February 9, 2026 School Board Meeting

001It is 4:30. I'm going to call the February 9th meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> I make a motion to approve the agenda. >> All in favor? Um I have a >> Oh gosh. [music] Um I move to a amend the agenda to move items 19 and 20 which are approval of A&E services for middle school co-curricular and extracurricular facilities and inclusive play playgrounds and 20 which is um press boxes for Dutch Fork and Irma high schools and athletic scoreboards to move those two items um to the first two items on the discussion agenda. So that would mean we would discuss them but we wouldn't vote tonight. >> Second. >> Okay. And yeah, let me explain why. Um so [clears throat] we already voted once to not vote

002on these until um two things happened. One was to review the MPS report, the McMillan passed and Smith report. Well, that's actually not on the agenda. Actually, I need to amend my movement. I'd like to move it to after item 23 because we we were supposed to get a vote on on that. Um I mean not a vote a review of the items that were poor and critical because we paid over $200,000 for that report. And we put some of those items into the bond referendum but not all. And the board's never gotten an accounting of of what happened to the other poor and critical items. And I think we need to know that before we spend vote to spend more money. So I'm fine discussing. I just think we should wait. And the other

003reason we uh waited we're going to wait was um for um the board to set its long-term facilities priorities, which that meeting happened last Friday, but there hasn't been an actual vote to say these are our priorities, security, whatever. And I just think we need to make sure these items where they fall before we spend any more time or money on it. >> I second the amended motion. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Satderfield, hold on one second. I'm going to let you But before No, no, it's fine. I just want to clarify that I heard Miss Huddle correctly before you make your comment just so I don't lose lose that. So your recommendation is to take 19 and 20 from the action agenda, >> move it to the discussion agenda after McMillan >> um so

004that we can dis because you want to hear the updates on the current projects, >> right? And wait to vote. So it move to the discussion and we could always for the next meeting >> at our next meeting. >> Okay. Mr. Satderfield. >> Yeah. Uh, I was going Let me ask you this, Miss Huddle, since you're making this motion. Now, when the this f especially the for the middle school and facilities and playgrounds, uh, we talked about that and then we and I voted along with I think Mr. Bayum's motion to do a survey, survey the teachers and see make sure we're going in the right direction. And we went through that. We got the surveys and I thought after we did that then we would move forward at least with the feasibility just to

005see how much it is and then see if it is where it would be as a priority. I mean I'm I'm assuming that we're going to have to know how much it costs. I wouldn't call Spartanberg and order a car without knowing. So, I hate to I hate to see I hate to delay. We're talking about because I visited the schools and I know that you all have as well. Some of these playgrounds are just terrible. >> Can I address that? You um you don't need to do an RFP to get costs. We got costs for the bond referendum without doing RFPs. So, we you can call a construction company that we work with and say, "Hey, give me a ballpark. What would it cost to do this?" So this is this is a labor

006intensive. It's labor intensive for the district to do an RFP. It's very labor intensive for the applicants too because they spend hundreds of hours on these. So and I'm I'm talking one meeting. One meeting to allow us to get the results of the MPS and allow us at next meeting to prioritize our facilities before we vote to spend time. >> All right. Let me Oh, gota re lean forward so you can hear me. Um, so if we do this, if we put it on the discussion agenda, so how long what's the delay then on these projects? Dr. Ron, >> we've delayed this since November. We brought this to the board in November. It's been delayed. This will be the third time it's been delayed. >> Right. And our vote in November was to do these

007other two things which no ma'am >> haven't happened. >> Well, somebody can go find the minutes. The the vote was until we got the MPS review and until the board um determined its long-term priorities. We I don't know why those haven't I'm not an officer, but we've had a chance to put those on the agenda ever since then and it hasn't happened. And you know, I don't see what difference one more meeting will make. If the issue is we need to get adjusted estimated costs, you don't need an RFP to do that. >> So a feasibility study is not to find out if it's feasible, if you can afford it. >> So you're saying we can get a feasibility study without paying for it? >> Absolutely. Look at the bond referendum, but we never got

008um feasibility studies on any of those. we didn't pay for to find out that it would cost $30 million to build a new elementary school or you know we call I don't you know know exactly how we did it but I know businesses every day call contractors and get estimates >> right so what about number again I hate to delay this again I've been to the school and it these issues with our playgrounds and all this isn't like >> but it won't it's not delaying it it's just you know one meeting it's it's kind of like you really really want to build a playground for your kids. I get that. I'm I'm in favor of a lot of these projects. It has nothing to do with that. But what if we have security deficiencies that

009we're not aware of? Are we going to go forward with this before we address security issues? >> Well, we need I understand what you're saying. I mean, if you look at those priorities, there's a lot of things. I mean, honest honestly, we have so many things that need to be done. That's just the way it is. Um but um we have been talking about this for a while. So let me ask you this just to be clear. So you're saying that if we don't vote on this tonight, we can we'll vote on it next week, next meeting. >> Yes. But I would hope that we would get the MP I don't know what we're going to see yet because there was nothing in the package. Get the the what what were the pouring criticals that

010we haven't done yet and NPS. and at the next meeting and looking at Miss Snipes, vote on our capital priorities. That's all I'm asking is let's just do things in the correct order. Determine what your priorities are before you start committing to to things that take up a lot of time. >> Well, I I I understand and I'm not I I'm don't know that two weeks is going to make a big deal. I just don't want to delay it any further. If we've been talking about this since November, I want these. Again, these are not new issues. These pro playgrounds have been dilapidated for a very long time. So, they just look terrible. And this is for kids. But my let me ask you this or I can ask anybody on the board. Um, number

01120, the press box issues for the two schools. Why would we delay that? >> Same reason. just just get just call somebody and say how much would you pay? How much would you charge? >> What would be the price range to update or replace whatever you know or both what would be the price price range to do that? So we have some idea that's exactly what was done with the bond referendum. We got estimates >> but that's that's maybe it's just the verbiage. I understood that's what a feasibility. >> No, this is a this is an AFP and cost estimate. They put a lot of work into it. >> Dr. Ross, could you elaborate a little bit with this? >> Yeah, and I think uh Allan, you can correct me where I'm wrong. When we

012started off with the um the request to look at these services, uh we were ready to present in November and I believe we were asked to delay that until we could survey fifth graders. Um we surveyed over 900 fifth graders into what we would put into the plan. Um this plan was based off of um the design of the current facilities and we were looking at A&E services for its feasibility. Uh it was then delayed to look at uh MPS uh report and um the process that we were doing in the strategic plan that we have for capital to move forward. I was not aware of any vote that was in there, but that we would look at that on uh Friday. Um if you can just talk about what you presented to the board,

013what we provided in their packet [clears throat] and uh on Friday and and that's in their packet today that outlines your work on the NPS. >> Yes, sir. So, as a part of the work, we're we're we're actually utilizing the data from MPS and we're pushing it through our Microsoft PowerBI system and it's a business analytic system that kind of helps us graph things and digest um some of the data a little easier. On that chart with the schools that we have in the bond referendum, it shows uh I think a total of 410 overall projects. of those projects, there could be um I think it's about 3,000 actual task from the NPS report that falls in there. The reason why we rolled them into projects, it was it's easier for us to manage flooring.

014So, if one school has a I don't know 100 items of flooring that need to be addressed at a school, I want to tag that in as flooring. So, um so we were able to review all that information. We can actually see what's been completed. We can actually see what's pending. So whether or not we have to get an A&E um you know have an architect look at it or we're in the process of putting it through procurement so we're able to see that portion to what's active and what's pending. >> Are we asking for the board to move forward on these projects with A&E? >> I mean we're yeah we haven't yet >> so the the motion is to look to see the feasibility of it. Correct. It would still have to come back

015to the board for approval. >> Correct. if anything over 50 50,000. >> So this will not be a solicitation. >> This would be for feasibility for >> right. So it would be a solicitation for design. That's what is >> I believe that's that's the solicitation to look at the feasibility because we know schools like if you look at Armo and and um and Dutch fork two completely different layouts just due to the geo um the you know the rock and everything that's at the school. So I think that would be a part of the whole feasibility. So, if we if we get this, would there be another, if it's approved by the board, another um solicitation for design services or is this for design services? >> I can't answer that question at the moment. >>

016This is for design. This brings you all the way up to C. >> Okay. So, this is a full-blown solicitation for full-blown design services. Okay. >> I call the question. >> Nope. Um, I'm ready to move forward. I don't need to delay anymore. I think we've had enough time and I would urge the board to move forward today. Um, so I'm ready to do that. >> I try to be funny. I'm serious. You you you always bring up perspective. I'm just giving everybody their minute. I >> I'm I'm just curious and either Alan or Dr. Rash, you can ask this. Let's say this wasn't about this. Let's say it was about another we were putting in stadium stands or something along those lines. Would we go through the feasibility study in order to get the

017stadium stands? >> Okay. Why did we not for the bond referendum? We put a bond referendum out there and asked the voters to spend $240 million and we did not do this for those projects. We came up with dollar amounts. You do not have to do a full-blown design to find out an estimate of the price. It's not necessary. >> I don't know if that's uh correct. I think the factability studies can question all the projects before we put the bond referendum out. >> Let me ask you just a quick because I've got something on the tip of my tongue since you said that. But you can't get you can't send out um get to get estimates. Just call them We're going to put a but you don't know what your playground's going to look

018like. I mean, there's a difference in a few monkey bars. And >> we proposed an entire school and went to the voters and said, "We want $240 million without doing a feasibility study. You don't you can come up with a dollar amount. We don't have to wait to come up with a dollar amount." And we're talking two weeks. But that was a different process though when we went went through the >> but how how are you going to feel if you go forward with this and you get these people this is a lot of time on their part there there were people on this board that didn't want to ask the district to put capacity numbers on the district website because that was too much work and it was bandwidth and all. But that it

019takes people to do this. It takes someone in finance which we're down a director in finance. It takes people to put this out. it takes people to get it back to to go through the interviews and the review and the vendors themselves spend hundreds of hours doing these and what if it comes back and we decide we don't have enough money it and it's new too low on the priority because we have security issues that come first or building envelopes. I think y'all at the last meeting talked about River Springs was supposed to get her a new roof and didn't get a new roof yet. I mean, why is that not on here if it's a you know I mean we you just don't you don't operate like that. You don't start spending all this

020time on something before you even know what your priorities are. Before you even know what critical and poor items on that NPS report have we not done. >> Yeah. Well, I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. Um my concern is this. Um having been in this district for a long time and going through capital and capital is not the same. I understand. But it's still about prioritizing. We would meet in this large room with all the principles and everybody would have their list of priorities, things that they wanted to be approved for in the capital budget. And it's not like one is saving the life of an 80-year-old teacher, so you have an AED unit there, and the other one is painting your curves blue. I mean, you're we're always going to

021have stuff. I think the people at Dutch Fork and Irmo have been in all fairness, I think that the scoreboard issue is an issue. We got seasons coming up, we got spring sports coming up, we got things coming up. I think we should move forward with that. And again, I think we've in my opinion, we've been through the process and we can disagree on that on the the correct process, but we've been through the process and I just don't want to see any more delays with that. So, Anybody else? Don't let me be >> Alan. I already forgot the question. I was waiting for you to answer at this point. So, I'm sorry. It's fine. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Unless unless you remember. >> So, the I think the question was, do we do a

022feasibility study? So, there is a part for the bond >> for the bond referendum. So, the McMillan Pasin Smith was in a sense the the feasibility study. They went and looked at a bunch of different things. there was nothing designed to that. And when it comes to the the schools, what um you know, what we did as a district is we looked at a price per square foot to get us to where we needed for the for the bond referendum and then we uh added in a little bit of additional just a little bit additional funding just in case something did come up. >> So everything that was on there came from NPS is what you're saying. >> Not everything came from NPS, but um the NPS itself was like a feasibility study. They would

023go look at the schools and they would say, "Hey, they're looking at all these items and deficiencies across the board." But they didn't NPS did not design anything. >> Miss Huddle, how did we estimate the cost to um revamp Dutch Fork Elementary? >> The total amount. Uh I'd have to go look at that. I don't have that number in front of me. >> Okay. Or the >> Did you ask what the amount was or did you ask how with it? Because it wasn't in the NPS report. It wasn't in the MPS report. >> So, I just looked at the square footage of of what our typical schools are, >> but it was a remodel. It wasn't a brand new >> talking about for the new school. >> No, the re remodeling Dutch Fork Elementary into

024the Academy for Success Adult Ed. >> I think we need to be uh take this apples to apples. The entire feasibility of uh MPS was based on bringing up those schools up the code. Correct. >> Yes, ma'am. All right. That was a lot of time, effort, and money that we spent to to get that for our base estimate. At that point, we had 11,137 incidences at that. We've been adding about 22 a day since that period. That's correct. >> Yes, sir. >> In that, if you recall, they estimated about $182 million worth of work that we needed to do at that time. >> We've been adding about 22 incidences from that since that day. How do we get to 240 million? We use estimates for new schools. That's why today on the same agenda which

025has been delayed because we did not do the full uh feasibility on the Dutch for we were doing estimates. So you're going to pay on one end or the other. If you take a guess early, you got to pay to get actuals. If you get the actuals early, then you got to pay to get actuals early. If you recall, we asked for A&E services before the referendum on a lot of projects. We were denied by the board and told that at that time we need to wait till after the referendum. So, you can't argue both sides. We either get the actuals now or we get the actuals later. But at some time, you have to get the actuals. And so, I think administration is putting forward a recommendation that came from the the community, from

026the teacher, from the students. We want to get feasibility, but we have to get to actuals in order to determine if this is uh something we can do. >> All right. All hearts and minds clear. All right. So, we have um an amendment to the approval of the agenda to move 19 and 20 to the discussion agenda under number 23. It has been properly second. All those in favor? All those opposed? And the motion fails four to three. That takes us back to original um motion um to approve the agenda. All those in favor? [clears throat] All those opposed and abstain. [clears throat] Did you raise your hand or you abstaining? Okay. I'm sorry. Um, and the motion carries. Um, six to one. Sorry, Miss Bhard, I just didn't see you. All right. Do I

027get a motion? Do I have a motion to enter into executive session? >> I'll make a motion to enter executive session to consider the following. Uh, item A, selected employment items. Exhibit A for action. Item B, selected employment items. Exhibit [clears throat] B, information only. C, receipt of legal advice regarding the student matter. D, contractual matters regarding the new Dutch Fork Elementary School. Exhibit C and D. E, contractual matter regarding the Lexington County easement for the corridor improvement on Columbia Avenue. Exhibit E. F. Legal advice regarding contractual matters regarding the Lexington County sewer easement and the city of Colombia water easement for the new student center cafeteria at Armo High School. Exhibit F. G. Contractual matter regarding the Chapen High School auditorium. Exhibit G, contractual matter regarding construction and access easements for the property at

0281400 Kennerly Road. Exhibit H. I, legal advice relating to a data security incident. And J, legal advice regarding civil action number 323-CV-02156- MGL exhibit I >> second. [clears throat] All those in favor And the motion carries seven to zero. I need to circle I'm sorry I need to circle back. So under the motion to move the agenda. So it was sent to me our minutes uh where apparently we did vote to wait until after the MPS study. And if we've already taken a vote on that, >> anyone who voted on the winning side can vote for can make a motion to reconsider. >> I just wanted to know how that was supposed to go because we just had a vote. So I just was not sure what we if I needed to do. chair, you've

029had you can make a motion because you were on the winning side and the intent of that motion has not been held and it's I'm very I'm just have to say I'm very disappointed sit here and made it sound like I'm delaying stuff because that motion was made on November 10th and it passed on November 10th and we've had since November 10th to put the the stuff on the agenda to have the McMill McMillan passed in Smith and to put on the agenda the priority setting Can I just say one thing and this is not anti what you're saying but we did u I'm not sure again I Mr. I'm not picking. I'm trying to use my memory. You made a motion that we go through this study and that study is not like it's

030it's the next board meeting or whatever. The study, I'm sure, take took a little bit of time. Um, Miss Snipes, can you again say what you just said about we we voted? >> We we did take a vote to delay the discussion of numbers 19 and 20. Okay. until after we got what we're going to do under the discussion agenda for number 23, the update on MPS. And Miss Hule is saying that we voted on it and she's just basically saying it's not her fault that we haven't put it on the agenda. So, she's saying, is it really her fault that there was a delay? >> Right. And I'm just asking the people who voted for this to do what we originally voted to do. >> No, I'm saying which was to wait. And I

031I I I voted to I don't remember voting to I remember Yeah, I did vote. >> You voted because I wanted uh Thanks for Miss Knight for that. Um I did want to I did I thought it was a good idea to do the survey and talk to the teachers and talk to the kids because each survey >> it wasn't report. >> You you voted also to get the MPS report before we discussed um 19 and 20. >> I say so you and I both did. If we move 19 and 20 to the discussion agenda, >> when I mean again >> when agenda it would be on if we moved it it would be on the next agenda because we would have discussed the MPS study today and >> I'm just saying >> you're you're

032in a loop. You can't move it to action. Miss Hu is saying you had to vote on the plan. So, it wouldn't be next week because >> No, you can still vote on the plan next week. You can put on the on the agenda. Y'all had the meeting last Friday. You can put on the the agenda, which I would hope it was going to be anyway. >> I've never cut you off when you spoke. >> I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. >> I just need the opportunity to say my piece. My understanding was that this would be delayed until after the discussion of the NPS. That's what we prepared. >> Okay. >> We did not have anything about after a vote on that. It was discussion of strategic capital planning. We felt

033like we had satisfied that Friday. At Friday's meeting, it was discussed to put this on action for Monday. >> It was >> now we're being told and again >> I think respect is allowing me to speak. I won't interrupt you. >> Now we're being told there has to be a vote on the capital plan. >> We don't vote on a capital plan until we present the capital plan. And so I just think we're in this kind of weird loop here. The the administration is asking for feasibility to see if this is even possible. We're not asking for action, >> right? >> Um and so we had the discussion Friday. We have the discussion again today. Um we we've put all of the priorities that we had in the MBS report on display. Um we're just

034this is the The first condition that this was delayed was for a survey. It wasn't for capital. It was for a survey. We did the survey and when we went to present the survey, we were told to delay it again. So, it's just confusing on what's being asked of the administration. >> Miss ahead. >> Yes. Um, so just going back on the um what was on the November 10th, I pulled it up and it says, "I make a motion to amend the agenda to defer item 19 discussion regarding AE services for middle school athletic fields and the press box and scoreboard for Irmo High School because and Dutch Fork High School because at that point they were in one item until we have a resolution of item 3F which was the um the there was

035a a legal question. Um, and in and so doing this would honor what we've already done. We've already voted. It's really up to you guys. If you want to, you can make a motion to um now I even forgot the word, but [laughter] you can make a motion to to put it back to um discussion to resend your vote. [snorts] >> Can I ask now I'm confused. Yeah, I'm trying to clear trying to clear the air now. Um, if it goes into discussion and I know I kind of asked this question before, but it goes into discussion. Will we still go through the if we approve it, does it still go through the feasibility? >> Will it still go through? >> Can't vote in discussion. That's kind of the whole >> No, no, no, no.

