001Good afternoon. It is 4:30 and at this time we will convene the board budget workshop. Miss Tucker, are you coming on coming on down? >> Okay. Uh as our CFO Heather Tucker comes to the lect turn uh today we are doing a workshop for our 202627 uh annual budget. Uh the purpose is to establish the board's vision for the annual budget is outlined in policy DB annual budget. Annual budget is the financial plan for the operation of the school system. The annual operating budget or general fund budget should express and implement programs and activities for the school district. Planning the budget is a continuous process that involves long uh term thought, study and deliberation by the superintendent, board, administrative staff, faculty and citizens across the district. Budget provides a framework for both expenditures and revenues
002for the year and it translates into the financial terms to educational programs and priorities for the system. We present today uh options for the board. Uh as we looked at our revenue projections. Uh there are four options that we can look at. We seek direction from the board on what its vision of moving forward is. Our current uh base uh allows us to take care of our mustdos. uh but there's not clarity on the direction of uh what the board will adopt and so this uh budget workshop is to outline uh where we are in this process and then look for discussion at today's meeting on direction on um the direction of the board. So at this time I would like our CFO Miss Heather Tucker to go through uh where we are thus far.
003And Miss Tucker, before you start, also I can't always see everybody, which can make it difficult sometimes um when people um want to speak. So we can be conscious of how we sit or you know give me a little hand raise or something like that. I don't want to overlook anybody, but I just can't always see people when they want to speak. >> I see somebody I will. >> All right, Miss Tucker, you have the floor. >> Thank you so much, Madam Chair, members of the board. Dr. Ross. Um so tonight we come to you with our kind of a budget discussion. I know we had a budget workshop already and we have the board's budget priorities. Is that better? >> Is that better? >> Okay. All right. Um, so I know we've already had
004a budget workshop and what we wanted to talk about tonight is right now given the priorities that the board directed us after our budget workshop. Um, can't present to you a balanced budget given our current revenue situation and the priorities of the board. So I wanted to discuss that today and show you what I've done so far and then like Dr. Ross said get some direction of the board. So here's our current budget calendar, the budget workshop, planning workshop that we had back on February 6th at the district office. Um today is April 20th where we will discuss the budget discussion with a partial budget book. We have our um our fees and proposed schedules with some options in the back. Um and then I will bring to you a full budget book at our
005next meeting, April uh May 4th. Um and then we will have another discussion on May 18th, I believe. Um at this point, we have I built this budget based on the House Ways and Means projections. The Senate will start their full U floor deliberation of the budget I believe this Tuesday at noon, Tuesday or Wednesday at noon. And so we may see some changes, but typically we have built a budget on a house version. And so I don't anticipate many changes from the state funds based on the senate version at this point. And then we are uh scheduled to have our second and final budget hearing um reading on June 8th. Okay. So the operational budget priorities, these are what um the priorities that the the board um came to us, board of trustees, principles
006and directors, faculty advisory, parent advisory, and student advisory. What the priorities were for this year for the 2026 2027 operational budget. Um teacher pay raise was the number one priority across all um focus groups except for principles and directors and theirs was a staff pay raise. We have looked at a potential staff raise and essentially getting rid of um step six across the board and what that would cost um because right now a lot of those uh hourly employees at that step six really are in a poverty level. Um and so we've looked at that as an option um since that was a priority of our principles and directors. Priority two across the board lower class sizes staff pay pay raise or teacher pay raise. So a little bit of uh differentiation there and then
007you can see the other priorities. Um, we have done a lot as far as teacher pay raise over the years. Um, I can only speak to last year's budget since that's the only one that I have, uh, had actual input in, but as far as where we are with the average of the state. Um, we have made significant strides in district 5. Um, so we are already over the state minimum. Um, and right now we're at 50,922 as our starting salary. Um, and we have an option tonight to take that to 51,500. Um but this is where district 5 falls right now um on that teacher pay scale where we fall with the other districts in the state. And then when you look at that where our minimum pay raise is versus a maximum you
008can see that at the higher end of the scale we really are outpacing um the state teacher pay scale. We have done a lot to avoid compression in those um cells moving forward. Um I think uh Miss R a few years ago really looked at that to try to um alleviate some of the compression across those cells. And so um District 5 has really outpaced even though we're only slightly above the minimum at the beginning at the uh front of that pay scale, we really are outpacing the state as you move up the teacher pay scale with years of experience. And again comparing LR5 to state teacher minimum. Um there's our the blue line is the 202526 LR5 teacher pay scale and the red is the 2025 state teacher pay scale the minimum and maximum
009those lines together. Um so again what we've done in teacher pay raise over the last few years back in 2018 2019 our minimum teacher pay was at 34398 and for last year we were at 50,922. So, we've our teacher pay scale, the minimum teacher pay scale has realized a 48% increase um since 2018 2019. Um our max teacher pay has gone up almost 22%. Um and but when you look at that compared to our support staff and those are teacher assistants, those are a lot of um people that fall in the support class. um that class 6 really is has only seen a 18% increase over the same time period going from 1632 an hour to 1942. So that was one of the things again that we wanted to offer up as an option. So
010the budget considerations looking at this from a state perspective. So the state this year has $150 million investment to raise the minimum teacher starting salary to 50,500. That was Governor McMaster's priority a few years ago and this will take that minimum over the $50,000 per year. Um, this proposal from the state perspective aims to uh get the salary above the $50,000 floor um and increase from the 2526 minimum of 485. Again, district 5 is already over that. Um, the state health plan from the state perspective, there is no employer or employee increase recommended by the South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority for next year. And the school bus drivers, the state has uh requested a 2% salary increase. So that's a 2% over their um salary schedule for bus drivers for next year. And again,
011I just wanted to bring this to your attention. There is no fiscal impact right now um based on the homestead exemption. So right now, the proposed 2026 207 South Carolina homestead exemption um would exempt senior exemption from 50,000 to $150,000 of fair market value. Um, this would be a significant reduction to school districts dollar for dollar if this was to go into effect, but the state has come out and said they will reimburse schools dollar fordoll via the trust fund for tax relief. Um, this is $258 million across the state. So, right now they are saying that there is no impact to us. I do not anticipate there being an impact, but that could change. So, I just wanted to to highlight this is something that is making its way. It is got a lot
012of um backing and I do think that this will pass this year. Um and again, the state has said they are going to reimburse us through this tax fund, but things could always change. So, this is something that I've been following very closely just because it would have a um a large impact to our district. All right. So, for our budget considerations from district five, um what are the things that we really have to do this year? Um the base of what we have to do is to move teachers up a step on their current or a teacher up a step on their current salary scale. Um move administrators up a step on their current salary scale and support up a step on their current salary scale as well as bus drivers 2%. These are
013really our baseline what we have to do um unless we made other decisions. Um this is essentially the bare minimum. um everybody gets another year of experience and so that would move them up a step on the current salary scale for each one of these projections. So my math to get here was to take all of our current employees and then move them essentially roll them forward one step. So if you were a bachelor's teacher with 12 years experience next year I calculated a bachelor's teacher at 13 years experience. I just moved them on the current salary scale up one step. Um, if you remember last year, we did do away with one of the lanes in our salary scale, which is what helped us bring our bachelors up. Um, we got rid of the
014bachelor's plus 18 and essentially made that our starting. So, we have bachelors, masters, masters plus 30, and doctorate lanes. Um, the administrative staff would be the same as support staff, just current salary scales, move them up one step. And you can see the corresponding dollars attached to each of these. Teachers would be $1.3 million increase. Support staff would be 1.1. administrative staff a $300,000 increase and bus drivers 400,000. So all of those values include FICO retirement, all the associated benefits with them. So bare minimum, we're looking at $3.1 million over where our current um budget is right now. So what are some of the things that we want to do? Um this is again based on all of the responses from our all of our um work groups, the board principles and directors, teacher and
015um student and parent advisory groups. So one of them would be to increase teacher starting salary to 51500. So that's an increase over the 50,922 which we're currently at. And then essentially that would be approximately a 1% increase over our current starting salary. So, I applied that same 1% across all of the cells in the teacher salary scale. And if you look in the back of your book, there is a current teacher salary schedule as well as a proposed. And that's what I did to come up with these these dollar figures. I just took that essentially the same 1% applied it across all of the cells in the teacher salary scale um to make a small increase of our current teacher salary scale. And if we did that, it would be an additional 1.1 million
016support staff. So, if you look at our current support staff scale, we took class six, which is the bottom class of the support staff scale, and didn't get rid of class 6. We just moved everything down one. So, right now, the starting salary for a class six, give me one second. Be easier if I can use the actual numbers. So, right now in our current support staff hourly schedule, a class 6 year zero is $12.88 88 cents an hour. And our proposed would essentially be to move that to 1403, which essentially eliminates the lane for class 6 and bumps everything down. So we just eliminated class 6 and move the dollar figures from class 7 up to class 6. That makes sense. Just just to try to give an increase there, but without changing the
017class step in class that people are on. And that would be a $3.2 2 million increase um to replace class 6 with class 7, move all classes up one level, and then still do the step on top of that. And then every year we've been adding a year out on the step. So that would add year 24. The other want to do was the supplement schedule. Um this was looking at all of our supplements. We had a consulting group come in and look at our supplements and how we compare to other districts around us. And in order to implement essentially all of the recommendations from the supplements supplement study would be a $300,000 increase. So this totals $4.6 million in salary and benefits across all of these if that would be the will of the
018board is to implement each one of these just because this is already um a lot of information. So I thought do we have questions, thoughts, concerns so far. Miss Huddle, >> um the support staff, I noticed you you had teachers, teachers, support staff, support staff. What about admin staff? Are you not recommending or are they falling in with this 3.2 million? >> So, the admin staff, we have no recommendations to increase the admin um scale. So, the admin staff, if we go back um here, the $300,000 increase is essentially just to keep our current administrative scale and just move everybody up one step. So there was no um no recommendation to increase that scale. >> Okay. And then the other question I had is um proportionately the this would increase the support staff much more
019than the teacher staff. Was that intentional? >> Because if you look back let's see let me go back. Oh here so we have done a lot for teachers. Obviously I was a teacher. I understand that that is that has been where the push has been. Um but if you look at across the board what's happened from 2018 to 2026 the incremental increase in support staff to teachers we've raised our teacher salary by almost 40% whereas our administr our um support staff has only been raised by about 18%. So they haven't been proportional in the past but we really when you look at that step six across our support staff it really a lot of those hourly employees have second and third jobs just they're at the poverty level. So would there be an option to
020um increase more at the lower >> at the lower end >> lower bands than the upper bands? >> Um I could look at that. Essentially it just bumped everybody up one lane because the support staff schedule. See >> you talking about the what who are you talking about? >> The 3.2. So the support staff >> the the Okay. So the state required minimum or the minimum is 1.3 for teachers. The we like to do is 1.1 which is about the same. Okay. >> But for support staff the must do is 1.1 but for the like to do is 3.2. So it's a lot >> more. So that was I was asking like so we're effectively saying we want to increase support staff more than we want to increase teachers. But what you're saying is that
021that's kind of to make up for the fact that we've increased teachers more relatively in the past. >> We haven't really increased the support staff scale >> much at all in the past few years. Um essentially it it almost brings it's about a dollar increase per step in um grade across them. Um that's not true across all because like the teacher salary scale it's kind of all over the place. there's um not as much compression, but it's about a dollar per step um across the board. And so that would move for like if you're looking at the the upper end, it would take a step zero class 18 from 26.82 an hour to 2913. So they're small increases across the board, but we really wanted to at least raise that minimum. And then in order
022to avoid compression, we would need to do that across the board. Um and Mr. Satfield, before I come to your question, Miss Tucker, can you just um also um clarify out loud um the positions that sort of fall under that um support staff. So this like teacher aids. >> So it's teacher aids, it's um it's a lot of our um secretaries. Um it is >> Custodians. It'll be custodians or I think the class six the first one is our our lowest level is our cafeteria cafeteria workers. >> Yes. I was wondering about those which we have a lot of turnover in those. >> That's that's the hardest to fill because that's the lowest that's the one that's below the federal poverty >> because I think they can leave and make more at Chick-fil-A. I mean
023that's reality, right? And that's those are our hardest positions to fill. But these are also um our our front office staff. These are um clerical assistants. These are our accounting specialists. >> I just wanted to um clarify that out loud because I think it's important um from a public perspective that they understand who these people are and um in the work that they're doing as to not confuse them. Sort of like Miss asks about admin staff, but like so people understand by support what that actually means because sometimes people don't understand that. It really is. If you think about everybody that's in a school, outside of your principal, assistant principal, and your classroom teachers, the support staff is essentially everybody else that's in that building. So, it is >> and we couldn't do it without
024them either. So, Exactly. No, I get it. >> Um, Mrs. Satderfield. >> Yes. >> Um, just looking at it from a practical perspective. the um with the support staff we're talking about um let me get back to them where I have them listed um going from let's say um zero experience $12.88 88 cents to 1403 which is about a >> dollar20. I mean >> it's not a lot. >> It's nothing. I mean this the CPI the I mean from 20 from March 25 to 26 um the rate of inflation was 3.3%. And um that was with the when our country was doing pretty good the first part of the year. March 26 to 27 it's going to be around five. That's what most people are saying if you watch the business news. Most are saying
0255% and this doesn't even that little jump doesn't even come close to covering. It's kind of like on the a lot of folks don't realize when they say that they say the teacher scale um We've got zero experience. We got $50,922. And for the first year, for the next step on that is $51,21. That's not a lot of money either. You're talking 300 bucks maybe. Maybe. So, uh, a year, not a month, not a week, but a year. And so, they also had the increase in health care cost, right? Thankfully there's no increase this year proposed this coming year. Sir, >> still just the idea of um I think we need to be cognizant of of this that the the the expectations what what people I don't care if it's the cafeteria lady or if
026it's the teacher teaching math or whatever. if we're not even giving them enough of a raise to be able to compete with inflation at all. Um, I mean, I I can tell you as a retired person, you know, on fixed income, I've noticed it's really made some differences in the some of my choices and things, but I couldn't imagine having a young family and trying to go through the process and going to the grocery store and gas and trying to figure all that out. So if we're this past year we ate it up whatever and you know I brought that up last time with the health care costs >> and so if you look at what inflation is we're not even coming close I I don't think we should bump one step with a support
027I think we got to bump two steps with support. I mean you know we keep talking about and we got in our priorities about paying people a decent wage. Pay teachers more. It is everybody's priority. Um and uh I'm I'm glad that we're ahead of the state, but the state um there's some pretty low play uh paying places, but if we're not even helping folks stay up with inflation and meeting their daily co, you know, living expenses, we again, I just think we just need to be cognizant of that. So, >> thank you, Mr. Bum. >> This one is kind of for the the team and get some feedback. So, relative um to like the reductions in student enrollment each year, are there any ideas that like Dr. Ru and the team have as far
028as positions and programs that we might have to look at to maintain these increases? >> We cutting them. >> Yeah, I mean there there definitely opportunities for efficiencies as you see in the must dos. We're not presenting any positions to the board. Um, you don't have in this budget uh the tier 2 program. You don't have in this budget the uh expectation coaches. You don't have in this budget um the uh cyber security position. So, uh we're looking at efficiencies. That's why we need direction from the board. Um and so today is really, you know, your role is to adopt. build, but we're looking for direction on what you want to adopt. >> Okay. All right. >> Um I just kind of want to build on his question. Um because I I went to a
029a workshop um and I think I was the only one that was able to go at the South Department of Ed. Um and our former board chair, Miss Rebecca Blackburn Hines, was involved with it, and it was excellent. So, I encourage all to reach out to them and and see if they're going to do it again. But there was an exercise. It it was basically all about this what we're doing today because at the end of the day, this is all about students, right? And or or what are we doing that's going to improve reading and math and social studies and everything. Well, at the very end of it was a whole day program. And like I said, I mean, in my lifetime with work, been to lots of things. This is probably top two
030or three things I've ever been to. But there was an exercise. It was just like this. I mean, I have deja vu because they took us I was at a table with Ory County and Charleston County people um and I think Marboro. But anyway, we were given a scenario. It wasn't quite it was a little worse than this actually. We had to cut the budget. But we what we did is we had we had ideas and we came with a lot of ideas because we had the same struggle. We had to cut the budget but we wanted to increase salaries. So, and to what Dr. Ross was saying, I mean, I just think it would be good today to put out what are some things we can do. Doesn't mean we're going to do them,
031but we could do them and find out from the staff, what what that would take, what would it um how much money would it save, what would it um how would it impact students? And then when we come back for these other meetings, then we can talk about, well, do we want to do that or not do that. But that that kind of exercise was very helpful because it again it took it back to all being all about the students. >> Thank you, Mrs. >> Yeah. And one other thing, uh, when, Dr. Ross, when are contracts due? >> Contracts are due May 10th. >> May 10th. So, just so we know, we have folks watching and trying to make ends meet. And I don't know what other districts are doing, but we want to make
032sure that our staff, we don't lose anybody and they feel very comfortable returning with the decision that the board makes in support of them. But >> this out here, >> so um in regards to the enrollment, Dr. Dr. Ross, what how many students would we have to lose in a particular school for there to be a meaningful way to reduce a number of teachers like to cut cost in a school because if there's 10 students or 500 students, you still have to heat and air, you still have to run the nutrition. So, what is the what is that breaking point at which you can start thinking about reducing the budget for a school? That's probably not the right word, but And so um to Mr. Bon's point, you start with programmatic matters surrounding the main
033the last thing you try to touch is the instructional program. Uh so you start with programs surrounding that and that um but we still have rising costs like you said we still have to heat the buildings, we still have to cool them. Uh we still have to try to maintain them on a daily basis. We did not budget uh diesel approaching $6. Um and so uh but in terms of students, I think, you know, you're looking at a classroom teacher of 25. So does that school lose 25 students in the same grade? Yeah. So if it lose 25, it it may not say you can't pull a teacher because that may be two from this grade, three from another. So, um you're kind of looking at did that school reduce within a within a grade.
