001Welcome Miss Hley. Would you lead us in a inspiration thought please? >> Thank you. Our thought for the day is 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 loving care our defenders and those who respond to our call and those who give of their time and efforts to keep us in the vineyard. Restore your blessings on our world, our nation, our president. All those Lord that you feel confel the best. Please bless them. And all
002who suffer so that we might enjoy freedom. Remember our hidden wounds. Lord in your mercy, here our prayer. Amen. >> Amen. >> Call the Kersaw County School Board of Trustees meeting to order for February 3rd, 2026. Is there a motion to adopt the proposed agenda? >> Properly motioned by Dr. King, second by Miss Furnus. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. >> I. >> Those that oppose and that's unanimous. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda properly? Motion by coach Blackman, second by Mr. Cameron. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. >> I. And that's unanimous. Greetings to everyone and thank everyone for gathering this evening. Uh we want to thank uh Mr. Johnson with WPUB being with us and all of the members of
003this lovely district. Thank you for being here. >> Amen. >> At this time recognition. >> Yes, sir. Tonight we have quite a few recognitions and we appreciate people coming out on a day we were not in school uh that we were doing e-learning but appreciate you taking the time to come out tonight to be recognized. Uh Mr. Chair, you and I can go forward. Dr. Smith, Dr. Goodwin, board to good evening. Tonight we have some special very special educators to recognize. The first group we will recognize are the educators who guided their classrooms to the highest scores on last year's state standardized test. We will start with our elementary school teachers first. For third grade English language arts, we recognize Doby's Mills Dobby Mill Elementary School's teacher Rebecca Thraw. For third grade math, Woody Elementary's
004Holly Bartlett. On to fourth grade. For ELA, Doby's Mill Lena. For fourth grade math, North Central Elementary's April Mangum. Fourth grade science Doby's Mill Tammy Smith. For fifth grade ELA and math, we recognize Lugoff Elementary School's Dr. Melody Johnson. Please join me in congratulating these teachers. [applause] Hold on. You good? Congratulations to you all. Next, we'll call up our middle school teachers. For sixth grade ELA, Kelly Johnson from Camden Middle School. For sixth grade math, Camden Middles, Artha Smith. For sixth grade science, also from Camden Middle, Ralph Hunter. Seventh grade ELA, Camden Middle's Reagan Pesour. Seventh grade math, Dr. Christy McIntyre from Camden Middle. In eighth grade, ELA, Lugoff Middle's, Julie Stockman. Eighth grade, math, Lugof middle's Robbie Charles. Another middle school high middle school high school was Angie Galloway at Lugof Middle who teaches
005algebra 1. Please join me in congratulating these teachers. [applause] Congratulations again. Our next recognition is for high achievement on state standardized test scores for our high schools teachers. For algebra one is Lugaf Elgen High's Joseph D'vorsia. Next English two, Debbie Blinkhorn and Wendy Mullis, also from Lugof Elgen High. For biology one, Joey Hendris from Camden High and Karen Hill from North Central High. for US history, Carl Spoto from Lug Elgian High and Dawson Sams from North Central High. And finally, from North Central High, we recognize Emily Dinsmore for AP US History. [applause] All right. We will now recognize teachers who accelerated academic progress and achieved the highest growth metrics during last year's school year. Starting with fourth grade, we recognize Latoya Hubard from North Central Elementary and Lauren Nelson from Lugof Elementary for ELA. For
006fourth grade math, April Mangum from North Central Elementary and Tammy Dazinski from Blayany Elementary. Fifth grade ELA goes to Maryanne McFeeders from Orie Elementary and Mary Bham from Blay Elementary. In fifth grade math, we also recognize Melody Johnson from Lugof Elementary and Jessica Bipo from Pine Tree Hill Elementary. Congratulations. Moving on to middle school for sixth grade ELA. Kelly Johnson from Camden Middle and Summer Schultz from North Central Middle. Sixth grade math, Christina Castrodus and Artha Smith from Camden Middle. Seventh grade ELA, Christine Adams from Lugaf El Ludaf Elgen Middle and Jennifer Mills from North Central Middle. Seventh grade math, Camden Middle's, Kayla Bocker. Eighth grade ELA, both from Lugof Middle, Amy Teague and Sharon Gwyn. In eighth grade math, Lugoff Middle's Robbie Charles and Stover Middle's Brian Seymour. Let's hear for these middle school
007teachers. And finally for our high schools for English 2, Briana Valente and Christian Hunter from Camden High. And for algebra 1, Casey Stevens and Joseph D'voria from Lugaf Elgen High. How about another round of applause for all of these teachers? Okay. What an awesome awesome great set of teachers. Some of the best of the best. Amen. Dan, Dr. Goodwin, tonight um is is more of our data presentations. It seems like we've been doing these now since since last spring, but uh we received the information on our school designations, our ATSI, TSI, and CSI schools. And it sort of follows a theme. There's very positive news, but we want to share with you uh not just the good news, but also the challenges that we still have in front of us. And u so we would
008recognize Dan and Leslie to bring us that information. >> All right, Dr. Smith, Dr. Goen board. Uh we do have uh some really positive news I think to talk about our school designations. So I'll let Miss Corner lead us off. >> Okay. First thing we're going to explain is how these designations are assigned. Um so what happens is they take all the schools in South Carolina and they assign those schools a score out of 100 and it uses the report card indicators that we went over in a previous board meeting. This is called the all student score. They do have to redistribute the points slightly because of course they have to take out the MLL score for all schools. So the schools that did have a subgroup for MLL, they do redistribute those points elsewhere.
