Dr. Bobby White:

I wanted to bring everybody up to speed on the Westside purchase, the movement with the new superintendent, and all that's going on with that. It pushed us back with the actual purchase. Although Mr. Lawson and I have communicated with the folks from Shelby County for over a year, it has to be almost two years now. We are negotiating and going back and forth, submitting documents. They wanted the numbers for all the facility improvements, maintenance, and things we've done over the last five years, and potentially, those numbers were all of what we spent going towards knocking down a price, and they estimated the building at 1.5 million. As you guys know, they put it on the market for us because we were the only ones interested in it. We offered 500,000. They were deciding how much of the 1.5 million they would knock off with the numbers we gave them.
Within that process, a new superintendent was named. The current superintendent (the interim) and the current cabinet members are unwilling to pull the trigger on a sale. They want that to come from the new superintendent. April 1st is the last time I heard she would come aboard. She's been in the city doing a lot of cameos and visiting schools, and it sounds like she's already on the job. But she's serving now in a capacity where she's shadowing Tutonial 'Toni' Williams, learning the ropes she will supposedly take over on April 1st. In the meantime, we need to secure the building for next year. Mr. Lawson and I negotiated reduced lease costs with the district, allowing us to sign into a lease that will be markedly less than what most people pay per square foot. And we're not necessarily comfortable with the amount because we want to purchase the building.

However, right now, it's what makes the most sense for us so that we will know that unequivocally, we will have the bill next year, even if we have to lease it even if the new superintendent doesn't come around and sell it to us. One caveat about the lease was that we had to ensure it was a month-to-month lease. So when the superintendent, once I can have a conversation with her, she will sell us the building. Keep in mind that we don't have to pay anything on a lease until July 1. The school is still ours, and the ASD is until June 30. Right. This lease will protect us in case we cannot secure the purchase over the next several months. I will speak with the new superintendent about my conversations with the interim and the previous superintendent before the interim superintendent. This may not be as connected as you guys would think about remembering a vision, but our resilience and ability to continue to move forward through adversity is part of who we are. We've experienced a lot of adversity over the last several years. We're the only organization that was experiencing a school that is about to be demolished and having to hold a community to get who is distraught and essentially traumatized by the fact that their babies are not going to have a neighborhood school to attend and that their baby's gonna have to leave outside of that part of Frayser to attend school. And it just speaks to our team again. Miss Perry and Mr. Cooper over at MLK are holding down the fort there, and we continue to be resilient throughout our adversity. You know, over the last seven or eight years, many schools have experienced a number of losses. We've had several young folk to pass away that were part of our team. And we, as a family, always stuck together and were able to continue doing the work that we do for the families, students, and the community. As always, I couldn't be more proud to be the person out front, serving with and leading you guys as we continue to do this work. So, where we are with Westside is not precisely where I would like us to be. But given the circumstances, we're in the best position that we can be in. Our lowest cost will be half of what most folks are paying for what anyone is paying as it relates to the different charters who are using MSCs school buildings around the district. Right. And so that's something that should be applauded and celebrated. But rest assured, I believe we'll end up purchasing Westside. It will not be this month or next but in the coming months. I feel we're in a good place. I just wanted to share that with you all.

Mr. Greg Thompson:

Financial Report
 

Financial Notes
• Cash Balance:
• At 2-29-2024: $2,914,662 (59 days of cash)
• At 3-19-2024: $3,363,531 (68 days of cash) 

School                                 MLK                     Westside                 Humes                    Total 

• Budgeted Enrollment          540                       330                        195                         1,065
   
• Enrollment on which FCS    493                       290                        193                          976

is currently being funded
 

• The average per pupil funding for FCS is approximately $11,765 per student (net of ASD fee of 3%)

Mr. Brett Lawson:

First, I would like to thank the academic team for their tough work under duress. We are in that strange transition period of an organization that is doing as many things as we are doing, pulling down two programs and constantly meeting with MSCS about all of the moving parts that make that process work, as well as managing all of our HR resources, the best of our ability and making sure that all of our staff who are not no longer going to be with us or finding gainful employment for next year. And as a result of those processes, our schools are experiencing, what they knew they would in this situation, and that is a lot of vacancies and staffing positions. Our principals are absolute champions, and they are working every day to make sure that our students don't suffer from the experiences they have in our buildings. As a testament to that, we held our ACT today at the high school and were able to test all students except 14. That's a tremendous undertaking, and Miss Perry is on the line with us tonight. Thank you, Miss Perry, for your hard work and ensuring it occurred.

