001Thanks for everyone taking time out and gathering this evening for our school board meeting. At this time, Miss Hera, would you open us with prayer, please? Heavenly Father, this evening we invoke your presence. We lift high your name. Lord, you have given us a beautiful day to and it's my hope and desire that you have enjoyed your day. Heavenly Father, honor my voice this evening, Lord, a special blessing on them. For those recognize this evening, Lord, help them not to get weary in doing what is well and what is good. Heavenly Father, this evening for war torn land. We ask that you speak a word of peace. We ask Lord that you go to homeless this evening Lord. Lord, for those who may not have food on their table, for help blessed we are as
002a people. And we take this opportunity to say thank you Lord for one more day and for all this blessing Lord and the we count it all done this evening. Amen. Amen. Call the Kersaw County School Board of Trustees meeting to order for April the 8th, 2025. Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda? Properly motion by Miss Furnace second by Mr. Roberts. All those in favor let it be known by saying I I suppose and it's unanimous. Is there a motion to adopt the proposed agenda? Properly motion by coach Blackman and second by Miss Furnace approving the consent actions from board meeting of 318 as well as finance and facility for 3:25. All those in favor be known by saying I. I. And that's unanimous. We want to thank each and everyone for
003gathering this evening. Our next item on our agenda is that of recognition and celebration. Dr. Goodwin, Dr. Smith, Dr. Goodwin, board. We'll start our recognitions tonight by highlighting some amazing students from Camden Middle School. Several Camden Middle School Beta Club members achieved success and earned top placements in academic and competitive events at this year's South Carolina State Beta Convention. Please come up when I call your name and remain up front for a group photo. First place in computer science principles, Lily Kato. First place in computer science principles, Kyron Stratford. Health and Physical Education, Maggie Wilcox. Health and Physical Education, Matthew Bachnight. First place in Spanish, Jacob Gonzalez. Second place in Spanish, Richard Solo Soloronzo Perez. Second place in spelling, Gwennneth Connley. And first place in US history, Evie Smoke. [Applause] shoulder to shoulder. Okay. Yep.
004Y'all stay still. Stay still. Uh, Camden Middle Beta students continued to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to leadership, service, and academic excellence. Their dedication to making a difference in their community and school is truly inspiring. I would like for these Beta Club members to remain up front and I'd also like for any other Beta Club members uh officers to please come forward as well as Dr. Christy McIntyre and uh Camden Middle principal Casey Faulenberry to join them. We are also proud to recognize the Camden Middle School Beta Club for being named a 2024 2025 National Beta John W. Harris Leadership Award recipient. This award is named after its founder and recognizing outstanding clubs that exemplify Beta's four pillars: achievement, character, leadership, and service. Nominations were reviewed and the top five clubs per division were carefully selected
005by the alumni review panel. Winning clubs will have the opportunity to take 10 members to the regional leadership summit of their choice in the fall where they will further develop their communication, networking, and leadership skills. The Camden Middle School Beta Club continues to set new standards for excellence, achieving outstanding success at the South Carolina State Beta Convention. With 14,646 recorded recorded service hours, uh the Camden Middle Beta Club currently ranks number one in the state, averaging an impressive 91 hours per member. Nationally, the Camden Middle Beta Club is ranked fourth overall, standing as the top ranked middle school in the country, surpassing all other junior divisions. and the five service hour totals in national rankings will be confirmed on April 29th. Please join me. Camn Middle School Beta Club. [Applause] Congratulations. Our next recognition goes
006to Lugof Elgen High Unified Cheer Team. Will Andrew Ununice, Marquez Tantype, Christopher Daipan, Savannah Medlin, Hannah Corrian, and Miss Ashley Middleton please join us up front. On March 15th, the LA Unified Cheer Team competed in Colombia in the Special Olympics State Cheer Competition at Columbia International University. The team competed against 10 teams from around the state. The LE team was one of eight unified teams and Andrew Ununas was chosen to give the athletes oath at the opening ceremony. After an outstanding performance, this team won the silver medal. Congratulations to you all. What a wonderful accomplishment. Congratulations. Next, we'll recognize another state champion. Will Aiden Wilds please come forward. Aiden was named a state champion weightlifter in his weight class. He also got the second best squat at 570 pounds, second best bench at 370 pounds,