034Um at high school, uh and middle schools, it's a little different because of course registrations, but that moves them all throughout the the course level. So again, we're going to be looking at uh where we can pick up efficiencies there, but um there have been requests for additional staff, but uh we have not presented that to for the board to fund. I would also say this um I think uh to Miss H's point, we do need to look at student needs recognize that um we have had a considerable increase. We define that by the percent of gain in special education students. Those students reducing staff is not the best thing to do for those classrooms. You heard from the families earlier this year when we when we talked about moving programs how important the staffing
035was for them. So I I get very cautious when someone says, "Well, you lost five students, you can lose this many teachers." We have some classrooms where we for one adult per student in that one classroom. So I think it's important to always make sure that we are talking about it from a student needs perspective. >> All right, Mr. Oh, go ahead. >> One more to build on that real quick. Um, as far as for the special education funding, Dr. the money that we take in is is that able to go to assistants and teachers or is it just special education program programming and whatnot? >> So, uh we get a state um a state waiting for that, but it does not cover the expenses that that we have for for all of uh the
036students. So, um we do receive idea funds um and those go for a lot of support, but the share of that rest on our state local share manager. >> Okay. >> All right. So, I think we ended here, which this is um just a brief overview and I'm going to dig into the state and local piece of this a little bit more, but this was just some rough calculations based on we lost a little bit of state uh revenue this year based on our adjustments after day 10. Um and so just looking at like what our projections look like for next year kind of given the current situation and then what we would what we would collect at our current millage rate kind of where we would land. Um and our budget would essentially be
037the same in our projected revenue um based on our losses and our gains. But I'm like I said I'm going to get into this a little bit more detail later. Um and then as Dr. Ross said right now looking at expenditures um we haven't budgeted for budgeted for all of the items that we know we're going to see um increases in whether that's diesel fuel whether that's heating and air cost all of the additional expend expenditures we're going to have to look for efficiencies um because we just overall can't add that much more to our budget. So we're going to have to look for efficiencies. We're going to have to look at things that um we can do differently in order to find the money in our supplies and equipment because that's a small portion
038of our budget. Um if you look at our budget overall, 90% is our personnel. And so we really don't want to adjust those um percentages. We're just going to have to look at ways where we can do more with less. Um and so how do our current projected expenditures break down by category? These categories are the same categories that you see in your annual report. So, just looking at again, if we were to keep the same um current staff that we have, roll everything forward, what does that percentage breakdown look like? Overall, we're still at about 57% for instruction, about 13% of our budget is instructional support. Um just shy of 20%, 19 is operations, and leadership is 11%. Um so, just kind of overall just in general to give you an idea of how
039those expenditures break down by category. All right. So, to get into the details of our two different funding um state funds. So, our state funds are really based on our membership, our average daily membership and our weighted pupil units. Um so, if you look at our year-over-year um 135th day average daily membership, which that is our funding day, we are actually in that collection period right now. Um our preliminary 135th day number for 2526 was 15,936. Um which is essentially a uh decrease of about 3.5% from last year. Our weighted pupil num units, again, these are preliminary numbers um haven't been uh validated by the state yet, but we're looking at just a decrease of about 2.7% um over last year. So, those are the numbers that we're seeing across our district 5, but the
040state has also seen decreases in um student accounts. So, even though we are losing students, we are not seeing the state as a whole is losing students. And so the funding for formula takes all of that into consideration. >> Oh, >> can I ask you a question about the enrollment? Um um obviously this decrease is not taking place out in the Japan area. I mean it's we're we keep growing. I mean the houses are going up everywhere. Um is is the trend more at the elementary early childhood area or do you have any idea? Is it is it there at the you again early childhood, middle school, high school? Do you know? >> There's only I want to say two schools that grew and they were in our chapen cluster. Um we've seen and correct
041me if I'm wrong, Dr. Ross, but we've seen a kind of a across the board elementary, middle, and high. Um in the Dutch Fork and Hermo cluster, we do see Chapen growing more. Um and we had some ratings calls this week where we're talking to our um the financial um analysts and looking at just the growth in in our enrollment area. There's almost 2,000 lots proposed um with like 30 something neighborhoods. So we are seeing growth. It's just there's more options now. >> Yeah. The reason I brought that up is I know that um out near Chapen High School there was an industrial park over there. you know what I'm talking about probably and now they're going to build a gazillion homes in there and all that but um you know I think something that
042the people that I've run into and talked to still are would like to come to Lexon 5 a lot of folks just want to come here the problem is is the cost of housing and interest rates and I think that's a deterrent for young families I'm always like anybody you know parent or grandparent whatever you keep your fingers crossed and hope that young families that the rates will start coming down and when they do I mean just think when we had that one huge influx all these neighborhoods just like starter homes flew up everywhere >> and uh but I think that this is a this decrease in enrollment is a a small trend that won't last I do believe that a lot of folks are still still have that desire to come to leg and
043I think once the price of houses and the interest rates make things more affordable for young families. I think we'll see a huge increase. >> And Mr. Satderfield, to your point, last year when we saw a decrease of approximately 600 students, we knew Gray was coming into our area with an enrollment of 600 and we didn't see the 600 go there. We saw students go to other neighboring districts because of the rental market in our enrollment zone. Um, and so it's cheaper to go right across the interstate into Richland One because the rental prices are cheaper. And so, you know, you drive a few miles and you can get a lower rent because of the rent in our um there's not a lot of rentals in in the chapen cluster um and the rentals in
044Dutch Fork and Irmo are expensive because there's not enough to sustain the rental market. And so, I think that's where we saw a significant number of students leave because of the rental market. So, I do think that that is a problem. >> Um I've spent excuse me, ton of time looking at this. I sent the all the board members and I'd be happy to to give y'all a copy of it, but the student head counts guess what it was in 2008? 16,500. I I think we would be it and I and I I listen to the experts. We heard a company when I first got on the board that did a demographic study and we were going to explode and we didn't. We've seen the neighborhoods go up. Chopen went from a 2A school to
045a a 5A school in that time. But while it went up, Vermo came down in in student population. And I think Dutch Fork came down a little bit. Um what we're seeing is a national trend. There were more kids, fewer kids were ready to, you know, graduated high school last year. It was always going up up up and for the first time ever it started going down. So, I mean, I am concerned that that this is going to keep happening and that's why I sent y'all what I did because I feel like we have to look at systemic solutions because this is a systemic problem. I don't see it going away. I mean, since 2008 and we have fewer students today than we had 16 years ago. >> Thank you, Miss um hearing. >> Yeah.
046And so we saw this decrease of 584 students. There's 22 schools in the district. Is that correct? >> 24 24 programs. So that's less than 25 kids per school, not even in a single grade. So you can't reduce the costs by that much based on those few students leaving. It would take an astronomically higher percentage of our students to leave in order to be able to really see meaningful ways to reduce costs. I think >> you you could though look you know do we need to be building a new school right now. I mean you just talked about all the things that entails with the cost and we have the capacity and the trend says we'll always have the capacity and I'm not saying we should. I'm just saying it should be on the table.
047We should today put all the things on the table that we want to look at. doesn't mean we'll do them, but let's find out what they cost. Let's assess the impact on the students and then come back and figure out which ones we want to do and which ones we don't. >> So, is that suggestion to close Dutch Fork Elementary and redistrict those kids to other schools, >> even after what we saw from the parent outrage about redistricting, >> you're suggesting that we I think sometimes you have to make tough decisions. Um, you know, we do we want we want what's best for the kids, right? And that means great teachers, well- paid teachers, well- paid staff. And, you know, Gray is showing us that that's far more important than a building. I mean, I
048drive by there in the morning and I see those kids huddled outside with their coats on eating, you know. So, I think we need to talk about I'm not saying we do it, but we should put everything on the table. everything that will allow us to pay our teachers better, keep the best teachers, and get kids where they need to be on reading and math. And if it makes some people mad, you know, if it makes the majority of our parents happier because their kids are doing better, I'll take some parents being mad. I live through co a lot of mad parents. >> I know. I just didn't see that same attitude when it was the students in the Chapen cluster being redistricted. I would be fine with that too. I actually vote I f
049that voiced that concern is that the the the redistricting that we did pushed more students into Chapen and I'm fine redrawing lines there too. I mean there are students that there are neighborhoods that are district to Chapen right now that are physically closer to Dutch Fork High School. Let me just add one other thing and that is that we have to remember though this is not like an elementary school that that decreased in this is across the board. This is K through 12. So um when you look at that I know that IO at one time was a 5A school and they declined to 4A and it wasn't just because of their drop in enrollment. just because the way the high school league works is they look at all the enrollments and try to get
050so many classifications. But um uh it's a pretty complex problem when you talking about I mean if you say well we just said all these middle schools are elementary maybe we just need to look at that but this is across the board K through 12 too. So we do have to consider I'm not saying it's not worth discussing I'm just saying we have to consider that. Thank y'all. >> All right, I only have a little bit more to get through and I know we also have this on our discussion for later, too. So, I'm gonna I'm going to make sure I try to stick to my 5:30 time limit. Um, this next slide just talks about how the state comes up with their total allocation. They have $150 million this year. They got that by
051taking the total number of students in the state times the target to teacher student ratio, which is 11.2. um salaries infringe for they use a master's plus 12 uh years of experience and that's how they come up with the statewide allocation. So based on that statewide allocation, this is what our current allocation looks like based on the projections from the houseways and means. Um they looked at they took this based off of our um 45day projection. Um we'll adjust it with our 135th day. And so this was uh calculated um you can see there the method of calculation for each line. So there was a little bit of shift in how things lined up, but if you look at it in total, um, we essentially go from hund00 million to $102 million. Um, and looking
052at that about how like the state aid to classroom, the health insurance, retirey insurance, the state aid to classroom EIA, and the career and technical or technology education. So if you look at it line by line, it looks like we're seeing dramatic changes. Um, health insurance rolls through the formula this year, the index of taxpaying ability. And so we look like we're going from $2.8 million down to $300,000. Um, that's not entirely accurate because you've got to take the entire picture. You've got to look at all of those revenue lines above the reading coaches because all of that now goes through the formula. And so it's not really apples to apples if you look at it line by line, which is why I put that subtotal in there and I pulled reading coaches below because
053the reading coach line is the only line on that revenue line from the state that doesn't go through the index of taxpaying ability formula. So I wanted to give you as close to apples to apples as I could. So our allocation is 100.9 in current year and we would go to from 100.9 million to 102.5. Um and so we would see a slight increase again across the board $1.6 million. So that's our state uh state estimates. Um again that goes to the Senate for the full floor debate this week. So, we may see some changes in what that looks like coming out of the Senate and then obviously it'll have to go through conference for our local piece. Um, I know we've shown this to you all a million times and I'm not going to
054belabor this very complicated formula, but um taking our weight to people units, rolling it through the index of taxpaying ability to get what we're um able to fund on a local level um our local revenue, what it's made up of. And so if we look at this year the calculation for our allowable um millillage increase um the CPI is given to us by revenue and fiscal affairs is 2.63%. Um our population growth in this area also given to us by revenue and fiscal affairs is 1.6 for a total allowable u millage increase this year of 4.23%. Last year our operating millage cap was at 261. Um and this year we could increase that 11 mills based on the current allowable growth percentage. Um we have not used many of our lookback mills. Last year we
055used uh five. Um even though we had roll back last year, we did use five to bring us back. Um and so we have a total allowable millage increase of 32.8. So what does that look like? Um last year we also adjusted our collection percent. Um, we switched from a collection rate of 95% to 97% which I feel very comfortable with because if you look at the last 10 years of our local revenue collection, I think we're at 97.146% across the 10 years. Um, if you look at that over three years after the tax bills go out, we're really at closer to 99, but then you've got those two years of delay. This year, and um, I'll share this again when I present our January financials. This year, we're actually seeing a little bit of
056a delay in our Lexington County collections because this is the the tax bills went out in December. They were due in January, and there was a 90-day um protest period. Essentially, if you want to protest what your um assessed value was, you've got some time to do that. So, across the across the board, I've been talking to other Lexon County CFOs. Um, all of us are seeing some delays in our collections, which kind of makes you panic at first, but I really do feel like based on our tax base and based on what we've projected, we will see those collections. It might not just be what we're used to seeing in January, what we're used to seeing in February. So, I do think there will be some delay there, but so this is what um
057our mill cap has been for the last couple of years and what that looks like in terms of increases. So, our value of a mill this year calculates at 361,990. Oh. Um, so what does that look like in comparison to the districts around us? I know we always talk about, you know, how do we compare to other districts in the Midlands? So, if you look at us compared to the other districts around us, Lexon and Richland districts, um, you can see there the estimated value of their operating mills based on the preliminary um, Lexington County reports um, and then based on what Richland um, the Richland County uh, assessor gave us as far as their assessed values. So, where their um value of an operating mill is versus what their operating mills were this past
058uh tax year. So, just to give you a little bit of a comparison um to where we fall in the districts around us um what they can collect versus what their millage rates are. And so, I just wanted to give you that as a point of comparison. So, what does this look like for our local percentage? If you remember back, the state gave us or is going to give us approximately 1.6 6 million based on the funding formula from the state. So right now we're at 261 mills. The value of a mill last year was 355,629 which our pro projected revenue there was 92,819,000. So if we keep our same millage rate this year at 261 with the increased value of a mill at 361 um that gives us an additional $1.6 million. It just
059worked out that way. They both end up being almost the same number. Um and so we would have a projected revenue of $94.4 million or $.5 million for an additional revenue of60 one $1.6 million. Um if you remember back last year our revenue um increased significantly because the value of the mill went up based on the assessed values. Um the the reassessment from Lexon and Richland County. Um this year the assessed values across the two counties were relatively flat. Um, so you don't see as high of an increase in the value of a mill based on the assessed values. Um, if we were to take it back to pre-rollback millage rates, which was 266 mills, um, which would be five mil increase, we could collect 96 million, which would give us an additional local revenue
060of $3.47 million. If we were to do our full millage plus CPI and roll back um which would be 11 mills we would add this year would be $98 million in collections which would be an additional 5.6 million. And just to give you the top end of what you would be allowed to do um I wanted to give you the option of using every mill in our three-year look back. Um, and that would give us an additional hundred or that would give us $106 million in local collections for $13.5 million. So that's the range of what you all have the availability to make a decision on as far as what mill rate you would like us to use. And so just going back, circling back to what this looks like, um, giving you all of
061the millillage options there, the local increase, the millage increase, and then the state piece, the 1.6 added to that. Um, option A, the local plus the state, would be uh, $3.2 million. Um, option B, which is the pre-roll back millage, which would use five of our mills and get us to $5.1 million additional. Um, CPI plus growth, um, using the local and state would be 7.3 and the total allowable look back would be $152 million. And so, just wanted to kind of put why you can't see the bottom of that, but um, We wanted to essentially put this on a summary for discussion later um in our um in our discussion item, but I will stand for any questions at this point. >> Miss um the if you go back a couple slides. Yeah. No,
062the um which I always get confused because we have these fiscal years. So, um the the um Richland County had a reassessment and what fiscal year did that have the biggest impact on us? >> So, Richland County's reassessment, so we are in fiscal 256 right now. So, Lexington County's reassessment was in 2425 for tax year 25. Richland counties was tax year 24. So, we saw Richland County's increase last year. We'll see Lexington County's increase in the taxes we're collecting currently. >> So, on this slide, um, no, I think there was another one. Where was the one I was looking for? It had the two years compared. I guess I'm trying to figure out Oh, this one. >> Um, no, go back. I guess I'm trying to figure out why the why the revenue is not
063going up. I know we did a small roll back, but how much is the revenue going up? Local revenue. >> So the local revenue, it would be these pieces. >> That was the one I was looking for. >> Yes. >> So that n the 2526 the 92.819 million that reflects that's after the >> that was after the roll back. >> But it was also after the >> after county's reassessment. >> Okay. Good. >> Correct. >> Um I I sent the the board members some schedules showing it's right out of the financial reports. This was before roll back, so it was a 8% increase over the last five years. >> With the roll back, it's a 6% increase, but that doesn't take into account reassessment. So if you had a property that got reassessed by 15%,
064your taxes went up 15% for reassessment and then your school taxes went up another 6%. So I think we just have to be cognizant of what we've already done in the last few years. >> Dr. Ross, this is something I think we mentioned other day when we talked. Is there an opportunity to use one-time funds similar to the Seven Oaks program? I know that was kind of like a state sponsored thing, but to give our teachers an opportunity to earn a bonus based on metrics since our yearly increases aren't tied to performance. Has there ever been an appetite for something like that? >> Uh, right now we've relied on the state program. Um, I think the cat's out of the bag, I don't know if it I may be letting it out, but I think
065two more schools have uh one more school has qualified for that. So, you know, those schools. >> So, Seven Oaks will continue, but Harvest and West is being added for next year. >> Uh, I think the uh looking at the funding amount of of those uh we would have to identify where those one-time monies would come from. right now. I think to uh Heather's point, we spent um two days on ratings calls with Moody's and S&P and as we go through these bond issuances, and you'll hear this later on this evening, uh keeping that um over that 20% fund balance is is pretty much where we want to stay for those uh competitive rates there. >> Mrs. Satfield. >> Um, I'm looking through the booklet and maybe you can help me. Um, I'm looking at
066the bud budget considerations and what the district would like and I notice on the one it says the 4.6 million salary and benefits for teachers support staff and supplement. Um, but you don't have the mills that would be required. I know I'm trying to if I was good at math I could look at it. We can um looking at it with option A where we are now. Option A is where we are now. 261 mills, >> right? >> We can take care of the must dos >> to do the want to do and the must dos. And I'm getting cut off on my I can't see the bottom. I >> say I don't know why we can't see the bottom of that. >> Right now, if we were to do just the must dos, we
067could do that at the current military we're at. Um, in order to do the must dos and the um would like to do the pre-roll back millillage, we would still be a little short. We would really need to do CPI and growth to do all of those things comfortably. But again, we're going to have to find some efficiencies. So, it's it's like putting the puzzle together. You got to have the right pieces um because I have to present you all a balanced budget, >> right? >> So, to Yeah. to do the must and the wants that we have up here. Again, this doesn't have the tier two in it, doesn't have any other positions in it. Uh that is 7.7 million. >> Um so >> option C >> C would would get you there or
068you can do any any variety of that. We were just giving you uh just options and what we're looking for um in our discussion this afternoon is is basically a motion on the direction that the board would like us to do. You send us on the direction we'll balance it and bring you a budget >> because no matter what we're going to have to find efficiencies because we're going to have to find I said no matter what no matter which option the board picks we're going to have to find efficiencies in our operating costs in our supplies and our contractual services. We're going to have to those across the board um in order to balance the budget. >> And I I do want to can I share something because we have staff watching here and
069I want to make very clear as we build this. >> We can balance the budget with option A. >> Absolutely. >> So we don't have to if someone's looking and watching this and thinking are they coming after jobs or any other thing. That is not the administration's recommendation. >> We can take care of our >> figure out how to do the want to do. >> That's exactly right. And I will say we're in a much better position than other districts. And so thank you for putting us there and thank you for giving us that strong fund balance and the decisions that have been made in the past to put us in a position to not have to be um where other pl where other districts are right now. >> And I know you say as
070we look at the want to do, we have um do y'all have to look at some efficiencies and that sort of thing, but y'all tonight today we're not ready for that conversation. Um, okay. That's fine. Miss I think Miss Mr. Satderfield. I couldn't tell which was first. So, >> so by tier two, do you mean the tutoring? >> Okay. Um, I mean, I'm just speaking for me. I'm like extremely opposed assuming that I mean it's it we're getting the results that from the tutoring. >> You're opposed to cutting it? >> Yes. Opposed to cutting it. Are we getting results? >> We are getting results from tutoring. Yes. So, I mean, I I'll just speak for me, Miss Snipes, but I mean, what I would like to do, and I'm I'm happy to meet again because
071I know they have to put together a budget, but I would I would like to have all the options there and the board to be able to to look at them. And I'm not saying indefinite in in infinite options, but what is the tutoring by itself? What is the um behavior coaches by themselves? What is What is it if we didn't open the new Dutch Fork Elementary? And I realize y'all don't like that, but I think we we need to have it on the table. What if we had a hiring freeze? Not eliminating any people's positions, but don't hire any new ones and, you know, leave it up to Dr. Ross to shuffle them around. I mean, I think we should look at all the options. Um, so that you know, and an option is
072the the higher staff raises and the higher teacher raises, but you know, we're talking five or six options for us to look at. >> All right, my turn. >> Um, I'm I'm going to piggyback on what Miss Knight said and what Miss said, too. I I I was just curious as to what their expectations are tonight to hear from the board. And I would really prefer that if we have that sort of open discussion that we can sit in a little small group and we can talk and kind of get our notepads out and and kind of, you know, have some sort of instead of this very formal setting where I have to look down and see if it's my turn. >> Well, and it's just harder to kind of follow everything, right? It has
073nothing to do with the efficiency of the presentation but you know we don't work in this world every day and I think we want to make um the best decisions. Um I understood that we could do all the mustd dos but these want to do are important. Um I understood Dr. Ross's point that we're just asking for like sort of even in the want to do there's still sort of bare minimums but to me the tutoring is a bare minimum and so you know I don't you know I don't know I'm comfortable you saying let's run with this and that's not even on the table. Um, >> and I think too is if you tell us, um, build me a budget that has the tutoring in it. Build me a budget that has, uh, two