036No. I'm I said if it goes next board meeting like you're saying, then we would vote on the feasibility. So instead of tonight >> and I I would hope that there would be a recap or of what the board wanted out of last Friday because you can't agree to anything in a workshop. So while there was a lot of discussion I don't I don't know and I wasn't there but I don't know what there was no consensus. You can't have consensus. So I would hope that there would be that would be on the agenda too. Well, the only thing um is that I know I remember when we discussed the especially the playground thing because we discussed it at length because um we discussed the survey and we discussed making sure and we discussed the

037facilities and how bad they were and I think we saw pictures or something of it. Um so I don't think there's any question that we want to move forward with it. I'm just I just >> there's no question about any of them though. You don't have any question at all like about any of these projects >> about what if you find out that there were security items on the NPS report we haven't done you know >> well we haven't we haven't approved the projects I'm just saying I'm I'm just I just would like to know if that's something we can afford and I'm just I mean Like I said earlier, when I would go through the capital projects meetings, there's a myriad of things and you all of them were important because the principles wouldn't

038bring things that are not important. So anyway, okay. I think part of what Mr. Satderfield is saying that we um discussed and got a facilities update at the workshop on Friday regarding the um MPS um study. I know you weren't there, Miss Huddle. And uh Miss Barnhard, by the time we got to that part, you had to leave. >> So, y'all have a Is there a report that shows all the critical and poor items and where they stand? >> And that's been shared with the board. >> Can I get a copy of that? Because I So, by school, Nursery Road Elementary, these are the five critical and poor. Here's where they are. They're on the bond referendum or they're wherever they are. >> And and I need your help. I think you you just shared

039we don't have the staff to go through all of these things and now you're directing how we get we went through it. I think we need to lean to operations on how they went through over 3,000 issues. They did not make a list of of each school. They took the the 11,000 incidences and they grouped them by subject and then we're trying to issue these out by subject over 400 and something particular subject lines. That's what we have shared with the board um Friday. That's what we shared with the board in our packet today and that's what we're going to talk about uh during the meeting today. But that's what we can actually accomplish um through the way we've hand and it is everything from sight envelope to safety to ADA issues. I mean um

040we've talked about it Friday, we're going to talk about it again today. So on your list of 3,000 items, all the MPS, critical and poor are on there. >> Yes, ma'am. Everything that's a one, two, or three to get the school back up. >> And there So are they identified as where they came from? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. And is there a >> So there's there's actually a dashboard. It's a it's actually a pretty neat interactive uh dashboard through PowerBI. you can um you can click the name of the school and it'll actually show you the percentages of of what grouping if it's ADA, if it's flooring and and whatnot. So, you can actually um it's um pretty neat little pretty neat little tool that we have >> and it shows the status of

041each item. >> Well, we we can track that through um what's been completed, what's in what's pending, and and what's active. >> So, is that something that you can print for the board or give the board access? you'd have to you'd have to use PowerBI. It's that's not something you could you could print off a static sheet of paper, but to to really dive into the the interactive tool, you would um have to >> Can you pull out just the NPS items? >> It's all it's all NPS. Every bit of its NPS. >> Okay. But do you understand where I'm coming from? I mean, we spent $200,000 and we got things that were critical and poor and as a board member, I want to know where where they are. Have we already paid for them?

042Are they in the bond referendum? Do we need new money for them? >> Everything that's in the NPS report is that's a one, two, or three. Um, we can actually dive and look at all the entire schools. So, we we took their data and crunched it into this thing. And the term is called slicing. So, we can actually slice to that school and and really get a deep down dive of what's going on. >> Because um, Dr. Russ, I don't remember the number, but when we got the results of that and and you guys developed the bond referendum, you said there were I thought it was $80 million or something worth that we weren't able to do. Do you remember the number when we got the results of the MPS report and then the bond

043referendum? At one point, you said there were so many million dollars worth of things in the MPS report that we were not able to get into the bond referendum. It was >> because we only did certain schools. Remember, we didn't do, >> you know, it could have been a critical even at Pineywoods a brand new school, but we didn't put it in the bond referendum because it wasn't one of the the >> And and that's why I think I think it's good that we have the conversation. We're delaying the conversation. So now we're being asked about the conversations in the if we we we did not delay these meetings, we would have answered these questions. If you remember outside of the bond referendum, uh there were items that were of schools that had a composite

044of four. Correct? The highest you can get is a is a five. We don't have any five schools. We don't have any one schools. So we had two, three, and four. Right? So four schools we did not include in the bond referendum, but they had ones and twos. What we did is we issued a capital fall uh capital. Don't hold me on it, but once I get the slide up, I think it's capital 23 fall or 24 that address the items that were twos and ones and twos and those items that were not in the referendum. And that's what we we use that fall issuance for. That's also in there. I think it's fair to the public to be fair that when you say NPS report, people want things fixed. That's when do we issue

045that? 2023 >> 2023 >> right so it's more than the NPS report we record things every single day we're recording broken items now his dashboard changes every second every well not probably every second but every day it's changing so if I print you out something and we print each person here 500 pages of that or more it's changed the next day we just want to show you the dashboard show you the methodology that our team is working through to fix all of the issues that we have in our school. The issue and I think my frustration, my only frustration, it takes a year to fix something because we have to go through these processes. So on Friday, what we asked the board to do was give us the trust to put these in the buckets

046of the MPS report and those phases and we can fix the things as they as they break. We could one day get to preventative maintenance because it takes so long to go through this process that we're going through now. So, we want to share the plan that we have. We shared it on Friday. Like to share it today. We're not asking to build anything, but yes, we are asking for detailed design and feasibility on playgrounds for middle schoolers, an inclusive playground for our um special needs students like the um screaming eagles, right? And and the press boxes and school boards of the high schools. We hear this. We want to be responsive to it. And so, uh, as we're going through this, the number one piece that we have is ADA and safety items in

047the NPS report, but we're going through those modules. We passed a referendum to address that. These are things that we did not pass a referendum for. All right. So, we have um approved the agenda, approved the items to go into executive um session. Um the only way we can backtrack um the original motion is if um I think it's me or Mr. Satderfield um were to do a motion to reconsider. Um I'm saying publicly um that I have been conflicted um on where I landed with this. Um I don't think I'm going to reconsider um my motion for two reasons. Um one because we start we did have the MPS discussion during the um budget um workshop. But two, because I am operating under the understanding that although we are going to get A&E services

048for 19 and 20, we will not move forward with any of those projects without it coming back before the board. Is that correct? All right. At this time, we'll enter into executive session. Good evening. It is um 6:15 and since we are already running um slightly behind, I want to get us started. Um before we begin tonight's agenda, I do want to take a moment um to acknowledge um what a lot of people in our community are feeling right now. I know there's a lot of frustration, there's some concern, some disappointment, and in some cases um anger. And when issues affecting our children, our schools, and our in our lives, I understand that those emotions are real and they are understandable. And I want you to know that we see that, hear that, and take

049it seriously. As chair of the board, and as someone who cares deeply about our district, I want to be clear that no one here takes the responsibility that we've been given lightly. We are parents, neighbors, educators, and community members, and we understand the weight of the decisions before us and the impact that they have on all of you. And while we may not always agree on the path forward, I do believe we share a common goal, strong schools where students are supported, staff are respected, and our community can be proud of the work um being done. And this is um a little out of character, but I do want to take upon a privilege to address um three issues that I feel like most of us up here are hearing about frequently lately when we're

050being contacted by parents and those of you in the community. Um the first one is um the Chromebooks. Um for months a few of us have been getting emails about those. We've talked about it several times and a couple of you have called me out on the fact that in one of those meetings I did say that we were going to put together a committee to discuss that and so that it we are doing that. Anybody on the board is open to any of the board members and so we will begin meeting to discuss that. Secondly, um Dutch Fork Elementary, the land for the Dutch Fork Elementary School had was already approved for purchase unanimously at previous board meetings. So although there may be other things that we're still working on and voting on through

051on this agenda, that line land already belongs to the district. And lastly, several of us have been responding to emails and calls regarding regarding school choice and helping families get connected with district staff, mostly so siblings can stay together. And unfortunately, the board doesn't manage that process or get a vote. However, we are here to help you get connected with the right person in the district office in a timely manner. Tonight, I ask that we approach this meeting with respect and patience for one another and for the process. This board is committed to listening, asking the hard questions, and to working through challenges thoughtfully and transparently. Your voices matter and they are important part of that process. Thank you for being here and for caring enough to show up. At this time, I'll turn it

052over to Trustee Scully for the invocation and the pledge of allegiance. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, first I also want to add that there's also a feeling of celebration in our district tonight for our now Super Bowl champion but forever [clears throat] yellow jacket Nick Emmani and we are very proud of him so and proud of Armo High School. Um, so with that we'll we'll pray in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit. Heavenly Father, we are approaching the time on our calendar where we honor the life and sacrifice of St. Valentine. St. Valentine's life reminds us of faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. The only thing more powerful than hate is love. Lord, you use Valentine's Day to remind us that we are united

053by love. Father, in it is also important to remember that we are also united by blood. Father, in your wisdom, you give us two pathways. The Bible tells us that we all come from Adam and Eve. Outside the Bible, science tells us that we all come from Africa. Whatever path you personally believe, they all reach the same conclusion that we all come from the same source, the same blood. And from there, we went forth and settled all corners of the earth and adapted to the various climates. So that means that the same blood that was in Adam and Eve is the same blood that was in Jesus. The same blood that was in Jesus is the same blood in all of us today. The same blood that was in Bad Bunny and the same blood

054that was in Kid Rock. So, thank you, Jesus, for loving me and accepting me even though I don't look like you. We thank you, Jesus, for accepting us and not changing the channel away from us, even though we no longer speak the same language that you spoke when you were with us. Father, Valentine's Day always reminds me of my first love, my mother. In honor of this, I always make a point to honor our Holy Mother on Valentine's by saying, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Let us stand for the pledge. Board members, please join me up front for

055the school board spotlight. All right, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share tonight with you. We have so many exciting things happening in our district right now. So, I am so happy to be able to share just a few of those with you tonight. The first group I want to spotlight tonight is um three of our teachers who have received grants provided by the Mid Carolina Electric Cooperative. They host every year their annual bright ideas program that provides funding to teachers who have demonstrated innovative ideas for classroom projects. This year, school district 5 received a total of $2,320 in grants. And as we are every year, we want to say how thankful we are to Mid Carolina for their support and partnership in

056supporting our teachers and students. So tonight I am so happy to recognize our three teachers that are here with us. First is Mr. Chris Austin from Leeart Elementary. He's going to use his award to purchase soil, seeds, books, and garden tools so that students can learn how to grow their own vegetables and herbs at school. Mr. Austin, come on up. Next, we have with us tonight Dr. Martin Siwakala from here at the center. His award will help students build miniature amusement park rides, equip them with live feed cameras, and experience them in first person using headmounted displays. And it is super cool. I have seen it. So, Dr. C, come on up. I I won a $1,000 grant. I'm using $200 of it. $800 of it is going to be split over four teachers who

057are going to attend my session. That's going to receive kits. It'll be a door prize. So, we're going to spread the wealth. And then we also have with us tonight Miss Jill Sullivan from Chapen Middle School. Her funding will support her building thinking classroom by providing whiteboards transforming the way students engage with math. So, congratulations. And I saw Dr. Huckabe. Do we have other principles here tonight? Miss, come on up. Miss Dr. Huckabe from Chapen Middle School. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. >> All right. The next group we want to spotlight tonight is our members of the cent's FFA veterinary science team. This group traveled to Indianapolis last fall and competed at the national FFA comp convention where they earned a silver medal, placing 16th in the competition overall. At the national

058event, the team was presented with two case-based scenarios focused on shelter medicine and influenza and livestock. students individually worked through each case and then presented their findings as a team to a panel of judges. So, we are so proud of this group for representing our district so well on a national level. They are here tonight with their sponsor, Miss Jessica Hidalgo. So, come on up, guys. All right. One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. >> All right. And our third group that we are recognizing tonight is you. Um, the weather did not let us appropriately celebrate schoolboard recognition month. So, we are going to carry that over into February. Um, we do want to say thank you for all that you do for us as a district and for our students and for our

059teachers. Um, on your tables, you have a small gift from the students of at Corley Elementary. So, hope y'all will enjoy those. And if you don't mind, we're going to um grab you for a quick photo before we get back to the table. And then as you are you are seating again um Mr. Scully has said it one time but we're going to say it again. We are sending all of our school district 5 love and congratulations to Nickuri former yellow jacket. He woke up this morning a Super Bowl champion. So we are we are so proud and excited to celebrate him all around the district. And then the last thing tonight, but certainly not the least thing tonight, um, Chapen Elementary School has updated their mascot and logo. So, we are excited tonight to

060have Principal Amy Scorano here to um, share that with you really quick. Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Ross. Thank you so much for having us tonight or me tonight um representing Chapen Elementary School. We have had a great time revising our logo. Um Chapen Elementary opened its doors in 1977, so we're approaching our 50th year. Um, make sure that you save the date for our 50th birthday party. Um, Eddie the Eaglet has undergone several transformations over the years. And that's the picture of the school when it first started. And that was the Eddie that was shown up. That actually is still up. It's yellowed. It's kind of rusty on the sides, but it's it's still um part of the school and will stay there. the current logo that we've been

061using um at the end of last year the um SIC PTO and some staff members had asked since there's there's some changes um at Chapen Elementary and with the still growing still going still good motto we kind of wanted to work together to create a new logo so with the help of our SIC our PTO our CES leadership team and then voting within the school of we went down to three different options. They chose um our new Eddie. Some of the feedback that they had shared as we were creating the new Eddie was they still wanted to maintain Eddie as a mascot, but they wanted a more friendly Eddie, a more updated um fun Eddie. And uh the stakeholders also asked for him to be changed with the new grades coming in or with the

062new grade coming in. They um for Eddie to be softened up a little. And so again, they had three to choose from. Um, so it was inspired by our new beginnings of still growing, still going, still good. And that's our new logo. So it's so cute. Um, and then our PTO has already used the logo and they've wrapped our doors going into our theater. And then the little Eddie on the bottom has been put on our website. So, thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to come and share. And you should have a little magnet. We do. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Dr. Ross, I'll turn it over to you for the superintendent report. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Ronaldo, for the leadership there. Love the

063new Eddie. Looks amazing. You know who Eddie is named after? >> I thought so too. I don't know. I I was asking. Is it Eddie Moldro? >> We have to go back to the record books in 77 to see who it was named after. But very proud of the the editor eagle. Uh also want to uh thank uh all of those who participated in our uh district science and engineering fair uh symposium that was held uh this Saturday uh at Spring Hill High School. Want to thank academics uh and the team that did an amazing job. Nikki was former student of Chapman um is actually running it now as a as our coordinator. Uh but what's interesting are the projects we had 189 total projects this year. That was up from 174 last year. And

064we had participating 71 more students participating in this year's science and engineering symposium than we had last year. And if you remember last year was a huge increase over the previous year. a total of 403 uh young scientists all solving problems, answering questions. It's a really good uh opportunity to come out uh very wellun uh but uh as we we celebrate excellence uh on the field uh as well as in the classroom in the science lab. So very very proud of those students at the district science and engineering fair. And I think um Dr. Herren's uh daughter was uh featured scientists there as well. So, um, as always, we are a system answering three critical questions. Why do we do this work? How do we accomplish that? And and what's our our outcomes? Our why

065is that we love and grow our students? Our how is our mission statement. That entire umbrella is necessary to ensure that we're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And we're measured by our 24 strategies of our strategic plan to ensure that every student feels loved in our schools and has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. We measure this in terms of our graduation rate. This is measured every week and uh we want to present it to our board and to our community so that you can see our work to cross that line. I can tell you I'm very proud of the work that our our secondary schools are doing and the graduation teams. This is closest that we've been to crossing that 90% where nine out of 10 students graduate within four years

066of entering high school that uh I've I've been I've seen since we've been here I've been here uh by law by regulation I'm sorry we are required three times a year to report summitive data to the community uh I'm sorry not summitive uh formative assessments to the community that's through what's called measures of academic progress. uh we have a fall administration and a winter administration and then finally a spring. So uh in the points of transparency, we present this uh data to you so you can see the growth that we've made from fall uh to winter and that we continue to work on uh for spring. Our goal ultimately is to make sure all students are on grade level in the blue. And how do we do this? Uh we want all of our schools

067to be in that high love and high growth category where we have excellent educational quality as well as the uh quality of experience. Uh what is our playbook? Uh if I go back to the national championship uh I am very um pleased and and impressed with Kirk Signetti uh in his process. wherever he goes, he wins. And he says, "Just Google me." But if you look at the secret, it's really his blueprint, his blueprint for success. And it's basically change the way that people think. Uh, and that's how you affect what people do. Uh, for us, our challenge for our teachers is that not only do they have to grow students from where they were last year, they must outgrow those students like them across the state of South Carolina. That's a huge challenge that

068we have ahead of our teachers. So what is our process? What is our blueprint in school district 5? It's the PLC process. We align it to our instructional expectations outlined in the office of academics. There's four basic questions that every teacher is asking. What do we want students to know and be able to do? How will we know if they learn it? How will we respond if they do not learn it? And then how will we extend the learning for students that are already proficient? When you break this down, um we use our curriculum guides and our district framework. Uh we have shared those I can statements with our community. We use our CFAs uh and progress learning and pair access to uh to ensure we understand what students know and are able to do.