007and best board jump at 101.5. All right, let's give him a hand. We would also invite the other members of the Iron Knights and coach Ryan McDonald and athletic director Daniel Cisk uh to come forward. The others that competed in included John Coats, Jaylen Wesley, Keelin Bradshaw, and Zamayan Bennett. The Iron Knights won the 2025 2A state championship at the meet last month. The meet was an all classification meet and the North Central qualified five lifters. Each lifter competed in the bench press, the squat, and the broad jump. Congratulations. This is very [Applause] impressive. [Applause] Congratulations. Our next recognition tonight goes to Camden High Activities Director Brian Remp. Please come forward. Last month at the South Carolina Athletic Administrators Association state conference, Coach Rmp was named the 4A athletic director of the year. The South
008Carolina Athletic Administrators Association is the formal organization for the state's athletic directors. In addition to its spring conference, they offer professional development courses, leadership training, and student scholarships. They recognize both exceptional school programs and individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership and support to athletics. Congratulations, Coach Rimp. Congratulations, Dr. Goodwin and Dr. Smith, if you would please remain up front for just a second. Superintendent Goodwin, members of the board, members of the Kershaw County School District staff, and members of the Kershaw County community. My name is Tim Cooper. I'm the past president of the South Carolina chapter of the National Public Public Relations Association, School Public Relations Association, and it's my honor and privilege to present you our most prestigious award, the SCNS Superintendent of the Year Award. This award recognizes a superintendent who not only leads
009with vision and dedication, but understands the profound impact of clear, consistent, and genuine communication in fostering a thriving educational comm uh educational environment. Tonight, we recognize a leader who embodies these very qualities. His nomination spoke volumes about his commitment to the students, staff, and the entire Kershaw County community. Dr. Goodwin, in your nomination, the nominees, uh, the people who nominated you spoke of your support for their department, your visible presence at school events, and your genuine connection with students and families. Additionally, we heard about your proactive partnerships with local law enforcement, your willingness to embrace creative communication strategies, and your dedication to building genuine relationships throughout your district. Your commitment to accessibility, demonstrated by school visits and regular engagements with teachers, students, parents, and the school board truly stood out. Your understanding of the crucial
010link between communication and the district's strategic goals, particularly during the district's Cogna reacredititation last year further underscores your leadership. Your dedication extends beyond the district and is evident in your involvement in numerous educational boards and community organizations. Dr. Goodwin, your commitment to fostering open communication, providing the necessary resources, and embracing innovative approaches has clearly made a significant and positive impact in the lives of countless individuals here in Kershaw County. For all these reasons and many more, it is with immense pleasure and pride that I present you the South Carolina National School Public Relations Association Superintendent of the Year Award to a truly exceptional district leader. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Harrison [Applause] Goodman. Glad to have you back. It's good to be back. Congratulations. Got to get Amy up. Come on, Amy. She has
011to put up with him. Congratulations. very much. Anyone uh that have been recognized and if you desire to leave, you may leave at this moment. Yes. She's not walking in. She's doing conference. Next agenda item is public forum. We do not have anyone sign up. All the new business we have South Carolina fitness gym, Miss Starling. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Smith, Dr. Goodwin, members of the board. Thank you for having us. Um, we have been um fortunate to have a partnership with um DPH, used to be DHCK and FitnessGram for the past four years. And I have Erica Ays here with me tonight. She has been our partner. She um did guide us. There were other districts, two other districts that did it as well. And uh so she was our north star to
