May 18, 2026 School Board Meeting

001It is 5:00 pm. So, I'm going to call the May 18th board meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> I make a motion to approve the agenda. >> All in favor? And the motion carries five to five to zero. Uh, can I get a motion to enter executive session? >> Make a motion to ex enter executive session to consider the following. A selected employment items exhibit A for action. B selected employment items exhibit B for information only. And C legal advice pursuant to state board regulation 43.170 as seen in exhibit C. >> All in favor? And the motion carries 5 to zero. Will for executive session. Good evening. It is 6:10. I apologize that we are a few minutes behind schedule, but I will officially call the May 18th

002board meeting to order. Thank you all for being here with us this evening. Um, at this time, Mr. Satderfield will give us the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. And then I ask that the board join me up front for the school board spotlight. >> Thank you. Will you all join me for a moment of silence, please? >> Thank you. Would you please stand and join me saying the pledge? All right, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. We have several wonderful things to celebrate tonight. So, I am so glad to be able to share those with you. One week ago, we announced our newest district teacher of the year and support employee for the for next year, support employee of the year for next year. So, we are very happy to

003have both of them here tonight to introduce them to you. They are both amazing leaders in their schools. They are going to do uh just represent us so well next year. We are in very good hands with these two ladies. So, I would like to introduce to you our 2627 district Report employee of the year, Janette Farre. She is the literacy lab assistant at Crossroads will be middle school next year. And our new teacher of the year, Anna Maria Henson. Come on. [applause] Come on. And let me introduce you to to Miss Anna Maria Henson. She's an English teacher at Spring Hill High School. >> [applause] >> For our next presentation, I would like to invite Miss Sarah Wheeler, our director of magnet programs, up to um make several introductions. >> Thank you. Thank you.

004I am quite a proud mama because it's been our awards season for Magnet Schools of America and District 5 is represented beautifully. First, I'd like to call up Carrie Fiser from Nursery Road Elementary Arts Magnet where she was named the region 4 principal of the year for magnet schools of America. And just so you know, region 4 consists of Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. So, she beat out a whole slew of folks. Next, I'd like to go and we have a school that's been recently certified as a magnet school and that is Dutch Fork Elementary Academy for Environmental Sciences and principal Rebecca Dilly is here and that was a yearlong selfstudy and to be certified as a magnet school is on the national

005level is quite a feat. Then we have our top magnet schools of excellence and Imo International School for the Arts actually got one of the top schools of excellence and here to represent them Dr. Tamara Jones and Dr. Karen Hampton, principal. Next, we have another magnet school of excellence and it's Leeart Elementary School steam magnet and we have Kim Parker, the magnet lead here tonight to represent Leeart. Now we have another school of excellence yet again. Spring Hill High School career pathways magnet Dr. Michael Loftton, principal here to represent Spring Hill. And last, but certainly not least, the region 4 MSA principal of the year school, Nursery Road Arts Magnet, and Lisa Brooks, who is their arts lead, is here. And one more recognition. Katie Bazinski is my right hand when it comes to all

006of these awards. So I would like Katie to join me or take a picture. Thank y'all. Wonderful job. >> I need your phone. Got it. Perfect. >> All right. On three. One, two, three. One, two, three. >> We have one more very special presentation tonight. Uh several of our students have made the selfless commitment to serve our country through either enlistment or through attending a military academy. And as a Purple Star district, we are proud to take the time tonight to honor their commitment as well as offer our support and encourage shipment to them as they take these next steps. So, um if you hear your name called, please come on up. We have Leila Ariseri who will be joining the Navy. Benjamin Wor also joining the Navy. Willow Zack, Army National Guard. [applause] Mason

007Gera joining the Navy. Max Nye attending West Point. And Nicholas Welch joining the Navy. Did anyone else sneak in that we didn't catch any other students? One, two, three. One, two, Mr. Satderfield. One more second. In honor of graduation this Friday, we want to um send our graduates support from the board. So, we're going to take a quick photo. Thank you. And as y'all are settling in, I have one other celebration to share with you. At our last meeting, we announced that Dr. Ross was a finalist for superintendent of the year. And so they told us what we already knew, that Dr. Ross is indeed our our superintendent of the year announced Basa this week. So we are so proud. [applause] [clears throat] Thank you, Amanda. Uh to our board and our community, our staff.

008It's an honor to serve as superintendent of school district 5. What a district with an amazing history of excellence and It continues to see the students that we recognize, the magnet programs achieve uh and then to salute to those who are going to serve our country in the armed forces. Uh all of this will uh be the culminating ceremonies as we're in the last week of school. Tomorrow being the last full day and then we start our half days on Wednesday uh but all to on Friday where we will have four graduation ceremonies. We're going to have them all in one day starting with Dutch High School at 8, followed by Irmo High School at 11:30, Spring Hill High at 300 PM, and then Chapen High School will have the evening 6 p.m. So, really

009excited about the work of our graduates. Celebration has already started. We've um want to uh highlight that tomorrow at 9:30 at Prisma Health Baptist Park Ridge. Uh we will have students in the project search graduation. These are special students who work with the local hospital on job readiness skills. Uh they have been uh doing uh basically a lot of job training and they'll graduate tomorrow. So that's always a special celebration and we look forward [clears throat] to to seeing them to the success that they do. So we want to thank the district for all uh the work that they've done. to Mary and Henson, to Janette Far for representing Anna Marie Henson, to Janette Far for representing our district. Very proud of the work that they have done and will represent us well as the

010Toy and Soy representatives for school district 5. As always, we're a system guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work? How do we accomplish that why? And what are our outcomes? Our why is that we love and grow our students. uh we are focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And then we have our strategic plan goals. We're working each and every day to make sure uh that those results materialize in student achievement. We see our areas where we can improve, but we celebrate our areas of growth. And speaking of that growth, like I said, as of Friday, when we walk across that stage, our goal was to have 90.94% of those students graduate. Uh, with the hard work of our, this is all hands on deck. We have hit the

01190 mark. We're at 90.21. And so we still have summer graduation as an opportunity to get that last part of that strategic plan goal. Uh but we have crossed that 90% mark and we're really excited about that. Also, as we look at uh our academic achievement with SC ready, we've seen the growth there. We thank the board uh for their work with the tier 2 programs. uh all of the supports that we have to ensure that we can move our students from I can't to I can. That's what operation transformation is all about. And speaking of transformation, our community is transforming and we see that in terms of some road work that's happening on Broad River. So I [clears throat] want to turn to the lectern, our interim chief of operations, Mr. KN uh to

012introduce our guest uh to discuss the Broad River Road widening project. Mr. Knox, >> good evening. Dr. Ross, members of the board, Madame Chair, I'd like to introduce you Jeff U Mcnesby. He is from Richland County and he will uh walk us through the path of the road widening in front of Dutch Elementary School. >> Thank you. >> Good evening again. My name is Jeff Mcnesby. I'm the project manager for Richmond Countyy's transportation department. Uh we are the uh organization that is widened in Bro River Road. Is there a pointer on here? Guess not. Um, what we're going to do is Broad River Road winding project is going to start down by Royal Tower Road, which is near the Toyota dealership in the bottom right corner of that slide. Thank you. And we're going to

013widen it all the way up to the Dutch Fork Road intersection. We're going to extend beyond that intersection down Dutch Fork Road and Broad River Road. Uh, the goal of this project is, as everybody knows, we have a really bad traffic situation on Bur River Road. It's a two-lane roadway. Uh there's a lot of safety concerns. There's concerns with traffic all day long and during the weekend. So, the goal of this project was to study the corridor, determine what type of improvements were needed to better flow traffic um along Broad River Road. In addition, we looked at it from the perspective of safety and for pedestrians. So this project extends for about a total of two and a half miles is going to include the wid end of broad river road from a two-lane roadway

014to a five lane roadway. And what a fiveway five lane roadway means is you're going to have a center turning lane uh which will prevent the number of rear end accidents along Broad River Road. You can see up here on this slide, not only are we widening the roadway, we're going to add additional traffic signals. We are going to do strainage improvements because of flooding problems that have been occurring historically. Okay. So, sorry. So, here's an example of what we're going to be doing. On the top slide is a typical detail for Broad River Road between Royal Tower Road and Dutch Fork Road intersection. You can see it's a fivelane roadway. It's two 12 foot wide travel lanes. It's a 15 foot wide turning median in the middle. And then on the outside on both

015sides, you're seeing uh if there's going to be a right turn lane into say a grocery store or into a high activity business. Also on here, you're noticing that instead of having the roadside ditches that currently extend along Broad River Road, we're going to put in curb and gutter. Uh this is part of our plan to help prevent the road from flooding and to help nearby property owners to keeping the storm water rainfall that falls onto Broad River Road within the roadway, not letting them go into the businesses adding to their flooded issues. On the bottom section is a section in front of the school which is on Dutch Fork Road. Uh at that section, we're going to have a three-lane roadway. It's going to be the 15 foot wide median and two 12T wide

016travel lanes. and again also with Kerman Gunnar. So as a resident living on Broad River Road or employees working at the school, what can you expect to see? This is a three-year long project. The notice proceed which is started construction was issued in February and this project is going to be completed by February of 2029. If you drive up and down the roadway today, you'll notice barrels along the full length. What are we doing currently? We're doing what we call clearing and grubbing, which is simply the removal of trees. That's the clearing part. And then grubbing is removing off the root balls from the trees. We're actually going to have that completed over the next two to three weeks. Once that's completed, um the majority of the roadway, you're not going to see construction activity

017for a little bit of time. We're going to then concentrate on improving the Dutch Road intersection. um where we're going to start put we're going to basically try to do those improvements immediately in that one location because of the serious issues we're having with traffic. Okay. So after you completely clear and grub what do we do next is utility relocation. Utilities basically is everything you see under well you don't see it it's underground but the water and sewer fiber power overhead on power poles. So that part of the project is we're taking the border lines are underneath the roadway or just off to the edge of the current roadway and we have to move them out on both sides of the road and we only have a narrow corridor at the fifth amendment. So that's

018a lot of very close concentration work you're going to be seeing. Um MCE uh provides power in this area. Well, because we're moving the utilities up onto the power lines, we had to we're going to um put in bigger poles, engineered steel poles, very tall. You'll see that work starting this summer. Completion utility relocation will take around 18 months of the three-year project. And then finally, once you have everything cleared and grub, you have utilities where they need to be, we're doing what you recognize as a road widening project. This is an example from Clemson Road, a project we completed about three years ago. It's a pretty good example of what we can expect to see on Brew River Road. You can see the two travel lanes in each direction. And in the middle there

019between the yellow lines is your uh turn lane, the fifth lane. You can see the curb and gutters, which we're going to have. And then off to the side of road, we're going to add sidewalks on both sides of the road between Royal Tower Road and Wilson Boulevard. So that's our project. Um if you're more interested in what's happened other parts of your community in Richland County, we have richland penny.com where we provide monthly updates on the projects underway. With that, I'm asking any questions. >> Do we have any questions? >> All right. Thank you so much. >> All right. Thank you. At this time, we'll have our CFO, Miss Heather Tucker, present our February monthly financials. I'm sorry, this is not I apologize. We have the slides for Dutch Ford. >> So, Here are

020the uh the slides. Uh the conceptual designs for the new Dutch work elementary school. Um you know, here is the the proposed site that that we've acquired over the last 12 months off of Holling Shen. This is the the site plan that that we've come up with with input from DOT making sure that we meet the the requirements for the easement or the the access points for the bus loop and the car rider um loop. So, as a part of, you know, as we go deeper into the design, the [clears throat] design team decided to break this into various themes. And as you can see here, we have a desert theme, an aquatic theme, a forest theme, and a um grasslands theme. Now, this right here may change a little bit with the colors. Uh

021but that's this is kind of where we're headed. Um just a general direction here. We we can see um uh visual of what the cafeteria could look like. It's incorporating the um the district five colors that we currently have within all the Dutch Fork uh schools. This would be a typical classroom right here. There would be some building case work. Um you know, ample windows for uh for lighting. Any questions? on the Dutch work elementary school. >> Do we have any questions? >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Ross, members of the board. Um, tonight you have your February monthly financials. Um, for our revenue for through February, we are right on track. We are uh at 7 um 4.86% revenue collected through the year which is slightly down from where we were last year. Uh

