Trying Times: Perry County Schools

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You Number 11 Anthony Number 12 in Zeal 70% of the property that's in here kind of owned by people that don't live in here Good evening and thanks for joining us tonight. I'm David Lemshary Jackson has the night all five This time tomorrow, we will know exactly where the state of Alabama stands on Governor Bob Riley's tax plan If no new funds are found, I know be laying out several professional Certificated person there in 10% of our none Certificated person there in possibly restructuring our four schools. These will be some trying times for us It is time to decide your vote tomorrow will decide the fate of Governor Riley's tax and accountability plan

Governor Riley traveled across the state today one last time to try to push for his historic tax increase proposal It is decision day. The day Alabama voters say yes or no to the largest tax increase in state history No lie. It's ABC 340 News at 10 The people have spoken the governor's tax and accountability plan has failed. Now the legislature will speak We're going to cut the deal fund by 18 and a half percent and the adhered trust fund by six percent and we're not going to have any mercy We're going to be whack whack whack whack They're going to paint this summer and to my knowledge, I don't think this screw has ever been painted since it's been built now. Are you? I don't think it has ever been Prior to having the vote on amendment one, I was very optimistic and hopeful because for the first time I knew that if amendment one had passed

The funding situation for public education would be permanently addressed. We wouldn't have this thing we had for the last ten years where it every year was a fight I had against K-12 never known for sure if you were going to go in the polleration during the year so I was very optimistic because that was the first time that situation would happen Existence I have been working and there's the prospect of not having to worry about funding and concentrating on achievement was a unique experience Take a look at this the county by county breakdown of the tax vote the northern half of the state voted no the southern strip yes but a number of central Alabama county said yes to the governor's plan and those counties have some of the poorest people in the state I was disappointed in the state as a whole I was delighted with the way it passed in Perry County we actually led the state in the number of people that percentage who supported this

That kind of gave me let me know that people in Perry County at least were very optimistic about improving education for real and they were real about it There's still a situation better than a lot of people I thought the other parts of the state ever did not understand Everyone knows the problem but no one wants to do what it takes to fix it the problem is money and that's the only thing that's going to take it to fix it you Voters in nearby Perry County say no to higher property taxes.

The proposal was designed to bring more money to struggling public schools. But more than 57% of voters rejected the measure. Perry County is one of the state's poorest counties and if the referendum passed, Perry County residents would have paid the highest county property taxes in Alabama. County leaders say white land owners strongly opposed higher property taxes because the money would benefit predominantly black public schools. We lost it by, you know, 700 votes. The first plan we had incorporated some other taxes along with it. I think if we had a Jesuit education along with it, we would have passed. We had our inclusive in there, two meals for each city, trying to save our city services out as well as MillageM for E911. We don't have E911 in this county. We're trying to push E911.

So I think all those additional non-educational things help push the no vote in the county. Once it became a package deal, it became for other large and people able to attack it from many different points. I think that kind of helped to maximize in the end. Good morning. It is time for the Concerned Citizens of Perry County Radio Program on 13th and AMWJUS. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I just want to say again, God is in His Heaven. Jesus is on His throne. And the sun did come up this morning. I want to take a few minutes to specifically thank the citizens of Perry County for standing up, for voting, for thinking about the issues, and for coming, helping come to this conclusion.

It's a wonderful time for Perry County. It's a sign of the times Old South is dead. New South is here to stay. Old South is based on decisions being made in backgrounds. Old South politics was run by people that intimidate, threatened, and told lies. New South is about telling the truth and letting everybody think for themselves and vote for themselves. So I appreciate all of you. We all do. In Perry County, 99% of the white kids in Perry County are going to private school. And 99% of the black kids going to public school, then you have already a recipe of division. Because if I have to pay $5,000 to $6,000 a year on the send my child to a private school in Perry County,

I don't, I'm not going to be too out to join on to any knowledge that's going to increase my property tax. Reviews and opinions expressed in the Broadway program are not necessarily the views or opinions of the management or staff of this nation, WJUS-1310-A-Mariat. Again, we would like to thank each and every one of you who went out and tried to make this kind of a better place to live, which education, which you voted for, the tax increase staff. I don't feel bad about it that we did not win, but at least we tried and we will be trying from now on to do different things that we need to do. So hold your head up and be proud of what you did because you did do a good service to your community by voting yes. October 21st was a day of choice. The majority said no, and that means that there will be no additional funding local funds that is to offset the current, our future state budget cuts.