012keep us straight and um we were very very fortunate to be able to um have this partnership and they've done a lot for our district and a lot that we can sustain and move forward with. So Erica is um the school wellness consultant in the nutrition, physical activity, and obesity prevention section at DPH. Um, the benefits of this partnership have been tremendous, like I said, to include networking support, state and national support and partnerships, free PE equipment. Our PE teachers got tons of equipment. It just keeps coming. Um, free scapered membership for our um, anybody in our district while we were an influencer district and free annual conference attendance. And of course, the best of all was the health and wellness benefits for our students and families. So, I'll let Erica talk a little bit
013about fitness grand. Honestly, Elizabeth just did everything that I was going to talk about. So, thank you for making it easier for me. But like Elizabeth said, I'm Erica. I'm with the Department of Public Health and um a little bit of background information. So, South Carolina Fitness Graham is a I'm going to move this because some of y'all are blocked. I'm me. So, South Carolina Fitness Graham is a statewide movement to evaluate and improve the health related fitness of students in South Carolina. And like Elizabeth mentioned, over 90% of school districts in South Carolina are participating. It's where PE teachers are doing health related fitness assessments like the Pacer test, which a lot of us probably are aware of or remember. But what's really important is they're collecting data on students cardiorespiratory fitness data. So,
014their heart and their lung health. And what we're learning is that the data does not look good. Over half of our students in our state have poor heart and lung health. So we were able to work with districts like Kershaw County School District and two others Cherokee and Georgetown for the past few years to learn what does it look like when the district works with partners at the state level, at the community level to use that data, not just collect it, but what happens when they actually use that data to implement policies and practices that are going to lead to improving the data, improving student health. And in that time, Kershaw County School District has truly become a model. I brag every chance I get, whether it's a conference, a webinar, the videos we've put
015together on the work that y'all have done, especially around open community use. So, this is where I get to give my first big thank you is to y'all as the school board. So, Elizabeth got a chance to meet her community health partner, Robin, at a data walk we did a couple of years ago. At this data walk, they were able to look at their students local data, their fitness gram data, and they were able to look at community health data. They looked at the data. They had discussions. They talked about this looks okay, but you know what? Students health data does not look good. There's play deserts in our county. There are places where students, especially those living in poverty, have nowhere to go to play, to be physically active. And so, with Elizabeth spearheading
016it and with Robin's help, they came up with a plan. They got Dr. good ones buy in immediately. They got the buyin of their community health partners and they presented that information to y'all and y'all passed the policy. So now, thanks to y'all, not only your students and your staff, but your families and your community members have access to free, easy to get to, safe places to be physically active and to play. And what's amazing and what I also love to brag about is y'all did not stop there. A lot of people adopt a policy and they're like, "We did it. Done. It happened." A policy, as you know, is completely useless unless you implement it and promote it. And that's exactly what y'all did. So now all of your elementary schools have open community
017use signs, letting community members, family members know they can use those playgrounds to play when it's not being used by the school. And you're going even further working with community partners to expand on trails that exist around several of your schools. So even though this project has wrapped up, Kershaw County School District will always be our fitness scram influencers and we'll continue to share your success stories not only across the state but also at the national level because people are coming to us asking the data doesn't look good. We have nowhere to go. How do we address this? How do we give our help back to our students in our community? And I always tell them about your school district because you are really doing amazing work. So a few more thank yous. Um Dr.
