001e e e Miss Hy if you would um Heavenly Father we thank you for this beautiful day that you have given us help us never to forget father that we are empty pictures before full Fountain we ask that you fill us up tonight with your grace and your mercy we ask that you fill us up with your love we ask that you fill us up with s Lord and we give you all honor and Glory that is through you Heavenly Father this even we ask that you come into this board meeting and put your loving arms of protection around us help us to make the decisions Lord that are good for this school district we ask you continue to put your arms of protection around all our children Lord we ask that you put your
002protection around those in the village that help raise the children Heavenly Father this evening not for a long prayer but for the uttermost parts of our hearts we just want to say thank you for one more day and we lord are not worthy but you truly are worthy to be praised and this evening we give you all the praise and glory that is Du you and it's in your name we pray and it's in your name we count it all done amen call the cush your County School Board of Trustees meeting to order is there a motion to adopt the proposed agenda properly motion by Miss Autumn second by coach Blackman all those in favor let it be known nobody saying I I those that oppose and that's unanimous is there a motion to adopt
003the consent agenda approving meeting minutes for August the 6 board meeting second properly motion by Mr Robert second by Mr I all those in favor let it be known by s i i those are the post and that's unanimous we want to thank each and everyone for coming out this evening uh Jo Johnson with wpub thanks for being here and we are delighted to have our special guest tonight uh for our school board meeting uh Miss Deborah McQueen a school laar program manager for Shaw alfor space South Carolina thank you for being here with us this evening our next item is School Board Association recognition uh this time I'd like to ask Dr Smith if you would join me Miss Hy if you would also join me and uh Dr King if you would join
004me out front please thought but um tonight we get to recognize three of our board members for reaching new milestones in the South Carolina School boards Association sportsmanship Institute it was established in 1982 the South Carina School boards Association boardsmy in offers yearr round training curriculum focused on leadership skills for board members on State and National educational issues board members are recognized for reaching each of six levels with a certificate and a pen first tonight we recognize Dr King for earning the level two [Applause] recognition next we'd like to recogn I Miss Shirley hle for the achievement of level four this [Applause] year and finally Dr Smith has earned the highest level of recognition which is level six to receive this recognition Dr uh Smith achieved all five previous levels and passed a written test
005and I got his scores on his test last week so I know he passed uh Dr Smith will formally be recognized in February during the school boards association annual convention thank you to all three of you for your commitment to Kershaw County students and our district and congratulations Dr [Applause] Smith thank you for all that you do for our students and our staff thank you very much [Applause] our next agenda item is public forum no one has signed up under our old new business board policy review yes good evening good evening Dr Smith Dr Goodwin uh members of the board uh tonight's policy updates are in response to guidance from the 2024 South Carolina School boards Association policy and legislative manual the proposed policy updates are based on court or based on state and federal
006education related legislation court cases and Department of Education guidance uh so we're bringing you uh two updates tonight uh for information the first policy is jici weapons in schools a Proviso in the fiscal year 2024 2025 State Appropriations Bill closed the loophole that was created when the Constitutional carry Second Amendment preservation Act of 2024 was signed into the LA into law the ACT uh continued to contined the general prohibition of firearms on school property however the exception for the proper stor and concealment inside a locked vehicle remained and did not consider that the new age parameters of 18 years and older would Encompass high school students prior to the new law the age requirement was 21 years old or older for those who could legally possess a properly stored firearm on school property um so
007the Proviso uh especially stipulates that the ability to possess a firearm on public school property is not extended to enrolled students uh so we are proposing the highlighted changes in accordance with with the new state Proviso and with the recommendation from um the South Carina school boards Association model policy um the we added a couple of weapons that they included um as well as in accordance with state law the vehicle restriction applies to any enrolled student regardless of age um and then down at the bottom of the policy uh we had in the old policy that uh the district would not provide Educational Services uh to students who were expelled because of a firearm uh but we we changed that language to the district generally generally will not provide Educational Services because there are certain