My concern is that there are very few places to go in the current budget to make any additional cuts for next year. The state superintendent and governor Riley have been meeting with advisory groups to try and get some recommendations and some ideals of where to best cut an additional $199 million from the budget. After much discussion, it was agreed that the advisers would have to be raised by either 1.5 or by 2.0. 1.5 would mean the loss of 11 classroom teachers in Perry County. Why 2 would mean the loss of approximately 16 teachers from the classrooms next year? In state news, as many as 4,700 teachers would lose their jobs and public school classrooms would gain as many as 2 more students under a proposed budget for the state schools for the next school year.

The state school superintendent, Dr. Ed Richardson, suggested this week to the school board members that some school systems would face more drastic cuts, including eliminating all but the core subjects from their curriculum. The superintendent made his remarks as board members began working on a budget they will recommend to Governor Bob Riley and the Alabama legislature for the 2004-2005 fiscal year. At this point in time, my most difficult problem is the anticipated funding for FY05. And it really is difficult because I have to start making decisions and recommendation to the board is how we're going to submit a balanced budget to the state school education at the end of this year because any cuts that we're going to make in person there would have to be made prior to the last day of school. I think they'll begin to understand it. One thing that has happened, then we feel aggressive is that we've been in this spot before. And at 9th hour, we bailed out by some special fund that would come through and then we wouldn't feel the risk and difficulty of it.

So my task is to prepare them for the fact that I don't think they're going to bail us to come. Tomorrow, I will actually meet with my staff. I'll be with the principals. I'll be me with all the coordinators. And I will start them to look at their budgets and see what they see if there are places that they can make cuts. Keep it in mind, we must file a 10-year law and 19-year teacher will be the first one to go. Now, the first thing I want to do is talk about the financial status. If you would, I want you to pull this document, take a look at it. It's actually a proposed foundation program for next year. And it proposes raising the divisor by two.

The reason I want to go with this with you is because it's supervisors and principals. I'm going to be the input from you. That's how to best make some of these cuts that we're going to have to make before the school years out. And from looking at this proposal, it's going to affect every program, every school. The primary thing I want the principals to understand is that if we have to cut 14 teachers, which is what they're proposing, if the divisor is raised by two, most of these teachers will come out of the high school allocation. I'm sure y'all remember Ms. Column is for last year when they had cut 11 and how that would have affected you, but they bought those teachers back. Well, now we're talking about 14, so that probably would increase one on two, which I'll have last year. And the truth is we don't have any local money to supplement that so that if they raise the divisor that we will have to build a schedule with the amount of teachers that you are saying.

If we don't improve in all four schools on satin and three schools on the writing exam, then we will go to school improvement at that particular school. And it's not just that particular school. If one school goes into school improvement, then I've got to hold 20% of my title $1 back next year, which would mean additional teachers will have to be let go because one school did not make that AYP. And I don't know how serious that sounds to you, but in the face of losing 14 teachers and then turn around and lose three or four more federal teachers. It's just not acceptable. Parents, we are experiencing problems with the gas lines of the French military and high school.

Due to these problems, all of the gas and the main buildings have been cut off until the pipes can be replaced. We plan to get the work completed this week if the weather permits. The forecast is calling for some food nights next week, so students taking classes in the main building should wear jacket or coat just in case. The significance is the gas line is a gas line French military high school that we had no problem with prior and somebody smelt gas. We call the gas company and they red tag the gas line and say, hey, until you fix it, we're going to cut the gas off to the whole school. Potentially, we thought it was a 5, 6,000-dollar problem. To date, we spent about $30,000 of funds that we did not have allocated, that we didn't expect to have to spend on that type of problem. And that's the problem we have when you have very small local funds. If something happens to something like that, it eats away the residue that you have.

