No, we don't operate your face.

I was up there with it.

I know it's not.

It's not like I was just having a slide for something.

She wanted to have third.

Yes, sir.

Are you here for public comment?

Oh, no, sorry, I was gonna crack.

Yes, man.

We are on YouTube live though, I guess.

Yes.

And they said, Are you drinking the RC?

I said, No, I'm gonna rock the color.

I'm hooked on the microphone.

You're just starting to let it work.

Okay.

This evening.

Please remember standing for our vacation by city manager Mike Flame.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the day that you've given us for the warm weather and Lord being able to come out from underneath uh the weather pattern that we had now.

We pray that you bless this meeting tonight, um, be with those that uh be presenting.

We thank you, Lord, for all those that uh work in city government, those that uh work within our community, and uh Lord, I just pray the decisions made uh bring honor and glory to you.

We love you this evening.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

We'll call the meeting officially to order.

First thing I'd like to do is excuse uh Kitty Strove.

Uh that really was not her, that was our police chief sitting here with her name a few minutes ago.

So yeah.

But let's excuse Kitty.

She will be back on our next meeting starting in March.

Item number two minutes of the February 3rd, 2026 special 4:30 p.m.

and regular 530 p.m.

meetings.

Is there a motion?

Motion by Commissioner Cox.

Is there a second?

Second, second uh by Commissioner Tool.

The reason I hesitated amendment, I got that down now.

Uh all in favor.

Uh any opposed by like son.

Motion carries.

Uh, we're gonna move now to a comment from a really nice public person who that would be well.

Look, he's already standing up, and that would be our school superintendent, Dustin Howard.

So I have to go and sit back down.

Yeah, I say that's not you back up.

Appreciate it, and if you'll just give me just a few minutes.

Um Kelly, don't forget Kelly.

Kelly Fifth and we'll be joining me.

Oh, absolutely.

Um we really want to take a minute, kind of give uh the city commission kind of the state of the Clark County Public School system.

This is something we've done a couple years ago, um, and really wanted to get in front of you and and talk about kind of our vision, some uh gains we've made, uh just give you a little information.

We have prepared some packets for you.

Uh good news.

I'm not going over the whole packet.

All right, so everybody can read deep.

We're gonna try to keep this to about five to ten minutes.

Um, but there's a lot of good information.

Every department we have, there's a snapshot in there, so it gives you kind of did you know?

Uh it's really good is for public officials to kind of know where money's going, how we're spending it.

Uh all of that is in these documents, uh, along with um some kind of overview highlights, which uh Ms.

Fifth and I'll kind of cover here in a little bit, uh, to give uh proof to the pudding, right?

Um results.

Um first let me kind of talk just overall vision.

Our vision in the Clark County Public School system is truly uh to connect the district and the community as one to grow greatness in all of our students.

Um what we're trying to do is not have that be just something on a wall, but something that we live by every single day with every decision we make.

Is this good for kids?

And how are we benefiting our community?

And how do we connect those two things that sometimes in our history have not aligned or lived inside those, right?

Um, and so there's some things that I want to present, but a little bit about us.

Uh, we're up to almost 5600 students.

Uh that's including preschool.

Um, since 2020, that is up about 600 kids.

Uh so where other districts and communities um are seeing a decrease in enrollment, uh, we're actually seeing an increase in enrollment.

Um also we have about uh 1,300 employees.

Um, so a lot of people don't know how large of employer we are in the district.

Goodness.

Um we're probably the largest employer in in the community, uh, if I'm doing numbers correctly, 1300.

Um that's from our teaching staff to our classified staff bus drivers, coaches, volunteers.

Um we have made a huge investment in the last three years in retention recruitment strategies because we're not only trying to grow greatness um in our students, but grow greatness in our staff, and again, the third big pillars in our community.

When we got here three to four years ago, our retention rate was something like 69 percent.

Wow, it's not so good.

Um, last year uh we had moved it almost to 89.8, almost 90 percent of our folks are staying with us, and after allocation meetings the last two weeks, we'll be well over 90 percent retention.

