001us with prayer, please. >> Let us pray. Dear most gracious and heavenly father, we come to you this evening seeking your guidance and your wisdom to help us through these trying times that we are experiencing in our country. Lord, we ask that you bless our leaders and guide our leaders to direct them to do the things that are necessary to make our country the best that it can possibly be for all that are here in our country. Lord, we ask that you bless this board as we begin to do the business for our school district. We ask that you bless those hurting due to lost loved ones, those that are suffering or infirm. We ask that you reach out and if it be your will that you place your healing hand upon them. Lord, we
002ask that you be with us as we do the business of the school district in the best interest of our children and our personnel in the district. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Call the Kersaw County School Board of Trustees meeting to order. Is there a motion to adopt the proposed agenda? Motion by Miss Furnis, second by Mr. Cameron. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. That's unanimous. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda? >> Properly motioned by Dr. King, second by Miss Furnus. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. >> And that's unanimous. No one signed up right there. We want to thank each and everyone for coming out this evening. I want to thank Mr. Martin for being with
003us this evening. So now it moves us down to our recognition and celebration. Dr. Go. >> Yes, we have both some student and staff recognitions tonight. And Dr. Smith, if you come forward and join me. >> Dr. Goodwin, Dr. Smith board. We'll start recognized to participate 26 Special Olympics USA Minneapolis, Minnesota June. most special education teacher and special Olympic coach among the state chosen for this prestigious opportunity. All three student athletes will compete in the competitions. The Special Olympics USA Games is a unique opportunity for athletes to compete on a national stage and celebrate their achievements. We invite the community to rally behind these athletes and support team South Carolina as they embark on this exciting journey. Congratulations. Come on. Big congratulations. Our next recognition tonight goes to North Central High School activities director and
004head football coach Daniel Cisk. Please come forward. Coach Cisk was named the region 4 2A athletic director of the year for 2025. This honor is voted on by members of the South Carolina athletic uh administrators association. Region athletic directors of the year are also nominated for class 2A athlet march at the athletic directors and principles conference. Congratulations coach Cisk. Thank you for all you do for the student athletes at North Central High School. [Applause] Watch out. Under new and old business, we have both board policy for review. Uh Becky, if you would come, please. >> Dr. Smith, Dr. Goodwin, members of the board, is this working? Okay. Okay. As a reminder, the policies we're bringing you tonight are for approval and they're recommended by the school boards association related to legislation that was passed last
005session. First, the policies related to live streaming school board meetings. In response to the newly passed law, we are revising policy BE board meetings and proposing a new policy BEA live streaming of board meetings. Under the new law, all schoolboard meetings, whether regular, special called, or workshops, must be accessible via live stream. Executive sessions are exempt. As you know, we already live stream our meetings. So, the only change that this will make for our school board will be that we'll begin live streaming finance and facilities meetings starting January 1st. So, we are asking for approval of policy BE revisions and new board policy BEA tonight. The policy is properly before us. >> Motion made by Dr. King, second by Coach Blackman. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, let me know by raise your
006right hand. That's unanimous. >> Okay. The next um policies that we're bringing you tonight are revisions to policy JH, student absences and excuses, revisions to JHR, student absences and excuses, and a new policy JHE related to excused absences for career and technical student organization experiences. Lawmakers have formally authorized districts to excuse student absences up to 10 days for participation in certain career and technical student organization activities. These are activities that um are held on the state and national levels for like example future farmers of America and 4 programs. Students and their parents or legal guardians are responsible for ensuring that all missed academic work is obtained and completed in accordance with school policy during these excused absences. So we are proposing adoption of the new policy and revisions to the existing policies in accordance with
007state law. The policy is properly before us. Is there a motion? >> Properly motioned by coach Blackman, second by Miss Rlet. All those any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor has been known by raise your right hand. That's unanimous. >> Okay. And finally, we are bringing revisions to policy JFABC transfer students and JFABCE intrad district transfer request form. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers been began considering changes to administration elig elibility, funding, and oversight through the education scholarship trust fund. Because the act directs the state department of education to develop regulations, guidance, and procedures for the transfers, we only have made changes to the athletic transfer portion of the policy as of now. the request to transfer and the request form at this time. However, it will be likely that we'll
008bring this back to you when the state department makes the other changes to the policy, but we wanted to go ahead and get this part amended. So, we are recommending approval tonight. >> Policy is properly before us. Is there a motion? Properly mo motion by Mr. Cameron, second by Miss Furnest. All those in favor, let it be known by saying I. Those opposed, and it's unanimous. Thank you. >> On the chairman's report, I just want to remind us that the school board association know we have the regional meetings. Our meeting for the mid the Midland area is scheduled for October the 22nd. It's in the evening. If you would like to attend, please uh get in touch with Miss Wendy and she will sign you up. Dr. >> Yes. Tonight we bring you two reports.