And that's going to be a large hit on our reserve by the time we finish that project. It's a safety issue. You don't have a choice but to fix it. We stand to lose probably every teacher that we heard this year. And we heard four teachers. And just thinking of what the, you know, looking at the teacher ratio in some of the math and science and English classes. That number would probably even 33 would probably be a good number for what it's projected to be. We're looking at probably maybe, you know, if we stand to lose those teachers, we're probably looking at maybe 40, 50 students in a class.

And that would be very difficult for the teachers. It's difficult for a teacher to try to meet the needs of 33 students. But if you're talking about 40 and, I mean, that would be almost impossible. And that would only hurt the children. Can you say every morning you wake up, oh my goodness, I'm just going to go to school. I'm going to go to hatch and I'm going to be so happy. And this is just everything I dreamed about. They have great faculty, great students. Great. Hold on, don't get excited. What'd you say? In 1999, my husband was killed and I was left with a Timothy O'Baby. And at that time, I was on my way. I got accepted to a law school out in Oregon. And because of the way the trial went, I decided to turn it down. I'm going to say it's one of the greatest things I could have done. It's a rewarding experience considering, you know, some people say the law school and the money or a teacher, you know.

But it's more rewarding. I can help them before they get to that state where I have to defend them. Hold on. When summer's just as hot as anything, I sometimes find I like much more. Doing nothing with the quick spirit than doing something slower. What are you talking about? Yes, Larry. You want to work out the time and then if you don't have anything to do, you don't want to just sit there. You want something to do. Honestly, the budget crisis is not a concern of mine. When it comes to the textbooks and people may not like this, but when it comes to the textbooks, we don't really work out strictly out of the textbook. I'm not a worksheet person. I'm not a textbook person. I go and I find material, for instance, stuff, you know, material that I was given in college. And I'll bring it back into my classroom. That's the greatest part of being an educator. You take your formal experiences and you bring them into the classroom.

Stand in on the block. You graduate from high school. If you're blessed enough to, you graduate from high school just to do what? Stand on the block. So don't you think that the picture of people who are doing something, but absolutely doing nothing? You understand? There are students here that even though this is a social economic environment, they rise above that. There are so many that rise above and beyond what they expected. So start all over. Some go east, some go west. So every day I come in here trying to push the students. I'm not going to get all of them. I can't. And plenty of days I'm discouraged and I'm disgusted because I can walk into a classroom and expect, you know, to bring my enthusiasm in the classroom and be shut down just like that because there are quite a few who have no idea what I'm talking about because of their social economic background. They don't really care what I'm talking about.

But it has 18 legs and catches flies. Put your hands down. I'm not calling on y'all. I'm not calling on you. Clearance. 18 legs and catches flies. That's a good one of spider hands. If I ever want to quit or if I ever wake up and say, why am I doing this? All I have to do is think about the students and the area that they live in. Because I want them to excel beyond Union Town. You know, get out there, do something with yourself and come back and give to the students who will be, you know, replacing you, give back. And so I find myself pushing them a little harder than I probably would others. Just because some people are accustomed to great environments and some are not. But I need them to see that regardless of whether you have the newest textbooks or the newest computers, you know, the newest material, you can still rise above that. Some of them do what?

But some do what? Some people have money and some people graduate from high school and some people sit on the block and some or or. Go to school. Okay, at what time? 5, 3. What is all your tea spell? Out. So then you can go on to what? Oh, Jack's house. So did he find his destination? Yeah. Okay. Let me see. Go ahead. What page? Page 79. Don't worry about it. Page 79. Because we only have one major in its supervisor in the county, right now, we're having problems with it, you know, getting just getting the heating, working properly. We have some windows that were out that, you know, he has to do every all four schools within the county. So it's kind of difficult for him to, we have, we call and, but it's sometimes we can't, you know, get him to, you know, calm down.