009So they get that all student score which is out of a 100. And then they find the bottom 10% and they call that TSI. And then they find the bottom 5% and they call that ATSI. And so if you look at the two charts below, you can see the thresholds for each level. You'll see the elementary, what that number is for the bottom 10%. You'll see the middle and the high number. And then below that, you'll see the 5%. That's the ATSI numbers. You'll notice there is a great difference in the high school level and not that much difference in the elementary and middle. So that is what is calculated as the all student score and those are the thresholds. So keep that in mind when we start talking about our designations. [clears throat] As
010you can see, we did have great improvement. Um, we decreased our underperforming schools by half. We had four and now we have two. We decreased the number of designations from 28 to 17. 12 of those 17 are in the disabled subgroup. Two of those are the below average designations on the report card, which we knew that we would have. One of those is a CSI designation for a low performing school. And then two of those designations. We have one black designation, one poverty subgroup designation. And both of those are at the same school. We eliminated three subgroup designations. We have no white, MLL, or Hispanic designations this year. So, we eliminated those all together. And we had three schools that had no designations at all. That was Blany, Lug Elgen Middle, and North Central Elementary.
011So that's our good news overall. So now the question is, how do they calculate how you get a designation? So they go back to that all student score that was on the first slide and they look at those thresholds. So now they're going to take every subgroup out of a school and they're going to calculate the same score just for that subgroup. So for example, when they start calculating the disabled subgroup, they're going to calculate that same score just for the students with the IEP. So when they calculate that score just for the students with the IEP, they're called compare that score to the all student thresholds. If that score falls below the 10th percentile, you will get a TSI designation. If that score falls below the fifth percentile for all students, you will get
012a ATSI designation. So each subgroup is compared to the all student score. So that's very different than saying you're in the top 10% of all the sped all the sped subgroups in the state. It means your sped subgroup is in the 10th percentile of all students. So each subgroup is compared to all students. So theoretically every school in South Carolina could have a designation in the disabled subgroup. To get a designation, you must have 20 or more students in the power indicators that I have highlighted. For elementary school and middle school, that is academic achievement, which would be your ELA and math scores for third through 8th, and student progress, which would be your growth scores in fourth through 8th. If there's not 20 students in either of those, then you cannot get a designation.