009We're going to bring you the 2425 communication summary report. We're also going to bring you a report on the deferred maintenance projects that were done this past summer uh and bring you an update on those. So, at this time, we'll ask Miss Bean and Miss Putnham if they'll come forward. Good evening. Tonight we're going to bring you like Dr. Goodwin said the communications report for 2425. Um and we do this every year and one of the first things we like to do at the beginning is just kind of give a thank you to all of our communications teams in the schools. And um I think most of y'all know that we have three communications contacts in each of our schools and we could not do our job without them because they really help us share
010the good news in the schools. We love to go out in the schools and we try to do that as much as we can to see all the great things happening but with as many schools as we have and other things that we have going on, it's it's hard. So we love to get those photos, news stories and all to share with media from our school level contacts. So, we like to always start by thanking them. Um, each year we hold a training for them at the beginning of the school year and um just kind of go over some ideas and they all share ideas with each other and learn a lot from each other too. And so, we also like to thank the board because y'all do approve each year a small stipend for
011these folks in the um schools and that's very important and appreciated by them. So, we just wanted to start with that. Uh we wanted to talk about our uh district website. Uh it didn't uh concern us and one of the things we talk about real quickly as we share these numbers is there's no magic number we're trying to reach. We're not trying to these are just kind of we it helps us watch the trends for for what what we're doing and making sure that we're being effective in the communications that we're sharing. So uh for our district website that this is the everything that we share. So, anytime we post, you know, Becky writes a news story and we share it, it always goes on our website first and then wherever else we share it,
012it always links back to our district website. So, um even though it looks like the uh number had gone down slightly, you can see there were still over 10 million uh hits on our different pages on our website. So, um we definitely feel like our website is a core of what we're doing. Uh on the next slide with our um school websites uh you can see that those are being used more the uh this year and this is our new with it now. They're posting school news and individual stories there and we always invite you to go look at those. Um, next is our Blackboard Connect and that's our system that we use for communicating with parents through text, phone calls, emails, mass emails, and that number stayed pretty flat and and that's normal. We
013did ask and some of the schools ask their parents, do you want us to call? Do you want us to text? And so they're using some of that information to kind of try to communicate with parents how they best want to. And so I know a lot of parents and and I'm a parent in the district too. when that number comes across maybe in the middle of the day, it might cause a panic. And so some of the schools are doing maybe a little less calling, a little more texting or something like that. And so there the number changes a little bit, but but I know the schools do a great job of communicating with the families using Blackboard. Um the next slide we have is parent portal and parent portal is still the hub
014for report cards and where final grades and all go in. that you'll see on the next slide that we also use canva can this now so that's the daily assignment so whereas parent portal you'll kind of get the the grade the um final grade and what they have or during report cards or things like that um and it still is what goes into the system we have seen you'll see the next page where the numbers of canvas are very high because that's kind of a daily thing I think that parents are checking on all those assignments and students as well. So, um the numbers stayed good there and um the average login but parents probably use parent portal the parent portal more than students. Canvas numbers are very high as you can see and that
015is students logging into Canvas to look at assignments and grades and all and um so we would definitely expect that to rise and it has greatly this year um with that 2.8 hits on that. Um, so I think that's a good tool for parents and students to kind of stay on top of daily assignments and what teachers are putting out there and exactly how much things count and different things like that. So it's very helpful to see the detail in Canvas. U Facebook continues to be our major platform for social media. Uh, you can see that um the uh the posts have gone down slightly the post hits but the interactions have more than doubled. So, we feel like we've got a lot more, you know, we've been working to try to have more engaging
016posts uh as well. You know, share your picture, share your share your story. So, that's been helpful. And our our followers continue to go up. Our school Facebooks and um on your printed copy, I left out a one. Uh so, it's actually 11 million of 400, etc. The slide is correct. Um but uh so you can see uh Facebook for our schools as well is continuing to be a huge platform there. Uh next we have our Instagram. Our district Instagram account uh continues to uh build slowly but surely. We are sharing a lot of information from our Facebook to our Instagram and then sometimes post things uh differently on Instagram as well. And school Instagrams. Uh honestly the uh three high schools and Woolard Technology Center are the bulk of our Instagram users because most
017of those are our high school students uh that are really engaging um in those but all of our schools have their Instagram pages and are sharing that information as well. Uh last uh the next slide I wanted to show you our social media feed. One of the things we really like is on our websites at the bottom of every school website, the social media feeds into the website. So parents, the community members who go to if I go to a specific school's website, if I go to Lug Gothen Middle School's website, I see their social media feed at the bottom of the page, I don't have to be logged into Facebook. So I'm not missing anything by having that there. But we do have this page that I've created on our website that has all
