover 
• School Improvement Coach and partial expenses in professional development and instructional materials and supplies School Improvement Grant $40.6K Will cover partial expenses in instructional materials and supplies 
• Innovative Schools Model Grant $224.4K Will cover 3 Science teachers and 1 STEM teacher 
• USDA $200K Breakfast and Lunch Program 
• Private Funding $236.5K Seeding Success Partnership (will cover Agape and I Am She partnership costs; as well as staffing costs for Director of Family Engagement, Attendance Manager, Director of Grants)

Expense Assumptions: 

Total Expenses: $4.8M 

Personnel 

• 31 full-time employees • $2.5M in salaries, taxes, and benefits (52% of expenses)

Positions                Number of FTEs                Description

Leadership team           5                                 Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer, Principal, Assistant                                                          Principal, Dean of Instruction

Administration              4                                Operations Staff

Teachers                       19                              Core subjects, SPED, electives, Teacher Assistants

Student Support           3                               Guidance Counselor, School Improvement Coach,                                                                                Student Support Specialist

Other Significant Expense Line Items:

Instruction 

• Academic and Student Support programming related partnerships - $236K (grant funded through Seeding Success partnership) • Instructional Supplies & Materials (Curricular-related) - $115K

Administrative /Operations 

• Student Health Services - $70K • Technology Services - $100K • Transportation (3 buses) - $324K • Financial Services, Payroll, Audit- $108.5K • Insurance Policies - $68K • Copier Leases - $48K • USDA Food Costs - $200K (offset by revenue)

Facilities 

• Lease Payments - $272.8K • Building Maintenance & Repair - $100K • Janitorial- $192K • Landscaping - $20.4K • Utilities - $165K • Water & Sewer - $12K • Waste - $5K • Security- $56.1K

Budget Summary 

• Westside is budgeting a moderate deficit (~$250K), but additional grant funding (School Improvement Grant, Seeding Success grant) is likely to cover additional expenses.

Dr. Bobby White:

• Dr. Clark is remembering the vision. She's getting us back to this excitement around running the block in Westside. I've been a community pillar; people are excited, and the reputation is returning to where we used to be. I gave an update on the purchase of Westside in the CEO update. That will be a game changer for many different things because it will become our revenue stream. Right now, we don't allow folks to use the facility to charge them dollars, but when it's our building, we can allow churches to use the building and so on and so on. So it becomes a revenue source for us. And more importantly, it's a full circle moment of the work we put in the Frayser community over the last 13 years. Before Frayser Community Schools started, I was the principal at Westside for four or five years before that, and Miss Adams was the principal at Westside Elementary for the last 15-16 years. And, now to have an ownership stake in that block, there's already been a personal responsibility to do what we've been doing. But I think that adds even more value to the legacy of what we're attempting to do there, and I'm super excited about that.
• 
  I am this close to us understanding what a potential opportunity school would look like in 2026/2027 for our school. Whether it's a co-location model where we have the middle schoolers on one side and then our Opportunity School on the other side is something that I haven't worked on, so I'm excited about it. But the most exciting thing I have right now is that we're embarking on this new leadership chapter and making what they want to say the best side I can ride with that. I love Westside's term "Love West Side Absolutely", but we can use them both. But Dr. Clark will lead that for us and make Westside the best side. And I know she shared some things in great detail at our academic excellence committee meeting, but if I can hand it off to her to share what her vision is maybe not as detailed as in the other meeting, but share what our vision is, and give a bit about like, what the close out of the years look like, as well as like, I know you guys are in the middle of summer school as well. You just started summer school. So those three things.