013For high school, you have to have 20 or more students in academic achievement, which would be your English 2 and your algebra 1 EOCC's and in college and career readiness. So, you would have to have 20 students in that designation that graduated from high school that year. On the next slide, you'll see what the actual subgroup designations are. Our TSI, which is a yearly designation, is are Camden High School, Dubbies Mill Elementary, Lugof Elgen High, and North Central, all in the disabled student category. Our ATSI schools are Camden Elementary for the second cycle. So, they were identified on ATSI last time. And I I'll remind you ATSI is a three-year designation. So whether we are when Camden High was or Camden Elementary, excuse me, was designated three years ago, they had an opportunity to come
014off that list this time. Uh since they're in the second cycle, they can exit early. You don't have to remain on the the designation for three years. You can designate early out of the second cycle. You can't do that out of the first cycle. So, our ATSI schools are Camden Elementary, Camden Middle, Jackson, Stove, uh, Lugof Elementary, North Central Middle, Pine Tree Hill for the second cycle, and Water Reef for the second cycle. Um, it it should be reiterated that we're comparing when we look at the disabled student uh category, we're comparing our disabled students to every student in the state in a specific grade level. So, it's not you're not comparing disabled students to disabled students. You're comparing disabled students to everybody in the state. Um, and just because I was curious at at
015our last instructional leaders roundt, we had a uh a representative from uh the school transformation office uh Kim Mack. And I asked I said about how many schools in the state have an ATSI designation at this point? and she said there were over 400. Uh, not that that makes the designation any less, but it does it does put everything in a little bit of perspective. >> May I add one thing? >> You may add anything. >> Sorry. Okay. One thing I also want to add is when we talk about having a disabled designation, that is not a reflection on our teachers of students with disabilities or our um district office staff that work with our special ed department. That designation is about their performance on grade level standards. So that would be their performance within
016the tier one instruction which would be in their classes because that is what SCReady is based on. So, I just want to make sure it's clear that that is not based on their performance in their special education classes where they get special services or reflection on the special ed department in leadership. [snorts] >> Our underperforming schools, which we knew because they were below average on their report cards, were Jackson and Midway. Our ATSI African-American population is at Jackson in poverty at Jackson. And our low performance overall uh CSI school is Midway Elementary School. So the question becomes what do we do now? Where do we go from here? So um just some framing questions that we have. How do we help students with IEPs meet our state standards with our general education classrooms? That's a
017question we ask in our department in our uh in our admin meetings and with uh when we do our data huddles with our teachers and our principles. What other resources do our general education teachers need? That's a great question. In our budget meetings, which were supposed to start Monday, uh we'll begin to frame that question and ask that what what do they need that they don't have and what are others doing that we're not. We're looking at schools throughout the state who are doing it well and we see some commonalities, but one of the things we see is ownership. Ownership of that students with disabilities are regular ed students first. They get tier one instruction just like everybody else. They don't go to the resource room to get uh cured of anything. That's not the
018point. The point is that we give high quality tier one instruction and that's something we've been preaching uh from day one. It's it's all about our high quality tier one instruction. currently some of the things we're doing in addition to the things I've already said understanding the calculations uh Lesie goes to every school including to what we do with our department and in our admin meetings she goes to every single school and speaks with the leadership teams with the departments in PLC's with teachers recognizing that the test scores are only one piece of it is the academic achievement it is student success but it's also climate and growth it's also CCR in high school which uh can adjust your uh designation. It's about learning that it's about student growth. It's not just and that was
019one thing we wanted to do tonight. We recognize high achievement, but we also recognize teachers who are growing their students the most. And I I think that's important that we continue to do that uh as the state changes their accountability process to include a achievement score which is the AVT and then excuse me a growth score which is the MVT. We need to be sure that we are are addressing that correctly. Um, with our elementary and middle schools, it's possible to have an unsatisfactory or below uh average score on achievement and not have a designation because you did really well with growth. Again, really focused on growing students. Um, [snorts] professional development uh can't exist with just our principles. It's go go go go go go goes down to our teachers and goes down you
020know when we talk about data it can't live in her office or my office or our principal's office. It has to get down to the teacher down to the student where we're making uh immediate you know adjustments to instruction. Um the state has provided a new tool for us. Uh it was called a navigator. It was it's changed names two or three times and now it's called GPS. There's a u an admin side of the house. There's also a teacher side of the house. But the tool has been very fluid and they've been very responsive to our needs. So teachers can go to a dashboard and see where their students are, what the predictions are for an individual student. Uh and as they roll that out to us, we're rolling that out to them. And