074steps for support staff. We're just asking what is the revenue that you're going to endorse for that. >> Well, we >> and if you But I'm just But I'm saying if you say we're not endorsing any more revenue, but we want these items, then we'll go and build a budget with that. >> I think Part of the problem too though is we don't know what items we're not including. So like you talked when you talked about um you know this is just and it was in response to somebody's questions. I understood why it came up and I appreciate it but it never occurred to me that the tutoring piece wasn't here. Does that make sense? And so in I don't know in three months it could just you know and it comes up and you're
075like what do we mean we don't have the tutoring? And then you say well we didn't put that in the budget. So, I think that's, >> you know, so I I do understand what you're saying. I just think I don't necessarily, and I can only speak for myself, but um may not realize something that we're leaving off the table because we're not if we're not talking if it's not on the list, like I just don't know, which I think is also part of what Mr. Satderfield is getting at. And I'll say this and just another not a kind of a chicken or the egg thing, but for for Heather's benefit, I believe um making five budgets is very very it's thousands of codes of of where this money has to go. And so to we
076have to present a balanced budget by board policy by May by the first meeting of May. So we're not saying it has to be adopted. We we can certainly um we have first reading then we have another board discussion and at that one we can sit around the table and say hey the board sent the administration down this path. We don't like the path you're on. Let's go back and and pivot. But when you have when you when you try to go down five paths at once it's it's just really hard to put those five paths together. And so um our goal is is their direction. If you say you know what we want to add, um because for us we would do another year at we could if you say hey I want um
077the tutoring included and this then it's the the superintendent's job to put together that budget that that balances and then you go back and review it. I think what gets confusing if we start mixing the two. If the board starts to build the budget line by line, how do you evaluate how I execute? >> And that's not what I was asking for either. Even if it didn't come out clear like I don't expect um Heather to you know do all these different variations of it. I think um I can only speak for myself, but when I um you know, we talk about giving, you know, giving direction um so y'all can start building a budget. I think I was just making the point that um I mean, I don't know, you don't know what you
078don't know, right? And so, again, back to the tutoring piece, I'm just using as an example. >> Um wouldn't have thought just just didn't cross my mind that it wasn't there. So that's, you know, that's sort of what um, you know, >> and just for clarification, I totally understand it's a lot. Um, what we did in is we rolled our current budget forward. >> So anything that's currently being paid out of fund balance is not in this one, >> right? >> So everything that we currently have is just rolled forward. That's $3.1 million. >> Um, we we can definitely add want to do into tier two, but we have the option of doing another year of that out of fund balance. So, it's not that we would get rid of it, but what we're asking
079for is these want to do we can't afford. So, we need direction on what's the revenue and the boards I'm the want to do. >> We cannot afford enough. >> Yeah. We do not have enough revenue to do the want to do. We have the revenues to do the mustd dos. We don't have the revenues to do the want to do. Only the board can give us the revenue to do the want to do. >> So, can I ask a question real quick? >> Well, hold on. Miss Miss Huddle had a question and then I'm going to take your question and then we're at the 5:30 mark and I would let us continue except we are going to continue this in discussion. So, unless there's something pressing, I'll take Mr. discully because he hasn't had
080a chance to speak and then I would like us to to wrap this up and then we can continue it and the discussion agenda of the regular meeting. Miss >> I just had a quick suggestion and that was to build a budget with the want to do and the um tutoring and then come to us with that. And then here are some savings ideas, different buckets that would get us back to no no tax increase. So we can subtract potentially and not increase taxes or not increase taxes as much. And the things that I think we should look at, and I realize it's painful, but I still think we should, is not building a new elementary school. I think we should look at um staffing freeze outside of um hiring freeze rather outside of um
081teachers. So those are two I would look at >> put on the list. Got it. Mr. Satan. >> Well, so I appreciate that um point of perspective. Miss, I I was just going to say the same. I didn't know if after you talked, Dr. Ross, if you were asking us for suggestions or input, I know what to build. My preference is still looking at bumping those people that are at the poverty level up two steps >> and looking at um for teachers and support staff a cost of living raise. If if they're moving up again, if you move up $200 on your pay scale, you're not getting a cost of living raise. But the people that are the teachers and the support staff and those folks, I'd like to see what it would a cost
082of living raise would do to their salaries and what it would do to our budget as well. Thank you. >> Um my approach or the way I'm looking at this is number one, I I'll just tell you up front, I'm not going to vote for a budget that does not have the tutoring involved included. I'm just it might pass but I I won't vote for it and probably the expectation coaches as well. Um but the way I want you to or the way I'm going to approach the budget is what are I don't care what we did two years ago, one year, or even this year. I want to know what our needs are for next year and a budget that is geared to meet those needs for next year, whatever that is. And that's
083how I'm going to be looking at it. So, what other mills have been passed in the p? It doesn't matter to me. Um, I'm looking at this chart and it looks like the good news is is we do have access to the funding. We're not in a shortage scenario. We have access to the funding to accomplish our goals. So, um, now it's just a matter of really pinning down what those goals are and and going after them. And, um, for me, the tutoring is a it's a hard stop. I'm not voting for a budget that does not include that. Um, but really just engineer the budget, design it based on what our needs are for next year and and that's how I'm looking at it. >> Mr. Scully, I also too just want to clarify
084um because I know we were talking about the tutoring and I just want to make make sure that you're clear too. the budgets that they um the mustd do and the want to do. They didn't have the tutoring in it. They being the administration and so we brought it up. It's not at least at the moment a a situation of trying to cut it. They didn't have it on the >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. So, I just Yeah, I got you. since we got that since that information has happened at the end of the year. We found this out uh really in the last two meetings how successful it is. It's I mean it's a to me it's a must have. >> So you're the point you're making is that you want it on the
085on the want to do >> on the want to do. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to be clear even just from a public perspective that is we're not asking to take it off right now. it just doesn't exist and it's and we want to see it on the budget. Um, all right, perfect. We are um at 5:37. So, I'm going to adjourn the budget workshop so that we can bring in our regular meeting. All right, it is 5:37. I'm going to um call our regular meeting order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? I move that we approve the agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. May I get a motion to enter executive session? >> I move that we enter executive session to for the
086following reasons. Selected employment items exhibit A action. Selected employment items exhibit B information only. Selected employment items exhibit C action. Contractual matter regarding professional development services. Exhibit D. Discussion of sale and purchase of property. Exhibits E and F. Contractual matter regarding classroom walls. Harbison West Elementary School and Nursery Road Elementary School. Exhibit G. Legal advice regarding parent complaint regarding book Sunnyside Up pursuant to state school board regulation 43-170 exhibit I. Legal advice regarding C A number 2025- CP-40-6568 and legal advice regarding CL/ A number 2021- CP-40-3694. >> Second. >> All in favor? And the motion carries 70 to zero. We'll adjourn to executive session. Test test test. >> Okay, that's what he was talking It is solved. You're good. There you go. High school teachers. Yeah, that's good. This thing is Good evening. It is
0876:34 and I'm going to call the April 28th um meeting to order. Um I'd like to welcome our fellow board members, superintendent, district leadership, staff, students, families, and members of our community. I thank you for joining us this evening and for your continued interest and engagement in the work of our school district. Um at this time we'll have the invocation and pledge of allegiance by Dr. Scott Herring and then I ask that the board members join me up front for the school board spotlight. >> Thank you Chair Snipes. Uh this evening I'd like to ask we all take a few moments for silent reflection and prayer, please. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge. God, justice for all. All right, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. We are recognizing several very
088special groups tonight. So, to get us started, I want to invite Miss Amy Taylor, School District 5's coordinator of mathematics, and Dr. Sarah Swagger, our instructional specialist for secondary ELA, to tell us about the first group. Good evening, Dr. Ross, Madam Chair, administration, and guest. Um, in 2025, 48.9% of South Carolina graduating seniors took the SAT. However, in school district 5, 68.2% of our senior class took the SAT. And for years, District 5 has recognized students from our schools for their academic excellence on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT examinations, and we continue to support students in striving to increase their performance on these examinations. For PSAT recognition purposes, we use the PSAT scores attained in the fall of the academic year for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students. These students earned the top three total
089scores for their school on the PSAT, NMSQT given to students in October of 2025. These scores are the total of both evidence-based reading and writing and math sections. We also recognize students who earned a perfect score on at least one section of the test. For SAT recognition, students recognized are those who earned the top three total scores for their school on the SAT. These scores are the total of both evidence-based reading and writing and math sections from their freshman year through December 31st of their senior year. We also recognize any senior for achieving a perfect score on at least one of two sections of the SAT. And for ACT, finally, students who earn the top composite score for their school on the ACT are recognized. These students represent the highest composite score for all sections,
090English, reading, math, and science from their freshman year through December 31st of their senior year. We also recognize any senior for achieving a perfect ELA or perfect STEM score on the ACT. These distinctions require students to score a perfect 36 in both English and reading for the ELA distinction or a perfect score of 36 in both math and science for the STEM distinction. Tonight we will introduce the academic assessment coaches for each high school who will then announce the students rece who will then announce the students receiving each distinction. After all students at a school are recognized, a photo will be taken with the coaches and board members. Before moving to the next school, we would like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Chapen High School, Randy Johnson and Tess Pratt. Randy Johnson will
091be presenting medallions to their recipients. Coaches, we appreciate your hard work and congratulations on a job well done. We also want to recognize Mr. Ed Davis, principal of Chapen High School. And please join us for the presentation of awards. First, we recognize one sophomore and two juniors from Chapen High list in alphabetical order for achieving top scores on the PSAT. Olivia Lane Kenan Reynolds. Keenan couldn't be with us tonight. Sarah Wilt. We also recognize four seniors in alphabetical order for achieving the top scores on the SAT. Jacob Braden, Vivian Garcia, and Dylan Reynolds, who also could not be here tonight. We also would like to recognize Elizabeth Young, top score for the ACT. She also could not be here tonight. Very sorry. Uh, one correction. Elizabeth Young not only had the top score for the
092ACT, she also was one of our top SAT test scores. All right, we would like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Dutch Fork High School who will be presenting medallions to their recipients, Carla Bell and Aaron Rivers. Yes. Oh, yeah. Do make sure to get Wait, hold on a second. Check the photo things. Yes. >> Yeah. do the schools first. Would you come back over? You know, we did practice this. I'm not sure why it's so difficult today. >> That's okay. These are these are wonderfully bright students. >> Yeah. And if y'all will just stand over to the side and wait for the next group. All right. So, we have Carla Bell and Aaron Rivers from Dutch Fork High School. And accompanying them, Mr. Reed Gunnar, the principal of Dutch Fork High School to
093honor these award recipients. Good evening. First, we recognize two juniors and two sophomores from Dutch High School for achieving top scores on the PSAT and perfect scores on specific sections of the PSAT. PSAT top scores, Michael Wong, Wyatt Cochran, who also had a perfect score for the math portion of the PSAT. Anthony Fu, who also had a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT. Anthony was unable to attend tonight. Annie Shu, who also had a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT. Next, we recognize one Dutch Fork High School junior for achieving a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT. Grace Ma We also recognize four senior students for achieving the top scores for the SAT. Leo Ha, who was unable to attend tonight. Arouche Cardik, who was also
094unfortunately unable to attend tonight due to a family event. Jaden Juan, who was also unfortunately unable to attend tonight. He is out of state on a college visit. Hunter Taylor, who had a perfect score on the math portion. Additionally, we recognize one senior for achieving the top score for the ACT, Luke Elgen. Finally, we recognize one student for achieving a perfect STEM, both math and science score on the ACT. Connor Parks. Thank you. Okay. Um, next we'd like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Irmo High School who will be presenting medallions to their recipients, Stephanie Dukes and Willie Frierson Jr. coaches. Thank you for your dedication to the success of these students. And Dr. Karen Hampton, principal of um, Hermo High School, can join us for the awards presentation. First, we recognize five Armo
095High students in alphabetical order for achieving top scores on the PSAT. Aaliyah Applegate, Olivia Fox, Lily Cole, Owen Norris, Jason Osborne. We also recognize one Irmo High student for achieving a perfect math score on the PSAT. Noah Wanik. Next, we recognize four Armo High School seniors in alphabetical order for achieving a top score on the SAT. Hayden Applegate, Faulner Jenkins, Jana Osborne, and Alex Sumpter. And finally, we recognize one senior who achieved the top score for the ACT. Abigail Reeves Okay. All right. And finally, we'd like to acknowledge our academic assessment coaches from Spring Hill High School who will be presenting medallions to their recipients, Kelly Mason and Sandy Cole. Coaches, thank you for your commitment to loving and growing these students. Dr. Michael Loftton, principal of Spring Hill High School, please join us for
096the presentation of awards. First, we recognize three students from Spring Hill High School for achieving the top scores for the SAT and one who also scored perfect on the math section. Arlon Moratalv Omar Anadu, Maline Rutherford, who also had a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT. Additionally, we recognize one Spring Hill High Stu High School junior for achieving a perfect score on the math portion of the PSAT. Ruha Shen. We also recognize four Spring Hill High School students in alphabetical order for achieving a top score on the SAT. Grayson Ashley AJ Kiglia, Riviera Hehart, who is not in attendance, and Ean Volanki, who also could not be here tonight. Finally, we recognize one student for achieving a top score on the ACT, Grayson Curran, who could not be here tonight. That was
097last minute. two. That's good. >> Thank you. Okay. >> All right. Thank you all for being here. Congratulations students and parents. Um we have provided the district backdrop um with our the logo and it's available for family and um group pictures. So as you exit out if you'll make your way down there for uh pictures that you might want with your school groups or with your friends and family. All right. One minute. Okay. While they're getting out, uh, for our next group of, um, students that we want to recognize tonight, I want to invite Miss Julie Shelby, our district's coordinator of multilingual learners program to announce our next group. Good evening, Dr. Ross, u, Madame Chair, board of trustees, administration, and guests. Um the seal of biiteracy is a state recognized credential that we award
098to high school juniors and seniors who demonstrate proficiency in English and at least one additional language. Some of the advantages for these students are in the academic realm. The official credential validates language at at um very high skill levels. It distinguishes students on their college and job applications. In the career world, it opens doors to bilingual job markets, college readiness, it strengthens applications, demonstrates advanced academic achievement, and it's possible that it could satisfy a foreign language requirement for some universities. That number is growing in South Carolina. Global competitiveness, it prepares students for an increasingly multilingual workforce. and personally it celebrates their linguistic heritage and cultural identity and it affirms bilingualism as an asset. I'm gonna ask that Miss um Tracy Hagerty come and um announce our students from Chapen High School and if we can
099have Mr. Davis come back um to shake hands. Good evening. Our first recipient from Chapen High School is Julia Miko Wichik. She received the gold level in Polish. Next we have Daniela Costini Diaz and she received the silver le level in Portuguese. Also in Portuguese we have Miguel Zodo and he received this silver letter in Portuguese as well. Jessup Bullwear received the bronze level in Spanish. If we can get everybody to move back in for pictures like we did last time. >> Group picture with the board. There we go. While they're doing that, if I could have Miss Carla Bell for Dutch Fork High School and um Mr. Reed Gunner on deck. from Dutch High School. Um, we have two gold medalists. The first is Alexander Lial and his gold medal is in Portuguese. And
100we also have Alexandra Sevilla and her gold medal is in Spanish. Emily Powell earned a silver medal in Spanish. and Aiden Robinson earned a bronze medal in Spanish. >> Yeah. And while they're taking pictures, if I can get um Alli McWills from Irma High School and Dr. Karen Hampton to join us for the next group. Okay. Hermo had a total of eight recipients and I would like to award the silver medal to Victoria Ramos Lopez. Ketali Espinosa received a bronze seal. Mera Fatnik received a bronze seal in Russian. if we could get um you guys to move back in high school students so we can get a picture with Dr. Hampton and the board. And then while they're doing that, if I could have um Dr. Michael Loftton on deck with um Senorita Bis. Davidid
101Martinez, Spanish gold. Christopher Miranda, Spanish silver. Huh? Shen Mandarin simple silver. Claire Jew, Spanish bronze. Easy count. Um while um we had the students that were in attendance, I did want to read aloud the names of the students that were not in attendance. Um from Chapen High School, Jose Gonzalez, silver, Elizabeth Yang, silver Putin gold. Katherine Castro John bronze. Briana Valverde bronze. Hero High School we had Rebecca Reno silver. Hayden Applegate bronze. Uh Jin uh Faulner Jenkins bronze. Bianca Peneda bronze. And that is it. So we had a lot of kids that um did very well on this test. Very exciting. All right, we have one more recognition tonight. So, I would like to invite Tony Tuning to come up with me. You may know Tony from the Palmetto State Teachers Association, but she also
102serves as president of South Carolina's chapter of the National School Public Relations Association. So, she and Julie Putnham from Kershaw County are here tonight for an exciting announcement. >> Amanda did not share that she is also part of our board of directors. She puts a lot of time and effort into our association. So, we're here this evening representing the South Carolina chapter of the National School Public Relations Association or SCNA. Our organization brings together school communications professionals from across the state. We all work toward the same goal. Helping our schools build trust, strengthening relationships, and telling the stories that matter most. Each year, SEN Insper recognizes the exemplary leadership of one of South Carolina's public school administrators who demonstrates a commitment to the enhancement of communication, building relationships between schools, the students, families, and communities
103that they serve. It's my great honor to share that our 2026 SC Insprator of the Year is Dr. Akquille Ross. Um, yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. >> Congratulations. >> So you want to go hold it up there? Yeah, that'd be great. I have a few more things to say about you, though. Yes. So, I personally worked with Dr. Ross many, many years ago at an S surb conference. After 20 years as a classroom teacher, I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed because I was transitioning into a communications and professional development leadership role at Palmeta State Teachers Association. During that conference, I was able to sit with Dr. Ross at his table and he put me at ease and made me feel like I had something to offer this teacher who had just come out
104of the classroom. I was so grateful to be placed in his group that day. Dr. Ross is someone who exemplifies what it means to lead with integrity and to embrace the power of effective communication. Whether it's leading your district through an important bond referendum or handling a crisis, he consistently demonstrates a commitment to accurately, timely, and sharing informative communication. Dr. Ross understands that trust is built through consistency, accessibility, and honesty, especially during moments of change or when there's a challenge. Regardless of the message, Dr. Ross communicates with clarity and purpose. He ensures everyone in the district community feels informed, respected, and heard. A noted strength of Dr. Ross' leadership is the alignment of public relations with your district's value and vision. He includes the district's vision, we love and grow our students in every presentation
105and meeting that he leads. He strives to tell your district's story in meaningful ways. Through working with the communication staff, he embraces a variety of ways to share information, including lunch and learns, Sunday evening videos, articles, and local papers, and other public interaction. These serve to highlight the district's priorities, strengthen the public's confidence in LR5, and foster a shared sense of pride among employees and families. On behalf of SC Inspires, as well as school communicators from all across the state, I'm very proud to present you with this well-earned recognition. Thank you so much. After all the celebrations, we should just end on a high note and go home. Let's um do another round of applause for our awesome students and our superintendent. If Dr. Ross um isn't crying, we'll turn it over to the superintendent's
106report. >> Uh Amen. Thank you so much. Um that was a great surprise. I was not expecting that. Uh but kudos to our students and our staff for the hard work. Thank you for taking the time to recognize those students uh for the amazing achievements. As we were looking at the we may be familiar with the SAT and the ACT and the PSAT uh but the gold, silver, bronze awards for biiteracy is important. We have over 60 language different languages spoken in our district and so uh very proud of the achievements therein. U we were scheduled to have a speaker today uh from Richland County. U I think he counseledled earlier today. So uh we will invite him back uh when he can speak uh to the road widening projects on Broad River Road. Uh
107if you go down you know that this is part of their Penny project and uh this view is very much different now and its pack impact on Dutch Fork uh elementary school uh is important uh to to have them on what's going on. So, uh, we'll invite him back. Um, just a reminder, uh, that this week on Wednesday, April 22nd is our purple up. Uh, this is a month that, uh, a governor has asked during this month of April that uh, we look out for and take time to recognize uh, the children of military families. Uh, we are a purple district. Uh, just want to thank uh, our district and the hard work that we do to support those families. And so we ask that everyone in our community on uh Wednesday, April 22nd, uh
108that we wear purple in recognition of our military families and the military children. We do this because we're a system guided by three critical questions. Why do we do this work? How do we accomplish that that why? And then what are our outcomes? Our vision is that we love and grow our students. Our mission is that we're focused on academic, social, and emotional growth and development. And our strategic plan outcomes. Uh these are the four performance uh goals that we have with uh 24 strategies for two objectives that every student feels loved in our schools and every student has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. and we measure that growth and we're very proud of the work that we continue to do. Uh we see that uh we've had in English uh high school English
109two went down.3% but in every other measure we went up and so that's our goal is to keep the onward and upward trajectory of the work that we're doing that strategic plan guides the way. We look at graduation rate. Believe it or not, we are coming down to just about five weeks of school and um we're trying to our best to cross that orange line of 90% as outlined in our strategic plan goal. Uh working each and every day with our high schools to identify those students in the gap so that we can meet our needs. Uh as we hit uh spring, we can now see all three of the assessment uh that formative assessments that are mandated by the state uh for our our MAP testing. Uh we see elementary and middle school English
110and math in the fall, in the winter, but look at this as our spring. And I will say since uh I've been superintendent, I've not seen uh the mass spring results this positive. So very very proud of the work uh especially uh in the elementary growth that we've seen. We've seen growth in all areas from um fall to spring, but I am very very impressed uh with the work that we're doing. And this is all of our u MTS plans from uh tier one, tier 2, and tier three. I want to share um thank you for the tier 2 tutoring updates that we have. As of the end of March, uh we had over 796 students attending, um teachers participated and 15 of our schools uh offering counseling sessions and we see the results there.
