001Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Tullik, and the viewing audience. I want to turn your attention to the financial uh statement that is in your packet for the month of September. Um, we received 3% of our income for the month of September and year to date we've received nine nine% of our income. our expenses. Um, we spent 8% for the month of September and from year to date we've spent 20% of all of of our expenses and our incumbrances stand now at 65% year to date. Um, this time I would ask the board's pleasure on accepting the September financial report and budget adjustments. >> All right. Uh, you heard Mr. Brunson's report. I have a motion at this time concerning the September um financial report and budget adjustments. >> Mr. Chairman, I
002move that we accept the September uh financial report and budget adjustments. >> All right. Motion to accept the September financial report and budget adjustments as presented. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Motion and a second to accept the September financial report is presented. Is there any discussion? If not, then all those in favor of that motion to accept the September financial report as well as the September budget adjustments, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose. No. That motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Brunson. Anything else? >> Uh, yes, sir. I wanted to just tell the board about um our cafeteria furniture project over at the high school. On Thursday, we were or before Thursday, we were promised that we would have all of our furniture delivered, set up, and complete. Unfortunately, on Thursday
003morning, we got the the the call that um only part of it was coming. So, we've got part of the tables in there. Um the rest of it is supposed to come tomorrow and be installed tomorrow afternoon after the students leave. I'm keeping our fingers crossed um because the kids um what they saw this morning they liked and I'm very glad and I just want to be sure that we can get this project completed as soon as possible so they can enjoy their breakfast and lunch. >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> Welcome. >> And that's all I have. >> Thank you. All right. That then brings us to the superintendent report. So, Dr. turn it over to you at this time. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Uh, good evening board members um and those
004in the room with us and those listening in. Um, before we get started, I have to say it's good to have Miss Keller back with us um and the um in our presence after her recent loss and or without Miss Murdo because of the funeralizing of her father-in-law today. Um so I just um want to make mention real quickly before Miss Keller comes with policies. In our last meeting um there was a question about um the prevailing side which is in policy BEDF voting method. Um so when we go back there was a question about the following statement. Board members voting on the prevailing side of an issue may move to reconsider an item at the same meeting. And this motion is not debatable. And again, this comes directly from the policy. As mentioned before,
005this is a part of Robert's rules. Um so in researching again any member of the board who voted on the winning side or the prevailing side of that particular issue may at that same meeting make a motion to reconsider the vote for that particular item. There cannot be any more discussion or debating of the item. But again anyone who's on the prevailing side, the winning side can again ask for another vote for this particular issue. But there is no debate for that particular topic. >> Okay. Thank you sir. >> All right. And then also um if you look at policy BEC executive sessions uh during open meetings um that in which is in parentheses CF.KB. The CF references a policy or makes reference to a particular policy. in that policy BEC it's referencing policy KDB
006and that's what we see in the parenthesis there that question came up in the last meeting as well and then one I was asking um just now about the one that we're deleting that's policy EDC is that correct >> it's in there I think too >> we took first reading on the deletion of it last week >> yes sir EDC >> EDC >> material. >> Yeah, it's in there. >> Yes, this policy is in the in the packets. >> There's one note that we would I don't know if we need to make any special mention of that one is being deleted. We're taking second reading on the deletion of that policy. >> That's correct. >> As as opposed to the amendment of the policy, >> correct? Yes, sir. >> Yeah, we did. So, let's you
007want to let's remove that one when we get to that point. Let's set let's separate that one and do an let's take a motion on that particular policy because we're deleting it. >> Okay. >> And then then then that'll be second reading on the on the deletion of that policy. >> Okay. >> And then we will take second reading on all the other ones. We can do them all rest of them together >> just as we did last week. So, please pardon my interruption when Miss Kayla gets to that point because she was not privy to that last week. I'll stop her so that we can then go on >> and and it may not make any difference Dr. Ter but I just think for clarity you know when we reflect that in the meetings
008if it if we got on policy and again I'm policy EDC if we that's the one we're deleting if we just include that along with the amendments to the other policies then and we're actually deleting that one rather than amending it. So I think it's better to let's just go ahead and take second reading to delete that policy on that particular policy. Then we can take second reading on the amendments to all the rest >> the others. Okay. So we'll we'll do that one first. Then Miss Keller if they present EDC authorized use of school own materials and equipment first. We'll delete that and then we'll move on to the other policies. Yes ma'am. Thank you. >> Um good evening board chairman, members of the board, Dr. Tollic and our viewing audience tonight. I'd like
009to give second reading on 23 policies and administrative rules. The first policy being policy EDC, authorized use of school on materials and equipment. Second reading is to delete this policy. Are there any questions? >> No ma'am. Anybody got y'all got any questions? Let's go ahead and take action on that right now. We'll go ahead. I hear a motion in to take second reading on the deletion of policy EDC. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we take second reading for the deletion of policy EDC, authorized use of school loan materials and equipment. >> All right, you all have heard Mr. Nelson's motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> A motion and a second and to take second reading on the deletion of policy EDC, authorized use of schoolown materials and equipment. Is there any discussion?
