October 27, 2025 School Board Meeting

001It is 5:00 pm. I'm going to call the October 27th, 2025 meeting to order. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? And the motion carries um six to zero. Can I get a motion to enter into executive session? >> Make a motion to enter executive session to consider the following. Selected employment items exhibit A for action. Selected employment items exhibit B information only. Discussion of employee compensation exhibit C and legal advice regarding civil action number 325-CV-03528-JDA-ph. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. All those in favor and the motion carries six to zero. At this time we will adjourn to enter into executive session. It is 5:45 and I'm going to call to

002order the finance 101 workshop. I can't hear you. >> I didn't have like an introduction prepared or anything. Dr. Ross, do you have something you need to say before we start? >> Uh, yes ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the board, we are uh very fortunate to have the esteemed Campbell here. And when Scott wants to train superintendents on understanding school budgets, uh, they call Missy. Uh, when the legislature wants testimony on how, uh, legislation impacts school finance, they call Missy. Uh, and so when we wanted a school finance 101, there's no one better in the state. uh well respected by ScazBow by uh every administrator uh in the state of South Carolina for her knowledge. So we're very uh gracious to have from Spartanberg 7 Missy Campbell. So thank you so much for

003being here to guide us through this workshop. >> Thank you so much Dr. Ross um Chairman Snipes and members of the board. Wow, I am humbled by that. Thank you very much. Um I am again Missy Campbell. I am the CFO of Spartanber 7 School District. Um, I've been doing this for 36 years. Yes, I am that old. Um, and I will say this, when I take the podium with my own board, they get very nervous because they know I love to talk about school finance. It is my passion and they get very nervous that what might be an hour board meeting could turn into a lot longer. But I promise I I know the drill. I know my time. Um, again, I'm thankful to be with you tonight. It is truly an honor to

004to be able to come and to share with you. and I also thank you for your service. I know it's hard to sit on that side um of the table, but I thank you for what you do for the children in this district. So, there's actually two phases to our finance 101. Um phase one is tonight, and we're going to talk more about just all the different pots of money. I know you focus on general fund a lot, but there's a lot of other pots of money that we're going to talk about. Um and that's really the foundation for what we will do when we get to phase two, which um will be in November. Um, at that one we will talk more about budget. We'll do a deeper dive into that. We'll talk about

005debt and debt management and then just good financial practices for school districts. The approach to this was a little bit different from what I have done in the past. Um, so when I pull a finance 101 together, it's usually very broad, very general. I actually took your 2024 uh caffer from your website and I tried to infuse your numbers and your information in this presentation because I wanted it to be real to you. I didn't I didn't want to talk about statistics that may or may not apply to you. So, um I pulled your information in from that time. I'll also say I'm going to accelerate this a little bit and probably talk faster through some slides. when I kind of did a a rolling trial at my house last night, I spoke for one

006solid hour and that was without breathing just about. So, you know, I want to be able for for it to be, you know, conversational if that's what you need, but um some ability to to affect a millage change, but even with that in um act 38 in 2006, it came along and said that the that that the boards, even if you had fiscal autonomy, could only increase millage by CPI plus growth. Now, they did come along in 2011 and um update that um u make an amendment to that um language and it gives you the ability to go back and calculate look back millillage. So, I'm sure when y'all going through your budget process, you know what CPI plus growth equates to for your district, but you also have the ability to go and calculate

007look back, which says what did you leave on the table. it adds together um your your CPI plus growth for the last three years and it says if you didn't use any of that you can add that together um for your millillage increase. There are a few there's actually five reasons that you can exceed CPI plus growth. I didn't list all five. I list what I felt like were the most important three. If you have a deficiency from a previous year, you could exceed CPI plus growth. Um, if you had a close of a business that altered your revenues, tax revenues by more than 10%. You could increase um, and this one, it says unfunded state or federal mandate. I think we all know there's there's there's several un and underfunded state mandates. Don't know

008that I've ever seen anybody use that as a reason. Um, but I will say that the second line closing of a business, that's that's real. I know in my district um we had a um forprofit hospital that became um was sold and became part of a not for-p profofit and it was a $ 1.4 million hit to me um during a fiscal year. Um but I pulled out my CPI plus growth and the reasons that you can exceed it and it was 9% difference in the revenue. So my board couldn't even utilize that. So enough on that one. The third thing that act 38 does is it caps the increase on those values, the market values to 15% every five years. Um it added an additional penny sales tax. That's what um it was the

009homestead exemption fund. That's what gave the money so that we could reimburse the school districts. I will tell you that in 200 2006 2007 it was a dollar for-dollar reimbursement. So whatever you' got the previous year, you got that. Ever since then, um, it is only being increased, um, by CPI. So, there are some school districts that have done some studies, I've not been one of them, that said what we're what you're getting under the homestead exemption fund now for that funding, what does that look like versus if you would have just continued on in a tax base um, situation. And the the number was large for the districts that have done that. So, I just share that. And then the last thing Act 38 does is it just hurts fast growing districts. So what

010do I mean by that? Well, if you're a fast growing district, more than likely you've got people moving in, you've got operating cost and and sometimes it's easier to get the capital cost to build a school than it is to get the operating cost to staff the school. So for these districts that are fast growing, um that CPI plus growth doesn't staff a new school. So what act 388 does not do um and these aren't necessarily my opinions this is from language that that I pulled back when all of this happened you know it does not increase revenue to school districts yes you get more each year but what you would have got under the old mechanism obviously there's a differential there it doesn't allow school boards um to control local spending so again in

011the past you know when you had fiscal autonomy you had fiscal autonomy now you have fiscal autonomy but with you can only change it by um CPI plus growth. Um sometimes we've found that doesn't provide the most businessfriendly tax structure because when you do increase your operating millage, you're not increasing it on, you know, your homeowner u the 4% homeowner, it's all it's I guess it's it's it's exacerbated a little bit that it's going on your businesses, your second homeowners, your renters, stuff like that. It's hard to promote innovation under um you know a tax situation like this and then again it just doesn't promote you know necessarily good school business uh relationships. >> Um before I'm sorry before we go to the next section just because it's a lot of information. Um it is

012>> um I want to I figured maybe periodically we could just stop and see if we have questions on a particular section because I thought that might make it easier. U Mr. Satderfield and then Miss Huddle. Uh yeah, I had a question. You you talked about um because we are a district that's really growing pretty fast. What are some ways that it really hurts district f that are fast growing with act 388? Well, like I said, it um when you go back to that slide, it is very difficult when you've got and I haven't tracked yours as much as I've tracked another district and um um one of my peers. Um they are the fastest growing school district in the state and it's just it's very difficult um to to bring the revenues on. Again,

013sometimes it's easier to get the capital dollars to build the school, but it's very difficult to get the operating dollars to to staff that school. So CPAP plus growth has just it it's really been difficult to generate those revenues to build a school. Um now what some districts have looked at, I'll be honest with you, they've looked at impact fees. Some of those very fast growing that has to be approved by your county council. There's a whole that that can be a whole discussion all by itself. But those districts that are in that top tier have resorted to looking at something like that. Again, just just so you can staff the school to to handle the growth. Yes, sir. >> Miss Huddle, >> um [clears throat] I was going to ask one thing, um correct

014me if I'm wrong, Act 38 did do though, is it it made funding more fair in South because I think there's a misunderstanding that people think that poor school districts in our state don't receive as much operating revenue as wealthier school districts, but because of act 388 on the operating basis, they actually generally receive more. It's all distributed on that index of taxpaying ability and that's a big component of it which is the the relative wealth of your school district. >> Anybody else right now? >> All right. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um we're going to shift a little bit. We've talked a lot about local revenue, but let's shift to to state revenue. Um so when I when we first want to talk about state revenue, most districts the most material number

015would be that state aid to classroom. So remember for 45 years we had the education finance act started in 1977 um effective with a 2223 school year we had the new funding model well we continue to call it the new funding model even though I think it's got a name now state aid to classrooms um that has garnered a lot of discussion um if you will remember just this past legislative session late in that legislative session the waitings were changed for the virtual charter school um the Other thing that I think that became very important from that legislation, not only when the the waitings were changed, but the legislature asked revenue and fiscal affairs through a proviso to to seek input from stakeholders. I think that was the wording that was used. Um because several

016of us had continued to talk about how state aided classroom was very difficult from a school district side and we're going to talk about it in a minute, but from a budgeting standpoint um and and they've asked revenue and fiscal affairs to look at what might be modifications to that state aided classroom. They have done that. I actually saw a report uh last week. Now several of us are still meeting together and trying to dig through it. there were nine recommendations. Um I'm sure y'all will talk about that before too long and and um what we need to happen now though is legislative activity. So I think it's a little bit premature to talk about those recommendations because they may or may not come to pass. But I but I do think there was an

017extraordinary effort on on behalf of revenue and fiscal affairs to look at that and we'll talk about why some of those um those recommendations are going to be important. Um, so state edited classrooms and I know that y'all have had presentations on this in the past, so I don't want to belabor that point, but the strategy, notice the strate the strategy said to fund classrooms based on an average student teacher ratio. So this past year, the the budget was funded or the state was funded based on an 11.2 to1. Um, now you and I both know that you probably I I haven't looked at your class sizes, but you probably have more than 11 students in your classrooms, but that was just a number that they targeted to say this is the number that we're

018going to use to define um and allocate. Now, it's not necessarily classroom teachers that are included in 11.2 to1. There's an entire list of instructional folks, and you'll see that on the next slide. But basically the funding that comes from this state aid to classroom starts the the the the pie and you'll hear me I talk about buckets and I talk about pies. Um the pi for state aid to classroom starts with the number of teachers that are going to be funded in order to get to that 11.2:1 ratio times the average teacher salary. And that's been deemed to be a master's 12. number of teachers times the average class room teacher salary. I will say this, that's what determines the size of the pie. Notice at that point we've not talked about students and

019waitings. But that's about and and don't hold me to this. That's about $5.2 billion of a$1 13 billion state budget. But it's based on those two factors. So I've given you a list. you have that information in your packet of the positions that are included in that state's allocation. When they talk about instructional positions, the ones on the left are the ones that are included. The positions that are not included and I think it's really important to list those as well because at the end of the day, it takes a lot of different positions to run a school and those positions that are on the right are not included in any way related to state aid to classroom. Now, I would argue back and get in because I'm old, so I was here when EFA

020was around. I would argue when we talked about base student costs and things like that, we were including and considering other positions than just the classroom teacher. And I know y'all talked in the past about your state aided classrooms and the waitings. And just remember, every student gets a waiting whether it's a base waiting for kindergarten, elementary, middle, high, um special ed students, students with disabilities have one unique waiting. If there is one thing that I that I feel so good about with this change is in the past under the old EFA, a visually handicapped child may have um had a different waiting than a hearing disabled child, than a different than an orthopedically disabled child. So now they just kind of covered it all under one um which was higher than the waitings we

021were seeing um back under the different categories and then obviously your pre pre-career and career technology are getting that base waiting to the right of the slide are all the add-on classifications and think such that it is an add-on. So if you had um a high school student who was a student in poverty um and was uh limited English proficient that student's going to generate a 1.7. Okay, so that's their waiting. Well, I talked about how the pot for the pi for state ed classroom was determined based on number of teachers times that stu that um teacher salary. Once you get the pi, then the pi is then the slices are determined based on two things. your weighted pupil units. Remember, weighted pupil units are your average daily membership, your enrollment times those waitings and

022then including your index of tax paying ability. And index of tax paying ability, remember that's just your your relative property wealth compared to someone else in the state. And then the last thing I'd say about state aided classroom is just remember for the traditional um public schools, we have a 7525 split. the charter schools are at a 100% share. They they also obviously don't have an index tax paying ability. The impact of that legislation and that and again this is still important because we're still talking about it. Your your backbone of your budget is a proviso. A proviso is a temporary law. It's a one-year law. EFA was codified. So it was permanent law. So we have our state aid to classroom which is the foundational funding for school districts still sitting in a proviso.

023um not included in that proviso and I think these are four important things as you build your budget and think about number one it doesn't include personnel for growth so when you talk you know Mr. Satderfield about growing a school and opening a school and having more teachers. Um it's not necessarily built for the growth of the teachers. Um it doesn't include the required salary um increases for the teachers like we used to the old days step plus x% that was funded in the base student cost. That's not necessarily funded on this because again you're talking a statewide average. Um I alluded to it earlier. you've got operating cost that are, you know, different than what was on the left side of that screen. That's where your funding is coming from, those positions on the

024left. And then just an inflation factor for growth during the year. So, that's a lot of conversation about state aid classroom. We're going to look at the numbers and how that all pans out in the next slide, but I would be remiss if I didn't talk about you have several of the categories of state revenue that are a component of your overall um state revenue for your district. The first three um are probably dollar-wise the more material ones um tier one, tier two, and tier three. So tier one was the 1995 legislation and that was our first the state's first attempt at relief for the homeowner and it exempted property that 4% property taxes on the first $100,000 for that homeowner. Um again that was 1995. Later tier 2 came along that was homestead and

025and that that's up to $50,000 for taxpayers that are 65 or older um disabled or blind. And then tier three came along and that was your act 388 in 2006 and that's what took the rest of those homeowner property taxes. The other categories of revenue that you see there again they they I say every dollar is material but they're not as large as as the tier ones or the state aided classroom but they're reimbursement for for loss property tax revenues and the state's just paying you back what what you would have received. Um, also included um in your state revenue would be money for your bus driver salary. It doesn't I don't think from your district it doesn't cover the cost in my district of of our transportation department, but we do receive money to

026offset a portion of the salary and fringe for those bus drivers. Um, I put transfers in. So, you have a couple of things in your transfer section. And the reason that one garnered some attention is state to classroom that $5.2 2 billion is actually funded out of two different sides of the state's budget. Part of it's in the state general fund, part of it in the EIA portion of the state. So, you actually have two lines that make up that state aid to classroom. You've got general fund money and you've got EIA money. And that EIA money is sizable. So, I wanted to make sure I called attention to that. And then last but not least, you do get some fringe benefits money for your employees. That's just that um money for employer health, retirement,

027and social security and and retirees. So, [snorts] here's a little bit of a deep dive on your state revenues. Again, um in 2024, you had a little over $133 million in state revenues. Um as you can see, the state aid to classroom piece 72.6. That was the that's the largest at 55%. um your act 388 was uh 36 million and that was approximately 27 um% of your overall budget. So you can see the distribution of those funds. Um you receive so remember our blue box you receive uh your state aided classrooms monthly. That's one of the things that will start in July. Your tier funding starts sometime in the fall sometime usually in October. the homestead you may not receive till well into the fiscal year but um you start receiving onetenth of that tier

028funding in the act 38 money in October and then again just like the general fund the local revenue side that state revenue is received at the county transferred to you and again just like the local it's very difficult to to associate this type of revenue with this type of expense so when I look at your general fund total revenue revenues and you do have a little bit of federal money, but obviously that's that's, you know, small compared to the overall 223 million. I just tried to step back and say, okay, when you look in totality, forget local, forget state, just in totality, 223 million, but it's about a 6040 split. Interestingly enough, that's what it looks like in my district. But I will tell you that's not what it looks like necessarily in in all

029districts. So, um, one thing that I share with superintendents and I, you know, and I will share with boards as well, when you have the majority of your funding coming from the state, then that's where I spend a lot of my time during the budget process is monitoring what's going on in the state. 60% of your funding is coming um, you know, from the state coffers. So, I pay a lot of attention to that during the budget process and try to track that very carefully. Um, and and I'm I'm sure y'all do as well. Let's see. Yes. Um I just before we go into the next section, um did anybody have any questions from Mrs. Hering? >> So you were talking about the teacher to student ratio and I think we all know we don't

030have 11 students in our class. So what is our district teacher to student ratio? >> Um I am not sure what your average um is. I can that would probably have to be a stat. I can tell you our policy our policy is 25 to1 is our policy but when you're looking at that 11.2 I think is in that calculation all those other positions as well. So it makes it look like you're supposed to have 11.2 Right. >> As soon as you add a nurse or as soon as you add a psychologist, you you have more students that so our policy is 25 to one and and I think kindergarten is a different one. >> Kindergarten is 25 as well except our title one gets different. So >> that's correct. So for title one schools

031I think 181 18 to1. >> Correct. That's that's a good point to bring up. Again, that 11.2 to1 that's covering other things than just a classroom teacher. When we think of a staffing ratio, we're talking number of kids with that face-to-face classroom teacher. >> So, if that number is different, then it affects we either are not funding all the teaching positions. So, we have to locally make up for that. Is that correct? And then can you tell me what other states use this funding model like >> like act 388 or the state aided classroom >> like 388 where they the funding for the public schools comes from businesses and >> I am not I am not sure of that. um we probably heard I I think there were several um economic analysis done back in