008uh times that uh we need to provide those services or and uh that would um clear up that language a little bit for us so if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer right uh the next policy we're bringing with revisions is jk- R expulsion of students so uh according to South car Cod of law section 5963 to4 school districts are now required to ensure certain additional information is included in the written notification to parents or legal Guardians regarding expulsion for the remainder of the year and hearings associated with it uh if expulsion proed procedures are initiated the parents or legal guardian of the student must be notified in writing of the time in the place of a hearing either before the school board or person or committee designated by the board the
009written notification to the parents or legal guardian must contain the right to have legal counsil present at the hearing the right to question all Witnesses and contact information for a legal aid service provider which may determine eligibility for free legal representation uh the notification must also include the right of parents or legal guardian to access the investigative file in its entirety to hear all documents and videos to include all documents and videos at least 3 days prior to the hearing with appropriate exemptions and redactions as required by furpa uh the laws effective date was May of 2024 and so we worked with our Attorneys at this time to revise our expulsion notice letters to parents uh and those have been updated they've been updated since uh May when this law was enacted and so we're
010proposing this policy change um which essentially adds the language that the state law has including the right to look at the investigative file the right to question Witnesses and the uh contact details for legal a service provider being provided through our expulsion notices so at this time I'll answer any questions you have may yes Mr F just very quickly and for clarification yes sir um obviously it says the appropriate for redactions and exclusions that's that's primarily written to protect other parties or other students who may have been involved in that particular incident so yes sir so if a witness name was in there as well corre right any other questions thank you thank you at this time we will receive a report from the school of law conference uh coach Blackman was present uh Mr
011Roberts Miss Hy and I so miss hel you give us a report and anyone else that want to share please feel free to do so thank you in your packet this evening um the highlights from the school law conference that took place from August 10th to 11th um is in your packet so I'm not going to just read it word for word I'm just going to give the basic highlights from the conference and the first um topic was federal law Trends and what this means for your board um the main point that I need to make that the topics that were discussed were expanding religious rights in the workplace um the rights of students and requirements as outlined in the United States Department of Education and the newly issued Title Nine regulation laws and the
012basic point that I'm trying to make here there were so many cases that they decided that have not been decided and as soon as most of the case lows have been done then they will get back to the districts and and the school board would know what what actions it take once those cases have been litigated the Ida 2024 was the next one news updates and information you need to know this gave U they were talking about um special education and the idea 2024 the main point that that I got on that that when you are talking about the document the main thing that we need to do as a board and teachers Etc in the county is to make sure that all documentation is important and that all the procedures must be followed that's
013the main thing she was trying to tell they have to have your documentation and you have to do your paperwork if you are going to be in compliance with the idea 2024 the next area was a grab bag and as I said before the grab bag section was avoiding legal risk from the top down and they mainly talked about um the ethics commission and they're there to help us and to give us Direction at up front about things that may be a conflict of interest and how potential conflicts can be avoided and there if there should be a conflict of interest policy there should be one in our manual and then they talked about the foer for there's more foer um request than for for um foyer litigation it's rare you get a lot of
014requests but there are very few cases of foyer litigation that's taking place at this time time and the main thing they that was stressed there that we have to harmonize with the superintendent to be uh to prevent breaches of contract issues and we have to finally recognize to the first amendments right but we need to stay clear of media chaos don't let things make it to the media before things are decided upholding the First Amendment without disruption to the school these are some takeaways um and the first takeaway the district should establish the type of forum it intend to create in establishing the type of forum the district is able to set the parameters and context of speech within the Forum as we know we do have public forum and we do have policies that
015address how you know how long you need to speak what some of the things that you cannot bring and if if we set those and we establish the type of for then it will cut down on chaos number two the district interest in regulating speech must be balanced with the students and employees rights there has to be a balance there between the students and the employees rights any disciplinary action stemming from a students or employees exercise of such right should be reviewed in light of the district's interest in regulating the speech and due process must always be followed and the fourth the district must be able to articulate the substantial interference or disruption to school operations Beyond M mere speculate we can't just speculate that they are not doing what they're supposed to do when