069And then we utilize the PLC process. A lot of questions have been asked, have we traveled to school districts to that are like ours that have had success? And the answer is yes. And what we bring back from those districts across not only the state but the nation is that professional learning communities work. Now powered with the tools that you have to allow us to scaffold and differentiate um we're able to maximize our professional learning communities and also with the investment that this board has made in tier 2 services uh we really believe that we were able to respond when students miss those intended success criterias. This is the way that we'll be able to transform uh operation transformation. Uh it's really about moving students from I can't to I can. As we do that

070and talk about the operation transformation, we also talk about the structural change uh that we're making to our district redistricting and magnet uh choice options. uh as we share with the community, we sent out mailers uh to ensure that everyone was aware that we are redistricting. Um and on the back of that mailer was information about school choice, preferred choice uh and the choice application uh that closed at noon January the 28th. Uh we also provided information on our website about resoning and magnet and choice forms uh for the community to uh to be a part of. uh to Madame Chair's point uh about uh the process and recognizing that uh when those notifications came out um if I did not receive the choice that I um that I put into the application uh we

071know that that brought some some hard feelings and I want to share that uh we did hear everything that has been brought to us. We're fielding those calls and emails as they come through. But understand the process has not been completed. And I think I want to be very clear on that. All families that receive their first wave of notifications, they must accept those by tomorrow at noon. And starting uh at 12:01 tomorrow, we'll begin placing uh those families uh that were weight listed or in the applicant pool into available uh slots. Uh I think it's important as we we know with the initial choice, it wasn't first come first served uh and that that closed at noon. But I think what we need to understand is the process still continues. Uh all families must

072accept a decline to magnet choice by tomorrow uh at 12 noon. The choice application is lottery selected. Uh if students u if accepted students may stay through the highest grade of that school. Uh that's on our FAQ. I know we had some questions about that. We had questions about siblings. Uh siblings are guaranteed placement. Uh the question are siblings guaranteed placement when applying for programs and uh on our FAQs we said whenever possible sibling placement will be considered. Uh the initial run as we looked at space um I know there was concerns about special education. I remember Mr. B, if you don't mind, we we had a conversation about uh students with IEPs and their space and just knowing that with an IEP uh we wanted to make sure the placement it meets their IEP

073needs. We had uh since October over 150 students with IEPs move into the district which that placement uh was very different from what we expected plus I believe about another 50 students who were I'm sorry >> not necessarily moved in but either newly identified or moved in. So it's a combination of the two. So not new students that have moved in but have newly been identified. So about 150 total. >> It's closer to 200, but 150 is is is safe to say. It's closer to 200 though. >> So hearing that placement did um um was not something we were expecting. Uh but Mr. Bum and I talked about um what could we do for those families with IEPs and uh to ensure more placement opportunities. And so I met with human resources this morning. We're

074hiring at right now, I believe, three additional multicap special education teachers that will allow us to expand that space uh for students with IEP. So certainly appreciate that advocacy and being responsive. Uh what we want families to know is that uh after the deadline, we will begin filling these available spaces and we will fill them from the applicant pool. Applicant pool is kind of a big word for waiting list. We will start filling those in. That starts from 12:01 tomorrow till being exact, but that starts from tomorrow through mid July that placing those families in. And so as we um bring on these new teachers on board, make sure the IEPS are aligned with the placements, we will start placing those families uh in the those areas that space allows. Also, uh we'll be meeting

075uh with the the principles of those high requested sites uh looking at additional space capacity uh to ensure that we've accounted for that. I think it's important that the public understand attendance changes every day. There's not one day where the attendance is the same. And so as we work with families, uh we will start uh going through the applicant pool first. So if you applied and were weight listed, those are our priorities of filling those positions uh first. So, um, continue to look at our website for our frequently asked questions about siblings, about continuing through the highest grade, um, to ensure that you're informed of of what we're doing or if you have additional questions, our communications email is is filtering and directing you to the information you need. uh moving fifth grade into elementary

076school, redistricting, restructuring. Uh it it is very aggressive, but we're working with families to ensure uh that these placements are are made made in a way that we can ensure that their needs are met. So, um again, thank you for uh fielding those and and directing us to it. Uh but uh we want families to know the process still continues and tomorrow At noon, we'll have more information about space and available seats as we move through choice and then we'll start to fill those positions. Uh there was a medical doctor named Dr. uh Spencer Johnson. He had a book called Who Moved My Cheese? And in that book, he had four antagonists. Him and Hall were kind of small humans who did not do well with change. Um, but there were two mice, sniff and

077scary, who uh did very well. Sniff and Scary could see uh change early and and move to action. Uh where him and Hall did not recognize the signs of change. Uh and because of that um they had to learn the hard way when the cheese moved. I say that because the job market has changed. I don't know if you saw this um section of 60 minutes uh where Hyundai has invested in not just a robot but a robot with AI. Uh this robot uh not only learn does the job but it learns how to do other jobs and this has already been deployed in a plant uh in the state right next to us. Uh at the same time this report was coming out, so was the World Economic Forum's future jobs 2025 report of

078170 new 170 million new jobs. Uh but the displacement of 92 million jobs by 2030. As we look at our strategic plan getting ready for 2023 uh 2033, uh we want to make sure our students are in position. We want to make sure that if the cheese move, we're like those two might sniff and scary that we can move with the changing times. Very unique that we're seeing is that students uh recent graduates younger than 25 college graduates have the highest unemployment rate. The class of 2026 is submitting 23 job applications for a full-time job. That's an 8% increase over last year. Are our students are they in position to take care of the jobs and be competitive for the jobs of the future? That's our challenge and that's our goal and we have to

079shift very quickly uh to be in position. Um and so because of that uh we want our families, our our parents and our communities to participate in our virtual lunch and learn. It will be uh February 17th uh from 12 to 1. Uh and this is uh with the MEBA, which is the Midlands Education Business Alliance, Lexon County uh Economic Development Board, and our Kate uh programs. We're going to talk about the hot jobs of the future, those jobs that are being displaced and those new jobs that are rising and to show families the pathways that we have. So we're taking a uncertain future and we're making a certain present uh in our plans. So we look forward uh if you can join this virtual lunch and learn. We have experts to ensure that your

080child is in position to take care of the hot jobs of the future. >> We can pause here. >> Okay. Do we have any questions so far? Miss Huddle? >> Um I have a couple. Um, I was just curious, um, do what is the overall percentage of students that have an IEP roughly? Do we know? >> We don't. We would be guessing right now. >> I'd be guessing. >> I was just curious. Um, also I had a question from a teacher and I'm just going to try to paraphrase it. Um, she wanted to know about um, transfer requests for teachers. Would they be honored as they have been in years past? Many employees request their children attend a school at which they work or a school within the cluster. Um and they wrote that um

081they haven't heard. Some emails have been returned, some not. So they wanted to know a will will it be um honored like it has in the past and b when can they expect to to know um that it will be or their specific situation? >> Absolutely right. We have uh in years past um acknowledged the requests of of of staff who wanted their children at their school or school within the the cluster. Uh this is such an incredibly unique year in terms of what we're doing in terms of redistricting across the entire landscape of the district from Piny Woods to to Seven Oaks. It's a major shift. Uh because of that, we're having to uh look at this a little bit differently this year. This is a a bit of an anomaly in the sense

082that this year is going to look a little bit differently as it relates to being able to honor all of the nearly 500 different requests that we have from employees. So, as Dr. Ross mentioned uh what we would do is that as we uh begin to back field if you will beginning sometime after the 10th u 12 noon 12:01 if we want to say that um we're going to be factoring in employees at that particular time as as as often and as as frequently as we possibly can. But this is such an odd year in terms of what we need to do to rightsize and balance our district that this is one year that we won't be able to do it in the same way in which we've done in prior years. But we look

083forward to returning to that uh in the coming year. >> Um what kind of time frame do you expect to be finished with that for teachers? >> It's on the same schedule that we have everyone else. So we will be working beginning February 10th through mid uh July which is the uh standard time frame that we have uh developed. >> Okay. I have one more question but I'll let other people go. >> Okay. Um my other question was actually really for the board. Um we five of us were on the board back in June 2024 when we uh voted on a default resoning plan which would be if their bond referendum did not pass. And we also voted on the expanded resoning plan if the bond did pass. And I'm just curious, you know, we

084had had presentations that meeting and before. I'm just curious for the board me members that were present then, which would be everybody except I believe Mr. Herring and um Mr. um Bayum, did did y'all understand that when that vote was being made that we would be moving elementary school kids from the school they were in to different schools? So, I'm just curious. I'd love to hear from the other board members if if when we voted on that was that your understanding is that elementary students would you know who were at Lake Murray in fourth grade would end up somewhere else for fifth grade just as an example. >> I did think they were out of elementary school they were going to stay there especially if they were in the fourth grade and then they were

085getting fifth grade. I thought I think that's what I recall. Is that for me? >> It's not. >> I'll turn it back off and turn it back on again. Um I'm trying to remember the whole thing, but I remember there was some confusion with regards to some of the schools or some of the attendance area that were really close to one another. And I and I believe that it it was uh it involved some of the elementary schools. Correct. I mean, wasn't there And there's always an anomaly. There's always a situation that you got to deal with when you go through a process like that. But we did talk about um maybe some of the kids that were originally going to Valentine were going to be moved to H Corley or something like that. So

086elementary kids were involved. Is that what you're asking, Miss? I mean, I'm just asking because it was a board vote and I just want to make sure were we in consensus on what we were deciding on and did what we decided on get done? I mean, that's what I just want to know because I mean, people are upset and and we're the representatives of the people and so is this what we planned on when when the board voted because it was a um 4 to2 vote um when the when the board voted on this, is this what we voted for for these kids to get moved from one elementary school to another? that what you thought we were voting for? >> My understanding is it was a possibility. I don't know. I don't remember a

087specific question about it, but >> Well, we looked at maps. So, >> well then if the map I mean I'd have to go back and look at the conversation back then, but it's I do. Are we doing what we've said we were going to do? Yes, that's that's what I would my answer would be. Miss Mara wanted I think speaking. >> I mean I was on the two that obviously didn't. So I mean that was kind of another question that I had as well. >> Dr. Ross >> I mean did you did you think that we were moving kids that were already in elementary school to to a different I know the middle school because we had to but >> that's not my understanding. >> Dr. Ross >> I just want to be very clear

088what we printed. Um, we said we were re restructuring or reszoning, right? That's what we placed on our website. That's what we sent out. And we said you could go online and you could see where you would be zoned for. Um, we put this out. We we did multiple um views of where your house was and this is the schools you would be zoned for. Uh, we hosted multiple lunch and learns. We put it on our website. We put FAQs We said very specifically you would if you were a magnet of choice and you received that you could go up to that to the highest grade of that school. We said that we would do preferred choice and preferred uh pathways options for those who have resone. I know this is not not easy. Um

089and I just want to go back to why we're doing this and and I want to for the people who have to do this work. um and they're watching tonight. Um I want them to be encouraged to know that we're not done. If we were done and we didn't meet everybody's demands, I would I would take every lick coming tonight. But for those two people that got to sit down and work through all of this, let's give them the time to work these out with these families. You can't just place children. Can't just place IEP students. There has to be a prepared teacher and a prepared space waiting on that child. And we're going to work from 12:01 tomorrow all the way until mid July until the start of school to get that right. When

090can we have it done for teachers? We don't know. We we we are pressing the mark that we can get that done before April. We're pressing the mark that we can get that done for AP students before April. For those two people that had to go through all of these application, we received 500 more than we we expected from last year. With over almost 200 more special education students that you cannot place with when they're multicat and they have all of these needs, you must ensure that they go to a place that is going to be prepared for. If we were done with the process, yeah, I can understand the the outcry, but we've always messaged that we weren't going to be done with the process until we finished uh the the placements of the

091applicant pool. I don't know how you can reszone and not move students. It's it's an ugly process of redistricting. Nobody wants to go through it. We said we would be there. We said we would um I understand there's certain schools we don't you know may not want your child in. We're working to get them back into the schools that you want your child in. But we ask allow the process to work it out. And if at the end of the process it doesn't work, I I'll I'll take whatever criticism and ridicule. But for those people touching all of these application, allow them the time to work through it. We're hiring more teachers. We're looking at new space. If you remember the expanded um versus the non-expanded, if we did not have the ability to open

092more classrooms at Chapen Elementary School, I couldn't promise you that right now. If we didn't have the ability to open more classrooms at Lake Murray Elementary School, I couldn't promise you that right now. If we weren't looking at a a new beautiful building at Dus Fork Elementary, I couldn't promise you that right now. But we have options. allow our options to take to take place. The building's not finished yet, but we're going to plan as if it is and move students into those new spaces. But I think it's to be fair to the staff. Um it's an ugly process. Nobody wants to do it. But I believe if you give us the time and attention, we care about these children, too. They're not numbers and widgets on the on the sheet. We will get this

093right. Thank you, Dr. Ross. I just want to be clear um to the staff that's working on this. I don't think well since me and Miss I'll speak for Miss since she's the only other person who's said anything about it so far is that we definitely aren't um I'm not trying to ridicule the staff that's working on this and I do understand that it's ongoing but um we're also just trying to be publicly responsive to the people that are impacted by this who are reaching out to us and who are upset because the process is still continuing but as you know their reality is their reality. And so their concern is is their children and the letter that they received. And um as one other parent pointed out um as a concern is that they

094have to make a choice based on the letter they have right now which could have one of their kids in one school and one kid in another school and they have to decide. And so, yes, the process is still being flushed out, but they also have to make a decision while the process is still being flushed out. And if they don't feel like they're sort of getting an answer to the concerns that they have before they have to make the decision, you know, what do you do with that? And so, um, so, you know, my statement is twofold. Um, to the to the to the personnel that's working on this, this isn't a slide at you. We don't we don't know who you are. you know, it's not personal. Um um but from the constituency

095side of this, you know, with the emails and the calls um that some of us have been fielding since Friday, we just want to be responsive um to that as well. Mr. Bum and then Mr. Just briefly, I'm not sure of the exact process, but if a student athlete in enters the transfer portal um and transfers to a school, does that override choice or is that a separate process? I didn't know the answer to that question. >> There's no athletic portal. Uh choice is choice. So >> yeah, everything is everything's based on available space whether in the district or external trying to get into the it's based on the available space in that particular school that particular grade is what we would have to look at in and I think in every case. >> Yeah.

096Um Dr. Harris, Dr. Ros, I just want to clarify what you said or or make sure I understand Dr. Harris what you said about the teacher choice for their kids. um that I I heard that it's it's an anomaly this year, which makes sense. I mean, in a resoning year, shifts are going to h I mean, that's the nature of resoning is shifts are going to happen. Um but did you you did say that the goal is to get back to a place where we're honoring teacher choice for their children? Correct. >> Oh, absolutely. Yes, sir. So this isn't a and I so this departure from that is not permanent. It's it's temporary. It's unfortunate. It's going to hurt for the next year. Um but you're going to work to get back to to what

097we did. And and I think that's really important for a couple of reasons. one in a an in uh the environment that we have with teacher shortages and staffing. Uh I think that's a critical critical element and a and really a a perk that keeps teachers with us in our district. So I hope for that reason alone we really emphasize being able to get there sooner than later. Um, and I also think that had part of the shock from this is I don't believe it was on the radar of the teachers at all. So when they were filling out their surveys, this was not even a possibility because it was something that has been done for years and years. My my wife 25 years ago lived in Redbank uh or Sand Hills, got a job

098at River Springs and choiced her kids to her school at River Springs. And it's just been something that um that has been done. And so please um that's a ch we're going to lose teachers. I I I don't I think they'll stick with us this year, but boy, we got to get back to it. Um, you know, we were talking about having daycarees for kids and every because of the teacher shortage issue. Well, this is a very quick and easy, not easy solution to to be able to keep uh teachers in in place in in the district. So, I appreciate that. I understand the difficulty um that that you're facing in in making this uh resoning and shift happen. Please be very communicative with the principles because they're going to beounded if they haven't already

099flooded by uh inquiries from their staffs. Uh just make that line of communication. to make sure it's open so that uh the teachers don't feel out of the loop and they don't feel caught off guard which they kind of do now but we can we can resolve that if you communicate with them >> I just wanted to go back to my the question I had for my fellow board members and just make sure I got it right. So, Miss Snipes, you did not think elementary students were going to be moved near neither did Miss Barnhart um when we voted for this, but Mr. Scully and Mr. Satderfield, you did. Did I get that right? So, you didn't under. So, I I mean, I just I want to make sure that the board when we're voting

100on stuff, we know what's going to happen and then what we voted for does happen. So, that's why this is important to me. I I I'll share my understanding was that because we did talk about elementary schools um and what a lot of folks don't remember and and some of you may be aware of what transpired a few years back. We ended up with how many elementary schools attended Crossroads? 10 10 elementary. >> We had 10 elementary schools all feeding into one one-year school because that was the easy way of doing it and saves money all the whole thing. It was a horrible idea. Horrible idea. We're trying to move to a true feeder system where your kids if they go to um Irma Elementary, they go to Irma Middle School, they go to Irma

101High School, they go to Chapman Elm, it's the same thing. Uh I've heard from a lot of folks that said um was it Valentine where they split? I'm trying to remember. They had parents, they had kids at Valentine and some of them would go to one high school, they'd go off to another high school, another feeder system. And parents were outraged. And the reason they were outraged because they made all these friends. They had all these contacts and all of a sudden they were going to another high school, a different high school than their friends. So there's really no easy answer. My understanding when we had the discussion, I'm trying to remember, so don't write it down that I said anything um uh was that um we did talk about elementary, middle, and high school

102as a whole. And we were trying to get to that true feeder system. And I can tell you as a 33 years in education, it was not good moving away from that teachers. If you want what's best for your kids, then your elementary kids who feed into that middle school, those teachers need to be able to collaborate. And then they seem seem to do the same thing within the high school and they can do their best to help those kids. This is not an easy thing. Um I understand and I understand all your concerns. Um, I had one uh parent contact me and said that their child was in third grade at one school and they had a kindergartener who was going to be resoneed to another school. I guess because they had been school

103of choice for the other. Uh, Dr. Ross, good luck with that one. I don't know the answer to that, but I know that there are going to be issues. Nothing goes smoothly. I remember probably 30 years ago we went through a resoning and it was it was heartbreaking to listen to the parents and the kids. So it is a difficult decision. I understand. So I'm I'm confident that the superintendent and his staff will find their way through this so that it accommodates and helps as many people as possible. >> I I do want to make one point of clarification that both zoning plans included the middle school concept. Um, both zoning plans included moving to true middle schools. It's just the one without the bond referendum had a lot of redistricting. So, I'm just speaking

104for myself, I when I was there, when I heard what I believed that the only children that were going to get moved were the ones that had to for Crossroads and because we had a chapen intermediate and a chaon middle. I did not believe that children in the and I thought that was the whole reason why we're building the new wings and all that. So I I just want to make sure that what we vote for we see happen because we have the power to undo it. If if what we y'all that y'all got what you wanted so it doesn't matter. Yeah. Um, I don't know what I'm not going to play in your politics game. Um, you can put me down whatever you want. All I know is here on planet Earth where I

105was, I understand that resoning means kids are going to change schools. That's resoning. Um, and yes, there was always a possibility that any child in any school could get moved and that that's just how it works. So, put me down for a vote as being on planet Earth. I don't know what planet you were on that you didn't understand that. But yes, it was always a possibility. >> We're going to move to the financial report. >> All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh we are looking at our we have two months to report of October financials. Uh you have a picture of your revenue uh for October as well as our expenditures for October. And then if we look at uh November, uh it's a report of our our revenue for November close out as

106well as our expenditures. Um I know there was a question that I received earlier about uh revenue in October uh and the the differences there from last year. Uh but keep in mind during the month of October, we have not yet received our our our tax funds, the majority of our our our tax funds and that's when we live heavily off of what's in the reserve. Um with higher expenditure costs this year, um that's what made the difference between last year's um numbers and this year's numbers. Uh but I'll pause for any questions. Doesn't look to be any questions. >> All right, I'll ask our um coordinator of personnel to come forward, Miss Melanie Cohen, uh to go over the human resources report and Miss Young and Cassie Young. >> Good evening, board members. Dr.

107Ross, thank you so much for the opportunity to talk with you briefly um about our most recent um recruitment fair that we held in January. We really tried to think out of the box this year and make sure we had covered all avenues to um advertise our event. So, we um did things like had a a WIS TV commercial run. Hopefully, you were able to see that. We had a billboard uh strategically placed at I26 and Greystone Boulevard. We sent posters, event flyers, some regular things to every school. We emailed all of the new applicants who had applied with us since October. That was a lot of people. Uh we did targeted emails to invite our interns. We t we connected with our university contacts and we had a lot of our staff members uh

108gave community referrals. They said, "Hey, come on and join us." and that really helped us to have a great turnout. I'm excited to share with you what our attendance looked like that day. Um, I'm going to back up so you can see a comparison or hear a comparison. In 2025, uh, January 2025, we had 262 people register for the event. In January of 26, that was 467 people registered, which is an increase of about 78%. So huge. We were thrilled. Um, as far as attendance, we know that not everybody who registers comes, but we had 161 people in 2025. And in 2026, we had 299 people that walked through these doors on January 10th. So, that was that was a great increase. And we went up 86% with that we in attendance. As far as

109the certified event goes, we had a certified event running. We had what we called the school showcase here in this room. We had a support event. Lots and lots of people here to help out. Just for the certified event alone, we had 33 staff volunteers. And that's outside of all of the school representatives. We had 28 student volunteers. They handled check-in and all the technology like a pro. It was great. We held 28 interviews that morning for certified staff. We had 25 of those were recommended for employment, which is great. We um had seven early contracts signed and we have ongoing followup for those recommended candidates. So, we had a great event on the certified side. Good evening. I'm excited to tell you more about the support uh side of things for the recruitment event.