That is huge, which is phenomenal.

So we don't have to keep starting over, we're not competitive with districts, every district grounds were we're we're competitive with, including one uh just down 64 from us, which I believe we're um we're doing some things they can only dream about, if I'm being quite honest, and we'll talk about some of that.

So, first thing is uh from preschool, we've opened up a brand new facility for 150 students' capacity.

Uh, as of yesterday, we were at about 320.

Next year we're going to accept any four-year-old in Clark County.

Uh it won't be a mandate, you don't have to come.

Uh, but before you were told you could not come because you either made too much money or you didn't qualify with having either uh some sort of disability.

Um we feel like we uh spent taxpayers' money on that building, and anybody that wants to take advantage of it should.

So uh next year we're expanding uh up to capacity if we need to.

We are the first school system in the state of Kentucky to do that by far.

Um so I want you to be proud of what we're doing because another big rock we have is early childhood.

We can no longer wait to close gaps and be grade grade levels behind yours behind when we can invest in three and four-year-olds, uh, so there are no gaps too close.

How about that for a different world and a different vision?

Um so again, very proud of some of the efforts in Jill Blatt and her staff at the high school.

Um some numbers.

GRC's graduation rate is now well over 97%.

Uh pretty daggone good.

Um in the high school and in the district combined, we have almost 360 volunteers.

Um we had last year 97 seniors had enders graduated industry certifications, 80 juniors, 80 juniors industry certifications, 53 sophomores, and 379 students earned a total of 620 dual credits.

Goodness gracious.

Because that is outstanding when you then um take that number at whatever per hour cost you were going to pay at the university, and we're saving families hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Um we've even expanded that to dual credit opportunities for our freshmen.

We offered uh dual credit through EKU through Murray State, Moorhead State, BCTC, just to name a few.

So again, our kids are getting high school credits uh on top of uh college credits.

15 of our kids will graduate uh from the BCA Academy with their associates degree before they ever walk across the stage as a high school senior.

Um these things don't happen in every community, but they do right here in Winchester and Clark County.

Um I'm gonna go through all the pathways or G SP, GSP, or GSA, those governor scholars, uh, but our kids are the best in Brighton State of Kentucky.

We can now have numbers improved that.

Um again, I just I'm gonna transition this over to Ms.

Fifth, but a couple things.

Did you know?

So did you it's not trivia time?

Did you know the Clark County Public Schools maintains almost 1.1 million square feet of indoor building space?

And we mow almost 300 acres of outdoor green space.

Wow.

Uh that's every couple weeks.

I mean, it's we are a we are a small town within the town of Winchester.

Um, talk about the winter storm.

We were one of the first districts to be able to go back.

That's because of things that we did here in the city.

Uh but it's also things because of our maintenance guys.

Our lots were cleared before anyone else.

If you drive by Winchester Clark County, school was clear first.

Um, and I'm super proud of their efforts with that.

Um, well, let me do one more.

Did you know?

No, maybe not.

I'm taking up too much time.

I could talk forever because I'm passing by Clark County.

Uh, but again, some of these investments I'm gonna have Mrs.

Fifth and guy talk about highlights of where we're at um with some results.

I'm great to go preaching.

He could go on and on, which is a great thing.

He does wonderful talking about all the greatness that we've got in Clark County.

Um, super proud to talk about a few of those today.

Hopefully, a few months ago, you saw some of our banners and all of our schools as we celebrated our assessments that we took across the state last year.

Those results are always delayed, so we take those assessments in May, usually get those back October.

This year it was November, but we saw gains across the board.

Um, it was remarkable reading, math, all subject areas, all grade levels.

We are seeing district-wide gains, and those are due to a lot of the processes that we have in place.

Um, we are providing training for our teachers, investing in professional learning, we are coaching, and all of that in turn is helping our students.

So we are seeing all of that hard work paying off that we're putting into that professional learning.

So we're super excited across the district about the gains that we're continuing to see.

Um, in addition to a lot of the expansions that Mr.

Howard stated uh with free school, we're also expanding in other areas such as extending the school day for a lot of our students.