021of course, formative assessment data, how can we use that to adjust and predict? We continue to work with our college and career readiness in the high schools. Uh our scores are really really good. We continue to see good work out of our um career development facilitators and for our underperforming schools and our CIS school. They have to complete improvement plans which have to be approved and sent to the state department for approval. U we'll take any questions at this time. [clears throat] Thank y'all for the data and um I I've said this before. I know how hard it is to aggregate and then disagregate and sometimes aggregate all of this back, Leslie. So, thank you for what you did. Um very easy to understand. Um, it might behoove uh the public to know um TSI
022and ATSI, targeted support and improvement schools, additional target supported improvement schools. As educators, we get all caught up in acronyms and sometimes people don't know what they actually stand for. Um, I love the growth mindset that you guys talk about. Um, I've heard that over and over and over more than I ever have. Um, I also like that we're still celebrating our successes and what you guys have presented previously in some of the data packets you've offered. Um, and we we have so much good going on. So, um, even though these designations are very serious, I I I want everybody to understand we still have a lot to celebrate and look forward to and to grow. And I say that to say this, the challenge is issued to our folks. Um we we've made so
023many tremendous gains this year a few designations but we have in many categories those designations which is huge. Let's continue to grow. Um the last thing I want to ask is um historically uh the TSI ATSI has come with some funding allocations to help target those areas. Is that still the case? >> We don't know. Uh we were supposed to go to an ATSI road show last week. >> Oh yeah. >> And so it was postponed and so there's a CSI road show and they're they're having to push that down the road because things got cancelled. We understand ATSI there will be funds. We don't know how much at this point. Uh we also know that for the CSI schools there [snorts] will be funds available for Midway. Uh so that's good. We again, we
024don't know. They're coming not this week, but next week to meet with us uh and the leadership team at Midway, >> right? And it's probably also worth noting that >> um with the hope that we we will get some funding for these um designations. Um, I won't say it's gamecher money, but I inherited two schools that had these designations and I was surprised at the amount of allocated money that came with trying to target what needed to be worked on. >> So, um, >> in addition [clears throat] to the money, uh, Midway will also be, uh, allocated a transformation coach from the state who will work with Midway and and their leadership team. And they're she's one of the people that's coming next week, >> right? And it it's probably worth noting that um the
025monies that will be allocated don't come out of our district coffers per se. Um it comes from state and fed typically. And um even though it's you don't want to have that the TSI or the ATSI designation, I would tell the staffs I inherited that don't look at this as a bad thing because we get money with it to help grow what we need to grow and make better. So, it's not necessarily bad in that aspect as well. But, but again, thanks for some incredible data. Um, outstanding job, y'all. Thank you, Mr. Chair. [snorts] Well, maybe you answered this and I appreciate all the data you've given us, everything you've given us today. And I know we've been making improvements and I do appreciate all the improvements that's been made. But you had some open
026questions here and how do we help the IEP students u meet their standard goals and general education? That was one of your questions plus the the other two. uh what resources do our general education teachers need and uh what what are other I guess others doing that we're not so can you elaborate a little bit on uh what you found out about this what we need >> we're just starting that process since we've gotten this information as far as what our general education teachers need that's part of our budget process that starts next well it was supposed to start Monday Okay. >> So, and then again today. So, we'll start to we'll start tomorrow hopefully. Uh nothing happens and and we'll we'll start to yeah rain tomorrow, but it'll be >> That won't stop anybody.
027Uh so, that's where we start with that process. Looking at what other schools need. We've in our office, we've been very fortunate to be able to be on several Pomemeta's finest visits to schools who've been going through that. And that's one of the things we [clears throat] look at when we go um from the standpoint of everything else that's going on in the school. One of the things I look at is how specifically are they doing with their sped population. If we're looking at a school that's supposed to be the model school in South Carolina, we need to know that. We need to know how they are doing and if they're closing that achievement gap, I want to know why. and we have to wait till that process ends before we can go visit anybody.
028But we are going to visit once that and we've talked to principles about that already about going. You know, I think with students with with students with disabilities, oftentimes they they get the idea that I can send that student somewhere and they they for the general education teacher forgets that they go to the resource room or the modified support room or wherever they go to work on IEP goals. That's where the they're not necessarily working on their regular education curriculum. They're working on whatever their IEP goals. It may have something to do with it may be a behavioral goal which has nothing to do with inter instruction. So, we need to be focused on being sure that we're holding everybody to the same standards that we hold everybody to. And that's for our teachers providing
029high quality instruction for our regular ed kids and for our students with disabilities or for our ML students or our African-American students or our white students. It's all the same. But if it's not high quality instruction, then then we're cheating them. We got we have to do better. And we see that we we're making motions. We're we're getting there. Uh we knocked it about in half, knocked 11 designations off. Three years you're going to see them. So to sum it up, u we have a work in progress here of some these questions and budget as a big indicator of >> what we're going to be able to do and >> yes sir >> way I understand that's where we need to proceed through with the budget and how much help you can receive as far