032the day on that but um that's been a while and if I remember I have now forgotten where that came from. I do know that on the state aided classroom there was a lot of research I hear across the state and I will even tell you in my district um just like y'all you know kindergarten is x to one first grade has a different ratio but in mine um our target is usually 18 to 19 to1 as an average for elementary so just in elementary that's that's pretty far off from us but that doesn't you know include our middle >> sville >> uh this is more question for Dr. Ross. I want to put you on the spot here, Dr. Ross. Um, we have, and this is probably something you've dealt with, too. We have

033more and more children that are being identified with special education needs, 504s, autism, various degrees on the spectrum. Um, how does that how any idea how much that has impacted I know it has to because it comes out of that same fund, correct? >> At 11 to two or 11 to1. Um, any idea how much that I know we just recently voted to add social workers? So, that's another another thing that the schools are dealing with too. Some >> Yes, sir. >> district. >> Miss, if you don't mind going to that slide of what it covers and does not cover and you can see as we um you look at, you know, the the kindergarten aids or special education aids. And so, as we go with more identified, that's coming more out of the local

034pot. Um you look at reading interventionists and math interventionists. Uh if that is not funded by title one, it's going to be coming out of the local pot. Uh as we look at custodians and shadows, uh a lot of that if it's not covered by um federal funds from IDEA or um title one, it's going to be coming out of the local pot expectation coaches. So, this just kind of gives you an idea of why the state says 11.2 or 11.21 and our numbers start to rise. And I think Missy uh I'm sorry Miss Campbell everybody calls her Missy uh referred to a a revenues revenue and physical affairs office put out on I think October 15th >> and it kind of shows you a list in their appendix of like where all the districts

035are in terms of funded uh positions and actually spent. you can see where all the districts are um in terms of how many positions are funded and then how we actually expend those positions. >> Yes sir. And I think we were in the same category on that report seven and Lexington 5. >> Anybody else? >> Sorry. >> All right. Thank you, Miss >> So I would be remiss if I didn't say this. Um we know how local funds are generated. Let's talk about how um local revenue is generated. Let's talk about how state revenue is generated. There are two things that are critical and core um for your state revenue, especially for that state a classroom. The data comes from P school, your student database that's got, you know, the students that are enrolled, the

036number of days that they're enrolled. Um, it includes their their classification, whether there are people in poverty, whether they're um limited English proficient. Um, and it comes from SE educator. And SE educator is the database that holds all your personnel information. Um, I would also be remiss if I didn't say, and I do this every time I talk about P school database, is to um, I said love on those P school folks at the school level because that's where that's where it's getting generated. um state aided classroom. When we talk about average daily membership and weighted pupil units and all those things that that are akin to that student in that school um that school's power school database feeds up to your district database that feeds up to the state level and that's how all

037this information is run and generated and calculated. So, I I I tell um aspiring principles and superintendents and whoever I'm meeting with, go go take them a box of donuts or something because that's that's that's a difficult job, but it is is critical. Um the other thing that I want to talk about because I know I had a question on this is just, you know, how is powers school how is that handled at the 45th day and the 135th day? How does that affect funding? So, I've given you a slide on this. So, um, when we were going through when y'all were going through the budget process, um, back in the spring, you were given projections on what your state aid to classroom would be. And, you know, obviously that's based on enrollment and and,

038um, the waitings of the student. That estimate can change radically at the 45th day and the 135th day. to think about when your district is reporting up to the state, they take that data and then they recalculate state aid to classroom. So, your allocations can change. So, we're all I think 45th day is about right now. I know my district's working on that. Um I'm sure yours is pretty close, too. So, you've got the 45th day data that's being fed up to the to the state level. Remember that pie I talked about on state aid to classroom and I said it's all sliced up based on weighty people units. Well, that pie is going to stay the same size. There's still the same amount of money that the state allocated under state aid to classroom.

039But now that pie is going to be resized. Your slice might get larger. Your slice might get smaller depending on neighboring school districts. You know what happened to their special ed population? Are they growing? Are they growing at a faster rate than you? So, one of the things that finance folks have been struggling with is, you know, I feel it's incumbent upon me to give my board accurate calculations. I mean, we're we're basing what we're going to do with ho how I can calculate revenue, but my hands are very tied. Uh that's not an opinion, that's a fact. when at the 45th day I find out I was um told I would receive X amount of revenue and and I didn't lose students but I now I'm going to receive why and I don't get

040that allocation and that change until January. We're halfway through the fiscal year at that point. So if it's a material swing for you there's not a lot that you can do midyear. So keep, you know, one of the things I've said was that's why we have a healthy fund balance so that I can handle midyear swings like that. Um, again, we talked about the the the report that's coming out. One of the recommendations in the report is that there would not be that 45th day and 135th day trueup per se. So that when you budget a number, you've got a number. But right now at the 45th day and the 135th day, the best way I know how to say it is your your state your state aided classroom is recalibrated. And that's a, you

041know, go back to that. We can go back to that slide that's 55% of your overall state revenues. Um, so I know one of the questions we had had was kind of how does the timing and what happens to that funding during the year? just know you may believe you're going to get this number, but but you don't know what's happening to the neighbors around you. And and obviously with the the the charter schools having the the growth, the explosive growth that they have, that's really, you know, that's where you're seeing the fastest growing school districts now. Um so that's kind of accounting for some of the the skewing of the numbers. All right, we talked a lot about general fund and local and state and and you know the federal revenue related to that.

042Um the next section we'll kind of go through pretty quickly. It's just the other different pots of money. Uh your special revenue funds. Uh again we said that can be your state restricted and I've given you um straight from your audit what were your state restricted funds back in 23 24 how much uh you know what was the value of those funds? the EIA funds, you know, they accounted for $21 million. A good component of that though is that piece of state aid to classroom. And then you have your federal funds, and I've listed those for you as well. The one takeaway on this slide would probably be these are very restricted. Again, we go back to the funding manual. They tell us what we can and we can't do. Also, things like your title

043one plan. You you have to write a plan for that. you you your schools are working with your district level folks to write a plan to submit to the department of education and and await approval of the plan and then you can spend it. Um as far as how we get that money, we receive state restricted EIA money at different intervals through the year. They do start in July or August, but not all of them start in July or August. um federal funds and this is important. You receive those funds after you spend them and within 45 days you make a claim for those funds and then within a couple of weeks you will receive the revenue for that. So again that's the put a pin in that from a timing perspective. You could have

044had a title one expenditure at the first of August and it may be the end of November before you actually receive the funds for that. So so what are you floating that expense with? That's where your fund balance comes into play. Again, revenue is received at the county and distributed to the district. Um, and these funds are very categorical in nature. There's not a ton of flexibility within those different categories. And one of the questions that I had was, well, how are those managed? Those federal funds and state restricted grants and EIA are normally um managed out of a federal programs office. And it may be federal, but they usually do a lot more than just federal. Um, in conjunction, most importantly, with school level, because like a title one plan, you you need to

045work with your principal at that school, that title one school on how they feel like those funds that are supplemental. You can't supplant with them. They're supplemental above and beyond that will help them move the needle academically. And then obviously also working in concert with um the finance department um to keep all those that's where I was talking about earlier. You end up with all these different pots of money, buckets of money that have all these different rules. You have to keep them all straight, keep them all accounted for and make sure that they're balanced by the time the auditors roll in. Debt service fund. Again, that is just what um covers the the the principal and interest payments on any outstanding debt that you have. Um Act 38 does not apply to this millillage.

046So remember, it applied to the um operating millillage. It does not apply to the debt service. So the taxes that are on the tax notices that goes AC for debt service purposes that goes to every property owner um in your district. Um the millillage is set by the board in compliance with a debt service schedule. Um and again the expenditures can't transfer this out and do something else with it. Can't pay a teacher's hour with it. Um you've got to make sure that you're using those funds to pay for your principal and interest payments on your debt. Um as far as timing of that, um you do receive those vehicle that that going on the vehicles again starting in July, but again you don't get the bulk of that until December. But that's okay because

047you only have fall interest payments on your debt, but in the spring you have your big principal and interest payments. So in that case, the money has come in by the time you've got to make the the payments on the debt. Uh school building fund. Again, that's just that's the proceeds from any bond sale that you may have. Again, not flexibility there. Can't transfer that and do something else with it. um it is solely to record the the expenditures for the bond sale. Now you say a capital projects fund there might be multiple subfunds that flow up to that one capital projects fund. I keep a separate fund for every single bond sale that I have so that you know number one it's easy to ensure my bond covenant said I was going to um

048spend it on this and I can prove that I spent it on what the bond covenant said that I should but also for um rebate and arbitrage purposes. Now, rebate and arbitrage, what that means is um when you sell a bond, you you've got the yield that you're going to pay on that bond, and you can earn interest all the way up to that yield. But in the event you earn more interest than what the the bond yield was, you get to give a little bit of that back. That gave me heartburn early in my career. I thought I had done something wrong. It's it means you've done a good job. You have maximized every available dollar under interest earnings. So, um, that's the other thing that I that I share with folks is when

049you see what your bond funds are earning on the interest. Don't get excited and go commit those too quickly until you've gone through your rebate calculations and make sure that you're able to keep those. Um, you receive the revenue when the bonds are sold and and as I said, you just you comply with your your bond covenants. Food service fund. Um, this one it just accounts for your food service, whether that's revenues from USDA reimbursement or meal sales um to students. And I've given you the breakdown on that on the left side. Um, 69% of your food service fund is coming from the USDA reimbursements. On the expenditure side, I've shown, you know, the salaries, the benefits, purchase services. I did a very high level there. Um, let me say kudos to you on this.

050One of the things that when I'm I'm training new folks, I tell them try to look at from a food service perspective, a 40 40 15% model. 40% should be spent on labor, 40% should be spent on food cost. You're going to have 15% in other cost associated with the program. And that should, if you can follow that, that should leave you with about a 5% um profit. Um this is the one, you know, entity that can have a profit. And why do you need that? because you're going to need to replace, you know, kitchen hoods. You're going to need to um replace warmers. Um you can spend these food service funds to to go back in and repair and replace your your equipment. Um your food service fund balance, I want to commend you

051on this. Um last year was 8.7 million. That's nine months operating. And I, you know, most of the time people are looking at about a three-month operating, but you know, given a lot of uncertainty, uh, you know, coming right now on when we may receive the USDA reimbursement, this is going to, you know, sit you well to be able to weather that storm until we can figure out what's going to happen at the federal level. So again, um you know that I when I did that slide, I loved seeing that food 40% on the labor cost because that is right on target with what industry experts would say. Um again, revenue is received when you claim the meals. Um and um expenditures must support the programs. That's very restrictive as well. Even if you're going

052to do something as simple as maybe paint the the the cafeteria, that may be a disallowed expense. even though it's happening in the footprint, they're very particular about what you can and you can't do um in the cafeteria. Student activity funds, again, that's just the fund at the school level. That can be ticket sales, that can be yearbook profits, that can be class dues. It really depends. Um different districts do different things. Principal usually um has a lot of flexibility in saying um how those funds are spent. Um, and at the end of 2024, there was about $4.7 million in reserve because you pretty much you what your I mean I'm saying in revenues and that is about the amount you spent out. So, it's a lot of in and out a wash of funds.

053We are getting close to time. So, I sort of wanted to give you a snippet of what because I didn't know how my time was going to work and I thought, well, I can keep talking. Um Um, so I threw this slide in here to show you what we're going to start with part two. So, we've had, you know, a foundational understanding of all the different funds. Um, when we come back together, then I'm going to begin with just building a budget now that you know all the components of it. Um, building that budget and this just gives you an idea of of the road that we're headed next. The last minute or two, what I would love to share with you are some of the questions that I got um that I don't know

054that I addressed during the presentation. So, I wanted to go through those. several of them. I did and I I know that I hit it during the presentation. Um discuss funds coming from homeowners and businesses. What accounts are credited for those? Remember, um those homeowners are not paying other than, you know, if they've got a car, they're not paying um school operating taxes um for the general fund, but they are for the debt service fund. Um and businesses pay at all. And again, there's there's it's really difficult to have a onetoone association. What did this type of revenue pay for in the general fund? uh why can money only go in one direction um from certain accounts to others? So, there's two things that sort of drive that. I've talked about that large funding manual

055that tells us what we can and we can't do. And then sometimes it's board policy. Some boards have a policy um about how you transfer money between accounts. It's not a one-sizefits-all. Um some boards will and and I think your board has a policy that any any transfer over $10,000 is brought to y'all. Um, my district has a different line item transfer authority and we don't necessarily, it's not codified in policy, but it's just a practice. We don't like to see money transferred from a school level account to a district level account or even at the school level from an instruction account to a a district um like a school administration account, things like that. So, sometimes it may not necessarily be policy, but it's practice. What are the causes of excess operating fund balances

056over the year? I think if if I could have a poster child for that would be state aid to classroom. That's just this this past several years and with proportionate share funding and not understanding and not knowing and not having any way of knowing how your proportionate share would change under that distribution um model has made it very difficult to to to budget as accurately as possible. Um the other thing I'll also say on the that talks on the revenue side on the expenditure side um I don't know about your district but in mine it's it's just been tough especially those first few years postcoid to keep staff employed. So you know I budget assuming that this staff member is going to stay the entire year and they don't and when they don't um you

057know we have we have excess funds for the fund balance. Um had a recent changes in federal and state funding affect our budget. We've talked a lot about the state um and again um as far as the federal, you know, I look first and foremost to that food service fund. And again, you're well suited to weather that storm um as it's going through. And then overview of a district's budgeting process. Um how is that budget developed and brought to the board? I gave you a little teaser of what we're going to talk about next time. Um I will say I have reviewed some of your documents in the past. past y'all are doing a lot of the same stuff that we're doing, but we will deep dive on budget preparation and things like that. And

058fair warned, that is also my favorite topic to talk about is budget preparation. Um because it's like a puzzle to me. You just got to figure out the puzzle. So with that, I have I have reached the end of my presentation and um thank you first and foremost. I I hope each of you have at least one takeaway um from this. So, >> thank you, Miss Campbell. Do we have any last questions? >> All right. Thank you. We'll see you at the next so much. >> I move that we adjourn the budget workshop. >> Second. >> All in favor? The motion carries. Six to zero. It is 6:40 and we're going to jump right in and convene our regularly scheduled um meeting. Thank you all for being with us. We have a pretty packed crowd

059um in here tonight. And since we're already starting a little behind today because of the budget workshop, we're going to jump right in. We'll have the invocation and pledge of allegiance by Trusty Jason Bum. >> Thank you. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for bringing everyone here safely tonight. We thank you for another opportunity to work on the business of our school district. We pray for wisdom and discernment and making decisions that will affect our students, teachers, staff, and community. I pray that you will keep everyone safe this week while participating in the many community and school events. Thank you, Lord, for the many blessings you have given us. In your name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Please stand for the pledge. If all the board members will go ahead and join me down

060front for the school board spotlight. All right, Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Ross, good evening. So glad to be with you tonight. And we do have some great groups to spotlight and celebrate tonight. The first one I want to share with you is that school district 5's office of finance has been awarded the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting by the association of school business officials international as well as the award of financial reporting achievement by the government finance officers association for its most recent annual comprehensive financial report. These honors recognize school districts that uphold the highest standards of financial reporting and transparency. Participation in the certificate of excellence program highlights a school district's dedication to financial accountability. Submitted annual financial reports are reviewed by a panel of financial professionals who

061provide constructive feedback to further enhance the quality of future reports. Districts that meet the program's stringent requirements are awarded their the certificate of excellence, a distinction that also supports bond rating and continued bond disclosure processes. So, we are very proud of our finance team for for this excellent award and um we're so glad that they're here tonight. Y'all come on up. 31. For our next group, Spring Hill High School was recognized as a school of excellence by the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education and the American College Application Campaign. Spring Hill is one of 26 schools in the country and the only one in South Carolina being recognized for their efforts. Um, I I know myself, college applications can be an overwhelming thing for students and for families. And these school counselors that we're honoring

062tonight make them attainable for everyone. They host a college application day every year where college recruiters come in and help students work on their applications. And then they also host a FAFSA night every year where parents can come in and get help filling out the financial aid and scholarship paperwork. So, um, these are just an amazing resource for families, a very special group of people and we appreciate them so much and are excited to honor them tonight along with Principal Dr. Michael Loftton. two. And we have one more person to recognize tonight, our board chair, Miss Snipes. We are honored to present you tonight with your level two Silver Boardmanship Institute awards. For those who aren't aware, these awards are presented by the South Carolina School Boards Association to trustees who complete training on leadership