010If not, all those in favor of that motion, please signify by saying I. I. All oppose, no. That motion carries and that policy is now deleted. So now we can deal with the other ones. Miss Keller. Yes sir. >> Policy BDF advisory committees. The change is that we added SIC for school improvement council. The abbreviation is the addition. The administrative rule for BDFR advisory committees. Each school must have a counselor to help improve the school. That's the date change. Policy BG, school attorney and legal services. The school board may appoint an attorney on legal matters. It's a date change. Policy BDH, board consultants and staff assistants, allows the board or administration to hire consultants for expert advice. It's a date change. Policy be school board meetings follows the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and
011are open to the public except during executive session. That's a date change. Policy BEC, executive session and open meetings. The board may enter executive session by majority vote and only invited individuals are allowed to attend. That's a date change. Policy BA board meeting notification. The superintendent must ensure that the public and board members are properly notified of all board meetings. It's a date change. Policy BedB agenda. The superintendent and board chair prepares the agenda. It's a date change. Policy BC quorum. A quorum for the board is three members. That's a date change. Policy Bed D rules of order. The information highlighted in red should be removed and the information highlighted in yellow is the addition. It just establishes the basic guidelines for conducting board meetings. Policy BF voting methods method at board meetings. Board meetings.
012Board votes at meetings will be done openly with yes, no, or extension. No secret balance or propit proxy voting allowed. The ad highlighted in red should be removed and the at highlighted in yellow is the addition. Policy Bedg minutes of board meetings. The school board keeps a complete and permanent written record of all board actions. It's a date change. policy BH public participation at meetings. And this one, the at highlighted in the name, the at in the name should be highlighted in red to be removed and a lowercase at should be highlighted in yellow to be added as well as carrying on should be deleted and conducting should be added. The public is welcome to attend schoolboard meetings. Administrative rule behings. The school board sets aside 15 minutes for public comments. Again, it's the same
013change as the previous one, the act in the title. and then file BEDH public participation at meetings. The new um the signup sheet is updated. Policy EAB hazardous materials ensures that hazardous materials used in schools are handled, stored and disposed of safely prot to protect students, staff and the community. The information highlighted in red which is the period should be removed and the colon highlighted in yellow should be added. If I already deleted policy DC policy EAC bus scheduling and routing we are removing coordinator and adding director and the capital N and adding a lowercase N. policy GCLE unencumbered time. The change to that policy is that we are now adding school nurses. So the information highlighted in red is to be removed and the information highlighted in yellow should be added. That is the
014same with the administrative rule for unencumbered time. Policy GCMD instructional staff extra duty. Teachers are expected to take on reasonable duties beyond teaching. That is a date change. and policy IHBF homebound instruction allows students who cannot attend school due to illness, accident or pregnancy to receive instruction at home. The information highlighted in red is to be removed and the information highlighted in yellow is to be added. Are there any questions? >> Thank you, ma'am. Anybody have any questions? >> I think I counted them. Mr. Jenkins confirmed we've got a total of 18 policies we're taking second reading on three administrative rules and one file and those three administrative rules go along with those policies that we are uh updating. So do I hear a motion at this time and the file is just the signin
015sheet I believe for public participation is the one that's sir >> classified as a file and it has been updated as well. So, do I hear a motion at this time then that we take second reading on the remaining 18 policies uh along with the three administrative rules and the one file that are listed in the agenda. >> I make a motion that we take second reading on the 18 policies on that were presented this evening as well as the three administrative rules to go along with those policies as well as the one file. >> All right, you heard Mr. Jacob's motion. Is there a second? Second >> motion and a second to take second reading on the 18 remaining policies um that were gone over tonight. Uh and again that goes without saying policy
016ETC which is the one we voted on earlier to delete the remaining 18 policies along with the three administrative rules and the one file uh at this time and do um M. Frederick, you offered a second, right? I did. >> All right. So we've been had a motion and a second. Is there any discussion before we call for the vote on these uh 18 policies? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote to take second reading on those 18 policies, three administrative rules and u one file as as listed in the agenda. Is there I already asked for discussion. Now I'm calling for the vote. All those in favor of that motion, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose, no. Motion carries and second reading has been taken. Thank you. Miss Keller and welcome
017back and we'll certainly um keep you in our prayers as well in the loss of your mother. I know that's that's always never easy to lose your mom. So >> just want to say thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I appreciate it. >> Certainly thank you. We'll keep you in our prayers. All right. It's all Matt to you. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Miss Keller. Um at this time, we'll have the 2026 27 academic calendar presentation by Mr. Kieran, in your packets, board members, you should have uh two calendar options as well as a 20 26 27 calendar preparation outline that we've thus far completed. Um, and we'll continue to work on it till we get to December for the final vote for the academic calendars. Mr. Karin, >> good