030as >> absolutely >> these students are concerned. We we all recognize that >> okay >> there's a limit to to what we can and can't do. >> Yeah. I just wanted to make that clear as we discuss it tonight. >> Thank you very much. Yes, sir. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> I have a data question. Um on your second slide you mentioned that this year we were able to eliminate three subgroup def um designations for white MLL and Hispanic students. How many schools did we have with those designations last year from those groups? Do you >> um white I believe there were two um MLL I believe there were two as well and I think there were two for Hispanic. But if you want um I can look and if you want to send me
031an email, I'll answer and make sure that's the correct answer, but I believe it was two each. >> It's um would that have been on last year's report cards? >> It would. It would have. Yes, it would have been there and it also would have been on the board presentation I did last. >> I can go back and look at that. Okay. >> If you can't find it, shoot me an email and I'll pull it up and make sure that's the correct answer. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you all very much. >> Mr. Chair, um just a couple of things about the last two weeks. [clears throat] Obviously, um this has sort of been an unusual winter so far in missing days. Uh not one that [clears throat] we want to have,
032but um I did want to mention a couple of things. Um and number one, our folks did a great job of preparing for the the inclement weather and then getting us to recovery. Um Mr. Smith and his team, but not only just his team, but everybody uh put put in work to make sure that we got through. I do want to remind you of a few things. first um Kershaw County was one of the very first uh virtual learning um e-learning districts in the state. That was prior to CO the we were one of the pilot districts before CO and you know there there were things that were put into place that worked and things that didn't. Then during CO there were different things put into place and some worked and some didn't. And I
033think what we're all finding is that maybe there are some things that we're doing now that work and some things that don't. But uh I would continue to be an advocate for use of e-learning days because historically student makeup days are poorly attended and are not as productive as as they should be. And at least this way, if our teachers are prepared, which most were, uh, we we're able to push forward with instruction and reinforcement for for things that are going on in the classroom. Just as a way of reminder, we get five e-learning days that we can use, and we've used three now. So, we have two left. If we go and go beyond those two days, then we go into the mandatory makeup days using weather days. And we have to use three
034of those before we can get any other relief. And we we certainly don't want to get to that point. But one of those makeup days was actually during first semester, which means if we had to use a third makeup day, we would have to designate one in this year's calendar somehow, which is never ever popular. Um so uh but the next step is the three days makeup. The next step is you as a school board then can approve waving a few days. So, and heaven forbid we never want to get to that many days, but uh just to let you know what the process is. So, if we have to use our next two e-learning days and then have anything subsequent, we would be in the three weather makeup days, which are full makeup days.
035And there are a few options on those. That third day that I mentioned is not on the calendar, but the options aren't real good. One is you could extend the school day enough to make up time to make up a whole day. That's a lot of days of makeup or late days. Uh I wouldn't suggest that, you know, I would suggest us look at a date in the calendar, which we already have identified a few dates that we might would bring you. But let's keep our fingers crossed that uh that we don't get to that point. But what I really want to emphasize is how good of a job we did being prepared for the storm and being ready to recover. Um if we had gotten a little more few more hours of of good
036sunshine above freezing yesterday, we might would have gotten in with a delay. But uh we certainly want to air on the side of safety for our students and staff and and all of their families. Um we can uh we can make up instruction, we can't make up a life. So uh that that's the way we take a look at it. But if you have any questions about that process, happy to take those. Mr. >> Chair, >> yes. >> Just out of curiosity, Dr. Goodwin, at some point too, can the board or the district appeal to the legislature for relief? Is that still a thing? I I just or am I wrongfully remembering that? Well, when the new law was put into place with the e-learning days, uh you you get the three days that you
037have to make up and then if I'm not mistaken, you can you as a board can wave three days and then after that, the only other action that could take place would be going to the legislature. >> No, Mr. Chair, that concludes my report. >> Is there a motion to go into executive session to discuss resignation and retirement of certified classified personnel, >> employment of certified and classified personnel, and assignment changes and transfer of certified and classified personnel properly motion by Miss Furnace, second by Miss Runlet. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. I. of post nationalis. to reconvene the open session properly. Motion by Miss Furnace, second by Miss Ronlet. All those in favor that have been known by Sen I. Those opposed and that's unanimous. In executive session, we
038discuss resignation, retirement of certified and classified personnel, employment of certified and classified personnel and assignment changed and transfer of certified and classified personnel. Is there a motion to accept administration recommendation concerning employment matters? >> Proper motion by Dr. King, second by Miss Furnest. All those in favor be known by saying I. >> I. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Proper motion by Miss Fernie, second by coach Blackman. All in favor, let it be known by saying I. >> I. >> Unanimous. >> Okay. Okay. >> This is so nice.