110We had four different groups that were h that had active interviews going on that entire morning. uh bus drivers, custodians, um special education assistance and adult support and student nutrition. And so going into the recruitment event for bus drivers, we had three vacancies at the time and we had three qualified candidates that we found through interviewing with custodians. We had three vacancies at the time and we were able to find 12 qualified candidates through interviewing all morning. And then for special education assistance and adult supports, we had five vacancies and we found eight qualified candidates. And then with student nutrition, we had 10 vacancies at the time and we were able to find uh six qualified candidates. Is this mine? Maybe. H you guys were so serious. Goodness. So I want to take the opportunity

111though because it takes a village to make amazing things happen and to thank um all the different groups. So it's not just human resources that makes the district 5 recruitment event happen and to be extra extra um effective. So the office of academics, the office of communications and the office of operations all worked with human the the office of human resources to make this spectacular event such a community event. It was so great to see people former parents and all the cool things. Um but I do want to leave it with this. So alone we can do so little but to get together we can do so much. So thank you all for your support um all along the way as we fill uh see a need and fill a need throughout the school district.

112So I'll pause to see if anyone has any questions. >> I don't have a question but I have a comment. Um, I I'm disappointed that I was not mentioned in the active recruitment. >> I went to the >> It's all about you, Mr. Secretary. >> I went to the district science fair and if none of you went, board members that went, it's honestly I go I I go every year because I learn so much and especially with these very bright kids. I'm a little intimidated sometimes in there when I go in there because I'm afraid I'm gonna when I ask them questions, they're going to turn around and ask me questions. Um, but I am constantly recruiting teachers while I'm at there. So, if you have a child and you have plans for them to

113go to medical school, I apologize if they ever bring up education as a possibility. But, uh, um, again, I encourage everybody to go to the science fair. You're going to see some really smart kids that are really doing great things for >> a young age. >> It's Yes, middle school and high school. I didn't get a chance to make the elementary um but uh I was very impressed, but I did try to plant as many seeds as I could. So, >> there you go. I'm doing my part. Both my girls are going to be teachers. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Great job. Great job. To have more attended than we had registered for last year was great. And to conclude the superintendent's report, none other than our district teacher of

114the year, Miss Brooke Britain. >> Hello. Good evening. Thank you so much for having me. Please ignore the cough drop rolling around in my mouth. It is the season. Um, as district teacher of the year, I was invited to a recent leadership conference to represent district 5. And tonight, I want to share a reflection from that experience, not just about the conference itself, but about what it revealed to me about the strength of the place that I get to call home. So, I want to start by taking you with me to the beginning of my district recruitment. It's not recruitment. I'm thinking about Cassie leadership conference. So, at the beginning of the conference, it started on um Thursday night. We had a big dinner on the beach. It's beautiful. It's stunning. You're with just the

115most intelligent, smart people. And tables start filling up. And this precious little 21-year-old new first grade teacher came and sat down beside me. And the first speaker got up and for the first hour they talked about how we were going to meet our best professional friends this weekend that we were going to be amazed by the connections that were made and the resources that we were exposed to and just to be ready for it. And as I looked around the room, I I truly believed that um I was surrounded by some of the most accomplished people, passionate educators, mentors who shape instruction, lead teachers every day, and change the trajectory of children's lives on a daily basis. It felt like being in a space that everybody understood the weight and the gravity of what we

116do every day. Really cool experience. So after our first meeting, we go into our breakout session um for an hour and we come back and something kind of unexpected happened. Um the precious teacher that I was so excited that that I thought I was connecting with came over after the first session and said, "If you don't mind, I'm going to move my chair because I've made some friends over here." Right? >> Like I am so fun. Um, and just like that, she was gone. And I was thrilled for her that she had made some connections and found it because I'm thinking back to my 21-year-old self in the classroom and I had so much to learn and so many connections to make. Um, over the next hour, people started making dinner plans and exchanging numbers

117and heading out because we were in Myrtle Beach and there's a lot of fun places to go and I wasn't invited to any of those things. So, I went back to my hotel room feeling a little bit defeated and I walked in. I picked my phone up off the charger and kid you not I had 47 hour and a half 47 missed text messages all from district 5 instructional coaches, teammates, colleagues, principles, friends, my ride or die teacher nerds, my long-term teacher mentors, my supportive colleagues. They were all right there waiting on me. So what I learned and realized in that moment that was that I already had my best educator friends. Like my educator village was here waiting on me to get back. And that just transformed the weekend for me. So everything else

118was bonus. Any other relationships I made were bonus because I already had what everybody else was seeking. I already work in a district where collaboration isn't something we hope for. It's something that we intentionally build. The next two days of the conference reinforced everything that I was feeling that night. Educators from all over the state started coming up to me asking questions like, "Hey, I hear your district has a really good teacher forum. Can you tell me more about what y'all are doing?" Um, you've got reading interventionists in every school. What does that look like? How is that impacting instructional coaches? Like, what is that? What does that look like from daytoday? How does that benefit you? And I was amazed by the people that were like, "You've actually met your superintendent." >> I'm like,

119"He gave me his time to speak." Like, how fortunate are we? I was shocked the people that were representing districts that had not even met their superintendent. And I have ongoing conversations with mine. What a blessing. I found myself giving out emails and phone numbers the rest of the weekend, not of my own, but of all of my Lexington 5 family. And I want to pause here to say thank you to all of you. I share this because I know this board and this district have faced some incredibly hard decisions lately. And often with hard decision decisions comes loud criticism. But I want you to know what educators outside of the district are saying about the educators that are in this district. They're seeing systems that don't just hire teachers, but that support them. And

120they're seeing structures that say you do not have to do this job alone. and that is impactful. I also want to speak briefly on one slide that was shared at a January meeting that's had a lot of conversation lately, the one that shows staffing versus enrollment. And I truly understand why that slide raised questions to people, but I alo also want to offer a teacher lens to it. When we invest in people who directly support instruction, teacher leaders, coaches, interventionists, we're not staffing for seats, we're staffing for sustainability. Those P those positions don't just add adults into the building, they add capacity. They allow teachers to grow and to reflect and refine their craft, and that helps retain teachers to stay in it longer. And when teachers grow, students benefit in ways that you cannot

121put on a spreadsheet. But it is something you can feel in every classroom. And I welcome you in mine anytime. I can say this really personally because I do not feel that I would be standing here with the honor of district teacher of the year if it was not for the administrators and the coaches and the co-workers who didn't evaluate me but believed in me when when I was feeling down and who helped me to ask better questions and take take risk in my practice and become the kind of teacher my students need. That investment in me did not just impact my classroom. It is completely multiplied. It's impacted conversations with other colleagues, students I've taught then and now. I'm having conversations now across the state with practices that have been embedded in District 5

122for years. So when we talk about staffing, I hope that we remember that supporting teachers is also supporting children because children thrive in classrooms led by teachers who feel equipped and valued and supported, not stretched and left to figure it out on their own. That slide doesn't represent excess. It represents intention. And that matters so deeply. Supported teachers grow and growing teachers stay. And teachers who feel seen and supported create stronger, more stable classrooms for kids. This idea has been weighing on me so much lately that it actually became the heartbeat of my state teacher of the year application platform which focuses on the power of collaboration not as a buzzword but as a practice within districts. In this district teachers are not asked to walk alone and that is thanks to you. We walk

123together for each other and for our kids and because of that this is a place that doesn't just bring in great great educators. It it retains them. So, thank you for continuing to do the hard and often unseen work that supports teachers and strengthens schools and ultimately changes outcomes for kids. This experience reminded me that while national networks and conferences are inspiring, true teacher leadership and lifelong professional friendships often start right at home. I'm grateful for a district that cultivates mentorship, collaboration, and authentic community where brilliant and passionate educators get to celebrate one another. challenge each other and grow together. And I'm so proud to be a part of Lexington Richland 5 and surrounded by people that embody the teacher leader spirit that conferences like the one I attended are trying to create. So, thank

124you for the blessed opportunity to represent you. I appreciate it. Thank you, B. [applause] >> That concludes the superintendent's report. Great job. Thank you, Dr. Ross. Um, can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the January 12th board meeting? >> I make a motion to approve the minutes of the January 12th, 2026 board meeting. >> All in favor? And the motion carries 7 to zero. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from the January 27th special call meeting? >> Make a motion to approve the minutes of the January 27th, 2026 special call meeting. >> All in favor? And the motion carries seven 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 BEDH,

125public participation at meetings. Your comments should be limited to three minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your signing form or elicited agenda item. Questions asked during public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy BEDH. Miss Taylor. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Deborah UTS is here to speak about lottery choice. >> Good evening, Dr. Ross, members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to express my concern this evening. But we would be remiss if we did not appeal to you to keep both of our eight-year-old twins, Everett and Elijah Ray, at Lake Murray Elementary for fourth and fifth grades. We received notification that Elijah was selected to remain at Lake Murray Elementary and Ever was not selected and will need to attend Valentine in the fall. Since this is

126our zone school, Ever and Elijah were adopted following a significant head injury that Evan suffered at eight months of age. She currently carries a diagnosis of cereble palsy. They were separated from multiple families during 20 months of foster care until permanent placement and adoption at two and a half years of age. Evan currently receives OT, PT, private reading tutoring to assist her both physically and academically. In the past, she also required speech therapy. I mentioned this to make you aware of the significant struggles Everin has endured to attempt to move forward physically and academically. She began the school year being served by resources. She's worked with two different resource teachers during her time at Lake Murray. In our fall IEP meeting, it was determined she needed to have her services increased to be served in

127the multicat self-contained class, which required a teacher change. As you can see, she has made several changes in her situation where her ability to learn is already a struggle. She's making slight improvements with the consistent instruction provided by Lake Murray team. We're concerned that a change in school and special education instructors may det may be detrimental to her progress. Evan and Elijah have attended Lake Murray since kindergarten. We ask that you consider the unique set of circumstances and reconsider denying Evan's application to remain at Lake Murray. Her struggle is her struggle is real and significant. We must do all we can to help her achieve her maximum potential. Thank you for considering and reviewing our extenduating circumstances. My concern is that as a special education student, her choice did not get the same attention as

128Elijah got. And I realize we are continuing in the process. Uh, but the fact that we're twins, I want to make sure that she's not discriminated against because of special education. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Savannah. Lauder is here to speak about school of choice for IEP. Um, good evening and thank you for the time and platform. I'm here like many others because my son was denied school of choice for his final year of elementary school at Lake Murray. Even though he has been at his current school for the last four years, he was moved to this school originally because his needs were not able to be met at his former zone school. He is in a self-contained special education classroom. And for him and so many children in this same boat, this decision isn't

129just disappointing, it's harmful. My son has epilepsy, and the damage it has done to his brain affects his short-term memory and recall. Transitions are extremely hard for him, creating extreme transition anxiety. All of these issues have been documented year after year. Because of this decision, he will have to learn an entirely new school for just one year. new routines, new staff, new expectations, and new people he knows are safe when he's disregulated. And then by the time he has finally adjusted, he'll be required to transition again immediately into middle school. That's a lot to ask of any child. For my son and other kids with special needs, it means months spent just trying to feel regulated enough to function. Those months won't be spent learning, he's already significantly behind due to his diagnosis. For example,

130in fourth grade, he's still working to read beyond basic CBC words. And he simply cannot afford to lose that time. I'm deeply concerned this will lead to regression, not just a stall. And I can only imagine that other children like him who thrive on routine will experience the same debilitating transition. I understand his zone school will be getting a program, and I know that under its current leadership, that program will be amazing. But it will never make up for the security he feels at his current school where he is known and loved. The faculty and staff recognize his cues, his seizure warning signs, and how to work with him. He knows where to go and who to trust when he's overwhelmed. And that trust has taken years to build. It matters to him and to

131me. I also want to share a broader concern that I have not yet heard from a single parent of a special needs student who was granted their school of choice application. That consistency is troubling and feels like more than a coincidence. It means that this was not a true lottery and perhaps these students were targeted to legitimize a decision made by adults who don't have to bear the consequences. It suggests that individual circumstances, especially for students with disabilities, may not have been meaningfully considered. This matters not just for my son, but for every child in special needs classroom who relies on consistency to access their education. These students are already working harder than most just to show up and cope with their day-to-day. When decisions prioritize systems over students, the children who are least able

132to absorb that impact are the ones who pay the price. We as parents are not asking for this consideration out of convenience. It's about care and what most benefits our children. It's about whether we are willing to look at children as individuals and ask what will help this child learn without harm. You are asking children who thrive on routine to undo years of structure. I'm asking you to reconsider this decision not only for my son but with an eye toward the choices and how it affects all students with significant support needs. >> Thank you. >> Greg Dennison is here to speak about special education students not being allowed school of choice. Good evening. Guess why I'm here. >> I couldn't say it any better. I had a whole thing written out. She nailed it. Well

133done. Really well done. My child is autistic. These kids thrive on structure and stability. They go to these schools. We're offered school of choice. We place them in these schools because these schools have the best facility and the best teachers and the best resources for them. And then we rip them out of these classes and put them somewhere where they don't know anybody. They've met these teachers. They've grown. They've built relationships. They've gained friends. They've been accepted in their classrooms by their peers. They're in these classrooms with these children. Do you know how hard that is for somebody to go into that situation having autism or down syndrome, right? Their peers have accepted them. They're lifting them up. They know who they are. They understand their cues. And we're taking these kids from that position

134and we're putting them in a position where they don't know anyone and those teachers and that faculty and that system does not know them. These kids have specific cues that these teachers have learned over the years, okay? What situations set them off, okay? Where they shine, where they do well. We know they know where to put them into places where they're going to thrive. They know where to avoid places where they're going to have a hard time. And unfortunately, that is the case. These are not I don't want to say normal. These are not normal neurotypical children. Okay? It is not the same thing. So my question is because she said it, we reached out to multiple communities within Chapen. And this is specifically Chapen for me. I can't speak for anybody else. Okay? Multiple

135communities within Chapen. Not one person, not one person has said that they've been accepted for school of choice for their special needs child. And I'm talking about self-contained, okay? Their home room is a special needs classroom. They go into the general education when they can and when it's afforded to them, determined by their IEP. Okay. Not a single person has been accepted. You say that we're still working on it. Okay. How do we know you're still working on it if everybody's already gotten the denial? What are we supposed to think? Right. Can you answer that for me? >> We typically don't respond, but if you >> No, it won't hurt my feelings. Go ahead. [laughter] >> Um, what what we are right now, as you said, you can't place a student without the IEPs being

136followed. uh whether it's autism, whether it's autism ED, all of these have to be appropriately staffed. What we did not have when the notices went out was three additional teachers that we'll be adding. Um we'll meet with those principles on Wednesday at 8:30 and we'll continue the process of notifying families. >> So, do not send denials out if we don't know what's going on. That would be my ask. >> Let me let me share this and >> and I'm sorry. I I know Excuse me. I know emotions are heightened. I'm trying to keep my cool here. Right. >> I understand. >> I'm advocating for my son and the voiceless children of Chapen and District 5 >> and for your child and all children. I just share the process. Once we get the rejections, we'll see

137more seats pop up. This is a working with the families in this process. So, I do understand the frustration. I I get it. We're working diligently. tomorrow at uh 12 noon I'll know more information to be able to do that but for the IP students in particular we are expanding that capacity so you'll be hearing from us >> are they in the same pool as all other children or are they in a separate pool >> so uh that's a very good question and I think I I do want opportunities to respond to that um because as you said they have different um requirements they have to go through secondary pool for special education. You do not want to put that student with a teacher that's not prepared to understand cues. Uh so Miss McKelie, you

138want to speak to that? >> So the it's actually a a lottery of self-contained because of the programming there's a lottery for self-contained classes and there are some classes in the Chapen area that students were accepted. So, I do want to to say that there were some some students that were accepted into the self-contained programs in the Chapen area. Um, they were limited, but now that we have some new information, they will be opened up and we have a meeting tomorrow to begin working on that. >> So, what and I know I'm way over my time, but what do we expect then moving forward? Because we've already been given answers of denials. So, now we need new expectations, >> right? So, just like the process we've said, so the first round has gone out. >>

139We have some new information and whenever we review this new information, we will begin sending new letters as soon as we can get all of that work through. I can't tell you that that will be Thursday. I can't tell you that will be Friday, but what I will tell you is that that process will happen as quickly as we can possibly make that happen. I understand your anxiety. I think everybody here is saying that we understand the anxiety certainly understand the need for stability for your family as well as for your your child specifically and that's what we're looking for. So so that's that's where we are. Um but unfortunately the process has to take place. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Terara Safet is here to speak

140about Dutch Fork High School stadium and scoreboard improvements. Members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to speak again on the topic of the Dutch Fork High School stadium and scoreboard improvements. I'm Tara Safford and would like to sincerely thank the board members who responded to my email that included videos of our stadium press box and an invitation to visit in person. Your commitment and willingness to look more closely at the situation is truly appreciated. As I shared previously, I am a retired District 5 employee. My entire teaching and administrative career was in this district. I have invested seven years so far as a Silver Fox football parent with my two sons. I'm the outgoing touchdown club treasure and the incoming touchdown club president. The purpose of my me message remains the same. The

141stadium press box and scoreboard are no longer functional or adequate for today's needs. While the videos and photos help show the condition of these spaces, seeing them in person truly tells the full story. which is why the invitation to visit the press box remains open to all. I also want to note that the stadium is not just a football facility. It serves multiple athletic programs and student groups throughout the year and every sport that uses the stadium deserves a functional, safe and reliable facility. For example, currently the lacrosse program is you unable to use the broken outdated video board which impacts the experience for their athletes, coaches, families, and spectators. When equipment fails or space cannot be used as intended, it reflects on the entire program, not just one team or one season. A functional

142press box and scoreboard support communication, video review, safety operations, media coverage, fair competition across all sports. These upgrades are not about luxury. I say that again. These are not about luxuries. They are about functionality, safety, and equity for the students who represent this school and this district. Dutchborg has a long tradition of excellence, academic, athletic, and community-based. Facilities should reflect that standard and support the students who continue to uphold it. So tonight, I respectfully ask this board to take the next step to visit the press box in person, to prioritize a plan for these improvements, and to move this project forward with the intention and the urgency it so deserves. Our students are already doing their part on that field. that they deserve the facilities that do their part as well. Thank you. >> Thank

143you. >> Jim Taylor is here to speak about Irmo High School stadium improvements. >> Good evening. Dr. Ross, Madame Chairwoman, members of the esteemed Lexington Richland District 5 School Board. I'm Jim Taylor and I live in the Quail Valley subdivision and that's about four long passes from Hermo High School. I want to thank you all for what you're doing at Hero High School. It's is coming along magnificently. We're very pleased in our section of of the district to have that work going on. My dog gets up at 5 in the morning. I go outside with her and there's already work going on on that school. I can hear the the the trucks moving and equipment banging and and that I I know it's coming together and it and it's going to be magnificent. My wife