We have started a flight academy that extends our school day for two hours for our elementary students.

We are providing them an additional meal.

So now our students are receiving breakfast and lunch, and now several of those are provided at dinner as well.

We're providing transportation and then being able to work with those students an additional two hours for remediation, but also enrichment activities.

So we're super excited.

That's something that has been new this school year.

We continue to plan, uh continue to plan for that even into next year, and then also into some summer programming.

Uh, the last two years we've been able to provide summer programming for our elementary students.

We're gonna do so again this year, but also extend it for six hours instead of four hours during the day, and then provide additional programming um for the entire month of June.

So we'll do an extended program there.

Again, food is provided, transportation is provided, and we also have fun activities that we do with the students because it is summer.

Um, so we want to make sure we're providing summer enrichment activities, but at the same time making sure we don't have that summer slide or that gap during the summer.

So super excited, zero cost to all of our families.

Yeah, we have a grant that funds that we'll continue to uh keep working with partners that we can be able to provide that for our students.

So super exciting about that.

Um, in addition, another expansion that we have in Clark County is being able to provide um tailored education for all students.

So going into the classroom from eight to three is not what all students need.

So we have been able to provide programming where students can do all virtual if that is a need for that particular student, but we've also expanded to provide hybrid learning.

So we have a lot of students that will come in and do some classes in person and then some classes virtually to meet the needs of that particular student.

So that has been another avenue to meet needs of our students currently in our virtual program, so it could be all virtual or a mix of coming in and some virtual.

We have approximately 350 students in that particular program, and that has grown in the last three years from about 30 students to the 350.

Um, those students can earn dual credit um while taking virtual classes, and it has just opened up a new um wealth and opportunities for those particular students.

So we're super excited about that.

Um as he mentioned, um, CTE and preschool were continue to expand, and then also have a large focus on literacy.

Um, we're really putting a lot of our resources into elementary school so that we can ensure that students are reading on grade level, and in turn that helps all schools in our district in our community as well.

So those continue to be some of the highlights and big focus areas.

Um, in your folder, we have the state assessment highlights.

There is a district overview, but also an overview for every single school.

I won't go through all of those, but it does mention a lot of the greatness going on in our community.

Do you all have any questions?

They are two years ago or the bottom quarter of all high schools in the safe company.

Uh they are now one of the best about 30 percent of the high schools in the in the safe department.

I think we're better than 90 percent of county high schools right now.

So we're very proud of the growth of the building feels different and they want connections they want to be part of the year.

You know, you all are offering so much more.

Shannon and I are both retired teachers than you're honoring offering so much more than was ever offered in the past.

And I always had a my philosophy in my first grade classroom was if you don't learn to read in the first grade.

I don't care if you're 16, you're still gonna be a first grader until you learn to read.

And now you are putting so much emphasis on that that it's changing the lives of these kids.

And that's greatly appreciated.

Uh, I did have one question with the increasing residential developments we're having.

Are you gonna have to look at another school?

Or uh that would our future?

Sure.

Well, um, every four years we put together a district facilities committee, uh, local planning committee that looks at our facilities wine.

Um we're in the last two years of this one, so the next two years that will be the very next thing we look at is uh especially on the candidate on the county side.

I know there's there's discussions about housing going in.

Um, and that would be something we would absolutely get.

Well, because we've also reduced black sizes, we'll say this our elementary schools to 21 or less, which is far less than what is required.

Wow, far far less than what's required, but we're investing in early childhood and teachers.

We collect that also.

So we're not space at my point.

Uh the request.

That's great.

Well, I'm meeting with the developer.

My nephew and our well, my nephew's meeting with him next week, and I'm I'm panicking along because of another maybe another foreseeable chapter in my life, and I want to get comfortable things.

Maybe I could mention to him that we maybe we could do a meeting with you.

But our our retired years ago.

And it's not the same.

Our retired from high school.

High school is not the same.

High school is what's been it's different.

The school system is not the same as school system as I appreciate that.

And you mentioned the 300 kids that are virtual.