022we are seeing a slight um slowdown in getting our property taxes um just with the reassessment and then the time period there but we are seeing those come in um just slightly delayed. So no no worries about our tax collections um for this year based on what our projected revenue was. And then as far as our expenditures, um if you've been to the store recently, you know that this is um we're taking a hit. Um our revenue or our expenditures are uh over where we were at this time last year. Last year we were at 58.85% of our budget. This year we're at 61.5%. Um we are seeing costs go up across the board. Um some of this is timing um on the uh contractual services, the instructional line. Um we still plan to be

023under our budget this year. Um, but right now you looks like we're almost double where we were last year. Just timing of invoices and some of the bigger purchases that have come through a little bit earlier this year. So overall, I feel like we are still in good shape to be right on our budget for expenditures this year um even given the current circumstances because um in the grand scheme of things um our controllable expenditures outside of payroll and benefits is really only about 10 to 11% of our budget. Um so most of our our fixed costs are our people. So, and then the last thing I have for you in your packet is the two budget transfers that we had um this month. There are two, one for 5,000 and one for 2,000. Um

024and so at this point, I will stand for any questions. >> Do we have any questions for Miss Tucker? >> Thank you. Thank you. >> I'd like to electron our chief of student services and planning, Dr. Michael Harris, for the student services and planning report. >> [clears throat] >> Uh good evening uh members of the board, Dr. Ross, our community, uh those who are online as well. We uh like to take an opportunity tonight to in the spirit of graduation, as we anticipate on Friday of this week, we wanted to talk just a little bit about what I like to refer to as the other book end of the district, and that's adult education. And tonight, we have our director, uh Dr. John McMillan who's done a super fantastic job of leading our adult education

025program. Going to have him tonight just kind of share some highlights and also invite you to the edge graduation forthcoming as well. Dr. Mil. >> Thank you Dr. Harris. Good evening everyone. Thank you for allowing me to take a few minutes of your time to explain some of the exciting things that we have regarding adult education. When we think of Lexon and Richland School District 5, it's easy to think about our great college prep curriculums, AP IB programs, but it's also important to remember that we serve a district that has some students who have challenges. And one such program that does this is the adult education program, which I'm the proud director of. I want to take a few minutes and explain some of the great things that we have to offer. When you think

026about adult education, think about a four-part machine. The first part of that machine is our adult basic education program. We call it AB for short. And there are two tracks in that program. You have the GED track where a student can come and get his or her GED. You also have that diploma track where students can finish up coursework and earn a high school diploma. Now, we all know how difficult it is to survive in this world without a high school diploma or a GED. So, the services that we provide are extremely extremely important and they're of benefit to our community. Um, one interesting fact about our AB track is the fact that to this day we have we are responsible for 125 students either gaining a GED or a high school diploma. And we're

027extremely extremely proud of that. The next part of this machine is our ESL program. ESL is where our teachers work with our immigrant populations, teaching them English as a second language. There's also a civics component alongside this where we in essence teach them how to be American citizens. Um, also understand how difficult it is just being from another country, coming here, learning the language, learning the culture, and then being asked to do something like register your child for school or apply for social services or applying for a job. Our ESL teachers help our students with that. An interesting fact about our ESL program. This year we served immigrants from Japan, China, South Korea, Mexico, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Puerto Rico, the Republic of the Congo, Honduras, Pakistan, and several Caribbean countries. And that's just to name

028a few. What this shows is how diverse our population here is in this community, but it also shows that we're up for the challenge of serving those students. The third part of the adult education machine is our college and career component. We have a college and career navigator on site and her job is to provide that career pathway for the students. She helps students with resumes, interviews, college tours, bringing public speakers to talk about career options. We also cor connect our students with vocational rehab services. Um, our students also work with SC works of Colombia and other services that help find jobs for our students. Interesting fact about our college and career track, we have a pharmacy technician program. This program trains students to work in pharmaceuticals alongside licensed pharmacists. Our program established a partnership

029with Walgreens. To this day, we've graduated 12 pharmacy technicians. Six of these have state certifications. Six have national and state certifications. Five have been placed on jobs. And two have jobs pending. So, we're extremely busy in this program. The fourth part of our f is our family literacy program. We all understand that reading is fundamental. Most of our students come to us with some sort of reading and writing deficiency. Family literacy works with families to infuse literacy in the household and the goal is in essence to help parents help children become better readers. Interesting fact about our family literacy program. over 50 families have benefited from family literacy services and uh we're extremely proud of that as well. In closing, the last thing I want to share is the fact that our program went through

030a compliance monitoring review with the South Carolina State Department of Education. They evaluated our program from top to bottom and we have stellar ratings. So, we're very happy about that. Just keep in mind that these important decisions that you're making, they affect us as well. So, thank you for all that you're doing. Keep going and stay strong. I really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have any questions, Miss Huddle? >> Hi. Um, I was curious about the relationship between um the AB, the diploma track, and say a student that may have um dropped out of one of our high schools and um maybe all they needed was were one or two credits to graduate? What determines whether they go back? Uh is it an age thing or what determines whether they go

031back to their regular high school or come to your program? >> It's it's really just a matter of preference. preference. Um there there's an option. We work alongside the students. We treat every case individually and process with those students. We call them in um working alongside the home school, uh working with that student's family, looking at credentials, looking at past work history, and just seeing what's best. But we have pretty fluid doors. So really, it's just a matter of what's the best option for that student. >> So for example, if they were um 17, would they be allowed to go to your program if >> Sure. 17 and up. We can take 16 by state laws, but our program really focuses on that 17 and up. Um, you know, what what I've been finding and

032seeing as a trend is it's really people are trying to get younger and younger coming to adult education. So, you know, that's something that, you know, you have to look out as far as trends and making sure we provide those supports in our traditional school setting. But yes, 17 year olds are allowed. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, sir. >> Um, I'm just curious, do you have conversations with the students that enroll in your program and ask or inquire why they dropped out of high school to begin with? >> We we do. Um, one thing you'll find in regards to adult education, we talk about barriers. What what are the things that will prevent a student from metriculating through our program, but we also discuss those barriers that were there when you were

033in your traditional setting. Um, and I I spoke about this before when I was working on my dissertation. One of my colleagues was talking about her dissertation and what she was working on. And what she was charged to do was find out some of the top reason students were dropping out of high school um in her program. And academic skill and prowess was deep on the list. Um students are dropping out for a myriad of reasons. It's no longer they're not able to do the work. uh bullying, mental health, um social health, um all all sorts of things. So, all of these things play a role and when we interview these students, we uncover those things. >> Good for you for asking and inquiring and getting that feedback from kids because that helps schools and

034helps high school principles. I know that when I would talk to students that were considering dropping out, a lot of times it's just they just felt like they just didn't fit in. It was just not the place for them and they just wanted to get out as quickly as they could. >> True. >> And some very bright students. >> Very bright. >> I think that's probably one of the things that a lot of folks don't understand. These are not kids that just can't do the work. >> Right. Right. >> They're really, really bright. Thank you, sir. >> That's no problem. I just want to thank uh everybody for um giving me this opportunity to express this platform. I want to thank the superintendent. I want to thank all of the departments um in our district.

035They play play a vital role in just helping us all be successful. So, thank you so much for this opportunity. Are there any other questions? >> Thank you so much, sir. >> Graduation May 28th. Um I think 7 o'clock. We're still planning that. But I just remember um I was teaching in the classroom and now I'm talking to the board. Moving on. >> Look at God. >> Great job, Doc. So, so proud of the program and some of the graduation speeches you're going to hear will be at the adult ed graduation. I invite to the lect turn the chief of the office of academics miss for the academics report. >> Good evening. Thanks board chair Dr. Ross board. I am going to follow up with adult ed with a partner with adult ed actually our

036CTE program. um they collaborate, talk through things as well and I appreciate the collaboration of all the departments but um Mr. Priy is going to come. He's our director of CTE and give you some really good numbers for you to look at. So I think you'll be happy to see these. Thank you, Miss McCascal, Madame Chair, board members, Dr. Ross. appreciate you uh allowing me to come in and bring this good news. What I want to talk about is understanding our federal CARL Perkins Act performance indicators. Every year we have to meet certain federal regulations and guidelines in CTE and I just want to go through them real brief and I've reported this I think every year since I've been here. We have indicators for the four-year graduation rate, which helps the district graduation rate,

037our academic proficiency in reading and language arts. It's not just career related, it's the overall uh umbrella for every student, academic proficiency in mathematics, academic proficiency in science. And these are all based off of the EOCC's that our students take in their junior and senior year. Then we have our post-p program placement. We're required by the state and by the Carl Perkins Act that our students need to either go into postsecary education, some type of advanced training, which is the for those that are familiar the uh job core. We don't see many going there. Military service as you've seen this evening service program or are employed. Okay. And then non-traditional program concentration. This is one that we have been saying that we should not be judged on and I'll talk about that when I get

038to that slide. But this is like a young lady going into law enforcement. That's non-traditional for a young lady and a male young man going into cosmetology. That's non-traditional. And we can't say young man, you're going to go in cosmetology. It's it's a choice. And percentage, program quality, the attain recognized postsecondary credential. We're under a new system this year, but I want to say for sure this year we've had 3,172 certifications completed in District 5. All righty, let's crunch the numbers. Four-year graduation rate, I know Dr. Ross was looking for 90%. In CTE, our performance is 98.1 of our students graduate high school. And then for our academic proficiency in ELA, we have gotten 84.5%. And I'll explain this just a little bit on this slide. The SDPL is the state determined performance level. That's

039the state saying you have to be in this case 61% but in order to be good to go and not have to do an improvement plan you have to meet 94 90% of that 61 which is 54.9. So you can see we're well above what's required. Proficiency in mathematics we're at 73.5%. In science we are at 64%. Postsec uh postprogram placement 97.8% 8% of our CTE graduates are either going to postsecary employed military or some other type of training. In our non-traditional, we are at 29.5%. In the state is at 21.28. And like I said, non-traditional is a hard one because I can't say to any young lady, you will take automotive or you will go into law enforcement. It's their choice, but we do enough recruiting and marketing that we're way above what the

040state requires. Okay? And I thank our career specialists and counselors for that because they really work hard to do that. And our recognized postsecary credential, our performance at 90.8 8. So, like I said, we had over 3,000 during the 2526 school year. That's not 3,000 students, it's 3,000 credentials. Most of our students have three or four credentials when they graduate. Questions? >> Thank you. Do we have any questions, Miss Huddle? Um so back on your other slides with the um the state targets etc. Um what is is a student taking one class part of that pool or do they have to be complete a credential program or what is the pool of students that must meet those criteria? >> This is based off that's a great question. This is a lot of people are confused

041on this. It's not completing the program. It's being a concentrator, which is completing the first two required courses in a pathway. For an example, automotive. If they complete automotive level one, level two, they're a concentrator and they're put into this pool. Now, cosmage is a little bit different because they have to complete three required courses because that's a eight unit completer program. Any other questions? >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you, Mr. [clears throat] Priy. And I'll just like to uh end didn't have a slide for this uh but today middle school held their first um nest celebration. And this was the statement from seventh grader uh JB that I just wanted to share publicly. I'm not going to say the student's name, but the initials JB. He

042thanks his teachers, his principles, Dr. Uldres for the program, but he says, "Before I finish, I just want to thank say thank you to everyone in the NEST program. I'm going to be honest. When I first came to the NES, I thought it was a bad place to be and nobody could change my mind, but I was completely wrong. The nest program turned out to be the place where I learned a lot, grew as a person, and had fun along the way. It helped me work on things I struggled with, whether that was school work, making better choices, or believing in myself. To the students who may come to the nest in the future, my advice is this. Don't judge it before you experience it. I used to think the same way you might be

043thinking right now, but I learned that the nest is really place that helps you become better and stronger. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody's perfect. What matters most is that we learn from our mistakes, grow from them, and keep moving forward. Nest helped me to do that. And for that, I'm truly thankful. And I just want to share that as a district, we serve all students in all spaces. Um, and to have programs that meets them in their spaces certainly means a lot. So, thank you for the support of that program. That's our work to ensure that we love and grow all of our students. And that concludes the superintendent's report. >> Thank you, Dr. Ross. Do we have any questions? Do I have a motion to approve the minutes from the May 4th meeting? >> I'll

044make a motion to approve the minutes of the May 4th, 2026 board meeting. >> All in favor? And the motion carries six to zero. That um brings us to public participation. The board welcomes and encourages public participation. We respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy BEDH public participation and meetings. Your comments should be limited to three minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your signin form or a listed agenda item. Questions asked during public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy BH. Miss Taylor. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Anna Yaku is here to speak about violation of South Carolina regulation 43220. >> Good evening. Uh I have some papers that I will have to distribute to all seven members of board of trustees and superintendent.