018Goodwin, I want to thank you for your buy in because if you said no, we wouldn't have showed up. Uh, so thank you for saying yes to us and letting us come into your school district. We knocked on the door and came right after COVID, it was a wild, crazy time for everybody. And when we started working in the school district, Elizabeth just started her position as the district nurse uh, lead. And so I can only imagine her hesitation when we're like, "Hey, we know you're the district nurse, but we need you to be the fitness gram contact and we're going to talk to all the PE teachers through you." So, but Elizabeth didn't hesitate. She was like, "All right, I'll figure it out." So, what's great is that in most of the districts we
019work with, it is somebody with a PE background who we're talking to at the district level. Because Elizabeth having the background in nursing, you also became an example of what does it look like when you break down silos in those schools from the get-go. You have PE teachers and school nurses working together not only to collect that fitness data, but they're also working together to assess their environment and to put together action plans and to make improvements. They're coming trainings together. They're coming to the conference. I loved seeing nurses at a PE teacher conference having the best time of their lives. So, it's been an amazing partnership and it continues to grow. Elizabeth, thank you so much for being so amazing and I just want to thank all of your PE teachers and school nurses
020because they were the ones who did all the work really. Um, and they're the ones who are really making a difference in the students in your school district today. So, with that, thank you so much. And we do have a little token of appreciation. So, this is just to honor y'all being our influencer school district since 2021. So, we will leave this with y'all. And if somebody wouldn't mind taking our picture so I don't have to take a selfie, that would be great. And thank you all so much again. [Applause] Thank you. Yes. Uh each year we have to bring to you the uh request the request for approval to apply for federal funds. Um this year uh Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Mc Matthews will be the two presenting this but uh if they would
021come forward and uh this allows us to have the authority from the board to apply for the federal funds. There have been a number of other assurance levels that have been put in place this year uh with the new administration and we are taking care of those online certifications as we speak. Uh they seem to be trickling in day by day. But Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Matthews, you have a memorandum uh dated today that's requesting that you approve uh us as a district to accept the title one, title two, title three, title four funds, federal funds for next year. Those are last year's amounts. We do not have this year's amounts yet. Uh that hasn't been released to us at this point. So those are approximate amounts. Uh those of you who were around last year
022may remember that our federal uh title one funds got cut significantly and our title two funds got cut significantly. So, you know, we don't have any control over that, nor do we have any information about how that money is going to roll down to us this year, uh, with some question about how that will be disseminated, whether it'll come actually in a block grant to the state and the state will give it to us or whether that will come as it has come in the past. So, we're asking the board uh to to approve uh our request to apply for federal funds. I got a question quick question. You say this is last year's amount. Yes, sir. So, if the amount increases, do we vote again on the new increase? No, sir. I I don't
023think you need to and it's our hope that it does increase. We'll be happy with this and we get an increase and we are voted on something. So, we get it. That's common sense to me. So, okay. Yes, it may be beneficial. Well, I've been out three years. I still know what title 1, 2, 3, and four are, but for um for the sake of the board and also the public who may be tuning in or in the audience to give the one minute snapshot of what each of those represents, each of those revenue streams and how we use them. Sure. Title one is uh funds that come down for our our students in poverty. Uh all of our elementary schools and all of our middle schools currently are served out of our title one
024funds. uh primarily it serves positions uh for us. So we we hope we don't lose a whole lot of money because that that's positions that we're talking about. I'm sure uh Mr. Willard don't want to talk about that. Uh title two is professional development funds. So that funds uh any kind of professional development activity uh that is approved. All of our plans have to be approved by the state before we can uh use any of the funds. Uh, title three is our ML population, our multilingual learner population. So, it primarily serves those. Uh, and four is title four is the best way I can describe for safe and healthy schools. It addresses um school safety, student health, and technology. Um, it's a fund that used to be categorized as title six once upon a time,