144Elizabeth and I chose to move our family to South Carolina and Irma specifically because of the excellent academic and a athletic reputation of Lexington Richland District 5. This reputation was built on Irmo High School and its feeder campuses. I got my first look at WC Hawkins Stadium in the summer of 1986. I was wowed at the magnificent magnificence of the stadium. I've learned that that's that that press box was built in 1974. I stand before you this evening, 40 years since that first look, asking for your commitment to a new modern press box, scoreboard, and other stadium upgrades necessary for safety and to support Irma students, volunteers, athletic staff, support staff, visiting team representatives, and media personnel. For 15 seasons, as the voice of the Yellow Jackets, I've made my way up the steps to

145the now 52 years old press box. I've watched students climb that vertical ladder inside the press box to the roof outside in all weather conditions, rain, heat, cold, whatever. I've watched them climb back down and I'm concerned for their safety. The technology of video and sound capabilities need to be modernized and our concession stands could could stand a little help. Also, the facility should be a reflection of the excellence of the program. Coach Aaron Bran has returned championship quality football to WC Hawkins Stadium. Hermos played for the 5A Division 2 state championship for the last two seasons. WC Hawkins is the home stadium for our most recent Super Bowl champion, Nick Manwari. I look forward to this project getting underway and having the privilege of serving as host for the grand ribbon cutting ceremony. Do

146it for the Yellow Jackets. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jamie Timberman is here to speak about special education students impacted by resoning. Hey, good evening y'all. My name is Jamie Timberman. I um am a parent in the district. I have a son who is a fourth grade child at Lakebury Elementary School and he is currently blind. Um, I was going to talk about some of the things that the others mentioned and I might pivot for just a moment and just mention that I don't know if this was something that you looked at, but uh, when considering resoning special education students, um, but redrawing attendance lines may be neutral on paper, but for students with disabilities, the impact is anything but neutral. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Jack and our students, our special education

147students are entitled to free and appropriate public education that provides meaningful benefits. Additionally, under the Americans with Disabilities Act in section 504, school districts are required to provide reasonable accommodations when neutral policies such as resoning or lotteryies have a disproportionate impact on students with the disabilities. I think we've identified tonight that there has been a very disproportionate impact on students with disabilities. So, I will continue on. That wasn't what I was intended was going to say, but since it hasn't been mentioned, I thought I would go ahead and cover that. But today I um I sat in an IEP meeting. Um it was it had 12 educators in there. 12 educators with different specialties that know my son and it has taken years to build years to build this to build his trust. He can't

148see. He uses a cane. Um, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that special education students that have IEPs, it's not like a suitcase that you can just pack up and be like, "Okay, well, we're going to take it over here and we're going to put it in a new location, a new school with these people who don't know him." It doesn't work the same. It doesn't work the same because it's a living relationship breathing process system that changes and grows every day. So these students with special dis special needs need to be reconsidered. I don't believe that the lottery was uh was appropriate for them. And I honestly I don't think that there I think there are some some legal lines that might have been crossed. I am not I am not

149I'm not up here to say I'm hiring anybody because there absolutely not. I know that our situation has already been taken care of and I am so grateful for that. I know every single school in this district is amazing and it will be for many students but specifically for special education students with IEPs. they need to be reconsidered on a very case by case basis. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Kim. Murphy is here to speak about unnecessary new and costly elementary school. Good evening. Valentine should not be moved into the chapen cluster. It's unnecessary. There should not be a reasonzoning. No student should be reszoned. The new $41 million Dutch Fork Elementary should not be constructed. Those students should be absorbed in H Corley, River Springs, or Opoint Elementary, and parents should demand a

150reversal. The administration makes recommendations to the board for your approval and vote as elected by your constituents to make decisions in the district's best interest. The hope is that you will be given all pertinent information so that you can become sufficiently educated before your vote. Without the administration giving you all important and pertinent information, your vote could be detrimental to the district and in that case the in administration would be negligent for withholding the information. The reason I'm introducing my comments in this manner is that you are about to embark on an extremely expensive project that will not only impact students but also taxpayers, the proposed new Dutch Fork Elementary School. I am shocked to learn that we are paying an architect at the cost of millions of dollars to design from scratch a brand

151new elementary school instead of using plans which we purchased from the architect of Oakpoint Elementary so that district could use uh those plans to site adapt to future schools. The reasons we purchased the Oak Point elementary plans was so we could avoid the cost of designing a new school from scratch and to save taxpayers millions of dollars. You did not do that. Why not? In fact, the district site adapted the Oakpoint Elementary plans to the Derek Pond Road School at a cost of only $550,000 according to the contract, not $2.5 million plus for Dutch Fork Elementary School. Were you informed that the district already owned plans for an elementary school? If not, the administration was negligent. If you were informed, then you were negligent. But now that you know about these plans, you should demand

152answers and you should stop moving forward with the current architect, which can be done because you are paying them in phases. Then use the Oakpoint Elementary plans, which should save the district and taxpayers millions of dollars. Better yet, since there is adequate space to absorb Dutch Fork Elementary students into River Springs Elementary, HG Corley, and Oakpoint Elementary, and there's a decline in enrollment, shelf the new elementary school. I have given the documents to Amy for your review. Um, in addition, as you will see in the documents, Oakpoint Elementary School was designed with a core capacity of 900 students, but the number of classrooms initially constructed would educate only 750 students. Thank you. Please look at the documents. >> Thank you, Miss Mar. Kim Wartz is here to speak about Dutch Fork Stadium upgrades. Good evening.

153I'm Kim Wartz and I've spoken to you on two other occasions about the stadium upgrades in our district. Um I'm here again tonight to once again ask that as you make the decisions on how much you will allocate to our schools for the stadium upgrades that you do so to make it fair across all three schools. that all three stadiums reflect that each school has equal value to this district and that one is not put above the others. The mission statement for this district reads in part that you will provide an equitable equitable learning environment focused on academic, social, and emotional growth and development. Sports is a very big part of the students development. And I'm asking that you keep this in mind as you make the your decisions and I would appreciate it if

154you would help upgrade our trailer in the sky. Thank you. >> Thank you. That ends public participation. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts with us tonight. That moves us into the action agenda. Um starting with actions is necessary or appropriate on matters discussed in executive session. At this time, I'll entertain any motions. I'd >> like to make a motion to approve selected employment items exhibit A. >> All in favor? [clears throat] >> And the motion carries seven to zero. >> Like to make a motion to approve contractual matter regarding the Dutch Fork Elementary School, exhibit C and D. >> All in favor? Can we have discussion? >> Oh, yes, ma'am. Go ahead. >> All right. So, I apologize because I don't get the printed board packet. I tried to save paper. Um, Miss Barnhart,

155would you mind kind of recapping what C and D are for the public? >> Miss, what did you say? >> I'm just asking her or someone with the book to recap what these items are for the public. Okay. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. So, um C is to amend the architect's contract um to raise the estimated construction cost from 34 million to 58,740,000. Is that correct, Dr. Ross? I'm sorry. Could you repeat that one more time? >> Okay. So, exhibit C is a an amended contract with the architect um to change the estimated total price from 34 million to 58,740,000. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Exhibit D is to increase the architect's fee by $557,458 um to redesign the school to um the site because the site is much more expensive to build

156a school on now. Correct. >> It it it is to cover the cost due to the challenges with with that site. >> Okay. So, I just want to make sure I don't like voting on things this important without the public knowing what we're voting on. >> But is that and to also include the um alternate for an auditorium and then the design work if we need additional classrooms. So they would they would um also update the design to add 10 optional classrooms and auditorium. >> It would be an alt ad and that would all um you know as we got the information back from the bidding process we either choose to accept it or not. >> Okay. Um so a large part of what's driving so that the total in front of us today is

157to increase potentially likely the price of the school by um 34 to 58 is 24 million 24.7 million correct did I get that right 34 million to 58 million740 okay So to increase the price of the school by 24 million and then another half a million at least um for the architect >> and that's the the projections from the cost consultant that we received um their numbers. We do have some numbers in from our our um our construction manager which are substantially lower. >> Okay. Um, do you have that document? >> And Caleb, um, is all that accurate? Are we explaining this properly? I'm talking to Caleb to the public, [laughter] not to put you on the spot, but since you talked to us in executive session, I just also want to make sure that

158we're all this is being explained properly, we got it right instead. >> Yes, I I think so. >> Okay. I also um and I know this kind of put you on the spot, but this is the document that the um was sent around um by the person that participated in public and it does appear that we bought these plans and there's a plan in here and I as a board member wasn't aware of that. So, in your opinion, is this something that we need to look into? Did we already buy the rights to these plans? because it it does show it's the same plan and it it or virtually and it does show that um it was purchased for it was um adjusted at I think half a million dollars and we'd already bought it.

159>> While you're looking at that, I do believe that I remember a conversation u maybe not with all of the current board members, but we did talk about how we have uh plans for an elementary school that we already know. >> Is is that plans or a site concept? This is the actual contract. Um, and it and it does show that we paid $550,000. There's several documents in here, but to adopt to adapt the River Springs plan for Oak Point. Um, and the site plan, it's the same architect. It's the I'm not gonna say it's identical, but I've visited these schools and and it seems like it's extremely close. I just wonder if we're way overpaying for this if we already bought the rights to the the plan and if we could adapt it for

160$550,000 for Oak Point, why is it costing us $3 million to do it for a new Dutch for work elementary? And that may be a Caleb question, Mr. Riser question. Well, what what I'm unsure about is is whether or not this the plans for 500,000 are is a concept. Is it schematic designs design development or the the the proposed contract going from 2 and a half to $3 million uh for the new Dutch Fork Elementary includes full-on construction documents and construction administration. So a comparison, you know, legally of the contract and the, you know, what was purchased and um and the the rights related, you know, to what what was purchased and what could be used after, uh, would have to be evaluated. So, >> okay. Thanks. Um, all right. So, um, I would just

161like the board to consider some alternatives. And I'm just going to put this out here. um for discussion, but the whole reason this school is going for 34 million to 58 is the land. And I know we looked at other land, but I know we looked at some that was available, but we thought it was too expensive. You know, maybe it wasn't when we we look at this. I mean, $24 million, and maybe that's not all of it, but I know it's at least 17 million of it is is to fix the land. So, you know, I think one alternative is to is to give up on this land. >> Point of order. >> I we the the agenda item is for approval of the contract for a plan that's already been made to execute

162a contract. So, discussing discussion of another plan is not on the agenda. It doesn't it's >> it is very much related to this is do you do you continue to modify a contract or do you cut bait? You know, I think it's very much a um >> I don't agree. >> I think for for um the public's concern and all of ours, I think we need to look um and be very transparent about what we discussed in executive session. So, I'll just wave those those rights so that everybody will know what we're talking about. uh at any point correct me Kaleb or Alan where I'm where I'm incorrect or Mr. Mr. Dr. hearing uh why are we doing these contracts? I think what's important to understand is that the the um contractual matters that we're

163dealing with is the price the price of the of this is not uh 58. That's the budget. Correct. So the maximum price that we're thinking is is 58 million, but that's not the the price of the project. We won't know the price of the project until we get to bidding. Correct. But the max that we're looking at is is 58 because we're doing a design bit build. This is not a GMP project. Correct. Also for the site package, the max price was 17 million, but that's that's the max budget. >> Correct. >> But that's not the price of the project. Correct. >> Correct. >> We won't know the price of the project until we get the bidding because this is a design bill. Correct. >> Correct. >> Let's start with why. Why are we doing

164this? Uh US76 will be expanded. That project is to start this month, I believe. Correct. >> Yes, sir. >> When it expands, you can see in in front of our current Dud Fork Elementary School, it's going to uh have major operational impacts into it. Correct. >> Yes, sir. >> So, students will not be able to operate safely on this on this campus for too long. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> That's was our evaluation. Reszoning them into this building would not be operational sufficient. And as we heard, just moving them into another school without consideration of IEPs and and and 504 plans and student needs. Uh we just heard doing that would be reckless. Uh as a result, uh we can see the impact of these stakes in terms of with the rightway that we've

165already signed these rightaways. Correct. >> Yes, sir. >> So, this will happen to our property. Correct. We have uh went forth with uh movements to to look at egress. Um but this red line is approximately the amount of front yard that we're going to be losing on the current for uh elementary. Over two years ago, we began the process of looking at how could we put these students in a safer location. that two year or two and a half year process looked at a lot of sites um going all the way back to June 10th 2024 when we started to inform the board of this process in executive session. Uh in that we decided we wanted to put the new school the new Dutch in the current Dutch Fork attendant zone operationally we found no

166use of putting it in attendance zone of another school surrounding it. Uh, and I think looking at transportation patterns, looking at movement, and looking at where the majority of the students in the Dutch Fork attendance zone attend school, we decided that we needed to put it into uh Dut for correct. At that time, when we looked at the Dut Fork existing attendance zone, we could locate six sites that had the acreage that you should put an elementary school. It is safe to say that this green zone that is Deep Fork Elementary's current attendant zone is kind of maxed out on places that we can get acreage. Um in in terms of office of school facilities, do you know the minimum acreage that we would need in order to build an elementary school? >> So they

167no longer have a current minimum, but we there are some some minimums with road frontage access to the property. So you have to have a certain amount of um actual road frontage for a your car rider loop and then your bus loop. >> In our assessment, we use our uh our realators to help us find such spots. Option one, right next to uh Dutch Fork Elementary School, was not for sale. Option two was is now owned by Grey Collegiate and that's where they're building. So that le left us with options three, four, five, and six. Correct? >> Yes. >> If we look at option three, uh that was $4 million to get 22 acres of land. Yes. That $4 million, would that have met the DOT standard for a building? >> No. >> So we

168would have bought land for 22 for $4 million, but we would not be able to build a school on that uh perh and the office of school facilities. So, we passed on that property. The next property was 108 acres for $10 million. Correct. >> Yes, sir. >> We would have spent $10 million on that, but we had a drop off of over 50 feet in elevation. So, we would have still needed a considerable site package for 50 feet of different elevations plus we had major flooding issues on that which site package would have increased because we would have had to remove so much water to dry that land out. Correct. Yes, sir. >> So, $10 million just for the land and we still not have addressed the considerable site package to put a school on

169that. So, we looked at the next one, North Wingate, which was also $4 million, but that also had a larger drop off than the 50 foot. So, again, major topography issues and also water issues that had to be mitigated. It's safe to say that the site package for this site would have been also more expensive to that. So that leads us to our last piece which um has the least elevation issues, the lowest elevation issues, the lowest water issues, and the best land uh in terms of lines of sight for DOT. >> Yes, sir. >> This is the best option that we have of all six sites and the least expensive to develop. Is that statement true? The least expensive to develop. >> It is. So, if it's the least expensive to develop, we work

170with uh five different properties and four different owners to pull this together to get the least expensive to develop. I don't know how this u u 17 million to develop would be the maximum cost. Yes. >> So, because it's design bid bid, it will go to the lowest bid who's qualified to develop this. >> Correct. And we're seeing numbers go down. So, um, as of Friday, our, um, construction manager and he and he does work across the entire state and with site packages and and he they build schools. He's seeing that the numbers, you know, his estimate right now is below 12 million. >> Any site that any building we put on the site must be up to what codes? In terms of building codes? >> I'm sorry, say that one more time. >> The

171[clears throat] building codes of this, it's safe to say that you would have to design the building to the building codes of today. it has to be the current codes. >> So as a result, we uh have begun to build to today's building codes on the least expensive site. We have asking for the max prices to be considered. We will fall under those prices. But to say what the price is, it is incorrect. We're asking for the budget to expand. We do not know what the price or the cost of these. Right now we're stuck in design development. this we've already finished these stages here. This allows us to get to what's called CD or construction documents. Once we can get to the construction documents, then we will go out to bid. What happens at

172the bidding stage? The bidding stages um we we do like a pre-qualification and then you know all the contractors are there and they all kind of see who's all going to be bidding. And the intent of that is to make sure we have the qualified contractors, but then also they can see who's all bidding to help drive that price lower, >> to help drive that price down. So now the public knows what we we talked about in executive session. The administration asked, let us move to construction documents so we can bid this price down to see what it actually costs. But the budget, the estimated budget uh is what uh we're saying is up to 58 million. Uh but the cost to design that package. Um, and I think that was the the was it

173$550,000? Correct. Now, is there any site, this last question I asked, Madam Chair, any site that does not need a site package? >> Every everything in this area is going to have a sight package. Um, even if you had just flat land, you're still going to have some sort of a sight package. Um, just due to the the natural lay of the Dutch Fork area. Um, you know, you see a lot of hills and and little valleys and swells and such. So, >> perfect. Thank you, Miss U M. Miss, you had one more question before we vote. >> Well, I got interrupted. I never got to finish. Um, so I would just ask this board to look at some alternatives. I realized we looked at land before, but maybe new things have come on the

174market. The other another option is to build a one a two-story school. I had a D5 graduate that works in um school construction, architecture and construction in North Carolina that follows us contact me and say, "Have y'all looked at building changes? Scrap your plans because if you build a two-story school, your site preparation will be um in her estimate probably half of what we're looking at because of the literally the floor the space that you're sighting." And this is what she does for a living. She said, "If I were y'all, I would look at doing a two-story school instead of a one." And we, our last elementary was a twostory school. Um, Lexi One has recently done a very nice two-story school. Um, I would also ask us to look if you look in your

175booklet that's on your desk and you turn to page 129 and 130 and you these are their school capacity numbers. Okay. Um if you add up the enrollment in this book which is our audited and our auditors are here audited financial statements. So the good the good numbers um and you add up the enrollment for Oak Point, River Springs and Dutch Fork, it's 1159 and it's actually lower now. I think this is last year's number. If you look at the capacity of just Oak Point in River Springs and add them together, it's 1681. So you could move all of the children and the staff. And for the IEP kids, they're going to have to move anyway. The building's going to be totally different, the new Dutch Fork from the old Dutch Fork. So they're going

176to have to change buildings anyway. Move the staff with them. Um and there would still be 500 extra spaces. I know that's not all. We don't like to jam them up, but actually it still leaves 31% capacity. So, we could do that and not spend this money. We had presentations tonight from uh press boxes and um video boards and all that. The chapen press box cost over $8 million and prices have done nothing but go up. This is a lot of money. And one analogy is it's like you wanted to build a $200,000 house. you bought a $20,000 lot and then the builder comes to you and says, "You know what? It's going to cost me a hundred grand, cost you a hundred grand to fix the lot so we can build a house." I

177don't know about y'all, but I would find another place to build a house or I would move in with somebody. Um, but I just think this is a lot of money and the more money we spend on this, the less money we're going to have for press boxes and scoreboards and roofs and all the other priorities >> for us. Is that statement true? The more money we spend on this, the less we'll have for press boxes and school boards. >> It would be illegal to spend this money on press boxes and school board. >> I didn't I let me just clarify. I never propose spending bond referendum money on something that's not in the bond referendum. That was done in 2008. I don't think this board's going to do that. What I'm saying is if

178we go over here, unless we can make it up somewhere else, the money is going to have to come from somewhere. So, if we want to finish all these projects in the bond referendum, and unless we make this money up somewhere else, it's going to have to come out of other capital. other capital that could be used for press boxes, scoreboards, roofs, etc. >> So, so to date, we've um you know, through the the wings at at Lake Murray and Chapen Elementary, we are about $4 million under budget for that. So, um I think the board knows I'm a pretty good negotiator. Dr. Ross calls me. >> Yes, you are. Um, so I believe that if I continue the process of of working through this and and getting those deals done that we will be

179able to get everything under the bond referendum. So we got 4 million already already to that. So um, we still have some more things that we're working through. Um, and we're just going to keep, you know, driving that those savings in. >> Thank you. Um, Mr. KN, we have a motion on the floor and it's already been properly second. All those in favor of um executive session item D, contractual matters regarding the new Dutch Fork Elementary. All those opposed and the motion carries 43. Do I have any other? Um motion is from executive. >> Make a motion to approve the contractual matter regarding the Lexington County easement for the corridor improvement on Columbia Avenue as seen in exhibit E. >> All in favor? And a motion carries seven to zero. like to make a motion.