045Is that possible? Good evening. My name is Anna Daw, mother of Alex Molina, fifth grade student, Chaping Intermediate School. I'm standing here tonight because after five meetings, two months, and every internal channel this district offers, nothing has changed. This is not an opinion. These are facts. Alex is formally identified by the state as gifted and talented since 2023. His KOAT and math map testing put him at 98 99 national percentile. The district's record show the word serving. Yes, this district receives extra state funding designated for Alex as a formally identified gifted student for one purpose, to provide him with the differentiated education that South Carolina regulation 43-20 requires. But here's what that funding is not being used for. Alex is placed in AGB class sharing instruction with students that are not state identified or at

046a much lower percentile. His math teacher who holds a state GT certification applies identical instruction to all class. Regulation is not a suggestion, it's the low. This district is receiving state funds specifically to comply with that law for MSON and is not complying. Alex physician has diagnosed him with chronic stress and headaches direct result from this educational neglect that affects his daily life. These are the documented medical consequences [snorts] of systematic inst institutional failure. When we raise our concerns, the district formed a student assistant team to make decisions about his health and academics. That team was composed only of administrative staff under direction of Miss McCascal. The principal and the school psychologist both required by low were excluded and qualified personnel made formal decisions. After five meetings they impose no different gifted student service plan

047for next school year despite his 98 99th percentiles. no psychological evaluation from the school despite his medical condition and denial of 504 evaluation with no prior reader notice in violation of federal law. I'm formally requesting that this board take immediate action direct the district to create a written GT plan for Alex within 10 days in compliance with regulation 43 to20 for next school year. initiate a psychological evaluation and independent section 504. Audit the use of state funds received for Alex and the dozens of students in similar situation acknowledged by shift academic officer Miss McCascal. >> Ma'am, I'm sorry we're at time. >> Thank you. >> Jim Taylor is here to speak about Irmo High School upgrades. Good evening, Dr. Ross, Madame Chairwoman, esteemed members of our Lexington Richland District 5 Board of Trustees. I'm Jim

048Taylor, and I spoke before you a couple of months ago in support of the new press box, new scoreboard, and stadium improvements for WC Hawkins Stadium. I'm before you this evening asking for your support of those items and also for your support for teacher pay increases, coaching supplement increases, and student academic support. All of these items warrant your support. Over these last few months, like me, none of these facilities have gotten any younger. The safety concerns in facilities usability have not improved. WC Hawkins is a muchused facility for more than Imo football games, band competitions, soccer, lacrosse, PE classes, practice sessions, and more. Teams come from all around the state to participate in all day and not infrequently weekend long competitions. Young people and sometimes older folks unfamiliar with the facilities are flowing in and

049out during competitions. climbing the vertical ladder in the press box to access the open air roof area on top and back down again. Whatever conditions it may be, it is easy for me from our backyard deck to look across the practice fields, the bus parking lot, St. Andrews Road, and see the lights on at the stadium. When the lights are on, I'm reminded of the need for these facilities improvements that I'm speaking in favor of this evening. Fantastic new construction is underway and nearing completion at Irmo. When I pass the school and see the sparkling new light fixture shining in the entrance lobby, it reminds me of the sparkling bright students who will soon travel those halls. Thank you from the community and my family for the wonderful remaking you have facilitated for Hermo High

050School. That side of campus is rounding into shape. I urge your support for the press box scoreboard as well as teacher, coach, and student support. Those components will complete the modernization of Irmo High and show all who pass and use the school the commitment to public school education that is the bedrock of Lexington Richmond 5. Do it for the Hawk. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Ashley Thompson is here to speak about Irmo High School athletic facilities. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak and thank you all for your service to our schools, our children, and our community. I am a mother of two children in Lexington, Richland 5. I have a daughter who is finishing up her junior year at Spring Hill High School and a son who is an eighth grader

051at Irma Middle School. and both of my children have had the opportunity to participate in athletics at Irma High School. My daughter participated in varsity cheer as a seventh grader and my son is uh has this is his second year that he's been on the B team of the Hero High School uh soccer boys soccer team that has given me an opportunity to observe the facilities. I've been very involved as a parent this season with helping the team out. um doing concessions. Uh my husband has uh he we had a tournament a few weeks ago and he kept score and this has provided me much more insight into these facilities. What I've seen has been of concern with respect to health and safety. As I've operated concessions, I've noticed leaks. When it rains hard, that

052rain comes through the bleachers and down into the concession area. I think if we frequented a restaurant where that was happening, we'd have concerns about the safety of the food that we were consuming. Um, we have done everything to keep every to keep things clean when we're operating concessions. But I have to realize there must be some underlying problems there as well. The press box, there is foil over outlets. that has to present a safety concern. Um, I've also seen uh well before we started the season with concessions, we were warned that there were a couple of power surges during football games last season, you cannot overload the outlets in the concession area or there will be a power surge, which as you might imagine when you're running concessions, particularly for highly populated games, having

053everything shut down is a big problem. Um, I've also, um, also in the press box, the toilets are not working. Um, I think y'all heard over the course of things about how lengthy it is to get the trip is up into the and out of the press box and the people who are running the press box have no toilet facilities available to them at this point. Um, I also believe there's a mold issue in there as well. Um, I traveled fortunately with B team to multiple away games at different high schools and different districts and the issues with our concession stands, with our press box, with our facility in general. I mean, I hate to say it, but it's the worst I've seen. So, I'm hoping that you as a board will do something to

054improve the facilities and the safety concerns at Irmo High School. Thank you. Thank you. Dan Perini is here to speak about Irmo High School athletics. Board members, thank you for your time this evening. I'm here to ask for your support to fund the necessary capital improvements for the Armor High School athletic facilities. At the May 4th meeting, the v the vote resulted in a 3-3 tie due to one member being out absent. This means the outcome can still change. I'm asking you to vote yes for vital athletic facility upgrades. The current conditions present serious concerns for student safety, accessibility, and program quality. The stadium seating lacks adequate guardrails and injuries have have already occurred. As a result, ADA accessibility is severely limited with only one small designated area for wheelchair users. Additionally, the press box

055lacks restroom access and has reported mold concerns that should not be ignored. The absence of sufficient middle school athletic facilities has also created overcrowded and at times unsafe practice environments for student athletes. These improvements are not luxuries. They are necessary investments in the safety, well-being, and future of our students and community. Strong athletic and extracurricular programs contribute directly to student engagement, school pride, and overall educational experience. Our students, families, and staff deserve facil facilities that reflect standards of excellence our district strives to uphold. I respectfully urge you to vote yes on these improvement priority on these important priorities tonight. As was already stated, I'm a parent. I've gone to different athletic facilities across the state, even here within our district. The in the inequities between our own high schools is night and day. WC Hawkins

056is a shame to look at these days and it's up to you as a school board to improve the facilities not just for our students but also for our community. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Terara Sret is here. speak about Dutch Fork High School stadium improvements. [clears throat] Members of the board, thank you again for the opportunity to speak. I'm Tara Safe and the current president of the Dutch Fork High School Touchdown Club. Over the past several months, many of us have spoken about the condition of the stadium press box and scoreboard facilities. Videos and photographs have been cha shared. Invitations were extended for inerson visits. Concerns have been raised about functionality, safety, and the ability to properly support student activities. A thank you to this board for recognizing these needs and

057the funding for these important improvements. This demonstrates a commitment to our students, our athletic programs, and the long-term future of this facility and the well-roundedness of our students in this district. I'm here to respectfully ask that these projects remain a part of the funding. The needs that exist have not changed. The press box still presents operational and functional challenges. The scoreboard and video board issues still impact the experiences and the capabilities of multiple sports programs that use the stadium throughout the year. I want to again emphasize that this is not just about football. The stadium is shared by many student athletes. Many programs are affected when equipment and facilities cannot perform as intended. These improvements are not extras and they're not luxury requests. They are investments in the infrastructure that supports safety, communication, game management,

058student participation, and community engagement. not limited to, but an example of being ADA compliant, having the ability to get equipment safely up into the press box, restrooms for the people that are working up there. Dutch Fork has built a reputation for excellence over many years. Our students, coaches, staff, and families work hard to uphold that standard every day. The facilities that depend on they depend on should also reflect that same commitment. I understand there are always competing priorities and difficult decisions in budgeting and project planning, but I respectfully ask that the board ensure that stadium improvements remain a part of these funding priorities. When this community began advocating for these upgrades, it was never about one season, one team, or one group of parents. It's about creating functional facility that properly serves students now and

059for years to come. My son will graduate next year. my second son will that's graduating and it's unlikely that we'll see these improvements before then. But I'm not fighting just for my son. I'm fighting for all the athletes that deserve deserve a standard that's fitting of Dutch Fork High School in District 5. So I ask that you continue moving this project forward and keep these improvements in place. Our students and programs are counting on that. And in my third year of retirement from this district, I will continue in years to come to to provide opportunities to speak on improvements because I'm proud of this district and I hope to see my children's children be proud of this district as well. >> Thank you. >> Tracy Gryet is here to speak about Irma High School Press

060Books. Good evening, Dr. Ross and board members. I'm here today as a parent for a football athlete at Irma High School. I believe all schools in D5 should have operating video scoreboards, but I would like to focus on the Irma High School press box. The school holds soccer, football, lacrosse, and band events. Our students, parents, staff, and community work hard to represent Irma High School with pride and honor. That pride diminishes when v when visiting staff come and see that there's no video scoreboard, no modern technology. So that means there are no graphics and there's nothing for students to become involved in perhaps if they want to um be in involved in graphic design. And there's been no modern renovations or remodeling. Dr. Ross read a statement early this evening on the young man JB

061from Ir High School. He seems to be prideful of Irmmo High School and he's going to be probably a student of Ir. So, let's make it better for him if we don't make it better for anybody else. I am asking that you provide those renovations and remodeling for the Irma High School press box. Thank you. >> Thank you. Lisha Arrington is here to speak about press box at upgrades. Good evening members of the board. [clears throat] My name is Lisha Arrington and I'm here tonight not just as a parent. I'm also the booster club president. But as someone who deep as well as someone who deeply loves High School and everything that it represents in the community. 2026 to 2027 will be my son's final year at Irmmo High School. His last football season, his

062last Friday night underneath the lights. And it's emotionally is emotional knowing that these moments only happen once. But while our students continue to give their all every single week, the facilities around them still have been left behind for more than 20 years. The press box is outdated and unsafe. The staircase leading up to it steep, worn, and difficult to climb. Our announcer, who has faithfully supported athletics for years, who is also not as useful as he used to be, um, still make that climb every single game and does his job just the same. That should be a concern of our of us all. The bathrooms also need desperately upgrading. What makes this even harder is watching surrounding schools receive all the upgrades, renovations, and modern facilities. While Irmo continues to wait, our students work just

063as hard. Our community supports this school just as passionately. Yet, year after year, Irma is overlooked. This is not about luxury. This is about safety, dignity, and showing our students that they actually matter. Our athletes rep our athletes represents this district with pride. Our band performs with pride. Our students fill the stand with pride. Now it's time to for us to invest in them and give them that same pride. Please give give Irma High School the upgrades it deserves for far too long. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Tamara Butler is here to speak about Irma Press Box and allocation of funds. Good evening, [cough and clears throat] Dr. Ross and the board members. I am the parent of an honor student athlete and the current concessions manager at Irma High School. I spend countless

064hours preparing and managing our concession stand. Um, please know I am a dramafobe and running the concession stands definitely heightens my anxiety, but I keep pressing forward because this is the last job anyone wants to do. Um, and I have to do it for our children. Um, as this money ra as the money we raise goes back to them. With that being said, I see the good, the bad, and the ugly surrounding our football stadium, concession stand, press box, and other facilities at Irmo. I am a Chaping graduate, and to see the disparities amongst the communities um saddens my heart for the children of the Hero community. Our facilities are an eyesore. Um there are many unsafe conditions. I have been on the booster club for four years and have dreaded attempting to climb the

065mountain to the press box only to find out that my fears are correct because it is very hazardous. Um, my request today is that you all move to approve our request for a new press box and allocate the funds for other muchneeded upgrades to our facilities. Um, I also want to just talk about the heat exhaustion that we experienced in the concession stand. The sun is beaming directly on us. It's u the size of the concession stand is maybe from that chair to that table. Well, not that big. I'm exaggerating. Sure, it's smaller than that, but it's hot. It's tight. And just imagine 10 to 15 people in the concession stand trying to operate it. And you have lines of people. We have six to eight lines. And they go from where it starts at