The big thing on that is you'd have lost some of those kids.

If they didn't have that opportunity.

Appreciate the partnerships you you guys are doing.

And things like I've been principal for a day for three different schools here this year.

Ain't doing no more.

But you know there the community for years thought, oh, we pay we're paying for all this stuff, but we're not they don't want us around.

And that that was true, especially with our daily compared.

Or I was building before you moved out and I moved out.

But uh it's different now.

Kelly, what about tutoring opportunities for the kids that are need a little extra boost?

Um, all of the schools offer some type of tutoring service.

Um at the elementary school, we funnel that through more of the flight academy, that additional two hours, but they also offer some other extra services, sometimes two days a week, and then likewise at our upper grades, they'll offer some days of additional programming for an hour after school.

Um that's usually some of your core classes in math or reading, but tutoring is offered, yes.

Um, with those types, it's usually not transportation isn't provided, but we do so with the the large-scale district-wide initiatives.

I had a question.

Um, just kind of a picking your brain thought.

I know at the state level there's discussion of a different type of snow day, like a catastrophic weather day.

Um, do you have any thoughts on that?

And then even more so, and this is more just picking brains, no discussion.

You know, I come from Maryland where you graduate mid-June and go back after Labor Day.

Do you ever see there being a discussion?

Is that a county, is that state level to there are our um district calendars for when we go to school and not as a local board decision.

We've actually passed calendars for about two years at this point because previously uh we were passing calendars in April for the very next year.

So if it would be normal people that have to turn into a calendar that we're gonna January one, it was quite unfair because then we're putting the school calendar out there, so we've got to move that back.

Um ultimately we send out surveys to get feedback if the board does on when we would like to open, what we like to close.

Um we have taken this for us, we have taken all of our um traditional instructional days and DI days, uh, but we've not had to move graduation back at this point.

Um we got back to school before other people and we made a couple of our summer days up this last Friday and Monday.

That's what we're sitting in a pretty good position to graduate, you know, I think the Friday before Labor Day or Memorial.

Um but again once we have those conversations do with the year to year on if they want to do that up or back as far as emergency days.

They're talking about some legislation that the commissioner of education could approve, like emergency days if people go over a certain number.

Um but right now the only thing I have are either a traditional snow day or those in the tens.

And I thought it was interesting when the superintendent um in Lexington came out speaking about that 200,000 number per day thing.

Would that be impactful in that kind of way?

I mean, a major kudos with how you did everything through the winter storm because it was clear to see you knew what you were doing.

Well, we we try and we're in a different spot, and so we were in a different spot three, all the weather, and we're doing opposed all the weather without getting into that and stuff, but for us, I'll simply say we don't lose that kind of money on the FDI.

Understood.

Uh back because we're so good at working with our families and our students getting those packets turned in and done, our attendance for those days are actually higher, which means we get more funding for those days, and we're not running buses, right?

Diesel was in our personnel, and so whatever food service costs, it's a different fun for us.

Okay, uh, we weren't in the whole end.

Um I can't get luckily or four years we got some things lined out, I think we'll do the right direction.

But it allows our families to not have to push those days back necessarily and then get into family vacations when the channel's been set.

Absolutely.

I'd be very willing to look at you know when we got a little down there, right?

It doesn't matter to me.

I work a whole lot, so I hear when it gets far some um guys a dad, you know, just going with all of them are very helpful.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

I've got something I want to ask you again in a minute, but I want to preface it with saying we had something really neat happen this week.

Um, a lady who had a house fire.

Um guys put them out, put it out, and the lady came in with a $500 Kroger card thanking the fire department for saving her home.

And as you know, the fire department cannot accept monetary donations, and they all went to Kroger's and spent the $500 provide food for spring break week.

That's fantastic.

So that's coming.

I think that's huge, Chief.

What you all did.

So would you one of you all address the spring break drive, food drive?

Um you've had with uh the police department.

I know that uh need we go back to Chief Hall and Steve Charles gonna be part of it.

Um very old since I coached in with the high school.

Uh I was still working.