018the feeds from all the schools in one place. So, if you ever want to go to that website and just see what are our schools putting on social media, you can see the latest. It always puts the latest ones at the top and um that's another way for our community to go. It's under our news link and that's another way for our community to see it without having to have their own social media so they're not missing anything that's being shared there. Next is Peach Jar and you'll see our views stayed about the same, but a new thing that they added this year is they told us a total flyer. So, we had 974 efflers sent last school year. And those are community events, um, school events, all that kind of thing. You know, if
019a high school is hosting an event and they want it their feeder schools to see it, they can upload it to their feeder schools and that comes directly to parents emails. And we do that instead of handing out paper flyers and book bags. This helps the schools not get stacks of flyers from different organizations and all. And also, prefer it because it's right in their email. They can refer back to it. It's not wadded up in the book bag and all. And it also gives us a chance to um all of those flyers do come through my office and I can approve them that way. And so we just have a set of eyes on them before they go out to the public and and there's required information for them. And once once the um
020group kind of gets the hang of it, they know exactly what has to be on there, you know, contact information and all that. And and the people obviously they like using it. they we've approved 974. So, it sometimes it's a learning curve for people that still want that paper flyer, but once we describe it and show that it works, um they kind of catch on and and like that, too. Um next is S'more. And S'more is a tool that our office um offers to schools. It's not something they have to use, but it's something that we offer for their newsletters. And it's a um we like it. We use it for our district newsletter that we do um every other month. and it's kind of a an, you know, easy software to drag and drop
021things into, but one of the nice things about it is that it translates and different things like that. So, um, it's a good tool that we provide. Looks like the numbers went down a little bit and we we're kind of going to look into that and see. I think some people are using maybe Canva and different things that they're more familiar with. So, we'll just take a look at that and see. But, we do one of the reasons we prefer S'more is because it's accessible. I have a a duplicate. I think the next thing looks like we have extra pages. Oh, there you go. Sorry about that. Yes, YouTube. Here you go. Um, so the next thing is YouTube, which we're live streaming on right now. So, there are people actually watching it right now
022uh online and so our numbers continue to go up. It continues to be a good uh easy platform. It also feeds in the front of our website. So people can go to our website and see uh the live stream meeting there. Now, so we're continuing to build our um uh build our subscribers to that platform. LinkedIn is a professional social media platform. Uh that's a great um site for people who are job hunting. So, we make sure that the stories and the information we're sharing there are specifically uh you know when we're hiring people, when we have vacancies, uh when we have career fairs and so uh we're continuing to to build people there. And next, we just wanted to take a minute to thank our SP our partners in the community, the Chronicle Independent,
023Elgen News, the state, the Kershaw News era. They all do a great job of helping us get the good news out in the community. And then also local news outlets. Um we're fortunate um several of the news outlets have uh people that are kind of concentrated on this area to share the good news to um on WLTX and all. We are always featured on teacher of the week and and they definitely love to come to Kershaw and share our good news. So um we are thankful for them. Um, and always, you know, we say when we help them, then when we, you know, they might need to come for a story that we're not happy about, but we have that relationship with them. And so that's really that's good. We appreciate uh cool 102.7, which
024gives us spots on uh the radio station for we do about a 90 second uh um audio, so excuse me, 75 second uh radio spots during football games. And so we've been able to spotlight many of the of programs and the folks in our school district through that. So that's kind of a list of of some of those that we've done. We also want to thank our communications partners. We have several uh people in our community who uh come out and take photographs uh either free or very inexpensively for our schools and do again do a lot of things that we just could not do. Um so we we always appreciate their help and their support as well. We want to talk to you briefly about the um our school awards. Uh SE Ensra is
025a professional organization in South Carolina that offers the rewards for excellence uh contest each year which is an awards program that recognizes excellence in school communications. And so we had um nine of our nine awards for our school level winners. Uh the Golden Achievement Award is a pretty big programmatic award uh for a pro major program that a school did and so Luga Felgian Middle School won that for uh their steam night. So that's a comprehensive program and that was great that they were able to be recognized uh for that. Next, we had um uh several schools that won awards and so we'll just briefly Bellini Elementary School, Lug Goth Elgen High School, North Central Elementary School, North Central Middle School, and Pine Tree Hill Elementary School were all recognized for some of their communications
026efforts. So, uh that was great. >> And as you probably remember, um last year, SC Insper came and recognized Dr. good one as their administrator of the year for his excellence in communications and supporting communications in the district and we definitely are thankful for that as well and so um he was recognized that and then the next is district level awards and um each year Julie does a great job a lot of these things are you know her projects so um she gets recognized every year for a lot of great things that she um kind of um is in charge of in the district. And so that just kind of lists those. And again, we received three Golden Achievement Awards. And each year, we're always proud of that event. I know Dr. Goodwin likes to