180Um, yes. To approve contractual matter regarding the Lexington County sewer easement and the city of Columbia water easement for the new student center cafeteria at Mo High School as seen in exhibit F. >> All those in favor and the motion carries 7 to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the contractual matter regarding the Chapen High School auditorium as seen in exhibit G. >> All in favor? I'd like to amend the motion um to require board approval um for any change in capacity greater than 10% over the projected over or under capacity of the projected 250 seat auditorium. >> I thought it was 500. I'm sorry 500. It's late. So, let me rephrase that. Um, I move to amend a motion to require board approval if capacity um is changed by more than 10% above

181or below the designs 500 seat auditorium. >> Second, >> Mr. Satderfield, >> I can ask questions now. >> Yes, you can. >> Um, M. McGear, you might be able to answer. I know I asked you about the capacity at Dutch Fork, which is about 450, you said. Do we know? And we asked about Did I ask you about Hermo? What Hermos is? >> You didn't. >> What is What is Hermos? Do we know? >> I'm not sure about Armo, Mr. N. You know, >> Allan earning his paycheck tonight. [laughter] >> I'm sorry. What was that the question? >> Her most capacity for their auditorium. >> Do you happen to know? >> Any idea? Is it is it I it feels like it's bigger than Dutch Forks and much >> you know I want to say

182maybe 600 seats or something some >> somewhere in that ballparkish. >> So right now the design or the in the referendum it's for 350 >> for chapen were 500 in the referendum >> and it didn't say in the referendum I don't think how many seats did it. Well, we were designing in Corman from Rome um they wanted to have a place for orchestra concerts, band concerts and things of that nature. Correct. >> Correct. >> Performances that they could see by classes and student body. >> Okay. I thought in our disc previous discussion we talked about it being like at 350 which would be really crazy too small. >> Um and but [snorts] you say is city in >> I believe it's 600 650ish somewhere in that ballpark. >> Okay. And you're recommending what, Miss? >>

183I just want the board to vote if it changes because we heard that the the Dutch Fork Elementary kind of bounced around and I don't know that we were all aware of it. So, just if if I just don't want to have happen what happened before. I wasn't on the board, but I heard Chapen was supposed to get a real auditorium and ended up with the black box that seats far fewer. And so just if if it's going to drop or change more than 10%, it just comes back to us so everybody gets to hear it and everybody knows. >> Okay. >> Just so you know, they've always had the black box. >> Yeah. >> It's not Yeah. Um so your motion right if right now it's at 500. >> Yes. >> Capacity. The motion

184is 500. >> Correct. >> So you're asking for it to be able to go up if >> up to 550 or down to 450% >> go down. >> Okay. more than a modified. >> So if it goes over 550, she wants it to come back to the board. That's the ask, right? >> Because because when we when we look at the seating, you know, and you have Yeah. Because it's going to have fixed seating and retractable seating, it may go to 502, 512 or or 492 or something like that depending on the length and everything of of of the seating. So it may not, you know, for everything to be symmetrical. Um, >> how did how did we come to the number? I mean, if both if the Dutch Fork and Irmo are so different,

185how did we come to the number we got to? >> Got confirmation has 630 that hold an additional 20 with additional seats that came in. Allan, I think can you talk through the numbers for Chapen? >> Um, I I think the numbers were they wanted to be able to seat, you know, at least a full class. I think 350 would be way too small for for that. Well, I'm just thinking if you had to get a full class in there for a class meeting, a senior class meeting or something along those lines, you need to make sure. And for performances, you want to make sure and the chaping community is very I mean, all you got to do is have a curriculum meeting at the elementary school and you can't hardly get through Old Bush

186River Road. Um, but your motion is if it should go up, we should approve it or go down, we should approve. >> No, I'm more worried about down. I just would hate to see it shrink and people Why would it go down? What would >> make the budget? Because that's what happened with Dutch Fork Elementary. It went down and then went back up. >> All right. We have um an amendment and a motion um on the floor. All those in favor of the amendment. >> Can I ask one more question? >> Yes. >> I'm just trying to >> hurry up. >> I thank you. I'm just trying to clear the air. I want to go home, too. Um if if it's at 500 right now if I mean who what would be the rationale for

187changing how would that possibly somebody come and say I want to make it bigger or I want to make it smaller. I'm trying to understand it's not like it's a press box and we say, "Oh, we built the press box >> sometimes to try to meet a budget." You know, sometimes like the the the the estimate will come back over the over what we have to budget and so someone will say, "Well, let's make it [music] smaller." I mean, what's the harm? >> So, so in essence essence, it would we're only looking at making it smaller to stay within budget. >> Well, that's >> we're not really looking at making it larger. >> I don't care if it gets bigger as long as it stays in budget. All right. Thank you. All those in favor

188of the amendment to the motion, which is to allow people allow it to come back to us if it's going to be over 550 seats. Okay. All those in favor? Opposed? The motion carries 4 to three. That moves us to the main motion. >> Excuse me. >> Oh, yes. >> The main motion was to approve the contractual matter regarding the Chapen High School auditorium as seen. >> Sorry. >> All those in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. >> Like to make a motion to approve contractual matter regarding construction and access easements for the property at 1400 Kennerly Road as seen in exhibit H. >> All those in favor and the motion carries 70 to zero. >> And I'd like to make a motion that this board approve the full and complete release resolving

189the Hefner lawsuit and that the board chair be empowered to sign the release on behalf of this board. >> All those in favor and motion carries seven to zero. That ends the um action agenda and moves us to I'm sorry concludes [laughter] that ends a matter of um discussing executive session and moves us to number 14 on the action agenda. Approval of middle school locally board approved course. >> Like to make a motion to approve the middle school locally board approved courses only CRMS 2026 to 2027. Uh number one the advancement via determination AVID elective course and number two the innovators workshop as seen in exhibit K. >> Is there any discussion? All in favor >> and the motion carries seven to zero. like to make a motion to approve the locally board approved course

190for honors course JOT JOTC Navy and Air Force Honors Framework as seen in exhibit L. >> Second. >> All in favor and a motion carries seven to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the second and final reading of proposed revisions to board policy GB staff conduct as seen in exhibit M. >> Second. Mr. I'd like to make a motion. Miss will help me with this. I'd like to make a motion to have to put this off for uh to re-examine this policy and have a third reading for final vote. >> You may want me to explain. >> Yeah, now you get to explain. You got >> Okay. All right. I wrote some notes down. Um, I was looking at the um the the previous board policy with regards to um staff conduct and I'm

191assuming that's all staff conduct, everybody, including board members and everybody. Um, and um, it addressed everything. I thought it would addressed everything. Um, probably the only thing that maybe needed a little attention because of the change in times is uh, something to do with social media. I know that um that's been an issue I guess recently in most parts of the country. Um but the motion that's been proposed is very redundant. I mean it talks about the things that are specific like you're not supposed to be drinking or harming other people, you can't have sex with students and things that are just common sense, black and white issues. Did I say that wrong? Um well it's in the policy so I just just sharing that. Um but where it's written with regards to the personal

192life uh of an employee, it says including the pro employees personal use of districtisssued and nondistsued electronic equipment inside and outside of working hours such as through social networking sites, social media and personal portrayal on the internet will be the concern and warrant of the board if it impairs the employees ability to effectively perform. perform his or her jobs or it violates state, federal, local or contractual agreements. That's pretty specific. It it should end right there. But it doesn't. Now it gets for some reason we added more to it which makes it very gray. And in this I hate to use the word pol political but this political world we live in um and the nature of all that goes on with s social media which nobody's going to ever get a handle on. Um

193I mean I I think it should stop right there. I would say that. But the the part that to me is very redundant. And it says, it goes on to say, employee social media use has the potential to result in disruption of school work environment or impair the efficiency of the school workplace. As such, the board expects employees to ensure all their conduct, communication, including those associated with their social media, do not disrupt school work environment or impair the efficiency of the school workplace. And then there's a sentence in there, I'm okay with leaving, but then it says, unprofessional conduct may be subject to employee disciplinary actions consistent with state federal law. In other words, I would like for somebody, anybody on the board, since this is board policy and we're approving this, to explain

194to me, um, do not disrupt disrupt the school work environment or impair the efficiency of the school workplace. Somebody tell me, give me an example of something ins that somebody posts on social media or some comment that is made where that would how you would apply to that. I I just don't understand it. I I think it's an attempt um and this was first when would we first present this, Dr. Ross? These changes I think this is second reading. So most we had first reading at the last board meeting before the storm and then we had discussion prior to that. >> I I just think that if you if you this thing is really long and if if you all had a copy of this you can see that there it looks like a teacher

195graded my paper an essay paper in school because there's a lot of stuff that's been marked through. half of it's been marked through, been taken out because of redundancy or things that are ambiguous and that just don't make sense. There is clarity in the first part of it, the first paragraph, the second paragraph, the third, the fourth, but when it gets to that part where it impairs the efficiency, you know, that's that's up to interpretation. Somebody could say, well, you know, uh, a staff member, uh, you know, said something on social media and and and you know, somebody saw that and so the parent comes and contacts a board member and then I how do you prove efficiency in the workplace? I understand if it can cause a disruption in school, a major disruption, but

196we've addressed that in there. So, I just um and and if you go on to the rest of it, it makes perfect sense about, you know, harassment and, you know, Title N and um again, fighting, being absent without approval, refusal to follow. Those things are pretty black and white. Um I I think it's black and white and I know because of social media in today's world, it should be addressed. I don't have a problem with that, but I would rather say with something that is black and white and concrete and not get into the haziness of things because uh you know we just had the teacher of the year talk about how much support she gets and how we support teachers and we have had comments on our budget workshop. We talked about that very

197much thing about we should be doing everything to support teachers. But I think this sends a message um that says, you know, Mick Brothers watching and and it's and it's just too me it's just too great. So those are my comments. I appreciate any other comments, >> Miss Snipes. >> I'd like to amend the amendment to say and get legal advice >> because I think that would answer and I don't know if I got a second. >> Oh, yeah. Second >> because I think that might help answer because I recall because it's been a while. But there was uh I think there was advice given about what you just asked and I think maybe we just need to hear it again because it's been a while. >> Well, I just think that and you have

198to remember this too. It doesn't make sense to have a policy if you need a lawyer to interpret it. I mean, if teachers, how can you ask a teacher or a custodian or a cafeteria lady, anybody that works in the school to adhere to a policy if you need a lawyer to tell you what it says? That just doesn't make any sense. And you know, I'm very low in the totem pole when it comes to IQ. I'd admit it. But the point being is is pretty clear. And that is that we ought to be very clear on our board policies with regards to interpretation. And and this is an attempt to address issues that are out there in social media. You know, I'm not a man. I'm not a fan social media. I'm not a

199fan at all. But um I think we ought to have a little more clarity with it. So thank you. Get the legal advice and [music] I hope that also that uh Dr. Ross, you and your staff will look at that too and just sort of make it a little more concise so it's not so ambiguous. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Satderfield and Miss Huddle. So we have a motion on the >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> He had his hand up first. >> I'm so sorry. I just want to ask Miss Cohen, do you have any um insight as to why that language is in there? >> It's my understanding that this was reviewed with one of the board at one of the attorneys to um develop the policy and that maybe revisiting uh to

200get clarity would be appropriate. >> My I was going to speak to that. My my understanding was a lot of these revisions were done by Miss recommended by Miss Mahoney in reference to specifically to reference case law to help clarify the issues in adjudication down the road. And that's why they're written the way they are. I assume Miss Mahoney is not here anymore with us tonight. We can't knock this out real quick. >> He's not here. Um, but that would that's my understanding is why it was written the way it is is because she specifically made these recommendations based on case law which she's citing at the end of the policy. So yeah, that's that's probably >> Well, thank you for that. Thank you for that, Mr. Let me just respond to Thank you that

201for that. I understand that, too. It's just that it was drafted and it was reviewed by the attorneys the first time and half of it's marked out now because it's just so redundant. And again, case law or not, I mean, the everything else in there is pretty black and white and easy to understand and follow. And so, um, I just I just think it's I don't like redundancy. I like make it short and concise. And so, that's um that's my Thank you. Thank you though, Mr. Skellyy for the input. >> Okay, we have a motion on the floor um to defer this to a third reading with legal um with legal advice. >> Put the first amend we got to amend the motion. >> I did. I think you have to do that. >> We've

202got to vote on it. >> The second amendment first to get legal advice and then you have to vote to a third to a third reading. I thought you were making I thought you were amending I thought you had the same emotion but just added legal. >> Okay. Well, you want to rephrase it? That would make it simpler obviously. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. Shared emotion. Thank you. >> Okay. My original motion is that I would like to um defer this to a third reading after getting legal advice. >> Second. and have the superintendent staff look over this and brainstorm and make it a little more concise. Thank you. >> All in favor? >> And the motion carries 7 to zero. Um it takes us back to >> like to make a motion to approve uh

203the district's realer listing for 2025 2026 as seen in exhibit N. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? And uh motion carries. >> I can make a motion uh to approve the letter of support for growing hope grant application as seen in exhibit O. >> That's when um so I want to I'll explain this really quickly. So the district um is already supporting Growing Hope. Um they they reached out and asked for board support. Um to be clear, they don't the district doesn't need our support, but I thought it was um um a good effort to for us to put our support behind um because it does um address a need in our district. Um there are a significant number of students who um enter foster care and without placement

204options, they usually have to stay somewhere outside of the district which just creates a barrier. And so they are working with the district to identify basically host families that would be willing to foster so that the kids can stay in their designated school without having to um you know travel across town. So I would like the board to consider just giving um a letter of support to that program. Um the motion has been made improperly. Um second all those in favor. Thank you. And the motion carries seven to zero. >> Make a motion to approve any services for the feasibility and cost estimates for middle school co-curricular and extracurricular facilities and inclusive playgrounds. >> Um >> I would like to amend the motion. >> Yes ma'am. to only um get feasibility and cost estimates um

205to repair existing playgrounds, create inclusive playgrounds, and create middle school playgrounds um where none currently exist. >> So, well, first let me see if you get a second before our next question. >> Second. >> Okay, I get to explain. So, it would be everything except I'm not even sure honestly what's in co-curricular and extracurricular, but the the ren artist renderings we got showed a middle school football field with stands and lights. And I just we're we're probably going to be over budget on the Dutch Fork Elementary. And again, we've got people wanting press boxes and everything. And to me, be we need to get to item number 23. We need to know the McMillan past and Smith deficiencies we haven't corrected yet. Um and we need to get to a review of our um capital

206budget stuff before we start major expend even talking about major expenditures. Um having staff members issue RFPs, review RFPs, interview people. I just think we're really putting the cart before the horse. It's our fiscal responsibility to make sure we fix what's broken first and we go by a a you know goals that we came up with and a new football field for middle school with lights and stands. I don't know where it fits on here but I don't think it's health safety and security or building envelope and structure. >> Can I ask a question just for clarification? Um >> in those packets you were talking about I mean there were very large for almost entire sports complexes for the middle schools. But then we were also in the discussion when it comes to the sixth

207grade uh recess areas that we did the study on the fifth graders just to kind of find out what they were looking for. So in this is the A&E services request for both the like Miss Huddle stated that the giant sports facilities are simply just for the areas that were pointed out in the middle schools to where they need to be worked on um for their research or recess purposes. >> Thank you for asking. I will answer so you can come to the podium here. Uh extracurricular and co-curricular co-curricular things that happens with so let's say band uh happens in the in the class and outside of class and extracurricular is would be just athletic events in the middle school. Um I I'll go through this really quickly. what we very quickly mam um but

208I I think when we talk about this it's it's all students right um and there's a power and play that we we talk about kids don't get outside much um and really it's up to to schools you think one in 10 parents say their young child go outside once a week or less and for me it was every day and there's a power in play and so what does play do it builds builds autonomy, builds confidence, builds relationships. And when you think about when kids are in school, if they're not getting it outside of school, um we're trying to invest in it inside of school. And so, uh Peter Gray is a is a well-known uh psychologist that talks about the power of play. So, yes, when we think about play, we think about playgrounds.