025and they've reclassified as title four for about the last seven, eight years. And it's uh it's also a moving target in terms of the allocation. You know, um it could go up, it could go down, but it's been pretty consistent consistently running about that amount of money for us. That's the only the only worry concern I have. I know with the uh the movement that's been made uh at the national level administratively to dis disband or whatever you want to call it the US Department of Ed you have to wonder how these funds if and when and hopefully they do still metriculate down to us in some shape or form or if it's relegated back to the states to do it. I mean do we have any idea at this point? The last thing that
026I heard um two weeks ago is that the funding from the federal government comes a year in advance of when we receive it. And so we're probably good for another year without anything changing. It's two years down the road when you know things would impact if things were to change, you know, coming from the federal government. So it's already in the pipeline for us to receive it. Mr. Chair, I I do have just a follow up on title three. You mentioned it serves our ML population. Title one is is a pretty hefty number and is invested in personnel. Title three is not nearly a hefty number. How is that money used? If we we have used some of it in personnel, but we've also used it to provide services like elevation and uh which is
027an online program uh to help serve our students. Um, it gives teachers strategies and helps direct their instruction. Thank you. Are there any other questions? If not, it's before us entertain motion properly. Motion by Dr. King, second by Miss Furnest. All those in favor by raise your right hand. That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Willlet, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Dr. Goodwin, good evening. While we do not have a lot of new information regarding the 2526 budget, we did want to give you a quick update this evening um and uh delve a little bit further into the uh salary schedule study information. So, uh we did not provide these slides or or this material to you well in advance. We wanted to make sure that we had any information
028uh critical information through the uh the subcommittee the K12 subcommittee coming into this meeting. So we provided that to you today before the meeting. So uh we are keeping in this packet what we have already presented to you. So if you see the ways and means budget version, those first two pages are just going to be pretty much revision of what you've already seen with no changes. I will say that the teacher salary schedule at this point, the K12 subcommittee has upheld the $1,500 per sale increase uh moving the starting pay from uh 47,000 to 48,500. So, we will see if that changes as we go through the full Senate process or the uh uh the Senate Finance Committee uh this week and then the full Senate uh the week after next. So no real
029changes on those first two pages. I have updated the legislative calendar to give you those uh timelines so that you can follow and uh understand when we would have more information to bring to you based on those legislative uh steps. So, the page after that uh timeline for the uh legislative calendar uh gives us some things we did want to talk about tonight that that have come out of the K12 subcommittee or things that have been amended from the Ways and Means Committee and the House since they have met. And the reason we want to bring these before you is going to be evident when we share the impacts with regard to potential costs or uh there there is one in here also or maybe two that Dr. Goodwin's going to elaborate on that may
030not have financial impacts but it is a critical change when it comes to our process. So I will go through those uh briefly. Uh so the first one I'll mention is paid parental leave. So you remember that was enacted uh over a year ago. Uh we have gotten through the first year pretty much uh where we were at six weeks maternity leave and two weeks paternity leave uh for those who qualified. Well, there has been an amendment proposed to move that from 6 weeks to 12 weeks for maternity and two weeks to four weeks for paternity. So why is that impactful? So over the past two years, we have averaged 975 days of combined maternity paternity leave that we have coded into our system. That's under the six week rule. So if that moves to
03112 weeks and four weeks, we have been asked to give a financial impact uh statement on this. So you would double that number. So you're getting to 1950 days. And if we look at our cost to uh fill those positions when it comes to subcost, uh we are looking at a substantial increase to our budget uh just to have those positions filled. Um, and we have not settled on what that estimate is yet that we will submit as a fiscal impact uh response, but it is in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of money just to implement and follow through with this type of an amendment. So, um, we're going to find out more information about that. Um, again, this was amended by the Ways and Means Committee. Um so with it coming
032from them u we're not sure how much this has to be rubber stamped by other areas. So we will keep you informed on that. Again that is a proposed amendment at this time. The smart act um uh nurse stling has been been uh uh giving us input on this as we had to also submit a fiscal impact response on that. Um, and this act as presented by the House would require districts to uh put together a cardiac emergency response team and a plan. It would require um annual training, drills, uh, reviews. Um, we're not sure what all it would entail, but we know that it would be uh impactful from the standpoint of just implementation and putting that thing that those things together. The other thing this would mandate is placement of AEDs. So, while