027attend if he can because in a room full of districts from all over the state, Kershaw always has one of the strongest showings of um school level and district um level communications awards. And so we're proud of that. And and it's a nice time to recognize the work that they do in the schools. The last thing we want to talk to you about um is something you may or may not be aware of, which is our new chatbot that we have on our website. This is a AI chatbot. If you go to our website, it's in the very very bottom corner. It's just a little uh gold kind of bubble with blue and you click on it and you can type in your question. It's 24hour 7 uh support. It is an AI tool, but
028it only works within our school district website. It does not pull any anything from anywhere outside of our website. Uh we've been working with the company to get that perfected. So, we just kind of started it without making a big splash to get it started. We um started at the first day of school and we've already had over 850 questions of the chatbot. Um I've got a list of the uh things the top things of course registration, employment, um power school codes. So, a lot of things that people parents might have had to call the school district or call schools and ask, they get auto um they they get automated answers with that and it'll link to where the content is on our website. Um we're monitoring that. You know, the first few days it
029wasn't doing as great. It's so it's been learning. Um and then we've been learning how to adjust some of our pages to make sure that we're fully able to answer that um that information. So, we're it's continuing to evolve and we are planning to try to roll to roll that out on all of our school pages, too. So, at an individual school, it would only search their content, but we're giving them time now that we know how it's working to make sure that they're knowing to make sure everything is up to date on their website. So, um it's another great thing we're we're able to do and we're excited about uh cutting down on some of the questions that families are getting and getting them answers very quickly. And with that, we'll be glad to
030answer any questions, but we sure appreciate your time and support. >> Yes. Go ahead, Dr. King. Very quickly, just a word of praise. Um, in this day and age, it's so uh easy and folks are sometimes so prone to only focus on the negative and put out what's not going good. I really appreciate our our partners out there in the community with the media and especially you guys for focusing on the positive because we do have a lot of positivity and a lot of good things going on in our district every day in every school. So, I appreciate you guys. Excellent job. >> Well, Dr. King, thank you. I repeat, duplicate what he said. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Stole my thunder. >> Thank you. Thank you all so much. >> Uh
031next, Mr. Smith will come up and he'll give some highlights from our deferred maintenance projects this past summer. Some of those are not real exciting. You know, we paint a we paint a few halls in each school every year and some things like that. Those aren't as exciting as some of the other projects, but he's still got a pretty good list. >> Good evening, uh Mr. Chairman. Uh, school board members, Dr. Goodwin, thank y'all for having me. Uh, just real quick uh kind of um uh blowdown on on deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance uh money uh is not general fund money. It's a different uh bucket of money. It it's um capital uh funds money. A lot of times people don't understand we may be having to tighten our belts uh in in the schools and
032then we're going and we you know pave the parking lot and why couldn't have that gone into the classroom to help teachers get things for their students and principles for their teachers and that kind of thing. It's two different pots of money and and and we've been um sometimes we may have no money deferred maintenance. We've had that before and we've had as much as uh $3 million that we've been able to use to to spread across uh the u 18 uh buildings that we have throughout the district. Um Billy Smith uh does not uh choose the projects. Uh Billy Smith gets in the schools and sees what's going on, but it's the principles. Uh my uh wonderful assistant Emily Laughing puts out a uh Google spreadsheet and principles go on and give their top
033three projects. We've got two principles that have uh participated in that and and understand how that works. Uh some of them even though you ask for three, you get 10 because they're they're in the belief that if you don't ask, you're not going to get. So, uh that's that's fine, too. We're going to look at the top three at each school. Uh and then our maintenance teams. Uh again, principles uh they listen to their teachers and uh I listen to my maintenance guys because those are where the rubber meets the road. They're in those schools every day and they know much more uh about what they see every day as the needs uh as far as maintenance, deferred maintenance in the schools. So that's how we go about and uh then we go once we
034get those uh get that spreadsheet fil filled out we give them a deadline uh then we go about the task of putting numbers to each one of those projects uh and then we prioritize and again usually we try to do as many of the number one projects. I think principal last year at Midway Elementary said she want a whole new roof on the school. I understand that that's a need but that that that would take more money than than we've got. Uh so and then and then we uh we spread that out as much as as we possibly can. Again, making sure each school we do try to paint at least a fourth of the school of each of the schools. And we've got some newer schools that we haven't had to do that. So
035So that's nice. But the older schools, we try to, you know, we might in in a in a middle school, we might take the uh sixth grade hall and the cafeteria, and then the next year we do the seventh grade hall and the office area. and then the next year the the the eighth grade hall and the the gym related arts area. Uh and always try to do some on the outside uh to make things things look good. So that's kind of how the process works. Again, this is just it's maybe a little more than the tip of the iceberg, but it's um it's some of the things that that we've done this past year, and it's a team effort. And uh and I I want to thank y'all and I want to thank Dr.