111We heard at the workshop how important the uh the tier 2 tutoring program is to the success of our students and we can see that uh in the results here and we talk about supporting our teachers um this is the the the realities uh that we're we're sharing. But um those students in that 21st percentile especially at the third grade level where we have the retention problems and concerns we're seeing amazing growth. But uh here is the same for math. So again, very proud as we sprint to uh assessment season. Uh these are predictions of how students are going to do in IC ready. We're looking forward to those outcomes. And this is a a huge herculean effort by students, staff, administrators, support staff, and our families. I want to share uh one story of
112a student. Um, this is a student who was at Dut fork Middle School. Looking at Miss Mac, make sure I'm right. And uh, since this student has been in um, middle school, they have constantly been in the red. And I'm just going to go back and show you what red means. That's below the 21st percentile. The goal is to get them to the green. To be in the green, they have to be in the 61st percentile of of achievement. That's moving four achievement bands. Four achievement bands. That's a lot of work for a teacher to move a child. We try to move one year and one academic year. This child uh since the sixth grade and fall, winter and spring has always been in the red below the 21st percentile, sometimes as low as the
11310th percentile in achievement. This child has consistently attended the tier 2 tutoring program that you have provided. Uh they have not missed a day. They've worked with their teachers. Uh they have stayed after school. I am happy to report this child is now in the green. They're in the 62nd percentile of achievement. This is the work that you have done to put this program in place for these children and it has shown amazing results. There are other indicators of that. There's other factors, but um and and she's not an outlier. There are other students like that. So, when you make this a a a an administrative priority for us, we're just trying to show you here's Here's the difference it made for this child to uh get ready to enter high school. She's on level
114to enter high school when the trend was that she wasn't. So again, I just want to thank you uh so much for your willingness to support uh the tier 2 tutoring and just want to thank um Vernon Saba for sharing this with Miss McCascal. I told Miss Castle, this my story now I'm going to share it. But I'm just very proud because to see results like that, that's what it's about. We honor the amazing top level achievers tonight. We also recognize those students who grew from almost 10th percentile to the 62nd percentile. That's amazing growth. And uh that's what uh the formative assessment is is really about is how do we do uh a better their job for all of our students to ensure that we're using the formative assessment data to gra to drive
115that type of growth. It's their work in the tier 2 that allowed that growth. And so, uh, when we talk about formative assessments, there's been a lot of talk about MAP versus I Ready. I want you to hear from the educators of why they recommend the I Ready program. Um, we look at uh the difference in map and I ready as we look at the difference in a thermometer and a thermostat. The thermometer passively measures and reports the current temperature. It's really good to see where a child is and to see different pivots of where a child is or where they were. But what our teachers need, what our parents need, what our students need is a thermometer. I mean a thermostat. They need something that actively regulates and controls the environment. And that's what
116we believe I Ready does that it actively regulates what we're doing. Um our goal is to install a formative assessment tool that operates as a thermostat for student growth. Formative assessment committee met 13 educators on this committee and their recommendation is that not only will we report where a child is and I for for district reports you get a lot out of map but that helps us. What we're looking for is something that will help that child, that student, that that teacher and that family. And so the personalized learning through my path and that individualized instructional software is align that state standards that gives us the ability to get more out of these fall, winter, and spring diagnosis. The question in that child that went from 10th percentile to 62nd is what was it? It
117was the ability to individualize her instruction. It wasn't the thermometer. It was a thermostat. And so what do our teachers ask for? We asked our teachers two years ago, why do you work in school district 5? They said, but look, I want to feel valued and I want to know that I'm growing. Acknowledge what I'm actually going through. give me supports that will help with teaching and learning. And I need that time to focus on uh practice because this is what they're up against. They're up against a lot of students in that class. This is not madeup data. This is real data from a classroom that a child like that sat in at the same school of that child. And when you're faced with all of these different levels of achievement and all these different
118levels of reading in that one class, you you want a thermostat to help you regulate the achievement of these students to know exactly where they are. Yes, that's good. But our educators are asking for a thermostat. I want to be actively engaged. And I'm not ing contradictory uh arguments in terms of what our teachers actually need to drive instruction. I want to share too that we can give the parents in the game as well that we can give the parents a thermostat something that can actively engage them with I already and that's the parent reports as I'm a parent of this district as well. You saw my children here we celebrate when their MAP scores go up, but we're lost when they go down. I don't know what to do. I work in this district.
119There's a it's very broad in terms of what I do with my child when that score falls. There's a lot of children who don't meet their mark and they turn to their parents and they say, "What does this mean? What does I Ready do?" It gives us now a thermostat. It gives me reports that tell me exactly what MAP is telling me, but it goes deeper into the standardbased success criteria that my child my child does not know. Now, I can do this at home. I can talk to the teacher about the specific success criteria based on the state standard that my child needs. So much talk about map but no one talks about thermostat that drives the instruction of that child. Operation transformation. That's what it was all about. It was less about buildings.
120It was less about renovations. It was more about being in position to take a child from I can't to I can't. So, Miss Mac, I ask you this. I have not seen an assessment of math where only 38% of our students in elementary school math were were not on on level. What do you contribute that to? >> First and foremost, I have to say teachers. That's the first thing I have to say because teachers make a difference and they make the biggest difference of all. But our teachers have been champions of a new math curriculum and that math curriculum is the I Ready math curriculum. They've been using the math diagnostic this year. They've been digging into the standards that students know and don't know. They've embraced the success criteria that we have and they've
121really gotten on board with being very intentional and specific with what they're teaching. And I cannot imagine that with that growth in one year with the brand new curriculum what that can do in years to come because they've shown the dedication to it and they've shown how much of an impact it's made on them professionally with professional development and then how that's translating into the classroom with results. I just want to uh take the time to just to speak on that matter um >> before we move on to the financials. >> Before we move to the financials and if this isn't the appropriate time for our ready question, I can wait. But um since you um brought it up, I think it would be good to get um clarification on the action that you're asking
122of the board because um admittedly um I know myself when it first came up last meeting I thought we were asking I hate to use the word permission but you know permission for us to do this test but if I understand it correctly you can do already without we don't have any say. So um and so is it accurate that y'all the administration have already decided this is the best step forward. What y'all are asking us to approve is for the staff to get the >> you know teaching I guess they need the training that I couldn't think of the word the training that they need to implement it accurately. Can you speak to that and just clarify that especially for the public and I'm asking it publicly because I've gotten emails and comments with
123feedback about I Ready and I thought that that was the case but I just want to also make it clear you know the decision is a decision but it doesn't sit with us. So the board policy is that anything over 25,000 in professional development has to come before um the board for permission for professional development services. So I brought the contract for professional development services to the board for permission. The formative assessment and curriculum is an administrative decision. So that would be a decision that we would make. Correct. And then um as a followup um to that um with MAP, I know we've had it like forever, but I'm assuming we've done training for MAP at least at some point in the you know when it was new um that we also had to pay
124for and do we still pay for any training now or not? I got you with some >> We do not need to pay for MAP training any longer. We've had MAP since before I started in this district. So um it's sort of a train the trainer model that we just keep we keep doing our own training that way >> and it's my understanding that I guess this is the same situation we're training for I already but then it becomes train to training model we won't continue to to do this necessarily >> that is correct >> miss huddle >> I I think the confusion is that is a nationally normed assessment that's given in um two three times throughout the year and I ready offers that as well and so the state says that you can
125swap those out >> but what we're also doing on top of that is an is a computerized platform that um I ready also offers that kids take these many tests throughout the year they spend 30 45 minutes a week per subject on the on the computer and what we need is the training to teach the teachers how to use that? >> No, ma'am. The training will be teaching them how to use the diagnostic and how to use the data of the diagnostic, >> but that's throughout that's using it throughout the year, right? It's not just using it two to three times a year. >> Either way, I mean, the diagnostic is used three times during the year, beginning, middle, and end. That's the formative assessment, and that's the professional development. If we choose, which would
126be an administrative decision, if we choose to purchase the curriculum that goes alongside that, they will integrate that into that training. But the training is going to be around right after the beginning of the year. So, how do you use the beginning of the year data? It'll be right after the middle of the year test. So, how do we use the middle of the year data? So, the training will be around how do we use the formative assessment data? >> Okay. So have we my understanding though is the plan is to use the Iread's ongoing tools correct where the kids p are on it 30 45 minutes per week per per subject >> per week. We are looking at that as part of the curriculum um piece of that but that is not part of
127what we're asking for approval from the board on. >> Okay. Has that decision already been made to do that? Um, we are waiting to pending whether we're going to get approval to have professional development because we don't want to ever put teachers in a situation that they do not have professional development on a tool. >> So the professional development would be for that tool >> for the formative assessment tool. Yes. >> But not for the week in week out use. >> If we choose to integrate that, they will integrate that into the training around the diagnostic. >> Okay. So if we approve the training, it will be on using the week in week out as well as the formative. >> The bulk of it will be on using the formative assessment and how to use
128that data and then they will tie into the curriculum as well if we choose to go that route. >> Okay. Thanks. I I I just I think that by policy something might be an administrative issue, but this is such a major change for this district and that there's a lot of parents who are concerned about the computer use is I think why this it's really much more about the PD. I mean, it's it it's it's much more than about the PD. It just came up because of the PD. Like that was the first time I ever heard as a board member that we were planning to move from MAP to I Ready. And I'm not saying that that I had to be told, but that's where the surprise came and where, you know, it would
129be and I think parents want a forum to talk about this. They need more information. They want to hear about it. There's just a lot of concerns. >> I do understand um that, Miss and um the clarification I was making wasn't to take away from that. I just think that the public also needs to understand that we don't have the right we, you know, it's just not our function. Um, but also, um, as a followup, even before you said that, because you, um, referenced the 30 to 45 minutes a week, which I think is because we've been hearing from people around the concerns about the tech, and that is something that I raised, um, to Tina as a question to, Dr. Ross, sorry, I've called like all the staff. Um but um because I also
130had that question and it's my understanding and Miss McCasco please correct me but it is also my understanding that um we are looking at eliminating some of the tech stuff that we already have so that even if we decide to add this piece that could be the 30 or 40 minutes it doesn't increase tech time because we're reducing some tech time. Can you speak to that for clarification please? Sure. So we currently have um programs like Dreambox. We have other math fluency that different schools use some different tools within um even some of the I Ready tools that we currently are using. Um but those things will be going away so that we will focus on using the I Ready tool. So that the the amount of time technically could go down, but it certainly
131won't go up in terms of the amount of time that we're using the computer. >> Dr. Ross was trying to interject or something. I'm sorry. >> My point I think the assumption is that we're increasing screen time. I think what we're doing is consolidating programming to alignment. Uh what we have been trying to do and I'll just go back to the the thermostat. We're trying to get something that helps us actively regulate what a child needs to know and what they do not know by having alignment. We don't have to pull in other tools. Um and so that's what I don't think this is a notion where we're saying we're we're adding this on top. In our presentation uh that Miss McCascal did, she talked about these are the programs that we can look to
132remove now gain efficiencies through this platform. >> Mr. Skully. >> Uh yeah, Dr. Ross, I I like your analogy with thermostat. The way I look at it also is just kind of another analogy the same way is um maps is just tells us where we are. It's it's actually what it sounds like. It's a map. If you look, if you pull up your cell phone, open the map app, you'll see a blue dot. That's where we are. What I Ready is going to do is allow me to put in my address, and it'll give me the directions how to get there to home. That's I Ready. The blue line map is just the blue dot showing where we're at today, where we're sitting right now. That's all all it gives us. Tells us where the
133kids at. But now we need to know how do we get them from where they're at today to where we want them to be academically. That's what I Ready gives us is that plan, those tools. Every every turn, every change of direction is another skill that it's putting in the pathway in the plan to get that student from where they are today to where we want them to be. That's what I Ready does and that's why the teachers absolutely love it and that's why it's so much more valuable to not just our kids but our our district as a whole. Um I don't really maybe this is going to sound bad or not but I don't care what the parents think. I don't think the parents got an idea had a voice in whether we
134went to MAP. Did we did we poll the parents? We just that was the system. This is the system that we need to use or that that gives us educational tools to get our kids where we want them to go. It's just the way it is. I'm also pushing back on the narrative that technology is bad. I do not agree that tech time is bad. That's just one opinion, one voice. The other technology is a critical part of education, a critical part of our future and our kids' future. And I'm I'm I'm just tired of hearing that narrative that somehow technology is bad and we need to run from it. Pass Dr. Ross over there. Um I wonder just just for the parents that are watching and that are here, we are required by state
135law to use a formative assessment. It's whichever one we choose and we have been using maps for a very very long time. I remember when teachers had to meet all during their planning and data teams and they went they spent countless hours examining data but it really was not tied to the curriculum from what I've been shared. I will tell you that I have had sever I go to a lot of student activities still um and I do have teachers I run teachers and some administrators who have told me they are very excited about I Ready. um we are not tied to this this if we're not our feet are not in concrete with I already are they Dr. They're not. Um, but uh I think it's if you if if you see something that's
136works better, then shame on you for not trying it. If if three years from now we say let's go back to math, well then you go back to map. But from what I've been told, and I think that Miss Picascal has done a yman's job of um piloting this program and and getting feedback and going through all the the channels from teachers and administrators, like I say, I've had several who have come up and approached me and I'm really excited about how it is tied into our curriculum. And I think that with getting back to our true feeder system that we'll be with next year and our tier 2 tutoring which we'll have for the full year and the I Ready I think that those little red bars that you keep sharing with us will
137start disappearing a little bit. I'm hoping but uh so I'm excited about it. Mr. McCascal, I wanted to ask does um Dreambox, Khan Academy, any of these programs that we work, do they um use the information from MAP to tailor the instruction or you know scaffold students based on their MAP scores. >> Khan Academy does not that I'm aware of. Dreambox you can import map data into and it will do some of that for you. What it doesn't do is the teacher toolbox piece of it that gives the teacher the lessons to teach. Um, it gives you the digital side of it, but it doesn't give you the human side of it, which is what really is exciting and what our teachers have really bought into this year with the math is that teacher toolbox
138piece of it. >> And to follow up on that, I'm I understand that you can use the digital programs. Could teachers not also use that to inform in pencil instruction as well. >> Um, you're talking about from Dreambox? >> No, from what they're the the information they get from the I Ready assessment. Could they not use that? It's not necessarily has to be done through a digital platform. >> Correct. That is correct. So, the my path is a digital platform that enhances that, but then there's also the teacher toolbox that has teacher lessons that go with it that are that are for small groupoup instruction. So, it's it's really sort of that whole package deal that that truly helps meet the needs of of all students. And that's the piece that word all is what
139just really has got people excited about this. >> Thank you, >> Miss Huddle. I'm coming in just as a quick followup to that. Um, will we keep using Dreambox? Um, okay. That was one of that was on my list, Miss Huddle. Um, so the part that the student would use at home um during the week, is that called my plan? >> It's called my path, but honestly, we don't want that to be used at home. We want that to be used in the classroom because it will inform our instruction. So, that is not something that we really >> intend to be homework. It truly is instructional and should be done during the school day. >> And is it it's asking the child questions, right? like it's like a mini test. Is that right? >> Um
140it has instruction that goes with it and followed by with some assessments that go with it, but it's it's some instruction involved in it as well. So, it's kind of interactive between all of that. >> If it's if a child gets a question wrong, are they told what the right answer is? >> They're given instruction on how to get how to get to the right answer. They're not just told like if the answer's B and they choose A. They're not told, "No, you're wrong, the answer's B." what it does is it actually um knows where the mistakes of the child might be and it goes back and gives instruction based on what what that question is. >> And I'm asking because I've never been I can't see it. Um but what I've been told is
141that that's one frustration that some children and parents have with it is that it doesn't tell them what they got wrong. It realizes they got it wrong and it gives them more instruction, but it doesn't say you got this wrong and the correct answer was this. Am I right about that? >> That is the reason that is the reason why we don't want it done at home. We want it done in the classroom where teachers can monitor what's happening because that's why I think uh Mr. Herring asked the question about you know can that be used as an instructional tool. That's the value of it is that as teachers pull these reports and they see what the teacher is actually what the student is actually doing and what mistakes they're making that's where that small
142group instruction takes place and we don't want parents to say you did this wrong let me show you now or this is the right answer. We want teachers to be able to engage with that student with that data that we have. So that is the purpose behind not doing it at home. Does Dreambox, if a child gets the answer wrong, does it tell them okay? Is there any tool I I mean I can just see the the frustration with that. Is there any tool that does tell them you got it wrong and here's the right answer. >> It does tell you if you get what's right or wrong. Like it tells you what your score, >> but it doesn't tell you like if it asks you a question, what's two4s times 34s? It doesn't and
143you get it wrong. It doesn't tell you what the correct answer was. >> Not right then. It goes back and teaches you how to do it. And then it gives you another opportunity to do it correct. >> Does it tell you that specific problem exactly or just how to multiply fractions? >> It doesn't tell you that specific problem because on a test you may not get that specific problem. Again, it's going to give you a process that you need to follow in any situation at all. It's just like if we're teaching, let's say we're teaching Shakespeare. If I teach Shakespeare and I teach every single one of those characters and I know those characters in and out and I can do the best thing in the world on a test about those characters, put me
144in an SAT and have me read another Shakespeare, I'm not going to do so well because I had to be taught how to analyze those characters and in another setting I need to be able to analyze those characters. >> I know. I understand. I guess it's just it's it's very different from, you know, we're talking about thermostats. One thermostat is a test. Teachers give tests all the time. And I think students and parents are used to you get it wrong and and and having the child understand why they got that particular question wrong and what the right answer was. And I understand the process, but but it is not going to tell them that, right? It's >> I think I think what we're getting into and I can have this conversation but we're getting into
145the profession of teaching. Um so that particular test that you're talking about or those questions on that may not but we can sit that's the purpose of having a test that you do on paper and pencil and the child shows you the work and then you sit beside that child and you go over that with that child. But before you ever get to that paper pencil test, all of this practice has to take place and they have to learn the process of it. And that's what the instruction is. And that that's what this is about is being able to give the child the practice that they need in a classroom. If you see all those desks and all those different colors, you've got practice of all of these in different levels. But as a teacher,
146I can sit with four or five kids and I can instruct on this while all the other 20 or 21 kids are sitting beside me and they're still getting the same kind of attention that my kids in front of me are getting. We don't have anything else that does that. >> Are there studies that show that weren't done by I Ready? Are there studies that show increases in SC ready since there are other districts using it? If you look at the ed analytics study that's out there and also if you go back to the beating the odds schools in South Carolina 90% of those schools were using I Ready on their beating the odds. >> Were they using the my path? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Dr. Ross wanted to chime in on
147something and then Mr. Bum >> and I think just Miss McCow said it. I think the schools that are outpacing us in growth are using already and and I think that goes to the study. But I also just wanted to clarify what the purpose of a formative assessment. We don't want a test that just gives the answers. That's not the purpose of formative assessment. What we typically find is that kids will just select through until it gives them the right answers and the learning does not show. The purpose is for them to gain the knowledge. And I think the only way we can get those red bars, the blue bars is that they actually learn the process. So, um, I appreciated Mr. McKas saying, you know, this is the instructional philosophy. The book doing school
148kind of shows that we have kind of purposely put kids into this pick the right bubble and then move on without really gaining the knowledge. So, uh, understanding the conceptuals behind dividing fractions is what we really want them to get. >> Mr. I just want to say briefly, I'm speaking for myself, but I appreciate our teachers and the administration working on these programs, but I also want to recognize that I do value personally our parents because these are their children and we want to make sure we're working collaboratively. So, I believe that y'all are doing that and I do appreciate that, but I do value our parents' opinions. >> Thank you. Um, Mr. Um um um I've had a lot of questions. I realized that and part of it is because I've been getting um
149emails and calls from parents around this subject matter and they had a lot of questions and I didn't have the answers and um I promised my due diligence but for the vote that I would ask them so that they could also um you know hear these um hear these um responses and um one thing that came up uh Miss McCascal and you addressed it with us earlier but um uh was about the data collection because of the um can you just speak to that um from the perspective of um what um type of data already is collected on our kids and who if anybody is going to be shared with >> right so we have fully vetted um the program of course now first of first of all let me say it's on the state
150approved list so the state only approves five formative assessments and it's on the state approved list and we have to choose from that list, but it is um FERPA compliant. It's COPA compliant. Um but all of the protection acts of of the data is in place with with that already. >> Thank you. And my last thing isn't a question, but I do um I did have the thought just based on some of the questions and everything um is that maybe um if we move forward with this platform or y'all are moving forward the platform um since that's happening at some point um some sort of you know parent communication that might answer just some of those repeated questions um so that people can kind of understand what's going on and and do the facts. versus,
151you know, the rumor or whatever. You know, you understand what I'm saying? >> Absolutely. Once we get into the program, you know, our schools have curriculum nights and so at the curriculum nights at the beginning of the school year, parents will learn all about our ready at that point. Um that by then our teachers will have had some training behind it and they will they will educate parents and we'll continue to do that throughout the year. Um we'll I know one year with Matt whenever we first started with sending home some family reports I was part of doing some videos um as elementary director I was part of doing some videos on teaching parents how to read the map reports and we'll do some of the same kinds of things with reading um parent reports
