001Evening everyone that's in attendance this evening if you would join us in invocation this evening. Our thought for today comes from 1 Colossians the 7th chapter verse 24. So brothers and sisters in whatever condition each was called there let him or her remain with God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you reach out every day to touch the lives of all your people. Grant us your grace as you continue your presence in our lives as we go about the business at hand. Bless and keep in your love and care our defenders and those who respond to our call and those who give of their time and effort to keep us in your vineyard. Remember our hidden wounds. In your mercy, hear our prayers. At this time, I will call the March 17, 26 meeting to order.
002At this time, would you please look at the agenda for this evening? And I will entertain a motion to adopt the proposed agenda. >> The motion was made by Coach Blackman, second by um second by Mr. Reid. All those in favor of adopting a proposed agenda, let it be known by saying I. >> Any opposes? The agenda is approved. Also, we need to look at our consent agenda. Could I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Second. It's moved by Jean and second by Miss Runwood that we accept the approved um consent agenda. All those in favor, let me know by saying I. Any opposes? The approved um consent agenda has been done this evening. Um I would like to say thank you for being here for all those who are here this
003evening and I I would just like to make this one statement. Behind us is our mission educating all students for success and this evening we have some who have passed that threshold that are very very successful and we are glad that you are here. And at this time we will have our student recognitions and celebrations for us. Our student recognition and school program recognition. Dan. >> Thank you Miss Hie. Uh Miss Hie, Dr. Goodwin board, we will start our recognitions tonight with Woolard Technology Center student Erica Glover. Please come forward. Erica is a student of Lee Buffford's web animation game design and computer programming uh program. Earlier this year, two Willard Technology students were named in the top 10 for STEMfuse Got Game Competition. This is a national game design competition. Tonight, we recognize Erica
004for placing second in this national competition for her game design. Her game was called Nuggets Diner. So, please join me in congratulating Erica. Parents, we good. Congratulations. Our next recognition goes to some amazing athletes from Stove Middle School. We'll start with individual wrestling champions. First, we'll ask Maline Ross to please come forward. In a truly historic feat, Meline has become a twotime back-to-back state champion. Her consistency and dominance in her weight class serve as an inspiration to all of our female athletes. Congratulations. Next, we'll recognize Dalton Henson. Through grit and technical precision, Dalton also secured his place uh on the top of the podium as a state champion. Dad will come. Dalton is on the seagull field trip to Washington. >> I think dad might be out of his eligibility. Now we will recognize Gavin
005Rush. Please come forward. Gavin demonstrated incredible resilience and battled through a bracket uh to finish as a state championship. State champion, excuse me. On top of these great accomplishments by Matteline Dalton and Gavin, the Stover Middle School team collectively outperformed every other program in the region to win first place in the entire state. We would like to invite up any other members of the team including head coach Lorenzo Mc McGee, assistant coaches Elijah McGee and Robert Henson to be ranked number one in middle school program is a testament to the hard work of all of our students. The dedication of our coaching staff and support of our parents all everybody Don't get mamas. >> All right, congratulations. >> Our next honores are from Camden Middle School's Junior Beta Club. Please come forward when I call
006your name. Again, this this year, the CMS Junior Beta Club students came away from the state convention in Myrtle Beach with many accolades. In just three days, CMS students competed in 50 plus events, earning nearly 20 plaques, multiple grand champion titles, and an incredible 14 bids to the National Beta Club Convention in Nashville later this year. First, we'll recognize Jordan Russell. Jordan was named grand champion in science and placed second in apparel design. Next, Jack Hill and Gwen Connley were named grand champions in computer science principles. Next, Maggie Wilcox and Matthew Balk Knight were also named grand champions in health and physical education. Penny Beckham was named grand champion in science. Edwin Guy took first place and was named grand champion in social studies. Congratulations to Edwin. Brooklyn was named grand champion in Spanish. Okay.