036good one and Brad for uh when we when we have money it's it's it's a wonderful thing because there are needs that we have. One of the big projects that we're working on, just so you know that that won't show up on here, uh we have uh HVAC uh tons and tons of R22 Freon HVAC. And if you don't know what that is, uh you can only buy R22 Freon on the black market now. Uh so we we we just did a big uh project replacing part of uh Lugof Elgen Middle School, Camden Middle School, and Bellainy and Lugof Elgen High School. And we will continue to chip away at that and and and and get new units put those put in and uh try to keep from having to pay way too much uh
037to keep those units running. All right, we'll start with we got uh we were able to get three new activity buses uh last year as you can see on the screen and uh that and we're going to uh try to do a couple of those, one or two of those every year and get our fleet back up uh to uh we we want our kids and our staff and our people uh you know our our parents when when our buses come rolling in at some of these nice uh places that they go to and other we want them to be proud of what they they ride up on and get off of. So, we're working on doing that. Uh, next slide, please. Uh, we were able this year for uh the Day of Champions. It
038was always kind of hard for parents and and staff and board members uh to find the different teams. So, uh Dr. Goodwin came up with the idea, let's let's get them all their own tents. And we were able to do that. And I'm telling you, it it was it was really really a great idea. And it it really uh kids, parents, uh the people that put it on Camden Military, God bless them, thank them for all they do. Uh and even board members were were really appreciative and it just made it look so much nicer and and the kids uh could could find their tents easily and uh get back to their teams. So that that was a nice nice thing. Next slide, please. Uh we are working ever since we built uh the new
039uh Camden Elementary, the new Watery Elementary, Lou Golf Elementary, and North Central Elementary, they all got new shiny playgrounds with nice uh uh surfaces uh on them. So, we are have uh been trying to little by little, again, uh by the way, kind of like the HVAC projects, uh get everybody up and even uh with everybody else on their playground equipment. This is Jackson's schools, and you can see um that used to have bark and wood chips under it, and we went in and put new turf that the the the actual equipment was original to the school and did not need uh to be replaced. So we just we don't just hapadly just because we want all new don't do it just because uh that did not need to be replacing that's money to be
040saved. So we went in that's the uh upper I call that the upper uh kids the older kids playground. Next slide. That's that's the younger kids playground and that is so much nicer and cleaner. And the you ought to just see the kids. I I tried to put the uh when Blainy they had a ribbon cutting and the kids were all ran out. I don't know who was happier, the aids and teachers or the kids because aids and teachers were running out to want to play it on as much as the kids were. Uh, next slide please. This is uh at I call it W because it's younger kids and every time I go there they're crying and um they're happy but they're sad too sometimes. But now they were happy this day when we
041were able to go in and redo their playground. This is all brand new equipment uh brand new turf. Uh they've even got a little stop ne next slide please. You can't see it over there, but this they've got two different sections, but there's old tricycles, and those kids would rather race them tricycles around than breathe, I think. So, there's a little stoplight over there, so they can like it's almost like they can, you know, have little races around there and get back to to the stoplight in in time. Uh so so that's Watery Early Learning Academy. Next slide, please. This is at Blay. Uh this is the upper uh kids playground. Next slide, please. And this is this is actually them playing on it the first day after they had the ribbon cutting. You see
042the the adults having as much fun as the kids. And it was really uh it it really makes your heart feel good when you see when you see that happening. And uh so we're blessed to be able to do that. We have left Pine Tree Hill all of theirs to do and we have um uh part of Doby's Meal. And I think that catches that that'll that'll have them all even boss. Uh, so we're we're going to try to do those this coming summer. Uh, next slide. Y'all please feel free to ask questions anytime. Uh, we moved the new uh the new child find uh center area uh from where it was in a in a little place that was hard to find at CLC um out to uh Ache. It's not old Ache. It
043is the A Techch. We don't have a new A Techch. We have WTC. And uh so this is this is this was one of the rooms. This is the old graphics art room that's uh in building B, the main building, the original building. Uh we went in and uh tore out the carpet. And next slide, please. Repainted and put down new carpet. If you see that door down at the end, uh that goes into another room. So there's actually two rooms. There's uh I think six offices, two storage rooms, and a central area uh for those folks. And so it was a major major upgrade for them and they they are so happy out there. So we are using uh a lot of our um I call them our nomads that folks that are vitally
044important are are English as a second language teachers, our psychologists, uh people like that that don't really have a home anywhere. We're taking them and making them places uh creating places for them out at a tech uh so they've got a home and they can all collaborate together and then go out to the schools and do their thing. Uh in the past we've had to push them out to schools and you know they end up in places they don't feel they don't feel loved sometimes and we want to make sure they feel love because they do great stuff and and and they're important. Uh next slide please. Uh this was um Easter break. We always seem to have wonderful presents that show up at Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving. Uh this was a uh you
045you can see the pipe there. This was a 3-in hot water line at the back hall of the main gym uh PE area at Ludolfph Elgen High School. Um it was found Thursday, burst underneath that floor about 2 and 1/2 ft down. Uh we don't know how long it ran. Uh luckily the baseball coach came in to change some laundry and found it and called one of our maintenance guys and he called me and we rushed up there and we got it cut off. Uh but not before. Next slide, please. It had got in that doorway. Uh, back it up one for me, Carrie. See that double door with the with the blue around it? That's that that goes out into the gym. That's that that's that open. The water got underneath there, underneath the
046subfloor of your gym. If you ever have seen a gym floor be built, it's it's got it's got a concrete slab. Then you put a a plywood with a 2x4 subfloor under it. And then you go on top of it with that with that maple. Well, that water got under there and it spread out uh about a third of that floor. Uh and you can see where it it just long time ago. Some of you I know coach might remember when we did North Central High School's new gym, they let water get in there and it looked like a skateboard park in there. That stuff warp warped so bad. This wasn't quite as bad, but that that maple and and they couldn't get it laid down. So, uh Tim was a big help. Uh Mr.