018day. Doc, distinguished board members. It's the time of the year again where we come before you with the proposed calendars for the 2022627 school year. Uh this these two calendars proposed calendars bring before you are brought before you as information items. So first I'd like to go over the process that we go through when we look at these calendars. The process we make sure that we we follow the process used the last few years to make sure we vet these uh calendars through various stakeholders. First thing we do is in July every year we begin the construction of the calendars. Typically, we build four calendars for the upcoming school year. The four calendars are developed and September 2nd this year, we had a faculty advisory council discussion. What we did, we had representatives for each
019one of the schools. We came in, looked at all four calendars, took away things we didn't like, added things they liked, looked at different recommendations, and started narrowing the four calendars down to two. We then looked at the faculty advisory count council discussion again. That was on September 9th. We came back with different ideas. They went to the u their faculty within the schools talked to them about what they saw, what they didn't, what they didn't like, what they did like. We had another discussion on September 9th, added some different things to the calendar based on the feedback from the faculty advisory council. Then September 10th, we had student advisory council. We brought student representatives from each one of the schools to look at the four calendars. And what we did was we started narrowing
020it down to two calendars from their feedback. We then had September 22nd a community uh communicators discussion brought in various members from the community to look at the calendar as well get their feedback because once again we want to narrow this down to two calendars then September 30th faculty advisory council if needed we didn't need it at that point I don't believe Dr. health. He had that September 30th. Then we look at October 20th. We present to the board in open session. That is tonight. After we get through tonight, we then move to October 25th. That will be um Saturday with superintendent. Doc Telk is bringing uh having Saturday superintendent talking about the calendar. We're having it here at the district office and also at Sandy Run Cade as well. Then we're having uh the
021community voting will be October 27th to November 10th and November 17th will be the first reading of the calendar and then December 15th will be the second reading of the calendar. So looking at the calendars right now, these are the two calendars that we narrowed it down to A and C. We had A, B, C, and D, but A and C were the two consensus winners we brought up to. I think it was community doctic, the students, the faculty. These are the two that they really liked. A and C. So looking at two calendars, there are distinct differences between the two calendars. We look at them both, we can see that calendar A has a start date for the students on the 3rd of August and a 4th of August on calendar C. Teachers do
022come back on July 27th on calendar A and on calendar C they come back 28. It's important to point out that each one of the calendars will have 180 yellow days. Those are days for students with five blue and the blue days already in service and five professional work days as required by law. So that's what we have in these calendars. Now as we go through them, we'll go right through our calendars. When we go to August, the only difference is the start date. When we get to September, September on both calendars is identical. The only day we have off is Labor Day. Get down to October. We have an additional day in October on off on calendar A because we look back on August we started a little earlier which gives additional day. Our
023goal also is to get 90 days in before Christmas to end the semester before the students head home for the Christmas holiday. So we look at October, we have uh 15 work day, 16 and 19 no school on calendar edge on calendar 15 students calendar being the last day for the winter winter break get down to February. Look at February. This is the difference of both calendars. We look at February. What we have is we have calendar days. This will make sense to the end. Once again, we have to have 90 days to March. March identical April. April's identical. Now we get to here's the difference again. Now on calendar the last day 21st kind of early 90 days in extended additionary last difference between the calendars once again it's 180 days on both calendars
024in yellow, five blue, four in service days, and five green professional work days. Any questions regarding calendar A and calendar C. Anybody have any questions? And these will be put forth for the faculty and staff to vote on. Right. >> Yes, sir. That will be October 27th to November 10th. We'll do it like we always do online. We'll let the community know it's online. uh they can go and vote within that time frame. It's open to anybody in the community to vote. >> Not just staff, >> not just >> Anybody anybody >> and we've done that past several years, open it up to anybody to vote. Yes, >> sir. >> Okay. Okay. I think last year we had 200 if I want if I'm not mistaken about 230 votes last year I believe if I'm
025not mistaken on that. >> So if some person wanted calendar A or calendar C and they wanted to formulate a campaign promoting calendar A or calendar C and stirred up the people to vote and got the people to go online and take the time to vote. Then potentially that could sway to vote one way or the other. >> Absolutely could. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> But I think we need to look at Mr. Parker for this and I'm >> and I'm I'm just asking the question and I just, you know, want to make sure I'm thinking it out. I mean, I'm fine with that as long as you know we >> if I'm not wrong, Mr. Parker, only one vote per machine. So you can't get on your cell phone and keep >> you can't
026continue to just vote vote on your your So it's limited to one vote per device, >> right? So you have to move to your next >> if you got a computer and a cell phone and you could vote twice, I guess. So if you got three cell phones, you could vote three times, >> right? >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> So again, before we uh put this out for vote on next Monday, this coming Saturday, Saturdays with superintendent will be a little different. Um Mr. Karen and I will uh be here at the district office from 9 until 10 to answer any questions of those who come through the doors and then we'll move to Sandy Run at 10:30 until 11:30 to answer any questions so people have an opportunity to ask