063skills on state and national educational issues. So, congratulations and we appreciate your leadership. Get a photo with and I'll share One more thing as y'all are settling back into your seats. Um, thank you for those of you that were able to be with us this morning at Seven Oaks Elementary School as Superintendent Weaver presented the school with a very big check. Seven Oaks was a pilot school this year for the strategic compensation pilot program which rewards educators for measurable student growth. Eligible teachers received awards based on student progress and achievement tied to fall to spring interim ELA or math assessments. 86% of eligible teachers at Seven Oaks received an award. The highest percentage among pilot program schools operating on the same model and the average award amount was more than $7,500. So, we send our

064congratulations to the Seven Oaks family on a job very well done. Thank you so much, Mrs. Taylor. At this time, I will turn it over to Dr. Ross for the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, and our community. Uh certainly great to host our uh state superintendent uh here at uh 7 school district 5. What an amazing opportunity to recognize our students and our teachers. Um also October is national principles appreciation month. We recognize our principles. Uh this is a very tough job. Um our principles have to be leaders of culture and climate. They have to be instructional leaders. They have to be operational experts, facilitators of professional learning, and master communicators. Uh hosting all four of those skills is is very tough. And I'm very proud to be able

065to work with uh the most capable um and most enterprising and devoted group of leaders in the state of South Carolina. And so very proud of our principles. I ask them to stand and be recognized for National Principles Month. Also, one of the things I would like to share that this week is, you got to say it slow, red ribbon week. And for Red Ribbon Week, we talk about uh the things that we do to help our students with substance use disorders. A lot of conversations been had what are we doing as a school district about vaping and uh substance use disorders, alcohol uh in in our schools. Uh and so I want to thank student services planning and his department, Dr. Harris and his leadership and his team for putting together the series shatter

066the myth uh tomorrow from 5 to 8 at Dutk Middle School. Uh we will have the Shadow the Myth uh series where they're providing dinner. Uh there's child care, but we're inviting the families to come out. We believe the best way to be uh able to be preventative in the matters of vaping and and drug use and substance use disorders is really engaging the families. The stronger the community is, the more powerful we'll h will be in helping our students navigate these really dangerous waters when it comes to uh substance use disorders and and vaping in schools. So, I'm very proud uh that this is set up. We have a lot of uh resources uh family discussion. Uh so, we ask that everyone if you're able uh there's dinner and child care provided. Uh so,

067we ask if you can come on out uh Tuesday, October 28th from 5 to 8 at Dutk Middle School as we educate our families about what we can do uh to ensure that all of our students are are safe in our community. We do this because we're a system guided by three critical questions. The first is why do we do this job? That's because we love and we grow our students. The second is our mission. How do we accomplish that? We're focused on academic, social, emotional growth and development. And then what are our outcomes? That our strategic plan. These are 24 strategies, 165 action steps to ensure that every student feels loved in our schools and has demonstrated academic growth in our schools. We're proud of the results of our school district and we know

068that we're preparing our students for academic success. We're preparing themu our students for career readiness and we are working towards that goal set by the state of South Carolina that by 2030 75% of our students and more will be at or above grade level. We measure this with measures of academic uh progress or our MAP scores. And we can see last year's fall map scores compared to this year's fall map scores. This is the challenge ahead of our teachers, ensuring that every student uh that in is in the blue is maximized to their fullest potent potential and those students that are in the red that we are individualizing instruction using all the tools capable in our hands to individualize and meet their needs so that they can grow to the next level. And we're seeing

069success on that each and every day. When it comes to our graduation rate, we look at this uh by week and we can see that thanks to innovative strategies that our high schools are using um monitoring the students, putting names behind the numbers, we are ahead of where we were uh year to date last year on students on track to graduate. We've not crossed that line as set forth in our strategic plan. uh but we are are are leading the way and making higher gains than we did at this point last year. What's the secret to success? Well, there's many different things that we're doing in school district 5, but it all comes down to a system of multiple supports. They are tiered to address academics, behavior, attendance, mental health, and what our students and

070parents have asked us in our advisories, college and career readiness planning. We want to focus uh this year on tier 2, increasing those targeted services for students that are not having success at the tier one or the universal um services that are provided and we believe that by doing that we can help our students uh move from that notion of I can't to I can. So we ask all parents to join us on our website. You can go to our academics page and you can see all the I can statements that your students are going to be tested on your children are going to be tested on assessed on during the year and uh together we can move our students from I can't to I can in all things and we believe that because this

071is the year of transformation operation transformation and that begins with what we believe that begins in the heart and so I thank uh all of our our staff our teachers our administrators and our students for working diligently uh to that aim. Uh at this time, we'll talk about our August uh financials and we'll have our CFO, Miss Heather Tucker, come forward with the August monthly financials. Miss Tucker. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, member of the board, Dr. Ross. Um have for you tonight our monthly financials. Maybe there we go. Um, for August, um, wanted to just highlight a couple of things, especially after having Miss Campbell here. Um, actually, before I start that, I want to just thank the finance team. Thank you for recognizing them tonight. We are well into that budget season or

072that audit season right now. Our audit is due December 1st. Um, so the next four weeks, the finance department is a little crazy working on that. So, I just want to thank them for taking the time to come tonight and for their hard work on that. So, I will start there and not forget. But, um, but just want to highlight a couple of things that Miss Campbell talked about earlier. um for your August uh revenue statement for the period ending August 31st. Um you can see um the property taxes like she said we don't start to see those really come in know tax notices have gone out now but you don't start to see those come in until December really January we'll see the bulk of our our taxes come in. Um and so we're

073kind of right on track to where we were last year. Um with the state aid to classroom we receive about 8% of that um every month. If you remember, there's that five-day adjustment period where we see a little bit of a restructuring for the state aid to classroom based on day five enrollment for the charter schools. And so they shuffle that a little bit. We saw about a $300,000 decrease from our state aid to classroom after the day five count. We saw that in our August payment. Um and then we will see our um 45th day adjustment. Um the state department has said that we might see that as early as November. Typically, we get our state aid to classrooms paid out on about the 21st or the 22nd of each month. So, we will

074anxiously await and see what that number is uh November 21st um or soon thereafter what our adjustment will be based on our 45th day. Um but right now we're right on track about 16% of our state aid classroom received. Um you can see there our homestead exemption uh property tax relief and the act 388. We haven't received any of those as Miss Campbell mentioned. You typically don't start to see those until October, November. So, we'll start to see those payments coming in then. Um, and then our EIA, the second part of the state aid to classroom down there under other financing sources. Again, we receive about eight uh% of that each month. And so, we're two months into the year. We're right on track to where we were last year. So, year to date, we've

075spent we've received about uh eight and a quarter% of our total revenue through August. And then as far as expenditures go, um if you look at our salaries line, we're a little bit higher than where we were last year, but we had an adjustment to our pay uh calendar for this year with schools going back into session earlier. We moved our pay calendar up essentially two weeks. So teachers weren't going a full month without a pay pay. So we have had an extra payroll to this point this year. So that's a little bit off from last year. Why you see that discrepancy, but overall our expenditures are right on track with where we were at this time last year. And I did want to say um you do not have any budget transfers as part

076of this monthly packet because through August 31st there have been no budget transfers. You will see that first report with your September monthly uh monthly report. So I'll stand for any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Sucker. Do we have any questions? Miss Huddle and then Mr. Satfield. >> I know you don't um know what the 45day adjustment is going to be yet, but do you have a a guesstimate? >> Um I've calculated what I think could be our worst case scenario. don't necessarily want to share that um because it's kind of a back of the envelope number. Um since there really isn't a per pupil allocation, just kind of done some some quick calculations on based on our 135th day last year, what we were budgeted in the in the budget and just some some

077quick and dirty math on if we lost x number of students is what it would look like. But what we're seeing right now, even though we've lost um certain number of students, our ADM doesn't look like it has dropped as much. So we are seeing that weighted number um almost higher than what we would expect. It's almost like we've lost students that have a lower waiting and we've gained students that have have a higher waiting. So our ADM and our actual student numbers and Dr. Ross correct me if I'm wrong. Um but our ADM and our student numbers don't necessarily correlate one to one. So based on that ADM, I don't know that, and again, we don't know what the whole state looks like, but based on the ADM that we're seeing right now, I

078don't know that our our loss will be as much as it could be. That makes sense. >> Fingers crossed, right? >> I mean, it's it's impossible to guess. Um, but I think that was the trend that we're seeing. We're used to hearing numbers. Uh so if you look in your packet you'll see the 45day report uh which is 622 students less than what it was last year at 45day but our waiting is heavier >> is much heavier >> and so uh you're funded on the weight of the student in comparison to the weight of the rest of the state. So it's very so we need to we don't know all the factors to guess. Uh we're going to talk about some of the things we think we can do in the budget amendment part. >>

079That is correct. Did that did that did that answer your question, Miss Huddle? >> Okay. >> Uh my question is with all the phrases in federal funding and all the programs, are we impacted by that or do we anticipate any impacts from that? >> So I know I had spoken with um Missy mentioned the USDA and the the federal um food service funds. um we have received our reimbursements um for August, our August 15th reimbursement. So we we don't know that we haven't or we haven't heard of any schools that haven't gotten those um reimbursements. We don't know if we will get our November reimbursement, but our food service um fund balance is strong and so we I don't feel any um worries there. Um we have gotten all we actually thankfully my finance staff

080got some federal claims in the day before the shutdown happened. So we got everything in up to that point that we could get in. Um, now whether we get those funds, we're kind of waiting to see. Um, but we we've hit that point in the year where we are cash poor because we're not receiving our our [snorts] tax funds, but we should be okay. Hopefully, this doesn't go on for a long time, but um we should be okay for the next couple of months. >> Anybody else? >> Fingers crossed again. >> All right. Thank you so much, Miss Tucker. >> Thank you so much. >> This is U Dr. Harris, chief of student services and planning comes forward to the podium. Uh I would like to um uh talk about the our discipline model and

081you know our philosophy behind uh our discipline. We had a discussion with our principles uh about some of the things that were um addressed in terms of how are we handling student behaviors uh within the school district. And that is all outlined uh in our our policy. We have a board policy on on behavior code and then an administrative rule which is our code of conduct. And so at this time I'm going to ask Dr. Harris to come forward and and to present about our discipline model. Dr. Harris, >> thank you so much. U Dr. Ross, members of our board, our community, and all of our staff. We wanted to certainly take advantage of that opportunity that you just described to highlight our administrative rule, which is our code of conduct handbook. And in an

082effort to do that, we've asked our very capable director of uh student services, Miss Kelly Brown, to come and give us highlights and reference to that code of conduct. And then we'll respond to any questions you may have. >> All right. Good evening, Madam Chair, school board, Dr. Ross, thank you for allowing this opportunity for us to talk. Uh, uh, I want to end with our boots muddy, but in order for us to do that, I want to raise this up about 500 feet so I can address how we tackle discipline across all sites in school district 5. When I look at the term discipline, I always use the equation accountability plus intervention equals our discipline. And for tonight's conversation, I I'll hit quickly the intervention component. Intervention, uh we when we're talking intervention, we're

083talking about mental health services, uh providing referrals, uh to social workers, school counselors, clinical counselors, providing restorative practices, uh offering mentors or check-in, checkout. That is our intervention side of that so that we can support the student as they are changing uh their decision making or their behavior. On the accountability side, we address the behaviors through our code of conduct. And per the state uh department of education's guidelines, we rank those uh offenses in three levels. Level one, two, and three. Level three uh behavior is uh classified as criminal conduct. That is behavior that includes alcohol, drugs, firearms on school grounds. Those result in a recommendation for expulsion and mandate the requirement and involvement of law enforcement. Level two offenses are disruptive conduct. Those are offenses that I classify as that changes the behavior of

084a school or changes the behavior of a classroom. So a fight, um defiance, refusal to obey, uh disrupting the operation of a school bus, those are your level two offenses. And those consequences can range from an ISS in school suspension, an out of school suspension, and possibly a recommendation for expulsion. Also, depending upon the severity of the level two consequence, it may involve law enforcement as well. Then you get down to level one, which are classified as behavior misconduct. Those are offenses that include dress code, IDs, tardies. One of the things I encourage our students is I think of level ones as the invitation for students to manage the basic expectations as they prepare for the school day. When I put that on when I encourage our students to to be responsible in those areas,

085what they decide to wear to school is decided before they come to school. If they're on time to school, that morning routine is at their home. their IDs are often left on the kitchen counter or this what my kids say sometimes, left on the kitchen counter. And so we want our students to be self-managing, high-erforming kiddos. And so those are an invitation that we really want them to to look at those expectations as they prepare to enter the school building. Um certainly um with those consequences, it can range from a parent conference all the way up to uh inschool suspension as we're tackling um well, let me back up on the the dress code and the IDs. The partnership with parents with our level ones are so significant there because um nothing is more frustrating

086to a parent to get a call at 8:30 in the morning uh just when they settled in at work to say, "Hey, can you bring your child an extra pair of clothes?" Um on the other side of that, um and I'm I'm a person who speaks in truth on this is that it is an interesting situation sometimes when you ask a male administrator to address female dress code. um that the shorts are too short or the midriff is showing or that the top is is revealing. That's a an odd situation that we can ask our male administrators or male teachers to be in. So, the parent partnership there is so um vital as students prepare for the school day before they enter um our campuses. Now, we address all three levels of our misconduct through

087uh the four pillars of discipline. And so I'll go through these real quickly. On all 24 of our sites, um, our administrators are expected to address discipline through these four pillars. So first is our law, policy, and procedures. Procedures are built to support our policy, and we know policy is written to to support law. Uh, so they um adhere to law, policy, and procedures. Uh, communication. Um, one thing that we expect of our administrators and school building principles um in our office is that we are accessible and we are available. communicating those expectations out. You will see is often takes place in newsletters, um news shows, parent newsletters, teacher newsletters, faculty meetings, uh parent conferences with um parents, um and then also certainly through um our SIC, our PTO, and then oftentimes we send videos

088out on our expectations. We have town hall meetings and grade level meetings to communicate those expectations for our kids. Then we have active and engaging supervision. I think it's fair to describe um I don't believe in excuses, but I do believe in painting the picture of reality. And when you're looking at um active and engaging supervision, you look at our campuses and our elementary, intermediate, middle, and high school range administrators from three administrators on a campus to our secondary campuses that could have four to five administrators. So let me start with the maximum. If you have five administrators, let's say one is off-campus sick or at professional development or they are in IEP or 504 meetings all day. Uh the second administrator is our assistant principal of instruction. They have a concentrated focus on academics,

089um coaching, teachers, testing. So they don't deep dive into discipline. So that leaves three administrators uh to enforce our code of conduct. The way I could think about that and maybe my my brain is so engrossed into football because of my my boys. Um I think of that as you put 11 players on the field to take another set of 11 players on the field to play a game called football. And the expectation for each of those players is to cover a 100red yards. So 11 players to cover a hundred yards. Three administrators are covered are asked not to cover 100 yards, not to ask to cover a building, but to cover the entire perimeter of a school site. That is why we ask our teachers. That's the why behind teachers are needed at class

090changes, lunch duty, carpool duty, afternoon dismissal so we can have additional people with boots on the ground. That's why we ask our students if you see something, say something. Utilize the stop it report. And so far we have almost a thousand reports that students have made this year that have allowed our administrators to tackle those issues as well. So, let's say a student makes a stop at report that there is a vape and a knife that they saw in the bathroom. So, you take those one of those administrators, those three. You take one of those and you can't call the student down because they could dispose of the evidence along the way. So, you go grab the student from the classroom. You escort them back to the office. It's a male student, so you call

091another male administrator to do the search. And during the search or during the conversation with a student, the student says, 'Well, I bought it from someone or I exchanged it with someone during the class change. And so now you have to go pull that other student, search, investigate, see what's going on there, pull camera footage, gather witness statements, student statements, teacher statements, anyone around the area statements, call parents to bring them in to hold them accountable. And that has to be so thorough because a level two or level three offense could be a recommendation for expulsion. So they have to have a thorough investigation to address those offenses. But meanwhile, there's class change, there's lunch. Never is a level two or level three offense take place when there's nothing going on in the school building.