047Hopkins was a big help with us and Brad talking with our insurance folks and we're going to be able to replace that whole floor right now. Uh next slide, please. We uh first we had to come in, we had to have a company come in and get all the moisture out. You can see huge dehumidification uh going on uh for the whole gym to try to keep it from spreading and and getting worse. Next slide. Uh and then this is where we uh just so you know, a little plug here. Um for uh um Oh, damn it. Brazilles. Um it's uh Royy's cabinets. They we couldn't find uh this floor and and Camden High's floor is a very thick maple. You can't find it anymore. Uh we looked everywhere. We had every uh floor gym
048floor specialist in South Carolina looking for it. Couldn't find it. It happened. Uh the boss just mentioned, he said, "Have you talked with Roy or or or the folks down there at Royy's cabinet shop?" I said, "No." And I happened to run into them one morning at coffee club and asked them said, "Oh yeah, we can do anything." And they did. and they've got us about 100 square foot of that stuff and made it. And so we were able to patch it and we're able to keep uh these this year's uh volleyball team seniors and uh uh basketball seniors uh will be able to play on their home court. If we hadn't have been able to do that, we'd had to shut that gym down. They'd had to play somewhere else until we could get
049all the stuff in. That floor tore out and they'd have missed their season. and because of of of their help uh and and uh what they did um we were able to get that thing patched. It's safe. We're going to wait till after basketball season and as soon as then we're going to come in, rip everything out and put new floor because the insurance company, like I said with Tim's help, uh insurance company's going to pay for us to to redo it all. Uh so so that that's um a bad thing's turning into a good thing as the Lord always works that for us. Next slide, please. Uh Doby's Meal. Uh I don't know how many of you have been up there, but the the main entrance was up at a crossroads. What's that road
050that comes in there? Anybody tell me what that what is it? Kennedy comes in right to the front of the entrance of Doby's Meal. And so it made it real congested there, especially in the mornings when people were trying to get to work to go to Columbia uh on on uh Jackson Fort Jackson um road there. And so it was getting worse and worse and the and the sheriff's department was was very concerned. and our new principal, she she was she she had concerns about it. So, we were able to measure and look and see, and it's all about stacking and and amount of distance you got to get your people in and out. And we were able to um go in and uh change this down to we moved the buses like Pine Tree
051Hill, the buses come in the front and and the parents come in the back. Well, we switched it like that. Now, the buses go in the front at Doby's Mill, the parents come in the back, but we needed about 300 feet of extra stacking. So, we were able to with our deferred maintenance money to put 330 ft of stacking and add it there. Uh, next slide, please. And you can see it runs back down behind the school where the old uh buses used to run. Now that the cars go in and out there and of course the first weeks of school until after Labor Day and the dust settles, it was rather hectic, but it's working and and thank God it's been safe and and everybody's doing what they're supposed to do and it's been
052a good thing. Uh, next slide, please. Uh, we are, uh, upgrading our our tracks. They're 15 years old. And I will tell you, I'm proud of our schools and our maintenance folks because, uh, we had several national worldwide uh, sellers of track come and and and bid uh, on on on our tracks. We we bid all three. Lugos was the worst. Uh, North Central's probably the second. So So they'll be coming up next. and um and then Camden High will be next. But uh they told us they walked out there uh on all three of them and said these tracks are 15 years old. I said yes sir. They said I'm going to all to There were four of them. They all said without said we've we've never seen a 15-y old track these tracks
053look this good. Uh so we've done a good job but they were starting to delaminate. you know, they put asphalt down and then they put your uh your surface down and then they they coat the surface and uh it was starting to delaminate come up. So, we would already made uh some spots uh patched up some areas. So, it was time uh to do it before it got so bad to where it wasn't safe. So, this this was uh this was part of the beginning. They they they uh after they do this, they come in, they grind all the old asphalt up. Uh they um uh roll it down, pack it, and next slide, please. Put new asphalt down, and then that's your new surface. Um we had to hold up with the striping uh
054is going to occur, I thought, this week. Uh but when you have two middle schools, a ninth grade team, uh JV team and a varsity team playing and the recck team play, it's hard to figure out when you can put the stripes on there and not get them all messed up without that paint dry. So, we're working on that and that'll happen soon. But that's that's looking really nice. And we will be doing North Centrals and uh Camden's next. Next slide, please. Uh out at North Central, we we got the uh old water tank uh painted and uh we fixed up the pump house. Uh we will do Midways uh this next time. They're the only two that have their own uh water storage uh tank and pump house uh because uh you know, we're