027questions before if they cast their votes. >> Okay, >> questions regarding the calendar A or C. >> And again, I don't mean to throw up the apple cart. It's not earth shattering. Like I said, we got the kids have to come 180 days and the staff has to come 190. And that that hasn't changed in years. And that's not our rule. That's the state law. So, any questions? I'll move on to the facilities update for October 2025. Uh we had a clean report. I'm I'm happy to announce we had a clean report from the hygienist on the ventilation fan incident at Sandy Run K8. Um what we found out we had airport heating and air they inspected the ventilation fan and determined that the fan seized up. It seized up and what happened was since
028it seized up it overheated and what it did was it caused spark some flames but he said it was unusual for that to occur but the box the metal box did its job. It contained everything inside the metal box. He did say it was unusual because you know for those flames to occur inside that metal box from the ventilation system. We did an inspection, looked at the rest of the ventilation systems. They are going to replace the 18 oldest ventilation fans at Sandy Run. That's the original section of Sandy Rum. Um, we're looking at getting that done right now. He's working on a quote for us, working on time frame, and I'll keep the board updated once we get that time frame on those ventilation fans. Any questions regarding ventilation? >> Is it their recommendation
029to replace them? >> Yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. >> Um, I don't know. Again, those things are supposed to be I'm talking just what I think lifetime sealed and lifetime. In other words, if I want to say if a fire had occurred, what you hearing you say it was a fire, but it was contained within the metal to box, which was what the metal box is designed for. If that fire had gotten outside of that and caused more damage >> and and it was proven, I mean, this is what the lawsuits are made of that the fire originated from that ventilation fan. >> Um, we would have a a lawsuit against the manufactur that fan, installing everybody else because they were sold to us as something not be a a fire hazard. Right. >> You
030know, I don't want to replace fans in mass, 18 fans just because one caught fire and malfunctioned, but you know, if it's time to replace them, I certainly want to replace them. But I I'm I'm my my thought goes to if it's not necessary, then we need to do it. And again, that's not a great expense. I understand that as well. It shouldn't be. But, um, >> it was his recommendation. And I and I know Chairman Porsy brought up last board meeting if the device had a shut off mechanism in it. They do not. There's no way for them to shut off. They start overheating. There's no way for them to actually shut off. So I know I answer asked that question of him. He said, >> "Do the new ones have a shut off?"
031>> No. He said no. No. >> Other words, if it catches fire or whatever, it malfunctions, shorts out, it's going to run until such time that it basically shorts out and seizes up, stops. >> Correct. which then you got breakers and things in control that would hopefully trip a breaker that would cause any further damage from happening. >> All right. Thank you, sir. And I'm just y'all got to ask any questions if you got them. >> Well, I the only thing comes to my mind, of course, I'm all for safety, especially when we dealing with students. I'd want to, you know, and I was listening to what Mr. P is saying about um, you know, shut off devices. Uh it I think we ought to check and see you this one man. Who was this?
032This man was a a vendor um sells these products or he was just a >> Yes, sir. >> Well, why don't we check uh and see what other vendors are consultants? Uh maybe we could talk with someone at OSF and uh you know I would feel better we had an independent um >> rather than just one vendor telling >> especially one that's stands make money. you know, he or she is going to >> right >> t their problem. I >> I totally agree. >> And so I I don't you know, if we got the situation to control now, right now we haven't we replaced the one that we've already replaced it, right? >> No, we have not. We have to order the replacement. >> Okay. Well, but it's not in use. It can't do any
033further damage in that particular room. >> What I and it shouldn't take long to do this. You're not You shouldn't be talking about weeks. I'd say couple of days at the most is check with um I would start if it was me I'd start off with OSF see what they had to say. >> I mean that sounds like a readily available source that you can get something from. If we had an architect on you know we could call we could do that they would know that. But again, I would say let's call u you know I I would start with OSF and then you know find out what their recommendation is you know as far as and and then try to find out surely there's other place vendors that sell these type devices and find
034out if there's such a a vent fan that does have a safety cut off um because that causes me some concern. And I wouldn't want, you know, we've already, you know, again, this what's the old saying? Uh, you know, burnt once, don't want to get burnt twice, whatever it might be. >> Ounce of provision is worth a pound of cure. >> Yeah. We, you know, we already know this could has happened and we certainly don't want it to happen again if we can avoid it. So, you know what? What uh I just I guess what I'm going long way around to say, I wouldn't take one person's word for it, especially when it's a person who's in the business to sell these things, >> right? and u because he or she is probably just going
035to tout their product and might not be forthcoming that there's other products out there that might be a little bit more safe more safe and so I would at least check before we hire him to come down and just put something in. >> Absolutely. >> I concur. >> Absolutely. >> I think OSF is a great place to go to at least start. They don't know we'll find somebody else. >> I'll keep board update as we go through this process. >> All right. Also, we did a um we have the district office and the atrium outside the high school gym. The sinks are being replaced. Uh the process has begun. We expect to be completed at the end of this week. What we're doing is taking out the old sinks. Um putting in new vanity, new