And that's because he's only one person and he has to go to four school and maybe their needs are a little bit higher than ours. As well as today, we have heat that's not working. And we're doing testing whether the heat is not working. So that's, you know, a little bit difficult for the child to concentrate well if they're a little cold. As far as December 2nd, the most pressing issue faced. The most, by the school would be to maintain academics clearance to meet all the state mandated requirements. The uncertainty of knowing that you're going to have to make the severe cuts, but not knowing exactly how severe.

And at the same time, trying to be sure that we don't lose focus on our ultimate goal. And that's to make sure the student achievement continues to rise. This commission wants to increase court fees to help education. Good morning at 701 42 degrees in cloudy. I'm Michelle Miller from 92.9 WGUG. And here's what's going on. In Marion, the Perry County Commission wants to increase local court fees to $10 in order to boost funding for education. Now the commission passed a resolution Tuesday asking the local legislative delegation to pass a bill in the Alabama legislature. If approved, the measure is expected to generate 60 to $70,000 a year with proceeds to go to the county public schools. Perry County is a place that has great potential, but it needs one particular thing, infrastructure.

I will lack of infrastructure within the county has caused the poverty of this county and the employment rate to escalate. If we ever intend to move up a lot economically as a county, we're going to have to be able to infrastructure in this county. We are at a huge disadvantage because of the socioeconomic conditions. First of all, affluent systems already get more local support through a tax system. A meal and say mountain brook or hoover would generate far more than a meal here in Perry County. In fact, the meal in Montgomery generates over a million dollars. Here we're talking about $60,000 for a meal roughly.

So that's a big description from one meal here and one meal in some of the other fluent areas. Also, schools system that have industry, they also collect large tax bases from that revenue like wall super wall markets and change stores and your card dealerships. Those are all generate tax dollars that go into the school system in your affluent areas or even your metropolitan areas. In a rural system, we don't have any major businesses. Practically, our hotel only sleeps about 12 or 14 people. We don't have any change stores at all in this county. So we don't have any other sources of generating revenue that other systems in metropolitan areas would have. And that puts it a distinct disadvantage because we are still required to meet the exact same standards they are. Our graduates are expected to go into these college interest exams and score well enough to get scholarships, well enough to enter those schools. The count of business standards for us are the exact same as they offer the fluent school system. There's no advantage given to us because we are poor.

I don't have the same funding they do. All right, I need one student to come. Let me get a girl to come and do the animal and get a boy to come and do the plants. Let's see how many, see who gets the most points. Let's see the boys of the girl. Okay, go ahead. I don't think my job is an issue. I perform well.

It appears that they appreciate my work. And I have no thoughts about whether or not I be here because I'm sure that if anybody can hold down my space, it's got to be me. Nobody can do better than me. And I don't put myself above the rest, but they've got to be good if they're coming in behind me. Write it on the board. Differences. Put a circle around it. All right, let's start with number 12. Okay, now, the animal sail moves by what? Seal here. Does the plant sail move at all? What does it have that looks kind of sail what? Sail wall stops it from moving. All right. What else, number 13? I grew up in the church. And that's what my teaching experience came from within the church because I taught older people that could not read. And the only reason I taught them was because I could read, I didn't have the wisdom.

But I had to explain things to them. Jesus explained parables to people based on where they live. So I had to do the same thing when I taught the other people. When I came into the classroom, I have to teach accordingly to where the kids live. But I can't deprive them of what to expect in the real world. Everything is not like Maryam. Let me show you some pictures and things of other places. Are you a number seven? Huh? No, no, no. What did I ask you to do? What did I ask you to do? Same order. Same number. No. My kids keeps me going. That's my biggest motivation. If they can learn just one objective, then that's more than enough for me. And then what really keeps me going is to present the information.

And then the child, you see the light bulb going off. Oh, really? And then you know you're getting the point across. Most of the time when you present it and the child comprehend, they never have to go back and read over it. They'll never forget what you taught. You raise your word differences because it's going to move down one. We'll number 12 up. Okay. Where are we? All right. What's next? Now we start with differences. Okay. All right. At the end of the day, it's a continuation. I know I got to continue with that group on tomorrow. We have something else we got to do. And I know that that group has to take that exam in March of next year. And they're going to come back to me in the fall for about him too. Okay. And so because of that, it keeps me going.