152and and really making sure that we can help parents understand that. >> Thank you Miss Mcasco. Do we have any other questions on this miss? Um how will um for because we're going to get ready to talk about the strategic plan. How will we compare the MAP scores to the SC the I Ready for the strategic plan >> with the uh new we're doing a new strategic plan. So we'll be setting new benchmarks on on the I Ready platform. Now again Lexile and some of the Lexile data is consistent some of some of the great level but the goal is to to set new benchmarks uh with the with the ready data >> but they both also have projections to the SC ready. So they both like Matt provides um SC ready projections and so
153does I already gives gives the projections. They also give percentiles. So even though it is a criterion reference test, it still gives us a norm for a percentile. So we still we don't lose any of that. I know that's been a rumor that I've seen around on social media and stuff like that, too. We still will get a percentile for our students. It's still a test that allows us to identify for gifted and talent. It it's all of the things that we we're not losing any of that. >> All right, Miss Macascal, thank you so much. Do we have any other questions? All right, that moves us to the finance report. Miss Tucker, >> good evening. At this point, um Madam Chair, members of the board, um I have to for you tonight January's financial
154data. Um, for our revenue, January is really the first month where we see our large tax collections. Um, our year-to- date property taxes right now are at $80 million and about 40 million of that we collected in January alone. So, if you think about um our fund balance and the fund balance policy we brought to you last year, this is the reason why because essentially October, November, and December, we're running off that fund balance. We don't get our cash from our tax collections until January and February and March is when we really see those property tax collections. And so this is our tax collections for tax year 2025, which is the first year of the Lexon County reassessment. Um Richland County did their reassessment in uh tax year 2024. So we're seeing those reassessed values
155coming in now. And we are, like I mentioned earlier in our budget workshop, um we are seeing a delay in our property tax collection. Um, all of the Lexman districts are seeing this and we do expect that to really come back to the collection percentage that we budgeted for in our budget this year, which is 97%. Um, I do expect that to be delayed probably. Um, we will start to see those percentages even out um, as we move into our March and April collections now that the 90-day um, um, appeals will have uh, passed. So, our tax collections um right now are at $80 million for uh year to date. Um and overall revenue, we're about in line with where we were at this time last year. Um revenue through the end of January is
156at 67.5% and revenue through the end of January of 2025 was at 68.7. So, you see we're slightly under, but again, that's that trend holds across all the Lexington County school districts and we expect that to even out over the next three months. As far as our expenditures go, we are again kind of right on track with where we were at this time last year. Expenditures slightly higher. Obviously, if you have bought anything recently, you know that that is true across the board. Um we are pretty consistent because 90% of our expenditures are salaries and fringe. And so that is um something that doesn't uh vary a lot during the year with other than with vacancies, but our contractual services supplies, we are seeing increases in those. um things like gas and diesel fuel for
157our athletic buses. Obviously, we are seeing large increases there. So, we are slightly above where we were this time last year with expenditures, but overall we are right on track for our budget for this year. So, with that, I will stand for any questions. >> Do we have any questions for Miss Tucker? >> All right. Thank you. Turn. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Ross, members of the board. I'm excited tonight to have the opportunity to invite Mrs. Alyssa Powers as a representative of the district's uh teacher forum. Before she starts, she needs no introduction, but introduce her anyway. Um, Mrs. Powers is not only a graduate of the district, but she served as our district's teacher of the year. Um, excellent representation of our teachers across the board. um the innovation, the forward thinking,
158the passion, the enthusiasm that you'll hear from Miss Powers tonight um through an idea that um the teacher forum came up with really shows us that recruitment belongs to all of us and the things that we say and we do. We're constantly recruiting. Um so with that, I'll turn it over to Miss Powers. >> You Thank you, Dr. Turner, and thank you for inviting me and letting me steal your moment. Good evening. Um, like Dr. Turner said, my name is Alyssa Powers and I am lucky enough to be the chair of District 5 Teacher Forum. If you don't know, we are a teacher group consisting of the past two teachers of the year from every school in the district. And this past week, we held our first D5 homegrown teachers celebration, um, which we were
159really excited about. Our mission at Teacher Forum is to advocate for teachers and students, advance the teaching profession, and inspire others. And this celebration really did all three of those things. So, it was a celebration hosted right here in the multi-purpose room and it was honoring district 5 seniors from all four high schools who are graduating in the spring and are going to college to study education. Um, I had the idea when I was attending the South Carolina Teacher Forum meeting over the summer with other district teachers of the year from all over the state and I stole it and I took it and made it our own and I met with Dr. Ross over the summer and it's no surprise he was administrator of the year because he was so supportive and he listened
160so well and he brought his own ideas and he just let me run with it and our teacher forum worked so hard to put it on. Um so the purpose was to congratulate the seniors um but not only congratulate them and recognize them for going into education but also to hopefully in a couple of years want them to come back to district 5. Um so when Dr. Turner talked about recruitment and retention. That was really our recruitment piece of, hey, we know you've been loved and grown so well as a student here and how special it would be to come back and give back to the district like that raised you just like I did. Um, we also wanted to recognize the current teachers who helped these students get here. So, each of our students
161is also able to invite a district 5 teacher who inspired them on their journey. Some of them still here, some of them have retired and moved on to other places. We were luckily able to track everyone down and it was a really special moment. Um, our goal was just to build the pipeline from being a district 5 student to becoming a district 5 teacher. So, we invited seniors who were both in teacher cadet and then also seniors who are not in teacher cadet because there are quite a few seniors in our high schools that are not a part of teacher cadet but they are going to pursue education. and we had our red carpet out and they got to walk across the red carpet where we shared just a small part of their story, why
162they're choosing to go into education. Um, they got a photo with Dr. Ross. They got their homegrown future teachers D5 recruit t-shirt so that they can show their pride. Um, they also got to bring their families and we thought at teacher forum it was essential to invite their families because not only did we want them to be recognized as well for the hard work they've put in with helping their students get here, but also we wanted them to see that district 5 and teacher forum value their child's decision to go into education. And we wanted them to realize that celebrating teachers in district 5 and future teachers in district 5 is a priority for us here. Um, like I said, we invited their inspirational teachers and that was I think my favorite part, getting to
163see all the hugs and the full circle moment for so many of them and the tears and um, teachers were given a certificate afterwards with the kind words that their senior wrote about them and why they chose to invite them here out of all the teachers that they'd have. And we realized after like, hey, that was a pretty good retention tool as well to not only recruit these new teachers, but to hopefully retain some really awesome teachers who are doing wonderful work. Um, we had 19 seniors and their families attend. We also had inspirational teachers, teacher cadet instructors, district office staff, board members, and high school principles in attendance. Of course, our teacher forum was in attendance running the uh event, and they did a phenomenal job making it professional and successful and just so
164thorough, and I can't thank them enough. Um, we had, we believe, about a hundred people in attendance, which we were very happy with for the first year of turnout. We also got to highlight the over 170 current teachers in district 5 who are homegrown like myself went to a district 5 high school. Um, and we got to highlight their name up on the board as well. We've heard a lot back from students and families. Teacher cadet instructors have heard a lot from the students saying, "Thank you so much for doing that event. It was amazing." They got lots of pictures. just there was lots of tears and hugs and everybody was just so thankful that we recognized um educators because we always get to do I'll recognize lots of things. We get to recognize athletes
165and all so much and we wanted to make sure that us teachers wanted these students to know we appreciate what you're doing for the world of education. Um so again we had a successful turnout for the first year. We didn't know what to expect. So we're hopeful that next year we can continue this every year and we can make it bigger and better. Dr. Ross had the idea of including support staff who are becoming certified staff because we do have a number of those every year. So, we're hopeful that we can add them into the program next year. And overall, it was just a really great turnout. We didn't know if we were going to have four seniors or 50 seniors and we were just blown away with the support from the district and the
166turnout from the community and we're really excited to continue it in future years. >> Thank you. And do we have any questions? Well, I thought I was able to attend Mr. Siderfield and I he knew the parents of all the seniors because he's been, you know, here forever. But, um, it was a really, um, thoughtful, you know, program. Um, I thought I thought it was a nice a nice touch. So, I hope we'll be able to continue it in the future. >> Thank you. And we appreciate you guys coming and supporting. I know it meant a lot to us, but also to the students and their families. So, >> absolutely. really excited about uh this program and uh thank you Miss Power for really a teacher initiated program to recognize our our future teachers. So
167they're committed um and we want just like the athletes that commit to major colleges, we don't want them to decommit to another district. So we'll be be following them for four years. Uh and then last but not not least um Thursday the publications will come out with our annual report uh growing together really featuring uh what Nish calls the best school district in the Midlands and the best place to teach in the Midlands. Uh very proud of the work. Thank you to the communications department for your work. All of our uh chiefs and directors for putting this together. uh Courtney Morito for her tireless work. This is amazing work product that she does to truly highlight all of the things that we have uh success in our district and our and our editor Dr. Baldwin.
168And I thank you so much for being gracious enough to kind of look through and make sure that we hit all the notes that we need to hit. So uh madam chair, members of the board and our community, that's our D5 story. And that concludes the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Dr. Ross. Do we have any additional questions for Dr. Ross. >> Perfect. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the March 23rd board meeting? >> I'll move that we approve the minutes of the March 23rd, 2026 board meeting. >> Second. All in favor. And the motion carries 7 to zero. That moves us to public participation. The board welcomes and encourages public participation. We respectfully ask that you adhere to the procedures provided in board policy BE DH public participation at meetings.
169Your 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. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Lauren G is here to about supporting district officials. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Dr. Gar. I'm the instructional coach at Irmo High School and I'm here tonight to support our district instructional team. Um, head coach Tina McKascal is in charge of this team. And we all know being a head coach is you get all the glory, but you also get all the crazy sometimes. Um, I will tell you that this instructional team is making important and very difficult decisions for our district, but I think the most important thing is
170that they are making informed decisions for our district. And so as a parent in this district and a teacher in this district, I can't say enough how much I support that instructional uh team that we have. I also wanted to come to encourage you guys to um support them as well. Now, in supporting people, do we always agree? Absolutely not. Um I'm sure the instructional team doesn't always agree because that would be like kind of creepy and they need to discuss these things to figure out the best path path forward. But you guys have a tough job of supporting your constituents and I hear a lot like Mr. Bayum saying that he supports parents and I'm going hold you to that as a parent and I think our kids go to the same elementary school.
171Um and so I think as supporters of parents and teachers and everybody in the district is important to have a supportive um actionoriented mindset when we are communicating about things. For example, as a parent and a community member, I have seen posts on Facebook um various things like rants and confrontational dialogue um with certain people. And then I've also seen poorly created AI images that seem to be veiled um you know, threats or just negativity pointed at our district. Being the best is difficult. Um Coach KN says good, better, best. May your good be better and your better be your best. And then chape and varsity cheer follows the uh sports theologian uh Don Staley and thinking that uh pressure is a privilege. We are privileged to be having these discussions about tools like I
172Ready, which as somebody that taught the EOC when it was in English one and we absolutely had no data trackers except for our own. I appreciate the bravery that our instructional team is showing by saying, "Yes, MAP has been around for a while and it is good, but how can we be better? How can we be our best?" And that is how to provide our teachers with informed pathways to support students to success. So, I'm asking as a teacher, as a credible source to support these individuals, but I'm also asking selfishly. My my son is a student at River Springs, and I need Barry Lindler to hold up the STEM awesomeness for my kid for six more years to teach him how to thrive in that STEM program. Uh, we just had a Dutch grad
173clean up the Artemis 2 shuttle stuff, and she was a product of our district. So, please support our teachers and parents. Thank you. >> Christopher Rogers is here to speak about athletic video boards. Good evening. My name is Chris Rogers. I'm here for a couple reasons tonight. Um number one, I'm a parent of two students at Chapen High School. Um, I'm also uh an executive associate athletics director at the University of South Carolina who also happens to be in charge of facilities and capital projects. So video boards fall under my purview. So uh it seems appropriate topic for me to hit on. Um I have a senior who's participated in soccer for six years at Chapen. Um so he's played on Cecil Wilbright Field. Over the length of that time we've seen that board uh
174increasingly go downward. Um so as a father and community member when we go to events whether it's at Chapen or other schools um right wrong or otherwise our facilities are representation of our community and our school um visitors see it our parents see it the student athletes who are competing see it and uh as as time goes on and our facilities are not maintained I shouldn't say not maintained but when the video boards are not where they need to it is a representation that is viewed negatively on our schools. Um, as a professional who works in the industry of maintaining these facilities, I know looking at our video board, it's 12 years old. So, we are a minimum of two years past end of life on that board. Um, so that's number one. Number two,
175our board is also tied into our audio system at the school. We have to have an audio system and a video board if we're going to communicate with fans, particularly in emergency related situations. Um, it's not an option to not have a PA system to host an event. Okay. So, when our video board and audio systems are tied together, it's something that we have to have in order to put an event on and in order to safely put an event on. Um, I view it in my job as not a not a want, but a need. um in order to effectively put an event on this is a need. Um I'm speaking from the perspective of Chapen High School and a and a parent of a Chapen High School student. Um but I would say
176at all the district schools at the end of the day in order to effectively run an event, you need to have facilities that are able to effectively run an event. That includes having a video board and audio system that will allow you to effectively manage those things. So, I stand up here today um asking you number one, prioritize Chapen High School replacing its video board. It is on its last legs. It's not a matter of if it's going to go out. It's a matter of when it is going to go out. Number one. And number two, consider updates to all of the District 5 schools. At the end of the day, in order for student athletes to have the experience that we all want our kids to have, um they deserve that as well, as
177well as to or to run a safe and efficient event. Thank you. >> Thank you. Charlie Banks is here to speak about Chapen High School scoreboard. Good afternoon. Excuse me. Uh my name is Charlie Banks. I'm a parent of two Chapen High School student athletes, one in lacrosse and one in soccer. And I spent a ton of time in the Chapen High School stadium alongside hundreds of other families throughout the year. So, I want to be very clear why I'm here today. And yes, as Chris said, it's about it's a safety issue. But more than anything, it's about it's about the experience we are providing to our students, families, and community. And right now, that experience is falling short. Our schoolboard shaping has become unreliable to the point of it being a severe distraction. It
178shuts down during games. Sections go black. The score display fails. The game clock is often not visible. The sound system, as Chris said, has constant issues. What this means in real terms is confusion, disruption, and frankly, a chaotic environment. For events, it should be organized and enjoyable. But here's a bigger issue. We are a 5A district. The expectation at this level is not just to field competitive teams. It's to provide facilities that match that level of excellence. And right now, as I said, we're not doing that. The schools we compete against have fully functional school score school score school score school score school score schoolboards not a luxury anymore it's a standard when visiting teams fans and officials come into our stadium and see a scoreboard that doesn't work it's embarrassing and there's there's no
179way around that reflects on all of us reflects on the the leadership of the school and it reflects on leadership of the district and this just isn't a chapen issue judge for and are dealing with similar issues and failures. So, it's a district-wide problem that deserves a district-wide solution. But this is also about pride. There's a real sense of pride when you walk into a stadium that feels first class, where students feel valued, where fans are engaged, and where the environment matches the effort that our students put in every single day. And again, right now, we're missing that. People notice, students notice, coaches notice, and the community notices. So, my ask is very simple. Please prioritize replacing these scoreboards and put a plan in place across all three schools for a consistent standard of excellence
180that we can be proud of as a district. It's not about bells and whistles. It's about functionality. It's about experience. It's about showing our students that what they do matters enough for their leaders to get this right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Brewer Haggard is here to speak about Chapen High School video board. Good evening. My name is Brewer Haggard and I'm a student athlete at Chapen High School. I'm currently a junior and I play both baseball and football. Now, over the past few months, I've spent time watching my friends play soccer and lacrosse. And there's been multiple times when I had no idea what the score was, what the score was because part of the scoreboard was completely out. During football season, it felt like every game there were people up in the press
181box trying to fix the video board. There were times when we would try to watch a replay or even just follow the game on the board and it would suddenly just shut off. I also have several friends who volunteer with our ESPN broadcast crew and they put in a lot of time and effort to create a college level video board experience for Friday night games and even spring sports. Now, when the sport Now when the scoreboard goes out, all of their hard work is completely lost at that moment. The people running our video board are volunteers who care a lot about our school, our community, and our student athletes. The stress they deal with when the board stops working simply just isn't fair, especially considering how much time and effort they give. When we travel
182to other schools for athletic events, a video board is a standard feature in almost every single stadium. It's something many of the programs we compete against already have, and they use it to spotlight their student athletes. We're simply asking to have something in place that not only highlights the achievements of our teams and student athletes, but also reflects the pride we have in our school and community. Having a reliable video board would allow us to create that same experience here at Chapen and support the people who work so hard behind the scenes to make game day special. Thank you for allowing me to speak today and go Eagles. >> Thank you. >> Beckham Dimmler is here to about scoreboards for athletic facilities. >> Good evening. My name is Beckham Demler and I'm the junior class
183president at Chapen High School. I also play varsity football and varsity soccer. I'm here this evening to ask our school board to please replace and update the scoreboards in all three of our school stadiums. Currently at Chapen High School, there are large blacked out patches that show up in the middle of videos and throughout games, which can be disappointing and honestly a little embarrassing, especially when we are playing against teams we know. We often hear visiting fans and players make comments like, "Y'all still haven't fixed your video board." And that can be frustrating as a student athlete. But even more difficult is when the board goes completely out and the entire score disappears, leaving players, coaches, and fans unsure of what's happening in the game and staff scrambling to get a small backup clock running
184on the side of the fieldhouse. I represent one of over 800 student athletes at Chapen High School and I play on two of the 12 teams that use our field throughout the year. The video board is more than just a scoreboard. It's a big part of every game. It's how we introduce our teams, show replays, recognize athletes, and bring energy to the crowd. No matter what stadium you go to, the video board helps set the tone. Many 5A high schools we travel to outside of our district have large, fully functioning video boards that showcase their student athletes. It shows pride in your school and helps create a great experience for everyone, players, coaches, students, and families. It also helps us host different events from big games to tournaments, pep rallies, and other school activities. In
185addition, it gives us the opportunity to highlight the incredible work of our student broadcasting team, CSN, who put in countless hours creating media, graphics, and content to be displayed on the board. A fully functioning video board allows their hard work to be seen and appreciated as part of the overall game day experience. Thank you for considering our request for a new updated video board that works consistently and can and can support all of our events. Most importantly, thank you for your time and allowing me to speak tonight. Go Eagles. >> Thank you. >> Connie Turner is here to speak about budget electronic devices and I Ready. Good evening. My name is Connie Turner and the budget was already discussed earlier. Thank you for that. I wanted to talk a little bit about I Ready, not
186necessarily I Ready, whether it's MAP or any electronic type devices and curriculum. Obviously, it's used in our communities, in our workplaces, and on our world today. But we also know that it affects us. It has negative effects on us. Particularly the amount of time that we spend in front of any screen, be it a TV, a computer, a phone, anything like that. I think most parents and most of us can see some of those effects. I can feel them on myself and certainly have seen them in my child. This view is not just shared by parents, myself, and others, but it's by the Mayo Clinic, the National Institutes of Health, the Miami Dade School District, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. You can look and there are lots of articles about screen time
187and children and development. Hopefully the parents are important and their parents input in these things is important. A collaborative approach by everybody is in the best interest of the children. The schools are great here. We're members of the schools. My child uh graduated from the schools here. I'm a product of the South Carolina public schools. Uh so very supportive of all that. The district does a great job. The teachers do a great job. But this is something that we hear often frequently. So I just wanted to make the statement that I think it's important that as decisions are made moving forward in the way that I read is used. I was encouraged to hear that paper and pencil still an option. Uh I think that's a great way to learn. It's the way I talk
188I was taught before all that came around. Uh but thank you for the work that you put into it. And I just wanted to reiterate, please take a look at the amount of instructional time that is spent on a screen. I've talked to other teachers in other districts that have used um I already concerns that have been mentioned before about the amount of time on the teachers, the amount of time on the students, they were also expressed to me. Um I'm not in the teaching field, uh not employed by the schools or or have any u interest in that at all, but wanted to share information some information. I had because I like to become informed and find answers for myself. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Our last speaker tonight is Jeannie
189Gel to speak about video scoreboards. Good evening. Thank you very much. My name is Jeannie Grall. I have three student athletes who play sports at Chaven High School. Um I think tonight's event was amazing that we recognized so many wonderful students who achieved high scores and I was really blown away by the number of Dutch Fork students who scored so highly on their math scores. That's just speaks a lot about the STEM program. And one of the things that I wanted to talk about with for the video boards across our district is they're not just for sports. Their career and technology education. They give students the opportunity to learn real world skills in broadcast production, video editing, and graphic design. They learn about marketing and advertising, journalism, media production, event management, and AV technology. These
190scoreboards aren't just for sports, and everybody has lost sight of that. Technology is not going away. We're talking about it in numerous different aspects tonight. We have to embrace what it can teach our kids. And our district is excellent. We are a leader in our state. And I think that we need to have facilities that showcase that. Our football fields, soccer fields, lacrosse fields, band fields, dance fields. It's a place where we can come together as a community. I don't know if anybody saw what happened with Little League over the summer. Hermo. Little League went crazy. They brought a lot of attention to this community. How do you think it looks when people see facilities at Irmo High School that are less than par? Our district desperately needs these video scoreboards so that we can