036sinks in there. So, real excited when it's going to look great when it's done. Uh it's something that's desperately needed um outside the gym as we have, you know, we have faculty meetings there. We have basketball games, volleyball games. A lot of f people use that pretty regularly. So, want to make sure that's upgraded. Also, here at the district office, um we're doing the boys and the girls, I guess, men and women's restroom. They used to be boys and girls getting yard. Um but it's men and women's bathroom down there. We're going to upgrade the sink. So, we're excited that project. Uh if your way out, if you want to stop and take a look, it's the projects will be complete at the end of the week, but has begun. We also um had our
037earthquake drill on October 15th at 10:15. All three schools conducted the earthquake drill. Uh it went extremely well. So we're excited that that went well because we have to be prepared for an earthquake because we are I believe close to a fault line. Uh I experienced an earthquake once here in South Carolina. It it's the only one I ever experienced in my life. But whenever we have earthquake drills, I remember that earthquake we had. So we did have an earthquake drill. It's required once a year. We had it October 15th at 10:15. Any other questions regarding the facilities update for October 2025? >> Well, that's just an addition. I know we might have some viewing public. When I mentioned OSF, for those that don't know, that's that's a that's a department within the state department
038of education. And OSS stands for Office of School Facilities. And what they do is O in youth construction. They oversee that as far as the in inspections and that kind of thing. And I think they'd be willing to give advice on existing facilities, but uh for those that didn't know what OSF stood for, I just wanted to clarify that. and it's within the state department of education. >> Thank you, Mr. Kieran. >> We'll now have the technology update coming from Mr. Parker. >> Even greetings, Mr. Chairman, Madam Secretary, members of the board, Dr. Tull, Miss Pam being audience here. A few things we're want to cover on this evening. First want to start with the um incident that we have happened today on the east coast which is called the AWS um outage. Um some
039of you may experience that with your technology um it could be Prime um Netflix, Amazon, what it may be. Um it affected Google, Class Link, anything that is on hosted by Amazon. Um it was an outage there. P school as well. So, a lot of the application that we um have within our district was affected by that outage. And again, that outage only occurred on the East Coast for East Coast users. Um this happened, I don't know exactly when it happened, but we start getting notifications around 7:30, 8:00 that there was a major outage going on um from all the East Coast up even out to Maine. Um it started coming back online approximately at three o'clock gradually. It also affected our eye visions as well. Um but it started coming back up gradually around
0403:00. Um it's not completely stable yet, but they are constantly giving us notifications about uh when it's going to be completely stable. Any questions there? Um, next we have um with that this outage, they did not say, and I don't blame them, they did not say it was a threat. They just say it was a failure. That's what they said. It was a failure. But then they use the word mitigate. So in IT world mitigate means that something occurred that needs to be taken care of not necessarily a network failure. Again I'm not speculating but only when that word was used that lets me know that something else could h happen. I'm using that as a segue into um Google has made some major changes within their platform because of all the cyber incidents that
041are happening. As I told you on the last board meeting, board meeting before last regular schedule meeting that there are several districts in the area um that have been hit with ransom ransomware. And I'm not going to call those district names, but one district just came up fully online as of last week. They were down for an entire month. Internet and also any applications, they were down for a month and they slowly came back online as of last week. As I said before, if something like that occurs, these this is the process. Call SLED, superintendent, then also call our cyber insurance company. It will be up to SLED then to call the FBI if they choose to see that's necessary. SLED would then send some investigators into the district and once they send investigators into
042the district then we will have a meeting as to where that could have taken place and then we try to mitigate um based on that. Any questions? With that being said, we're going to be moving to as Google now is moving to two factor authentication. We are being forced to move to two factor authentic authentification now. Again, as Google is moving towards this area, we're also moving to two-factor authentification. We sent out a notification maybe a month ago, uh, three weeks ago to our staff that this is coming down the pipe and it's now hitting um, us. I will have a meeting. The company that we're going to employ is called Duo. A lot of districts are using this. Matter of fact, I saw in our thread today with those in those districts that were
043affected on the east coast that many of the districts are using this company Duo to provide dual authentification. So that's something that we've already made our staff aware of. I will have this meeting on Wednesday with them um in our next phase of rolling out two factor authentification. Any questions? I also mentioned at our regular schedule board meeting that October the 14th uh u Microsoft ended their support for Windows 2010 or I should say Windows 10. They ended their support for that. Um we've already upgraded all of the computers within the schools with the exception of the district office. We have approximately 30 more units to complete before we have all of our stations on Windows 11 and we look forward to doing that this week. So, we'll have all of our units on Windows