Dr. LaWanda Clark:

• 
  I don't know if this means much, but I'm ready for it. We have a fantastic team, energy, and spirit, and there's such a spirit of newness. But like I shared in the academic meeting, these three goals. These were the three goals that continuously drive our school improvement plan. And so we want to make sure that we are working on teacher development, that we are working on community engagement, which involves our parents and community stakeholders, and then, most importantly, that we are working to create an environment of academic excellence. And so with that, Dr. White, we still love Westside absolutely is on the letterhead. But I'm also going to coin the mantra this year of being committed to excellence, which means everything that we do, leadership, academics, behavior, every engagement, even from how we dress, everything is about being committed to excellence. And so when something arrives in the building, or there's something teachers want, I want to know, how does that support our commitment to excellence? And ties us back to the vision. We talked about our in-service and the one thing we want to discuss. And thank you, Miss Adams, Mr. Shead, and Miss Taylor, for this morning. The entire day was spent remembering the vision, ensuring that our teachers understand why we do this work, and making it personable to them. And I feel that we did not do that in the past, and I think it's something different. And once we get those teachers to connect with the why and understanding everything they do, from the way they line up in the hallway to not picking up their children on time to how they plan their lessons, how everything they do must support a vision that they create per grade level, and it must support the vision that we have developed as the network. So that's why, Dr. white, your part on day one is key. It is key and instrumental. Keep in mind that we're committed to excellence, we're doing planning sessions, and we've also completed the closeout. Ms Warren, Mrs. Gibson, Ms. Perry, and Mrs. Peters have done an extraordinary job meeting those closeout deadlines. I received an email over the weekend saying we had zero files past due, so that's outstanding. When we plan for the new year, I don't have to worry about anything that will come up or reevaluate what wasn't completed from last year. Kudos to them for ensuring everything was done, as it related to Title I, RTI state records. They work very hard to make sure everything is done. Ms. Warren is working in the file room right now, putting all those files together and storing them properly so that we will be ready if we have any audits. So again, we're committed to excellence, even being proactive in what we do, to ensure that we always represent ourselves in Westside very well. I also have Mr. Shead on the line, but I will pivot over to him and let him talk about the 30-something kids we have in summer school. 

Mr. Marcus Shead:

• 
  Good evening, everyone. We started with 31 students who were eligible for summer school. We have 29 who are currently enrolled. We had two no-shows. We have 11 students in our overage for grade program, and one teacher is serving those students. We also have about 18 6th graders; 80% of those students failed ELA this year, and another 20% failed math. However, both groups were taking ELA and math because they didn't do well if they failed English. They passed math, but they didn't do exceptionally well in ELA. So they're getting enrichment in math, while they're getting that core direct instruction in ELA and vice versa. Currently, we have those students enrolled. All those students except for seven are registered for the next school year. We have three teachers serving those students: one OAG (over age for grade) teacher, one ELA teacher, and one math teacher. The ELA and math students are all sixth graders. And that's all I have right now.

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• 
  We came up with five goals, and a lot of them align with what you are doing, Dr. Clark, and especially supporting the long-term vision for virtual community schools. So, our first goal was to develop and drive a fundraising strategy supporting our long-term vision; we will definitely partner with Dr. White and Dr. Clark to align on fundraising goals for the fiscal year. We would also look into reviewing and supporting grant applications. We have a massive community of Frayser, former Westside students. We have alumni, so we should tap into that alumni network to start looking at donor campaigns and giving appeals, even identifying and engaging potential donors, sponsors, and philanthropic partners. That again goes along with something that Miss Jackson asked about earlier, and definitely, we would track our progress on fundraising goals quarterly. The next high-level goal is building strategic partnerships to expand our regional resources. We will look into mapping and maintaining a list of our current and potential partners, whether within the Frayser community, in the city, or outside of the city of Memphis, and identify ways that board members can help open doors and make more introductions.
• 
  We have a lot of great board members on this board, and I'm confident they have some great networks. So even as board members tapping into our networks and just making those warm introductions about the organization, who we are, and what we do, starting those relationships is essential, and that will help drive a lot of donations and help us meet our fundraising goals. Also support opportunities for cross-sector collaborations, whether joint programming in kind services, etc, that's something else we can look into. We also support community engagement that builds trust and visibility, ensuring that we participate in and support school and community-hosted events, which we've been doing very well at. Starting with our TCAP proctors and graduation. Many of our board members have been present and seen. I commend each of you for stepping into that role, but I look forward to doing that a lot more to help identify or host events that welcome parents, alumni, and community leaders. That is another way you build relationships. When you give people the visibility into Westside itself, let them see Westside and understand who Westside is and who FCS is. That drives that trust and visibility, because we can say, " Oh, this is Westside, and they do not even see who we are. So when they know who we are, trust in that relationship is built. Also, we need to hear from our families and stakeholders to understand our community's needs and perceptions better. Mr. Stanford is doing well at amplifying our story through social media and public messaging, working with you, Dr. White, and Dr. Clark on our messaging priorities. Mr. Sanford has been doing a great job with the content. I have been sharing much of the content on my social media page. Board members, if you aren't following the Westside Middle School page.