191show this community what we are all about in district 5. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you so much. That moves us to the action agenda. Do I have any motions on items from executive session? >> I'll make a motion uh to approve selected employment items as seen in exhibit A. >> All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. >> Make a motion to approve selected employment items as seen in exhibit C. >> All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. Uh, make a motion to approve the contractual matter regarding professional development services as seen in exhibit D. >> All in favor? I have discussion on that. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Um, and I'm not going to rehash what we all talked about before, but um I'm going to
192vote no, not for no, never because I hear some very compelling arguments. But I I feel like this is such a huge change and that we need parents need to hear the story. you know, there might be a few watching tonight, but probably not many. Um, I also wanted to um put into the minutes a um email that um the board members got today and the person's concerns basically were that if we implement the portion of this program where the the kids are going to be on their computers, it it basically um they're concerned about doing so before the Chromebook committee has finished its work that you're kind going to put in the apple before uh or the horse before the cart, I should say. Um and then I also um had a an email
193from a parent that wanted me to put theirs into the minutes as well. And basically what they're asking too is that the the evidence on this program is weak. Um but you know, and they would like to see this looked at further before we implement it. And I'll I'll send that um to Amy. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. All those in favor? And a motion carries 4 to three. Like to make a motion to sorry uh make a motion to approve the sale and purchase of property as seen in exhibits E and F. All in favor can hold on. >> Yeah. >> I just I really like transparency. Is is there any reason why we can't tell people what property this is? >> Okay. >> We would rather not have the details of the
194contractual matter, but you can tell the property. >> Okay. So, you want Okay. >> Is it okay if I say what it is? >> Please. I don't have that information. Okay. Um, this is the Derek Pond property that was purchased um for the 2008 bond referendum because originally the district was going to put um an elementary school there. That elementary school ended up being put um on Ax Furious Pineywoods. So, there were problems back then which is why that I wasn't on the board. None of us were here um including Dr. Ross. I don't think none of us were here. But there were issues with that property that we could not put a school on it. So, we've held on to the property this long and um this if if assuming the sale goes through,
195this money I'm I'm assuming will come back into our capital fund. Correct. Thank you, >> Miss Snipes. I'd like to make an amendment to my motion, please. I would like to approve the sale of property as seen in exhibit E. >> Yeah, sounds good. All in favor? And uh motion carries seven to zero. Oh yes. All those in favor of the original motion. >> And the motion carries seven and zero. >> And finally, make a motion to approve the contractual matter regarding classroom walls at Harrison West Elementary School and Nursery Road Elementary School as seen in exhibit G. >> All in favor? And the motion carries 720. Is Miss Rivers here? All right. We do have under the action agenda a parent complaint. Um it does not appear that she is here to speak on
196her complaint. Um so we could make the decision based on um on the complaint that she turned into to the administration. Um, do we have a motion before we start discussion? >> I move to um require parental approval to check the books on any side up out of the library. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Oh, well, is there a discussion? I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I I will uh I do not agree with that motion. I think we should leave the book exactly where it is unrestricted on in all of our libraries um without requiring parental consent. The book is called Sunnyside Up. Um I read the book and frankly it's it the concern was regarding uh themes of drug use um alcohol addiction things like that. Um, and personally I I saw a
197lot of myself in that story and my experience as a child in that in that story um with having family members uh impacted by substance abuse and other types of of uh regular life uh things that happen to us uh in all of our families or most of our families most likely. Uh for me it was uh I mean in the book it was a brother. Uh for me it was cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents um and friends. And so you can't you can't hide from those kinds of issues. They they no matter what age you are um you're going to be exposed to them. And so I think for children like me who were exposed to them very early as a a very young child, um this type of book that it shows you
198and the story shows you that you're not alone, that you're not experiencing something that nobody else has been exposed to or gone through. and it's a source of comfort and inclusion and it's not a bad thing. It's um it's a normal part of growing up and I don't care whether you're in elementary school or middle school or high school. Um we can't run from those issues in life. They will happen. And for me, my parents were very open and talked about it with me and and and my my siblings and and it was very uh healthy as a result. So, I grew up, I think, with a healthy uh perspective on that and I'm I'm glad for it. So, I I think requiring parental consent and restricting this book uh will possibly have the effect
199of taking it out of someone's hands that it may be able to help. Um just because one parent might not be comfortable with the subject of substance abuse and that's just not good enough in my opinion to take it away from all of us. And so, um, I am against that motion and I my motion, my vote will be to keep it on our shelves exactly as it is today. >> Oh, was this you got to start looking to your right. I am on your right side. Um, I read the book and um, I um, I want to point out that we're not supposed to make a vote or a decision based on our own personal opinions. Um, the the guidelines that we the policies that we used to have, I thought were a lot
200more definitive with some of this um, than what we've gotten from the State Department. Um but um there's nothing ne there's nothing that promotes any of the negative behaviors. These are real family behaviors and there's nothing that promotes them. Nothing that's there's you know nobody gets a reward for any of it and it's uh there are consequences but then nothing you know promotes it. Uh the other thing is is um I know that most everybody read the book. Um after the last page there's a picture of the airplane and then it gives a very good note from the authors of the book and it tells this is to help students who may be struggling with family issues and um it's not a book about again anything positive to do with any of the uh issues
201that this family was struggling with and and I need some clarification Dr. Ross, typically our parents when they have a question, are they supposed to go to the school first and see if they can resolve that at the school? >> Yeah, it is our hope through all complaining uh process to handle that at the at the closest point of the incident, typically the classroom, in this case the the library. >> Yeah. I I don't know. I we don't have any record of whether or not that was done, but I would just imagine u you know when the last time we had a sort of a book controversy I guess was a few years ago and there was a myriad of parents in here. I mean they were lined up and there we had groups from
202other warning had didn't have anything to do with our district that were fired up and actually attacking some of us. I think um we have one parent who has a little concern and I understand they have concern, you know, that's part of parenting. Not everybody raises their children the same way, but There's, again, I just want to reiterate that there's nothing positive. There's nothing that promotes any of these negative behaviors. And it gives a a student who reads this book um the opportunity where it just gives them some advice about talk to your teacher, talk to your school psychologist, talk to a counselor if you're going through family struggles. So, um I I'm in favor of leaving the book um as it is. And um uh I have given it great thought, but I I
203just I wish parents I wish whenever there's a challenge that the parent would go to the school and talk and and get some feedback um before they submit something to the board for approval. So that's my thoughts. >> Um I just want to take Mr. Bam, I'm coming to you next um a moment. Miss Rivers isn't here. Um, and we do have her um her complaint and uh just reiterate that the book um doesn't um hit any of the markers that would have required it for it not to be in a library by the state department, which is why we have it. But I also want to state that a big point of her concern was that the conclusion of the book didn't have um a resolution in her in her mind to Mr. Satderfield's
204point about how people parent um uh the main character and their grandfather had a conversation about secrets and that sort of thing and then they went off for fun or whatever. And so um there was concern about there not being meaningful conclusion regarding the situation. And so I also think that's important um to highlight what her complaint was as well just for transparency so we don't leave it up to interpretation in terms of the themes of the book because we had access to it but obviously those of you who are watching do not Mr. Uh what's so um typically on books they have the the ratings I believe we talked about this one has a rating of third grade and up >> but it's unrestricted a kindergarten first grade second grade can check it out
205and haven't talked to this parent just reading over the um the concerns here there's topics of lying hitting you know substance abuse different things through that and it it stems back to you know, obviously parenting what you're comfortable with your your child accessing in the library. And it's just like in PG-13 movies, we just they request guidance. And so I don't think it's unreasonable to just say, you know, possibly check with your parents still. Maybe you can do that, but have some sort of rating on some of these books that have maybe a little bit more difficult subject matter to protect our youngest minds because not everyone's exposed to that and we don't need to grow them up any faster than this world is trying to >> um this whole thing made me very uncomfortable.
206I hate these things. Um but the reason I made the motion I did to like remove the book entirely is because I do agree that there are children who go through things like this in their life and a book like this might be helpful to them. But I hope that they their parent would know so their parent could ask the guidance counselor would know so the guidance counselor could ask. Um what I'm concerned about is the law says age and developmentally appropriate and as Mr. Bum said we we have guidance from that in movies. Um and this is most people I didn't know what a graphic novel was until I got on this board because when I was in school you had books and you had comics and you didn't have the two meeting. Um
207but this is about as close as you get to a movie and a book because there's a lot of pictures. Um but the the rule for the motion picture association is that drug use content is restricted to PG13 and above. And so that's why I made the motion the way I did because I do think we have some guidance on what is age and developmentally appropriate. >> Mr. Mr. Harris wants to say something. Miss McCascal, can you tell us are there books in our libraries that are available to all students that may be originally promoted as third to fifth grade, second to fifth grade? Is this the only book that's has that category that's open to any student to check out? >> No, sir. Actually the mentality is that students are going to the library
208a lot to check out for pleasure reading and so we try to guide students towards developmentally appropriate in their reading levels what they would what they would be interested in those types of things. And so any child could be at any level. Um so we may have some fifth graders that need to read something for a second grader. We have some second graders that should read things for maybe a fourth grader. Whether it's content specific or whether it's a reading level specific, we want to make sure that those things are available to students. >> So the the rating of third to fifth grade does not necessarily speak to age of the student, but the reading level of the student. >> Correct. It it t it is reading level. >> That's very important. Thank you. >>
209Uh and it's not really a rating. It's a recommended reading levels. So, you know, not to so everybody understands, not it's not like this is rated this for 13 and above or that kind of thing. Um, but I just wanted to point that out, you know, if if you spend a lot of time if first of all, if you don't like lying and all kind of stuff, you shouldn't read Juni B. Jones because I spent a lot of that with my granddaughter when she learned to read. Actually, I like the series myself. Um but the um not every book that we own is is this or that. They're just not. Most of them are in the gray area. I mean, you got profane words in Huckleberry Finn. I mean, we've got books that maybe just
210cross the line, just a hair, but not way over the line. You see what I'm saying? Now, Mr. Bam and I could have a discussion about a book, and he might say, "Well, I just don't like it." because then I say, "Well, I think this pretty decent." Not that either one of us is wrong, but if we get in the habit of when a parent comes straight to the board and says, "I just don't like this book. I don't I don't like and I and I understood her reason and her rationale, but I don't know that we should to for one parent remove it for everybody else." So, that's my reasoning for, you know, wanting just to keep the book where it is. So, Anybody else? >> Point of order. Just want to make sure
211that the board is clear on exactly what we're voting on. >> Yeah. >> And the impact of that vote. And if uh so the motion is to restrict the book based for parent consent. If that is approved, then it becomes subject to parent consent. If the board does not approve that motion, it's without another motion, does it stay where it's at or does another motion need to be made? >> I think it stays where it at where it is and then the usual process would follow. I guess a parent could send out a form to say their child can't read the book. Is that >> saying yes? said yes. >> Okay. >> I thought Tina was saying yes. That was understood. >> I just want to make sure you >> I think Mr. Bradley needs
212to answer the question about what you can and can't do. But as far as whether or not they can they can always ask for a book not to be checked out by their child. That's always an option for all books. >> So the question is for Mr. Scully. If this motion, if it were to fail, does there need to be another motion or does that mean the book just stays where it is? >> The motion is to restrict it for parent consent, >> right? So, if that motion fails, then there hasn't been a decision made and the regulation requires the board within 90 days to make a decision. You don't have to make a decision tonight, but you have to make a decision within 90 days of the challenge. If someone makes a motion, the
213motion fails, I see that as not making a decision. >> Understood. >> Someone else could make a motion to leave the book there. You could restrict it by age, or you could do, as Miss Huddle said, to require a parental consent to see the book. You can take any action that you deem is appropriate for the children of the district, but you have to take some action. >> Understand? >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. >> All right. We have an initial >> Can I ask one more question, Miss Mcask? Miss McCastle, if um if we vote on Miss Huddle's motion for the restrictions, how does that process work? >> So, if it's restricted by for a parent permission only, then that book's going to be taken off of the library shelves, put like in
214the office area of the library. It will stay in flet in Destiny on the coward catalog system. So, if a child wants to check it out, they know it's there. they can't really see it until the parent gives a note and then the parent gives the note then they'd be able to check it out. >> So if I'm a fourth grader and I'm just mosing through the library looking for a book and that's typically how they do it. Um if it's not on the shelves, it's just not there. >> That's right. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. All those in favor of Miss Huddle's motion to restrict the book to parent access. All opposed. All right. That motion fails. Four to three. >> Madam chair. >> Yes. >> I make a motion to leave
215the book uh as it with the same access that it has today. >> I'll second. All those in favor? Opposed? And the motion carries 43. That moves us to approval of the strategic plan amendments. >> I make a motion to approve the strategic plan amendment for 2022 to 2027. The seen in exhibit J. >> Second. >> Do we have any discussion? Miss, >> I had a question and um I don't get the printed board book and I probably should start because I'm trying to save paper, but I did have a question. Um is the tutoring built into this plan, the revised plan? >> So, this is finishing up this school year. Is that correct? >> Right. >> That's correct. This is the final year of the current fiveyear strategic plan, >> right? But this is
216for 26 27, right? >> 27. >> Miss Miss Audrey, will you come on so everybody can hear? >> Put you on the record, Miss Black. Thank you. >> I apologize. It's a little late for me. So, um, yes, this update is um what we're actually saying for our final year of the plan which is next year 2728. It's very confusing because we we do the update this year for excuse me for 2627. Sorry like I say it's a little late so my apologies next year 2627 is our final year and this is the update for 2627. >> So does it does it include as in the the tutoring? It's not included as a strategy yet because it hasn't been approved, but once it's approved for funding, then we would be able to add it because
217we have to put a funding source for that. >> Okay. >> All right, Mr. Bum, Mr. B. Um, two questions and I I assume this was um until we approved or the board approved the um the I Ready PD. It had um like under student achievement dream box and some of the programs that'll I guess phase out now that that's been approved. And then the second thing was Alice training under school school climate for our safety officers. Is that something that we can you know make more of a priority because that's pretty important. I know there was issues with finding um look like training locations locally. >> Absolutely. School safety will always be a priority. Absolutely. >> So, as far as is there some way that we can maybe get somebody to come in to
218do that? >> Well, our safety officer certified in Alice training. U so we actually the lead um the larger part of the state in terms of school districts who have um law enforcement personnel on staff. So, we actually lead that and train others. So the short answer to that is yes to your question. Thank you. >> I had one other question and that is um the I believe there's something in there about followup on letters on the science of reading and um that that is funded and what's that kind of followup and I don't I know it's a long meeting so like two sentences. Um, so most of our kindergarten through third grade teachers will finish their training this year. Fourth and fifth grade will finish it next year. They're in their first year of
219it. But the followup to that is continuing to those who finish it, we want to continue to make sure that we have training provided, but also our new staff that come on board, we have to continue to follow up with that, too. So, we're still required new staff if they haven't started, we have to start them. So there's this ongoing cycle for that. >> Anybody else? >> Oh, go ahead. >> Dr. Harris, I should know the answer to this and I'm embarrassed to ask, but do we have any 3K programs? >> Yes, sir. They are, but they are primarily under the special services program under academics. And I hear some conversation about DSS taking over the regulations of that. Is that I didn't maybe see that carefully enough in here. Is that included? >> That
220has been a conversational piece at the state level and uh districts are have been charged to explore that within districts and so we are currently under the exploration phase. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anybody else? All right. We have motion on the floor and it's been properly second. All those in favor and the motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, Miss Audrey. >> Thank you. >> I'll make a motion to approve the first reading of the spring 2026 capital projects as seen in exhibit K. >> Mr. KN do have some there probably questions or something. So, come on down. Oh, if you're going to talk about all of that, just go sit back down. It's already been a long night, Mr. Knots. >> This go pretty quickly. Uh good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Ross, members
221of the board. Um tonight we're doing our first reading of the 2026 capital projects and we're also going to provide um an update on the um NPS data and our overall annual capital maintenance program. So here is the the original map that we had from NPS that gave us the um just an overall how does the the district stand from a perspective of where are the needs where not you know you know what schools are doing really well you know within the facilities which need some improvement. Um as you can see the the schools that are uh in the orange highlight the schools that have the most needs within their facilities. This is the scoring metrics that NPS utilized. Uh, you know, as they were going and looking at little u the individual incidences or
222the occurrences as they started tagging things throughout the district and throughout each each school. They went off this metrics right here. Uh, everything from a five being brand new, like new conditions, all the way to a one being extremely warm, um, damaged or inoperable. Here is a snapshot of our work order system that we utilize. Um, this was a a full year captures of a full year's worth of data. We do have uh I had something to kind of give us a good visual. So, just take this right here and multiply this stack by about five if we went to pay a paper version just for a visual. Here is the PowerBI um program that we're using to track the overall progress of the data um that's under the the schools that are being that
223are listed under renovations and repairs through the u through the bond referendum. And I think uh we we sent out the little tutorial on how to use this uh maybe last week or something along those lines. Um, for our overall work order system, uh, we we average, I think it's like 34 a day. You know, we, you know, we're not open, um, you know, throughout the summer, but the work orders, they still come in, uh, we do have what that was, I think it's a 4 day work week during the during the summer and then we have, you know, the holidays and whatnot. So, everything compresses down to about 34 facility issues in a day and then we have breakdown of our of our maintenance team. These are all the uh reporting categories from the
224NPS report. Um it's it's something that I've seen a lot of other facilities use that not just in the education world. You'll see other places use the same type of format. You have your health and safety, your building envelope, mechanical, electrical plumbing, which I call MEP, site conditions, and then interiors. moving forward with our um funding methodology. We're looking at having um you know, we currently have our bond referendum money set aside um and that has our new constructions, our new Greenfield builds like the wings um the the auditorium, the new Dutchwork Elementary. And then we have our renovations which are the eight schools that were identified in the NPS or the the PowerBI um application that we're using. Then we have our 8% capital uh for special projects and then um We have those
225other categories that we listed earlier. This was the board capital fund u the the um the priorities. Dr. Ross, do you want to speak to some of this? >> Okay. >> Not at all. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, here we we have um responses from the boards as to where their priorities are. Everyone hit uh health and health and safety, you know, top priority. Um just keep in mind that health health and safety may be humidity issues. Somebody may say, "Hey, you know, we have high humidity in a space. That's a that's a health and safety issue also, but you know, that's forc and foremost on everybody's um on their on their overall um you know, chart. Here's our requested capital this year for it. It did go up from um years prior, a
226little over um $200,000. And this is for a multitude of reasons. Um um for those of y'all who keep up with the tech industry, RAM is is has skyrocketed in and in in demand due to AI. Prices are going up on just about everything. um you know, we're trying to implement new technology to keep our district safer. Um so things along those lines. So that that that number has increased over the last um several years. Uh this year in transportation, we're looking at doubling our overall budget to about $500,000. U that's to to help us in general. We we know we have an aging fleet of vehicles. Um, I think, you know, having a quarter of a million dollars is nice, but when you when you have as many vehicles that we have and keeping
227kids on the street on the, you know, um, if they're traveling to and from games, um, you know, we don't want to have any incidents. We want to make sure we have good operating vehicles. And then also for the, uh, the maintenance staff, they have vehicles that that are in dire need of of some of being replaced. Then we have our overall special projects for this upcoming year. We have the Chapen transportation depot. Then the inclusion and middle school athletic fields. Then the replacement high school video uh the high school replacement scoreboard video boards. And then the press boxes for Dutch Fork High School and Arma High School. So here we have the overall breakdown of the the the bond funding, the current bond funding, and then we have our 8% special projects. And uh
228as you can see, we're looking at requesting $24 million. So from our last meeting we had, um we actually put in some values in here. So, we were able to get with one of our third party um uh construction managers just to get a feel for how are things being funded across the state and what's that overall cost. So, if you're wondering, Allan, how'd you get these numbers? I went to a third party and they helped me, you know, you know, drive some of these um for the for the fields and the press boxes and the scoreboards. Now, the uh Chapen Transportation Depot, what I did was I just went and took what Lexington one had, divided by the buses and then added some extra for a building to get that overall number. So our
229revenue projections total 124. >> Okay. Yeah. for the best for the bond and for the and for our our special projects for the year. >> I'm sorry. You're right. Capital is 24 million. >> Yeah, the capital is 24 million. Do we have any questions? >> Okay. Um, so the last meeting I asked for the update on the MPS report. We had a motion and I withdrew it because I was told I was getting we were all getting the system where we could tell and I appreciate it, but it it didn't answer the question. So, I'm going to try to rephrase the question. So, that report um we paid McMill and President Smith over $200,000 to go look at every single facility we had and they came back with 000 things. There were 300 some odd
230that were rated a one or a two, a critical or a poor. >> Okay. Um, what I'm trying to get at is what is the plan for those and where is the money coming from? So, I'll start with the bond referendum. You have eight schools in the bond referendum for renovations. Does that include all of the critical and poor items for those eight schools on the NPS report? So the bond referendum if we go back to this. So we have eight schools identified here in PowerBI. Those are the same some same eight schools that were um identified in the bond referendum. So everything that is deemed critical um I think it's a one or two I don't remember because they didn't say poor. It's it's um the ones and twos >> are in here, >>
231which is right here. >> All right. So, when we're done with the renovations on those eight schools, all of the items for those eight schools in the MPS report will be done. >> All the items >> critical report >> that we were able to to um to address through that because we've had other things fail since they left. We had I think it's uh close to $500,000 in the storm drain. Then we have retention ponds that have major work that we have to get done. >> So that's my follow-up question. So we have a bond referendum budget for those eight schools for the renovations. If if we don't get to all the MPS report items, will we use more money or will we stop at at the amount of money that's in the bond referendum?