04411 up to date with um Microsoft. Any questions? Next, we have a esports. I mentioned also that we have started we're going to be starting an esports um at the middle school level. We started already at Sandy and Run. We have not started the program but we've started the equipment. The only thing we have left there is to get some of the industrial power power supplies. Um we have complete the installation at St. Methods K8 with the exception also as of getting the industrial search protectors or power supplies for both K8 schools. Once we get that done, then we're going to have some training with those teachers and the staff there that will be utilizing this. Any questions? We also mentioned that the this year we're going to participate in the esports tournament at our
045annual edtech. And I'm going to read to you the email that we receive and it says, "Thank you for the incredible interest in the 2025 edtech South Carolina EdTech Rocket League tournament. The response was fantastic and the selection process for the 16 available spots was very competitive. Below are the official team selections and the waiting list. That means that we had to be selected. Even though we put in that we want to participate, we had to be selected by the state department officials. the official selection for the 2025 South Carolina EdTech Rocket League tournament. And I'll mention these schools. Ashley Ridge High School, which is one team. Calhoun County High School, two teams. Wonderful. Darlington County School District, one team. Florence School District, one one team. Hannah Pepnicole High School, one team. Lake Marian High
046School, two teams. Lexiton Technology Center, one team. Loris High School, two teams. North Myrtle Beach High School, one team. Sakusty High School, one team. Somerville High School, two teams. The Orangeburg Technology Center, one team. And the waiting list would be we also have Calvin County High School will have two teams on the waiting list and Darlington County School District will have one team on the waiting list. That's exciting news. We were selected to be a part of this out of all those school districts. That's very powerful. Even though we just started, if you know anything about Florence one, these other school districts, they've been in this now for the last three years. And so therefore, we have a great opportunity to be seen on this platform. Any questions there? I want to thank Mr. Caran
047for making sure the transportation for this team is going to be in place. Um, so I really appreciate him for his support there. The last thing I have on my list is mobile stations for our teachers. at our last two years ago at our um annual technology conference, I saw a mobile station that that you can utilize laptops on. And um one of the things that we've seen in our school districts where a lot of teachers are putting their laptops on uh services that are not stable and so therefore the laptops are falling off. Um as I saw this of course the vendors as you said earlier uh Mr. PH chairman PO they try to get you to buy things. Um but I wanted to make sure that this was a good product. So as
048I looked at looked at this product over the last year or so they develop into a good product. So I'm going to show you tonight what we are doing for our teachers and we're going to roll out we've already purchased 30 and we're going to roll out five per school until we completely um get all the teachers a mobile laptop station. and we're starting with the teacher of the year. Um the prior teachers of the year up until the current teacher of the year and so this is example of what they'll be getting here. Um actually last I think it was last year um Miss Ziggler she actually won one of these. So as you see here one of the things teach they love drinking things has well Another thing I like about it is
049it's pretty stable and I like it last years. A lot of other units they don't have. >> Thank you, Mr. Parker. >> Yeah, it's early. >> Hold on. I I just want to rewind a little bit just because I'm like I'm um would like for you to educate me and probably the rest of the board in this age of cyber threats that seem like they're coming up one after the other after the other is are we thinking about how we can protect our students, staff, community members and I don't know the answer. I'm just asking because what what I fear with this last threat was uh identity theft. >> I never thought I'd think where the old paper social security card would have been more would have been safer than having everything held in this
050virtual virtual space. Is there any way that we can kind of spearhead that security and thinking how do we protect staff members personal identification, parents personal identification and take that stuff off of the this virtual platform that it exists on? Or is is that something that would be am I asking for a a trip to Mars? No, you're not actually asking for that, but let me try to um at least see if I can answer that for you. When you say protect the staff or community members information on a platform, >> anybody that we have personal information that we house, how can we better secure that? >> Okay, so excellent question. We don't actually house any information here now. Everything is off prim. So that's why we cannot access powers school. If it was on
051prim, we could then access it here because it's not outside of our firewall. Um they have a duty. Amazon, let's let's use Amazon because that's what it happened at. Amazon has they have a duty to protect our data which is called PPI. They have that duty to protect our data by law when talk about furpa data and um any other health data that's out there. Um so therefore that's why they have firewalls on top of firewalls and different rules that they guard protect that data and to and I'm really kind of glad you brought this up because it takes me to somewhere else. Let me give you an example. So you have the Amazon warehouse. Okay, Amazon warehouse. Amazon warehouse. Bless you. Amazon warehouse is full of servers from districts and entities global. Think about
052a table. All these chairs in here represent a server. This here room represents the Amazon warehouse. the let's say there is a an attack that attack may not affect every server it may affect this one server on this one server it could be those who are on the east coast so with that being said all the other servers are well protected because they were not compromised even with that being said Amazon or even the Google warehouse they have a obligation that even if this is compromised, they have to again notify those individuals who have been compromised and let them know and then even pay for any type of credit monitoring that has to go out there. And you probably some of you may have already experienced this already, but they have that duty to do