Um, but it's just again, it's it feeds right in target when I talk about connected with school and community.

One we're doing that, it's not just a slogan.

Um and it's helping kids and it's helping families, and and to your point about being out of school when we're out, some kids don't get to eat.

Which is why we feed kids all summer long, also that our summer feeding programs um get almost 10,000 meals out a week um over the summer.

So this allows us to do that when we're a little bit limited on screen break, they've stepped in our report uh contact their office and they didn't even donate food even now.

We get a lot of our kids to help pack it up last year or to help deliver it.

So again, we're also teaching our kids what it means to be servants and servant leaders uh realize in the day and time of BBBB and I I I on social media, something about you, right?

Um this program isn't still teaching most of the lessons.

There's nothing more difficult as an early elementary teacher to have a child come up to you at lunch and say, Can I get an extra milk or can I get a cookie to take home so my brother will have something to eat?

You know, those are the those are the tough times, and people don't realize how much educators are also social workers.

Sure.

And yeah, makes a makes a big difference.

So we facilitated it, but the community wasn't like that.

Well exactly.

And she quietly won't admit it, but he did check it up off his bucket list.

He got to go shop with a cop yesterday with me.

And when I saw him Kroger yesterday afternoon, he had to sing it.

Well he's a greener now.

Now you know if Dustin knows we forget about the high school kids a lot.

He knows that I kept a loaf of bread pajar peanut butter behind my desk all the time.

Because even high school kids they don't get hungry, even they get hungry.

And you know, we don't we forget about them at times.

But well, let's put the chief on the spot up here, tell people what you still need because I'm going to fill in the gaps, and I really don't want to have to buy we're probably under 80% done.

And we've got three weeks left, but we're down to two sale of kids, more phosphics and chef boy already.

So wow.

Fantastic.

Thank you guys again.

Chief specifically raised my kids here.

How many of them participate in this one with this apartment?

Did he push the buggy?

Uh we each had a buggy.

Oh, great photo.

I knew this gone.

That was good.

It was good.

Commissioner Chanel, any comments?

Oh no, everything is uh really done well.

Just keep up with your work.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And it's Shannon Express, and we all feel up here that we're so proud of our schools.

Makes us proud to be Clark Countyans because we have such a good school.

And you heard me say that when Governor Collins, I've learned that from her years ago that when businesses want to move, corporations want to move to a community.

So they look for three things.

One is a vibrant downtown, second thing is good health care, and the third thing is a good school system.

And we've got those.

So thank you all for what you do, and you're more than appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Go cards.

You need to get us all t shirts, Dustin.

It's say go cards across the front of them.

We can wear them.

We can all wear them the city commission one night.

I've got five or six of them.

Okay, back on the agenda for departmental agency ports A through G.

Uh, is there a motion?

So I moved.

Motion by Commissioner Cox.

Is there a second?

Second by Commissioner Chenald.

Any discussion?

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

Any opposed by like sign?

Motion carries.

Item informational items A through H.

Again, this for information.

If there's anything that anyone would like to highlight, please do so.

I'm so sorry.

Um, I meant to say something, ask something during um departmental okay.

If I may quietly, um where you had damage at station one, is that where the construction is being done?

The construction?

Yes.

No, ma'am, it's strictly related to the winter storm.

Okay, so it's nothing new that has been done.

No, ma'am.

It was a flashing at station one, and then uh we had some ice fall off the special operations building at station three, which is 1100 Fortune Drive, uh, it damaged some of the uh heating pipes on the back.

Uh we're in current correspondence with Gina Broughton from KLC uh and United Contracting, trying to get that line out uh to look at that being repaired is in queue.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

That's okay.

Um item H, I did want to point out that Jaylor Doyle will be here to 5 30 meeting to address item H.

So we'll talk more about that.

Uh anything else he wants to highlight?

Well, I have a question.

Okay.

Uh I put in your packets a memo from uh Whitney Leggett regarding um the downtown development investment fund.

I did not see that she is requesting $35,000 to be transferred from the downtown Winchester TIFF fund to be utilized for previously approved DDIF grants.