066to the to the gate. So, that's a lot of um work that we're doing during the football season. It's very very hot. We have no AC as she pointed out. It definitely um leaks water. Um bugs that I have to deal with unfortunately. Um the power surges of course. Um the concession stand is directly under the bleachers. So that kind of sums up all the heat that is holding within. So you know please move to allocate our funds so that our facilities can be upgraded and our children can get what they deserve. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Kim Murphy is here to speak about Why no justification for keeping out of code Imo High building? >> Good evening. When the architect presented the Irma High School plans to the board and to the public

067for the new east wing, the entire east wing was to be demolished. the entire 58,000 square feet um wing because per statements there were extensive issues including code and safety issues and that it would be cost prohibitive to bring them up to code. The board approved it based on the presentation. This this presentation now that the administr Now now the administration is recommending keeping what looks like over half of the old building, but there has been no justification for keeping it except there are funds in the renovation budget which was set up to make important improvements to other district 5 schools. After the presentation by the architect, I commented that based on the the um classrooms that were colorcoded by subject in the new wing, there were not enough classrooms to accommodate the same number

068of students in the current east wing and that the capacity was significantly reduced. Um but there have been um there's been no notification to the board that this multi-million dollar new building um would have reduced capacity. Classrooms that are missing or foreign language electives um you don't see them on the color-coded plan. This could require us to build another high school with a reduced capacity. So what is the reason for keeping the old building? Is it because there is not enough capacity in the new building? Will the project c what will the project cost to demolish a portion of it and bring the old building up to code? Is there asbestous in the old building that could be costly? What schools won't get their needed improvements and renovations that were that they're due because of

069these changes. Um to me this is an example of another change at Irmal High School where there have been some transparency issues. Um and related to the stadium issues um the high schools may need it but the question to ask is how was how were they allowed to get to this point? Where is the money going or has it been going? Thank you. That moves us to our action agenda. First up is action is necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session. Do I have any motions? >> Make a motion to uh approve selected employment items as seen in exhibit A. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries five to zero. That moves us to the second and final reading. Approval of the spring 2026 capital project. Do I have a

070motion? >> Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of the spring 2026 capital projects as seen in exhibit E. >> Second. >> Do I have any questions or comments? Mr. Bana check. Okay. All right. >> As far we've heard, you know, from speakers and I've seen on social media as well, and I just want to get clarity on the press box projects. What does that encompass? Because I've heard everything from concession stands to bathrooms to softball fields, baseball fields, and I just don't want to get hopes up that it's, you know, because I've heard press box and getting that straight. I haven't heard all these other items. So we have we have some conceptual drawings of of what the press box could look like. It is the press box proper, but there

071will also um more than likely require some repair work to the existing um yeah for we'll say FMO for example some of the concrete and that could be where some of the water's penetrating. I don't know if you've been up to the stadium. I'm up there a lot and there is a there's a pretty big gap from the box itself to um to the actual [clears throat] seating. So when when we do get rain, it is going to come down directly down and it's going to fall right on top of where the concession stand is. So as we start going through that process of what the press box could look like and I've gotten some feedback from the ads and everyone's like, "Yeah, that looks great." Um, you know, we want to have something that

072is, you know, that's built for the future. We want to make sure it's something that's that's that's robust and is able to alleviate and solve these issues that we're seeing. So again, with like estimated 4.3 million divided between Dutch work and Imo, what's allowed to be spent by that money? Does it go down to concession stands? Does it go down to bathrooms? Will it fix ADA compliance issues? That's my question. >> So, um the that's just where we the architect's going to have to help us with that. So, but yes, I mean when you put that foundation in there, something's going to you're going to have to go into the actual ground. So, depending on how the press box is fully designed, you know, and we know we have a certain dollar amount, too. We

073know we cannot have the pre-cast built that we see in Chapman. It's just that's not in the in that budget, but there may be some things that we can do as we bring that box up. So, we we have to look and see what those options are >> and I want to make sure we answer the the press box the restroom we're talking about in the press box. So, that's a part of that renovation. But if you look at all of our concession stands, whether it's the Dutch Fork Stadium or the Hermo Stadium, the concession is built under the press box. So to hold that up, I think what Allan is saying is that we in order to put this facility above, you're going to create a space where we need to take care of

074we have duality there. You can take care of the concession issues because that's the base, the foundation of where your press box is going to be. None of them whether it's chapen dud for folk or mo do we have the press box and then we have concessions justified left or right they're all right underneath. So uh to the issues of the concrete the leaking the um we really need to go in there and and take care of all those coding issues and then above it when you deal with the actual press box is really monitoring the because you'll see all of that will come down as we erect new facilities. >> Correct. Mr. Scully. >> Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, first of all, uh, I apologize because I was not at the last meeting

075and had I been, uh, we would not be having this discussion tonight because we would have passed that vote. Um, so I I do apologize to you for that. Mr. Taylor, I agree with everything 100% of what you said. Uh, like you, I grew up and lived in Qu and looked across the railroad tracks at Armo High School. I graduated from Romeo High School. My blood runs black and gold. Um, I've got your back. And my I currently live in Dutch Fork. My kids go to Dutch Fork. Two of my kids graduated from Dutch Fork. My youngest daughter will be starting Dutch Fork next year at the high school. She's a dazzler, so she will be dancing on the football field. I've been to many games in that stadium and I agree 100% with what

076you your concerns and it is past time uh to to help those those facilities and those communities. Um and I am excited tonight to have the ability to do that. Um, to the lady who stood up talking about the Irmo concession stands. Ma'am, I can tell you you run the most efficient concession stand in this district. Nothing competes with Irmo High School. I know it's tough, but that is a you you run a lot of people through there. And I love Dutch Fork, but it doesn't hold a candle to the way you guys operate. So my I great job and we appreciate all your efforts and everything you do. Um and I agree with the lady who said that this these are investments. These are not this we're not sinking money and losing money on

077these. These are investments in our our facilities are capital improvements. They add value to our campuses. They add value to um the the community. There was a chapen a couple of meetings ago. There was a Chapen parent who was advocating for the scoreboard at Chapen. I don't want to forget them either. And he said it uh similar to what people said tonight about it's it's the look, it's our our presentation to the rest of the community uh when they see our facilities and they need to be top-notch. We our district is deserving of that. Our schools are deserving of that. So, I agree wholeheartedly with you. I cannot wait to pass this this motion and um I look forward to all the the great improvements and and that we do make and like you said,

078you know, there's priorities and we can't do everything, but it is past time to help these communities and help. Uh so when I vote, I'm going to have two hands up in the air. One's for one's for Dutch. So thank you, >> Mr. Boehner. Miss Tucker, at our last board meeting, um, were the bond issuances that pay for these projects passed? >> They were. Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Huddle. >> Thank you. Um, I have an amendment to make. I move to amend the motion to specify that equitable play areas for lunch, recess periods, and equal athletic fields for all middle schools are required. >> Second. Um, the reason I've got that in there is the the thing that's been holding me back is what exactly are we going to get for the middle schools?

079And um, still not getting that. So, I'm going to back up and say at least let's require that they be fair and equitable. So, we're not discussing this again at the middle school level because one school got what the rest did not. I have a question um for Allan. Uh the equity piece has been something that has come up. Um what I worry about um I feel like Allan explained to us before that there's either it's space or it's land or something. But maybe uh as far as the middle school piece, some schools may be able to get I don't know a gaga pit, but maybe some other school like logistically cannot get it. And so I worry about how to how to phrase how to phrase that that language. >> So whenever you look

080at like um Irma Middle School, they are laying locked to a certain area. There's not a whole lot of space. You really there's not a whole lot of you really can't put a field. all you have is a basketball court and a small gaga pit. So, um you know, you're you're not able to do that when [clears throat] you go and you look at at Dutch for middle. Um you know, we know we have a a hill that kids go down. We know we need to build a retaining wall. We know we need to make that to where kids aren't rolling down a hill. So, there are things that we need to do to um you know, to get the get these fields where they need to be. So, um, it it's hard to sit

081there and say, "Hey, every every every middle school is going to get a gonna get this massive m multi-use field. It's just we can't fit it into certain schools." Like, for example, Hermo Middle School, but then you go look at like a crossroads middle where they can put realistically like three or four different fields out there. So, there's more that you can do. And then, you know, when you look at how close that they, you know, that space that they share, um, you know, it makes a little bit more sense to where you say, "Hey, you know, both schools will have to start utilizing this field because you could probably, I don't know, from the the uh car rider loop to the basketball gym is a is a stone throw. I know I'm I'm here

082almost every weekend and and I drive by and I can look at the schools and I just want to see who's all utilizing the fields after hours. You see people playing tennis. You see people out there on the fields run around. You see a lot of different things going on. Um but for us to sit there and say, "Hey, we could put a field at Herma Middle School." That's that's would be really tough for us to make that happen. >> My issue with that is I feel like we're getting asked to approve something and we still don't know what we're approving. And this has been going on for months and I don't understand why somebody can't just say even if it's not equitable. So that's what I'm hearing. It's not going to be equitable. So

083if it's not going to be equitable, >> excuse me, Dr. Ross, I was speaking. If it's not going to be equitable, I think we at least need to know what we're approving. >> I mean, the biggest mistake I've made on this board probably is approving that Chapen High School um press box because I did not know it was going to be that big and have certain features that I was unaware of. So, I'm not going to make that mistake again. And I want to make sure that we know what these schools are getting. >> Well, while we know that we're not Okay. >> You've been characterized as saying that you're not providing equitable things. I want to be careful because the things that you say are being mischaracterized. So, I'll speak. The question is why

084don't we have this information? I'd like to speak to that to the board. We asked for this information in detail in September 22nd, 2025. That was denied to us. We asked for this information again in January, January 12th, 2026. It was denied to us again. We did not get approval to see exactly what the cost would be until February. A&E process, Mr. Knots, to to get A&E to do the procurement to get the drawings to see exactly what we can place on that. What's the timeline on that? >> It can take upwards of six months or more. >> Six months minimum. So, I think it's disingenuous to prevent the administration from providing details twice and then delay the vote because we don't have what we've asked for since September. This is a six months process.

085We've delivered a budget. The budget is not exact. But nowhere did the administration say we're not trying to be fair to all of our schools. What's not fair is their state, their current state. We ask for permission to move forward to take care of improving their current state. This has to come back before this body before approval. At that point, we can determine if we met equity or not. We have been denied two times to move forward and now being characterized as withholding information that we've asked for since September the 22nd, 2025. That's what the record says. So, I want to be careful to make sure that we're not mischaracterized as saying we're providing inequitable facilities. We asked to be able to get exact estimates or the best estimates possible so that when we are

086at this moment, we can share exactly what was going on to those stadium uh to those those fields uh for those students. As one of the speakers correctly said, it's a relief to our current athletic program. So, not just middle schools that benefit from this, it's our entire secondary uh athletic program. We hope that this budget has passed so that we can move forward with actually getting actuals or the best estimates that we can to take care of the conditions of the field that are not up to par. Now, >> I'm going to call for the vote. All those in favor? >> Oh, I forgot we had an amendment. I'm sorry. What did Miss say? >> I was asking, are you on the amendment? >> Yep. I forgot about the amendment. My apologies. Um, we

087have an amendment um to the original motion on the floor. All those in favor? Opposed? >> Mr. Did you raise a hand? >> No, we didn't get where. >> Yes. So on the amendment, who opposes? That's where we are right now. >> Yeah. Let me just repeat it. Um, I move to amend the motion to specify that equitable play areas for lunch, recess periods, and equal athletic fields for all middle schools are required. >> Correct. All those in favor of the All those in favor of Miss Huddle's amendment opposed. All right, the motion fails and now we're back to the original motion. All those in favor of approving the spring capital projects opposed. And the motion carries 5 to one. That moves us to number 14 on the action agenda. Approval of the conceptual site

088plan for Irmo High School phase two. I'll make a motion to approve the conceptual site plan for Hermo High School phase 2C, the partial demolition of the existing east wing as seen in exhibit F. >> All right. Is there a presentation? Yes, we do have um there's been some questions about this and so uh I'll turn the lectern over to Mr. Knots, but as a timeline just to uh be sure, we brought this for discussion on March 9th, 2026. At that discussion, we talked about the uh phase 2B, which is the small business incubator [clears throat] and the phase 2C, the partial demolition of the existing east wing. Um Dr. Hampton and Alan Knox presented and then after that March 9th meeting um our architects LS3P was going to host a community meeting. They hosted

089that community meeting on phases 2B and 2C on Thursday March 26 2026 uh which was in our superintendent report. We brought this project back again for discussion on May 4th for the Irma High School 2B and entry plaza update and uh we had uh Clint and Tyler McKenzie present that and now we bring for approval the conceptual site plan for phase 2C the partial demolition of the existing east wing. Uh so uh we thank uh the team for being here to answer any questions about this project. Mr. KN. >> Yep. Madame Chair, Dr. Ross, members of the board, I would like to um turn this over to Mary Beth Brandom and Tyler McKenzie of LS3P to walk through the uh phasing of Irma High School. >> Good evening, Dr. Ross, Madame Chair, and members of

090the board. I'm so pleased to be back here before you tonight to kind of refresh everyone's memory of of how far we've come in in quite a bit of time. I'm very excited about where our building of the new east wing is coming along. We're all very excited at the progress. We are so excited to have our partners with Edcon here with us tonight. Um, as you know, phase 2A uh is the new student center and activity center, the cafeteria, uh, which is, uh, well under construction right now. So, we're excited to see that coming out of the ground. And then of course phase 2B which is renovating the old cafeteria to turn it into and kitchen to turn it into our new student incubator space. And then partial uh part C2 2C which is

091the partial um demo of existing west wing to allow for a beautiful new parking area and plaza as you see on the phasing. Uh now to zoom in a bit on uh 2C which is um the site plan showing where the demo of the old portion of the one portion of East Wing as you see in the dashed yellow area which will allow for the new parking and the new kind of prominade entry to the new um reworked plaza area which then we can really see from St. Andrews Road, the new um place that was the cafeteria that becomes this business incubator space, as well as the stadium, and there'll be a nice new entry um um gate and and entry signage to that. So, that's basically it in a nutshell for what I'm presenting.