053these things. Now, even though the data is there and it's in their ballpark, it's still our data. The one thing that we have to do is continue to educate at that point. Educate like I do I try to do here. Educate. Do not open anything that you cannot validate where it's from. Always look after the at symbol and if after that at symbol if you don't know that domain do not open the email. Do not. One of the targets is we can do all the protection because what ditches are doing now me and my colleagues we are hardening our shell from firewall to um two-factor authentification to other writing other kind of rules to try to protect. But the one thing that we cannot protect is that if someone inside click on an email which
054will cause an issue from the inside. So that's why it's so important to your point. We have to educate them as to what to look for, what to open, and what not to open. And hackers are getting very clever. They're making things look very official. And it's it's sad that we're in that time, as you say, Mr. Diaz, we're in that time now, that cyber cyber threats, and we're doing all we can do to protect them. But but think about individuals. All they do is sit down all day long to try to figure out how to break in to these accounts. So the big thing is every time I grace this platform here is to educate and also send out emails. And that's also one of the things I do. I always once I get
055notifications, I send out emails to our staff all the time that okay, this is happening. Be aware of this threat that's coming around. Passwords. One thing we are going to implement here um and you they may not like it but we're moving from away from eight characters we're going to try to move to 25 character password to where you got to put in syntax alpha numeric numeric letters. So that's going to also be coming which will help to some degree guard that data >> and along those lines and you mentioned earlier two-actor authentication. Where are we at with that? I know you mentioned it last year and I I I was at a conference here two weeks ago and that's a very important thing as far as security and you mentioned Duo I think as
056a firm. How quick can we get that on board here? Because I think that's something we really in today's world need to have two-actor authentication as quickly as possible. Well, we have two two-actor authentication on the business critical applications, business critical such as I visions. >> Yeah. But when can we >> So we have it on that. So now as I'll have a meeting, as I've said earlier, we have a meeting with them on Wednesday and so we'll roll this out based on their implementation plan. >> Based on their DU's implementation plan. >> That's correct. Mhm. >> So you won't know until you meet with them as to when this can be implemented. >> Correct. How quickly >> you can let us know next month what what >> I I I just think that's very
057important in today's world that we need to get everything that's available that we can get as far as we can cut out on a cyber threat. Um like you said and and I there's kind that school district we get from Schisbet. I'm sure we use that. I think I've I think you I've heard you say we're using that. Um and then there other things as well. We had William Freeman from SLED that came and talked as well about these things and he said he's in the process and having a um I forget what they call it a cyber some kind of official in each school district. I don't know if you've talked to him yet. He said if he hadn't school district if he if he hasn't heard from school district he's contacting every school
058district a cyber something officer is what he calls it. Um somebody to be to to basically be on point for those cyber threats that that we've got out there. So >> we we are actually a member of that as well already. >> And you may be already on that. Yeah. >> That that's why I was asking them because we we've had we've been under we've been using Duo for I think three or four years now. Yeah. Three years >> and and it is that's that didn't protect against a power school attack. >> Correct. You know, I would eventually say there's nothing that's 100% foolproof, but we need to do as you said, I think we need to do everything we can. But what I'm hearing him say is, "So, Michael Diaz enrolls his kid into
059school here in Calhoun County, >> and I put down my personal >> information, and all of a sudden, >> I'm thinking in my head that it is housed in some filing cabinet at district office, but I'm hearing him say that it's really housed in a totally separate area that is vulnerable to all kind of attacks." >> Yeah. So at what point does the at what point does the liability leave the is are we free from any liability if our information does get leaked out? >> Yes, we are. It's still our information but we are free from that liability. That's correct. >> And that's an interesting question from a legal standpoint. If John Q public enrolls his child in C County Public Schools and puts in PPI, personal what you call it, information, and it's housed
060offsite in some cloud or whatever. And as Mr. Mark just said, we're not liable because they've got it and they're bound by law to protect that. And if there's a breach, then they're liable. Um, trust me, if there was a breach that caused harm to John Q public who enrolls their kid in Cal County Public Schools and John Q public sues that entity, he's going to sue them. He's going to sue us, the school district, everybody else. And again, it's up for the court to sort that out. And I when I was in law school, I had a professor to tell me one time, you know, when someone comes to you with a case and he says, you sit back and cross your legs and you look up at the mound and you say, "Well,
061we're going to sue everybody." And that's what and if you've seen a lawsuit, they put everybody in there. Anybody they can remotely touch, they make a defendant. Now, if they make someone who is a defendant who's remotely connected to C County School District and that defendant then goes to the court and says, "I got nothing to do with this. I got no liability, no culpability, and the court can remove them." But you can be attached and sued for anything. You know that that I'm just saying that. And just like that, I think we would probably be attached if we got sued, we'd probably be liable. We may could transfer that liability to >> whoever the houser of that information is, but you know, we're going to be probably named in lawsuit that for that matter.