I didn't know it was I should have put it on the agenda at 5 30.

We decided it wasn't a votable one.

Yeah, I didn't realize we needed to be voted on it.

It's just a later transfer.

Yeah, it's a labor transfer.

Okay.

So I had asked and we you're fine.

So we're good, right?

Yeah, we're we're good.

It's a laser transfer.

Yes.

Okay, let's go.

Well, before uh we move on, informational item.

I saw where the joint task force with chief and uh and the sheriff's department, how they had had done their first action day before yesterday, Sunday.

Yeah, and very successful.

You're talking about the SRT.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, that's good.

Good job.

Ma'am, I would if possible, mayor.

I'd like to speak on it there, real quick.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh before I do, uh, thank you, Mr.

Flynn.

I want to clarify some of the things you said, Mayor, they were on the 100% factual.

Um, the guys and I didn't go to Kroger's, but the chief and I did.

Uh I did get to participate in shop with the cop program for the first time, and I was very honored.

Also, Crogers Corporation donated an additional $75.

So uh Chief and I bought them out of everything that they had on the list that we could get with that money and then ordered uh the remaining balance of that car to get to Nicelli Kitts.

So it was cool, very thankful.

Um, I wanted to speak on the Kentucky Ambulance Supplemental Payment Program.

Um that program is an initiative through House Bill 152.

Um, it's a supplemental payments through the centers of Medicare and Medicaid services for nonprofit ground ambulance agencies.

What's just as important, uh the fact that we were able to get this uh happening for us, um, which begins in August of this year, and we will get monetary monies uh once a quarter every every quarter after that, which is obviously beneficial with the uh the cost of everything, especially with emergency medical services.

But I want to recognize some staff.

Uh Miss Mayab uh in the finance director, uh the finance director Jacob Robinson, the assistant chief of BMS and his staff.

Just a tip of the iceberg of some of the information that it required the staff to get to the agency to submit for this was provide actual or budgeted department expenditures for a full physical physic year, provide the total number of EMS responses along with combined total of all agency responses, EMS plus fire, provide the total number of billable transports for the fiscal year, provide the total number of Medicaid managed care transports and the total Medicaid managed care payments received for the same physical year.

Provide the total annual expenses and revenue for the APP APAP program using the most recent physical year data.

So just those alone, you can see what an enormous task this was on staff.

And I think it's important that we understand and recognize the work that's behind uh the wall sometimes or the curtain, how the sausage is being made that we're all benefiting from.

So I just felt it important to recognize just a few of them so that you know what your employees are really really doing on behalf of the city.

Thank you, Chief.

Also, like are you included in your packet uh house bills?

Also like are you included in your packet the house bills and are you in support of all three of these 106 447 and 500 yes okay so we need to communicate that you probably already have with Senator Elkins and okay great thank you okay anything else before we move on okay let's do comments from mayor commissioner city manager and city attorney we'll start with Mr Commissioner I'm good ma'am you good yes ma'am okay commissioner cox well I I'll break up the school system enough so uh you know it's it's just I want to bring on everyone in the response after after the storm that is that was we were up in running here in Winchester two weeks before certain places election work I just find it amazing that they spend all the money they spent over there and they can't get can't can't can't get free to play you know anything else that's done tool no ma'am thank you okay mr dogman no mr flint nokay uh commissioner strobe there on current kitty kitty I'm mute yes you would you have any comments I can barely hear and I can't see anything open it up you have any comments for this evening she can't hear you because you're not speaking over the mic do you have any comments for this evening I don't think that's it mike okay all right thank you okay we do need go ahead if it's okay with the uh commission adjourn to closed session uh for property acquisition kr s chapter 61810B is there a motion i'll I'll make a motion we adjourn to closed session for property acquisition chapter 6110 b and at the end of that closed session we adjourn that and this regular meeting simultaneously I will second that with the addition of adjourning to closed session for personnel matters KRS chapter 61.810 okay okay you amend your recommendation yes I do I I am in my motion okay all in favor aye now let's uh retire to the city manager's office be back in here at 530 if I can find okay