092And so that is why we ask our teachers and our students to help us out in that. Also for the schools that have expectation coaches, this is when they really come into play. Expectation coaches do not administer discipline. What they do are their boots on the ground. And we know presence prevents problems. And so expectation coaches, they are the ones that can help us walk the building, walk the bathrooms, reiterate the expectations that are set forth by administration. expectation coaches started at our title one schools, our elementary title one schools. It's grown to be at 10 of our campuses. Um, but as we know, we have level one and possible level two and level three offenses at all 24 of our sites. The benefit of the expectation coaches is that they can be remain the

093boots on the ground when those two or two administrators are dealing with the level two or level three because you can't pass off admin work to anyone else in the building. But you can ask an e expectation coach to monitor the campus and be vigilant and visible so that we can be where those hot spots are or to see what we need to address um as administrators. Also two schools that have expectation coaches when teachers call for support oftentimes I was at a school today and a radio call came on and they said we have a level one. We know because level one is behavior misconduct. We can send an expectation coach to reiterate those expectations. The call on the radio if it says a level two or level three we know that the different

094presence needs to to arrive into that situation. So our fourth piece is our documentation. Um and that is just again pres uh preservation of factual information and also too it helps us to keep the interventions. If we've already done that intervention we need to go to the drawing board. If we've already done that piece of accountability we don't need to repeat uh things that have not been effective. So our documentation helps us along with that decision making. Our administrators as they tackled the four pillars of discipline um they have uh support for their implementation of these expectations. Uh they have um collaboration with internal and external resources. So we have our school resource officers, our safety officers, our expectation coaches, the special services department, our social workers, our mental health staff. So we have a

095a wonderful amount of support and resources as we're dealing with um discipline on our campuses. We also have professional development. We don't say the principles and admin do this without supporting them. So just in student services alone, we offer over 50 professional development um sessions each year. So what does that mean? We have a new administr all the new administrators are in a cohort that meet once a month. Elementary admin meet five times of a year. Secondary admin meet five times a year. Um we also have think tank sessions. Those are 30 minute sessions for all administrators uh throughout the year. And that is a hot spot, an action step. So you can log off the meeting and put it right into play. And so those are think tank sessions that we offer to everyone.

096Um so a lot of professional development to our admin teams uh partnership with our stakeholders with our parents and with our community members. And then certainly we look at the data. What's the data tell us? And so one thing that we started this year we purchased a new software called simple discipline. Um simple discipline what I like about it's it's um becoming a very popular program throughout the state. But also too, what I like about it is it gives realtime data analysis for us to look at. So a couple of weeks ago, I sat with all the principles and we looked at the time of day, the day of the week, the classroom or the hallway, the location, the day down to the the hour of the day that has the highest discipline. So we

097know as a district Tuesdays at 11 o'clock, our eighth and nth grade students could have some discipline concerns in the hallway. That is a hot spot that we've identified this week. And so now we can go back in the concept of football, go back and write a new play for when we get back on the field to address that hot spot because next week the data could tell us there's a new area of focus. Um so our discipline data um does show us that um as of as of today 14,424 students have not received one referral. And so there is a lot to celebrate about students owning their expectations and wanting an environment of teaching and learning um that they are holding themselves accountable to the standards. Um our stop at reports, I told you

098we have almost a thousand stop at reports this year that have been able to be addressed by our administration. Um our expulsion hearings, uh we have 58 expulsion hearings this first quarter. that number has not been in the 50s since 2019. And so it's interesting to see the the data dropping kind of before CO I don't know I can say the COVID word but a few years ago. Um uh our positive another thing I like about the simple discipline is it tracks our positive office referrals. We have over 4,000 positive office referrals that have been sent home to our students and our families, which I think is is extremely important for parents to get notification of the great things that their kids are doing at the at the school. Um, so [clears throat] we uh

099as we look at our discipline data, I know that they are hot topics and I know they are hot spots. That happens in every school and every school district. So, I'll go ahead and tell you what we are working on and um what are we doing to to look in um growing in those areas. So, certainly um with dress code and IDs, we are talking with um we met with all of our principles. principles are sending out those reminders to teachers and then also um I'm hoping soon we're going to start a some reminders from the from the district level to remind students to come to school dressed for success that they're dressed appropriately, they have their ID and they have all the materials that they need to be successful when they come to school.

100Uh bullying is a hot topic that always comes up. Um and so one of the things I looked even in the stop it report of the thousand entries we've had 125 reports of the bullying. Um when you look at those when you take a deep dive and you look at those incidents um there's some that say uh the student um the student stole my pencil. One report said a student was rude to me. One report said that a kid that a student kicked my chair. Now, those all could be other code of conduct offenses, but what I saw is a teaching opportunity for us to make sure that we're defining bullying for our students and we're defining what those interventions and accountability will look like. So, how we're doing that is our student services officer,

101Mr. Pulock, is um leading a subcommittee in our strategic plan. It's a bullying subcommittee that will create a process um almost a flowchart for how we will address bullying allegations and how we will provide that intervention and accountability for the offender and then provide that support for the victim. So that are things that we're continuing to monitor with um bullying. Vaping is something you hear across the nation. So certainly we run into that from time to time. And so for vaping, uh, vaping is a level two offense. The first time that a student has a vape violation. Um, they are given an out of school suspension with the intervention of completing an online module. It's about a six-hour course um that they are invited to to take part in. And then also to uh that

102second offense is a recommendation for expulsion. So we're monitoring our vape numbers. um and uh just had recently at a high school two students complete the vape educate. There's also a vape free component uh to that software so we can share that with students as a proactive measure and an awareness component um to vaping. And then certainly special services um always comes up as well. And so we know that when students who receive um support through an IEP or 504 um all students, so let me back up and say that all students have rights under the law. Um if a student receives an IEP or 504, then certainly they have some additional layers of due process and uh procedural preventions. And so one thing that we are going to to look at um is review

103that federal law. And I think it'll be a great conversation to pull our support from each of those from student services and special services, our attorneys, and put us all in the room and talk about what our current practices are, our language needs to be, and how we can support both departments as we work with our students in those um cases. So, that is a quick overview of discipline in our district. Um, I'm thankful that as we address these hot spots or hot topics, we do it through our four pillars. Um, we do it consistently through our code of conduct so that we can provide accountability and intervention to our students. And uh, and I know that um, I have to to state that I I know there's always room for improvement. We're not perfect,

104but I can tell you this, we're better than most. And the work that administration does in the areas of discipline doesn't even scratch the surface of academics, sports, security, facilities, testing, extracurricular activities, monthly drills, all of those expectations we hadn't even touched on. So the work that they do that's shown in our data, I have to celebrate their efforts as we continue to to chisel away at our hotspots and hot topics. So thank you for this time tonight. Thank you, Miss. Um, thank you, Kelly. This was helpful. Um, do any board members have any questions? Mr. Satderfield and then Miss Barnhart. >> You know, I'd have a question about what principles do. First of all, I want to thank all you principles. Their job is very difficult and it's gotten more difficult over the years.

105Um, than, you know, the disrespect and the nonsense that kids they always find something else and so you have to be flexible and think outside the box. So I thank you for all you do. I know many of you and I've worked with several of you some of you my former students um that's how old I am. Um I do want to ask you a question in the category one of the discipline handbook used to be different. It was structured different, >> right? >> Just in level one offenses, what are all the options if it's a level one offense? I know there is counseling the kids obviously is one calling the parent, >> right? >> Is there a day out of school for level one? >> It could. And you're exactly right. It used to

106be flipped that uh the level one used to be the most severe uh behavior and we used to have four levels of misconduct. So when you come back to to now the level ones that are those minor infractions, those are more if you look at our code of conduct, it's an array of consequences. Level three is a little more scripted. It's a recommendation for expulsion. Level twos are a little more scripted. A level ones get into that array. It could be parent conference, admin review, refer to counseling. It could lead to a suspension if you have a repeated re um repeated offense. If you have a repeated offense of a level one, then I'm I'm curious about are you not following the directions of an administrator? Are we heading into a level two kind of

107decision making on the student's behalf? So, it could. Yeah. Um, but >> well, let me let me tell you the reason I asked is every school is different. I've visited a lot of the schools and when I was working in the district, every school is different. They have different issues that they have to deal with and right >> that's just the way it is. Um but um somebody gave me some advice that I that helped me um and that was number one was and um when Dr. Ross and I worked together this was something that we did in our schools. We if we had a specific issue that was a continuing problem and I'll just use teacher disrespect as uh because that was one of the things we dealt with, >> right? >> Um I

108had the whole admin team. We all picked up classrooms and we had assigned classrooms. We went around to every class, talked to every class personally, said, "Look, if you're disrespectful to this teacher, the teacher walks over and presses a button. I pick you up, you go home." The teachers felt like they were supportive. They did. The teacher's job is not to have to deal with discipline. I mean, they do. >> That's right. >> But it's not really their job. >> That's right. The second thing was uh and this really helped me uh with get along better with my teachers and that was if I was an assistant principal and a kid was being a knucklehead and they were sent to me and I whatever I decided where it fell in that discipline code the the

109assistant principal would go back to that teacher and say I know you sent Johnny he's the most famous person in the world I think in school. That's right. >> Um, and so this is what I did and talk to the teacher and the teacher might say, "Well, I know I sent you a referral, but there's not enough room to tell you all that Johnny's been doing." >> That's right. >> And so the teacher felt like they were supportive and the they would tell me sometimes they'd say, "Look, I I would say that if if Johnny this happens again, you make sure you let me know. I appreciate you giving me the feed." So that that was sort of a gap in there that really helped with teachers. It made them feel like they were being

110supportive. Um the one thing that did frustrate me and I know this is probably something that is frustrating principles and assistant principles is uh the students that had bips and u you know you get two kids that are fighting and one kid gets sent home for four days and the other kid gets Saturday detention and you can't say anything because of the bit >> right >> but um uh one of the adjustments that we made was we re we kept visiting that if if there were a couple of instances the BIP isn't working. So, we decided we were going to revisit those BIPS and make sure that the parents understood. But, um that's just some suggestions that somebody shared with me. Again, I know that those are different very difficult propositions to deal with with

111students that have any sort of behavior intervention plan. I understand that. But, um thank you for what you do. I know that your job is very difficult and uh um I can tell you from the time I started in administration, I started at the elementary school and I went to the middle and high school. Um every year there were new and different things to deal with. And so I know that's not getting easier. I know your jobs are getting more difficult. So, and I'd also like to say that, you know, you have the support of this board. We get a lot of emails from parents, you know, about this or that, but we want to support you. If there's something that is a continuing issue or if there's something to do with discipline, if you've

112got suggestions, I s request that you [clears throat] reach out to our your your fine superintendent that you got there and let him relay. If there's anything that we as a board can do to help make your schools run more smoothly and more effectively with fewer issues, you know, that's why we're here. We're here to ser you. Missart, >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> I'd like to echo Mr. Siderfield statements because I don't think it can be said enough. Thank you all for everything that you do. Principles and administrators um are all highly highly valued and greatly appreciated. So, um my question is about the expectation coaches and you said that they're in about 10 campuses that we have. >> Correct. >> How do we get more? How many are in each school? Um

113what is their job title? I suppose you could say but I think that that is probably a very beneficial thing to have. Um, and I can see where it would help if they were in more schools. So, I just want to get some more information about them. >> I would you want to speak about the what is an expectation what they're doing and then I'll talk about uh our ask. >> Sure. So, exp what they do expectation coaches. So certainly like I said they started out at our title one elementary schools and then um with the development of the nest a few years ago we added expectation coaches to some middle and high schools and uh so certainly um you know if I live in I would love to see them everywhere because expectation coaches

114um they reiterate the expectations that are set forth by administration. They reiterate the expectations that are set forth by the parents. And when those administrators are tied up dealing with a level two or level three offense, the expectation for the expectation coach is to be visible, to constantly be monitoring the campus, to be walking in and out of those bathrooms, to be at lunch duty, to when the tardy bell rings, to walk the campus and and clear the hallways. And so, um, I I go back to the phrase, um, that I always say, presence prevents problems. and uh there's a lot of square footage uh to cover in a school building and so the presence of our expectation coaches helps us cover those grounds. >> We have in our proposal um where it's not for

115action today but I think there's eight additional expectation coaches for the secondary uh but this would be pending results of finances for our uh budget amendment. Miss, I'm gonna differ with you for a minute and I'm probably the next to the oldest person on here, but I went to a high school with over a thousand kids. We had one assistant principal. We had two guidance counselors. We had zero expectation coaches. Let me tell you, we were every bit as mischievous and bad as kids are, whatever word you want to use today. But there were the expectation for your parents. And if I wore inappropriate clothes to school, I got sent home. If I misbehaved in class, my teacher had the tools at his or her disposal to deal with it. And I'm not faulting the

116principles. I'm faulting the entire system. When I would say three4s of the calls I get from parents who are upset, most of them are on the verge of pulling their kids from our schools and in many cases already have. and and every single one of them. It's not about academics. It's not about my kid didn't make the football team. It's about my child got bullied. Um and the bully did, you know, the bullies there the next day. And and same thing with teachers. Um when I talk to teachers who have retired early or left or moved to other school districts, it's always about discipline. They love the kids. They love the other teachers. and we had a presentation and what's killing us are charter schools. Well, that's why, you know, and and I don't think

117tonight's enough, but I think we need to have a workshop and we need to understand what we can do. And I don't think throwing more people at it is the solution. I think you have to have repercussions that match what happened. You know, if if they forget their their ID, what happens? you know, and how much are we giving how much are we allowing teachers to do? Um, I just think there has to be a better solution because children are not inherently worse off, worse children than they were when I was a kid. We just knew and word get out would get out. You know, if you if a kid got sent home for wearing inappropriate clothes, guess what? Everybody tightened it up because word would get out. And I just I think we've got

118to look at this from a different perspective than just throwing more people at it. >> Dr. Ross, >> I was going to ask and I certainly appreciate that perspective because that's one of the things we deal with is uh a lot of when I went to school this happened. If you can go back to the slide of the four pillars and one of the first pillar is we must adhere to the law. There's been a lot of changes in the law uh that is governing what happens to students. um those men and women are in charge of following the law. When it comes to discipline, there is no uniform behavior consequence that we can give to all students. In fact, it's very indep it's very individualized to that particular student. I would love to say

119that if you did this in our schools, this will happen, but the law does not allow that. I think we made mention to behavior intervention plans and uh different identifications and um I don't want to hamstring our principles uh with the expectations does not meet the realities of the law. Uh the reason that we are asking for expectation coaches and they're here today because this is the work they have to do. Uh we'll talk about it tonight but they got to do it tomorrow and they're looking for solutions. um a camera can see it but an expectation coach can can can actually correct it. Um and so I think as we look at talking about this we must talk about the laws that are of today that are impacting their work uh as as it

120deals with disciplining students and and that notion of holding students accountable. It is vastly different than when I was doing principal just 10 years ago. Uh so um I just wanted to share that these four pillars while it may seem like have not changed over 20 30 years uh they're much different today. >> Mr. >> Yeah, thank you Miss Brown. Um and thank you for the information. I think uh that our administrators are often the need for them is often underestimated and even more than that they are underappreciated. Um there's an unfounded narrative in in parts of the community and we kind of heard it that we have too many administrators and I think your presentation makes it very clear that that's not the case. Um and I think the when you look at the

121issues one I think there's part of the issue is is there's probably an inherent bias in the job itself of being an administrator because it's it's kind of the the old age-old management versus labor discussion and so the administrators are the management they're always gonna you know the focus tends to always go to the teachers and the labor and the managers always get underappreciated but also part of the job itself and I think the job that they are doing is a testament to how well they do their jobs because they're doing such good jobs that we don't have the issues we don't always have it doesn't always rise to the level of our attention because they're doing their job so well. Um and so I think that part of them leaves them out of the

122kind of undercuts their appreciation. The other part to Miss Huddle's point about, you know, comparing the past versus present and Dr. Ross uh touched on it is the times are just different. And one of, you know, from a legal standpoint, but also from a framework of parental involvement, I think you use the term parental partnership. Well, to me, you know, when you say, well, we the answer isn't to throw more people at it. I think that's exactly the answer. And I think that's exactly what involvement and parental partnership actually is we are actually asking for more people to help in the form of parents. That's what that's the role the parents are taking on that we're asking and needing for them and that's probably the difference between today and yesterday is yesterday when we were

123in school we did have a higher degree and level of parental involvement of parental partnership. Miss speaks to it in her example that was a living example of that involvement. The parents were involved. That was her example. We don't have that today. And to the extent that we don't have it, we also have an additional layer on it as not only are the parents not proactively as involved as we need them, but they actually when they are involved, they push the other way and they make it harder for us. They work against us. And so the answer is more people. We absolutely need every single one of our administrators. We appreciate you. We thank you. We value you. We need you. But we also need the parents to do their job as well. >> Main

124>> just briefly. >> Sure. >> Um by the end of December I'll will have visited every school in our district. And just some observations when y'all working on plans, I've noticed, let's just say, blatant violations of dress code, girls, guys, it it doesn't matter. Um, you know, teachers standing around, they see it. Just wondering, I I've even heard, you know, pick our battles. So, just, you know, when we're talking about enforcing this, we want to make sure that we're getting it to everybody and, you know, we're standing by that. So, >> thank you. I appreciate that. And that's certainly something we've talked about in our most recent think tank session with our administrators. Um I was out of high school today and with a young lady and as we're walking in the building I said