Knowing that I got to get them ready. You cannot allow budget cuts and things that you don't have to stop you from teaching. With the Alabama Report, I'm Butler Cain. Interim State School Superintendent Joe Morton is hoping to convince the legislature to restore funding to Alabama's education budget. Morton replaced Ed Richardson yesterday who resigned to become interim president of Auburn University. The county, on the mandate from the Justice Department, has to come in and build a new jail. But you get no flat about coming up with money for a jail. You get flat when you're trying to move education forward, providing educational opportunities for our children in Perry County. You will the fear that jails up when our children in the school houses. While our state has the promise of progress, no program, no employer,

and no investment will ever enhance our economic development potential more than a world-class education for our children. Let me be the first one to say it. We should invest more money in education. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, we'll just come on in. You all just come on in. These are some of the benefits of our superintendent when he wrote grants and got us computers. You know, he didn't go and notice what must have heard, he's done. Who, what is it he able to do? You talk about a man that can write grants and can put stuff in a classroom like this. But he's young and he can't be dangerous.

He can be dangerous because I think that if you don't do your job, I don't think you'll be teaching here. He has high expectations for the teachers, if I have high expectations for his administrators as well as the students. He's shocking. What must have heard has done, you know, in this poor area. With the Alabama report, I'm Butler Kane. State House Speaker Seth Hammett says the legislature should be able to pass a good education budget for the 2005 fiscal year. And he says lawmakers should be able to do it without raising taxes. To kind of bring it up, data is to where we are currently. We are still waiting on the legislature to decide the funding for this upcoming school term. So, therefore, we're not able to make sound decisions yet as to what we're going to do as far as employment decisions. You know, who we're going to keep on, how many teachers we're going to have to go into next school term. Keep in mind that we have already consolidated down to four schools. And the most consolidation we could do now would be consolidate down to two, which would be actually combining the campuses within each town.

And we're hoping not to have to do that because it's going to come through two, it was quite a large school. And the only savings would be an administrative cost. And you actually really need those administrators to make sure that those two facilities are separate in operation. So it's not an option that we want to pursue, but it's one that we could have to pursue if funding does not become available. Well, this is my, I'm going into my third year, this is my third year. And I'm just praying that I'm granted ten years and I'm killed. I'm not really fearful of losing my job. If I do, I mean, I wish that they would go ahead and tell me now so that I can start putting the applications elsewhere and, you know, go ahead with playing B. Grandpas, what?

Grandpas, what page does it start on? Starts on page three. What is the second chapter? And it starts on with page eight. Okay. If they increase class size and combine these schools, I'm just not seeing anything positive that it come out of it. Especially if, I mean, we have a figure of teachers now. You know, the younger generation coming in, they're excited about teaching, they need a little teacher. I want the best for my students. I care about them. And I wanted to give something back to the community. That's why I came back to Mary. Well, I have a good class this year. The majority of them have parents that are concerned about education and you can tell it through their performance at school and never hate it. Thank you about it now. When you look at far across the ocean. Okay. Let's say you're standing on the beach. And then you look out across the water. What will you be able to see? Will you see the beach? Exactly. Will you see the shoreline where the water meets the beach?

That's what you're looking at. Is that what you're going to see? Well, are you going to see a place that is so far out? It looks like the water and scale meeting. Being that I grew up in this area and went through the system. I saw things that I like. Qualities that I wanted to see in teachers and that even made me want to be that type of teacher. After I decided to go on education. And there were some qualities that made me on the negative side. But I said, hey, I don't want to do that. And I know these children. It's cool. It's a little more challenging than I thought. But overall, it's basically what I expected. Well, I didn't expect all of this on probation and money shortage in the budget. And I really didn't realize that people didn't care as much about education as they do.