033we're well equipped with AEDs, they get age and we have to maintain those. So, we feel like we would have to replace some AEDs within the building, but what this also does is requires placement of AEDs and access at all of our athletic facilities. Um and while we may have those through emergency response teams, uh we may not have uh there are many districts who may not have access to those like us at every one uh at every field, every court uh throughout the district. So, uh we did we did issue a fiscal impact statement on this estimating that it would cost at least $120,000 uh just to do the AED placements. Next one is mobile panic alert systems. Uh this is a big one. Uh this again comes from the house. Um and it
034would require mobile panic alert systems at each location. And if you think about name badges, think about a high-tech name badge that also has a little button here that you push so many times for a certain alert, so many times for another alert, and it sends out that signal that would then be uh that would go through uh uh various channels of emergency response to include your PA systems as well as external callout systems. So it's a very very sophisticated system. Um the kicker is you have to have your PA systems and all those things upgraded to accept that technology. So uh we also issued a fiscal impact response on that and not taking into consideration enhancements for PA systems and other callout systems. just implementation of badges and that technology we estimate to be
035over a million dollars and that comes from information from districts who have already started the process but they have not gotten anywhere near full completion. That's an estimate based on what it would cost per school if you had about a 100 classrooms. So that one certainly impactful. Uh the next two um we're we're not looking at any financial impacts. Um but of course uh the policies procedures that could be impacted through the DEI bill that I'm sure most of you have have seen where South Carolina is proposing to adopt the uh federal administration's outlook on those. Um, I will tell you one big impact for the finance area that we are concerned about is what does that mean for us using or doing business with vendors who can't prove that they adhere to these policies
036um under law. So, um it may create some uh some real procedural and dotting eyes and crossing of tees nightmares if that makes sense. um the Educator Assistance Act. I'm not going to delve too deep in deeply into that one. I'll let you read what we've put in comments, but I will allow Dr. Goodwin to speak about that briefly um and and how that impacts his area, HR, and uh other departments. Yes. Uh this this started as the ED educator Bill of Rights about three years ago if you recall. uh coming coming right at the COVID time actually was when it started getting some legs and u this has been a compromised bill that has um to be quite honest uh has called for some things that were needed and uh ended up being it
037looks like going to be a good piece of legislation. The uh a couple of things that are different specifically though are the uh the certificate terminology and treatment. There is going to be, if this passes through the Senate, which right now there doesn't appear to be any reason that it's not going to, there will be what is called a retiree certificate so that when a person reaches retirement age, they can get a permanent certificate for five years at a time without reertifying. And uh after those five years are up, they can reapply as long as they have not had actions taken against their certificate over the years. So, if they were ever suspended, they're not eligible for this, but as long as they keep a a current certificate. The other thing that it does is
038is it does a few things with teacher assignment and uh changes that quite honestly we already do as practice. Um, originally it was going to allow a teacher to wait all the way until uh 10 days after the state budget was formally approved, they could break their contract with no penalty. Well, we all know that how many years has has the uh the legislature finished the budget by May 8th? I can give you a hint. That would be absolutely zero. And is it unusual for the state to finish the budget the third week and fourth week in June? No, that's not unusual. There have been many times that we've been the last week in June or all the way up to the 30th of June getting a budget approved and then they would have 10
039working days after that that they could walk away from their contract. Now, you might say, "Well, why would somebody wait so long?" Well, it might be that they got an offer late and they would be using that as an excuse to wait to to get out of their contract. We did some compromise on that. Um, probably going to end up being a a a last day of May that uh we can can let folks out of their contract with no penalty. That's actually what we do already in practice in our school district. We we've always said that as long as somebody lets us know by the last day of May. We used to say the last day of school, but that's kind of arbitrary. We'd say, you know, if they'll let us know by the