125I should head go ahead and pull that shirt down. And um it wasn't something that she wanted to do. But I immediately went a simple reminder could turn so combative quickly um that you have to address each expectation carefully. But nonetheless it has to be addressed. And so that's certainly something we've shared with our administrators and I hope to do and communicate out from the district standpoint as well. One thing I'll also say and you all have mentioned it too which I may even be at line and saying this but um if you see Dr. Harris pull me off the mic and then you know but um also too I really appreciate when you um receive the concerns from parents that you refer them to the school building principles. Um there have been cons some

126concerns that I know have come to your attention and when I bring it to the attention of the principal they have not been informed of it and so any I can promise you this any concern that is brought to student services will be addressed and communicated to the school whether that is us visiting that school whether that is us meeting with the parent meeting with the kids meeting with administration it will be followed up and so I appreciate the times times when parents reach out to you all, the very first question I ask anytime a parent calls our office, have you spoken with the school building principal? They are expected to be accessible. They are expected to be available. They are expected to handle discipline uh under all of these four pillars. And so if

127there is a problem that we know about, we are not going to be negligent in our in our business of handling discipline. We will get that addressed. So, >> um I had one more question about the the stop it app. Um because you were talking about the kicking the the share and stuff. Um is it getting used at all to SWAT or bully? Like do we have I just was occurred to me as you were talking about that that false reports I guess do we have false reports and then how do those get handled if you believe there is a false report? >> That's a great question. So when we originally started stop it, I think it was six years ago, we got some interesting reports like the the milk is cold in the cafeteria

128and you're going get back to teaching and learn. And so certainly as students navigated through the newness of that app, we we had to filter out some of those reports. Now we rarely get a false report. When I when we started stop, I thought we were going to get a lot of there's going to be a fight in the bathroom. There's going to be a lot of our reports are I'm going through I'm dealing with my family is going through and it's a lot of people asking for help quietly and which I was surprised at that. Um but we also get the the the concerns that of what are being seen in the classroom or what they have heard or saw on social media. Um but if we recognize because it is an anonymous app

129what you can do you can't track the student. Um but what you can do is you can look at user number one has reported four claims and those four claims have been the milk is cold. the milk is cold. And so we can freeze their account for 30 days to make uh this to to stop the the false reporting because when the stop it reports are made, it goes to the devices of every administrator and our office and our safety officers. And so there's a lot of eyes on each stop it report. Um and certainly if it is even life-threatening to an individual or to a campus, it then goes to the stop it agencies. it could go um be filtered to law enforcement. So, there's a lot of eyes on on stop it that

130are there to provide the intervention and accountability. So, when we get the false report, we respond quickly, send the user a message. There's expectations um for you to uphold as you're utilizing this app. before they submit the um report, the very bottom is a check box that says I submit this information is accurate and I'm using this with um some digital responsibilities. So if there's a violation of that, we we prohibit that for 30 days. >> Yes. So I have one more thing. Uh I I was listening uh sort of listening between the lines and some of our conversation. I want to make sure the principles understand this. We get emails for all kind of stuff. I don't care if it's redistricting, if it's, you know, the lunches aren't good enough, the chicken nuggets were

131cold, or whatever it might be. I want y'all to know that just because a parent sends us out of concern or something that's happened at your school, we don't act on it. We if we do anything, Mike can answer this, you need to talk to that teacher. You need to know that we support that chain of command or chain of operation or however you want to say it. It should start with the teacher. If the if the parent has an issue with the teacher, they need to go to the teacher and then the teacher and then to the assistant principal and the principal and if Dr. Ross or his staff needs to deal with it, that's okay. But again, we said and I said earlier, we are really here to support you. And um I

132don't want you to feel like the board u just because we get an email or a complaint from a parent um that means that we're that you've done something wrong or the teachers done something wrong and I don't want your teachers to feel that way because we know that they're in the classroom every day and sometimes we got parents nowadays will the first thing they say I'm going to sue you. I'm going to sue the district. I'm going to sue the principal. I'm going to do whatever they can or what they were the threat to do. But we follow that sort of that chain of command so to speak so that you go to the teacher, you deal with through the school. It's not the board's responsibility and it is not our responsibility to deal

133with those things. So you need to know that. You need to not also know that when you speak up, it's we're here to support you. That's what we're here for. So, y'all are sitting over there quite as little mice over there. [laughter] And uh I know you probably have a lot to say, but you're not going to say it. But if you ever want to come and speak to us and talk to us about anything, we are here for you. So, you need to know that. >> Thank you, >> Miss Brown. Um before we wrap up this um session or turn it back over to Dr. Harris, I'm not sure what the plan is. I didn't ask for permission to do this, so I'll ask for forgiveness. Um, I'mma take two minutes, maybe three minutes.

134Miss Dilly, will you stand up? Uh, >> oh, >> you're picked on because I knew you. Um Um, tell us what your biggest discipline issue is in your school. >> I can't hear you. >> Just not completing complete assignments. >> What would help with that? Okay. >> The student teacher relationship Okay, Karen, what about you? [laughter] >> Cutting class and tardies. >> Okay. I don't go to class. >> What would help you? >> Mr. Davis, what about you? What about someone from a middle school? >> Dr. Denny Crossroads. One more. What about you, Melanie? Miss Dilly is at a title one school. Is someone else at a title one school? >> Miss Harris Crossroads. for other people that are at title one schools, especially with younger kids. Um, is the ability or willingness to complete

135classwork a theme you're seeing there also as a issue? >> I didn't hear you. >> Task avoidance. >> Okay. >> And that's back to the teacher student relationship. You would say yes. No. I mean, it's fine if it's not. I'm just asking. I don't have a magic wand, but I thought that it would be um helpful cuz although Kelly did a great job presenting, um y'all are seeing it dayto-day, and I thought it would be helpful to kind of hear some of what y'all are seeing dayto-day, which some of it doesn't surprise me, especially at the high school level. Cutting class and tardies, that makes um makes sense. um at the elementary school um not getting things accomplished. That seems to make sense. Uh Mr. Satderfield talked about some of the emails and stuff that

136we get and we do for a variety um of things. Some we get it some is, you know, a little wonky, but that happens too, right? It happens. Um, and um, I thought this information was helpful for us, but something I think that could be helpful um, maybe for um, maybe for parents would be um, is this I hate saying more information because like at my job, I feel like when people tell us that we should send out certain things or do certain things, nine out of 10 we're sending it or doing it, but you know, people don't always read email or whatever or like Dr. Ross does the videos because in this age you would think that'd be better. There are people who don't like videos. It's like hard to find that sweet spot.

137But for um but if I have a kid in a school and my kid is getting bullied um as a board member hearing about the number of students that haven't had a consequence and haven't gotten in trouble, that's remarkable. As a parent, I don't care. That's the reality, right? And I don't mean me as a parent. I just mean the parent absolutely >> of said kid that is um you know that is being um bullied and I don't know um what the solution is there how we um fix some of the disconnect because I also recognize that not every household is set up where everybody is able to be as engaged or at the school every day because of you know I may work a 9 to5 and can take my lunch and come out

138and meet with my kids teacher and somebody else may not have the opportunity to do that. So, just thinking about that communication piece, Mr. Satderfield talked about um I don't remember the wording that he used, but basically it was talking about the discipline where some kids get disciplined differently, maybe because of um you know, special needs or whatever. Um and so we can't tell a parent that that's why a child did not get a a harsher um consequence. But what can we do to make that parent feel like that that we aren't dismissive of whatever it is that their kid is going through? And I don't think that that's a principal issue um necessarily. I think it's just like a community thing universally. How do we um fix that because we talk a lot about

139making sure that our kids feel seen, valued, love, whatever. And I but I think we have to sort of take the same approach with our parents because they're our doors stop. And so if we if they don't feel seen and heard, that's how we really lose kids. Kids aren't, you know, telling the parents, "I'm not going to that school anymore." Parents are making those decisions for whatever reason. And so how can we um you know, better reinforce that? But I think that that's a >> a district level thing to figure out. Um, but that's just a thought. >> I like that. That's great. And also too, I don't that if there's bullying, like Miss Huddle said, there's bullying. I certainly would want to know that we that needs to be addressed. If there are concerns

140going on in the building, we certainly want to know so that we can address it. One thing that I will celebrate because of your support, because of our wonderful parents, our students, and the work of our administration, we are not sitting here tonight talking about excessive firearms in our district. We're not talking about excessive drugs in our district, excessive alcohol, excessive fighting. Um, the concerns that were noted by the school building principles. Um, those are things that we will continue to tackle. The concerns that were brought up, those are things we will continue to address and and tackle. Um, but there is many things to celebrate uh the work that we are doing here in our community. So, >> absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Browns. Thank you, Dr. Harris. And

141I just really appreciate the principles being here. Uh you heard the will of the board, but you know, uh the support that you've asked for and I appreciate you being here. Those are cold and spoke in public session very well. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. That was very good. >> Uh but um just know that We understand what you're going through and we look to give you the resources. All set. >> You bet. So you can you can go home. Now [laughter] I will say this uh as they as they transition uh I want our community to answer systematically was the question uh how do we deal with this systematically? And I and I think a community has to ask the question, who is responsible for disciplining the child? And and if we

142don't have the same answer for that, then I think we're not going to we're never going to get to the to the end point of this. Who is responsible for raising the child for disciplining the child? And you got to understand discipline means not to punish. It means to teach, to train, to train them up in the way that they should go. Who is responsible for raising a child? The accountability seems to fall on these folks all the time. Seems to fall on the teacher all the time. Um, that's not the neighborhood I grew up in. Grandma told me that everybody in that neighborhood was responsible for that. That's exactly right. You get in trouble. Everybody on the block. >> And I think until we as a community have the the same values in terms

143of who is responsible uh for raising that that child. Uh I do think and I see Miss Friend over there. Um um we can come back and talk about uh what's called the Individual Disabilities Education Act. Um because in 1997 I believe it was amended uh to have what's called MDRS or manifestation determination reviews. So when I say the law has changed, if you practice this, the work they're doing after 1997, a violation of a MDR is a violation of a student's civil rights. We don't protect them for violation of civil rights. So uh we don't want to handcuff them, but we need to understand what they're they're going through. And so I think we we we can have that conversation, but I think we just need to have a full understanding what that law

144is and impact on them. Am I wrong about that? So, um I just wanted to to to make that claim. U the biggest thing and I'll end is Dutch Fork is going to play Irmo Friday and so uh if you live on uh is it Emery Lane, Dr. Hampton? Emry, you may be seeing these in your mailboxes. We are going to close that street down starting at 4:30. Um and so Reed Gunnar will get the silver foxes in there before 4:30, but we have to closed from uh St. Andrews to McMillan Circle. Uh that that street will be closed. We're expecting a huge crowd. Tickets are on sale now. Um and so we we appreciate it. This is a huge uh District 5 state championship uh uh battle. So we we want to just make

145you aware of the lane closures. Thanks to all of the safety team. Here's your team, Gary operations to to make uh Friday, October 31st, Halloween uh successful as we host uh the state's premier football teams uh in school district 5. That's our D5 story and we're working every day to ensure every student feels loved in our schools and has demonstrated academic success in our schools. That concludes the superintendent's report and I stand for any questions. >> Do we have any additional questions? Perfect. Thank you, Dr. Ross. At this time, I'll stand for a motion to approve the minutes from the October 6 board meeting. >> Make a motion to approve the minutes of the October 6, 2025 board meeting. >> Do I have a second? >> All those in favor? >> And the motion carries

1467 to zero. Um, 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 public participation at meetings. Your comments should be limited to three minutes and must remain on either the topic noted on your signing form or a listed agenda item. Questions asked during public participation will be handled in accordance with board policy beh. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Brooke Bridges is here to speak about technology in K through5 and discipline codes. >> Good evening. My name is Broo Bridges and I teach kindergarten here in our district and I'm also honored to be this year's district teacher of the year. Tonight I would like to speak not just as an educator but as someone who sees the daily

147realities of what our youngest learners need. Since COVID, one of the most noticeable shifts in the early childhood classroom is communication. Children are talking a whole lot less. They're hesitant to share out their ideas. They don't want to speak in groups and sometimes even have conversations in a one-to-one setting. Our job as teachers has never been harder because the time we have to connect individually with each child is limited with all the new demands. Technology used well helps bridge that gap. My students average just 12 minutes a day on Chromebooks. And in those 12 minutes, they're able to read and be read to, to problem solve, and to show what they know in various settings because they can't often express themselves aloud just yet. One particular student I had this year will only talk to

148me. All his paper assessments show him as a child who needs intensive intervention. He looks on paper like he's struggling, but when I created a short digital check-in for him before report cards, he was able to complete it privately with just me, he showed full mastery of every skill required in kindergarten for the first nine weeks. And without this tool, his learning would have gone unseen. That's why I'm deeply concerned about the new no home policy and the option for families to opt out of Chromebook use. This is not just about devices. It's about equity and it's about relationships. What happens to a classroom culture when half the class can engage with tools and half can't? You should try to give kindergarten children different color popsicles. It doesn't go well. When collaboration and communication become

149privileges instead of shared experiences for us to have together, it impacts. We risked narrowing our focus to a single concern and losing losing sight of the bigger picture, which is the whole child, the learning environment, and the relationships that make a school work. And I know tonight you're also discussing student behavior. And I can assure you both children and parents are different today than they were even five years ago. I'm 21 years in and there is no comparison from beginning to end. much differently. They are very worldly um in their knowledge. They are different in behavior and they're different in expectations at home. I think in many ways both the conversations of behavior and technology come down to the same issue to balance and they need both with guidance and boundaries and relationships. [music] Thank

150you. Thank you. Margaret Nickerson is here to speak about Chromebook use. >> Good evening board members and Dr. Ross. My name is Margaret Nickerson and I am an instructional coach at two elementary schools in our district as well as a parent in the district. As someone who works with teachers every day, I want to share why Chromebooks are important and the benefits of how they're used. As Dr. Ross mentioned in his video, teachers have an enormous job to meet the needs of so many different learners. It is overwhelming to think about how to personalize multiple content areas for students with different abilities. One way, there's many ways, one way to make this happen is through the use of Chromebooks. Our district provides digital platforms that adapt to student responses and provide immediate feedback to students

151in order to move their learning forward at their own pace. For a teacher to recreate this level of differentiation, they would need hours of prep time that they do not have. When parents opt out, it is not as simple as providing a printed copy of that same work. That could break copyright and it is not the same because it will not be as adaptive. Many of our curriculum resources and assessments are digital. Standardized testing is required to be digital. So, preparation for this includes more than typing skills. Teachers often have multiple students with required accommodations such as assessments to be modified or read aloud. Using Chromebooks to adjust those assessments or have assessments read aloud frees the teacher up for more one-on-one time with their students. There are so many people that want to come

152to our district that we have over 44 different languages spoken in our schools. Teachers use digital platforms like Cammy to translate work into those different languages and directly assign it to the Chromebooks. Teachers can also adjust the reading levels quickly and modify the student needs using those Chromebooks. In addition to our district's many protections, Papara lets teachers see student screens, tabs, pause their screens, close tabs, send students messages, and restrict what they can and cannot see. We have a responsibility to prepare students for a future that will include digital technology. My own son is at Clemson and he said his engineering classes are easier because of the classes and the tech that he did in elementary school in our district. I witness the benefits every day of how wonderful our teachers are. Please do not

153be reactive to the perceived inappropriate use and let's be responsive partners together to teach proper use of technology and let teachers continue to offer the best personalized learning that they can. How can we prepare kids for the future without proper instruction and access to technology? Thank you. Susan Appan is here to speak about student Chromebooks. My name is Susan Applan and I'm here to speak about student Chromebook use specifically in elementary schools. While I'm speaking tonight as a community member, I'm also speaking as an instructional technology specialist, a parent of two District 5 graduates, and a recently retired educator who worked in District 5 for 28 years. One of my core beliefs as a human being and as an educator is that every person matters. And while this may be a common belief, I find

154it is not always a common practice. If you believe that every child matters, you want every child to have access to the tools that will help them succeed. I may be one of the few people in this room tonight who has co-planned and co-taught with teachers throughout our district and who has been in multiple classrooms in every single school in the district. I've had the privilege of watching teachers and students in action and want to share a few of the many positive ways I've seen Chromebooks used. I have had fourth graders present their research projects to me and proudly show the digital posters they made to synthesize their learning. I've seen teachers use the results of their fifth graders digital assignments to quickly identify small groups and better meet the needs of each child. I've

155seen first graders take ownership and pride in their reading when they decide to listen to audiobooks while they read along with the words. I've seen third graders record themselves speaking so they can process and share their learning. I know students who speak multiple languages have used their Chromebooks to address many barriers to learning, to have better access to the curriculum, and to connect with their peers. I've seen students practice for required online state testing and gain the confidence to do their best for the real tests. I've heard an elementary student say that his online digital citizenship program, he learned it was important to keep his password private and not use social media until he's old enough. I've watched students who are reading below grade level use the tools in their online textbooks to access ongrade