092Does anyone have any questions? >> Mr. Bum, >> I don't know if this is design or operationally. Just some of the questions about the the east swing section. I don't know if y'all going to speak to that. Do we do we feel like it's structurally sound, ready to go for the purposes that we're planning? >> Messed up here. So, um I mean that's a very good question. And so I went back and I pulled um the MBcon report that was back in 2019 just to get kind of get a baseline between that and the MPS report and I didn't want to bring that big massive stack. It's kind of hard for me to carry really anything right now. So um the major concerns through [snorts] the MBON report was school layout is unproductive and to

093to the current educational program needs and there was another bullet point for athletic program needs and another one for furniture and uh antiquated um you know just antiquated furniture and it's not flexible. Then it goes into the physical condition. It talks about the um the entrance between the performing arts center and and the main school. they just they don't really align. Um so that was talked about um some of the HVAC systems um some of the roofing systems and um and lighting and then it talks about um you know you know just a couple other smaller things insufficient Wi-Fi stuff along those lines. [clears throat] So that was the MDOT report. after going through that massive book for um you know with the NPS facility consition assessment, there were some ADA things in there, there

094is some roofing needs in there and there's some um um HVAC opportunities for improvement. Um nowhere in there does it say anything structurally behaved. This building is not sound or anything along along those lines. It's just dated. You know, you have old Terazzo in there. You [clears throat] have a lot of history in there. You have lockers. It just looks like an older an older facility, you know, one that's been lived in and used, but nothing in there at all that says, "Hey, you know, um, you know, you just need to, you know, you know, drop it all to the ground." >> Um, is this portion of the building built the same way? The the portion that's um going to be the parking lot, is that a one story? Was it a one-story school and

095they put the second story on top of it? >> I believe that's shaking hands. >> Okay. Um so several several questions related to this. Um number one is um will the the renovation um bring it up to code? >> So there's no you know when we say renovation and I'm not even sure where that terms come from. We're going to, you know, the plan, the proposal is to remove the, you know, part of the existing building and then basically put up a wall and then meet the code requirement to have an an eress point. Okay. >> That's all that's required. >> The plan is not to renovate the portion of the east wing that would remain >> to go through and renovate everything and make it brand spanking new like >> to bring No. Well,

096to bring it up to code. >> So, the only thing to bring it up to, you know, that we have to do based off the year it was built from my understanding is I had that eress point out. >> Okay. So, the renovation will not bring it up to current building codes. For example, will it have sprinklers added? >> That is I don't believe that's a requirement for us to do that because the when the building was built, we're not we're not improving that part of the building. We're just dropping an existing piece of the building. >> Okay. Um so, I was going to share my concerns. I'm the only person that was on this board when we voted to do this and the my understanding is there's no sprinklers in that building. My understanding

097is that there's a cold tar pitch roof on the first over the first floor that was originally built was when it was a one-story school and all the HVAC is in there and then we put a second story on top of it. So that cold tar pitch roof is still in there. Is that correct? I'm not certain. >> Okay. Um and then so Okay, I'll just leave it at that. >> I'll let you go ahead. >> Yeah. Um, so after it the demolition of the the uh current building and and you put the wall in at the existing east wing to remain, will it still be able to you be used that building still be able to be used the way it's been used for the last 70 years for example >> to, you know,

098have classrooms and such? >> Like people be in it and go to school? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. PE people could I mean people are in it now. >> Yeah. >> You know and and then all we're doing is just making that space a little smaller, >> right? So like when I was at school, I used it in 1990 to 92. Will once we demolish the part that we're tearing down and build the wall and the egress, will will the remaining building be able to use the way be used the way it was when I was in school? >> Yes, sir. and the way that my cousins were in school 20 years before me. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And so in the event that we have a future need to increase our enrollment for Hero

099High School beyond what it is say in the next five years. Um would it be cheaper, more cost effective and more costefficient to renovate the existing building that's there than as opposed to knocking it down and having to build an entirely new building. Which one would be the most cost effective? >> You know, um I know it would be, you know, kind of hard to get those numbers. We do know that renovations are a little bit more tricky. >> I mean, just kind of ballpark in general. >> Um >> honestly, it'd be hard for me to ballpark that that piece, you know, to to, you know, to go through that, you know, because I don't know what the renovations are. Are we just doing a cosmetic renovation? Are we doing just like finishes and stuff

100like that? That'd be a lot cheaper than building a new building. Um, typically anytime you have a shell of something and you can go through and you can do an update, it's always going to be, you know, for the most part it's cheaper than it is to build something out of the ground. >> Okay, that's that's what I was asking. Thank you, >> Mville. I'm sorry I didn't see your hand before. >> Just a quick question. Does OSF have to get involved with the facility once it goes through that process? >> Yes. So they will go through and they will look at where we are dropping a portion of the building. >> Correct. >> And then how we basically put a new wall in place. And then they're going to go through and make sure

101that we meet the required codes to get people out of the building. >> Okay. >> Make sure that we are compliant. >> Art, if you just for uh the sake of the community explain what goes into dropping uh half of that building and what that process looks like. That process is going to look like um a lot of concrete rubble, uh a lot of materials. They'll the demolition contractor will come in and remove any any key materials. First thing they'll do, they will um take the the district's asbestous reports and just read through those and and make sure everything's clear from that standpoint and follow the DHECK state regulations as necessary. Um, then we'll come down and we'll fence off everything from from a safety standpoint and make sure that works. We'll we'll communicate with

102the the district facility and and the school district of where those need to be and make sure we keep those egress pathways clear. Uh, and then we'll bring in the equipment and and start removing the building. So, it'll be a process that will be anywhere from two to three months of actually demolition work. We're not exactly sure what that's going to look like because this thing was built like a tank. And uh it's it's going to be interesting to come down, but it's uh it's something that we we I've brought some folks in there. We've looked at it. The design team and I have gone up and climbed in this roof space that Miss Huddle was talking about. Uh it's an interesting space, but uh it's something that certainly we can do and move forward

103with. >> Miss Huddle. Um, I move to postpone the motion until the board has received a report from a professional civil engineer on any safety and structural problems with the building, a polyyclic aromatic hydrocarbon air quality test, and a cost estimate for bringing the building up to current code and resolving all identified issues. >> Second. >> Um, and the reason I made that motion is to answer Mr. Scully's question. When I was on the board, we were told that it would cost more to fix it than it would be to drop it and replace it, which was the entire reason we did the whole east wing. Um, and I personally had safety concerns. I'm no engineer, but just walking through that building and seeing the cracks in the walls and seeing that space and knowing

104what that colar is made out of, I [clears throat] think that before we proceed with this, it would be a good idea to find out what is wrong with it and what would it take to fix it? Are those not things that um would have come up in the MPS report? So those things could come up in the NPS report. We didn't see anything structural about the the building at all. Um you know I I don't even think there was anything about any biological growth or anything air quality that I can recall off the top of my head. Most of that stuff was hey we have you know need to you know replace your HVAC units that are end of life. You know we have some roofing opportunities there. Things along those lines. And I'm

105only asking because I um you know some of these questions were brought up before to me. So I had been asking them in preparation um of the meeting and then I know we paid for that report before. So I guess so I guess the the question I'm asking is do we not do we want somebody else to do the same report? I'm just trying to get Go ahead. >> Well, so the the MB Andy Con report identified I think it was almost 39 $40 million worth of problems at Irmo. It was the high school. It was the school with the biggest price tag on it. They didn't go into gory detail. Neither did um MPS. They they looked at all the schools and did a visual. I'm I'm talking about a structural engineer that would

106go in a civil engineer that would go in and look at the structure, look at the coal part cold tar pitch. The the test the air quality test is to see if any of those part those particles are getting into the HVAC because the HVAC units are sitting on top of that that roof. That roof was never designed to be enclosed. It was designed to be an outside roof open to the air. So again, I'm just saying let's wait and get an engineer to study a to before we vote to keep something that may be problematic. I'll just be honest, too. The the lack of sprinklers, yes, you don't have to do it if you don't renovate it, but is that really what we want? Do we really want people in a building without sprinklers?

107Well, and you know, speaking of buildings without sprinklers, there's a good portion of our schools that do not have sprinklers in schools. And you know, sprinklers are one thing, but you do have to have a fire alarm system. And we do have a fire alarm system up in there in those HVAC units. It is a requirement, is a code requirement because if a building's on fire, that the alarm's going to go off, people are going to get out of the building. So, um, you know, that's just one thing I've noticed since I've been within the district that a good chunk of our schools are not sprinkled. And you're saying that's not a code violation obviously because we don't >> not at that not at that point in time. >> It's not a requirement. >> It

108was not required. >> Let me get Mr. Herring and then Mr. >> So have there been um is anyone presented safety concerns about the students that have been in this building for the past four years? >> Not since I've been here. I I would say Irma High School is probably one of the lowest schools that requested uh I AQS um indoor air quality test. We have a lot of other schools that do request them for whatever the reason may be. So we'll get with our third party folks. They'll go in, they'll do um they'll they'll go check the space for growth, any kind of biological growth or anything along those lines is test overall air quality. Um we I I don't you know from a high school we haven't had that many. And when the

109MPCON report was done, if there were things that were this concerning, would students have been allowed to go back in the building? And in in the world that I kind of live in, I've lived in for several years, if someone says, "Hey, I have a piece of paper and this piece of paper here says it's not safe," then you don't you no longer use that said thing. Because [clears throat] if we had something that was unsafe and then we allowed a child, a student to continue to use it, then, you know, then that that's that's that's on us. You know, we should never do anything along those lines. So, um there's nothing I'm seeing here throughout any of these issues that says, "Hey, you should no longer use this building." Um you know, you know,

110we may get a call that says, "Hey, listen. We have a major problem. We make sure that's done and repaired stat. hand we try to address it as as soon as possible. Somebody calls in about air quality um testing where we have a process in place that we get that done and we check it and then if there is an issue we fix that issue and then we come back and retest again to make sure that that place is safe. [clears throat] >> I'm sorry. >> Thank you. Uh yeah, the reason I asked for this item to be on the agenda in the first place was because we had concerns that we had not voted to approve remaining the leaving the east wing to remain. And so the reason I asked for it to be

111on this agenda so that we can resolve that concern and vote so that we don't go forward with any questions that the board never voted to leave this this part of the facil facility standing. uh even though I didn't think it was necessary, but I wanted to help resolve concerns. And so that's why I put it on the I asked for it to be on the agenda. And so we can still do that tonight. And I think that we should my recommendation to the board would be let's uh deny Miss Huddle's motion to because that would again delay us and keep us in a perceived state where we had not voted to have that building remain. So we need to resolve that. So let's do that tonight. And if anybody wants to later add to