These things may sound simple, but I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, it is not, especially when you're dealing with all the situations we have going on. And we have had some tricky situations as far as student behaviors go. We had a situation yesterday that Dr. White and I had never dealt with before. We both came up with various situations over our years together back in the schools, and we have yet to deal with this one. So those kinds of things happen in schooling. And you have to have the right leaders to manage those situations and ensure that everything moves forward. So, as you know, we've also had leadership changes, and Marcus Shead has stepped in at Westside to be the principal for the remainder of the year and is doing a great job. Dr. Harvey, Dr. Clark, and Miss Gibson support him in that work. You know, shoring it up and ensuring that things continue running smoothly for the remainder of the year. And I can't say thank you enough. That's the main point of my discussion tonight. Thank you, because we would be in a challenging situation if we didn't have as many quality people in all of these positions in the schools where it matters. 

• Ms. Candice Reddick:

So, in terms of governance, we haven't focused on the pre-convention of the committees because of the other committees. We've focused on the development committee as we gear up our tenth anniversary. Dr. White said it would be huge and wanted to do it big. We are focusing a lot on the development committee as we are planning. Dr. White, we can tag the team on this because it will be in conjunction with development and governance. We are heavily preparing for a successful event. We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, March 20, at 6 pm, and we would like other board members to join that call to get collective input from the entire group. Miss Warren has been working diligently on this, and Miss Jackson was also at the last meeting. So, they collected some notes and ideas that were great. We would love for the other board members to be able to hear those and get your feedback on them as well. That's all that I have to say in regards to debt. Dr. White, do you have anything else you'd like to add?
 

• Dr. Bobby White:

I'm nervous about the gala. Ms. Warren has spent some time today trying to reassure me. So this is the 10th, and we did a big rival in year five. The tri-state defender came in and did a big job. I mean, we were on the front page of the tri-state defender doing an article about the work we've done in the community, and you know, we had all of these folks, and it was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful program gently like it was amazing. Ms. Williams started 6, 7, 8 months before May 23. With everything that has happened this year with you guys, please realize that this was Ms. Williams's project at the beginning of the year before she left to work for the DEA. You know that after that, it was Miss Bearden's responsibility, with some support from Ms. Warren. Well, now, neither of those people is here. And so the weight has been all placed on Ms. Warren, who's never done this before.

Ms. Warren is amazing at doing our graduations, proms, and baccalaureate. Ms. Warren is excellent at doing those things. And we don't doubt that she's fantastic doing this. However, when Ms. Williams did this five years ago, the entire board was a part of the process. The board members were selling tables and looking for sponsorships, and everyone had their marching orders, and they had their marching orders for five months before the start of the actual gala date. And so, with us being eight weeks out, no definitive responsibilities have been given to anyone on this call. It makes me nervous that we are behind the eight ball. We're Frayser Community Schools, and we're going to pull it together. It will be unique, but I'll tell you that I'm a bit nervous right now. And so tomorrow's meeting.
I'm looking forward to there being more than just the folks on a development committee because, by default, the entire board is a part of the development committee. After all, it's about fundraising, and all board members are responsible for it. Frayser Community Schools is one of the few boards where, from the beginning, I said I did not want the board members of our organization to be responsible for giving anything other than their in-kind service and their commitment in our heart to our organization.

Many organizations have a $2,000 commitment; we don't have that. And so, as a result, again, the Development Committee, all board members, are part of it. Here is that one thing we're doing this year: we have yet to do any other events. There's only one thing that we were doing this year, and we all have to be all in. But right now, we can't be all in because we don't want to know the plans. So tomorrow, I hope we can spend the time to squeeze the air out of all of this in a way we can divvy it up between everyone on the board and our network team. Leaders from schools and whatever we need to do to make this happen so that we don't fall on our faces come May 24.

Again, please recognize that the space that we're in is not only about us anymore; this is the end of an era in which Frayser High School /MLK is about to be demolished. Therefore, this gala is more significant than just what we started with. Last year, when we were thinking about it, this is almost a combination of 80 years of history. And, of course, we're not going to be able to pull in all of the 80 years or all of the Frayser. I don't think we would be able to do that anyway, but that's how the eyes will be looking at us as it relates to this event. And I want us to understand that if we have to meet every week for the next seven weeks to try to figure it out, we need to set the city on fire that night. And I wonder if we're ready to do that yet. But we should be able to before it's over. 

Ms. Candice Reddick:

Dr. White and I mentioned that we anticipate everyone fully participating in tomorrow's QA because we value everyone's input. We don't want to plan an event without all the board members' input. If you can join, please share your ideas and thoughts as we send out notes regarding the FCS 10-Year Anniversary Gala.