156level math and science curriculum. These are just a few of the many examples that I or other educators could share with you. I want to be clear that I am not advocating for our students use using Chromebooks for hours every day. There is a time and a place to use technology and we must be focused on student outcomes before we choose tools. As educators, it is us to up to us to help guide student technology usage and not run from it. As parents, it is our responsibility to set boundaries for our own children and help them learn what is appropriate. We can and should decide when and where they use their Chromebooks when they are at home, but parents are not experts on what happens in classrooms or at other people's homes. And finally, as

157community members, it is vital that we protect access and learning for every child in our district, not just the ones whose parents make the most noise or complain the loudest. Every single child matters. I hope that any decisions the district and school board make will respect that belief. >> Thank you. >> Jacqueline Wallace is here to speak about Chromebooks in the school. Good evening. My name is Jacqueline Wallace and I am a fourth grade teacher here in Lectridge 5. I first became aware of the proposed changes regarding technology use specifically Chromebook access this past Friday. We were informed that immediate restrictions will be placed on access to AI tools other than Magic School AI. I support this policy and believe it is an appropriate decision to protect our students. However, I also learned of potential

158decision to restrict Chromebooks from going home with students, requiring them to remain at school. My initial reaction is that this approach presents significant challenges for several reasons. We encourage students to complete at least five Dreambox lessons per week. While some students can complete these lessons during school hours, many require additional time at home to fulfill this expectation. Additionally, I frequently receive questions from parents seeking recommendations for supportive learning tools at home. I typically suggest resources such as Dreambox, I Ready, Exl, Scholastic Pro, Epic, and others. Moreover, my students rely on the online version of Savis, which offers essential features like readaloud support for students below grade level and multilingual learners. Restricting device access at home would limit their ability to utilize these critical resources. I understand that concerns have arisen due to a student accessing

159inappropriate content. However, I question whether the solution should involve limiting learning opportunities and resources for all students. As a fourth grade teacher, I see my students beginning to undertake research and projects that often require work outside of school hours. It is also important to recognize that not all students have access to alternative devices or reliable internet at home, nor do they all have the option to visit public libraries. In my professional opinion, based on 20 years of teaching experience, a more balanced approach would respect parental choice. If a parent prefers their child not to take a device home, that decision should be honored. At the same time, many parents actively support and monitor their child's technology use at home, ensuring appropriate contact access. My request is simple. Let us provide our students with fair and

160equitable access to technology both in schools and at home so they can fully benefit from available learning tools. Technology is not a privilege. It is an essential learning tool that helps bridge gaps and support every child's academic growth. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Sarah Swagger is here to speak about onetoone technology in D5. Good evening members of the board. My name is Dr. Sarah Swagger. I am a parent of a second grade student here in this district as well as the 6th through 12 ELA specialist. The most responsible choice we have regarding Chromebook use is to provide our students with opportunities to learn digital citizenship. It is our responsibility to teach children how to navigate the digital world. Taking away technology will not teach students how to use it appropriately. Instead, it robs

161them of the opportunity to learn how to use technology appropriately. Removing access to onetoone technology in elementary classrooms will have negative impacts on our children in several ways. But today I'll focus on how it will significantly hinder the teaching of many ELA standards. In D5, we are in the business of loving and growing students and teaching standards. Our state demands that we teach our students how to effectively analyze and utilize digital media. They recognize that these are skills our students must have if they are going to be prepared for adult life. For example, ELA overarching expectation number two, acquire, refine, and share knowledge through a variety of multimedia literacies to include written, oral, visual, digital, and interactive texts. In grades three through five, it looks kind of like this. I'll summarize it. Ask and answer

162questions about modes of text such as pictures, posters, and basic infographics. Locate and use print and digital resources with guidance and support. Create simple presentations using multimedia tools to support communication. Compare and contrast how ideas and topics are depicted in a variety of media and formats. analyze the characteristics of a variety of multimedia texts and finally create multimedia content that effectively communicates an idea using appropriate technology and media. These requirements only build in complexity as students enter middle and high school and they need that foundational piece in order to get there to achieve mastery of these skills. This simply isn't possible without frequent access to one-to-one technology. We'll be hindering our students from achieving on the state standards. Our world is changing quickly and we can't be 100% sure what it's going to look like

163in 10, five, or even two years. But it's our responsibility, as the state clearly recognizes, to do everything we can do to prepare our children for the technology rich world they will inherit. Thank you. Thank you. >> Anna Fosce is here to speak about web browsers and Google searches on Chromebooks. Good evening. My name is Anna Meosi. I have two elementary school students in this district and I am a product of the school system myself. Um, tonight I hope you will consider my concerns regarding students access to web browsers on their Chromebooks. I agree with your recent actions to increase Chromebook safety, but I believe they are not enough. Keeping Chromebooks at school for our K5 children protects children who were unmonitored on their Chromebooks at home, but does not address the access they have

164to web browsers and Google search while at school. Furthermore, attentive parents are now unable to track their children's activity on their Chromebooks if they're not coming home. Um, I understand the two safeguards for web browsers and Google searches at school would be the internet filters that are in place and teacher supervision. And I don't think those current safeguards are enough right now. Um, the internet filters. I recently saw one of my children had accessed the website gy.com while at school and had viewed content that was not horrible, but I I believe it was inappropriate and I was surprised it was not blocked. Um, also I've seen in the on the agenda the there's a complaint form that explains that thumbnails are visible when you do a Google search um photos and headlines are visible when

165you do a Google search on the Chromebook at school. It would be impossible. So, some of these headlines may be not appropriate for a child to see. And it would be impossible to perform every search that returns questionable results in the form of a headline or a thumbnail and to block each of those scenarios. I don't think I need to explain the risks of allowing children to use Google to answer what questions they may have while at school. Um, as far as teacher supervision, I think it's unrealistic for teachers to monitor a classroom of screens while providing any sort of instruction at the same time. Um, just as we choose not to give a classroom of students a drill or a box of matches because it's developmentally developmentally inappropriate for them to have that and

166a teacher could not possibly monitor the use of such a tool for children who are not able to use it yet. I also think it's not possible for a teacher to appropriately monitor children who have access to a web browser at school. Um, finally, even if my family were to opt out of using a Chromebook at school, I'm concerned that a student sitting next to my child could access content that would be inappropriate and my child would still encounter that. And I'm concerned about all of the children in our schools, not just my own. Um, I would suggest that until you can limit web browsing and goo Google searches in the classroom, you consider appropriately or accordingly limiting the access to that technology or supervising it more closely in a way that would prevent them

167from encountering disturbing or inappropriate or content that's too mature for our children. So, thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> Elizabeth Huff is here to speak about Chromebooks. Good evening. Um, first I want to thank Dr. Ross for responding so quickly to my um, parent complaint form. I truly appreciate the decision to leave the Chromebooks at school for K through 5. This transition will present challenges for teachers. Teachers may need ink, paper, classroom support to adjust quickly, and I want to make sure that the teachers feel supported, not burdened. While I'm grateful for the actions taken, I want to reiterate that for all students and parents that the burden of monitoring district issued devices should fall on the district, not the parents. I don't send my child's iPad to school and

168expect the district to monitor it. Likewise, parents shouldn't be expected to monitor district devices at home. Parents can't even install their own safeguards on Chromebooks that come into our homes from the district. If the district issues a device as instructional material, then it is responsible for everything that can be found on it, not the parents. Older students are also using Chromebooks inappropriately. So, we need a district-wide review of Chromebook policy. It is my understanding that there is not a real policy on the Chromebooks and their existence in K5 is based on some remaining COVID era impacts and weather makeup days policy. We really need a con comprehensive review on Chromebook policy. Children as young as eight are spending hours on screens at school and after school and constantly communicating with peers online. The constant exposure

169has caused a national health mental health crisis. These are good kids with wonderful parents and teachers, but their developing brains are not equipped for the non-stop stimulation, social comparison, and mature information that technology brings. Much of what they learn about the world, including the harmful harmful ideas, come from what they see online, or what they hear from others who saw it online. There are physical effects. Kids are hunched over screens straining their eyes. Completing study guides that are 50 slides long. My fourth grader had a 50 I mean sorry an 87 pay at Google slide study plan. Not to mention Chromebooks are outdated and they're not healthy for growing bodies. So we have to ask ourselves what is the true purpose of the Chromebook. Elementary students do not need access to email chat shared documents

170nor do they need access to web browsers like AI tools and AI tools. Even Magic School says on their website, "Students will find creative ways to get around the safeguards. They will have technology for the rest of their lives to communicate." Technology in and of itself is intuitive. They will learn it quickly when the time is appropriate. At the most, they need a monitored encyclopedia style program and access to age appropriate learning games. Books don't buzz, scroll, or link somewhere else. Technology has its place, but it has become a gateway for too much too soon. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Taran Hixenbaw is here to speak about technology. A little shorter than everybody else. Good evening on this cold, wet, rainy night. My name is Taran Hixima. I am a

171district 5 educator, parent, and community member. I know many parents have concerns about how much time students spend on screens and what their children have access to and they are right to care. As a teacher, I see both the good and the bad that come with technology. But I want to share why access to technology is essential if we want our children to meet the expectations of the profile of the South Carolina graduate students who are college, career, and citizenship ready. Technology plays a key role in developing the three pillars of that profile. Worldclass knowledge, worldclass skills and life and career characteristics. Worldclass skills, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity are the variabilities our students will need in college and in every career field that awaits them. Technology helps shape life and career characteristics such

172as integrity, responsibility, and adaptability. But this only happens when adults, both teachers and parents, set clear boundaries and model responsible use. Guiding children in appropriate technology use begins at home. Just like teaching them how to behave respectfully in public. While schools can reinforce these lessons, parents play a crucial role in setting the foundation for positive online behavior. Limiting technology doesn't prepare our children for life. Teaching them how to use it wisely does. Many students in our district will be at an unfair disadvantage when their access to technology is limited to only school hours because they do not have devices at home. Our district has always given the parents the option to opt out of sending Chromebooks home with their child. Why are we limiting access to every parent and student when some of us parents

173appreciate the resources given to their child to continue the learning process at home? It should be the choice of the parent to access the district device. In the last 5 years, I have had a total of two families use this choice to keep devices at school. When given this option, most parents choose for their students to have access to their device at home. For example, this allows students to practice math fluency, access the ELA and math curriculum, and finish work they may not have had the opportunity to finish during school hours. By giving students fair access to technology and pairing it with strong guidance at home, we prepare them not just to keep up with the world, but to lead it with knowledge, skill, and integrity. Thank you for your partnership in helping us prepare

174South Carolina's graduates for the future they deserve. Thank you. >> That concludes public participation. >> Thank you, Miss Taylor. That moves us to our um action agenda on actions as necessary or appropriate on matter discussed in executive session. Do I have any motions? >> I make a motion to approve selected employment items of exhibit A. Do >> I have a second? Second. All in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. I make a motion that the board deny the request for employee compensation shown in exit in item 3C exhibit C. >> Second. All in favor? And the motion carries 7 to zero. That moves us to the second and final reading of board policy JICG tobacco use by students. Do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve the second and final reading

175of board policy JICG, tobacco use by students, shown in exhibit E. Do have a second. Do have any discussion? All those in favor and the motion carries seven to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the proposed 2026 and 2027 and 2027 and 2028 school calendar shown in exhibit F. Do I have a second? >> Second. Do I have any discussion? All those in favor? And the motion carries seven to zero. >> Make a motion to approve the Seammen's engineering one, two, three, and four courses shown in exhibit G. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Do I have any questions, Miss Ble? Um, one question I had is, um, are we removing any courses to make room for these courses? >> Good evening. >> You got to speak because you've been here

176all time. >> No, it's okay. I'm used to it. But good evening. Um, no, we are phasing out our project lead the way curriculum and we are adding our Seammen's um, engineering curriculum. The seaman's engineering curriculum uh will be at all three of our high schools and we are adding that honors level sections. Also, we're keeping the project lead the way curriculum here at the center for advanced technical studies. >> Anybody? Oh, center. >> Yeah, I had a question. Um, years ago when I was a high school principal, I remember meeting with the University of South Carolina, their engineering department, and they were trying to find ways of getting more kids involved and they had great placement, job placement. They had it was just an awesome program. Um, but so many more kids were getting

177involved with computer science and things like that. Uh, is this in conjunction with the University of South Carolina? No, it is not in conjunction with the University of South Carolina, but one of the things that the University of South Carolina do not accept um the Project Lead the Way curriculum. Neither does Mistless Tech. And so, one of the reasons why we wanted to kind of move away from the Project Lead the Way curriculum is to open up new opportunities for those students um to get um that dual waiting for those courses as well. Now, when will we know how many students are going to actually sign up? I know it's a student during uh driven curriculum. Do we have any idea if we put any any interest uh or talk with any of the students

178or any of the schools to see how many kids are actually I'm excited about the program? I'll be honest with you. And I think it's a great opportunity for our kids. >> I'll just be honest with you. um with our engineering curriculum um courses, we really do not see any um enrollment problems with those courses. Um a lot of especially at Dutch Fork High School, um those are classes that are constantly full. Um and um we see those we looked forward to seeing those enrollments to kind of pick up at the other high schools now that we're changing some of those platforms um to meet some of those needs. >> Okay. One last question is I know that project lead the way classrooms had to be modified and constructed to meet the needs of those.

179Will we have to make any maybe this is a Dr. Ross question. Will we have to make I mean are those classrooms now suitable for this course or >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Also the curriculum is a little cheaper as well. Um and also the training that the teachers have to go through is much shorter as well and also they have grant opportunities to help with um all of the equipment that is needed for um those courses. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anybody else? Right. All those in favor and the motion carries seven to zero. >> Thank you. >> Make a motion to deny the uh request action and the parent concern for pursuit to board policy KEC library media center material selection and reconsideration administrative rule KEC-R library media m center materials reconsideration

180process. KEC-e instructional materials uniform parent complaint form shown in exhibit H. I will second. >> Okay, we have a motion. It's been second. So, um I need to not I need to I think we need to discuss this because her request had two separate components and so are you making a motion to deny them both? I have a question about process. Um, do we not I mean I realize that the same individual spoke during public participation but don't they is it the process of KECR that that they present their issues. >> That is correct. There's a part of the uh process they can speak at what's called the public participation. um we don't have to exhaust it just to the general public participation. It can be on the action agenda. So uh but uh it

181it's suitable by process after the motion and second for discussion to uh invite the parent if they'd like to speak on the motion. Yes. >> Miss Huff, would you like to come back up? >> Okay. Well, we'll give you an opportunity to finish your presentation. Um, >> and I can just speak now, right? >> Yes. >> There's no timer. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, I think the biggest thing that I want to get across is that we as parents um I I Gosh, I hate it because um I know not every parent is the same, right? We all have some of us have night jobs. Some of us work at home, some of us are fortunate enough to stay home with our kids and not have to work. Um, but the my my biggest complaint

182is that it is a districtsued device and I can't go into that device and put what I would put on my kids's iPad so that they can't access things. I can't take Safari or the browser off and say, "No, you can't have a Safari browser or a YouTube." Um, and and so when the issue was brought to my attention by my daughter, I then um took it into my own hands. Unfortunately, fourth grade is kind of late here. But I didn't even we didn't they haven't used it that much. So, I will give them that that credit. It's come home in second and third grade, but it hasn't been used that much. And now that she's older, of course, she's more curious, um is more capable of of um using it, which is great. Um

183but she's more curious. And when my kid is curious, do you know what I want her to do? I want her to ask questions. But I do not want her to ask Google. I I I don't want her to go to Google and ask a question that she's going to get a Google image result or a news result or um a search result that you can't you you you can't click on it. The block the district blocks it, but you can see the cached language. You can see the image previews. You can see the news headlines. Um, and so that to me is my my biggest concern is that it just cannot for all of our children. I I cannot imagine that we as parents are okay with having this device in our home 50

184I don't know how long how the hours of their kids are at home versus at school. But just by removing it from home by doing what you did, Dr. Ross, you eliminated that burden from the parents. And that's a huge huge help to us because we're already we're already dealing with so many other things that we have to manage as well as the teachers and the principles and the administration. But just by eliminating this device from our homes takes that burden off of us so we can also focus our efforts on monitoring and doing the things that we do as parents as well. So that's my my number one takeaway. I'm I'm a tech person. I I I work on technology every day. Um, I think it's important. I totally agree. The best part about