209Um and we're already doing that within our NPS report. We're already looking at existing playgrounds. uh in fact fall surfaces and we're making a lot of improvement on that. We still got a lot to go. You've approved this in capital, but we're making headway when it comes to our current playgrounds. What we're talking about is middle school and high school where we have not. Those have playgrounds as well. We think about playgrounds as elementary, but all kids need play. So, if you remember back in August is when this started when the young girl asked, "Could you do something about our resource equipment?" I responded that we would look into it. That was back in August. I brought it to the board to move forward and u asked that we do uh surveys. So we went

210back and talked to uh not just uh the students uh but but talking to the spaces that they wanted to to talk about. This is their current site, right? This is where they are playing and this is what that young lady wrote us about what she wanted improvement on for her and her her classmates. When we say co-curricular, that's everything from recess to to what they do uh during school. And this is what they have after school. As we move to the middle school feeder program, we're bringing more students onto this site, more athletics. U we talked, we had a parent that talked about lacrosse. When will we do and not have his middle school student have to compete with a high school lacrosse student. So when we talked about these fields, uh it was

211about the the excellence that Miss Brook has said and I think that's probably where we disagree. I do go for excellence for our schools. Um this is not bond money. We would we couldn't spend bond money on this. Uh but we wanted feasibility for Chapen Middle, which will be Spring Hill Middle. We talked about giving them the same thing where we can have those middle school athletic events and co-curricular events and recess on their campus crossroads. Um, you know, you heard reverse armor. It's been a long time since a lot of these things were touched. They were excellent in the 70s and 80s, but they need a refresh. And so, um, moving along, this is Irmo Middle that we talked about and just different things that we could do for their play areas and play

212surfaces. So, uh, there's land that we own and we're looking for ways to, uh, to improve that that is more usable for the students at Crossroads Middle and Hermo Middle. That fork, um, as you see, this is their space. I mean, so when you say the the motion is to look at their existing spaces, this is their existing space. It's the parking lot. Um, and this is what they're doing during lunch in that space. And so we're saying just clean up this existing space. We so we we we feel like we can give the kids that does for middle school excellence uh with these pieces here. So when we ask 99 59 fifth graders, what do they want? This goes back to Miss Barnhart's question. You think look at the the largest one. We want

213open field and green space. That's their their number one thing followed by they want to climb on stuff and uh and sports related equipment. That's an elementary school. We ask seventh graders. Same thing, open field uh and and green space. However, they're number two sports later equipment. So, there's a difference. When I'm in elementary school, I want to climb on things. When I get to middle school, I want to play sports in open fields. So, we're kind of looking at this is middle school. When you look at fifth graders, um, look at the difference of what they want. Fifth grade, uh, survey response. You asked us to ask the fifth graders. We asked 959 fifth graders back in September and October. Uh, and this is what they want to do. Active play, one place to

214run, play sports, and tag. Uh, followed by relaxing and sitting with friends. If you look at the seventh graders, you can see that there's a major shift. Seventh graders don't want to run as much. They want places where they can socialize. Um, but then followed by places where they can run and and and and do sports. So, that's what get went into the design of of this. It was to renovate these middle school co-curricular and extracurricular spaces have an inclusive playground place that we have for the screen eagles eagles uh and like programs but to look at the physical health needs of our sixth seventh and eighth graders that'll be on these new sites it is looking at excellence but um redesigning their current spaces I feel is insufficient um yeah Dr. Ross, if you

215go back to the um those charts. So those the ones that blue. So [clears throat] is this A&E going to look at all of these items? >> So what we're going to do is uh it gives us the option of looking at uh a myriad of them, but what we're looking at is the the high responses. So that's open field, green spaces, sports related equipment. Um I think We love our fifth graders. There are certain insurance issues that we have on terms of climbing spaces. So, that would be be limited, but it's looking at those high uh impact responses. >> Okay. So, everything on here except the climbing structures, >> I think, leading out with the highest uh responses. I think we're going to focus in on the seventh grade just because we see such

216a difference between a fifth grade who's in the elementary school and a seventh grade who's in middle school. >> Okay. Well, what I'm trying to get at is I get that that's what they want for open space, but the diagrams are all football fields with stands and lights. and open space is just a field and and it's usually right there where they can go at recess. And it it seems like we're focused on true football fields with stands and lights and and I guess that's >> that's and and maybe I worded my amendment wrong and I can change it, but I'm just worried about about spending money on football fields with stands and lights and not just a field that kids can run and play tag and all that and all these other things. >>

217Dr. Russ, can you clarify that and then I have two questions on the other side. Yeah, I I think it's a combination. You're looking at it's open fields, green space for games, but the second one is also sports related equipment and that's in both surveys, right? You can see that uh the number two thing they say is active play for running sports and and tag. So, um you're looking at a conceptual is what we've done. uh we would like we're not and it's clear that this is A&E so it doesn't doesn't make it happen uh but it allows us to work to see what can we actually do with those spaces uh we'd love to bring those students in I mean it's been August since the they've asked for this um we would like to

218respond to them that we're we're making a making headway on on a space for them Mr. Scully, Mr. Bum, Miss Barnhard. >> Yeah, I just want to correct the record on Miss Huddle's statement about um this probably going to be over budget on Dutch Fork Elementary School. There is absolutely no basis for that statement or that conclusion at this point in time. >> Point of order, you are supposed to talk to other board members like that. You made that statement and it's misleading and if you have to make misleading statements of order, you cannot address another board member. >> Okay. Well, you made that statement. >> My mute all button is not working. >> I didn't voted on it. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry to the public. This is we're not >> Well, she made

219a statement that is not true and is misleading. >> You just voted on it. It went from 34 to 58 million. Don't tell me that. We're not even on that idea >> because she brought it up, Miss Snipes. >> Basic math. She is basing her recommendation for her motion on that false misleading statement. >> That is not true. >> The board on >> in her comments for her justifying her motion. She made that statement. >> It is over budget. Go look at the >> over budget. We are not even at a point. We just discussed tonight. We're not at even at that point yet. >> We just approved it. Okay. My point being if a board member if one if you need to make misleading statements to support your motion misleading statement right now I

220did not make a misleading statement you made that statement we voted to increase the budget >> the tape >> motion Would you ask him to please stop referring to me? >> Rules of order, she can request that you not speak to her directly. >> Are you done with your comment, >> Mr. Bum? >> Okay. Um, I see the Dutch Fork um process where the student athletes are going across the little walkway, so I kind of know how that works. Um, so I do see the value in having some practice facilities over there behind. That's going to be and I assume in that lower level where they go down the steps because I don't see it. Um, the Crossroads, the new Crossroads Middle School in August and Hermo Elementary for those middle school athletes, they're they

221have to use Hero High School. Correct. So they have to cross a major roadway >> or do they bus? Are >> you more familiar with the with the Hero C team? Correct. >> Yes, sir. So, um the Hero S team does practice on the main field and they have to um cross um I can't remember the name of the road. >> Can you speak to that? Because my son was on that team. They would have to go across the road from >> Yeah. Westot. They have to cross across West >> and they used to go back behind the school, but now that all that construction is going on, they can't walk over there anymore. So they have to go across Westcot and then we actually have some steps to actually take them in front of

222the construction zone and they have to walk all the way to the um to the field. >> Okay. So just as far as from a you know I'm a parent and I'm going to have a daughter over there um this fall. Not sure what sport she's going to play, but just thinking for all parents to eliminate the need to cross over traffic would be much better. Sometimes that's expensive. I don't like spending unnecessary money, but I want to make sure we're keeping our students safe. So, I just want to explain my vote. >> Th this also, if you don't mind if I if I could speak to this right here, we know that um um we have like bad softball cages over at um over at Chapen High School. They're they're in pretty bad shape.

223Um we know we have challenges and opportunities for softball over at Dutch Fork High School. Um, I know I get calls a good bit about, hey, where's the locker rooms for the girls at? Right now, they're they're having to utilize a storage room to change in. Um, I think a part of this study right here would go and look at it. Um, right now the um I think it's the um I guess during soccer season, the the females have to use the um there's a locker room in the the fieldhouse during the I guess during the fall. it's the football players and then you know so there's there's always you know there's there can be some kind of cross crossover there you know um and and it's I guess as we go through this study

224that will help us figure out what do we actually need to do to prevent these issues and and and what what are some opportunities for us >> Miss Barnhart? >> Yeah. Um, I think it's just the confusion where it lies with me personally is the kind of difference in the two topics that we're talking about. We're talking about the playgrounds and then we're talking about the um facilities. Now, kind of in the slideshow, I think that that might be where other people are getting a little confused, too, is because when we're talking about the open fields and the sports equipments, I I mean, I love all of these ideas, and I know that um it would be a great addition to all of our new middle schools, but at the same time, and a lot

225of the other stuff we're talking about is just for the 15 to 20 minutes of like the outdoor lunchtime recess. And so I'm not saying that they're not both important because they are. But I think that's just kind of where the confusion lies when you're talking about either the 15 to 20 minutes in the middle of the day or the afterchool type activities that the larger fields will be used for. I know they will be still used at the same time, but just in the way it's kind of presented. It's kind of are we talking about the the time where they go and play for a few minutes after lunch or more so things they're going to be doing for after school programs? >> Talking about both. Uh the students were writing about lunch, specifically

226a middle school. Um I didn't show you pictures of what shaping middle school looks like during lunch, but that that's kind of tough. They need other places to release. But also, um as we look at after school as well, uh to Mr. Band's point, you know, moving a lot of the students now in these areas to to to good spaces for for extracurricular Yeah, I want to throw out another consideration that you were talking about, you know, little nuances there, but um what a lot of folks don't realize is that adds to the curriculum for physical education classes. If you go over right now, a lot of them are landlocked in the gym. I went and looked at Chapen Middle School, there was three or four classes in there at once. There's no room for

227an activity. You can't play basketball, volleyball, you can't you can't play soccer. There's I mean, it's just not that those fields. I was at Chapman Elementary School when I first started teaching and we had this park uh school agreement and they build all these fields behind the elementary school. If you go back there now, you'll see that they're slammed all the time. They're used constantly. But as a PE teacher, uh myself and the other fellow that I work with, we use those fields constantly. and we got kids outside exercising. So, let's try not let's not kind of pigeon hole all this. Uh, and the other thing is teachers would love it if the kids got out and ran and did something besides sitting on the curb at recess because then they get rid of that

228extra energy in middle schools. I mean, come on. If you you've got a middle schooler, right? You know how that works. Try to get him out of the house. But the idea is that I think they'll be used a lot for curriculum matters as well. So that's a real plus. And I know we talked before about and Mr. White came and who was one of my former students also. Um but he came and shared about how the this new park u program to get more kids active. So I think there's a real positive side uh to this thing as well. And I know there's a lot of little nuances. You're going to have to have you're going to have to have some playground equipment. You can't just have fields. I understand that you need, you

229know, there's kids that are going to go on out and sit on a bench and >> Miss Huddle and then um I'mma call for the vote. >> I had a question. Why the lights and why the stands >> for for extra curriculum >> in the pictures? There's lights, big old lights and stands. If so, if this is for our pre recess and after school, why why the lights and why the stands? And I just want to be clear, we said in in the motion is extracurricular and co-curricular. So co-curricular is during the day, extracurricular is after school, >> right? But I mean, so is the vision that we're going to have play games on these fields? >> It will be game quality. If you can have a >> Are we going to have parents lining

230up wanting press boxes for middle school football fields? I'm dead serious. >> No press boxes. >> I think I think you made a point of order about what's appropriate. We're we're we're trying to do excellence for our students. We've been very open about what we're trying to do. We haven't presented that uh for middle schools. We have presented >> Well, we have presented this before you uh and the administration is asking for action. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Um wait, I did have one. I just can we just a question. Can we ask in the proposal to include the estimated annual maintenance so we know not only what it's going to cost one time but what it would cost to maintain. Dr. Ross, can we do that? >> I mean we have maintenance estimates

231that we we do anyway. I mean >> so so we're already maintaining fields now. You know whether or I'll say turf. It may not be a field. It might be, you know, hills or whatever else. This stuff's already being maintain maintained. >> So, when this comes back, if I ask, "How much is this going to cost to maintain?" Y'all will be able to answer that for >> It's a cost that we already have. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. So, um I feel like I already forgot what um I feel like there was an amendment. >> I'm going to withdraw my amendment. >> Okay. Sounds good. We have a motion um and has been probably second. All those in favor? All opposed. And the motion carries six to one. >> I can make a motion

232to approve any services for press boxes for Dutch Fork and Irma High Schools and athletic scoreboards. >> All those in favor? >> Can we discuss? >> Oh, yes. Nobody said anything I want. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. I um just for the people at Dutch Fork and Hermo, um I think you need updated press boxes. Um I have heartburn a little bit about the scoreboards because I feel like we're in like some kind of arms race, but um I'm going to vote no. And it's not because I don't think that y'all need new press boxes and maybe scoreboards, but my duty as a board member is to the health and safety of our children first. And there are burning questions I have that I don't have the answers to. Um, we paid $200,000 for a study

233that we're going to talk about later. And so I don't have the answers to those critical and poor items that were found. Um, have they been fixed? Is there a plan to fix them? I don't have the answers to roofs that teachers called me about that were leaking. And I just can't in good conscience vote to to spend any time. And I realize this is not spending money yet, but even spending time until we as a board know where where we stand on things that really are life and safety issues. >> Scott, >> I'm curious if anyone took the opportunity to go over and visit the press boxes. >> I was out of town that week, so I did. I've spent countless hours in those press boxes and it is a safety issue. I have

234climbed stairs that I was afraid to climb as an adult and I know children do that too. We host band competitions, all kinds of things beyond the sporting events that are done in those facilities and they are not safe. And I speaking as someone that's the time in there firsthand, it is a health and safety issue. And it we already heard that Irma High School press box is 50 years old. And so I believe that our Irma and Dutch fort cluster definitely deserve what we have. Maybe not exactly what we have at Chapen High School, but I believe they deserve some updates to bring them more in line with modern day sports. >> I entirely agree with you. It is the health uh health and safety issues at both locations and I strongly and fully

235support I I'll even go one step. I know I think they should be on par with what we have at Chapen. They deserve every bit of that at Hermo and Dutch Fork and it has my full full support. >> That's a good question. Um this only talks it includes the scoreboards and it doesn't include um a scoreboard for Chapen. So if we're worried about equity, what's the plan for the Chapen scoreboard? >> Oh, I thought Chapen had money for their scoreboard already. We just haven't voted to approve it. >> Some one of their boosters called me and told me they want to spend it on something else. So, and that they feel like if if the district pays for scoreboards for these two high schools, they need to pay the district should pay for their

236scoreboard, too. So, I'm just asking what's >> then we might have to eat the cost because we didn't approve it before when we had the opportunity and they did warn us that that could >> Well, we could add it here. >> I'm I'm you know, >> I'm going to amend the motion to >> So, Dr. Ross is trying to respond to that and Miss Barnhart. >> All right. The the motion is athletic school boards. does not specify that we're excluding Chapen. So what what happens is we're looking at a base board >> that would all of them if Chapen wants to do more then they can provide their gift. >> Uh but um I want to be clear this does not say and >> oh yeah this this the slide also does have up there.

237>> It has baseboards and again I think it's important for families to understand this is feasibility. We still have to approve it. Gotcha. >> So um >> Sounds good. Barnhart. >> Yeah. Um I'm kind of really back and forth on this, but I I do want to just say that I do believe that what Miss Huddle said about making sure that we're taking care of some of the other priorities in the district is very important because we have gotten a lot of information and really not a whole bunch of followup. But I do know that your team works diligently all day every day to to take care of some of this stuff. But I really would like to push that we um kind of just follow up with what Miss Huddle said when it comes

238to to that kind of stuff. But I am very I think think that um Hermo and Dutch Fork definitely should be upgraded. Um a kid that plays for Hero and I know that this is very important to a lot of the families in the community out there. So >> thank you. All right, we have a motion on the phone has been properly second. All those in favor and motion carries uh 6 to1. That moves us to the discussion agenda. um starting with the comprehensive financial report. Um we can have Manley Garvin come on out. Thank you for being so patient with us this evening. >> Madam Chair, we have from Manley Garvin, Luke Vickery and Jonathan Meredith. Uh Johnson is a manager and CPA Luke Vicky. So we appreciate you being here and waiting. Floor

239is yours. >> Thank you Dr. Ross and uh members of the board. Uh again, my name is Luke Vickery. Uh I am your external CPA and we are here to present the results uh of the audit report for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Uh inherent in any audit report, the numbers are a bit dated. So I will try to focus on the results of the audit report. Um not necessarily the numbers since you guys have received the latest and greatest uh during this meeting and and I'm sure subsequent as they have changed since June 30th. But if there's anything that you would like me to talk about specifically in the weeds here, I'm more than happy to make time, but trying to be mindful of your time. Um, if I can have the next

240slide. Oh. Oh, I have a wonderful. See, y'all are prepared. I appreciate it. Um, what we issued our opinion over the financial statements on December 15, 2025. We issued an unmodified a clean opinion over the financial statements. uh meaning that that is the highest opinion we can give uh as your external auditors over the financial statements. Um that means that these are financial statements are materially correct not every penny inherently in any audit. There's materiality. Uh if we were auditing every penny, we would be with Heather and her team uh every day of the year and she would be complaining about us. Um so materiality is involved here, but you can make decisions about the district using these numbers. Um we issued our opinion on December 15th. I want to talk about that for just

241a moment. Uh if you if you've served on the board for a while, you know that your deadline is technically uh December the 1st. Um that that we issued our opinion not due to tardiness. Uh it is still considered um uh timely. That is due to the federal government's delays in issuing um some guidance that were required for any audit to be issued. And so that is uh to every school district and every government in the United States, we were delayed because of that. Again, I want to be very clear is not due to anything uh in any issue with the um with the district. That is a timely opinion. The state of South County ended up giving us until January to issue the opinion. So, well before that extended deadline there. Um, as a

242results of the financial statements, we had a general fund increase of about $2.1 million. Our special revenue fund decreased by about $150,000, which is about expected. Uh, food service increased by about 900. Debt uh service increased by about 6.7. your capital projects uh no surprise to you guys increased by about $63 million primarily due to the 2025 general obligation bond that was issued during the year. Um additionally we issued our uh a report on the internal controls of the district called the yellowbook report. That's on page 133. Uh in during those testing of the internal controls as a government we required to come in and test your internal controls more heavily than say a um a a for-profit company. uh in doing those internal patrol testing, we noted one material weakness that was identified on

243page 139. We've worked with the district. They have uh identified their remediation steps and working to um correct that uh reporting uh error. Um additionally, we noted no significant deficiences in internal controls over the audit report over internal controls during the testing of our audit. Uh and lastly, for our third opinion, uh we issued a uniform guidance report. Um that is uh the report required to test your internal controls and compliance with spending federal funding. Specifically um we tested the single law the the title one and the ESF programs. So the internal controls over those programs and compliance with federal guidelines over those programs. In doing so we noted no issues in internal controls and we noted no compliance issues uh during those testics. So, three opinions, one finding related to the yellowbook opinion. Uh,

244this is your budget to actual uh for the general fund. I usually like to spend just a moment on this. Um, we had an increase of $2.1 million to the general fund. Um, that restatement there is related to the material weakness that we identified previously and discussed. We uh basically some general fund money was deposited into the debt service fund uh last year incorrectly due to a confirmation from uh a county that was relied upon that was incorrect. We moved that money as a restatement for the debt service to the general fund this year to correct that of $560,000. So we ended the general fund fund balance of about $66 million uh in in um fund balance. This is the uh five-year analysis of your general fund. Uh as board members, you guys pay a

245lot of attention specifically to your general fund and how you operate. Um one of the key metrics that we look at is from the GFOA, which is the Government Financials Officers Association. And basically what they say is we recommend you to have two to six months of unassigned fund balance on hand at any time. So as of June as of June 30th, 2025, uh district 5 had 2.5 uh months of general fund uh fund balance available. It was unassigned. Uh what that essentially means in layman's terms is if all funding was cut off to the district and we certainly do not expect that. I want to be very clear but we could operate um with for two and a half months w without a budget cut. Um and so there are certainly some nuances there

246but that's kind of the layman's terms that I like to talk about specifically of that of unassigned fund balance of two and a half months. So you're within that recommendation. As you can see over the last few five years you guys have certainly trended around that two and a half months of general fund fund balance. That is the overall results of your audit report. Again, I'm trying to be mindful of your time and your busy agenda. Um there is a secondary report that you received. It's a report to the board of trustees. It's a kind of a plain English version of the audit um process. And so what that report comes from is some of the accounting fiascos of the early 2000s. And basically uh while many things were happening, one of the main things

247that was happening is the auditors were telling management, hey, you have issues here. and management was telling the board, hey, everything is fine. And auditors and board were not communicating. So what came out of those fiascos is this board report. And so basically, if we identified any things that didn't arise to the level of the audit report, but we still wanted to make you aware of, say disagreements with managements or or significant issues in issuing the audit, um internal control findings that maybe didn't rise to the level of the audit report, we would put those in this report. That said, there are none of those items, but this is the medium that we utilize um to discuss those issues. Uh if again, there are none in there, but this is the medium that was utilized.