But our kids are important. And our kids need quality education. The old pipes, it's somehow when you flush the urinals, they tend to, the water teams to back up in the wall and then go into, you know, the next classroom causing a problem. So we try to keep a lot of, you know, disinfecters trying to keep it. As with all the schools in our system, there's been no maintenance on the outside for us, painting the school and the system was constructed. Only preventant maintenance and safety maintenance have been taken care of really. In other times, maintenance for bathrooms, shower facilities have been put off year after year because of funding. My job is maintenance supervisor.

I'm in, well, I would say, control of keeping all the maintenance work of all the schools. I have two in Marion, two in Union Town. So it's like 30-minute drive down the Union Town, 30-minute back. You can never pinpoint what you're going to do today because things change like in the middle of a screen. I can say I'm going to change filter today and something might come up, like a military, I might have a sewer line stopped up. So it's kind of hard to predict. So you just have to take one day at a time and then if nothing comes up, then you can go do what you already are playing for do that day. In some cases, it's kind of hard to get to a school that you need to get to because you got all other schools you have to go to and the principal call you from this school to that school. See where that curtain's coming down? Oh, is he going to reattach the curtain? Is this coming off it? Oh, he'll get off it. Oh, he'll get off it too.

Are you okay? Hello. I just left the school here. I don't want to continue for a few minutes. I'll be back. About five minutes. And then back. What about it? Oh, okay. Okay. All right. I need to push the wires down now. I'm going to go paint the school. I got to go back. I'm going to go back. I think I put them up to tell them why there's nothing. I told you, if my job had seen, well, I'd probably be thinking. It's having a power to do what? To do what? Think? To do what? D what? The side? For the Alabama report, I'm Butler King, a Senate committee approved a $4.5 billion education budget yesterday,

and Governor Bob Riley says he's especially disappointed about one of several changes. The State Finance and Taxation Education Committee passed a budget that would reduce funding to the Alabama Reading Initiative. What's the difference in a biography and an autobiography? Dominique? The autobiography. Very good. And what is the biography? The Alabama Read-In-In Initiative program. It's a book that has been published. The Alabama Read-In-In Initiative program is a program that promotes 100% literacy, reading literacy for all students, regardless of their academic level. As you advance in a higher grade starting at this grade and even grades lower than this, it's going to be the choice of words that you use that's going to get the attention. Okay?

All right. I always keep high expectations for them. They know what is expected of them when they come in my class, when they're enrolled in here in August. And I maintain that from August to May. So this is a biography, and it is on Dorothy Hume, Parker. Any of us could have been Dr. Parker today, couldn't we? I could have been. You could have been. Katie could have been. Sharia could have been. Casey? That is actually one of the ways we get famous. Someone sees something in us, and they do what? They write about it, don't they? Yes. Okay? I try to do everything in my power to motivate those students. I have to forget for that day where they came from, is in here what we're focusing on. When they leave here, they've learned more than what they brought here.

All tenderly his messenger he chose. Deep hearted, pure, we've sent it do still wet. One perfect rose. I don't look at where you came from. I look at what I have, what I need to do to motivate those children. I knew the language of the flower ret. My fragile leaves, it said, his heart enclosed. Love long has taken from his amulet. One perfect rose. The funds were equalized. I believe that we will have more programs available for our children so they can become more competitive in today's world. Why is it no one ever sent me yet?

One perfect limousine? Do you suppose? No, it's always just my love to get. One perfect rose. My greatest challenge as a teacher at Uintown Elementary School is to have my students to read and write at great love. Because if you can't read, you cannot be a productive citizen in society. And our PTA president is supposed to be coming because she's really pushing for our playground. But I want to come outside for one of the things I want you to see is that this is the elementary school but that is the playground out there. Is that open spot behind open places?

With nothing on it? That is the playground. That's the playground. And what we're constructing here is a concession stand, fear house combination. And there was a tremendous need for that on this football field because as you can see looking around, there was no fear house on this field. Actually, there was no bathrooms here on this field. It would be proud to be constructed. We had to use portable bathrooms. One was located over there for the visiting team. And we have one located over here for the home team. So this facility will have bathrooms in it for the public to use and also have a dressing room and locker room facility for both teams to use. One of the things we have to do, we are upgrading the fear, but because of the limited funds, we are upgrading stages. This past year, we put the lights up. We had some old wooden lights.