185tech technology is that it is intuitive. And honestly, our kids aren't really going to be typing um for much longer by the way that looks, right? So, it's important to learn how to type. That is absolutely essential. But what is it going to look like in 10? You know, our younger kids, I guess, our older kids are not. I only have young ones, but you know, what is it going to look like in 10 years? Are we teaching them things just to get through school? Are we teaching them how to use a Chromebook? teaching them how to use uh a typing proc a word processor just to get through school or are we teaching them what yes responsibility with our technology? Um how to live without it is also important. You know our kids the

186phone policy that the state passed um I think is great because it takes the responsibility of the teachers and the and the district and the school to not be responsible for those kids' phones anymore. So, it goes both ways. Um, I don't think that the district device needs to come into our home. Um, I know there are exceptions. I've had lots of conversations over the past week with parents of um children that have, you know, IEPs or have a a special need that that that device can help them with. So, I'm not I'm not here to say ban them. I don't think that that's the answer. I want the kids to be on technology. I just think we have to have and create a policy that is um really robust and considers um what they're

187accessing online. So you guys saw what we were able to access from my daughter's Chromebook, I think. Um and that's that was because I was a little bit scared to Google certain things, you know. I just Googled very tame things. So um they're curious, man. They're going to Google stuff. They're going to find out things that we don't want them to know. in second, third, and fourth and fifth grade. So, thank you very much for your time. >> All right. Thank you. Um, I believe policy allows people to speak for or against, um, I think most of you sign up to do public participation. But in the event that someone did not and want to speak from the floor, I need to start there. Seeing none, um, Ward, could you come up? If for some

188reason the board did couldn't agree on action on this motion, where does that leave us? >> That's an excellent question. Thank you for asking me to come up here. Um the we have two levels of regulation on this. >> Okay. >> The first one is of course our policy KEC but [snorts] the one that overrides that if there's a conflict is from the state board of education which is 43170. >> [snorts] >> That policy requires, and I can give you guys a copy of this, that within 90 days of the complaint, that the board is to meet, conduct a public meeting, which this is, notice pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, which this has been, and [snorts] allow anyone speak who has a position on it, which we have done. Uh, it then requires

189that the vote the board vote. There is an option that the board can create a committee of three board members to um bring a proposed solution to the board. That's in the regulation. The board must vote either to grant in full, grant in part or deny in full or deny in part the request. Uh after doing so, the board has to announce the reasons for its decision either orally at the meeting tonight or it can be done in writing within 15 days. So for instance, if the board wanted to vote a certain way, I could obviously listen to the discussion I've taken notes on what the different people have said. I could present our next meetings within 15 days. Dr. Ross and I went over this beforehand because we thought this might arise and u

190present to the board not for debate by email but to send a proposed written finding in accord with what the v board might vote. >> Okay. >> Um for consideration at the next meeting as required by the regulation. >> Okay. You can take a seat on the front row for a second. Miss, will you come up? Yes, ma'am. I'm just doing all kind of stuff tonight. Dr. Ross, I'm sorry. [laughter] Miss McCascal, I called you up because and I'm going to give the board a chance to ask questions and give feedback as well. But I called you up because it's my belief that um from a day-to-day standpoint with working with the teachers and everything, you probably have the um you're in the best position to give feedback on what makes sense. Um I um

191I asked Ward to explain what would happen if we couldn't reach a decision because I don't know that I think um this is a a black and white issue um one way or the other. And I say that because I'll take a page from Mrs. Satderfield's book and share a story. But um is that if we were talking about my oldest child then without a doubt I don't care anything about the Chromebooks. It doesn't even matter. my my my daughter um she tends to be a little bit more distracted by it. I do not think that we need to get rid of the Chromebooks. That's not um where this is going at all. However, um I do think that um we need some sort of medium where we hear the parents. So, Miss Huff mentioned

192that she's not trying to get rid of the Chromebooks. She just doesn't want her child to bring her Chromebook home. But this weekend, we made a video went out that said we had decided, blanketed across the board, that nobody could take their Chromebooks um home. And so based on social media comments from teachers and parents, um they varied greatly. We had a lot of teachers that came out today who are staunch advocates for the Chromebook, but there were some on social media who are not. And so the same thing goes for the parents. And so I feel like if we vote to um keep the Chromebook and make no adjustments or like at least not even have any conversations, then we have completely or ignored one set of parents, one set of teachers, you know,

193no period. And the same is on the other side. And so from a personal opinion, Dr. Ross, I'm sorry in advance. I think maybe we jumped the gun on on the rule of we're just not, you know, we're going to give people a chance to opt out before maybe having some more conversation. And I think that if the polic allows us 60 days or however many days it was that Ward mentioned to um u maybe better vet a plan for people like Miss Huff who doesn't who doesn't want her kids to take their Chromebook home. What does that what does that look like? I'm not a teacher so I don't know what they're doing or have to do with their Chromebooks in the afternoons. So how much does that impact a child and their learning

194and what they have access to do? um should that parent have to meet with um their teacher, you know, as a part of their opting out process so that they understand sort of the landscape because if I'm a parent and I opt out and then, you know, my kids are missing something or there something drops and then you tell me on the backside, well, you opted out to take the Chromebook even though I opted out, we all know the parent is going to say, well, why didn't you give me all this information? So, I would like to know sort of like what your thoughts are from a timeline perspective, what makes the most um sense. And that being said, I'm not saying that we should get rid of the Chromebook. I don't think that that's

195the answer. Um but I don't want to be um insensitive to the parents and teachers who have very different viewpoints. Not to put you on the spot. >> Thank you. [laughter] Thank you for asking actually. But I first want to say first and foremost it is our responsibility to help students understand what's appropriate on Chromebooks and what's appropriate on devices. So I agree with that. So I want to make sure that I'm clear on that that it is important that what we're using Chromebooks for is for the purpose of education. So that's first and foremost. But when we talk about whether we should have Chromebooks or not, honestly, in my opinion, that's a null and void conversation. When we talk about the need for digital citizenship and the need for making sure that our our

196students know what to do on Chromebooks and how to do that, I beg to differ that students do need to collaborate on Google Docs. Um they do need to know what that looks like in an elementary setting. They do need to be able to do a search but with supervision. They need to know how to do that. Our standards require that. Our SC ready test questions put question they put pictures of things off of the internet for students to analyze as part of their test. If they can't do that along the way, they're not going to be able to do it on the test. In terms of opting out, my request would be that a teacher and an administrator sit with a parent and they have a discussion over what does that mean? Because when

197you're talking about it's it's not it's not a bonus, you know, it's not a Christmas gift. The Chromebook's not a Christmas gift that we give to our students. It is an essential tool that is needed to to in to learn in today's society. And so we have to have that conversation with the parent. Our my coordinators have worked diligently all weekend to create a document to show the ins and outs of what the Chromebook what what would what would be missed if the student didn't have access to a Chromebook? What other pieces would this cause for for our teachers to have to create and do without the Chromebook? You heard several of our teachers speak tonight about the differentiation piece within the Chromebook. It's not it's the it's the the ability to have you've got

198six or seven different reading levels in your class, but you can take that one reading passage and ask that Chromebook to help you put that reading passage on six or seven reading levels. But the teacher can have a conversation with every child about the same article, but they've all read it and they've all felt successful in that reading. With math, we've got to have math fluency. When they take their math test, they're going to be presented with manipulatives, digital manipulatives, not not the rulers that you and I are used to using, not the protractors that you and I are used to using. They're going to have to take the protractor. They're going to have to move it with their mouse on the Chromebook. They're going to have to put it on the angle and be

199able to use it's hard enough to use a regular protractor, right? They've got to learn to use it digitally. And if we're not practicing with that on a daily basis or even at home, we we could have some problems with that. The problem that I do foresee with the taking their Chromebooks home or not taking them home, we have a lot of our students, you heard talk about our ML students that are relying on their device to help with translations. We've got um students with IEPs that are relying on text to speech and speech to text. So there there there are students who will need it. There are times when a teacher will need that Chromebook to go home. You know, I would be a proponent to say the teacher's in charge of that. the

200teacher sends the computer home when it's necessary or if there's a student that they know needs to send it home, then they send it home with them. Maybe there's times when it just needs to stay in the school building, you know, but there's a there's a real reason for that device to go home. Um, the opting out, opting out should be something that's very much discussed and very plainly written out for a for a parent that a parent would sign that they're agreeing to opt out to something that's a big part of a curriculum and a big part of an education. Um, the device is not. is the tool of what we're using it for. And I think that's the key that we have to understand is that it's not a device. The you can

201have an iPad, you can have a Chromebook, you can have a laptop, it's not the device, it's a tool. And as long as we use that tool with intentionality, it's going to make a difference. >> Seems like maybe nobody needs to opt out. But I did like the idea of teachers having some control over maybe when it needs to go home for certain reasons. Just thinking out loud. But Miss Huddle, >> I guess. Um I'm I'm asking kind of a process question. Um so that the notice that notice went out and and I'm assuming that's a done deal or are we discussing changing the decision? >> Uh no, ma'am. So the that was an administrative decision. Um there were three things that I put in place immediately. Um one was u removing all of the

202app uh AI platforms with the exception of magic schools. Um making sure that we're in position for parent optouts. And then uh three uh was to ensure that uh K5 and K5 that the devices uh would be able to stay at school. Uh we are not in position at this time to address that because we need carts and facilities for that. Um >> I just wanted to clarify because it sounded like we were like looking at addressing that and we're not right. We are looking at we had a parent that filed a a complaint and if I read the complaint correctly, what they're asking us to do is either disable the Google search, right, or disable it or or restrict it in a manner that children don't see the thumbnails and the summary. >> She's

203[snorts] Yeah, she's asking us to do one of one or two things. either conduct a thorough review and overhaul of the policy um including at the very least stronger content filtering supervision protocols um or if we sounds like if we weren't willing or able to do that remove them completely and so >> oh that's what I have highlighted from >> I think by by policy we have to go by the complaintant form on the complaint form that's submitted is move all from um the contested material uh is school issue Chromebook access via district managed Google account. >> The contested material that's not there. >> Yeah, if you read the above it says the contested material is the web search results, >> right? But look at the request on the state approved KEC. I request that

204the contested materials be removed from all school facilities in this district. That is what is being taken up on Monday on today. So [clears throat] >> we had the I met with the principles and shared with them that on Monday the board by policy is taking up the complaintant form. The complaint >> you kept saying that and I kept saying that's not what she asked for in this email. >> But I I I got to go on what was submitted on the complaint form. So that that is and I think Ward I mean if if I'm wrong >> so to Miss Hoto's point you right Miss Hoto we are having two different conversations because I definitely was trying to re uh visit what Dr. Ross says [clears throat] contested material is the web search results.

205So to me the the contested material isn't the entire Chromebook. It's the web search results and they're asking for the web search results to be removed. That's the way I read it. So when it says that the request that I request that this contested material be removed from all school facilities in the district, the contested material, it says location of the contested material, school issue Chromebooks accessed via district managed Google account. The only way to get to the contested material is through the Chromebook. I guess, and I'm not sure if this is even possible, but the way I read this is that they're objecting to the web search results and the fact that it has the images and the headlines. And I don't know if there's a way to stop that. Maybe there's not, but

206that's the way I I read it. >> The request is very clear. It says to remove >> answer that question, right? >> All facilities in the district. [laughter] So >> nobody can't do it. >> How yall doing? Um in question to the point of stopping the web searches. Um recently Google updated and I don't know how long ago um students could not see the suggested searches before. That was turned off. Okay. >> They've updated they've broke it. Um, we've since been in contact with them and they've notified us that yes, your settings are on >> and no, right now they're not fixing it. >> So, okay. >> Um, that part broke on a part of Google. Um, no, we cannot necessarily block the thumbnails of a search. Um, it may come up, you can see

207the thumbnail, but it may be a YouTube video for elementary schools that we have blocked. So, they click it and it won't get it won't get them anywhere. But no, we can't kind of block images on a search because it's not really taking you to a website. is just displaying in Google itself. >> Okay. Can I ask a question? Um while you're standing there, Mr. Technology, >> um if let's say that you you're taking off Google, that removes Google Docs, that removes all conference back and forth, email with teachers, teachers giving assignments when kids are homesick. >> It removes all of that. >> So, you know, that's something to really consider. And if we have a bad storm, uh, that removes, um, our e-learning. Correct. >> Correct. >> I mean, I understand, uh, you know,

208different people have different concerns and that's why we're here as a board is to hear those, but I don't know that that we need to, and this may not be the best analogy, the tail wag the dog. I understand a parent wants to supervise and and I think that she made a comment that she didn't want to have to supervise her kids on the Chromebook. Well, if they were on an iPad or a cell phone, you you would supervise them. If they have a Chromebook, I would think I would still supervise them. If I thought there was somewhere they weren't supposed to go, I would tell them not to go there. And if they didn't, there'd be a consequence. That's sort of the parents responsibility. But I hate to give up all of those other

209things, those learning tools and all the things that teachers were sharing earlier that um would deprive a lot of kids. Again, you don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Um it's just [clears throat] and that's I'm telling you my age, aren't I? That's just my opinion. >> So, let me say that when Kevin made his motion and I said, "So, we're just you're you're saying no to all of it." First of all, I was talking about the stuff that was in the email and not specific to the banning of the entire Chromebook, which I think I've been I've already said I'm not for. But I think that no matter where this vote lands tonight, um there are other maybe Chromebook kind of conversations that we need to have. I say we, I don't know

210who we is, but somebody um you know, maybe it's a subset of, you know, teachers and educators that came tonight who are for and against it. Maybe even we do an advisory committee for everything else because um I do think we need the Chromebook. I'm not saying that we need to get rid of it. I just want to be open to all the conversations. I'm also concerned that we have um made some decisions at the elementary level on the Chromebook based on the video that went out this week, but some of the comments that Miss McCasco made don't necessarily line up with the decision that we've made. And so maybe I know we're not looking at this today and that's not a board decision, it's an administrative decision, but maybe it's just personal opinion. another

211um conversation. I know that we have Mr. Skelly's motion on the floor. Um Mr. Herren, you go ahead. >> I just want to clarify, do we currently have an opt out policy for parents that they cannot bring the Chromebook home? >> Uh yes. >> Okay. So, any single parent can opt to not have their child bring the Chromebook home? >> Correct. >> Okay. Is a Chromebook useful if it is not connected to the internet? Um yes to do offline assignments. >> Is it is it able to access any of these things that are in this complaint without internet access? >> No sir. >> So simply not providing a Wi-Fi password is an easy enough solution to make sure your child does not access anything on that Chromebook? >> Yes. >> Do we have connectivity possibilities

212through hardwired Ethernet connections >> for the Chromebook? Yes, >> they they are. >> Yes. >> Okay. Are those able to be disabled >> for the USB ports on there? I believe we can. We haven't explored doing them yet because it's hot swappable. A lot of people use them. So, >> so if a parent does not provide the internet or the Wi-Fi password at their residence or they don't allow it to be used somewhere else and they can't connect via hardwired Ethernet, then that Chromebook can't access any of this content. >> Correct. Thank you. >> Before I call >> Yeah. Furthermore, if a if a child brings a Chromebook home, does the parent have the ability to not give that child access to the Chromebook while they're at home in their house? >> Yes, >> exactly.

213Um, and I don't we don't need to disable Google searches because some of the assignments require Google searches. So, I'm not in favor of that. I tried to replicate the Google searches and thumbnails myself. If I even googled dreambox thinking that would hit, I got nothing. I could not replicate anything on those. It's just a we I agree tail wagging the dog is that we we should not uh change or create a policy based on um one particular perspective when it doesn't when it would undercut and undermine the entire district. I want my child to have access to that. I wanted my children in elementary school to have access to Chromebooks, internet while in elementary school. They thrived when they had them. We were at Seven Oaks Elementary School this morning receiving an award from

214Ellen Weaver for the exemplary performance of our kids on MAT tests. and we're going to tell them we got that today, but tomorrow we're going to take away the tools that helped you get that. It makes no sense. >> Anybody else? Before we settle again, I just want to clarify. We're not talking about I I'm just going to say I interpret and maybe that's just what I have to do. I interpret the parents request as to as to disable the search. Now, I understand that that's a problem, right? Um, but I do want to say, Miss Snipes, I agree with you. I would like to see us look at a policy on technology um, and how it should be used and what what responsibilities parents have. I don't I know we have one but I

215think it's precoid and the world has changed a lot and I know there are some school districts that in the lower grades for example use iPads and um correct me if I'm wrong but I think on like Safari safe search it doesn't present anything if it's if it's a a website they shouldn't see there's no thumbnail there's no description in Safari so you know we may want to look at you know do we look at what some other school districts are doing in the long younger grades. But I just I want to say that I'm going to vote based on my interpretation of the request, which my interpretation is not to eliminate Chromebooks. My interpretation is to disable the search until such time as they don't see things that um are inappropriate. >> Can I

216make one more last comment, Miss NS? Miss McCascal, if if my child is home for a week because they're ill, how do they get their instruction? Thank you. >> Can we read the motion one more time before we vote, please? The motion was I'm make a I move to deny the uh request of the parent concern persuant to board policy KEEC library media center material selection and reconsideration administrative rule KEC-R library media center materials reconsideration process KEC-e instructional materials uniform parent complaint form shown in exhibit I >> I need an interpreter in shorter terms. >> You said it jokingly, but it's but it's a valid question because [clears throat] I feel like we weren't all thinking that we were voting on the same thing up here, self included. Can you can we can we put

217that motion in s kind of simpler terms or interpret it for us? >> Well, based on what Dr. Ross said, we have to go by what's on the form. And on the form, his interpretation is that we're voting to do away with the Chromebook, which to be fair, he has said to me multiple times and each time I thought, why does he keep saying that? Because I did not interpret the form correctly. So, basically, that's what we're voting on. Um, if there is no more questions or discussion, all those in favor of Mrs. Sug's motion, all opposed. And the motion carries four to three. That moves us. So, we're not removing the Chromebooks. And I feel like at some point we're going to have more conversation about this because I feel like I'm still confused.