248Uh that said, again, I'm trying to be brief and comprehensive over the the results of the audit. Is there any questions at this time or anything I can I can dive into a little bit deeper? >> Do we have any questions for Luke? >> Thank you, Luke. >> Thank you. And I would to take a moment uh uh to to appreciate Heather and Dr. Ross and their team. audit is never uh an easy endeavor. Uh and they are exceptionally helpful in getting us all the information we need uh to wrap up our audit timely. Again, the delays due to the federal government here, but we sincerely appreciate all that they do for us. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you so much, Luke. I certainly appreciate your hard work. [clears throat] Uh most of

249this, uh we have already discussed at Friday, so I'm just going to blitz through it, Madam Chair. Um and We were discussing the state aid the classroom and uh the impacts that are here. We ask your advocacy as we look at uh the state aid the classroom, its policies, its potential impacts to the budget. Um again, a proviso is a one-year uh it it stands as law because it's attached to the budget. Uh but it has not gone through the full legislative process, but it still has the power of law. Uh as you heard um our revenue and expenses uh in our reserve you heard from um our auditors are uh reserve position for unassigned and and the total amount. Um but 64% of our revenue comes from the state. Uh this is different from

250act 388 where 50 or 49% of our revenue used to be local. um after act 388 it is reduced. So um if you were here prior to 2006 we had a very strong local uh revenue stream from all of the 4% properties in our community. Uh this is the simplified allocation level for uh our proviso. This is the simplest we can show it uh from the the state uh which shows that it's uh extremely difficult to predict what our revenue streams will be. So this is the way uh I explain it to uh the fourth graders when I explain our budget is that we used to have um the EFA the educational finance act that had been longstanding tradition in our state for years where you have what's called base student cost where everyone will

251count the number of students and multiply it times the base student cost. That was that ADM. Uh we no longer have that with the proviso. Now with the proviso, that student must walk through a door and be converted into a weighted pupil unit. It's the weight of the students, not necessarily the number of students. That weighted pupil unit for a base student is 1.0. But they must walk through another door in which they have to share part of their weight with the charter districts. As a result, our student is now 75. But that's not the end. Our student must walk through another door which is the index of taxpaying ability and that will minus our local tax base. District 5 is the 16th largest tax base in the state of South Carolina. So that would

252reduce our student again. And then our student must then access to the state funds. The state funds are are projected to grow one point $150 million, but you have to do that across all the districts. And so, while we may know the total amount in the state pot, what we do not know is the weight of the other districts and the relative growth of the other districts. So, I think a lot of people said, "What's the number of students you lost that must impact your funding?" be advised. It's not the the the number is important, but it's the weight of the students that matter more. You can lose students and grow in funding based on your relative grade uh growth and your relative weight of your students. So, uh it's very hard to project um

253with all of these unknowns what our our state share will be. the RFA uh had to as a part of the proviso had to make a report of uh proviso 1 three and as a result they have these nine recommendations I want you to pay attention to recommendation six and seven these uh are going to really impact our state share uh to send all um u funding through the formula uh would reduce the revenue that we from the state. Uh number one being health care. Our healthcare premiums are increasing. If we send that through the formula as we talked about Friday, uh this will have a huge impact on our state revenue. And uh other items going through the funding like CTE, we get a 100% of that. If that has to be shaved down,

254uh we have to account for that somewhere. So we looked at our budget priorities. Uh our priority as a district is to address the cost of living for LR5. Um 42% of South Carolina struggle with South Carolina struggle with the basic household needs. Um so we want to help families with education cost. Uh we are um proposing in our budget. Uh want to thank academics and uh operations for putting together a program where we can have students go to Harvest and campus and uh pursue an associates degree pathway. If you take advantage of all of the courses, including the summer courses, these students can earn up to an associates degree that'll be two years articulated um in the state of South Carolina of free college that they can receive in high school. Looking at the

255operational priorities, uh last year, everyone talked about teacher pay raise. Uh the board has uh on Friday talked about teacher pay raise and lowering class sizes. So I want to share where we are on that. Uh again, at the 16th largest tax base, that's our ability to tax, but it's not necessarily our willingness to tax. So this is where we are in terms of uh the state in terms of the average teacher salaries. Um And um uh I just wanted to uh show that in terms of class sizes uh you can see the number of uh unfunded positions instructional positions that we have within the district. U so what the state provides we over hire that and so we would pick up 100% of the cost on on that to lower class sizes to provide

256the supports that uh talked about. So our focus this year administratively is on staff pay raise. Uh if you look at our lowest um class class six starting uh salary is lower than the 100% federal poverty level for one person. And so uh we as as we heard the importance of our teachers and our staff. We need to take care of our staff. And so this is our staff schedule and our step schedule uh for hourly uh employees. Our proposal is to start at the top uh the lowest class level six and delete those values and then shift all those values uh up one level or down one level. Um and then use that same rate to fill in the last level there. Uh so doing that uh we would shift all pay sales up

257one level while maintaining the current salary class system uh and do new uh sales for for class 27. So um again this is uh our our budget for uh for the administration priorities to address the cost of living support staff. We're looking at the supplement pay uh that we will bring to you, uh the certified staff pay that we just talked about, the associate degree pathway, and then codifying continually those tier 2 academic interventions and the supervision increase that we talked about for cyber security and expectation coaches. our budget calendar. Um know it's tough to look at in this format uh but we finished the budget planning workshop. We have your priorities. Um we will have reappointments and strategic planning for the 23rd and then put all this together for April 20th uh for the

258budget discussion and then May 4th would be the first reading with second reading uh in June 8th. It's important to understand that the teachers want to know as soon as possible what they're going to be making for the next year. So, um, we would like to have first reading before those contracts are due on May the 10th. >> Do we have any questions? >> Right. Thank you, Dr. moves us to the update on the MPS report. >> Thank you, Dr. Ross. Madam Chair, as we come forward to um give you an update on the NPS report or the McMillan passing Smith report, the 2023 report, I want to point out that it is just that is the 2023 report. This document is three years old. Um, each day we get on average 22 work orders.

259That's 100 a week. That's 3,600 a year while students are in session. During the summer months, it's about half that. So, on average, we get about 5600 work orders. We have a 92% fill or completion rate. Since this document was published, we've had over 15,000 work orders. in addition to the NPS report. So, as Allan walks you through this, I want you to know it's not just this report that's being addressed, it's all those additional work orders we get. I point I bring that data to your attention because if we wait until we finish the MPS report, we'll never move forward. We'll never do fields. We'll never do press box. We'll never provide the things our students need. This is a moving document. A week from now, it'll be another 100. a month, another 400.

26011 months from now, it' be another 5,000 work orders. Right. >> See, >> so as we started our the the MPS report, um we wanted to focus on the schools that were um given um a score of of two. So, as you can see, most of those reside in the Hermo and Chapen cluster, and they're identified in the orange. What we [clears throat] see right here is our dashboard of our work order system. Um, this is a trend for the full 12 months. Um, you may notice that in June it dips and then it spikes back up in August. And that was mainly due to the cyber event that that we had. um some folks actually struggled to get um information into the system. So [snorts] while we are seeing uh 22 requests a day

261that is yeah every every day seven days a week. So that's the way the system looks at it's just not a business day and on top of that we're getting we're getting phone calls we're getting emails we're getting text messages and there's nobody within the operations or facility department that's going to say no. They're going to go try to address everything they possibly can. So a lot of information doesn't actually get captured in this system. This is just somebody who has access to the system and populates a work order. [clears throat] [snorts] Here is our dashboard that we have um that I use as a tool for myself. Um and I believe the the cart group um they actually have access to this right here. This is for the the bond referendum. What we have

262here is the project by cluster, um the design status, and then what we've expensed to date. Um when you look at the design status, it tells us where we have where we are percentage wise. Um and then as you know, those percentages increase, you'll see that you know the bar is going to increase there. Um one cool thing about this about this app is you can you can like it's very interactive. So you can like touch the screen and you can like drill down to see how much is spent on on a certain project. For example, um we'll just to say the uh classroom wings over at um Chapen and Lane Murray. If I click that bar, it'll be highlighted. The rest of them will be shaded and it will actually give me the amount

263for that we've expensed for that project. Here we have the information from the NPS report. I know um a lot of folks have have asked you how do we track this stuff? Um [snorts] Dr. Ross mentioned you know per the NPS report I think we had 11,000 occurrences. I call those task um you know for us to sit there and track that information you know 11,000 items it's a lot. So what we did was we um we grouped everything. So when we're seeing over here completed projects over to the right hand side you know we're showing 410 projects but within that project we we have a little over 3,000 task in there. So if we have flooring for example you know having 50 you know flooring tasks to to you know take care of a

264school. What we're trying to do is roll it under you know flooring itself and then it's it's it's easier for us to to digest it that way. And you know, when you look at the project type, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. Um, you know, we have ADA, general landscaping, and then, you know, flooring. Um, those are some of the big items that that were, you know, that we have to that we're tasked with with with taking care of. Uh, within this PowerBI application, we can actually select the school. I can click crossroads. And then what'll happen is on that pie chart, it'll actually highlight the items that we actually have for that school. So I'm just throwing out a number here. So if I, you know, if I click crossroads, uh, flooring may

265go the number from 36, you know, the projects it may drop down to about, I don't know, four. I'm just putting just an arbitrary number out there. But it helps us really dial into what are the needs in that school. So we can say, hey, this right here, we may have to go get an architect for some of this stuff or here we need to get electrician or we need to get plumbers. We need might, you know, maybe we we're bringing in some more HVAC folks to help us address and tackle some of these things. So it's a it's a really neat tool that we have to um to help us see what you know, what are some of the items that that um we need to address at the school. Um, as you can

266see, we've completed 13 total projects so far. Uh, [snorts] we have six that are in Q and about 25 active pro um projects. Um, we were able back in November, we were able to hire a um a bond manager and um this individual has really been able to help us accelerate a lot of these things. And I think uh in Q I think we have um it's over $2 million worth of work that's in Q right now in just that short span of time. Here we're going to go over the u the five-year capital strategic and capital cycle. Dr. Ross, you want to talk about this? >> Thank you. So this is kind of an outline. We talked about how we would strategically look at our our capital. We said we would do it in

267line with the strategic plan. The new strategic plan starts uh the 2728 school year. Uh so um for uh the fifth year cycle, we're looking at site conditions uh approved capital projects and technology. Our goal is for the next strategic plan to get away from this. Um when we look at um over $6 a square foot in maintenance and um the uh amount that we have uh this methodology of every year we bring our capital needs, we discuss it and then we approve it. Um hearing the stats from Dr. Garrett, we'll never get ahead. We'll always be behind. And so our plan is uh the capital 26 would be the last as we reconcile our progress on the referendum. Uh and then we would move to this taking from what we learned from the NPS

268report. Uh each year we would ask for an aotment of funds to go into these categories and as those needs arise we can hit them um as we go through just like we do with technology. We uh we assess $4 million for technology. Our annual maintenance is 15. So we really only have 11 million dollars chasing all these problems. So we hear the concerns, we hear the cries, we're asking for the resources and the methodology to hit them as we need to hit them. I have confidence in the in the team, but if we can put the money in the buckets uh and if we need to move it around, we'll do it just like we do. Bring it back to this body and say, you know, we need less in building an envelope and

269more in furniture. Um but we can move that around, but we need the uh a lot of districts that do it this way um don't narrow us down to these specific spots. they have the buckets. So as the problems arise, we have the ability to go and address it. So as we look at compiling the last of the capital, capital 26, uh we're looking at our capacity to address what we have. We'll issue 100 million in referendum debt. Uh and then uh there's a capacity of 21 million uh that we can have for the these projects. So, as we look at what has just been approved for A&E, uh that gives them some gives us some space uh to to actually fund those if the board wants to move forward. Uh but this just looks

270at our u what we have done and as we move forward to the uh next strategic plan year um we will ask to be placing these funds in buckets a full accounting of all of the funds from uh the first year to the fifth year. We discussed that at our our budget meeting uh so that u we can use that to go and address the items that we already have in the queue uh that are not in the uh referendum that are reporting on the um uh in in our site plans. I mean I'm sorry in our um in our project listings here. So um that is our our our goal of moving forward. We feel like we're in good position to address these. We're very thankful to the voters of of giving us the

271resources in the referendum to address these items that uh that not only have been identified in 2023 but continue to happen each and every day. So again, I would just end with this. We identify we identify the 22 a day on the input system. The reality might be double that in terms of what we're actually doing. >> Do we have any questions? Miss Huddle. >> Um MS, can you go back to the the slide that had the little graphs and on it that had the keep going that one. So, um, [snorts] is that eight schools? Did I count that right? On the left in the blue, Chris Dutch Fork High School, the bars at the top. Am I right? >> Yes, ma'am. Those are those are the schools. >> So, I just want to make

272sure I understand. So, this is the McMillan passed in Smith is it it's and then on the right it says completed projects 13 and it goes from zero to 410. So there are 410 >> 410 projects >> for eight schools. >> It's 410 projects and then you know so but that's 3,000 task a little over 3,000 tasks. >> But so can you kind of give an example of the difference between a project and a task? So, um, like I mentioned earlier, flooring. We may have, um, I'll use Dutch Fork High School for example. We have a lot of carpet at Dutch Fork High School that we're in the process of of getting rid of. Um, so, um, there might be 10, 15, 20, 30 areas, rooms that need to have that stuff replaced. So that's

273going to fall under a task of you know it might be uh or a project those or those tasks will fall into a project um like flooring per se. So we're just trying to categorize those to where we can actually manage what we have because otherwise you know it would just it would be really hard to see that progress. So, are these 410 projects um are they, if you go back to the MPS report, I think there were either four or five ratings um critical, poor, whatever. Are these everything that they did not rate as a green or one um or just critical and poor? What which are these? So, the their rating system is a one, which means you need to take care of it right right then and there um or as fast

274as possible. And then you have I think a five, which means it's it's way out. So, you're really you're in the green. You're good. Uh all these items here are a one, two, or three to help us get the building back up to, you know, a three or better. Okay. Um, just keep in mind that, you know, every day that things pass, we may have a piece of equipment fails or or some something new um, pop up. But, um, I think the way we are addressing this now and then having some, you know, having a new resource, having a new person kind of help us drive this right here, we're going to make a massive dent in this. >> Okay. And so, um, we have 20. This is eight. So we have what is that

27516 other buildings um and some of them weren't the overall building score wasn't low but there were critical um number one issues in those schools what are we doing about those >> so we're addressing that through our capital side um you know that that's you know I wish it would move a little bit faster but those things were are being addressed on the c on through capital >> okay so these These in these schools are all through the bond referendum. >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. So, these 410 projects are all going to be taken care of with the bond referendum. >> This right here is all bond referendum except this is from the NPS report. >> Okay. So, um so those one, two, and three items are all they have 410 projects for eight

276schools and they're all in the bond referendum. >> They are. >> Okay. the other um 14 schools. Um which items are you tracking for them? All the same thing, the one, twos, and threes or just the ones and twos? >> It's a it's the ones and twos. Um if they if they have the some school may some schools may not have a one, they may just have a two. >> Okay. But but you're tracking the individual items. We are tracking the number. >> So even like Piney Woods, brand new schools still had I think at least one one or one two. >> Yes, ma'am. So you know I think Piney Woods one of their biggest concerns um that was vocalized to me was the they their PA system was actually going through their fire alarm

277system and they wanted a separate standalone system for a PA the PA system. So um that's something that we're um we're going to have to get an architect for that. However, there's an um they wanted some additional canopy work and and that's already been out to bid and that's been awarded. So, those are the kind of things that we can speed up if we don't have to go through an architect on. Um but their stuff is all being addressed through capital. >> Okay. So, um the the ones and twos for the other schools that will go through capital has um that is that capital money we've already issued or is that future capital money or some of both? >> I believe that's capital money we've already issued. >> Okay. So, we have already we we

278don't need money for anything or we need money for things. We don't need money for any of the MPS stuff. That was a one or two >> at those schools in a one and we don't need any capital money. We already have it. >> I don't want to say that we don't need capital. What what I am saying is that we have task that that that snapshot in time as they walked out the door they said hey you have 11,000 and some odd occurrences. That's the term Dr. Ross uses. I use the word task. Um so I'm using those interchangeably. So I had those 11,000 items. Now the estimates that they gave us at that point in time might have been a little low, some may have been a little high, you know, so MPS

279gave us estimates on some of these items. That was a part of the whole um you know, a part of their study. Um so you know there might be something that comes up that we we say, hey, we might need a little bit more, we might need a little less. Um or some things, you know, we may speak with the fire department and they may say, hey, you know, you're good. You don't need to do this right here. Um, so we those are things that we're just we're working actively working through. >> Let me just point to this that NPS is when we look at NPS that is that's that that snapshot when we walked out the door. >> Yes, sir. >> You took all those tasks, organized it. These schools represent what was in

280the bond referendum listed out for that I think $39 million. Correct. >> Yes, sir. >> So all of that was in there. Then we had some ones and twos that were not in the referendum. >> Correct. Um and so whether the referendum u passed or fail, these things were not in the referendum. So in the fall of 2024, we issued $15 million of of debt to address those those ones and twos of the schools that are not in the referendum. And to move forward, what we're asking is to move to this system where you would have the buckets to address those things that appear in the categories that are in the NPS. So, I think that that's that's our our format, our strategic plan, a way of of of moving this thing forward here. >>

281One other question. Um because we just I know y'all want to go, but um this stuff matters. This is a ton of money and and we have buildings that leak, so it matters. Um, last question. Um, just because it's it was on the topic tonight. Where do athletic stuff fit in this? Because it it so is it just in your opinion like, you know, we we heard a health and safety issue, you know, is so is that how you look at it? It wouldn't be its own category, right? You would look at athletic, whatever it is. Let's say um the basketball court develops a hump, right? That would be potentially a health and safety issue because people could trip >> or it could be a sight >> or it could be an envelope issue if

282it causes a leak, right? >> Could be could be a sight condition. I know um if you if you walk around some of some of these schools, you'll see that there's been a lot of settling going on and you'll see variations and deviations in sidewalks. So, it could be something, you know. Okay. So, thank you. >> I have a very quick question. That um dashboard, is that the most recent >> update from it? You said that obviously it's always kind of moving, but is that the most recent >> for for Dutch >> just in general? Is that a screenshot from your dashboard? >> Yes, ma'am. That was uh I think maybe one day last week. So, >> thank you. Any other questions on this topic? All right. That moves us to discussion of the proposed

2832627 board meeting schedule. Miss Taylor. >> All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. I know my place on the agenda, so we are going to do this quickly but um thoroughly. Um it is time to approve um our schedule of board meetings for next year, next school year. So um in your packet is um a list of suggested dates. It's going to look very similar to to what you have seen before. Typically two meetings a month. There are a few months where we just do it once. um continuing to meet here at the center during the school months and at the district office during the summer months and continuing to begin the public portion of the meetings at 6:00 p.m. Um I will say after we gave you this schedule of suggested dates, we did hear

284that a trustee has an unavoidable conflict with the October 19th meeting. So it it has been suggested that that meeting change to October 26th if the board is agreeable to that, but otherwise we will take your suggestions and feedback and then bring it for um a vote next meeting. >> Mr. Bum, >> it was just a process question. So on that October one, would we because it's right before the election, the week before, would we still do a board officers meeting that week? being that close or how does that typically work when you're right up against the election? >> Yes. So following that week, the board officers at that time will set the agenda. Typically that's a light one of just u >> because of the election especially this year with four seats being >>

285any other questions regarding the calendar or the meeting schedule? All right. Are we good to make that change in October? >> Sure. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Make a motion to adjourn. >> Second favor. >> And the motion carries seven to zero. Y'all have a good night.