Menu

Lincoln County School District board meeting, Sep 14, 2026

50 min · 0 public speakers

Budget cuts and layoffs ▶ 38:53Enrollment ▶ 38:53

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 50 min.

  1. Who spoke · first speaks at
What happened

What happened at this meeting

Lincoln County staff member cites drop of about 110 students, $825,000 state funding loss 44:58

  • The board took voice votes on the chairman of the board and on a motion to accept a bid or price. 2:49
  • A speaker said employee health insurance premiums rose an average of about 8.7%, while the district typically budgets at least 10% for those lines. 25:29
  • One board member asked the superintendent to look for cuts in central office departments rather than in schools and asked about scheduling a work session on budget cuts. 39:50
  • A district staff member said enrollment was down about 110 students from the same time last year, equating to about an $825,000 loss in state funding. 44:58

Until Nov 4, lines where a board member takes a side don't name the member. Why →

Item by item (15)
  1. Opening, invocation and pledge 0:07
    • Sammy Tucker said there were no public comments and invited a student group from Lincoln County High School to lead the pledge and invocation. 0:07
    • A representative of the student group said the chapter was collecting non-perishable items for Hands of Mercy with a goal of 200 items. 1:15
  2. Board chairman and vice chairman selection 2:11
    • A staff member opened nominations for chairman of the board and called a voice vote on the nominee. 2:17
    • Sammy Tucker then opened nominations for vice chairman and called for a voice vote. 2:58
  3. Approval of the agenda 3:26
    • Sammy Tucker asked to add an item under other business allowing an executive committee approval. 3:26
  4. Student and staff recognitions 4:06
    • The board heard recognitions of a student, a third grade teacher at Unity School and a bookkeeper at Blanche School. 4:26
    • Student board representatives reported on homecoming plans, ACT preparation and Lincoln County High School sports. 13:31
  5. Committee appointments and consent agenda 15:53
    • Sammy Tucker called for a voice vote on the current policy committee chairman continuing in the role. 16:41
    • Sammy Tucker said no committees were carrying over from previous years and called for a single vote on the consent agenda. 16:55
  6. Executive committee authorization 17:17
    • A staff member said the district might need an executive committee to act on the special ed GP budget because maintenance of effort numbers run that day showed the district being less. 17:33
    • Sammy Tucker called for a motion to allow the executive committee to make the decision if necessary. 19:31
  7. Policy committee recommendations 19:43
    • Richard Phelps said the committee recommended Policy 2.200, Annual Operating Budget; Policy 3.500, Food Service Management; Policy 6.310, Dress Code; and Policy 3.2101, Sponsored Advertising Promotions. 19:48
  8. Organization contracts and code of ethics 20:20
    • Sammy Tucker said the organization contracts were with booster clubs and gridiron and were something the board agreed to start doing every year. 20:39
    • Sammy Tucker called for a vote on the board code of ethics and said every member would need to sign it after the meeting. 21:42
  9. Auditor for school activity funds 22:16
    • A speaker asked whether detailed documentation such as itemized line items was available to back up the price. 22:46
    • A speaker said the service would be bid out next year, but the audit had to be done before September 30th and there was not time to bid it this year. 23:07
    • A speaker said the increase from last year was $2,950. 24:09
  10. Employee health insurance premium 24:54
    • A speaker said premiums rose an average of about 8.7% and that projections showed a small shortfall that could be made up in the district's annual budget cleanup. 25:11
    • A speaker asked the board to allow pricing of a new state copay plan based on the cheapest plan on the sheet because no history existed for it. 27:43
    • Sammy Tucker made a recommendation that the board absorb the cost of the insurance. 30:22
  11. General purpose fund budget amendments 31:07
    • A speaker presented amendments including $89,292 for the pre-K local budget and $711,470 for the pre-K state grant budget. 31:07
    • Other amendments included $2,500 for the TVA STEM Robotics Award and $78,060 for a state-funded tutoring grant. 31:31
  12. Federal programs fund budget amendments 32:44
    • A speaker presented setups including $987,631.39 for Title I, Part A and $1,032,267 for IDEA Part B. 33:08
    • A speaker said a revision lowered the Title I, Part A allocation to $969,862.88. 33:56
  13. Monthly financial reports 36:05
    • A staff member presented financial reports for June 2026, the year-end for '25-'26, and for July and August for all funds. 36:05
  14. Conflict of interest statements 36:52
    • Jimmy Daniel and Martha Tallman each said they had no known potential conflicts of interest. 37:09
    • Sammy Tucker acknowledged a potential indirect conflict of interest related to a spouse's employment at FPU. 37:42
  15. Future funding and closing 38:35
    • One board member asked the superintendent to look for cuts in central office departments rather than in schools and asked to schedule a work session on budget cuts. 39:50
    • One board member said a work session could be held but staff needed time, and suggested January. 42:25
    • A district staff member said the district faced about a $1.1 million increase in expenditures for next year and that 82% of the budget is people. 45:24
    • The meeting was adjourned. ~49:27

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

Other meetings

Other meetings of this board

Video: posted by the district as “LCDOE School Board Meeting 9/14/2026”