And those lights have been attacked severely by woodpeckers. And they were no longer safe to have on the football field. So this, we had lights put on the field in a stage. The concession stand over there is a stage. And we have to redo the bleaches in another stage another year. For the Alabama Report Time Butler Cain, Alabama's education budget for the next school year is now official. The Alabama House and Senate today accepted a technical amendment. Governor Bob Riley added to the education budget that completed work on the $4.5 billion appropriations bill. Now that the budget has passed, we can look to restore several programs, such as textbooks, which is a vital part of our education. Technology, which we also know is a vital part of education. Library enhancement, we can now restore some funding to the libraries. We can also provide professional development, which is also left out of last year's budget. So those four items are very important. But in addition, the addition of funding for the Alabama Readiness Initiative will allow us to put those reading coaches in each school.

It's on the beginning and the ending of something in my life is very significant, because it's the end of something I know all my life. And it's also the beginning of my new life that I have been working so hard for. So it's kind of a bit sweet at the same time. Thank you. It is a little short way among the visionary notions and grand dreams of what life would bring us. However, as the envoyant as these dreams may be, it is important to remember that the little things we do are more important than the great things we all have the potential to accomplish. I want to be able to come back to my community and give away.

I see that there are not a lot of jobs in the end time. So hopefully, once I get in the place of my life that I want to be, whenever I come older, I can bring jobs that it just about anybody could apply for. And then it will bring a lot of economic value to the end time. Our class has been waiting for this moment a long time. And now that it's come, we kind of don't want it to. We can't accept the fact that it's really this close now. So I know that. I hope I don't, but I know I've already crashed it a few two years or something. The end of the twelfth mile journey that we have been eager to complete today last right in front of our eyes. However, like many would inform us our real journey is just beginning.

The past four years of stringent studies, the constant and daily association with teachers and companionship with one another have been a training, have been a preparatory course for a greater school. Especially by being part of the black belt area. People always think that we probably are nothing. But then if we take heed to that opportunity, we can't go out and show what we really are about. And especially in rural Peer County, many people have stereotypes about us that we're just in the black belt and we can't do anything really. We're here this week repairing bathrooms. We're here this week doing a lot of painting.

We're here this week doing yard work with weed eaters. We've moat about two acres with weed eaters. And our goal really is to help the students feel good about being in this school. We want them to feel like this is a place where they can come in and someone has cared for them. And the teachers, they have a tough job in their classrooms. And if there were more that we could do for the classrooms, we would do that as well. But at least the main hallway areas where they'll be walking and going to and fro all the time. If it can look good, they will feel better about themselves we feel. One of our main things that we wanted to accomplish while we came here. They had no water fountains, maybe one that worked. And our goal part of our fundraising was to get water fountains and to provide water. I'm working and taking them out. But I am pleased to announce that the ceremonial first drink from cold water and this gymnasium is going to be taking place right now. Our school is fairly new.

And you come down here and see water damage and the ceilings messing up and the walls or crumbling and stuff. You really take your school for granted until you come see something like this and then realize you got it made pretty well. But you don't have to deal with, you know, paint coming off and other issues other than just the education which needs to be dealt with. The school was in bad repair. It needed a lot of work and still does. And a lot of what we are doing is really band-aid. It could use an awful lot of money to help with moisture problems which they have. And until those problems are taken care of what we are doing is merely going to be cosmetic. And it may not even last very long until that is done. And so the more people that can help out this school financially the better. If Alabama doesn't find a more equitable way of funding in schools and a more stable way of funding school systems, we are going to continue year after year going through this crisis of funding.

And these crisis have much more detrimental effect on our poor school systems because we don't have the funds to fill in the gaps. And if this situation continues we will continue to help try and test with funding schools in the state of Alabama. You

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