055on Casset Water and they can't handle it. Uh and uh this one actually serves for the uh fire protection at uh North Central High, North Central Elementary, and North Central Middle. And uh we're working on getting the DiamondNC and the logo put up on that uh put up on that tank. Uh we've had a couple bids already and they've been kind of outrageous. So we're we're still looking. Next slide, please. Uh this is the front of uh Luke North Central uh Middle School. Uh it's a great facade. Uh Charles actually I think helped design design design that and and it had got all grown up and and the um plaster stucco uh on the front had got bad and uh we've got a great painting company here that it always wins the bids it seems
056in Manson Painting. Uh and uh they went in he said he had a paint that he could put on there uh that would make it look like brand new and dagum if he didn't. They did a great job and so that school almost looks like new when you go by it. Next slide, please. We also uh pressure washed and cleaned their playground uh area and and restriped it. They now have a volleyball court and several basketball courts uh uh out there uh that those kids play on every day. Next slide, please. Uh Camden High School, we redid the front that had got all grown up and and just you couldn't hardly see the front of the school. Uh so we did that and it really looks nice. And we also uh seal coated and uh
057striped uh the uh the entrance way and um the uh parking lot student parking lot in the front of the school. It looks really really nice. If you haven't been able to see that, please go by and take take a look. Next slide, please. This is uh Camden High School uh athletic complex. The track field. We've always had uh issues with drainage on that track. Uh and um we talked to um uh some folks uh that said they had a a a kind of new uh and and it's a just it's French drain. It's it's it's like a French drain, but they use a flat kind of instead of the round pipe. They use a flat kind of of pipe type things plastic. And you can see where they ran it across. Uh they look
058like really bad uh yard markers there, coach. Um but they're not. Those are trenches that they put that system down and they run them down to the main drain. And we did that back in the spring and we again in that back left corner over there always seem to lay in water just from from water in the field. And it has stayed dry all summer even back when we had the big rains uh earlier on in July. So that that that's a big plus. Um next slide please. This is Camden Middle School. So this is some of the painting. I don't know before and after here. Uh you walk in there and it's a huge wonderful uh cafeteria but just didn't have any pop. Uh so um again uh they uh Dave Prior with Manson
059Painting uh said let let's let's look at this. So he got with the principles and the principles came up with these ideas and uh that that's uh Camden Middle School's cafeteria. looks brand new. Uh just because just because we did some some graphics and some you know stripes around there. Uh the next one should be Ludolfph Elgen uh middle. Uh again just just add some pop uh to the school. We also did this at Camden High last year in their cafeteria and it really made a difference. And thanks to uh uh the folks out at a tech at the graphics uh department helped us uh come up with those school logos and and put up there. Next slide please. Uh this is uh these are the last of slides. This is a big project we're
060taking on. We've been working with Misha trying to get this done. This is at the Lugoff Elgen High School and it's the old middle school, old high school. Uh we we have extended the kitchen out. Uh we we've put these walls in and we're going to go in and renovate that whole cafeteria. Next slide, please. This is kind of from the inside looking back out. Uh two doors and a rollup door. Uh they're getting all new serving lines, new equipment inside. We're taking out the big walk-in freezer, the old walk-in freezer, old walk-in cooler, putting in new ones. Uh it's going to be really really nice. Uh and um we're going to be able to serve uh a lot uh better and a lot quicker uh for those students. A lot of times that's why
061they won't eat because it it takes takes them too long to and so this will help us speed all that up. I think that's everything. Um anything any questions? Yes, sir. Thank you for everything you've shown us tonight. >> Yes, sir. >> Appreciate all the work that you're doing um for maintenance and so forth. And you mentioned several times North Central >> might be next. >> It will be next. Yes, sir. >> What's the time? Do y'all have a timeline on this? >> Yes, sir. Go ahead if you want to, boss. as quick as we can uh out of graduation. >> They they they get it the day after graduation. >> Okay. >> Yeah. They >> one one point about money. >> Yes, sir. >> Um well, again, we're fortunate to have the money. Uh,
062and the companies, the company that won the bid, remember we said we bid all three out so we don't have to go back out because this company said if we'll get them to PO ahead of here in the next month, which I think we're going to be able to do, they'll honor that price and the prices won't go up on us. So, we we've got that already in the works. Yes, sir. >> And I have one simple little question. >> Yes, sir. >> Did Camden get them a special need special education tent? I knew I was going to ask that. >> Well, if they haven't yet, we will >> I appreciate all the tents. They look nice. I was there, but the spot of games. >> Yes, sir. >> Camden's tent was collapsed. >> Yes,