040last day of May, we'll do everything we can to get them released. We also have always approached as a common sense. If the family's moving across the state, y'all know we've come to you and said, "We need to release this teacher because, you know, the whole family's moving." Um, apparently there were areas in the state that were not approaching it the same way that we approach it. And so now they're legislating it as opposed to uh letting us do that. The other thing I can't imagine, but I know in some districts, especially some of the large ones, teachers will come to school for the first week of school and they'll realize they're over under staffed and they'll they'll reassign 20 teachers, you know, second or third week of school, and they'll tell them, "Oh, by
041the way, this is Friday. you need to be in your new school on Monday morning. I understand there are times you have to move people, but you also need to give the time for them to kind of close things down in one building, open things up in another, and we've done that. We've moved a couple of teachers this year because of staffing imbalances. But number one, we try to do it to the to the best of the teacher if possible. But the other thing is we try to put together a team. Billy puts his guys together. They help the teacher get their stuff moved, you know, packed up, moved, set up, those kinds of things because, you know, it is an inconvenience and we want to make it as minor as it can be. The
042other thing that I think that that uh is interesting on here is is that we already meet a sick leave bank. And we've talked to y'all some about u looking at some changes in how those leaves are done, but um this makes every district have to have a sick leave bank. Of course, we're way out in front on that. We're way out in front if somebody has a catastrophic illness and how we handle that. So, that'll have zero impact on us. Uh, I would like to jump back up and and I'll take questions on both of these. The mobile panic alert system is incredibly good technology. There there is just no doubt that it's the way we need to go. The problem is we can't afford to do it without some assistance. Uh we we've
043we've said that the fiscal impact is a million dollars, but that doesn't count the infrastructure changes we would have to make. So it could be close to $2 million implementation. Not only that, but to be quite honest, the companies aren't would not be prepared to do the whole state in one year. Uh, I I've talked to some people in that in that business and they say how much they would love to get all that business at one time, but they don't know how they could could pull it off. It might need to be a three or four year implementation. And we do have buildings that have the infrastructure to handle it. Some of our newer buildings, we it would be very easy to do, but if we took some of our older facilities, you know,
044we do have a number of facilities that are 30 plus years, they were not designed for this kind of technology and we would have to to retrofit just like we did when we did computer networks. So, uh, again, I I want to I want to reiterate how great this technology is to be able to reach for that badge and if you need immediate assistance, you press five, six times on the button and it does the all call. Or if it's just, you know, an altercation in your classroom, you just need administration, you hit it twice and that only alerts those people on that level. That's just amazing that that we could have that kind of technology. But I I believe it's going to take a little bit of time to get there. Um so we'll
045continue to work with our delegation as as well as delegations across the state to to help us find a common sense approach to getting that done. And I'll take questions on either one of those. I'm not going to try to do the other ones because Brad has to do those. You you kind of indirectly said it and and Mr. Willard kind of inferred it. I think it is worth expressing and correct me if I'm wrong. Um the first three um could be significant with regard to expenditure the the capital outlay to do those and I'm not passing an opinion on any of them. But these would be if they are enacted and and put into firm legislation an unfunded mandate that would fall on the district to find the money to do these as of
046now. Correct. Mhm. Currently, it is unfunded. There there have been talks about if these make it in specifically referring to the uh panic alert systems there. There have been talks of legislators that said we would make sure that there is funding available for that once they get through the um the the process moving towards the conference committee section of the legislation. Um what is concerning about that statement is unless there is new funding added to the budget that just means a shift. So that is the concern. Any questions at this time? Okay. So, uh just a couple more minutes to uh delve into the uh salary schedule study scenarios and just bring you uh uh one more small group that uh we would like to impact in the 2526 budget. Uh the first page of
047that section uh has no changes. We would just want you to be aware of the uh general information regarding the uh study itself. Uh so there's no change from the previous uh uh meeting comments. Um other than we are making sure that last bullet on the second page making sure you're aware that this still includes those that were mentioned in February and March. Um you have the list of areas that had no recommendations. So tonight when we look at the scenarios and proposals I'll I'll bring before you what I would refer to as group two at this point. And this section covers uh programmatic and district level support staff. Uh so it's going to be the staff secretary on bookkeeping positions uh and schedules uh and those specialized and supervisory levels um on those schedules.