007For spelling, Ryland Charbano and Cali Key were named grand champions. And our final recognition goes to Gavin Johnson for being named the grand champion for US history. THIS. Congratulations to all these students. We have had some additional uh Stover Middle School wrestling students uh come in. So, if I could get the whole team back up for another picture real quick. Fast fast. >> Now, I got to remember where you were in in the line just a second ago. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. We have one more special recognition tonight. Our very m Dr. Goodwin and Miss Hie, I got to go back. We not through yet. We have one more special recognition tonight. Our very own superintendent, Dr. Harrison Goodwin, will be recognized tomorrow morning during the South Carolina Athletic Administrators Association spring
008conference for being named the 5A4A Superintendent of the Year. >> This honor recognizes Dr. Goodwin's belief that athletics are an important part of the well-being of our students and honors his commitment to the safety and well-being of our student athletes. Join me in congratulating Dr. Goodwin. too much. >> Didn't have to say much, did he? >> Folks here. So when they say get a picture, Get them all. >> Actually, they're going to be in Charleston in the morning. >> They used to go to Charleston for a few days. >> Oh, wonderful. >> That it we down to public form. I don't think any sign. >> Okay, that's good. Go ahead. I was trying to give him a chance to get out. Yes, >> I think that's it. >> Ready? Go ahead. Okay. We do not
009have anyone to sign up for public forum. So we at this time we hear the chairman's report. Dr. Goodwin will be out of the office on March 24th, 2026. I spoke with Mr. Brian Blackman um committee chair Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Brad Willard. Willard our CFO. We have decided to cancel the finance and facilities committees meeting that was scheduled for that day. So please put that on your calendar and take note of it. This time we'll hear from our superintendent and the senior leadership team and Brad with our 2026 2027 budget update. >> While Mr. Willard's walking up, um I'll go ahead and remind all of us. I don't have to don't say you uh us that our ethics reports are due this month. Would not want us to be late. And I'll be honest,
010I completely forgot mine. And I should have done it yesterday while we were having the weather day. Uh, also you have in your uh folder a uh a uh information card about the day at the cap or a sheet uh if you are interested if you'll let Wendy know. I'm going to try to attend this year and so maybe we can ride together if there multiple of us. And uh it's really good day. I don't know how many of you been before but it's uh it's it's right informative. Uh sometimes it's better sometimes than not with uh with seeing legislators, but the other information is always very very good. Also, uh you've got the teacher of the year gala invitation. If you would uh could could put that on your calendar if you can make
011it that evening. Uh we're looking forward. It's hard to believe it's almost that time again, but uh the the clock keeps on moving. So, uh just wanted to give you those few updates. Mr. Willard's here with a few updates. Uh the budget has made it through the house. Now that doesn't mean we have a real clear picture, but that just means we've reached another hurdle and he'll give us an update on where we are. Yes, Madam Chair, Dr. Goodwin, members of the board, good evening. Um as Dr. Goodwin said, we wanted to present to you some very high level information as to where we are currently uh through the legislative session with regard to budget. Um there there are a lot of things yet to be determined. Uh so we will kind of ramp up
012that information starting with hopefully April and leading into May as we get into the first reading. Uh but as you'll see on the calendar for the legislation that you have in the packet later on, we still have a month before the full Senate even debates budget. So a lot of things to happen between now and then. So we will continue to keep you updated. So uh this evening I wanted to talk a little bit again high level uh with regard to the formula and what things look like that was passed very very quickly through ways and means and the house and those were identical. So um wanted to talk first about the state aid to classrooms and that's what the new formula has become became uh named and a few things about that that are
013key points uh within the the formula and what the distribution of funds is going to look like. So within the formula there are some changes to the waitings and we have a uh and some changes to the formula implementation and I'll kind of hit those as we go through this presentation. U this budget uh version does increase the starting pay uh for teachers by $2,000. So it takes it from 48500 to 50,500 for a bachelor zero teacher. And currently uh the district is at 49,500 for a beginning teacher. So uh based on the letter of the law, we would need to increase that sale by $1,000 to get to at least the state minimum. U the version also increases each sale on the minimum salary schedule by $2,000. And again uh just like on the
014first year teacher uh we are below the minimum if it goes to that on some and we would have to make some changes. Others we are already well above the minimum and we will always evaluate those as we bring you the recommendations as to what those sales look like for us versus the minimum. Uh this version maintains the master's step 12 level as the benchmark for funding a teacher FTE salary plus fringe and that is a little over $80,000 within the formula. So with that, what does that mean? Well, that's the that is midway of all schedules that are that are in the the state minimum uh platform. So that means that funding level covers some and it doesn't cover some. That is just the median. So it's different for every district depending on what
015the tenure of your teacher uh classifications are. Another component that's in here is instructional materials and digital support. As we've as we've talked about, I will not go into detail on that because if there are drastic changes, I'm sure curriculum and Dr. Goodwin's going to bring you up to speed on those. but it continues to be a focus even though they changed some subject area focus and some grade level focus. The educational scholar education scholarship trust fund uh that funding is still pretty much the same as we've presented before split between general fund and lottery and the intent again is to increase those that are eligible and the service to the number of students throughout South Carolina. Uh, one thing that you may hear talked about is the fact that they want to remove the