063sir. It It had >> They get a new one. >> Yes, sir. Yes, sir. They will definitely get a new one. >> You knew I'm going to follow up on that when you bring it up. >> Absolutely. >> Defle one, coach. >> Okay. And one last thing. R22 Freon. >> Yes, sir. >> You mentioned on the black market. Explain that a little bit to me. Well, the government EPA keeps changing the type of of freon that we have to use because of the ozone layer being affected and global warming and all that kind of thing. So, we're we're about since R22, we're getting ready to start our fifth different freon. >> Uh so, the next one is A4210A. Uh is the next one that we're going to have to start replacing. Um, but what we
064do is when we take these old ones out, our guys are smart enough, a lot smarter than me. Uh, they said, they came to me and said, "We need to buy some tanks." >> Okay. >> And we take the old stuff out and we hold it. We've been very blessed. We haven't bought any in, uh, in a year and a half. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate your answers. >> Dr. Okay, >> just very quickly, I've been a part of the system a long time, as you know, and some of those lean years when you get absolutely no deferred maintenance projects done at your school. I I I just want to make mention that it's admirable as to how you stretch it out. I've been one of those who always put in 10 things when
065you knowing I can only get one or two, maybe three. Um but I also applaud that a lot of what you did or what the maintenance department has done is necessary by way of infrastructure safety uh improvements of the actual building facility structure but it also the aesthetics of the pride factor and I think that's worth mentioning. Um when you and you have that pop it's a it's an attitude. uh it's it's feeling good about where you're going, what you're walking into, what you're seeing when you get inside. So, uh I hope we we're able to continue doing that kind of thing. You know, the obviously the essentials to make the buildings function properly, but also to make them look good. Ju >> just real quick, our three our three priorities for our guys and
066and and when we're doing things is safety and security first, instruction. Does it how does it affect if it's affecting it instruction negatively, we need to take care of it, and then and then comfort and aesthetics. or third. And that's how we look at things and that's how we try to address them. >> And I do have the opportunity um you know, I have somebody close to me who works under Billy. Um the guys we have in our maintenance department are just superb. They're experts in their field, very professional, and they're diligent. They stay on it. >> You don't hardly ever see them sitting around twilling. They they always got something to do. If they don't have a work order, they can do preventive maintenance, which I noticed that happens a lot as well. So
067that's that's huge to keep things operational. But thank y'all for what you do. Thank you, sir. >> Any other questions? Thank you, Bill. >> Yes, sir. >> Is there a motion to go into executive session to discuss resignation, retirement of certified and classified personnel, employment of certified and classified personnel, and assignment changes and transfer of certified and classified personnel? Proper motion by Miss Furnus, second by Mr. Cameron. All those in favor, let me be know by saying I. Those opposed and it's done. motion to reconvene to open session properly. Motion by Miss Fernon, second by Mr. Cameron. All those in favor that be known by saying I. Those opposed and unanimous. In executive session, we discussed resignation and retirement of certified and classified personnel, employment of certified and classified personnel, and assignment changes and transfer
068of certified and classified personnel. Is there a motion to accept the administration recommendation concerning employment matters properly? Motion by Mr. Cameron, second by Miss Autumn. All those in favor to be known by saying I. That's unanimous. Are there any other motion? Mr. Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> I hereby move that we vote to send a formal complaint to the state department of education requesting action be taken against employee A, a professional employee of the Kershaw County School District who, pursuant to South Carolina code annotated section 59-25-530, breached their employment contract with the district and failed to report to work. >> Is there a second? Second by Mr. Cameron. All those in favor, let it be no by saying I. That's unanimous. Is there a motion to adjourn and close with prayer? Properly motion by Miss
069Autumn, second by Dr. King. Mr. C. Let's pray. Dear gracious and heavenly father, we thank you. We thank you for this marvelous day that you've given us. We thank you for the opportunity to serve our community. We thank you for all the leadership that exists within our schools, not just among the adults, but among our students as well. We thank you for this district office and all the hard work that they do to provide the absolute best that we can for our kids in our district. We ask that you go with us as we leave today and help us to remember to keep in mind the things we do here is not just for our kids, but it's also in the name of Jesus. All that we pray. Amen. Amen.