048So the summary of this um what I did is I took this and consolidated into one summary uh since those positions and those schedules are so similar. Uh but keep in mind that this impacts uh five different schedule categories. So uh we're not just talking about one area but it is summarized into uh one statement. So the impact uh here uh this would impact between 35 and 40 FTEES and across all the sales and steps of those various schedules uh the average change would be uh anywhere from $2,000 to $3,200. And that would be the average change based on the 242 days that all of these uh classifications work. Um so the estimated cost impact there would be about $150,000 uh for that $242day schedule. Um and as as stated before, we'll continue to uh
049review ways to uh improve schedules or if we need to uh build in any further separation of schedules, we will do that as needed. Uh but that is the impact that we bring for you this before you this evening uh to uh have in your mind and consider as we go through the budget process. And just a quick summary to wrap that up and and tie that into what we've already brought you. Um, we we brought you information that included a general fund investment of 1.182 1,182,000 last time, 440,000 from USDA funds. So if we add the 150 for tonight, that brings us to a total of general fund investment uh 1,332,000 and the USDA stays the same uh bringing the total uh consideration to 1,772,000. And we we also uh want to start as
050we check things off, we still want to look at the next steps. So, I'm providing to you what we will continue to uh look at and bring before you as we go through the budget process. Um those first three bullets on that page uh at the top uh we we have not dug into those significantly yet because if you recall these are somewhat indirectly uh impacted by legislation because these classifications are included in the same proviso that covers teachers. So, if we look at a $1,500 increase for teacher salary scale at the minimum, then that would translate to many of these positions and schedules. If it were to be a percentage increase like we had to pretty much calculate last year, that's what we would use. So, those will come a little bit later in
051the process and we'll obviously uh continue to look at a couple of others in that list that we have mentioned to you before as well. So, uh, with that, that concludes the information. I'll be glad to answer any questions if you have any. Yeah, if I could just make one comment, this has been a a long process. In fact, it seems like every time I go and sit down with with Brad, it's an hour and a half to do one small area, but we certainly are chipping away at this. But these are truly investments in our staff members who quite honestly get I'm not going to say get overlooked, but in the process they get lost sometimes. And uh the fact that that y'all been willing to to you know have us study this and
052then begin to bring you ready recommendations is a real investment in our district's u sort of unsung heroes. You'll notice there's been very little of the the frontline kind of people. This is this is the people who do the work and make things happen for our support, you know, our teaching staff and for our schools. So, um you know, we're we're going to do everything we can to address all of these areas. Uh you know, and quite honestly, in the process, we might miss one, and if we do, we'll come back to you and we'll admit we missed it. But there are so many of these small classifications that you have to I don't know how many salary schedules we have but it seems like I get another stack every time we work on this.
053But uh that's and we have we have blended as many as we could too so that we don't have duplication. But I thank you all for your patience as we work through this. I think this does a lot for uh for again those unsung heroes in our school district. Thank you Dr. So will is there a motion to go into executive session to discuss resignation retirement of certified and classified personnel employment of certified and classified personnel assignment changes and transfer of certified and classified personnel. Proper motion by coach PL second by Mr. Reeds. All those in favor by saying I I say unanimous Is there a motion to reconvene to open session? Mhm. Second properly. Motion by Miss Fern, second by Miss Hley. All those in favor that be know by saying I. I. Those
054opposed. It's unanimous. In executive session, we discuss resignation and retirement of certified and classified personnel, employment of certified and classified personnel, and assignment changes and transfer of certified and classified personnel. Is there a motion to accept the administration recommendation concerning employment matter with the exception of employment C? So, if I can get that motion again, please. and second by Mr. Roberts. All those in favor have been known by Sen I. Those opposed and it's done. Are there any additional motions? Mr. Mr. Chairman, I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation that the employment of employee A, an induction contract teacher, be non-renewed for the 202526 school year pursuant to code 59-26-40 of the South Carolina code of laws. Motion properly for a second by Mr. Fern. All those in favor has been known by raise
055your right hand. And that's unanimous. Are there any additional motion? Chair. Yes. Mr. Chairman, I move that the board conditionally accept the superintendent's recommendation that the employment agreement of a continuing contract teacher employee B not be renewed for the 2526 school year subject to the board's duty to review the matter on the merits pursuant to state law. Should the individual request a hearing sub? Second by coach Blackman. All those in favor, let it be known by raising your right hand. And that's unanimous. Is there an additional? Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'll make a motion that the employment of employee C to be renewed as recommended by the superintendent. Motion is properly before us. Is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Reeves. All those in favor let know by raise your right hand. Okay. And let's
056do that again. All those in favor let me know by raise your right hand. Yes. There's 54. Those that oppose three opposed. One abstain. The motion pass. Is there a motion to adjourn and close with prayer? Properly motioned by Miss Fernis, second by Dr. King. All those in favor, let us be known by saying I. I. Thank you. Heavenly Father, thank you for abiding with us this evening. We leave this building, Lord, but never us. We ask that you lead us safely back home and find all those way when we get there. And we'll give you all the honor and glory that's due you. And it's in the matchless name of Jesus we pray and count it done. Amen. Amen.