• Introduction of a new parent candidate on the board:
   

Ms. Candice Reddick:
 

• Dr. White and I had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Wells, who is excited to join the board. He is a parent of Westside Middle School. We wanted to ensure that we follow protocol. As a board, we will have to vote for Mr. Wells so he can continue attending meetings and being a voting board member. So, Dr. White will share information about Mr. Wells, and then we will take a vote.

Dr. Bobby White:

• 
  Mr. Wells is a father at Westside. His daughter is a rising 7th grader. He works for the city of Memphis. He's the director of aquatics. Ms. Reddick and I have spoken with him; he makes a valuable addition to our organization. 

Mr. Marcus Shead:

• 
  Mr. Wells' daughter, when she first got there this year, was scared, and just his level of commitment to his daughter spoke volumes to me. It reminded me of Dr. White and me having young girls at one point and our level of commitment to them. She's a cheerleader, and he doesn't make her a cheerleader for all her events, but when he does, he can. He's just a great overall guy. Even his demeanor, when she was having a situation with a teacher at the beginning of the year, he understood who we were and what we would and would not allow in our school and our cultural environment, was just a calm demeanor of let me hear both sides. Let me figure out what's going on. Let me help my daughter realize where she went wrong. Mr. Wells is an outstanding gentleman. 

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• Can I get a motion to approve Mr. Wells as a parent on the Frayser Community Schools Board?
• Ms. Kimberly Adams made a motion to Approve Mr. Christopher Wells as a board member.
• Dr. Natasha Burnett seconded the motion.
• It has been motioned and properly moved Mr. Wells is now a new parent on the FCS board. I will reach out to him to welcome him to the board. He will join us on our next meeting.

Ms. Candice Reddick:

• While this wasn't an easy decision, effective June 30, 2025, I am resigning from my position as board chair and rolling off the board of directors for Frayser Community Schools. Again, this wasn't an easy decision. I had some time to reflect and am grateful to have worked with many exceptional individuals on this call. I know many of you and have had the pleasure of meeting with you once or twice. I've also worked with many of you in other capacities. But it is time to relinquish my role and allow someone else to move this organization forward. I have seen this organization go through huge transitions in the last three years, and I'm so grateful to have been a part of that. To Dr. White, and Mrs. Cathy, who's not on the call tonight, who was the board chair at the time, I thank them for seeing something in me that I didn't see, and allowing me the opportunity to serve as board chair for Frayser Community Schools, and also served on this board because I started as a board member before I was board chair. That doesn't mean I'm going away. I still am Frayser through and through. I'm a Frayser resident, born and raised, and extremely dedicated to the Frayser community. So just because I'm no longer a member of this board and no longer in this seat, that does not mean I am not supporting and advocating for Frayser Community Schools, Westside Middle School, or anything Frayser-related. Dr. White, thank you for your leadership. Dr. Clark, I know that the next board chair will have the pleasure of working with you, and that is the update that I wanted to share for tonight during our governance time. So thank you all for having me.
   

No announcements at this time.