016it comes to their first amendment we have to articulate it and we have to be to be able to substantiate it and not just speculate um the SEC La the next Workshop I can't talk about it um from the employee this session clarified the board's role in employment matters including what board members should or should not say first of all in order to avoid that we need to honor our district policy that's why polic are in place practice the duty of good faith and fair dealings be reasonable or at least don't be newsworthy in other words don't be so quick to get out there and just talk so much so be reasonable but don't be so newsworthy and also we need to engage in an interactive process and the final one that I went to
017was on school boards leadership working together during times of controversy and it basically deal with bu County and they wanted to ban almost a 100 books to take them off the shelves in bful County the takeaways from that is that Community involvement is a key factor there student involvement is important but also as a board the board has to be involved in the process of book Banning and those were the um the ones that I attended I'm quite sure my conad they they attended some maybe have attended something that I did not go to but they have the opportunity at this time to say what they need to say uh so adding on to what Miss Hy said that the conference was um a lot of fun as attorneys was talking to us I'm just
018kidding um it was it was very educational um the the one that she talked about I can't talk about that I was I was reminded as she was sharing um as as members of the community come to us with issues um we we do have a policy in place where if a complaint reaches the level of the board andless say a Community member has come to me and kind of poured their heart out about this issue I would have to recuse myself I would not be able to speak to that um I would not be able to vote on that so sometimes when community members come to us uh the best advice they gave us was to tell them to reach out to Administration so that way we can continue to do our role as
019board members in uh hearing those complaints and and handling them if it reaches the board level uh so that that was the only thing I had to add Miss Hy covered it very well you did very well miss Al as always and David you did a fine job I don't have anything really to add um uh I can't talk about this um one key thing that I remember they said if you punch on a Facebook text message or whatever uh social media that you like something and that's your opinion about something but that you that's your speech it can be used with for you or against you so that when you hit that button understand that you know what you're doing and that was one of the biggest takeaways from the conference when it came
020to uh what you can talk about what you can't talk about so that's I had more notes but I knew Shirley was going to be very well prepared today so she covered everything as far as I was concerned thank you thank you Dr govern yes under my report tonight just want to uh bring you just a little bit of good news it's taken us a year to get all this straight but you will recall that last year we updated our policy regarding life-saving drugs and we did that in response to the availability of noran for our schools we're happy to say that now we finally have reached to the point that we have the Naran in place we have two doses per school we have the standing orders are in process or are complete uh
021standing orders are complete and we are in the process of making sure everybody is properly trained in the use of noran so we do have that within the schools we also have then the re school resource officers also have access to it so that just adds another life-saving drug we're really fortunate because the way we worded our po policy last year didn't list specific drugs it was life-saving drugs so we don't have to change again this year so uh we're we're in good shape on that so I want to thank uh nurse darling for navigating through this it's hard to believe it took a year to to navigate through this but um if you've watched the uh Clips recently you've seen other districts are just now getting theirs up and going also so just wanted
022to report that thank you Dr Goodwin is there a motion to go into executive session to discuss resonation and retirement of certified and classified Personnel employment of certified and classified Personnel assignment changes and transfer of certified classified Personnel prop motion by Mr IR second by Dr King all those in favor let it be known by say I I those that oppose and it's the anous e e e is there a motion to convene to open session properly motion by Miss fernon second by Mr Roberts all those in favor let it be known by saying I I come on Tod get with the program in the executive session we discuss resonation and retirement of certified and classified Personnel employment of certified and classified personnel and and assignment changes in transferred of certified and classified Personnel is
023there a motion to accept the administration recomendation concerning employment matters properly motion by Dr King second by coach Blackman all those in favor let it be known by raise your right hand that's unanimous is there a motion to journ and close with prayer second properly motion by Miss Fus second by Mr iic all those in favor let me know by say I thank you Heavenly Father we thank you for abiding with us this evening as we leave here we ask that you put your arms on protection around us and dispatch your angels to protect us from all harm and dangers as we head home this evening and and we get there help us to find all as well and we'll give you all honor and Glory that is through you and it's in your name
024we pray and it's your name we kind it all done amen amen