016homeschool qualification and eligibility from that. Uh, because it's not really taking advantage of a scholarship opportunity within a school. Um, it, you know, there is debate about whether that should go to homeschool, but that is an initiative. Uh, and then obviously important for us for various reasons, the summer reading camps are intact. uh the ma the funding level that was requested was not upheld. However, uh it will not change that program. It'll still be maintained u with the intent to serve additional grade levels. So, as we go to the next page and look at a little bit of the detail for state aid to classrooms, one component that is in there is called a waiting. So each child has a waiting, a core waiting uh based on their primary classification and then there are some
017add-on waitings. So I wanted to let you know what is unchanged and what is different about those going into this version. So first and foremost, the state average per pupil that is being distributed in this formula increases only by about $140ish per student. So it goes from 58.84 84 to 623. So what do the waitings look like in a traditional school district? So a core student, regular education students a 1.0. A special education student regardless of the classification is a 2.6 and those are unchanged from the prior from the prior year. And then we have add-ons. So the traditional add-ons are also unchanged and you can see those from GT through pupils and poverty. So if a student reaches that classification, they get the 1.0 plus the add-on. Okay. So now let's look at what
018a charter um scenario looks like. So those are also unchanged. So, a core uh student in charter, if it's a brick and mortar, they receive a 1.0, but then they also receive a 1.25 add-on. So, uh that remains intact. A virtual is a 1.0 plus a.5 add-on. And what is different this year in the formula is that the charter districts are being taken off the top of the formula. So they're not being run through the formula at the same time as traditional districts, but their portion that has been deemed by legislation is being taken off the top and given to the two remaining charter school authorizers. And the funding that they are receiving, as you can tell by the add-ons, is well above the state average increase that I mentioned up here uh in the
019proviso that goes up only 58.884 to 6023. So a little bit of a change just the implementation of the formula. They're not running through there at the same time. They're taken off the top. Now in some ways that is a benefit to us. Um, but when you look at the level of funding based on the waitings, that's the important change that we have not been able to get at this point for charters versus traditionals. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about was career and technology. Um, because career and technology students previously are in the current year have been weighted at 1.2. It's not a core plus an add-on. It's just a straight 1.2. So uh the the justification there is is because of the level of uh skilled training and the need
020for various equipment and supplies in those areas they thought it deserved a higher waiting. So what they have done is they have now taken that waiting back to a 1.0 O, but they basically calculated the equivalent of the other 0.2 and just simply allocated an amount of money and that was around $80 million for CTE. And what that does is it moves it out of the general fund and then gives us that money in a different way. And I'm going to go into that on the next slide. I just wanted to introduce it. So, uh, in effect, this formula or this version of the budget, what does it mean at this point at a very high level for Kershaw County School District? So, this is basically a $1.5 million increase in funding for the year.
021And if you know anything about what our typical expenditure increases are because of mandates, that doesn't amount to very much. Now, one million of that is the move of the CTE funding, and we will get to to the detail on that in just a moment. So far, we're not sure about our health insurance revenue um because the health insurance piece, the old money, the prior year monies were handled through the old formula uh implementation or the formula um calculation. the new year is actually going to be outside of that formula. So, we're getting a little bit of two different numbers and they will fine-tune that, but we just don't know exactly what that revenue is yet. Could make that 1.5 million go higher. But it's important to remember as we have discussed with you, our
02245day count went down. So, we took a a a loss, a netted loss on the current year funding. So the 1.5 million increase is not on last year's budget that we passed. That's on the 45th day adjustment. So we are looking at these funds as a means to just basically write the ship if you will and make up the losses. So we will we will dig into those details as we get further into the budget. uh PEA. Another important piece that uh can be quite costly and is uh typically uh not very well funded is what is our increase in cost for the employer portion of health insurance. So we have not been given those details yet because PEA has not delivered their uh proposal to legislation at this point in time. So we'll bring
023that back to you. So if 1 million of the $ 1.5 million increase is related to the CTE move, the way that the general fund benefits from that is when that money is moved out of general fund into a state EIA fund. The only way we benefit is we is if we can move that amount of salaries and fringe that we currently pay for through the general fund for CTE into that other fund code. Basically, we reduce our expenses in order to gain that in the general fund. The issue with that is is the fund they are using currently does not allow for salaries and fringe to be paid. It is only for CTE equipment. So, right now, we've got a lot of CTE directors across the state thinking we we made bank, but that