232>> Uh let me direct you to this slide here. The thing where you're asking is um the schools not in the bond referendum. How are we taking care of the >> No, I'm asking about the ones in first. So, if you go to the the slide with the bubbles, there's eight schools right there. The renovations, there's eight schools in there. And I don't remember the amount in the bond referendum. 24 million, something like that. What? 39 million. So, what I'm asking is um if if we get if we hit 39 million and all the stuff that we're doing for those eight schools and we haven't finished the critical and poor items in the MPS report, will we go over the budget, the bond referendum budget, or will we stop and not do everything in the
233critical and poor? If it's identified, that's the beauty of this u this outline here. Uh we can use now 8% buckets to address those critical poor things that would also be not only in that report, but it would also have shown up in the um the um work order system that was there. >> So it's not like if it's not done out of the B. Now we're using a lot of ifs here. If 32 something million dollars doesn't do that, >> 39 million doesn't do that. >> Um then you also have under new construction a lot of the matter material that was in the uh referendum as ones and twos were also put under new construction matters as well. They were also put under renovations and other projects visav her high school which has the
234number one ones and twos. We had deleted that by building a whole another building. So, I don't want to just say it was just that line for the bond referendum. Um, so I think we we get flexibility by uh using our year-to-year capital in the buckets that we have to address that, but also I would look through all of the projects. I would go to uh in fact the ones and twos that were in nursery road and um Harvest and West. Uh if we go back to uh this map, if you look at Nursery Road and Harvest and West, that's where we had a lot of the ones and twos that's sitting in that book. However, they're getting the renovations that address a lot of those ones and twos that would not be in the
235$39 million. So, I don't want to uh picture it as it all comes from one bucket to fix all of our ones and twos, but I think um it's important for the board to understand remember that uh for items not in the ones and twos, your initial question was what's the plan for that? And if you can remember that $15 million in the fall of uh 2024, that was to address the ones and twos that were not in the bond referendum. >> Correct. And that's where we um we renovated the HVAC system at Valentine with that money because it was in the life. So, we were able to use those funds to to address that. >> I guess what I'm I'm trying it's my job when I sit up here to to make sure that
236before I vote for something, I know that we've cut and I'll just best analogy I have is, you know, I love a new car, but if my roof on my house is at 20 years and it needs to be replaced, I got to make sure that I replace the roof before I buy the new car. And so that's my biggest concern is and I've been asking for over a year. I just want to know where the money is for all these things. Do we have a budget for them? There were over 10 roof items on the MPS report that were not in these eight schools were not at the schools where we're heavily renovating and all that. So do we have a budget for that? And where is that money coming from? >> So I'd
237like to speak to that. So, out of the 10 roofs, because I went through this entire document over the weekend, so out of those out of the 10 roofs, we have uh four of them that are under warranty. Currently under warranty and repairs are being made under warranty where that it's applicable. Um, one of the that's that's four. Another roof is high school. So, I think at some point in in time, we are expecting to bring that building down. Then we have um um another school it had we had major work we had a skylight I won't name the school but the skylight it leaked for like 20 years that was one of the big issues at one of the intermediate schools we were able to fix that back in 20 I think 2024 we
238did use some capital money to address that situation um then we have two more schools for roofing roofing needs that are on the NPS list that are under the bond referendum. Then we have two more remaining schools that are um that are listed as a um as a two um and we have capital funds to replace those roots. So out of the 10, that's the complete breakdown and the full picture of how that actually looks. So um and the reason why we use PowerBI is to help us really understand where do we need to go attack where where do we need to put our focus in you know this is just I think you know as you're looking at this right here just imagine having to go through all this right here as a as
239a stack of paper and identify every little thing it would take forever we'd have to get hire more FTEES to do that and that's not being very efficient with with the with the public's dollars so that's why we have these analytic tools to help us drive to make really good decisions um and focus all of our efforts on what on the on the the high priority critical needs. >> So that system though does not include where the funding is coming from. >> Everything on this right here is all bond related. >> Okay. But there was another um in what you sent us there was another one for the MPS. >> This right here. >> No, there was another tab. It looks >> Oh, yeah. So, yeah. So, the this right here just goes over the
240projects, the small individual projects from the NPS report. So, all the other tabs are all the big that's the big projects. The big the green field builds. >> So, you're saying these all these projects are in the bond referendum? >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, where are the projects that aren't in the bond referendum? >> The for the schools that were part of let's say the the Batite Ball Elementary when we replaced the HVAC units there. That's in the That's right in here in the workhorse system because that would not be bond money. That's capital dollars. >> So the MPS items that are not in the bond referendum are there. >> MPS items are here. That's how we're tracking NPS, >> but not all of them are in the bond referendum. >> Bond is on this
241right here. The work order system is where we track our other capital dollars and our repairs is right here. Maybe this is a question for Miss Tucker because I mean I'm really just trying to figure out where the money is. So where is the money for the MPS items that are not in the bond referendum? >> That would be out of our 8% uh our annual maintenance the 15 million. >> Is it bonds that we've already approved? >> Um a lot of them a lot of them were in the last uh capital budget last year. A lot of those um projects were in that 15 million, well 11 if you take out the technology. Um they were just in order of what could be done. >> Do we have a reconciliation between what's in the
242MPS report and what's in the capital so we know what's not covered? >> Yes, we do. We have u we work with our bond attorney to make sure that we we have a format of of pulling those down. I think the the biggest thing that we um I'll go back to this this is the format in which we are uh ensuring that um bond referendum monies stay with the bond projects uh capital saves the capital capital can cross over and address a bond but we don't because we're we're trying to reconcile those separately. I think the biggest piece is I just want to be clear and fair to to Allan. We started off bond only. Now we're talking about nonbond. So I just want to give him permission. He's toggling between both systems as he
243deals with complaints that are going to come in tomorrow morning and bond and 2023 and the multiple series of capital. Each one of them are aligned to their their budget budget lines. So I think the question is is there accounting for it? Yes, there's accounting for it. There's um so the best thing to do is to say what's the project and we can tell you what the funding source is. Um but to go through 3,000 lines of code and separate those out into his PowerBI system is really about efficiency and movement. Also say this and and I just want to remind people what we promised during the bomb referendum. We did not promise that all 11,137 things in that notebook were in the bomb reference. When we did the initial estimate, that was 200 something
244million dollars just itself. Right? The record will show that we said we take care of the ones and twos, the ones and twos. We didn't say we're taking three, fours, and fives. We said we're taking care of the ones and twos in that notebook. And so a reconciliation of things that were not even in the bond referendum is not the best use of of that. So the question is the ones and twos you addressing in this format. Correct. >> Correct. >> The things that are not in the bomb referendum that we get emails about every single day uh that that many of the people up here email us about that we hear about. You're addressing that in this. >> Yes. >> You need 8% money to take care of these things. Correct. We're asking for
245buckets that we can put it here so that you can address it that way. Where's the funding source? The funding source for the things that are not in the referendum are coming through as as Miss Tucker said, these 8% pieces. A big part of that was in the fall of 2024 with the things that were not in the referendum that we uh tried to address. And that brings us to where we are this year. So, what I'm hearing, if I paraphrase this, that all of the things that were level one or two critical report, we've already got the money for those. We've got a and we don't have to worry that we're going to I mean, we've been doing 15 million for several years. We don't need to worry that we're going to need more
246than 15 million next year or this fall or whenever to do those. >> I don't know. That's hard. And that's what I'm trying I guess. >> No, no. I I I I get that. That's not a summary of that. What we've said is when we we got those estimates, they were published in 2023. That was the best case estimate that we had. 39 million was what we estimated to fix those matters of those ones and twos. Um that's the budget that we're going to and and you know, we're keeping track of it with the PowerBI system. But be honest, every day we we jeopardize is that 39 million enough? Um we jeopardize is is 15 enough because like you said four goes to technology right off the bat and those costs are improved. So we
247can tell you the source of what you funded. Um but to to crystal ball is that going to be enough? We won't know until we get these projects completed. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um Allan, can you tell me what's the oldest of all those capital requests that you have? Gazillion of them. How far back does some of them date? >> So I can I was in the work order system earlier today. So this here goes back to sometime in 2020. I'm not sure what the district what kind of system the district had prior to that. Um, I think about every five, maybe six years they flip, you know, most districts they flip to a new system. >> Yeah, I was going to say I suspect that a lot of them get rolled over and so
248they're really older. I mean, we we don't get to ones and twos overnight. I mean, these things are things that have happening for years and years. You know, um, I like Miss Huddle's philosophy, though. It's be nice if we could just compartmentalize and say, "All right, we got this. We're going to get this and they're not going to have any more problems with that." The problem is is that looking at the MPS study and looking at the myriad of things that have to be addressed, um, over the years, you've had to we've had to go through and pick and say, "All right, I guess I better put the roof on. I can't get new air conditioners. We're going to have to put some band-aids on these air conditioning systems." And if we continue to operate
249in that fashion, we'll continue to be in this position. And what Dr. Ross is exactly right, if you worked in schools, you know that schools take a lot. They just take a lot. There's always systems that are breaking down. What I'm hoping is that by being proactive with this 8% money and staying on top of things that when they occur and when they come up. Um, and there's no way of predicting. I wish we had a crystal ball, but I'm hoping that that'll keep us from getting to that point to where we have to pass a major bond referendum to repair things that we should have been taking care of all along. I mean, that's just how you would do with your budget. So, again, I I that might be a simplistic way of explaining
250it, but I think that um um and I had one quick question. Technology. >> Yes, sir. >> What do you all do? You re you go through cycles with technology, correct? >> They they do. Um, I'm not really familiar with how we go through the different cycles, but I know that just about any any place I've been at after a certain amount of years of firewall or something like that, it's outdated and you have to replace it. You have switches, network equipment just has to be updated. Um, you know, things fail andor they become end of life and you have to upgrade to something newer. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Bum. >> Thank you. The inclusion in middle school fields under special projects, I know Initially, part of that was the middle school recess areas
251and I know we've had a presentation here of the kids rolling down a hill of dirt, throwing rocks. I've visited all our middle schools. Is there a way to separate that from athletic fields because these kids need something now, not in 36 months? I mean, what's the timeline on just fixing the recess areas, adding some equipment for them to have fun, you know, have some outside play? I think I think when you look at a his you know look at it you know in a larger larger picture um you know there's where the area with the hill with little kid was rolling down the around rolling down the hill that's a that's a single area if you look at it holistically and you look at them all the fields because those kids might be wanting
252to go play kickball on a field do something like that versus that little bus drop off area at the middle school. So um you know you know separating things out it I think that gets kind of dicey is what you can do what you can't do and you know then then looks at fairness across the board. You know what's fair at one school may not be fair at another school and we're trying to address a lot of different things all at once. >> So you're thinking the contractor is going to be simultaneously working on the whole scope of the project. I was just saying in order of the project top of the line used to be the recess area. The closest to the school out away from the school is the field area. That's not
253as high of a priority in my mind. >> And it also depends on, you know, what level they're going to do, you know, work to. What are the utilities under that area? There's a whole whole magnitude of things that have to be looked at. >> Right. Well, y'all know because y'all visited the facilities as well, but it's some schools is a safety issue at this point, specifically Dutch for Middle. um some areas in Crossroads, some areas in Irmo Middle, um some of the other ones as well. They have a lot of just rocky areas. So, I don't know if there's a way to put that at the top of the list in this project line item. >> Um kind of to follow up on that, um the original impetus for that was um I think
254a picture was shown of um and I saw the thing middle and I don't know what they call it. It's like a a pit that they throw a ball in. What is that called? >> Gaga pit maybe. >> Okay. So, um if if you don't mind, just go to the list of projects again. So, so question is I have a couple questions about this. The inclusion middle school fields, does that include doing these um ball pits and activities like that we had originally talked about? I >> think it's it's a multitude of things. >> I just get like a yes or a no like when when we if we approve this, are we going to get those? Remember you already approved the the board approved uh the A&E on all of that. So it was
255the playgrounds we we if you look at the solicitation it was the the playgrounds. The reason we say fields is that you can do recess on fields as well. So I think we're trying to look holistically. Uh we did the surveys. The board asked us to do the surveys of the fifth graders. We did that. We did the seventh graders since they're already in middle school. We gave all of that to the um the A&E team and we're waiting on the results of that to come back. >> Okay. And then on the inclusion, is that um inclusion at every school or is that No. >> Okay. So, what is that? >> So, in inclusion um I think the best thing is for the special needs students um particularly the group in shaping that is the
256uh >> screaming eagles. Um looking for a place for them to play. It's just say for students with ambulatory issues, dexterity issues, um we see a lot when we hold special Olympics, um there there's kind of things designed for uh students with special needs and we call that inclusive playground uh where students of special needs and students who, you know, who don't have those disabilities can play together. So, it's just really to help if I'm in a wheelchair, how do I get access to the softball or if I have dexterity issues, it may be adjustments in the base running for me. So, we would have one site right now uh that would be used for the the entire district, but also serve those screaming eagle students. >> Have we talked to maybe um Chapen Recreation
257about helping with that? So, it could be more base more places. >> Uh Chapen has one already. Um theirs is more of the the elementary age group. Uh it's actually in Irmo at um Salud Shows Park. Uh so uh they have one um the Screaming Eagles baseball field uh is just something that would be in the control of the district. Park School agreement will allow them to use it as well. Uh but in terms of their capital planning aligning with our capital planning, I think that would delay the the delivery of this uh this much needed process. I think Screaming Eagles have been asking for a spot for about five, six years, maybe longer than that. >> Probably a good idea to talk with the folks that that manage that. I know that they have
258uh built fields up in Little Mountain area. I think um because they were unable to have access and um so probably a good idea before we started that is to get those those parents are very involved and certainly have a vested interest. So >> um I was also curious about the video scoreboards. I think one of the gentlemen said they have a useful life of 10 years. Um if we do new video scoreboards is would we keep them up and replace them every 10 years? I think yes that would be part of that ongoing maintenance uh program that we have uh for those and I think like everything we have there's an end of life cycle tool we kind of buy it with that whether the technology is a laptop or a video board there's
259always looking at that life site um we really just truly hope um this will be another event when we talk about preventative maintenance I think We've never really had that conversation. We we have been uh a run to fail as uh Mr. Kn said system. We really want to get to preventative maintenance where we're we're we're getting these things taken care of before they go to end of life. And then my last question on the um press boxes, is that to um refurbish the existing refresh refurbish the existing press boxes or would it be to tear them out and replace them? >> So they you know from what we're seeing they would have to be we'd have to tear them out and replace them. Um we we've looked at a couple different things. Uh these
260these would probably be more um I don't want anybody to go bananas over this, but more like a modular style unit that would encompass you know a minimum of six spaces that's really needed for a um you know for for a team. I was actually on spring break. I got to go do um tour some other um high school stadiums and I saw some uh press boxes that had three had three spots and uh I'm like, "Well, how do you get by with three?" And they said, "Well, we we make uh we let the visitors stay inside and then everybody else goes up on the roof." And uh they didn't understand like how even you got to just three rooms in a uh a press box. So, there are things that um that we've looked
261at. Um there's a lot of schools across the district that have done that. Um and they were able to make them um with some covered outdoor area which is not that that expensive or it's not the cost isn't much more to where you could have people not it wouldn't be fully conditioned. There's uh some additional out outdoor seating that could be attached to to these uh to these press boxes. But to answer your question, we would have to demo what we currently have and put something new in place. >> All right. We have them. Sorry. Um I speaking of the scoreboards, I I agree with the guy that um when he said that the facilities are a representation of our schools. Um speaking about the the condition of the scoreboards and and our facilities overall,
262but the 1.65 for the scoreboards. Is that commiserate of the level of representation that that we want? >> I think so. So, I reached out to um some of my counterparts across the state, two of the really really larger school districts, one down at the coast and one in the upstate. I won't name name them. Um and they gave me their standards that they have. Um and the one down in the low country, they use a they have a standard district standard of a video board. Um um they're they're trying to get away from one vendor, move to a different vendor that's more a little bit more responsive, but um they had a price of about $130,000 roughly to replace that board. Now, that is to replace an existing board, which means that if you
263have a school that doesn't have one, there's additional ste structural steel, other things you have to get in place. And this price did not also include a sound system. Um but it was is to replace what what is existing. So, I'm not going to sit there and say that's the same price that we're going to have for forever, you know, if if we were to go out and do that. Um, but for the standard that this one school district came up with, and they're a fairly large school district, uh, I think they're on the right path with having that district standard, you know, the minimum to represent their schools. Um, and and that price seems to be pretty in line. >> And the 1.65 is for all three schools. Yes sir. That's that's well it's
264all three schools >> is the the one option that we u well this is probably I don't know if it's Germaine the uh the the scoreboard vote that we took a few months back about the um booster club money. Is that still on the table? Is it still an option or is that has that ship sailed and it's not a possibility anymore? >> Uh yes. So, our goal is to get three of the same boards at all three schools. >> Okay. >> Um, this was brought to my attention um and I know that we're talking about press boxes and the scoreboards um for all three schools, but atmo high school with the baseball team. Um, the baseball it's kind of like one giant building. They've got the press box and the uh restrooms and then
265um I believe like a kind of boiler room locker room area. Is there going to be any kind of updates to that building >> within this? >> So we we have updated some internal stuff. Um I know at one time we had um pink and blue bathrooms. That has since changed. Um there's some other things that we would like to update within within that building, you know, as funding permits. >> Okay. I just um I know that um one of the wonderful women who work over there in the concession stand. She's in a wheelchair and I I'm not sure if that bathroom is accessible. Um >> it it may not be. I believe that was built many many years ago. So um yeah, when we did the little refresh was all cosmetic. We were not
266able to go in there and redesign it to an ADA standard. >> Is there any possibility of that? >> I mean there's always a possibility. It's just it's just the funding. That's the big thing. So to answer your question, could it be included in this? Most certainly. And we have other we have other sports that don't have restrooms that need them. Um we also need to make sure that we're addressing you know um you know making sure that females have their they're changing spaces and um you know it's we're looking at everything holistically. >> We have a motion on the floor and it's been properly second. All those in favor Well, people started raising their hands, so I was like, maybe they don't need me to keep talking. All those in favor of the first
267um reading um all those in favor of approving the first reading of the spring 2026 capital projects opposed. And the motion carries 6 to1. That moves us to first. Thank you, Mr. Knox. Um, that moves us to first reading of bond resolutions for the 26 referendum. >> I'll make a motion to approve the first reading of the bond resolutions authorizing spring 2026 referendums 2026 referendum and 8% bond issues as seen. >> We have any discussion or questions? All those in favor and the motion carries six to zero. Thank you. >> Can we just say thank you Jay and >> I'm sorry y'all just hung out for nothing but also >> 9:30 with us tonight. >> We always like to be here in case you need us. >> Yes. I appreciate y'all. Thank you so much.