112an agenda a separate question to do a study for the structural integrity of any building because we don't have Mr. Knox, do we have any papers or any inspections or anything indicating structural problems for any of our buildings and facilities in the district? >> No, sir. Not that I'm aware of. >> Okay. Including Armo High School. So, if we're gonna delay this motion to ask for inspections on a building that has no in indications of problems, then we need to do that for all of our facilities in the district that also don't indicate problems because how would we know otherwise? But let's just my let's resolve the question and the concern of having not voted specifically to leave the east wing uh portion of the building upstanding because that was the original concern and that's

113the purpose for this motion to be on the agenda in the first place. So, one other thing I do want to bring up. I'm sorry. >> As we go through this process, we still have to bring a price back to the board for approval. So, I mean, it's, you know, this this is going to be more than $50,000 to So, it's going to have to it will come back to y'all for review and approval. Um, you know, to drop the building. So, I just wanted to also let everyone know that >> it is not a final because we still understood. >> This just helps us get to that that step. >> Okay. Before I call the vote, I think I had two questions down here and then we're going to vote. >> Just a quick

114question. Uh, if we don't have to spend the money to demolish the entire building, would that be a savings for our district? In other words, if we only take down if we keep that section, that section of the building, would that be a cost savings for our school district? >> Yeah. So, we're not so we wouldn't be spending money, you know, toward bringing it down. So, we would not have to spend that money. So, um, It's hard for me to say cost savings, but we would not spend the extra additional funds that that could go to something else. Um, >> could that go to the applying to that particular building to >> correct? It could go, you know, that money could go back into the u the business incubator and the and the surrounding areas

115of of the business incubator. That's for that project. >> Got a question. >> I would I would just like to interject, but then the parking the additional parking would not be available. I just want to make it clear if you do not dem demolish that portion of the building, I just wanted it clear that the parking the additional parking for the stadium would not be able to be built. So, I just wanted you to realize if you give and take. >> Thank you, Mary Beth. And then you had something to settle. >> Um, yes. I just want to encourage my board members to think about why would a very fiscally conservative board unanimously vote to tear this down and rebuild it if we believed and we were given information that this building had a longterm

116not today not it's falling down today but it had long-term prospects for our students. I also want you to consider that there that we have smaller enrollment than we did when this building was built. So there's not a enrollment need and there we have this the new wing was built for 1650 let's say and we have 1250 right now. So do we want to keep a building and not bring it up to code? Do we want to keep a building that has this tar pitch roof in between levels without checking out any impact on the air quality? Do we want to make that decision today? >> When would the demo happen and how long would it take? >> I would like the demo happen really, really quick, but I know that's not going to happen.

117So, I I think at this point because we have a lot of different factors that in a lot of moving pieces and parts. Um, this probably wouldn't happen um, you know, into the latter part of this year. >> Would it happen during school or >> so they can they can drop some of the stuff during school because as a part of one of the one of the requirements with the state to make sure that we keeping kids safe, they would it would there would be a barrier. So the children and the students would not be able to get into the construction site. very similar to what we currently have right now. >> But after I mean after the kids so you'd have them all in the new wing >> contained within this warm park. You

118want >> correct? Okay. >> All right. We have we have um first we'll take a vote on Miss Huddle's motion to defer until we get another feasibility study. All those in favor? Opposed? The motion fails 4 to2. Back to the original motion on the floor to approve the concessional site plan. All those in favor? Opposed? The motion carries. Four to two. All right. That moves us to number 15. request pursuant to board policy BEGA board records. Is there a motion to be made? >> Um Dr. Herring, I'm going to um if it pleases you, the vice chair, I'm going to um with withdraw my request and um just um submit them as foyer request >> for all of them. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. And that moves us to the discussion agenda. Um item 16

119on the agenda. discussion regarding the supplemental study. Uh Dr. Ross, is that you? >> Uh yes, sir. And I want to ask uh to invite to the lectern our chief of human resources, Dr. Tamara Turner, to present our supplement study and introduce our guests. Dr. Turner. >> Good evening, uh members of the board and Dr. Ross. Um tonight's discussion, we've invited uh our partners from the Center for Effective School Operations. you'll see them on the screen to virtually present tonight. Mr. Rick Crier and Megan Mallister. Before I trans um turn it over to them, I will provide a reminder that our district provides base salaries, but in addition to that, we also provide supplements to compensate employees for additional duties. Right now, our supplement schedules reflect um supplement payments for extracurricular um activities such as

120athletic coaches. We also have special duties for PK through 12. And so these encompass uh duties such as dance, being sponsors for various clubs and organizations. We were asked to review our supplement pay um to ensure that we've remained competitive. And in order to do that, we've engaged with the Center for Effective School Operations. So, with that in mind, I'd like to introduce Rick Crier and Megan Mallister. Um, and Mr. Crier, Mrs. Mallister, Mrs. Mallister, I'm happy to advance the slides if you need me to, but I'll turn it over to you. >> Yeah, you can go ahead and move to the second one if that's okay. >> All right. Well, thank you, Dr. Turner. Uh, Madame Chair, members of the board of trustees, and Superintendent Ross. We appreciate you having us here tonight to

121present on the supplemental pay study that we've engaged in with your district. As Dr. Turner said, my name is Megan Mallister. I work as an employee experience consultant with the Center for Effective School Operations and I'm joined by my colleague Rick Ryer here who's a senior employee consultant with what we call for short CISO. Next slide. All right. So, just to share a quick overview of the organization. We're based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and we work with school districts across the country. Our work centered on helping districts operate more effectively by providing support again um in a wide range of needs. We offer consulting, project management, and direct staffing depending on what districts need most. And while Rick and I specifically support the human resources function, our team's expertise goes beyond HR. As you can see

122on the uh slide here, CISO provides strategic and operational support in areas such as communications, finance, technology, transportation, sort of a well-rounded suite for um all the different areas of school operations. And ultimately, our goal is to serve as a partner helping districts build systems and structures that allow you to f focus on what matters most, which is your students. Next slide. Perfect. All right. So, with that overview, I'd like to shift now to the purpose of our work with you, starting with a brief overview of the study and its goals. As it relates to the scope, this was a comprehensive study to review, benchmark, and recommend updates to the district's employee supplemental pay schedules and process. Um, as mentioned, we looked at uh supplemental pay schedules, including academics, arts, special duties, grant funded supplements,

123and your athletic supplemental statements. The goals of the project were a comprehensive review of current supplemental schedules, a benchmarking report with comparisons to other districts, proposed updated supplemental schedules with rationale and supporting data, and a final transition plan for implementation in the 2627 school year. Next slide. Uh, with that, I want to walk through now our approach and the key steps that we've taken thus far in the process. We kicked off this project in March with the district and collected uh current supplemental pay schedules. From there, we then conducted a detailed review of your district's existing supplemental pay schedules and structures and then from there reached out to comparable school districts to gather information on their pay schedules, allowing us to benchmark district 5 against similar organizations. After completing that analysis, we developed findings and

124recommendations that we shared with the district focused on improving market alignment uh compared to your peer districts. And we're here this evening to share those results and our process. Uh I also want to note as you'll hear a bit later in this presentation that this compensation recommendation piece recommen um is a encompasses phase one of this work and phase two will focus on developing a transition plan for implementing updates across all of the supplemental pay schedules that you have. Next slide. And as I mentioned in the last slide, we did reach out to comparable districts that we identified through conversation with the district. Um, and we were successful in obtaining supplemental pay information from the districts that you see here on this slide above. We feel like it is a um robust data set. And

125based off of that, I'm going to pass it off to my colleague Rick here that can share more information about the findings and recommendations uh that we have based on that data. >> All right. Uh thank you. Thank you, Megan. [clears throat] still like to thank the board and the superintendent for having us here tonight. Uh it's been a pleasure working with your district. It's um we've enjoyed the the work. Um I'm going to do have a brief presentation go over some of the high level findings. Um I'm going to start with the the um special duties statements and those are things like newspaper, yearbook, debate, orchestra, department heads. And one of the things we first found is that most of your supplemental pay items are very competitive with the market. And so that's good

126news that there isn't much adjustment there. We did find that your band directors were uh lagging the average market salaries for band directors uh in this group of districts. And we did recommend um increasing those uh band directors to $3,000 at the middle school and $8,000 at the high school. All right. If you go to the next slide. Okay. Findings. Oh, can I get the slide advanced there? Is that Oh, that there we go. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, one one back. This is my fault. I I'm having a hard time seeing the slides. Okay. So, what we did find in your extracurricular coaching assignments uh was that you you basically have three pay structures uh that you're using across all of your um coaches and they start at well below the market uh for starting

127pay. And the good news is that they're very they're reasonably competitive at at the high end. So, at at the top you look good. At the bottom you look low. Um some of your salaries start as low as $800. And when we looked at what the neighbors are paying uh for coaching stipens, um generally it's it's up it's up over $1,000 at the at the start. So we recommended we looked at the what what you had and where we think you need to go. Uh we're going to recommend a six salary grade system. uh which would move people um to a market appropriate rates and give the district more flexibility to match where you need to be with the market. If you could you advance that slide and I know this is hard to see

128for anybody that's watching. Hopefully board members have a packet, but this is a snapshot of your current system where you can see pay rates starting at at um uh $800 starting at uh $1,600 and then the basketball coach would have the third the varsity head and basketball coach would have that third range range which would be 2750 start. Um if you go to the next slide, we'll show you what we're proposing for the new schedule. And you'll see ranges that start um at $1,500, $2,000, uh $3,000, $4,000, and um $6,000 for the what would be the basketball coach. And we may we're going to be recommending specific movements that take people from the the step they're on to where they would go into the next schedule so that the district would have an implementation plan

129to get there. We look at the costs on the next slide. So um if the district didn't do anything uh with their current system, your your rates would still lag behind the market. people would move from, let's say, step three to step four, step eight to step nine. And so there would be some step costs in there. And then the third bar shows that by the time we would implement this recommended six range schedule, moving people from their step to their step on the new schedule, uh you'd be at about uh 1.1 million in total costs for the um extracurricular schedule. And I think I turn it back to Megan for the next phase of the project and then we can take questions from the board. Thanks, Rick. Yep. So, moving into, as noted earlier

130in the presentation, the findings and recommendations shared tonight represent phase one of that study. So, really looking at what are the comparable districts paying and making recommendations for how we believe we can get more market competitive for your district. Um, now we're prepared to move into phase two two of that study, which focuses on the development of the transition plan, not just for this extracurricular coaching uh schedule, but for all of those supplemental schedules. And one thing to call out is this would include a review and restructuring of the special duty schedule. Uh moving away from a single universal rate for those clubs uh to a more structured matrix that considers factors like the total number of students that are participating in that club and the frequency of the special duty meetings that they're holding.

131The intent of the work is really to provide greater clarity and consistency for district and the administrators. uh create opportunities for some potential cost management um or cost savings and hopefully support increased student participation in district program. And I think that's it. The next slide is for questions. Are you ready for questions and are open to any questions that the board may have? >> Thank you, Mrs. Scully. >> Yeah. Um I don't is Is this a comprehensive list of proposed salaries? I don't see like for example are dance coaches included. I don't see anything listed for them. It's small so maybe I'm >> No. No sir. Yeah. What you have here are the markets of the existing uh ones that were they're kind of aligning in their lanes. Um in phase two and correct me

132Dr. Turner where we go over um we to explain kind of those lanes by essential job functions, but we'll do those with special duties. If you can recall, we're doing special duties different in this proposal. It will not be based on the name of the program. It's going to be by the essential job functions. So that gives a let's just say at one school, let me use Dazzlers for example. At one school, Dazzlers, if it has 50 students in it, and at the other school it has five students, you compare, you can pay the by essential job functions and not by the name. So, we're moving away from all of these list of names to essential job functions. Now, in arts and athletics, what you see here, those are consistently named and we don't have

133to use that process. make sure >> there there's a second um schedule too and I think that's the one you're looking for. Um so remember when you go online you've got this one that's the extracurricular schedule and then you have the supplement schedules. Those supplement schedules aren't included tonight because those were the ones that um were comparable. There weren't changes um to those. But that's where you'll see where they recommended increasing um the band positions. You notice that's not on this e extracurricular schedule. That other schedule is where you're going to see um some of the dance positions um as well as the uh increases for those band positions that they recommended. >> Okay. And then just one real quick clarification on the um there was this the um the finding that there was a