218>> Let me share this. Um, I think we have to go and look at our KEC policies and the KEC policy also enjoins the library policy and what if I'm wrong, you can correct me. I JL uh basically have these memorized. Uh, basically if we took a text a book from the media center, a parent can complain form and have that book removed. Uh, so it's very simple when it's one book. We can look at the book or a series of books and we can evaluate that. Uh the board has 90 days to consider after receiving the complaint form KEC-e uh and uh we can take up that complaint. What if the material is on uh a web page? What if it's through the web page? You have to revert back to three policies. One

219is the JL policy which outlines the different ways or different materials that the district used to access that that particular instructional resource. The instructional resource is the web search. Uh the access point is the Chromebook. So if we look at the letter of the law and the rule, that's what we're taking up. As a result, today we could be a vote to get rid of both of those resources from our schools. If you look at the complaint in form, it's all schools, not just K5. So, I met with the principles and say this will be on the agenda for Monday. Is there anything we can do as a on the administrative side which is outlined in the policy? It allows the superintendent to review those complaints and see what adjustments can be made. The superintendent

220did that. I wrote a letter to the complaintant and shared that there's three things that we're doing. One, we're limiting the AI to only magic schools. Two, we are ensuring that our opt out, which is already in place, can be supported by the academics department. There's another request that maybe at K5 not to send the the devices home. Um, I think at the further review we're hearing from our teachers that that's not that all of our teachers want. Um I feel that once they are in place and all of the carts are in place in all of our classrooms and charging towers, let that be the decision of the teacher. Teacher wants to send it home, send them home. Uh teacher needs to keep them in the classroom, then the teacher has the materials in

221the classroom. Uh regardless, we'll be ready after the winter break uh to to support the teachers in their decision. >> Dr. for us real quick before we move on. Um, based on what you're saying, uh, and the the outcome of the vote, we denied the complaint request based on what you said about the three options or or the three tenants of what the policy you created on administratively limiting to magic school, opting out, and then the K5 not sending home. Where do we stand today at this minute now that we've made that vote? What is your message to the schools, the teachers, and the parents on the Chromebooks? How do they how do we what are we expecting tomorrow when we go to school? >> So secure um they go backwards and and Chromebooks go

222home as they normally do. Um that's no change in that. Um uh the parents know that we are prepared if you do opt out which has always been the case. We're prepared to modify the curriculum. Academics have been working on that very well. The only change that has u that a parent should be aware of is that magic schools AI is the only AI uh system that we use. And the small adjustment I've made after listening to tonight is that we'll still provide teachers the option because they're the instructional teacher record. If they do not want to send those home because there's no instructional purpose, then we're prepared to store those at school. But if they feel like those need to go home, then that's the teacher's decision. >> Okay. So my my ask for

223you to right now on that is will you make it clear to your schools tomorrow as far as where we stand? >> Crystal. Yes, sir. Can I and can I ask one and this is not I wouldn't do Mr. Don't shake your head. [laughter] >> You reached a >> I need to ask more a [clears throat] question. Um this policy you know it's it seems pretty clear for for books that are contested but for other like Chromebook I mean we had the option of voting or coming up with a committee. Can you I mean, do you see any gray area in that or some concern with that? I mean, what would why would we choose one over the other? I mean, I can see on the book we could all vote and maybe if we

224had a split vote. Is that the only reason we would, you know, go to the committee? >> So, the reason I mentioned the committee is because the regulation says that's one of your options. And Chair Snipes asked me, "What can we do?" And that's one of the things that the regulation 43170 allows the board to do is to refer it to a committee of three board members. >> Right. M and I don't want to interrupt you, but I I'll ask Miss Snipes and see if she's um what would how would we end up making one decision over the other as far as one option over the other? What would lead to that? Because the to me it seems a little confusion. Maybe it's just me. I'll tell you this, you're not the only person who's

225confused. Okay, so the the problem is first of all, as far as I know, this is the first sort of challenge to the internet that I've seen that I know of. I'm not saying I know of everything that happens at every school district, but as Mr. Scully pointed out, it's not or maybe Dr. Ross, it's not a book that you can take off the shelf, right? And certainly there are a lot of things you can filter on the internet, but perhaps you can't filter everything. I don't know the technology as well as others. I merely was saying the procedure set out in the regulation allows you to do that. It also requires because there's an appeal to the state school board that we set forth the basis for our decision. So my suggestion is this.

226Allow me to write a proposed finding to submit to the board that says why this request was denied. The requesttor can then appeal that to the state board and they will make a decision. All right. Now that's just this request. The only thing that's before you that you have to act on is this complaint. You're the board. You can make any technology decision you want really with any grounds of reason. There's no reason you can't form a committee to look into this, get reports, come up with a new procedure. That doesn't have anything to do with this complaint, though. The only thing you have to do under the regulation and under our procedure is vote on this complaint today. So, that's what was required. I can write up proposed finding as the regulation requires for

227the review of the board and that will take care of this complaint. If there are lingering feelings on the board, which I feel from hearing the discussion that there probably are, that can always be addressed later, the only thing that has to be addressed at this point is this complaint. and perhaps if the complaint's denied, but there are some things that people want to do in the future to change the policies, there's no reason you cannot do that. Does that answer your question, Mr. Satderfield? >> Absolutely. Yes, >> that's for policy. Yes, >> policy gives Miss Snipes the ability to create a committee without a vote. >> I would say you can make all sorts of committees to investigate anything you want to investigate or you could just ask for reports to the board. You

228can come up with different policies. That's in your discretion as the elected representative of the people on the school board tonight. just to focus on what we're doing tonight. All the regulation requires is that you make a decision on whether or not to grant in part or in full or to deny in part or in full the complaint. That doesn't mean you can't change something else somewhere else, somehow else. It just means this particular complaint has been denied, which is what I understand the vote was. And it does require that you set out some findings to support the reason for that decision. and I've taken notes on what people have said and my suggestion is I'll prepare some findings for the board to consider at the next meeting because it's required to be done in

22915 days and at that meeting the board can review the findings I propose adopt them change them throw them in the trash can whatever the board decides is the appropriate thing to do but the regulation does require those findings >> thank you just have a couple questions as well So, we've established the fact that we were here tonight to discuss the parent concern. We've already voted on that. Um, I guess my question is this complaint was sent in I'm not sure what the date October 21st. The letter was sent to her on October 23rd stating that we Dr. Ross has met with school principles. We've effective on Monday. The magic school is going to be the only AI platform, the opt out option. And then number is kind of where I'm confused because this letter

230was sent out. The meeting was held which says that schoolish survival transition to Chromebook use at school for K through5 students. Um but it kind of sounded like in your response to Mr. Scully, you've gone back on that. So is is that still I'm Dr. Ross. Um is that is this letter still the case or have we changed that? So the there'll be a transition of that. Yes. Based on tonight's discussion and I think let let me make sure we're we're clear. There is a clear separation between the administrative actions and the board duties. And I think why we keep mixing them up. The complaint is what the board takes care of. What we feared is that today we would lose all Chromebooks. So I made administrative action. administrative action was to limit AI, make

231sure opt out was addressed and then there was a discussion by K elementary schools. What if we just held the Chromebooks at at home? I mean at the school. So we went into uh put in the letter that we're making that transition. Um I'll take full responsibility for that confusion hearing tonight. That's how democracy works. I listened. people are hurt. We're still going to do that. But the teachers will they'll drive that for the instructional purpose. If they feel like it needs to go home, they go home. They need it to stay at school, we will be able to accommodate that at school. We're taking as many of these issues uh out of the the discussion as possible. And that's the authority I have as superintendent. Mully said, "Will you make that clear tomorrow of

232the change?" I say crystal. So I'll be working tonight to make sure that's crystal clear for our faculty and staff, but uh this will not we will not be in position to do that until the new year. I must buy carts and towers for all classrooms K5. Um but I thank you for teachers who say that I need this to go home. They're going home. But teachers say it's not the purpose. I don't need them to go home this this afternoon or this evening or maybe just twice a week or whatever it is. We're in position to store those at the school. That's the change. I'll make it very clear tomorrow. >> Thank you all, >> Miss Snipes. >> Yes, ma'am. Um Dr. Oz, I appreciate that. I guess I I just want to say

233I'm a little bit concerned that we make a decision based on presentations at a school board meeting from a very small set of a very large population. Um I just feel like this needs to be studied and I I hear what you're saying. You absolutely have the right to do it. I'm not saying you don't. I just feel like this is such a hot button issue that you know I guess I'm asking snipes. Maybe we should form a committee and get parent input, get teacher input. There will not be a right or a wrong, but usually people are a lot happier with because I heard from teachers who want them gone. I did um it wasn't the majority that I heard from, but I heard from four six teachers. Four wanted them to stay, two

234wanted them gone. Um and these were elementary school teachers. But I I just think people, parents, everyone will be more receptive to whatever our policy is if they feel like that they all had input into it. So I you you're more within your right to do whatever the decision is, but I would ask Miss Snipes maybe to consider a committee that could get that input um from everybody because our policy is really old and it's time to update it anyway. >> Thank you. Um, that moves us to our discussion agenda. Still not time to go home, y'all. Um, the first on the discussion agenda is the 2526 general fund budget amendment. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board and our community. Um Missy did a great job of regularly setting up the conditions

235on this uh of the budget amendment and why we need to go through it. So I'm not going to belabor it as we look at our priorities. I'll be reminded I present a calendar master calendar of how we put the general fund budget together. Uh in that calendar as our principles to start uh putting their operational and capital budget requests together for by November. Uh so that is um that's next week. Uh during the month of October uh they are to do needs assessments. Uh one of the things that you heard in Mrs. Campbell's presentation is are we budgeting based on our our goals. And so uh I gave our principles uh basically four steps that and that uh I want them to follow basic principles, directors and chiefs and superintendent in terms of the

236budgeting uh process. Uh one is to know the economic conditions that we face. Two our oper operational priorities, our strategic plan strategies. uh who are the key stakeholders that we need to listen to and then can we align our budget requests and strategic plan. So we know our our economic conditions. I think families are grappling with this now of these four possibilities and not every year is the same. Um I think that we have to take a very robust look at our economic conditions set forth. When revenues are up and so are expenses, then we we minimize our requests. Uh the great place to be is when revenue increases but expenses decrease, then we need to prioritize. You can make your list, but then we prioritize. What if we're in a space where revenue decreases

237but expenses increase? Then the request must be critical. Uh and then if you uh decrease both revenue expenses, we need to align. So the question is where are we now? and we are at the critical with decrease in revenues and increase in expenses as a result. What are critical requests? Well, they've been presented to you at every board meeting and it's our strategic plan strategies. Uh these 24 strategies uh towards these uh four performance goals uh to the uh objective of every student feeling loved in our schools and having demonstrated academic success in our schools. Um and so we can isolate these out into uh different numbers by performance goal and strategies. Uh I think we talked a lot about in our strategic plan of how we align that and we listening to our key

238stakeholder our parent advisories about what their expectations were. uh that the strong academic foundation uh but preparing students for career paths uh became a heavy uh consistent uh return on in terms of the responses from our advisories when they looked at the strategic plan. And so uh that was the same thing for our students. Uh how do we um ensure that their expectations are met? And so all the advisories met and came back with the same goal. We want strong academic foundation, but we want to make sure it's aligned to our our future plans. So, where does that leave us? That leaves us in looking at our priorities. Our first priority is a robust tier 2 uh intervention. Um when students are having difficulties for academics, behavior, attendance, mental health, and college career planning. Uh,

239is there someone there to assist them? Um, in that guide, uh, we talked about, you know, the referrals for academics or tutoring as part of the curriculum. All of that is what we call tier 2. Those are those targeted interventions that we want to put in place uh for our students. Uh, the second operational priority for the budget amendment uh is discipline. We heard a lot about that tonight. Uh discipline is on a framework. It's prevention as well as intervention and recovery. Um we heard about the D5 code of conduct. You heard the principles talk about how you know our SRO's they help us with level three, but they don't do level two and level one. Uh our principles are our assistant principles. Uh they're responsible for level one, two, and of the the the

240code of conduct. The amount of time and resources it takes for those principles and assistant principles to handle the level twos and the level threes means that a lot of the level ones are not being addressed and so they've asked for help. They asked for expectation coaches. So, as [clears throat] a result, um it is our request and budget amendment to bring forth these two administrative requests. Funding for supplemental pay for teachers and staff to provide uh afterchool tutoring and enrichment for tier 2 AC academic interventions. These are extra tutors and coaches uh and interventionists for those students that need tutoring. and then two funding for eight additional behavioral expectation coaches to address level one behavioral misconduct and in our schools. Um you can see the estimates there. I'll provide at our next meeting a

241more greater detail of how uh the million dollars is to be spent uh and the placement of the eight expectation coaches. So what does that look like? We're not in a position tonight um as while we have our our 45th day numbers as you heard in the state a classroom conversation on those trueups. We don't know what that funding looks like. The earliest that we will know what the funding uh will look like is November 21st. I'm looking at Miss Tucker. That's the earliest we'll know. On that day, Miss Huddle's question will be answered of how much we are we are down. Um if we um uh if we are down to a level that we cannot cover uh through our our revenue streams, then I will pull back on these these requests. Um if

242we're not down um uh to that degree, then I'll ask for a budget amendment. We'll bring that to the board at our for discussion on December the 8th and then ask for um a a vote of the amendment on January the 12th. At that point, we'll be in position to begin increasing the expectation coaches pending funding as well as implement our tier 2 tier 2 academic interventions pending the funding. That's just kind of how our calendar looks uh for uh for that. Um I would also ask for some advocacy from uh our our board as we look at uh state a classrooms. You've seen this graphic. Um and I usually don't bring other districts into my presentation, but I was following my colleague at le one and I saw in this fine print. He says

243the following data that was taken from presentation shared by Greenville and lecturer 5, we're all saying the same thing that we are worried about the appropriations uh for the state aid classrooms and how this is going to impact us because the majority of our dollars come from this calculation. Uh as you saw that while charter has increased about 2% over the last two or last three years. Um the proportionality of the funding is is not in line with that 2%. House two brought it more in line. Uh but still uh that pot is is less to distribute. Uh so if you look at what we were facing in that house one bill that a student in a charter school would get 10 times the funding of a student in a traditional school. Um it was

244reduced in house two to five times that amount. And so our goal and I'll borrow from lect one slide is uh to advocate for a funding model uh that is reliable that is predictable that is dependable and that's sustainable for us to do the work that we need to do. You heard um we fund a lot of positions that are not funded by the state. We saw a hundred million dollars a year being reduced from the new funding or for the new money that's given to state aid classrooms. This will be huge. It's going to impact us this year and this is the time for collective advocacy. So I'm asking that uh together I'll send you the report from the revenue and financial affairs office. 66 pages of amazing reading, but it will be huge

245that we are involved in it now and and speaking from the same language. All of our surrounding Midland districts are saying the same thing. If we can advocate to our legislators and to our delegation together with a collective voice for the same things like someone just said, reliability, predictability, dependability, and sustainability. The discussions that we have debates that we have about Chromebooks and textbooks will be nothing compared to if we're not getting our fair share of the state funds. Uh so now is the time uh before any provisos are passed and it's too late. Uh I'm asking for collective um advocacy uh on behalf of city classrooms for for our school district. That concludes uh my report on the budget amendment. >> Thank you. Do we have any questions or comments? >> All right. That

246moves us to discussion of board policy K public concerns and complaints. Madam chair, I have no further additions. We we've seen this um slide. uh just have it on here for discussion. Uh we would like to move forward with the policy uh from the the model policy from the school boards association uh to be placed on the action agenda at the next meeting. have any. All right. Seeing none, I move that we all in favor. The motion carries seven to zero. Y'all have a good night.