024uh that that's not the intent and that certainly uh could not be the case. um they would they would certainly still have the funding that they traditionally get. That's not being taken away. Uh but we would certainly need to uh fight for us to be able to move those salaries and fringe cost uh to another fund. So that is a a critical piece. And then a few other things uh as we we always want to mention to you to keep in mind um is obviously our statemandated bus driver pay. Uh although the I think Dr. Dr. Goodwin and I talked I think the state um employee rate has has been tossed around at 2%. They have not yet stated that as being aligned with uh bus driver pay. So we will bring that back to
025you as we receive it. And as I've mentioned through this presentation, those RFA uh uh recommendations to change the formula, although although there are some benefits and we hope that that will continue to lead to future benefits, um quite simply, we are simp we are just not recognizing that in this version of the budget and uh it's just not what we had hoped for. So we're going to we're going to go back to work and see what we can get as this goes through the Senate. Uh again a big piece state health plan insurance cost for employers for us as an employer is not known and um you know we'll we'll keep our thumb on the pulse of the state the homestead and the boat tax relief to see how that may impact our revenue
026as that's phased in and uh as we're being told that we will receive some hold harmless money from the state as that is being phased in. uh we just have not seen the details on that and our act 388 tier three money um that we receive in lie of being able to uh benefit from owner occupied homes and the taxes on those um based on the CPI we're looking at about a $675,000 increase on that revenue stream. So with that, I know that's a very high level and brief uh overview of the House Ways and Means or Ways and Means and House version of the budget. Um and we've got the calendar of the the legislative calendar in front of you as we know it now. Uh if that changes, we will let you know,
027but this will at least give you a timeline if you choose to keep up with some of the legislative processes. Uh again, it it'll be a month before we get to the Senate level. Hopefully, we will get some information as it comes out of Senate Finance and we can go ahead and start digging in. Uh but with that, that concludes the presentation for this evening and I'll be happy to try to answer any questions that you may have. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Reeves here. Um looking back at the the charter schools, the 1.0 plus the 1.25. >> Yes, sir. that 1.25 like $8,000 more dollars or is that something different? >> Um so so the 1.25 um if you >> 1.0 is the baseline 6023. Is that right? >> So the the baseline would be
028um in if you compare it to traditional terms a 1.0 0 waiting to us on average as traditional districts equates to about a 75% state 25% local support. However, charters get that 1.0 dollar fordoll because they cannot raise local taxes through millillage levy. >> So what's the dollar amount that charter schools getting versus the core amount that the district gets? So you said 6023 is basically what that 1.0 right comes out for us. What's that charter getting for their 1.0 plus 125? >> So we would have to dig in and and find that through the workpapers of the legislation. But I can tell you that uh the increase that is on paper right now through the House version for the two charter authorizers is about $87 million. Bill, I guess what I'm asking is you
029got a per that's a per child up there for the school district, right? >> Correct. >> Do we know what the per child is for the charter? >> We have not been given that information yet. >> So, this is not apples to apples comparison. It's just >> Well, that includes the charter districts. So, what's bringing that average to a smaller number is the 70 How many traditional districts do we have now? >> 72. 72 versus two charter districts. >> Okay. >> But but you you are right that it's going to be in excess of $12,000 per student. >> That's what I was asking. That's correct. As opposed to our $6,000 per student. >> Yeah. I'm not I'm not concerned about how many charters versus districts. I'm just looking at dollar amount per student. you know
030what we're throwing at a charter school and and what do we get for $12,000 per student is the next question >> versus what you get in the district. >> Yeah. And then the other part is remember we don't even get the 6,000 in 23. We get about 72% >> because you're sharing because you get millage >> because we get millage. We have >> you get 100% from the state because they can't do millage. >> That's correct. So, if I set up a school tomorrow and I do virtual charter and I start taking students, I'm I'm get 78,000 a student. >> That's correct. >> For online. >> Yes. >> That's nuts. >> Yes, sir. >> I agree. >> As said by a famous general. >> All right. Just that that was my question is the dollar
031amount. >> Yes, sir. That's I just want to make sure my math was math. Thank you, sir. >> Are there any other questions? >> Thank you for the work that you do. I appreciate it. >> Thank you all. >> You're welcome. Is there a motion to go into executive session to discuss resignations and retirements of certified and classified personnel, employment of certified and classified personnel, and assignment changes and transfers of certified and classified personnel? Motion's made by Autumn Furnus, second by Mr. Mr. Um, me forgot his name. Mr. Roberts. Thank you. Senior moment. All those in favor of a journey to executive session, let me be known by saying I. Any opposes? We are not in executive session. Thank you. motion to reconvene to regular session. >> Motion was made by Autumn, second by Coach
032Blackman that we reconvene to open session here. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. Any opposed? Go back into the regular session. In executive session, we discuss resignation and retirements of certified and classified personnel, employment of certified and classified personnel, and assignment changes and transfers of certified and classified personnel. Is there a motion to accept administration's recommendation concerning employment matters? >> Motion was made by Dr. Kain circum office run that we accept the administration's recommendation concerning employment matters. All those in favor let me be know by saying I. Any opposes? Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion was made by ear. Second by coach Blackman. All those in favor of adjourning, let it be known by saying I. Any opposing, we are now ajourned.