13450 58% gap below market at the starting pay. So that's basically one it's talking about the stipen pay not the salary >> the stipen pay starting and then but then they're saying that by the end of say the step process towards this side of the scale we're were kind of competitive, but just up here at the front were not. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Miss um on the are the steps is that based on this teacher's step or how long the person's been doing the job? >> How long the person has been doing the the job? It's it's relevant to the actual um position. So if for example a JV football coach moves up to varsity that do they start over at step one >> because that uh JV experience counts as um counts

135toward the experience calculation of the step so that would be put into the formula to calculate where they land on the varsity step scale. >> Okay. Does that does that have to be within the same sport? Could uh >> No, it doesn't. um our athletic directors assist us with calculating that experience and so they have a formula for determining um you really only start at step zero if you have never this is your absolute first time ever doing any type of coaching. Um but it is it does take into consideration experience all over. >> And this is probably a a question for the consultants, but um do all schools do it that way or do some do like a range or um kind of because I could see where a um a large like a

1365A team might need a different range than a a 2A team or where it's based on performance. Is it always done on step like this? >> Go ahead, Rick. Megan on the um there are variabilities. Some districts just have one rate. Your you know your tennis coach gets paid this much no matter how many people um they're coaching or what size of the school. And other districts we will see ranges where they um want to be able to reward people for staying in the position and and coaching for longer. >> Mr. Serfield. Uh you Miss Turner um on the projected implementation cost it's for 258 FTEES correct >> that's correct >> um and the projected cost for 26 and 27 on the last the one for 1.1 million is that based on comparative rates or

137scales from the other schools that were listed? >> Yes. So what they did was they took the comparative rates to turn it into our proposed rates. And so that is if we took everyone all of these 258 that we have now >> and we put them in what they're proposing for us with the adjustments that shows what the difference would be and what we'd pay when we plug people into the school >> as as compared to the other list of schools that were in the study. >> Yes sir. That list was used to create this. And my question is I know that Mr. Scully asked because of the disparity in the earlier stages to the later stages. Is that something that we're looking at? In other words, um I know I've had to convince some

138folks or recruit some folks when I was principal to be willing to coach certain things. Probably part of it was because the starting salary was not too handsome, so to speak. So, are we looking at that or is it just across the board a percentage thing for all? >> We looked at it. So, if you look at the if you were to put these two side by side, the two charts, do you see how on the current extracurricular pay schedule, you see that at the lowest level, there are some positions that we have that $800 amount for. I'll let you look at that to make sure you can see that. So you see current, we start as low as $800 for step zero. So that's what the consultants were saying. That's where we were being

139out competed. Now put that beside the proposed extracurricular pay schedule. You see how in column zero you no longer have anyone being paid 800. >> Oh, I see it. >> Yes. So, so if we implement this, we would be competitive because that would allow us to remove those very low amounts and replace it with the um more competitive amounts they found. >> Well, I will share that with you. The only thing that I do like is when Dr. Ross was sharing with the board the the other activities, the non-athletic, so to speak, the other activities um other than band, obviously, we need to do a better job with our band directors. We're just not we're dropping the ball there. Um, but a a lot of our I'll just throw out theater or something along those

140lines. Um, we have a lot of sponsors that spend a great deal of time and I like and some that maybe not as much time. I like the principles having that flexibility to sit down and review to determine where they are on that scale. So, thank you. >> You're welcome. this fine. >> Um just one quick and this is probably for the consultants but um and maybe we would this would be answered in the final report if we get a a final actual report but how did you come up with the the competitive set? Um because for example I noticed that Richland one was included in the sample in the market data but Richland 2 for example was not. So I'm just curious what was the factor or the primary factors that you used to

141identify the competitive market set. Do you want it or should I >> Oh, go ahead if you want to take it. Yeah, that's >> Yeah, we we actually surveyed um all the Lexington one, two, three, four. Um we had your data from five and then all the other districts that we just didn't get data back from everybody. Um, so those the the districts that responded and gave us their data were included in creating the market comparison. >> This could be for it could be Dr. Ross or Dr. Turner. So these these pay schedules are for current district employees and is that that's correct? Right. >> That's correct. >> So when we have positions like some of the assistants for bands or the dazzler coach that perhaps have been being paid through booster money. Is it

142possible to consider the these kinds of lanes of payment also to be considered for those positions to maybe take some some heat off of the booster clubs that are funding some of these positions? >> You can go ahead. I'm sorry. >> Well, the the answer is yes. And that would be um what the team would work with us for the implementation phase. So what we did was after we our priority was to get the competitive values correct and so we needed to present what the cost would look like if we were to fix some of the areas that we know needed to be fixed. The next layer was that we actually uh re-engaged in conversations with different representatives who've had a voice in this all along. So we've talked to band, we've talked to dance,

143we've collected information. part. The second part to this is we have to take the money that we know pending approval for the amounts and we have to embed what does the process look like. And so we have the vision of the process but the consultants are going to help us not only turn that process into practice but also come up with how do we transition and implement that. So the answer is yes. That would be the second part to working with this company. And could that process be undertaken fast enough to be implemented in the 26 27 school year? >> So I'll take that. That's Dr. me. What [clears throat] we shared is um part of the engagement that we have um uh currently is to help us with that transition. What we're messaging is

144um on June the 9th pending approval of second and final reading we can start that transition. So, we will be able to have those lanes available uh for um those and let's just take band for instance. Uh it's kind of like football, right? We want to be able to get those u those supplements out. So, now that we have a structure for our lanes, um we can now issue those, but we did not want to jump the gun. So, we're in our old system now. And then we'll move to our new system. And uh as we move through that you'll see in the transition um it will take us for for the new ones really quick from people who are currently in named special duties moving to principal assigned that may take a year to

145just we don't want to snatch anyone's money on July one. So we would take a whole year of of rolling that in. And I'll say the last thing is embedded in here. We still have days for extra duties. Um is that correct? >> That's correct. >> So for instance, um chapen soccer, girls and boys soccer, they graduate Friday, they play Saturday. So the coach who most teachers are off, coaches have to come back and coach. I think baseball uh they could be playing a week after graduation and so we do compensate for those extra duties, those extra dies. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thank you. Thank you all. >> Thank you so much, Rick and Megan. We'll follow up. >> Thanks everybody. Take care. That brings us to the last item on the discussion

146agenda which is the discussion of the 2627 general fund budget. [clears throat] Uh coming to the lecture is uh our CFO Miss Heather Tucker. Miss Tucker, I will just go through the slides and then you answer all the questions. >> Do you want to start? >> Yes. Um, I just wanted to to basically as we go through this just know that our budget is just that. It is a plan estimate of our income and expenditures. It is not an audit. I wish we knew exactly how many third grade classrooms we will have next year. I wish we knew exactly the how the cost of each teacher in that third grade classroom and exactly how much their healthcare was and exactly how much their salary was. uh will be but these are estimates of the of

147the budget moving forward. This is not an audit of of the actuals for next year but what is the budget established on established on our board policy that we would look at our programs and priorities for the systems that these would be uh financial terms for those educational priorities. And so when we look at those priorities we see that teacher pay and low class sizes. Uh that consistently becomes the priority that is presented to us. Uh we talked about the progress that we've made uh in teacher pay and we've done a lot of work there and this is a budget that we present that continues to make teacher pay increases a priority. Uh to do that you need state and local revenue and so these are estimates of our state and local revenue. We talked

148a lot about the proviso 1.3. Uh my ask is that as a board one of the things we can advocate um this is why I want to do the presentation Mr. because this is on me is we need to advocate for a system that is fair to us. A lot of when you look at the processes that go through this proviso, we depend a lot on the state revenue and we're seeing items that impact our ability to do those priorities. When you look at and we've been hit with a lot of concerns, Dr. Ross, you're down three and a half% in your students and we recognize that. Um, and so as we look at the uh revenue projections um you can see that it's not necessarily a full representation of uh what I believe we

149would be in a reduction of three and a half% in students. Uh so when we look at our budget considerations, we talked about the must dos. This is the increase for all staff and the mandatory pay raises for the bus drivers. That's a total of $3.1 million. When you looked at the priorities from the board, teacher pay um and the uh supplements. Um we wanted to do the support staff piece, but uh we've added the uh tier 2 uh supplement uh projects for that because of the total cost that this would create for us. So as a result uh we have to look at the reality. It's important to understand this slide. Last year uh when we put together the budget we were looking at an additional $12.1 million. This year as we put together

150our budget we're looking at additional in terms of new money 3.3 million. This is not apples to apples. And if we don't adjust our conversation, if we don't adjust what we're talking about, the realities, we're really going to miss the boat here. A three and a half decrease percent decrease in students resulted in a 72% decrease in new revenue. We cannot continue to give payraises and continue to add staff and programming when this is your reality. You say, "Well, Dr. Ross, that's reassessment from one of your counties." Uh, well, let's just look at the the state allocation. 3.5% decrease in students led to a 58% decrease in state money. That's not sustainable. And so I ask that we advocate for a model that uh is sustainable because what's not in this number is year-to-year uh

151if you look at our special ed population that has increased 6.7% uh from our aid plan results. So what does the budget look like? Well, this is it. 90% 89% of our budget that we present to you is people. The other 11% that's that's everything else. Supplies, utilities, and purchase services. And that's why when we look at capital to take care of facilities, it's important to know we can't use that capital that press box money or or school, we can't pay teachers with that. And there's not enough in this jar to fill it either. So when we talk about efficiencies, it's people. And I wanted to make this presentation clear for all of the staff that's watching in these very tough economic times. We have a budget that's balanced that takes care of our people.

152We don't have to put out hysteria that we need to cut positions or take people away. We can take care of our people. We're in a great position. We've made those those those sacrifices, the hard decisions because the jar is not expanding. If the jar doesn't expand, we have created a budget that doesn't increase the tax rate. It actually gives a little bit of relief to the homeowners and we can take care of everybody in the jar. But that's the reality that we have. If this picture is not going to change, then this is the reality of and so as a result, let's look at who's in the jar. When we talk about these positions, the leadership, the operations, majority of tonight's conversations were about operations. We're not expecting teachers to do this. We're expecting

153somebody [cough] else to do this work. And so we're fortunate to have a district that puts a support ecosystem around the teachers. All of these tasks have to be done. They're regulated. We have no option and not being able to do this. And so we're very fortunate to have a district that puts these support ecosystems around its teachers so that they can focus on teaching and learning. And that's what staff. That's what that 89% in that jar, that's what they're doing each and every day to support these teachers in the classroom. So when you hear all you need to do is pay teachers and you don't value the work of everyone else in that jar, we undermine the support ecosystem that allows them to focus on teaching and learning to love and grow our students.

154So as we look at our neighbors, as we're doing a comparison of our rates. I needed to expand the jar just to get everyone in this year. Needed to do five meals to make this work because we're at 261. And so to do that, um I asked that we increase that jar by five meals in operating. But recognizing that when we do that, we can do a step increase, we can do the bus driver pay raise, we can do a new uh teacher pay raise, which average of 1% across the board, but that would bring our new minimum to 515. We can implement the supplement study that we just were presented to and we can do the tier 2 tutoring and um endless technical college shuttle. This is kind of what you get with the

155B package there. And so how do we do that? Because we hear that uh the taxpayer is we want to be considerate to the taxpayer. So how do you expand that operation jar five meals to make all of this work? Well, what I'm proposing that the board do is to take five meals from debt service and move it to operating. That keeps the mill flat. In conversations, uh, someone asked me, well, explain to me, Dr. Ross, if my car is paying this taxes, how does my car tax go up and my house tax go down? And that's halfway correct. The car pays both operating and debt service. That number will stay the same at 330.5 mills. But the house only pays one tax. [clears throat] Your 4% property only pays one. That will go down

15660 from 69 12 mills to 64 and a half mills. So the car rate because it pays both on operating and debt service that overall total number has not changed but the house that only pays one portion of it which is debt service that will be reduced by four mills five mills. So as a result that's a 64.5. So we relieve taxes on the on the houses in our community and we maintain the tax rate for all other assessed property. And that way we can expand our jar, we balance our budget, we take care of our people, we keep that teacher support ecosystem and we continue the results that we have uh within our district. So with that, we present a balanced budget with 5.1 million dollars in new uh expenses uh revenue. Um with

157the five meals in operating uh we see our expenses at 5.4 These are budgeted expenses and that difference will be made up by all new positions being repurposed from existing FTEES and five FTEES that will be reduced uh to bring in that savings of $300,000. Um so with that we would like to move to second and final reading on June 8th after the public hearing and then approve the meals uh to service this budget. So with that I wanted to present our position for uh for discussion and we stand for questions. >> Do I have questions? >> Um Dr. Ross if you go back to last um slide. What are the um repurposed FTEEs? >> So, we're looking at We don't have those all uh worked out currently. We're still going through our requests. We