062All that goes without saying and I think what Mr. Diaz, what we all said and what you said, we need to be on the on our toes and make sure that we're doing everything we can possibly do. That's why I think dual factor authentication is really important from based on what I heard two weeks ago at Hilton Head at risky business seminar and as well as things going on here. I know I think sooner rather than later that we can get that implemented. We need to do that. So I'm glad to hear you having a meet with him on Wednesday and hopefully we'll get something back that you know we going to get it going as quickly as possible. >> Yes sir. And please remember as Mr. Da said dual factor authentification does not stop
063>> I understand that >> the threat. It does not stop us getting >> you can give me if I got dual factor authentication and I get into my computer and my system and I get into an email and I get them all the time like you do and everybody else does too from I get them from Windstream but they got an extra dot in that stuff and Windstream is my or Kinetic is my home internet service provider and I'll get something you need to update your account. It's spam. I mean I know it. I see it all the time. I get those things and you get them as well. However, and there's a there's a link in there. If I were to click on that link, opening the email doesn't do the damage. When I
064click on that link and open it up, then that gives them an opportunity to get into my system. Or if I was and again, because if my computer is a school district computer, it would let them they can spread out in wings and before you say catch a cat, they don't they they got the whole system and got it under control. So, and that's what these cyber thiefs or threats are doing. is they said at this conference they're they're searching they send out millions of emails every day and you know I know it's a a scam you know it's a scam and 90% of the people but it only takes one person to let them in and you know and if they get in then they get in every now and then they get in
065and they cause huge damage and of course then they they hold you at hostage and you know want ransomware and all that kind of stuff. So that that we we need to do all we can. As you said, education is certainly important and trying to let people know if you're not sure that domain is where that came from. Do not click on it. Do not open it up. You know, I know it. We know it. My mother who's 91 is thinking about getting internet. I think she's got internet now. Thinking about getting a computer and it scares me because >> she's vulnerable vulnerable to start with. you know, she's she's smart when somebody calls at these telemarketers, but that you know, they've moved on from that. Now they go into cyber threats. So, you know,
066I said, "Mom, if somebody calls you want to sell something," and my dad was Henry Bryce for and back, he'd been dead 15, he died in 2009. But, you know, when people would call want to speak to Henry, anybody call for Henry because he went by Bryce. Mama said, "Well, she knew she'd just hang up." you know, in those cases, but they they've gotten smarter as society's gotten smarter, but it continues to require us to be educated as to what you do. And again, we can't be we can't overeducate our public and our our staff about not clicking on those our students. And I know we've got firewalls in place, but you don't click on something you don't know. You know, where it's coming from. >> Question. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you.
067>> He was posted on that deal. Fact. I'm interested in that. >> Okay. Sure. >> All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Parker. Uh, Mr. Chair, just a few things u from superintendent as in your packets um this evening, you received a memo, excuse me, from the office of health and nutrition from the state department. This memo states that the district received a rebate of $2,27.50. That rebate was to offset the cost for delivery of food items to us in the 2425 school year. So that money will be sent back to the district to the food service department. Also, you have a memo from the state department um which was shared from uh with the superintendent about accountability u and report cards. School report cards were to have been released last week on October 14th. Um
068there were some data errors that were discovered thus postponing the release of the report cards. The release now is scheduled for the first week of November. So once the release has occurred, please know that there will be a formal presentation of the school report card data to the board as well and the public. Um again as mentioned earlier on Saturday this coming Saturday the 25th um we will hold Saturday with the superintendent again in a little different manner. Um from 9 until 10 I'll be here at the district office um to entertain any questions regarding the calendar. Again we won't allow folks to vote for the calendar until they have been educated. Thus they may see something that will swear their vote. So again, from 9 until 10, we'll be here at the district office
069and then we'll move to the cafeteria at Sandy Run from 10:30 until 11:30. And that's this coming Saturday. Voting will then begin uh Monday, October 27th, and go through November 10th. Once we get the votes, um we will present those to you all for the uh voting for the calendar for the 2627 school year. We'll have our first vote in November and we'll usually have the second vote in December. So before we go home for the break, everyone knows what the following calendar will be. Also in your package, you have two copies or copies of two newsletters that have been shared with our stakeholders. U the supporter is the special ed newsletter and as well as the family engagement newsletter. Uh both detail happenings and important dates in the district. So again, those have been
070shared with our stakeholders and certainly would like for you to all to take a look at those as well. And then lastly, homecoming events will take place the last week of October, October 27th. The culminating events will be the parade and football game versus Wagner Sally on October 30th. So again, we invite everyone to come out to homecoming, which will take place um the last week of October and the last game, I should say. We had senior night this past Friday in opposite form. We're having homecoming as the last game and that will be versus Wagner Sally. >> And that's on October 31st, right? >> 31st. I'm sorry. I said the 30. 31st. So, um, we invite everybody to come out to those h Halloween homecoming events. That's all that I have unless there are
071any questions. Mr. Chair, I give things back to you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Top. Next um on our agenda is the public participation session which I have just been handed the signup sheet and no one has signed up to address the board which then takes us to an executive session for personnel recommendations and resignations. Do I hear a motion at this time that we go into executive session? >> I make a motion that we go into exe executive session and discuss the personnel matter and upon completion we return to regular session. >> All right. Mr. Jenkins has made a motion. Do I hear a second? >> Second >> motion in a second to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter concerning recommendations and resignations and then to return to open session
072compon upon completion of our discussion. Is there any discussion before we vote? If not, all those in favor of that motion to go into executive session and to return to open session upon completion of our discussion, please signify by saying I. >> I. All oppose. No. Motion carries and we will go into one over here in the conference room by your office. All right, we'll be back shortly. Shortly as a term of back in open session. Is there any business to come before the board at this time? >> None. >> If not, do I hear then a motion to adjurnn? >> I move we adjourn. >> Have a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? >> Second. >> A motion and a second to adjurnn. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >>
073I. All oppose, no. We stand adjourned until next month.