268>> Thanks everyone. >> Byebye. >> That brings us to the final item on the action agenda. Approval of textbook adoptions. A motion to approve textbook adoptions farm animal productions and drone technologies as seen in exhibit M. >> Are there questions? All those in favor? And the motion carries six to zero. Thank you. Sorry we made you hang out. And then that brings us to the discussion agenda. Um we uh which is on the um on the general fund budget which we discussed earlier um in the workshop and um gave a few couple of things that we wanted the administration to take away um as they work on building it. This is just an opportunity for anybody who may have missed something or had a second thought that they wanted to add. Mr. Vanam. >> Yeah,
269I didn't get to say it before, but just as a reminder when we're talking about um the millages millage increase and um the taxes, the 6% um our businesses go towards paying all of that. So even though people may say it's not affecting them directly, if you use any local businesses, you know, eventually they do have to pass on their cost. So that's something to be cognizant of. The administration is seeking direction on what option the board would like us to to. We need a revenue decision. We can't finish the budget book without any direction on where we're going with it. Again, it doesn't marry us to it, but I know Miss Huddle talked about in the workshop, uh, stay at 261 and add the tier 2 when we come back for first reading. That's
270going to have implications on what that budget looks like. So, um, we heard a lot of things, but we're looking for direction from the board on what revenue option are we building this budget. >> I thought y'all were going to look at the want to do um, including the with the tutor and included, but then we were going to have a conversation about um, spaces to ease or leave or however Miss Tucker phrased it. >> So, my notes said to work on the to base it off of what we the want to do include tutoring and expectation coaches um to look at what it would cost to bump support two steps and also to look at a cost of living increase for teachers and support staff, but then quantify savings ideas that would get us
271back to no tax increase. Those were my notes from earlier. >> Is that the will of the board? I just want you to understand what that means. You're going to make significant cuts to the district to give some people that we don't have direction. And >> I don't who what are we cutting? >> What are the cuts? >> If you did what right the the there is the notes from from the workshop. >> Do you mean to read them again? >> Please. >> My next >> I heard it. But can you clarif the the cut piece? That's what I want. You can't afford to do the the want to do at the current mill rate. So >> Oh, that's what you meant because we said and stay at the >> no tax increase savings ideas
272to get us back to no tax increase. >> Yes, but we won't I think I understood that we can't do the want to do plus those things that occur tax. >> So we have no direction on how to make that. And if that's the case, if you're saying go back and and and do that, just understand what that means of board policy says that I have to present a balanced budget by the next meeting. >> Yes. >> Yeah. By the next meeting, I'm hearing that we're to do that with >> you're what you're saying is for the board, for the public, my understanding is that if we move forward with the plan that she just suggested, the only way to do that and keep a balanced budget is to suggest a million I don't see
273any other way. >> I'm I'm just getting clarification if that's what you're asking. Can >> Can I ask you a quick question? Dr. Ross, can we Can you >> Can you propose two budgets? >> They would like to not do that. Remember he said that earlier? >> I understand that. >> I don't think we should. I think we should get one budget and then um and then we have to >> assess that budget at the at the next at the next meeting. Okay. >> Um and talk about look at it and make deter you know make some decisions. based off that. >> So if we just approve as it stands, then we would make with the addition of the tutoring to be included. >> Well, we don't have to approve anything today. So we're just
274asking them to come back with one for >> for the budget with one version. >> Yes, Miss Huddle, Miss Farmer. I think what we discussed was you would put the tutoring in, you would put the like to haves in and it will be more. It would require a millage increase and you will tell us how much that would be. But then you would also tell us how much we would save if we did some things, a hiring freeze, an administrative non-teer hiring freeze if we um were not to build the new elementary school and redistribute those. And maybe there's some other things. But that was my understanding is what you know what are some things that we can discuss that could get us um reduce the budget that you're going to present so that we
275would not have to do a tax increase and and and quantifying both in terms of I think what what they also do for students. I mean if they're you know at the end of the day we're here to make sure that kids read and and do math and all that. Um and I think that's one reason that the teacher raise is so important. Okay. So, I'm just saying it again. We're just kind of going off of discussion. We will build a budget to have no millage increase. We would have to be building a budget at option A. We're going to increase the support staff pay to we're going to add tier two. That's going to take us to over 5.6 6 million that we don't have. We're to find 5.6 million. >> Why are we
276talking about an increase? >> Because that's the direction I'm getting. >> No, I don't think that's possible. I think again that there's no way we could do it without the increase. >> That's not what Miss Hu says is to bring us back a budget that has no >> options. Options. So, you know, we have this budget. It's balanced. It has it requires a millage rate increase but then we have options to discuss because this is just first reading. We have options to discuss that says okay well if we did this it would reduce the um the budget by three million or if we did this it would decrease it by 2 million just that. So we have options to discuss. >> All right we'll build it at option A and talk about where to place
277these other other pieces. I'm just reiterating what I said earlier. I my I think our focus should be on our primary focus is on our students and our schools. You take care of th those needs. Forget about the I not forget about but that's primary. Secondary is tax implications, mill implications, all that. I'm not. You take care of our kids in our district and however that shakes out on the millage side is just how it shakes out. But that's the way that's what I'm looking for. >> I think I and I appreciate that, Kevin. I But I think that that there's a little miscommunication or a misunderstanding slightly. Um Dr. Ross is saying that he want that you need and he needs a budget to bring to the board for first reading. >> Correct. >>
278And we can amend that budget >> at that first reading. >> Right. >> To some of the suggestions and some of the additions or whatever we want to do to modify that budget at that time. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> All right. Okay. So, point of clarification for me. So, would the board prefer a build it at the current millage rate or at the 266 and then still bring options to reduce that? >> I thought you would do it at whatever military is necessary to support the budget. >> That's what I thought too. Okay. Okay. So bring a balanced budget with everything that's needed to support the wantto's the tutoring the expectation coaches and then bring solutions for a way to bring that back down >> if there are some just for conversation specifically
279like to know you know and I realize this is a painful subject and I'm not saying we do it but I think we should discuss it. What would the savings be if we did not build the new elementary school? If we redistricted because could have all those operating costs that would go away. Um so I think that's one thing and I think the other thing that we need to look at is a staffing freeze. I mean we have um increased our non-eing positions over the years especially in the last four years and it's not sustainable particularly if our enrollment is going to continue to go down. was the hearing. >> Can we actually decide not to do a project that's in the bond referendum? Is the elementary school not in the bond referendum? >> Is
280it Miss Heiser already answered that you can, >> but what do you do with the money? >> You you we may be over on these other things, so there may be the money. Um or you just don't borrow it. But she said we didn't have to do it. And in 2008, they did not build um Derek Pond. This property we just sold, they did not build Derek Pond with 2008 bond referendum money. >> But it's important to point out too though, it's that's a separate pot of money. >> That's what I was getting. >> We're talking about our budget for next year. It wouldn't because that school is not going to be on, >> right? But it throws off it throws off um >> I know, but it it right now it's Dutch Fork Elementary
281where Dutch Forks Elementary But but one year you can use um you can use fund balance. So this is something that would save us money for ever and money that could be spent on teachers, not on mowing the grass and those kind of things. So I just think we should consider it. Y'all can vote against it, but we need to consider it. And if and if it won't help us for a year or two, those are are things that your fund balance is for shortterm things. It's not for forever. Um I just think we should consider it. I mean, this you look at those enrollment trends, they're not going to go back up. >> Um, I just wanted just to stick with board policy. Um, we will build the budget. The board will adopt. We'll
282bring options for adoption. >> U, but we will we will build this. Um, and so what I'm hearing is it's not that we don't do millage increase. We're going to what it would require to do the >> what you want. >> Very good. I now that is something we can build. Yes, sir. >> So, we'll go and we'll build a budget with that. You will review the budget booklet at that we'll present that and then any amendments that the board would like. I would ask one question uh to stick with board policy. We must listen u Tucker and I can only listen to the board not individual wants. So when we get to that part, any amendments to that budget need to be a motion to direct. >> Well, and that was my comment was
283going to be along those lines is we have a plan approved that includes the build of Dutch Fork Elementary School and the reasonzoning has been approved. That is our plan approved, board approved. Any conversation otherwise it shouldn't we shouldn't have a we don't need a motion to not have that conversation. We need a motion to have that conversation because our convers our plan is set. We've already approved everything. So, let's I I would not approve I I would not recommend that you prepare anything on not building Dutch Fork Elementary School. That's not the plan. >> Yeah. And that's not um the question either. Uh just just for clarification. >> So, I mean I do want to understand I mean are we going are we I'm ask Snipes as board chair. Are we going to have
284options with dollar amounts attached to them to discuss as ways to reduce our budget including not building that elementary school? I think Miss Miss Tucker hasn't said she can't have that. I think what we're saying or let me not say I think what Dr. Ross is saying is that once the budget comes before us as we start to make amendments to it, we as a board have to agree. So, if I don't like something on it or if they bring something to say, well, if we take this away, um, it would it would decrease the millage, I can't single-handedly say that's what we want. >> No, I understand that. But, I mean, how do we know how do we know what an amendment will save us? How are we going to know that? >> I
285didn't I didn't think Miss Tucker said she wasn't going to do that. I don't think that's what was said. >> You are going to tell us. I can do my best to look at that as well as a staffing hiring freeze for anything outside of teachers if that's the will of the board. >> No, I I I I disagree with that. That's again us not listening to the board. >> I think the best thing to do is we can take a motion from the floor what we want to do. But >> you've articulated that the want to do this is what we can budget. >> Okay, >> we can budget the we have the teacher pay raises identified here. The question to give options for more of an increase of support staff to do the
286supplement study and to include year round tier 2. >> Okay, >> we will bring that with the corresponding revenue projections and then whatever u that is now whatever millage that requires to pay for that. We also are going to present efficiencies that we can find within our budget to take care of the staff request. Believe it or not, there continue to be staff requests and so but those will be the options there. Um but we we to Mr. Skully's point and freeze moment. >> Okay. >> So I I don't want to start having our staff look at >> options that don't come from the board. >> Okay. M I mean, >> we're all in this together. We're all trying to do the right thing. Why do we have to drag this out? So, what I'm
287hearing is we can't look at these other options. We can't at the next meeting because we have to have a motion to do that. And we're sitting here talking about what we can do and we're not making motions right now. So, I don't understand why we can't have options because efficiencies aren't going to cut it. not going to find four or five million dollars in efficiencies. So if we can sit here and talk about the way we're going to do it and include this and do the millage, why can't we also say we want to get what these things would save? >> Are the efficiencies are those not ways that we could save? Because that's my interpretation of that, Miss Tucker. >> Correct. But I need to know what the board wants me to look
288at. I mean, I have limited time to put together this and so I need to know >> I don't know what >> what direction the board wants me to go in >> and I don't know what to you know I don't I can't sit here and say oh I think you should look at this because we probably could cut that. I don't think that in my position that I'm best adequate position to make that call. >> I I think the let's stick with what's written in board policy administration will present and will compile and submit to the board the first meeting in May a balanced budget for their adoption. We we heard um discussion. We'll submit we'll compile and submit as outlined in the in board policy BDD. We'll bring that to you for first
289approval. Whatever the board says they want to do after that, that's first reading. And um and and so I think from that we just and whatever motions the board makes from there, we'll we'll take that after first reading. >> Oh, Mr. B, I forgot. I'm sorry. >> Would it would it help if each board member submitted to you top three things that they're concerned about? That's what we didn't work best. >> Well, you're you're asking for specifics for to prepare and us actually make a motion on that and vote on it at a special call before the the main meeting. >> I mean, we've we've asked that um for everybody's input on on what the the board wanted and that's what we compiled in this in this worksheet was what the board's um in fact,
290we saw teacher pay raise was the the number one thing followed by lower substitute pay, you know, a lot of the personnel. Number three, you know, is just not in there right now because we were looking at our revenue projections. What we wanted to to look at is some direction. And I think what we have some direction, some some want to do that uh the board is interested in. And so we're going to go back build a budget that can be torn apart, but we only have time to build one. And so, um, we we've taken everybody's priorities. You heard our priorities. The superintendent's priorities are not in not in here. We're going to go back and and try to find efficiencies to do it. I mean, M's right. Find a 4.6 million dollar of
291efficiencies when 90% of your budget are people. You know, we don't want to send the message that we're taking people out so we can give others rages. Um so I I I I just wanted to uh share that if we have the flexibility to we're good. We don't if we don't do anything we don't give we give the step. We can afford a step for everybody and we're we're good. We're in a good situation, but if we wanted to do the want to do, we have the flexibility to bring you back what that would look like. And so in a balanced budget and then at that point, there'll be dollar amounts attached to it. Uh you can go to the budget booklet and say, uh I think we need to increase here or decrease there.
292>> So as far, sorry, I was just trying to explain. So as far as like board member opinion, when we did this the budget priorities from the um board members versus our discussion tonight. Is anyone's opinion relevant tonight >> or is it is it just the chair and yours? >> Just for my clarification, >> it is it is everything that's in that presentation, >> not just my opinion. >> Everything that's in that presentation is is coming from coming from what you see on the screen, right? This is not uh it's been very transparent how we've done it. U but to to to go straight to what's written. Um, your board policy says that we would not make this off of just the board's opinion. Your board policy says that we will look at parents, all
293stakeholders, students, teacher groups, admin. That's what your policy says. So, when we bring all of this together, yes, at the adoption, you can override all of their decisions, but we're to bring you one according to your policy with all of these collective thoughts to it. The reality is you can't afford the want to do. So if you're saying collectively and we heard no one here tonight say Dr. Ross don't do the want to do just do the step now we can go back and present a balanced budget with the want to do in >> the board policy says what the minimum you have to do. It doesn't say that you can't look options. We do it all the time. They're always additions are the ones we look at. I'm just asking that we do the
294same thing with possible reductions. I don't think it's appropriate to go into a board meeting or a budget discussion with the assumption that we're the only option is to raise taxes. Those that's part of who we're here for. So, if we're not going to go into a meeting with the automatic assumption we're going to raise taxes and there are no other options, we have to look at other options. We can't always be the other options are always adding. And I'm not talking about dec and I want to go on the record. I am not talking about a single person in this district losing their job. Period. What I'm talking about is looking at hiring freezes, particularly non-teers. We have fewer students than we had five, six years ago, and we have like 40 more people
295in the district office. I mean, we can't. It is unsustainable. We can't keep going back to the taxpayers because we're losing students and we can't keep our admin staff high. Well, we cut teachers. We have to look at other options. >> Does this are we including any adding adding any positions? >> This this budget that we presented at has no new positions. So there's no new positions included in this. >> But we've added like 45 in just the last few years and some of those are vacant. >> Okay. Then you're saying cut those positions. >> Vacant. Vacant. Vacant. >> Miss Tucker trying to speak. >> I will say that what we presented tonight did not have any new positions. But what I heard from the board was that we wanted to include the expectation coaches,
296which was a one-time thing. So that would put those positions in the budget full time as well as the CISO. >> I didn't hear that. I didn't hear leaving the expectation coaches in. I heard only leave. >> I I think we that's why motions are are good to >> I think we just tier two >> tier two. Just tier two. Okay. Just tier two. >> All right. >> Do we have other thoughts for Miss Tucker to take forth? Can you turn your mic on? >> Enrollment's gone down recently. There's nothing saying it's never going to come back up. It will come back up. Our neighborhoods will turn over. They're going to they're going to flourish again. The ones that are down now will grow. The ones that are growing now will stable sta uh become
297stable and and kind of level off. But it will always cycle. This is a this area is in demand and that's not changing anytime soon. So our our enrollment is going to be just fine. And even if it's down from where it was a couple of years ago, it doesn't matter. I don't care where where it was a couple of years ago. I want to know that we have what we need for our district. No matter how many kids are in it next year, are we going to meet our goals for however many kids that is? However many dollars that takes, I want that to be what we're looking at. I don't care where we've been. Um, if we have more administrators today than we've had in the past, that's because we need them. And
298if it's vacant, we're not cutting those jobs. Those are jobs that just because somebody's not in a position today doesn't mean that we don't need the position. So, just come up with our goals or what we're trying to do next year and formulate the budget to fund it. And that's all I'm asking for. Um, had I known when this survey came out, had we had the tutoring program in place and the results of it at this time, I I'm fairly confident that would have been very high up on this priority. So, that's why I kind of said that earlier about that. So, Um, no. I I think Dr. Ross, what you've done and and Miss Tucker is is is fine. But this also doesn't say stay at the current millillage. And that's my point is
299let's take care of our students and schools. That's what we're here for, not to worry about being tax the counties and the state. We're we the state legisl legislature cost us money. We're having to make that up because of them. So we unfortunately we've got to do what we've got to do. >> I'll move that we adjourn. >> Second. >> Everybody's in favor. Y'all have a good night.