158had don't hold me to the exact, but we have way more than 15 requests for new positions. We can't fill those. We know that. So, uh of the 15, I can tell you we have school transitions that we need to do. We have the cyber security uh person that we're bringing back that we want to bring for full time because she was all and there was an art coordinator uh to help with the art. art coordinator, cyber security, uh the five positions for the middle school transitions, expectation coaches. Is there something else I'm forgetting? >> So, this are these are open positions that would not be filled and would be filled as different positions. >> These were open positions that are currently um uh unfilled. we would repurpose them back into new positions and to

159that point they would have to come back for approval to be uh to be repurposed before they're they're advertised. >> So would we get a list of those? >> Uh yes ma'am. What we will do is u before we seek what we're asking to to to do is um make sure you know that the extent of which we need to repurpose um those we're looking for between second reading. Just a little bit more flexibility on exactly because it's tight um how to use these positions. But yes, they will come to the board before for approval um before we can um before we would act on these repurposed positions. >> Miss Knox, I have another question, but I'll let other people >> It's fine. Go ahead. Um if if you go back to the slide that

160showed the um the different options, that one. So, um, to do the difference between B and C is, um, $2.1 million, $2.2 million. And the and the difference is the 1% staff raise. Correct. >> So, the difference we're looking at, yes, two a little under two, right? >> Right. At $2 million in the 1% staff raise. >> That's correct. >> So, it would it would 22 million to do the 1% staff raise. >> That would be a little more than what we would need, but we would need at least that to do 1%. To do two, we would need more. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Keep in mind, too, that's a good point. Keep in mind that we need 3.1 to do the 1%. >> We need $3.1 million to do the 1% staff raise. Uh

161the reason the math is not adding up is because once we did that we netted some um we had to reduce. So in any one of these options uh between A and B there has to be some efficiencies found. I don't think we get out of the need for efficiencies until you get to option C. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Um because one question I had is as the um the staff pay was really concerning in the lower end. >> Um, is there an option B halfway between B and C? Is there an option to at least increase the staff pay that's on the lower end? I think we had talked about moving that that lower >> that lower the >> the lower level pay grade up a level. >> We we would need

162additional revenue to do that. We were trying to keep the mill rate flat. I want to be honest to to do that it would have to increase the FTE reductions. >> Um the issue we found is that and I and I can't tell when it happened but the staff compression rate of that scale there's almost no slope. It is is very flat. And so if you don't lift the entire uh scale, you run into situations where people would um work a long time for like five cents increase over the years. >> I was going to say that when you look at that support staff hourly schedule um the hourly rate between cells is about 30 cents difference. So it's it's we would have to move the whole lane six. That was our proposal to move

163all of everybody that's in lane six, essentially get rid of that one and move everybody to lane seven. Um, and but to do that and bump everybody up so you don't end up with that compression, the total for that was $3 million. >> Are all those positions um do they all qualify for full health insurance and for retirement? >> Do you feel like the staff know that and know the value of that? >> I think when we talk about that's We the question is does the staff know the value of it? They may not know the numbers uh of it. >> I think they would be surprised to know that it's a 30 really a 30% of when you look at comprehensive like what the benefits um include. Um and I think our benefits team

164does a great job of presenting that at you know at orientation um to show them all of the different options and even the supplemental benefits. So, >> I was just wondering if maybe like I know we have the the supplemental insurance people that meet with employees >> if if there was a way to >> increase the communication. I just don't >> well a lot of people here are employed by the government but people out there watching um no one has pension anymore. No one. It doesn't exist. Banks don't have pension anymore. Blue Cross has no pension. colonial life has no pension and I don't think that people realize the value of that and so you know I would like to be able to do an increase um but I would also like to make sure

165that people understand the value of that so that they're not leaving us you know for a dollar more an hour when they're losing a lot more of that if they when they do leave us because chances are unless they're going to another government job they're not getting a pension and they may not be getting as good a health insurance if >> I can attest to that as a lifelong public servant. That's something that I didn't appreciate at 20 and very much appreciate a lot later in life. >> Um I I do I was told I could make a motion and I would like to get some information that might help us get enough money to do a staff increase. So, um I move to have the administration provide a list to the board before our

166next meeting of all non-classroom positions um that were vacant at any point during this past um year and the associated taxes and benefits. >> Second, >> and and so the reason for this is again not to say we're going to eliminate these positions. Um and again these are talking about vacant but to get some idea of in a typical year how many positions non non-classroom positions um became vacant in the associated so that we can look at if we were to reduce a percentage of that um not rehire a percentage of that would we have enough funds to do a staff pay You want to say something else, Mr. >> Would that put a delay on the budget approval? In other words, if we're talking about changing teacher salaries, >> tell us >> if we

167were to provide this before the next board meeting and the board vote on that, then we would have to delay our final reading because we would have to rework our budget projections. >> I just don't >> Go ahead. >> I'm seeking clarification on the math because >> the If there's a vacant, rarely do we see like a year-long vacancy, right? There vacancies move in and out of variable time lifts. And so to you need a reoccurring source for of revenue for pay, >> right? >> If your pay is contingent on a particular vacancy rate, if you look at what we're doing, we advertise our vacancies. Um, That's a variable system for a definite reoccurring expense. I just don't know if you can promise people guaranteed money in the variance without taking jobs. >> No, I'm

168just talking about getting information. You know, I mean, at any point during the year, if a job became open, it would be on the list. So, in other words, we lost um an assistant principal or we lost a um finance person in the district office. So, basically what you get a picture of is if and and y'all read read the news, these districts around us are in a lot worse shape than we are. So, you know, this is the kind of thing they're probably doing is if worse came to worse, we we did a hiring freeze. >> Roughly, what how much money would we have um and not saying we would do it but just having the knowledge there. If you go back to the slide with the teacher in the middle, what's happened over

169the years is that we have increased that all of that because our student population increased. But then when the student population decreased, the only one we decreased was the one in the middle. And if it keeps decreasing, we're going to have to look at those other four squares and finding the painful way to to decrease those as well. >> So what confuses me about this request is that if the administration brings back the next meeting and say I don't know in a given year maybe we have 10 vacancies. We might have them. We still got to build a budget like right now. I don't understand how that helps us. >> You could let's say it comes back and and it's $5 million worth of vacancies that we have in any given year. We could look

170at it and say we're going to um not fill not refill half the positions, which would save us $2.5 million a year, you know, and leave it up to the administration to decide how to move those positions around. >> But there's no cons but there's but that's not necessarily a for sure. >> It's pretty close. I mean, you don't have a lot of changes that much from year to year. I mean, I'm open to suggestions. What I'm looking is back to that slide with the squares. That's the fundamental issue that we have is that our student count is decreasing. Our revenue is decreasing. And the only block we're decreasing is the one in the middle. And and and and the sad part is that is the most important one for students. That's the one that

171creates student outcomes. I mean, I would rather see us figure out how to decrease the others and actually increase the teachers so we can and decrease class size, but we are not gonna we're not going to get where we need to go by just shrinking our teacher population. Not going to happen. >> Go ahead, Ross. >> I just wanted to to clarify the administration has brought a budget to the board that takes care of all the staff. If we did that 50 million, that's about 60 FTEEs. I want us to be make the math work to send us to look for 60 FTEEs to cut because the only way you can do pay is to have recurring revenue. This is it. You don't do pay off of variance fund balance. 60 FTEEs does affect. I

172do disagree with you, Miss Huddle. All those positions matter. help our kids grow, every last one of them. And we don't have to cut. We have a balanced budget with no meal increase to the taxpayer. The value of the exercise of cutting and reducing staff and we're not in that position. If that is something that the board wants to do next year, I think, you know, when we go through the process next year, we can we can look at that. We're presenting a balanced budget, but 89% of that are the people and I believe we need every last one of them to do the vision and mission of the district. >> All right, we have a Go ahead, Mr. Sel. >> Yeah, I want to and we've Sam I talked about some of this stuff

173before. I know when we talked about some of these other positions that we were adding and all that. Um, the one thing we don't do is hire people we don't need. I mean, we just don't do it. Um, Dr. Ross, you alluded a few minutes ago that you had a lot more requests for more folks. And the reason for the request is not just to have more people around. The reason for the requests was because the needs of a school changes. Um, every school, the needs of schools changes. When you're at the high school level, you have a lot of electives and it's student driven. So, you're teaching the history of Vietnam and your class doesn't make Well, I'm so sorry. Yeah. So, the the point being is that um I don't think it's I

174don't think it's a very wise thing. And I know we wouldn't be talking about this if it was before teachers signing their contract. Um but >> I'm not about teachers. I'm not talking about teachers. Non-classroom. Purely non-classroom. And I'm sorry I interrupted you, but I don't want anybody thinking I'm talking about teaching positions because that's my whole point. We need more teachers. >> Well, and I understand that too, but you said something about if you had an assistant principal changes or quits or whatever, we wouldn't hire. I can promise you if you ask schools, could they use another assistant principal? They would say yes, yes, yes. Somebody else to help with discipline and and to help with those needy students and all that kind of stuff. So, I just In all my years in education,

175I don't ever remember. And you can't use the formula of 25 kids in a class and put them in a straight row. It just doesn't work that way. It just doesn't. So, I know that teacher I know the principles because I was one of them that used to make requests for staff. Sometimes it was approved and sometimes it wasn't. And so, you sort of have to, you know, share and and and be very creative. But, uh, I just don't feel like that, um, it's a smart thing to do. I mean, if you ask principles to, you know, give input on their staffing and things like that, that might be a a I'm not exactly sure how that would work. But, uh, um, again, just to make a small point in that is that, um, I

176don't think that we're overloaded with personnel. I think that we need everybody we got and um um if the principles who are the ones who run their schools are making requests for personnel then as a school board I think we should do everything we can and sometimes it's an expectation coach or sometimes it's an an assistant in an in an autism class or something. They make those requests because they really see the need. So that's just my >> Thank you. I'm gonna >> Yeah. Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Two two points. One, this uh this motion is not urgent for the budget. Um we can going back to what Dr. Ross said at the beginning, budget's a plan. Uh we can we can change um change direction and do something different later in the year.

177if it comes up that we have additional money, we can we can make those changes. Uh I don't think this is something that has to happen now. Um we've got a budget that uh gets us where we want to go. Um and I just I I think we're we are getting to where we want to go and I think the the metrics back that up. the successes that we've seen with SE Ready, uh the success that we've seen with uh our MAP scores drastically improving over 2025, we are getting where we want to go, doing the doing it the way that we're doing it. Um and so I am fully in support of your plan. Um I also disagree with the notion that that this district is in decline just because our student population for

178a couple years has has declined. Um, and Dr. Ross, I talked to you about this the other day, so don't give away the answer, but do you know why the reason I don't I disagree that this district is in decline? Gray Collegiate, which keeps being cited as one of the problems, that is the the tell that tells me definitively that we are not in decline because grade collegiate doesn't plop a school down in the middle of our district if it's a dying district. If they're not expecting population growth. If they're not expecting more students, they Great Collegiate itself will bring more students to our district and they can't take everybody. We're going to grow. Our numbers are going to go back up. That's why I was talking about Mo High School and the existing East

179Wing today because our numbers are going to go back up. We're not going to stay down. It's it's like the stock market. every year you can see a decline, but over time that it's going to keep trending upwards. And that's exactly what our our district is going to do. Uh we may dip for a couple of years, but we're going to go back up. And so there's environmental factors that show that our our neighborhoods in Irmo are being refurbished. White Hall is resurging. Um it's it's coming back around and it's everything's going to cycle. So, uh, as long if if we were in a deficit today and having to do things that other districts nearby us were having to do to meet their budgets, then I would be concerned and and those other uh types

180of ideas may have merit. But that's not our position. And I give uh Dr. Ross and his staff a great amount of credit for positioning us to where we are today so that we don't have to do that. So, thank you for doing that. And um So, no, I I do not agree with this motion and I think we just need to uh move on. >> Do we have anything else? Okay. All right. I'm going to call um for the uh vote on Miss Huddle's motion. I would repeat the motion, but I can't remember the wording. If you want to repeat it, Miss Huddle. >> Um I'll repeat it. Um, I move to have the administration provide a list to the board before our next board meeting of all non-classroom positions that became vacant in

181this um, current school year and the associated um, salaries, taxes, and benefits. Oh. Um, all those in favor And the motion fails for the zero motion. >> All in favor? The motion carries. Six six 0.